Top headlines: Manufacturing PMI down to 46, Tamil Nadu against NEP & more

Here are the top headlines of the day

July manufacturing PMI falls to 46; overall activity shrinks for 4th month

Indian manufacturing slowed down in July after slowly mending for two months as lockdowns weighed on demand and output and raised the chances of a sharper economic contraction, a private business survey showed on Monday. Manufacturing PMI stood at 46 in July, down from 47.2 in June. In PMI parlance, a score above 50 means expansion and below that denotes contraction. PMI fell to a historic low of 27.4 in April, but had been steadily climbing up since. Read more

Microsoft tries to salvage deal to buy TikTok, Nadella speaks to Trump

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella spoke with US President Donald Trump on Sunday to salvage the company’s effort to buy TikTok’s operations in the US and several other countries. Microsoft pledged to add more security, privacy and digital safety protections and ensure that all private data of Americans be transferred back to the US and deleted from servers outside the country. Read more

Gujarat HC allows tax credit on services under GST, signalling help to cos

Gujarat High Court has allowed a footwear company to claim credit for taxes paid on service inputs under the goods and services tax (GST) regime, likely signalling relief for ecommerce majors such as Amazon, Flipkart and Urban Company. The court, while hearing a petition filed by VKC Footsteps India, said that the intent of the government by framing a rule restricting input tax credit cannot be the intent of law. Read more

ADB sees coronavirus slashing 2020 global remittances by over $100 bn

Remittances across the world could decline by $108.6 bn this year as job losses mount and employers trim payrolls amid a Covid-19 pandemic that has devastated economies, according to a report by the Asian Development Bank. Remittances to Asia and the Pacific, which amounted to $315 bn in 2019, help fuel the consumption-led growth for some of the region's developing economies, including the Philippines. Read more

Tamil Nadu will not allow 3-language formula in the state, says Palaniswami

Tamil Nadu government said that it will not allow a three-language formula in Tamil Nadu. The three-language policy has been proposed in the New Education Policy 2020 released by the Centre. Chief Minister K Palaniswami said for the last 80 years Tamil Nadu people have been following two-language policy and they want the same system to continue. Read more

'Thanks for Flying SpaceX': NASA Astronauts splash down in Gulf of Mexico

The first astronaut trip to orbit by a private company parachuted to a safe conclusion in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday. It was the first water landing by NASA astronauts since 1975, when the agency’s crews were still flying to and from orbit in the Apollo modules used for the historic American moon missions. Read more