Will give Rs 10 lakh for eliminating "pro-Pakistan" sloganeers: Sri Ram Sena leader

Bengaluru, May 18: Indian food delivery startup Swiggy said on Monday it would lay off 1,100 employees, or nearly 14% of its workforce, to cut costs, as a weeks-long nationwide lockdown to curb the coronavirus outbreak hits demand for online food ordering.

The company, backed by South African internet giant Naspers, also said it will scale down adjacent businesses and has already shut several of its cloud kitchens - facilities that only cater to takeaway orders - temporarily or permanently.

“The core food delivery business has been severely impacted and will stay impacted over the short term, but is expected to start growing again after that,” said Sriharsha Majety, co-founder and chief executive at Bengaluru-based Swiggy.

Swiggy, one of India’s best known startups, is among many that are laying off employees and reshaping their business in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has forced 1.3 billion Indians indoors and crippled business.

India is currently under a two-month lockdown, and though several curbs are being eased, public places such as restaurants remain closed, hurting restaurants themselves as well as companies such as Swiggy and main rival Zomato.

Mangaluru, Jan 18: The Dakshina Kannada District Karavali Utsava Samiti has chosen senior Journalist and Assistant Editor on Udayavani Daily Manohar Prasad for the Karavali Gaurava Prashasti 2019-20.

The award will be presented to Manohar Prasad in recognition of his contribution in the field of Journalism.

He will be given the award during the valedictory of the Karavali Utsav at Panambur beach on January 19.

Bengaluru, May 13: Former chief minister and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Wednesday called the measures announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as 'disastrous' and said it is 'non-existent' in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees and farmers.

"The first set of measures announced by @FinMinIndia @nsitharaman, after 8 PM speech by @narendramodi, is disastrous & non-existent in terms of benefits to poor migrants, labourers, contract employees, farmers, etc," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

The Congress leader said most of the intended benefits may not reach the end recipient.

This comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package to revive the COVID-19 hit economy.

"The contribution by the government for the schemes announced are mostly notional and less of actuals and the devil lies in the detail," the Congress leader said in another tweet.

After Sitharaman announced support measures for MSMEs, Siddaramaiah said, "The credit infusion to MSMEs may help them clear dues to vendors but it is doubtful if they shall utilise the credit available to pay their labourers & to prevent job cuts. @FinMinIndia should have taken measures to pay part of the salaries to the employees in MSMEs."

Further questioning the Centre on 'ignoring the spending for boosting consumption', Siddaramaiah said, "The government is interested in capital infusion in the form of credits but totally ignorant of the actual spending that needs to be done to boost consumption. How can credit be considered as government spending?"

Siddaramaiah said the next set of measures should benefit the marginalised sections.

"Will be looking forward to next set of measures & I hope it will be something to benefit the marginalised sections. Direct benefits to the poorest sections will help them survive this pandemic. COVID-19 fight should not be another perception battle but a real one," he added in another tweet.

Sitharaman earlier announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral-free automatic loans for businesses, including MSMEs.

Besides this, she also stated that to provide stressed MSMEs with equity support, the government will facilitate the provision of Rs 20,000 crore as subordinate debt.