Innholdsfortegnelse for March 30, 2020 i India Today

PRAKASH SHETTY 45 Chief lighting technician Shree Ganesh Movie Lights, Mumbai With five apex bodies of the entertainment industry deciding to halt shoots of all films and televisions series till March 31 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prakash Shetty of Shree Ganesh Movie Lights, one of the leading providers of lighting equipment for shoots, finds himself in difficult situation. His 70-strong staff, who earn Rs 2,000 daily for a 12-hour shift, suddenly find themselves out of work. “From spot boys to production, if there’s no film shoot, there’s no payment,” says Shetty. “The loss for producers is huge as they have to pack off crews and send back equipment to Mumbai.” There’s little clarity on when work will resume. With several state governments ordering the closure of cinemas…

Bhavika Gundecha 20 National-level tennis player, Pune “The conditions were very unhygienic. I got scared and tried to flee the hospital” Pune-based Bhavika Gundecha landed in Mumbai from Spain on March 16 after having cut short her 25-day training programme in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak there. Soon after landing, she was taken to the SevenHills Hospital for screening and then referred to Kasturba Hospital for testing. “I stood in a long queue for more than eight hours. Some people among us escaped from there,” she says. Gundecha was asked to occupy a bed in the quarantine section. She says the bed was full of red ants. She complained to the nurse on duty but that did not help. “After some time, a woman with COVID-19 symptoms was admitted…

“We gave priority to precautions, the only way to tackle the virus outbreak”Priya Pandurang, Mother of Shilpa Pandurang Shilpa Gawde 28 & Ninad Palkar 30 IndiaPost employees, Vikhroli, Mumbai Engaged last December and to be married on March 19, the wedding of Shilpa Gawde and Ninad Palkar was postponed just one day before the event. Shilpa’s parents, Pandurang and Priya Gawde, took the decision in view of the safety of their guests, given that Maharashtra is the worst state in India to be affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Not only were all preparations for the wedding done and finalised, the various rituals—the Ganesha pujan and that haldi ceremony—preceding the wedding were also in full swing. But as COVID-19 continued to spread, the Gawdes and the Palkars mutually agreed to postpone…

“Unless government releases aid to us and other small stakeholders of the tourism sector, it will be tough for us to survive” —Salim, elephant owner SALIM 40 Elephant owner, Amer Fort, Jaipur Salim is one of a few dozen who offer elephant rides in Jaipur’s Amer Fort, a big tourist attraction. There are 103 elephants here and the total daily earning from these rides is about Rs 4,000 in tourist season. Of which, the upkeep of the elephants, Salim says, accounts for Rs 3,000. With the government shutting down Amer Fort (and all other centrally-protected ASI monuments) till end-March, Salim is worried about how he is going to take care of the elephants and his family. Two-thirds of all hotel bookings have been cancelled in Rajasthan, with corresponding decline in…

VINOD THAPAR, 66 Chairman, Knitwear Club, Ludhiana For the knitwear industry, 70 per cent of fibre and almost all accessories come from China. But given the supply uncertainties, many players have started sourcing from the domestic market, which is more expensive. Also this is a labour-intensive industry and much of the work is done by casual labour. With the industry in the grip of a severe liquidity crunch, manufacturers are forced to engage fewer hands and run far below capacity. An extended winter had allowed manufacturers to clear inventories. But now, when readying for the next season, they just can’t make a move on because supply of accessories from preferred sources is choked and poor liquidity makes it a challenge to work at the usual capacity. “The biggest worry, though,…

DR K. PITCHI REDDY 70 Director, Red Cross Blood Bank, Hyderabad The Red Cross blood bank at Vidya Nagar in Hyderabad is open 24x7, but Dr K. Pitchi Reddy who runs the facility is anxious because blood plasma supplies are running low. He has to source at least 400 units in the second half of March for about 400 children afflicted by thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder. The decreased haemoglobin in the body has to be replenished through transfusion once a fortnight in the most severe cases and normally the blood bank is good for it. Now, the wait is becoming longer, and at times it has dangerous consequences. “Every month, 800 of the 1,400 units we collect from donors go to the children. With just 600 units gathered so…

K.K. Shailaja Teacher 63 Minister for health, social justice and woman and child development, Kerala K.K. Shailaja Teacher won Kerala’s heart when she managed the Nipah outbreak in 2018. A retired educator, Shailaja has now played a major role in leading the state health department’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. She inspired her team to deal with the global health crisis with early tracking, screening, home quarantine, isolation and public participation. In the first stage (from January to March 8), Kerala effectively minimised the spread of COVID-19 in the state. After March 8, however, more persons tested positive for the virus in Kerala. “We had prepared an 18-point action plan. We tracked down students returning from Wuhan and took steps to quarantine them. All those who arrived from Wuhan were…

Drinking lots of water will not flush out the virus. Eating ice cream won’t freeze the virus either Hand dryers and hot baths cannot kill the virus; nor will standing in the sun The virus cannot be transmitted through mosquito bites From the evidence so far, the COVID-19 virus can get transmitted everywhere, including hot and humid areas Cleaning your nose with soap or sanitiser will not kill the virus Having lots of vitamin and herbal supplements might build immunity, but will not protect you from getting infected Spraying yourself with or drinking alcohol will not kill the virus Holding your breath for 10 seconds without coughing is not a way to confirm whether or not you are infected with COVID-19. The test needs to be done by a medical…

Sawan Dutta 49 Social media influencer and musician, Mumbai On March 2, a fan asked Sawan Dutta, popularly known as Bengali Aunty, to create a music video based on the US-based Center for Disease Control’s guidelines on washing hands. The Coronavirus Safety Song has garnered about 15,000 views since it was uploaded on March 8. “I don’t like turning down crazy songwriting challenges. A lot of people have been writing to me about it since and it has become a discussion forum for their experiences as well,” says Dutta. From myths to messages of hope, social media has been dominated by coronavirus hashtags, posts, memes and advisories in the past few days. It has also been a rich source of misinformation on the virus—from secret labs, to miracle remedies to…

SOUTH AFRICAN CRICKET TEAM The Proteas had wanted to stay at a well-known hotel in Alipore but a panicky Bengal government preferred to keep them at arm’s length Following the cancellation of the Lucknow and Kolkata ODI matches last week, the South African cricket team was effectively quarantined at the Westin hotel on the outskirts of Kolkata, close to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. The Proteas had wanted to stay at a hotel in Alipore but a panicky Bengal government preferred to keep them at arm’s length. The players underwent thermal screening before stepping into the hotel and stayed holed up in their rooms, with a medical team keeping a close watch on them and monitoring their health at regular intervals. An isolation room, ample sanitisers and 95 masks…

BRAHMAPUTRA, NAVY QUARANTINE FACILITY Ghatkopar, Mumbai Till March 11, ‘Brahmaputra’, a cream and orange colored three-storeyed building in Ghatkopar, just off Mumbai’s Eastern Express Highway, housed defence security personnel who guarded the naval storage area. By March 13, after a notice from the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff in New Delhi, the facility had been vacated, sanitised and converted into a quarantine facility for 44 Indian pilgrims arriving from Iran on March 13. The pilgrims, 20 men and 24 women from Ladakh and Jammu & Kashmir, were stranded there during the Coronavirus outbreak. The pilgrims, segregated based on age and gender, are checked by naval medical personnel in biohazard suits each day. No one has tested positive so far, but Surgeon Capt. Saugat Ray, the naval doctor in charge, says they…

With the COVID-19 scare all over, Peter Tseng says bookings at his restaurants in Kochi and Gurugram have halved the last week. Bad times need drastic measures, and menus are being changed and marketing is on overdrive to revive faith in public dining. “Across outlets, the staff has been briefed about the precautionary measures to prevent transmission. We sanitise the dining room before every meal session and have also placed hand sanitisers at various locations for easy access to our diners,” says Tseng. “One group had concerns that I am Chinese...”—Peter Tseng According to the National Restaurant Association of India, the Indian food industry employed over 7.2 million people in 2018-19. While there are no figures yet as to how COVID-19 has impacted the industry, cases of empty diners are…

TESTING CENTRES RML Hospital, Delhi On March 14, about 20 angry senior citizens stood outside Delhi’s RML Hospital. Suffering from cold and cough for the past few days, they were terrified they had COVID-19 and wanted to be tested. However, as per the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) guidelines, only those with symptoms and a history of travel are to be tested. “I returned from the UK 10 days ago and while I have no symptoms, I’m worried,” says Nitin Mathur, 57, a Dwarka resident. Meanwhile, 65-year-old Shikha Bhatia from Noida, who has the symptoms but no travel history, says she has been sick for eight days. According to ICMR, testing facilities cannot be extended to all since India has yet to enter the community transmission phase (when a…

ARJUN SHARMA 54 Chairman, Select Group, Delhi Travel bans, visa restrictions and general paranoia have meant that the travel and tourism industry has taken the most direct hit from the COVID-19 outbreak. The CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) says this is one of the worst crises ever to hit Indian tourism. Big chains, like ITC and Indian Hotels, have sent out e-mails with revised cancellation policies; offering flexibility in reservations and details on heightened hygiene protocols. Arjun Sharma, owner of hotels and the iconic Select City Walk mall in New Delhi, has been working with the CII and other industry stakeholders to put together a plan to present to the government. “These are unprecedented times and the government has to have a bounce-back plan.” The recommendations will likely seek a…

MOHAN KUMAR SAHNI 29 Cab driver, New Delhi When the going was good, Mohan Kumar Sahni, a driver for a cab aggregator service with a family of four, made Rs 50,000 a month. But that was pre-COVID. Just days ago, he would get a ride request within seconds of turning on his ‘on duty’ phone; now his wait could stretch 30 minutes or more. Says Sahni: “Customers are full of doubt. Is this driver alright? Who was sitting in his cab?” Does he wear a mask? Sometimes, he says. Does he sanitise his car? No, he says. However, cab aggregators were quick to issue statements seeking to reassure customers. Among other measures, Ola said drivers had been given hand sanitisers and masks—and trained in personal/ hand hygiene. Uber said it…

ROHIT DATTA, 45 Director, Imagine Fibres, and first patient in Delhi to recover from COVID-19 Q. You returned from Europe on February 25. How come you weren’t asked to go into quarantine when you landed? I was in Italy till February 21 and COVID-19 had not spread much then in that country. I was then in Budapest, following which I returned to Delhi on February 25 via Vienna. At the time, Europe was not on the red list and perhaps I did not have temperature on the day I landed. But we were told to report to RML hospital if symptoms did appear. Q. How did the disease play out for you? Around February 26, I started to have a fever of about 99.5. It would go away if I…

Encapsulated in a gleaming, egg-shaped body are sparkling, attention-grabbing flatware, Mood by Paris-based Christofle. Considered the Ferrari of the fork and spoon industry, they set the tone for what lies ahead—high on quality, luxe wares from over 500 brands across the globe. From beds, wardrobes and dining tables to consoles, lights and cabinets—there’s something for every room and corner of your home. Spread over two floors the new flagship store in Delhi’s MG Road is so spread out, it took us an hour to browse through all the designs. Our favourite however, was a skylight, rather a light that mimics the beauty of a skylight (pictured on the right). The venture is the brainchild of Purav Mehta and Falgun Shroff, who intend to keep adding new and interesting pieces from…

Would you believe it, “accidents” are the real reason behind architect Rahul Mehrotra starting his own practice. He was happily working for a renowned architectural studio, till one day someone called him and said that the Jehangir Art Gallery in Mumbai needed renovation and he agreed to start his own firm so that he could work on it. It was his first independent job; after that he did one home, then another and soon he had a practice going. The practice began with only two three people and he called it Rahul Mehrotra Architects. When it grew in size he rechristened it to Rahul Mehrotra Associates; about 16 years later when there were over 15 people in the practice he decided to call it RMA Architects. “I am getting older…

A house becomes a home when the inhabitants feel the sense of belonging and is customised to their specific needs. The brief we got from the client was—raw, rustic and down to earth. So, we decided that we wanted to design the home is such way that the inhabitants would experience a tropical essence within a modern framework. Personally, if done right, a tropical home can ease stress and inspire positive emotions within the inhabitants. Further keeping Bangalore’s weather in mind, this would be the perfect marriage. The home features vivid colours on the walls. Bright colours are also used on the soft furnishing—shades of reds, yellow and blues enhance the living areas and follow the tropical earthy theme. To balance the hue-heavy walls and home textiles we used a…

We don’t invite visitors over anymore” G.S. BHATIA 85 Retired, seniormost resident at Gharaunda old age home, Delhi A study of 72,314 COVID-19 reported cases in mainland China by the country’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the case-fatality rate was the highest among those above the age of 80 (14.8%). At Delhi’s Gharaunda old age home, 30 resident senior citizens sit glued to the television as news of the COVID-19 outbreak in India flashes across the screen. Normally, they would have been watching a film, a TV show or a music channel. But ever since cases of infection started rising in the country, the group now prefers to watch news, keep themselves updated on the latest state measures and safety guidelines. Everyone here is already suffering from…

VASANT VALLEY SCHOOL, DELHI It’s 5.15 pm and Sukhda Khosla, who teaches mathematics at Vasant Valley School in Delhi, is at home waiting for her Class 12 students to come online for their class. Soon, on the screen of her MacBook Air, students join in and in about five minutes the batch of 30 is set for their e-class. In times of COVID-19, when shutdowns have become the order of the day and life all around us seems to have come to a standstill, this is a novel idea that the school has adopted to continue with classes. At Vasant Valley, students of class 6 and above have been attending virtual classes. To enable this, teachers were trained by the school by their respective department heads on how to conduct…

NIKUNJ SANGHI 62 Managing Director J.S. Fourwheel Motors (M&M dealer) Alwar The auto sector, already reeling under a protracted economic slowdown, with a 14 per cent decline in sales (all vehicles), is now under the COVID-19 cloud. Footfalls in showrooms have halved. “It’s a curfew-like situation,” says Sanghi, who has been in the auto retail business since 1985 and owns five Mahindra & Mahindra and two Hero Motors showrooms. “We’re desperate to sell because of the Supreme Court directive on BS-IV norms.” (As per the court order, BS-IV vehicles cannot be sold/ registered in India from April 1, 2020). The auto sector is impacted in multiple ways: Scarcity of critical electronic components sourced from China Clampdown in states like Maharashtra and Kerala, affecting sales Carmakers have put in place strict…

LAKSHYA VIJ 26 Co-founder, The Pablo Project, Design and content firm, Gurugram Vij’s team of 14 were WeWork regulars. (WeWork is an American commercial real estate company that provides shared workspaces for tech and other start-ups.) For nascent start-ups and freelancers, co-working spaces used to be cheap and convenient to conduct their business. “I held all my business meetings and team brainstorming sessions at WeWork, Gurugram, which is nearly empty these days (after the COVID scare),” says Vij, who launched his company over a year ago. “This has impacted us hugely. A task which earlier took five minutes to do, now takes 30 since we have to connect. Also, being a visual firm, one needs to be physically present at times during ideating and executing.” Vij is now working from…

NAVRATAN KOTHARI 78 Diamond jeweller, Jaipur Kothari’s KGK Diamonds, established in 1905, has branches in 20 countries and employs over 10,000. Also the owner of the Entice retail brand, Kothari says: “This time economic uncertainty has been made worse with a health scare.... There is total uncertainty about the future and unless things improve in a few months, we’re heading for a collapse.” For banks, the diamond and jewellery trade is already a pariah after the daylight robbery of Punjab National Bank by Messrs Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi. Also, Kothari’s business is trade-heavy, and the flight restrictions and visa cancellations have brought business to a virtual standstill. “Online transactions won’t save the day because employees have to get to the factory to work. And we have been advised by…

B. RAJENDER, 54 Poultry farmer, Sun Foods & Feeds, Hyderabad Corona sentiment,” moans B. Rajender, “will cost the poultry sector a staggering Rs 10,000 crore.” He is referring to the paranoid misinformation, via social media posts gone viral, cautioning people against consuming chicken because the birds might be carriers. Even as China went into lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19, the posts that did the rounds in India in January/ February have delivered a knockout blow to the poultry business—and prices have been in free-fall since February 2020. Broiler chicken that retailed at Rs 180 a kg in December was down to Rs 50-80 a kilo, with demand at the farm gate crashing, prompting desperate farmers to go around on cycles trying to offload stock at Rs 30-40 a…

SAARC VIDEO CONFERENCE March 15 The video conference was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for a leadership role for India among the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member-countries. The conference breathed life into a 35-year-old organisation that had been comatose for nearly four years now. The 19th summit, scheduled to be held in Islamabad in November 2016, was cancelled after four member-countries boycotted it following a terrorist attack by Pakistan-based terrorists at Uri. Participants in the teleconference included Sri Lankan president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Maldivian president Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Nepalese prime minister K.P. Sharma Oli, Bhutanese premier Lotay Tshering, Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani. Prime Minister Imran Khan was represented by Zafar Mirza, his special assistant on health. Hostility between India and Pakistan…

NAVNEETH MOHAN 42 Director and Chief Executive, Laqshya Live Experiences, Gurugram For Navneeth Mohan, October through April is the busiest time of the year for the events industry. But this March, he has received 17 cancellations while all events planned for April have been put off. “To say that times are tough would be an understatement. It is unprecedented,” says Mohan, an events industry veteran of two decades. “If India hits stage 3 of COVID-19, the entire events industry could get wiped out.” According to the Event and Entertainment Management Association, events worth about Rs 3,000 crore have been cancelled by corporates alone. The destination weddings business, which by one estimate is expected to reach a market size of Rs 45,000 crore by 2020, has also taken a big hit.…

ADITI BALBIR 41 CEO, V Resorts, Delhi Balbir’s resort chain, which caters to a price-sensitive middle-class clientele, has taken a beating. Funding from investors in Singapore and Hong Kong has been deferred. “The monies we were expecting in January won’t come till April,” she laments. “We have halved salaries for March because staff have to be paid and there is no cash.” Meanwhile, Roma Priya, the founder of boutique law firm, Burgeon Law, which works with emerging businesses, venture capitalists and incubators, reports three cases, between March 13 and 17, of promised funding not coming through. SLOW COACH The OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) fears the global economy may grow at its slowest rate since 2009. This has a direct bearing on the Indian start-up universe, as angel…

HOME QUARANTINED, Mumbai Pankaj Ghatate, a Mumbai-based mechanical engineer with a South Korean firm, had been sent by his company on six-month deputation to Seoul. He cut his assignment short and returned on February 25 after the virus outbreak spread across the East Asian country. He tested negative at a screening at Chhatrapati Shivaji international airport but was instructed to quarantine himself for a fortnight. Ghatate locked himself in one of the three bedrooms of his house. He also changed his WhatsApp setting to hide his presence in the city. Social distancing was tough and the fear that his wife and two sons might get the infection weighed heavily on him. His wife sent food to his room three times a day. He washed the dishes and his clothes and…

FANCY THIS This beauty from Luxaire called Lux 1020 is a single-blade, 44-inch ceiling fan, sculpted around principles of aerodynamics. The ABS blade has a specially designed aerofoil profile that can operate at lower RPMs and still provide high airflow with low energy consumption and noise. PRICE ₹92,000 AT www.luxaire.in TRENDY TEXTILES Colour meets craft with furnishing brand IDAM’s new offering, the Desert Night collection. Textures and patterns give the range a bohemian vibe. While bright hues and skilful embroidery make the table linen perfect for Indian homes. The range comprises table mats and napkin sets, runners and tea cosies. PRICE ₹1,500 (for a set of four mats) to ₹2,100 (for a tea cosy set) AT www.idamstore.com BE ART SMART Walk into Interstellar and all preconceived notions about a traditional…

This is bound to get you floored. Kajaria’s Duratech XT heavy duty outdoor vitrified tiles (60X60cm) / 12mm can be used for both indoor and outdoor spaces. But that’s not the only reason that makes this a special range. It is designed for spaces that are exposed to high load and pedestrian traffic such as vehicular movement areas, terraces, sit outs, balcony, the roof, the verandahs, seaside, beach, swimming pools, sidewalk, airport, metros, train stations, industrial buildings, parking lots, underpasses, villa gardens and educational buildings. It is a marriage of elegance and durability and scores high on vital parameters such as surface hardness (Moh), water absorption, breaking strength (Mor) and load bearing capacity to name a few. Other features include, skid, UV and scratch resistance. PRICE on request AT www.kajariaceramics.com…