Delay in local clearances, incomplete supply chain and closure of front-end sales, key reason for firms in a wait and watch mode

Like Maharashtra and Telangana, Odisha has also been forced to cut expenditure and defer some others, including salary payments to manage the finances at the current juncture.

Through the SEIS, the government offers domestic exporters duty credit scrips at 5-7% of the net foreign exchange earned, depending on the nature of services.

“We have no regrets in doing so. It will help us come out of the crisis stronger,” Nilanjan Roy, CFO, said on Monday.

Reddy spoke of how it is very difficult to catch asymptomatics, unless individuals get themselves tested on demand, or the public health authorities organise testing in a cluster.

Prior to the move, all FDI proposals from only Pakistan and Bangladesh were required to be cleared by the government.

Except Madhya Pradesh, no other state has so far acted upon the Centre’s advisory, leaving farmers, the intended beneficiaries of the move, high and dry.

While for the latter the companies, including Vodafone Idea, have sought the facility to pay in installments spread over some 20 years which is currently before the SC, there's been no such demand for current payments.

This fund of funds may make downstream investments in venture capital and alternative investment funds that will, in turn, invest in MSMEs with AAA or AA-rated ratings.

The audit firms had argued that the government’s move to ban the auditors under section 140(5) was unconstitutional, since it did not apply to former auditors of any company.

Nevertheless, as many as 69% of respondents in a Ficci-commissioned survey have indicated that measures initiated so far by the government are inadequate and called for more steps.

According to Credit Suisse, Facebook's investment will accelerate Jio's digital monetisation drive wherein RIL transferred Rs 1.08 lakh crore of debt from Jio to Jio Platforms.

Since the deal between the two firms is not exclusive, tomorrow Facebook is free to forge any kind of alliance with the likes of Amazon or Flipkart on the retail side.

Other telcos may face the heat in the long term by the nature of partnership which over time may see their high-end subscribers moving on to Jio's network just by the brand pull of WhatsApp.

India is among the last set of nations to face the Covid-19 outbreak, but the longer it takes to shape its economic response, the costlier its interventions will be, according to industry executives.

As reported earlier, Vodafone Idea on Tuesday paid around Rs 1,367 crore to the department of telecommunications (DoT) towards its licence fee and spectrum usage charge for the January-March quarter.

In view of the mounting attacks amid the Coronavirus outbreak, the IMA had been demanding that the government formulate a law to protect health workers.

While the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed borrowers a three-month repayment holiday for term loans, keeping insolvency proceedings in abeyance would be an additional breather for borrowers who may default on loan repayments thereafter.

As retail prices of petroleum products are mapped with international rates, the steep fall of global crude prices in Q4FY20 meant that by the time refiners sold their products after processing crude, retail rates had fallen.

One reason for it could be that IndiGo, with its free cash of over Rs 9,400 crore as on December 31, is in a better position than most peers to tide over the crisis.

Currently there are about 48.34 lakh central government employees and 65.26 lakh pensioners. The DA/DR increases are in accordance with the accepted formula, which is based on the recommendations of the 7th Central Pay Commission.

The stricter lockdown measures in select cities are in the wake of increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the state, especially in the urban areas.

Even some of the food processing companies have reported that they are not getting the raw material as village panchayats were not allowing anyone to enter to procure such raw materials.

Speaking at an Assocham webinar, the minister said the fund will be used to clear dues owed to small businesses by state-run entities as well as industries.

The regulator had also observed that mutual funds should not depend totally on credit rating agencies but should do their own assessments.

FTE workers/employees are entitled for all the benefits (except retrenchment compensation as termination of service as a result of completion of the tenure of FTE would not be considered as retrenchment) which are available to permanent employees.

The Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by health minister Harsh Vardhan, met to review the preparations and deliberate on the way ahead.

In fact, the BJP-JDU government in Bihar has protested against students being allowed to move out of Rajasthan and wrote to the Centre recently calling it an “utter violation of guidelines issued by the MHA”.

A visit to any neighbourhood kirana shop will reveal piles of snacks, bakery goods, groceries, soaps and sanitisers that have been made in the immediate vicinity.

The appointment of Bajaj comes at a time when the economy has been facing an unprecedented crisis due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and is expected to grow at just 1.9% in FY21, according to an IMF estimate, or even lower.

Meanwhile, domestic consumption of petroleum products in FY20 remained flat at 213.7 MT as sales of transportation fuels plummeted in March amid the country-wide lockdown.

Given the Indian economy could well contract in 2020-21,following the disruption to the pandemic, even bigger companies might enourage some employees to work from home. For small businesses there might be no other option.

The Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) relief package, announced on March 27 to alleviate the distress of people most affected by the nationwide lockdown, may help whittle down some of the excess foodgrain stocks.

Among other measures, the report suggests that inheritance tax, which was abolished in 1985, should be brought back as this would reduce concentration of wealth, widen tax base and enhance revenue.

A finance ministry official said some other state governments have also shown interest in borrowing from their respective state CAMPA funds, but refused to name them.

Covid-19 is a new virus, whose behaviour is yet to be unravelled. Mutations cannot be ruled out. It is no one-stroke flattening of the curve.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said businesses should start operations in a phased manner, after taking precautionary measures.

Further, the app will also have added features like the e-pass for movement during the restrictions imposed by the government to fight the pandemic.

According to a recent industry estimate, as many as 4.58 lakh housing units were facing delayed delivery across 1,509 stalled projects.

Hospitals were not keen earlier and considered using UV lamps in the HVAC systems only because there was a 10-15% savings in the electricity bill and not because it improved air quality and killed microbes, Kulkarni said.

Speaking at the Indian Express e-Adda from the US, Subramanian said that distribution of food and cash are the two key tools India should be using to help people tide over the crisis.

Tax experts said that in case Vodafone Idea is dissatisfied with the final scrutiny it can challenge the order but it would have to go through all the regular channels by first appealing in the income tax tribunal and then upwards.

Industry executives say the slump in electronics could only deepen in the first quarter of this fiscal, mainly due to the lockdown, and further accelerate a slide in the overall merchandise exports.

Interestingly, foreign portfolio investors (FPI), who were big sellers in March pulling out more than $8 billion, and have offloaded shares for most of April, turned buyers picking up some $50 million worth of stocks.

Jio's voice volume at 876,340 million minutes registered an increase of 6% compared to the preceding quarter. Usage per customer at 771 minutes, per month registered a rise of 1.4% sequentially.

“This is essential for maintaining the supply chain of goods and services across the country during the lockdown period,” Union home secretary Ajay Bhalla reiterated in a letter to state chief secretaries.

The company has also created an interesting new business vertical from this quarter - financial services - based on internal reorganisation of its business segments.

Many independent agencies have forecast that Indian economy may grow at less than 1% in FY21 from around 5% (advance estimate) in FY20.

States need to undertake to clear departmental dues, fast-track subsidy release to receive first tranche of Rs 45-k cr; show evidence of action to get the balance

To ensure safety, passengers would be screened by the sending states and only those found asymptomatic would be allowed to travel. Sending state governments will have to bring these persons in batches that can be accommodated in the train to the designated railway station in sanitised buses following social distancing norms and other precautions.