Innholdsfortegnelse for April 27, 2020 i India Today

As the deadly coronavirus rages across the world, it has put many facets of a country to test—its medical infrastructure, its economy, its social security net, the discipline of its people and the nature of its polity. Most importantly, it has tested the mettle of its leaders. The president of one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world—the idiosyncratic Donald Trump—has been floundering, with disastrous consequences. He was first in denial of the crisis, then he acted too late, causing confusion with dubious medical advice, quarrelling with state governors over jurisdiction, seeming more interested in reviving the economy than in saving lives and, in a final piece de resistance, withdrawing funding from the World Health Organization. No wonder, the US is the worst hit in terms of…

It hardly needs stating that the first two decades of this century have led humanity into serial crises. Climate change, terrorism, economic meltdowns, growing nationalism, viral attacks and, finally, a pandemic. The rising cascade of catastrophes seems to be our selected path into the future. It is obvious that most such disasters are the result of failing political and economic policies, coupled with the lack of will and consensus between governments. Just look at global ambitions related to climate change: as part of the Paris Agreement, governments grudgingly agreed to limit global temperature rise to less than two degrees; all this while cyclones, forest fires and famines will continue. Unwilling to give up ingrained food choices like dairy and beef—whose production contributes to global warming—some people may switch to cultured…

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his televised address to the nation at 10 am on April 14, he made two gestures that summed up the dilemma that India faced. He started by greeting the nation with a lengyan wrapped around his nose and mouth. And then lowered it soon after to deliver his speech, the substance of which was that the national lockdown would continue for another 19 days. This was to ensure that the curve on the graph showing the number of people infected by the COVID-19 virus in the country flattens and levels out. However, as an incentive, he added that if, within one week, there were clear signs that the containment strategy was working, there would be a gradual reopening of the economy. It was in…

The novel coronavirus is surrounded by 29 crown-like spike proteins that attach themselves to human cells and infect them. To detect its presence, the RNA in a sample has to be first converted into DNA, then amplified to help sequester the gene specific to COVID-19 1 RT-PCR Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction Test) Indian strategy Both symptomatic as well as asymptomatic high-risk cases can get these confirmatory tests How it works 1. A swab is collected from a patient’s throat and nostril. The sample is kept in a viral transport medium and taken to an ICMR-approved lab for testing 2. The RNA or Ribonucleic acid in the coronavirus is first extracted from the sample 3. It is then converted to DNA using reagent chemicals 4. DNA is amplified in the PCR…

Patil’s company employs 25 people, working with companies and celebrities in Bollywood to manage their overseas travels and film shoots and with tourists interested in film tourism. (His agency was one of the pioneers of film tourism in India.) In 2019, he organised nearly 200 tours. In 2020, nearly all his tours have been cancelled. “We will not be able to recalibrate the travel plans as we are not sure whether the tourists would like to visit the same destination they had earlier chosen,” he says. His firm is currently negotiating with airlines for refunds of cancellations, and he says he plans to focus on domestic, short-distance tours after the lockdown has lifted. He does not expect international tourists in the country for some time to come, and is hoping…

In his April 14 address that announced the extension of the coronavirus lockdown till May 3, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to Indians to follow a seven-pronged strategy to combat the pandemic. One of the measures was to download the Aarogya Setu contact-tracing app. The app, conceived by NITI Aayog, has been developed in two weeks by the National Informatics Centre in collaboration with the developers of makemytrip.com and 1mg.com. Aarogya Setu is designed on the premise that if two mobile phones are within Bluetooth range of each other, their users are potentially close enough to transmit the novel coronavirus to one another. Since its launch on April 2, the app, which is available in 11 Indian languages, has registered nearly 50 million downloads. A World Bank report released on…

The district administration in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh, recently took over the Mohammad Ali Jauhar University to convert it into a quarantine centre for COVID-19 patients. The Samajwadi Party, however, smells vendetta. The 100-bed medical university was established in 2006 by Azam Khan, their party leader from Rampur. It was his dream project, they insist. But Khan has bigger things to worry about: he’s currently serving time in Sitapur jail, with his wife and son, for their role in a forgery case. —Sandeep Unnithan with Kaushik Deka, Ashish Mishra and Kiran D. Tare…

Best Practices Test, track, treat Countries such as Iceland, South Korea and Singapore ramped up testing and followed it up with rigorous contact tracing of positive cases At ease testing Some countries have pioneered creative ways to test, such as the drive-through test by South Korea, home and phone-booth testing elsewhere Privacy In Singapore and South Korea, a copy of your test is sent to you via text and e-mail and a hard copy given. Private, easily accessible result drives more people to test Awareness Vietnam has only 267 infections, no deaths. A study by data firm Premise shows 52% knew testing was available; 87% of them knew where to go for it Home made With global test kit shortage, S. Korea began home production. One Korean firm, SD Biosensor,…

The indirect impact of COVID-19 will be as brutal as the lives the pandemic itself might claim. One of the starker changes, already in plain view, is that millions of small establishments will be out of business—among them perhaps your favourite restaurant, the salon next door, the local tailor, the roadside juicewala—businesses that were an integral part of your everyday existence but don’t have the economic staying power to outlast this storm. MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) are the lifeblood of the Indian economy, employing about 120 million, contributing 33.4 per cent of India’s manufacturing output and making up 45 per cent of India’s exports. Even so, they are also among the most vulnerable—relying heavily on day-to-day business to stay afloat and more exposed to the vagaries of demand…

Salaries Government assistance has been sought for salary payments PF contributions Suspension sought of provident fund contributions by employers and employees for three months for all MSMEs. The Federation of Indian Micro and Small & Medium Enterprises says the government’s PF relief for units employing less than 100 workers and for salaries less than 15,000 will have limited impact Power bills Waiver sought for ‘demand’ and ‘fixed’ charges for three months Compliance dates An automatic extension of compliance dates for all regulatory payments—whether GST, income tax, house tax or others—to June Contractual obligations MSMEs supplying under government contracts want a reprieve from penal clauses for non-delivery due to the lockdown Declaration as NPAs To spare MSMEs from being designated thus at this juncture, all measures announced by RBI to be…

The Aarogya Setu contact-tracing app is a key resource addition in India’s fight against COVID-19, garnering nearly 50 million downloads in less than a fortnight besides praise in a World Bank report. Its design, however, has raised the hackles of privacy advocates and cybersecurity experts, who feel the app seeks too much personal information. They are not convinced by the official assertion that only data of COVID-positive users is uploaded to the central server—in anonymised form—and purged 60 days after such users have been declared cured. A PERSONAL DETAILS SOUGHT (while downloading app) B APP’S ACCESS Knows your GPS location METHOD 1 Personal information and location data are stored on the user’s mobile phone and a unique device ID number (DiD) is generated. The app can log data from all…

A shopping bag of reforms—Arvind Panagariya’s book essentially outlines what he would do if he were India’s prime minister Arvind Panagariya is a prolific writer. He has written 20 books, 170 academic papers and twice as many press articles in a career of 47 years and lists being the prime minister’s Sherpa in three G20 meetings among his exceptional honours. Economists learn policy-making as a part of their curriculum. Few find any use for it—except to comment on policies—but many harbour the ambition to apply it. Panagariya is keen on making policy. He spent a couple of years as the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog immediately after it replaced Planning Commission. He said he left because he prized his Columbia professorship; but the hard work he put into making NITI…

Maharashtra principal secretary (home) Amitabh Gupta landed himself in trouble recently for issuing a curfew pass permitting businessman Kapil Wadhawan and 23 of his family members to travel from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar during the lockdown. It didn’t help that Wadhawan is under the CBI lens in the YES Bank fraud case. Gupta was sent on compulsory leave by the state government pending an inquiry. But who let the cat out of the bag? It’s being speculated that one of Gupta’s colleagues tipped off a senior government official in Delhi about the free pass.…

aving reconciled to a three-week lockdown, most Indians waited anxiously on the morning of April 14 to hear how the prime minister would lift it—fully or incrementally—only to find that the shutdown had been extended by another 19 days. No one disputes the necessity of a lockdown—according to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), one person can infect 406 people in 30 days if he or she doesn’t isolate—but at the end of three weeks, everyone is asking if the move did achieve what it had set out to do when it was imposed on March 24. The jury is still out. As India reported 12,338 cases and 420 deaths on April 16, it wasn’t clear if the country had managed to flatten the curve. “We…

Where India stands in terms of testing Current no. of tests 24,000 per day Desired no. of tests 100,000 per day Domestic manufacturing capacity 8 mn per month Rapid test kits ordered 4.5 million Orders for PCR tests 2.5 million Firms granted import licences 33 for PCR kits 51 for rapid kits Vis-a-vis the rest As on April 16, India had tested 258,730 individuals, or 196 tests per million. In order to reach the average testing levels of other countries, India needs to conduct the following number of tests: 13,926,000 to match South Korea’s 10,550 tests per million 12,361,800 to compete with the US’s 9,365 tests per million 6,270,400 to keep up with the UK’s 4,750 tests per million Source: South Korea health dept, NHS UK and CDC, as on…

Hiring in haste just leads to chaos and disorganisation, says Canadian businessman and Flickr co-founder Daniel Butterfield. Headhunters will agree—one wrong decision and an organisation might find itself being stuck with someone who is not the correct fit. So, what do human resource (HR) professionals look for in freshers while hiring, and what are the new fields where job prospects are the brightest? Two experts weigh in on the subject. RAJ NARAYAN, CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER, TITAN GROUP People should be themselves. If they put on an act, they will be found out. They must know their areas of expertise and think through how they will apply their knowledge in different situations. TEAM SPIRIT: Freshers must have a positive, can-do attitude. Their views on life and career are important too.…

Q. A new hairstyle, head massages from the husband, pretty hillside views. What else have you been up to during the lockdown? I am in my Mukteshwar home. I was supposed to be here for a week, but the lockdown means we are stuck here. All is well; we have a view of the mountains, a garden to ourselves and nobody around us. I am trying to write something with a writer through WhatsApp calls. But I have started missing Bombay, home and work. I try to stay happy by telling myself that this tough phase will pass. Q. In the Amazon Prime show Panchayat, you play a sarpanch who has made peace with the fact that her husband will do her job. How did you see Manju Devi? She…