As governments around the world take special measures to confront the COVID-19 global health crisis, people are grateful for their actions. In the end, every leader is responsible for his or her own choices, and leaders, at all levels, will have to make tough decisions that have consequences. What leaders need is courage, including the courage to prioritize. As soldiers say: Those who defend everything in effect defend nothing. If everything is a priority, then nothing becomes a priority. So I urge our leaders in both government and business to be brave. At times of crisis, it is not always…

Prices of most agricultural commodities have slipped below their minimum support prices (MSP) due to issues such as chronic labour shortage and stoppage of transport following the 21-day nationwide lockdown brought into force on March 25 to contain the coronavirus (Covid-19). The situationhas created supply pressure at mandis close to the farms, as cultivators are not able to get their produce to the much larger Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) located quite some distance away. Worse, with very few hands working on the fields, a large part of the crop has not been harvested and risks…

Go back to basics with these proven methods of effective marketing. April 7, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Startups operate under extremely tight budgets, which makes it almost impossible for them to set aside a marketing budget. With their tight budgets, they have to pay employees and rent, buy raw materials and cater to their huge overhead costs. Ignoring marketing and advertising becomes an easier option for them. But then, without vigorous marketing strategies, startups do not stand any chance of growth or even staying afloat in today’s extremely competitive market. If you…

The Life Insurance Council on Monday said all the insurers are duty-bound to settle claims if a death occurs due to COVID-19. All life insurers, both public and private, are committed to process any death claim pertaining to COVID-19 at the earliest,the Council said in a statement. It said the clauseof Force Majeure’will not apply in case of COVID-19 death claims. Force Majeure is described as an event or effect that can be neither anticipated nor controlled. ALSO READ: Coronavirus impact: Private insurers bat for standard treatment rates…

Pharma sector funds are seeing sharp uptick in returns as China’s recoveryfrom coronavirus outbreak has eased concerns on supply chain issues, and fund managers are expecting pharma companies’ toplines to gain amid high domestic and global demand for hydroxychloroquine, anti-malarial drug considered key in treatment of coronavirus. According to data from Value Research, the one-week returns of pharma sector funds were 6.3 per cent. Among the equity categories, it is the only category to have given positive returns. Fund managers say pharma funds face near-term challenges, but there are positive triggers with…

Many marketers will tell you their engagement rates need to improve. Here’s how to not be one of them. April 3, 2020 5 min readOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The way people interact with your emails tells you everything about your marketing strategy. Are you sending valuable content? You’ll see the feedback reflected in your open and click rates. Is your email list accurate? Your bounce rates, spam complaints and other metrics will show you. If those numbers aren’t making you happy, it’s in your power to improve them.  To see where you stand, let’s take…

The Inside the Mind of the CEO interview series explores a wide range of critical decisions faced by chief executives around the world. For more insight, see PwC’s CEO Survey. Nigeria is widely viewed as coming late to the mobile money revolution that swept East Africa in the 2010s. But transferring money today in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, could scarcely be easier — shopkeepers, tradespeople, department stores, satellite TV companies, and nearly every other merchant accepts payment via mobile phone transfer. That’s in large part thanks to Guaranty Trust Bank (GTBank), which, under the leadership of Segun Agbaje, helped popularize…

The Container Corporation of India (Concor) stock has shed 49 per cent since the highs of February on worries related to the purchase of land from the railways and the disruption caused by the outbreak of Covid-19 on global trade. Even before the current meltdown, the stock was on a downtrend due to a possible Rs 8,000-crore deal with the Indian Railways, which entails buying the latter’s land on which the containerised cargo transporter operates a majority of its terminals. The immediate impact, however, is from the demand slowdown due to…