Prices of TVs, ACs and some phones are set to go up as manufacturers grapple with component shortages.

"By March 2020, TV prices will be increased by 10 per cent due to the current Coronavirus crisis of China, there is a major shortage of raw materials along with a sharp 20 per cent increase in open cell panel prices," Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of SPPL said.

While presenting the budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed to hike the basic customs duty to 12.5 per cent from 10 per cent on compressor of refrigerator and air conditioner. In a residential AC, compressor and motor, which account for around 30 per cent of the price are imported, while sheet metal, coils and other are sourced locally.

China supplies several components for air conditioners made in India. Shortage of these components could affect AC production in India. "We are well stocked till the first week of April. But unless the supply from China is restored in the next couple of weeks, we could face a challenge in the production front after that," said C P Mukundan Menon of Blue Star.

Electronic items like the mobile phones, TVs, laptops will be available on the e-commerce platforms from April 20, the official said. However, the delivery vans of the e-commerce companies will need permission from authorities for plying on the roads. According to Wednesday's guidelines, commercial and private establishments were allowed to operate during the extended lockdown.

​​Individually, each brand is seeking more clarity and approval on the guidelines. The guidelines say that we would have to open in a phased manner. All brands are gearing up to open up, wherever, it will be permitted," CEAMA President Kamal Nandi said.

The company has cut prices anywhere from Rs 2,000 on the smaller screen televisions going up to Rs two lakh on a flagship 85-inch model apart from rolling out long tenure no-cost EMI schemes and bundling offers. It has launched a new 85-inch model at Rs 5.9 lakh bringing down its earlier pricing structure of Rs 10 lakh in this screen size.

With just 73 confirmed cases of the virus and no deaths, India, a country of 1.3 billion people, has so far fared better than elsewhere in Asia, Europe and North America. But experts say India's already overstretched medical system would struggle to deal with a major rise in serious cases.

The association also demanded six to nine months' moratorium on all principal and interest payments on loans and overdrafts, besides deferment of GST and advance tax payments. They also asked the minister for removal of fees for any upcoming licenses, permits renewal, excise exemption for liquor for the hospitality and travel industry across the country.

The ministry said the portal will help tourists get information on state tourism departments and regional offices of the ministry of tourism to help them stay safe and healthy while in India. It will also help them find information on ways of getting back to their home country, the ministry added.

IATO said it seeks a financial bailout package to defray the salaries of the employees and operational cost of offices based on the turnover of the company in last financial year. IATO also that said it also seeks a 9 to 12 months deferment (without any interest) on all principle and interest payments on bank loans.

Uber Essentials, for which approvals are being sought from state governments, will be extended to other cities early this week once approved, said Pradeep Parameswaran, President of Uber India, and South Asia.

The ministry said the webinar series will provide information on the many destinations and the 'depth' and 'expanse' of the culture and heritage of India. The first webinar on Tuesday touched upon the history of Delhi and was titled " City of Cities- Delhi's Personal Diary'.

At least 40% of premium class foreign tourists visiting Nepal or Bhutan prefer touching Sikkim. Arrival of near 1.5 lakh foreign tourists and around 14 lakh domestic visitors in a year contributes a significant share to near Rs 400 crore worth annual tourism business of Sikkim-Darjeeling hills.

Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality, the policy federation of all the national associations representing the tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India has revised upwards its value estimates at risk to Indian tourism.

Lockdown has pushed hotel business in tourism hotspot Sikkim to the brink where investors from Bengal and other states are the first tire victims. Equal sufferer is over 70% of Sikkim's population dependent on hospitality industry that generates around Rs 1.5 k croer business there in a year.

A move to reduce active offline banking in the country resulted in the extreme opposite, at least in the short term.

Author Jeetendr Sehdev says that he is living and breathing the KKP.

Default of a Portugese bank, Ukraine-Russia face-off, developments in Middle East and signs of weakness in US economy have subdued investor sentiment.

IBM salesmen to now recommend Apple devices to their healthcare & banking clients

We asked dozens of our favorite analysts, economists, strategists, and portfolio managers on Wall Street and around the world to send us their most important charts.

The China Enterprises Index of the top Chinese listings in Hong Kong fell 0.6 per cent. They are now down 0.8 and 1.5 per cent this week, respectively.

China's stock market got wrecked with the Shanghai Composite index crashing by 7.4 per cent. The market now down 19 per cent from its high.

Thanks to the increasing penetration of smartphones India is transitioning from a 'mobile first' to 'mobile only' country.

George Kurian, the newly minted CEO of Netapp talks about the opportunities in India and the large trends changing the storage industry

"We want it to be a fusion of the best of the two cultures, rather than a Diageo-sation of USL."

Till about a year ago, I was fairly hands-on in the hiring process, says Zomato's Deepinder Goyal.

Global M&A volume at USD 4.86 trillion in 2015 was the highest on record for any year, surpassing the previous record of USD 4.61 trillion in 2007.

Petrol in Delhi now costs Rs 71.26 a litre as against Rs 69.59 previously, oil industry sources said.

The increase in excise comes amid crude oil prices still remaining at relatively lower levels of $23.86 a barrel, compared to peak level prices.

The move follows the Centre's decision on Tuesday to increase excise duty on petrol by a record Rs 10 per litre and Rs 13 per litre for diesel. The hike, however, did not push up fuel prices as global oil prices have dropped to a nearly two-decade low.

The tax hike will generate an additional revenue of Rs 100 crore for the UT administration in 2020-21. After the revision in prices, petrol in the city now costs Rs 68.62 a litre, a hike of Rs 2.8, and diesel Rs 62.02 per litre, an increase of Rs 2.72.

Centre and states are resorting to fuel tax hikes to capture gains from a global oil crash.

"We have to have a reasonable price. India is a major consumer. But at this juncture, India's viewpoint is the price should be reasonable and responsible. Very low prices are not the answer. Reasonable prices are the answer," he said.

State fuel retailers in India sold 50% less refined fuel in the first two weeks of April than the same time a year earlier as the country came to a standstill due to the lockdown that was put in place on March 24.

In addition to the Rs 1,600 crore liquidity position, the company said it has undrawn sanctions of Rs 900 crore as on March 31, 2020. The Gurugram-headquartered micro lender also said that it will offer moratorium to all the existing borrowers across India.

For India Inc, disaster planning for business continuity and survival has emerged as the top priority.

As per convention, the government releases GST revenue collection number on the basis of cash collection in a particular month. However, with the situation arising out of COVID-19, the government has decided to wait till the extended deadline for filing returns before release of the collection figure.

​ NBFCs have also demanded for extension of the Reserve Bank of India's moratorium to them, relaxation on provisioning norms and additional funding from Small industrial Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) through refinance mechanism.

The bank which was under RBI's administration since 2014, failed to come up with a satisfactory revival plan, after which the banking regulator cancelled its license. Majority of the bank's depositors now get 100 per cent of their money back. The government hiked the minimum deposit insurance cover from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 5 lakh in its budget announcement in February.

Giving detailed information about this, Chief Minister Manohar Lal said that the dark zone, depleting level of groundwater and its excessive exploitation has become a challenge for us and we have started to solve these challenges for the coming generations.

Corona lockdown has put entire mango trade in West Bengal under deep uncertainty. The debacle is bound to cause severe economic crisis in the Mango zone of the state. West Bengal is one of the largest contributors to India's national mango output that constitutes around 40% of global yield.

With around 6 lakh ton annual production in almost 20,000 ha land, Bidhannagar in the foothills of northern West Bengal contributes around 80% to the state output that is near half of India's total 20 lakh Metric Ton (MT) yield. India is the fifth largest contributor to the global production of around 275 lakh MT.

The minister said India gives the most importance to "the fair dealing and the reciprocity" while signing any multilateral agreements. He said it was not there because of which India did not participate in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Highlighting that network capacity and higher bandwidth services have proved to be crucial, not only during the pandemic itself, but also for e-commerce and economic inclusion in general, it said in an information note: “What can WTO members do to improve communications networks and services?”

The Minister for MSME and Road Transport and Highways said a policy on import substitution is being thought of in the wake of the economic situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Gadkari said the industry may not be shut for a long time, and several relaxations could be given by the end of May.

Trump’s move to blame China for the Covid-19 outbreak is expected to worsen global trade ties.

Rice exports to Bangladesh through West Bengal will likely begin soon as the ministry of home affairs (MHA) has taken a tough stand against the state government for not allowing border trade with India's eastern neighbour.

The fund house wrote down its entire holding in Dewan Housing Finance and Avantha holdings from earlier levels of 75%.

According to an analysis of the data made public by mutual funds, the CEO salary given by the top 12 fund houses in terms of assets under management increased in the range of 2-132 per cent in 2019-20 from the preceding fiscal year.