Pandemic: Cases doubling every 4 days

As many as 472 new COVID-19 cases have been confirmed and 11 more deaths reported in the country, taking the total number of cases to 3,374 and the death toll to 79, the health ministry said on Sunday.

However, a tally of figures reported by states showed at least 106 deaths, while the number of confirmed cases touched 3,624. Of them, 284 have been cured and discharged.

Officials attributed the discrepancy to procedural delays.

Lav Agarwal, joint secretary in the health ministry, said the number of cases in India is doubling every 4.1 days. “But if cases reported due to the Tablighi Jamaat event, had not come, then the doubling rate would have been 7.4 days,” he said.

At least 9,000 people had participated at the congregation at Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters in Nizamuddin West, Delhi, last month, after which many travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works. So far, more than 400 Covid-19 cases and 15 deaths have been linked to the meet.

Asked about the scarcity of personal protective equipment in several states, Agarwal said, “We have already allocated PPE to states. The allotment is based on the number of cases reported. The procurement procedure has started and we will not face any problem regarding PPE but their usage should be optimised by using them rationally.”

He said the Ministry has discussed this with all health secretaries, chief secretaries and district magistrates.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday contacted top leaders from across the political spectrum, including Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, to discuss the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak.

He also spoke to former presidents Pranab Mukherjee and Pratibha Patil, and former prime ministers Manmohan Singh and HD Deve Gowda, sources said. Details of the discussions were not disclosed.

The PM telephoned the leaders of other political parties as well, including Mulayam Singh and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, Odisha CM and Biju Janata Dal leader Naveen Patnaik, Telangana CM and Telangana Rashtra Samithi leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader MK Stalin and Shiromani Akali Dal leader Parkash Singh Badal.

Modi is scheduled to interact with leaders of various political parties via a video conference on Wednesday. The TMC has said it will not attend this meeting.

Meanwhile, eight Malaysian nationals, who attended the Nizamuddin meet, were caught at the Delhi airport while trying to flee the country through a special flight arranged for stranded travellers. They were barred from boarding the flight as the Centre has directed all state police forces to take action against those foreigners who had come to India on a tourist visa and participated the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. The government has already blacklisted 960 foreigners and cancelled their visa for violating visa conditions.

42% of Coronavirus Patients in 21-40 Age Bracket

As much as 42% patients of coronavirus in the country belong to 21-40 years age, Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Aggarwal said. “9% Covid-19 patients belong to 0-20 year age group, 42% patients belong to 21-40 years age group, 33% cases pertain to patients between 41 and 60 years, and 17% patients have crossed 60 years,” Aggrawal said at a press conference.

Underlining that about 30% of the coronavirus cases in the country were linked to “one particular place”, he said 1,023 Covid-19 positive cases found in 17 states have been traced to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in Delhi last month. Aggarwal said in the daily media briefing that the rate of doubling of Covid-19 cases in India was lower than the rest of the world. He said 2,902 Covid-19 cases have been reported so far and cases have risen by 601 since Friday. At least 58 are in critical condition in Kerala, Delhi and MP. There have been 68 deaths, including 12 since Friday, have been reported and added that 183 people have recovered or have been discharged. At the time of going to press, India had 3,072 Covid-19 cases and 75 deaths, according to the ministry.

At the briefing, Agarwal said about 1,000 positive cases with links to Tablighi Jamaat congregation was reported across 17 states. “Rigorous contact tracing is on across 17 states which have reported cases related to Tablighi Jamaat congregation,” the health ministry official said. “Around 30% of the total cases so far are linked to one particular place where we could not sort of understand it and manage it.” The ministry said the testing capacity has been ramped up significantly to over 10,000 tests per day to detect the coronavirus infection.

Of March factory activity....

Factory activity in the country grew at its slowest pace in four months as the impact of the coronavirus pandemic weighed on sentiment, clouding the business confidence outlook.

The IHS Market India Manufacturing PMI in March was at 51.8, below the 54.5 mark recorded in February and the reading signalled the slowest improvement in business conditions since November 2019. The 50-point mark separates expansion from contraction. The survey is compiled from responses to questionnaires sent to purchasing managers in a panel of around 400 manufacturers.

“The Indian manufacturing sector remained relatively sheltered from the negative impact of the global coronavirus outbreak in March. However, there were pockets of disruption and a clear onset of fear among firms,” said Eliot Kerr, economist at IHS Markit.

“New orders and output both grew at softer rates, but those readings were relatively tame compared to those seen at goods producers in Europe and other parts of Asia. The most prominent signs of trouble came from the new export orders and future activity indices, which respectively indicated tumbling of global demand and softening of domestic confidence. Should the trajectory of injections continue in the same vein, the Indian manufacturing sector can expect a much sharper negative impact in the coming months, similar to the scale seen in other countries,” Kerr said.

Mumbai - Pune Expressway: 189-year-old Amrutanjan bridge to be dismantled

The drive between Pune and Mumbai looks set to become a little safer later this month.

The Maharashtra Road Development Corporation said it would dismantle a section of the historic Amrutanjan bridge between April 4 and 14.

The Pune-Mumbai expressway curves in a dangerous manner under the 189-year-old structure and has been the spot for many fatal accidents and heavy congestion. The pillars of the bridge have divided the road into multiple channels, eating into the carriageway. Highway Safety Patrol personnel said the wide pillars often hinder the movement of traffic.

The dismantling will be done nearly three years after MRSDC proposed to bring down the bridge to ease the many problems faced by expressway commuters in the Bor ghat section.

“There is hardly any movement of vehicles on the expressway due to the lockdown, and so, little inconvenience would be posed to people while we work. The same contractor working on the construction of tunnels and viaducts on the expressway will bring down the bridge through controlled blasting,” Dilip Ukride, chief engineer, MSRDC-Pune said.

Last June, MSRDC floated a second tender for the dismantling after the first failed to elicit any response.

When MSRDC first revealed plans to bring down the historic structure in 2017, it ran into opposition, with more than 20 objections filed against the move. Ukride said the second tender was floated only after the objections were resolved.

HSP officials said permission has been sought from the district collector and revenue commissioner of Raigad district to bring down the bridge. “The bridge, which is not being used by traffic, will be brought down by controlled blasting between April 4 and 14. Traffic on the Mumbai to Pune lane will be diverted at Anda Point (44 km milestone) and join the expressway at the Lonavla exit (55 km milestone), and vice versa for traffic on the Pune-Mumbai lane,” HSP officials said.

J&K Domicile

Any person who has resided in Jammu and Kashmir for a period of 15 years will now be deemed as domicile of the union territory, the Central government stated in the latest gazette notification on Wednesday.

Over eight months after the abrogation of Article 370 and bifurcation the erstwhile state into two union territories, the government has issued new domicile laws for the residents.

J&K civil services (decentralisation and recruitment) Act defines a domiciled person as the one who has resided for a period of 15 years in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10 or 12 examination in an educational institution located in the UT. Prior to this, 35A of the Constitution of J&K empowered it to define a resident.

“Subject to the provisions of this Act, no person shall be eligible for appointment to a post carrying a pay scale of not more than Level-4 (Rs.25,500) unless he is a domicile of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads section 5A of The Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services (Decentralisation and Recruitment) Act.

The level includes posts like junior assistant and constable, which is considered as the lowest category of non-gazetted posts. This means domiciles of J&K UT would have exclusive right on class-4 and non-gazetted posts to be advertised by the Services.

The domicile also includes children of central government officials, all India services officers, officials of public sector undertaking and autonomous body of central government, public sector banks, officials of statutory bodies, officials of central universities and recognised research institutes of central government who have served in Jammu and Kashmir for a total period of ten years.

“The law has empowered tehsildars within their territorial jurisdiction to issue domicile certificates The government of J&K UT has also been empowered to notify any other officer to be competent authority for issuance of domicile certificate,” order issued by the Union home ministry said.

Meanwhile, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah hit out at the Centre, calling the move insult heaped on injury and questioned the timing of a domicile notification as India fights to contain the infectious novel coronavirus outbreak.

“Talk about suspect timing. At a time when all our efforts and attention should be focused on containing COVID-19 outbreak, the government slips in a new domicile law for J&K. Insult is heaped on injury when we see the law offers none of the protections promised,” Abdullah tweeted.

“You can imagine how hollow the domicile law is from the fact that even the new party, created with Delhi’s blessings, whose leaders were lobbying in Delhi for this law, have been forced to criticize it,” he said.

Banks: Mega merger takes effect

The government’s mega merger plan to strengthen the financial system came into effect on Wednesday, combining 10 public sector undertaking banks into four. Announced in August last year, the merger combines Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank into one lender managing business worth Rs.17.95 lakh crore. After the merger, together these will form the second largest public sector bank in the country, after State Bank of India.

Similarly, Canara Bank stands merged with Syndicate Bank, which will make it the fourth-largest public sector lender.

Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank have been merged with Union Bank of India, and Indian Bank with Allahabad Bank.

All branches of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will function as Union Bank of India branches with effect from April 1, 2020.

The big consolidation in the country’s public banking sector is part of the government’s plan of making India a $5-trillion economy by 2025.

With this, the number of public sector banks in India will come down to 12 from 27 in 2017, six merged banks and six independent public sector banks. The branches of the six lenders will operate as part of the four anchor banks, according to the Reserve Bank of India.

Customers, including depositors of merging banks, will be treated as customers of the banks in which these banks have been merged with effect from 1 April 2020.

It was widely speculated that the government may defer the consolidation exercise for some time due to the novel coronavirus pandemic that has affected our economy. In March, however, the cabinet gave its approval for the mergers that will consolidate operations of 10 PSBs into four ‘mega banks’.

The merger comes into force as the country entered the seventh day of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, which is threatening world growth. Trade unions of bank officers have, however, been opposing the merger. Only last week, they wrote to the Prime Minister seeking to defer the merger schemes due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown.

Last year, trade unions protested against the mergers stating that the move will impact jobs, disrupting operations at some branches.

The government has maintained that the merger will not cause job losses. The Centre injected about Rs 2.6 lakh crore of taxpayers’ money into state-run banks over the last five years to revive the sector. 

FY20: Sales of cars, bikes see worst crash in 20 years

Sales of cars and two-wheelers crashed by record levels in fiscal 2019-20, going down the most in over 20 years. And, the forecast looks more bleak due to the dampening effect from the coronavirus lockdown. The grim situation may prompt companies to offer discounts and freebies to lure buyers in coming months, despite severe pressure on profitability.

The numbers in March, which have borne the initial brunt after fears around the virus started building up, have fallen sharply, with decline for passenger vehicles seen at 50% and two-wheelers at around 40%. According to numbers sourced from industry players, sales of passenger vehicles — cars, SUVs and UVs — fell by 18% in 2019-20, steepest since the year 1998-1999. The two-wheeler market is expected to see a decline of 16-17% for the full financial year.

Company executives feel that the going may be tough in coming time since disposable incomes could be under pressure as corporates start counting their losses due to the pandemic. Also, fear of job losses, slowdown and salary cuts may further dissuade buyers from engaging in new vehicle purchases, seen as the second-biggest spend after property.