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Indian HorizonRNI NO: DELENG/2013/51507

Published from New Delhi & Hyderabad

PUNJAB’S FIRST CORONAVIRUSPATIENT TESTS NEGATIVE :

CHIEF MINISTER

P-5

THIS DAY IN 1994: SACHIN TENDULKAR OPENS BATTING

FOR 1ST TIME

P-11

UN CHIEF GUTERRES WARNS OF LOSING COVID 19 WAR

P-8

Kerala IAS officer skips quarantine,

traced in UP; suspended

Thiruvananthapuram/Lucknow, March 27 (IANS) A junior IAS offi-cer, Anupam Mishra, who was recommended self-isolation in the wake of his recent foreign travel, avoided his quarantine and was later traced to his home in Uttar Pradesh’s Sultanpur city. He has been suspended from service.

Kollam District Collec-tor B. Abdul Nassar on Friday morning submitted his report to the govern-ment and Revenue Min-ister E. Chandrasekheran recommended action to the Chief Minister Pina-rayi Vijayan.

Later Vijayan, who is head of all civil service of-ficials, suspended Mishra from service.Mishra, a 2016 batch IAS officer, re-cently came to Kollam to take up the charge of Sub Collector. He informed his superior that he had been abroad and was asked to go for self-isolation at his official residence in Kol-lam, about 70 km from the state capital.

Nassar told the media on Friday that Mishra in his explanation has said that when he was told to go into self-isolation, he presumed it meant going to his residence in Sultanpur.

COVID 19: SONIA PLEDGES FULL MPLAD FUNDS, PRIYANKA HER SUPPORT

Lucknow, March 27 (IANS) Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday pledged all her MPLAD funds for com-bating coronavirus in her constituency Rae Bareli.

In a letter to the Rae Bareli District Magistrate, Sonia Gandhi authorised the DM to draw as much funds as required in deal-ing with the situation and provide sanitisers, masks

and medicines to the peo-ple of her constituency.“I appeal to the district ad-ministration to distribute masks and sanitisers to the people and give extra

care to the daily wagers and the elderly,” the four-time MP from Rae Bareli wrote to the DM.

She further said that she would do all that is required as the MP from Rae Bareli to keep the people safe and healthy.

She also requested the administration to ensure that nobody goes hungry in her constituency.

....Continue on Page 5

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Amid reverse mi-gration from the metros and people walking to-wards their native places as they are left with no option in the absence of public and private trans-port and absence of food and livelihood, former Congress President Ra-hul Gandhi said that a more nuanced and com-passionate approach is required to deal with this crisis.“The lockdown will devastate our poor & weak. It will deliver a heavy blow to the In-dia we love. India isn’t black & white. Our deci-

sions have to be carefully thought through,” Rahul tweeted.He said its still not too late to consider options to send people back to their places who want to go while some

state governments have taken steps including Uttar Pradesh which has issued helpline number for stranded passen-gers.The Congress has also said that lockdown

has been imposed with-out proper planning as citizens, particularly mi-grant labourers, are fac-ing extreme diffi culty in day to day life.

The official Congress Twitter handle said, “Suspended trans-port, disrupted supply chains, misinformation to the police & active racism, such is the out-come of a #Lockdown-WithoutPlan.”

With many people stuck in different cities and not able to move to their desired places, the party urged the govern-ment to look into it.

COMPASSIONATE APPROACH REQUIRED TO DEAL WITH COVID 19: RAHUL GANDHI

Thiruvanantha-puram, March 27 (IANS) Former Kerala Chief Minister Oom-men Chandy is pass-ing through one of his toughest times, as the swarming crowds that collect around him -- he says they are his biggest source of energy -- have been missing following the lockdown.

Asked if he has developed “withdrawal symptoms”, he told IANS, “Things are tough for me. In my life I have not encountered

such a situation.“I am now stuck here,

and have not been to my constituency for the past 12 days. Many have warned me not to hang around, but I feel restless.

This is something which I never ever thought would hap-pen. What to do now, as we are duty-bound also to adhere to laws for our own safety and of others.“I am on phone all the time as people find it difficult to reach my house due to the curbs. I have

also told people not to venture out and I am always available on phone, for the needs of people.”

There was a scare when yesterday, a local Congress leader from Idukki tested positive for coronavirus.

He had met Chandy earlier this month. The former Chief Minister said there was now no need for worry.

“If it was strongly enforced, I feel, we could have contained the spread. They are slow to react,” said Chandy.

Chandy has ‘withdrawal’ symptoms over lockdown

JHARKHAND CM DONATES FUNDS FOR COVID 19 RELIEF

Ranchi, March 27 (IANS)Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Ranchi BJP MP Sanjay Seth and others have donated for measures taken to deal and curb coro-navirus in the state.Hemant Soren has donated Rs 25 lakh from his legislator local area

fund to Sahebganj admin-istration. Ranchi BJP MP Sanjay Seth has contributed Rs 1 crore from local area MP fund to Ranchi administra-tion.

The Chief Minister has appealed people to contrib-ute to Mukyamantri Rahat

Kosh (MRK).Jharkhand State Cricket Association (JSCA) has contributed Rs 51 lakh to MRK. Former BCCI secretary and JSCA offi cials met the Chief Minister and handed over cheque of Rs 51 lakh on Friday.Till now Jharkhand has not reported any positive

COVID-19 case.As per the latest data released by the health department a total of 137 samples of suspected patients had been sent for testing out of which 117 have so far tested negative while results of rest are awaited.The health department has

established 557 beds to be used as isolation wards for coronavirus patients. Out of these 96 are in Medical Colleges, 200 are in Sadar Hospital and another 261 in private hospitals. Jharkhand has also prepared 1,469 beds as quarantine centres.

More than 100 labourers from the state have been reported stuck in Delhi and other parts of the state.Chief Minister Hemant Soren has approached the Delhi and Chhattisgarh governments for return of the people of the state.

Hyderabad, March 27 (IANS) Ten fresh cases of Covid-19 were reported in Telangana on Friday, taking the state's total number to 59.

Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao told reporters that 10 persons had tested positive in a single day.While the fi rst

case was discharged after treatment, 58 others are undergoing treatment at designated hospitals.Be-sides this, 20,000 people were in quarantine either at homes or in govern-ment-run facilities.

Telangana Home Minister Mahmood

Ali meets Cyberabad Police Commissioner V C Sajjanar to review the lockdown situation in the city.

10 NEW COVID 19 POSITIVE CASES IN TELANGANA, TOTAL 59

Lucknow, March 27 (IANS) Former union minister and SP MP Beni Prasad Varma passed away here in Lucknow on Friday, following a prolonged illness.

He was 79.One of the found-ing members of the Samajwadi Party, Beni Prasad Varma was the tallest Kurmi leader in Uttar Pradesh and also a close friend of Samajwadi patriarch Mulay-am Singh Yadav.

He served as a minister in Deve Gowda and IK Gujral Cabinets.

In 2009, he joined the Congress and was elected to the Lok Sabha from Gonda constituency in Ut-tar Pradesh and became the steel minister in the Manmohan Singh government.

In 2016, he returned to the Samajwadi Party and became a Rajya Sabha member.

SP MP Beni Prasad Varma passes away

Kolkata, March 27 (IANS) The West Bengal government re-moved seven-eight police per-sonnel from duty for committing excesses on the people during the ongoing lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee an-nounced on Friday.

"We had received 12 complaints of police excesses. We have closed seven-eight police personnel, so as to ensure no atrocities are com-mitted on people," Banerjee told the media at the state secretariat

Nabanna.Banerjee instructed the police that while they have to be fi rm so that there is no outbreak

of the disease, and see to it that everybody abides by the law, they also have to be humane whenever people are in danger.

"Everybody, right from the district magistrates to the police superintendents as also the offi -cials in cities like Kolkata, is being requested to handle the situation humanely. At one end you have to ensure people obey the lock-down, so that the infection does not spread. Simultaneously, if anybody has a problem, we have to look at it humanely," she said.

Bengal govt removes cops from duty excesses during lockdown

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Ride-hailing platform Ola on Fri-day launched ‘Drive the Driver Fund under Ola Foundation, with Rs 20 crore donation from Ola group and its employees that will support auto-rickshaw, cab, kaali-peeli and taxi drivers during the tough COVID-19 times.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola would forgo his salary for one year that would go towards the fund.The company, which has a global fl eet of over 20 lakh driver-partners, aims

to raise up to Rs 50 crore via its crowdfunding initiative towards the drivers' fund that will help drivers on any platform or servic-es, it said in a statement."The cri-sis at this time has left thousands of drivers who form the backbone

of shared mobility without an in-come. The Ola group has come together to contribute the initial capital for the fund, which can be used to provide immediate aid," said Anand Subramanian, Spokesperson and Head of Com-munications, Ola.

The initiative would focus on key areas such as emergency support and essential supplies, which are of utmost importance to drivers dur-ing these challenging times.Drivers and their families would also have access to free medical consultation.

Ola group donates Rs 20 crore, creates fund for drivers, families

City2

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Gone are the days when being an NRI would get you envy back home in Indian villages and tier-two cities. Coronavirus outbreak has unsettled the equation, often with sad ramifications.

Following the corona deaths spiking in coun-tries like Italy, the US and Britain, the one segment that mostly finds itself at odds, both at home and away are non resident In-dians (NRI). While there's no comprehensive data to suggest how many NRIs have been infected across the globe, particularly in corona hotbeds like China, Italy, Britain, Spain and the US and how many of them have succumbed, their plight goes much beyond the disease and battling it.

90,000 NRIs who have landed in Punjab over the last one month, many with symptoms has their villag-ers wary, authorities on

toes and Indian relatives behaving as strangers. In Punjab's dollar rich Doaba belt, which comprises of Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Nawanshahr districts have been badly hit with many NRIs feeling Italy and Brit-ain with symptoms.

After CM Amarinder Singh made an emotional appeal to 'save Punjab', many ethnic Punjabis, mostly relatives of the NRIs have become wary of the situation. So much so, they don't want any more NRIs back into the village, who may have reached in-dia but failed to make it to their home districts.

While some of the fear and apprehension is due to the information over-drive, and rightly so, by the Amarinder Singh gov-ernment making people of Punjab aware of gravity, those NRIs in places like Delhi and Chandigarh are now stuck. Then comes the vilification of the immedi-

ate family members of the NRIs. Recently in Kolkata, a man who died of the deadly virus was not allowed to be cremated by locals. They alleged the patient delib-erately hid information about his recent visit to Italy, a global hotbed of the virus. When police tried to ensure the dead man was cremated, even they had to face protests.

As fate would have it, his 27-year-old son was stuck in the US and was unable to come back because of the worldwide lockdown. He has requested Kolkata authorities to preserve the ashes of his fathers. The rest of the man's family is in quarantine.

While many NRIs may have died undetected as Indians, in Italy during the hundreds of deaths everyday due to corona-virus, there were few like that of 48-year-old Vipin Kumar who was found to be an Indian. Though the

exact reason of his death is not mentioned, his fam-ily back home believes it is due to the coronavi-rus. But when the Indian embassy in Rome con-tacted his family in Yamu-nanagar, near Bilaspur, his entire family refused to receive the body. Vip-in's family went to the dis-trict official and recorded their unwillingness to fly back the dead body, lest they catch the virus. Whats more, even when the government evacu-ated from difficult places like China's Wuhan prov-ince or Iran, many chose to take the warning signs casually. And as the world has virtually put a block-ade, some are lamenting. 22 Indians were in transit at the Dubai airport when their home countries sud-denly stopped inbound flights due to the corona-virus pandemic. UAE has also closed all its airports since Monday.

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Bor-ders have been sealed, people are masked, supermarkets are plucked clean, lives quarantined: In trying times like ours, reading is a great way to fill up the hours. Social-distancing or self-isolation, right now, is a civic responsibility, and there is a silver lining in it. We can catch up on our sleep, unfinished reads or movies, establish self-care and workout rou-tines at all. For starters, here are some publications of Niyogi Books to read if you still haven't done that yet. "Quar-tet" (Chaturanga) by Rabindranath Tagore (Translated by Nirmal Kranti

Bhattacharjee)This is a short novella set in 19th

century Bengal. The philosophical questions, which are raised in the course of the story, make this one of his most complex and metaphorical works. A social novel centered on four characters, it raises pointed questions about religion and atheism, dabbling in the complex hues of the man-wom-an relationship.

It successfully brings out Tagore's profound understanding of the hu-man subconscious, without sacrific-ing the underlying playfulness in the language and the unique style of the

original work. "Day & Dastan" by Inti-zar Husain Intizar Husain is one of the the finest writers of Urdu prose and one of the most brilliant story-tellers of the post-partition generation. These two novellas (Din Aur Dastan) point to his versatility and fictional in-ventiveness. "Day", a realistic story, is a meditation on the cruellest of events to have scarred our times - migration. In contrast, "Dastan" is a traditional tale of wonder. Its language islyrical and exaggerated; its narrative, ob-sessed with action, weaves dreams and adventure, heroism and mercy, beauty and love, magic and grace.

Corona makes NRIs feel the heat in India Corona warriors spread awareness on social distancing

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) As coronavirus cases continue to rise in India, social distancing is the only way to fight this calamity. To drive home this point, some groups of people in outer Delhi are giving lessons on the importance of social distancing and creating awareness among various sections of society.

These groups of people with masks on their faces come out in their colo-nies every morning and evening, tell-ing people about the danger of coro-navirus and how to combat it. They plead with people to remain indoors and follow social distancing norms in every possible way.

In Vikaspuri, west Delhi, small groups comprising 4-5 people, come out every morning and evening and tell small shop owners not to open their outlets apart from tell-ing residents about the bitter pill of

lockdown to swallow as there is no alternative. Most of these groups comprise men who are in govern-ment jobs and are off duty due to closure of offices. They ask people politely to go home the moment somebody is seen loitering.

Ramveer Singh, a retired govern-ment servant, told IANS, "To defeat coronavirus is our topmost priority at the moment as no government

can contain this deadly disease without the sup-port of the people. Most of us under-stand the impor-tance of social distancing, but there are some ir-responsible peo-ple who are out on the streets. Such

people are a threat."IANS visited a number of colonies

in Delhi to see first-hand how so-cial distancing norms are followed. In Rishal Garden, a resident Kartar Singh said: "If there is a single posi-tive case in my society, all hell will break loose and the whole colony will be sealed. So, people should understand how important it is to maintain social distancing."

Indian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) In an unprecedented interaction over the emerging COVID-19 crisis in India, President Ram Nath Kovind on Friday suggested all the Gover-nors and Lieutenant Governors of the country to make all out efforts to supplement medical relief and food distribution in their respective states and territories. In a three- hour long video conference, the President said that Medical Uni-versities, Red Cross Society, NGOs working in the field of relief and medical care should be roped in for their vital contribution in this hour of crisis. At least 15 Governors, in-cluding Lt. Governors provided valuable suggestions to the Presi-dent on various key issues. Gover-nor of Kerala Arif Mohammed Khan said that 18,000 doctors of various private institutions, including the ones who have retired are working with the state government to fight COVID-19 pandemic.

Laying emphasis on social dis-tancing to keep away the dreaded infection, Arif Mohammed Khan , known for his study on Urdu and Arabic culture, recited a couplet quoting Bashir Badra, "Yun hee be-sabab na fira karo, Koi sham ghar me raha karo."

Madhya Pradesh Governor Lalji Tandon informed the President that except Indore the situation in one of the biggest Hindi heartland states is normal." Indore has some problems...but the government is taking all measures to normalise the situation," Tandon said, ac-cording to official sources.

Maharashtra which has the high-est number of COVID-19 posi-tive cases was heard on top prior-

ity. Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari was of the view that social distancing has been ad-hered in the urban areas. However, in the rural pockets efforts are be-ing made through administrative machinery and voluntary organ-isation to educate and ensure that village population stays away from getting too close. Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal also spoke for quite some time and informed that he along with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are holding meetings on a daily basis with top bureaucrats, including District Collectors, and police officials including Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCPs) to closely monitor the situation in the national capital. The LG as-sured that medical and provision stores are being allowed to func-tion in a 24x7 mode so that there is no shortage of food and grocery items. The Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu who was live on the conference from his residence suggested that help of artists, film stars and leading persons from the private sectors should be sought for an awareness campaign on social

distancing and also in contribution of relief work during the country-wide lockdown which continues through next two weeks. Naidu was of the view that in Maharashtra and several southern states there is no dearth of artists and film stars who had always stood by the country in such grim situations.

The three- hour long meeting with a break of half an hour, also de-cided that 8,000 medically trained volunteers of Red Cross society of India will help state health officials in challenging task of taking care of the infected persons.

The president Ram Nath Kovind appreciated the efforts of Prime Ministers Narendra Modi, his cabi-net colleagues and all Chief Minis-ters of the country who are working round the clock to tackle the men-ace of the COVID-19.

The President also suggested that the golden rule of social dis-tancing must be followed to pre-vent the transmission of the virus in the community. Besides steps should be taken to ensure a regu-lar supply of food chain across the country.

New Delhi, March 27 (IANSlife) In a bid to tackle the global outbreak of coro-navirus outbreak, the nation entered a three-week lock-down till mid-April. While human beings have several ways to insulate themselves to survive the lockdown, it can be less than smooth experience for our animals during such testing time. Thousands of cats, dogs and other stray animals depend on the mandis, food chains, restaurants and local com-

munity support who feed them. With people under isolation and closure of such establishments, there is a shortfall in food sup-plies for such animals.

On the issue, Member of Parliament and promi-nent animal rights activ-ist Maneka Gandhi took to the social media recently and requested everyone to continue feeding the stray animals and veterinary ser-vices to help them survive. The most common problem

faced by good samaritans trying to feed the animals are the rules and restric-tions at the time of social distancing and isolation.

To address the issue feeder passes have been made available by desig-nated authorities across the country throughout the lockdown period wherein any dog feeder can go to their district DCP office and get such passes. On a more positive note, there are brighter sides when it

comes to the causes of our furry buddies as there are have a remarkable dip in the number of accidents, harassment cases owing to deserted streets. "We are at a zero rate for accidental casualties during this peri-od. From receiving 100 cas-es a day, we have reached such scale, because there are no people on the road, and animals are not being run over. So, it has proved to be amazingly positive for animal causes.

Prez tells Guvs to rope in pvt doctors, relief workers to combat COVID-19

Suggested reading to while away coronavirus blues

COVID-19: Food for thought for stray animals

The Union Minister for Food Processing Industries, Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal inaugurates a newly designed Market Intelligence and Early Warning System (MIEWS), an online portal under Operation Greens, in New Delhi

COVID-19: 157 govt-private labs

geared up for testing

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS)

A total of 157 laboratories are gearing up to conduct testing for COVID-19. This includes both government and private labs, the official website of the ICMR showed on Friday. Of the 157 labs, 121 are government labo-ratories approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research for conducting tests for the deadly novel coronavirus. However, only 109 are currently operation-al while 12 laboratories are in the process of being operationalised. In addition to this there are 35 private labs across the country for conducting these tests. These are in Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh, Chhattis-garh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand. The World Health Organisation has stressed upon testing during the novel coronavirus outbreak across.

New Delhi, March 27 (IANSlife) The iconic Coco Chanel once said, "A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future". A signature perfume is every elegant woman's identity.

Be it your personality, cultural identity, seasons, or simply your mood, you can experiment, mix and match to create your own fragrance that will create a personal aura one whiff at a time.

While choosing a per-fume, seasons play a major role. "It's very im-portant to change scents depending on the season since fragrances are great-ly influenced by the tem-perature and summer is the best season to experi-ment with fragrances that are refreshing and airy, like fresh citrus, aqueous, marine, green and florals like Jasmine, tuberose, lily of the valley and garde-

nia," says Abdullah Ajmal, consulting perfumer at Aj-mal and Sons.

You perfect summer picks can be lighter fra-grances to capture warmer climate vibes and invigo-rate the mood. Also, there is no hard and fast rule to choose any particular scent. You can be bold and adventurous. "Hav-ing said that, if one wants to wear a heavier perfume in the evening, it's fine but should be used in mod-eration," Ajmal suggests.

If you are prefer bold scents and find the musky accord sensuous, then the sweet accords of vanilla are an ideal mix of sensu-ality and femininity. For a perfect summer punch try mixing notes of fresh vanilla, Oudh and nutmeg to add even more depth to this musky scent, mak-ing it somewhat sweet, yet not at all overpowering,

suggests Sania Arora Jain, Product and Technical Head, Fabindia Personal Care.

Why remain restricted to intertraditional per-fumes only? After all, in the hot, humid Indian summers, why not look into our ancient Ayurveda for some invigorating and intense scents? Coming in a plethora of exotic vari-ants of Nargis, Parijat, nat-ural perfumes can be your perfect answer to that. De-rived from classic single flower scents, they can be the most powerful and emotional trigger of the senses, it has the ability to reconnect to memories almost instantaneously, says Neha Rawla, Head of Brand Communications, Forest Essentials. Such formulation uses the tra-ditional steam distillation technique that draws in-tense fragrances.

A nose for summer

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) One of the four terrorists involved in the terror attack on Sikhs in Kabul was a 30-year-old shopkeeper who had fled along with 14 other youths from Kerala to join the Islamic State (ISIS) four years ago.

The Islamic State on Friday published a photo of Abu Khalid al-Hindi, a suicide attack fighter who was part of the four-member team that attacked a Sikh shrine in Kabul, killing at least 25 members of the minuscule minority community in Afghani-stan on Wednesday.

Top sources said that al-Hindi was Moham-med Sajid Kuthirulm-mal, a shopkeeper from Padne area of Kasargod in Kerala who was want-ed in a 2016 NIA case and had an Interpol red notice against him. The case refers to a parent from Kasaragod, Kerala

who lodged a police complaint in July 2016, stating that his 30-year-old son Abdul Rashid was missing along with his wife Ayisha (Sonia Sebastian) and child, for almost two months after they had gone to Mum-bai. Around the same time, 14 other cases of missing people includ-ing Sajid were registered by their parents and rela-tives in the police station of the same area. Pre-liminary investigation revealed that the miss-ing persons had left In-dia to join Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a banned pan-Islamist terrorist organisation. During the investigation by Kerala Police, the role of 29-year-old Yasmeen Mohammad Zahid, a resident of Batla House, Okhla Jamia Nagar, New Delhi but originally from Sitamarhi district of Bi-har, as a co-conspirator of Abdul Rashid.

3State

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) In the backdrop of large move-ment of migrant labourers from cities to their villages, the Centre on Friday issued an advisory di-recting all states and Union Ter-ritories (UTs) to take immediate steps to provide adequate sup-port, including food and shelter to them. Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla has written to all states and UTs to take steps to help these migrant agricultur-al labourers, industrial workers and other uaorganized sector workers during the 21-day na-

tionwide COVID-19 lockdown to stop their migration. Similarly, states and UTs have been ad-vised to take steps to ensure that students, working women from other states are also allowed to continue in their existing ac-commodation.

In order to mitigate the situ-ation for unorganized sector workers, particularly stranded migrant workers, the advisory suggests that the states and UTs need to explore measures by involving various agencies, in-cluding NGOs, to provide food

and shelter with basic amenities such as clean drinking water and sanitation. Bhalla, through the advisory, also advised the states and UTs to make these vulnerable groups aware of the measures taken by the govern-ment including provision of free food grains and other es-sential items through Public Distribution System (PDS), and streamline the distribution sys-tem. This would help prevent avoidable movement of such people, the advisory suggests. The Home Ministry has also ad-

vised that states and UTs need to ensure that hotels, rented accommodations and hostels continue to remain functional and delivery of essential items is streamlined so that students, working women, hostel inmates are allowed to continue in ex-isting facilities while observing precautions "While ensuring supply of essential goods and services, states and UTs are be-ing repeatedly directed to en-force the lockdown strictly and take action against violators under various provisions of law.

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) The government on Friday is-sued a "comprehensive disabil-ity inclusive guidelines" to all the states and Union Territories (UTs) for protection and safety of persons with disabilities in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Department of Empower-ment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empower-ment has issued the guidelines as persons with disabilities are more vulnerable to novel coro-navirus (Covid-19) due to their physical, sensory and cognitive limitations. The guidelines stress on the need to understand dis-ability specific requirements, daily living activities and appro-priate and timely measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disability in risk situations.

The guidelines outlined that the National Disaster Manage-ment Authority (NDMA) at the district, state and national levels should take measures to include persons with disabilities in disas-

ter management activities and to keep them duly informed about these. These authorities are mandatorily required to involve the concerned state commis-sioner for persons with disabili-ties during disaster management activities. In September 2019, the Union Ministry of Home Af-fairs had issued National Disas-ter Management Guidelines on Disability Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction (DiDRR).

The latest order follows the March 24 guidelines issued by the Home Ministry to various

authorities to prevent the spread of Covid-19 for a period of 21 days starting March 25.

It has been advised that all information about Covid-19, services offered and precautions to be taken, should be available in simple and local language in accessible formats --in Braille and audible tapes for persons with visual impairment, video-graphic material with sub-titles and sign language interpretation for persons with hearing impair-ment and through accessible web sites. It is stressed that the

sign language interpreters who work in emergency and health settings should be given the same health and safety protec-tion as other healthcare workers dealing with Covid-19 cases.

"All persons responsible for handling emergency response services should be trained on the rights of persons with disabili-ties, and on risks associated with additional problems for persons having specific impairments," the guidelines mentioned.

Relevant information on sup-port to persons with disabilities should be part of all awareness campaigns, the guidelines said.

During quarantine, essential support services, personal as-sistance and physical and com-munication accessibility should be ensured for blind persons and persons with intellectual or mental disability.

Caregivers of persons with disabilities should be allowed to reach persons with disabilities by exempting them from restric-tions during the lockdown pe-riod or by providing them with

passes in a simplified manner on priority. To ensure continuation of support services for persons with disabilities with minimum human contact, due publicity needs to be given to ensure per-sonal protective equipment for the caregivers.

The Resident Welfare Associa-tions should be sensitised about the needs of persons with dis-abilities so as to allow entry of maid, caregiver and other sup-port staff to their residences after following due sanitising proce-dure, the guidelines mentioned.

"Persons with disabilities should be given access to essen-tial food, water, medicine, and, to the extent possible, such items should be delivered at their resi-dence or place where they have been quarantined," the guide-lines said. The states and UTs may consider reserving specific opening hours in retail provision stores, including super markets, for persons with disabilities and elderly persons for ensuring easy availability of their daily require-ments, said the guidelines.

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) There is no evi-dence to suggest that countries with malaria are at lower risk of getting new coronavirus cases, nor has it been proved that people living in these countries have developed any 'herd immunity' against the dis-ease, health experts have stressed.

One theory doing the rounds on some media platforms is that corona-virus cases and fatality rates have been relatively lower in Asian and African countries that have higher malaria burden.

Moreover, some anti-malarial compounds have shown promise in fighting COVID-19 in experiments, leading some people to say that people in coun-tries with malaria might have 'herd immunity' against COVID-19.

By analysing COVID-19 cases reported by coun-tries across the world as well as the incidence of malaria cases as of 2017, a former NASA scientist wrote in his personal blog last week that the results suggested that "those countries with malaria

have virtually no COV-ID-19 cases, and those countries with many CO-VID-19 cases have little to no malaria".

The findings were based on the total number of CO-VID-19 cases as of March 17, 2020 as tallied by the WHO, Roy Spencer wrote in the blog published at www.drroyspencer.com.

Doctors in India, how-ever, said that the coun-try is no less vulnerable to COVID-19 because the malaria burden is high in the country.

"This is not true at all. India is a prime example as it is a malaria endemic country. It is just that our entry into this pandemic is slightly late. Addition-ally we have only tested 25,000 samples till date,"

Rajesh Gupta, Additional Director, Pulmonology and Critical Care, Fortis Hospital Noida, told IANS.

India has so far reported over 700 coronavirus posi-tive cases.

"In the next month or so, the cases will peak. Now in the coming months, we will begin testing a lot and then we will find out the extent of the infection spread. Ultimately, CO-VID-19 will be dealt with herd immunity only. But no, there is no evidence that people in malaria-infected countries have already developed herd immunity," Gupta elabo-rated. The WHO has urged countries to ensure the continuity of malaria ser-vices in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Do not scale back your planned malaria pre-vention, diagnostic and treatment activities. If someone living in a place with malaria develops a fever, he or she should seek diagnosis and care as soon as possible," Pe-dro Alonso, Director of the WHO Global Malaria Pro-gramme, said in a state-ment on Wednesday.

Ensuring access to core malaria prevention mea-sures is an important strat-egy for reducing the strain on health systems; these include vector control measures, such as insec-ticide-treated nets and in-door residual spraying, as well as chemoprevention for pregnant women and young children (intermit-tent preventive treatment in pregnancy, intermit-tent preventive treatment in infants and seasonal malaria chemopreven-tion), the WHO said. Ad-ditional special measures could ease the burden on health systems in the con-text of COVID-19, such as presumptive malaria treatment and mass drug administration, it added.

In the WHO African re-

gion, a cumulative total of 1,716 confirmed cases have been reported across 38 countries in the region as of March 25.

"Whether population in counties where malaria is endemic has some herd immunity due to usage of chloroquine in their com-munities is a million dollar question. It requires de-tailed scientific population studies to arrive at such a conclusion," said R.K. Sing-hal, Principal Consultant & Director and Coordinator of Medical & Allied Ser-vices, BLK Super Special-ity Hospital, New Delhi. The doctors also cautioned against use and hoarding of anti-malarial drugs for pre-venting coronavirus by the general population. "Sev-eral countries in Asia and Africa are indeed malaria prone but it cannot be said, in the absence of adequate empirical evi-dence or trials, that anti-malaria drugs such as hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine can treat Covid-19," said Charu Goel Sachdeva, Head of Internal Medicine, Ma-nipal Hospitals Dwarka, New Delhi.

No evidence countries with malaria immune against COVID-19

Offer support to migrant labourers: Centre to states, UTs

Indian Horizon Saturday, March 28, 2020

New strategic engagement a reflection of the growth of impact investing and opportunities in sustainable waste management in Asia Del-hi, 27.March,– Singapore-headquartered Blue Planet Environmental Solutions Pte Ltd (Blue Planet) today announced it has raised US$25 million from Nomura, Asia’s global investment bank. This strategic engagement by Nomura’s Loans and Principal Investments Area in Asia ex-Japan will help Blue Planet continue its efforts to develop integrated, inclusive and sustainable waste management solutions around the region. By the end of 2030, Asia is predicted to account for half of the world’s middle-class consump-tion. Waste generation rates are set to soar along with this increase in demand for resources.

Solid waste, in particular plastic and organic waste, is becoming a key challenge for the rap-idly developing nations in the region as they seek to fulfill their commitments to climate change and to reduce marine pollution. Blue Planet was founded with the vision to help avert this crisis by providing solutions that move beyond the traditional fragmented waste disposal the paradigm of Asia where collection, processing, and disposal are disconnected and inefficient. By securing exclusive access to the entire waste management process, from generation to re-covery, the company seeks to introduce a new standard of waste management that has social inclusion, resource efficiency and sustainability at its heart. “The recent investment by Nomura will help Blue Planet expand our products and services, and provide circular economy solu-tions for sustainable waste management,” said Madhujeet Chimni, co-founder of Blue Planet.

“Together, we aim to deliver our vision of ‘zero waste to landfill’, which is a long-term ambition to eliminate waste from business ac-tivities, downstream consumption, and waste handling processes. For us, this means develop-

ing capabilities to process all the waste produced through reusing, upcycling, recycling or energy recovery. This will help Asia’s rapidly develop-ing countries to achieve long-term sustainable growth.”

According to the United Nation’s assess-ment, Asia is falling behind on three key Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs), namely SDG 6 (clean water and sanitation), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production). Blue Planet’s solutions help organizations and countries to achieve a direct impact on the per-formance indicators of these three SDGs and beyond. It is able to deliver on 15 out of the 17 SDGs directly or indirectly and is a unique play-er in the region that engages with governments and companies to help them realize the ben-efits of sustainable waste management. The company does this by measuring the success of waste management projects and technologies by combining positive financial output with environmental protection and social inclusion. Aadit Seshasayee, Head of the Loans and Princi-pal Investments Area, Asia ex-Japan at Nomura said “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) opportunities have been a key focus area for Nomura and Blue Planet through its solu-tions are leading the waste management space across Asia. Blue Planet’s technologies and of-ferings make it.

Lockdown in Delhi: CM says situation becoming smooth

Blue Planet raises US$25 million from Nomura

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) As the nationwide 21-day lockdown entered its third day, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Friday that things are slowly be-coming smooth in the city with the government equipped to deal with any spurt in COVID-19 cases.

"Daily we are holding meetings to review the situation. Slowly, things are becoming smooth in the city," Kejriwal said in a digi-tal press conference. He said the situation is under control in terms of patients as well. "The spread of the virus is not happening in Del-hi but we need to have arrange-

ments to deal with the outburst of the virus." He said the govern-ment is ready to deal with even 1,000 cases per day, although it will not happen.

"We are ensuring that number

will not be increased but prepara-tions should be done."

He also urged the media and people to keep highlighting the problems to the government. "And in the next two or three days, things will get better."

He also said that it is being ensured that food is given to all. Pension to eight lakh people have been credited, including old age pension, Kejriwal said. "They will get the second instalment by first week of April." The Delhi government has also doubled the pension for widows, old age and handicapped persons.

COVID-19: Govt issues comprehensive disability guidelines

IS terrorist involved in attack on Sikhs in Kabul was Kerala shopkeeper

4SOUTHIndian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

Goa descends into chaos as grocery stores openPanaji, March 27 (IANS)

Chaos reigned on the streets of Goa on Friday af-ter chief minister Pramod Sawant decided to open grocery stores, a decision he said taken "under du-ress".

Thousands of people thronged the streets from as early as 5 a.m. to scout for essential goods like rice, wheat flour, milk, oil and vegetables and mobbed grocers and other vendors paying scant attention to the social distancing norms, with the police, though deployed across the state, not enforcing the regulations, which are essential to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Opposition has now accused Chief Minister of

lording over a total col-lapse in administration and abetting public chaos.

Earlier on Friday, the availability of essential food supplies in most stores across Goa dried up in the first few hours itself, on account of the rush of local buyers, who have been under lockdown since March 22. Goa had originally extended the one-day janata curfew by more three days, before seamlessly slipping into the 21-day curfew mode, with just a four hour relax-ation window on March 23.

"There were no dry es-sential goods available by 6 a.m. itself. Some stores were open, but there was such chaos and panic buy-ing that we opted not to

venture out for safety rea-sons," Engelbert D'Mello, a finance professional and a resident of Bastora village in North Goa said.

Panic buying and viola-tion of social distancing norms were also evident in major cities like Panaji, Mapusa, etc. Police, who have been criticized by civil society and the opposition in Goa for using exces-sive force and beating up people in order to enforce Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 21-day curfew over the last few days, were not involved in the enforce-ment of social distancing guidelines.

Sawant, who has been slammed by not just the civil society and opposi-tion, but from his own

party members over his decision-making related to the COVID-19 virus cri-sis, in a video message on Thursday had said, that his government should not be blamed for an increase in coronavirus spread, now that he was "forced to" open grocery stores under duress.

"We cannot say when and how the coronavirus can be transmitted. There-fore we should take care of ourselves. If tomorrow, coronavirus spreads in a big way in Goa, then you cannot blame the govern-ment," Sawant had said in his public message on Thursday.

"Government wanted a 100 per cent lockdown. The government did not

want unnecessary contact because it could lead to the spread of the virus," the Chief Minister also said, adding that he was under duress to take a decision "due to complaints from many quarters".

The Opposition has now said that blaming people for his poor decision and abdication of responsibil-ity is a sign of bad gover-nance.

"No need of GOVERN-MENT if people were expected to resolve all is-sues themselves. It's com-plete collapse of admin-istration in Goa under @goacm which he admitted by blaming people," state Congress president Girish Chodankar tweeted on Friday.

Chennai, March 27 (IANS) Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi on Friday enquired with Tamil Nadu Chief Min-ister K. Palaniswami on the steps taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the state.

In an official state-ment issued here the state govern-ment said Modi had called Palaniswami and enquired about the preventive mea-sures against the virus spread.

Modi also urged

Palaniswami to imple-ment the prohibitory orders strictly for the benefit of the people.

On his part Palaniswami ex-plained to Modi the various steps taken by the state government in that regard.

PM enquires with TN CM on Covid measures

B h u b a n e s w a r , March 27 (IANS) The Odisha Police have registered 404 cases for violation of regu-lations and guidelines related to COVID-19 during the last 48 hours, an official said on Thursday.

Subroto Bagchi, Odisha government's chief spokesperson on COVID-19, said that out of these, 380 cases have been reg-istered for violation of lockdown, 10 cases for violation of home quarantine and 14

cases on other issues related to COVID-19.

As on 12 noon on Thursday, 164 samples were sent for CO-VID-19 exami-nation and re-ports of all the samples have been obtained. No new posi-tive case has been found, keeping the figure in the

state to two, said Bag-chi.

He added that the health of the two identified patients is asymptomatic and stable. They are taking normal diet supplied by the concerned hos-pitals, Bagchi said.

404 cases registered for COVID-19 guidelines violation in Odisha

B h o p a l / I n d o r e , March 27 (IANS) A 47-year-old man ad-mitted to a hospital in Madhya Pradesh's Indore after being sus-pected of coronavirus has died, an official said, adding the the man has no travel his-tory and his test reports are awaited

COVID-19 cases con-tinued to rise in Mad-hya Pradesh with six more patients -- five in Indore and one in Shiv-puri -- testing positive on Thursday and tak-ing the number to 21, the Health Department confirmed.

There have been two deaths so far. Both vic-tims were from Ujjain who succumbed to the infection during treat-

ment in Indore. While a 47-year old patient suspected of corona admitted to an Indore hospital died in the ear-ly hours of Thursday, a 65-year-old woman who had no travel his-tory for over a month had died on Wednesday in Indore government hospital.

Shivpuri Chief Medi-cal and Health Officer (CMHO) A.L. Sharma said a 26-year-old youth from Khaniyadhana, about 80-km from the district headquarters, tested positive for the infection on Thursday. This was Shivpuri's sec-ond case. The man had gone to Hyderabad on March 13 and returned to Shivpuri two days later, he said

Among the five new cases in Indore, two are women, a government medical college spokes-man said. Sharma said family members of the coronavirus positive man have been told to quarantine themselves at home and they will be monitored by health workers. The residents of victim's locality have been told to self-quar-antine under medical supervision. The pa-tient sought medical help through a video on social media.

Sharma also informed that the mother and fa-ther of a 30-year man, the first coronavirus positive case in Shiv-puri, tested negative in the medical reports re-ceived on Thursday.

Man suspected to be coronavirus case dies in MP

Man commits suicide as Kerala liquor vends shut

Rana Kapoor fears COVID-19 infection in jail, seeks bail

Covid-19 to help OTT audio plat-forms increase

revenue

Thrissur (Kerala), March 27 (IANS) With liquor vends in Kerala shut since Wednesday amid a national lock-down, a 37-year-old man allegedly commit-ted suicide at his home near here on Friday due to unavailability of liquor, police said.

Sanoj, said his fam-ily, was restless for the past two days ever since the Kerala gov-ernment, following pressure from several quarters, decided to close down all retail li-quor vends in the state from Wednesday.

After Sanoj, a bach-elor, was found hang-ing near his house on Friday morning, police registering a case of unnatural death.

Local Self-Govern-

ment Minister A.C. Moideen, who hails from the district, said that all steps will be taken to ensure coun-selling for the needy. Kerala Excise Depart-ment has announced that de-addiction and counselling centres will give free services to persons suffering from physical or men-tal stress due to non-availability of alcohol-ic drinks.

This service can also be availed by calling the Excise Depart-ment's toll-free num-ber 14405.

The Excise Depart-ment has set up one de-addiction centre in one taluk hospital in each district to provide free treatment and counselling services.

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) In an unprecedented inci-dent, a Mumbai man alleged-ly killed his younger brother for trying to step out of home during the ongoing 21-day lockdown period, police said. The incident happened late on Thursday in the Poisar slum colony in the north-west suburb of Kandivali, said an official of Samata Nagar Police Station.

According to investiga-tions, Durgesh L. Thakur, 21, who worked in a private company in Pune, insisted on stepping out of the house during the lockdown period to buy some essentials. His el-der brother Rajesh L. Thakur,

28, who runs a saloon, and his wife tried to stop him from going out, but the adamant younger brother refused to heed them. In the huge alter-cation that followed, Rajesh allegedly picked up an iron pan and rod and brutally as-saulted his younger brother,

who subsequently died of se-vere injuries.

He has been arrested on charges of murder and further investigations are on, said an official. He was produced before a court on Thursday and sent to police custody.

T h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m , March 27 (IANS) In a clear case of making mockery of the rules, a junior IAS officer -- Anupam Mishra, who was asked to go in self-isolation in the wake of his recent foreign travel, jumped his quarantine and was later traced to his home in Uttar Pradesh's Kan-pur city.

Mishra, a 2016 batch IAS officer, recently came to Kol-lam to take up the charge of Sub Collector. He informed his superior that he had been abroad and was readily asked to go into self isolation at his official residence in Kollam, about 70 kms from, here.

Kollam district collector B. Abdul Nassar told the media on Friday that he has given an explanation that when he was told to go into self isola-tion, he presumed it was to go to his residence back home in

Kanpur. "This is a violation of protocol and I will submit the report of his act to the State government, who are autho-rised to take further action," said Nassar.

State Fisheries Minister J. Mercykutty, who hails from Kollam district said this is a clear case of a lack of social commitment and hence such deeds take place.

According to reports, Mishra

got married recently and re-turned from Singapore and when his seniors informed him to go into self isolation, as that was the norm for all re-turning from abroad, he start-ed it at his official residence, last week.

Onn Thursday, the officials found out that he was not pres-ent in his official residence at Kollam and after seeking his route map, was traced with

T h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m , March 27 (IANS) The agrar-ian sector in Kerala has taken a hit with coconut wholesal-ers and those at Kozhikode taking the biggest beating as around three million coco-nuts are piled up in the mar-ket, unable to be transported to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Kozhikode is one of the biggest coconut markets for green coconuts and on an av-erage every day from here 50 lorries laden with around six lakh coconuts leave for the two neighbouring states.

"For the past five days, no loads have gone from here and this spells trouble for the farmers. Things are going to be bad as these have a very short shelf life," said a lead-ing trader.

For the traders what has now become a problem is storage of the coconuts that have already been pro-

cured from local vendors. The shelf life of husked co-conuts is maximum a week and hence not only are they taking fresh delivery from local vendors, they are wor-ried about what to do with the ones that they have with them. The shelf life of husked coconuts is maxi-mum a week and hence not only are they taking fresh

delivery from local vendors, they are worried about what to do with the ones that they have with them.

These coconuts make their way to the neighbouring states and are turned into oil. Now with other forms of cooking oil, especially im-ported ones, being unlikely to be available on account of Covid-19 the coconut

farmers who were expecting good business are in for bad times. These coconuts make their way to the neighbour-ing states and are turned into oil. Now with other forms of cooking oil, especially im-ported ones, being unlikely to be available on account of Covid-19 the coconut farm-ers who were expecting good business are in for bad times.

However the traders are hoping against hope that with movement of commodities being allowed, they expect to prevail upon the authorities to move their supplies.

The total area under co-conut cultivation in India is 20.96 lakh hectares of which Kerala alone accounts for 7.60 lakh hectares.

Kerala stands first in the production of coconuts at 5,230 million nuts as against 23,798 million nuts in the country.

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) Fearing infec-tion by the coronavirus in jail, Yes Bank found-er Rana Kapoor on Fri-day applied for bail in the money-laundering case in which he is lodged in Taloja Prison, Raigad, by the Enforce-ment Directorate (ED).

In his bail plea - filed before the Special PMLA Court through his lawyer Subhash Jadhav - Kapoor has contended that his present medical condi-tion puts him at risk of catching the Coronavi-rus behind bars.

He has listed his med-ical condition of chronic immuno-deficiency syndrome that can ag-gravate into lung infec-tions, sinus and skin dis-eases, besides suffering from bronchial asthma

which needs inhalers, hypertension and anxi-ety which have been treated in the midst of his family since the past nearly two years. Kapoor, 62, further claimed that in view of his medical condi-tion, he could get severe lung infection leading to death at his age, and hence pleaded that he should be given proper home-cooked food for which he was required to stay at home.

The Special Court has directed the ED to submit Kapoor's medi-cal records, and asked the jail authorities to monitor his health properly. The court posted the matter for further hearing on Monday.

Kapoor was arrested by the ED early morn-ing of March 8, just be-fore the outbreak of the COVID-19 in Maha-rashtra, and has been in custody since then.

Bengaluru, March 27 (IANS) With most of the people now staying at home due to the nationwide lockdown currently in force to counter the spread of Covid-19, the over-the-top (OTT) audio platforms may see rise in their revenues, a report said on Friday.

To become profitable, OTT audio plat-forms will need to increase the proportion of paid subscribers to about six per cent of total users in future, said the report from management consulting firm RedSeer.

OTT audio platforms in India are typi-cally operating on three monetisation models.

Currently, ad-based model and bun-dled model are the major source of reve-nue for OTT audio players. However, there is increasing focus on subscription-based model for better monetisation.

Currently, subscription-based users constitute only 1 per cent of total user base and majority of revenue is driven by in-app advertisement.

Mumbai man kills brother for wanting to go out

during lockdown!

Kerala IAS officer jumps quarantine, traced in UP

Kerala coconut farmers in dire straits

5 nation indian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

Covid-19: Sonia pledges full MPLaD funds, Priyanka Gandhi her support

Lucknow, March 27 (IANS) Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Friday pledged all her MPLAD funds for combating coronavirus in her constituency Rae Bareli.

In a letter to the Rae Bareli District Magistrate, Sonia Gan-dhi authorised the DM to draw as much funds as required in dealing with the situation and provide sanitisers, masks and medicines to the people of her constituency. "I appeal to the district administration to dis-tribute masks and sanitisers to the people and give extra care to the daily wagers and the el-derly," the four-time MP from Rae Bareli wrote to the DM.

She further said that she would do all that is required as the MP from Rae Bareli to keep the people safe and healthy.

She also requested the ad-ministration to ensure that nobody goes hungry in her constituency.

The interim Congress chief has also written to Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi, suggest-ing a cash transfer of Rs 7,500 to every Jan Dhan account holder, PM Kisan Yojana ac-count holder, all old age/wid-

ow/differently abled people's pension accounts and MGN-REGA workers' accounts, as one-time special payment to tide over the 21-day lockdown period that is in place to pre-vent the spread of the dreaded virus.

She also suggested that farmers' produce should be purchased immediately and

all recovery of loans should be suspended. Meanwhile, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi has sent a let-ter to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, reaffirming her party's support to the govern-ment in fighting the corona-virus pandemic. In her three-page letter, Priyanka has said that the government should provide relief to the labourers, vendors, destitute, widows and others who have been deeply affected by the lockdown.

She requested the state gov-ernment to ensure that labour-ers who are coming to Uttar Pradesh as reverse migration should be given facilities to reach their homes safely.

The Congress leader also urged the UP government to start a helpline for displaced

labourers so that they can con-tact the concerned officials.

She asked the Chief Minister to provide food grains to slums in urban areas besides ensur-ing adequate medical help to all.

Priyanka Gandhi also un-derlined the fact that the medical staff should be given adequate personal protective equipment so that they do not get exposed to the deadly virus while treating patients.

She further said that salaries of nurses should be paid on time since some groups had complained about non-pay-ment of salaries.

Priyanka Gandhi also wrote that Congress workers would support the government in its efforts to combat the deadly virus.

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) In a huge health concern, the Covid-19 positive cases count in Maharashtra shot up by 22 in the past 24 hours to stand at 147 now, a health official said here on Friday.

The overnight num-ber of positive cases mounted from 125 to 135 with 10 new cases in the morning fol-lowed by 12 more de-tected positive from a single family in Sangli.

The other infectees include four from Nag-pur and one each from Gondiya, Kolhapur and Pune.

Earlier on Friday,

Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that so far 19 persons have fully re-covered and have been discharged from hospi-tals in Mumbai, Pune and other places.

"There are many more cases on way to recovery proving that the disease is curable. We have also tested over 4,200 persons. The strategy is three 'Ts' - Tracing, Testing and Treatment' of the pa-tients," Tope said.

He said that the state is facing a shortage of blood for the treat-ment of the patients so people should come forward and donate

blood, but by main-taining the social dis-tancing norms.

Tope pointed out that since no flights are coming to Maharashtra and other parts of In-dia, besides inter-state travel being closed due to the state and na-tional lockdown, now the focus is on locally acquired infections.

"From the new Cov-id-19 suspects or cases, we are concentrating on those with social contact like families, neighbours, relatives, friends, etc. This em-phasizes the need to maintain 'social dis-tancing' and people

must strictly follow it, even when they go out to buy essentials or ra-tion shops," he urged.

The state's death toll has risen to 5, includ-ing two women, both 65, who passed away on March 24 and March 26. The state's death toll has risen to 5, in-cluding two women, both 65, who passed away on March 24 and March 26.

Besides, there was a Covid-19 recovered Philippines national who also died, but since the causes were different, he is not counted in the corona-virus death toll.

A g a r t a l a / G u w a h a t i , March 27 (IANS) Various polls to the autonomous and local bodies in several northeastern region have been postponed indefi-nitely due to the situation arising out of the nation-wide lockdown to check the spread of novel coro-navirus, officials said on Friday.

According to the offi-cials, the politically im-portant elections to the Tripura Tribal Areas Au-tonomous District Coun-cil (TTAADC), Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in western Assam and municipal and panchayat elections in Arunachal Pradesh have been put on hold for indefinite period.

In Agartala, the Tribal Welfare Department in

a notification on Thurs-day night postponed the elections to the TTAADC. "The term of the CPI-M (Communist Party of In-dia-Marxist)-led TTAADC would expire on May 17 and the elections are ex-pected to be held in April end or early May," the Chief Executive Mem-ber of the TTAADC Rad-hacharan Debbarma told IANS.

He said as per the provi-sions of the 6th schedule of the Indian constitution, the existing authority with the approval of the gover-nor can remain in office for one year in emergency situation.

TTAADC has juris-diction over two-thirds of Tripura's 10,491 sq km area, home to over

12,16,000 people, mostly tribals.

In Assam, on the rec-ommendations of the state government, the State Election Commis-sion put off the 40-mem-ber BTC polls, scheduled to be held on April 4. As-sam Governor Jagdish Mukhi, who is the consti-tutional head of the Sixth Schedule areas like that of BTC, had also earlier sug-gested postponement of the council polls.

The politically impor-tant BTC comprises four districts of western Assam -- Kokrajhar, Baksa, Chi-rang and Udalguri.

In Arunachal Pradesh, on the advice of the state Health Department, the State Election Commis-sion has postponed the

polling to the three-tier panchayats, along with the elections to the Itana-gar and Pasighat munici-pal councils, which are due since May, 2018.

The State Election Commissioner Hage Ko-jeen said that the com-mission had announced that the elections would be held in April-May this year but the dates were not finalised.

"Conducting of elec-tions would involve a large number of public gath-erings in different parts of the state, campaigns and rallies at various lo-cations. These could be detrimental for the public health due to the possible spread of novel coronavi-rus," the Election Com-missioner clarified.

Gandhinagar, March 27 (IANS) Gujarat's health department has surveyed more than half the popula-tion of the state following the COVID-19 scare. Amid this crisis situation and lockdown, the Chief Min-ister's relief fund received around Rs 3.5 crore in do-nations.

Jayanti Ravi, Principal secretary, Health and family welfare Department, Guja-rat said, "More than 10,000 health workers are carrying out a door to door survey following the COVID-19 scare in the state. More than half the population of the state, that is 3,50,69,926 people have been covered under the survey so far in

the state. The survey found that 37,885 people had travelled interstate, while 8,265 travelled abroad. Out of this, 118 have been kept in surveillance on finding symptoms of the disease. 20,103 people have been quarantined where 19,377 are at their homes and 575 have been kept in gov-ernment institutions. FIR against 236 persons have been filed for violating quarantine," added Ravi.

So far, there are 44 posi-tive cases found in the state out of which 36 have trav-elled abroad. Out of the rest 18, 16 came in contact with persons having foreign travel history and two have interstate travel history,"

added Ravi. "The state gov-ernment on humanitar-ian grounds, facilitated 250 state transport buses and around 500 private vehicles for migrant labourers who were walking on the high-ways and sent them to their destinations in and out-side Gujarat. But now not a single migrant labour will be allowed on the roads. The government is assur-ing them of providing food, water, shelter," said Ashwi-ni Kumar, the secretary of the Chief Minister's Office (CMO).

"We have also ensured that the factory owners, in-dustry owners do not send their workers and labour-ers away due to the closure

of their units. Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has ordered all the district col-lectors to strictly implement this order," added Kumar.

"We have received Rs 3.5 crore in the Chief Minister's relief fund where the former Gujarat Chief Minister Kes-hubhai Patel, in his individ-

ual capacity, has donated Rs 1,00,000, the Somnath Trust where he is the chairperson has donated Rs 1,00,00,000, the Sardardham Rs 21 lakh and Khodaldham Trust also Rs 21 lakhs. More than 3,500 persons have donated in the CM relief fund so far," added Kumar.

Chandigarh, March 27 (IANS) The Western Army Command on Friday said it has expe-ditiously undertaken various effective mea-sures to prevent the outbreak of COVID-19 among its ranks and their families across cantonments and mil-itary stations in Pun-jab, Haryana, Himach-al Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir.

All the hospitals are adequately prepared with special wards to

deal with coronavirus, an official statement said here.

Eight quarantine facilities with basic medical set-up have been established in the area of responsi-bility. Besides, West-ern Command is un-dertaking all measures to preserve its own ef-ficiency and continue to function diligently with due precautions in discharging its duty towards the nation. A large number of re-

tired armed forces medical staff have vol-unteered their services in Army hospitals for the fight against CO-VID-19, it said.

Services of the vol-unteers will be appro-priately integrated into the response plans of Western Command. The Army has named its anti-COVID-19 efforts as 'Operation Namaste' and concerted efforts are being made to optimise all medical resources, it added.

Chandigarh, March 27 (IANS) Punjab's first coronavirus patient, who returned from Italy and undergoing treat-ment in a government hospital, has tested negative and will be dis-charged on Friday, said Chief Minister Ama-rinder Singh.

"Happy to share that our first case of COVID admitted to Govern-ment Medical College Amritsar has success-fully recovered & tested negative," the Chief

Minister tweeted. "The patient will be dis-charged today. It's a great moment for us. I am sure we will win this War Against #Covid19," he added. The state on March 9 tested the first positive case for the coronavirus.

The man returned to Amritsar from Milan via Delhi on March 4 along with his two fam-ily members.

The patient belongs to Hoshiarpur town and has been hospitalised

Government Medi-cal College in Amritsar along with his son.

A total of 33 patients in Punjab tested posi-tive till Thursday with one death last week of Baldev Singh, 70, who had a travel history to Germany via Italy.

A trail of coronavi-rus community spread to 22 people related to Baldev Singh of S.B.S. Nagar district from where 18 people tested positive, all belonging to his family.

Gandhinagar, March 27 (IANS) Thousands of people were being transported to places across and outside Gu-jarat against the backdrop of a 21-day national lockdown with states have sealed their borders.

The state administration itself was helping in the trans-portation.

After the entry of COVID-19 in the state, which has seen up to 44 positive cases and three deaths till Thursday in Gu-jarat, the national lockdown since Tuesday night was in-tended to curb the spread of the virus. As a result, restric-tions were imposed on trans-portation.

Large numbers of people, primarily the migrant labour-ers from the neighbouring states of Rajasthan and Mad-hya Pradesh (MP), were mov-ing across the state as they did not find any transport.

The state government be-gan helping them by provid-ing state transport buses. Those from Rajasthan were provided buses by the Gujarat government.

"We facilitated these work-ers and labourers to send

them back to Rajasthan in many buses," Dilip Thakor, the Labour and Employment Minister, Gujarat government told IANS.

On Thursday, nine buses full of another batch of such labourers were packed off to Rajasthan, helped by the po-lice authorities. The Vadaj po-lice station, Naranpura police station and other police sta-tions in Ahmedabad arranged bus transportation for around 550 to 600 passengers from Vaishnodevi Circle in Ahmed-abad.

The passengers were checked up through thermal scanners and thereafter al-lowed to board the buses, heading for Rajasthan.

Similarly at many other places in Gujarat, the admin-istration was seen helping people move across in gov-ernment or private vehicles.

Asked whether this violated the lockdown, Jayanti Ravi, principal secretary, Health and family welfare Depart-ment, Gujarat told IANS, "Look the transportation is not our subject, we only look after the health aspects in the state."

Gandhinagar, March 27 (IANS) After the coronavirus pandemic, unseason-able rains in Gujarat have triggered fears about damage to the rabi crops.Gujarat is battling against the dreaded virus amid the nationwide lockdown while unseasonal rains in various parts of the state have added to the farmers' misery, with damage feared to the rabi crop which is in the harvesting stage.

Heavy downpour was witnessed in Patan, Ahmedabad, Banaskantha, Sabarkatha, Mehsana, Gandhinagar, Aravalli, Kheda, Anand, Panchmahal and Narmada districts of the state. A total of 363 mm unseasonal rain lashed

the state on Thursday night, with the maximum rainfall received in Balasinor (14mm) Lunawada (12mm), Virpur (10mm), Santrampur (9mm) in Mahis-agar district, Galteshwar (10mm), Ka-padwanj (17mm), Kathlal (10mm) and Thasra (8mm) in Kheda district, Bhi-loda (10 mm), Bayad (10mm), Meghraj (10mm) and Modasa (9mm) in Aravalli district, Khedbrahma (13mm), Him-matnagar (10mm), Vadali (10 mm), Vijaynagar (13 mm) and Poshina (12 mm) in Sabarkantha district, Amir-gad (12mm) in Banaskantha district, Daskroi in Ahmedabad district and Vi-jaynagar in Mehsana district.

Maharashtra's Covid-19 count zooms from 125 to 147

over half the population of Gujarat surveyed for CoViD-19

CoViD-19 testing begins at CoRE Diagnostics in Gurugram

Punjab's first coronavirus patient tests negative: CM

Gujarat govt facilitates transportation of people in shadow of lockdown

Western Army Command takes steps to fight

coronavirus

Unseasonal rains add to farmers' woes in Gujarat

Local body polls in nE india put off indefinitely

Gurugram, March 27 (IANS) As coronavirus outbreak intensifies across the globe as well as in India, a Gurugram-based clinical labora-tory, CORE Diagnostics, on Friday received ap-proval from the Indian Council of Medical Re-search (ICMR) to start testing COVID-19 sam-ples.

To ensure zero con-tamination of the sam-ples, CORE Diagnostics has set up a separate

facility within its high-end Gururgram lab to perform the confirma-tory polymerase chain reaction-based (PCR) COVID-19 test with all strains that are approved by the central govern-ment. "Private testing will definitely prove to be crucial to fight the deadly epidemic by widening the testing ca-pabilities of the nation. CORE Diagnostics fol-lows strict processes and will ensure government

protocols are followed in handling samples and testing," said Zoya Brar, CEO and Founder, CORE Diagnostics.

"We will be using ICMR-approved testing kits to perform the con-firmatory PCR-based tests and generate re-ports on the same day. We are also in touch with different state gov-ernments to set up labs in existing government hospitals if required," Brar added.

6 Edit indian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

Saturday, March 28, 2020

Readers Response and contribution Welcome

A scramble for suppliesHiccups in chain of production,

supply & delivery

indian Horizon

Even as the local authorities have been

tasked with handling the nitty-gritty of

implementing the 21-day lockdown an-

nounced by the Prime Minister and en-

suring that the 1.3 billion people of the

country get regular supplies of essential

groceries, vegetables, milk and medicine

at their doorstep, the situation on the

ground on Day 2 of the ‘curfew’ continued

to be marked by hiccups galore and a con-

fusion-driven scramble for supplies. The

yawning gap between the planning and

execution exposed chinks in the manage-

ment of the supply chain, right from trucks

carrying goods and retailers to the delivery

boys. The smooth flow of the chain was

disrupted for reasons varying from high-

handedness of the law enforcers, lack of

permits or sealing of borders across Pun-

jab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The

lucky few who got the supplies felt short-

changed, especially with vegetables.

Responsible residents abiding by the or-

ders to stay at home were harried as the

phone numbers put out for home delivery

of essential items in Chandigarh remained

inaccessible. Elsewhere, when some dis-

trict authorities in the region gave a relax-

ation in the curfew for the people to go

out and shop, items flew off the shelves as

panic-buying and hoarding ruled, despite

the overcharging. With social distancing

going for a toss as people thronged chem-

ist shops and grocery stores, questions

arise about the purpose of the lockdown

getting defeated. The possibility of the in-

sidious coronavirus spreading in the com-

munity definitely goes up.

For the fight against the virus to succeed,

there is an urgent need to fix the supply

chain hiccups. The operations of produc-

tion, supply and distribution should not

be hampered. The help of local resident

welfare associations and volunteers may

be solicited. A continuous flow of goods

is essential to tide over the trying times.

Use of technology and apps to keep the

people informed would go a long way

in ending the present state of confusion.

And, only when a person is assured of a

running kitchen, and his health needs are

met would he be in a position to abide by

that other equally vital request of the PM:

each one, help nine poor families.

By Rajesh RamachandranAll this while we have survived and

even thrived as a society despite the government. We collapse every time the government — colonial or post-colonial — intervenes in our lives, be it the Partition, the Emergency, anti-militancy operations, riots, demon-etisation or the current 21-day ‘cur-few’. Our governance is so apathetic that we shudder to think of handing over our lives to people who make us plead for curfew passes, medi-cines and food. Demonetisation and the Covid ‘curfew’ are the best ex-amples, both planned and executed by top politicians and bureaucrats of the country, spending time and re-sources. One has caused irreparable damage to the economy, though with some political impact, particularly in the 2017 UP Assembly elections, but the second is poised to cause a sys-temic collapse with untold misery at a huge political cost to the BJP, if it is left uncorrected.

Compared to the Covid ‘curfew’, demonetisation was a breeze, or rather a successful political cam-paign which created a secular ‘other’. Anyone who did not have any black money was happy about the govern-ment’s decision to declare the Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes illegal tender. Most of India anyway is too poor to be corrupt. So they rejoiced at the decision to demonetise 1,000 and 500-rupee notes with a mali-cious glee over the sufferings of the rich and the corrupt. The misery of the corrupt was fair compensation for the poor’s minor inconvenience of standing in a queue to get their small savings converted into the

new currency notes. After all, their lives have never been convenient. The midnight panic on November 8, 2016, was limited to a very small — and disliked — section of the Indian society.

But that is not the case with the Covid ‘curfew’. Demonetisation ex-posed the ineptitude of the bureau-cracy in terms of inadequate quan-tities of the new currency, unready ATM machines and banks caught unawares; and, of course, demon-etisation also laid bare the loopholes for the corrupt to convert their black money through heavy-duty cash-down shopping. Yet, it did not bring the common man’s life to a complete standstill. The grocer, the vegetable and fruit seller, the regular autowal-lah and cabbie — veritably, the Indi-an social microcosm as a whole was ready to tide over the crisis by offer-ing and accepting credit. Then, the digital economy and the e-commerce platforms blossomed, finding newer customers and buying and selling all that was essential and non-essential. But that is not the case now.

Covid fear is real and unlike de-monetisation, the Covid ‘curfew’ is essential. There is no argument over the absolute necessity for the shut-down. But the response of the gov-ernment to the Novel Coronavirus pandemic has been dismal. It has taken the easy, though necessary, route of a complete shutdown with-out any empathy. Just one image of the long line of migrant labourers walking away from Delhi towards their villages in UP, hundreds of kilo-metres away, proves how inadequate the Central and state governments

have been in preparing the people and the government machinery for the shutdown. All that the govern-ment has effectively done is to de-ploy the police to shut shops, force citizens into their houses and then to mercilessly beat up vendors and buy-ers on the streets.

The Janata Curfew on Sunday was considered a mere one-day af-fair. If a 21-day ‘curfew’ was to fol-low, it should have been advertised and the people given time to stock up essentials, small and tiny private sector companies allowed to plan disbursal of salaries and migrant labourers — rural and urban — per-mitted to travel to their villages. But again the decision came at 8 pm for a nationwide lockdown, throwing people out into the streets scouring for milk, vegetables, foodgrains and everything else. There are no adviso-ries for farmers, no planning for the upcoming rabi harvest, nor for all those who live hand-to-mouth. All the planning presumably will start now, with the collapse of the supply chain set to soon cause a nationwide breakdown.

There was no need to shut down food and grocery aggregators. In a city like Chandigarh, which is home to three governments, two Chief Ministers and two Governors, there is hardly any supply of milk, grocery or essentials at the doorstep as we go into the third day of the shutdown. All the promises of delivery of the es-sentials have failed to take off. The government’s biggest mistake was to shut down existing private sector delivery mechanisms and to create a new government system of deliv-

ery. This is a sure recipe for disaster. Most of north Indian kirana shops already have a perfected home-de-livery system and they would have ensured the supply of essentials, had they been allowed to function without entertaining customers at the shops. Similarly, the government is sucking cooked food completely out of the system by shutting down restaurants, eateries, food chains and dhabas, instead of turning all of them into takeaways. The system needs food in circulation and a food scarcity could force us into an unpar-alleled crisis, about which it is better not to speculate.

One of the worst-hit industries is the media. A piece of fake news about the safety of newspapers has led to a situation where local government of-ficials are issuing their own diktats. A deputy commissioner of a district in Himachal Pradesh even banned the circulation of newspapers on his own without consulting the state government, forcing the Chief Min-ister’s Office to intervene the next day. While the Government of India wants newspapers to be published and widely circulated to counter fake news, the local governments are vio-lating the Centre’s guidelines in let-ter or spirit by making all those who are forced to go out and work haggle for curfew passes.

The greatest tragedy of the aver-age Indian is to be left to the mercy of the government because the govern-ment is not a concept but individuals who make others queue up without themselves ever having to suffer a queue.

IANS

Another recipe for disAster

By Dinesh C SharmaIndia has embarked upon an unprec-

edented experiment in the history of mankind. Never before a country of the size of India has been under complete lockdown, not even in times of wars, internal disturbances and the national emergency imposed in 1975. It is a medi-cal and epidemiological experiment of an unthinkable scale. No scientist can afford or imagine to recruit this large number of subjects — 1.3 billion people — in any study. It is an experiment in inducing mass behaviour change and testing of health communication messages target-ed at people. The lockdown has put the entire economy in an experimental mode — from service to manufacturing, all in-dustries are going to test their resilience and emergency preparedness during the lockdown and beyond. It is also a chal-lenge for law-enforcing agencies, which for the first time, are facing a situation when the whole country is under legally enforceable curfew. Most important, it is a new experiment in governance, civil liberties and human rights.

The turn of the century brought into public imagination the term — pandem-ic, a global epidemic. This was a result of a series of epidemics and pandemics which have unfolded in the past two decades — avian influenza, swine flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), middle east respiratory syndrome, ebola, nipah and so on. Some of them caught led to a great

loss to humanity and economy. A pan-demic can swiftly turn into an economic contagion and cripple economies, result-ing in massive losses for countries of their origin. SARS is a classic case where China suppressed information about the initial outbreak, resulting in its spread to dozens of countries. Data is now showing that a similar pattern has led to Covid-19 be-coming a pandemic. Before containment measures like travel ban and lockdown really kicked in, thousands of infected people from Wuhan had carried the virus to many countries around the globe.

In response to the avian influenza pandemic, the global health community led by the World Health Organisation has been working on strategies to ad-dress the challenge. The WHO has been emphasising that new pandemics need a response not just from the health sec-tor but also from an array of non-health ones. This approach has helped develop a ‘readiness framework’ based on five te-nets — a whole-of-society approach; pre-paredness at all levels; attention to critical interdependencies; a scenario-based re-sponse; and respect for ethical norms. Ev-ery country can develop its own strategic response to a pandemic based on these broad principles. For example, the whole-of-society approach means developing preparedness plans across government departments, and involving business and civil society so that economic impacts on the society can be minimised and miti-

gated. Industry should not be caught off guard when a pandemic occurs. Here, in-dustry does not mean just those engaged in essential services, but also sectors like information technology outsourcing, which is worth $175 billion. Pandemic preparedness plans should include all such sectors so that they can switch to the emergency mode when the need arises. Each industry should have its own ‘busi-ness continuity management’ plan.

The preparedness plans have to work at all levels — national, state and district. Directing states to follow certain norms only after a heath emergency is declared does not yield the desired results. Disas-ter-preparedness in Odisha and epidem-ic-preparedness in Kerala (during the nipah outbreak) are excellent examples of proactive states taking a lead. Getting states ready in advance would also en-sure more nuanced responses to emer-gencies based on the situation in every state. Again, Kerala, during the current pandemic, has been ahead of the curve announcing a health package (Rs 20,000 crore) bigger than that announced by the Prime Minister. Most states don’t have this level of preparedness capacity and simply look to the Centre for guidelines in case of emergencies. Attention to in-terdependencies means carefully map-ping all inter-linkages in critical sectors. For instance, assuring essential medical supplies during lockdown would depend on the supply of raw materials and com-

ponents from industries which by them-selves may not qualify as essential.

The pandemic situations also require governments to enforce certain regula-tory measures such as travel restrictions, visa bans, social distancing, quarantine, isolation and lockdowns through exist-ing or new laws. This has implications for public order, personal liberties and liveli-hood. In the present situation, the Epi-demic Diseases Act of 1897 was applied in some states to enforce a partial lock-down. The 21-day national lockdown has been imposed by invoking the provisions of the National Disaster Management Act under which Covid-19 has been declared a ‘notified disaster’. Some states have also used provisions of the Indian Penal Code to enforce a ban on gatherings and curfew conditions. The use of such provisions in times of a health emergency is untested and needs utmost caution. There are re-ports of stickers being posted on Covid-19 suspects and foreign returnees, leading to their social boycott and stigmatisation. People were also stamped on their hands at airports. All such steps are a violation of personal liberties and human rights. The preparedness plans must also take care of vulnerable groups of people — migrant labour, daily wage earners, the homeless, people in homes for the aged and so on. Civil society and community-based or-ganisations have to be involved in reach-ing out to these groups.

IANS

Readiness framework for pandemics needed

By Dr R KumarPresident, Society for Promotion of

Ethical and Affordable HealthcareAmid the coronavirus outbreak,

one can’t overstate the importance of individual isolation and mass quar-antine of the community. Transmis-sion of the virus can happen before the symptoms set in. With carriers hard to detect, social distancing — staying at home, in essence — is the most effective means of holding back the spread, as well as preventing hos-pitals from becoming overwhelmed. India is under a 21-day lockdown. China has done it with courage and resilience; India can do it too. Some people say China’s approach has been extremely restrictive, draco-nian and regressive and India, with its diverse demographics, may not be able to curb individual freedom. But to save millions of people from sick-ness and deaths and to prevent an economic disaster, won’t it be better to put public health above politics of any kind? In desperate times, desper-ate measures become necessary.

On March 22, people largely ob-served Janata Curfew as a civic duty, while trading their freedom for greater public good through mass quarantine. Normally, quarantine is a restriction on the movement of the

people who have been exposed to a communicable disease. Mass quar-antine, on the other hand, is the term used in connection with restricting the movement of the entire healthy population so as to break the cycle of spread of the virus in the community.

Covid-19 has spread rapidly on a global scale, but the panic it has caused has spread even faster. The virus’ incubation period is between one and 14 days, but it’s most com-monly believed to be around five days. It can cause symptoms rang-ing from common cold, fever, cough, shortness of breath, and difficult breathing to more serious illnesses such as pneumonia, kidney failure, and even death. Some persons may be carriers, but may not show symp-toms. Older adults and people with chronic medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and lung disease are at higher risk of compli-cations from Covid. The WHO esti-mates the mortality rate for corona at around 3.4 per cent globally.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared on February 28 that “our greatest enemy right now is not the virus itself, it’s fear, rumours and stigma. And our greatest assets are facts, reason, and solidarity.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently ad-

vised to combat it with resolve and restraint and start with voluntary home quarantine for one day. The pandemic is going to test us in many ways. How much empathy do we have towards the marginalised? Do we truly care about our neighbours? It will test how we treat the elderly, the healthcare workers, the domestic workers, the daily-wage earners, the homeless.

The Union Health Ministry has limited facility of testing the swabs from infected or suspected patients. Even meeting the demands of inter-national travellers as well those who might have come in their contact or with other infected people is a chal-lenge for labs of government hospi-tals. This testing facility is available at government-accredited centres and a few private lab chains. As of now, with over 700 positive cases, India’s healthcare system has already shown its fragility. However, this relatively low number may be because of low, inadequate testing and should not give rise to any complacency in pre-vention. What if the number of un-detected cases is actually higher, but not reported for testing? There is a need to urgently scale up aggressive measures to detect and combat Co-vid-19 on a war footing, touching the

whole community. Home quarantine of the entire population may lead to victory. Else, it can lead to wide-spread disease, deaths and economic ruin. The longer the pandemic lasts, the greater the risk that the sharp downturn morphs into a financial crisis with some companies trigger-ing a chain of defaults, The daily-wa-gers, professionals, businesses and factories as well as the services sec-tor, are set to be hit hard.

Surgical masks are for people with disease symptoms like cough, cold, fever and difficulty in breathing and for people suspected of carrying the virus. Healthy people without symp-toms should not wear a face mask. Don’t go for a test unless it is a medi-cal necessity, since there’s a short-age of testing facility for Covid-19 in the country. As coronavirus sweeps across the globe, shutting down countries and sealing borders, sci-entists from Oxford University have developed a rapid testing technology, which is capable of giving results in just half an hour — over three times faster than the current method. It uses a simple colour change to identi-fy the presence of the virus. A positive sample changes from pink to yellow. This may be available in due course.

IANS

Mass quarantine can go a long way towards turning the tide

7op-ed

The views expressed in these columns are the writers’ own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Indian Horizon or its management.-Editor

Coronavirus: ConfliCts on hold for now as players faCe a Common enemyBy Osama Al SharifAs regional governments stepped up

measures to confront the deadly nov-el coronavirus pandemic, something unique is happening: Conflicts are be-ing set aside for now as allies and foes focus on fighting a new common en-emy. In fact, with a few exceptions, the world has never been as peaceful as it is now. It is as if the scourge has neu-tralised bitter conflicts and in many ways highlighted their triviality.

Middle EastThe Middle East is a case in point.

For more than a week now the Gaza-Israel front, until recently a hotspot, has been silent while both sides in-tensified efforts to contain the spread of the virus. Israel, in particular, has a big problem with the number of cases passing the 1,000 mark with one fatal-ity.

It has enforced strict measures such as closing its borders and airports and ordering citizens to stay home. For weeks Gaza was virus-free, but this week, health authorities there an-nounced that two Gazans returning from Egypt had tested positive and were in quarantine.

Gaza StripThe prospect of a widespread con-

tagion in the heavily-populated and under-equipped Gaza Strip is present-ing a nightmare for both Hamas and Israel. The latter is under pressure to ease its decade-old blockade to allow for humanitarian aid to pass.

Hamas, on its side, is now revisiting its position on the conditions set for a long-term ceasefire with Israel and there are signs that the two sides may

reach a new understanding soon that will boost the capabilities of the health authorities in Gaza.

On the other hand, Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) are also working together to stem the spread of the virus. They had reached an agreement to close their borders, while the Palestinian side enforced a two-week curfew as more than 50 cas-es of infections were discovered.

Earlier this week, the Israeli side re-leased about $30 million (Dh110.34 million) in taxes collected on behalf of

the NPA to help Palestinians contain the spread of coronavirus.

Even the peace plan initiated by United States President Donald Trump is now on the shelf as the US and Israel direct their attention towards limiting the devastating effects of the coronavi-rus outbreak.

LebanonIn Lebanon, as well as in Iraq, anti-

government protests had subsided as governments in both countries trig-gered a state of national emergency to fight the spread of the disease. Pro-Ira-

nian militias have targeted bases used by the US military in Iraq, killing two American soldiers in one incident, but reports say the US had decided not to retaliate as both Baghdad and Tehran battled against the spread of the virus.

AlgeriaIn Algeria, mass protests had come

to a halt as curfew was imposed to con-tain the sudden rise in viral infections. In Tunis, attacks on the new govern-ment have been set aside as the coun-try goes into lockdown. Iraq and the Kurdish self-rule territory in northern Iraq had sealed off their land borders with Iran to contain the spread and this may have cut off logistical support to pro-Iranian militias.

SyriaIn the rebel-held Syrian province

of Idlib, tension is high but a shaky truce between Turkey and the regime, through Russia, appears to be holding as Ankara warns of the spread of coro-navirus among hundreds of thousands of displaced Syrians close to its bor-ders. The ceasefire deal coincided with the regional virus outbreak and helped deflect attention from day-to-day con-frontations.

On its part, the Syrian authorities in-sist that territory under their control is free of the virus, but reports suggest that fighters belonging to Iranian mi-litias in Syria have been infected and that Damascus may be withholding information. Also, there have been no new reports of Israeli raids on Syria for more than a week now.

LibyaIn Libya, the situation is fluid, but

reports say that forces belonging to

renegade General Khalifa Haftar have resumed their assault on Tripoli. But Libya’s United Nations-backed gov-ernment has accused a Syrian airline of exposing the war-torn country to coronavirus by flying mercenaries, connected to a Russian private mili-tary contractor, as well as members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Iran’s Revo-lutionary Guard into the eastern city of Benghazi, which is under Haftar’s control. On his side, Haftar is accusing Turkey of bringing in mercenaries and spreading the virus.

Common enemyThis unprecedented state of regional

calm may not last for long, depending on how successful governments are in containing the spread of the deadly virus. In an appeal issued on Mon-day, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against Covid-19 — the common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind.

IndiaStringent measures such as cur-

fews have ameliorated the situation in countries like India, where sectarian tensions were on the rise only a few weeks ago. A conflict-free zone in our region is what we hope to achieve, but that is unlikely to happen. The current hiatus is a relief for governments as they redirect their resources to fight and contain the virus. But the eco-nomic repercussions of a prolonged shutdown will reflect on social security once the curfews are lifted and people face a new reality.

Gulf News

Indian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

Newsmaker: Jerome Powell — The ‘real-world’ rescuerBy Chiranjib SenguptaWhen Jerome Powell took charge as the

chairman of the US Federal Reserve in 2018, the appointment was seen as unusual in an institution long accustomed to being led by economists.

Powell’s immediate predecessor, Janet Yellen, was an economics professor at UC Berkeley. Ben Bernanke led the economics department at Princeton University.

And Alan Greenspan started his own eco-nomic consulting company.

But Powell, a low-key Republican and a Princeton graduate with a background in investment banking and private equity, became the first Fed chief in more than 40 years who did not have an economics degree. He had been a Fed governor since 2012 — when he was appointed by Presi-dent Barack Obama.

Widely seen as a dove who would follow in Yellen’s footsteps, and one who favoured a gradual departure from the expansionary monetary policy introduced in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, some also saw a very different reason why Donald Trump went ahead with Powell’s nomination: the US president publicly commended him for his time in the private sector and his “real-world” experience. That experience helped Powell amass a fortune estimated between $20 million (Dh73.4 million) and $55 mil-lion — making him one of the wealthiest people to ever lead the Fed.

But this week, with the global economy teetering on the edge of recession and a $2

trillion US stimulus package finally finding its way out of political crossfire, Powell was in the news for something far away from the sphere of his fortune or the filibuster of Capitol Hill.

Facing financial catastropheEver since the US began to grapple with

the magnitude of the coronavirus outbreak on the world’s largest economy, there have been dire predictions of financial catastro-phe.

Wall Street has been battered like never before.

Cash flow, credit crunch and bankruptcy have become the new buzzwords.

From analysing the impact of US-China trade war and weaknesses in Europe, the Federal Reserve’s focus has suddenly shift-ed in a matter of weeks to the enemy at the doorstep: coronavirus.

As cases of Covid-19 surge from New York to California and the US stares at be-coming the new epicentre of a global out-break, the public panic and pandemonium is palpable.

It’s in this atmosphere of panic and mis-trust that Powell has emerged as a rare beacon of hope and stability — not only for the US but also by extension for the global economy.

Array of financial toolsOver the past three weeks, Powell has

moved swiftly to deploy an unprecedented array of financial tools and credit facili-ties that can keep money and confidence flowing, even as much of the US political

establishment is caught either dithering or haggling over the extent of public relief needed.

On March 15, he organised an unusual Sunday media briefing to announce that the Fed had slashed interest rates to almost zero. Since then, he has initiated dramatic measures to cushion the blow of the coro-navirus on financial markets and the US economy.

Bold and innovative actionHis decision to restart a colossal bond

buying programme to purchase $700 bil-lion worth of US Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities is reminiscent of similar action by the Fed during the 2008 reces-sion. And his announcement to buy signifi-cant amounts of commercial paper — the short-term loans that businesses use to pay bills and other expenses — prompted the Dow Jones Industrial Average to jump more than 500 points.

Other policy actions have been bold, muscular and innovative enough to avoid short-term cash crunches: actions with central banks worldwide to ease the sup-ply of dollars and keep global trade and finance going; loans for so-called “primary dealers” that buy US government bonds di-rectly from the Treasury; and programs for lending directly to American businesses.

A bridge over troubled watersUnder Powell’s stewardship, the US Fed

has rapidly emerged as a bridge over trou-bled waters during the coronavirus crisis, offering a financial lifeline to individuals

and institutions and supporting families, businesses and jobs.

Ironically, Powell’s harshest critic prior to this firefighting has been the same per-son who initially applauded his appoint-ment: President Trump. The US leader has frequently lampooned Powell for raising interest rates and even compared him to an “enemy equivalent to or worse” than China’s leader Xi Jinping.

But then Powell is no stranger to stinging criticism or defying established doctrines.

Wide-ranging resumeBorn in Washington D.C. in 1953 as one

of six children to a lawyer father, Powell earned a degree in politics from Princeton University in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Centre in 1979. After that he embarked on a journey to cre-ate a wide-ranging resume: a lawyer, an investment banker, Secretary of the Trea-sury for Domestic Finance under President George HW Bush, a visiting scholar at the Bipartisan Policy Center and the managing partner of two private equity firms.

During his stint at the Treasury, Powell oversaw the sanctioning of Salomon Broth-ers and was a key negotiator in making Warren Buffett the chairman of Salomon.

Reaching out across political aislesHis willingness to reach out across the

political aisle became apparent when he worked behind the scenes for a salary of $1 a year to get Congress to raise the US debt ceiling during the debt-ceiling crisis of 2011. That initiative helped Powell secure

his initial nomination to the Fed by Obama — the first time that a US President nomi-nated a member of the opposition party for such a position since 1988.

While Powell has no compunctions in being a political pragmatist if needed, his solidarity around the Federal Reserve has been enduring: he has never cast a dissent-ing vote since joining the Fed.

Simple rationaleA policy centrist and a collaborator, Pow-

ell’s central tenet behind the Fed’s feverish action of the past few weeks has been sim-ple but humane: there’s no one to blame for the current financial situation emerging out of the outbreak and government lock-downs, and therefore everybody needs to be protected until the economy stabilises.

Even as the world clamours for global political leadership during the coronavirus outbreak, Powell has at least helped the US take charge of global financial leadership to manage the consequences of the out-break. As the chair of the top committees of the Bank for International Settlements — where central bankers from around the world coordinate policy — his decisions will go a long way in easing a global crisis.

The world is bracing for unprecedented economic turbulence, but with Powell at the helm of Federal Reserve, the US has managed to put up a calm but valiant fight to prevent the financial pandemic that would otherwise follow inevitably and bring down everyone.

Gulf News

By David BrooksIt can all seem so meaningless. Some

random biological mutation sweeps across the globe, murdering thousands, lacerating families and pulverising dreams.

Life and death can seem completely arbi-trary. Religions and philosophies can seem like cruel jokes. The only thing that mat-ters is survival. Without the inspiration of a higher meaning, selfishness takes over.

This mindset is the temptation of the hour — but of course it’s wrong. We’ll look back on this as one of the most meaningful periods of our lives. Viktor Frankl, writing from the madness of the Holocaust, re-minded us that we don’t get to choose our difficulties, but we do have the freedom to select our responses. Asserting our own dignity

, he argued, comes from three things: the work we offer in times of crisis, the love we give and our ability to display courage in the face of suffering. The menace may be subhuman or superhuman, but we all have the option of asserting our own dignity, even to the end.

I’d add one other source of meaning. It’s the story we tell about this moment. It’s the way we tie our moment of suffering to a larger narrative of redemption. It’s the way we then go out and stubbornly live out that story. The plague today is an invisible mon-ster, but it gives birth to a better world.

This particular plague hits us at exactly the spots where we are weakest and ex-poses exactly those ills we had lazily come to tolerate. We’re already a divided nation, and the plague makes us distance from one another.

We define ourselves too much by our careers, and the plague threatens to sweep them away. We’re a morally inarticulate culture, and now the fundamental moral questions apply.

Addressing our problemsIn this way the plague demands that we

address our problems in ways we weren’t forced to before. The plague brings forth our creativity. It’s during economic and social depressions that the great organisa-tions of the future are spawned.

Already, there’s a new energy coming into the world. The paradigmatic image of this crisis is all those online images of peo-ple finding ways to sing and dance together across distance.

Those videos call to mind that moment of Exodus when Miriam breaks into song. “It is the dance that generates the light,” Avi-vah Gottlieb Zornberg writes, “the women produce an energy in the light of which all participate equally in the presence of God.”

Already there’s a shift of values coming to the world. We’re forced to be intentional about keeping up our human connections. Relationships get forged tighter by the

pressure of mutual dread. Everybody hun-gers for tighter bonds and deeper care.

Wouldn’t it be great to possess the qual-ity that one biographer found in novelist E.M. Forster: “To speak to him was to be seduced by an inverse charisma, a sense of being listened to with such intensity that you had to be your most honest, sharpest, and best self.”

There’s a new action coming into the world, too. I was on a Zoom call this week with 3,000 college students hosted by the Veritas Forum. One question was on all their minds: What can I do right now?

I was on another Zoom call with 30 Weavers, and each one of them had begun some new activity to serve their neigh-bours. One lady was passing out vegetable seeds so families could plant their own vegetable gardens. Others are turning those tiny front-yard libraries into front-yard pantries. Some people are putting the holiday lights back up on their houses just to spread some cheer. There’s a new intro-spection coming into the world, as well. Everybody I talk to these days seems eager to have deeper conversations and ask more fundamental questions:

If your lungs filled with fluid a week from Tuesday would you be content with the life you’ve lived?

Do you know where your most trusted spiritual and relational resources lie?

What is the specific way you are situated to serve?

We are all assigned the task of confront-ing our own fear. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a pit of fear in my stomach since this started that hasn’t gone away. But gradually you discover that you have the resources to cope as you fight the fear with conversation and direct action. A stronger self emerges out of the death throes of the anxiety.

Suffering can be redemptive. We learn

more about ourselves in these hard peri-ods. The differences between red and blue don’t seem as acute on the gurneys of the ER, but the inequality in the world seems more obscene when the difference be-tween rich and poor is life or death.

So, yes, this is a meaningful moment. And it is this very meaning that will inspire us and hold us together as things get worse. In situations like this, meaning is a vital medication for the soul.

Gulf News

Coronavirus: Moral Meaning of this plague

8internationalindian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 2020

Un chief Guterres warns of losing CoViD-19 warUnited Nations, March 27

(IANS) While UN Secretary-Gen-eral Antonio Guterres has told the Group of 20 (G20) leaders on Thursday, "We are at war with a virus -- and not winning," UN entities around the world are un-relenting in providing aid to fight COVID-19. "This war needs a war-time plan to fight it," he told a vir-tual meeting of G20 leaders.

"Solidarity is essential among the G20 and with the develop-ing world, including countries in conflict," the UN chief said on Thursday."All countries must be able to combine systematic test-ing, tracing, quarantining and treatment with restrictions on movement and contact, aiming to suppress transmission of the virus. And they have to coordinate the exit strategy to keep it sup-pressed until a vaccine becomes available," the UN chief said, Xin-hua reported.

He asked for massive stimulus to minimize the social and eco-nomic impact of the pandemic, and for support for developing countries in increasing their re-sponse capacity.

Guterres also appealed for the lifting of sanctions that can un-dermine countries' capacity to

respond to the pandemic.During a virtual press briefing,

Stephane Dujarric, chief spokes-man for Guterres, elaborated on some of those conflicts and on other countries where the world organization is fighting the virus.

"We are deeply concerned about the potential impact of the virus

on millions of people across Syria and particularly the over 900,000 people who remain displaced due to hostilities since December 1 in the country's northwest," he said.

The World Health Organiza-tion (WHO) said the displaced live in overcrowded conditions that make them particularly vul-nerable to respiratory infections. There are currently over 6 mil-lion internally displaced people throughout the country.

The WHO is responding across Syria to prepare laboratories and isolation wards and to inform the public. Health facilities and selected intensive care units are being prepared and communities most at risk have been identified.

A particular focus has been giv-en to the northwest of the country where the WHO is shipping in ad-ditional ventilators and personal protective equipment to better cope with the strain on health.

Washington, March 27 (IANS) The US government has blacklisted 20 individuals and companies based in Iran and Iraq, accusing them of sup-porting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF) and other Iranian-backed militias.

In a statement on Thursday, the Department of Treasury said that the designated individuals and entities provided support to or act on behalf of the IRGC-QF, as well as transferred lethal aid to Iranian-backed militias

in Iraq such as the Kata'ib Hezbollah (KH) and Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), re-ports Xinhua news agency.

According to the designation, all property and interests of the property of designated persons and entities in the US have been blocked and US per-sons are generally prohibited from en-gaging in any transactions with them.

The sanctions came after two suc-cessive rocket attacks on Iraq's Camp Taji military base earlier this month, which claimd the lives of US service members.

The US claimed that KH was respon-sible for numerous attacks against the American and Coalition Forces in Iraq, including a rocket attack on a base near Kirkuk (the K1 base) last December that had killed a US civil-ian contractor and injured fourservice members.The rocket attack on the K1 base led to the January 3 US drone attack in Baghdad that killed Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani.

US blacklists network of irGC-QF related individuals, firms

iran's CoViD-19 cases approach 30,000; over 2,000 deadTehran, March 27 (IANS)

Iran has reported 2,389 more cases of COVID-19 infection, as the total number reached 29,406. The country reported 157 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, raising its death toll from the virus to 2,234. So far a total of 10,457 patients have recovered since the first cases were detected on Febru-ary 19.

On Thursday, Iran an-nounced the implementation of a social distancing plan for one week starting Friday. The plan includes further restric-tions of the inter-city travels, the closure of public places like parks, swimming pools and entertaining centres, a ban on gatherings, and reduc-ing work hours of civil ser-vants. Xinhua reported.

The Central Bank of Iran

has approved loans worth $5 billion to be provided to the businesses hit by the COV-ID-19 pandemic, the Press TV reported.

Turkey on Thursday re-ported 16 new deaths from COVID-19, as the death toll reached 75. Meanwhile, 1,196 new cases were confirmed, bringing the total number of infections to 3,629. This has made Turkey the second hard-est-hit country in the Middle East.In Israel, a total of 324 people tested positive for the COVID-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 2,693, of whom eight have died and 70 have recovered.Israel halted on Thursday all train services, while keeping bus lines on a limited scale for transporting essential work-ers. Taxis are allowed to take

only one passenger per ride.Israel's leading airline El Al

announced a halt of all flights from Friday until April 4, due to a sharp drop in demand for regular flights, concern for passenger health and air crews, and the necessity to re-duce expenses.

Morocco confirmed 50 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number to 275. So far, 10 of the infected have died and eight have recovered.Jordan reported 40 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, which has been the biggest single-day hike so far, raising the total number of infections to 212.

Iraq confirmed 36 new cas-es, bringing the total number of the infected to 382. Seven more of the infected died, raising the death toll to 36. A total of 105 patients have re-

covered.Lebanon reported 35 new COVID-19 cases, as the total number of infections soared to 368, of whom six have died. The government decided to extend the nation-wide lockdown for two addi-tional weeks until April 12 in a bid to contain the spread of the virus.Kuwait reported 13 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 208. A total of 49 patients have re-covered and 159 are receiving treatment including seven still under intensive care.

Palestine announced 15 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number to 86, includ-ing 77 in the West Bank and nine in the Gaza Strip. All the new cases came from the vil-lage of Beddo to the northwest of Jerusalem.In Oman, 10 new

cases of coronavirus infection were detected, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 109. So far, 23 patients have recovered.

Hosting an unprecedented virtual G20 summit, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud called upon the G20 countries to take responsi-bility for combating the CO-VID-19 pandemic.In his open-ing remarks, the king said that the G20 countries should be responsible for financing re-searches on therapeutics and vaccine against the corona-virus, which has severely im-pacted the global economy and markets.

He also emphasized the responsibility of the G20 to extend helping hand to devel-oping countries and the least developed countries.

London, March 27 (IANS) The UK's Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle have left Canada amid the coronavirus pandemic and moved permanently to Cali-fornia, according to a media report.

According to the report published on Friday by Lon-don-based The Sun newspa-per, the couple along with their son, Archie left the 10.7 million-pound man-sion they were borrowing in Vancouver and took a flight out of the city shortly before US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Min-ister Justin Trudeau closed the border between their countries.The Sussexes will set up a new home close to Hollywood, where they are currently living in lockdown with their 10-month-old son, the report added.

On Thursday night, a royal insider told The Sun: "Harry and Meghan have left Can-ada now for good. The bor-ders were closing and flights were stopping. They had to get out.

"But this move was planned for some time. They realised Canada would not work out for various reasons and they want to be based in

the Los Angeles area."They have a big support

network there. It's where their new team of Hollywood agents and PRs and busi-ness managers are based. Meghan has lots of friends there and, of course, her mum Doria."

The growing pandemic, has seen Harry's father and Prince of Wales Prince Charles, 71, test positive for the coronavirus, while Queen Elizabeth II, 93, and ailing Prince Philip, 98, have been put into self-isolation.

In a shocking announce-ment last month, the couple said they planned to step back from their duties as senior members of the royal family and "transition into a new working model" last month.The Sussexes' new role was agreed after a sum-mit of senior royals was con-vened by the Queen at San-dringham to discuss their desire to take a step back and strive for financial inde-pendence.It will be reviewed after a 12-month period.

The Duke and Duchess were in the UK earlier this month to wrap up their last royal engagements before stepping back as senior roy-als on March 31.

Harry-Meghan set up permanent home in California: report

aus state mulls lockdown amid 'source unknown' CoViD-19 cases

Sydney, March 27 (IANS) Australia's New South Wales (NSW) was considering a lockdown after a record 145 "source unknown" corona-virus cases were reported, the local government said on Friday. As of Friday morning, there were 13 death among 2,985 confirmed cases in Australia, with 186 new cases since Thursday afternoon, Xinhua news agency quoted the Department of Health as saying.

NSW health authorities announced on Friday that there were 186 new cases of COVID-19 overnight, bring-ing the total number of in-fections in the state to 1,405.

Among them 145 were contracted locally via un-

identified sources."That tells us we are

starting to see the increas-ing spread from unknown sources," NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told re-porters in Sydney on Friday, adding that was a number "we're most worried about" and she was ready to imple-ment lockdown if required.

Berejiklian said that no cruise ship would be allowed to disembark their passen-gers in NSW until further notice and police would increase their presence on streets.NSW police now could issue fines of A$1,000 to individuals and A$5,000 to business for breaching pub-lic health orders or ministe-rial directions.

World Bank finalizing $160bn CoViD-19 relief program

Washington, March 27 (IANS) The World Bank Group President David Malpass said hat the multilateral lender was finalizing a package that could provide as much as $160 bil-lion in financial support for the worst-hit countries by the coronavirus pandemic.

"The goals are to shorten the time to recovery; create conditions for growth; support small and medium enterprises; and help protect the poor and vulnerable," Malpass told a conference call of the Extraor-dinary Group of Twenty (G20) Leaders' Summit on Thursday.

Noting that the World Bank has approved a $14 billion package focused on the imme-diate health and social conse-quences of the outbreak, Mal-pass said "we're now finalizing an additional package that will focus on the broader economic consequences", reports Xin-hua news agency.

The World Bank President further said that on Wednes-day, he presented a program to the Board that could provide as much as $160 billion in finan-cial support over the next 15 months.

"I'm particularly concerned about poor, densely populated countries such as India, where weak health systems need massively scalable investments in human capital, supplies and infrastructure," Malpass said.

"We are working hard to pro-vide support through our pub-lic and private sector tools," he said.Malpass noted the World Bank has new COVID-related projects underway in 56 coun-tries, encouraging other multi-lateral development banks to co-finance follow-up tranches.

The World Bank is restruc-turing existing projects in 24 countries in order to direct funds to the health emergency.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm, is

working on new investments in 300 companies and extend-ing trade finance and working capital lines to clients, accord-ing to the statement.

Noting that international cooperation is critical in these times, the World Bank presi-dent said "we've been working closely" with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Health Organization, among others, to determine needs assessments of client countries.

The World Bank and the IMF on Wednesday jointly called on G20 countries to offer debt re-lief for the poorest countries in order to help them tackle chal-lenges posed by COVID-19, stressing that the outbreak is "likely to have severe economic and social consequences" for the poorest countries, which draw on the World Bank's In-ternational Development As-sociation (IDA).

At the G20 Leaders' Sum-mit, Malpass reiterated the importance of addressing debt vulnerabilities."This crisis will hit hardest poor countries that have high levels of indebted-ness," he said.

Wuhan, March 27 (IANS) The Chinese city of Wu-han, where the coronavirus pandemic originated last December, has had its COV-ID-19 risk evaluation down-graded from "high risk" to "medium risk", a local health official said on Friday.

Speaking at a news confer-ence here, Liu Dongru, dep-uty head of Hubei province's health commission, said coronavirus risk evaluation for five districts of Xinzhou, Huangpi, Jiangxia, Caidian and Dongxihu have been further lowered to "low risk", reports Xinhua news agency reported

Liu also declared the transmission of the corona-virus epidemic in Wuhan has been "basically blocked".

Since March 18, Wuhan has only reported one new confirmed case.

Friday's announcement comes after authorities in Hubei's provincial capi-tal on Tuesday announced that travel curbs will be lifted in Wuhan from April 8 after over two months of lockdown. On January 23, Wuhan declared unprec-edented traffic restrictions, including suspending the city's public transport and all outbound flights.

Wuhan no longer at 'high risk' due to coronavirus

New York, March 27 (IANS) Dr. Anthony Fauci, Americas top infectious diseases doctor on the White House coronavirus task force, signalled a dramatic shift in the way Covid-19 vaccine de-velopment is going to get fast tracked so that precious time is not lost between green-lighting the drug itself and time to market.

Despite the speedier process, the likely timeline of vaccine de-livery is still being pegged at 12-18 months."I'm not changing any of the dates that I mentioned," Fauci said.

Explaining the thinking behind the policy shift, Fauci said, "Even before you know something works, at risk, you have to start producing it, because once you know it works, you can say, great, it works so now give me another six months to produce it."

Fauci told reporters that there

are a "couple of handfuls" of vac-cines at different stages of devel-opment at this time.

Phase One trials, currently on, will drag all the way into the summer of 2020, Fauci said. Next come the Phase Two and Phase Three trials which will likely lead to what Fauci calls the "efficacy" signal."If in fact it does work, we hope to rush it to be able to have some impact on (the virus) recy-cling in the next season," Fauci said, referring to the possibility that Covid-19 becomes a seasonal

infection.Fauci said the White House task

force is working with the private sector to hard code this change in policy which can shrink the time between vaccine approval and delivery to America's healthcare system.

"The best way to get the best drug as quickly as possible is to do a randomized control trial, so that you know is it safe and effective. If it's not effective, get it off the board and go to the next thing. If it is effective, get it out to the peo-ple that need it", Fauci said.

Fauci indicated that he will be circling back throughout April on all the drugs that are going into randomized controlled trials.

Fauci struck a cautiously up-beat tone saying he feels "confi-dent" that the US will find a solu-tion based on all the knowledge now available on the virus.

White House is fast tracking CoViD-19 vaccine development: Here's how Caracas, March 27

(IANS) The Venezuelan government slammed the indictments made by the US against President Nicolas Maduro and more than a dozen top officials for alleged drug traffick-ing, money laundering and terrorism, and called them "unfounded".

"Venezuela denounces ... a new type of coup d'etat on the basis of vile, vulgar and unfounded accusa-tions designed to minimize the high regard Venezuela enjoys in the fight against drug trafficking," Efe news agency quoted Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza as saying in a televised ad-dress on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, the US government announced multiple indictments against Maduro and 14

other figures associated with the Chavista regime in Caracas, as well as two dissidents from the now disbanded Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas for drug trafficking, money laun-dering and terrorism.

Arreaza accused the Donald Trump adminis-tration of "attacking the people and their demo-cratic institutions" while "humanity is facing the most ferocious of pan-demics", a reference to the global coronavirus crisis.

On Thursday, the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Ariana Fajardo Orshan said in a virtual press conference that she had a message for all top Venezuelan of-ficials: "The party's over."

Prosecutors in Florida

and New York, where the US Justice Department filed the charges, said that over the past 20 years, the Venezuelan government has been conspiring with the FARC to ship tons of cocaine to the US.

US Attorney General Wil-liam Barr said that Maduro and other top Chavista of-ficials - including National Constituent Assembly (ANC) president Diosdado Cabello - were part of the "Cartel of the Suns", the name of which refers to the insignia worn on the uni-forms of high-ranking Ven-ezuelan military officers.

According to Barr, the socialist Maduro - as the "leader" of the cartel - and other Venezuelan offi-cials have worked with the FARC dissidents to send some 250 tonnes of co-

caine per year to the US via the Caribbean and several Central American coun-tries, including Honduras.

"The Maduro regime is awash in corruption and criminality," said Barr at an online press confer-ence. "While the Ven-ezuelan people suffer, this cabal lines their pockets with drug money, and the proceeds of their corrup-tion. And this has to come to an end."This is the sec-ond time in US history that charges have been filed against a foreign head of state, the first being in 1989 when prosecutors in Mi-ami charged Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega with drug trafficking, ulti-mately arresting him dur-ing the American invasion of that country, then bring-ing him to trial.

Venezuela slams 'unfounded' US charges against Maduro

9businessindian Horizonsaturday, March 28, 2020

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) In a major relief to auto and home loan bor-rowers, the RBI on Friday permitted lenders, including banks and NBFCs, the power to impose a three-month moratorium on EMIs of bor-rowers on loans that they have disbursed.

RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday: "All com-mercial banks (including regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-operative banks, all-India financial institu-tions, and NBFCs (including housing finance companies and micro-finance institu-tions) are being permitted to allow a moratorium of three months on payment of

instalments in respect of all term loans outstanding as on March 1, 2020."

In financial parlance, term loans includes home, per-sonal, education, auto and any loans that have a fixed tenure. Effectively, all term loans should be outstanding as of March 1, 2020 to get the three-month moratorium.

Beside the moratorium, the MPC of the RBI voted to massively reduce the key lending rates, thereby, fur-ther lowering the EMI bur-den on borrowers.

This would depend on when the banks pass on the benefit of lower interest to customers.Accordingly, the Monetary Policy Commit-tee of the central bank in

an unscheduled meeting reduced the repo rate, the key interest rate at which the RBI lends short-term funds to commercial banks, by 75 basis points to 4.40 per cent from 5.15 per cent.Consequently, the reverse repo rate was also reduced by 90 basis points to 4 per cent.Apart from retail loans, corporates and MSMEs will also benefit from deferment on EMI repayments on term loans.The apex bank also announced deferment of interest payment on work-ing capital loans by three months.

The twin move is expect-ed to reduce pressure on both creditors and borrow-ers as the former gets relief

on qualifying loans as NPAs and thereby increase provi-sioning for a period of three months.

For borrowers facing dis-ruptions on account of Co-vid-19 pandemic, the RBI move provides more time to settle their dues.

"All commercial banks (including regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-operative banks, all-India financial institutions and NBFCs (including hous-ing finance companies and micro-finance institutions) (lending institutions) are being permitted to allow a moratorium of three months on payment of instalments in respect of all term loans

outstanding as on March 1, 2020," RBI governor Shak-tikanta Das said while an-nouncing a series of liquidity measures after the monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting.

Accordingly, the move is expected to alleviate con-cerns over the possible short-term delinquency in retail, MSME or corporate loans."It's really important that steps are taken to miti-gate the burden of debt ser-vicing brought about by dis-ruptions on account of the Covid- 19 pandemic. These steps will go a long way to prevent the transmission of financial stress to the real economy and ensure the continuity of businesses.

eMi payments on loans across spectrum eligible for 3-month stay

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday massively re-duced the key lending rates in response to the Covid-19 out-break.Accordingly, the Mon-etary Policy Committee of the central bank in an unsched-uled meet reduced the repo rate, the key interest rate at which the RBI lends short term funds to commercial banks, by 75 basis points to 4.40 per cent from 5.15 per cent.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate was also reduced by 90 basis points to 4 per cent.

Besides, the marginal stand-ing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate stand reduced to 4.65 per cent from 5.40 per cent."The purpose of this measure relating to reverse repo, is to make it relatively unattractive for banks to pas-sively deposit funds with the

Reserve Bank, and instead to use these funds for lending to the productive sectors of the economy," RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said.

"This decision, and the an-nouncement of the MPC has been warranted by the disrup-tive force of the kernel riders. It is intended to mitigate the negative effects of the riders to revive growth and, above all, number three, to preserve financial stability," he said.

"The time has now come

for the Reserve Bank to un-leash an array of instruments from its arsenal to mitigate the impact of Covid-19 and, above all, preserve financial stability."Furthermore, the MPC voted to maintain ac-commodative stance, thus opening up possibilities for more future rate cuts.In an-other major step, the Apex bank instituted a moratorium on interest payments for three months.

On the outlook side, the RBI said that recovery in 2020 from 2019's decade low in global growth have been dashed. "The outlook is now heavily contingent upon the intensity, spread and duration of the pandemic. There is a rising probability that large parts of the global economy will slip into recession," the RBI said in a statement.

Rbi cuts key rates to 4.40%, maintains accommodative stance

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Ride-hailing plat-form Ola on Friday launched ‘Drive the Driver Fund un-der Ola Foundation, with Rs 20 crore donation from Ola group and its employees that will support auto-rickshaw, cab, kaali-peeli and taxi driv-ers during the tough COV-ID-19 times.

Bhavish Aggarwal, co-founder and CEO of Ola would forgo his salary for one year that would go towards the fund.The company, which has a global fleet of over 20 lakh driver-partners, aims to raise up to Rs 50 crore via its crowdfunding initia-tive towards the drivers' fund that will help drivers on any platform or services, it said in a statement.

"The crisis at this time has left thousands of drivers who

form the backbone of shared mobility without an income. The Ola group has come together to contribute the initial capital for the fund, which can be used to provide immediate aid," said Anand Subramanian, Spokesperson and Head of Communica-tions, Ola.

The initiative would focus on key areas such as emer-gency support and essential

supplies, which are of utmost importance to drivers during these challenging times.

Drivers and their families would also have access to free medical consultation.

In due course, Ola Founda-tion will also take up initia-tives to support drivers in ar-eas such as aid for children's education amongst others, said the company.

"We invite all the stake-

holders of the mobility indus-try to join us in every way you can, and support the people who move us in this difficult phase. We will be stronger together," said Subramanian.

Last week, Ola announced a special COVID-19 insur-ance cover exclusive for its driver partners and their spouses.

The company has also fully waived lease rentals, akin to an EMI, for driver partners who operate vehicles owned by Ola's subsidiary, Ola Fleet Technologies under its leas-ing programme.

The mobility industry has been brought to a grinding standstill during the 21-day lockdown, and the driver community has been finding it hard to pay for their family expenses without a source of income.

Ola group donates Rs 20 crore, creates fund for drivers, families

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Global software major Cogni-zant on Friday announced an additional payment of 25 per cent of the base pay for April for employees up to 'As-sociate level in India and the Philippines in the wake of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

This applies to more than two-thirds of the India work-force and the company would review the approach monthly, it said in a statement.

"As you've seen, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has imposed a nation-wide 21-day lockdown in an attempt to contain the spread of the coronavirus. The Phil-ippines is under a state of national emergency. We sup-port these and other efforts by

governments across the world to "flatten the curve" and con-tain the spread of COVID-19," Brian Humphries, CEO, Cog-nizant said in an email sent to employees.

The additional 25 per cent of base pay will be processed with the April paycheck for employees.

"Cognizant has enabled work from home for the ma-jority of its offshore teams to ensure employee health and safety, and to maintain conti-nuity of service for our clients, while safeguarding their data and protecting access to their systems," Humphries added.

The work from home mea-sures include provisioning new laptops and encrypting desktops and moving them to associate homes, enabling the

use of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), providing additional bandwidth connectivity and air cards.

Cognizant in February ex-panded its operations in Kar-nataka with a development centre at Mangaluru. The new 1,000 sq ft facility can accom-modate more than 1,100 em-ployees.

The tech major delivers consulting, enterprise ap-plications and business pro-cess services for mortgage processing encompassing property taxes, research and investigations, property data warehousing and others.

In Mangaluru, Congnizant employs nearly 600 people. As many as 28,000 people work for the company is Bengaluru and 700 in Mysuru.

Cognizant announces additional 25% of base pay for india staff

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) Indian stock markets erased all their initial gains on Friday afternoon, with the BSE Sensex trading over 250 points lower, although the Reserve Bank of In-dia (RBI) announced an emergency rate cut of 75 basis points.

The 30-stock Sensex tumbled after gaining over 1,100 during the ini-tial trade.The RBI Gover-nor's grave concern over the global economy and a likely slowdown in India appeared to have damp-ened the initial euphoria in the market.

At 12.50 p.m., Sensex was trading at 29,692.03, lower by 254.74 points or 0.85 per cent from the

previous close 29,946.77.It had opened at

30,747.81 and touched an intra-day high of 31,126.03. So far, it has touched a low of 29,360.69 points.The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 8,627.95 lower by 13.50 points or 0.16 per cent from its previ-ous close.On the Sensex, Axis Bank, State Bank of India and NTPC gained

the most so far, while Bharti Airtel, IndusInd Bank and Maruti Suzuki lost the most.In a much anticipated move, amidst the novel coronavirus pandemic, RBI Gover-nor Shaktikanta Das an-nounced a 75 bps cut in repo rate to 4.4 per cent.

He, however, noted that that there is high probability of parts of the global economy slipping into a recession.

Rbi rate cut fails to boost market, sensex falls to trade in red

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) An average Indian who has taken a home or an auto loan and a farmer under the stress of a crop loan from banks and NBFCs, can now have a sigh of relief, as the Reserve Bank of In-dia (RBI) has directed the lenders to put a halt on the instalment payments till the end of May.

This comes as a ma-jor relief to the retail loan borrowers includ-ing farmers whose daily work and farm activities have stopped due to the 21-day lockdown leaving them with lower or no income.

Reserve Bank Gov-ernor Shaktikanta Das on Friday announced a three month moratorium on EMIs of all term loans due during March 1 to May 31 and said that the repayment schedule for all those loans would be shifted by three months after the moratorium.

"In respect of all term loans (including agricul-tural term loans, retail

and crop loans), all com-mercial banks (includ-ing regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-op-erative banks, all-India Financial Institutions, and NBFCs (including housing finance com-panies) are permitted to grant a moratorium of three months on pay-ment of all instalments falling due between March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020," said the RBI's circular to all banks and non-banking financial companies.

"The repayment schedule for such loans as also the residual tenor, will be shifted across the board by three months after the moratorium-period. Interest shall continue to accrue on the outstanding portion of the term loans during the moratorium period," it said.

Further, in respect of working capital facilities sanctioned in the form of cash credit or overdraft, lending institutions are permitted to defer the re-covery of interest applied

in respect of all such fa-cilities during the period from March 1 upto May 31. The accumulated ac-crued interest shall be recovered immediately after the completion of this period.

Apart from retail loans, corporates and MSMEs will also benefit from deferment on EMI repay-ments on term loans.

The apex bank also announced deferment of interest payment on working capital loans by three months.

The twin move is ex-pected to reduce pres-sure on both creditors and borrowers as the for-mer gets relief on quali-fying loans as NPAs and thereby, increases pro-visioning for a period of three months.

For borrowers facing disruptions on account of Covid-19 pandemic, the RBI move provides more time to settle their dues.

The circular to the banks said that the re-scheduling of payments,

including interest, will not qualify as a default for the purposes of su-pervisory reporting and reporting to Credit In-formation Companies (CICs) by the lending in-stitutions.

"CICs shall ensure that the actions taken by lend-ing institutions pursuant to the above announce-ments do not adversely impact the credit history of the beneficiaries."

The circular directed the banks and NBFCs that that they would have to frame Board-approved polices for providing the reliefs to all eligible bor-rowers, including the objective criteria for con-sidering reliefs.

"Wherever the expo-sure of a lending institu-tion to a borrower is Rs 5 crore or above as on March 1, 2020, the bank shall develop an MIS on the reliefs provided to its borrowers which shall in-ter alia include borrower-wise and credit-facility wise information regard-ing the nature.

no need to pay eMis of home, auto, farm loans till May 31

Guwahati, March 27 (IANS) Air India would operate special cargo flights to the northeast-ern region of India to ferry the commodities required to deal with the novel coronavirus treat-ment and other public emergency, top AAI offi-cial said on Friday.

The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) has also been operating freight trains in most of the northeastern states, in-cluding Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Na-galand, Manipur and Mizoram to maintain

the availability of the es-sential commodities in the hilly northeastern region.

Airport Authority of India (AAI) Regional Ex-ecutive Director (NER) Sanjeev Jindal said that the Ministry of Civil Avi-ation took the decision considering the situation of urgent need to trans-port medicine, medical emergency equipment, protective gears, acces-sories in small quanti-ties, even water and es-sential commodities.

He said that to address the seamless movement

of air cargo, a high level committee has been constituted with secre-taries of various central government ministries.

"The committee is em-powered to hire dedi-cated charter flights for the air cargo purpose," Jindal said.

An NFR official said that though they are op-erating their goods trains in the northeastern states but there are some problems of loading and unloading of various commodities and car-gos as the availability of workers become a prob-lem in view of the lock-down and maintaining of social distance to pre-vent the spread of coro-navirus.

The NFR is responsible for extending the railway lines and maintaining train services in seven districts of West Ben-gal and five districts in north Bihar, besides the mountainous northeast-ern states.

special cargo flights to ne, nFR operates goods trains

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Aviation regulator DGCA has extended the suspen-sion of domestic flights by a fortnight till April 14 in view of the ongoing 21-day na-tionwide lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis. The Director General of Civil Avia-tion had earlier stopped operations of pas-senger flights on all domestic routes from March 25 to March 31.

"All domestic operators engage in scheduled, non-scheduled and private aircaraft operations in India shall ensure strict compliance of the order," said a DGCA circular.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tues-day announced a 21-day lockdown to con-tain the spread of the disease.

The aviation industry has been one of the major economic sectors to have been impacted due to the pandemic and there have been calls for government support to the sector.The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the country has risen to 724. Besides 640 active cases, the coun-try has reported 17 casualties so far. As many as 66 persons have recovered.

COViD-19: Domestic flights suspension extended till April 14

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Major manufacturers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), food producers and suppliers have urged govern-ment to restore supply chains of essential commodities fol-lowing disruption in trans-portation and labour shortage since the complete lockdown against coronavirus.

The government support and intervention is required to restore supply chains imme-diately, said Varun Berry, MD, Britania Industries.

"The food industry supply chain is disaggregated and de-pendent on inter-state move-ment of goods. Due to the nature of the materials, inven-

tories across the chain are low. If even one link in the supply chain is broken, the coun-try could run out of stocks of packaged food in the next 7-10 days," he said in a statement.

Food is a declared essential commodity as per the Essen-tial Commodities Act 1955 and the food processing industry has been exempted from the work and movement restric-tions.The supply chain in-cludes suppliers of raw mate-rials and packaging materials, food manufacturing factories, factory workers, transporters carrying materials and fin-ished goods, depots, whole-salers, distributors and their sales men.

Food producers urge govt to restore supply chain

10businessindian Horizonsaturday, March 28, 2020

Rbi cuts key rates to 4.40%, maintains accommodative stance

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Union Minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said the government is committed to ensure unin-terrupted supply of essen-tial goods to the public.

In a series of tweets, the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry said: "Had a video conference with stakeholders from e-

commerce & logistics in-dustry regarding the issues faced due to #COVID2019 lockdown & discussed measures to resolve them."

"We are committed to ensuring that essential goods reach the people in the most convenient and safest manner."

The meet was attended by representatives from

Snapdeal, Shopclues, Flip-kart and others.

Earlier in the day, the Centre set up a control room to monitor the sta-tus of transportation along with delivery of goods, manufacturing and es-sential commodities to the public. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade has set up the control room to moni-tor "real time" basis the status of delivery.

The facility will also monitor the difficulties being faced by various stakeholders during the lockdown period."In the event of any manufactur-ing, transporter, distribu-tor, wholesaler or e-com-merce companies facing ground level difficulties in transport and distribution of goods or mobilization of resources.

Govt committed to ensuring supply of essential goods: Goyal Mumbai, March 27 (IANS)

As the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing nation-wide lockdown is set to severely im-pact India's economic activi-ties and growth, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday came out with a number of measures to ensure adequate liquidity flow in the system and support businesses.

Addressing media through a video statement, RBI Gover-nor Shaktikanta Das said: "The time has now come for the Re-serve Bank to unleash an array of instruments from its arsenal to staunch and mitigate the impact of maintain revised rules and, above all, preserve financial stability."

In a big relief to the corpo-rate sector, the central bank has allowed a three month moratorium on payment of in-stallment in respect of all term loans outstanding on March 1, 2020. It also announced de-ferment of interest payment on working capital loans by

three months.The twin move is expected to reduce pressure on both creditors and borrow-ers as the former gets relief on qualifying loans as NPAs and thereby increase provisioning for a period of three months. For borrowers facing disrup-tions on account of Covid-19 pandemic, the RBI move pro-vides more time to settle their dues.The Statement on Devel-opmental and Regulatory Poli-cies, read out by the Governor, is to directly address the stress in financial aims at expanding liquidity, reinforcing mon-etary transmission, relaxation of repayment pressures and

improving access to working and improving the functioning of markets in view of the high volatility experienced with the onset and spread of the pan-demic.

Among the liquidity mea-sure, Das announced that the bank would conduct auctions of targeted term repos of up to three years tenor of appropri-ate sizes for a total amount of up to Rs 1 lakh crore at a float-ing rate linked to the policy repo rate.Liquidity availed un-der the scheme by banks has to be deployed in investment grade corporate bonds, com-mercial paper, and non-con-vertible debentures over and above the outstanding level of their investments in these bonds as on March 27, 2020.

The first Targeted Long Term Repo Operation auc-tion will be held on Friday and following a review of the out-come of this auction, the sub-sequent TLTRO auctions will be announced.

Further, a one-time measure to help banks tide over the dis-ruption caused by Covid-19, the RBI decided to reduce the cash reserve ratio (CRR) of all banks by 100 basis points to 3 per cent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) with effect from the reporting fort-night beginning March 28, 2020.

This reduction in the CRR would release primary liquid-ity of about Rs 1.37 lakh crore uniformly across the banking system in proportion to liabili-ties of constituents. This dis-pensation will be available for a period of one year ending on March 26, 2021.

"Furthermore, taking cog-nisance of hardships faced by banks in terms of social distancing of staff and con-sequent strains on reporting requirements, it has been de-cided to reduce the require-ment of minimum daily CRR balance maintenance from 90 per cent to 80 per cent.

Rbi lines up 'arsenal' of liquidity measures to counter Covid-19 impact

Liquor vends shut in Haryana

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) The Haryana gov-ernment has ordered clo-sure of all liquor vends across the state amid the nationwide lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

After the nationwide lockdown was announced from the midnight of March 24, the liquor vends were allowed to open in Hary-ana, till now.

A senior state govern-ment official said: "The vends were ordered to close from Thursday midnight and strict action would be taken against those not fol-lowing orders."

During the lockdown an exception had been made

for essential services only. Given this and the fact that restaurants, beer bars and pubs had been closed, opening of li-quor vends in Gurugram, Rohtak, Faridabad, and Sonepat had raised many an eyebrows.

Congress leader Deep-ender Hooda had said: The Haryana government is playing with the health of people by letting li-quor vends open amid the 21-day lockdown due to coronavirus scare. With whose backing is such an arrangement been con-tinuing? Those in the gov-ernment should rise above self-interests and work for national interests."

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the sale of BS-IV compliant vehicles for 10 days, barring NCR-Delhi, after the lifting of the 21-day nationwide lockdown an-nounced by the Prime Min-ister from Tuesday midnight due to the outbreak of coro-navirus.

A bench headed by Jus-tice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Mishra conduct-ed hearing on the matter through videoconferencing.

Earlier, the apex court had fixed March 30, 2020, dead-line for the sale of BS-IV compliant vehicles across the country. The court had made it clear that no such vehicles will be allowed to be sold in National Capital Region from April 1, 2020.

The Federation of Auto-mobile Dealers Association (FADA) moved the court to seek relaxations on this dead-line.

In its plea, the association urged the court to extend the

deadline to enable them sell their unsold inventory, as sales literally went dead amid the coronavirus scare and ongoing economic slowdown in the country.

Bharat Stage (BS) emission norms are standards insti-tuted by the government to regulate output of air pol-lutants from motor vehicles. The BS-IV norms came into force across the country from April 2017.

FADA urged the court to ex-tend the deadline for a con-

siderable period, which may allow dealers to fill the gap in sales, lost due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown. The association cited possibil-ity of large bankruptcies, and loss of jobs if the inventory remained unsold.

FADA insisted that BS-IV stock worth Rs 7000 crore was still lying unsold, and sought 30 more days to sell the un-sold BS-IV vehicles.FADA contended that 15,000 pas-senger cars, 12,000 commer-cial vehicles, 7 lakh 2-wheel-

ers, are already at stake due to BS-IV deadline.

Justice Mishra said: "We should have sympathy for BS-VI; protecting environ-ment is important."

The court said that it can-not keep extending BS-VI deadline in the name of coro-navirus. "No point extend-ing time for BS-IV vehicles, burdening environment fur-ther," observed the court.

The bench told the automo-bile dealers association that we should collectively learn to sacrifice, do something for the country's environment. "We Understand frailty of hu-mans," said the court.The top court observed that only 10% of the unsold BS-IV vehicles can be sold within 10 days of the end of lockdown, but no such sale will be allowed in the NCR.The BS-IV vehicles bought before March 31 can be registered later too.

The top court said that BS-IV vehicles bought can be registered within 10 days of sale.

Chandigarh, March 27 (IANS) Punjab Chief Minis-ter Amarinder Singh on Fri-day announced that wheat harvesting in the state would commence around mid-April on account of weather conditions but as-sured smooth procurement and timely payments.

The wheat harvesting is delayed due to weather conditions and is likely to start only by April 12-15 in the state, the Chief Minis-ter said after reviewing ar-rangements for harvesting of potato and wheat crop.

Proper harvesting ar-rangements were being put in place for harvesting and storage of potato crop, said

Amarinder Singh, adding the government would also ensure smooth procure-ment and release of timely payment to wheat farmers.

Detailed guidelines for wheat harvesting were expected to be issued by March 31, said an official spokesperson.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has directed offi-cials of the Horticulture De-partment, the Punjab Agro Industries Corporation and the Punjab Mandi Board to work out the modalities, in coordination with the re-spective district officials, to allow farmers to harvest and transport their horti-culture produce for market-

ing without putting them to any more hardship.

A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said a detailed list of district mandi officers, along with their contact numbers, has been issued by Punjab Mandi Board so that farm-ers can contact the officer concerned.

In line with the Chief Minister's directive, the Ad-ditional Chief Secretary De-velopment-cum-Financial Commissioner Horticulture has also issued an advisory asking all Deputy Com-missioners to grant the rel-evant permissions and re-laxation to the farm labour and farmers for harvesting and transporting the hor-ticulture produce, includ-ing vegetables and fruits to the markets, as well as cold storage.Underlining the importance of maintaining regular supply chain of es-sential commodities of hor-ticulture produce in these critical times of statewide lockdown.

sC relaxes March 31 deadline for bs Vi vehicles Punjab to commence wheat harvesting by April 12

New Delhi, March 27 (IANS) Raising grave con-cerns over the economic im-pact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said that there is high prob-ability of parts of the global economy slipping into a re-cession.

Das noted that the global economic activity has come to a near standstill as CO-VID-19 related lockdowns and social distancing have been imposed across most countries."Expectations of a shallow recovery in 2020 from 2019's decade low in global growth have been dashed," Das said.

"The outlook is now heav-ily contingent upon the in-tensity, spread and duration of the pandemic. There is a

rising probability that large parts of the global economy will slip into recession."

As Das announced an emergency rate cut of 75 ba-sis points, he said that the Monetary Policy Committee refrained from giving any outlook for the country's in-flation and growth due to the prevailing uncertainty.

"In fact, this kind of uncer-tainty has never been seen before," he said.

Financial markets have become highly volatile from January onwards due to the outbreak of COVID-19, he said, adding that panic sell-offs have resulted in wealth destruction in equity markets across advanced and emerg-ing economies alike.

Currencies of emerging and advanced economies are

experiencing severe depre-ciation pressure on a daily basis because of fire sales due to extreme risk aversion, the Governor noted.

"At this point, only the US dollar remains safe haven in a highly uncertain outlook. Japanese yen and gold - the other two safe havens till the early part of March - have given way to a flight of cash. International crude prices initially traded with a soften-ing bias from January in an-ticipation of demand weak-ening due to the COVID-19 outbreak." Speaking on the recent oil price slump, he said that production cut dis-agreements among key oil producers, however, set off retaliatory supply scale-ups and a price war that plunged international Brent crude.

Global economy likely in recession amid uncertainty: Rbi guvKolkata, March 27

(IANS) FMCG major, ITC has set up a Rs 150 crore Covid Contingency Fund for vulnerable sections of society who have been af-fected by the pandemic.

In a statement, ITC said this fund will be utilised primarily to provide re-lief to the vulnerable and most needy sections of society who have been harshly impacted by the pandemic and have faced significant disruption in their livelihoods.

In addition, the fund will collaborate with Dis-trict Authorities to provide assistance to the district health and rural health-care eco-system that reaches out to the weakest sections of society.

Further, it is also envis-aged that the resources

under this fund will be channelised towards the protection and well-being of the ground forces who are doing commendable work to reach medicines, groceries, other essential goods, sourcing of agri-commodities and so on for people across the country during the lockdown, by providing protective per-sonal gear and hygiene products to such frontline warriors.

"We are in the midst of an unprecedented situa-tion as the world and India grapples with the threat of COVID 19. As corporate citizens, we in industry must lend our meaning-ful support to contain this pandemic," ITC said.

Such challenging cir-cumstances indeed call for extraordinary measures.

In line with ITC's credo of ‘Nation First – Sab Saath Badhein', that focuses on inclusive and sustainable progress, particularly of vulnerable sections many of whom reside in rural In-dia, ITC has geared its val-ue-chain to lend support to the Government in its efforts to fight this threat to the people of India, the company said.

Over the past few weeks several initiatives have been implemented in re-sponse to the crisis.

In these trying times, it is critical to ensure ad-equate availability of es-sential food and hygiene products in the country. ITC is working with state authorities and local ad-ministration to ensure that manufacturing and distribution activities.

iTC sets up Rs 150 cr Covid Contingency FundChennai, March 27 (IANS) The Chen-

nai Port Trust on Friday acquired about 67 per cent stake held by the Central government in the country's first cor-porate port Kamarajar Port Ltd (KPL) for Rs 2,383 crore, said a top official of Chennai Port. The KPL was promoted by the Central government holding about 67 per cent stake and Chennai Port holding the balance about 33 per cent.

"The share transfer agreement has been signed and the sale price has been paid today (Friday). However both the ports will function as separate entities while deriving benefits of synergies in terms of investments and operations," P.Raveendran, Chairman, Chennai Port told IANS.

Raveendran said with mergers hap-pening the port sector, the acquisition of Kamarajar Port will enable both ports to face the market challenges.He said, the KPL was originally conceived as a satellite port of Chennai Port as expan-sion was restricted at the latter.

Chennai Port buys 67% stake from govt for Rs 2,383 crore

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday massively re-duced the key lending rates in response to the Covid-19 out-break.Accordingly, the Mon-etary Policy Committee of the central bank in an unsched-uled meet reduced the repo rate, the key interest rate at which the RBI lends short term funds to commercial banks, by 75 basis points to 4.40 per cent from 5.15 per cent.

Consequently, the reverse repo rate was also reduced by 90 basis points to 4 per cent.

Besides, the marginal stand-ing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate stand reduced to 4.65 per cent from 5.40 per cent.

The Apex bank instituted a moratorium on interest pay-

ments on term loans for three months. This move is expect-ed to benefit corporates and MSMEs. Even interest on work-ing capital loans have been de-ferred for three months.

Furthermore, the MPC voted to maintain accommodative stance, thus opening up pos-sibilities for more future rate cuts. "This decision and its ad-vancement has been warrant-ed by the destructive force of the corona virus. It is intended to mitigate the negative effects of the virus; revive growth; and above all, preserve financial stability," RBI Governor Shak-tikanta Das said.

"We are living through an extraordinary and unprec-edented situation. Everything hinges on the depth of the COVID-19 outbreak, its spread

and its duration. Clearly, a war effort has to be mounted and is being mounted to combat the virus, involving both con-ventional and unconventional measures in continuous battle-ready mode. Life in the time of COVID-19 has been one of un-precedented loss and isolation. Yet, it is worthwhile to remem-ber that tough times never last; only tough people and tough institutions do," he said.

In addition, the cash re-serve ratio (CRR) of all banks have been reduced by 100 ba-sis points to 3 per cent of net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) with effect from the reporting fortnight beginning March 28, 2020 for a period of one year."This reduction in the CRR would release primary liquidity of about Rs 1,37,000

crore uniformly across the banking system in proportion to liabilities of constituents rather than in relation to hold-ings of excess SLR, Das said.

"Furthermore, taking cog-nisance of hardships faced by banks in terms of social distancing of staff and conse-quent strains on reporting re-quirements, it has been decid-ed to reduce the requirement of minimum daily CRR balance maintenance from 90 per cent to 80 per cent, effective from the first day of the reporting fortnight beginning March 28, 2020. This is a one-time dis-pensation available up to June 26, 2020."On the Moratorium on Term Loans, Das said: "All commercial banks (includ-ing regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area

banks), co-operative banks, all-India Financial Institutions, and NBFCs (including housing finance companies and micro-finance institutions) are being permitted to allow a morato-rium of three months on pay-ment of instalments in respect of all term loans outstanding as on March 1, 2020."

Moreover, lending institu-tions are being permitted to allow a deferment of three months on payment of inter-est in respect of all such facili-ties outstanding as on March 1, 2020."The accumulated inter-est for the period will be paid af-ter the expiry of the deferment period," Das said."The morato-rium on term loans and the de-ferring of interest payments on working capital will not result in asset classification.

Sports Indian HorizonSaturday, March 28, 202011

Mumbai, March 27 (IANS) On March 27, 1994, Sachin Tendulkar opened the batting for the first time in ODIs against New Zealand in Auckland and the rest, from there on, was history.

Before that, Navjot Singh Sidhu used to open the batting but as he was out with a stiff neck, then captain Mohammed Azharuddin asked the Little Master to go up the order as till then he was batting in the middle order.

Sachin scored 82 runs off just 49 balls and that was the start of a golden run.

“On this day in 1994, the start of something special. Sachin Tendulkar opened the batting (82 off 49) for the first time in ODIs in Auckland and it triggered a golden run,” said BCCI in a tweet.

“I was thinking of asking him to open for some time. He was scoring 30s or 40s or 50s or 60s, scores that were good enough for someone batting down the order.

But I thought we were wasting such a good attacking batsman batting so low. For me, he was the No. 1 batsman in the team.

So, I made him open,” Azhar had said while explaining the move.

There was no looking back for Tendulkar from there on as he went on to become arguably the greatest batsman of all times with a century of international hundreds to his name.

Currently, Tendulkar is standing tall with the nation in the fight against coronavirus pandemic. He has come forward and decided to donate Rs 50 lakh to join hands with the Indian government.

THIS DAY IN : SACHIN

TENDULKAR OPENS BATTING FOR

ST TIME

COVID : HIMA DAS PLEDGES MONTH’S SALARY TO ASSAM GOVTNew Delhi, March 27

(IANS) Ace Indian sprinter Hima Das has pledged to donate her one month’s salary to combat the coronavirus pandemic. Das will be donating her salary to Assam’s COVID-19 relief fund.“Friends it’s high time to stand together and support people who need us. I am contributing 1 month of my salary to Assam government in Assam Arogya Nidhi

Account made to safeguard the health of people in the wake of COVID-19,” she tweeted on Thursday tagging Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju and Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Rijiju was all in praise for Hima Das’s announcement as he lauded the sprinter’s efforts to make a difference.

“Great gesture, Hima Das. Your hard-earned one month’s salary means a lot and it will be very purposeful! India fights corona”, he tweeted.

Ace Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu has also donated a sum of Rs 10 lakh to combat the spread of coronavirus. Sindhu has donated Rs 5 lakh each to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana Chief Minister Relief Funds in fight against

COVID-19 pandemic.“I hereby donate an

amount of Rs 5,00,000/- each (Rs five lakhs) towards the “Chief Ministers Relief Fund” for the states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to fight against COVID-19,” she tweeted.Star wrestler Bajrang Punia, who works as an OSD in Railways, has already donated his six months’ salary to Haryana coronavirus relief fund.

London, March 27 (IANS) Retired football superstar David Beckham has expressed gratitude towards “brave healthcare workers” who are working tirelessly and treating patients with COVID-19 during the ongoing pandemic.

Beckham has posted a video on Instagram where he can be seen clapping for the health workers along with his kids.

“Happy to be able to come together with the whole country to thank the brave healthcare workers and our brilliant NHS

working tirelessly in the fight against COVID-19 #ClapForOurCarers @victoriabeckham @romeobeckham @cruzbeckham #HarperSeven,” he captioned the video.

The entire world has come to a standstill amid the ongoing coronavirus

outbreak. Sports activities have also taken a big hit and almost all the events have been postponed or cancelled, including the Olympics.

Earlier, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp also thanked the health workers for their service. In a video posted on Liverpool’s official Twitter handle, he said:

“Myself, the staff and all the players of LFC would like to take this opportunity to deliver a message to say thank you to all the incredible people who work in the health services, all the health workers out there.”

Beckham thanks ‘brave’ healthcare workers in COVID-19 fight

Australia unveil fan-designed ‘Vibrant Evolutions’ kit for T Is

NFL draft to go ahead as planned sans players, fans & media

Paris, March 27 (IANS) French Sports Minister Raxana Maracineanu said on Thursday it is too early to decide whether this year's Tour de France can take place as scheduled in June and July amid the coronavirus outbreak, but also admitted that a race without roadside spectators is an option.

Following the postponements of the football European Championships and the Tokyo Olympic Games, the world's best-known cycling championship remained one of the few big international sports events this summer not having been postponed or cancelled, Xinhua news agency reports."The Tour is a sports monument. It is too soon to decide. There is a time for

everything. For now, we have a more urgent battle to fight. Let us focus on this mountain in front of us and then consider

what's next," Maracineanu wrote on Twitter.French media Bleu Radio Station reported on Wednesday that Maracineanu said that one of the options would be to organise a Tour without roadside spectators.

"The Tour's economic model is not based on ticket sales but on TV rights," the minister said.

"People understand the benefits of staying home and watching the event on TV rather than live. It would not be too detrimental to follow the Tour on TV."

The Tour has never been cancelled in peacetime since its inaugural edition in 1903. This year's race is scheduled to start outside Nice on June 27 and finish on the Champs Elysees in Paris on July 19.

Too early to make decision on Tour de France: French minister

Las Vegas, March 27 (IANS) The 2020 American football NFL draft will go ahead as planned next month but players, fans and media will not be part of it due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The draft will be held from April 23-25 in a television studio, with players interviewed via video conference, a BBC Sport report said.NFL commissioner

Roger Goodell said it "can serve a very positive purpose for our clubs, our fans and the country".

He added: "There is no assurance that we can select a different date and be confident that conditions will be significantly more favourable than they are today."The NFL draft is one of the most sought after events in the US' sporting calendar.

A total of 32 teams recruit talent from the American collegiate system in front of packed media.

The US now has more coronavirus cases than any other country after more than 16,000 COVID-19 infections were reported in a single day.

The number of patient count in America is now over 85,600, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

America leads with 85,653 COVID-19 cases, followed by China with 81,782 and Italy with 80,589 infections, the data showed.Some young and fit people were also becoming seriously ill due to novel coronavirus, Anthony Fauci, the top infectious diseases scientist on the White House COVID-19 task force.

Melbourne, March 27 (IANS) Cricket Australia have unveiled their newest kit which will be worn by Australias mens and womens teams in T20Is in 2020-21 season. It has been designed by a Western Australian cricket fan and graphic designer Kai Jaeger.

Jaeger's 'Vibrant Evolutions' kit was voted as the winner of Cricket Australia's ‘It's Your Design' competition.On Thursday, the board took to Twitter to congratulate Jaeger

whose designed jerseys will be worn by the two sets of Australian teams during the 2021-22 season.

"Congratulations to Kai Jaeger, winners or the ‘It's Your Design' competition. The playing shirt, designed and voted by the fans, will be worn by our T20 teams during the 2021-22 home season," the CA tweet read.The jersey is predominantly dark green with shades of traditional yellow."I tried to make it interesting and different from every angle, but

still recognisable for Australian cricket fans," Jaeger told cricket.com.au."The different shapes and colours help to keep the design fun and upbeat.

The lines, with an upwards trajectory, create a sense of movement and represent the ever-changing nature of the game," he added.The men's and women's teams will wear the same kit, with the sponsor logos the only difference in appearance.

London, March 27 (IANS) Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, who has "completely recovered" from COVID-19, believes people should be "emotionally more open" after the coronavirus pandemic.

Arteta, 38, tested positive for the virus on March 12 but has since recovered after self-isolating.

"We are in a world here where everything is social media, everything is a WhatsApp text," Arteta was quoted as saying by BBC Sports."But how important is touching each other, feeling each other and hugging each other?"I miss that with a

lot of the people I love."We have to be emotionally more open. We have to tell each other what we are feeling," he added.

"We cannot just in two or three months' time - if we are able to get over this quickly - forget about this, because it's so important."

He reported feeling unwell after it was confirmed Evangelos Marinakis -- the owner of Greek side Olympiakos, who played Arsenal in the Europa League in February -- had coronavirus on March 10.

Arteta said his main concern was his three children after his wife and

their nanny contracted the virus."In terms of symptoms, it was a normal virus for me.

I had three or four days which were a little bit difficult, with a bit of a temperature and a dry cough, and some discomfort in my chest. That was it.

The difficulty is that I have people at home, three kids as well and I was worried. My missus has been through it and our nanny's been through it.

"I am feeling completely recovered (now)...," he told the club website."We are living in a unique situation, so I think all of us are trying

to react to the situation that is coming on a daily basis and trying our best to overcome the situation.

The Spaniard urged people across the world to stay indoors and follow the guidelines put in place by the authorities in order to slow down the process of virus transmission.

Mikel Arteta opens up about his coronavirus recovery

Kuala Lumpur, March 27 (IANS) Badminton World Federation (BWF) secretary-general Thomas Lund said that the criticism that it has received from top players over the past few months is "disappointing" to see.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) had come under significant criticism from the players over the past two months as it went through with a number of competitions including and most prominently the All England Championships

while the spread of coronavirus was increasingly becoming a concern throughout the world.

"It has been very disappointing to see some members of the badminton

community speculate on the sincerity and motives of the BWF in this time of crisis," Lund said in an open letter.

"Our number one concern has always been the health and safety of all of our participants."However, at the same time, we are deeply concerned about the cancellation of tournaments and the flow-on effect this has on elite players and coaches whereby they could now be in a position of temporary unemployment and loss of income.""Of

course, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

It was not difficult to argue that ‘wrong decisions' had been taken in an environment changing on nearly an hourly basis, with further decisions therefore required," wrote Lund.

“This has not only been the case for BWF, but most authorities around the world. However, we maintain that BWF made the best possible decisions at the time and with sincere motives to protect both the health and livelihood of all participants.” News of a member from Taiwan’s team at the All England testing positive sent alarm among the athletes.

BWF chief slams athletes for criticism during COVID-19New York, March 27 (IANS)

The US Open golf tournament is set to become the latest sports competition to be postponed due to coronavirus pandemic. The 120th edition of the prestigious competition was scheduled to be held from June 18-21 in New York at the Winged Foot club in Mamaroneck.

The club has however been shut down since the past few days and a report in the New York Post says that the United States Golf Association (USGA) has told the Winged Foot that the the US Open won't be held in June as scheduled.The US has reported over 80,000 cases of

coronavirus infections and has thus crossed Italy and China as the epicentre of the pandemic. Death toll has surpassed 1000 in the country.Earlier, The Masters and the PGA Championship were both delayed due to the

outbreak of coronavirus that has claimed over 24,000 lives thus far across the world. Eight tournaments have been cancelled thus far in the PGA tour including the Players' Championship.

US Open golf tournament likely to be postponed

Saturday - March 28, 2020

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Giving fashion goals and how! Jacqueline Fernandez sporting a vestJacqueline Fernandez is a

sport who never fails to give fashion goals and always aces it. The actress is the perfect package of beauty added with oomph and never fails to impress the audiences with her looks and moods.Jacqueline, yet again aced her fashion game and paired a lacy bralette with

a vest and topped it with a blazer and giving it a retro twist with fl ared pants. Jac-queline adding an oomph gave it wore a gangsta chain diamond choker and acces-soried her hand with stack-ing some more jewelry and kept her hair perfectly sleek and oh my god! Jacqueline totally looked a show stealer

and robbed hearts.Sharing this perfect

melange of retro with mod she shared on her social media and took everyone by total awe.Jacqueline surely knows how to step up her fash-ion game and never fails to give notes in having the perfect wardrobe

every woman needs.The actress is now venturing into the digital space with her most anticipated upcom-ing OTT, `Mrs. Serial Killer` which will mark her debut on the digital platform. The fans can't stop pouring in their love and we are excited to watch her on-screen!

IANS

Priyanka Chopra to star in and co-produce film on the spiritual adviser Ma Anand Sheela

Already in popular demand, Shraddha Kapoor returns to Baaghi 3 after her success with the first

part of the franchise

Amazon Studios has decided to tell the bizarre story of Ma

Anand Sheela, erstwhile secretary of Osho, who came into the limelight two years ago by the Netf-lix docuseries 'Wild, Wild Country', and Priyanka Chopra has been roped in to play the title character in the film titled 'Sheela'.

Ma Anand Sheela was a spiritual adviser and the primary perpetrator of the 1984 Rajneeshpuram bio-terror attack in Oregon. The story is almost too bizarre to believe.

Made famous by Netf-lix docuseries 'Wild, Wild Country', Sheela was the personal secretary of Bhag-wan Shree Rajneesh aka Osho from 1981-1985 and she managed the Rajneesh-puram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon. In an ef-fort to grow the influence of the Rajneesh movement in 1984, Sheela attempted to fill two open seats on

the Wasco County Court in Oregon by bussing in hun-dreds of homeless people and registering them to vote. When that failed, she resorted to infecting salad bars at ten local restaurants with salmonella, causing 751 individuals to develop food poisoning. Luckily, none of the infected indi-

viduals died.The incident was the largest bioterrorist attack in U.S. history. Post the attack she fled to Eu-rope as a fugitive accused of arson, wiretapping, at-tempted murder, and mass poisonings.She pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role and was sentenced to 20 years

in federal prison and pa-roled after 39 months. She moved to Switzerland after her release, where she was later convicted of conspir-ing to murder a U.S. federal prosecutor.

Academy award-winning director Barry Levinson, known for his work on ac-claimed films like 'Rain Man', 'The Natural', 'Good Morning, Vietnam', and others will be helming the film. 'Sheela' is written by Nick Yarborough.

Levinson will also pro-duce via his Baltimore Pic-tures, along Permut Pre-sentations' David Permut, Jason Sosnoff, and Chopra via her Purple Pebble ban-ner.Chopra, represented by UTA, is set to play a lead in 'The Matrix' reboot at War-ner Bros.

and stars in the Netflix films Robert Rodriguez's 'We Can Be Heroes' as well as Ramin Bahrani-directed 'The White Tiger'.

Courtesy :Santa banta

Hrithik Roshan stands up for student bullied

over stutter

Hrithik Roshan came in support of an indi-vidual who was asked

to not to give a presentation in class due to stuttering is-sue. The Bollywood star said that stuttering should never hold him back from dream-ing big.A social media user

wrote: "My cousin who has a stuttering issue, was giving a presentation in his class when the HOD/lecturer told him *if u cannot speak properly may-be u shouldnt study* in front of the entire class. He hasn't come out of his room since this incident."

The user added that "He now refuses to go back to his university and face anyone in the classroom or study, his confi dence is shattered."

Hrithik, who himself had a speech disorder known as stammering and overcame his problem through speech ther-apy classes, took to Twitter on Sunday and wrote: "Please tell your cousin that that profes-sor and his judgement both are irrelevant.

"Stuttering should never hold him back from dreaming BIG! Tell him it's NOT his fault and it's NOT something he needs to be ashamed of. People who shame him are no better than brainless monkeys."On the acting front, Hrithik was last seen on screen in "War". The fi lm also stars Tiger Shroff and Vaani Kapoor.

Courtesy :Santa banta

Shraddha Kapoor is one of the most hardworking and

versatile actresses in Bol-lywood. The actress will next be seen in the action fl ick Baaghi 3 alongside Tiger Shroff. According to Shraddha, her character Siya from Baaghi 3 is "out-spoken and emotionally-driven character".

Shraddha already enjoys wide popularity and has a humungous appeal amongst the masses. Everyone is all praises for her versatility and every character that she brings alive on the screen.

Owing to her Pan India popularity, after basking in the success of Baaghi's fi rst part of the franchise, shraddha is rocking it already with the upcom-ing Baaghi 3.Baaghi 3 will mark Shraddha and Tiger's second pairing as the duo was previously

seen in the fi rst instalment of Baaghi, the duo was absolutely loved by fans and owing to the popular-ity of the pair, the makers decided to bring Shraddha back in the third install-ment as well.

Shraddha's versatility is second to none, the actress jumps in and out of charac-ters with relative ease be it an action movie or a dance fl ick. The actress owned 2019 with superhits like Saaho and Chhichhore and started 2020 with a bang with Street Dancer 3D.

In Baaghi 3 Shraddha will once again be seen essaying a new avatar. On the work front, Shraddha will next be seen in Baaghi 3 alongside Tiger Shroff. The movie is directed by Ahmed Khan and pro-duced by Sajid Nadiad-wala, Baaghi 3 will hit the screens on 6th March 2020.

Courtesy :Santa banta

#BoycottTakht trends after scriptwriter tweets against Hindus

Filmmaker Karan Johars upcoming directorial "Takht" has come in the

line of fi re after a controversial tweet by the fi lm's writer Hus-sain Haidry about Hindus.

The hashtag #BoycottTakht is currently one of the top trends on Twitter, with neti-zens slamming Haidry for al-legedly defaming Hindus in his tweets, reports zoomtventer-tainment.com.

According to the portal, Hus-sain's Twitter account has been locked but screenshots of his tweets with phrases like "Hin-du terrorists" have gone viral, with people slamming him.

Majority of the tweets have been directed towards fi lm-maker Karan Johar, urging him to remove Hussain from the team of "Takht", or else they would boycott the period dra-ma.Johar is yet to respond.

A user wrote: "Hey @Dhar-maMovies this Man who is on Your Pay roll is abusing Hind

Dharma day-n-night.. So we are Boycotting Your Movie #BoycottTakht...@karanjohar @smritiirani."Another tweet-ed: "This guy is the writer of Movie Takht. But Shameless Hindus Like @karanjohar is Still Doing Movie With This...

And Shameless Hindus Will Watch This Movie In Theaters Face with medical mask #Boy-cottTakht #takht."

A Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt fan wrote: "Even though i like @RanveerOffi cial and @aliaa08 but this time i'm gonna Boycott Takht ... Ase anti na-tional ko director rakhta he #KaranJohar shame on you...nikal pahli fursat me!"

This isn't the fi rst time Hus-sain has been condemned for his tweets. A few weeks ago, a series of his tweets had sur-faced in which he wrote: "I want to kill a person. Really."

According to zoomtventer-tainment.com, Hussain, in another tweet, was also seen instigating violence and ask-ing people to pick a fi ght, burn houses and even kill a man if there is a chance. He had re-portedly also badmouthed Brahmins by calling them the root of all evils in the country.

IANS

Eva Mendes is not offended by troll calling her old

Actress Eva Mendes says she is not offended by a troll who called her old.

Weeks after her retort at a troll who mocked her age, the 45-year-old actress revealed the reason she didn't feel of-fended by such rudeness, re-ports aceshowbiz.com.

"I wanted to make sure to get back to that person be-cause I had something to say and I felt like. Look, you mean this, I don't think it was mali-cious but you mean it kind of like an insult," Mendes told people.com.

She added: "I want to show you that I take it as a compli-ment because I'm still here."

The actress said: "And I have, you know, instead of saying I am 46, I wish we could change it and I wish I could say, 'I have 46 years to me' because in Spanish it's very beautiful. It says you say, 'Tengo cuarenta seis anos' I have 46 years and in English I

know, it's a little, you know it's semantics but it's important. It's like I don't feel 46 but I do feel like I have 46 years of ex-perience to me. I just fi nd that so empowering."

IANS

Hollywood star Chris Hemsworth is all set to visit India for

the promotional tour of his upcoming action film "Extraction".

He will visit Mumbai along with director Sam Hargrave, on March 16.

"Extraction", which was initially titled "Dhaka", also stars Indian actors Randeep Hooda and Pankaj Tripathi. Hemsworth shot for the Netflix film in India in 2018.

It revolves around Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth), a fearless, black market mercenary, who embarks on the most deadly extrac-tion of his career when he's enlisted to rescue the kid-napped son of an impris-oned international crime lord.The film is scheduled to release on April 24.

IANS

Chris Hemsworth to visit India

in March

S isters Kriti and Nupur Sanon seems to share a great rapport with

each other. Kriti, especially, is very protective about her little sister Nupur.

"I am 5 years older than Nupur ...She has always been like my baby. I have seen her growing up...and now seeing her achieving her dreams, performing in front of the camera make me very much emotional. I am very much protective and possessive about her," Kriti told IANS.

And like every sibling, they fight with each other, too!

"Our bond is like any sister duo would have. We are like friends. We argue..we talk...we fight and we fight on stupid things. Nupur is my biggest cheerer. Whenever I feel low she lifts up my mood and does her best to

make me happy," she added.Nupur, who is a singer,

made her acting debut op-posite Akshay Kumar in B Praak's music video, titled "Filhall".

Asked when she would debut as a Bollywood actress, Nupur said: "Hope-fully soon. I am glad that I took my time to do my first music video because I never ever dreamt that I would work with superstar Ak-shay Kumar in my very first project. I am going to wait for right opportunities.I am in talks with a few people but I haven't signed anything as of now. A lot people have ap-proached me after seeing the music video but I want to take things easy. This career for me is about longevity. I am in no hurry but I just want to be there for the longest time."

IANS

Kriti Sanon is 'very much protective' about

little sister Nupur