1. Govt Scales up Kits, Labs, but Not Tests
Private medical facilities will be allowed to test if people have the new coronavirus, top health officials said on Tuesday, 17 March, amid calls to expand efforts that have been criticised for being too limited to be able to catch if the disease has begun to spread silently in a country of over 1.3 billion people.
These tests, however, will be open only to those who fit into rigid guidelines set by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR): people showing symptoms, and those who either have a travel history to one of the global coronavirus disease (Covid-19) hot spots, or have been in contact with a person who has tested positive. No voluntary or walk-in tests will be allowed.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. SC to Hear Pleas on MP Floor Test Today
The Supreme Court on Tuesday, 17 March, sought responses from Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath and speaker NP Prajapati on a petition by 10 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs seeking an immediate floor test while the Congress filed a separate plea saying the test could not be conducted as 16 lawmakers had been held “captive” in Bengaluru.
The 22 Congress lawmakers from the state present in Bengaluru appeared before the media on Tuesday and said they were with BJP leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and had not been held captive. The MLAs said they were willing to return to Madhya Pradesh immediately if provided Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) security.
“The floor test can happen only when all the elected lawmakers are present in the assembly,” the Congress party said in its petition.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
3. Covid-19: Third Death, Govt Allows Use of Anti-HIV Drugs For Certain Patients
India reported its third novel coronavirus (COVID-19) death Tuesday, 17 March – a 63-year-old man in Mumbai with a travel history to Dubai, and had underlying conditions of high blood pressure and heart disease.
With more fresh cases being reported, the total number of confirmed cases has climbed to 137, including 14 people who have recovered.
And after two COVID-positive Italian tourists – a 69-year-old man and his 70-year-old wife – who were administered the Lopinavir/Ritonavir combination, usually a second-line HIV medication, recovered in Jaipur, the Union Health Ministry recommended use of the antiviral drugs on a “case-to-case basis” for “high-risk patients” aged above 60 years with underlying conditions.
(Source: The Indian Express)
4. Centre Asks Pvt Hospitals to Reserve Beds for Isolation
Seeking to boost preparedness to combat Covid-19, the government asked private hospitals to reserve beds for isolation of patients and also issued separate guidelines for testing and notifying of positive patients by private institutions, including hospitals and laboratories.
The guidelines issued on Tuesday, 17 March, also include clinical management of the disease and protocol for handling of bodies of the deceased even as the government decided to rope in private laboratories to ramp up testing network.
Private labs have been asked to collect samples from doorstep to avoid risk of infection. Besides, appropriate biosafety and biosecurity precautions are to be ensured while collecting samples. Alternatively, a disease-specific separate collection site may be created, the guidelines said. Once the validation process is complete, private labs are likely to start testing from next week.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. Citizenship Outside the Scope of Judicial Review: Govt to SC
Questions on citizenship and issues arising out of it fall outside the scope of judicial review, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 17 March, as it defended the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, maintaining it was necessary to address religious persecution in three neighbouring countries and that it does not violate the right to equality.
In a 129-page affidavit defending the law that has triggered protests, the Centre presented a point-by-point rebuttal to the arguments of over 150 petitioners who have moved court against the CAA, calling it discriminatory. The CAA only ensures that communities, which are religious minorities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, and whose “natural place of return” would be India in case of displacement, are granted citizenship, the Centre said in the affidavit.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
6. Nirbhaya Case: Delhi Court Dismisses Plea of Convict Mukesh Singh
A Delhi court on Tuesday, 17 March, dismissed the plea of Mukesh Singh, one of the four convicts in the Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case, seeking quashing of his death penalty and asked the Bar Council of India (BCI) to give appropriate sensitisation exercise to his counsel.
Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana expressed anguish over the "callous" manner in which the application was moved and said an advocate should not resort to all kinds of "schemes and stratagems" to procure relief for his client in a case.
(Source: PTI)
7. Yes Bank to Lift Restrictions at 6 pm Today
State Bank of India chairman Rajnish Kumar said on Tuesday, 17 March, that the country’s largest lender was strongly behind Yes Bank with 49 percent stake and liquidity support and SBI would not sell a single share of the private lender for three years.
Kumar’s assurance comes a day before the bank lifts restrictions on depositors for withdrawal at 6 pm on Wednesday. SBI has nominated its two deputy MDs – Partha Pratim Sengupta, chief creditor officer and Swaminathan Janakiraman, strategy and chief digital officer – to the board of the bank.
Kumar, who is currently the RBI-appointed administrator of the bank, will take charge as CEO after the new board is in place. Yes Bank, which raised Rs 10,000 crore from SBI and others this week, said it will raise more funds in the next quarter
(Source: The Times of India)
8. Cellphone Operators Red-Flag ‘Surveillance’ After Govt Wants Call Records of All Users
Raising questions of surveillance and alleged violation of user privacy guidelines mandated by the Supreme Court, the government has been seeking call data records (CDRs) of all mobile subscribers across several pockets of the country for specific days over the past few months.
This unusual request has been routed to telecom operators through the local units of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Records have been sought for consumers in the circles of Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.
“It has been happening for several months now but during January and February, we started seeing these mass requests,” said a senior executive of a telecom operator on the condition that he not be named.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Sensex Sheds 811 Points, Nifty Closes Below 9,000 1st Time in 3 Yrs
The markets see-sawed on Tuesday, 17 March, as fears of a pandemic-led global recession kept investors jittery. Local institutions tried to support the sensex at lower levels but eventually failed.
The index opened about 200 points higher, lost 800 points within the first hour, then rallied nearly 500 points but finally, due to a fag-end selloff, settled with a loss of 811 points, or 2.6 percent, at 30,579, a three-year closing low.
On the NSE, the Nifty lost 230 points, or 2.5 percent, to 8,967, its first closing below the 9K mark in the last three years.
(Source: The Times of India)