Year: 2020

Finance Minister agreed to consider the revision of Goods and Service Tax (GST) on two-wheelers and indicated that the matter will be taken up with the GST Council;   “In FY2020, two-wheeler sales volume declined by 17.8% year-on-year. Due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, cumulative sales volume during April and July in the current financial year is over 60% lower than the previous year. This warrants immediate demand revival measures from all stakeholders in the two-wheelers segment. The reduction of GST on two-wheelers from 28% to 18% on new…

Microsoft has announced a new programme to build quantum computing skills and capabilities in the academic community in India. The programme will train 900 academicians from top institutes in the country. Quantum computers will enable new discoveries in the areas of healthcare, energy, environmental systems, smart materials, and beyond. Microsoft is bringing the capabilities to develop for this quantum future to the Cloud with “Azure Quantum”. As part of this initiative, Microsoft Garage is organising a virtual ‘Train the Trainer’ programme from August 24-29 in collaboration with Electronics and ICT Academies at Malaviya…

Aarogya Setu has emerged with a new feature that will enable organisations to get the health status of their employees or any other user, provided they consent to it, an official release said.   With more than 15 crore users, the app hopes to get businesses and the economy back on their feet, using a new feature called ‘Open API Service’ to help allay fears about reopening. The app purportedly alerts business owners to COVID-positive employees, if users consent to sharing their health status. No doubt, businesses and organisations are…

India’s CDS (Chief Defense of Staff) General Bipin Rawat has explicitly stated that a military option to deal with transgressions by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in Ladakh is on the table, but will be exercised only if talks between the two armies and the diplomatic option are unfruitful. “Transgressions along the LAC occur due to differing perceptions about its alignment. Defence services are tasked to monitor and carry out surveillance and prevent such transgressions turning into intrusions. Whole of government approach is adopted to peacefully resolve any such activity…

Under the 100% Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) backed by a Government of India guarantee, Banks from Public & Private Sectors have sanctioned loans worth over Rs. 1.5 lakh crore as of 18th August, 2020, of which more than Rs 1 lakh crore has already been disbursed. The ECLGS was announced by the Government as a part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Package, to mitigate the distress caused by lockdown due to COVID-19 by providing credit to different sectors, especially MSMEs.   The details of total loans sanctioned and disbursed by Public & Private…

Hercules Pharmaceuticals, a Dutch biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing small molecule inhibitors of the Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) for treatment of cancer and viral infections, today announced the publication of promising preclinical in-vivo trial results, showing efficacy of its Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor (AhR) inhibitor HP163 against Zika virus infection and potentially against Corona-virus infection. On top of this, the company secured new funding to test the efficacy of the compound against Covid-19 and to generate back-up AhR inhibitors.   A recent publication in Nature Neuroscience reported that Hercules’ AhR inhibitor HP163 reduces…

RCom owes DoT ₹25,199 crore, including spectrum usage charges (SUC) and licence fees, as per government estimates. This is nearly half of ₹49,054 crore in dues calculated under the company’s insolvency proceedings. Jio cleared its relatively minuscule AGR dues of ₹195.18 crore in January, complying with the court’s October 2019 order.   The Supreme Court on Monday said that the government must state its position on whether adjusted gross revenue-related dues of bankrupt Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) should be recovered from Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd since it has been using…

The Ministry of Civil Aviation has announced managing to get back more than 11 lakh Indians stranded in countries abroad due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Under the Vande Bharat Mission, the center was able to repatriate the strangled Indians so far.     Taking to micro blogging site Twitter, the Civil Aviation ministry wrote: “Over 10, 98,000 stranded Indians have been repatriated under Mission Vande Bharat since 6th May. This would not have been possible without the continued support of all stakeholders. Thank you!”   Earlier on Monday, Air India had tweeted, “FlyAI: Important Update — Due to restrictions imposed by Hong Kong Authorities, AI 310/315,…