The chamber said that in keeping up with most economies of the world to institute stimulus measures with 10 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Indian economy would need a transfusion of over $200 billion with an ability to go up to $300 billion, over the next 12-18 months.

This is expected to boost manufacturing and supply of essential goods and services without violating the home ministry’s guidelines on working with reduced staff to maintain social distancing to curb the spread of Covid-19. Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat have already announced the change.

Technology does not come cheap and more often than not; it does call for substantial investment.

Organizations are struggling to implement an immediate crisis response mechanism while exploring long term sustainability solutions to build resilience against future black swan events.

Unlike the PPIs that are available now, the new instrument can only be used for making retail payments. You cannot use it to transfer funds to other PPIs, make credit card payments and so on.

You can take your mobile photography to the next level if you have the right accessories. ET Wealth tells you about five must-have add-ons to get creative with mobile photography. Some of them can be purchased from prices starting as low as Rs 199.

Mobile phone manufacturers are focusing on increasing the screen size of devices. However, if you are someone who prefer a more compact phone, ET Wealth rounds up some of the best options.

MUMBAI: Liquidity risk is increasing for Indian-based real-estate developers, as non-bank financial institutions (NBFI; including housing finance companies) are shying away from lending to the sector, said Fitch Ratings.Developers that rely on refinancing from NBFIs, particularly those with weak financial profiles, will be affected the most should conditions persist. The availability of unencumbered assets among large developers may be of limited use, as NBFIs are looking to shed their already-high exposure to the sector, especially to large borrowers.NBFIs have disproportionately increased their share of real-estate sector credit in the previous few years, owing to heightened risk aversion by banks; banks have been cutting exposure due to their own funding challenges that began in late 2018, which have become more acute in the previous few months; domestic bank exposures fell to 2.3% of loans in the financial year ending March 2019 from 2.8% in 2015-16.NBFIs are now also shying away from refinancing maturing debt of even large, proven developers to limit concentration risk to the sector. This is pushing developers towards alternative funding channels, such as private equity. The availability of such funding could be more limited than the value of maturing debt and may only be available to established developers with sufficient unpledged assets. It would also come at a higher cost. We believe banks may still consider exposure to quality real estate, but overall exposure continues to decline.Developers that are focused on high-end projects may face higher risk, as sales of such projects have slowed in the last two years. We believe these developers would be wary of taking sharp price corrections on unsold inventory to boost sales, except in extreme circumstances, as this could diminish the value of unsold inventory and weaken collateral cover for existing lenders.In addition, any boost in sales would be temporary. Meanwhile, developers with substantial exposure to affordable housing may still benefit from marginal access to lenders in light of healthy pre-sales growth, supported by India's substantial housing deficit and government incentives for buyers via the credit-linked subsidy scheme as well as for developers, including tax deductions and grant of infrastructure status, which entitles companies to some benefits and concessions.The government has announced measures to improve NBFI-sector liquidity, but their efficacy remains to be seen. For example, we believe the government's July 2019 announcement to provide a first-loss guarantee of 10% on securitised assets issued by NBFIs to banks could ease funding pressure for NBFIs in the short term. However, the provision refers only to financially sound issuers and there is a lack of clarity about the duration of the guarantee and the definition of what comprises a 'financially sound' entity. In addition, most of the actions by the authorities to alleviate the liquidity squeeze will benefit the largest and least risky NBFIs and is unlikely to address the pressure on the more property focused players.Defaults by two NBFIs - Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) in September 2018 and Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) in June 2019 - have contributed to the sector-wide liquidity squeeze, as investors have become more risk averse. Banks' low appetite for lending to real-estate developers is evidenced by the usually high risk weights attached to such loans. These are due to developers' typically low credit ratings amid high leverage, making exposure to the sector an inefficient use of banks' already-limited capital.Substantial bank recapitalisation to increase lending capacity could benefit NBFIs as well as real-estate developers, subject to the banks' risk appetite. Although a structural improvement in NBFI asset books would take time. Nonetheless, even under better conditions we expect NBFI's to tighten credit standards, with developers facing funding pressure until there is a broader improvement in their operations, with better end-user demand and pricing support.

Mumbai: Robust demand for office spaces has pushed commercial property leasing in the first three quarters of 2019 by 30% from a year ago, taking it closer to entire 2018’s performance and making sure that this year surpasses the peak touched last year.Driven by tech corporates — accounting for about a third of the leasing activity — office space take-up touched 47 million sq ft in the first nine months against entire 2018’s performance of 48.9 million sq ft, showed data from CBRE South Asia. With this, office leasing activity is now expected to touch its highest level ever, estimated to be over 60 million sq ft in 2019.Leasing activity stood at about 15.4 million sq ft during the quarter ended September, rising by nearly 23% on an annual basis. This was dominated by small- to medium-sized transactions. Small-sized transactions of less than 10,000 sq ft accounted for over 40% of the transaction activity in the quarter. 71641558 “With office leasing scaling a historic high in 2019, we expect further strengthening of occupier sentiment in the medium to long term, backed by corporates looking to expand or consolidate their operations. Favourable government initiatives, transparency in the real estate sector and the right reforms will improve investor sentiment greatly in the coming quarters,” said Anshuman Magazine, CEO, India, South-east Asia, Middle East and Africa, CBRE.Like last year, he expects occupiers would put in greater efforts to incorporate flexibility in their portfolios due to changes in the business environment. Occupiers continued to futureproof their portfolios and hedge against future rental escalations by pre-leasing space across various cities.Bengaluru, followed by Hyderabad, dominated large-sized deal closures, while a few large deals were also reported in the NCR and Pune as well. Large-scale deal closures were mostly dominated by tech firms and flexible space operators. Firms belonging to sectors such as research, consulting & analytics, banking, financial services & insurance (BFSI), and engineering & manufacturing also closed large-sized deals.Tech corporates led the office space take-up, followed by research, consulting & analytics companies (19%) and flexible space operators (15%). The rise in the share of flexible space operators (10% in the second quarter of 2019) was primarily a result of their continued expansion across almost all cities.“The share of the tech sector rose from 31% to 40% annually during 2019 year-to-date, which implies that a rise in technology alternatives, insourcing / job preservation in the US and a global slowdown have not had any specific impact on India’s position as a preferred outsourcing destination for both high-skilled and low-skilled tech services, research and development,” said Ram Chandnani, managing director, advisory & transaction services, India, CBRE South Asia.Supply addition rose by more than 80% in 2019 YTD on an annual basis, with about 43.5 million sq. ft. of development completions reported.Four cities — Hyderabad, Bengaluru, NCR and Mumbai — accounted for almost 80% of this supply addition.Compared to the first three quarters in 2018, the share of SEZs in supply dipped from 40% to 27% during 2019 YTD. Supply addition in the quarter also rose by about 6% on a quarterly basis, touching about 15 million sq. ft. More than 70% of this supply was driven by Hyderabad and NCR, followed by Bengaluru.

As the country is staying at home to fight against the coronavirus, investors are adapting themselves to the online way of working with their finances.

The recent cut in the interest rate on savings accounts by leading banks has led to higher negative real returns on the accounts balances.

Due to lockdown in the country, we are more dependent on the Internet, which also means that we are more susceptible to tracking by websites and apps for our data. Here are 5 simple steps you can take to protect your personal information.

Apart from small finance banks, certain private banks are also offering higher interest rate on savings accounts. Banks offering higher interest rates on savings account comes with certain conditions.

The tax and revenue department in Washington DC has added a 5.75% sales tax on all clubs, centres or gyms run for the purpose of physical exercise.

Do not deny the possibility of losing the job, or being furloughed briefly.

Any investment decision during this period should be made factoring in the short-term goals of an individual.

His goals include building an emergency corpus, saving for his spouse’s business, child’s education and wedding, taking a vacation, and retirement.

Financial Planner Pankaaj Maalde suggests that Sharma build an emergency fund of Rs 5.1 lakh, which is equal to six months’ expenses, and a medical buffer of Rs 10 lakh for his mother. Here's what his financial goals include.

Incomes of many people, especially those who are self-employed, have been impacted due to the lockdown. To help you through these tough times, here is how you can cut down on current expenses so that your future goals are not at risk.

In India, Mumbai has emerged as the most expensive city for expatriates and was ranked 118 in the Index. Last year Mumbai was ranked 114th on the list.

There were about 10,000 Indians before the start of the serious strife between government troops and Sunni militants backed by al Qaeda in Iraq.

South Sudan's capital is witnessing heavy fighting due to clashes between former rebels and government soldiers in several parts of the city.

The meeting also decided to explore possibilities of setting up an industrial complex in Maharashtra to rehabilitate returnees, Pallykandi said.

Union Bank of India announced reduction in its MCLR up to 15 basis points across all tenors, effective May 11. Overnight MCLR has been reduced by 15 bps to 7.15 per cent from 7.30 per cent and one-month MCLR by 10 bps to 7.25 per cent.

In official emails to permanent residents who have enquired about the availability of these flights, the high commission has indicated that at this point, the flights are available only to Canadian citizens and their immediate family members who are permanent residents and accompanying them on the flights.

Indian-American Dr Madhvi Aya, who contracted the coronavirus in the line of duty in New York, the country's COVID-19 epicentre, could only exchange text messages with her husband and daughter from her hospital bed before she lost the battle to the deadly virus.

Renu Khator, an Indian-American university chancellor, has been elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences for her contributions in the fields of education and academic leadership.

​​ET Wealth studies the quality of papers held by the five largest schemes of different debt fund categories to see if investors should be worried.

Investors will receive whatever amount the fund house is able to recover by liquidating the underlying investments in proportion of their holdings in the respective schemes.

It is important that your correct bank account with IFSC is linked to your Universal Account Number (UAN) to receive the credit of EPF funds timely.

The PFRDA, in a circular dated April 9, 2020, has declared coronavirus infection as a critical illness that is life-threatening in nature. Accordingly, partial withdrawal from NPS has been allowed for covering expenses related to the treatment of COVID-19.

The Kohli and Kumble partnership has played a crucial role in team’s recent success. But to become India’s best captain-coach combo ever, they need to pass tougher tests.

Premium paid towards health insurance for self, family and parents not only provides financial help in case of medical emergencies but also reduces tax liability.

Each scheme has a specific investment objective that tells investors what the scheme aims to achieve - it can be capital appreciation, regular income, liquidity etc.

Gymnastics is a great combination of strength, balance, flexibility and grace.

Equities are true blue wealth creators in the long term - this is probably the most preached mantra, but seldom practiced!

The Indian nationals cleared by the UAE health authorities and found to be asymptomatic will only be allowed to fly back home in one of India's biggest ever repatriation exercises, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has said ahead of the first set of flights on Thursday.

"To support customers during this time where their car/bike will not be in use, Acko General Insurance has decided to not charge insurance for one month and has announced an industry-first initiative that gives a one-month insurance extension to car and bike owners," Acko General said.

Where unit-linked policies mature and fund value is to be paid in lumpsum, Life Insurers may offer staggered settlement option to policyholders. This onetime option is regardless of whether such option exists or not in the specific product.

Generally, every year in March the health insurance industry witnesses a higher growth in the sale of health insurance policies. This is because people normally rush to buy policies before the end of the financial year to save tax.

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order pausing immigration for 60 days to protect the jobs of Americans laid off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ​​Nasscom noted that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has provided an excellent roadmap for any subsequent potential recommendation for non-immigrant and other visa categories.

An athlete is a master of the science behind his sport. Which muscles to exercise, the right skills, the impact of diet and which medicines are allowed. Figure out the science behind the interview and selection process of the company.

Skill stacking is the most efficient way to multiply your earning ability. Not everyone has the time, ability and resources to single-mindedly pursue one skill to perfection. However, there is a faster way.

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