Pandemic Financial News

The most basic, and safe, returns on investments are those derived from liquid funds, or returns from fixed income funds that are of good credit quality. While asset classes such as equities provide better returns, there are ways that conservative investors can enhance their basic returns without taking too much of the incremental risk.

Last week, civil aviation authorities issued Indian airlines an alert on GPS spoofing, which refers to unauthorized agents intercepting satellite signals to send airborne aircraft fake instructions. Though a worldwide problem, instances of such hacking have risen over West Asia lately, and the risk it poses cannot be taken lightly. Flights have even ventured without permission into Iranian airspace as a result of being misled.

funds sloshing about within the financial system during the Covid pandemic, top-rated companies are now paying more to raise money through bond markets, with the pricing of issues by even the likes of Reliance Industries reflecting the divergence between sovereign and corporate debt. Over the past year-and-a-half, as the Reserve Bank of India has raised interest rates and progressively drained the banking system of excess liquidity, the spreads between government bond (Gsec) yields and AAA-rated corporate bond yields have shot up. The rate of interest that companies pay to investors to raise money through bonds is determined by yields on Gsecs. A higher spread implies a rise in borrowing costs for companies vis-a-vis what the government pays to raise funds. While the spreads for 5-year and 10-year AAA corporate bonds are still lower than the historical average of 43 basis points and 50 basis points, respectively, the gap has increased significantly from just 1 bps and 6 bps at the end of April 2022, data provided to ET by CRISIL Market Intelligence and Analytics showed.

By Sarah Wu

NEW DELHI : Union health minister Mansukh L. Mandaviya will lead a galaxy of thought leaders, healthcare honchos, investors and independent experts at Wednesday’s Mint Healthcare Summit, the seventh edition in the series.

By Andreas Rinke and Miranda Murray

NAHB CEO Jim Tobin discusses the state of the housing market, American homeownership, and using family money for home down payment.

real estate investment trusts (REITs) are being eased to make them a popular alternative for households. REITs have been around in India since just before the pandemic and have underperformed, first on account of work from home, and then because of slacking demand for Indian ITeS. That is unfortunate, because these financial instruments provide retail investors access to low-risk, steady income from a diversified portfolio of rented office properties.

RBI). They suggest newer supervised and advanced machine learning (ML) techniques. In the paper titled ‘Inflation Forecasting in India: Are ML techniques useful’, authors argue that ML techniques outperformed traditional mathematical models for both the pre-pandemic and post-pandemic periods.

pharmaceutical business may exceed USD 130 billion by 2030, supported by expanding market opportunities and heightened demand in the overseas markets, industry experts said on Tuesday. The business stood at over USD 50 billion for the 2022-23 fiscal, they noted. Chairman of PharmExcil (Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India) Veeramani S V said the Indian pharmaceutical industry is on a compelling growth trajectory, evidenced by an 8 per cent year-to-date increase in exports and a remarkable 29 per cent surge in October alone. «This growth is propelled by expanding market opportunities, heightened demand in the USA, and critical shortages of medicines in the US and Europe. Despite challenges in CIS countries, the global reception of Indian pharmaceuticals remains positive,» he said. Veeramani noted that the domestic market has exhibited impressive growth, exceeding 10 per cent.

Phoenix Theatres, known for banking on major releases during the holiday season, faces a unique challenge this year. Owner Cory Jacobson notes the absence of a standout film like past hits «Avatar: The Way of Water,» «Spider-Man: No Way Home,» or «Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.» The spotlight now shifts to «Aquaman and The Lost Kingdom,» the sequel to the 2018 megahit.

NCIS set to kick off its season 21 earlier than anticipated. The first episode of the season is scheduled to air on Monday, February 12, 2024, at 9 p.m. ET. Notably, this season will be without actor David McCallum, who played Dr. Donald «Ducky» Mallard and passed away in September 2023.

Cybersecurity, customer protection, and cost-effectiveness are essential for sustaining the momentum towards digital payments pushed by the Covid pandemic, said Reserve Bank paper on Tuesday. The transactional use of cash has been on a decline and is increasingly getting substituted with digital modes of payments, even as the store-of-value role of cash remains intact, said the paper titled 'Cash versus Digital Payment Transactions in India: Decoding the Currency Demand Paradox'.

The surging cost of living doesn’t just have more Canadians turning to shelters and food banks for help — it’s also forcing charities themselves to do more with less, as the donors they rely on find their own budgets under pressure.

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: In the sweltering heat of July, Prabhjeet Singh, a man normally used to spending his days in a plush office, was struggling to navigate the byzantine lanes of Shiv Durga Vihar, Faridabad. The president of Uber India and South Asia wanted to experience the business end of things and had turned taxi driver for the day. Singh, now in his ninth year at Uber, goes on such fact-finding trips every month to get to grips with the ground realities his driver-partners face and the expectations their passengers have.

NAHB CEO Jim Tobin discusses the state of the housing market, American homeownership, and using family money for home down payment.

insurance companies is capped by the Reserve Bank of India at Rs20 lakh. Independent directors fall under the subset of non-executive directors. “Life Sciences, which is largely a promoter-led sector, witnessed the highest growth in independent director compensation as two companies introduced the component of commission in their remuneration structure compared to 2018," said Dinkar Pawan, director, human capital, at Deloitte.

The COVID-19 pandemic upended the work habits of people around the world, with millions working from home, at least for part of their week

More cities across the U.S. are cracking down on homeless tent encampments that have grown more visible and become unsafe

Supporting nonprofits on GivingTuesday this year could have a bigger impact than usual

Oregon’s largest school district says it has reached a tentative agreement with its teachers union and its roughly 45,000 students will be back in class on Monday after more than three weeks