Bajaj Auto MD Rajiv Bajaj said India's lockdown makes it weak rather than stronger in combating the coronavirus outbreak. Bajaj said the government should've kept only the vulnerable at home, allowing the young and healthy to work with precautions. "Every now and then when a virus returns, are we to fear that the lockdown will also be back?" he questioned.

All pending income tax refunds up to ₹5 lakh will be released immediately in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Finance has said. This will benefit around 14 lakh taxpayers. All pending GST and Custom refunds will also be released, benefitting around 1 lakh business entities. The total refund granted will be around ₹18,000 crore, the Ministry added.

A retired property tycoon who called Chinese President Xi Jinping a "clown" over his handling of the coronavirus outbreak is under investigation for "serious disciplinary violation". A member of the ruling party, Ren Zhiqiang went missing last month, his friends said. The phrase "serious disciplinary violations" is often used by Chinese authorities in reference to corruption investigations.

Japan has approved a stimulus package worth $990 billion, equal to 20% of its GDP, to support its economy after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe declared a state of emergency over coronavirus. This exceeds the equivalent of 11% of US output for the stimulus package unveiled by President Donald Trump and 5% of GDP for Germany's package.

India's second-largest multiplex chain Inox Leisure has decided to invoke the 'force majeure' clause in its contracts to stop rental payments to landlords after India went into lockdown. "We have written letters to our landlords saying that there is zero income and so we are not in a position to pay rent," Inox CEO Alok Tandon said.

The Indian Newspaper Society urged Congress President Sonia Gandhi to withdraw her suggestion to the government to impose a two-year ban on media advertisements by the government and state-run companies. "Such a proposal (is) tantamount to financial censorship. It's a very small amount as far as government spending is concerned, but it's a huge amount for newspaper industry," it said.

Amid the nationwide lockdown, IndiGo on Wednesday said it is suspending its international flights till April 30. Earlier, Air India had suspended domestic and international flights till April 30. Notably, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has said that India will remove restrictions on flight operations once the spread of coronavirus comes under control.

The Commerce Ministry has dropped an anti-dumping investigation over imports of monoethylene glycol (MEG), used in making polyester fibres and films, from Saudi Arabia following a request from Reliance Industries. The probe will continue against Kuwait, Oman, Singapore and UAE. In its December complaint, Reliance said MEG export prices of the five countries were lower than their domestic prices.

Investors saw their wealth rise by ₹7.94 lakh crore on Tuesday as Sensex registered its biggest single-day gain since 2009, rising 8.97% or 2,476 points. Nifty 50 closed 8.76% higher at 8,792 for the first time since March 17. BSE-listed companies' average m-cap increased from ₹108 lakh crore recorded on April 3 to ₹116 lakh crore on April 7.

State Bank of India has announced it will cut the interest rate on all savings bank deposits by 25 bps to 2.75% with effect from April 15. The country's largest lender is also cutting its marginal cost of fund-based lending rate (MCLR) by 35 bps across all tenors from April 10. The one-year MCLR comes down to 7.40% per annum.

DMart Founder Radhakishan Damani's net worth has surged 11% this year to $10.7 billion, making him the biggest gainer among the 12 richest Indians whose wealth is tracked by Bloomberg. Serum Institute of India's Cyrus Poonawalla was the only other Indian tycoon among the 12 whose wealth rose in 2020. Poonawalla's wealth rose by 2.6% to $8.9 billion this year.

Goldman Sachs has forecast that India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth could fall to 1.6% in 2020-21 compared to its previous estimate of 3.3%. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought "an unprecedented sudden stop" to activity in India, Goldman said in a report. Consumption, which contributes 60% to the GDP, will be hit badly because of the lockdown, it added.

WTO Chief Roberto Azevêdo has said that the coronavirus pandemic may lead to the deepest economic recession of our lifetime. WTO said global trade would fall this year by between 13% and 32%, adding that the numbers "are ugly". Azevêdo said keeping markets open would be significant for stimulating investment, adding that countries would have to work together than alone.

Indian Railways loaded freight of 1,209 million tonnes in 2019-20, 14 million tonnes short of its figures of 2018-2019. The freight loading was less than that of the previous year for the first time in 40 years. The number of wagons loaded per day fell from 61,000 to 34,000 during the lockdown due to coronavirus in March.

The Finance Ministry has allowed all states to borrow a cumulative ₹3.20 lakh crore from April-December by raising open market borrowing. West Bengal can borrow ₹20,362 crore, Maharashtra ₹46,182 crore, UP ₹29,108 crore, Karnataka ₹27,054 crore, Gujarat ₹26,112 crore and Rajasthan ₹16,387 crore. Permission for raising open market borrowing will be given after getting full information from states.

ASSOCHAM Secretary General Deepak Sood has recommended a stimulus package of about $200-300 billion to revive the Indian economy from the impact of coronavirus. To cover loss of jobs and income, he called for an infusion of $50-100 billion cash in three months. Sood also recommended GST rates to be cut across the board by 50% for three months.

India is seeking to buy around 5.5 million barrels of UAE's crude for its strategic reserve in Mangalore and 9.2 million barrels of Saudi oil for Padur, a report said. It may also buy some of Iraq's crude for Visakhapatnam. This comes after International Energy Agency asked oil importers with available storage to take advantage of low prices amid coronavirus.

Airlines have said that about 25 million aviation jobs may be at risk as travelling has been restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic. International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged the governments to provide support as airlines are experiencing a cash crunch. Asia-Pacific states need to urgently support airlines as passenger demand in 2020 could reduce by 34%-44%, IATA added.

L&T has signed a contract with the Indian Army for setting up a cloud-based system to operate the Armed Forces network under the Network of Spectrum. The order value is ranged from between ₹2,500 crore-₹5,000 crore and has to be implemented in 18 months. The system will allow real-time monitoring of the IT network for optimal utilisation of resources.

Ford issued a recall of nearly 68,000 select 2020 vehicles built in February or March of this year and equipped with the 10-speed automatic transmission. The recall is prompted by an issue that could lead to the car moving unintentionally when put in Park. The affected vehicles include the F-150, the Ranger and the Expedition with police package.

Tesla will be suspending production at its US factories till May 4 and cut pay for salaried employees between 10% and 30%. It will "keep only minimum critical operations running" till then. Tesla will also furlough employees who cannot work from home and have not been assigned critical onsite positions. The pay cuts and the furloughs will begin April 13.

India's largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has cut production by 32.05% in March, producing 92,540 units compared to 1,36,201 units in March 2019. Production of passenger vehicles also fell by 32.26% to 91,602 units as against 1,35,236 units last year. Notably, Maruti Suzuki India's share price rose 8% intraday on Wednesday despite the announcement of fall in production.

The Coal Ministry has asked power plants to keep purchasing coal despite fall in demand due to coronavirus. Electricity consumption had decreased by 21.3% in the first two weeks of lockdown. Meanwhile, state-run company Coal India's production and supply are at its highest and extended the time limit to pay for coal by two weeks to April 21.

To give state governments flexibility to tide over cash-flow mismatches the RBI has extended the number of days for which States/UTs can be in overdraft continuously to 21 working days, from 14 days. Further, the number of days for which a State/UT can be in overdraft in a quarter has been increased to 50 working days from the current 36.

The Delhi HC said that due to the measures introduced by RBI, YES Bank couldn't have declared a real-estate company as a non-performing asset. The company, Anant Raj, failed to pay January loan installment due to COVID-19 crisis but will make payment on or before April 25. Yes Bank had given Anant Raj a loan of ₹1,570 crore between 2016-18.