From the focus on the Indian economy showing signs of rebounding to cases of Covid Delta variant cropping up in the US, a roundup of what’s making news today.
Tax deal beneficial for India: The stage is now set for the G7 summit in Carbis Bay in Britain’s Cornwall from Friday this week. But one of the most important outcomes of the G7 is with us already – the 15 per cent corporate tax on multinational companies that have so far been ducking higher rates in domestic countries by registering in low-tax and offshore jurisdictions. The fundamental aim is to ensure that these multinational companies pay their due tax in areas where they do real business. And to that extent, India stands to gain, as a country with a big market and significant production base. It could potentially be beneficial to invest in a country such as India now that parking money in offshore accounts could become less feasible.
Indian economy regaining health: Investment and growth prospects in the Indian market now appear more attractive following projections by both the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, a group of 37 well-developed economies) and Bloomberg, that the Indian economy can grow about 10 per cent this financial year despite a debilitating second Covid wave that India has just begun to emerge from. The projection comes at a promising time when Britain is beginning to bounce back after a long lockdown, and new measures to step up trade and investment between the two countries begin to take shape.
Rough ride for small travel firms owned by Indians: A number of relatively small Indian-owned travel companies are in crisis as a result of the prolonged lockdown likely now to be extended further. Online bookings that have become the norm had already squeezed travel agencies. Some of the bigger ones have survived through specialty holidays offered in conjunction with providers. Now they are getting hit so hard that many of the travel agents are unable to pay mortgages on their homes, according to the industry body Abta. It says 88,000 jobs have already been lost. Enterprising Indian firms that had managed to survive the online short-cuts have simply run out of passengers to sell to.
UK needs nurses, thousands of them: Britain’s National Health Service currently has 124,078 doctors and 304,572 nurses working for it. The government has made a commitment to recruit 50,000 more nurses by the end of the parliament in May 2024. Home Secretary Priti Patel has said the government is open to more recruitment of nurses from abroad and has indicated that this could mean a lot more nurses from Indian applying for jobs in Britain. The NHS may need yet more nurses amid reports that many are leaving as a result of difficult working conditions and a paltry pay rise – the last offered was all of 1 per cent.
After Britain, Delta worries for US: If Delta travelled from India to the UK, it had to find its way to the US as well – though there are questions on whether Delta originated in India or only first identified there. But the Delta variant is now reported to make up 6 per cent of the cases in the US. Flights between India and the US have continued well past the red-listing in Britain. The numbers in the UK meanwhile continue to rise, but not dramatically yet. Instances of this strain have been found across much of the UK. As of Tuesday, the number of daily reported infections in the UK had crossed 6,000. The number of hospitalisations also rose slightly. The numbers are still relatively low, but Delta may not be done yet.
