ET Morning Brief

SBI Research estimates the economy will contract by 6.8 per cent in FY21.

The allegedly diverted sum of Rs 5,050 crore is “proceeds of crime,” according to ED, which is probing money-laundering charges against Kapoor and his family members.

‘Made in India’alternatives such as Mitron TV, Tik Kik and Bolo Indya are gaining popularity.

Anant Ambani joins Jio Platforms at a time when the oil-to-telecom behemoth is looking to transition itself from an energy-centric conglomerate to one focussing increasingly on consumer technology.

Distributors of consumer goods, electronics, smartphones and cooking oils have started dealing only in cash instead of the usual practice of offering up to three weeks of credit as they fear defaults by small retailers during the business downturn.

The businessman is understood to have filed an application seeking political asylum in the UK.

One of the largest solar power developers in India, Acme Solar has a portfolio of 5.5 GW with an operational capacity of 2.9 GW and 2.6 GW of projects under different stages of development.

Operations at India's airports were smoother on the second day after the chaos that marked the resumption of domestic flights on Monday.

Any investment from countries sharing a land border with India, including the China and Hong Kong region, will need special pre-approval, the government said last month. If a company needs emergency funding from China, the ECB is the best route since the transaction can be closed within a week, legal experts said.

Enterprises are starting to review their digital presence and security posture more closely. Skills needed to ramp up on digital products and services, infrastructure services and cybersecurity are all geared towards sustaining and building communication, collaboration capabilities and culture in a virtual operating model.

BTL’s stake in Bharti Airtel fell to around 36% after the deal. Correspondingly, the combined 58.98% holding of Bharti Airtel’s promoter group – Sunil Mittal-owned entities and Singtel – came down to 56.23%. Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Enterprises and Singtel own 50.56% and 49.44%, respectively, in BTL.

The guiding principle should be that all lives matter equally, in the sense in which all are equal before the law: in their innate humanity and citizenship, all are equal, whether talented artiste, scientist or school dropout.

Early indications show this month could be a washout, with auto majors such as Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Motors likely to manage just one-tenth of average monthly wholesale sale numbers, and experts warn of a prolonged crisis due to economic slowdown and poor consumer sentiment.

The City-Scale Epidemic Simulator, which uses SAP’s technology platform, has been modelling datasets – such as number of cases in April and percentage of death; cases in slums and nonslums etc in Mumbai and Bengaluru. Once the information and practices are modelled across different locations in a city.

WHO’s statement came as UK researchers working on the largest randomised HCQ trial called the Recovery Trial decided to go ahead with their study. “We saw no cogent reason to suspend recruitment for safety reasons,” said Peter Sandercock, chairman of the Recovery Trial.

​​ The GST Council, which is expected to meet next month, had slashed tax rates on 200 products including chocolates, toothpastes, shampoos, washing powders and shaving creams to 18% from 28% in November 2017. Industry executives said a further reduction is needed to trigger demand.

One of the officials said the government had received several representations seeking relaxation in Sec 17(5)(h) of CGST Act 2017, which does not permit credit on goods given for free or as a gift, or lost, stolen, destroyed or written off.

“It may be a better option that any further discussion on the issue (floor tariff) is held after the lockdown is completely lifted and normalcy is restored,” Sharma told ET, virtually ruling out an online open house discussion on the issue, and thus, an early decision on the contentious issue.

While this affects the government’s efforts to expedite road construction, it also chokes a source of liquidity in the market. Government pays higher-than-market prices for land acquired for public projects. With the economy in distress, continuing with land acquisition would offer an effective way to increase the supply of money in the market.

“Indian nationals who were quarantined in hotels after their return from abroad were made to pay advance for 14 days. Since they can now leave for home quarantine after 7 days, the amount...for remaining 7 days needs to be refunded.”

Labour minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said the abolition of worker protections by some states aimed at attracting investment won’t be approved by the Centre in the current form.

Rajak has highlighted the problems faced by Bihar, which accounts for 14% of the 5.6 crore migrant workers as per the 2011 census. The minister has demanded that a fixed amount of the corpus be allocated to Bihar from the common pool of Rs 10,000 crore for the cluster development of Micro Food Enterprises.

These prominent cases, allegedly also involving former finance minister P Chidambaram, are being pursued by the Central Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement Directorate. In fact, all corruption-related cases hanging fire in various city courts were transferred to the Rouse Avenue court last year to expedite the anti-graft trials.

According to internal government assessments, the 182 private laboratories operating across India have a testing positivity rate of 16-17% compared with 5-6% recorded by over 430 government labs. The private sector accounts for 30% of India’s testing facilities and is considered to be pitching in less than expected in tackling Covid-19.

The ministry usually starts work on answering questions and government assurances related to questions a fortnight before the session begins. The exercise is intensive, covers several ministries and involves considerably paperwork and manpower. Preparing for the session with a WFH system will require considerable additional effort.

The government is seriously considering holding the monsoon session of Parliament even as Covid-19 numbers are increasing. However, the government might push the session by a few weeks. Usually, the month-long monsoon session begins in July-end. Due to the pandemic, the government is planning to hold it in August-end.

A comprehensive review of the boundary situation at the senior-most levels involved the top military leadership, diplomats and the National Security Council Secretariat and the ground situation in Ladakh was discussed, as well as ongoing efforts to resolve the crisis through diplomatic channels.

About 20 million workers came back into employment in May as the government eased the nationwide lockdown to counter Covid-19 outbreak.

BJP general secretary, Arun Singh, on Monday wrote to all state presidents and incharges regarding the programme. “Some historic decisions have been taken by the government over the last one year. Be it the withdrawal of Article 370 or Ram temple or CAA, the programme would highlight the Centre’s achievements,” Singh told ET.

The suggestions, which were learnt to have made in a letter to the Speaker on Tuesday by Mahtab, who had earlier sought the Chair’s permission to convene the meetings of the Standing Committees via videoconference due to the lockdown.

Major role for farmer producer organisations but without dislodging existing mandis; bill to be placed before the cabinet for approval soon.

Nandigam Suresh from Bapatla is the MP who was served the notice. He had recently found fault with the court’s orders and alleged that opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu was accessing the judgements much before they were pronounced. He also had alleged that Naidu was “managing the judiciary”.

Although the government issued the order late evening on Monday, the opposition decided to go ahead with the planned day-long fast protests on Tuesday.

Taking suo motu cognisance of the plight of migrants, who were left stranded when the Centre imposed the nationwide lockdown from March 25, the court on Tuesday cited lapses and inadequacies in dealing with migrants and asked the central and state governments to give an account of all that they have done for the workers so far.

​​Ahmad was discharged on the seventh day and was asked to buy Pantop 40 tablet and paracetamol if needed. “That one week feels like a lifetime to me now. I still don’t know how I got the virus.