[sukhoi]

Originally Posted by akhil_007

Wow that was fast. Kudos to RBI.

I maybe nitpicking but it says RBI has allowed moratorium. Is it an advisory Or a directive to the banks?

Do not understand EMI & Moratorium. But based on what little I (thought) I understood, it seemed that someone who has an EMI would not have to pay for 3 months and pay it later. Like a deferment. However this article suggests that if an individual who has taken a loan opts for this, s/he would have to pay more. Is that something that was expected from the moratorium? Not good at finance so if someone could explain it, would help.

https://www.livemint.com/industry/ba...390062828.html

Originally Posted by AMG Power

One of the few businesses that could have benefitted from the current turn of events and done well for themselves is Big Basket / Grofers.

Rightly said AMG. I was also thinking that this would have been an opportunity for these businesses to strengthen themselves however they failed. They should have taken a clue from H-E-B (supermarket chain in Texas, US). They have a good plan in place, as per the article, something that they have been working on since 2005 (when the threat of H5N1 appeared).
https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/he...irus-pandemic/

[fhdowntheline]

What the government should have done also is to protect the interest rates for senior citizens in Bank FDs and national savings schemes like PPF, NSC etc. Where should the ordinary citizen (most of whom have worked in regular salaried jobs) park his or her money for regular income ? Or does the government expect them to play roulette with the stocks ?

[ashokrajagopal]

Source: Financial Times

Giant retailers with huge online presence have the ground to themselves now. I think this crisis will change retail for ever.

[d3mon]

To everyone trying to weigh lives against the economic disaster, please understand the scale of human destruction we are staring at right now.
Exponential growth is hard to understand - so please do the math first before talking about sacrificing 'some' lives for the economy.

The UK Medical chief has said that they'd have done 'well' to keep the death toll under 20,000. Scale that to India's population, and we get 4 Lakh dead, without even considering the worse healthcare around here.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-a9431916.html

[fhdowntheline]

Somehow I feel that we Indian's have that "adjustment" mentality and we will survive this, albeit a bit shaken. Those who have never 'adjusted' their lives as they reaped the benefits of the post WW2 era, will be the hardest hit. It helps that Indians have never reached a 'high' standard of living (relative to other western/richer economies).

[volkman10]

Detroit Auto Show Cancelled, Venue to become field hospital, the auto show aims to resume in June of 2021 instead of the original June 9 to 20 of this year.


Link

[V.Narayan]

I believe we are headed for a very serious global slow down - a lot worse than 2008. A lot will depend on how the US economy takes it. In India the lock down, the mass displacement it has caused, along with drop in exports and most importantly shortage of buying power (read cash) in villages & small towns will affect our economy adversely. I am expecting zero growth this year, for India, if we are fortunate. Brace for worse. This could be our first year of negative real GDP growth since 1979-80.

[volkman10]

German minister commits suicide after 'coronavirus crisis worries'

Mr Thomas Schaefer, the finance minister of Germany's Hesse state, has committed suicide apparently after becoming "deeply worried" over how to cope with the economic fallout from the coronavirus,

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

One of the few businesses that could have benefitted from the current turn of events and done well for themselves is Big Basket / Grofers.

With the corona virus and lockdowns around for sometime in neighbouring countries they could have been prepared and anticipated a huge demand for their services. However they were caught napping as is typical of several incompetent managements around.

Originally Posted by hondafanboy

Absolutely, spot on. ...

Originally Posted by sukhoi

...
Rightly said AMG. I was also thinking that this would have been an opportunity for these businesses to strengthen themselves however they failed. They should have taken a clue from H-E-B (supermarket chain in Texas, US). They have a good plan in place, as per the article, something that they have been working on since 2005 (when the threat of H5N1 appeared).
https://www.texasmonthly.com/food/he...irus-pandemic/

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculously unfair to the people running these companies. I know some of the folks at BigBasket, and their efforts are second to none. Their supply chains are pan-India, to begin with, down to grains and fruits/veg. With the lockdown, goods cannot travel between states. And yes, permissions are a big thing when your delivery personnel get beaten up by policemen. No employer wants to make money off their employees being brutalized, or at least none that I know of. As far as the 'clearances' go, please take a look at the flip-flop the Delhi police made, from issuing an order allowing 'essentials' to be delivered, to revoking it less than twenty four hours later.

The management has to deal with ad-hoc policies that affect their business, lathi-happy cops going after their delivery personnel, negotiate with authorities to unseal warehouses and processing centres, assure transport when even most fuel pumps are shut, and completely sanitize each item and delivery person to a high level. I think they're doing a fantastic job. I am extrapolating this to Grofers, whom I know nothing of. I have no commercial affiliations with either, except being a customer.

@sukhoi, TX is one of the least locked-down states, so keeping afloat a supply chain is far easier. The article talks of working at warehouses - in India those are locked down, and commuting to and from can invite serious trouble. Still, they ran out of toilet rolls.

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Their supply chains are pan-India, to begin with, down to grains and fruits/veg.

This is just the starting point when you commence such a business. If you don't even have that, you shouldn't be in this business.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

With the lockdown, goods cannot travel between states.

Essential goods (which is what Big Basket deals in) can travel unhindered throughout India.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

And yes, permissions are a big thing when your delivery personnel get beaten up by policemen.

I know of even apartment complexes that have permission for their caretakers through letters from the police to travel freely. This has been done by apartment committees and not a professional management team who were supposed to be running a pan India business.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

No employer wants to make money off their employees being brutalized, or at least none that I know of.

But's that exactly what happens when you're caught napping.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

Essential goods (which is what Big Basket deals in) can travel unhindered throughout India.

let me link it for you.
https://www.deccanherald.com/city/fo...ry-818426.html
https://www.livemint.com/companies/n...488925023.html
EDIT: Specific quote on the issues with inter-state borders https://www.thehindu.com/business/In...le31168221.ece

And here's the 24 hr Delhi u-turn I referred to - https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...le31170305.ece
Please also look for #goastarving on Twitter. Evidently, people in Goa have been unable to access food and supplies for 8 days now. Children are standing in queues for hours hoping to get a packet of milk. The govt has shut everything, though it is tweeting that groceries are open 24/7. This is a complete system failure. I imagine no one complains that they are starving unless things are really bad.

Originally Posted by AMG Power

I know of even apartment complexes that have permission for their caretakers through letters from the police to travel freely. This has been done by apartment committees and not a professional management team who were supposed to be running a pan India business.

Are all the people quoted are lying? That the pictures of long queues outside police stations are fake? Or is it because some people have secured passes, it's easy everywhere across India?

Originally Posted by AMG Power

But's that exactly what happens when you're caught napping.

Is government incompetence leading to police brutality is perfectly ok, and the employer should be blamed for it?

In a country where the government cannot plan for its poorest 100 m who are literally walking hundreds of kilometres to avoid homelessness and starvation, you have somehow made administrative failings the fault of private corporations.

If you are not on the front lines and feel that you need to help in some way, here's a link just in case https://www.team-bhp.com/news/make-d...ly-wage-worker

Stay safe!

[JithinR]

Originally Posted by AMG Power

Essential goods (which is what Big Basket deals in) can travel unhindered throughout India.

No comments on the rest of your post but this part is definitely wrong.

All you need to do is follow bigbasket on twitter to understand how the local administrations failed to somehow grasp that an entity whose sole purpose is to provide household goods falls into essential services.

Unless, you are alleging that all the posts on social media from hundreds of citizens asking their local authorities to quickly approve the movement of online essential services are fake. In which case please provide your sources.

[turbo]

Germany's Finance Minister committed suicide; he was concerned whether he would be able to manage to fulfill the huge expectations of the population, especially in terms of financial aid. He was the finance minister for the state of Hesse, where Germany's financial center Frankfurt lies.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-state-f...ead/a-52948976

[AMG Power]

Business performance falls into two categories - results / reasons. And Big Basket has got a lot of reasons for why they couldn't do this and why they couldn't do that with very little to show for results. Companies like Big Basket who have lots of reasons for not performing are referred to as incompetently managed.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Are all the people quoted lying?

No, at the cost of repeating myself, that they are extremely incompetent.

Originally Posted by v1p3r

Is government incompetence leading to police brutality is perfectly ok, and the employer should be blamed for it?

The employer should be blamed for his incompetence and delays leading to police actions on his employees. If he didn't have the permission he could asked his employees not to venture out instead of asking them to risk police brutality. This is another among his many failures.

[warrioraks]

Sorry to say guys but Bigbasket goofed up big time here. For the first three days of lockdown, they blamed it on the state government.
Over last three days, they have thanked the government for resolving the issue quickly and proclaimed on twitter that there is no challenge on supply side - yet they cancelled existing orders and have failed to take any new orders.
I am a regular user of their service and have been following the entire fiasco very closely. Even called up the customer care to check when they would be live, and was told it's going to be on or after 31st March.
In contrast, milkbasket was quicker to get back on their feet.
As an alternate, I have started using Swiggy store and I get my groceries within an hour of placing the orders.

Something's cooking within Bigbasket. My feel is either they are struggling with inventory OR they are unable to get enough delivery guys on the ground. Both are acceptable considering the tough times but their communication is really screwed up.