The Himalayan Mail8 JAMMU SATURDAY MAY 08, 2021 NEWS
NEW DELHI, MAY 07:To ensure smooth supply ofremdesivir used in the treat-ment of COVID-19 across thecountry, the allocation of theantiviral drug to the statesand union territories hasbeen made up to May 16,Union Chemicals and Fer-tilisers Minister SadanandaGowda said on Friday.
The production capacity ofremdesivir has been in-creased to 1.03 crore vials permonth, up from 38 lakh vialsper month earlier, the minis-ter had said on Tuesday.
"Considering the require-ment of Remdesivir in everystate and ensuring its ade-quate availability, allocationof #Remdesivir has beenmade upto 16th May 2021.This will ensure smooth sup-ply of Remdesivir acrosscountry so that no patientface difficulty in this #pan-demic time," Gowda said ina tweet.
The minister also encloseda letter by Department ofPharma Joint SecretaryNavdeep Rinwa and Min-istry of Health & Family Wel-fare Director Rajiv Wad-hawan, giving details of theupdated allocation plan validfor the period April 21 to May16 being made forstates/UTs.
The allotment is beingmade for the states/UTs and
it is the state governmentsand UTs that have to moni-tor proper distribution, cov-ering government and pri-vate hospitals as appropriateand in line with judicioususe, the letter said.
"State governments/UTsare advised to place adequatepurchase orders with themarketing companies imme-diately, if they have not al-ready done so, for the quan-tity that they want topurchase out of the alloca-tion for the state/UT as persupply plan in close coordi-nation with the liaison offi-cers of the companies," itadded.
The coordination with pri-vate distribution channels inthe state could also be made,the letter said.
"The nodal officers of thestate governments have tocoordinate and follow upwith the marketing compa-nies to get delivery of remde-sivir injection in time as perthe daily requirements", theletter written to additionalchief secretary/ principalsecretary and secretaryhealth of all states/UTs said.
Demand for remdesivirhas gone up manifold in thecountry amid a massivespike in COVID infections.
The government has al-ready waived customs dutyon Remdesivir, its raw mate-
rials and other componentsused to make the antiviraldrug in order to help aug-ment domestic availabilityand reduce the cost of the in-jection.
On April 11, in view of in-creased demand for remde-sivir, the Centre banned theexport of the injection and itsAPIs till the situation im-proves.
Covid-19: Allocation of remdesivir madeup to May 16, says Sadananda Gowda
NEW DELHI, MAY 07:Amazon.com Inc. is pausingplans for its annual salePrime Day in Canada and In-dia due to concerns aboutCovid-19, the company con-firmed on Thursday. Thepause won’t affect Prime Dayin the U.S., which is sched-uled for an undisclosed dayin June, according to anemail reviewed byBloomberg.
“Based on the increasingimpact of Covid-19 inCanada, and the importancewe place on protecting thehealth and safety of our em-ployees and customers, wewill pause plans for PrimeDay 2021 in Canada,” saidthe email, sent to Amazonsellers Thursday. The Seat-tle-based company, in anemail, confirmed Prime Daywould also be postponed inIndia, which was reportedearlier by CNBC.
Covid-19 cases have risenin Canada in recent monthsamid a slower-than-ex-pected rollout of vaccina-
tions. Less than 3% of thepopulation is fully vacci-nated, according to theBloomberg Vaccine Tracker,and Ontario, the largestprovince, has been under anemergency stay-at-home or-der for weeks.
India, which is sufferingsevere shortages of medicalequipment, on Thursday re-ported 412,262 new viruscases and 3,980 deaths, bothdaily records.
Amazon had to postponeits annual sale worldwide last
year due to the pandemic.The event is a way to drumup sales during the summerand attract and retain newPrime subscribers, who paymonthly or annual fees fordelivery discounts and otherservices like video streaming.
Amazon postpones Prime Day sale in Canada, India due to Covid-19
BENGALURU, MAY07: E-commerce firm Flip-kart has extended variousinitiatives to hundreds andthousands of MSMEs (mi-cro, small and medium en-terprises), small-scale sell-ers, artisans, weavers andhandicraft partners. They arehelping them tide throughchallenges in the current sce-nario.
These fresh efforts rangefrom financial benefits,health and safety benefits.They support existing sellerpolicies all the way throughworking capital and insightsprovided to sellers on theplatform. “Through thesetesting times it is our con-stant effort to support ourseller partners who face im-mense operational chal-lenges as a result of the pan-demic,” said Jagjeet Harode,senior director and head-marketplace, Flipkart. “As ademocratic marketplace, wewant to ensure that our lakhsof seller partners are able tocontinue operations andkeep the economic enginerunning. With them andtheir family’s financial andhealth safety in mind, wehave rolled out these initia-
tives that will bring them themuch-needed respite to keeptheir businesses active.”
Under fee waivers, Flip-kart has exempted the stor-age fees to curb the impactthat any seller may have ontheir inventory that is ful-filled through Flipkart’s ful-filment centres. The com-pany is also waiving off thecancellation fee till May 31,2021, for orders that mayhave been cancelled due tolockdowns in various states.
Prioritising the health andsafety of all, Flipkart will bear100 per cent premium ofCovid insurance extended toall sellers, which covers theirhospitalisation and consul-tation between Rs 50,000 to
Rs 3 lakh.In light of the current situa-
tion, the company has fur-ther updated its existing poli-cies to safeguard 3,00,000sellers and their businesses.Flipkart has extended thewindow for the Seller Protec-tion Fund (SPF) withinwhich sellers have to claimSPF on returned products -from the regular 14 days tonow 30 days. The companywill further ease the policiesand performance metrics forits sellers to ensure that theirbusiness growth is not im-pacted by state-led lock-downs. In order to further as-sist sellers with theiroperational and other capa-bilities, the company is pro-
viding easier access to work-ing capital. Under this, allsellers impacted by pan-demic related disruptionswill have an option of earlysettlement (next-day pay-ment) without any incre-mental cost. Transaction feefor the same will be borne byFlipkart.
In addition to these efforts,Vriddhi-–Walmart's Sup-plier Development Programin India, in partnership withFlipkart-–has been organis-ing webinars for small busi-nesses. The aim is to dissem-inate knowledge and sharebest practices to ensure thesafety of their workforce andprovide relevant demand in-sights to help them stay op-erational through this sec-ond wave. The Vriddhiprogram is opening e-Insti-tutes across India to helptrain MSMEs to scale andenter global supply chains.During these challengingtimes, Vriddhi is providingsmall businesses with tele-care and counselling supportin addition to informationmodules on insuranceawareness and digital mar-keting to ensure businesscontinuity.
Flipkart to pay 100 pc premium towardsCovid-19 insurance for all its sellers
NEW DELHI, MAY 07:Homegrown FMCG majorDabur India Ltd on Fridayreported an increase of 33.98per cent in consolidated netprofit at Rs 377.29 crore forthe fourth quarter endedMarch 2021.
The company had posted anet profit of Rs 281.60 crorein the January-March quar-ter a year ago, Dabur Indiasaid in a BSE filing.
Its revenue from opera-tions during January-March2021 jumped 25.27 per centto Rs 2,336.79 crore, com-pared with Rs 1,865.36 crorein the year-ago period.
Dabur India CEO MohitMalhotra said that in a chal-lenging market environ-ment, Dabur has deliveredanother consecutive quarterof double-digits and salesgrowth.
"Dabur's financial situa-tion remains strong with a25.6 per cent growth in ouroperating profit during thefourth quarter of 2020-21.
"Our India FMCG busi-ness led the growth with a28.3 per cent surge, with anunderlying best-ever FMCGvolume growth of 25.4 percent during the fourth quar-ter of 2020-21," said Malho-tra.
Dabur's revenue from theconsumer care business seg-ment was up 26.36 per centto Rs 2,009.63 crore asagainst Rs 1,590.38 crore inthe year-ago period.
Revenue from food busi-ness was up 24.93 per cent toRs 274.14 crore as comparedwith Rs 219.44 crore in theyear-ago period.
However, its retail busi-ness was down 18.2 per centto Rs 23.13 crore from Rs28.27 crore in the corre-sponding period of the pre-vious year.
Revenue from other seg-ments was up 17 per cent toRs 23.95 crore, against Rs20.47 crore a year ago.
Dabur's internationalbusiness reported a growth
of 19.4 per cent in rupeeterms and 21 per cent in con-stant currency terms.
Dabur India's total ex-penses was at Rs 1,969.54crore, up 24.62 per cent asagainst Rs 1,580.49 crore ayear ago.
For the full fiscal year2020-21, Dabur's net profitwas up 17.06 per cent to Rs1,694.95 crore. It was Rs1,447.92 crore in the previ-ous year.
Its revenue from operationin the financial year was Rs9,561.65 crore, up 9.86 percent. It was Rs 8,703.59crore in 2019-20.
"Dabur continued to gainmarket share across all keycategories like shampoos,toothpaste, hair oils,
chyawanprash and packagedjuices and nectars, during thequarter and the full year," thecompany said in a post-earn-ing statement.
Over the current status,Dabur said the operating en-vironment remains challeng-ing with the emergence of thesecond and more devastat-ing wave of COVID-19.
"Despite the uncertaintyrelated to the extent andlength of the fresh wave, wewill respond to the chal-lenges by sharpening focuson our power brands and theayurvedic healthcare portfo-lio," Malhotra added. Headded the company will alsobuild increased flexibilityinto its planning and go-to-market strategies to driveprofitable growth and gainmarket share.
Meanwhile, Dabur in-formed its board in a meet-ing held on Friday that it hasrecommended a final divi-dend of 300 per cent, which isRs 3 per equity share having aface value of Re 1 each for thefinancial year 2019-20.
Dabur India ChairmanAmit Burman said, "Theboard has proposed a divi-dend of Rs 3 per share, ag-gregating to Rs 530.23crore."
Dabur's consolidated net profit rises34 pc to Rs 377 crore in March quarter
MUMBAI, MAY 07: Re-serve Bank's Rs 50,000-crore liquidity window canhelp augment the bed capac-ity at hospitals by up to 20per cent as credit will beavailable at cheaper costs,credit ratings agency Crisilsaid on Friday.
The window to banks un-der priority-sector lending toaugment COVID-19 health-care infrastructure will helpraise treatment capacity, andavailability of medicines andmedical equipment, it said.
It can be noted large partsof the country's healthcareinfrastructure have beenoverwhelmed, exposing theshortfalls in the capacity, asthe country battles the sec-ond wave of the pandemicwhere number of officiallyreported has breached the 4lakh mark and deaths hoveraround 3,500 a day. The RBIcreated the facility throwingin a lot of incentives forbanks on Wednesday.
"Hospitals could be amongthe biggest beneficiaries asthe incremental funding canpotentially increase bed ca-pacity in the country by 15-20 per cent," a note from therating agency said.
Banks are expected to lendfor healthcare activities be-low the current rates of lend-ing, courtesy the scheme,which entails loans being
available to banks at reporate till March 2022 whichare to be utilised for onlend-ing and also earn a prioritysector lending classification,Crisil said.
Under the RBI guidelines,loans can be extended tomakers and suppliers of vac-cines and drugs, hospitals,pathology labs, oxygen sup-pliers, makers of emergencymedical equipment, logisticsfirms, and COVID-19 pa-tients as well, the agencysaid.
The agency said 354 com-panies it rates, with an aggre-gate bank exposure of Rs40,000 crore, will be eligiblefor such loans. Pharmaceuti-cal firms account for 68 percent of the rated bank expo-sure, but hospitals (24 percent of rated exposure) arelikely to avail majority of thefunding available, it said.
At present, hospitals payup to 11 per cent in interest
on their borrowings, and thenew loans under the newschemes will be cheaper byup to 3.50 per cent, it said.
"Increased availability offunds at low cost will incen-tivise hospitals to augmentbeds, oxygen storage, ICUsand critical medical equip-ment," its chief ratings offi-cer Subodh Rai said.
If half of the Rs 50,000crore window is utilised byaugmenting hospital beds,the number of beds will go upby 15-20 per cent of the cur-rent capacity, he added.
Companies in other healthcare related sectors such aspharmaceuticals, the capitalrequirements for enhancingproduction capacity of criti-cal COVID-19 related drugsis not very high, it said,adding that pharma playersborrow money at muchlower costs of 8-8.5 per centand will not be keen to availcredit under this.
Additionally, companiesmanufacturing vaccineshave already been supportedby the government for theirfunding requirements of Rs5,000 crore.
However, while incentivesunder the liquidity windoware attractive, hospital firmswould carefully evaluate deci-sions considering sustain-ability of demand and avail-ability of critical resourcessuch as manpower andequipment, the agency said.
"Augmenting healthcareinfrastructure has challengesbeyond capital require-ments. Higher lead times forequipment and availability ofqualified manpower are crit-ical factors that can createbottlenecks," its senior direc-tor Anuj Sethi said.
He cited the case of the in-jection Remdesivir, pointingout that the outlay to in-crease the production capac-ity of 7 crore doses is only Rs200-250 crore, but leadtimes for ordering and instal-lation of machines exceed ayear.
It is still early for health-care players to evaluate theirexpansion plans. There willbe more clarity once banksand lending institutions an-nounce their policies forloans, and eligible firms de-cide on capital spends, theagency observed.
RBI's Rs 50K cr liquidity facility can augment hospital bed capacity Crisil
MUMBAI, MAY 07: Asmany as 354 Crisil-ratedcompanies, predominantlypharmaceutical firms andhospitals, with an aggregatebank exposure of Rs 40,000crore will be eligible for Covidloans from lenders underRBI's liquidity facility.
Though pharmaceuticalfirms account for 68 per centof rated bank exposure, hospi-tals (about 24 per cent ofrated exposure) are likely toavail most of the fundingavailable.
The borrowing cost of hos-pitals rated by Crisil are 10.5-11 per cent. The new loanstaken for expansion underthis RBI scheme could be300-350 basis pointscheaper, leading to substan-tial interest savings for hospi-tals, Crisil said a statement to-day.
Subodh Rai, Chief RatingsOfficer, Crisil Ratings, “in-creased availability of fundsat low cost will incentivisehospitals to augment beds,oxygen storage, ICUs andcritical medical equipment.
Even if half of the fundingavailable is used to add hos-pital beds through brown-field expansion, it will meanfive lakh incremental beds, or15-20 per cent of India’s cur-rent capacity.”
Reserve Bank of India willopen Rs 50,000 liquiditywindow to banks under pri-ority-sector lending to aug-ment Covid-19 healthcare in-frastructure.
In comparison, for entitiesin other health care relatedsectors such as pharmaceuti-cals, the capital requirements
for enhancing production ca-pacity of critical Covid-19 re-lated drugs is not very high.
Further pharmaceuticalcompanies, owing to theirstrong credit profiles andavailability of export credit fa-cilities, have a relatively loweraverage cost of borrowing(8.0-8.5%). Thus, the major-ity of pharmaceutical compa-nies may not be keen to takeon substantial debt under theRBI window to fund expan-sion. While incentives underthe liquidity window are at-tractive, hospital firms would
carefully evaluate decisionsconsidering sustainability ofdemand and availability ofcritical resources such asmanpower and equipment.
Anuj Sethi, Senior Direc-tor, Crisil Ratings, said aug-menting healthcare infra-structure has challengesbeyond capital requirements.Higher lead times for equip-ment and availability of qual-ified manpower are criticalfactors that can create bottle-necks. This is especially truefor enhancing production ofcritical drugs such as Remde-sivir, where the outlay to in-crease the production capac-ity of seventy million doses isonly Rs 200-250 crore. But,the lead times for orderingand installation of machinesexceed a year.
It is still early for healthcareplayers to evaluate their ex-pansion plans. There will bemore clarity once banks andlending institutions an-nounce their policies forloans, and eligible firms de-cide on capital spends, ratingagency added.
Over 300 pharma, healthcare companieseligible for new Covid loans: Crisil
Gold rises by Rs 474; silver jumpsRs 1,050 on strong global trends
NEW DELHI, MAY 07: Gold rose by Rs 474 to Rs47,185 per 10 gram in the national capital on Friday amidstrong buying in global precious metals, according to HDFCSecurities.
In the previous trade, the precious metal had closed atRs 46,711 per 10 gram.
Silver also jumped Rs 1,050 to Rs 70,791 per kilogramfrom Rs 69,741 per kilogram in the previous trade.
"Spot gold prices for 24 carat in Delhi rose by Rs 474 withstrong buying in global gold prices," according to HDFCSecurities, Senior Analyst (Commodities), Tapan Patel.
In the international market, gold was trading with gains atUSD 1,820 per ounce and silver was flat at USD 27.33 perounce.
According to Navneet Damani, VP Commodities Re-search, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, "Gold pricesedged higher surpassing its psychological resistance of USD1,800, aided by a pullback in the dollar and Treasury yieldsas investors cautiously await US non-farm payrolls data forfurther cues on the health of the world's biggest economy.
