Author: Finance Khabar

New Delhi : In order to further facilitate exim trade in the COVID-19 lockdown period, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) on Tuesday extended relaxation for submission of a bond to the customs. Now importer and exporter will be able to submit an undertaking in lieu of a bond till May 15. “In the background of the recent announcement by the government extending the lockdown till May 3 and taking into consideration that it might take sometime after the end of the lockdown for the situation to normalise, the Board has decided to further extend the facility…

New York: Oil prices continued to crash on Tuesday after a stunning collapse a day earlier that saw US crude futures plunge below zero for the first time in history as reports said the United States could run out of storage for a glut caused by the coronavirus lockdown. Global benchmark Brent crude also fell sharply in response to the collapse of demand following reduced economic activity. US oil futures for May delivery were last trading below zero dollar a barrel again after briefly rising above one dollar a barrel. The May contract which expires later today finished regular trading…

New Delhi: The magnitude and speed of collapse in economic activity that India has seen over the last few weeks due to COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented and there is tremendous uncertainty about what the future holds for businesses and enterprises, according to a recent survey by FICCI and Dhruva Advisors. Almost 72 per cent of the respondents to the survey reported that COVID-19 is having a ‘high to very high’ level of impact on their business. Further, a substantial majority of the respondents do not foresee a positive demand outlook for their business in this fiscal with 70 per cent…

Car manufacturer Jeep officially launched the BS6 version of its SUV compass. With the launch, the price information of this SUV was also revealed. However, compared to the BS4 model of this car, the price of the BS6 version of the compass has been increased from Rs 89,000 to Rs 1.38 lakh. The new BS6 Jeep Compass comes with 1.4-liter turbo-petrol and 2.0-liter diesel engines. It has options such as 6-speed manual, 7-speed dual-clutch automatic and 9-speed automatic gearbox. Talking about its price according to the model, its ex-showroom price in Delhi starts from Rs 16.49 lakh, which goes up…

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices plunged by over 3 per cent on Tuesday after US oil prices slipped below zero dollar a barrel in overnight trade and President Donald Trump’s announcement that he will sign an executive order to temporarily suspend immigration. US crude futures turned negative for the first time in history following a collapse in oil demand as coronavirus pandemic derails the global economy. A rapidly rising number of COVID-19 infections in India and the resultant deaths also put pressure on bourses. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 1,011 points or 3.2 per cent…

Hyderabad : A strategic business unit of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has partnered with the Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) to prepare college students for future job readiness. Under the partnership, a set of curated courseware will be made available free of cost to four lakh students across 1,500 institutions of higher education in the state effective this academic year. The courses cover a plethora of topics that will improve the employability quotient of students and equip them to compete in the job market after they graduate. The learning will be self-paced and the courses are accessible anytime,…

Bengaluru: Design-led technology services provider Tata Elxsi said on Tuesday its revenue from operations jumped by 8.3 per cent at Rs 438.9 crore in the January to March quarter, marking a growth of 3.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 8.3 per cent year-on-year. While the embedded product design (EPD) division grew by 4.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 10.6 per cent year-on-year, the industrial design and visualisation (IDV) division grew by 7.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 5.4 per cent year-on-year. Within the EPD vertical, the media and communication vertical grew by 8.6 per cent quarter-on-quarter and 25.5 per cent year-on-year. The transportation…

New Delhi: Morepen Laboratories Ltd is all set to be a frontrunner in India’s fight against novel coronavirus disease, known as COVID-19. The company has launched a wide range of essential products being required to combat the growing menace of COVID-19 and to prevent further spread of the disease in the country. These include non-contact infrared thermometers, alcohol-based hand sanitizers, hand wash, hand rubs and face masks, all under its umbrella brand – Dr Morepen. The company has also received license to manufacture Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) from State Drug Controller (HP) last week for its Baddi plant in Himachal Pradesh and…

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Monday said that his administration will look into halting oil imports from Saudi Arabia after oil prices in the United States plummeted into negative. “We’ll look at it,” Trump said on Monday when asked if the United States will block Saudi oil shipments into the United States after prices went negative earlier in the day. Trump also announced that he is planning to add as much as 75 million barrels of oil to the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve as the oil prices crashed due to the coronavirus pandemic. United States oil prices plunged to…

Washington: United States oil prices on Monday plunged to negative for the first time in the history as the demand for energy collapsed in the backdrop of coronavirus pandemic. According to The New York Times, the concerns have grown that storage tanks in the United States were near capacity and unable to hold all the unused crude. Following the unprecedented crash in oil prices, US stocks also plunged 592 points. The May benchmark fell into negative territory, suggesting people who had oil to sell were willing to pay to have it taken off their hands. The problem is that the…

New Delhi: The government’s initiative to boost women entrepreneurship – Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) – has invited women-owned startups and small businesses that can procure, supply raw materials for masks and provide it to home-based women workers to make masks as an alternate source of income. NITI Aayog, which houses WEP, tweeted the initiative ‘Masking it up with WEP’ to support women workers hit hard due to Covid-19. “Home-based women workers have been hard hit and are struggling to make ends meet in this uncertain climate,” the initiative said inviting women-led businesses to join it. Making masks would help women…

London: US West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell to $ 10.34 a barrel on Monday in the international market. This is its lowest level since 1986. Due to the Corona virus crisis, worldwide demand for oil has been falling continuously. Later, it showed some improvement as per Global Standard Time (Greenwich Mean Time) at 3 pm (Indian time at 8.30 pm) and saw a slight improvement and was running at $ 10.82 per barrel. Still it was 41 percent lower than Friday. Traders said the price drop was worrisome as the May delivery contracts were to be settled by Monday…

Bengaluru: IT major Infosys on Monday reported a net profit of Rs 4,335 crore for the quarter ended March 2020, up 6.3 per cent from Rs 4,078 crore in the corresponding period of previous fiscal. Revenue during Q4 FY20 stood at Rs 23,267 crore as compared to Rs 21,539 crore in Q4 FY19, clocking a growth of 8 per cent year-on-year and 0.8 per cent quarter-on-quarter. The operating profit was Rs 4,927 crore, showing an increase of 6.7 per cent year-on-year but a decrease of 2.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter. The company said considering the business uncertainty emanating from COVID-19, it…

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices moved in a narrow range on Monday to end flat as traders chose to stay on sidelines in the absence of any clear signs on COVID-19. Falling crude oil prices and weak global markets also dented investor sentiment. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 59 points or 0.19 per cent at 31,648 while the Nifty 50 inched up by 0.2 points or 0.04 per cent at 9,267. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty metal down by 3.2 per cent and auto by 1.7 per cent. But…

Bengaluru: ABB Power Grids said on Monday it has been awarded a project worth Rs 165 crore by IndianOil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) to ensure reliable grid connection at its Barauni refinery in Bihar. The state-owned refiner aims to expand its crude oil processing capacity at the plant by 50 per cent to 9 million tonnes per annum in the next three years. This project will ensure power quality for its future operations there. The technology pioneer is delivering its 220/33 kilovolt gas-insulated switchgear (GIS) substation which will assimilate power from the Bihar State Power Transmission Corporation Ltd and IOCL’s captive…

Bengaluru: CSS Corp, a new-age IT services and technology support company announced that it has divested Glow Networks to Altruist Technologies Private Limited, a multinational provider of telecom and business process optimization solutions. The sale was concluded in March 2020. Glow Networks is a network design and deployment services company which was acquired by CSS Corp in 2010. “Over the last decade, Glow Networks has been integral to CSS Corp’s strategy of providing end-to-end network solutions in complex technology environments. With the upcoming 5G revolution underway, we felt that Glow needed to align with a telecom solutions ecosystem to capitalize…

Mumbai: Reliance Foundation said on Monday it will provide over three crore meals to marginalised communities and frontline workers across the nation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Mission Anna Seva will be the largest meal distribution programme ever undertaken by a corporate foundation anywhere in the world. The beneficiaries of this programme include daily wage earners, slum dwellers, urban service providers, factory workers, and residents of old-age homes and orphanages. “As India enters this extended period of lockdown, our hearts go out to all our fellow citizens who depend on daily wages for their survival,” said its Chairperson Nita Ambani. “Whenever…

Ahmedabad : Pharma major Zydus Cadila said on Monday its biological therapy Pegylated Interferon alpha-2b can emerge as one of the pathways to treat COVID-19. The treatment has emerged after the publication of two non-peer reviewed research articles at bioRxiv and medRxiv, the COVID-19 pre-print servers hosted by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. The first one by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston showed evidence of a direct anti-viral effect of Interferon alpha against novel coronavirus in vitro. The study demonstrated around 10,000 fold reduction in virus titre in cells that were pre-treated with Interferon alpha 48 hours earlier.…

New Delhi: The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) said on Monday stated that an overwhelming majority of exporters are facing a severe liquidity crisis due to COVID-19 and the government should pay their workers from funds available in the Atal Bimit Vyakthi Kalyan Yojana which has huge reserves of about Rs 91,000 crore. “Our members are not only facing an acute fund crunch like many other industries but also incurring huge losses due to cancellation of orders and hefty discounts being asked by buyers,” said AEPC Chairman A. Sakthivel. This, coupled with the fact that there is no revenue generation…

Mumbai: Tata Motors Group said on Monday its global wholesales in the fourth quarter (January to March 2019-20) including Jaguar Land Rover totalled 231,929 units, down 35 per cent as compared to Q4 FY19. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors’ commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in Q4 FY20 were at 72,608 units, lower by 49 per cent over Q4 FY19. In the same period, global wholesales of all passenger vehicles were at 159,321 units, lower by 26 per cent, the company said in a statement. Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) were 126,979 vehicles (JLR number for Q4…