Business - The Purbottar

25 Apr

P Chidambaram’s Opinion On Franklin Templeton Shutting Funds.

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Former finance minister P Chidambaram has asked the centre to "act promptly" to stop any cascading effect of the unprecedented closure of six debt funds by global giant Franklin Templeton.Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund, one of India's most prominent mutual fund houses in fixed income, said on Thursday it would wind up six credit funds in India with large exposures to higher-yielding, lower-rated credit securities due to a lack of liquidity amid the coronavirus pandemic.

25 Apr

Sonia Gandhi Writes Letter To The Prime Minister.

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Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with five recommendations to help the micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSME) sector amid the coronavirus pandemic. Mrs Gandhi said MSMEs contribute close to one-third to India's gross domestic product (GDP) and account for almost 50 per cent of the country's exports. The sector also employs over 11 crore people. But the lockdown necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic has put most economic activities to a halt and over 6.3 crore MSMEs "stand on the verge of economic ruin", Mrs Gandhi said in the letter.

23 Apr

India’s GDP To Shrink.

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As India remains in a 40-day nationwide lockdown to slow down the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, trapping an already-slowing economy a standstill, economists and industry experts are estimating sub-1 per cent expansion rates.Some are even expecting a contraction for the country's GDP.The latest estimates by some economists and certain industry experts shows how gloomy India's economy on account of the coronavirus-triggered lockdown, which continues to harm many businesses worldwide. Though even before the country began the COVID-19 lockdown, the economy stared at its worst pace of expansion since the 2008-09 global financial crisis.

22 Apr

Coronavirus Is Impacting Job Placements

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Jobs offered to six students of Indian Institute of Technology in Madras have been revoked by companies due to the pandemic, but the institute - ranked number one under the Education Ministry's overall institutions category and engineering institutions category – says there have been no cancellations of overseas job offers.The highly contagious coronavirus pandemic, which has infected over 2.5 million people worldwide, has had a massive impact on the global economy. Growth rates have plunged, millions have lost jobs and offers made in healthier and happier times are now being reconsidered.The contagion has also not spared the graduates of India's…

19 Apr

UP Hospital Ad Says No Entry To Muslims Without COVID-19 Test

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A privately-run cancer hospital in western UP's Meerut waded into controversy this week after it said Muslim patients and their attendants would only be admitted if they tested negative for the COVID-19 virus. The outrageous declaration was made in an ad posted in a local newspaper.Curiously, the same ad also hit out at Hindu and Jain patients, accusing the wealthy sections of both communities of being "misers" and demanding they contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's PM Cares Fund; it is not known if the hospital claimed to regard donation to the fund as price of admittance for Hindus and…

18 Apr

India Revises FDI Policy To Shield Firms During This Pandemic

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Companies in any country that shares a border with India will have to approach the government for investing in India and not go via the automatic route, the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a press note spelling out its new foreign direct investment or FDI policy for neighbouring states.FDI in India is allowed under two modes - either through the automatic route, for which companies don't need government approval, or through the government route, for which companies need a go-ahead from the centre.The revised FDI rule seeks to curb "opportunistic takeovers or acquisitions of Indian companies due to the…

17 Apr

The RBI cut its reverse repo rate by 25 basis points

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The Reserve Bank of India cut its key deposit rate for the second time in three weeks on Friday to discourage banks for parking idle funds with it and push them toward lending to revive the economy amid the coronavirus lockdown. The RBI cut its reverse repo rate by 25 basis points (bps) to 3.75 per cent with immediate effect, as said by governor Shaktikanta das through a video conference. The rate had already been cut by 90 bps on March 27.

16 Apr

Centre Sets Foodgrain Production Target At Record 298.3 Million Tons For 2020-21 Crop Year

editor0 CommentsBusiness, North East

The agriculture ministry aims to increase foodgrain production by 6.35 million tonnes to record 298.3 million tonnes in the 2020-21 crop year riding high on hopes of normal monsoon.The foodgrain output in the 2019-20 crop year (July-June) is estimated at an all-time high 291.95 million tonnes, as per the second advance estimates released by the ministry in February."IMD has forecast the June to September southwest monsoon rainfall over the country as a whole is likely to be normal. This augurs well for rain-fed kharif crops," Agriculture Commissioner SK Malhota said at a national level video conference organised to plan for…

10 Apr

SAARC officials discuss impact of COVID-19

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As follow up action of the announcement made by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the video conference of SAARC leaders on March 15, a video conference of senior trade officials of SAARC countries was held on Wednesday to discuss the impact of travel restrictions and the larger COVID-19 situation on intra-regional trade. Demonstrating keen shared interest and a problem-solving approach in the present challenging circumstances, all countries contributed actively to the discussions on a wide-ranging trade related agenda. “It was recognised in the conference that the COV- ID-19 pandemic is likely to have a considerable adverse impact on…

10 Apr

Streaming service Disney+ crosses 50 mln paid subscribers globally

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Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday that Disney+ has attracted more than 50 million paid users, with 8 million of them coming from India where the video streaming service was rolled out last week. Rival Netflix Inc, which has services available in over 190 countries, has nearly 167 million paid subscribers globally as of its last reported quarter.