Healthcare sector outlook

India's services activity expanded at the fastest rate in a year during February, while employment fell further and companies noted the sharpest rise in overall expenses, a monthly survey said on Wednesday. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index rose from 52.8 in January to 55.3 in February, pointing to the sharpest rate of expansion in output in a year amid improved demand and more favourable market conditions. The index was above the critical 50 mark that separates growth from contraction for the fifth month in a row during February as the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines led to an improvement in business confidence towards growth prospects. While, new work intakes expanded for the fifth straight month, panellists continued to indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions curbed international demand for their services. "New export orders declined for the twelfth month running, albeit at the weakest rate since last March," the survey noted. ... » Learn More about India’s services sector expands at fastest rate in a year in Feb; employment falls further: Survey

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government last month rolled out a further HK$120 billion (US$15.4 billion) relief stimulus package to prop up the pandemic-ravaged economy and lift economic growth by 2 percent. As a result, the budget deficit for the 2021-22 financial year is expected to reach HK$101.6 billion, accounting for 3.6 percent of the city's GDP, due to the countercyclical measures and the continued rise in recurrent expenditure. The government also offered a list of "sweeteners", including HK$5,000 worth of electronic consumption vouchers for each eligible Hong Kong permanent resident and new arrivals aged 18 or above; cuts in salaries tax, capped at HK$10,000; a 100 percent reduction in profits tax, capped at HK$10,000, that will benefit nearly 130,000 enterprises; an extra half-a-month pay in welfare allowances; as well as low interest rate loans of up to HK$80,000 for the jobless. Delivering the fourth budget of the current-term SAR government, Financial ... » Learn More about Lifting taxes to shore up finances

copper has enthralled market participants as prices have been marching ahead almost every month since testing the lows of Rs 335.95 per kg in mid-March 2020. It is not just about copper which has climbed to record highs of around Rs 737 a kg at MCX, and is trading close to a decade’s high at LME, the entire base metal complex is witnessing a euphoric move driven by optimism about swift economic recovery from the pandemic, vaccine rollouts gathering pace and huge liquidity being pumped into the global economy by major central banks and governments across the globe. The resumption of buying by China after Lunar New Year holidays has further acted as a catalyst for this unabated run in the base metal complex. Copper, the economic barometer, is portraying an affirmative picture as the global economy is stabilizing. Apart from the dramatic increase in liquidity and low interest rate regime favoring prices, the demand for the red metal is primarily led by the strong demand from China as ... » Learn More about Demand for EVs to boost rally in copper and nickel

Mumbai, Mar 5 () Households have lost a whopping Rs 13 lakh crore of their incomes from the pandemic-induced job losses, according to a report that also warns of the economy losing momentum by mid-2021 on a likely slowdown in consumption demand that has propped the economy in recent months. Describing the growth momentum seen in second and third quarters of FY21 as a positive surprise, economists at UBS Securities India led by Tanvee Gupta Jain said the economy could slow by mid-2021 as households that lost incomes during the pandemic to the tune of Rs 13 lakh crore could drag consumption with a lag. In the second quarter of the current financial year, GDP contraction narrowed to 7.5 per cent; while in Q3, it grew 40 basis points (bps) as compared with a 23.9 per cent contraction in the first quarter. Given this, sustainability of the recovery seen in the second and third quarters and also the growth outlook are dependent on the revival in new investment intentions and easing ... » Learn More about Pandemic eats up Rs 13 lakh crore of household income: Report

The local labour force is streaming out of the region looking for jobs in peninsular India, creating a vacuum that makes it easier for the Bangladeshis to fill in, says R N Ravi. C ontrary to the state government’s lore -- that the unregulated influx of Bangladeshis in Assam is a thing of the past -- a recent field research by the writer shows that it is a live and kicking phenomenon. More and more Bangladeshis are filling the expanding labour and low-end services sectors in Assam and its neighbouring states in the northeast. Mutation of once visceral existential fears over the unregulated migration of Bangladeshi nationals into an inexorable fatalism has been one of the striking characteristics of contemporary socio-political landscape of Assam. The issue that has seismic implications for national security, the future of Assam and its neighbours and which had once erupted into the historic Assam agitation (between 1979 and 1985) seems to be mourning at the margin today. ... » Learn More about We are in denial, but Bangladeshis are still flooding India’s northeast