April 2020

Identify five to six sectors for manufacturing in India: Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said government must identify five-six key sectors where we built up entire supply chain for manufacturing in India, including medical essentials, with massive disruptions in the global supply chain post the outbreak of COVID-19. “We have opened up mobile manufacturing and manufacturing of APIs in the country. In a similar way, we should look at five to six sectors for manufacturing in India,” Kant said, citing example of India’s inability to have full manufacturing capacity for key medical devices like ventilators...

Sudhanshu Vats resigns as MD of Viacom18 Sudhanshu Vats, Group CEO and MD of Viacom18, a subsidiary of Network18, has decided to move on from Viacom18 after spending eight years at the helm. During his years at the company, Vats expanded the media network’s footprint into new business lines of Digital, Experiential Entertainment and Consumer Products. He has also played a pivotal role in strengthening Viacom18’s position in Hindi mass entertainment, regional, kids, music & English entertainment and turned around the filmed entertainment business with content led cinema. Under him, Viacom18 has grown from a six to a 54-channel network...

Real estate prices may crash up to 20% post Covid-19: Deepak Parekh Mumbai: Deepak Parekh, Chairman of mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), on Tuesday said the real estate prices in the country would correct by up to 20 per cent in the wake of coronavirus pandemic and the resultant nationwide lockdown. “Prices of real estate have to come down, and will come down,” Parekh said in an address to real estate developers at a webinar organised by the National Real Estate Development Council (Naredco). “I believe Naredco’s estimate is around 10-15 per cent. One must be prepared for...

Very few nations will get ‘A grade’ on response to pandemic: Bill Gates If we go by what billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates believes, very few countries will get “A grade” for their coronavirus response when it comes to understanding the scale of the damage it can do. Speaking to the BBC, Gates said several countries have failed on providing proper health care and there will be a “post mortem” when the disease is tackled. “We are in uncharted territory due to a lack of investment and preparation,” Gates said. Gates said his foundation is paying for the construction of facilities...

Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal becomes Managing Director of Navi Technologies Flipkart Co-founder Sachin Bansal has been appointed as Managing Director of Navi Technologies, his second entrepreneurial venture in the space of financial services after he exited from the ecommerce marketplace. According to filings with the Registrar of Companies (RoC), the board of Navi Technologies has passed the resolution to announce the appointment of Sachin Bansal as Managing Director. Following his departure from Flipkart in 2018, Sachin Bansal co-founded Navi Technologies in December of that year, along with Ankit Agarwal. Navi Technologies was previously known as BACQ. Source: YourStory

‘Thank you, Sonia ji’: BJP chief to Congress president for her Covid-19 message Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday praised doctors, police, health and sanitation workers who are on the forefront in the fight against the coronavirus despite the shortage of personal protection equipment (PPE). In turn, she received a rare congratulatory message form the BJP. In a video message, released by the party hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation, she also regretted reports of harassment of doctors in some parts of the country while urging the people to follow the lockdown and adhere to social distancing norms....

Iran foreign minister raises US sanctions with India Iran foreign minister Javad Zarif on Monday raised the issue of “illegal and unilateral US sanctions” on his country during a telephone conversation with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. In recent weeks, Iran’s top leadership has called on India and other countries to help defeat the US sanctions that are hampering the country’s fight against Covid-19. Iran is among the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic and has recorded more than 73,000 confirmed case and nearly 4,600 deaths. Iran’s foreign ministry tweeted that Zarif and Jaishankar had exchanged views on the latest situation regarding the...

‘Covid-19 Reaffirmed India’s Caste, Class Inequalities’: Author Suraj Yengde on Learning Inclusion from Ambedkar The lockdown to check the spread of the novel coronavirus disease sparked a mass exodus of migrant labourers. The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown saw transport services coming to a halt, forcing workers and their families to cover long distances by foot. With disturbing images of migrants stranded on highways and being sprayed with disinfectants surfacing, many have criticised the state’s handling of the situation. There is also increasing concern about the long-term effects of the pandemic on the marginalised, who are often worst-hit by disasters....

Spain ‘far from victory’ in coronavirus fight, says PM Pedro Sanchez Spain is “far from victory” in its fight against the coronavirus, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned on Sunday as the country’s death toll from the pandemic rose again after falling for three days in a row. The nation registered 619 new deaths in the last 24 hours from Covid-19, bringing the death toll to 16,972, the health ministry said, the highest in the world after the United States and Italy. The toll was 510 on Saturday, the lowest since March 23. But the number of new infections continued its...

Trump’s Developer Friend Stanley Chera Dies of Coronavirus Washington: A friend and donor to President Donald Trump who the president had said was in a coma and seriously ill after becoming infected with the coronavirus has died. Stanley I. Chera’s death Saturday was reported by The Real Deal, which covers the New York real estate industry. The publication cited unidentified sources who have worked with Crown Acquisitions, the firm Chera founded and ran. Chera was in his late 70s. A White House official on Sunday confirmed Chera’s identity and ties to the president. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity...