Business

The Finance Ministry had last week said it will fast track issuance of pending income tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh, which will benefit around 14 lakh taxpayers, to provide relief to individuals and businesses hit by COVID-19 outbreak.

The ratings outlook has been revised to under review from stable, the global ratings agency said in a statement. Moody's said it expects to conclude the review within 90 days.

With the Chinese returning to work and travel restrictions eased across industrial hub Wuhan, Tuesday's data beat market expectations.

The government has asked the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd, a farmers' cooperative, to supply wheat to Afghanistan and Lebanon under a government-to-government deal.

The ongoing health crisis is also forcing organisations to re-look at the HR processes and operations through a digital lens, said the EY survey.

The government circular would be out in a day or two for adding Covid-19 as one of the conditions for partial withdrawal from pension fund by APY susbscribers, Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority of India (PFRDA) Chairman Supratim Bandyopadh...

Donald Trump said last week a deal he had brokered with OPEC leader Saudi Arabia and Russia could lead to cuts of as much as 10-15 million barrels per day or 10-15% of global supplies, an unprecedented reduction.

The already sagging economic growth is expected to go down further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led to a three-week lockdown across the country starting March 25.

Former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the government should make a departure from the past to help businesses, especially the small and own-account businesses that are likely to fold up if not helped with grant support.

The IHS Markit India Services Business Activity Index was at 49.3 in March, down from February's 85-month high of 57.5, as the new coronavirus pandemic pulled the service sector into contraction.

There have been discussions about a package but nothing has been finalised yet, an official said, adding the idea is to revive consumption, "so some measures might be needed."

Thirteen of IRCTC's base kitchens, spread across the country, have become the nodal points for such distribution. It has provided bulk cooked food in paper plates, from the locations where the base kitchens are situated.

On the global front, bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul were in the red, while those in Shanghai were trading on a positive note.

In the Revised Estimates (RE), the government had estimated the disinvestment proceeds at Rs 65,000 crore, thus a shortfall of around Rs 14,700 crore.

Industry body CII said that more than half of the tourism and hospitality industry can go sick with a possible loss of over 20 million jobs if recovery in the industry stretches beyond October 2020.

While the entire country has been locked down with most confining themselves to homes, cooking gas supplies have continued uninterrupted with all the distributors and hundreds of delivery boys providing cylinders to 27.5 crore users on demand.