Public sector lender Union Bank of India on Thursday said it has set up an emergency funding window for its MSME and corporate customers impacted by coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The bank is offering a maximum 10 per cent of the existing working capital limit to accounts that are standard as on February 1, 2020, a statement said.
The repayment period of these loans will be 36 months, including maximum moratorium of 12 months. The window is open till September 30, 2020.
ALSO READ: Coronavirus: Banks offer fresh lines of credit to SME firms amid lockdown "This credit facility is available at NIL margin with competitive rate of interest - 8 per cent fixed rate of interest, which is one-year MCLR as on date," the bank said.
ALSO READ: Centre tells states to ensure smooth movement of bank, ATM staff All MSME/agriculture borrowers are eligible for a loan up to Rs 10 crore and others up to Rs 50 crore.
Public sector banks, including State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and Indian Bank, have already rolled out similar lines of credit for their customers to meet any liquidity mismatches.
The Technology Development Board (TDB), a body under the Department of Science & Technology, has invited proposal from Indian companies to address protection and home-based respiratory intervention for Covid-19 patients, DST Secretary Ashutosh Sharma said on Sunday.
The proposal may include technologically innovative solutions like low-cost masks, cost-effective scanning devices, technologies for sanitisation of large areas as well as for contactless entry, rapid diagnostic kits and oxygenators, and ventilators.
Sharma said the DST is looking at low-cost masks which can capture virus from the air and absorb respiratory droplets, cost-effective thermal scanning, large area sanitisation and sterilisation (including electrostatic spray and Ultra Violet treatment for various available surfaces like glass, ceramic, wood, textile).
He said the DST is also looking at bioinformatics and surveillance, rapid and accurate diagnosis kit (paper-based and other point of care devices), Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (IOT) solution for contact-less entry, low cost and portable oxygenators and ventilators (low-cost and portable).
"The TDB Board provides financial assistance by means of soft loans (up to 50 per cent of project cost at 5 per cent simple interest per annum, equity participation (up to a maximum of 25 per cent of the project cost) or grant in exceptional cases, for encouraging the commercial application of indigenously developed technology and for adapting imported technology to wider domestic application," a statement said.
The proposals have to be submitted on or before March 27. On the other hand, several start-ups are also coming up with technology-driven solutions to identify cases and help the government track the movement of those who have been tested positive.
For example, Bengaluru-based Healthtech start-up Mfine has rolled out a coronavirus assessment feature which enables virtual medical consultation to assess patients who have flu-like symptoms. Healthcare company Portea has developed a chatbot called Cobot-19 which will disseminate information related to coronavirus.
Bajaj Allianz too has rolled out an app with the Social Trackback feature, which is designed to help individuals maintain a real-time database of the people they have interacted in-person. The company claims this will help authorities track the details in case a user has been tested positive for the novel virus.
Current Affairs
In excess of 127,000 individuals have been tainted comprehensively and more than 4,700 have passed on, as indicated by a Reuters count of government declarations. Terrain China had 15 new contaminations, down from 24 cases per day sooner, carrying the aggregate to 80,793. The loss of life contacted 3,169, up by 11 from the earlier day. EUROPE
* Poland has detailed its first passing from coronavirus. So far 47 instances of coronavirus have been affirmed in the nation.
* Greece detailed its first casualty, a multi year-elderly person who had come back from a strict journey to Israel and Egypt toward the finish of February.
* Italy's loss of life from the coronavirus pestilence shot past 1,000 as the financial effect declined. The all out number of contaminations rose to 15,113.
* The quantity of affirmed cases over the UK rose 29% to 590 in the course of recent hours. Ten individuals have kicked the bucket.
* The loss of life in France rose to 61 from Wednesday's 48. The nation will close all nurseries, schools and colleges from Monday.
* Turkish schools will be shut for multi week and colleges for three weeks from March 16 and games will be held without onlookers until end-April.
* Austria will deny passage to individuals showing up from Italy, boycott indoor occasions of in excess of 100 individuals and close schools from one week from now until April....Read More
Current Affairs
IndiGo expects the coronavirus (COVID-19) emergency and devaluation of the rupee to hit benefit in the final quarter. IndiGo, the biggest household carrier by piece of the pie, has given the benefit cautioning following a plunge in appointments as a result of the spread of COVID-19 in the nation.
"We dropped our flights to China and Hong Kong and diminished recurrence to certain other Southeast Asian markets. This limit was redeployed in different markets without materially affecting our incomes. In the course of recent days, nonetheless, week-on-week, we have seen a 15-20 percent decrease in our day by day appointments. We anticipate that our quarterly profit should be physically affected in light of these elements," the aircraft said in a stock trade warning on Wednesday.
It included that sharp devaluation in rupee, as well, would adversy affect its dollar-named liabilities, fundamentally by virtue of promoted working leases.
Flight inhabitance dropped on residential courses as people and organizations dropped occasions and delayed travel. Very late admissions, as well, have declined 20-25 percent on key metro courses over a plunge popular. While the dive in unrefined petroleum value benefits the carrier, the help could be constrained gratitude to lazy interest.
InterGlobe Aviation, which runs IndiGo, had announced a triple increment in its pre-charge benefit to Rs 556 crore in the second from last quarter of money related year 2019-20 (FY20) on solid income development.
In a financial specialist telephone call after the outcomes, it had said change of its Airbus A320neo motors would be finished by May, however showed a difficult final quarter in view of lean season and COVID-19 danger...Read More
Current Affairs
The new coronavirus episode would now be able to be depicted as a pandemic, the leader of the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.
WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was grieved by the spread and seriousness of the episode, alongside an absence of activity taken to battle it.
"WHO has been evaluating this episode nonstop and we're profoundly concerned, both by the disturbing degrees of spread and seriousness, and by the disturbing degrees of inaction," he told a news gathering in Geneva.
"We have along these lines made the evaluation that COVID-19 can be portrayed as a pandemic."
The quantity of cases in more than 100 nations around the globe has ascended to more than 124,000, with more than 4,500 passings, remembering a hop for fatalities in Iran and Italy specifically, as per an AFP count.
China remains the most noticeably terrible influenced nation with in excess of 80,000 affirmed cases and more than 3,000 passings. Tedros said that in the course of recent weeks, the quantity of cases outside China had expanded 13-overlay and the quantity of influenced nations had significantly increased.
He said he anticipated the quantity of cases and passings would develop in the coming days and weeks. "Pandemic isn't a word to utilize softly or recklessly," he told journalists, however he focused on that "depicting the circumstance as a pandemic doesn't change WHO's evaluation of the risk presented by the infection.".....Read More
Current Affairs
(Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would drop its yearly engineer meeting because of fears over the coronavirus episode and Microsoft Corp went with the same pattern by pulling back from a gaming gathering planned for one month from now.
"Instead of the in-person F8 occasion, we're arranging different ways for our locale to get together through a combo of privately facilitated occasions, recordings and live gushed content," said Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, Facebook's executive of stage organization.
The gathering, which pulled in 5,000 individuals from around the globe a year ago, was planned to be hung on May 5 and 6 in San Jose, California.
Microsoft now has plans to hold a computerized just occasion from March 16-18. Facebook has prior pulled out of the Game Developers Conference set to be held in San Francisco.
In California, an individual was distinguished with coronavirus contamination on Wednesday, getting the all out number of cases the United States to 15, as indicated by the U.S. Habitats for Disease Control and Prevention.
The office has cautioned of the chance of a network spread of the coronavirus in the nation. Prior this month, The Mobile World Congress (MWC), the yearly telecoms industry gathering, was canceled after a mass migration by exhibitors because of fears over the coronavirus episode.
AT&T Inc , Verizon Communications Inc and International Business Machines Corp had before pulled back from the RSA digital security gathering, set for Feb. 24 to 28 in San Francisco, due to coronavirus-related concerns...READ MORE
Current Affairs
After different rounds of gatherings with exporters, merchants, businesses, and different partners, the Narendra Modi government has solidified its reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Center has ruled against a wide based drew nearer and will handle the issue on a case-to-case premise. Authorities have likewise precluded any rollback of import obligation climbs reported in the Union Budget. In the quick term, the Central Board of Indirect Tax and Customs (CBIC) is chipping away at facilitating clearances of products which show up without legitimate documentation.
Banks have been advised by the Center to give connect advances to organizations which have just paid to their providers in China yet lack conveyances yet. Henceforth, they are experiencing a working capital crunch, authorities said. As long as possible, the CBIC and the transportation service have been advised to anticipate times when the stockpile resumes. There is a gigantic inundation of deferred shipments coming into Indian ports.
"Our technique will be to watch and react rapidly, as we don't have the foggiest idea to what extent this emergency will last. An adaptable reaction is increasingly significant. We are persistently observing this intently," head monetary consultant Sanjeev Sanyal revealed to Business Standard.
Modi govt embraces adaptable methodology towards coronavirus plague
On Wednesday, money serve Nirmala Sitharaman said the administration was intently checking effect of the coronavirus on the economy. Sanyal said the Center was ensuring that its reaction to explicit cases was not held up by bureaucratic hurdles.These might be identifying with confirmation or leeway at ports...READ MORE
Current Affairs
Monetary firms working in Singapore and Hong Kong are postponing contracting as the coronavirus episode upsets their organizations.
Both household and remote establishments have eased back enlistment, as indicated by talent scouts in the monetary center points. They've been affected by isolates, limitations on movement to and from China, remote working game plans and choices not to lead up close and personal meetings.
It's another part of the aftermath from the infection, which has additionally caused plant terminations, upset stockpile chains and started the world's biggest work-from-home investigation. Enrolling has gotten to a lesser extent a need as firms including DBS Group Holdings Ltd. have featured the income effect of exacerbating business conditions.
"Everyone is occupied," said Gurj Sandhu, an overseeing executive at Morgan McKinley Group Ltd. in Singapore. Procuring is tumbling down the "hierarchy," he stated, while including that no one is dropping jobs yet.
Bloomberg talked with six enlistment firms, all of which affirmed the stoppage. Procuring procedures and migration plans are taking longer all things considered organizations in view of calculated challenges. While some budgetary firms are leading meetings by video gathering or telephone, bringing home the bacon is increasingly dangerous, particularly at speculation banks and riches the board units.
Investors are "expensive things," said Hubert Tam, an overseeing accomplice at Sirius Partners Ltd. in Hong Kong. Private banks and speculation banks are holding off on procuring until they can meet applicants face to face, "regardless of whether they performed well a year ago," he said. Likewise, numerous private investors covering China would need to head out to the nation to meet customers and "get their gifts" before they move banks, as indicated by Amod Jain, a Morgan McKinley specialist in Singapore. "Not all things can be finished by telephone."...READ MORE
Current Affairs
Confronted with around $2 billion of installment receivables stayed with adornments shippers in China due to the coronavirus episode, the Gems and Jewelry Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) has looked for a six-month expansion in credit from moneylenders. Presently, the last award credit for a half year (180 days in exchange speech) on trade committals from India. The exchange says this is inadequate at this point.
"The Chinese new year (a pinnacle utilization season) was a whitewash regarding adornments deals in China as individuals remained inside in the midst of dread of infection spread. Shops and processing plants stayed shut for quite a long time, bringing about receivables stalling out for two months. We, along these lines, have written to driving banks and the services worried to concede an additional a half year for receivables. The general effect of coronavirus on India's diamonds and adornments would rely upon to what extent manufacturing plants and shops are closed in China," said Colin Shah, bad habit administrator of GJEPC, uninvolved of the India International Jewelry Show here on Thursday.
Loan specialists have Rs 40,000 crore of combined presentation to the segment. State Bank of India is assessed to have broadened a total Rs 6,000 crore; Indian Bank has presentation of Rs 7,000 crore. China takes almost 30 percent of India's gross yearly gems fare of around $40 billion. Of the $12 billion China takes, about $6.5 billion is for local utilization; the other $5.5 billion is diverted after nearby marking and marking to created nations.
Industry sources said adornments deals during the Chinese new year stayed cheery; these are 25-30 for every of yearly deals in China. Adornments retailers ordinarily start arrangements for the event and spot orders with providers in India in any event four or five months ahead of time....READ MORE
Current Affairs
The loss of life in China's coronavirus scourge taken off to 361 with 57 passings on Sunday alone while the quantity of affirmed cases moved to 17,205, Chinese wellbeing authorities reported on Monday.
China's National Health Commission in its day by day report on Monday said that 2,829 new instances of coronavirus were accounted for across the nation on February 2, taking the absolute number of disease to 17,205.
The loss of life rose to 361 with 57 passings gave an account of Sunday, state-run Xinhua cited the commission's report as saying. Among Sunday's demises, 56 were accounted for from Hubei Province, the focal point of the infection episode, and one from southwest China's Chongqing, the bonus said.
All out 5,173 new presumed cases were accounted for on Sunday, it said.
The general affirmed cases on the Chinese terrain arrived at 17,205 before the finish of Sunday. Additionally on Sunday, 186 patients turned out to be truly sick, and 147 individuals were released from emergency clinic after recuperation. The commission said 2,296 patients stayed torn up pretty bad and 21,558 individuals were associated with being contaminated with the infection.
An aggregate of 475 individuals had been released from medical clinic after recuperation. The commission said 1,89,583 close contacts had been followed, including that among them, 10,055 were released from medicinal perception on Sunday, with 1,52,700 others still under restorative perception. Before the finish of Sunday, 15 affirmed cases had been accounted for in Hong Kong and eight in the Macao SAR and 10 in Taiwan it said. In the interim, China is set to open a 1000-bed stopgap emergency clinic worked in record 10 days at Wuhan, the focal point of the infection flare-up in focal China's Hubei Province.....READ MORE
Current Affairs
A few nations started confining many residents cleared from the Chinese city of Wuhan with an end goal to stop the worldwide spread of a pestilence which has executed 170, with South Korea calling for quiet despite fights at an isolate focus.
Asian stocks and monetary forms fell on Thursday as fatalities rose and more cases were accounted for around the globe. China's National Health Commission said the absolute number of affirmed passings from the coronavirus in the nation moved to 170 starting late Wednesday and the quantity of tainted patients rose to 7,711. Practically every one of the passings so far have been in the focal region of Hubei, home to around 60 million individuals and now under virtual lockdown. The infection developed a month ago in a live wild creature advertise in the common capital Wuhan. Contaminations have been accounted for in at any rate 15 different countries, with 104 affirmed cases.The World Health Organization (WHO) said its Emergency Committee would reconvene in secret on Thursday to choose whether the fast spread of the new infection from China currently establishes a worldwide crisis.
"Over the most recent couple of days the advancement of the infection particularly in certain nations, particularly human-to-human transmission, stresses us," WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news gathering in Geneva, naming Germany, Vietnam and Japan. "In spite of the fact that the numbers outside China are still moderately little, they hold the potential for an a lot bigger flare-up." ISOLATION PLANS
Plans to segregate many emptied outsiders differed between nations. Australia, South Korea, Singapore and New Zealand will isolate all evacuees whether or not they demonstrated side effects for in any event two weeks, while the United States and Japan....READ MORE
Current Affairs
Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura on Tuesday cautioned that A medication store in Beijing will be fined 3 million yuan ($434,530) for climbing the cost of face covers by just about multiple times the online cost in the midst of the coronavirus episode, the Beijing civil market controller said on Wednesday.
The controller has given a notification of authoritative punishment to Beijing Jimin Kangtai Pharmacy for pointedly raising the cost of N95 veils, it said in an announcement on its site.
Jimin Kangtai raised the cost of 3M brand veils to 850 yuan for every container, while the cost of a similar kind of covers sold online was 143 yuan for each case, state TV said.
The Beijing city controller has ventured up supervision on costs of scourge defensive types of gear and rebuffed criminal operations, for example, accumulating or manufacturing data about value climbs. It has examined 31 instances of value infringement since Jan. 23, it said.
The coronavirus flare-up, which began in the focal city of Wuhan before the end of last year, has executed 132 individuals and tainted about 6,000 in China...Read More
