NEW DELHI, Apr 7: Housing sales fell 29 per cent during January-March period across seven major cities to 27,451 units while the value of unsold inventories swelled to Rs 3.65 lakh crore as buyers postponed their buying decisions amid COVID-19 out- break, according to JLL. The sale of residential units decreased by 29 per cent to 27,451 units in the Q1 of 2020 calendar year as against 38,628 units in the year-ago period. "The economic slowdown aggravated by the ongoing health crisis is manifesting itself in the form of a hit to sales with buyers postponing their purchase decisions," JLL India said in its quarterly report. This was the second largest dip in residential sales in the last five years, after Q1 2017, when the market witnessed a 37 per cent fall in sales due to demonetisation, it added. The sales declined in all the seven major cities. Bengaluru saw the maxi- mum fall of 52 per cent at 4,186 units. Housing sales in Mumbai declined 19 per cent to 6,857 units, while Chennai recorded an 8 per cent fall at 2,453 units. Delhi-NCR and Pune recorded 18 per cent dip at 5,941 units and 3,728 units, respectively. Residential sales in Kolkata dropped 35 per cent to 1,259 units while 41 per cent fall was seen in Hyderabad at 3,027 units. The first quarter of 2020 witnessed an increase in unsold inventory as launches outpaced sales by a significant margin. New launches were up by 3 per cent at 40,574 units. Unsold inventory increased from 4,42,228 units in Q4 2019 to 4,55,351 units in Q1 2020. Moreover, Mumbai surpassed Delhi-NCR to become the mar- ket with the max- imum quantum as well as value of unsold inven- tory. Across the top seven cities, developers are sitting on an unsold inventory worth Rs 3,65,100 crore at the end of March 2020. Mumbai has unsold stock of Rs 1,37,900 crore, while NCR has 81,300 crore and Bengaluru 64,000 crore. The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to weaken the GDP growth, which is seen falling below 5 per cent in FY 19-20 and potentially reaching 2008- 09 levels in FY 20-21, said Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, JLL India. "However, the residential real estate market appears to be at an advantageous position today as compared to the glob- al financial crisis, led by a series of structural reforms by the government in the past five-to-six years," Nair said. "When the COVID-19 sce- nario stabilises, factors such as better-priced deals, enhanced the financial health of banks and greater demand from end users will aid in improving buyer sentiment. Sales are expected to regain some trac- tion towards the end of 2020 supported by the festive season during that period," he added. (PTI) Zydus Cadila gets USFDA nod to market generic schizophrenia drug NEW DELHI, Apr 7: Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Tuesday said it has received final nod from the US health reg- ulator to market generic Perphenazine tablets used for treatment of schizophrenia. The company has received final approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Perphenazine tablets USP in the strengths of 2 mg, 4 mg, 8 mg and 16 mg, Zydus Cadila said in a statement. "The drug will be manufactured at the group's formulation manufacturing facility at Baddi, it added. The tablets are indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia and for the control of severe nausea and vomiting in adults, Zydus Cadila said. The group now has 284 approvals and has so far filed over 386 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) since the commence- ment of its filing process, it added. Shares of Cadila Healthcare, the listed entity of the group, were trading at Rs 316.40 per scrip on the BSE, up 15.03 per cent over previous close. (PTI) Rly sets target to make 1000 PPE per day NEW DELHI, Apr 7: Railways, which has got a nod from the DRDO for making per- sonal protection equipment (PPEs), has now set a target of manu- facturing around 1000 of them in its 17 workshops every day. The PPE overall will offer much needed protection to railway doctors and paramedics working on the front line of COVID care at hospitals of Railways. "Facilities are being geared up in Railways to make up to 1000 such protective over- all for railway doc- tors and paramedics every day. Around 17 workshops would be striving to con- tribute to this exer- cise," the national transporter said in a statement. Railways is also considering to supply 50 per cent of the inno- vated PPE garment to other medical professionals of the country. Material for all the overalls is being procured centrally at Jagadhari which is located near many big textile industries in Punjab. It has been decided to source raw material from a Yamunanagar-based vendor approved by the Textiles ministry. "In the days to come, the production facilities can be further ramped up. The development of this overall and innovation by Indian Railways is being welcomed by other Government agencies engaged in the war against COVID. "Technical specifications of these PPEs are now ready, and material suppliers are in place. Now the production can start in right earnest. This development is big boost to equip our doctors and paramedics on the front line of this battle against COVID-19," it said. The Government estimates that the country's medical fraternity and other workers will require some 1.5 crore coveralls by June. These suits are incinerated after each use and are the most crit- ical component in the Personal Protective Equipment kit which is in significant shortage in India. (PTI) MUMBAI, Apr 7: State-run Bank of Baroda on Tuesday said it will provide financial assistance of up to Rs 1 lakh to women self-help groups (SHGs) to help meet their funding demand amid the COVID-19 crisis. The bank has also announced an emergency credit line for farmers producer organ- isations (FPO/FPC) to deal with any liquidity mismatches. Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the bank will provide support to existing SHGs' facili- ties in the form of cash credit or overdraft or term loans. "The minimum loan amount is Rs 30,000 per SHG and max- imum loan amount granted under the scheme is Rs one lakh per member, repayable in 24 months," the bank said in a statement. The repayment for this scheme would be on a monthly or quarterly basis and the mora- torium will be for a period of six months from the date of dis- bursement. For FPO/FPC, a limit of 10 per cent of the combined limits will be sanctioned with maxi- mum amount of Rs 5 lakh with the tenor of 36 months. The moratorium period is for a max- imum of six months. For borrowers in dairy and fisheries segment, the lender will provide instant credit to farming community to meet emergent funds requirement for farm maintenance and other farm related activities due to COVID-19. "The limit stands at 10 per cent of other agriculture sanc- tion limit (i.E. Minimum Rs 10,000) and maximum Rs 50,000 for existing regular investment credit agriculture accounts," it said. The lender will also give an instant credit to crop loan bor- rowers for requirement in agri- culture and related domestic purposes. The loan limit under the scheme is 10 per cent of KCC sanction limit -- minimum Rs 10,000 and maximum Rs 50,000 -- for existing regular KCC holders. (PTI) NEW DELHI, Apr 7: The Government on Tuesday said it is committed to maintaining smooth operations across its shipping ports and has initiated a number of steps, including waiving rentals and thermal scanning of 46,000 crew and passengers, in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak. Total traffic handling at major ports has also increased marginally by 0.82 per cent to 705 million tonnes (MT) during the last fiscal. "In the wake of unprecedent- ed crisis due to Covid-19, the Ministry of Shipping has been taking pro-active steps to ensure smooth running of shipping and port operations, ease the hard- ships, and at the same time, fol- lowing the restrictions imposed during the lockdown," the Ministry of Shipping said in a statement. A total of 46,202 passengers have been scanned between January 27 and February 4 using thermal scanners at Indian ports, including 39,225 people scanned at major ports. Elaborating the steps taken to ensure smooth shipping oper- ations, the government said it has asked each major port to ensure that no penalties, demur- rage, charges, fee, rentals are levied on any port user (traders, shipping lines, concessionaires, licensees etc.) for any delay in berthing or loading/unloading operations or evacuation of cargo caused by the reasons attributable to lockdown meas- ures from March 22 to April 14, 2020. It said each major port shall exempt or remit demurrage, ground rent over and above the free period, penal anchorage/berth hire charges and any other performance- related penalties that may be levied on port-related activities including minimum perform- ance guarantee, wherever appli- cable. Besides for existing and operational PPP projects, the major ports can permit waiver of all penal consequences on a case-to-case basis along with deferment of certain perform- ance obligations. On prepared- ness of hospitals across the major port trusts, it said these have been supplied with the per- sonal protective equipment (PPEs) and the arrangement of sufficient staff round the clock has been made. "In some port hospitals, a part of the hospital can be ear- marked for Covid-19 with sepa- rate entry and exit," it said. Ports and PSUs under the Ministry of Shipping have con- tributed more than Rs 52 crore from the CSR funds towards PM CARES Fund. Besides, employees of ports, PSUs and other offices of the Ministry of Shipping have con- tributed over Rs 7 crore from their salaries towards PM CARES Fund. About EXIM trade, the statement said in order to ensure that the EXIM trade does not suffer due to certain unavoid- able delays in loading and dis- charge of cargo due to the lock- down, the shipping lines have been advised to not impose any container detention charge on export and import shipments of containerised cargo till April 14. The number of vessels han- dled by ports during 2019-20 was around 20,837 against 20,853 vessels in 2018-19. (PTI) DAILY EXCELSIOR, JAMMU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2020 (PAGE 9) Vodafone-Idea users face connectivity issues NEW DELHI, Apr 7: Several subscribers of Vodafone Idea on Tuesday reported poor call and data connectivity issues. However, Vodafone Idea on twitter said the issue has now been resolved. According to the Down Detector, which tracks network outage of apps and mobile networks, there was a sudden spike in com- plaints around 11.20 am from various locations. More than half the com- plaints were about data services only and some sub- scribers even reported com- plete network outage in their area. Most of the complaints were from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Jaipur, Pune, Ernakulam and Gurugram. The telecom company however said the issue has been resolved. "Hi, We would like to inform you that there was a temporary issue which has been resolved. If you're still facing the issue, request you to please restart your handset and check," it said in a tweet. According to industry bodies, there has been around 30 per cent surge in data usage due to work-from-home amid the lockdown while officials in DoT said the rise has been about 10-15 per cent. (PTI) Ensuring smooth shipping operations: Govt MRPL reduces production of diesel, petrol MANGALURU, Apr 7: With the number of vehicles on roads falling sharply in the lockdown period due to the coronavirus spread, the public sector Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL) has cut down production of petrol and diesel by half. The demand for diesel and petrol had fallen sharply after the lockdown was announced. MRPL normally produces 2,500 tonnes of LPG, 20,000 tonnes of diesel and 2,500 tonnes of petrol. The LPG production has now been cut by 25 per cent while there has been a 50 per cent cut in petrol and diesel produc- tion, the company said in a press release here. Most of the employees of MRPL have been given leave while workers needed for the production unit have been taken on emergency basis. Out of 6,500 employees, only 800 are working now. The oil produced at MRPL is being distributed all over the state through Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL and Shell. In normal courses, MRPL shuts one unit during April for main- tenance. At that time, it needs 4,000 workers. As bringing together so many workers for the purpose is cum- bersome, the company plans to postpone the annual shutdown this year. MRPL, which is the only processing centre for crude oil in Karnataka, has ensured that the state and a few southern parts of India did not face hardships on account of petroleum shortage by keeping up its supply continuously. MRPL general manager (corporate communication), Rudolph Noronha said the company has brought down its production of petrol, LPG and diesel as the demand now is less. Only workers who are needed for emergencies are now attend- ing work. (PTI) Bank of Baroda to provide support to women SHGs, FPOs Housing sales drop 29 pc NEW DELHI, Apr 7: FMCG major Britannia Industries on Tuesday said it has partnered with Dunzo, an on- demand e-commerce platform, to deliver its range of products during the nationwide lock- down. Customers can get Britannia products at their doorsteps through the Dunzo app in less than an hour of ordering from the 'Britannia Essentials' store. The first store in Bengaluru will be operational from Tuesday onwards and would be extended to other cities such as Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Chennai, a joint statement said. "During this unprecedented time, it is critical for us to main- tain a continuous supply of our products which are daily staples in millions of Indian house- holds. With a significant rise in demand for at-home delivery, we are happy to leverage Dunzo's innovative and most advanced technology platform, to enable seamless delivery of products every day," Britannia Industries Managing Director Varun Berry said. Britannia's essentials prod- ucts such as biscuits, cakes, rusk, croissants, milkshakes, wafers, ghee and dairy whitener will be sourced by Dunzo from its distribution centers. "Across the country, there is a demand for essentials and in these extraordinary times, com- panies need to rise to the occa- sion. We at Dunzo are commit- ted to helping our cities fight the COVID-19 pandemic," Dunzo CEO and Co-Founder Kabeer Biswas said. Earlier two FMCG makers - ITC Foods and Marico - had announced such partnerships to get their products delivered at consumer's doorsteps by using the service of app-based aggre- gators. ITC Foods has announced partnership with Dominio's Pizaa and launched "Domino's Essentials" to deliver groceries and packaged foods to cus- tomers during the lockdown period. Marico has partnered online food ordering platform Swiggy and Zomato to deliver essential food items to consumers. (PTI) Britannia partners with Dunzo for home delivery of essentials food items Delhi Airport handles over 50 evacuation flights in past 14 days NEW DELHI, Apr 7: The AAI-GMR group joint venture-run Delhi Airport on Tuesday said it has handled over 50 evacuation flights, transport- ing over 10,000 stranded foreign nationals to their respective countries, till date since the implementation of 21-days lockdown. Since the suspension of all commercial passenger aircraft oper- ations, Delhi Airport has been operational 24x7 despite suspension of commercial operations, due to the 21-day lockdown following the coronavirus outbreak, said Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) CEO, Videh Kumar Jaipuriar said. In the last 14 days, the airport has remained functional to handle cargo and evacuation flights, operated by countries like Japan, Norway, Germany, Afghanistan, Poland, Russia and France to repa- triate their nationals stranded in India due to lockdown, DIAL said. "At present, Delhi Airport is handling cargo and evacuation flights, operated by various countries. We have handled around 56 evacuation flights and helped over 10,600 stranded foreign nation- als in reaching their homes in the last 14 days since the lockdown has come into force," he stated. (PTI)