LONDON (Reuters) – The owner of British Airways and easyJet, Europe’s no.3 and no.4 airlines, said they would ground aircraft on an unprecedented scale in a battle to survive the travel restrictions and European lockdowns now convulsing the industry. Britain’s government said it would discuss how to protect the industry from the coronavirus pandemic after […]
Archives for 2020
Treasury yields fall after Fed cuts rates to zero
At around 2:45 a.m. ET, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to price, was lower at 0.6968%, while the yield on the 30-year Treasury bond was also down at 1.2893%. In a bid to mitigate slow economic growth resulting from the coronavirus pandemic, the Fed on Sunday announced a 100-basis […]
Under lockdown, Italy’s social and family life goes virtual
As 60 million Italians face a coronavirus country-wide lockdown, many daily interactions among family, friends and colleagues have moved to messaging platforms such as Facebook’s WhatsApp and Microsoft’s Skype. Users in Italy are placing 20% more calls and sending 20% more messages on WhatsApp compared to a year ago, the company told Reuters. A spokeswoman […]
Banks are adopting account aggregator framework on data
Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, IDFC FIRST Bank, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India are in various stages of adopting the account aggregator (AA) framework, according to an industry body, ahead of a public rollout of the new technology product in May. Account aggregators are responsible for transferring, […]
Spotlight is on telemedicine in the season of flu
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi As the number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 continues to rise in India, telemedicine or online consultation has become the first point of contact for many who suspect they’ve contracted the disease. Companies such as Practo, 1mg, Medlife, mfine and a few others are reporting a several-fold increase in online consultations for […]
Consumer goods flying off the shelves
Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Ecommerce platforms, retail chains and kirana stores reported a sharp surge in sales of staples, daily necessities and personal hygiene products in the past few days as panic buying took hold across India amid the fear of closures as Covid-19 cases rise. Deliveries have been delayed and some items such as sanitisers […]
Pentagon reconsiders Microsoft contract after Amazon protest
The Pentagon is reconsidering its awarding of a major cloud computing contract to Microsoft after rival tech giant Amazon protested what it called a flawed bidding process. U.S. government lawyers said in a court filing this week that the Defense Department “wishes to reconsider its award decision” and take another look at how it evaluated […]
How the tech industry is ensuring business continuity in the times of coronavirus
Coronavirus has presented a situation most geeks probably didn’t anticipate: what happens when even the disaster recovery sites and business continuity plans are rendered useless. You can fly resources to alternative locations. But how do you run a global business when flights are grounded and countries regulate who can come in? For the $190 billion […]
The challenges of delivering orders in the times of coronavirus
Even in a sluggish economy, startups helped spawn the gig economy that created jobs and new ways of working and sharing. However, the gig economy is seeing challenges because of the Covid-19 scare — especially as delivery personnel are highly exposed to the environment. In a “response note”, online grocer BigBasket said warehouse employees handling […]
Oyo entices virus-stricken hotels in Japan with cash
By Pavel Alpeyev and Takahiko HyugaOyo Hotels, one of the largest startups in SoftBank Group’s portfolio, is promising cash to hotels in Japan that join its platform as bookings plunge in the coronavirus-stricken country. The Indian startup, looking to get more hotels into its network and expand its reach, will pay new members a lump […]