Top headlines: Service activity falls in Apr, fuel excise hike to help govt

Business Standard brings to you a snapshot of events which made it to the headlines today

The spread of coronavirus led to services activity in India contracting at the fastest pace in over 14 years. Bankers have approached India’s top retail players to evaluate the possibility of a merger with Kishore Biyani's Future Retail after he defaulted on loans in March and FRL’s share price collapsed. The sharp hike in excise duty for auto fuels – petrol and diesel – is likely to add Rs 1.4 trillion to the government’s kitty, says the latest report by Barclays. Here are the top events of the day which made it to the headlines:

Covid-19 lockdown wipes out service activity in April, PMI drops to 5.4

The month-long lockdown of the country in April to check the spread of coronavirus led to services activity in India contracting at the fastest pace in over 14 years to unprecedented low levels, according to a monthly survey released on Wednesday. Read on... 

Banks scout buyers for Future Retail stake after Biyani's loan default

Banks, which have a significant exposure to both Future Retail (FRL) and its promoters, are nudging the company to go for an all-stock merger with an existing retail player. The move has been expedited after its promoter Kishore Biyani defaulted on loans in March and FRL’s share price collapsed from its recent high in February. Read full story here...
 

Aarogya Setu team responds to French hacker; says app safe and sound

Responding to French hacker Robert Baptiste, who goes by the pseudonym Elliot Alderson on Twitter, the Aarogya Setu team said it has replied to the issues raised by the hacker. On Tuesday night, Alderson tweeted, "Hi @SetuAarogya, A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private? Regards, PS: @RahulGandhi was right" Read on...

Petrol, diesel excise hike can add Rs 1.4 trn to govt's coffers: Barclays

The sharp hike in excise duty for auto fuels – petrol and diesel – is likely to add Rs 1.4 trillion to the government’s kitty, says the latest report by Barclays. The projection assumes that demand for both petrol and diesel will fall 12 per cent in FY20-21 as the economic activity in the country gets hampered on account of the Covid-19 related shutdown. Read on...

Most H-1B employers use programme to pay workers below median wage: Report

A majority of H-1B employers, including major American technology firms like Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft, use the programme to pay migrant workers well below market wages, according to a new report. While over 53,000 employers used the H-1B programme in 2019, the top 30 H-1B employers accounted for more than one in four of all 389,000 H-1B petitions approved by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services in 2019, it said. Read on...