Raphael Stevens

People aged 18 and over waiting to be inoculated against Covid-19 at a vaccination centre at Radha Soami Satsang grounds being run by BLK-Max hospital on May 4, 2021 in New Delhi, India.Hindustan Times | Hindustan Times | Getty ImagesWith India experiencing a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, questions are being asked about how the country — which is home to the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer — got to this tragic point.India continues to report massive numbers of new infections. On Tuesday, it passed the grim milestone of having reported over 20 million Covid cases and at least 226,188 people have died from the virus, although the reported death toll is believed to be lower than the actual death toll.In the meantime, India’s vaccination program is struggling to make an impact and supplies are problematic, despite the country having halted vaccine exports in March in order to focus on domestic inoculations.The sharp rise in infections seen in India since February has been attributed to the allowing of a large religious festival and election rallies, as well as the spread of a more infectious variant of the virus. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his governing Bharatiya Janata Party have been criticized for a lack of caution and preparedness, and accused of putting politics and campaigning above public safety.A war of words over the government’s vaccination strategy has also ensued. Ruling lawmakers have been criticized for allowing millions of doses to be exported earlier in the year.To date, India has administered around 160 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine (the predominant shots being used are the AstraZeneca shot, produced locally as Covishield, as well as an indigenous vaccine called Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech). In April it approved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for use and the first batch of doses arrived at the start of May, although it has not yet been deployed.Only 30 million people have had the complete two doses of a Covid vaccine in India so far, government data shows. That’s a small number (just over 2%%) of India’s total population of 1.3 billion people — although around a quarter of that total are under 15 years old and, as such, are not eligible for a vaccine yet.Since May 1, anyone aged 18 or over is eligible for a Covid vaccine although this expansion of the vaccination program has been hampered given the shortages of doses that have been reported throughout the country by national media.People receive their Covid-19 vaccines from medical workers at a vaccination centre set up in the classroom of a government school on May 04, 2021 in New Delhi, India.Getty Images | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesDr. Chandrakant Lahariya, a doctor based in New Delhi who is also a vaccines, public policy and health systems expert, told CNBC Wednesday that India’s large adult population makes the immunization effort difficult.”Even if the projected supply was available, India has opened the vaccination to a far bigger population than probably any setting can expect the vaccines (to cover). It is essentially an outcome of limited supply and a vaccination policy which is not mindful of supplies. No amount of advanced planning could have assured that sort of supply, which is needed now with the opening of vaccination for 940 million people in India,” he said.Vaccine supplies are “unlikely to change drastically,” Lahariya said. “India needs anywhere between 200 to 250 million doses a month to function Covid-19 vaccination drives to full capacity and it has around 70-80 million doses a month. Clearly, there is a long way to get (to) that kind of supply,” he noted.Vaccine warsThe shortcomings in vaccine supplies has inevitably led to a deflection of blame with vaccine manufacturers in the firing line. Questions over vaccine prices, manufacturing capacity and the destination of supplies have beset the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, the Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech, the Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical company that manufactures Covaxin.Both have had their vaccine price structures (that is, different prices for doses destined for central government, state governments and private hospitals) criticized, which led the SII’s CEO to later reduce prices amid a public backlash.Adar Poonawalla, CEO of the SII which produces the Covid vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, said Sunday that the institute had been blamed for a vaccine shortage and scapegoated by politicians, but said it had not boosted capacity earlier because of an initial lack of orders.”I’ve been victimized very unfairly and wrongly,” he told the Financial Times on Monday, adding that he had not boosted capacity earlier because “there were no orders, we did not think we needed to make more than 1 billion doses a year.”Poonawalla noted that the Indian government had ordered 21 million doses of Covishield from the Serum Institute at the end of February but didn’t indicate when or if it would buy more, then it ordered an additional 110 million doses in March when infections started to rise.People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a dose of Covishield, a coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a vaccination center in New Delhi, India on May 04, 2021.Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty ImagesPoonawalla said that the Indian authorities had not expected to confront a second wave of cases and had, as such, not been prepared for the onslaught in new infections in late winter.He said that the country’s shortage of vaccine doses would continue through July, when production is expected to increase from about 60 to 70 million doses a month, to 100 million.For its part, the Indian government insists that it has, and is, ordering more vaccines to meet demand. On Monday, the government issued a statement in which it refuted media reports alleging that it had not placed any fresh orders for Covid vaccines since March, stating that “these media reports are completely incorrect, and are not based on facts.” It said it had advanced money to both the SII and Bharat Biotech for vaccines to be delivered in May, June and July.India’s Covid crisisRead CNBC’s latest coverage of India’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic:India accounts for 1 in 3 new Covid cases being recorded. Here is its second wave in 5 chartsIndia is the home of the world’s biggest producer of Covid vaccines. But it’s facing a major internal shortageIndia’s economy will likely contract this quarter as Covid cases soar, economists warnIndia could soon have another locally developed vaccine as the deadly Covid crisis shows no signs of slowingOn Tuesday, Poonawalla issued a statement in which he sought to calm tensions between the government and SII, noting that “vaccine manufacturing is a specialized process, it is therefore not possible to ramp up production overnight.””We also need to understand that the population of India is huge and to produce enough doses for all adults is not an easy task … We have been working with the government of India since April last year. We have got all kinds of support be it scientific, regulatory and financial,” he said. Poonawalla said that the SII had received total orders of over 260 million doses, without specifying the buyers.Asked whether the government had got its approach to vaccine procurement and production wrong, Lahariya noted that the government had become complacent, although the trajectory of the pandemic had been hard to predict.”To be fair, I believe there have been two surprises. Unlike a year ago, when Covid-19 vaccine availability was being forecasted around mid-2021, the vaccine became available a bit earlier. Second, the lull in Covid-19 cases in India sort of set the complacency at all levels,” he noted. Lahariya added that while many months were spent on prioritizing the target population for vaccination, the program had then been opened to all adults “too soon.””It has been an issue of hurried and arguably, politically influenced planning, while this should essentially be a public health decision. That’s why a written plan with details on various aspects, such as supply forecast, could have made the difference.”Modi’s futureHow the vaccination strategy will impact on Modi’s ratings long term remains to be seen. But there is already evidence that Modi’s ruling BJP are being made to pay for the Covid crisis at the polls.Modi’s party failed to win the key state of West Bengal at a regional election last weekend, and failed to win in three other state elections in April, although it retained power in the state of Assam.Dr. Manali Kumar from the Institute of Political Science at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland noted that “this second wave is a disaster created by the complacency of the Indian government, which is now busy controlling the narrative rather than tackling the problem.””Maybe the worst of the disaster that is now unfolding in India could have been avoided if restrictions on public and private gatherings had been left in place,” she noted, adding that “decades of neglecting investments in healthcare infrastructure and an electorate that has not prioritised public services are also to blame.”Prime Minister Modi has defended the government’s vaccination strategy, telling ministers in April that “those who are in the habit of doing (playing) politics, let them do so … I have been facing various allegations. We can’t stop those who are hell bent on doing politics. But we are committed to service to mankind, which we shall continue,” he said, the Times of India reported.He also noted that a previous peak in infections, last September, had been controlled at a time when vaccines were not available and track and tracing cases and mass testing had been relied upon. More

In this article.NSEIAn Indian naval officer walks past the logo of India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in Mumbai on November 9, 2016.Punit Paranjpe | AFP | Getty ImagesIndian banking shares jumped on Wednesday after the central bank introduced measures to boost lending as the coronavirus crisis continues to take its toll on the country.The Nifty Bank index was up 1.36% while the Nifty PSU index — which captures the performance of India’s public sector banks — rose 1.38%. They outperformed the benchmark Nifty 50, which was up only 0.61%.Shares of major lenders jumped after the announcement. Bank of Baroda traded 2.2% higher, IndusInd Bank added about 2%, HDFC Bank gained 0.8%, Axis Bank was up 2.05% while the State Bank of India advanced 0.85%.RBI announces measures to facilitate lendingThe Reserve Bank of India will monitor the economic impact of India’s second wave of Covid-19 infections and deploy all resources possible to ease the economic stress, governor Shaktikanta Das said on Wednesday during an unscheduled speech.His announcement came as India crossed another grim milestone on Wednesday. Coronavirus deaths rose by a record 3,780 in the last 24 hours, with total reported fatalities over 226,000, according to the latest data from the health ministry. On Tuesday, India became the second country after the United States to cross 20 million reported cases.The central bank governor announced plans to inject 500 billion rupees ($6.78 billion) of liquidity to ease access to emergency health services. The move would allow commercial banks to borrow money from the central bank through repurchase agreements, or repos, and lend it out to Covid-19-related businesses.To boost provision of immediate liquidity for ramping up Covid-related health-care infrastructure and services in the country, the central bank will open a liquidity window of 500 billion rupees ($6.78 billion), with tenors of up to three years at the repo rate that will be available until March 31, 2022, Das said.The repo rate is the key lending rate at which the RBI lends to commercial banks. It is currently at 4%.Das explained that under the scheme, banks can provide fresh loans to a variety of businesses and entities including vaccine manufacturers, importers and suppliers of vaccines and Covid-related drugs, as well as manufacturers and suppliers of oxygen and ventilators.Banks would be able to lend to borrowers directly or through intermediary financial institutions that are regulated by the central bank and the lenders are expected to create a “Covid loan book” under the scheme, according to the central bank governor.The RBI also announced other measures targeted at helping India’s micro, small and medium-sized businesses and financial entities at the grassroot level that are bearing the “biggest brunt” of the second wave of infections. That includes allowing certain small borrowers with exposures of up to 250 million rupees to restructure their loans by Sept. 30, 2021 — provided they did not restructure their loans last year under earlier programs and were classified as “standard” accounts as of March 31.Uncertain economic recoveryThe South Asian nation is currently facing a devastating second wave that has forced several states to go into lockdowns while others have stepped up social restrictions. On Tuesday, India crossed 20 million Covid-19 cases and its official death toll exceeded 222,000 fatalities.Economists have warned that the ongoing crisis will likely delay India’s economic recovery. Last year, a two-month national lockdown derailed growth and pushed the South Asian economy into a technical recession.Local media reports, citing sources, said that banks have been looking to the RBI for relief measures to help borrowers battle the second wave of Covid-19 and provide relief to lenders’ balance sheets in light of a potential surge in bad loans.India’s Covid crisisRead CNBC’s latest coverage of India’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic:India accounts for 1 in 3 new Covid cases being recorded. Here is its second wave in 5 chartsIndia is the home of the world’s biggest producer of Covid vaccines. But it’s facing a major internal shortageIndia’s economy will likely contract this quarter as Covid cases soar, economists warnIndia could soon have another locally developed vaccine as the deadly Covid crisis shows no signs of slowingDas also virtually met CEOs and managing directors of selected non-banking financial institutions and microfinance institutions on Monday to discuss, among other things, the potential stress on balance sheets of those firms.India’s central bank last cut its repo rate in May 2020 during an emergency meeting to counter the economic fallout from the month national lockdown.The RBI reduced the repo rate by 40 basis points in May and 75 basis points in March last year, reducing the benchmark lending rate by 115 basis points in 2020. In 2019, the central bank slashed rates by 135 basis points. More

The coronavirus economic recovery, continued tech adoption and increased demand for health products are three trends set to dominate consumer behavior in Asia in 2021.That’s according to new insights from consumer-focused private equity firm L Catterton, which has recorded an uptick in consumer confidence since the start of the year.”Consumer sentiment is better now than it was back in January,” Chinta Bhagat, managing partner for Asia at the firm, told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Wednesday. “Though this is not over yet.”In its latest consumer insights report, which surveyed more than 15,000 people in 16 countries globally, L Catterton found consumers in Asia are the most optimistic about the prospect of an economic recovery. The survey was conducted in February, prior to the recent resurgence in cases in India and some other parts of Southeast Asia.Some of the habits that we thought people would adopt during the Covid crisis are beginning to stick.Chinta Bhagatmanaging partner (Asia), L CattertonMore than one in 10 (11%) respondents in Asia said life was already back to normal, versus just 3% in the rest of the world. That figure was highest in China at 20%. Meanwhile, 43% said they thought the worst of the pandemic was over, compared with 23% in the rest of the world.Bhagat said that continued journey toward recovery would be the main factor dominating consumer behavior over the coming year. However, he noted that two associated trends would also likely continue. The first being digitization and the shift to online.A staff member wearing a face mask works at a pharmacy in Tonekabon, Iran, on April 26, 2021.Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images”We think this is more transformation than transition,” said Bhagat. “Some of the habits that we thought people would adopt during the Covid crisis are beginning to stick. There’s more stuff that’s going to be done more online than not.”Meanwhile, health has become a “very big issue,” he said, highlighting increased demand for vitamins and supplements as a key indicator.”Pretty much across the region, city by city, it’s the one thing that stood out as people are consuming more and are likely to continue to consume more,” he said.In 10 years’ time, you’re not going to have a single product business, everything’s going to be an experience, a product, a service all rolled into one.Chinta Bhagatmanaging partner (Asia), L CattertonBhagat’s comments come as L Catterton announced its first strategic investment in Indonesia.The company led a $56 million funding round in Social Bella, an omni-platform beauty start-up also backed by Singapore’s state-owned Temasek and venture capital firm Jungle Ventures.Bhagat said the deal reflects the company’s conviction in Asia’s continued consumption and demand for multi-channel options.”Our own view is in 10 years’ time you’re not going to have a single product business, everything’s going to be an experience, a product, a service all rolled into one,” said Bhagat.”We’re not alone. I think lots of other investors see the same things that we do.” More

The White Lion pub seen at Covent Garden, UK.SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty ImagesAs countries come out of lockdown, pub and restaurant owners have a simple plea for punters: honor your bookings.  Drinkers and diners who fail to cancel before blowing off a reservation were estimated to cost the British hospitality industry £16 billion ($22.2 billion) in 2019. Now, after more than a year of diminished trade, what was once a social sin could prove to be a poison pill.Pubs, whose appeal lies in providing a license to let loose, are uniquely vulnerable to Covid-19 restrictions. The U.K. lost more than 2,700 of them in January and February alone, on top of 12,000 or so more that research consultancy CGA reckons had to shut their doors for good last year. That’s more than one pub going bust every hour.In America, the situation is equally dire. The National Restaurant Association estimates that 110,000 eating and drinking places had shut for the long term — if not for good — by Dec. 2020, as the industry lost out on almost a quarter of a trillion dollars.Of those eating and drinking places, bars and taverns were hit hardest, with those that stayed open seeing sales fall by 65% on the year.Even if President Joe Biden’s vaccine drive and infrastructure plans lay the groundwork for a miracle rebound, the association says gains this year “won’t be nearly enough” to make up for the sector’s Covid-19 losses.Data compiled by reservations firm OpenTable lay bare the damage done. “Even more so now than ever as restaurants reopen,” said EMEA Vice President Lucy Taylor in a statement, “it is important we are all aware of the impact that no-shows can have.”When customers don’t warn a pub or restaurant that they can’t make it to a booking, the venue is left holding the bag. Foursquare Group, an independent business advocacy based in the U.K., explains: “Hospitality venues use their booking information to schedule staff and ensure that they have enough stock to meet their orders. When a customer fails to arrive for their allocated booking, it’s almost impossible for a restaurant to resell that table without notice.” Egil Johansen, owner of The Kenton, a multi-award-winning pub in Hackney in east London, told CNBC in a phone call about his experience of no-shows when English pubs briefly reopened in December. “We were fully booked, and one Friday 30 people didn’t show up. We’d been turning people away. Those no-shows represented around half our indoor capacity,” he said.Johansen called the loss of business “devastating,” highlighting some punters’ habit of booking tables at different venues for the same time slot, picking one and not canceling the others, as especially disheartening.Covid-19 notwithstanding, around 60% of new restaurants didn’t last out their first year before the pandemic hit. Now, those establishments that have survived walk a fine line to keep the lights on: compliance with social-distancing rules guts the number of people businesses can serve, and in many cases forces them to pare down their trading hours.Venues are able to serve small groups outside again in England, and there is hope the sector can recover — the latest data from CGA shows nearly half of English adults had already returned to hospitality within a week of reopening. At The Kenton, Johansen says he was “very nervous” waiting to open his doors on April 12. The Monday before, he built a roof over the beer garden in case visitors were put off by the city’s notoriously fickle weather.In a bid to reduce the number of no-showers, Foursquare Group has launched the #SaveMySeat campaign, calling on the public to pay a deposit when they make a table reservation. Louise Kissack, the group’s non-executive director of hospitality, says the aim is “to help customers understand that when your local independent restaurant asks you for a small deposit on booking, it’s simply their way of safeguarding their business and protecting their future.”For its part, OpenTable also penalizes people who don’t turn up. Lucy Taylor explains: “repeat offenders who don’t show up for a reservation four times within 12 months are prohibited from making future reservations via the app and website.”Johansen has taken a different tack — one he calls a “deterrent, not a deposit.” The Kenton doesn’t take deposits on booking, but it does ask for visitors’ card details. “No money leaves your account, unless you don’t turn up,” he says. “The regulars don’t mind it, since they’re used to putting a card behind the bar anyway. If people are serious about showing up, they’ll provide their details.”It’s still early days in England’s reopening, but when Johansen spoke to CNBC, the Kenton had been at full capacity every night, with no no-shows. On that first night, he says, “the mood just lifted.”Pub attendance has caused him one problem, though. “I’ve had to put in another order with my supplier,” he laughs. “I might not be able to meet the demand otherwise.” More

Robert Herjavec, “Shark Tank” co-host and Herjavec Group founder, said the pandemic year has reinforced a basic lesson about speed as a success ingredient: small business owners need to move quickly and make tough decisions to survive.The speed of decision-making accelerated during Covid-19 in an unprecedented way, but Herjavec says as the U.S. economy booms and states lift Covid restrictions, the decision entrepreneurs now need to move quickly on isn’t cutting back or carefully growing. It is time to make a big, bullish bet on the future. Businesses that let fear linger will lose.The “brutally realistic” thinking required from owners during the past year is the past and the U.S. is entering a boom period entrepreneurs need to embrace. “I am highly, highly bullish,” Herjavec told CNBC at its Small Business Playbook event on Tuesday. “I think we will see one of the greatest [periods of] growth in the economy we have seen in our lifetimes.”More from CNBC’s Small Business PlaybookHow to get billion-dollar retail to stock your million-dollar product ideaBiden is targeting Amazons of world in tax plan, so why is small business worried?Main Street sees revenue gains ahead, but remains on edge: CNBC surveyThe recent CNBC|SurveyMonkey Small Business Survey for Q2 2021 found an increase in small business confidence, but just a small one, and an overall sentiment reading that remains net negative more than a year after Covid. More business owners are expecting revenue gains and, in the hardest-hit sectors, such as food, hiring is expected to rise.”Human beings never think it will get as bad as it’s going to be and never recover quickly enough,” Herjavec said. “That’s what I am seeing now. People are not ready for the expansion, being too conservative, not bullish enough.”When optimism was the wrong emotionThe “Shark Tank” co-host may be known for his optimism and business confidence, but he didn’t shy away from revealing during the CNBC small business event how much fear and uncertainty he experienced during the pandemic, describing his initial emotions from last February as “unbelievable fear.””Everyone said to me, ‘you’re a ‘Shark’ and have a big business, relatively big business, but fear stopped us for about three days,” Herjavec said. He cited the advice of his co-host Barbara Corcoran, who often says the difference between successful people and others is “not that they don’t feel sorry for themselves, but how long they allow themselves to wallow in misery.””For about a week, I was doing a lot of wallowing. I am a pretty tough guy and not a lot of things scare me, but uncertainty in business can be very destructive. I kind of wallowed for a while but then went full action ahead.”Robert Herjavec, CEO, Herjavec GroupScott Mlyn | CNBCHerjavec’s core business of cybersecurity has been a pandemic winner as more of the world moved online, but he also deals with many portfolio investments through his “Shark Tank” deals and he says that one risk during the pandemic was portfolio businesses sticking with “unfounded optimism.””It kills a business,” he said. “I am a very optimistic guy, I wake up every day believing tomorrow will be better than yesterday, and all that stuff, but when you’re facing a crisis it is about reality, not optimism. … We told these businesses, ‘don’t expect the world to end, but be prepared for the worst.'”During the pandemic too many small businesses got into trouble because they were afraid to cut costs, afraid to go too far. “We saw a lot of small businesses getting in trouble saying, ‘maybe we’ll only lay off a few … or don’t need to do layoffs … maybe things will come back.”Herjavec set these business owners straight: “We encouraged people to take a little more of a pessimistic view, because in a crisis, nobody can help you except yourself. … When things are bad you have to have realistic optimism and we saw lots of small businesses just believe … things are going to get better.”But now he says dealing with reality is totally different. A year after Herjavec and his CFO sat down and ran through a “black swan” scenario to realistically assess how long they could survive, business owners need to be at “the completely other end of the spectrum,” he says. More

In this articleGTGoodyear Tire & Rubber CEO Rich Kramer told CNBC Tuesday that he doesn’t expect a looming shortage in rubber to hurt the tire manufacturer.Concerns over a low supply of rubber, made from rubber trees mostly grown in Southeast Asia, is the latest problem facing automakers already struggling with a lack of semiconductors.When asked if the company has enough of the material to produce tires for cars, Kramer said, “short answer is: We do.””Essentially what you see happening is … either speculation or it’s a lot of even China [putting] rubber in warehouses,” Kramer said in an interview with Jim Cramer on “Mad Money.””It’s something that’s always out there, a lot of speculation going on,” he added. “I can never say never about something that could happen to southeast Asian rubber trees, but that’s really not been a problem for us, and the team’s been managing it brilliantly.”Shares of Goodyear rose 3% on Tuesday before closing at $18.28.Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBCWant to take a deep dive into Cramer’s world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter – Jim Cramer Twitter – Facebook – InstagramQuestions, comments, suggestions for the “Mad Money” website? [email protected] More