Employees asked to work from home... cancelled travel plans... curtailed meetings... Caution and precaution dominate Corporate India's response to Covid-19.
'There is a clear business impact. People are avoiding crowded places and gatherings across cities. This is hitting business, both at traditional and modern trade outlets, during the Holi season, which kicked off from Saturday,' says Praveen Khandelwal, general secretary, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT).
Exports of 13 APIs - including paracetamol, tinidazole, metronidazole, vitamin B1, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, acyclovir, progesterone - along with formulations made from these APIs, would be restricted.
With auditing under the scanner and two of the Big Four firms stopping non-audit services for audit clients, auditors will now be subjected to a more stringent standard of reporting.
The new web form would facilitate on-screen filing and real time data validation for seamless incorporation.
Big pharma companies, however, said while it was true that formulation players would not rush to buy raw material, they could not afford losing customers.
Deloitte India would not provide non-audit services to all listed companies and other entities where public money is involved such as banks and insurance companies, if they are its audit clients.
The Duff & Phelps report shows that Virat Kohli has increased his brand value by 40 per cent to $237.5 million in 2019 and taken a huge lead with his closest rival, Akshay Kumar, ranked second.
Indian pharmaceutical companies are heavily dependent on China to source fermentation-based active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates to manufacture these medicines, but the coronavirus outbreak there has disrupted the supply.
The new regime aims to bring in ease of doing business, as the NITI Aayog has proposed to do away with the need to have manufacturing licences to register medical devices or to get a certificate of compliance.
As fear grips the world, demand for protective gear used by health care professionals and citizens is on a rise. And, supply disruption from China has opened a window of opportunities for Indian medical device makers.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has brought down the budgetary allocation for the fertiliser subsidy for FY21 to Rs 71,309 crore, from the RE of Rs 79,998 crore for FY20, while increasing food subsidy to FCI through "ways and means advance" to Rs 50,000 crore for FY21, from Rs 36,000 crore in RE for FY20, and under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to Rs 77,982 crore, from Rs 75,000 crore.
What seems to have changed over the last two-three years is that earlier the CCI considered online as another channel for retail sales, while it now seems dividing the retail market into two -- online and offline, and looking at them separately, say competition law experts.
Reiterating its position, TRAI, which oversees both the telecom and television sectors in the country, said the amendments suggested on January 1 had been done to correct "distortions" in the market and address pricing issues.
At least two key drugs in the gliptin category have already gone off patent and cheaper variants are crowding the market. Also, several patent expiries are round the corner for the newest category of drugs - SGLT-2 inhibitors or gliflozins.
The warning by the anti-trust watchdog has come days ahead of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' India visit, about which the Seattle-headquartered company has been tight-lipped. Sources in the know indicated that Bezos, coming on a short trip, has sought a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
'If you look at the Number 1 film in India this year across Bollywood and other regional film industries, it is Avengers: Endgame.'
PharmEasy, 1mg and Netmeds believe that their disruptive capabilities will power their brands despite the recent court ruling. The Drug Controller General of India recently directed all state FDAs to stop the online sale of medicines as per a Delhi high court order of last year.
Concerned about the rise of antibiotic resistance and the time it takes for drugs developed abroad to reach Indians, the government is considering holding its own clinical trials. Clinical trials for new drugs have so far primarily been conducted only by private Indian or foreign drug firms. But given the stringent nature of India's regulatory environment for clinical trials, several pharmaceutical companies have moved their trials out of India. As a result, only 1.2 per cent of global clinical trials take place in India.
According to a senior government official, the plan is to do "collective bargaining" for certain medical devices and implants by assuring a bulk requirement to the manufacturers. "The requirement for these devices runs into millions. We assure them that the requirement is going to be in bulk. In return, they should offer us better rates," he said.
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