Country’s top insurers have initiated telemedical facilities for prospective customers, where medical and term policies can be availed through check-ups over the phone in place of physical consultations with doctors. With the country under lockdown to slow the spread of Covid-19 outbreak, insurers such as HDFC Ergo, Religare, Max Bupa, Tata AIA along with intermediaries […]

The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry grew by a modest 9% in 2019 to reach ₹1.82 lakh crore, the latest FICCI-EY report on the sector showed. While the economy felt the effects of a slowdown during the second half of 2019, the M&E sector continued to outpace India. Interestingly, advertising grew at just 5.3%, […]

The number of cyberattacks on Indian companies has doubled in the past few days, as cybercriminals use the disruption brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak to infiltrate corporate networks and steal data, according to a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ cybersecurity team. Due to increased hacker activity, phishing attempts have gone up by three times, and the […]

Amid the ongoing nationwide lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak, the Union Health Ministry on Thursday allowed doorstep delivery of essential medicines as part of an effort to restrict people’s movement further. According to a notification issued by the health ministry, medical retailers will be allowed to provide drugs to people at their doorstep. This order […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi The government may face challenges in imposing the new equalisation levy since the onus of paying the 2% tax will rest with foreign firms rather than consumers in India, analysts said. The tax is on global companies that offer digital products and services to Indian residents. It comes into effect from April […]

Illustration: Rahul Awasthi Arpita Mehta’s daily commute in Mumbai usually involved listening to podcasts on current affairs for about 15-20 minutes. Now, the chartered accountant is relying on podcasts related to history and economics to get through the day, working from home. Mehta is listening to three times more podcasts ever since her workplace made […]

The disruption in supplies of essentials eased on Thursday, although consumers and the trade still complained about goods not getting through. This prompted the government to issue guidelines late on Thursday to ensure that holdups could be overcome. Retailers, both offline and online, said they saw an improvement after local authorities and police acted to […]

Piyush Goyal (File Pic) Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday interacted with a group of chief executives from e-commerce, food delivery, cash and carry and logistics companies over video conferencing to understand the issues they were facing, before passing on his recommendations to the home ministry. Over the past five days, e-commerce companies […]

With more than one third of the globe’s population confined to their homes in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus, some are asking if the increased demand being put on the internet could substantially slow down web traffic. To what extent has web traffic grown with billions watching on screens at home? […]

By Pavel Alpeyev and Takahiko Hyuga Masayoshi Son has been among the most fervent believers in the sharing economy, investing billions in startups that help people split the use of cars, rooms and offices. But as the coronavirus curtails human interaction, it’s hammering such businesses and rattling the foundations of Son’s SoftBank Group. In New […]