Pandemic Financial News

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) unearthed a loss of excise revenue amounting to Rs 75.07 crore due to manipulation of manually maintained sales registers by retail shops of alcoholic beverages in Odisha during the COVID-19 pandemic. In its report, which was placed in the assembly on Saturday, the CAG said that the Odisha Excise Department in May 2020 imposed the Special COVID Fee (SCF), at the rate of 50 per cent of the maximum retail price, on all foreign made foreign liquor, Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL), beer, wine and ready to drink beverages, sold in the state. SCF was imposed in view of the expected loss of excise revenue, on account of the two months' shutdown, as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Viswanathan Anand was invited to address a gathering in Bengaluru. The attendees were not chess players or coaches or sports administrators. In fact, it had nothing to do with the sport of chess. Yet, it would turn out to be a gamechanger for chess in India. WestBridge Capital, the Bengaluru-based investment firm that had invited Anand, wanted him to talk to their investors about pattern recognition and its applicability in chess and business. It’s safe to assume that those investors went home better-informed, but chess was definitely the biggest benefactor. During a conversation, Sandeep Singhal, the cofounder and managing partner of WestBridge Captial, suggested to Anand that they should “do something together… for Indian chess”.“He said, ‘let’s think about it’ and then a few months later he came back with an idea of setting up an elite fellowship, where we take the sort of brightest young individuals and try to help them with that last bit that can be the gap between someone who’s best in India to someone who’s best in the world,” Singhal says.

Canadian Western Bank shares sank after the firm delayed its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings release Friday morning and left investors guessing why.

Canada’s fall fiscal calendar has a significant event missing from it.

Canadian employers collectively added some 51,000 jobs in November, but the unemployment rate jumped as more people looked for work, according to Statistics Canada.

fake smiles and enthusiasm at work to appear cheerful even when they are overwhelmed and stressed. This facade of maintaining constant positivity at the workplace is called “pleasanteeism”. Though the term first came into existence during the Covid pandemic, it has become a common phenomenon now. But when employees continuously suppress their feelings and are forced to put up such a false face, it affects their mental health, which further leads to reduced engagement and productivity. Lalitha M Shetty, Vice President-HR at Omega Healthcare, says pleasanteeism arises when employees feel compelled to maintain a positive facade every single minute at work. This could be driven by organisational culture, fear of judgement or job insecurity.

Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law on Tuesday night, plunging the country into its worst crisis in decades, his stunned finance minister knew his priorities: throw everything at defending the currency. By around 11 p.m., Choi Sang-mok, who was among the majority of cabinet members who opposed martial law, had set up an emergency meeting at the Seoul Bankers Club, an unofficial meeting place for top policymakers from the central bank, finance ministry and banking and markets regulators. As soldiers stormed the nation's parliament, Korea's top four financial authorities, known as F4, activated an emergency playbook that had been used during past crises, scrambling to head off a crippling selloff in the won before Asian markets awoke. Choi led discussions between the authorities, three people familiar with the meeting told Reuters, with the Bank of Korea responsible for efforts to stabilise the currency.

Hiring in the United States likely rebounded last month from a dismal October, when hurricanes and strikes reduced job growth to its lowest level in nearly four years

Food prices in Canada are likely to increase by three to five per cent next year, according to a newly released report, but wild cards like climate change and Donald Trump could have unforeseen impacts.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Federal Reserve has slowed inflation, but many Americans continue to pay a high price for the cumulative inflationary consequences of excessive monetary and fiscal stimulus. We wrote in these pages in February 2021 that, based on history, high deficits combined with expansive monetary policy would trigger accelerating inflation.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Investors are fretting that France may be on the verge of triggering a new eurozone crisis, and the amazing thing is that it took this long for everyone to notice that the country’s public finances, and its economy, are a mess. We don’t mean to make light of the worry gripping markets in recent days as the National Assembly has failed to pass a budget.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Indian economy is in the midst of a cyclical slowdown. The government statistics office reported last week that economic growth had declined for a third quarter in a row.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. A ruthless focus on efficiency made Carlos Tavares a giant of the automotive industry. It was also his undoing at Stellantis.

The small business loan program the federal government rolled out during the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t managed with “due regard for value for money,” auditor general Karen Hogan said Monday.

Patna-based educator and popular YouTuber Faisal Khan, known widely as Khan Sir, has sparked a wave of criticism after delivering an erroneous explanation about the roles of Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, and Ministers of State (Independent Charge). His inaccurate breakdown of these positions led to backlash, with some accusing him of routinely spreading misinformation in his lessons. Critics labeled him a «scam,» asserting that his meteoric rise during the COVID-19 pandemic was fueled by a robust public relations campaign.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. China’s massive stimulus hasn’t revived its economy but its stock markets have been kicked higher. Investors now have to navigate economic uncertainty and the challenges of U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Over the years, it has become evident that the most significant challenges in wealth management rarely stem from market complexities or economic uncertainties. Instead, they emerge from the intricate relationship between human emotions and financial decisions.

South Korea’s central bank has lowered its key policy rate for the second straight month and says the country’s economy will grow at a slower pace than it initially anticipated

The event drew over 250,000 spectators, marking it as a success. Macy’s declared it an annual tradition, and it has since grown to attract millions. During its long history, it has overcome interruptions like World War II, when it was paused from 1942–1944 due to rubber and helium shortages, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which downsized the 2020 parade to a broadcast-only event.