Akhilesh questions PM Modi's claim on screening of travellers at airports. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assertion that the country had begun screening people coming from abroad long before even a single coronavirus positive case was found in the country.
In a tweet in Hindi on Tuesday, the former UP chief minister said, "It was claimed that the screening started at different airports when there was not even a single corona case in the country. " "But the question then is how much serious and meaningful it proved. If it is true, then it should be told how the country got its first corona case," said the Samajwadi party president. "The country would be truly benefitted, if and only if the meaningful work is done," added Yadav. Gold climbs to seven-year high on growth fears, stimulus measures. Gold prices rose to their highest in more than seven years on Tuesday as concerns over global economic growth and a wave of stimulus measures from central banks and governments lifted bullion's appeal.
Spot gold was up 0.4% at $1,721.54 per ounce at 1202 GMT, having touched its highest since November 2012. U.S. gold futures were steady at $1,761.80. Gold tends to benefit from widespread stimulus measures from central banks, as it is often seen as a hedge against inflation and currency debasement. Lower interest rates also cut the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding bullion. "The flood of new money digitally printed by the central banks and huge debt pile by the states to fight the negative impact of the coronavirus (are) helping gold," said Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch "Uncertainty (due to the virus) continues and supports the safe-haven demand, along with the continued huge inflow into the gold-backed exchange traded funds.
" Last week, the U.S. Too early to say cheers: Liquor stocks face risks over extended lockdown. The lockdown extension on Tuesday till May 3 will prove to be a bad hangover for liquor companies, even as their stocks bounced back recently amid expectations of some relaxation in rules governing store reopenings/distribution and a sharp fall in valuations.
After falling 26-35 per cent over a month until March, the share price of major liquor players — United Breweries (UBL), United Spirits (USL), and Radico Khaitan — has gained up to 18 per cent in April, outperforming the 4-per cent rise on the Nifty FMCG index. However, there are downside risks, which could play spoilsport for liquor companies. Besides discretionary consumption, liquor is exposed to the risk of excise duty increases, as many states stare at a large fiscal deficit, following the coronavirus outbreak.
UBS Securities believes that despite the sharp correction in UBL and USL stocks over the last three months, rerating is unlikely, given the potential tax increases from states to bridge their deficit. Businesses can claim GST refund for services, goods contract cancellations. With aviation and hospitality sectors seeing mass cancellation of bookings following the coronavirus outbreak, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has allowed businesses to claim a refund of GST in cases where the invoice was generated ,but was subsequently cancelled, PTI reported.
The CBIC issued a set of clarifications in view of certain challenges being faced by taxpayers in adhering to the compliance requirements following the coronavirus outbreak. Clarifying on the issue of advance received by a supplier and the invoice generated for a service contract which got cancelled, the CBIC said, "in cases where there is no output liability against which a credit note can be adjusted, registered persons may proceed to file a claim under Excess payment of tax, if any through Form GST RFD-01". The CBIC said in cases where there is no output liability against which a credit note can be adjusted, supplier of goods can file a refund claim through Form GST RFD-01. US allows H-1B visa applicants to continue in country, cites coronavirus. The US government will allow applicants for H-1B visas to continue in the country, helping thousands of Indian professionals stranded due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant document that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China. Indians are the biggest beneficiaries of the H-1B visa programme, according to the US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). Migrant workers gather in hundreds in Mumbai, say they want to go home. Just hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announed the extension of the coronavirus lockdown till May 3, a large number of migrant workers defied the lockdown and came out on the road on Tuesday demanding transport arrangements for going back to their native places.
Daily wage workers have been left without jobs ever since the lockdown was announced late last month to stem the spread of COVID-19, making their life an unending struggle. Though authorities and NGOs have made arrangemnets for their food, most of them want to go back to their native places to escape the hardship brought by the sweeping curbs. According to a police official, daily wage earners, numbering around 1,000, assembled at suburban Bandra (West) bus depot near the railway station and squatted on road at around 3 pm.
The daily wage earners, who reside on rent in slums in in the nearby Patel Nagri locality, were demanding arrangement of transport facilities so that they can go back to their native towns and villages. World coronavirus dispatch: Loss of wealth and challenge for stock analysts. Boldest investor hit hardest by biggest calamity: Softbank, the firm behind the $100-billion Vision Fund, has said its investment vehicle has suffered a $16.7-billion loss due to the “deteriorating market environment”.
This is due to impairment of the value of its investments. Softbank’s misfortunes are not entirely on account of the coronavirus pandemic, which has choked economies globally, but also due to its chief executive Masayoshi Son’s flamboyant investing style. The failure of two of its star companies — office-sharing start-up WeWork, which came back from the brink of a collapse, and OneWeb, the futuristic satellite company that filed for bankruptcy — has led to the Vision Fund’s impairments. Read more here. Let’s look at the global statistics: Total confirmed cases: 1,864,629. Orders to pay full wages may push industry to bankruptcy: Amarinder to Modi.
Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reconsider his directives to industry and commercial establishments to pay full wages to their workers during the lockdown period, saying it may push them to bankruptcy.
In a letter to PM Modi, Amarinder sought reconsideration of the order issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs under the Disaster Management Act, 2005, a government release said. He urged the Centre to look for innovative solutions to protect the interests of workers in these difficult times without causing irreparable damage to industry and commercial establishments. The relevant part of the order reads: "... that all the employers, be it in the industry or in the shops and commercial establishments, shall make payment of wages to their workers, at their workplace, on the due date, without any deduction, for the period their establishments are under closure during the lockdown.
" India plans to fill strategic oil storage by the third week of May: Report. India plans to completely fill its strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) by the third week of May by moving about 19 million barrels into the sites by then, the managing director of the country's SPR said on Tuesday.
India is moving the oil to the SPR to help the country's refineries reduce their excess crude as the lockdown to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus, has dented transportation and industrial fuel consumption in Asia's third-largest economy. India's fuel demand in March declined by 17.8%, the lowest in over two decades. India will be diverting cargoes for loading in April already bought by refiners Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum, Hindustan Petroleum and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd.
Domestic, intl flights suspended till May 3 as Covid-19 lockdown continues. India will keep domestic and international flights suspended till May 3 in alignment with a national lockdown being extended, said the country's aviation ministy on Tuesday.
Domestic and international commercial passenger flights were earlier suspended from March 25 to April 14. "All domestic and international scheduled airline operations shall remain suspended till 11.59 pm of 3rd May 2020," the ministry tweeted. Indian aviation had a negative growth of 3-5 per cent in the last fiscal—hurting before the coronavirus pandemic and now hurting because of the disease, said rating agency Icra on Thursday. The Icra report pointed that traffic slowed even before the coronavirus outbreak due to multiple reasons, including closure of debt laden Jet Airways.
Covid-19 lockdown: India Inc more vulnerable now than in recession of 2008. Corporate India now has a much lower financial capacity to absorb large losses, which are arising out of the Covid-19 lockdown, than in 2008, when the global financial crisis struck. India’s top listed companies now have higher debt, while profitability, accumulated earnings, and cash reserves are much lower than what they were on the eve of the Lehman crisis. To put it simply, India Inc’s liabilities have grown at a faster pace than earnings and revenues in recent years, eroding their ability to absorb a demand shock from the Covid-19 lockdown.
In contrast, the 2008 crisis was preceded by years of strong double-digit growth in revenues and profits, and that gave a reasonable amount of accumulated earnings to tide over the post-crisis slump in demand and profit (see chart). For example, the combined gross debt-equity of companies excluding oil and finance was 0.65x at the end of March 2008 compared to 0.82x at the end of March 2019. Capital protection more important than returns for the next few months. The three-week lockdown to contain the COVID-19 outbreak (experience of China and Italy suggests that the risks are skewed towards longer periods of lockdowns) meant around 75 per cent of the economy would have been shut down, resulting in a direct output loss of over 4 per cent. This stress will aggravate further as the lockdown has now been extended till May 3.
Additionally, a high risk that the livelihoods of the predominantly unorganised workforce will be hit and a sharp increase in corporate and banking sector stress, which are likely to further weigh on growth in FY21. Moody's, Fitch, ICRA and CRISIL have already cut their growth estimates for India for calendar 2020/FY21 quite sharply. Bloomberg Economics predicts 0.2 per cent global GDP decline for calendar year 2020 (CY20), as compared to over 3.5 per cent growth estimated before the Covid-19 outbreak.
Lockdown extended till May 3: Here are the 7 things PM wants you to follow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday extended the nationwide lockdown till May 3. He said implementation of the lockdown will be strictly ensured in coming days to ensure that the virus does not spread to new areas. The prime minister said detailed guidelines on implementation of the new lockdown will be announced on Wednesday. He asked the citizens to follow seven things that will help in curbing the coronavirus spread.
Here is the list: Barclays pegs economic cost of lockdown at $234 bn; sees no growth in 2020. Barclays has pegged the economic cost of the lockdown, which has now been extended till May 3 with caveats, at $234.4 billion (8.1 per cent of gross domestic product, or GDP), assuming that India will remain under partial lockdown at least till May-end. While India’s coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic outbreak has not officially reached the community transmission stage, analysts at Barclay's believe the existing restrictions on movement are causing much more economic damage than anticipated.
“The negative impact of the shutdown measures on the mining, agriculture, manufacturing and utility sectors appears higher than we had expected. Combined with the disruption in several service sectors, we now estimate that the economic loss will be close to $234.4 billion (8.1 per cent of GDP), assuming that India will remain under a partial lockdown at least until the end of May. Covid-19 lockdown: May take two or three quarters for normalcy to return. The markets are bound to react negatively following the extension of the lockdown till May 3, as it could exert further pressure on the economy pushing back the recovery.
As of now, most economists had predicted a low single-digit growth, but with an extension in lockdown, de-growth can become a reality. The local economy needs to restart. This is extremely critical as we get into the Rabi crop harvesting season. Secondly, the smaller businesses are the ones severely affected and it would give them a chance to bounce back. Cities like Mumbai and Delhi can still afford to have a partial lockdown with hotspot locations being cordoned off. Coronavirus outbreak: A 21-day lockdown may have cost India Rs 8 trillion. The world’s biggest lockdown that shut a majority of the factories and businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and restricted movement of vehicles and people, may have cost the Indian economy Rs 7-8 trillion during the 21-day period, analysts and industry bodies said. Covid-19: PM Narendra Modi extends world's biggest lockdown till May 3.
The nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic would remain in force till May 3, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, as the number of people suffering from the disease in India touched 10,453 and deaths topped 358, according to Worldometer. Coronavirus outbreak: A 21-day lockdown may have cost India Rs 8 trillion. The world’s biggest lockdown that shut a majority of the factories and businesses, suspended flights, stopped trains and restricted movement of vehicles and people, may have cost the Indian economy Rs 7-8 trillion during the 21-day period, analysts and industry bodies said. With the intent to contain the spread of Covid-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi with effect from March 25 announced a nationwide complete lockdown that brought as much as 70 per cent of economic activity, investment, exports and discretionary consumption to a standstill.
Lockdown extension: Put cash in hands of poor, Chidambaram tells govt. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus would continue till May 3. Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra cases at 2455, Delhi 1510, India tally 10,541. SC upholds Guv's decision asking Kamal Nath govt to hold floor test. The Supreme Court on Monday upheld Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon's decision asking the then Kamal Nath-led Congress government to prove majority, saying the governor has the power to call for a floor test. The top court, which had on March 19 asked Madhya Pradesh Assembly Speaker N P Prajapati to reconvene a special session the next day with a sole agenda of conducting the floor test, gave a detailed order on Monday. Following the apex court order, senior Congress leader Kamal Nath had resigned on March 20, after 15 months of taking over as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, which paved the way for formation of BJP government in the state led by Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
On Monday, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta, in its detailed verdict rejected the submission of the then Kamal Nath government that governor at best can call session of assembly but cannot direct for holding floor test in the running house. Covid-19 Factoid: Tamil Nadu sees spurt in new cases, Kerala in recovery. The global tally of Covid-19 cases has crossed 1.8 million and the death toll has gone past the 111,000 mark. India coronavirus dispatch: What happens when a Covid-19 case is confirmed? Diversified global, US and Europe funds saw biggest outflow: Cameron Brandt.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) pulled out Rs 62,000 crore from Indian equities in March. This was the biggest monthly outflow, based on the National Securities Depository data available as far back as 2002. SBI Cards slips 13%, hits new low; stock down 32% from issue price. Shares of SBI Cards and Payment Services slipped 13 per cent to Rs 516 on the BSE on Monday amid the buzz of lockdown being extended beyond April 14. The non-banking finance company's stock was trading at its lowest level since listing on March 16, 2020. With today’s fall, the stock has now fallen 32 per cent below its issue price of Rs 755 per share.
World coronavirus dispatch: The strangest Easter, and surging US death toll. Coronavirus outbreak pushes up demand for scenario planning by IT firms. RBI to tighten private banks' succession planning with stricter timeline. Coronavirus impact: Slowdown-hit automobile hub stares at dead end. Covid-19: How Indian states have fared in testing for coronavirus. MARKET LIVE: Sensex slips again, down 500 pts; Bajaj Finance tumbles 10% Coronavirus lockdown: Govt may start economic activity in 'green zones' Coronavirus lockdown: Govt may start economic activity in 'green zones' Coronavirus LIVE: Maharashtra cases go up to 2,060; Delhi 1,154, AP 433. PM Modi has taken correct decision to extend coronavirus lockdown: Kejriwal. Jaan bhi, Jahan Bhi: Modi tells CMs calling for extending lockdown. Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi cases at 1,000; no clarity on lockdown extension. Covid-19: PM to interact with CMs tomorrow; extension of lockdown on agenda.
Equity and credit markets can retest recent lows, warns Chris Wood. Bhilwara model: How this Rajasthan district brought Covid-19 under control. Coronavirus LIVE: Takes 5-6 weeks to flatten virus, says Harsh Vardhan. 'Covid-19 hangs over future like spectre': RBI in Monetary Policy Report. US Fed rolls out $2.3 trillion to backstop 'Main Street,' local govts. PM hints at lockdown extension, says situation like 'social emergency' Coronavirus LIVE updates: India reports 773 new cases, 32 deaths in 24 hrs. Lockdown will not be lifted in one go, will consult CMs: PM to Opposition. Britannia partners with Dunzo for delivery of food essentials; stock up 10% Covid-19 crisis: Map the coronavirus footprint across states in India.
Lockdown impact: Bajaj Finance loses 350,000 customers in 10 days. BSE revises cut-off time for MF subscription, redemption on StAR platform. RBI relaxes overdraft facility norms for states, UTs until September 30. WhatsApp clamps down further on frequent forwards to stem misinformation. 100,000 random tests, '5 Ts': Kejriwal's plan to check coronavirus in Delhi. India coronavirus dispatch: 1 undiagnosed case can infect 16,000 in 14 days. L&T wins 'large' contract from Indian Army for advanced IT-enabled network.
Covid-19: India partially lifts ban on export of paracetamol and HCQ. Coronavirus LIVE: Delhi govt to conduct 100,000 rapid tests, says Kejriwal. Covid-19: V-P Naidu hints at lockdown extension, says 'health over economy' India coronavirus dispatch: 1 undiagnosed case can infect 16,000 in 14 days. PM, President and MPs take 30% pay cut to help combat coronavirus. India between Stage 2 and 3 of coronavirus pandemic: Health Ministry. Donald Trump hints at retaliation if India doesn't export key Covid-19 drug. MARKET LIVE: Sensex surges 1,300 pts, Nifty tests 8,450; Nifty Bank up 6% Coronavirus outbreak: PM Modi suggests graded lifting of 21-day lockdown. Covid-19 relief: Staggered 180-day bad-loan breather on cards for banks. Coronavirus impact: States can now borrow up to 50% of limit in April. Covid-19 pulls India's service sector into contraction mode in March: PMI.
'Charity begins at home': MPs take 30% salary cut in coronavirus fight. Battle against coronavirus to be long, India has set an example: Modi. India coronavirus dispatch: How is rural India managing the pandemic? Several may lose jobs amid coronavirus outbreak, says CEO Snap Poll. Covid-19: Gartner revokes job offers at IIMs; IITs too witness cancellation. With no income and food, Dharavi gasps for air as Covid-19 cases increase. 9 pm 9 minutes: Power demand down by 32 Gw, grid remains unscathed. To fight Covid-19, India will need 15 mn PPEs, 50,000 ventilators by June. Covid-19 relief: Staggered 180-day bad-loan breather on cards for banks. Coronavirus impact: States can now borrow up to 50% of limit in April. Coronavirus LIVE: India tally at 4,314; long war with Covid-19, says Modi. Covid-19 pulls India's service sector into contraction mode in March: PMI.
Coronvirus: EPFO to accept Aadhaar as birth proof online from subscribers. Covid-19 Factoid: Spain tops US in fatality, and three other data trends. Covid-19: Air Deccan halts operations, staff put on sabbatical without pay. Govt tightens export ban on anti-malarial drug amid coronavirus outbreak. Covid-19: FPIs pull out record Rs 1.1 trn in March, highest withdrawal ever. Coronavirus: On PM Modi's exhortation, India to light lamps at 9 pm today. Covid-19: 26,000 quarantined after 10 feast attendees test positive in MP. ONGC asks govt to cut cess, royalty, free gas price to help company survive. 'Light candles' call: Opposition slams PM Modi for 'indulging in symbolism' Centre credits first tranch of Rs 500 to over 40 mn Jan Dhan women accounts. ADB cuts India growth estimate to 4% for FY21 amid global Covid-19 pandemic.
PM Modi seeks support of India's sports heroes in COVID-19 battle. PM Modi seeks support of India's sports heroes in COVID-19 battle. 'Massive effort' to find, quarantine Tablighi Jamaat workers: Govt. Aluminium makers stare at piling inventory following Covid-19 outbreak. FinMin transfers Rs 17,287 crore to states to deal with coronavirus crisis. Switching off lights can lead to grid collapse: Maharashtra Minister. I-T dept extends deadline for filing TDS exemption forms amid lockdown. No final decision on resumption of services: Railways on restoration plans.
COVID-19: Govt issues advisory asking people to wear 'homemade face covers' Nifty posts 6.7% weekly drop as investors continue to fret over Covid-19.