President of the United States Donald Trump on Tuesday accused the World Health Organisation (WHO) of being 'over-friendly' with China depite being largely funded by the US.

In a tweet, Trump said that the health agency gave a bad recommendation to it regarding opening its borders to China.

The world’s biggest lockdown has brought transportation of goods in the country close to a halt, even though the government has exempted the sector from restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus.
Daily movement of trucks has collapsed to less than 10 per cent of normal levels, according to All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), an umbrella body of goods-vehicle operators representing about 10 million truckers.

The number of coronavirus cases worldwide has reached 14.3 lakh with more than 82,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

The tracker recorded 1,429,437 cases worldwide and 82,074 deaths till 8 am (IST) on Wednesday. Out of the total confirmed COVID-19 patients, 300,767 have recovered from the disease.

President of India Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday approved the ordinance amending the Salary, Allowances & Pension of MP Act, 1954 reducing allowances and pension by 30% w.e.f. 1st April, 2020 for a year.

The Union Cabinet had on Monday approved an Ordinance cutting the salary, allowances and pension of Members of Parliament by 30% for a year and deposit the money to fight coronavirus outbreak.

The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), a subsidiary of the Indian Railways, has suspended bookings its three private trains till April 30 in wake of the coronavirus situation in the country, that has killed 124 people in the country till 7 PM on Monday.

It also said that people who have already booked their tickets for these trains will get a full refund.

India's largest lender State Bank of India on Tuesday announced that it will slash the marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 35 bps across all tenors. Effective from April 10, SBI's one-year MCLR will be 7.40% from 7.75%.

This is the 11th consecutive cut in MCLR by SBI in FY 2019-20.

The move will be beneficial for borrowers who have MCLR-linked floated rate loans, such as home loans.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) jumped 12 per cent at Rs 316 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company’s board turned down a proposal to pump in fresh equity of $406 million in its ailing South Korean subsidiary SsangYong Motor Co (SYMC) amid the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.

Given the current and projected cash flows, the M&M Board took a decision that the company will not be able to inject any fresh equity into SYMC and has urged SYMC to find alternate sources of funding, the company said in a regulatory filing on Friday after market hours.

Shares of Bajaj Finance slipped 5.7 per cent to a fresh 52-week low of Rs 2,081.50 on the NSE on Tuesday in an otherwise strong market after the company's management team said that over the past 10 days, the company had lost nearly 350,000 customers, impacting its assets under management (AUM) by Rs 4,750 crore.

Overall, the company reported a 27 per cent AUM growth in the March 2020 quarter (Q4) compared to its 7-quarter average growth of 37 per cent.

French IT services and consulting firm Capgemini has tweaked its leave policy in India temporarily apart from deferring increments and promotions of senior-level employees by one quarter.

While the company did not specify the reason behind such steps, the Forum for IT Employees (FITE), a self-proclaimed union for IT employees, has alleged that the company has taken such steps in order to compensate for business loss owing to the nationwide lockdown.

Equity benchmark Sensex rallied over 1,100 points in early trade on Tuesday as banks, IT and auto stocks led the gains on global cues.

After hitting a high of 28,963.25, the 30-share BSE barometer was trading 1,165.92 points or 4.23% higher at 28,756.87. The NSE Nifty soared 337.20 points, or 4.17%, to 8,421.00.

IndusInd Bank, Mahindra and Mahindra, HCL Tech, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Infosys were the top gainers in the Sensex pack. Bajaj Finance was the sole loser.

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