ˇ · msme ministries among oth- ... prakash fell sick and died mid-way near chhattisgarh. the...

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W ith tens of thousands of migrants workers begin- ning to return to their respec- tive States, the fear of corona spreading thick and fast — as was contended by the Home Ministry while repeatedly opposing their movement — is coming true. Seven of these workers who returned to Uttar Pradesh from Maharashtra have tested positive. Five migrant workers have tested positive in Odisha and two in Chhattisgarh. Nine migrant workers from Bihar tested positive in Bangalore. The Government had told the Supreme Court in the past that there were fears that one third of the total migrants could be infected. However, there was test carried out before starting the process of trans- porting them by train. According to Basti’s district magistrate Ashutosh Niranjan, the seven labourers had trav- elled from Maharashtra via Jhansi in Government buses to Basti tested positive. They were quarantined at a Government shelter in Haraiyya area. Their samples were taken and they have tested positive for Covid-19. Heavy sanitisa- tion of premises has been done where they were quarantined. “The labourers have been shifted to a community health centre (CHC) in Munderwa area. Out of the total 31 cases in the district, 1 Covid-19 patient has died while 13 patients have been discharged from the hospital after they recovered. There are presently 17 active cases,” Basti DM said in a statement. UP was one of the first States to send buses to bring back migrants. The UP Government has made plans to bring back 10-12 lakh migrant workers home from different parts in the country, especial- ly Gujarat, Maharashtra, Telangana and Punjab. On Thursday, nine migrant workers tested positive in Bangalore. Their roommate was a 54-year-old migrant worker from Bihar who tested positive on Wednesday. With no mass scale testing done in case of migrants and quaran- tine being the only basis for their movement back to home, the fear they could be carrier of the virus has kept everyone worried. T he coronavirus cases saw a back-to-back second day of 2, 000 plus rise in numbers with Punjab registering its highest single day count of 187 cases. Overall, the number of cases pushed the country’s total tally to 39,242 and death count of 1,300 with 77 mortalities in a day on Saturday. Punjab’s count has doubled in the last four days due to surge in cases following arrival of nearly 3,500 Sikh pilgrims from Nanded in Maharashtra. Nearly 400 of the total cases in the State are linked to the pil- grims. Nearly 4,000 pilgrims were stranded at Hazur Sahib Gurudwara in Nanded from where they were brought in 90 buses to Punjab and sent to home quarantine after a nor- mal screening. An alarming number of these people have now tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, doubling the total number of Punjab cases in just four days at 772. Nearly half of the total infected persons are linked to the Nanded pilgrimage. The figure of total death in the State is 20. Thirty two of the 187 pil- grims who tested positive on Saturday belong to just one dis- trict — Hoshiarpur. Punjab Health Minister Balbir Sidhu has accused Maharashtra authorities of being careless, saying none of the around 4,000 pilgrims were tested for the coronavirus despite them being stranded there for around a month. Maharashtra has rebutted the accusation and said the pil- grims may have been infected on way to Punjab when they halted at Indore. P rime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a series of meetings with key Ministers, including Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah and senior officials of economic Ministries to work out the second stimulus pack- age which may, among others, comprise relief for small scale businessmen impacted by the countrywide lockdown aimed to contain the spread of coro- navirus pandemic. The Prime Minister will also have follow up meetings with Ministers of key eco- nomic Ministries such as Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME), accord- ing to Government officials. The Finance Ministry, which deferred release of monthly GST collection num- bers on Friday, also gave a detailed presentation to the PM later in the day on the state of economy and several initia- tives that it plans to undertake to stimulate Indian economy and reset the flow of money. The PM already had meet- ings with different Ministries, including civil aviation, labour and power, on Friday. He had detailed delibera- tion with Commerce and MSME Ministries among oth- ers on Thursday with focus on attracting both domestic and overseas investment and revival of small businesses in the coun- try so that the recovery process is hastened. In view of continued state of lockdown with economic activities almost at standstill, a repeat dose of relief measures for the smaller business seg- ment and a stimulus package for India Inc is on the anvil and may be announced shortly, sources said. I ndore Police on Saturday found 18 people, most of them migrant workers, crammed inside a cement mixer-laden truck headed towards Uttar Pradesh from Maharashtra, an official said. All of them were sent to a shelter for medical examina- tion and a bus was being organised for their further transit, he said. A video of workers emerging from the small hole of the cement- mixer in the presence of police has gone viral on social media. “During the routine check-up at Panth Piplai vil- lage, about 35 kms from Indore, we stopped a truck laden with a cement-mixer on suspicion. After opening the lid, we found 18 people inside,” Traffic Police sub inspector Amit Kumar Yadav told PTI. He said the 18 people included fourteen migrant labourers and four employees of the truck owner. New Delhi: Union Home Ministry on Saturday clarified that buses are not allowed in Orange Zones and they can run in Green Zones with 50 per cent passengers to maintain social distancing norms. In Orange Zones, taxis and cab services like Uber and Ola are allowed with two passengers and a driver. A 44-year-old Odisha migrant worker died mid- way while returning from Surat to his home by a bus on Saturday. He was identified as Prakash Chandra Gaud, a res- ident of Narayanpur under Sorada block in Ganjam dis- trict. As per reports, 55 Odisha migrant workers, all from dif- ferent places in Ganjam district, were returning from Surat after hiring a bus two days back. Prakash fell sick and died mid- way near Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police intercepted the bus and sent the body for postmortem. Prakash’s funeral was also conducted in the neighbouring State. While the exact cause of the death was yet to be ascer- tained, Prakash’s family said he died due to some health issues. In another incident, a per- son was killed and another injured when a bus carrying more than 50 returnees from Surat met with an accident on Saturday evening. The mishap took place in Kalinga Ghat in Bhanjanagar of Ganjam dis- trict. The bus named as ‘Shree Patel’ bearing registration num- ber GJ18X2693. The bus carrying migrants was en route to Ganjam dis- trict. T he State Government would take action against the private hospitals which are not providing critical services to non-Covid-19 patients, said an order of the Health Department on Saturday. “It has come to the notice that some hospitals in the pri- vate sector are hesitating in providing critical services such as dialysis, blood transfusion, chemotherapy and institution- al deliveries to their regular patients either on account of fear of contracting Covid-19 or they are keeping their hospi- tals/ clinics closed. It is also noticed that at many places hospitals/ clinics are insisting on a Covid-19 test before pro- viding services. This is not acceptable,” the order said. All private hospitals and clinics were directed to keep designated isolation units to accommodate critically ill sus- pected corona patients until their conditions are stabilised for transfer to Covid Hospitals after testing. The Government directed the hospitals to remain func- tional and ensure that anyone needing any essential critical service is not denied the facil- ity. “Noncompliance (of the guideline) will be viewed seri- ously and action as per provi- sions of law including cancel- lation of the registration of the defaulter hospital/nursing home will be initiated without further notice,” the order added. T he number of Covid-19- infected persons in the State surged to 157 after eight more persons tested positive for the deadly virus on Saturday. The latest case is a 62-year- old man from Bari block in Jajpur district. He had remained in quarantine due to his recent travel history to Kolkata. He was asymptomatic. Earlier in the day, seven cases were reported from the district which included a 48 - year-old man, a 45-year-old man, a 28-year-old man, a 56- year-old man, a 63-year-old man, a 24-year-old woman and a 60-year-old woman. With this, the number pos- itive cases in Jajpur district reached 48 and surpassed Khordha district (47 positives). Jajpur has also the highest number of active cases (47) against Baleswar’s 17, Bhubaneswar’s 15 and Sundargarh’s five. However, Balangir was added to the list of affected dis- tricts when two youths, who had returned from Tamil Nadu, tested positive on Friday. The patients are a 22-year-old youth and a18-year-old boy, resi- dents of Lekharia village of the district . On Saturday, one more person recovered from the dis- ease and tested negative. With this, the total number of per- sons who have recovered from the disease reached 56. Out of the total 157 cases, 56 persons have recovered, one has died and 100 are undergoing treatment at special Covid Hospitals, said reports.

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Page 1: ˇ · MSME Ministries among oth- ... Prakash fell sick and died mid-way near Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police ... defaulter hospital/nursing home will be initiated without

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With tens of thousands ofmigrants workers begin-

ning to return to their respec-tive States, the fear of coronaspreading thick and fast — aswas contended by the HomeMinistry while repeatedlyopposing their movement — iscoming true.

Seven of these workerswho returned to Uttar Pradeshfrom Maharashtra have testedpositive. Five migrant workershave tested positive in Odisha

and two in Chhattisgarh. Ninemigrant workers from Bihartested positive in Bangalore.

The Government had toldthe Supreme Court in the pastthat there were fears that onethird of the total migrantscould be infected. However,there was test carried out beforestarting the process of trans-porting them by train.

According to Basti’s districtmagistrate Ashutosh Niranjan,the seven labourers had trav-elled from Maharashtra viaJhansi in Government buses to

Basti tested positive. They werequarantined at a Governmentshelter in Haraiyya area.

Their samples were takenand they have tested positivefor Covid-19. Heavy sanitisa-tion of premises has been donewhere they were quarantined.

“The labourers have beenshifted to a community healthcentre (CHC) in Munderwaarea. Out of the total 31 casesin the district, 1 Covid-19patient has died while 13patients have been discharged

from the hospital after theyrecovered. There are presently17 active cases,” Basti DM saidin a statement.

UP was one of the firstStates to send buses to bringback migrants. The UPGovernment has made plans tobring back 10-12 lakh migrantworkers home from differentparts in the country, especial-ly Gujarat, Maharashtra,Telangana and Punjab.

On Thursday, nine migrantworkers tested positive inBangalore. Their roommatewas a 54-year-old migrantworker from Bihar who testedpositive on Wednesday. Withno mass scale testing done incase of migrants and quaran-tine being the only basis fortheir movement back to home,the fear they could be carrier ofthe virus has kept everyoneworried.

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The coronavirus cases saw aback-to-back second day of

2, 000 plus rise in numbers withPunjab registering its highestsingle day count of 187 cases.Overall, the number of casespushed the country’s total tallyto 39,242 and death count of1,300 with 77 mortalities in aday on Saturday.

Punjab’s count has doubledin the last four days due tosurge in cases following arrivalof nearly 3,500 Sikh pilgrimsfrom Nanded in Maharashtra.Nearly 400 of the total cases inthe State are linked to the pil-grims.

Nearly 4,000 pilgrims werestranded at Hazur SahibGurudwara in Nanded fromwhere they were brought in 90buses to Punjab and sent tohome quarantine after a nor-mal screening. An alarming

number of these people havenow tested positive for thedeadly coronavirus, doublingthe total number of Punjabcases in just four days at 772.

Nearly half of the totalinfected persons are linked tothe Nanded pilgrimage. Thefigure of total death in the Stateis 20.

Thirty two of the 187 pil-grims who tested positive onSaturday belong to just one dis-

trict — Hoshiarpur.Punjab Health Minister

Balbir Sidhu has accusedMaharashtra authorities ofbeing careless, saying none ofthe around 4,000 pilgrims weretested for the coronavirusdespite them being strandedthere for around a month.Maharashtra has rebutted theaccusation and said the pil-grims may have been infectedon way to Punjab when theyhalted at Indore.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday held a

series of meetings with keyMinisters, including UnionFinance Minister NirmalaSitharaman, Home MinisterAmit Shah and senior officialsof economic Ministries to workout the second stimulus pack-age which may, among others,comprise relief for small scalebusinessmen impacted by thecountrywide lockdown aimedto contain the spread of coro-navirus pandemic.

The Prime Minister willalso have follow up meetingswith Ministers of key eco-nomic Ministries such asMicro, Small & MediumEnterprises (MSME), accord-ing to Government officials.

The Finance Ministry,which deferred release ofmonthly GST collection num-bers on Friday, also gave a

detailed presentation to thePM later in the day on the stateof economy and several initia-tives that it plans to undertaketo stimulate Indian economyand reset the flow of money.

The PM already had meet-ings with different Ministries,including civil aviation, labourand power, on Friday.

He had detailed delibera-tion with Commerce andMSME Ministries among oth-ers on Thursday with focus onattracting both domestic andoverseas investment and revivalof small businesses in the coun-try so that the recovery processis hastened.

In view of continued stateof lockdown with economicactivities almost at standstill, arepeat dose of relief measuresfor the smaller business seg-ment and a stimulus packagefor India Inc is on the anvil andmay be announced shortly,sources said.

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Indore Police on Saturdayfound 18 people, most of

them migrant workers,crammed inside a cementmixer-laden truck headedtowards Uttar Pradesh fromMaharashtra, an official said.

All of them were sent to ashelter for medical examina-tion and a bus was beingorganised for their furthertransit, he said. A video ofworkers emerging from thesmall hole of the cement-

mixer in the presence of policehas gone viral on social media.

“During the routinecheck-up at Panth Piplai vil-lage, about 35 kms fromIndore, we stopped a truckladen with a cement-mixer onsuspicion. After opening thelid, we found 18 people inside,”Traffic Police sub inspectorAmit Kumar Yadav told PTI.

He said the 18 peopleincluded fourteen migrantlabourers and four employeesof the truck owner.

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New Delhi: Union HomeMinistry on Saturday clarifiedthat buses are not allowed inOrange Zones and they can runin Green Zones with 50 percent passengers to maintainsocial distancing norms. InOrange Zones, taxis and cabservices like Uber and Ola areallowed with two passengersand a driver.

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A44-year-old Odishamigrant worker died mid-

way while returning from Suratto his home by a bus onSaturday.

He was identified asPrakash Chandra Gaud, a res-ident of Narayanpur underSorada block in Ganjam dis-trict.

As per reports, 55 Odishamigrant workers, all from dif-ferent places in Ganjam district,were returning from Surat afterhiring a bus two days back.Prakash fell sick and died mid-

way near Chhattisgarh.The Chhattisgarh police

intercepted the bus and sent thebody for postmortem. Prakash’sfuneral was also conducted inthe neighbouring State.

While the exact cause ofthe death was yet to be ascer-tained, Prakash’s family said hedied due to some health issues.

In another incident, a per-son was killed and anotherinjured when a bus carryingmore than 50 returnees fromSurat met with an accident onSaturday evening. The mishaptook place in Kalinga Ghat inBhanjanagar of Ganjam dis-trict.

The bus named as ‘ShreePatel’ bearing registration num-ber GJ18X2693.

The bus carrying migrantswas en route to Ganjam dis-trict.

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The State Governmentwould take action against

the private hospitals which arenot providing critical servicesto non-Covid-19 patients, saidan order of the HealthDepartment on Saturday.

“It has come to the noticethat some hospitals in the pri-vate sector are hesitating inproviding critical services suchas dialysis, blood transfusion,chemotherapy and institution-al deliveries to their regularpatients either on account offear of contracting Covid-19 orthey are keeping their hospi-tals/ clinics closed. It is alsonoticed that at many places

hospitals/ clinics are insistingon a Covid-19 test before pro-viding services. This is notacceptable,” the order said.

All private hospitals andclinics were directed to keepdesignated isolation units toaccommodate critically ill sus-pected corona patients untiltheir conditions are stabilisedfor transfer to Covid Hospitalsafter testing.

The Government directedthe hospitals to remain func-tional and ensure that anyoneneeding any essential criticalservice is not denied the facil-ity.

“Noncompliance (of theguideline) will be viewed seri-ously and action as per provi-sions of law including cancel-lation of the registration of thedefaulter hospital/nursinghome will be initiated withoutfurther notice,” the orderadded.

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The number of Covid-19-infected persons in the

State surged to 157 after eightmore persons tested positive forthe deadly virus on Saturday.

The latest case is a 62-year-old man from Bari block inJajpur district. He hadremained in quarantine due tohis recent travel history toKolkata. He was asymptomatic.

Earlier in the day, sevencases were reported from thedistrict which included a 48 -year-old man, a 45-year-oldman, a 28-year-old man, a 56-year-old man, a 63-year-oldman, a 24-year-old woman

and a 60-year-old woman.With this, the number pos-

itive cases in Jajpur districtreached 48 and surpassedKhordha district (47 positives).Jajpur has also the highestnumber of active cases (47)against Baleswar’s 17,Bhubaneswar’s 15 andSundargarh’s five.

However, Balangir wasadded to the list of affected dis-tricts when two youths, whohad returned from Tamil Nadu,tested positive on Friday. Thepatients are a 22-year-old youthand a18-year-old boy, resi-dents of Lekharia village of thedistrict .

On Saturday, one moreperson recovered from the dis-ease and tested negative. Withthis, the total number of per-sons who have recovered fromthe disease reached 56.

Out of the total 157 cases,56 persons have recovered,one has died and 100 areundergoing treatment at specialCovid Hospitals, said reports.

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Page 2: ˇ · MSME Ministries among oth- ... Prakash fell sick and died mid-way near Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police ... defaulter hospital/nursing home will be initiated without

The Coronavirus-ledlockdown is changing theway we are doing things. Be

it the work from home culture oronline classes or even our normalsocialiasing routine, we are slowlyadapting to the new normal.However, in these times of crisisnot everything is going left. Fromearth getting time to rejuvenateitself to the entertainment industryseeing new breakthroughs, thereare several reasons to beat theblues.

The quote that music can healthe wounds that medicine can’ttouch stands true in the currentsituation. That’s why, stakeholdersare geared up for taking concertstoo on online platforms. Almosteverything is taking the digitalroute.

With the Indian entertainmentindustry coming together for ahome-to-home fundraiser concert,‘I for India’, in partnership withFacebook and GiveIndia is rightlyutilising the power of musickeeping in mind the socialdistancing norms. All proceedsfrom the fundraiser concert will goto the India COVID ResponseFund managed by GiveIndia.

The mother of concerts, thisfour-hour long musical eveningwill be live globally on Facebooktoday at 7:30 pm and will featureperformances and personalmessages from more than 85Indian and global stars — A RRahman, Akshay Kumar, ArijitSingh, Aamir Khan, Alia Bhatt,Priyanka Chopra and RaniMukerji to name a few.

The vision for the concert byleaders from the entertainmentindustry is three-pronged — first,to entertain those locked down intheir homes. Second, pay tribute tothose who are working on the

frontlines. Third, to raise funds forthose who have no work and nohome and do not know wheretheir next meal is coming from.

Atul Satija, CEO, GiveIndia,says that it the concert backed byseveral stars feels like a nationcoming together. “The fundraiserconcert, backed by a fabulous lineup of stars, feels like a nationcoming together —though we areisolated, we are united in ourefforts to win this battle againstCOVID-19. We have alreadyreceived tremendous support forour missions to providehumanitarian aid to those mostaffected by this crisis. But with theconcert going live on the world’slargest social media platform, itwill help reach the millions ofpeople who want to contribute tothis war-like effort. We areextremely grateful to the organisersfor putting their trust in us as thedonations partner,” he says.

Priyanka Chopra shares herthoughts on how virtual event isbringing everyone together.“Unexpected, uncontrolled,unparalleled. The coronavirus hasforged a brutal path across the

world, and in the line of fire is well— you me and pretty mucheveryone across the world.Lockdowns, quarantines, socialdistancing — yeh hain humaranaya normal. Khud ko surakshitrakhne ke liye hume ek dusre se durrehna pad raha hai. Phir bhi mannhi mann main hum ek saath hain,as always,” she says.

Anushka Sharma says thatshe in this digital age, even beingmiles apart, she is feeling moreconnected than ever. “While wemay be social distancing, andthat’s the requirement. I don’t

think we’ve ever been moreconnected. People helping eachother, spreading awareness just sothat we can protect each other andthat is the victory of human spirit,”Sharma opines.

On the other hand, RaniMukerji calls for people to becomemore vigilant keeping in mind theincrease in child abuse.

“Instances of child abuse haveincreased during lockdown. I urgeyou all to stay more vigilant. If yousee or hear anything, suspicious orodd please report it to theauthorities immediately. Mydaughter Adira calls thiscoronavirus an invisible monsterlurking in the streets, she tells memamma, this monster will surelygo away one day,” she says.

Zoya Akhtar says that may weremember the lessons learnt andnever forget we aren’t above nature,we’re just a small part of it.

Shabana Azmi too agrees withAkhtar and says that it’s time tostand united and understand howinterdependent we are.

“It’s time we realised howinterdependent we are on eachother. Irrespective of caste, class,gender, religion or country. It’s timefor introspection. It’s time to shedour prejudices, it’s time to cometogether in kinship and harmony,”Azmi says.

Katrina Kaif hails the frontlineworkers and says that every pennythat will be collected will equipthese heroes better. “There are1000s of frontliners and emergencyworkers who are putting theirlives on the line every day in thefight against COVID-19. Everyrupee we collect today will helpequip these heroes better thusprotect them better. So pleasehelp keep safe those who keep ussafe,” Kaif says.

� How did your acting careerbegin?

I believe I was destined toget into acting. My friend wasauditioning for a commercial.I auditioned as well; this waswhen I was in college. An ideatook root that this wassomething that I could do andenjoy. I did couple of ads thatwith served as good pocketmoney. I loved the freedomthat came with having my ownmoney. I had the liberty tospend it as I wished. I loved thewhole experience of it. I wantedto explore the industry moreprofessionally that’s how I gotinto it. Over the years, I havedone several commercials, TVshows and films. All this I gotdue to sheer hard work, talentand merit.� How did you come onboard for Ishaaron IshaaronMein?

The show will always bespecial for me as all the actorsin the show are senior andexperienced. I always wanted towork with them and when Iwas called for the look test, Iwas really hoping that I get in.I thank God for that I wasselected at one go. � What made you say yes toRani Vivek Srivastav?

Rani’s character is verydiscreet. It has layers to it. Therole is not easy to play. Whileshe is fearless, she is a littlescared for her family. She isusually happy but gets upset atthe slightest of things to peoplewhom she loves. She is a bratyet she is the docile girl of theSrivastav family. � The show is about specially-abled — their dreams andaspirations. Do you thinkpeople find a connect withsuch a subject?

It is a very different kind ofa subject that the makers havetried to bring on screen. Therehave been makers who havedealt with the subject for filmsbut never on the small screen.For TV, it is one of a kind show.There are many out there whofound a connect with thestoryline since the series isabout love, bonding and family.Also, there is great chemistry

among the co-stars off-screenthat comes to play on-screen.� You have done so manyshows. Is there a favouriterole?

Yes, I loved playing ArpitaKhanna, the cop in Diya AurBaati Hum. It was a role that Ienjoyed doing.

I was paired againstSandhya in the series. Anotherrole that is close to my heartwas the character of Shanti inYeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai. Inthis show I played a Mathteacher at Pragati Vidya KaMandir School; I was Naina’smentor. � You have done two-three

films only? Is Bollywood noton your cards?

I have not shunnedBollywood I am just lookingforward to doing roles that aremore in tune to what I want todo henceforth. I don’t want totake up a role just for the heckof it. I am hope that I get theright role so that I can say yesto it. � How are you coping withthe lockdown?

I’ve given my mothercomplete rest. I am handling allhousehold chores of twohouses — mine as well as mymother’s. Many people knowthat my mom is my neighbour

as well. I don’t want her to getstressed out doing all the work.One can say I am asuperwoman — managing twohomes. � There are lots of rumoursdoing rounds related toCOVOD-19? Your advice topeople?

First, and for mostimportant stop believingWhatsApp forward messages.Half of them are fake. Onlytrust newspapers and the newsthey put out. There are somany journalists who are outthere working so that they canbring out the ground reality. Wecannot let their efforts go waste.

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Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik on Saturday

requested his Karnataka andAndhra Pradesh counterpartsBS Yediyurappa and YSJaganmohan Reddy, respec-tively, to provide required sup-port to the stranded Odia peo-ple who are intending to returnhome during the Covid-19lockdown.

Patnaik talked toYediyurappa and Reddythrough videoconferencing,which was also attended byUnion Petroleum and SteelMinister DharmandraPradhan.

Patnaik thanked the twoChief Ministers for taking careof Odia people during thelockdown and requested them

to help Odias seeking to returnhome.

In return, bothYediyurappa and Reddyassured of all requisite support.They too informed that theyhave started various pro-grammes to employ workersand, thus, people intending tostay back would be providedjob.

Reddy told Patnaik thatabout 20,000 Odisha peoplewere stranded in AndhraPradesh, out of which 1,914people have expressed interestto return home.

Pradhan requestedYediyurappa and Reddy to seethat Odia people intending toreturn home get their namesand addresses registered withthe portal of the OdishaGovernment.

Issues like screening, reg-istration and travel arrange-ments of the stranded Odishapeople were discussed.

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More than a hundred Odiastudents, who were

stranded in Kota of Rajasthan,arrived in Rourkela city by fourbuses on Saturday morning.

The 114 students, who hadleft Mahavir Nagar in Kota at10.40 am on Thursday, reachedhere around 8 am. The busesreached here via MadhyaPradesh, Chhattisgarh,Raighar, Sambalpur andJharsuguda.

After their arrival, healthscreening of all the studentswere conducted by a medicalteam. Later, parents of the stu-dents came to take their chil-dren to their houses.

But the students, who didnot show any COVID-19symptoms during the screen-ing, were allowed to go tohome. Their family members

were instructed to keep themstrictly in isolation for 14 days,sources said.

In another development,After a special ‘Shramik’ traincarrying migrant labourersfrom Odisha departed fromErnakulam in Kerala on Friday,three more trains left Keralaand Gujarat bringing morenumber of stranded peopleback to the State on Saturday.

While the two trains fromGujarat would arrive at theBhubaneswar railway station,the other one carrying strand-ed migrants from Kerala wouldarrive in Ganjam.

After their arrival, allreturnees would be sent todifferent quarantine centresfor 14 days. The train fromErnakulam is scheduled toreach Bhubaneswar on Sunday

morning around 7 am.Meanwhile, the State

Government has approachedthe Ministry of Home Affairs(MHA) for permission of anadditional stoppage of the trainat Jagannathpur in Ganjamdistrict for the convenience oflogistics to take those passen-gers closer to Brahmapur andother nearby areas to the quar-antine facilities.

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With the Centre allowingmovement of migrant

workers, pilgrims, tourists andstudents stranded due to thelockdown, the OdishaGovernment has issued a stan-dard operating procedure(SOP) for sending personsstuck in the State to their homeStates by road or rail.

In a letter to districtCollectors and MunicipalCommissioners, Special ReliefCommissioner PK Jena for-warded the SOP to ensuresmooth return of about 60,000“guest workers” to their respec-tive States.

The Odisha Government

has described the strandedmigrant workers as “guestworkers”. The StateGovernment has appointednodal officers for differentStates to ensure that the peoplefrom other States reach theirnative places safely.

The SOP said that the priorapproval of the recipient Stateis a must before departure ofany train/bus from any dis-trict/Municipal Corporationin Odisha. For road journey bymeans of bus/ vans, the transitpass will be provided by theauthorities here.

The counterpartCollectors/Commissioners ofMunicipal Corporation/Stateco-ordinator in the recipientState should be informed withthe details of passengers, des-tination (district and block)and their mobile numbers.

The SOP said that one of

the passengers, having a smart-phone, may be designated as agroup co-ordinator, whosemobile number may be passedon to the recipient State'sC o l l e c t o r / M u n i c i p a lCommissioner/co-ordinator.

The destinationstation/border checkpoint ofthe recipient State for eachtrain/ bus/ van will be decidedby the recipient StateGovernment.

It said the returnees shouldbe grouped block-wise/dis-trict-wise while boarding thebuses/ vans/ trains, as far aspossible, for easier logistics.

There are about 90,000migrant workers stranded inOdisha. The State Governmenthas lodged them in differenttemporary camps where food,medicine and other essentialitems are provided to themsince the lockdown started.

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The Eastern IndiaP h i l a t e l i c

Association (EIPA) onSaturday held an onlinecharity auction ofstamps and postalmaterials as a fund rais-er for helping the dis-tressed during the lock-down.

Association mem-bers contributed thearticles which were puton auction and theamount realised waskept in a fund to pro-vide rations for dailywagers.

EIPA secretary ShantiSwarup Rath said philately is agentlemen’s hobby. Anil Dhirsaid the proceeds from theauction far exceeded what wasexpected. Valuable postal mate-

rials, many relating to Odishawere put up for auction. A setof ten Pigeon Post Coversflown by the Orissa PigeonService were sold for over Rs4,000. Many members also

made online cash donations.Philatelists from Balangir,

Sambalpur, Keonjhar,Brahmapur, Cuttack and otherplaces participated in the auc-tion.

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Even though 17 staffs ofElectric Loco Shed (ELS) of

the East Coast Railway (ECoR)in Angul were quarantinedwhen one of their employees,who had come in contact withan attendee of the TablighiJamat Markaj in Nizamuddin,the ELS authorities are not fol-lowing the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) guidelines onsocial distancing.

It is alleged in the trade

union circles that ADEE/TRS(I) Soumyakanta Dash hasbeen forcing all the employeesof ELS to come for duty despitethe Railway Board’s guidelinesand MHAs directives ofengagement of only 33% staffsfor emergency maintenanceduring the lockdown period forthe Covid-19 pandemic.

To make matters worse, theELS Senior Divisional ElectricalEngineer (TRS) Suresh Kumarof this is also flouting theorders of MHA and Ministry ofRailway to comply and adhereto physical distancing inRailway workshops. By engag-ing 100 per cent of the employ-ees is putting in danger the livesof more than 400 workers andtheir families.

Besides, neither Kumarinformed the Angul districtauthorities or the Odisha

administration about the quar-antine of the 17 employees forcoming in contacting with aTalibighi Jamati or take anymeasures to conduct test of allthe 400 employees.

It might be mentioned herethat Senior Divisional ElectricalEngineer (TRS) and AssistantDivisional Electrical Engineerare continuing in their posts formore than 12 years against theorders of DOPT, Railway Boardand Supreme Court’s direc-tives. Much to the surprise, theKhordha Division authoritieshave remained silent spectatorsto all the wrongdoings despiteit being published in the ver-nacular media.

It is demanded that actionbe taken against the concernedofficials for flouting the MHAorders and endangering thelives of hundreds of workers.

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Abiding by thecoronavirus

guidelines, func-tionaries of theEastern India OilRefinery WorkersUnion (EIOR-WU) celebratedthe InternationalLabour Day hereon Friday morn-ing.

Union president SantoshKumar Pattnaik paid his obei-sance to Shree Shree AbhiramParamhans Dev by ignitinglamp and congratulated allworker brothers and sisters onthe occasion. He also request-ed all the labourers to stay safefrom Covid-19 pandemic.

Ankita Pattnaik highlight-ed about the importance of cel-ebrating the May Day and

briefed about contribution ofthe labour classes in building anation.

All union members woremask and maintained socialdistancing in the union premis-es. Among others, general sec-retary Ranjan Kumar Palai,joint secretary Niranjan Nayak,Chinmay Das, Mihirkant Das,Biswambara Tarai, AbhiramSamal, Niranjan Samal andArup Pattnaik were present.

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The Aditya Birla Group’sAditya Birla Fashion &

Retail Ltd’s (ABFRL)Bhubaneswar unit has comeforward to battle Covid-19. Ithas so far supported the StateGovernment in manufacturingover 2.5 lakh masks used most-ly by doctors, nurses and otherhealth workers and police.

Unit head Rahul Jindalsaid, “We have a target of pro-viding around 5 lakh face-masks.” Unit HR headBrajabidhu Chhatoi said, “Weare producing around 15,000masks per day. We adhere judi-ciously to the norms of Covid-19 measures in regard to socialdistancing, ensuring propersanitisation and other guide-lines.”

��������� �����A womanand her niece drowned in theHarabhangi Dam nearBudhadiha village inPaniganda gram panchayatunder the Adaba police sta-tion in Gajapati district onFriday evening.

The deceased were identi-fied as Ibani Mandal andIsmanjali Sabar.

As per information, Ibaniand Ismanjali to take bath inthe dam but did not return.Worried, their family memberslaunched a frantic search but invain. On Saturday morning,some locals spotted two bod-ies floating in the dam andimmediately called up theAdaba police. Soon after, thepolice along with a firefightingteam from Mohana reached thespot and recovered the bodies.

The families identified thebodies following which policefiled a case in connection withthe incident and initiated aninquiry. PNS

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The Government hasannounced a number of

regulations for the Covid-19lockdown. Though it is causinggreat inconvenience to the peo-ple still they are adhering to thenorms.

But during the third phaseof the lockdown, theGovernment has relaxed cer-tain regulations and allowedliquor shops to open. This ishighly surprising and disap-pointing, said Odisha PradeshCongress Committee presi-dent Niranjan Patnaik onSaturday.

Health experts have anumber of times said that con-sumption of liquor doesn’timprove immunity; instead, ithas an adverse effect on health.While the State Government islosing revenue in other sectorstoo, on whose pressure itagreed to open liquor shops,Patanik questioned.

He pointed out that on onehand, the Government is notallowing tea stalls to open; buton the other, it is granting per-mission to liquor outlets toopen. He demanded that thedecision be immediately with-drawn for smooth enforce-ment of the lockdown.

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Noted persons from differ-ent quarters on Saturday

urged Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik to withdraw the deci-sion of stamping on hands ofreturnees before entering theState’s border.

Hailing the decision to bringback the migrant workers, stu-dents and pilgrims stranded inother States, they said stampingon body of a normal human ishighly humiliating. This alsoencroaches upon one’s rights onhis or her own body as perArticle 21 of the Constitutionand the rights of the patients asdefined by the National HumanRights Commission.

“A state of quarantine is sep-aration of people who are ‘sus-pected’ of having exposed to aninfectious disease. In this case ofcorona, ‘suspected’ people have

also right to human dignity andprivacy as per the NHRC char-ter of Right of Patients. Thus, thedecision of the Governmentgoes against such charter,” theypointed out in an open letter.They argued that the peoplecoming from outside can beeasily identified as theGovernment has a databank ofeach individual. “There is possi-bility that they will be stigmatisedand humiliated after quarantineis over,” they apprehended.

Lawyer BiswapriyaKanungo, Sharanya Nayak ofKoraput, Jayanta Jena of Soro,Satya Barik of Bhawanipatna,Sibaram of CPI(ML) Red StarRajendra Barik of TUCI,Sankar Sahu of KrantikariKrushak Sabha (AIKKS),Kishore Bhoi of OdishaNirman Shramik Union andthe Deba Ranjan of GASSundersigned the letter.

����� 5&5��8���6

Union MinisterDharmendra Pradhan on

Saturday held discussions withcivil society leaders of the Stateover the coronavirus situation,steps taken to combat it andlong-term plans for State’sdevelopment.

The leaders raised theissues of return of Odia peoplefrom other States, quarantineand creation of livelihoodsources for them. They alsoraised issues of relaxation ofMGNREGS norms, problemsin agriculture, marketing offarm produces, problems ofpoor people deprived of PDSitems and facilities for womenunder quarantine.

In return, the Ministercalled upon the leaders to takethe Covid-19 challenge as anopportunity for growth in theState. “If permanent job oppor-tunities can be created formigrants, Odisha’s economywill strengthen automatically,”said Pradhan.

He said the countries thathad prioritised human life toeconomy during the Spanishflu in 1918 could strengthentheir economy later.

Social worker Jagadanandpresided over the videoconfer-encing in which Padma ShriRadhamohan, Dr BhagabanPrakash, Jagadish Pradhan,Umi Daniel, Manas Mishra,Kailash Dandapata, AmiyaBishwal, Aditya Patnaik, BidyutMohanty, Pradipta Mohapatra,Sneha Mishra, Bishakha Bhanj,Mangraj Panda and BasantNayak participated, amongothers.

����� 5&5��8���6

Leader of Opposition in theState Assembly Pradipta

Naik on Saturday demandedthat the Government give awritten direction to the privateschools to waive schools fees forthree months as parents are run-ning through financial crisis dueto the lockdown. Naik too

demanded that the Governmentask these schools not to increaseany fee this academic session.

“The Chief Minister hadadvised private schools not totake fees from students forthree months. However, manyschools have decided to collectfees at a later date. Such a deci-sion will put a financial burdenon parents. Thus, the ChiefMinister should direct theseschools to waive fees for threemonths fully,” demanded Naik.

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Page 4: ˇ · MSME Ministries among oth- ... Prakash fell sick and died mid-way near Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police ... defaulter hospital/nursing home will be initiated without

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Seraikela-Kharsawan districtadministration has put the

migrant labourers in homequarantine after they returnedfrom Telangana.

Of the over 1,100 migrantlabourers who returned in aspecial train from Telangana toJharkhand on Friday night, 17were residents of various vil-lages in Seraikela-Kharsawandistrict.

On Saturday morning, allthe 17 workers were subjectedto a mandatory medical check-up by the district health depart-ment at Seraikela. Though sixof the returnees had com-plaints of sneezing and fever, allthe 17 were asked to remain inhome quarantine for the next

14 days.Seraikela-Kharsawan dis-

trict civil surgeon, HimanshuBhushan Barbhar confirmedthat they have sent 17 migrantlabourers for home quarantineafter they were subjected to themedical check-up.

" We observed the labour-ers who returned fromTelangana.Of the 17 returnees,11 were absolutely fine, but sixof them were found havingfever and complaint of sneez-ing. We will take swab samplesof these six suspects for gettingthem examined in the MGMMedical College shortly.

But we have asked all the17 to remain in home quaran-tine. We will also keep a vigilon those returned so that theydo not develop some symp-

toms," said the civil surgeon.Barbhar, when asked, said

the district administration hasset up quarantine centres atSaraikela itself and but theyexpect hundreds of migrantlabours to return to the district

within the next few days andmany of them may be in needof getting accommodated inthe quarantine centres, they arekeeping the centres unoccu-pied. " We want to be preparedfor any such emergency situa-

tion. The six returnees withsymptoms of coronavirus willbe kept the home quarantineunder the observation of Sahiya(woman health worker). If anyof them is tested positive, thenwe will decide what to do withsuch patients. But as of nowthere is no risk in keeping themin home quarantine," said thecivil surgeon.

“We do not have commu-nity spread now, and when ithappens, it will be a huge chal-lenge. People should avoidtravel for two weeks, and thisis important to prevent com-munity transmission. We areready to manage any situation.We have isolation wards inmedical college hospitals andquarantine facilities,” an officialsaid.

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East Singhbhum districtadministration has

released a helpline number (9508280796) for door-stepdelivery of sanitisers, groceryand medicines for elderly anddisabled in the city. Theadministration is already dis-tributing free sanitisers forthe poor across the district.The distribution will be car-ried by the police so that thepeople can safely receive theirproducts. Any person in needcan also dial 100 for any type

of emergency related to Covid19.

An official who is moni-toring the distribution work inthe district said that they haveannounced the helpline num-ber in which elderly and dis-abled can WhatsaAp or call toplace orders of sanitisers, med-icines or grocery which wouldbe delivered at their doorsteps.The Indian Red Cross Society,Jamshedpur chapter volun-teers are assisting in distribu-tion of sanitisers.

“There might be peoplewho are deprived of medicines

and grocery due to lockdown.So the helpline is aimed atfacilitating provision of sani-tisers for senior citizens anddisabled who face problems inmoving out of their house.

They can place their orderalong with their address eitherthrough whatsapp or on themobile phone and their orderwould be delivered within 24hours at their home. However,this facility would only be fordisabled and senior citizenswho face problems in move-ment and are alone.

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First lot of interstate strand-ed passengers reached

Jharkhand late at Friday nightout of which 281 were fromPalamu.

Twenty six buses wereengaged in all for ferrying 281stranded labourers from Hatiarailway junction to Daltonganjand then from Daltonganj totheir respective blocks.

Out of 26 buses, fifteenbuses brought these 281fromHatia railway station toDaltonganj and after gettingthem down here in DaltonganjGLA college these 15 busesreturned to Ranchi whileanother fleet of 11 buses tookthese 281 to their respectiveblocks and homes under policeescort.

Civil surgeon John FKennedy said all 281 have beenhome quarantined for 14 dayswith an undertaking that theywill abide by the protocols oflock down.

The 281 passengersreached Daltonganj this morn-ing. They had come to Hatia bya special train from Telangana’sLingampally railwaystation.

Late in the evening today199 students of Palamau arecoming from Kota by anotherspecial train. They will bebrought here like theseTelangana lot.

DC Shantanu KumarAgrahari SP Ajay Linda and ahost of civil and police officialsmonitored the ferrying.

Two things were veryprominent. One maintenance

of social distancing and theother peace as there was nochaos or confusion since civiland police administration hadworked out their arrival herewith meticulous planning saidsources.

There were circles for themand there were rice, pulse, salt,biscuit and one bottle of waterfor each of the 281.

5 doctors screened themand none had Ilu (influenzalike illnesses0 and Sari( severeacute respiratory infection).

Palamu’s Manatu policestation had no arrival amongthese 281 while Chhaterpurhad the biggest contingent of 63passengers out of 281. Thelowest arrival was 2 migrantlabourers at Mohammadganjpolice station.

����� ����9����

Health workers are lookingfor ‘SARI’ during their

household survey here inPalamu. SARI is an acronymwhich means Severe AcuteRespiratory Infection said civilsurgeon John F Kennedy whosaid, “Our teams are out sur-veying households asking fam-ily members if any of them hasSARI symptom.”

Kennedy said our teams getin action mode if it is told ofsari by household but fortu-nately enough SARI is notfound.

He said no one shouldhide it if any as we have ourways to handle or cure it as notall respiratory infection is coro-na infection and there may beother reasons too.

A young girl of Nawa Toli

had taken ice creams in herhouse and by evening the girlstarted crying of sore throatcomplaint setting off panic inthe family but with few dosesof homeopathic medicines shegot all well said a friend of thisfamily to this correspondent.

Civil surgeon said there arefew instances where families donot cooperate in giving healthdetails of the inmates of thehouses.

They react and find askingfor it a mere invasion into theirprivacy said Kennedy whoadded nothing can be anymore painful than this attitudeat this time of coronaviruspandemic.

There is another thing thatour health survey team looksfor. It is ILU. It stands forInfluenza Like Illnesses.

Kennedy said such is theweather now days that earlymorning sneezing is but naturalbut fear is so high that a sneezeis seen as a big culprit.

He asked people not to fearcoughing or sneezing and donot rush to associate it with thisviral disease.

Household survey wasconducted in its protocol atIthay and other villages wherethree active positive cases ofcoronavirus have been foundsaid civil surgeon.

Kennedy said till April 29,1061 samples have been sentfrom Palamu to RIMS Ranchifor test out of which reports of690 have come and all thesereports are negative.

He said Palamu’s samplecollection stands at 15 per centof the entire collection of sam-ples of the State average a day.

������������� 59��69

Amidst lockdown, Bokaro got topposition in implementing

Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Act (MGN-REGA), provided work to maxi-mum workers in Jharkhand.

Presently, 5133 schemes are beingimplemented in various blocks andpanchayats across the district andabout 14000 labourers are working,informed Rahul Kumar Bharti DPROBokaro.

A nationwide lockdown wasimposed on 23 March aiming tocheck the spread of the novel coro-navirus infection. In the currentscenario of lockdown, implementa-tion of MNREGA schemes has beenstarted in a large number of districtsin view of the difficulties of workers,he said.

“In implementing schemes andproviding works to the workers

under MGNREGA, Bokaro districtstood first followed by Giridih sec-ond while Ranchi scored third posi-tion,” he added.

The schemes are being imple-mented with promptness by the offi-cials, which are seeing positive results,he said.

According to governmentrecords, only 30 lakh people wereprovided work under the MGNRE-GA in April, about 17 per cent of theusual amid the Central governmentgave explicit instructions to reopenits flagship rural jobs scheme from 20April this year.

Meanwhile, the state govern-ment recently announced to bring innew guidelines to widen the scope ofwork under the MGNREGA to pro-vide jobs to migrant workers return-ing homes, and sent buses to WestBengal for bringing back people ofthe state stranded there due to lock-down.

����� 59��69

Aiming to support frontlinehealthcare workers and

doctors during COVID-19crisis, Vedanta Limited hasenabled mass production ofPersonal Protective Equipment(PPEs) in Gurugram,informed ESL Public Relationofficial Bokaro.

The Company has import-ed 23 PPE machines recentlyin collaboration with theMinistry of Textiles, and hasteamed up with authorisedapparel manufacturers to rollout over 5000 PPEs per day, itsaid in a press communiqué.PPEs are critical gear forhealthcare workers and India,like most other countries, isworking overtime to procurePPEs for the safety of its healthworkers. Vedanta has so farproduced around 15,000 PPEs.

The company has alsoprovided more than 3.5 lakhmasks through its Business Units to the local communities and has handed

over another 2 lakh N95 masksto the Ministry of Health.

“The Union Textiles min-istry is grateful to VedantaGroup for extending help byproviding the much-neededmachinery for manufacturingPPEs to AEPC, This is a must-gear for our frontline healthprofessionals today. We lookforward to the continued sup-port from Vedanta in the daysahead,” it said in the commu-niqué.

“India has shown tremen-dous resilience in fighting theimpact of Covid-19. We haveearned goodwill from theworld for supplying criticalmedicines to many countries.I am confident that we will riseabove this setback, said AnilAgarwal Chairman VedantaLimited.

“We are working towardscreating a New India and willhelp create a self-reliant econ-omy as the Lockdown lifts in

a calibrated manner,” he added.

��� � 59��69

Taking a citizen-centric ini-tiative to ensure uninter-

rupted health services to themass due to the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic, Bokarodistrict administration haslaunched e-Sanjeevani– OnlineOPD (Doctor to Patient), inte-grated telemedicine solution onFriday.

On the directive of DeputyCommissioner Bokaro MukeshKumar this service has beenlaunched, it extends the reachof specialized healthcare ser-vices to the masses in bothrural areas and any isolatedcommunity pockets, informedAK Pathak Civil SurgeonBokaro.“It provides a platformfor citizens to connect with anetwork of Specialist doctorsover video conferencing andobtain medical treatment andadvice for common health-related concerns while sitting athome,” he added.

Though, we all the doctorsand health workers here arealso ready to provide healthcare to the people with full dili-gence day and night, he said.

‘e-Sanjivani’ OPD andtelemedicine service has beenavailable to provide medicalconsultation to the peoplethrough phone call andWhatsApp, during the lock-down period daily (exceptSundays) in Bokaro.

From 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

in the first shift and from 3:00pm to 5:00 pm in the secondshift, various doctors of the dis-trict will be available on thetelephone and WhatsApp, willgive free medical advice, saidPathak.

Meanwhile, the districtadministration also appealed toall the private as well as retireddoctors and health workers tocome forward voluntarily andhelp the society in this time ofneed, so that people who needmedical advice or counsellingcan be benefited by getting freemedical advice at homethrough this service duringthe lockdown.

����� 6��-&*

BSL Municipal Water SupplyDepartment has started a

new facility of sanitizer sprayvans for sanitization in thetownship area, which was inau-gurated in the administrativebuilding premises of BSL in thepresence of Executive Director(Personnel andAdministration) Mukul Prasad,Executive Director (Projects) )R.Kushwaha, ExecutiveDirector (MaterialsManagement) VK Pandey,Executive Director (Finance& Accounts) DK Saha andChief General Manager (TownAdministration) Vibhakar. In

addition to Ispat Bhawan, san-itization was also done in thepremises of HRD departmentby spray van.

Sanitization work can bedone in the township withfaster speed and more effectiveway by this sanitizer sprayvan. Specific modificationshave been done in the van andjet spray has been installed. Allwork has been done at thedepartmental level from inter-nal resources. The TownAdministration Water SupplyDepartment has prepared twosuch sanitizer spray vans fromwhich regular sanitizationstarted in the entire townshipaccording to the roster.

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As many as 478 migrantlabourers who reached at

Ranchi from Telangana onFriday, were sent to their hometoday. With the help of the gov-ernment, 478 migrant labour-ers of Garhwa district werebrought to Garhwa in themorning. All the workers werereceived by the DistrictAdministration officials presentin the aid center set up at RamaSahu High School, Garhwa.The labourers were dispatchedto Garhwa in 18 buses at night.

All necessary arrangementshave been made for the arrivalof migrant labourers in the aid

center set up at Rama SahuHigh School as directed byDeputy Commissioner GarhwaShri Harsh Mangla. To ensurecompliance of social distancing,the workers have been provid-ed with seating at appropriatedistance. Apart from this,proper arrangements for foodand water have also been madefor the workers in the help cen-ter located at Rama Sahu HighSchool.

A team of 7 doctors and 14medical personnel have alsobeen deputed at the help cen-ter as directed by the DeputyCommissioner, who are doingmedical screening of migrantlabourers. On being found fine

after investigation, they arebeing sent to HomeQuarantine. Workers are beinginstructed to stay in Home

Quarantine for 14 days.Ration packets of 10 kg

rice, pulses and potatoes arebeing prepared after medicalscreening to the labourers whoreached Garhwa.

They are being sent totheir respective blocks alongwith packets of ration. For this,a team of officials has beendeputed, under whose super-vision all the laborers are beingtransported to their blocksthrough buses.

For this, 29 buses havebeen arranged by the districtadministration.

Deputy CommissionerGarhwa Harsha Mangla said inlight of the directive from thestate government which hasallowed the stranded residentsof Garhwa district in otherstates to come. By sending amessage to the DistrictMagistrates of nearby states,they have demanded informa-tion about how many people ofthe district are in those dis-tricts. Also, the officers havebeen directed to make arrange-ments to bring them back onthe basis of the same numberof forces.

Under this DC has con-tacted to 19 DistrictMagistrates of Uttar Pradesh,11 of Chhattisgarh and 1District Magistrate of Odisha.Out of that, information hasbeen received back fromRaigarh, Durg, Sonbhadra,Jaunpur, Sundergarh. It isagreed to send people trappedin those districts to the stateborder. After that it will bebrought from the border to itsdistrict.

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Adelegation of theCentral Sikh

Naujawan Sabhamet SSP M TamilVanan and urgedhim to conduct afair inquiry into theincident related toarresting of RajivDugal. Following thearrest of leading industrialistand hotelier Rajiv Dugal, thedelegation demanded a fairprobe. The delegation alsohanded a memorandum toSSP. Acting on a tip offBistupur police had arrestedthree persons from The AlcorHotel on Saturday. They werearrested for breaking the lock-down and indulging in fleshtrade. Those arrested where

hotel owner Rajiv Dugal, indus-trialist Sharad Poddar and trav-el agency owner RahulAgrawal. The SeniorSuperintendent of Policeassured that a fair investigationwould be done into the entirecase. The delegation consistedmainly of Satbir Singh Somu,Chanchal Bhatia, HarvinderSingh, Inderjit Singh, NavjotSingh.

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A42-years old man, whohad gone to Dubai three

years back, reportedly died ofCovid-19 on Friday. He wasidentified as Niranjan Mallick,son of Sridhar Mallick, ofMalipur under thePattamundai police station. He

was working as a gardener inDubai-based Sobha Sapphire.

His brother BirakishoreMallick said they came to knowabout the death from a friendof Niranjan. The family mem-bers on Saturday urged the dis-trict labour department and thedistrict Collector to bring thebody home.

In-charge District LabourOfficer Ramchandra Nayaksaid his department conduct-ed an inquiry in this regard.

In another case, the fami-ly members of Babaji Sethy, aresident of the PattamundaiMunicipality, who also died inDubai, met the districtCollector to bring back thebody.

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Page 5: ˇ · MSME Ministries among oth- ... Prakash fell sick and died mid-way near Chhattisgarh. The Chhattisgarh police ... defaulter hospital/nursing home will be initiated without

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Maintaining "there shouldbe no concern over pri-

vacy-related issues", UnionI&B Minister and senior BJPleader Prakash Javadekar onSaturday said that the AarogyaSetu app is one of the best sci-entific means to alert peopleif some Covid-19 infectedperson is nearby.

He was responding toAIMIM MP AsaduddinOwaisi's remark on the possi-bility of private informationbeing collected by the app.

Javadekar said the app isbeing preferred worldwideover other means of trackingand mapping the pandemic."It alerts people if someCovid-19 infected person isnear them. This is one of thebest scientific means. There isno privacy-related issue here,"he told ANI.

"There is no informationactually. If you have a cough,a cold or tested positive, thenonly you have to fill up the

information. The app willcontinue to operate for thenext one or two years. Thelockdown will be over soon,but this app wil l be a permanent help till we win the war against this pandem-ic," he said.

Javadekar also said thatIndia took various timely ini-tiatives, including a country-wide lockdown, and its man-agement of Covid-19 has beenbetter than other countries.

"That is why it (lockdown)has been extended for twoweeks. The various zones arewell-defined. Following thesocial distancing norm of ''dogaz ki doori ' ' wil l be a new normal till the time a vac-cine is developed for Covid-19," he said.

Earlier, attacking theGovernment, Owaisi hadtweeted: "The Central govt isfighting COVID-19 with taali,thaali, bijli & a very shady app.Now Delhi's Sultans haveissued a farmaan that peoplehave no choice in the matter.They MUST share their pri-vate data with govt (& who-ever the govt wants? (sic)"

The Government hasmade the coverage of con-tainment zones through theAarogya Setu app a must in itsguidelines during lockdown3.0. All Central governmentemployees too have to manda-torily download the app.

����� �8���8�&*

As the country looks toovercome the economic

setback dealt by the coron-avirus pandemic, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSaturday discussed ways toreform the agriculture sectorwith emphasis on agriculturemarketing, access of farmers toinstitutional credit and freeingthe sector of various restric-tions with appropriate backingof laws.

Agriculture accounts for15 per cent of India's grossdomestic product and is asource of livelihood for morethan half of the country's 1.3billion population.

Union AgricultureMinister Narendra SinghTomar, Union Home MinisterAmit Shah and Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharamanwere present in the meeting.

The prime minister hasbeen stressing on boostingexports to aid economicgrowth. The meeting also dis-cussed ways to make severalgovernment instruments forthe sector including the KisanCredit Cards, PM-KISAN ande-Nam even more effectiveand increase their contributionto farmer welfare.

Kisan Credit Cards offershort-term credit limits forcrops and term loans to hold-ers by participating banksincluding cooperatives. Thisinitiative grants farmers accessto formal banking networks.KCC credit cardholders arealso eligible for personal acci-dent insurance for death andpermanent disability.

The Prime Ministerdirected to further strengthenthe role of FPOs to bringvibrancy in agrarian economy,transparency in agriculture,trade and enable maximumbenefits to the farmers. Thegovernment has maintainedthat the country's farm sectoris functioning smoothlydespite the Covid-19 lock-down and there will not bemuch impact on its growth inthe current fiscal, unlike othersectors.

The pros and cons of bio-technological developments incrops or enhancement of pro-ductivity and reduction ininput costs was also deliberat-ed, an official statement said.“Overall emphasis was onrevisiting the existing lawsgoverning market for betterprice realization and freedomof choice to the farmers,” saidan agriculture ministry official.

The meeting also focusedon making strategic interven-tions in the existing marketingeco-system and bringingappropriate reforms in thecontext of rapid agriculturaldevelopment.

Discussion also emanatedon the possibilities of a uni-form statutory framework inthe country to facilitate newways for farming which willinfuse capital and technologyin the agrarian economy.

The challenges of theModel Agricultural LandLeasing Act, 2016 and how toprotect the interest of smalland marginal farmers was dis-cussed in detail. Ways tomake the EssentialCommodities Act compatiblewith present times so thatlarge-scale private investmentin post-production agricul-ture infrastructure is incen-tivised, and how it has a pos-itive effect on commodityderivative markets, was alsodiscussed.

Developing Brand India',creation of commodity specificboards/councils and promo-tion of agri-clusters or contractfarming are some of the inter-ventions that were deliberatedto boost agriculture com-modity export.

����� �8���8�&*

Nationwide salutations to“corona warriors” by the

armed forces commenced onSaturday with military bandsplaying in various districts andthe Services helicopters show-ering petals at hospitals treatingthe coronavirus affected. Thegrand finale on Sunday will seefighter jets streaming across theskies in thrilling fly pasts andsome aircraft and helicopters fly-ing over hospitals in the nation-al Capital and other parts of thecountry.

The armed forces will alsopay respect to the police by plac-ing wreath at the National PoliceMemorial here and helicoptersshowering flowers as a mark ofgratitude.

This unique way of thanks-giving to the frontline fighters ofthe pandemic was carried out aday after Chief of DefenceStaff(CDS) General Bipin Rawatannounced that the nation willwitness such activities as a trib-ute to corona warriors includingdoctors, nurses, sanitation work-ers, police personnel and media

on Sunday.He had said IAF planes will

fly past from Srinagar toThiruvananthapuram andDibrugarh to Kutch on Sundayto honour the corona fightersbesides warships deployed onthe coasts will be lit up in theevening. Moreover, the armybands will perform in almost alldistricts of the country.

In fact, the bands performedin some parts of the countryincluding Srinagar, Kolkata andGandhinagar towns on Saturdayalso, officials said here. Also,warships inThiruvananthapuram lit up onSaturday and will do so onSunday too. In fact, the Navy

and Coast Guard have plannedto put up such a show at 25places across the country.

Giving details about theIAF fly past, especially in thenational capital on Sunday, theysaid the aerial salute is plannedbetween 10-10.30 am. TheServices helicopters will alsoshower petals on the NationalPolice Memorial earlier in theday, officials said.

The fly past includes fight-er aircraft formations, compris-ing of the Sukhoi-30 MKI, MiG-29 and Jaguar over Rajpath, andwill orbit over Delhi and will bevisible to the residents of Delhifrom their roof tops.

In addition, C-130 transport

aircraft will follow a similarprofile as fighters covering theentire Delhi and NationalCapital Region(NCR). The air-craft will be flying at an approx-imate height of 500-1000 meterskeeping aerospace safety inmind especially in respect of birdactivity.

Moreover, helicopters willdrop petals on Police WarMemorial followed by Delhihospitals involved in providingrelief to patients of COVID-19between 10-10.30 am. The list ofhospitals includes AllMS, DeenDayal Upadhyay Hospital, GTBHospital, Loknayak Hospital,Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital,Safdarjang Hospital, Sri Ganga

Ram Hospital, Baba SahebAmbedkar Hospital, Max Saket,Rohini Hospital, ApolloIndraprastha Hospital and ArmyHospital Research and Referral.

The events start on Sundaymorning with wreath laying atthe Police Memorial on behalf ofall three Service Chiefs to showrespect towards the sacrifice byour police and paramilitaryforces.

Helicopters from IAF andIndian Navy will fly over hospi-tals treating Corona patientsand shower petals as a tribute tothe Corona warriors. Naval heli-copters will shower petals onhospitals at Mumbai, Goa, Kochiand Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

In the evening hours, Navalships at sea on the coasts ofMumbai, Porbandar, Karwar,Visakhapatnam, Chennai,Kochi and Port Blair will lightup and fire flares in solidarity,Anand said. In addition to theNavy, Coast Guard ships will beseen at 24 places some ofwhich are - Porbandar, Okha,Ratnagiri, Dahanu, Murud,Goa, New Mangalaore,Kavarati, Karaikal, Chennai,K r i s h n a p a t n a m ,Nizamapatanam, Puducherry,Kakinada, Paradip, Gopalpur,Sagar Island, Port Blair,Diglipur, Mayabundur, Hutbay and Campbel Bay. A totalof 46 Coast Guard ships andaround 10 helicopters will takepart in the initiative.

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As the non-Covid Hospitalshave been asked to be open

for patients, the Union HealthMinistry on Friday issued guide-lines on the rational use of per-sonal protective equipment(PPE) for healthcare workers insuch treatment areas.

These guidelines are in con-tinuation of guidelines issuedpreviously on 'Rational use ofPersonal Protective Equipment,'and specifies on the type of per-sonal protective equipment to beused in mild, moderate, low andhigh-risk areas.

The Personal protectiveequipment (PPE) is a combina-tion of protective gears designedto safeguard the health of work-ers by minimising the exposureto a biological agent. Goggles,face-shield, mask, gloves, cov-erall/gowns (with or without

aprons), head cover and shoecover are components of PPE.

The full complement ofPPE includes N-95 mask, cov-eralls, goggles, nitrile examina-tion gloves and shoe cover.

In addition to this, the min-istry has also advised them totake standard precautions, notuse PPEs as alternative to basicpreventive public health and fol-low respiratory etiquette.

Besides this, the Ministrysaid that health functionariesworking in moderate risk-envi-ronment, such as dental cham-

ber, check-up clinic, ICU, labourroom, operation theatre, lab,should wear triple layer medicalmask, face shield, sterile latexgloves and goggles.

Those working in the mildrisk area of the hospital such ashelp desk, doctor chamber,pharmacy counter, ward room,blood bank, radio diagnosishave been advised to put ontriple layer medical masks andlatex examination gloves. Staffworking in low risk areasshould just wear masks.

Help desk/ registrationcounter, doctors'' chamber usedfor clinical management ofpatients and pharmacy countersamong others have been markedin the mild-risk category and theMinistry has recommended theuse of triple layer medical maskand latex examination gloves,besides following social dis-tancing guidelines and frequent

use of hand sanitiser over gloves.Chambers of dental/ENT

doctors/ophthalmology doctorsand pre- anesthetic check-upclinics have been categorised asmoderate-risk areas where theusage of N-95 mask, goggles,latex examination gloves hasbeen advised.

All hospitals should identi-fy a separate triage and holdingarea for patients with influenza-like illness so that Covid-19 sus-pect cases are triaged and man-aged away from the main out-patient department, as per the guidelines.

It has recommended the useof triple layer medical mask, faceshield ( wherever feasible), ster-ile latex gloves and goggles.Patients should also wear masksin labor rooms and latex exam-ination gloves while handling abody in wards or ICU.

According to the guide-

lines, areas where emergencycases are attended come in themild risk category and areas inthe Emergency departmentwhere severely ill patients arebeing attended to while per-forming aerosol generating pro-cedure have been marked in thehigh risk category.

The ministry has recom-mended usage of all the components of PPE in high risk areas.

Besides, laboratories whichare used for sample collectionand transportation and testingof routine (non-respiratory)samples come under mild-riskcategory, while labs where res-piratory samples are collectedand tested fall in moderate-riskcategory, according to theguidelines.

Radio-diagnosis and bloodbank, etc. fall in the mild-riskcategory, while kitchen areas

have been marked in the low-risk category.

Ambulances transportingpatients not on any assistedventilation come under the low-risk category, while emergencyvehicles carrying patients withsevere acute respiratory infec-tions (SARI) come under thehigh-risk category.

The guidelines stated thatstandard precautions shouldbe followed at all times andPPEs are not alternative tobasic preventive public healthmeasures which must be fol-lowed regularly.

"Always follow the laiddown protocol for disposingoff PPEs as detailed in infectionprevention and control guide-lines available on the website ofMoHFW. In addition, patientsand their attendants are encour-aged to put on face covers," theguidelines stated.

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Union Home Ministry onSaturday clarified that

buses are not allowed inOrange Zones. Bus transport isonly allowed in Green Zoneswith 50 per cent passengerswith social distancing norms.In Orange Zones, Taxis andCab Services like Uber and Olaare allowed with two passen-gers and a driver.

“In the Orange Zones, inaddition to the activities pro-hibited throughout the country,inter-district and intra-districtplying of buses remains pro-hibited. Two other activitieshave been allowed with restric-tions: Taxis and cab aggregatorsare permitted, with one driverand two passengers only.

Inter-district movement of

individuals and vehicles isallowed, only for permittedactivities, with maximum twopassengers, besides the driver,in four wheeler vehicles,” saidMHA in a clarification. TheMHA officials also said that allstand alone shops includingliquor shops are permittedsubject to State Government’sclearance in Red Zones. ButBarbershops, Saloons, Spas arenot permitted in Red Zones.

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The CPI(M) Politburo onSaturday urged President

Ram Nath Kovind and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi tocome out with a comprehensiveeconomic package for the poorand the medium and smallindustries to survive theadverse Covid-19 impact.

In a detailed proposal, theLeft party suggested that theCentre must immediately give�7,500 per month for threemonths for the non-IncomeTax paying families. The pro-posal also suggested for therevival of MGNREGS activitiesacross the country to engagepoor to find their income andpackages for MSMEs, whichare the major job providers inthe country.

The CPI(M) also suggest-ed for Supplementary Budgetto add up new taxes andincreases in the wealth tax.“The total sum required forsuch cash and food transfers forthe respective periods is esti-mated to be about 3 per cent ofthe Gross Domestic Product,on the assumption of a 20 per

cent voluntary “dropout” by therich from the list of beneficia-ries. Raising taxes for this pur-pose has to be explored later,when a supplementary budgetwill become necessary. In thatbudget wealth tax will have toplay a crucial role: it will bothraise resources and also keepthe rapidly increasing wealthinequality in check.Additionally, a tax on the superrich should also be imposed,”said CPI(M).

“How long this distresswill continue is not known; butto start with, the central gov-ernment must make availableto every non income tax pay-

ing household �7,500 permonth for a period of threemonths, and to every individ-ual 10 kg. of free grains permonth for a period of sixmonths. There are 77 milliontonnes of food grains with theFCI at present against thebuffer-cum-operational stock“norm” of 24 million tonnes; inaddition, about 40 milliontonnes of rabi harvest will beadded to this amount.

“So, there are plenty ofgrains available for distribu-tion, so much so that the gov-ernment is planning to use ricestocks for producing ethanol.Giving food free to the dis-tressed millions surely has pri-ority over such use. In caseswhere the recipients have nocooking facility, cooked foodcan be given in lieu of grain.The nation wide network ofmid-day meals scheme can beused for this purpose. Apartfrom cereals a certain amountof pulses, cooking oil andother necessities should also beprovided free over this period,”said the detailed proposal ofCPI(M) to President andPrime Minister.

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Congress on Saturdaylaunched a fresh tirade

against the Modi Governmentover its attitude on handling themigrants affected due to coro-na scare.

The party also questionedthe go ahead to the CentralVista plan despite suggestionsto shelve the costly project inview of the economic challengespresented by coronavirus out-break and called it a “criminalwaste” of public money.

Accusing the Governmentof not handling the issue ofmigrant labourers in a humaneor compassionate manner,Congress chief spokesmanRandeep Singh Surjewalaurged the Prime Minister andthe Centre to ferry the migrantlabourers to their home in

sanitised trains for free, alongwith food. The party said PrimeMinister Narendra Modi mustcome forward and address thecountrymen to enlighten themon the way ahead in dealingwith the coronavirus and theeconomic situation. Askingwhen the lockdown will final-ly end, Surjewala said thePrime Minister must also layout the exit strategy from it andspell out the goalpost in deal-ing with the Covid-19 pan-demic and economy.

"Will we see another lock-down? When will the lock-down finally end? The PrimeMinister must come forwardand address 130 crore Indiansand enlighten them on the wayahead," Surjewala told reportersat a AICC press briefing throughvideo-conferencing.

Senior Congress leaderAnand Sharma urged Modi tohalt the central Vista project fornow, along with the proposedmega central secretariats in 17state capitals, calling it a “crim-inal waste” of public money inthe times of coronavirus pan-demic. “Urging PM to shelve thewasteful Central Vista project &

proposed mega Central secre-tariats at 17 State capitals.Spending over �25,000 crore ongrand buildings at a time ofunprecedented national crisiswill be a criminal waste of pub-lic money,” Sharma said.

The opposition partieshave sought the scrapping ofthe project citing the econom-ic burden placed by the coro-navirus outbreak.

In the past few days, the pro-ject, however, received two keyapprovals, including from theenvironment ministry’s expertappraisal committee and theCentral Vista committee, takingit a step closer to reality.

Another senior Congressleader Abhishek Manu Singhviquestioned the two clearancesfor the project when a secondfiscal relief package to mitigatethe hardships faced by severalsectors of economy and indi-viduals was yet to be announced.

“The lockdown has beenextended for a second time anda new parliament building hasbeen approved, but there is stillno sign of a second financialpackage to support industries.Does the BJP Govt care at all?”

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Even as the Centre defendedthe contact-tracing app,

Congress leader Rahul Gandhion Saturday raised doubts overthe Aarogya Setu mobile appli-cation saying it is a "sophisti-cated surveillance system" out-sourced to a private operator,raising serious data securityand privacy concerns.

'The Arogya Setu app, is asophisticated surveillance sys-tem, outsourced to a pvt oper-ator, with no institutional over-sight - raising serious datasecurity & privacy concerns.Technology can help keep ussafe; but fear must not beleveraged to track citizens

without their consent," Rahulsaid on Twitter.

According to the Centre,the mobile application helpsusers identify whether theyare at risk of the Covid-19infection. It also provides peo-ple with important informa-tion, including ways to avoidcoronavirus and its symptoms.

Congress chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewala saidvarious experts have raisedmultiple issues of privacyregarding Aarogya Setu app.

"We are looking at the pri-vacy issues, as also the com-pulsory deduction of amountand hopefully within next 24hours we will come with a morecomprehensive and a calibrat-

ed response on the issue. But,these are areas of concern, wehave noted," he said at AICCpress conference.

"The Aarogya Setu app, isa sophisticated surveillancesystem, outsourced to a pvtoperator, with no institutionaloversight - raising serious datasecurity & privacy concerns.Technology can help keep ussafe; but fear must not beleveraged to track citizens with-out their consent," he said onTwitter.

The Central Governmenthas made it compulsory for allits employees to downloadthe app and urged privateentitles to also ask theiremployees to use it.

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New Delhi: Seventeen person-nel of the Border Security Force(BSF) in Delhi and Tripura havetested positive for coronavirus,a force spokesperson said onSaturday.

He said out of the total,seven troops who were deployedas part of an assistance deploy-ment to Delhi Police in theChandni Mahal and JamaMasjid areas over the past fewweeks, have tested positive. Theyare part of the 126th and 178thbattalion of the force. The troopshave been admitted to an isola-tion facility of the CAPF(Central Armed Police Forces)

Referral hospital located inGreater Noida near here. Eightmore personnel, admitted at aforce hospital in RK Puram, alsocontracted the virus and theirtests were confirmed over thelast few days, the spokespersonsaid. These include two per-sonnel who are suffering fromcancer and their attendants.Two more personnel have con-tracted the disease in Tripura, hesaid. The BSF is primarily taskedwith guarding Indian borderswith Pakistan and Bangladeshapart from rendering a varietyof duties in the internal securi-ty domain of the country. PTI

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New Delhi: Hitting out atRahul Gandhi for calling'Aarogya Setu' app a sophisti-cated surveillance system, theBJP on Saturday said theCongress leader spoke a "newlie" daily and retorted thatthose who indulged in surveil-lance all their lives won't knowhow technology can be lever-aged for good.

Senior party leader RaviShankar Prasad, who is alsocommunications, electronicsand information technologyminister, rejected Gandhi'scharge that the app has beenoutsourced to a private opera-tor and asserted that it has a

robust data security architecture. "Mr Gandhi, really high

time that you stop outsourcingyour tweets to your cronies whodo not understand India," hetweeted, adding that the app,which the government says is atool in fighting the coron-avirus, is being appreciatedglobally.

Attacking Gandhi, Prasadsaid, "Daily a new lie. AarogyaSetu is a powerful companionwhich protects people. It has arobust data security architec-ture. Those who indulged insurveillance all their lives, won'tknow how tech can be lever-aged for good!" PTI

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New Delhi: Fearing shortage ofdrivers in the wake of migra-tion of labourers, transporters’body AIMTC on Saturdaydemanded an immediate reliefpackage to drivers to avoid anydisruption in supply chain.

All India Motor TransportCongress (AIMTC) alsodemanded allowing opening ofgodowns and warehouses withsupport staff for ensuring sup-

ply of goods. It said anotherproblem faced by the transportsector is migration of drivers totheir hometown and if financialsupport is not provided to themtheir return would be difficult.

“There is severe downturnin the transport sector due topersistent lockdown 1.0, 2.0and now 3.0. 85 per cent of thepopulation is of small operatorsand they are not able to sustain

the financial pressure and it isgoing to boomerang intoanother major crisis.

“The entire road transportfraternity of India is critical.The government must extenda helping hand to more than 20crore people dependent onthis sector to contain the hugesocial and economic holocaustout the present scenario,” itsaid. PTI

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Lower global oil prices havenot helped reduce auto fuel

prices for consumers but it hassaved the Government frompaying subsidy on cooking gascylinder into the accounts ofhousehold beneficiaries.

From May, governmentwill not be paying subsidy intothe accounts of domes tic LPGcustomers in all metros underthe direct benefit transferscheme. While the subsidy willbe limited to just �2-5 in othercities given increased cost oftransportation and just about�20 per cylinder for 8 croreUjjwala beneficiaries.

All consumers have to paythe market price of a 14.2 kgcylinder upfront. TheGovernment transfers the sub-sidy directly into the account ofeligible consumers. The subsidy

is the difference between mar-ket and subsidised price ofcooking gas.

Global crude oil prices areon a free fall since middle ofMarch bringing do wn crudeprices from a level of $35 a bar-rel to below $20 for sometimeand n ow to around $25 barrel.Along with crude fall, productprices, including LPG prices,have also fallen drasticallypushing oil companies to cutprice of non-subsidised domes-tic LPG cylinder by a record Rs162.50 to �581.50 a cylinder inDelhi from May 1.

“At current market price ofcooking gas, government maynot need to p ay any subsidy tohouseholds. Only marginalsubsidy may be required forUjja wala customers. If theprice trend continues, govern-ment could completely el imi-nate oil subsidy bill in FY21

that could come handy formaking additional spendingfor other Covid-19 related reliefmeasures,” said an official of acountry’s largest public sectoroil refiner and retailer as kingnot to be named.

The budget had allotted�37,256.21 crore for LPG sub-sidy in 2020-21, 9 per centmore than �34,085.86 crorerevised estimate for 2019-20.This requir ement should comedown drastically with no needto pay LPG for a large sect ionof beneficiaries.

Apart from LPG, govern-ment’s oil subsidy bill also paysto keep kerosene price undercheck. With kerosene pricesalso low and governmentreducin g its allotment to states,government could look at com-pletely eliminating oil subsidythis year.

Sources said, not only

depressed global oil marketbut oil companies have al sobeen increasing the price ofsubsidised domestic lpg pricesgradually by �4-5 per cylindersince late last year. That has alsohelped to bridge the gapbetween the market and sub-sidised price of the product.

According to an analystreport, during July 2019-January 2020, the OMCsincreased the price of subsi-dized LPG by �63 per cylinder,almost at an average of �10 percylinder per month.

While Government hasreduced its subsidy bill in thecurrent period of oil pricecrash, auto fuel consumershave not got any benefit so far.In fact, petrol and diesel pricesat pumps have not changed forlast 50 days when global oilprices have fallen more than 40per cent.

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Terming the new notifica-tion by the Centre as a

“good start to get the economymoving”, the RetailersAssociation of India has said itnow looks forward to it beingadopted by various state gov-ernments.

The Retailers Associationof India (RAI) said that it now

expects the respective stategovernment to recognise shop-ping malls as safe space andallow them to open for cus-tomers in a regulated manner.

On Saturday, the govern-ment issued a new notification,easing some restrictions in thegreen and orange zones duringthe third phase of the lockdownbeginning May 4.

“The new notification by

the MHA is a good start to get-ting the economy moving. Welook forward to clarificationsfrom the states and how theywould like to adopt these newguidelines.

“We hope that the govern-ment does recognise the safespace that malls provide forshoppers and opens them up ina regulated manner,” RAI saidin a statement.

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Reserve Bank of IndiaGovernor Shaktikanta Das

on Saturday held a meetingwith the heads of banks andreviewed the economic situa-tion and implementation ofvarious measures announcedby it to reduce stress in thefinancial system amid theCovid-19 crisis.

The meeting, which hap-pened in two separate sessionsthrough video conference, sawparticipation of managingdirectors and CEOs of majorpublic and private sector banks,the RBI said in a statement afterthe meeting.

In his opening remarks, thegovernor appreciated theefforts of banks in ensuringnormal to near normal opera-tions during the lockdownperiod. During the meeting,among other matters, review ofthe current economic situationand stability of the financialsector among other things were

discussed.Credit flows to different

sectors of the economy, includ-ing liquidity to non-bankingfinancial companies, microfi-nance institutions, housingfinance companies, mutualfunds, etc and post lockdowncredit flows including provisionof working capital, with specialfocus on credit f lows toMSMEs were also deliberated.

Implementation of threemonths moratorium on repay-ment of loan instalmentsannounced by the RBI was alsoreviewed during the meeting.

The SC earlier this week

directed the RBI to ensure thatits March 27 guidelines direct-ing lending institutions to allowa three-month moratorium toall borrowers is implemented inletter and spirit.

Monitoring of overseasbranches of banks in view ofthe slowdown in economiesacross the globe was discussed,it added. The Reserve Bank hasannounced several steps toease the pressure being faced byborrowers, lenders and otherentities including mutual fundsand has promised to take moreinitiatives to deal with thedeveloping situation.

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TVS Motor Company on Saturdaysaid it did not sell any unit in the

domestic market last month as all itsplants remained closed due to the coro-navirus lockdown.

Since March 23, the company’splants have been closed in compliancewith the government guidelines, TVS Motor Company said in a state-ment.

During April, the company had zerosales in the domestic market, it added.

However, following resumption ofoperations at Chennai Port, 8,134 unitsof two-wheelers, and 1,506 three-wheel-ers were shipped utilising the stocks from March 2020 whileensuring utmost safety, the companysaid.

The two-wheeler major said it isgearing up to restart operations as perstate guidelines and is undertakingstrong measures to safeguard the healthof its employees.

“We are optimistic about the poten-tial demand for personal mobility oncethings normalise,” it added.

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Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) onSaturday reported nil domestic sales in April, but

managed to close the month with limited exports of2,630 two-wheelers.

“Honda’s domestic sales in April’20 stood at nil asall 4 of its production facilities suspended operationsfrom 22nd March till now in accordance with lockdownguidelines issued by the Government. Covid-19 out-break and the subsequent lockdown has resulted in mas-sive economic upheaval.

While on one hand factories and businesses areshut, consumer sentiment is also marred with the fears of uncertainty over the current health crisis”.

There has also been a changes in the top manage-ment of the company

On Friday, the Honda Motor Co. Japan announcednew top management at HMSI to strategically steward the brand towards market leadership in the dis-ruptive future.

Under the new management team, Atsushi Ogatahas become the President, CEO and the ManagingDirector of the company.

New York: US stocks finishedFriday’s session noticeablylower amid a broad market sell-off. The Dow Jones IndustrialAverage shed 622.03 points, or2.55 per cent, to 23,723.69. TheS&P 500 fell 81.72 points, or2.81 per cent, to 2,830.71. TheNasdaq Composite Indexdecreased 284.60 points, or3.20 per cent, to 8,604.95,Xinhua reported.

All the 11 primary S&P 500sectors dropped, with energy

closing down 6 per cent, theworst-performing group.

Amazon shares slipped 7.6per cent. The US e-commercegiant on Thursday posted afirst-quarter profit that missedanalysts’ expectations andpledged to spend entire sec-ond-quarter operating profit oncoronavirus response.

Shares of other big technames, including Facebook,Apple, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet, were alsounder pressure.On the datafront, US manufacturingPurchasing Managers’ Indexregistered 41.5 per cent inApril, down sharply from theMarch reading of 49.1 percent, the Institute for SupplyManagement reported onFriday. Any reading below 50per cent indicates the manu-facturing sector is generallycontracting.

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The country’s largest lender,State Bank of India, on

Saturday said it would be verydifficult to assess medium orlong-term impact on the bank-ing sector at the moment in thewake of the ongoing nation-wide lockdown as this willcontinue to evolve in theemerging situation.

The bank is looking at theshort term now - the next twoor three quarters, a senior SBIofficial said on condition ofanonymity.

The impact of the lock-down over the next one to twoyears will be difficult to assessat the moment, he pointedout.

“In the next one to twoyears, we will have to navigatevery carefully and SBI is sure of

a turnaround as India is youngcountry and a growing econo-my,” the senior official of thelender said.

He said the bank was thefirst to come out with theresponse by providing workingcapital as “emergency Covidcredit line to the extent of tenper cent”. This was extended toall the customers with “stan-dard assets”, he said, adding thatother banks then followed thesuit.

Regarding the three-monthmoratorium on repayment ofloans, announced by theReserve Bank of India in thewake of the coronavirus out-break, he said, nearly 20-25 percent of SBI’s corporate bor-rowers had availed of it.

“Availing of the moratori-um has an inherent interestcost,” the official said.

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E-commerce players onSaturday said they are gear-

ing up for serving millions ofIndians users from May 4 asthere has been an uptick insearches mainly for apparel,household products and per-sonal grooming items in thepast 24 hours.

Although the Governmenthas allowed the sale of onlyessential products in the redzone through e-commerce plat-forms, non-essential productsare allowed in green and orangezones, starting May 4, subjectto specific approval from therespective state governments.

The relaxation comes as amajor relief for the e-commerceplayers. Flipkart said that as amarketplace e-commerce play-er, it is its responsibility toenable sellers and the MSMEcommunity to bounce back andfacilitate economic activity.

“We are working with lakhsof sellers and MSMEs acrossIndia and helping them preparetheir businesses and workforceto make products available forconsumers in this time ofneed,” a company spokespersontold IANS.

“Our seller support team isproviding constant onlinecounsel and support to sellerson our platform to help themresume operations over thenext couple of days complyingwith the government direc-tives,” the company added.

The Centre on Fridayannounced the extension of the

nationwide lockdown for twomore weeks from May 4, withcertain relaxations to regionscategorised as orange and greenzones. Snapdeal said that traf-fic to its platform has beengrowing steadily since theMHA announcement easinglockdown restrictions, includ-ing on e-commerce.

“The users are throngingthe platform looking to placeorders for a wide variety ofproducts for which they havebeen waiting for a long time.Apparel and household prod-ucts topped the list for search-es and orders placed,” said acompany spokesperson.

Although there is no cate-gorical statement regardingallowing of non-essential salesby e-commerce players, theMHA order mentioned that allactivities are permitted in greenzones except buses, metro railservices, educational institu-tions and other non-essentialplaces which could lead to masscongregation of people, includ-ing, malls, and cinema halls.

An Amazon spokespersonsaid on Friday that it wel-comes the government’s deci-sion to allow ecommerce inOrange and Green Zones toserve people safely with prod-ucts that they need and havenot been able to access due tothe lockdown.

“Millions of small andmedium businesses and traderswill now be able to jumpstarttheir businesses and livelihoodsacross their workforce,” said thecompany spokesperson.

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In order to boost the moraleof the entrepreneurs who

have been suffering due to thelockdown, Union MinisterNitin Gadkari has been talkingto various stakeholders andtelling them not to lose hope.Gadkari has been using socialmedia and other means likevideo conferencing to reach outto people, entrepreneurs andindustry leaders.

Gadkari is even reachingout to foreign students, seekingtheir suggestions on how tobring the battered economyback on track. He believes onlydialogue can solve problems.

According to a top officialof the MSME ministry, Gadkarimakes a point in all meetingsthat there is a need to convertthis crisis into an opportunity.“He tries to instil a sense of

hope amidst all the gloom. Ithas positive impact on thestakeholders as it is comingfrom none other than a minis-ter,” the official said.

He held a talk ‘Response toglobal pandemic, Roadmap forIndia’ with students of Indianorigin living in 43 countriesincluding Britain, Canada,Singapore and Australia recent-ly. During the talk he appealedto them to play an active partin the fight against the coron-avirus and said that the youthhave the ability to take thecountry forward. He askedthem to work on innovativeideas in this direction. He also

asked them to take advantageof the situation arising from theworld’s disillusionment withChina.

During a recent meet withrepresentatives of Assocham onreviving the MSME sector,Gadkari said that the Japanesegovernment has recommend-ed a special package for itsindustry to pull out of Chinaand invest elsewhere. Gadkaritermed it a big opportunity forIndia to take advantage of thesituation. “There is a need toforge new partnership to estab-lish joint ventures in India toattract global firms. We need tomeet the global demand apartfrom meeting domesticdemand as many companiesnow want to get out of China.”

Gadkari also emphasisedon the need to lessen the bur-den of big cities such asGurugram, Delhi and Mumbai

as economic drivers. He saidthere is a need to create eco-nomic and industrial clustersoutside the big cities to drivegrowth.

Gadkari said currentlywork on 22 expressways isgoing on at a fast pace. TheDelhi-Mumbai Expressway isone of them where there is anopportunity of investment in ITParks, Logistics and industrialunits.

Gadkari has spoken to rep-resentatives of Ficci, Assocham,CREDAI and leaders of otherbusiness organisations sincethe lockdown came into forceon March 24.

According to ministry offi-cials, Gadkari has reached outto at least 10,000 industry lead-ers during the lockdown peri-od and has discussed its eco-nomic fallout and how to revivethe economy post lockdown.

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Indian industry need to under-take technological upgrada-

tion and import substitution toattract investments from glob-al businesses that look to exitChina due to the Covid-19 out-break, Union minister NitinGadkari said on Saturday.

The minister has beenexhorting the industry to cap-italise on growing “hatred”against China amid coron-avirus pandemic. Interactingwith members of the FicciLadies Organization in a webi-

nar, the minister for MSMEand Road Transport andHighways said recommenda-tions for “another big package”have been shared with thePrime Minister and the FinanceMinister, and said he was“hopeful of a declaration soon”.

Gadkari also expressedconfidence that 25 lakhMSMEs will be restructured bythe end of the year. TheReserve Bank of India (RBI)extended the restructuring ofdebt schemes beyond thedeadline of March 31, 2020, toDecember 31, 2020.

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Aleading Chinese virologistfrom the Wuhan Institute

of Virology (WIV), whose mys-terious disappearance sparkedspeculation about the deadlynovel coronavirus emanatingfrom the laboratory, has deniedreports of her defection toWest with the secrets about theCovid-19.

Shi Zhengli, known as the“Bat Woman” for her passion-ate research about bats and theviruses associated with them,refuted rumours of her defec-tion on her Chinese socialmedia WeChat account, the

state-run media here reportedon Saturday.

Denying “rumours” of“defecting to the West”, Shi onher WeChat account wrote,“Everything is alright for myfamily and me, dear friends!”She also posted nine photos ofher recent life, the Global Timesreported.

In the post, Shi, reported tobe the Director of the WIV,said, “No matter how difficult,it (defecting) shall never hap-pen. We’ve done nothingwrong. With strong belief inscience, we will see the daywhen the clouds disperse andthe sun shines.”

“Shi has been troubled byrumours for quite a long time.The recent rumour which hasbeen circulating on overseassocial media platforms saidthat ‘Shi Zhengli director at#Wuhan Institute of Virologyhas defected with a treasuretrove of intelligence to the USembassy in Paris,” the reportsaid but gave no details of herwhereabouts.

Her social media postingsreported by the official mediahere comes in the immediatebackdrop of increasing focuson the WIV with allegations byUS President Donald Trump aswell as suspicions raised by sev-

eral other world leaders that theCovid-19, which has causedmassive death and devastationglobally, may have originatedfrom the lab.

There were also questionsabout her absence sinceDecember last year when thevirus began spreading inWuhan and then the rest ofChina and the world.

While some reports said,she was muzzled by theChinese Government after sheunlocked the genome sequenceof the coronavirus on January2, others said she may havebeen defected to the West.

The Global Times report

said it is not the first time thatShi responded to the rumourson her WeChat account.

On February 2, she said onher WeChat Moment that, “the2019 novel coronavirus is apunishment by nature tohumans’ unsanitary lifestyles. Ipromise with my life that thevirus has nothing to do withthe lab,” in a response to an arti-cle by Indian scientists imply-ing the novel coronavirus pos-sibly originated from the WIV,the report said.

China is resisting mountingpressure from the US and theleaders of many countries for aninquiry into the origin of the

virus, which was initially stated to have emerged from awet market in Wuhan sellinglive animals located close to WIV.

On April 29, state televisionCGTN reported that US sci-entists are working with theirChinese counterparts to inves-tigate the origin of the coronavirus, a prime demandof Trump and several othercountries.

The report said ChinaCentre for Disease Controland Prevention is facilitatingthe cooperation between DrYan Lipkin, Director for Centrefor Infection and Immunity of

Columbia University, and ProfLu Jinhai of Sun-Yat-SenUniversity of Guangzhou toconduct the probe.

The two are workingtogether to determine whetherthe virus emerged elsewhere inChina before Wuhan inDecember last year, the reportsaid. But since then there is noofficial announcement on the probe.

Brushing aside calls for aninquiry, China on Monday saidsuch a probe has no precedenceor legal basis besides investi-gations into such pandemics inthe past had not provided anyconclusive results.

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The United Nations secre-tary-general says the

Covid-19 pandemic is causing“untold fear and suffering” forolder people around the world who are dying at ahigher rate, and especially forthose over the age of 80 whosefatality rate is five times theglobal average.

Antonio Guterres said onFriday that beyond the healthrisks, “the pandemic is puttingolder people at greater risk ofpoverty,” with an especiallydevastating impact on the elderly in developing countries.

The UN Chief launched a16-page policy briefing on theimpact of Covid-19 on olderpeople with several key mes-sages, most importantly that“no person, young or old, isexpendable” and “older peoplehave the same rights to life andhealth as everyone else.”

Guterres also called forimproved social support and“smarter efforts” to use digitaltechnology to reach older peo-ple who may face great suffering because of isolationand restrictions on their movements.

Washington: President DonaldTrump says he’s hoping that thetotal number of Covid-19deaths in the United States willbe below 1,00,000.

Even that, he acknowl-edged on Friday, is a “horriblenumber.” Trump’s predictionsof the expected US death tollhave changed over time, and herepeatedly has used high esti-mates to make the case that hisadministration’s actions, especially his decision torestrict travel from China, havesaved lives.

His actions have been chal-lenged by state, local and pub-lic health officials who havecomplained about shortagesof testing supplies and safetygear for doctors and nurses.

On March 29, Dr DeborahBirx, coordinator of the WhiteHouse coronavirus task force,revealed models projecting thedeaths of 1,00,000 to 2,40,000Americans, assuming socialdistancing efforts were ongo-ing. At the same time, she saidepidemiology models initiallyhad predicted a worst-case sce-nario of 1.5 million to 2.2 mil-lion US deaths without miti-gation efforts such as social dis-tancing, hand washing andstaying home as much as pos-sible. AP

Shanghai: China has publisheda short animation titled “OnceUpon a Virus” mocking the USresponse to the new coronavirususing Lego-like figures to rep-resent the two countries.

Washington and Beijing arelocked in a war of words overthe origins of the disease, whichemerged in the Chinese city ofWuhan and has grown into aglobal pandemic.

US President DonaldTrump said on Thursday he wasconfident the coronavirus mayhave originated in a Chinesevirology lab, but declined todescribe the evidence.

In the animation postedonline by China’s official Xinhuanews agency, red curtains opento reveal a stage featuring Lego-like figures in the form of a ter-racotta warrior wearing a facemask and the Statue of Liberty.

“We discovered a newvirus,” says the warrior.

“So what?” replies the Statue

of Liberty. “It’s only a flu.”As the warrior issues warn-

ings about the virus and countsoff the grim milestones inChina’s outbreak, the Statue ofLiberty replies dismissively withechoes of Trump’s press con-ferences in which he playeddown the severity of the illness.

“Are you listening to your-selves?” asks the warrior as thestatue begins to turn red withfever and gets hooked up to anintravenous drip.

“We are always correct,even though we contradict our-selves,” the statue replies.

“That’s what I love aboutyou Americans, your consis-tency,” says the warrior.

The United States andother countries have accusedChina of misleading the worldabout the severity of the out-break, and there are growingcalls for an internationalinquiry into the origins of thevirus. Agency

Beijing: The World HealthOrganisation has praised Chinafor its handling of the coron-avirus pandemic, and said thatother countries need to learnfrom Wuhan on how the epi-centre of the virus was bring-ing the society back to normal,a day after US PresidentDonald Trump likened theglobal health body to a publicrelations agency for Beijing.

Trump on Thursday saidthe WHO should be “ashamed”of itself, as he compared theUN’s health organ to a publicrelations agency for Chinaamidst the coronavirus pan-demic after it originated in thecentral Chinese city of Wuhan.

The Trump administra-tion has launched a probe intothe role of the WHO on coro-navirus, and has temporarilysuspended the US’ financialassistance to it.

Many countries, includingGermany, Britain andAustralia, are blaming Chinafor the spread of coronavirus,that has killed over 2,35,000people globally, including64,000 Americans, and hasinfected 3.3 million.

Noting that there are zeroCovid-19 cases in Wuhan, Mariavan Kerkhove, the technicallead for the WHO’s HealthEmergencies Programme at avirtual press briefing in Geneva,said, “that’s very very welcomenews to hear that there are nomore severe cases, no morepatients in Wuhan.”

“So congratulations on thisachievement,” state-run Xinhuanews agency quoted her as say-ing on Saturday.

“The world has learnedfrom China and we need tocontinue to learn from Wuhanon how they are lifting thosemeasures, how they are bring-ing society back to normal, ora new normal, in terms of howwe’re going to live with thisvirus going forward,” she said.

Health officials in Wuhan,where the coronavirus emergedin December last year, said allCOVID-19 cases were clearedfrom hospitals on Sunday.

The Hubei province and itscapital Wuhan have not report-ed coronavirus cases for 28consecutive days since April 4,the local health commissiosaid on Saturday. PTI

���� 58*�*�

Russia and Pakistan report-ed their biggest one-day

jumps in new coronavirusinfections as some other coun-tries and US States where casenumbers are stabilising allowedbusinesses and public activitiesto reopen.

China, where the pan-demic began in December,reported a single new infectionon Saturday, extending a steadydecline in confirmed cases.

South Korea reported sixnew cases on Saturday, none ofthem in the hard-hit city ofDaegu in the southeast. Bothcountries are easing anti-viruscontrols and reviving economicactivity.

Russia reported 7,933 newcases on Friday, raising its totalto 114,431. The true number isbelieved to be higher becausenot everyone is tested andRussian tests are reported to beonly 70% to 80% accurate.

At least five Russian regionsreported a surge of pneumoniacases. In Moscow, whichaccounts for half of all viruscases, all respiratory infectionsare likely to be caused by thecoronavirus, according to thepublic health agency.

Pakistan announced 1,297new cases, raising the total inthe country of 220 millionpeople to 18,114.

The increase coincideswith increased testing. TheGovernment said more than9,000 were conducted in theprevious 24 hours. PrimeMinister Imran Khan has set agoal of 20,000 per day.

Also Friday, the first drugshown to help fight the diseasereceived emergency approvalfrom the U.S. Food and DrugAdministration. In a study,remdesivir shortened patients’recovery time from 15 days to11 on average and may havereduced deaths.

The virus has killed morethan 2,30,000 people world-wide, including more than64,000 in the United States andmore than 20,000 each in Italy,Britain, France and Spain.Health experts warn a secondwave of infections could hitunless testing is expanded dra-matically.

Models released by theWhite House coronavirus taskforce on March 29 projecteddeaths of 100,000 to 2,40,000Americans, assuming effortssuch as social distancing andstaying home as much as pos-

sible were in effect. The taskforce director said the worst-case scenario was 1.5 million to2.2 million US deaths withoutthose measures.

As the crisis stabilises insome European countries andAmerican states, governmentsare easing the shutdown ofbusinesses that plunged theglobal economy into its deep-est slump since the 1930s andwiped out millions of jobs.

France, Spain, Germanyand other governments plan toallow factories, offices, otherbusinesses, churches and some other public facilities toreopen gradually and understrict controls.

China has lifted blanketrestrictions that kept 800 mil-lion people at home but kept inplace extensive fever-checksand other monitoring.

On Friday, the formerimperial palace in the Chinesecapital, Beijing, reopened aftera 2 1/2-month shutdown, butthe number of daily visitors waslimited to 5,000, down from theusual 80,000. Photos on socialmedia showed palace visitorswearing masks and beingescorted by police.

China has reported 82,875confirmed virus cases and4,633 deaths.

The country’s ceremoniallegislature is due to hold itsannual session May 22, post-poned from March.

Trump, who is runningfor reelection in the midst of aUS economic slump that haswiped out more than 10 millionjobs, is pressing state governorsto lift anti-disease controlsdespite warnings by somehealth experts that might lead

to a spike in infections.On Friday, more than a

dozen US states includingTexas and South Carolinaallowed restaurants, stores andother businesses to reopen inthe biggest one-day push yet torevive their economies.

Other governors includingAndrew Cuomo of New York,the hardest-hit American state,and J B Pritzker of Illinois saythey won’t relax controls untilconditions are safer.

Also Friday, a New YorkCity nursing home reported 98deaths of residents believed tohave had the coronavirus.Mayor Bill De Blasio called thetoll horrifying.

The governor ofWashington, where the first USvirus case was confirmed inJanuary, extended a stay-at-home order through at least

May 31. The governor ofMichigan said a similar orderthere is in effect through May15 despite the state legisla-ture’s refusal to extend heremergency declaration.

Baghdad: Islamic State mili-tants killed at least 10 Iraqimilitiamen in a coordinatedassault overnight near the cen-tral city of Samarra, securityofficials said on Saturday,adding to concerns the extrem-ist group that once controlledlarge areas of the country isstaging a comeback.

The military and thePopular Mobilization Forces, anumbrella group of mostly Shiitemilitias allied with the govern-ment, confirmed the attack inseparate statements. It was thedeadliest of a series of attacks inrecent weeks that come asauthorities are grappling with aworsening economic crisis andtrying to contain a coronavirusoutbreak. AP

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Iran on Saturday denouncedrecent US Allegations that it

was providing covert aid tohelp Venezuela overcome gasshortages as “baseless” withoutdirectly addressing them.

Secretary of State MikePompeo last week said “multi-ple aircraft” belonging to Iran’sMahan Air had transferred“unknown support” toVenezuela’s Government.

He called for a halt to theflights and for other countries to bar overflights byMahan Air.

The Associated Pressreported last month thatMahan Air was delivering keychemical components used forproducing gasoline to help

revive an aging refinery in theSouth American country,which is in the grip of a severeeconomic crisis. Venezuela hasbeen suffering from wide-spread gasoline shortagesdespite having the world’slargest oil reserves.

Both Iran and Venezuelaare under heavy US sanctions,and have had close relations forthe last two decades.

Iran’s Foreign Ministrytweeted that the “baseless com-ments were made in order toprepare the ground for mount-ing US pressure on theVenezuelan government.”

Another statement said theUS intended to “obstruct theVenezuelan government’s planfor reviving the country’srefineries.”

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North Korean leader KimJong Un made his first

public appearance in 20 days ashe celebrated the completion ofa fertiliser factory nearPyongyang, state media saidSaturday, ending an absencethat had triggered globalrumours that he may be seri-ously ill.

The North’s official KoreanCentral News Agency reportedthat Kim attended the ceremo-ny Friday in Sunchon withother senior officials, includinghis sister Kim Yo Jong, whomany analysts predict wouldtake over if her brother is sud-

denly unable to rule.State media showed videos

and photos of Kim wearing ablack Mao suit and constantlysmiling, walking around facili-ties, applauding, cutting a hugered ribbon with a scissor hand-ed by his sister, and smokinginside and outside of buildingswhile talking with other officials.

Seemingly thousands ofworkers, many of them masked,stood in lines at the massive complex, roaring in cel-ebration and releasing balloonsinto the air. A sign installed ona stage where Kim sat withother senior officials read:“Sunchon Phosphatic FertilizerFactory; Completion

Ceremony; May 1, 2020.” There were no clear signs

that Kim was in discomfort. Hewas shown moving without awalking stick, like the one heused in 2014 when he wasrecovering from a presumedankle surgery. However, he wasalso seen riding a green electriccart, which appeared similar toa vehicle he used in 2014.

It was Kim’s first publicappearance since April 11, whenhe presided over a rulingWorkers’ Party meeting to dis-cuss the coronavirus and reap-point his sister as an alternatemember of the powerful deci-sion-making Political Bureau ofthe party’s Central Committee.

That move confirmed her sub-stantial role in the government.

Speculation about hishealth swirled after he missedthe April 15 birthday celebra-tion for his late grandfatherKim Il Sung, the country’s mostimportant holiday, for the firsttime since taking power in2011.

The possibility of high-level instability raised trou-bling questions about the futureof the secretive, nuclear-armedstate that has been steadilybuilding an arsenal meant tothreaten the US. Mainlandwhile diplomacy between Kimand President Donald Trumphas stalled.

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The United States tweeted itssupport for Taiwan’s par-

ticipation in the United NationsFriday, provoking a sharpresponse from China express-ing “strong indignation andfirm opposition.”

The tweet from the USMission to the United Nationssaid the 193-member globalorganization was founded toserve “all voices,” welcome “adiversity of views and per-spectives” and promote human rights.

It said “Barring #Taiwanfrom setting foot on UNgrounds is an affront not justto the proud Taïwanese people,but to UN principles.”

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=5&.�%&'$0�7+.#'"$London: The UK on Saturdayannounced 621 more deathsin the coronavirus outbreak,taking the overall cumulativetoll to 28,131, just behindEurope’s worst-hit countryItaly. The Government saidthat 1,82,260 people had test-ed positive for Covid-19, up4,806 on Friday. But hospital admissions had fall-en, it added.

Prime Minister BorisJohnson said the country had“past the peak” of the virus,as he comes under mountingpressure to ease lockdownrestrictions imposed in lateMarch. A review is expectedthis Thursday and Johnsonsaid the Government willoutline a plan to lift social dis-tancing measures that wouldkeep transmissions ratesdown. AFP

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England’s Test tour of Sri Lanka, whichcould not be completed in March due to

the COVID-19 pandemic, has been resched-uled to January next year, claims SLC CEOAshley de Silva.

England had spent around 10 days inSri Lanka in March and played a warm-upmatch before the tour was called-off due tothe coronavirus outbreak. It was supposedto be a two-Test series as part of the WorldTest Championship.

“We are in the process of reschedulingthe tours that have been postponed. Englandhas been already rescheduled for the monthof January next year but the dates have notbeen finalised,” de Silva told Daily News.

“At the same time, we are also lookingat exploring the possibility of reschedulingpostponed tours and looking at the windowswhich are available and alternatives too.

“South Africa is one of the tours whichwe are looking at rescheduling. We areengaged in discussions with the membercountries and see how it can be plannedout.”

However, England are scheduled to tourIndia in January for a five-Test series, so, itremains to be seen how the scheduling willwork out.

All cricketing activity has come to a haltdue to the pandemic, throwing the inter-national calendar haywire.

India too were scheduled to tour SriLanka for a limited overs series after the IPL,which has been postponed indefinitely.

“There are also two other tours whichare scheduled to take place, with India andBangladesh due to tour Sri Lanka in June-July and July-August respectively.

“We will explore the possibility of play-ing those two tours in another week or two,”de Silva added.

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New Zealand batsmanHenry Nicholls has

decided to donate the shirthe wore in the World Cupfinal last year to help thefamilies impacted by theCOVID-19 pandemic.

Nicholls will be donat-ing the jersey to UnicefNew Zealand.

“NZ Cricketer@HenryNicholls27 Cricketbat and ballhas offered upone of his prized 2019Cricket World Cup jerseys,signed by the whole team!One lucky donor who hassupported our#FoodForKiwiFamiliesappeal will receive it. You’egot to be in it, to win it sodonate now!” Unicef tweet-ed.

“Since the start of lock-down, it’s more than tripledthe demand for foodparcels throughout NewZealand,” Nicholls told

Stuff.Co.Nz.“That was something

that really sparked myinterest and from my point

of view, everything thathappened at the World Cuplast year, that’s a prettymemorable experience. I

thought I could put thatshirt up as a bit of anincentive for people todonate.”

Unicef New Zealand isfocusing humanitarianefforts on Kiwi childrenand families and has part-nered with the SalvationArmy and Countdown toprovide urgent food andhygiene supplies across thecountry.

“For me I wanted to goaway from the auction sortof thing, where the highestbidder wins it. I wanted tomake it a bit more inclusiveand anyone can donate fiveor 10 dollars and go into thedraw to win it,” saidNicholls, who top-scoredfor New Zealand in thefinal, hitting 55.

“It all adds up. A lot offamilies and everyone inNew Zealand is really feel-ing the pinch. It’s a small lit-tle thing and hopefully itcan make a big difference.”

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Australian run-machineMarnus Labuschagne

is gearing up for a packedschedule to make up for thetime lost due to the COVID-19pandemic once cricket resumes.

All cricket is on hold rightnow due to the pandemicsweeping through the globewith several tours and tourna-ments being either cancelled orpostponed.

“There is going to be a lotof tours that will need to bemade up,” Labuschgne toldAustralian Associated Press.

“There’s going to be a wholeheap of cricket in a very shorttime frame. We'll be making upfor missed time, that scheduleis just going to be packed.”

Australia’s ODI seriesagainst New Zealand was calledoff after the first match, whilethe T20 World Cup is facing anuncertain future.

With several tours beingrescheduled in an already con-gested calender, Laubuschagnefeels players will be expected toplay a lot more than usual.

“It’s going to be a bit differ-ent to what we’re used to.We’re going to have to beready coming out of this breakto play heaps and heaps of

cricket.”The 25-year-old, who rose

to fame after coming in asSteve Smith’s concussion sub-stitute in the Ashes last year, isdisappointed to see the Englishcounty season also suffer.

“It’s very sad. I reallyenjoyed it last year. I lovedGlamorgan, hence why Isigned a two-year extension.It’s disappointing to see themand England cricket in trou-ble,” he said.

Several boards like CricketAustralia are facing a financialcrisis and the youngster feelsthe entire cricket communityshould come together and dowhatever is in their hands toget the sport going again.

“It’s our responsibility,cricket on the whole, to makesure once this period is overthat we get games on televisionand get the sport started again.We need to support eachother,” he added.

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Calling M S Dhoni his mentor, wicket-keeperbatsman Rishabh Pant says the World Cup-win-

ning skipper has his own way of helping the youngercrop as he never provides a full solution to a prob-lem, encouraging them to look for answers.

Pant, was heir apparent to Dhoni until K LRahul emerged as a wicket-keeper batsman in thelimited overs format, making the southpaw no morea certainty in the playing eleven.

“He (Dhoni) has been like a mentor to me, onand off the field. I can approach him freely with anyproblem I may be facing, and he will never give methe entire solution for it,” Pant said in an Instagramlive session with his IPL team Delhi Capitals.

“This is so that I don't become entirely depen-dent on him, he gives me hints only that helps mesolve the issue myself. He’s also one of my favouritebatting partners, though it's not something that hap-pens too often.

“If Mahi bhai is at the crease, you know thingsare sorted. He’s got a plan in his head, and all youneed to do is follow it!”

Dhoni, who has not played competitive crick-et since July, was supposed to make a much await-ed comeback with the IPL, which has now beenpostponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pan-demic. Former India spinner Harbhajan Singhthinks Dhoni has already played his last game forthe country.

����� �8���8�&*

India’s premier off-spinnerRavichandran Ashwin doesn’twant a post-COVID-19 world

that is more conducive for organ-ising T20 leagues at the expense ofinternational cricket.

The fastest Indian to 350 Testwickets, the seasoned spinner saidon Saturday he forsees another“purple patch” for him in the tra-ditional format, provided his bodyholds. He also outrightly rejectedthe four-day proposal.

“I really do hope that this(pandemic) does not transpireinto something where you havemore leagues and not much ofinternational cricket because theborders are closed,” Ashwin saidduring a videocast with formerIndia cricketer Sanjay Manjrekaron ESPNcricinfo.

With the COVID-19 pan-demic yet to subside, Ashwindoesn't see cricket resuming any-time soon.

“I think we are still some dis-tance away. In terms of the healthof world cricket I think it is goingto take longer than what peoplemight assume.

“So, that’s an imminent possi-bility, but I don’t know what thefurther future has in store.”

He calls himself a "hardened"T20 cricketer but it is the five-dayformat in which he has tasted max-imum success. And he is far frombeing done in the game's longform.

“If my body is in great space,I think Test cricket I just haveanother streak of great purplepatch I am looking at.”

"I believe I am a hardened pro-fessional in T20 cricket, and goodat what I do. Wherever I play I willbe able to deliver, with the expe-rience that I have got and thecourage that I have."

He said the ICC's plans to trimTest cricket by a day doesn’t excitehim.

“The thought of four-daycricket doesn’t really excite me. Iam a spinner and if you take a day

����� �8���8�&*

Sri Lankan batting great MahelaJayawardene says there is “nothing

harmful” in having players with big egosin a team as long as he is able to get thebest out of them within an ideal environ-ment.

Jayawardene has achieved consider-able success in leadership roles in recentyears, first as a captain and then coach,and said he has always backed his play-ers to the hilt.

Helming the affairs in a team-gamelike cricket, Jayawardene was asked howdoes he deal with big egos.

“It’s good to have that. It’s nothingharmful. It’s about identifying and mak-ing sure that they thrive. Everyone has gotto this level because they are good, right?So you try and get them to prove that.That’s all you need to do,” Jayawardenewas quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The 42-year-old is one of Sri Lanka’smost successful captains.

Speaking further on handling play-ers with big egos, he said, “It’s about treat-ing everyone professionally, and abouttreating everyone with respect. It is ateam culture that you create.

“Once you create that culture, it’shard for an individual to go beyond that.

“The rest of the players will bringthat person down to the group level. Ifyou haven’t created that team environ-ment, then you can have a problembecause there are no boundaries andpeople drift.”

Under his guidance, MumbaiIndians have won two titles in the last

three editions of IPL.He said experience is one of things

that has helped Mumbai Indians thriveduring his time.

“We try to make everybody involvedin the processes. The thing with Mumbaiis that a lot of guys have a lot of experi-ence. There are very few young guys -about three or four - but those guys alsohave played a lot of first-class cricket andare mature players.

“So you try and encourage everyoneto contribute. It's always good for the cap-tain to get ideas, and at the end of theday it's he who has to make the call, butthe more ideas he gets (from others), it

influences his thought process.”When asked if has ever felt in any of

his leadership roles the absence of con-trol over the dressing room, he respond-ed in the negative.

“It hasn’t happened. I’m very honestwith whatever I do. We can have brutal-ly honest conversations. Nothing is per-sonal with me.

“You just need to cultivate thatmutual respect. If the transparency isthere and there are no agendas, the play-ers understand that.

“I also back the players to the hilt,whether as a captain or a coach. I'malways on the players’ side,” he said.

������ �8���8�&*

He is an integral part of Indias limited-overs set-up, but spinner Kuldeep

Yadav has revealed how then coach AnilKumble had told him that he had to pick fivewickets while informing the youngster thathe would be making his debut againstAustralia in Dharamsala.

Speaking to Cricbuzz in their Youtubeshow Spicy Pitch, Kuldeep recalled theepisode of Kumble informing him that hewould be getting his Test cap next day whilehaving lunch. “I get emotional when Iremember my Test debut in Dharamsala.The most important thing for me at the timewas how to perform. I remember a daybefore the match, Anil sir came to me andsaid ‘you will play tomorrow, you have totake 5 wickets’,” he said.

“So, I paused for a second, and then Iwas like, 'yes sir, I will pick up 5 wickets’.(Laxman) Sivaramakrishnan sir gave me myTest cap. He gave me some advice, I don’tremember what, as I was completely blankat the time.

“I was feeling lot of pressure, I was real-ly nervous. I felt that it was a big stage —how will I perform here. But then I bowleda couple of overs before lunch, and I feltrelaxed. I decided to play it like it is a RanjiTrophy match. Test cricket has always beenvery close to my heart.”

Kuldeep recently spoke about the influ-ence of former skipper M.S. Dhoni in hiscareer and said that the wicket-keepereven made up for his childhood coach asthey both thought alike.

“I can’t pick up just one as there aremany (when asked about Dhoni’s instruc-tions from behind the stumps). He alwaysused to tell me 'ball ko spin karana hai (youhave to spin the ball) rather than bowlingflat'. This used to remind me of my coach.This is the best thing that I heard fromDhoni and because of this I never felt likeI was missing my coach,” Kuldeep said in avideo uploaded on a sports app.

‘Really hope there are not more leagues than Int’l cricket after pandemic’

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out, I dont know if it's going to behealthy, you are taking out a veryfascinating aspect of the game,”Ashwin said.

Asked about Indian cricket, hesaid, “The current state of Indiancricket is as healthy as it can be.Hope we can pick it up fromwhere we had left once sportresumes.”

Ashwin also spoke about hislove for operating with the new balland explained the mechanicsinvolved.

“I like a new ball because of thefizz that I get on it. One of mystrengths is to be able to put revson the hard ball as it responds bet-ter to the pitch.

“But I generally like to use thearm ball in first 2 or 3 overs becausewhen you use the arm ball, it chal-lenges both the edges of the bats-man and forces him to go acrossthe line which is rendered risky.”

The spin ace who has oftenbeen seen with the new ball acrossformats, added, “The others that Iuse are the floaters that swing, theone that pitches in and goes out orthe other one that lands on theseam and gets to go the other way.So these balls become very effec-tive.

“With a new ball I use my mid-dle finger more than the index fin-ger but when I bowl with an olderball, I try and get over the top.

“Sometimes, I don’t use indexfinger to go over the top, it isbehind and I still put the revs andthat's when the ball actually goesthe other way.”

He shared his views about theneed to be versatile in the T20 for-mat, where the bowlers have littlemargin for error, and about fingerand wrist spinners.

“In a T20 cricket, you need tocall yourself a bowler. At times youshould be able to bowl a bounceror a spinner.

"Wrist spin is successful notbecause it is challenging bothedges of the bat but because of itsunpredictable nature when bowl-ing length. And this makes wristspin extremely relevant.”

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There are certain events which remainetched in one’s memory for a life-time, for its impact is not limited to aparticular geography and neither is itrestricted to a particular aspect of

social living, but encompasses almost everyaspect of human life. The outbreak of coron-avirus which has now taken the form of a pan-demic affecting more than 180 countries acrossthe globe is one such event. Starting from asmall cluster in the capital of China’s Hubeiprovince, it has now affected almost everyonein one way or the other and has brought theworld to a screeching halt.

Now as the governments across the worldhave resorted to the only proven public healthmeasure, that is, social distancing to containthe spread of the virus, the second thing whichhas most severely been impacted is the econo-my and its growth with public health bearingmost of the brunt.

While it seems plausible on the part of thegovernment and the policy maker to take sucha stringent action, doing so has severed theflow of goods and people and disrupted theeconomic activities at almost every level —right from farming to mining to industries toservices. And with this, the economic decelera-tion is spreading as fast as the coronavirusitself.

�����������������For any economic activity there has to be a

supply side and a corresponding demand sideand absence of either of the party stops theactivity. With people staying at home, there hasbeen a substantial dip in the supply side of theeconomic chain. First, because of a decrease inthe labour participation on account of socialdistancing and lockdown, the productivity hasdeclined as there are no workers running thefactories and mills, no farmers tilling their landand no carriers to take goods from their source(factories and farms) to destination (con-sumers). This particular problem of lack of car-riers has already resulted in wastage of manyessential goods though the government is try-ing its best to keep the production of essentialcommodities and its supply chain intact.

Secondly, because of this slowdown in theeconomic activities the financial institutions arefacing liquidity issues and a credit crunch isbeing felt everywhere. The banks are not look-ing anymore to increase their asset size andtheir focus has primarily shifted in keeping thebalance sheet intact as many of them are still

recovering from the bad debt crisis. Also, thescars of the 2008-09 financial recession arevivid in their memories. To help in this regardand to see that there is no additional impact ofcoronavirus on India’s lenders due to a poten-tial slowdown, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)has introduced measures to pump more rupeeliquidity into the banking system through its‘Long Term Repo Operations’ and reduction of25 basis point in its reverse repo rate.Additionally, the central bank has relaxed theasset classification norms which will help banksnot to classify some of the (non-NPA) stressedborrowers as defaulters and has eased the liq-uidity coverage ratio for commercial banksfrom 100 percent to 80 percent (to be restoredby April 1, 2021). All these measures will pro-vide the much-needed liquidity and will keepthe credit flowing.

While there is a clear visibility of restric-tions on the supply side, the demand side toohas started to contract, and this is further ham-pering the economy which might lead to avicious cycle of further decrease in supply untilthe government intervenes and take necessarysteps to keep the demand flowing. Usually,demand in any economy is driven primarily byprivate final consumption, private investmentsand government expenditure. According to theEconomic Survey 2020, private final consump-tion contributed to around 60 percent of India’sGDP. With people cutting down their con-sumption to their basic essential needs and for-going their discretionary expenses, the privateconsumption has dampened. The privateinvestments too have witnessed a slowdownprimarily because of lower credit flow and sec-ondly because of future uncertainty.Government expenditure, however, is expectedto provide some relief and add to the GDPgrowth. The stimulus package of $24 billion(�1.7 lakh crore) in the form of PradhanMantri Garib Kalyan Yojna to provide relief topeople is likely to mitigate some impact andhelp the poor and daily wage earners sustainduring these difficult times.

Another issue which is more relevant to theIndian economy is its huge informal sectorwhich accounts for roughly 94 per cent of thetotal employment in the country and con-tributes about 45 per cent of the output.Further, this informal sector employs mostlycontract workers or daily wage earners andmigrant labourers who are from low-incomehouseholds and they are the people who are themost impacted because of the lockdown.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)has come up with a report and has projected agross domestic product (GDP) growth of 1.9per cent for India in FY 2020-21. With thissubdued forecast, India might witness its worstgrowth rate since its economic liberalization of1991. Still, India is among the only two majoreconomies expected to register a positivegrowth rate in FY 2020-21; the other beingChina, as the global growth rate in FY 2020-21is expected to fall to negative 3 per cent.

������ ������������While almost all the industries have been

impacted because of this pandemic, the oneswhich have been hit hard are the Airlines andTourism, Hospitality, Automobile, and Power.Aviation and Tourism is probably the worstaffected sector as all the passenger traffic-inbound, outbound and domestic has beengrounded during the lockdown. As perInternational Air Transport Association(IATA), airlines globally can lose in passengerrevenue of up to $113 billion due to this crisis.Further, the industry is already low on cashreserves, and cancellation, rescheduling andlower traffic may lead to job losses and paycuts. According to IATA report, more than 20lakh jobs are at risk in India’s aviation spaceand dependent sectors because of the coron-avirus pandemic.

The hospitality sector which includeshotels, restaurants and foods and beverageshave also seen a substantial downfall in its foot-falls. Occupancy across hotels in key cities havedeclined rapidly by a staggering 45 percentagepoints compared to last year which has neverbeen seen before. Additionally, many restau-rants which already run on a very thin marginwill be forced to layoff its staffs or close itsoperations.

Automobile sector’s slowdown is also clearlyvisible. With China accounting for more than27 percent of imports of India’s automotive partand closure of their factories, there has been adelay in the production and delivery of vehicles.Almost all the major manufactures witnessed adrop in its March sales which is the peak periodof inventory clearance for the industry. MarutiSuzuki India’s domestic passenger vehicle salesfell 47 per cent and Hyundai witnessed a dropof 40 per cent. Further, the requirement to com-ply with the BSIV emission norms which was tobe implemented from April 1 have decreasedthe sales further as new BSIV vehicles were fewand most of the companies are pushing the pro-

duction of new BSIV compliant vehicles to alater date.

Also, as most of the factories are closedduring this lockdown and with fewer vehiclesplying on the road, the consumption of elec-tricity and petrol/diesel has come down sub-stantially. While the electricity consumptioncontracted by 26.6 per cent for April 1-10 2020over last year, consumption of petrol fell by16.4 per cent and diesel by 24.2 per cent inMarch 2020 on a year-on-year basis.

The stock market too has reacted to thispandemic and BSE Sensex fell from the level of41,000 in mid-February 2020 to 29,000 by theend of March 2020. A decrease of over 30 percent in such a short period of time has resultednot only in the loss of investors wealth but alsoin their trust in the capital market.

�������������The COVID-19 became a pandemic pri-

marily because it is novel and till date noproven cure for this disease has been found out.So, it’s clear that once a cure or a vaccine, whichwill help people build immunity against thevirus, is found, the need of social distancing willgradually phase out letting loose the neck of theglobal economy which it has presently gripped.Till such a cure is found, social distancing, full-scale testing and rigorous quarantine is the onlysolution to restrict the spread of the virus.

And while the medical practitioners aredoing their best to control its spread and find-ing a possible cure, the government need tokeep the economic activities to such a sustain-able level from which it can be rebound easilyonce the pandemic is over. While a stimuluspackage was already announced in March, theextension of this lockdown for another threeweeks would require another such package.

To ease the load of households and busi-nesses struggling to make their regular pay-ments, the central bank has advised all thelenders to provide a moratorium of threemonths on mortgage and other loan paymentfor residential and commercial borrowers.However, borrowers need to be educated ofsuch measures so that they can benefit from itin case they are facing any liquidity issue.

Another focus point of the governmentshould be to take care of the small and medi-um enterprises (SMEs) which may not havethe adequate liquidity to survive the crisis.

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INDIAN ECONOMY& I T S I M P A C T O N T H ELOCKDOWNT H E G R E A T

INDIAN ECONOMY& I T S I M P A C T O N T H ELOCKDOWNT H E G R E A T

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Words have power. Theyhave the power tochange the way we

think, the way we behave andeven the way we feel. During alockdown, we are in a confinedspace and restricted in manyways. The state of the world addsa sense of despair and fear to themix. While all this turmoil existsoutside ourselves, some of us willface inner turmoil as well. Ourself-talk has a great effect on ourpsyche. As much as we may cri-tique our external world, we alsohave a habit of being self-critical.Not just that, but when someonesays anything negative, it alsoaffects how we feel about our-selves.

These feelings accompaniedby our inner self talk can affectus deeply. At this time, it isimportant to exercise self-care.Focussing on the needs of oth-ers is all very noble, but it isabsolutely crucial to carry onwith inner calm. The words wesay to ourselves can affect ourmental state in various ways.

According to neuroscientistAndrew Newberg, M.D. andtherapist Mark RobertWaldman, words can literallychange your brain: ‘a singleword has the power to influencethe expression of genes that reg-ulate physical and emotionalstress.’ A single negative wordreleases dozens of stress-pro-ducing hormones. According tothe experts, using the rightwords can transform our reality,which means that the more self-talk that focuses on positivewords, the better the outcome ofour reality.

It all sounds a bit too simple— change your internal talk andeverything around you willimprove. But apparently, it’s notall mumbo-jumbo. Scientificstudies of brain scans show that

if we just change what we say toourselves, we can bring about abig difference in our lives.

From my perspective, I feelthat writing can bring about thatkind of transformation, espe-cially when thoughts are loadedwith simmering emotions. Manytimes we are affected by whatothers say to us, or by a negativerant by our inner critic. By writ-ing down these pent-up feelings,we actually start calming down.For me personally, the legendaryfigure of Mirabai has ofteninspired me to face inner andouter negativity with courage,compassion, and my favouriteactivity — writing.

The purpose of writing orjournaling is to reflect on thestream of thoughts and feelings.Simply write whatever comes tomind, don’t worry about gram-mar or spelling. You are notsharing this with anyone. Thismethod is more about beinginwardly attentive, and lettingthe words flow onto a page.Through the written word, onecan explore one’s own thoughts,

feelings, impulses, memories,and goals.

Negativity will not necessar-ily disappear right away. Theemotions will linger, but theirpower to affect our mindset,actions and decisions willreduce over time. Writing sin-cerely and truthfully is a form ofspiritual healing. Very often,writing brings up deep-seatedfeelings that have been bother-ing us for a long time. Writingfrom our most troubled selves,we will be able to see things dif-ferently, and sometimes makemolehills out of mountains,rather than the other wayaround!

This form of regular writingis not a complaint book; it is notabout wallowing in self-pity orranting. It is more to express ourtrue feelings that trigger a nega-tive reaction — for example, tonotice when we feel bad aboutfeeling bad. It gives us pause tounderstand our inner self. Don’twrite as an obligation, it’s notsomething to add to a to-do list.Use it as a tool to communicate

with your truest inner self, to beperceptive of pent-up emotionsand reflect on them.

If writing doesn’t come natu-rally to you, then start by askingyourself questions. What issue isbothering me? What thoughtsare creating these feelings? Whydo I keep having these thoughts?Am I being honest with myself?What decision have I taken thathas affected me or others? Aneven simpler approach is to sim-ply write down what emotionyou are feeling, keeping a dailymood log.

Writing down our most per-sonal, deepest thoughts and feel-ings is a courageous act. Toenable it to flow, it is importantto be non-judgmental of our-selves. You can choose to faceyour inner critic in the kind,resilient way that Mirabai facedthe doubters around her. Howthe sentence is structured doesn’tmatter. Just let the words spillout.

The writer is an author. Her10th book, The Blue Jade,

released recently

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Many of them are going toshut their shops and manymight ask their banks to

restructure their loans. With thelimited fiscal resources that wehave, we cannot help all the ailingSMEs but turning a blind eye totheir ailment will only worsen thesituation. Accordingly, the govern-ment and the central bank need tofind some innovative solution. Forinstance, providing ‘bridge loans’ tosuch SMEs at zero interest for theduration of this crisis with anextended repayment period mightprovide them some support in sus-taining their operations.

The entire idea of lockdownrests on two assumptions. First thatit will help in checking the spreadof the virus so that public health isnot jeopardised. Second is that itcan be enforced only for a limitedperiod of time and extending itbeyond certain duration may notbe feasible as doing so will bringdown the economy to such a levelthat people may start dying of mal-nutrition and hunger. While it issaid that social distancing hashelped contain the spread of thevirus to a certain extent (as per DrV K Paul, a government healthexpert and member of NITI Aayog,from doubling every three days, thenumber of active cases is now dou-bling every eight days and insteadof 23,000 active cases in India as ofApril 23, the number could havebeen around 1,00,000 had lock-down not been implemented); thetrick is to find the duration forwhich the government can affordto keep the people and economy inthe lockdown stage. It is becauseduring this lockdown there would-n’t be much economic activity andthe government would need to pro-vide for all the marginal section ofthe society. Doing so for an elon-gated period of time would, howev-er, blow a dent to the government’s

fiscal deficit which is already high.And increasing it further wouldmake the government’s debt bur-den unsustainable, leaving it withvery little space to intervene infuture when necessary.

The policy makers appear to beaware of this trade-off and in thesecond stage of the lockdown it haslisted a set of economic activitieswhich could be carried out in arestrained manner with all precau-tions in place so that essentialgoods and services keep on flow-ing. Another approach which thegovernment can take is to identifythe areas which are least affectedbecause of the virus and start eco-nomic activities there at a muchlarger scale. For instance, Sikkimwhich is the only Indian state with-out any recorded Covid-19 positivecase as of April 14 may resume itseconomic activity in full scale withthe necessary precautions in place.Also, identifying and allowing onlyhealthy workers to join back thework would be a critical step inthis direction. If the governmentfollows such steps, then it shouldensure that all the poor and con-tract workers including daily wageearners who are not able to joinworkforce because of their healthconditions are provided with essen-tial foods and amenities so thatthey can survive in this period ofcrisis.

������ ���������There is no denying the fact

that the world will not be the sameonce this pandemic end. The waywe live, the way the businesses andtrades are done, the wayUniversities carry on their lecturesand the way corporates conducttheir HR practices is all going towitness a substantial change.Technology and its usage willbecome more of a norm of life.Students will get used to online

classes of their favourite professorsand video conferencing will getmore sophisticated with adoptionof virtual reality in almost alloffices. And while not every jobcan be done from home, the resis-tance to work from home is likelyto see a substantial fall as the cor-porates would get used to andbecome efficient in getting thesame productivity from theiremployees which they had whenthey used to work from their officedesk. This may initially increasethe technology cost but in the longrun may prove cost effective as thecorporates would be able to cutdown their rental expense andemployees would be able to savetheir commute time and cost. Thisin turn would help in easing thetraffic congestion and probablymight help people breath fresh airagain. Going to movie theatres andrestaurants will not be the sameagain. With a splurge in the sub-scription based streaming servicesalready in place, movie producerswill release their movies directly onthese platforms. The millennialsare likely to learn the forgotten artof cooking delicious food at homeand this will come as a sigh ofrelief to their mothers and grand-mothers. Whatever the future holdsfor us, much has to be done in thishour of crisis and only a collectiveeffort of everyone would help inbringing an end to this crisis. Oncethe situation is brought under con-trol with a little nudge from India’shot and humid climate which islikely to knock on our doors in amonth or so, what we need to do isto reignite hope and rebuild India.

The writer is the author ofIndex Investing: A Low Cost, Low

Risk Strategy to InvestmentSuccess,

published by SAGE PublicationsIndia

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The real estate sector con-tributes 9% to India’s GDP andemploys over 40 million peo-ple. It is a bellwether to theeconomy that has been going

through a severe downturn over the lastfew quarters with affordable housingemerging as one of the few sustainableasset classes.

The COVID-19 pandemic hasbrought the industry to a grinding haltand brought in a level of uncertainty thatwas not seen in previous economicdownturns. For the first time in an eco-nomic crisis people are also facing a gen-uine threat to life, mass reverse migra-tion and prolonged isolation.

There is consensus that the pandem-ic will adversely affect the real estate sec-tor. The real estate sector was alreadyreeling from high inventory, low sales andcash flow issues but going ahead the sit-uation is likely to worsen and the gov-ernment should look to take pro activemeasures shore it up.

The lockdown will most likely beextended in areas that have emerged ashotspots across the country. We are like-ly to see layoffs and salary cuts across theboard. Besides construction, retail, hos-pitality and entertainment sectors, otherlarge employers and income generatorswith multiplier effects are likely to be theworst hit. Conversations with hospital-ity leaders indicate that most are factor-ing in virtually no revenue over the nexttwo months and have brought in severecost cutting measures.

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We understand the affordable hous-ing market broadly as homes pricedunder 40 lac rupees across tier I, II andIII cities. This is a fairly new segment inIndia that mostly came into the picture2006-07 onwards. Since then in down-turns it has remained the most resilient.

The lowest end of the market, unitspriced �5 lakhs to �15 lakhs is largelycatered to by the government under thePradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY).The government is doing a fairly goodjob but unable to meet demand. The cur-rent model that mostly outsources theconstruction to contractors is inefficientand has high working capital require-ments. It also doesn’t assign any value tothe underlying land and is a huge drainon government resources. On thedemand side, this segment is pre-dom-inantly first time buyers who are lessfinancially sophisticated and invest in ahome as their primary asset.

It is unlikely that there will be anysales in the affordable housing sector overthe next quarter and possibly the secondas well. Buyers tend to postpone their

buying and particularly upgrading deci-sions in times of economic uncertainty.The biggest challenge though will beaccess to capital. The principal fundersin the current environment will bebanks and private equity players, and theexpected cost of capital is likely to be 18-20% versus 12-15% pre-crisis. This couldhamper the sector going ahead for thenext few quarters.

Post crisis we believe the demand ofthese homes will increase dramaticallyfor the following reasons. One, govern-ment homes are significantly underval-ued and have easy access to financing.Second, real estate and particularlyhomes are already the most preferredinvestment vehicle in India. Especially intimes of such uncertainty the economi-cally weaker segment and the low incomegroup would want to create an asset thatwould guarantee some security for their

families. Third, we believe that postCOVID-19 people, the sub 40 lakh mar-ket residents will opt not to upgrade andstay with their current homes, whereasthe market immediately above 40 lakhsis often people up-grading from the sub40 lakh market. It is therefore possiblethat over the next 6 to 8 quarters theaffordable housing segment will be a big-ger part of the overall housing market.

However, with the current model thegovernment makes some loss on deliv-ery of the unit, a complete loss on thevalue of the land and loss of interest onthe working capital required. To addressa substantially increased demand afterCOVID-19 ebbs, the government willhave to create policies to incentivise sup-ply and ease the bottlenecks to demand.The government would have to explorealternate models and a Public PrivatePartnership (PPP) could be one such.

���������������������� �� ����������������������������� ��● Structure developer friendly PPPs that

incentivise large players to participateand create mega projects, this willreduce leakages and improve qualityas compared to contracts to smalllocal players

● Incentivise developers investing inaffordable housing by bringing themunder priority sector lending

● Grant a one time one year moratori-um on all debt and interest payments

● Recast project specific debt for afford-able housing projects and bring itunder the anvil of priority sector lend-ing

● Waive off stamp duty for affordablehousing loans

● In case of housing under 40 lakhs, thegovernment could classify mortgagesunder priority sector lending to dras-

tically reduce interest rates andEquated Monthly Installments (EMIs)

● Give accelerated single window clear-ance under set timeframes

● Extend income tax exemption underSection 80 IB(A) and completelyremove MAT retrospectively These incentives would not put a

load on government finances but incen-tivise both developers and buyers. Thiscould help the economy in general tocome out of the downturn much faster.

Dhaval Monani is CEO First HomeRealty Services; Director of Affordable

Housing at Centre for Sustainability,Anant National University and Dr.

Miniya Chatterji is CEO Sustain LabsParis; Adjunct Professor, SciencesPo

Paris; Director of Centre forSustainability, Anant National

University

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At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has hogged the medialimelight, Pakistan-based terror organisations have unleashed a

wave of terror in Kashmir to attract attention from the media to upturnthe diminishing morale of the mercenaries. Seen in this perspectiveare the recent sinister designs of the terror forces in Pulwama andShopian districts of the Valley. In the past one week, the insurgencyhas resulted in the martyrdom of five Army soldiers and three CRPFmen in the Valley. This highlights the continued challenges theGovernment faces on this terror front despite exigencies of its waron Covid-19.

The Covid-19 pandemic has come as a hindrance in the resolveto fight terror. While the world is grappling with the coronavirus pan-demic, the news of Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (Grouped’action financière) halting the battle against money laundering andterror financing is a setback. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF)on April 26 said it has given countries on its watch, including Pakistan,a four-month reprieve for meeting a deadline set by it to stop financ-ing terrorist group given the temporary suspension of its activitiesdue to the coronavirus pandemic. However, thankfully it warned,“Despite the decision to temporarily postpone the above-mentionedprocess deadlines due to the current force majeure situation, the FATFwill not let up its efforts to fight money laundering, terrorist financ-ing and proliferation financing, and will continue working with alljurisdictions in its global network to ensure an effective implemen-tation of its standards.”

Also, Pakistan’s recent attempt to delist over 1,800 terrorists is amatter of grave concern. There is a strong possibility that Pakistanis trying to push in coronavirus-infected infiltrators into Jammu &Kashmir to foray into the biological warfare against India.

India is like to have in place a multilayered security apparatuswhich can promptly deal with the issues related to funding of ter-rorists activities and cyber terrorism through enhancing the tech-nological innovation and tightening border and maritime securityinformation gathering exercise. India needs to be quite agile and veryprompt in case of a surprise challenge. Hence, cooperation in build-ing communication capability and management of security arrange-ments to deal with any kinds of threat is the main weapon in the com-bat strategy. Although India has boosted cooperative in this direc-tion, the catch here is how to generate prudence to anticipate anypossible threat from insurgents.

There is strong need for a quick mechanism to facilitate coop-eration between the security and defence establishment among thenations of the world, also in apprehension that biological and chem-ical weapons may fall into the sinister hands of new breed of terrorists.Also because biological and chemical weapons are not easily detect-ed by forces and they can be transported swiftly. International coop-eration in terms of forming strict laws and regulations to prevent thepossession of biological and chemical weapons can provide a strate-gic management in dealing with the worst form of terrorism.

The cooperation in strategies to death with drug trafficking willprovide a strong mechanism to crack the nexus between terroristsand drug dealers. The increasing cases of drug peddling and theirsupport to terrorist and subversive activities have compelled theGovernment to enforce drug laws vigorously and promptly.

The role of media in weakening the power of terrorism has beendiscussed many times. The work titled Violence as Communicationby Alex P Schmid and Janny de Graaf reflects how terrorism, medianews and public response are connected. The authors conceive ter-rorism as a violent language or as a means of communication to getpublic attention and to communicate messages to the audience.Recently, there has been virtually mushrooming of local publicationsand media debates leading to differences for vested interest. Theincreasing liberalisation has resulted in sudden springing up of a num-ber of self-claimed ideologues and supporters rattling narratives andcounter-narratives leading uncalled for battle of wits even during pan-demic of life threatening consequences

Terrorists always crave for media attention since reporting ofmedia affects the minds of people as well as provides much neededpublicity to the perpetrators of gory acts. Cooperation between theGovernment and the media can ensure quality assurance and posi-tive outlook in patching the differences and defeating terrorism. Indiahas already in place a mechanism that gathers sufficient data aboutthe area within which the event is unfolding. There has been a hid-den strategy to whip up religious sentiments that has helped certainterrorist organisations create and reinforce their base to indulge inproxy war with states across the globe. New fear psychosis inducedby terrorists is more pernicious since it involves local populace increating disturbance through stone pelting and shouting anti-Indiaslogans. Besides, the rampant use of battery operated improvisedexplosive devices in public places has become an important part oftheir tactics. A combating strategy has to be a combination of vari-ous tactics such as eliciting prior knowledge about the possible ter-rorist attack, learning secretive mission of the intruders and creat-ing cognitive dissonance through relentless application of latest infor-mation on changing strategies with feedback from those deployedand constant interactive communication with various branches deal-ing with law and order maintenance on daily basis.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for integrated programmes andservices which support both Army and local police making them moreefficient with present circumstances of dealing with the worst formof propaganda terror.

The web of rigmarole entangled into challenges posed by the para-doxes of globalisation has finally brought about a paradigm shift atthe global level wherein there has been a confused struggle for locat-ing religious identities based on regional parameters in modern demo-cratic societies.

(The writer, a recipient of Bharat Gaurav Award, is a professor andan expert on strategic affairs)

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On December 29, 2019, a hospitalin Wuhan, China, reported severe

unexplained viral pneumonia. TheChinese Government notified theWorld Health Organisation (WHO)about this outbreak. On January 8,2020, this outbreak was identified asthe novel coronavirus 2019 (2019-nCoV). The WHO declared this out-break as an international concern andChina classified it as Class B com-municable diseases and is managed asClass A communicable diseases(Guidance for Coronavirus disease2019, National Health Commission ofthe PRC, WHO collaborating centrefor health information and publish-ing). This news has shaken the entireworld and resulted in mass panic inour country as well. We are alreadyaware of the Indian Government’sspending on health is meagre: WHOranks India at 184th position out of191 countries in terms of GDP per-centage spending on healthcare. Fromthe earlier 3.6 per cent of GDP spend-ing on health, it came further down toone per cent (Rs 69,000 crore) of theGDP in the 2020-21 budget allocation.The quality of public health facilitiesis poor.

In order to avoid the deadly virus,certain precautions are necessary, asrecommended by the World HealthOrganization. Particularly, respirato-ry masks and hand sanitisers (as ameans to curb the spread of coron-avirus) are preliminary steps to escapethe effect of the pandemic. As a

result, while these products becamescarce, their prices also skyrocketed.

The moot point is when the priceof everything is shooting up, how themarginalised section of the society willbear the burden of sustenance. Theycannot afford any expensive treatment,nor are they in a condition to spendso much on health-care facilities.When public health spending is pal-try, then the only way out is out-of-pocket expenditure on health care(medical costs by households direct-ly at availing health services). But poorpeople neither have sufficient earnings,nor savings. They are fighting everysingle day to make both ends meet.According to the latest NationalSample Survey (NSS) report (71stround) on health spending, the shareof the burden of out-of-pocket expen-diture on poor people is much higher.

As per the National HealthAccount Estimates for India Report,2015-16 published in 2018, out of thecurrent health expenditures of India,the share of households (includeshealth insurance) is Rs 3,42,257 crore(i.e., 69 per cent and out-of-pocketexpenditure being 64.7 per cent).Also, the share of public spending onhealth care in India is just over 1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)(Angell, Prinja, Gupt, Jha, and Jan,2019).The out-of-pocket expenditureon health has been increased from 64per cent in 2005 to 81 per cent in 2012and from 65 per cent in 2005 to 78 per

cent in rural areas and urban areasrespectively. This is corroborated byhigher rural households (6.34 per centin 2005 and 7.73 per cent in 2012)expenditure than the urban house-holds (5.05 per cent in 2005 and 5.74per cent in 2012). In such a situation,they cannot even think of buyingmasks and hand sanitizers at a high-er price. Thus, Government inter-vention, in terms of provision of thenecessities in this situation of crisis, isvery much needed.

Moreover, the InsuranceRegulatory and DevelopmentAuthority (IRDA) of India has direct-ed the insurance companies to coverthe cost incurred by coronavirus dis-eases of the individuals under someinstructions. These instructions areissued under the provisions of Section14 (2) (e) of the IRDA Act, 1999, andcame into force with immediate effect(March 4, 2020, Circular, IRDA,Guidelines on the handling of claimsreported under Corona Virus). Butmany insurance companies have willnot provide the facilities as the diseaseis declared as epidemic/ pandemic bythe World Health Organisation.

The Government is taking neces-sary actions once the patient is alreadyaffected by coronavirus, through quar-antining them and putting them inseparate wards in hospital. But whatabout the mass population? Duringlockdown, the social distancing normsare followed to a T because of the suc-cessful implementation of the guide-

lines by security forces. But what willhappen once all curbs are lifted. Mostof the people who travel to foreigncountries will go back to their home-towns once they are allowed to touchbase with their family. Considering theincubation period for the coronavirusis approximately five days, if they reachtheir hometowns and then the symp-toms start, then what will be the con-sequences in the concerned areas?

Most importantly, in rural areas,the disease will spread more rapidlybecause there is a lack of awarenessand preparedness. The literacy rate isalso low. Thus, precautionary mea-sures by the Government for the gen-eral mass of the country are the needof the hour.

Although the CentralGovernment, in collaboration with theState Governments, has devised mech-anism for staggered lifting of thelockdown curbs, it is not sufficient ifhealthcare facilities lack vigour to com-bat a relapse of the pandemic.

For this reason, the supply ofmasks and hand sanitisers at free ofcost either to the marginalised sectionof the society or universalisation ofeasy access by reallocating the healthfunds appropriately in this challeng-ing situation is demand of the time.

(Pratap C Mohanty is AssistantProfessor, Department of Humanitiesand Social Sciences, IIT Roorkee;Deepabali Bhattacharjee is a PhDFellow at the same department)

&���%��!����������������$��������Even as the world is witnessing one

of the worst tragedies — in theform of Covid-19 pandemic that haskilled over 2.4 lakh people — in therecorded history, the viral assault andthe combat against it have been var-ied across the globe. While debate onthe origin of the coronavirus contin-ues unabated, with US Presidentopenly blaming China and planningto exact damages for the loss ofAmerican lives, an important issue hasfailed to gain the desired traction: therelationship between the types ofgovernance/ society and the fightagainst the pandemic.

There are two parameters againstwhich the issue can be adjudged: (A)governmental system and governancestructure of a country, and (B) distri-bution of power and wealth among thepeople of that nation.

There has always been a debate asto which model of governance isclose to perfection. Generally, theparameters to judge supremacy of oneover another are — participation of cit-izenry in government formation, gov-

ernment policies relating to people’swelfare, protection of people’s right,rule of law, defence power, develop-ment of science and technology, andwealth creation.

Although, there is no perfectstructure to determine a model of per-fection in this regard, however, anymodel where people are permitted toparticipate directly or indirectly in thegovernance system is considered closeto perfection. Here a vibrant democ-ratic country like India positions her-self among the toppers.

However, considering the eco-nomic progress of China in the last fewdecades, political pundits sometimestry to make a compromise on humanrights which limit the absolute powerof a nation-state, and are ready to giveprimacy to economic growth,whichever way it is achieved, over thedemocratic welfare system.

In war against coronavirus, gov-ernments across the world have beenexposed. Irrespective of the gover-nance system, there is a wide gap inleadership style and understanding of

its objective, between top leadershipand leaders at state/regional level.

In the time of crisis, cohesion isthe biggest attribute to mitigate theimpact of the pandemic on the healthof a nation and its inhabitants. On theother hand, the largest democracyIndia, despite its clumsy democraticsetup, has handled the situation fair-ly well.

The Indian Constitution permitsdifferent political parties can ruleStates and the Centre and all politicalfunctionaries take their right of speechand expression to criticise Oppositionparties very seriously. In the currentcrisis, all political parties have shownexemplary unanimity in taking harddecisions without criticising theCentre.

This one simple aspect has pro-duced different results, in terms ofinfections and mortality rates, for dif-ferent governing systems.

Another aspect of relevance isdirect correlation of concentration ofpower and wealth in a few hands,although such concentration is a hall-

mark of humanity. The capitalism andadvent of technology has produced astark gap between “haves” and “havenots” as a result, this pandemic has hitthe most vulnerable population thehardest.

India recently saw a sea of human-ity walking back from urban cities totheir homes in rural areas. I agree thatthere is no perfect formula or mechan-ics to equi-distribute wealth amongtwo sets of people.

In order to create protection forthe entire human population, it isimperative that concentration of powerand wealth should be limited and thereshould be widespread use of wealthand resources to mitigate miseries ofthe poor around the world.

The current coronavirus crisis isa grim reminder to bring parityamong two sections of the humanpopulation and governments need towork on it.

(The writer, a class 12 student ofDPS RK Puram, is a national-level ten-nis player)

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It is time to see how we can reinventthe mind to come out with its whole-some power, which, if unfolded in

full, would know no limits. But beforethat, let us go through a case study, howimportant it is to address one’s habit ten-dencies. The person under considerationwas brought for counselling a couple ofyears back by his family, worried abouthis erratic behaviour. He was made awareof all his fault lines, and was also advisedhow to overcome them. But nothing gotregistered in his preconditioned mind.His unseemly conduct hit hard familialpeace and harmony all these years. Let usnow examine his astrological pointers.

He was born when Virgo lagna wasrising with headless Ketu there itself.Lord of the sign Mercury was placedadverse to Saturn. Virgo sign and its lord,if free from any malefic influence ismarked with high intelligence, discrimi-natory abilities, and a practical sense. Butwhen afflicted, native’s conduct becomesquestionable. Even though their aware-ness level be low, they pretend to be all-knowing, and present themselves as aperfectionist. They suffer from what wemay call ‘I am the only right person syn-drome’. They remain under the impres-

sion that others can’t understand theirmerit. If ever, others don’t prove true totheir expectations, they become overcrit-ical, and belittle them with causticremarks. They try to impose their will onothers. Saturn’s adverse aspect furthergrants him with a fixated one trackmind.

The finer coordinates of his chart tooare no good. The lagna sub-lord Venusoccupying the 9th house is opposite mis-chievous Neptune and also adverse toerratic Rahu. That makes him stuck toillusionary dream perceptions, distancedfrom ground realities, and not open tolook beyond for a reality check. Venusoccupies the nakshatra owned by debili-tated Mars, the 8th lord identified withserious difficulties, and incidentally the5th sub-lord. Whereas linkage of Venuswith the 9th and 5th houses makes him areligious person, its opposition toNeptune made him a fanatic. He can’tdigest if family members ignore his reli-gion bound advisories, when he becomesloud. For, debilitated Mars conjunct Sunand opposite Jupiter points to his inflatedego, bound by self-defined dos anddon’ts, and which also makes him irrita-ble, impulsive, rash, temperamental,

intolerant and impatient. Mind indicator Moon is posited in

Sagittarius, which makes him tactlessand undiplomatic. He doesn’t thinkbefore he speaks and could embarrassanybody with his unpleasant and ill-timed remarks. Moon too, occupies thenakshatra owned by Venus, which fur-ther adds to his self-delusional tenden-cies. On top of that, Saturn’s adverseaspect to the Sun brings in a sense of fearand insecurity. Over a period of time, hehas lost his sense of civility, sanity, orderand reasons and his thought process hasbecome incoherent, calling for immedi-ate medical intervention. So, he neitherremains at peace by himself nor does heleave any scope for others.

Had the person tried to purify hismind as suggested, he would have comeout of his preconditioning, and his scopeof vision would have expanded. It wouldhave then dawned upon him that theworld doesn’t necessarily move to any-body’s asking. Second, nobody couldever be born a perfect. Becoming awarethus, he would have worked upon hisinter-personal relationship skill anddeveloped a sense of accommodation.Also, he would have been alert enough toconsciously invoke his faculty of discrim-

inate intelligence for due diligence,before taking any move. His personaland domestic life would have becomerelatively happier. He keeps talking aboutthe need to sincerely follow religiouspractices in order that life, post deathturns out good. What he doesn’t realisethat unless we learn to remain happy asof now, which sets the trends of future,life can’t have a pleasant ending, onwhich birth trends, post death, arepremised.

Even otherwise, if you ever lose thesense of alert, you may have to pay aheavy price. Immediately after COVID-19 cropped up in China, Taiwan tookpreventive measures in January itself,and so they remained least affected.Other countries, including India, did nottake the signal seriously for long. As aresult, more than two hundred thousandpeople, majority of them in the devel-oped world, have already met their end,and the number is mounting every day.

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