In India, under traditional business interruption insurance policies, physical damage to property is the only criteria to trigger business interruption loss, while pandemics and epidemics are specifically excluded. Insurance companies, therefore, are refusing to accept any claims arising out of shutdown.

All malls have been shut since the lockdown began, and retailers in those malls are not in a position to pay rents because their outlets are shut. This in turn makes it difficult for the malls to pay the banks. About 85% of a mall’s revenue is dependent on rentals.

Emkay Global expects PVR and Inox Leisure to post steep year-on-year drop in revenues at 19 per cent and 24 per cent, respectively.

Around 75 retailers that operate 200 brands have written a letter to mall owners, seen by TOI, stating that revenue-share percentage should be a flat percentage depending on the category of stores. They suggested, for instance, revenue-sharing percentage for vanilla brands should be 10-12%, including common area maintenance (CAM), while for fast food brands and large format lifestyle stores, it should be 7-8%.

Last week, 195 retailers and restaurants including Future Group, Aditya Birla Fashion, Arvind Brands, Domino’s Pizza, Adidas and Levi’s wrote a common letter to mall owners for a “collaborative dialogue” between shopping centres and tenants.

Post lockdown relaxation, consumers say they will prefer buying items of need via local stores (instore or delivery) and ecommerce sites while only 4 per cent say will go to the mall to buy.

Top officials close to the development told ET that HUL will train a large set of advisors and beauty consultants, numbering about 1,500, to become entrepreneurs so that they can set up their own businesses.

SCAI, which counts Nexus Malls, Prestige, Infiniti, DLF and Lulu among its members, has also proposed using only 50% of the parking areas and not allowing any events and promotions to take place in the common areas to prevent large gatherings.

While big-box retailers that enjoy a revenue-sharing model with malls will have some cushion to absorb the impact of the lockdown, smaller brands and restaurants may have to pay the price by reducing the number of outlets.

The government feels this will allow shopping and leisure activities to start up while maintaining physical distancing as traffic will be less than usual and easy to control. On Wednesday, Madhya Pradesh notified retail stores to open from 6am until midnight.

Large operators of malls such as Xander-backed Virtuous Retail, Select Group, Phoenix Group and Blackstone-backed Nexus have not waived rentals for their tenants.

"We have seen strong consumer demand, particularly in March and April but the split between defensive buying and higher levels of underlying consumption is unclear," Chief Executive Laxman Narasimhan said in a statement.

"There are two big trends emerging. One is the relevance of the humble grocer and people have realised that they are so close to you… proximity, and (that’s) such a big benefit. The second would be on ecommerce. With people becoming more averse to stepping out, they would like to place the order from home and receive it at home. "

Over the past few weeks, chief executives of Unilever, Mondelez, Hershey's Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Kimberly Clark have said India’s Covid-19 lockdown protocols had led to severe supply chain disruptions and labour shortages, hurting business in the key market.

Mondelez, owner of Cadbury’s, said its sales in the first phase of the lockdown was reduced to nil due to closure of plants, lack of have people from the distribution centers and non-availability of trucks.

The workforce problems at two ITC food plants - one in Pune in the western state of Maharashtra and another in the southern state of Karnataka - show how labour issues weigh on Indian firms after a nationwide coronavirus lockdown forced thousands of workers to go back to their villages.

LG, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi are also rolling out hyperlocal sales platforms that will connect their offline stores to consumers searching products online so that the outlet nearest to the consumer can deliver the order, industry executives said.

The maker of Dettol and Lizol disinfectant reported best ever global sales growth for the March 2020 quarter as customers stocked up on hygiene products amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, with like for like growth up 13%, higher market share and strong growth in e-commerce.

In view of the fresh guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on May 1 and after evaluating the ground situation, the company has resumed production at all manufacturing locations, Dabur India said in a regulatory filing.

These channel partnerships have been done in a phased manner, with Flipkart being the first e-commerce platform to enable the availability of its essential products in Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi.

GlaxoSmithKline and Horlicks have sold 5.7 per cent equity of HUL worth Rs 26,000 crore on Thursday to domestic and foreign investors.

I believe in mental health awareness. I believe that one cannot be physically healthy without being mentally healthy. Mental health has always been something I take very seriously. One’s emotions and mental stability can change their whole life, for better or for worse. And in doing that, it can change the lives of individuals around them. After being diagnosed with anxiety in the summer of 2017, I was immediately put on medication and placed into therapeutic and psychiatric help. Once I started talking things through and getting used to my medication, I realized that this thing called “anxiety” had been living in me for longer than I thought. I always assumed it was normal to have trouble breathing before major events, while meeting new people, or in a situation of sadness or stress. It was what my mind and body were used to. Once I found myself not being able to leave my dorm room, excessively sweating through the night and losing my appetite, I knew that this had gone way beyond a

Billed as a roundtable of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Wednesday's hearing included some of the nation’s most prominent dissenters on mainstream measures like business closures, stay-at-home orders and calls for widespread testing.

President Trump excoriated the administration of President Barack Obama as “human scum” who attempted to undermine him by “targeting” former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Tara Reade, a former Senate aide to Joe Biden who has accused him sexual assault, told Megyn Kelly in a new interview that she wishes the former vice president would end his bid for presidency.

Outpatient dialysis facilities have also reported challenges, including separating COVID-19 positive and negative patients and protecting their own workers.

This report comes as a pair of cases among White House staffers close to Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have put the West Wing’s coronavirus security procedures in the spotlight.

Former President Barack Obama, talking privately to former members of his administration, said Friday that the “rule of law is at risk” in the wake of what he called an unprecedented move by the Justice Department to drop charges against former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

Two web designers say they were fired by Amazon for organizing a virtual town hall to hear from the company’s low-paid warehouse staff.

KFC India managing director Samir Menon said: “Subdued growth in March and softness is on account of the lockdown. We continue to operate around the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic with our delivery business only amidst the lockdown situation in the country as we comply with all regulatory directives.”

“There is absolutely no income coming our way due to the Covid-induced lockdown for over a month. As a result, most companies are facing the problem of paying the employee salaries in full for the month of April,” said National Restaurant Association of India president Anurag Katriar.

Under the banner Rise4Restaurants, consumers can buy vouchers from any member of the National Restaurant Association of India and redeem them for a 25% discount on bills once restaurants open.

How to keep customers’ cravings alive has become a challenge for restaurants.

The company said it would announce the locations of the restaurants next week, with plans to open them on May 13.

As per industry estimates, any standalone restaurant from an established chain could have alcohol inventory of ₹10-25 lakh lying with it. For five-star chains, the stocks are worth much more.

"We believe that a technology-enabled home delivery based solution can promote responsible consumption of alcohol," Mohit Gupta, Zomato's CEO for food delivery, wrote in a business proposal to ISWAI.

The US burger and fries giant has joined other restaurant chains including Jubilant FoodWorks-operated Domino's Pizza, Tata Starbucks and Speciality Restaurants in seeking waivers from landlords and mall owners.

The order directed pubs, clubs, bars and lodges to allow only one customer to enter their respective premises at a time and leave soon after purchasing liquor at the maximum retail price (MRP).

Expressing the sentiments of the industry, the National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) said the 'logout' movement cemented the belief that the industry needed to take back control.

FirstCry, run by Brainbees Solutions, posted net sales of `174 crore during FY15-16. The company had net sales of `118 crore with net losses were ` 63 crore a year ago.

The Bengaluru-based company plans to open 25 such 600-1000 square feet stores over a span of 12 months.

The company, which reported Rs 500-crore turnover from its babycare portfolio last fiscal, recently opened its first exclusive 'moms & babies' shop in Bengaluru.

Brainbees Solutions, the owner of online baby products retailer, looks for a valuation of $400-500 million in a new round of fundraising

High schools across the state are devising plans for graduation ceremonies, which will look different because of the coronavirus, COVID-19.

Leander, through video conference, told the hosts about the rally at the Capitol where she stood, arms crossed, amid rally attendees.

The Arizona Cardinals are joining the statewide COVID-19 testing blitz for the next two Saturdays. Testing will be at State Farm Stadium.

Arizona cases of COVID-19 now exceed 10,500, with 517 known deaths, according to numbers from the Arizona Department of Health Services on Friday.

Horseshoe Cafe owner Debra Thompson talks about getting a letter from Wickenburg regarding her noncompliance with Gov. Doug Ducey's statewide order.

The letter by the prosecutor marked the second time businesses in town were contacted by authorities for being in violation of Gov. Ducey's order.

Arizona Republic reporters are fanning out across the Valley to document how shoppers and shop owners are responding to the lifting of restrictions.