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[ad_1] Maharashtra on Sunday reported 11,877 fresh COVID-19 cases, 2,707 more than the day before, and 50 Omicron infections, the state health department said in a bulletin. The state reported nine fatalities, which increased the overall COVID-19 toll to 1,41,542. Maharashtra is now left with 42,024 active cases, the bulletin said. Of the new 11,877 cases, 7,792 are from Mumbai, it said. However, as per the Mumbai civic body, the number of new cases detected in the city on Sunday was 8,063. The Mumbai region including satellite cities and neighbouring districts reported 10,394 infections — nearly 90 per cent of the total cases in the state. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) data showed the city had reported 809 cases on December 27, which meant the tally jumped by almost 10 times as on Sunday. On Saturday, Maharashtra had reported 9,170 cases. More than ten ministers and at least 20 MLAs in Maharashtra have tested positive for coronavirus so far, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had said on Saturday. Of the 50 new Omicron infections, 36 patients are from Pune Municipal Corporation areas, eight from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation limits, two each from Pune rural and Sangli, and one each from Mumbai and Thane. Maharashtra has so far reported 510 such cases of which 193 patients recovered. The bulletin said 1,22,975 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative tests conducted in Maharashtra to 6,92,59,618. Until a day before, the state had conducted a total of 6,91,36,643 tests. With 2,069 more patients being discharged, the overall count of recoveries in Maharashtra went up to 65,12,610, it said. The Mumbai civic body conducted 47,410 tests in the last 24 hours, as per the bulletin. With the spike in cases in Mumbai, city civic chief Iqbal Singh Chahal on Sunday sought to allay apprehensions, saying 89 per cent of the infections are asymptomatic. He also said that 90 per cent of beds are lying vacant. He urged people to strictly adhere to COVID-19 protocols. Mask is mandatory in the public domain and citizens should refrain from going to crowded places. All of us must join hands to tide over this new wave of the COVID pandemic, he stressed. “Today 8,063 new COVID cases have been detected in Mumbai out of which 89 per cent were found to be totally asymptomatic and total number of active cases in Mumbai are now 29,819. “However, out of 8,063 new cases today, only 503 have been hospitalised out of which 56 cases have been put on oxygenated beds. As of today, 90 per cent of hospital beds in Mumbai are vacant,” he said in a statement. Mumbai did not see any COVID-19 fatality during the day, keeping the toll unchanged at 16,377, the bulletin said, adding that 89 per cent of the cases reported, or 7,176, are asymptomatic. “There is no reason to panic but at the same time all of us have to be extremely cautious and exercise extreme Covid appropriate behaviour,” Chahal said. As per the bulletin, 578 persons were discharged in Mumbai in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery count to 7,50,736, which is 94 per cent of the overall tally, while 503 people are hospitalised, including 56 on oxygen support. Of the 30,565 beds available for the treatment of the infection, only 3,059 are occupied, it said. The Mumbai data showed that the caseload doubling time was 183 days, the growth rate in cases between December 26 and January 1 stood at 0.38 per cent. The civic body has sealed 203 buildings. There are nine containment zones. In the rest of Maharashtra, the Pune region recorded 931 cases, Nagpur 112, Kolhapur 75, Latur 67, Aurangabad 50, and Akola 31. Nashik, Kolhapur, Latur, Nagpur, Akola, Aurangabad regions did not report any death. The Pune region recorded eight fatalities and Mumbai region one. Maharashtra’s COVID-19 figures: Fresh cases 11,877; Total cases 66,99,868; Deaths nine; Total fatalities 1,41,542; Active case 42,024; tests conducted 1,22,975; cumulative tests 6,92,59,618. Meanwhile, Maharashtra CMO tweeted that COVID-19 vaccination for children in the age group of 15-18 years will be launched at nine dedicated centres in Mumbai along with the national drive for this age group. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] By Winny Patro  Credit and Finance for MSMEs: The MSME sector in India accounts for four-fifths of India’s employment sector, 40 per cent of the 6.3 crore Indian MSMEs are involved in exports, and it contributes a whopping 30 per cent to the country’s GDP. Despite showing such promising statistics and importance for the growth of the Indian economy, the sector is the most vulnerable to factors that disrupt cash flow, growth, and ease of doing business.   The pandemic has worsened the state for these Indian MSMEs that were already grappling with circumstances that emerged post demonetization and a subsequent cash flow crunch as the sector majorly dealt in cash. Most Indian businesses are still feeling the prolonged Covid effects as most B2B companies are reeling under the pressure of delayed payments. The following factors are the reasons why India’s poor payment culture has led to impact MSMEs:  Developed late payment culture  As pointed out earlier, the MSME sector has been largely unorganized and informal. Owing to its long years of payment culture, statistics point that 60 per cent of SMEs in India receive payments from clients only after 60 days or longer, and 35 per cent receive their receivables due only after 90 days or longer. The already existing large gap has widened over time owing to a sudden closure of business activities with the pandemic-induced lockdowns and uncertainty of doing business. Over the last 2 years, the repayment gap has only widened, leaving the sector at a hard stop with little to no signs of growth.  Subscribe to Financial Express SME newsletter now: Your weekly dose of news, views, and updates from the world of micro, small, and medium enterprises   Lack of support from formal sectors  MSMEs in India face a major constraint regarding support from financial institutions, the banking sector, and formal businesses. Reports and research suggest that even though 99 per cent of the 63 million MSMEs have been accounted for, their financial growth has been a priority. Despite this, financial support remains to be a major drawback that hinders their anticipated growth. From the gap in funding that arises from India’s formal sector, MSMEs have no choice but to turn to informal institutions to obtain credit at high interest rates. With the existing poor payment culture, they are doubly hit and struggle to repay loans or expand their businesses.   Slow adoption of digitization   The government is working towards resulting in a cashless economy and is launching programs, initiatives, and activities that turn the country towards digitization. While demonetization can be considered a pioneering step towards this direction, a large part of the country still relies on cash — the MSME sector being the largest and greatest example. The economy in this sector is still highly cash-driven. The pandemic might too have pushed a certain percentage in a direction to turn to digitization. There is a long-standing chance that cash is still the way to do business for most SMEs. Over and above, the majority of MSMEs are yet to adopt to technology drive solutions to manage their billing and credit cycles.   India wishes to be a cashless economy, but not much has changed since then. Until today, our economy is cash-driven. RBI data reinforces that cash in the economy is rising steadily despite its relentless pursuit of a cashless society. A comprehensive roadmap on digitization and online payment also seem ineffective.  Inaccurate transaction data  Due to the non-adoption of technology solutions to manage transactions, MSMEs face challenges in accessing and assessing data for improving their businesses. Also, a significant percentage of payments and deals are done in cash for MSMEs and most transactions are not accounted for or are entered with errors and delays. An improper data collection format is also a large contributing factor in developing a late and lazy repayment culture. Another point to note, this inaccuracy in accounting also leads to missing out on some payments.  Lack of recognition towards credit risks  A large part of the payment culture in India arises from the lack of understanding of the importance of credit scores and history. The MSME sector also has fallen into the same category. Owing to their nature of operating within a circle of trust, many SMEs offer a credit line to their customers without knowing their ability to repay, or whether they will pay back in time. Indian businesses must realize the importance of credit scores and history as they can reduce any business risks in terms of finances. Before making a deal, knowing a business entity or an individual’s credit history helps trim off risks that later result in non-payment. Most importantly, it helps MSMEs grow beyond their boundaries of familiarity.  Winny Patro is CEO & Co-Founder of Recordent. Views expressed are the author’s own.  [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] The Centre has told the Supreme Court that it has decided to accept the recommendation of a three-member panel to retain the current gross annual family income limit for Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) of Rs 8 lakh or less. The government said that the panel has recommended that family income is a “feasible criterion” for defining EWS and in the current situation, a threshold of Rs 8 lakh of annual family income seems reasonable for determining EWS. In its affidavit filed in a matter related to admissions for NEET-PG, the Centre said the panel has recommended that “only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation”. “I respectfully submit that the central government has decided to accept the recommendations of the committee, including the recommendation of applying the new criteria prospectively,” Secretary, Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, R Subrahmanyam, who filed the affidavit on behalf of the Centre told the top court. The Centre had constituted the three-member committee, comprising Ajay Bhushan Pandey, former finance secretary, VK Malhotra, member secretary, ICSSR, and Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal Economic Adviser to Centre, on November 30 last year according to an assurance given to the top court to revisit the criteria for determining EWS. The committee in its report submitted on December 31 last year to the Centre said, “The current gross annual family income limit for EWS of Rs 8 lakh or less may be retained. In other words, only those families whose annual income is up to Rs 8 lakh would be eligible to get the benefit of EWS reservation.” The decision of the committee eventually delayed the NEET-PG 2021 counselling, which had led to wide scale protest by a large number of resident doctors under banner of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) in Delhi and other parts of the country. They were seeking expeditious removal of legal impediments. FORDA had pointed out that due to a delay of eight months in counselling of the NEET-PG 2021 batch, there was a “acute shortage” of resident doctors across the country. Meanwhile, the three-member panel in its report said, “The current limit of annual family income of Rs 8 lakhs does not seem to be over-inclusive as the available data on actual outcomes does not indicate over inclusion. It should be noted that income includes salary and agriculture as well”. The panel recommended: “EWS may, however exclude, irrespective of income, a person whose family has five acres of agricultural land and above. The residential asset criteria may altogether be removed.” On the issue of applicability of criteria, the panel said that it has deliberated upon the vexed question as to from which year the criteria suggested in the report should be used, adopted and made applicable. The panel said it found that the existing criteria (the criteria applicable prior to this report) is in use since 2019 and the question of desirability of the existing criteria and a possibility of its being revisited arose only recently in the batch of petitions related to admissions in NEET-PG. “By the time this court started examining the said question and the central government decided to revisit the criteria by appointing this committee, the process with respect to some appointments/admissions have taken place or must have been at an irreversible and advanced stage,” it said. “The existing system which is going on since 2019, if disturbed at the end or fag-end of the process would create more complications than expected both for the beneficiaries as well as for the authorities,” the panel said said. The panel said that in case of admissions to educational institutions, sudden adoption of new criteria inevitably and necessarily would delay the process by several months which would have an inevitable cascading effect on all future admissions and educational activities, teaching and examinations which are bound under various statutory or judicial time prescriptions. “Under these circumstances, it is completely unadvisable and impractical to apply the new criteria (which are being recommended in this report) and change the goal post in the midst of the ongoing processes resulting in inevitable delay and avoidable complications. When the existing system is ongoing since 2019, no serious prejudice would be caused if it continues for this year as well,” the panel recommended. It said that changing the criteria midway is also bound to result in spate of litigations in courts across the country by the people whose eligibility would change suddenly. “The committee, therefore, after analysing the pros and cons on this issue and after giving serious consideration, recommends that the existing and ongoing criteria in every ongoing process where EWS reservation is available, be continued and the criteria recommended in this report may be made applicable from next advertisement/admission cycle,” it said. The panel recommended that data exchange and information technology should be used more actively to verify income and assets and a three-year feedback loop cycle may be used to monitor the actual outcomes of these criteria and then be used to adjust them in future. On November 25, the Centre had told the top court that it has decided to revisit Rs 8 lakh annual income criteria for determining EWS for reservation in admissions and jobs, and the counselling for the NEET postgraduate medical courses will be further postponed by four weeks. [ad_2] Source link

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[ad_1] New Australian COVID-19 cases dip, but hospitalisations rise [ad_2] Source link