Deteriorating financial condition of Hospitality sector in India.

In the last few weeks, many experts have highlighted that India may have unintentionally flattened the wrong curve. Who could forget the epic interview of Mr. Rajiv Bajaj who even termed the lockdown as a ‘draconian’ one. But, it’s not about arguing over the success or failure of lockdown. It’s about the economic revival which depends upon the industries coming back to normal. In this scenario, one industry which has suffered the most is hospitality and the one which will take more time and efforts to revive is also hospitality.

But, the stimulus package declared by the government did not favor hospitality’s revival at all. As a result, the entire sector is shedding tears of blood. Just to give you a glimpse of how worse the situation is, even the 9/11 attacks and the great recession of 2008 didn’t affect the hospitality sector so badly that the pandemic has done.

But, more importantly many countries realized this and declared special relief packages for hospitality sector. But, India hasn’t done that yet. With blocked revenues and demand boost not visible in near future that’s a sort of need of the hour.

Why is This Important?

Occupancies have gone down by more than 50% in March (as compared to same month last year) and the revenue has declined by 64% (compared to February) and this has pushed the industry into doldrums as per certain reports. Bookings being constantly cancelled whether for leisure or business conferences, have further added to the woes. And the situation doesn’t seem to improve in near future because of travel restrictions imposed by India and various other countries.

According to the estimates of some experts, the revenue of Indian hospitality industry will decline by Rs. 90,000 crores for the year 2020. This is going to directly impact our economy because the hospitality sector contributes 9.2% to the GDP and is also the third largest forex earner in the country (with $29 billion). The sector also employs more than 4 crore people! So, if the sector falls, this is going to create a huge impact.

Looking at the importance of this sector to their respective economies, countries like Singapore and Canada have already taken measures to keep the sector intact. Where Singapore has waived the license fee for its hotels for rest of the year, Canada has deferred income tax payments for six months. Indian policymakers need to intervene in a similar fashion before it’s too late. But, will they? We’ll have to wait and watch.

Today’s Knowledge Sharing: About Health Insurance Plans

For humans, their greatest asset is health. Most of us might have heard the famous quote “Health is Wealth”. Humans are the greatest asset for companies as well as for their family, and assets are exposed to risk that their ability of generating profit may be lost or decreased. This is a monetary or economic risk attached to human assets, and this is where the role of health insurance comes in.

What is Health Insurance?

Health insurance policies aim to compensate the medical expenses through which a policy holder suffers during any medical emergency. The policy provides compensation for expenses incurred by the insured in case of illness or injury. 

There are several institutions who are providing the service of health insurance in India.

Continue Reading - Types of Health insurance