From fast food and athleisure to ACs, the demand for several non-discretionary items has spiked since May 17, when Lockdown 4.0 was extended till May 31.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Improved monsoon, solid fiscal performance, and capex push by the public and private sectors augurs well for India's macroeconomic stability and growth, the finance ministry's monthly economic review for June 2023 said. But the report said that while India's domestic fundamentals remain strong, negative cross-border spillovers and adverse global developments could act as a deterrent in achieving the high growth path this financial year. "An improved matching of aggregate supply and aggregate demand in the Indian economy underpins the progress made in the control of domestic inflation and the consequent strengthening of macroeconomic stability," the review said.
'I'm following my heart and would like to go where the road leads me. I want to do things that will excite myself and people too,' says Tanushka D'Silva.
The two key messages of Modi's over 20 minute-long address was, however, to virtually rule out any immediate nationwide lockdown, a move that had triggered a massive migration of workers from big cities last year and hit the economy hard, and to reach out to migrants.
Rediff.com reader Milon Kumar Sanyal from Kolkata tells us how he kept himself busy during the lockdown.
'...Where there is clearly no evidence of community transmission, letting life return to normal in those districts while continuing to rigorously control the spread of the infection.'
'80% of the rural and urban population don't have enough purchasing power.'
The frustration for aspirant Olympians has been palpable and athletes like table tennis player Sathiyan Gnanasekaran have been forced to innovate to stay sharp during the lengthy lockdowns.
The outbreak and lockdown have thrown up a number of challenges, such as layoffs, pay cuts and a general slowdown. Many subscribers after their unsuccessful attempts to use the scheme have taken to social media to voice their complaints, as the EPFO website and grievance portal suffer outages and its customer helpline remains unreachable.
Cricketers have an extended break at home but they are not sitting still. They have taken to social media to urge everyone to practice social distancing to fight the spread of coronavirus.
He urged China to bolster the flow of its tourists to the Maldives.
'There is one way to defeat the intention behind this directive: To patronise Muslim establishments that have been forced to identify themselves.' 'This is one opportunity for the Congress to show that the 'mohabbat ki dukaan' its leader talks about does exist.' 'Can Akhilesh Yadav, who has asked the court to take note of this directive, order his party members to do this?' asks Jyoti Punwani.
Equity investors suffered a massive loss of Rs 31 lakh crore on Tuesday as markets went into a tailspin with the BSE Sensex tumbling nearly 6 per cent as vote counting trends showed the BJP may not have a clear majority in the Lok Sabha polls. Erasing the record-rally of the previous trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex cracked 4,389.73 points or 5.74 per cent to settle at 72,079.05. During the day, the benchmark tanked 6,234.35 points or 8.15 per cent to hit a nearly five-month low of 70,234.43.
The pre-budget Economic Survey, which is tabled in Parliament ahead of the Union Budget to present the state of the economy and suggest policy prescriptions, quite often misses on the GDP forecast, sometimes by a significant margin. This time, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will table the Economic Survey for 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha on Monday soon after the President's address to both Houses of Parliament. She will present the Union Budget for the next financial year beginning April 1, 2022, on Tuesday.
The announcement comes amid a rise in domestic violence cases due to the ongoing lockdown. It was found that many women who are victims of domestic violence are more vulnerable during the lockdown period.
Raju Bist from Thane tells us how he spent the last two months of lockdown.
The central government may, however, advise state authorities to continue with strict curbs in COVID-19 containment zones in the worst-affected 30 municipal areas that account for 80 per cent of the positive cases in the country. These 30 municipal areas are from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha.
In his second national broadcast in a week on the pandemic raging across much of the world with the number of infections rising in India, Modi made a fervent appeal to the countrymen not to cross the 'lakshman rekha' of their homes in the next three weeks.
'The Union government has discouraged state and local governments from imposing restrictions on their own.' 'That advice should be withdrawn,' asserts Mihir S Sharma.
E-way bill generation, which is related to paying Goods and Services Tax (GST) and a key high-frequency indicator of economic activity, may have fallen to a five-month low in April as more cities experience lockdowns due to a surge in Covid-19 cases. In April e-way bill generation may decline to 55-58 million, which is the lowest since at least November. On the higher side, it is a 17 per cent decline over March.
'As 1.3 billion people wait for our prime minister to tell us what to do and then vanish again from our television screens, it is worth noting that this is not how the rest of the world is being led,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
'People can start making a safety net, and that safety net should be at least three months of your monthly salary.' 'If somebody is earning Rs 25,000 then s/he should have at least Rs 75,000 in her/his bank account, so that if anything like this (lockdowns) happens in the future, they are not struggling.'
Cricket South Africa (CSA) suspended all forms of cricket for the next 60 days to minimise the impact of the coronavirus. South Africa men's cricket team coach Mark Boucher suggested to turn off cell phones for two weeks amid the ongoing global lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.
With half of their staff on duty and no visitors allowed in waiting halls, many top leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who are under quarantine due to the extended lockdown are exploring ways to keep themselves busy.
The real risk is that the core assumption -- that the votes for a candidate sponsored by an alliance will at least equal the sum total of its parts -- proves to be facile, observes T N Ninan.
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
Export of mango, especially alphonso, to European countries has been negligible this season; shipments to the Gulf fell 40-50 per cent.
Besides Karnataka, states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have already announced area-wise lockdown for different durations.
There has been an exponential increase in the use of technology to validate financial numbers, with a greater reliance on electronic evidence, use of live videos where possible, data analytics, and project management software to overcome the physical limitations in verifying transactions and accounts.
With the lockdown in force, live online teaching has become the order of the day, report Peerzada Abrar and Sai Ishwar.
After the RBI surprised the Centre with a record Rs 99,122 crore in surplus transfer for FY21, analysts said this will help the government tide over the revenue losses from lockdowns and extend more support to the pandemic hit industries and to the poor people. In fiscal 2020, the RBI had paid only Rs 57,128 crore in dividend to the government and the finance minister had budgeted only Rs 45,000 crore from the central bank. The higher payout followed the Bimal Jalan panel report that had set a new economic framework capital buffer for the central bank along with the contingency risk buffer at 5.5 per cent.
There is no use of the BJP targeting the likes of Mamata Banerjee and M K Stalin, directly by the party's political bosses, both in Delhi and the respective state capitals, or even using the Raj Bhavans to fire those salvos from. Successive elections have proved that it's counter-productive, if anything. But the BJP is yet to understand it, acknowledge it, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The German luxury automaker has already seen its online traffic increase 10-fold this year. Though that has not always translated into sales, Mercedes-Benz says it is continuing to build on what it calls its "touch-free" experience to stay plugged into its consumer base. Under the used car business, more than 150 cars were sold online in January and February.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
'Why not simply make some more ventilators and find some more beds? How much would it cost?' asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Unless we get the health and economic situations right at the same time, we will not recover.'
'In the absence of a vaccine, as long as there are pockets of active cases in India, it would be good to have a limited lockdown.'
From market leader HP and premium player Apple to China's Lenovo and Asus, all major brands in the market are witnessing rapid surge in the demand for notebooks.
Professional cricket, like most other sports, has come to a grinding halt in the wake of the global health crisis which has also forced lockdowns in several places. Paddy Upton felt fringe players would be particularly disappointed with the uncertainty around this year's edition, which has been put back to April 15 with another postponement seemingly inevitable.
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