Issue #62 Winter 2018 ISSN: 2037-108X

The new Neural issue (co-edited with Rachel O’Dwyer) is hot from the press.

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Issue #63 Summer 2019 ISSN: 2037-108X

The new Neural issue (co-edited with Rachel O’Dwyer) is hot from the press.

Subscribe now!

You can also subscribe to the magazine Digital Edition accessing all issues since #29.
Or you can buy the magazine from the →

The global spread of COVID-19 since January 2020 is resulting in a slowdown in economic activity across the world. The impact on India has been limited so far, however, increasing spread of the pandemic in the country over the last few days and the preventive measures being taken by the central and various state governments have severely restricted business activities.

Sources across cinema chains have confirmed to ET that they had individually written to the landlords and mall owners seeking waiver of rent under the ‘force majeure’ clause of their contracts. The clause excuses companies from meeting some obligations in case of certain unusual circumstances.

"PVR has opted to insist on not paying any rent for the period of closure. PVR does not own properties and all of its screens operate on rent," said a source in Chennai-based SPI Cinemas which was acquired by PVR in August 2018.

"While the lockdown may continue for the next month or two, the cinema industry will take several months ('recuperating period') even after the lockdown is lifted, to get back to its feet, as the pipeline of content begins to flow again, and our patrons gain the confidence to step out of their homes and start visiting crowded places like cinemas.

Major mall operators in the country risk losing 20-25% of their annual revenue due to the shutdown, as per a report by ICICI Securities.

Precautionary measures such as fever screening, keeping adjacent seats in theatres vacant being considered. Currently, retailers selling discretionary products from apparel to lifestyle merchandise are not allowed to open stores.

In India, under traditional business interruption insurance policies, physical damage to property is the only criteria to trigger business interruption loss, while pandemics and epidemics are specifically excluded. Insurance companies, therefore, are refusing to accept any claims arising out of shutdown.

All malls have been shut since the lockdown began, and retailers in those malls are not in a position to pay rents because their outlets are shut. This in turn makes it difficult for the malls to pay the banks. About 85% of a mall’s revenue is dependent on rentals.

Emkay Global expects PVR and Inox Leisure to post steep year-on-year drop in revenues at 19 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.

Around 75 retailers that operate 200 brands have written a letter to mall owners, seen by TOI, stating that revenue-share percentage should be a flat percentage depending on the category of stores. They suggested, for instance, revenue-sharing percentage for vanilla brands should be 10-12%, including common area maintenance (CAM), while for fast food brands and large format lifestyle stores, it should be 7-8%.

It can be noted that shopping centres and malls, which tend to attract a lot of crowds, have been shut since mid-March, much before the lockdown was announced and if the social distancing strategies continue post lockdown as well, such facilities are unlikely to open.

The post pandemic society will witness a change in consumer behavior and overall lifestyle. It is estimated that consumers will be extremely cautious with their spending. The spending on luxury, travel, hospitality, and movies, fine dine, white goods, expensive gadgets, among others and see a drop.

Last week, 195 retailers and restaurants including Future Group, Aditya Birla Fashion, Arvind Brands, Domino’s Pizza, Adidas and Levi’s wrote a common letter to mall owners for a “collaborative dialogue” between shopping centres and tenants.

Post lockdown relaxation, consumers say they will prefer buying items of need via local stores (instore or delivery) and ecommerce sites while only 4 per cent say will go to the mall to buy.

Top officials close to the development told ET that HUL will train a large set of advisors and beauty consultants, numbering about 1,500, to become entrepreneurs so that they can set up their own businesses.

SCAI, which counts Nexus Malls, Prestige, Infiniti, DLF and Lulu among its members, has also proposed using only 50% of the parking areas and not allowing any events and promotions to take place in the common areas to prevent large gatherings.

While big-box retailers that enjoy a revenue-sharing model with malls will have some cushion to absorb the impact of the lockdown, smaller brands and restaurants may have to pay the price by reducing the number of outlets.

The government feels this will allow shopping and leisure activities to start up while maintaining physical distancing as traffic will be less than usual and easy to control. On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh notified retail stores to open from 6am until midnight.

Large operators of malls such as Xander-backed Virtuous Retail, Select Group, Phoenix Group and Blackstone-backed Nexus have not waived rentals for their tenants.

Disney Springs vice president Matt Simon posted Thursday on the official Disney Parks Blog that the area will reopen May 20 with enhanced safety measures to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

"We have seen strong consumer demand, particularly in March and April but the split between defensive buying and higher levels of underlying consumption is unclear," Chief Executive Laxman Narasimhan said in a statement.

"There are two big trends emerging. One is the relevance of the humble grocer and people have realised that they are so close to you… proximity, and (that’s) such a big benefit. The second would be on ecommerce. With people becoming more averse to stepping out, they would like to place the order from home and receive it at home. "

It is the first time since the nation’s favourite chocolate bar hit the shelves in India over 70 years ago, that Cadbury Dairy Milk has replaced its logo with the words ‘Thank You’.

The FMCG sector includes non-durable household goods such as packaged food, beverages, toiletries and other consumables that are sold at a relatively low cost. The slowdown was steeper in the urban markets compared to the rural markets, across the four zones, the report said.

The company which retails Savlon range of sanitisers, has stepped up production at the facility in Himachal Pradesh to produce an additional 1.25 lakh litres.

Over the past few weeks, chief executives of Unilever, Mondelez, Hershey's Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Kimberly Clark have said India’s Covid-19 lockdown protocols had led to severe supply chain disruptions and labour shortages, hurting business in the key market.

Mondelez, owner of Cadbury’s, said its sales in the first phase of the lockdown was reduced to nil due to closure of plants, lack of have people from the distribution centers and non-availability of trucks.

FMCG major Hindustan Unilever on Thursday reported a decline of 3.93 per cent in consolidated profit to Rs 1,512 crore for the fourth quarter, impacted by the coronavirus crisis from mid-March.

The workforce problems at two ITC food plants - one in Pune in the western state of Maharashtra and another in the southern state of Karnataka - show how labour issues weigh on Indian firms after a nationwide coronavirus lockdown forced thousands of workers to go back to their villages.

It had posted a net profit of Rs 403 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

LG, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi are also rolling out hyperlocal sales platforms that will connect their offline stores to consumers searching products online so that the outlet nearest to the consumer can deliver the order, industry executives said.

The maker of Dettol and Lizol disinfectant reported best ever global sales growth for the March 2020 quarter as customers stocked up on hygiene products amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with like for like growth up 13%, higher market share and strong growth in e-commerce.

Total income during the latest quarter stood at Rs 1,724.51 crore, up 24.78 per cent from Rs 1,382 crore in the year-ago period , Varun Beverages said in a regulatory filing.

PepsiCo India had volunteered to support the scale up of India's COVID-19 testing capacity through support provided to FIND.

‘We have exited April at 70-80% of our run rate, which we were doing last year.’

In view of the fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 and after evaluating the ground situation, the company has resumed production at all manufacturing locations, Dabur India said in a regulatory filing.

The 5.7% stake in Hindustan Unilever that is now on the market, was accepted by GSK as payment for the sale of the malted drink brand and other nutrition brands to Unilever, agreed in late 2018.

These channel partnerships have been done in a phased manner, with Flipkart being the first e-commerce platform to enable the availability of its essential products in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi.

GlaxoSmithKline and Horlicks have sold 5.7 per cent equity of HUL worth Rs 26,000 crore on Thursday to domestic and foreign investors.

Branded products in falooda mixes, Bombay halwa, phirni and certain instant curry masalas drew a significant chunk of their sales during Ramzan. Sales of these products for some companies are only half of what was clocked in the same period during Ramzan last year.

I don’t know the type of person I would be if I were an only child, and honestly I don’t even want to imagine that version of myself. My older sister Isabel has taught me so much in my brief 19 years, both through her successes and her (occasional) mistakes. We weren’t the best of friends as children; my mom always tells me she was legitimately worried we would hurt each other in one of our epic brawls. My dad even started calling family game night “family fight night” because they would usually end with Isabel and me being sent to our rooms. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve begun to understand the complex person that is my sister. Isabel is probably the most courageous, self-sufficient person I’ve ever known. She won’t back down from anyone or anything. At 16 she decided to spend six months in the south of France as an exchange student, despite having taken only two years of French. I can’t imagine taking that chance now much less in high school, but that just shows how different we are.

I believe in thank you notes. I believe in sending them and in receiving them. Absolutely for gifts – every gift REQUIRES written acknowledgement – but also for random acts of kindness or thoughtful behavior and for hospitality. Ask anyone, “Hey, how are you doing?” and they will most likely respond, “Busy. I am SOOO busy. There is just too much going on.” People are busy. Everyone is busy. Work. Play. Shopping. Recreation. Family. Cooking. Errands. Laundry. School. Housework. Social commitments. Yard work. Commuting. Volunteering. It’s hard to make time for yourself, much less for others. That’s why it is so darned special when someone takes the time to do something nice. It may be something small, such as checking to see if you have books that need to be returned to the library since they are going. Or something bigger, like inviting you over for dinner because they know you’ve spent the day carting around mulch in the yard and will be too tired to cook. I believe people who make the

I cry every day. My tears are tears of anguish but also tears of the most intense joy. I don’t think I am depressed. I think I am responding appropriately to our contradictory and often terrifying world of conflict and violence. I think I am also in a constant state of amazement and wonder at the many quotidian miracles I witness…and how astonishing is Mother Nature’s delicate balance. Recently my husband and I saw a tiny baby black bear chasing a newborn spotted fawn dashing precariously across South Atherton Street, just before the town of Boalsburg. We still cannot believe it happened. I have discovered that some of us have been nourished by a profound sense of beauty and empathy at life on Planet Earth. This doesn’t mean I don’t also feel repelled by institutional racism, rampant cruelty, indifference, and denial. It’s hard work, but I am learning to reconcile these extremes and keep repugnance at bay—enough so that I am still under the magical sway of precious life. I believe the

I believe in Jeopardy. Growing up, my family had a dinnertime routine. No matter what food we were eating or who was sitting around the kitchen table that night, we would always watch Jeopardy! at 7 o’clock. As Alex Trebek read the questions (or, as they’re known in Jeopardy terms, answers), we ate leftover lasagna and tried to remember facts about world geography and Shakespeare. The first person to shout out the correct answer was the winner. There was never any prize for us playing along at home, but that didn’t matter to me; being smarter than my parents and my sister was all the reward I needed. It was during these nightly viewings of Jeopardy that I first realized I didn’t like not knowing things. Nothing was worse to me than watching an entire category of clues go by while I knew nothing. I devoted my time to reading almanacs, newspapers, and even the dictionary in an attempt to learning everything about, well, everything. I don’t consider myself a competitive person; I lose

I believe in party dresses. My mother and I both use clothes to make a statement. For 26 years, my mother, Margaret Simmons, worked as a high school home ec teacher. She can sew anything: business suits, wedding dresses. She must have altered a hundred prom dresses over the years for her students who were not conventionally sized. My mother loves fabric in bright colors, purples and reds. But she went to work every day in rather conservative business suits. That was her cry for some modicum of respect from school administrators who thought nothing of interrupting her class to get a cup of coffee from the home ec room kitchen. My mother started college in the 1950s. Teaching and nursing were pretty much the only fields that were open to her. Like most of her female classmates, she dropped out to get married. Three kids later, she finished her degree at the age of 40, staring down the difficult reality of single parenthood. She needed respect and a living wage. She didn’t get either.

I believe in mental health awareness. I believe that one cannot be physically healthy without being mentally healthy. Mental health has always been something I take very seriously. One’s emotions and mental stability can change their whole life, for better or for worse. And in doing that, it can change the lives of individuals around them. After being diagnosed with anxiety in the summer of 2017, I was immediately put on medication and placed into therapeutic and psychiatric help. Once I started talking things through and getting used to my medication, I realized that this thing called “anxiety” had been living in me for longer than I thought. I always assumed it was normal to have trouble breathing before major events, while meeting new people, or in a situation of sadness or stress. It was what my mind and body were used to. Once I found myself not being able to leave my dorm room, excessively sweating through the night and losing my appetite, I knew that this had gone way beyond a

I believe in movie theaters. The first time I went to a movie theater, I was about 6 years old. My parents took my brothers and me to the Rowland Theater in Philipsburg to see the original Disney version of 101 Dalmatians – it was around 1969. I remember sitting in the balcony. I remember a night scene where a car was barreling down a road with a network of dogs barking. I was scared and I was fascinated, and, doggone it, I couldn’t see the whole screen. There was a bar that ran across the front of the section, and it cut through the middle of the screen blocking my view. I had to keep scooching down in my seat, trying not to spill my popcorn. Cruella DeVil terrified me, and yet I wanted to see everything. I grew up going to matinees at the theater, as did almost everyone in my generation who grew up around Philipsburg. We all have memories of the 102-year-old movie palace that still draws people to our beloved town. This theater ties us together. The years have flown by since that

“For all of you out there, there’s an old cliché: Go out on a limb—that’s where all the fruit is.” I listened to Colin Cowherd say this years ago, right after he left ESPN to work at Fox Sports. As an aspiring sports broadcaster, I’ve always loved watching Cowherd, but I never bought that dumb saying. However, it’s turned out to be a saying that’s defined much of my life. My family moved around a bit when I was young, but when I was six, my parents settled us down in Horsham, Pennsylvania. I loved Horsham. It was the first place I lived where I could make friends with neighbors, classmates, and not fear having to leave them in a few months. I was able to create a life for myself, and it was a life that was very comfortable. Then in middle school, my parents’ marriage started to fail. In the 8th grade, my father told me he was moving to Charleston, South Carolina because he’d accepted a teaching job there. He also told me the time had come for him and my mother to split. Where I fit