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It’s come round quickly again

Dave Woodhall on Villa's annual defeat at home to Manchester United.




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Situations vacant

Villa's run of poor form leads Dave Woodhall to draw an obvious conclusion.




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It’s our year pt. 57

Dave Woodhall looks forward to Villa's impending cup glory. It's better than looking at their league form.




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The ignoble arts

Dave Woodhall on Villa and dangerous fashions.





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Heart of England Community Foundation beats target

£25 million awarded in 25 years.






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The Pioneer Group calls for help during coronavirus

Sign up to become a Castle Vale community volunteer.





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Hospitality group helps feed key workers

The Caring Foundation donates meals to West Midlands Ambulance Service.





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Serco grant boosts Witton Lodge service provision

Funding will aid community work during pandemic.





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Delhi: Liquor hunt shifts online, site crashes

Thousands of people standing outside the vends across the city said they had been trying to access the website since Thursday but decided come out and queue up for their turn when the online link didn't open. Delhi government officials confirmed the website crashed due to heavy rush and the glitch was being fixed.




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In times of Covid, diamond jobs are not forever

India, the world’s largest diamond polishing hub that employs over one million people, is likely to see a staggering 50% job loss. Diamond merchants are struggling to manage their inventories or pay salaries to their craftsmen. Knock-on effects are being felt by one million more workers employed in the gems and jewellery industry.




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Lockdown exit plan for May 17: Govt may ready negative list of prohibited activities

A negative list will clearly spell out what’s not allowed, allowing other activities to resume.




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Steadview Capital invests Rs 67 crore more in Nykaa

The capital infusion comes at a time when risk capital investment activity has almost ground to a halt because of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, which, in turn, has forced vertical ecommerce companies such as Nykaa to conserve cash, given the steep plunge in discretionary spending by consumers.




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Assam hikes liquor prices by 25 per cent

Assam cabinet held its meeting on Friday through video conferencing. Assam Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the 25 per cent hike will add Rs 1000 crore to the government's kitty.




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Samsung donates Rs 2 crore to Tamil Nadu in fight against coronavirus

The company had recently contributed Rs 15 crore to PM CARES Fund.




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Tanishq announces to open its 328 stores across the country in a phased manner

The company will continue to strictly comply with all government rules while reopening and running operations at the store. The company plans to reopen first 50 stores by 10th May, 2020.




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Ecommerce: Covid-19 highlights the urgent need to digitise the supply chain

Companies need to come up with strategies to keep the lights on, both by keeping control on the cash burn as well as generating revenue in these difficult times.




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Restaurants ready to take back control, go digital to serve customers directly

Expressing the sentiments of the industry, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) said the 'logout' movement cemented the belief that the industry needed to take back control.




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Slow start to retail opening

According to officials, retail demand started to build up gradually. In some cases, people were completing prelockdown transactions and others new ones.




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Delhi govt issues 4.75 lakh e-tokens to buy liquor

Under the e-token system, customers are given specific time for purchasing alcohol so that there is no violation of social distancing norms by people queuing up outside liquor stores.




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Indian retail sector lost Rs 5.50 lac cr in the last 40 days: CAIT

Covid-19 has caused a huge irreparable dent in Indian retail trade which will have a devastating effect on the whole country said CAIT National President BC Bhartia and Secretary General Praveen Khandelwal.




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India’s jobless rate jumps to 27.1%, survey says

The data could get worse, which “should be expected as the lockdown continues to get prolonged,” CMIE chief said. “Initially, a lockdown only hurts the most vulnerable labor that is informally employed in unorganized sectors. Gradually, it starts hitting the more secure jobs. Startups have announced lay-offs and industry associations have warned of job losses.”




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FMCG to apparel, discounts to make a comeback soon

Deals on grocery and FMCG had evaporated days before lockdown in March last week when panic buying had started.




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Shops to provide cash withdrawal against UPI

Allowing shopkeepers to provide cash is expected to reduce the burden on the banking system amid the lockdown. Depositors do not need to queue up at bank branches or ATMs for withdrawal if their neighbourhood merchant provides cash.




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Hiring activity sees decline of 62% in April 2020 compared to April 2019: Naukri JobSpeak

The Naukri JobSpeak is a monthly Index which calculates and records hiring activity based on the job listings on Naukri.com website month on month. The objective is to measure the hiring activities in various industries, cities, functional areas and experience levels.




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Most employers keen to retain existing workforce amid COVID-19 crisis, says survey

According to staffing company Genius Consultants '9th Hiring, Attrition and Compensation Trend 2020-21', around 81 per cent of the respondents have shown interest to carry on with existing manpower and retaining them.




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93% of employees stressed about returning to office post lockdown: Survey

The survey was conducted by MindMap Advance Research with 560 India Inc. employees across small, medium and large enterprises in major metro cities of Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru.




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Govt fast-tracks new definition of MSMEs

The plan, which has been in the works for months, is likely to be part of the stimulus package, that is expected to be announced shortly.




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MSMEs need govt push to benefit from comparative advantage over China-made consumer goods: Report

It further said that although 2020 is a lost year, in terms of trade, India can think long-term and build relations so that it can occupy the space vacated by China.




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Talent demand for remote jobs to rise post-Covid-19 lockdown: TimesJobs survey

The survey which covered over 1,300 HR professionals across sectors, aimed to understand the impact of the lockdown on the country’s employment scenario. More than 72% hiring managers said companies are devising new job roles that will be limited to remote working only.




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Business services of the future: More digital, more intelligent

Multinational companies in various industries have pursued value creation opportunities by deploying these global business services (GBS) model to build a differentiator in the market.




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Micro enterprises best placed to help economy come out of COVID-19 crisis: Report

The economy has been severely impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the government and policymakers are looking for segments that are in the best position to help revive the economic activity the quickest.




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With little to cheer, companies cut festive spend

Production cuts will be most in premium product portfolio as companies expect consumers to curb discretionary spending as the impact of the Covid-19. Manufacturing orders fall by up to 40% year on year as they expect much of current stock to remain unsold till then, company executives said.




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CAIT flags traders' inability to pay full salary for April, seeks Goyal's intervention

In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday, CAIT had urged the government to allow traders to pay salaries as per a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee or allow them to pay 30 per cent of the salary to meet their livelihood needs.




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Startups like Oyo, Zomato offer more Esops to staff to ease pay cut pain

In April, Zomato initiated a voluntary salary reduction programme, which also offers affected employees’ additional stock in lieu of the cash cut from their pay cheques.




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MSME sector on verge of collapse: Nitin Gadkari

He said the position of MSMEs was "worst" as they were now engaged in a "battle for their survival".




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Retail inflation eased to five-month low in April: Poll

The May 5-7 poll median of more than 40 economists predicted India's annual consumer price inflation fell to 5.68% in April from March's 5.91%, still above the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4.00%.




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Apparel, jewellery, electronic retailers to roll out store-on-wheels; launches virtual tour of stores

“The idea of store-on-wheels is that customers should not feel suffocated that they can’t go out and shop, and feel the same pleasure right at their doorsteps,” said Vishnu Prasad, managing director of Future Lifestyle Fashions that owns Central and Brand Factory.




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Lockdown exit plan for May 17: Govt may ready negative list of prohibited activities

A negative list will clearly spell out what’s not allowed, allowing other activities to resume.




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Silver lining for jobseekers as edtech, pharma, e-commerce, logistics sectors to continue hiring

Recruitment experts at Manpower, KellyOCG, PeopleStrong, and Xpheno predict that even as many sectors see widespread layoffs, there will be a silver lining in sectors like edtech, ecommerce/internet, transport and logistics, as well as pharma that continue to hire.




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Amazon, Future Group in talks over Future Retail stake sale

The move came after Future group firms defaulted on loans taken against the pledged shares of Future Retail in March, which also impacted its share price.




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With little to cheer, companies cut festive spend

Production cuts will be most in premium product portfolio as companies expect consumers to curb discretionary spending as the impact of the Covid-19. Manufacturing orders fall by up to 40% year on year as they expect much of current stock to remain unsold till then, company executives said.




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Grooming products flying off E-commerce shelves

Demand for razors, epilators, trimmers and hair colour soars on ecomm platforms during the lockdown




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JioMart wants you to buy small and buy often

Currently, owing to the ongoing lockdown, kirana (corner) stores on JioMart serve limited inventory. But that will be a thing of the past once restrictions are lifted.




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With 45 pc of national intake, southern states draw 10-15 pc revenue from liquor: Report

The five southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala together consume as much as 45 per cent of all liquor sold in the country, the report by Crisil said. While Tamil Nadu and Kerala top the list in revenue percentage terms at 15 per cent each, for Kerala the tax on liquor is its single largest revenue source.