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With the number of coronavirus cases coming down, the government has permitted oxygen manufacturing units to supply oxygen to certain industries such as MSMEs, food processing plants and infrastructure projects, on temporary basis. This supply, however, would be subjected to ensuring adequate supply of liquid medical oxygen to hospitals and other medical purposes as per demands of states/UTs as well as adequate supply to industries/sectors such as ampules and vials, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing of oxygen cylinders and PSA plants, neutral glass tubing and defence forces. In April, the centre banned the supply of oxygen for industrial purposes except in nine specified industries in view of shortage of the essential public health commodity in several states amid a spike in COVID-19 infections. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the commerce and industry ministry, has proposed the home ministry for resuming the supply of oxygen to the industries ot...

The B.1.617.1 and B.1.617.2 variants of the COVID-19, first identified in India, have been named as 'Kappa' and 'Delta' respectively by the WHO as it named various variants of the coronavirus using Greek alphabets to simplify public discussions and also help remove stigma from the names.The World Health Organisation's move on Monday came nearly three weeks after India objected to the B.1.617 mutant of the novel coronavirus being termed an "Indian Variant" in media reports with the Union Health Ministry pointing out that the UN's top health organ has not used the word "Indian" for this strain in its document.The UN health agency named the B.1.617.1 variant of the COVID 19 as 'Kappa' while the B1.617.2 variant was dubbed 'Delta.' Both the variants were first found in India.Taking to Twitter, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical COVID-19 lead, on Monday said: "Today, @WHO announces new, easy-to-say labels for #SARSCoV2...

Currently ESG funds would not invest into ITC’s cigarette business and as a result there is lack of participation in the market. A demerger and separate listing of FMCG business will see significant rerating of ITC, says Deven Choksey, MD, KR Choksey Investment Managers. The stock to talk about is Reliance given the kind of move that we have seen over the last couple of sessions. What is making the elephant move now?Fundamentally, the company remains as strong as one can expect. Among the respective verticals - -oil to chemicals (O2C) vertical which included specialty chemical and polymer segments is really having a very good time. They are among the largest manufacturers of some of the polymers in the world. Most of the time, they are the ones which open the prices up, given the strength this company has and given the fact that the demand for this particular polymer has started surging along with the strong commodity prices. They are going to show relatively better performance going f...

Amid a shortage of vaccines, India plans to do a study on mixing COVID-19 doses and to ascertain its efficacy in boosting the immune response to coronavirus. "India may in few weeks start testing the feasibility of a regimen that mixes two different doses of Covid vaccines to see if it helps boost the immune response to the virus," said Dr N K Arora, Chairman of COVID-19 working group under the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). "We have heard the news that in some states people have received a vaccine of a particular brand as the first dose and a different vaccine brand as second dose two due to programmatic error. This is a program error. It shouldn't have happened and the frontline workers have been advised to be more careful but there are no safety concerns, these beneficiaries have been followed up, so there is nothing to be worried about," he said. "We also heard that in Karnataka, several health professionals went on to ask fo...

The survey, which covered over 16,000 employees across 16 countries, multiple industries and job roles, including 496 employees from India, showed that more than half (54%) of the employees from around the world would consider leaving their jobs post the Covid-19 pandemic if they are not afforded some form of flexibility in where (WFH, WFA, hybrid) and when (timing/schedule) they work.

India reported 1,27,510 fresh COVID-19 cases, the lowest in 54 days, while the daily positivity rate dropped to 6.62 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Tuesday.With the fresh cases, India's tally of coronavirus cases rose to 2,81,75,044.The COVID-19 death toll climbed to 3,31,895 with 2,795 fresh fatalities, the lowest reported in 35 days, and the active cases were recorded below 20 lakh after 43 days, the data updated at 8 am showed.Also, 19,25,374 tests were conducted on Monday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 34,67,92,257.The daily positivity was recorded at 6.62 per cent . It has been less than 10 per cent for eight consecutive days, the ministry said. The weekly positivity rate has declined to 8.64 per cent. The active cases were recorded below 20 lakh after 43 days. They have reduced to 18,95,520 comprising 6.73 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rat...

“We are looking for some guidelines from the government to further help the industry go forward in the right direction,” says Nischal Shetty, Founder & CEO, WazirX. The Reserve Bank of India said on Monday that banks cannot refer to its April 2018 circular – struck down by the Supreme Court in 2020 -- to caution customers about trading in cryptocurrency. For those who use your platform, what happens next? It is definitely a welcome move. Until now, quite a few banks were not clear about RBI’s stand on the old circular of 2018. Now that the RBI has clarified it, that should bring a lot of clarity amongst the banks as well. We have been talking to a lot of banks. They were on the fence on whether they could service the industry or not. The latest RBI notification makes it clear that the circular was set aside by the Supreme Court on March 4, 2020 and it asks banks to do due diligence. Due diligence is a welcome move because as an industry, all the exchanges already do the KYC/AML and...

One of the world’s busiest ports could see shipments delayed as a Covid-19 outbreak that earlier closed part of the facility spurs stricter virus-control measures.All cargoes leaving Yantian Port in China will require reservations, according to a port employee, who declined to be identified as they’re not authorized to speak to the media. The port has strengthened its Covid-19 testing program for imports and cargoes into China could also be delayed, the employee said when asked whether vessels arriving at the port could be interrupted.Yantian Port in the export and industrial hub of Shenzhen in southern China had temporarily stopped accepting containers for export until Sunday May 30, according to a notice posted Friday on Wechat. The container yard of the port has been partly shut since last week after an outbreak of Covid-19 among port staff and in the broader community, state media reported.Yantian is one of the busiest ports in the world, with a cargo throughput of 13.34 million tw...

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and sought free Covid jabs for the 18-44 age group, saying the state was unable to incur nearly Rs 1,100 crore on it due to stressed resources.Soren said the state was battling a deadly second wave of COVID-19 with its limited resources."The financial burden on the state for vaccination of the age cohort of 18-44 years is likely to be more than Rs 1,100 crore considering 1.57 crore eligible beneficiaries. With vaccine being available for age cohort of 12-18 years and below, the mentioned financial burden will further increase by around Rs 1,000 crore. It will be extremely difficult to spare as much resources from the resource pool of the state which is already stressed during Covid times," the letter mentioned.He said the abysmal supply of vaccine as compared to the state's requirement is the foremost impediment to the ongoing vaccination drive.Terming the mandate for states to procure m...

Even though West Bengal chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay on Monday opted to retire on the day of his superannuation, the ministry of personnel issued him a show-cause notice for not reporting to the department of personnel and training (DoPT) here this morning, as directed by in Friday's order placing his services with the government of India. According to sources in the government of India, a chargesheet may be issued against the retired chief secretary followed by disciplinary action. The show-cause notice sent to Bandyopadhyay on Monday is said to have pointed out his failure to present himself at the DoPT office in North Block at 10 am on Monday, and asked why disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated against him for having defied the Centre's directions in alleged violation of service rules. Sources indicated that Bandyopadhyay can respond to the show-cause notice, explaining that he could not report to New Delhi at the appointed hour as the West Bengal governme...

Covid has forced us to look at some aspects of life afresh. For many people, the financial fallout of covid has brutally exposed the fragility of their personal finances. Salary cuts and job losses have left many scrounging for cash. Despite being asset-rich, some have struggled to arrange for liquidity to tide over a cash crunch. The disruption in income has blown away rosy calculations and ambitious goals. Borrowers have been unable to cobble together enough money to pay back hefty loans. Hundreds who have succumbed to the virus have not left behind a will, leaving families without access to assets. The message is clear: we must change our money habits and question preset notions of financial security. Many of us are set in our ways of dealing with money matters. Just as we revisit other facets of life post covid, it is time to refashion some of our saving, borrowing and investing habits. Not sure where to start? After speaking to financial advisers, we have zeroed in on a few areas ...

Given the uncertainty of life in the face of Covid-19, it is advisable to write a will if you have assets and want to pass them on to your family members smoothly. However, the urgency and importance of a will and nomination are not fully realised because no one believes it will happen to them.Especially vulnerable are dependants like children and homemaker spouses, who have stayed away from the entire process of financial transactions and wealth management. Women are typically unaware of their legal rights regarding property, let alone know how to access it. What should they do if their husbands die suddenly without a will? How is his property distributed and does it differ for women of different religions?1. Assets distributed as per law based on religionIf the husband dies intestate, i.e., without a will, the assets are distributed as per the law based on his religion. For Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, the distribution is governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, and the Hin...

There's no big traction in Reliance Retail's e-commerce business at present, says market expert Ajay Bagga in this interview. Edited excerpts:What could be the next trigger for Reliance going forward from here?The stock has been consolidating. The move right now is more because of its oil and gas business. The good numbers from public sector oil marketing companies have led to a re-rating of the entire sector. The expectation is that the oil and gas part should do better. Jio Platforms and the retail business are already valued to perfection. The Jio part will start taking off once there is an industry-wide ARPU hike, which has disappointed the market for the last two quarters. Until that happens, you are not going to see much on that part. E-commerce is still in the early days. There's no big traction. In retail, they are the biggest in India but that is valued already. So this is more about the waking up of a giant. Oil and gas is leading to this and there is also some go...

Traders should stock to momentum strategies while fundamental investors should tread carefully in the market now, says Deepak Shenoy, Founder, Capital Mind. Edited excerpts from an interview:What is it that you are making of the market? New highs aside, is it time to tread with caution or would you say follow the momentum?If you are a momentum person, then this is a great time to be with momentum. Momentum is typically a short-term kind of strategy where you exit if the momentum leaves you. If you are a fundamental investor, you might want to still consider holding on or at least do an SIP kind of investment in this market rather than investing all at once. It is easy to say stay away but obviously the market itself is going up so fast that it almost seems silly to tell people that caution is warranted here. But in general, of course, the economy is very divergent from the stock market. We are seeing consumer spending drop very precipitously in the last two or three months.The Street i...

Amid the upheaval caused by the second wave of the pandemic and predictions that the next wave may affect the younger population more, a large part of the Indian student community is looking overseas for college admission.Factors like access to vaccines, robust health infrastructure and policies favouring foreign student admissions are drawing student interest more than ever for international colleges, apart from the charm of attaining a foreign degree.Education platforms like Yocket, Collegify and Leverage Edu are seeing a more than 50% increase in students wanting to pursue higher education outside of India in 2021 compared with 2020.This is also due to pent-up demand since many aspiring students could not join colleges abroad last year due to travel restrictions as well as a surge in Covid-19 cases in several developed countries.“The number of students aspiring for foreign colleges is going up further with the improved situation in the US, UK and other countries. The US vaccination ...

The Indian capital, which just weeks ago suffered the devastating force of the coronavirus, with tens of thousands of new infections daily and funeral pyres that burned day and night, is taking its first steps back toward normalcy.Officials on Monday reopened manufacturing and construction activity, allowing workers in those industries to return to their jobs after six weeks of staying at home to avoid infection. The move came after a sharp drop in new infections, at least by the official numbers, and as hospital wards emptied and the strain on medicine and supplies has eased.Life on the streets of Delhi is not expected to return to normal immediately. Schools and most businesses are still closed. The Delhi Metro system, which reopened after last year’s nationwide lockdown, has suspended service again.But the city government’s easing of restrictions will allow people like Ram Niwas Gupta and his employees to begin returning to work — and, more broadly, to start to repair India’s ailing...

India’s internet future — free and open, or stymied and controlled — may be decided by a 224-page lawsuit filed by WhatsApp last week.Saying that it wanted to curb fake news, revenge porn and other ills, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government introduced new rules in February that would compel social media platforms such as Facebook Inc.’s WhatsApp to trace chat messages, among other things.As the three-month deadline for compliance ended, WhatsApp filed its petition in the Delhi High Court. The U.S. company is arguing that being asked to track the originator of a message has no legal sanction. It doesn’t protect people such as journalists and political activists from arbitrary state action. Nor does the rule meet the proportionality test — required now by Indian law following a 2017 Supreme Court verdict — of being the least restrictive infringement of Indians’ fundamental right to privacy.WhatsApp contends that keeping a log of messages would require it to break end-to-end encrypti...

As with everything in life, there are some things that you actively participate in and some others where you are passive. Active participation is when you are directly engaged and involved in the outcome. Passive participation is just the opposite, wherein you observe the proceedings without directly influencing the activities or their outcome.When it comes to investing, the same principle applies. You can actively invest in specific stocks and create a portfolio or you can just invest in a basket of stocks selected by someone else using pre-determined rules. Some of the foremost amongst such investments, are ETFs and Index Funds. Both these asset classes originate from the same family of passive funds, which mirror the Index that they follow. They both aim to track the performance of the underlying Index as closely as possible.Index Funds and ETFs are categorised under what is known as "Indexing." Indexing involves investing in stocks of an underlying benchmark index on the ...

As the Congress central leadership on Monday initiated ‘dialogue’ with Punjab party MLAs to find an amicable solution to the rift in the state Congress ahead of the assembly elections, some of them are learnt to have voiced protest over chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh’s ‘soft handling’ of the 2015 ‘sacrilege case’. The high court had recently quashed a state government probe into the death of two people in police firing on those protesting against the desecration of the Granth Sahib in 2015, when the Shiroman Akali Dal-BJP government was in power. With the case acquiring religious sensitivity and many Congress MLAs agitated, the AICC is worried, with less than a year left for the assembly polls.Over 30 MLAs, including PCC chief Sunil Jakhar and some Cabinet ministers, held two separate rounds of meetings with the AICC panel comprising general secretary in-charge Harish Rawat and Mallikarjun Kharge and JP Aggarwal. The MLAs were asked to give their view on the issue. More MLAs, t...

Mumbai: Shares of ABB India on Monday decisively broke past a 13-year consolidation phase to trade above ₹1,600 apiece. If it sustains above that level, it can easily give a 20% return in the near term, according to technical analysts.ABB India is better placed to gain from the expected pickup in capex in the coming months, said analysts.“ABB has given breakout after consolidating for 13 years from 2008 to 2021 and with strong capex recovery, one can expect the stock to continue its upward journey,” said Ashish Chaturmohta, director-research, Sanctum Wealth. “In the short term, we expect ₹1,900-2,000 levels in the stock”. Shares of ABB India rallied 21% in the last month, compared to a 6.5% gain in the Nifty index. It ended 4.85% higher at ₹1,668 on Monday.Analysts said that the stock is also making higher tops-higher bottom from the last six trading sessions with rising trading and delivery volumes.“Technically, it has completed a rounding formation which has bullish implications on a...

Traders from Maharashtra and Delhi have demanded the opening up of shops without any restrictions as small traders are no longer able to bear the financial losses incurred by keeping shops closed for two months. While the Maharashtra government has asked the local authorities to take the call, Delhi has allowed the opening up of only the construction activity and factories.Mumbai-headquartered Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture (MCCIA) has demanded that all types of shops across the state be allowed to open during normal working hours. “According to the rough estimate of the chamber, the traders from Maharashtra have incurred losses of close to Rs 75,000 crore since the lockdown was imposed in April,” said Lalit Gandhi, vice president, MCCIA.83134232In Delhi, the Confederation of All India Traders too has made the same demand as the NCR government has opted for selective opening of construction activities.The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has sent a l...

New Delhi: Public sector banks are expected to launch qualified institutional placement (QIP) offerings worth ₹8,500-9,000 crore in the next quarter amid a rebound in equity markets, according to sources in the know.The public sector banks that are lining up such offerings include Indian Bank, Bank of Maharashtra and Canara Bank, these sources said. All three are expected to launch their offerings between July and September.Indian Bank is planning to raise ₹4,000 crore through a QIP and is expected to time its offering around the first week of July. It is said to have appointed six merchant banks for the planned offering. ICICI Securities will be among the lead arrangers. It had passed a board resolution on March 9, enabling it to raise funds.Similarly, Bank of Maharashtra is also expected to launch its QIP offering in July. It plans to raise ₹2,000 crore. The bank had passed a board resolution on April 29, allowing it to raise up to ₹5,000 crore by way of share sales. It is in the pro...

Airtel Payments Bank (APB) is set to break even in this financial year, having notched up strong revenue growth in the previous fiscal and also turned contribution positive, implying revenue fully covered variable costs, said a senior company executive.Covid-19 is a major growth driver for Bharti Airtel’s payments banking arm, he said, as customers want banking solutions closer to their homes and also seek convenient and more secure digital payment options.“Airtel Payments Bank is confident of breaking even this year, helped by the growing scale of its model that leverages deep distribution backed by investments in digital infrastructure,” the executive told ET on condition of anonymity. 83131835In 2020-21, APB saw 60% year-on-year growth in savings accounts deposits and its base of active revenue earning customers (RECs) swelled more than 77% year-on-year to 55 million. The company recorded 32% year-on-year revenue growth to ₹627 crore, and its services were a key reason for reducing ...

Given the uncertainty of life in the face of Covid-19, it is advisable to write a will if you have assets and want to pass them on to your family members smoothly. However, the urgency and importance of a will and nomination are not fully realised because no one believes it will happen to them.Especially vulnerable are dependants like children and homemaker spouses, who have stayed away from the entire process of financial transactions and wealth management. Women are typically unaware of their legal rights regarding property, let alone know how to access it. What should they do if their husbands die suddenly without a will? How is his property distributed and does it differ for women of different religions?1. Assets distributed as per law based on religionIf the husband dies intestate, that is, without a will, the assets are distributed as per the law based on his religion. For Hindus, Jains, Buddhists and Sikhs, the distribution is governed by the Hindu Succession Act, 1956, and the ...

The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is likely to take up construction of the new PM Residence (PMR) in August, which marks a slight delay on earlier plans, after shifting offices in hutments at Dalhousie Road near South Block, to the two new office buildings in Africa Avenue and K G Marg.As per the master plan submitted to the expert appraisal committee for environment clearance, which has received the go ahead, the PMR will come up on 15 acres and will have 10 low rise buildings of not more than two floors. The PMR will not have any basement, according to the CPWD’s proposal. Sources said the PMR will be a complete complex for the PM’s residence and PMO. TOI on November 3, 2019 had first reported new PMO and PMR coming closer to South Block.According to the plan, the PMR complex will have a facility for parking 112 vehicles and will accommodate around 1,000 employees. The daily floating population is estimated to be 500. The SPG building for PM’s security will come up close to ...

If you still have not filed your income tax return for FY 2019-20, then you should file it today. That is because today, i.e., May 31, 2021 is the last date to file belated ITR for FY 2019-20. If this deadline is missed, then an individual will not be able to file the belated ITR unless the tax department issues a notice and asks for it to be filed.Today is also the last day to file revised ITR for FY 2019-20. That is, if a mistake has been discovered in the originally filed ITR for FY 2019-20, then the revised ITR has to be filed by the end of the day today. If you are filing a belated ITR, then do keep in mind that you will be required to pay a penalty of Rs 10,000. Further, if the self-assessment taxes are pending, then a penal interest will be payable on the tax amount at the rate of 1% per month or part thereof.Extended tax-related deadlinesThe government via a press release dated May 1, 2021 has extended the timeline of filing of belated return under sub-section (4) and revised r...

As the second wave of Covid 19 pandemic continues its march across the country, businesses both big and small are beginning to experience disruptions to their operations as local governments impose restrictions on movement of people and goods across the country. Supply disruptions followed by overall demand slowdown will impact businesses and livelihoods across the board. Unfortunately, the highest economic costs of these disruptions will be disproportionately borne by the MSME sector in India.It doesn't take much to understand the vulnerability of the MSME segment to economic cycles. On the one hand, India boasts of over 62 million MSMEs which contribute to nearly 30% of the country's GDP and create employment for over 110 million people, on the other, a vast majority of them are starved of low cost financing from the formal banking system. Instead, they are forced to rely on informal lenders for managing their financing needs often at usurious costs. The direct consequence of...

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Monday moved a resolution in the state Assembly expressing solidarity with the people of Lakshadweep who are on a path of protest against the recent actions of the island administrator. He said there was an attempt to destroy the indigenous lifestyle and ecosystem in the archipelago and implement the 'saffron agenda' through the backdoor. Coconut trees were painted with saffron colour there as part of the agenda, the CPI(M) veteran alleged moving the resolution. "The attempt is to impose and implement the saffron agenda and corporate interests in Lakshadweep," Vijayan said. It is the first ever resolution moved in the House after the second Vijayan government came to power achieving a resounding victory in the April 6 Assembly polls.