India’s airlines are under renewed pressure to raise cash or face the risk of having to downsize, consolidate or have their planes repossessed by lessors as a surge of COVID-19 infections roils travel, Reuters reported. Passenger traffic fell by nearly 30% in April from a month before and has halved again so far in May, forcing even the country's biggest and most cashed-up carrier, IndiGo, to act.
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Insurance Regulator and Development Authority of India (Irdai) has told insurers to communicate their cashless approvals for COVID-19 claims within an hour of submission of the request by the hospital and ensure that patients get discharged soon, The Times of India reported. In its order, the Delhi HC had told Irdai to issue immediate instructions to insurance companies to ensure that they communicate their approvals to hospitals within 30 to 60 minutes, in order to ensure that patient discharge is not delayed.
Restaurants, pubs, malls and retailers in India are once again staring into a dark abyss as more metros go into lockdowns, The Times of India reported. Many restaurants shut down last year after the painful two-and-a-half months of lockdown. More are expected to now follow suit, unable to bear losses for a second year on the trot. Restaurants across the country had seen sales pick up since opening before the festive season, and by December, footfalls were robust with weekends reporting near full capacity.
A consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) was back for a High Court hearing in London on Friday in pursuit of a bankruptcy order against embattled liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, as they attempt recovery of debt from loans paid out to his now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines, Outlook India rep
There is currently race among large Indian retailers to bring tens of millions of small mom-and-pop stores, known as kiranas, into their supply chains, the Nikkei Asia reported. India's retail market was pegged at $793 billion in sales in the fiscal year ended March 2020 and is expected to grow to nearly $1.5 trillion by 2030, according to the latest report by retail consultancy Technopak Advisors and the National Association of Software and Services Companies. The country is home to about 20 million kiranas, which account for 88% of the brick-and-mortar market.
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Bengaluru-based Prestige Estates Projects has stepped in to take over a project in Mumbai’s Mulund suburb by cash-strapped Ariisto Developers, which will benefit 350-400 homebuyers and lenders to the stuck project, the Times of India reported. The committee of creditors representing the lenders had approved a hybrid plan where Prestige will pay upfront cash of Rs 370 crore and provide the lenders with 8 lakh square feet built-up commercial area. This has led to the resolution of Rs 1,650 crore of debt of the approximately Rs 2,200 crore owed by Ariisto Developers.
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A major index provider and some investors are distancing themselves from the marine-ports operator controlled by Indian conglomerate Adani Group over past business transactions with a company linked to the military regime in Myanmar, the Wall Street Journal reported. Financial data firm S&P Global Inc. last week said it would remove Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone Ltd. from its Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, which consists of various different regional indexes holding companies that rank highly on environmental and social affairs.
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New Delhi imposed a weeklong lockdown on Monday night to prevent the collapse of the Indian capital’s health system, which authorities said had been pushed to its limit amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases, the Associated Press reported. In scenes familiar from surges elsewhere, ambulances catapulted from one hospital to another, trying to find an empty bed over the weekend, while patients lined up outside of medical facilities waiting to be let in. Ambulances also idled outside of crematoriums, carrying half a dozen dead bodies each.
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Millions of people in India in danger of sliding out of the middle class and into poverty due to the economic crisis as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the New York Times reported. Now a second wave of Covid-19 has struck India, and the middle class dreams of tens of millions of people face even greater peril. Already, about 32 million people in India were driven into poverty by the pandemic last year, according to the Pew Research Center, accounting for a majority of the 54 million who slipped out of the middle class worldwide.
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Indian supermarket-operator Future Retail Ltd. approved a debt resolution plan that eases some immediate concerns as a legal battle with partner Amazon.com Inc. threatens to delay an asset sale to Reliance Industries Ltd., Bloomberg News reported. Future Retail’s board agreed to a proposition to restructure its secured bank debt and three rupee-denominated bonds, according to an exchange filing Saturday. The plan, which was accepted by lenders, is subject to approval by a committee formed by the central bank and exchanges.
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