1. Need to Focus on Economy in Battle Against COVID: PM Modi
Suggesting that India will need to focus on a two-pronged approach – preserving public health and reviving economic activity – Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday placed particular emphasis on green zones (which include districts and regions which are free of the coronavirus disease) as the hub of future activity and a model to be aspired for.
This is widely being interpreted as a sign that after 3 May, the lockdown will continue in red zones – which are home to clusters of cases – while there can be further relaxations in the less affected zones.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. States Guarded on Lifting Lockdown, Want Clarity on Movement of Workers
Most states on Monday indicated at the videoconference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi that they wanted the lockdown to continue in some form post-3 May, while adding that they would follow the Centre’s lead on the matter.
West Bengal accused the Centre of sending mixed signals with the relaxation of some curbs, while Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, facing the prospect of hundreds of migrant labourers returning, asked it to specify guidelines in this regard.
The PM, one Chief Minister said, did not respond to demands for an economic package.
(Source: The Indian Express)
3. Doing a Trump: States Build Walls, Trenches on Borders
It is one thing to put up temporary barricades at state borders to stop people from crossing over amid the coronavirus pandemic. It becomes a completely different story when states take a leaf from US President Donald Trump’s playbook and try to seal themselves off from their neighbours by building walls and digging trenches.
Officials in Tamil Nadu’s border district of Vellore surprised everyone recently by building two concrete walls overnight on roads near the Andhra border. Each wall stood three feet in width and five feet in height. Not only did this hinder traffic to Vellore, famous for its super-speciality medical services, it also blocked the movement of at least 10,000 litres of milk to AP. After the walls came up, dairy farmers in Vellore were forced to take a circuitous route.
(Source: The Times of India)
4. ICMR Tells States to ‘Stop Using Rapid Testing Kits’ From Two Chinese Companies
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Monday issued a revised advisory to state governments regarding Rapid Antibody Blood tests for coronavirus and asked them to stop using kits from two Chinese companies. The two Chinese firms in question are Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics.
In a letter addressed to chief secretaries of all states and Union territories, the ICMR said that RT-PCR throat/nasal swab test “is the best use for diagnosis of COVID-19”. It said the test detects the virus at an early stage.
The ICMR said that it has evaluated the testing kits from Guangzhou Wondfo Biotech and Zhuhai Livzon Diagnostics and found “wide variation” in their sensitivity, “despite early promise of good performance for surveillance purposes”. It asked for testing kits procured from these Chinese companies to be sent back to the suppliers.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
5. Delhi Police Report on Migrant Camps: Fans Not Working, Bad Food
“Fans not working and no power back-up; sanitisation of toilets rarely done; most migrants want to leave as their families cannot survive; rude behaviour of civil defence staff; food quality not good; no hand wash and sanitisers; foul smell in toilets; water supply in the toilets only between 7 am and 11 am; one soap for bathing and no detergent for washing clothes; mosquito bites.”
These are among key observations made by 10 Delhi Police station house officers (SHOs), who were tasked to prepare a report on shelter homes for migrants in Central Delhi. The problems were flagged by personnel from Civil Lines police station, which surveyed two shelters at Majnu ka Tilla and the posh Civil Lines. More than 15 shelter homes were assessed by the police.
(Source: The Indian Express)
6. RBI Opens a Rs 50,000 Crore Special Funding Line for MFs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday provided a special facility with an initial corpus of Rs 50,000 crore for mutual funds to borrow from it using the banking channel. Last week’s surprise decision by Franklin Templeton MF to wind down six of its debt funds, that was managing nearly Rs 25,900 crore before closing down, is believed to have expedited the central bank’s decision to open such a facility. The facility is open till 11 May.
Under RBI’s new facility, named Special Liquidity Facility for Mutual Funds (SLF-MF), banks are allowed to borrow from the central bank for a maximum of 90 days and then in turn lend the money to mutual funds against collateral in their portfolio. After 90 days, the fund houses will have to repay the bank and take back the collateral deposited. The banks in turn will return the money to RBI.
(Source: The Times of India)
7. Incentives, Tariff Protection in Plan to Push Make in India
After the extended, 40-day Covid-19 lockdown that ends 3 May, the government plans to aggressively push its Make in India programme by offering domestic and foreign manufacturers policy and fiscal incentives to manufacture locally even as it increases import duty to make imports expensive, two government officials familiar with the plan said on condition of anonymity.
Also in the works are measures to encourage local entrepreneurs to take on multinational e-commerce giants such as Amazon and the Walmart-owned Flipkart, they added.
The overall objective is to boost both manufacturing and services, and generate jobs, the officials said.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
8. Probe Against 3 I-T Officers for Report ‘Contrary to Policies’
Terming a report titled FORCE (Fiscal Options & Response to COVID-19 Epidemic) prepared by 50 young IRS officers as a position “contrary to current policies of government”, the Centre on Monday initiated a formal inquiry against three senior Income Tax officers.
Among other measures, the report had advocated a hike in the income tax rate to 40 percent for those earning over Rs 1 crore a year for a limited period of time, levy of a 4 percent COVID-19 cess on taxable income over of wealth tax for individuals with net wealth of Rs 5 crore and more.
Officials in the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) officials said the Board issued chargesheets to the three officers under Rule 14 of Central Civil Services (Classification, Control & Appeal) Rules, 1965 for violation of conduct rules.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Virus Has Mutated Into 10 Types, One Now Dominant Across Regions: Study
The novel coronavirus, first reported in China in December 2019, has mutated into 10 different types and one of them – A2a – has nearly replaced all the others to become dominant across geographical regions, says a global study by an Indian institute.
The study, by Nidhan Biswas and Partha Majumder from the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani, West Bengal, will soon be published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
The novel coronavirus with the A2a mutation is highly efficient in entering human lung cells in larger numbers. The previous SARS-CoV that killed 800 and infected 8,000 people 10 years ago was also adept in entering the lungs, but not as much as A2a.
(Source: The Times of India)
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