The government is targeting 1,200 technical collaborations between Japanese companies and Indian investors for over Rs 42,000 crore, 200 joint ventures with overseas investors for Rs 14,000 crore, and another Rs 14,000-crore investment from about 50 multinational companies.
The Airports Authority of India issued a standard operating procedure to airport operators on Wednesday for recommencement of domestic flights from May 25 onwards.
India's biggest firm, Reliance Industries, has decided to cut salaries by 10 per cent in its oil and refining divisions. Several smaller companies like Kajaria Ceramics have followed suit with cuts as high as 40 per cent for those earning more than Rs 50 lakh.
The industry feels two factors have played a role in improving the offtake and reducing trade inventory - one is that the supply chain in pharmaceuticals has more or less stabilised, and secondly, with lockdown curbs easing and OPDs opening, some demand has grown at the consumer end as well.
With projections suggesting the number of cases in the city will touch 75,000 by the end of May, civic authorities are working overtime to add to the number of beds.
Cipla is among the three Indian companies that signed a non-exclusive licensing agreement with US-based Gilead Sciences to make and distribute the latter's repurposed Ebola drug Remdesivir in 127 countries including India.
Airlines such as IndiGo, Air India, Vistara and AirAsia India have decided to go with the new attire to ensure safety of cabin crew members as they are in close proximity to passengers during flights
Most feel as the movement of people normalises, the in-patient volumes in hospitals will grow and by the end of May, occupancy should be around 50 per cent, and 75 per cent over a period of time.
Pharma companies gear up for the 'new normal' as they train and align their sales forces for a paradigm shift. GSK leads the charge with staggered return-to-work, others plans yoga sessions and health care webinars for salesperson's family.
Researchers at Northwell Health in New York are testing the effects on Famotidine (used in high intravenous doses) on Covid-19 patients as a potential treatment. After the hospital announced its clinical trials, it led to a drug shortage in the US. Back home, however, there has not been any surge in the demand for Famotidine yet.
The hospital, in the commercial hub of Bandra-Kurla Complex, will serve as an isolation facility for non-critical COVID-19 patients. Expected to be ready in a fortnight, the new makeshift facility can be scaled up to 5,000 beds, if needed. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will run the hospital that will have, among other things, oxygen facilities and pathological laboratories. Sohini Das reports.
Although there is no government order to this effect, chemists decide to not dispense medicines for cold, cough and fever over the counter.
A dipstick survey covering 30 villages in Rajasthan threw up some worrisome numbers. About 250 children missed their regular vaccination schedule in March alone. These numbers are alarming, since India has around 600,000 villages according to the 2011 census. Sohini Das reports.
Mumbai, with an estimated population of nearly 20 million, has been testing 1,200-1,400 people per day. Delay in the delivery of rapid antibody test kits has forced the BMC to restrict its testing net.
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Drones are being used for carrying out a host of tasks like surveillance to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing, spreading awareness about COVID-19 in densely populated areas, spraying disinfectants and checking people's temperature
Cadila, Biocon developing rapid antibody testing kits; Eris, Mylan, Gland importing. There are two kinds of testing for the novel coronavirus - the real-time polymerase chain reaction test kit that uses throat or nasal swabs and provides results in a few hours, and the other is antibody-based rapid testing kit that use blood samples and provides results in a few minutes.
Private diagnostic laboratories have already approached the respective state governments and the municipalities where they are operating to approve protocols for such testing in clusters, reports Sohini Das.
Private hospitals, especially smaller standalone ones, are staring at a crisis that they were not prepared for. Analysts say larger corporate chains have to brace up for at least six months for business to return to normal.
Once the coronavirus lockdown is over in India and commercial passenger flights are permitted again, IndiGo will deep clean its aircraft more frequently, stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and will fill a maximum 50 per cent capacity in airport buses, the airline's CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Friday. "In situations like these, companies do not manage to growth or profitability but to liquidity. That means our singular focus is on cash flow. We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimise them," he said.
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