Live coverage of the novel coronavirus pandemic and its socio-economic impact. Total confirmed cases in India have risen to 59,662.

The country#39;s largest domestic airlines had on Friday announced pay cut ranging between 5 and 25 percent, in addition to its leave-without-pay programme for May, June and July, for senior employees.

The Indian Maritime University (IMU) has released the exam dates for IMU Common Entrance Test , IMU CET 2016. IMU CET 2016 will be held on June 4, 2016 by the IMU, Uthandi. IMU CET 2016 will be a computer based

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on  February 22,  2017 issued a notification announcing date and procedure for applying for Indian Civil Services Preliminary Examination, 2017 on its official website. {image-upsc-22-1487766661.jpg www.careerindia.com} Vacancy Details: 980 posts.Important dates to remember: To

According to a recent report, around 100 children in six European countries and at least 25 children in New York City, have been hospitalized with symptoms that seemed similar to that of an inflammatory disease called Kawasaki disease [1].

Walking pneumonia (WP) is the infection of the lungs or say, a milder form of pneumonia that affects the upper and lower respiratory tract. It is also known as 'atypical pneumonia' as the bacteria behind the condition is an atypical bacteria

The money from the crowd-funding effort will be donated to a Delhi-based NGO Uday Foundation and the proceeds will be used to provide basic necessities for patients at various locations, migrant workers and slum dwellers.

Unlike China, Indian companies are managing to create games remotely despite the lockdown due to coronavirus outbreak

Prabhudas Lilladher recommended accumulate rating on Rallis India with a target price of Rs 246 in its research report dated May 06, 2020.

On balance, we are looking at a gradual depreciation of the Indian currency. COVID-19 will be the difference between the rupee at 76 to a dollar or 85 in another six months.

Forex traders said the rupee is trading in a narrow range as positive domestic equities supported the local unit, while sustained foreign fund outflows and concerns over coronavirus outbreak weighed on the local unit.

This four door coupe is the pinnacle of luxury cars in BMW#39;s lineup with the added performance to boot. Unlike the 7-series however, the 8-series is designed to be sportier and the inspiration shows through.

The Xiaomi Mi 10 is priced in India starting from 49,999.

The M8 is now BMW’s flagship sportscar and gets two doors in addition to all the luxury that BMW offers inside two doors.

The government now plans to switch to a capital and revenue-spending classifications. This will help create a clear and effective link between the government’s earnings, spending and outcomes.

Global liquidity tailwinds are unlikely to get any better from now and that makes Arvind Sanger, Managing Partner at Geosphere Capital Management “cautiously optimistic” on the Indian markets.

"In large parts of Africa, it is likely that technology could fundamentally disrupt this pattern. Research based on World Bank data has predicted that the proportion of jobs threatened in India by automation is 69 percent, in China it is 77 percent and in Ethiopia, the percentage of jobs threatened by automation is 85 percent," he said.

If there is no direct government intervention to uplift demand then the auto industry is staring at its worst year ever.

Hyundai India has announced a unique ‘EMI Assurance' program due to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. The new initiative supports working individuals with repayment of car loans in case any employment uncertainty.

Honda is reportedly planning a sub-4 metre SUV for the Indian market. Like the other cars in the portfolio, like the CR-V, BR-V and WR-V names, the company is likely to call it the ZR-V at the time of launch.

BMW Group India has announced a start in operations at their Chennai based facility today. Operations have begun in accordance with guidelines issued by local authorities. Production at the facility has started with less than 50 per cent of the company's

The 2020 Mahindra Thar has been spotted testing ahead of its launch in India. Vehicle testing has resumed as the nation-wide lockdown has been eased in certain states across the country.

Maruti Suzuki was among the first brand's in the country to offer factory-fitted CNG technology. The company offers CNG-powered variants on a number of their popular models, including the WagonR and the Alto.

Mahindra has announced the launch of its new 'Own-Online' retail platform. The new online platform from Mahindra promises to be India's most complete, end-to-end, online vehicle ownership solution.

BMW has launched its most luxurious models in the Indian market, the 8 Series Gran Coupe and the M8 Coupe. The new BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe is offered in two variants: 840i Gran Coupe and 840i Gran Coupe ‘M Sport' Edition.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India is currently facing a nationwide lockdown till May 17. This crisis has affected almost all businesses across the nation. Public transport has been shut down to follow social distancing norms.

MINI has discontinued the Clubman model in the Indian market. The company has also unlisted the Clubman for their website. Before it was unlisted from their website, MINI had launched the Clubman Indian Summer Red Edition in the country during February this year.

Jeep launched the Compass SUV back in 2017 in the Indian market. Since its inception, the SUV has been a popular name in its segment as it comes loaded with several standard safety features. The Compass is available in a five-seater

Hyundai India has announced that they have resumed production operations at their facility in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The manufacturing facility of Hyundai has been shut since the 23rd of March 2020, amidst COVID-19 pandemic.

With the COVID-19 virus causing a pandemic of an unprecedented level across the world, most countries including India have ordered a complete nationwide lockdown. This involves everyone staying at home, socially distancing themselves from everyone else. The central government of India

Tarun Katial, CEO, ZEE5 shares insights into the kind of content Indians have been consuming during lockdown and how the entertainment industry has managed work from home

India’s recorded music industry revenues increased to USD 181.4 million (Rs 1,378 crore) in 2019.

Shows like Shri Krishna and Uttar Ramayan are seeing strong traction on Doordarshan.

The protesters placed two bodies of the dead in front of the factory main gate as part of the agitation while some youths barged into the plant even as state Director General of Police D G Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy.

INS Jalashwa, participating in Indian Navy#39;s "Operation Samudra Setu" to bring home Indians stuck in foreign countries due to COVID-19 pandemic, has departed from Male port for Kochi with 698 Indian nationals on board on Friday night. It is expected to reach here on Sunday.

NULL

India's fuel demand dipped 45.8% in April from a year earlier, as a nationwide lockdown and travel curbs to combat the spread of novel coronavirus eroded economic activity.

China's banking and insurance regulator on Saturday issued draft rules on commercial banks' online lending business, banning the use of such loans for riskier investments and capping banks' online consumer credit, in a move to rein in financial risks.

How COVID-19 Is Impacting Business Event Planning
70 percent of business event planners have changed previously-planned in-person events to virtual platforms due to the pandemic, and 47 percent expect that once it ends people will still be hesitant to travel, with 27 percent expecting a swift uptick in real-world events due to pent-up demand, according to newly-released survey data from the Professional Convention Management Association (PCMA). MarketingProfs

Google ad sales steady after coronavirus drop; Alphabet leads tech share rally
2020 first-quarter advertising sales at Google tallied $33.8 billion, with 73 percent coming from search and 12 percent from its YouTube property, and Google's ad business accounting for some 83 percent of revenue for parent firm Alphabet, according to newly-released financial results. Reuters

Spotify-owned Anchor can now turn your video chats into podcasts
Spotify will utilize its Anchor property to make it possible to convert video meeting content into podcasts, offering marketers new options for making use of a virtual hangout video content podcast conversion feature, Spotify recently announced. TechCrunch

Google’s new Podcasts Manager tool offers deeper data on listener behavior
Google has rolled out a new podcast analytics data feature — Podcasts Manager — that provides marketers an assortment of new podcast listening data, the search giant recently announced. Marketing Land

LinkedIn's up to 690 Million Members, Reports 26% Growth in User Sessions
LinkedIn (client) saw its user base increase to 690 million members — up from 675 in January — with an accompanying 26 percent increase in user sessions, and LinkedIn Live streams that increased by some 158 percent since February, according to parent firm Microsoft’s latest earnings release. Social Media Today

Advertisers Continued to Gravitate to Instagram in Q1
Advertisers moved to spend more on Instagram during the first quarter of 2020, with ad spending up 39 percent year-over-year on the platform, holding steady at 27 percent of parent company Facebook’s total ad spend, according to recently-released Merkle data. MarketingCharts

Brands Are Using More Data And Spending More On It: Study
B2B marketers are making greater use of data and spending increasingly to gather it, according to recent report data from Ascend2, showing that 47 percent use engagement data to make marketing decisions, one of several report statistics of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

Most consumers are trying new brands during social distancing, study finds
Brands are seeing newfound levels of audience interest, with an uptick in consumer interest for trying new brands that has been observed during the pandemic, with members of the Gen Z and Millennial demographic seeing the biggest increases, according to recently-released survey data. Campaign US

Marketers Ante Up for In-Game Advertising
A $3 billion in-game advertising market in the U.S. alone has attracted additional advertisers, and a new Association of National Advertisers (ANA) examination of data from eMarketer found some surprises in that most mobile gamers were over 35, with 20 percent being over 50, while the majority were female, several of the in-game advertising statistics of interest to digital marketers. ANA

Data Hub: Coronavirus and Marketing [Updated]
Digital marketing has fared better than traditional campaigns in the face of the global health crisis, according to newly-released survey data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) exploring the differences between the pandemic and the 2008 recession. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at generic advertising “in these uncertain times” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

WHO Releases New Guidelines to Avoid Being Nominated for Viral Challenges — The Hard Times

Major Relief: Microsoft Has Confirmed That The Xbox Series X Will Play Video Games — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: Embracing Data — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 10 Expert Tips for Marketing During a Crisis — Oracle (client)
• Lee Odden — Klear Interviews Lee Odden, CEO, TopRank Marketing [Video] — Klear
• Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing — Pandemic Cross-Country Skiing in Duluth, Minnesota: A Personal Timeline — Lane R. Ellis

Have you got your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thanks for taking time to join us, and we hope you will join us again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: Brands Spending More on Data, Spotify Turns Video Chats into Podcasts, & Consumers Trying More New Brands appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Three Indian soldiers were killed in a gunbattle with militants in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir on Monday, a day after a similar incident in which five were killed.

India will begin flights on Thursday to bring home some 400,000 citizens stranded overseas by travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, prompting some worries over the risk that imported infections could fuel contagion in the country.

Pakistan's finance ministry will share part of the risk banks face in lending to struggling small businesses, in a bid to protect jobs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the central bank said on Wednesday.

Indian troops killed four militants in gun battles in Kashmir on Wednesday, including the commander of the biggest separatist group fighting New Delhi, a police official said, triggering clashes across the disputed region that left dozens injured.

The U.S. special envoy on Afghanistan is on a mission to press Taliban negotiators in Doha and officials in India and Pakistan to support reduced violence, speeding up intra-Afghan peace talks and cooperating on the coronavirus pandemic, the State Department said on Wednesday.

Indigenous elders from Alaska to Australia have come together to deliver some tough love in a new film for Earth Day. Francis Maguire reports.

Vicente Piratapuia, 69, of the Piratapuia tribe had a high fever and could hardly breathe, but he refused to leave his home on the outskirts of the Amazon rainforest's biggest city.

A court asked the Indian government on Friday to respond to a challenge against its order for compulsory use of a contact tracing app by public and private sector employees returning to work amid the world's biggest coronavirus lockdown.

Inflows into India's equity mutual funds nearly halved in April, industry data showed, as many investors rattled by stock market volatility due to the new coronavirus and the impact of a lockdown on the economy chose to stay away.

The Indian government plans to borrow 12 trillion rupees ($160 billion) in the fiscal year to March 2021, up from the previously budgeted 7.8 trillion rupees to cushion the blow from the new coronavirus pandemic, it said on Friday.

Doctors in hazmat suits ran temperature checks on passengers at Delhi airport and bags were disinfected as the first group of Indians returned home on special flights from Singapore and the Gulf on Friday since a sweeping lockdown was imposed in March.