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Online ticket booking platform BookMyShow has laid off or furloughed 270 employees as it expects its revenue to be “greatly reduced” in the coming months, hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.

Several tech-led businesses including Ola, Uber, Zomato and Swiggy have laid off hundreds of employees in the past few weeks as they struggle against reduced earnings and uncertain business environment.

“We have had to resort to the task of reducing our costs to align them with what we believe will be greatly reduced revenues in the months to come…Out of 1,450 employees at BookMyShow in India and globally, about 270 employees across various functions and teams, will be impacted through this exercise,” BookMyShow chief executive Ashish Hemrajani said in an email to employees.

This includes those who will be put on furloughs, along with those who we will have to part ways with, at least, as of now, he added.

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He said the company has tried to do it best to offer financial support, continued health insurance cover and outplacement support

Ola Electric Mobility (Ola Electric), the ride-hailing firm’s electric vehicle arm, has acquired Etergo BV, an Amsterdam-based electric scooter original equipment manufacturer. Ola did not disclose the amount it was paying to acquire Etergo, which was last valued at about $90 million and which has raised total funding of $20 million, according to the sources.

This acquisition marks Ola’s entry into the premium electric two-wheeler market, both globally and nationally. Ola Electric aims to launch its global electric two-wheeler in India in 2021. This acquisition will further bolster Ola Electric’s strong engineering and design capabilities with the Etergo team’s extensive vehicle development experience with leading automotive companies like Tesla, General Motors, Ferrari, Jaguar, and BMW. Etergo’s team will continue to be based out of Amsterdam as they join Ola Electric. Etergo has about 70 employees in the Netherlands and “the company would play a key role in providing the technology” to help Ola launch its first electric two-wheeler next year, said a person familiar with the development. The move would also put the firm in direct competition with electric two-wheeler makers such as Ather Energy, Hero Electric and TVS Motor Company.

Reliance Power Netherlands BV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Power Ltd, has won a lawsuit in the Central Jakarta district court of Indonesia challenging the validity of Singapore arbitration award favouring Reliance Power.

Kokos Jiang and Prestige Capital Holdings, who were respondents in the arbitration, had filed a lawsuit in Jakarta court requesting nullification of the entire arbitration award.

As per the Singapore arbitration award, arbitrators had ordered Kokos Jiang (earlier known as Kokos Leo Lim) and Prestige Capital Holdings Ltd in Seychelles to pay Reliance Power Netherlands BV a sum of 43.2 million dollars along with default interest.

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The total dues payable by Kokos Jiang and Prestige Capital Holdings stands at 68 million dollars as on the day of judgement. With this judgement, the Indonesian court has further reinforced the ongoing award execution process.

“Reliance Power is on track to execute the award for a sum of 68 million dollars (Rs 510 crore) during FY 2020-21,” it said in regulatory filings at Indian stock exchanges on Tuesday.

Reliance Power

IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) has written to the government, asking for measures to support its member entities with the pandemic looking set to impact the industry in the near term.

Nasscom has asked for the abolition of OSPs (other service providers) under the Department of Telecom, under which certain kinds of work (such as voice calls) cannot be shifted to employees’ homes. This will enable a longer term work-from-home (WFH) scenario, which several firms like Tata Consultancy Services have already spoken about.

While the industry has received an extension in relaxation of OSP norms until July 31, these have to be abolished altogether if WFH is to become a new normal. Keshav Murugesh, CEO of WNS Global Services, said: “Nasscom is already working with the government to leverage this crisis and create new models of engagement, including changing labour laws.”

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The complexities in asking for changes to labour laws will arise once it requires tinkering with aspects that fall under states’ jurisdiction.

The key assumption in labour laws is that workers go

Two of India’s top automakers have reported first cases of coronavirus among their workers in less than two weeks of opening up after the government relaxed nationwide lockdown rules.

Maruti Suzuki India, which sells one in every two cars in the country, has said one worker at Manesar plant had tested positive and there was the possibility of a second case. A Maruti spokesperson said “more information was being sought”.

Hyundai Motor India, the country’s second largest car manufacturer, said on Sunday three of its employees have tested positive for Covid-19. And, test results of 16 more workers who possibly came into contact with the infected employees are expected over the next two days, a senior government official told Reuters.

Hyundai said the company started operations at its Irungattukottai plant, near Chennai, on May 8, and within the first week of operations three of its employees had shown mild symptoms of cough and cold. The firm said those employees were immediately asked to meet medical expert team for further evaluation.

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“They subsequently tested positive

Facing higher costs to keep workers and customers safe, suppressed demand for an indefinite period, a cap on the number of customers that can be served — all these factors have led some businesses to impose a coronavirus-related fee aimed at getting customers to share some of their expenses.

While some businesses are cutting services and jobs, the stakes of adding surcharges can be higher for small businesses, which tend to operate on thinner profit margins and smaller cash reserves, as they reopen after weeks of shut down and are made to confront a cost-revenue ratio that is increasingly out of whack, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

Billy Yuzar, the owner of Kiko Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Lounge in West Plains, Missouri, opted to add a surcharge to diners’ tabs as a simple way to compensate for higher food prices at his restaurant, than raising menu prices, because he said he could update the fee in the business’s point-of-sale computer in one step.

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Regular customers were supportive, he said, but when a photo