Pandemic Financial News

Peloton is cutting about 400 jobs worldwide as part of a restructuring effort and its CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down after two years as the company continues to work on turning around its business. Shares jumped more than 11 per cent before the market open on Thursday. Peloton has been working on a significant rebranding since last year, shifting its identity as a seller of luxury exercise bikes and equipment to heath technology for all.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits were unchanged at a seasonally adjusted 208,000 for the week ended April 27, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

FLAMANVILLE, France—Early this year, a top European Union official made an eye-catching proposal: A €100 billion public fund that would curb Europe’s reliance on U.S. defense manufacturers, who make nearly two-thirds of Europe’s military hardware. The cash could subsidize European companies to develop and manufacture more weapons at home at a time when the continent faces a growing threat from Russia.

₹2.1 trillion in April, according to data released by the finance ministry on 1 May. The monthly GST data has often been used as a barometer of how well the economy is performing. But the April data may not be so straightforward.

Automakers had sold 332,468 passenger vehicles a year ago in April 2023. Car sales had grown by 9.5% to 368,086 units a month before in March 2024. But even while the growth rate moderated last month, on a high base, in terms of absolute volumes April was the 16th straight month that automakers in the local market clocked best-ever monthly sales. Partho Banerjee, senior executive officer (marketing and sales) at the country’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki said, “We have started this year on a high base. Compared to last year when supplies were disrupted due to the semi-conductor crisis, there is more stock in the network now. There is also some uncertainty due to the ongoing elections. Once the new government is formed, and policies are announced, there will be more certainty in the market. But overall, car sales are expected to grow in single-digits in FY25.”

Heritage Foundation economist Peter St. Onge offers his analysis on the housing unaffordability crisis on 'The Bottom Line.’

Mint takes a closer look at the importance of good governance practices at startups. Over the past few years, mainly after the pandemic, the startup world has been rocked by several scandals, many of which involved inappropriate behaviour by founders. Given that India has the world’s third-largest startup ecosystem with more than 1.10 lakh such companies, without proper regulation there could be many more such scandals in future.

India’s Silicon Valley Bengaluru has again emerged as the numero uno city in terms of rise in rental yields in top 11 cities/regions of the country, according to an ANAROCK report. Mumbai was second on the list followed by Gurugram.

The Japanese town of Fujikawaguchiko has had enough of tourists

Real estate agent Mauricio Umansky says high mortgage rates, high prices and low supply are creating difficulties for homebuyers on 'The Claman Countdown.'

Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday said the Centre should work to urgently address the alleged side-effects of the Covidshield vaccine as millions of people in India were administered the shit during the Covid pandemic. Bharadwaj expressed concern over the alleged link between the vaccine's side-effects and a series of sudden deaths in India, claiming that Covidshield was banned in several European countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Finland, Norway and Denmark, at the beginning of 2021 due to apprehensions about its safety. UK-headquartered pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in «very rare cases», its COVID-19 vaccine can cause a blood clot-related side-effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media. The Daily Telegraph reported that in a legal document submitted to the High Court in London in February for a group action brought by 51 claimants, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against COVID-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in «very rare cases».

international students in Canada will face a new limit on off-campus work hours during the academic year. Immigration Minister Marc Miller announced that temporary measures allowing international students to work unlimited hours while class is in session will not be renewed. “Working off campus helps international students gain work experience and offset some of their expenses. As international students arrive in Canada, we want them to be prepared for life here and have the support they need to succeed. However, first and foremost, people coming to Canada as students must be here to study, not work. We will continue working to protect the integrity of our student program,” Marc Miller, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, said. Want to know if you qualify for immigration? Click here In October 2022, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) had temporarily allowed international students with off-campus work authorization on their study permits to work more than 20 hours per week while attending classes. This change was introduced to help ease financial burdens and provide additional work opportunities during the pandemic.

Delhi airport aims to install the full body scanner by the second half of this fiscal, while the Bengaluru airport is undertaking trials, two people aware of the development told Mint. The installation is likely in 2-3 months, they added. "The work is in progress, in accordance with the latest guidelines issued by the Bureau Of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS).

Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state’s second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches “within the next 10 years” in a project worth nearly $35 billion

There aren't many newcomers in the airline business

home ministry has cancelled the Foreign Contribution Registration Act (FCRA) licences of six non-governmental organisations (NGOs) for their alleged violation of the FCRA rules, misuse of foreign grants, religious conversion, among others, ET has learnt. The cancellation came following a scrutiny by the Centre in March-April this year, said officials familiar with the developments. The NGOs include the Diocesan Society Church of North, Jesus and Mary Delhi Educational Society, Delhi Diocese Overseas Grant Fund, Institute of Economic Growth (IEG), Samuel Foundation Charitable India Trust and Hemophilia Federation of India (HFI). Earlier this month, the home ministry had revoked the FCRA licences of five leading NGOs on charges of violations.

travel and tourism sector is all set to add 5.82 crore jobs across the country by 2033, a top executive of global technology and digital talent solutions provider NLB Services said on Monday. «The growing synergy of the sector has led to steadfast employment generation across the country both in tier I and II locations. In the pandemic year 2020, the tourism sector accounted for 39 million jobs, constituting 8 per cent of the nation's total workforce. Post the pandemic recovery tenure, this was one of the sectors that saw the quickest recovery,» NLB Services CEO Sachin Alug said in a statement. Incidentally, talent demand in tourism recorded a 44 per cent spike in August 2023, and 1.6 million additional jobs were expected to be added in the calendar year 2023, he said.

Americans under 40 have seen their wealth accumulation far outpace that of older generations, and beat historic norms, since the start of the pandemic four years ago.

COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic in the country in 2020, has been dismissed from Parliament for alleged corruption. Yang Xiaoming, the chairman of China National Pharmaceutical Group's vaccine subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), has been stripped of his membership in the National People's Congress (NPC) due to serious discipline and law violations, official media reported here on Monday. The charge of serious discipline and law violations is a common euphemism for corruption under the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) disciplinary practice.

Sajjad Lone, who heads a faction of People's Conference, has accused last governor of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir Satya Pal Malik of being the first person to start public slandering of Kashmiris and helping in removal of Article 370 in August 2019. Lone, who was a part of separatist conglomerate Hurriyat Conference till assassination of his father in early 2000, also said that his attempt to stake claim to form a government in 2018 after the BJP withdrew support to PDP led by Mehbooba Mufti was «not serious». In an interview with the PTI, Lone acknowledged that he did not have numbers but had reached out to Malik asking him for some time for government formation. Malik, while terming Lone as a «blue-eyed boy» of the Centre, had claimed that the Peoples Conference leader wanted to be chief minister just before the dissolution of the Assembly in 2018 with only six MLAs.

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Sunday appealed to people to put aside other issues and vote for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying he kept everyone alive by making vaccines available during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fadnavis sought votes over vaccines during his addresses at Madha and Barshi towns in Solapur district. The senior BJP leader held his first rally at Barshi, part of the Osmanabad parliamentary constituency, where Archana Patil of the NCP is contesting against incumbent MP Omraje Nimbalkar of the Shiv Sena (UBT). Madha falls under the Madha Lok Sabha constituency, where the BJP has renominated its sitting MP Ranjitsinh Nimbalkar against Dhairyasheel Mohite Patil of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP (SP).