Tag Archives: economic downturn

India to provide loan assistance to print school books for Sri Lankan children

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Amid ongoing economic crisis with skyrocketing inflation and dollar crunch, Sri Lanka will get Indian loan assistance to print text books for school children for the year 2023.

Education Minister Susil Premejanatha said that steps have been taken to import raw materials including papers and ink required for textbook printing under Indian credit line for 2023 education year starting from next March.

With no dollars to import printing material, education was one of the main victims of current economic crisis the country has been going through and in March last year, the island nation cancelled examinations for millions of students with no papers to print exam papers.

Sri Lanka provides text books and school uniforms for students free of cost at a cost of around $44 million.

India has extended 8 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to Sri Lanka amounting to US$1,850.64 million in the past 10 years, External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar informed the Lok Sabha last month.

“Government of India has extended 08 Lines of Credit (LOCs) to Sri Lanka amounting to USD 1,850.64 million in sectors including railways, infrastructure, defence, renewable energy, petroleum and fertilizers in the past 10 years,” Jaishankar said in a written reply.

In January 2022, India extended a $400 million currency swap and a Line of Credit of US$ 500 million for importing fuel from India. India has extended a credit facility of US$ 1 billion for the procurement of food, medicines and other essential items from India.

In addition, humanitarian assistance was provided to Sri Lanka by gifting essential medicines worth about INR 6 crores, 15,000 litres of kerosene oil and US$55 million LoC for procurement of Urea fertilizer.

India has provided the biggest financial support so far extending $4 billion for the year 2022 alone. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed to provide $2.9 billion over four years with conditions to help salvage the country from its economic crisis.

 

50% companies planning job cuts amid economic downturn: PwC

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At least half of the companies worldwide are planning to cut jobs or prune bonuses and rescinding job offers due to the onset of a global economic downturn, said global financial monitoring firm PwC in its latest report.

In its “PwC ‘Pulse: Managing business risks in 2022” survey in the US, it said 50 per cent of respondents are reducing their overall headcount. “At the same time, respondents are also taking proactive steps to streamline the workforce and establish the appropriate mix of worker skills for the future,” said the report released on Thursday.

This comes as no surprise, after a frenzy of hiring and a tight labour market over the past few years, as “executives see the distinction between having people and having people with the right skills… For example, 50 per cent of all respondents are reducing their overall headcount, 46 per cent are dropping or reducing signing bonuses and 44 per cent are rescinding offers.”

More than 32,000 tech workers have been laid off in the US till July, including at Big Tech companies like Microsoft and Meta, and the worst has not been over yet, said the report.

India job cuts at 25K

In India, more than 25,000 startup workers have lost jobs since the pandemic and more than 12,000 have been fired this year, said the PwC report. “Consumer markets and technology, media and telecommunications companies, for example, are more likely to invest in automation to address labour shortages,” the PwC report mentioned.

At the same time, healthcare is seeing bigger talent challenges than other industries and is more focused on rehiring employees who have recently left.

The global consulting firm last month polled more than 700 US executives and board members across industries. With increasing economic uncertainty, 83 per cent of executives are focusing their business strategy on growth.

“On the whole, this generation of corporate leaders have minimal experience navigating a recession, yet with the possibility of one looming amid increasing geopolitical divides and skyrocketing inflation, they are bullish on their ability to handle what could be ahead,” said Kathryn Kaminsky, vice chair, trust solutions co-leader, PwC US.

Nearly two-thirds of businesses (63 per cent) have changed or are planning to change processes to address labour shortages, up from 56 per cent in January 2022, the report noted.