Buying from E-commerce allowed from 20 April

Residents in areas of coronavirus infection hotspots have found great relief in Phase 2 of lockdown. Residents here will be able to purchase electronic items such as mobile phones, fridges, TVs, ACs and coolers from e-commerce companies from April 20. This is applicable only to online platforms. The shops will not open in the local market.

The Center on Wednesday issued guidelines regarding the activities to be started in the hotspot areas from April 20. Among these, e-commerce and courier companies were allowed to work from April 20. However, it did not contain an explanation of the essential and non-essential items. On this, the Ministry said on Thursday that vehicles of e-commerce companies will be able to take all kinds of goods with the permission of the authorities concerned. In the first lockdown, online platforms were allowed to supply only essential items like food, medicine, and medical equipment.

Airlines have to return the money for the tickets till May 

The central government has directed the airlines to refund the entire money in 3 weeks to the passengers by canceling the tickets from April 15 to May 3. Currently, airlines are offering vouchers to passengers who can travel for up to a year. Passengers were complaining to the government about this.

Health and Motor Insurance premium
The premium has to be paid until May 15. The date of submission of premium for Motor Vehicle, Third Party Insurance and Health Insurance Policy has been extended till May 15. Premiums payable from 25 March to 3 May can now be paid till 15 May. The government had earlier given the facility of depositing premium till 21 April. 

SBI's assessment: There is a possibility of a loss of 12.1 lakh crores to the country due to lockdown

In Mumbai, the State Bank of India has predicted a loss of Rs 12.1 lakh crore to the country due to the 40-day lockdown. It is 6% of the gross value of GDP (GVA). The report released on Thursday by the Bank's Department of Economic Research estimates that the nominal GDP growth rate could be 4.2% in this financial year. At the same time, real GDP will be 1.1%, whereas earlier it was estimated to be 2.6%.

The report prepared by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, the group's Chief Economic Advisor at SBI, said that due to Corona, many agencies had kept growth estimates at 5% in the last financial year (2019-20), which can now be 4.1%. The report said that to deal with the impact of the lockdown, financial help of Rs 8 lakh crore will be needed.