[GTO]

Originally Posted by raksrules

Does this mean they have by default deferred loan payments and if I still want to continue paying loan amount, I should send reply as "C".

Yep, looks like it.

I believe that there is no benefit of skipping loan payment right?

Unless you are low on liquidity, there is really no need of deferring the EMI.

[sukhoi]

Formula One Group has placed half of its staff on furlough as the sport addresses the serious financial implications of coronavirus.

F1 employs approximately 400 staff in the UK, 50% of which have now been placed on furlough for two months, with senior management accepting a 20% pay decrease. The chief executive, Chase Carey, has voluntarily taken an even greater cut to his salary.

The sport faces a potentially damaging financial shortfall that may only become worse. All three of its main revenue streams are under threat. Broadcast earnings represent 38% of income, race hosting fees 30% and sponsorship 15%.

Article - https://www.theguardian.com/sport/20...ake-20-pay-cut

[AZT]

India's small businesses struggle to pay wages amid coronavirus lockdown

Hundreds of thousands of cash-starved Indian small businesses have either deferred or cut their workers’ wages this month, say industrialists and union leaders, amid a 21-day nationwide lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

All India Manufacturers Organisation (AIMO)- an industry body representing some 100,000 small manufacturers - said more than two-thirds of its members faced problems in paying salaries on Tuesday, the usual day for paying monthly wages.
“We have no funds to pay wages,” said K.E. Raghunathan, former national president of AIMO, who runs a solar parts’ manufacturing unit in the Southern Indian city of Chennai.

“Our first priority is to pay electricity bills, rent, bank loans and social security contributions of employees,” he said, adding that they faced delays in payments from clients, including the government.

Federal and state governments and state-owned companies owe more than $66 billion to small businesses, the government told parliament last month.

Read more: https://in.reuters.com/article/healt...-idINKBN21P1VG

[Miyata]

I guess one unintended consequence on personal economy, particularly wrt Indian health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses, could be that many insurance providers will start arguing that many hospitalizations were not necessary and hence should be borne by the patient!

Or, this event can result in our health insurance sector developing some maturity where 24-hr hospitalization (day care procedure aside) may not be necessary to invoke health insurance.

From this NYTimes article on "Where Have All the Heart Attacks Gone?"

Some of the excess capacity is indeed by design. We canceled elective procedures, though many of those patients never needed hospitalization.

With respect to heart attack itself -

Heart attack and stroke teams, always poised to rush in and save lives, are mostly idle. This is not just at my hospital. My fellow cardiologists have shared with me that their cardiology consultations have shrunk, except those related to Covid-19.

seeing a 40 percent to 60 percent reduction in admissions for heart attacks; about 20 percent reported more than a 60 percent reduction.

Colleagues on Twitter report a decline in many other emergencies, including acute appendicitis and acute gall bladder disease.

theory suggests that Covid-19 has instilled fear of face-to-face medical care. As a result, many people with urgent health problems may be opting to remain at home rather than call for help.

In this time of social distancing, our meals, social interactions and physical activity patterns tend to be very different. Maybe we have removed some of the triggers for heart attacks and strokes, like excessive eating and drinking or abrupt periods of physical exertion.

[NPV]

Not really following this thread, but just wanted to share this.

Heard from a friend who works in finance for an Indian IT services company that they will have a 15 day pay cut in the following pay cycle (next month), so gear up for the worst guys - keep your expenses and outflows in control and be ready to weather tough times.

[rohitoasis]

Trevor has got a few minutes with an important guest. Sharing this video here. I hope it's relevant to this thread.

https://youtu.be/H_K3dMpdqpc

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by Samurai

However, I will give you few main points why it happened.

1) Trump thought he could talk his way out of Coronavirus crisis, just like he successfully talked his way out of every scandal since 3 years. So he spent the first month just denying and calling it a hoax created by democrats to discredit him, he even blamed Obama. Fox News as usual helped him in building this narrative.

2) Trump had systematically weakened the ability of USA to preempt such events. He had reduced the budget to CDC as well as dismantle the white house pandemic task-force in 2018.

3) Republicans are big on state's rights, and very suspicious of orders from the federal level. ... States run by democratic governors acted fast (because they didn't trust Trump), but states run by republican governors didn't think it was serious because they believed the Trump propaganda from point 1.

Agree on 1), 2) completely.
Wrt 3), while your point is not entirely wrong, even some of the states with democrat govts sat on the sidelines, unheeding the warnings and delaying action. This detailed article gives a good description of how NY (with a democrat governor) screwed up the situation on its own.

4) Testing results - the bureaucracy delayed private labs to be able to validate their covid-19 testing kits; and when the CDC rolled out their testing kit, it turned out to be faulty. Finally the private labs & firms were allowed to go ahead and this, in turn, had a 2-3 week delay overall.

[avira_tk]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Will we see used car prices in India spike up for the next 1 year?

Experience tells me that would be most likely. I had to shell out $15,000 for a used car in 2013 that would have only cost me ~$10,000 in the pre-2008 US used car market. The supply of used cars into the market was hit after the 2008 crisis hit the market when people began holding onto their cars and avoiding trading up to newer cars.

The government cash for clunkers scheme distorted the market, I don't think India will implement anything close to that. The scheme destroyed the used car market, the part recycling industry and car charity donations. It worked like any government scheme would.

[GTO]

It's going to be a long, long time before things get back to normal for some industries. We were just talking about this last night & I don't think I'll be comfortable visiting a restaurant or nightclub for at least 5 - 6 months (if not more). Ditto for movie cinemas which were anyway hit by the streaming platforms.

Malls & shopping = maybe with a mask, early in the morning when there is no crowd. I anyway prefer to shop on Sat mornings @ 1030 and am the first one in stores. But even this, only after a couple of months (once the situation is clearer).

Lots of my family & friends are in the plywood business. All of them know of the bleak times ahead. No one is going to be in a mood to renovate their house / office, or let a large team of carpenters / painters / labourers into their property.

Two of my siblings are in the international education business. Numbers will drop this fall, due to virus fears & the liquidity crunch (it's Rs 20 lakhs a year at any half-decent university in the USA). Another one of my siblings is an MD in the corporate world and I think she's ready for a salary cut.

[locusjag]

In all Indian IT companies, people are being released from projects since some clients are shedding their commitments. Many clients have asked for discounts.

Lay-off lists are being prepared in at least one mid-tier IT services firm. A relative of mine has the unhappy role of preparing these lists.

As our Moderator Samurai had mentioned elsewhere recently, this is the reality of the situation. The Government can ask businesses to not layoff people, but there is no magic wand by which employees can be insulated from the effects of this damned virus. Oh, it just got real for the middle class junta.

[am1m]

Even though our company continues to work efficiently from home with no reduction in productivity, there was no way our clients could be insulated from this crisis.

The top positions are looking at taking voluntary pay cuts. Am pretty sure pay cuts across the company will be forthcoming and layoffs too.

Still we're very lucky to at least have jobs and can continue to function for now.

[Chetan_Rao]

A lot of people only realize how deficient and hollow the 'life over livelihood' slogan sounds once their livelihood is lost, and we're going to see a huge influx in this category soon enough.

Prepare to hear a lot of 'Oh but I didn't imagine my livelihood would be lost when I said that!'.

These are difficult times, and it's about time a lot of us learnt the lesson how deeply livelihoods affect lives, esp. for those not fortunate enough to have buffers protecting them, so we're a bit more empathetic when the debate rears up repeatedly in the next months and years.

[vkochar]

The Layoff's happening in the retail / fashion industry that I am a part of is shocking.

March was lockdown - April most employees were paid.

April continues to be in lockdown and looks like the entire month may be lockdown as well if not May also. And this is true for most of the World. I deal with UK / Australia & US and all retail is shut.

Now the letters and warnings have started where employees have been told that paying them in May would not be possible. Hence Western countries like UK have furloughed there employees which means Leave without Pay - there govt pays 80% of the salary giving businesses relief and no burden. Once work resumes come back and work but subject to who comes back - Some reckon maybe half the force on a good day.

I have already hinted to my employees of an uncertain future specially now that they were paid in April however I have said I cannot promise anything for May.

Our govt has not given a single indicator of relief to industrialists and businessmen. Just a simple statement to take care - well yes that's fine but for how long ?

I believe what is going to come post this lockdown is an absolute Mega Storm which will shake everyone.

I stay in Agra and tourism is big here. Tens of thousands linked to this industry. Emporiums / Monuments / Shops / restaurants / Hotels / Taxis etc and the list can go on and on. On day 1 of the announcement that the Taj will remain closed until further notice most hotel owners sent 80 - 90% of there staff back to there villages / home towns etc. This industry sees people from all over India. Easy for them to do that since no burden as chances of these guys coming back is remote now with stricter border control etc.

I was speaking to some industry stalvarts and they reckon tourists are not coming back in 2020 and the safest assumption will be 2021. This means there will be a permanent closure of hotels / restaurants and all related industry's like Taxi's of nearly 50% or more. The big boys like the 5 star branded hotels were already throwing ridiculous prices like 3000 - 4000 rupees per day and now this means we will probably be seeing lower prices ( think 2000 for a branded 5 star ) leaving all the 3 star hotels in shambles. There is a fixed expense for a room.

Now restaurants were coming and opening here like in the dozens every month. A lot of them are staring at a black board with rentals etc.

I personally am involved due tot he nature of my business with Factory's. Each factory employs 500 - 1000 people and maybe more. All have already gotten 50 - 80% cancellations of orders and further more payments will be delayed by 90 - 180 days if they get paid at all.

In short this event is something the world will take a long long time to repair. Maybe years and years. We all had created too much and too many jobs and I am afraid this is going to leave a lot of us with a lot less. Time to get really thinking and start prepping plans of action / change as that will be the only thing to survive. It is going to be the time for real creativity and enthusiasm for someone to emerge victorious.

If people think ( which I think a majority of our population ) all is going back to normal in a few months then they are in for a very nasty surprise.

The government knows this very very well.

I sincerely hope and pray I am wrong and that we emerge victorious but let's be practical and realistic. The world / nature is correcting itself and am afraid that is going to hurt many many people.

[sansvk]

Mine is a MNC product manufacturer, received a nicely draft email mentioning of 'a 75% work day for the next 3 months'. You can read between the lines.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by sansvk

Mine is a MNC product manufacturer, received a nicely draft email mentioning of 'a 75% work day for the next 3 months'. You can read between the lines.

Two months from now you will be grateful for this. I don't say this rudeness at all. Expect a lot more cuts in all companies focused on exports.