分类： bharat

India on Wednesday suspended all tourist visas till April 15 in a bid to contain spread of novel coronavirus, according to an official statement.

The suspension will come into effect from 1200 GMT on March 13 at the port of departure.

The decision was taken at the meeting of group of ministers held in Delhi under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visas stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” the statement said.

Visa-free travel facility granted to OCI cardholders is also kept in abeyance till April 15.

Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission, the release said, adding that all incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 will be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

This discovery was made by a team of Chinese government epidemiologists. The study has also revealed that COVID-19 can also survive for days on surfaces where the infected water droplets have landed, which when comes in contact with another person, can easily infect them when he/she rubs the face without disinfecting or washing hands.

The survival rate of the virus is dependent on various factors such as the temperature of the environment. For instance, at 37 degrees celsius, it has the ability to survive for two to three days on surfaces made from glass, fabric, metal plastic and paper.

This study is based on an outbreak case from January 22 in Hunan province in China, where a passenger (who felt sick at the time) boarded a fully-booked long-distance coach during peak Lunar Year travel season (before coronavirus was declared a national crisis). He wasn’t wearing a mask, neither were other people on the 48-seater bus, resulting in many passengers getting infected on the four-hour journey.

Even though the sick passenger didn’t interact with others on the closed bus, but by the time the bus reached the next city, he had already infected seven others. This included people not just sitting next to him/her but also some sitting six rows away — around 4.5 metres away.

A leader of the students’ wing of the ruling JD(U) was shot dead here, allegedly by an associate who took exception to non-inclusion of his name in a poster put up for Holi festivities, police said on Wednesday.

According to Deputy Superintendent of Police Rajesh Singh Prabhakar, Kanhaiya Kaushik was killed in Patel Nagar area of the city on Tuesday night and two persons, Amar Kant Jha and Dharmendra, have been arrested in this connection.

Kush, the prime accused who had allegedly pulled the trigger, however, was absconding, he said.

Kaushik was a spokesman with the Chhatra JD(U) and the vice-president of the students’ union of A N College.

He had lodged a police complaint against Kush and his associates on Tuesday after they engaged a scuffle with him over non-inclusion of their names in posters printed for “Holi milan” function, organized on the eve of the festival.

Hours later, Kush called up Kaushik saying he wanted to patch up and requested that they meet at Patel Nagar late in the night, the deputy SP said.

As the matter could not be settled, Kush opened fire in a fit of rage, killing Kaushik, he said.

One of Kaushik’s associates also received a gunshot injury in the melee and was admitted to a hospital, Prabhakar said, adding that Kush, along with Jha and Dharmendra who were accompanying him, fled the spot.

Supporters of Kaushik staged a demonstration here in protest against the attack.

They were pacified by JD(U) MLC Ranvir Nandan, who described the deceased leader as “an active worker” of the party and gave assurances that the accused will be brought to justice soon.

One doesn’t need to be too active on social media to have spotted #ShameOnYouRohitShetty trending on Twitter. Rohit has been branded ‘misogynist’ and ‘sexist’ for refusing to reshoot a scene of Sooryavanshi on Katrina Kaif’s request. “Katrina, three guys (Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn and Ranveer Singh) are walking with blasts happening behind, nobody will notice you,” was Rohit’s argument when Katrina pointed out that she had blinked in the scene and a retake is advisable.

Twitter, woke and armed with an evolved vocabulary that include words like misogyny now, ripped Rohit apart. After all, how could he? Is this where A-list female actors like Katrina stand in Bollywood’s pecking order? No one is going to notice her because three macho men will lead the show, so she should zip it and be the eye candy she was cast to be?

While Twitter screamed Dracarys on Rohit Shetty, another similar macho man (Tiger Shroff) film with a no-one-will-notice-you woman (Shraddha Kapoor) – Baaghi 3 – earned Rs 76.94 crore in 5 days. Double standards?
We blinked, and just like that missed the core issue here that it is us, the audience that’s oiling the wheel of misogyny in Bollywood that’s now staring us in the face.

We like to believe that we are woke. It’s easy that way. But calling Rohit Shetty out when it didn’t bother us when Shraddha’s role in Baaghi 3 was reduced to a mere extended cameo only exposes us. Or when in Simmba no one noticed Sara Ali Khan next to Ranveer. Or Singham and Singham Returns where Kajal Aggarwal and Kareena Kapoor Khan, respectively, faded next to Ajay. Shame on us, if anyone at all, for allowing male-centrism to thrive in Bollywood to a point where women are reduced to mere eye candies, and when even that’s not enough, there’s the Nora Fatehis of the world brought in to gyrate on screen.

Congress MP and former party chief Rahul Gandhi said that Jyotiraditya Scindia is the “only one” who can walk into his house anytime. “He was with me in college,” Gandhi said, breaking his silence on the exit of Scindia from the party. Jyotiraditya Scindia — a prominent face of the Congress from Madhya Pradesh — quit the party this week. Reportedly, Scindia, who was increasingly finding himself sidelined within the Congress, had been wanting to meet Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia to discuss his position in the party.

The two, however, did not meet Scindia forcing the former Guna MP to quit the party and join the Bharatiya Janata Party, according to reports. When asked about these reports on Wednesday in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi told media persons, “Jyotiraditya is the only one who can walk in my house anytime… He was with me in college.”

Gandhi’s comments came hours after Scindia joined the BJP at an event in Delhi. Scindia joined the party a day after making public that he was quitting the party. The exit of Scindia, who was long seen as a close aide to Rahul Gandhi and part of the latter’s ‘new guard’, has pushed the Kamal Nath-led Congress government in Madhya Pradesh to the brink of a collapse.

Jyotiraditya Scindia is believed to be leading a pack of around 20 Congress MLAs who may withdraw support to the government, forcing it to collapse. The MLAs in question have already sent letters expressing their desire to quit the Madhya Pradesh assembly.

The coronavirus outbreak has not killed anyone in India so far, but it has been absolutely lethal to the poultry industry, with a false rumor leading one farmer to destroy his entire livelihood.
Dr. Suresh Bhatlekar, a poultry farmer from the town of Dahanu in the state of Maharashtra, is one of the many local poultry producers that have fallen victim to the coronavirus-linked panic, fueled by social media posts suggesting that the COVID-19 could be transmitted through white meat.

Though unfounded, the rumor has spread like wildfire on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, prompting many to drop chicken and eggs from their daily diet, while sending poultry sales plummeting by up to 80 percent across India, the third-largest producer of eggs and fourth-largest of chickens in the world.

Efforts by the industry’s professionals, lawmakers and veterinarians to reassure the public have so far been in vain. Some farmers, struggling to pay their employees due to lack of demand, are opting for drastic measures.

“Due to the losses, my labourers have no work as I have stopped production,” Bhatlekar said, as cited by the Hindustan Times, explaining why he decided to destroy some ₹5.8 crore – approximately $782,000 – worth of eggs and day-old chicks.

The Indian government has taken pains to stop the ruse from spreading. State authorities said that they would be setting up so-called “chicken parties,” where people will be offered to help themselves to dishes with chicken meat.

“Poultry products and dishes made out of chicken will be served to people at discounted rates. Also, an awareness campaign about the virus vis-a-vis poultry industry will be carried out,” Maharashtra’s minister of animal husbandry Sunil Kedar told India Today TV in a recent interview.

Indonesian Muslims conducted a rally in front of the Indian Embassy here, Friday, as a mark of their solidarity for Indian Muslims and demanded that the Indian government end violence against Muslims in South Asia.

The demonstration was initiated by the Front Pembela Islam (FPI-Islam Defenders’ Front), GNPF Ulama, and the 212 Alumni Brotherhood (PA 212).

The protesters strongly condemned the recent violence against Muslims in India that resulted in the deaths of 42 people and caused injuries to some 350 others. The communal mob by Indian Hindus against Muslims was triggered by the passage of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act in December 2019 by the Modi administration.

The Indonesian protesters brandished posters that read “Stop Genocide of Muslims in India”, “Save Muslims in India”, “Modi is Terrorist”, and “The Government, don’t remain silent. Cut relations with India”, among other things.

The rally’s coordinators demanded a meeting with a representative of the Indian Embassy to echo their protests.

The Jakarta Police tightly guarded the Indian embassy that was protected with barbed wire.

On March 2, members of Muslim organizations in Medan, North Sumatra Province, had held a rally in front of the Indian Consulate General to echo their solidarity towards Indian Muslims and condemn the bloody violence.

To bailout or not to bailout? Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday sought to allay market fears after the RBI took over control of Yes Bank, saying a resolution will be found soon. “I have been personally monitoring the situation,” she said on Friday. The government-approved plan envisages an SBI-led consortium buying half of Yes Bank’s shares, though further plans on how exactly the bank could be brought back from the brink remains unclear.

But the bigger question in the minds of bureaucrats, policy makers and industry, especially in this age of economic slowdown, is whether other institutions in the banking as well as other troubled sectors can also expect a bailout from the government. And more importantly, is it the right routemap for the government to take?

Put this into perspective with moves within the government to put up a ‘bailout’ package being formulated for the AGR-hammered telecom sector. With the Supreme Court hardening its stand that operators have to shell out their dues and biggies like Vodafone-Idea saying they will have to shut down operations if they are forced to pay up the entire amount (Vodafone has paid Rs 3,500 crore only out of its estimated dues of Rs 53,000 crore), reports indicate a proposal for relief to telecom operators to ensure they don’t stop operations could come up for approval in the next cabinet meeting itself. The total AGR dues is about Rs 1.02 lakh crore, of which about Rs 25,701 crore has been paid up so far, with Vodafone-Idea, Airtel and Tata Teleservices being the worst affected.

Bailout is a silver bullet often asked for by both government and private players, but seldom granted in the manner they envisage. While government has shouldered the losses of public sector entities through bailouts over the years—the repeated largesse for Air India is a case in point—the buck stops short when it comes to private companies. Though a bailout was mulled over last year for beleaguered private airline Jet Airways, it did not materialise, despite it being just before the general elections. The airline’s closure eventually left 16,000 employees jobless and an aviation sector without enough capacity as was feared. The airline was forced to suspend operations in April last year.

Another case in point is the economic slowdown that had seen auto and real estate players pleading to the government for bailout. While the auto sector was left waiting in the wings, the real estate sector saw Rs 25,000 crore-worth bailout announcement in November. The new year eve announcement of Rs 1.02 lakh crore infrastructure fund may have been billed a ‘stimulus’, but is actually a case of a rose by any other name.

Twelve more people have tested positive for coronavirus — six in Kerala and three each in Karnataka and Pune, state authorities said on Tuesday as the total cases went up to 59 and amid COVID-19 scare, a combination of two anti-HIV drugs was used for the first time in India in the treatment of two patients.

The health ministry said the total number of confirmed cases has risen to 50, adding the rest are being retested for confirmation. Once the fresh cases declared by the state governments are taken into account, the figure will go up to 59.

In Karnataka, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said four persons have been confirmed for coronavirus, including three new cases. In Pune also, three persons tested positive, a day after two cases were reported.

In the morning, 58 Indians were brought back home from coronavirus-hit Iran in a military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

IAF spokesperson Group Captain Anupam Banerjee said the C-17 Globemaster aircraft evacuated 25 men, 31 women and two children. It also brought swab samples of 529 Indians to carry out laboratory tests and check whether they have coronavirus infection.

Those who returned have been quarantined at a medical facility in Hindon.

Announcing the latest cases in Kerala at a media interaction in Thiruvananthapuram after a special cabinet meeting held to discuss the coronavirus situation, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at least 1,116 people are under observation — 149 in isolation wards of various hospitals and 967 under home quarantine.

The fresh cases are friends and relatives of an Italy-returned couple and their son who had on Saturday tested positive for the deadly virus along with two other kin staying with them at their home in Rane in Pathanamthitta district, Health Minister K K Shailaja, who was also present, said.

The aged parents of the couple are among the six latest positive cases, she said.

In Jaipur, the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir, both second-line HIV drugs, was administered was administered on an elderly Italian couple undergoing treatment for Covid-19 at the SMS Hospital.

The Drug Controller General of India approved “restricted use” of these medications for treating those affected by novel coronavirus after the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) sought their emergency approval.

SMS Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr D S Meena said the Italian man and his wife had developed severe respiratory problems following which a decision was taken to put them on the combination of lopinavir and ritonavir.

According to officials, consent of the patients was taken before the drugs were administered.

This combination along with other drugs has been used in clinical trials in China, where coronavirus first emerged, and Thailand for treating Covid-19 patients.

In Karnataka, a software engineer who returned from the US on March 1 tested positive on Monday, becoming the first COVID-19 patient in the state.

According to health department officials, his wife and daughter too tested positive for the virus on Tuesday.

Another person, who had travelled from America via London and arrived in Bengaluru on March 8, also tested positive, they said.

State Health Minister Sriramulu said the family members of the four persons have been quarantined. Using a hashtag of #CoronaVirusOutBreak, the minister said, “I appeal to the people to make sure that this disease does not spread further.”

Qatar has temporarily barred travelers from 14 different foreign nations from today as the coronavirus infection tally surged globally. The ban covers China, Egypt, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Syria and Thailand. Qatar has a coronavirus infection toll of 15.

Globally, such measures are now the norm. The ministry of health has published a travel advisory for Indian citizens, asking them to refrain from traveling to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and Japan. According to the statement: “Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy and Japan and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19 affected countries. In addition to visa restrictions already in place, passengers traveling from /having visited Italy or Republic of Korea and desirous of entering India will need certificate of having tested negative for COVID-19 from the designated laboratories authorized by the health authorities of these countries. This will be enforced from 00:00 hours of March 10, 2020, and is a temporary measure till cases of COVID-19 subside.”

Even as restrictions on overseas tourists rose, Japan lodged a strong protest with India over its decision to cancel all e-visas to Japanese nationals in view of coronavirus cases. Japan issued a demarche to India seeking review of its decision to cancel e-visas to Japanese nationals. In its demarche, Japan took strong note of India’s decision to club Japanese nationals along with people from other countries ignoring strong bilateral ties between the two nations.

India had suspended all regular visas/e-visas granted on or before March 3 to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan as part of measures to check spread of coronavirus in the country. The regular/e-visas granted to people from Italy, Iran, Japan and South Korea were suspended after these countries reported rising number of coronavirus cases. The e-visas granted to people from these four countries who have not yet entered India were also suspended with immediate effect. India had suspended regular/e-visas granted on or before February 5 to Chinese nationals and the restriction is continuing.

On Sunday, five fresh coronavirus cases were reported in Kerala, bringing the tally to 39. Three people who returned from coronavirus-affected regions in the past nine day were on Sunday quarantined for suspected exposure in Indore in Madhya Pradesh, a senior health official said on Sunday. Indore District Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr Praveen Jadia said the three, including a 34-year-old woman, had returned from the United States and Malaysia.

After flooding and landslides caused numerous deaths in Pakistan late last week, parts of the country are bracing for the arrival of another potent storm system.

The storm will track from southern Iran into Pakistan through Tuesday before arriving in northern Pakistan on Wednesday.

Showers and thunderstorms will spread from eastern Afghanistan into far northern India, including the states of Himachal, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh by Wednesday.

Steadier and heavier rain is forecast for far eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and into far northern India as the storm forces moisture into the meeting point of the Hindu Kush and Himalayan mountains.

By Friday, the storm will begin to move east. Rain and storms will gradually taper off across Pakistan, but they will spread farther east along the Himalayas into northeastern India and Bhutan.

Through the second half of the week, isolated showers and thunderstorms are also expected to develop in parts of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal of eastern India.

This Friday, we’re flocking to the theatres to catch Irrfan make a come back to the big screen after a 2-year-long hiatus, with Angrezi Medium. Speaking about working with Irrfan, his co-star in the film, Kareena Kapoor Khan, said, “I have worked with all the Khans – Shah Rukh, Salman, Aamir and Saif. But for me, it is an honour and privilege to work with Irrfan Khan. He is the pioneer, one of the finest actors among all the Khans if I may say, and he is the biggest Khan for me.”

But the biggest Khan of Hindi cinema had quite a rocky start too. He missed out plenty of coveted opportunities – the most notable of all is Mira Nair’s, Salaam Bombay. In this week’s Tuesday Trivia, we tell you how a role in Nair’s 1988-film, that could have made Irrfan, was reduced to a blink-and-you-miss cameo. And how he rose like a falcon later, The Namesake, also directed by Nair.

In 1986, when Mira Nair visited NSD (National School of Drama), her eyes were looking for trained actors who could work with street kids in her upcoming film Salaam Bombay, a film based on the lives of street kids in Mumbai. At the basement workshop of the college, she spotted Irrfan.

“I noticed his focus, his intensity, his very remarkable look – his hooded eyes. I clocked him,” she said to Anees Chhabra for his book Irrfan Khan, The Man, The dreamer, The Star.

For the 20-year-old Irrfan, it was a dream come true. He jumped on the offer and flew to Mumbai to attend the film’s workshop. He and actor Raghubhir Yadav stayed at a flat that Mira had rented. They, along with a few street kids, took part in workshops that were organised at the flat.

A towering sculpture representing the lethal Covid-19 virus was set ablaze by Indians in preparation for a religious celebration ushering in spring, as the country’s health authorities step up measures to contain the illness.
People in Mumbai gathered on Monday to torch what they dubbed the “Coronasur,” a gigantic monster-like effigy made to symbolize the virus sweeping Asia, Europe and North America. In a theatrical display ahead of the Holi festival, a jumbo-sized flaming ‘sword’ was plunged into the beast, quickly roasting it from head to toe and prompting raucous cheers from the crowd.
The ceremonial slaying of the virus comes as cases in India spike to 45, with several states reporting their first infections in the last week, prompting officials to boost containment measures across the country – in addition to burning effigies, that is.

The central government has suspended e-visas for travelers coming from new coronavirus hotspots – namely Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan – and imposed mandatory health checks at 21 airports. The Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) was also ordered to begin preparing facilities for those that may require quarantine, which are expected to offer 5,400 beds. An additional 75 isolation wards will also be created by other federal agencies, according to India Today.

Regional health authorities have also scaled up screenings for the illness, with thousands of travelers in the state of Uttar Pradesh, where a number of infections have been detected, monitored for any symptoms.

Naval cadets around the world think of Sergey Gorshkov as the man who said ‘Better is the enemy of good’ and transformed the Red Fleet into the powerful Soviet Navy. Little known fact is that he ‘fathered’ the Indian Navy, too.
There was little to suggest Sergey would become a sailor in February 1910, when he was born in Kamenets-Podolsky, in what would later become Ukraine. From the vast inland plains of Podolia, his family moved to Kolomna, near Moscow – and even farther away from the sea. Yet at 17, Gorshkov joined the Red Fleet. He would make its way through its ranks, fighting and leading many engagements during WWII, to become the Soviet Navy’s youngest-ever supreme commander in 1956, at the age of 42.

Soviet Admiral Sergey Gorshkov (file photo) © Russian Defense Ministry
So why did the Indian Embassy in Moscow host the celebration of what would have been Gorshkov’s 110th birthday recently? Because the legendary admiral who built the Soviet Navy into a Cold War powerhouse also transformed the Indian Navy into a modern sea power to be reckoned with.

“Gorshkov built the Soviet navy… and it was because of his efforts and skill, that the Soviet Union became a global power,” India’s ambassador to Russia Bala Venkatesh Varma told, adding that the Indo-Russian naval relationship is a rare and “unique example where something that started in the last century, 55 years ago, is still continuing today.”

This special relationship can be directly traced to Gorshkov, who laid the foundation for the ever-evolving modern military relationship between New Delhi and Moscow.

Amilitary transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) brought back 58 Indians from coronavirus-hit Iran on Tuesday, official said.

The aircraft, a C-17 Globemaster, was sent to Tehran on Monday evening.

About 2,000 Indians are living in Iran, a country that has witnessed increasing numbers of coronavirus cases in the last few days.

“The IAF aircraft has landed. Mission completed. On to the next,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, he said, “First batch of 58 Indian pilgrims being brought back from Iran. IAF C-17 taken off from Tehran and expected to land soon in Hindon.”

“Thanks to the efforts of our Embassy @India_in_Iran and Indian medical team there, operating under challenging conditions. Thank you @IAF_MCC. Appreciate cooperation of Iranian authorities. We are working on the return of other Indians stranded there (sic),” Jaishankar added.

The aircraft landed at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, from where the passengers were take to a medical facility.

According to latest reports, 237 people have died of novel coronavirus in Iran while the number of positive cases stands at around 7,000.

It is the second such evacuation by the C-17 Globemaster in the last two weeks.

On February 27, 76 Indians and 36 foreign nationals were brought back from the Chinese city of Wuhan by the aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

The C-17 Globemaster is the largest military aircraft in the IAF’s inventory. The plane can carry large combat equipment, troops and humanitarian aid across long distances in all weather conditions.

Four days ago, a Mahan airline plane brought swab samples of 300 Indians from Iran to India.

Just the mention of ‘Coronavirus’ is enough to cause a minor panic, making people tighten their face masks and press down their sanitizer nozzles, while ears pricked for the sound of a cough. The fear is real, of course, as the number of infected people in India continues to rise every single day.

Our new normal is living in a COVID-19 infected world, whether you like it or not. This tiny parasite that you can’t even see is causing such unprecedented havoc across the world, analysts say its economic cost is already reaching the levels of the Great Recession of 2008. Here are a few maps that break down the adverse impact of Coronavirus on the world.

Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor was trying to sell off three prime properties worth around Rs 1000 crores before being placed under arrest by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), sources said. The three properties reportedly belong to Kapoor’s wife, Bindu, who is also under scanner as ED probes suspicious transactions of around Rs 4300 crores.

It is suspected that Rana Kapoor was planning to leave the country after disposing-off his assets.

ED is investigating Rana Kapoor’s three properties in Delhi which have a value of more than Rs 1000 crores.

One of the property which is under the scanner was bought from Avantha Realty, Gautam Thappar’s company which had borrowed money from Yes Bank.

According to sources, Bindu Kapoor bought a prime property on Delhi’s Amrita Shergil Marg in her company’s name Bliss Abode Ltd, on account of a loan default by Avantha Realty. Yes Bank’s exposure to Avantha Realty was Rs 500 crore.

Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd had bought this property by raising Rs 380 crore from a Mumbai based Non-banking Financial Company. The address of Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd is also the same as the property bought.

Yes Bank allegedly, instead of going for a procedure under the RBI’s suggested guidelines to recover the loan, sold the property for a bare minimum price of Rs 380 crore to Bliss Abode Pvt Ltd.

Rana Kapoor had reportedly asked some top officials from Yes Bank to help in selling these properties.

Amrita Shergill Marg is one of the most prime areas of Delhi and sources said that the property was priced at around Rs 450 crores. The concept note prepared for the property says that it is located in a high profile neighbourhood.

As of March 9, the number of people infected with coronavirus (Covid-19) across the globe has crossed the 110,000 mark. This infection which originated from an exotic market in China’s Wuhan city has claimed more than 3,800 lives. Not only has Covid-19 led to school closures in many parts of the world but experts now believe that it is likely to have a lasting impact on the global economy.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the Health Ministry on Monday confirmed that 44 individuals have been tested positive for Covid-19 in India. This number includes the three patients who were treated and discharged after testing positive for the infection in Kerala. As of March 9, a total of 11,913 cases are under Integrated Disease Surveillance program (IDSP) community follow-up.

HERE ARE TOP 10 HIGHLIGHTS FROM MARCH 9:
1The day’s first developments came to light from Ernakulam in Kerala where a 3-year-old child was tested positive for Covid-19. The child landed at Cochin International Airport On Sunday, five new cases of Covid-19 were reported from the state. Out of these three were members of the same family with travel history to Italy and the remaining two were relatives who came in contact with them.
2A new case of Covid-19 was reported from Agra in Uttar Pradesh on March 9. This was the second such case reported from the state after a bus driver in Agra tested positive for coronavirus earlier this month.
3The states of Punjab and Karnataka along with the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir reported their first case of Covid-19 on Monday.
4Another case of coronavirus was reported from Delhi on Monday. Earlier, a PayTM employee with travel history of Italy tested positive for the infection and was shifted to an isolation ward. Family and friends who came in contact with the patient were also screened by officials. As of yet, four people have tested positive for the infection in Delhi.
5Three individuals were quarantined for fear of coronavirus in Indore city of Madhya Pradesh on May 9. In the backdrop of this development, 19 individuals screened for the virus tested negative on the same day.
6On Monday, the central government directed the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) to prepare quarantine facilities with a bed capacity of more than 5,400 patients. In addition, the CRPF, CISF, ITBP, SSB and NSG have also been asked to create 75 isolation wards.
7One of Indian Air Force’s C-17 Globemasters was on Monday evening flown to Tehran in order to evacuate Indians stranded in coronavirus-affected Iran. The airplane will return with the Indians currently in Iran, on March 20.
8The PIB, in a statement on Monday, said that 43 samples have tested positive out of 3,003 samples tested for Covid-19. In addition, 2,694 samples have tested negative.
9The PIB, in a statement on Monday, said that 43 samples have tested positive out of 3,003 samples tested for Covid-19. In addition, 2,694 samples have tested negative.

The coronavirus outbreak, which has triggered a global health scare, has alarmed health officials in India, following a spike in new cases being reported from various states over the past two weeks. As on March 9, a total of 43 confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in India, with the latest patients including a three-year-old child in Kerala’s Ernakulam district and a 63-year-old woman in Jammu and Kashmir. A day earlier, five people tested positive for COVID-19 (the disease caused by novel coronavirus) in Kerala.

Kerala incidentally was also the first Indian state to report a positive coronavirus case on January 30. The patient was a student studying in China and had returned home on account of the Lunar New Year festivities.

In a span of four days, two other positive coronavirus cases were reported in Kerala, prompting the local government to declare a state emergency on February 3. These three patients were immediately put in isolation at state medical facilities and over 3,400 people who were suspected to have come in contact with them were put in quarantines and observed for coronavirus-related symptoms. Days later, the three positive cases were discharged following treatment.

Between February 3 and March 1, India saw a calm phase in regards to the global coronavirus outbreak as no new case was reported. But things have changed rapidly since then as between March 1 and March 9, 40 people have tested positive for COVID-19. These cases have been reported from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, J&K and Ladakh.

The Punjab Police lathicharged unemployed teachers on Sunday to foil their march towards Chief Minister Amarinder Singh’s residence in Patiala, resulting in injuries to five of them.

One of the teachers jumped into the Bhakra canal. He was rescued immediately.

Police said some members of the force were also injured.

The protesters were demanding jobs, saying they had cleared the elementary teacher training (ETT) and qualified the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), but they were still jobless.

The protesters included women teachers.

The Opposition Shiromani Akali Dal has condemned the lathicharge.

“The SAD condemns the brutal lathicharge by police on unemployed teachers in Patiala,” said party spokesperson and former state Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema in a tweet.

He said the way women teachers were manhandled and assaulted was a matter of shame for the whole state.

“Instead of listening and assuring them, the Cong govt is suppressing their voice,” the SAD spokesperson said in the tweet.

A group of tourists from Italy, who were screened on arrival in India, have tested positive for coronavirus, the country’s media reported citing health authorities. The news comes as India struggles to avoid the outbreak.
Some 15 Italians have been kept in preventive quarantine since Tuesday, New Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences confirmed to the media. Another Italian tourist and his wife had previously shown initial symptoms of Covid-19 in the city of Jaipur.

India has introduced some pre-emptive measures in an effort to keep the epidemic at bay. It suspended visas issued to nationals from Italy, Iran, South Korea and Japan – four locations outside China where the number of confirmed cases is the largest – and ramped up thermal screening of travelers at airports.

Nearly 91,000 people have been infected with the virus worldwide, with most cases located in China. There have been 3,112 deaths globally, according to the latest WHO data.

An Irishman believed to have contracted the coronavirus has escaped from medical isolation at a hospital in India, prompting local authorities to lodge a case with police, who are now searching for the escapee.
The man was admitted to the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack after landing at the nearby Bhubaneswar International Airport with a fever, according to local media. Placed into quarantine at the medical facility, he escaped from its isolation ward late on Thursday, hospital official B Maharana told the Hindustan Times.

Authorities at the Mangalapur police station have been informed of the escape, and are now on the lookout for the man.
India has confirmed at least 30 cases of the lethal illness gripping Asia, Europe and North America – including a group of 15 Italian tourists – with a number of additional suspected infections and some 30,000 people under medical supervision. Worldwide, the virus has sickened over 98,000 people and killed nearly 3,400.

The mayor of Agra has urged the Indian government to temporarily shut down the country’s national monuments – including Agra’s iconic Taj Mahal – to limit the spread of the lethal coronavirus, as the number of cases climbed to 31.
“Foreign tourists in large numbers visit Agra, this increases the chances of spread of coronavirus in the city,” Mayor Naveen Jain told ANI, adding that until the outbreak is brought under control, historical sites nationwide should be closed to visitors.
I urge the government of India to close all historical monuments in the country, including the Taj Mahal.

India has seen a spike in cases of the illness over the last week, jumping from six to 31 in a matter of days, including 16 Italian tourists and one resident of New Delhi, the capital city. By tracing the Delhi resident’s contacts, the government determined that the man also infected six family members in Agra, each of them testing positive for the virus.
Health authorities in Uttar Pradesh, where Agra is located, recently boosted efforts to screen for the virus in the hope of preventing it from spreading further, noting that, to date, “2,915 travelers from corona-affected countries have been identified and tracked by District Surveillance Units” and placed under observation, with more than 700 now in home isolation. Three individuals showing symptoms were also admitted for treatment at hospitals around the state, though their condition is stable.

印度中行（RBI）周四（5日）晚间宣布，接管该国第4大私人银行Yes Bank，理由是该行的财务状况剧烈恶化；受此消息冲击，印度股市开盘暴跌，印度卢比更重摔至16个月新低。

印度股汇市暴跌

印度中行接管Yes Bank的做法，说明印度影子银行的危机正在扩大，造成市场恐慌；周五上午Yes Bank股价在印度暴跌25%，由银行股组成的Bankex指数亦重挫5%，而印度股市也一度大跌3.8%至37011.09点，印度卢比兑美元更惨摔1%，为2018年10月以来新低。

印度中行下令Yes Bank暂停营运，并接管Yes Bank董事会30天，且在重新制定新的重整计划的同时，将Yes Bank的提款限制在每户5万卢比（约682美元）以内，并下令该行不得发放新贷款。

《Business Insider》报导，就在中行设下提款限制后，大量存户急着到ATM提领现金，但遇到很多问题，例如ATM机器关闭、钱被领光，也可见到人们大排长龙等着领钱的景象。

印度中行则在声明中强调，由于Yes Bank筹集新资金的计划迟迟未能实现，以及该行“面临经常性的流动性外流”，因此监管机构被迫介入。

报导指出，印度当局持续努力控制影子银行之间的危机，这场危机导致印度消费者和小型企业的信贷紧缩，也使得印度经济增长放缓至11年来的最低水准；Yes Bank先前多次试图募集资金，但均以失败告终。

消息来源也向彭博表示，根据1项印度政府支持的提案，已经选定由印度最大的银行印度国家银行（State Bank of India）来领导一个财团，向Yes Bank挹注新资金。

Indian exporters could push supplies on the global market to fill gaps left by neighboring China due to the coronavirus outbreak, said the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (Assocham).
According to Assocham, Indian exporters of electronics, pharmaceuticals, specialty chemicals and automobile parts depend on China for raw material. They are currently facing supply constraints due to the Chinese economy being hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

However, there are several areas with increased opportunities for domestic traders, it said.
“Barring a few [products], a large number of engineering exports from India can fill up the market vacated by China; so is the case with products like leather and leather goods,” Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said, as quoted by the Financial Express.

According to Sood, India could also take advantage of opportunities in areas like agriculture and carpets. “We also need to scale up several of our sectors to compete effectively with China even when the Chinese exporters are able to normalize their global supply chain,” Sood said.
Assocham cited the latest China PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) data, which shows that the country’s factory output level plummeted in February to its lowest in almost two decades, with the consequences bound to be felt in the global market.

“While India’s merchandise exports have contracted by 1.93 percent [during the] April-January period of the current fiscal, the coming few months can provide our exporters greater market access in the absence of usually aggressive and competitive Chinese suppliers,” the industry body said.

Two more suspects have been nabbed after the deadly Pulwama terrorist attack – which killed 40 Indian troops and spiked hostilities between India and Pakistan – including a 19-year-old bomb-maker who got chemicals from Amazon.
The two men – Waiz ul Islam, 19, and Mohd Abbas Rather, 32 – were arrested by India’s counterterrorism force, the National Investigation Agency (NIA), on Friday, alleging Islam procured bomb ingredients such as ammonium nitrate from the online retail titan. The teen, whose father is a government employee, is also accused of personally bringing items to the terrorist cell that carried out the attack, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Rather, for his part, is said to have harbored the militants in his home in the lead-up to last year’s attack, including IED builder Mohammed Umar and the suicide bomber himself, Adil Ahmed Dar.

The two men are set to appear before the NIA Special Court in Jammu on Saturday.
The attack – which took place in the disputed Kashmir territory – brought tensions between India and its nuclear-armed neighbor Pakistan to a boiling point, resulting in an Indian bombing raid on a JeM training camp, in turn triggering a reprisal by Islamabad which saw an Indian fighter jet downed and its pilot taken prisoner.

Asia is on track to become the world’s second largest wealth hub by 2024, with India being the main engine for this growth, outpacing neighboring China and Indonesia, according to the Knight Frank consultancy forecast.
After rising by more than six percent in 2019 to 513,200 people, the number of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) — those who have a fortune of more than $30 million — is expected to further expand over a five-year period. According to the firm’s recent Wealth Report, the super rich population will jump by 27 percent to nearly 650,000.

As the Asia-Pacific region hosts the fastest-growing economies, it is not surprising that most of new multimillionaires are building fortunes in countries such as India and China. The former had less than 6,000 ultra-rich individuals last year, but the figure is projected to increase by 73 percent — the fastest pace in Asia and across the globe.

India will be followed by Egypt and Vietnam, the super-rich population of which is set to jump by 66 percent and 64 percent, respectively. China will not make it into the top three, with expected UHNWI population growth of 58 percent, followed by Indonesia and Tanzania.
The US is currently first in the wealth race, hosting 240,575 ultra-rich individuals — more than Europe and Asia combined. It will apparently keep the leading position, but will enjoy just 22 percent growth in the number of people worth more than $30 million in the next five years, one percent less than Russia.

The Wealth Report’s findings are based on projected GDP growth, house prices, equity performance, interest rates and other asset classes that individuals hold. To make a clearer picture and evaluate net wealth, Knight Frank also looks at primary residences and second homes not owned primarily as investments.

Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, the sole remaining woman in the Democratic presidential primaries, has been accused of “fascism” and pressured to drop out of the race after she shared a post about hatred of Hindus in the US.
“Unfortunately, Hinduphobia is very real,” Gabbard tweeted on Thursday, saying she experienced it directly both in her congressional and presidential campaigns. “Sadly, our political leaders [and] media not only tolerate it, but foment it,” she added.

By way of example, she retweeted someone quoting a Facebook post about a confrontation with an Uber driver accusing Indians of murdering Muslims during the recent unrest in New Delhi.

Reactions to Gabbard’s post quickly proved her point, as critics swooped on the Hindu-American congresswoman to accuse her of “fascism” over her alleged support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and ideology of Hindutva, or Indian nationalism.

“She is a fascist and needs to drop out,” argued Molly Crabapple, a self-described Bernie Sanders supporter.

Rutgers professor Audrey Truschke chimed in as well, saying that Gabbard being Hindu is not the issue, but her “being a Hindu nationalist is horrifying and disqualifying,” and that she has “yet to comment on the Hindu nationalist pogrom in Delhi last week that left more than 45 people dead.”

Sales have dropped by 80 per cent in some areas, and clarifications put out by the industry have failed to stem the panic

Volunteers distributed about 6,000kg of chicken delicacies and 20,000 boiled egg recipes free of cost to thousands of people in the southern Indian state of Telangana over the weekend as part of a campaign organised by the poultry industry to quell rumours surrounding the coronavirus outbreak.
Speculation is rife on Indian cyberspace platforms over possible avian links to the deadly Covid-19 disease, which has spread across the world and killed over 3,200 people, mostly in China.
With no substantiation, several messages are circulating in messaging platforms, particularly on WhatsApp, stating that the coronavirus could be transmitted via chicken meat. There have been a number of outbreaks of various strains of bird flu since it emerged in Hong Kong in 1997, resulting in the culling of 1.5 million chickens, ducks and geese, but these strains are not linked to Covid-19.
At the poultry industry event, lawmakers and celebrities were seen devouring chicken drumsticks on stage to encourage people to consume the meat.
Similar efforts are undertaken in other parts of the country to combat the fake news and rumours spreading on social media.
Such fears have grown given that India now has 28 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections, with 16 Italian tourists testing positive for Covid-19 in New Delhi.

2019冠状病毒疫情暴发期间远赴印度的医院拍摄节目，本地艺人林明伦坦言出发前有些忐忑，但后来发现情况并不如想像中危险，最后更决定不戴口罩入镜。 林明伦上个月中随着堂堂映画的摄制队到印度的那格浦尔（Nagpur）拍摄新节目《特别的食物给特别的你》。他接受《联合晚报》访问时说：“我从越南拍完节目回来，就听说新剧的记者会取消了，一些节目的拍摄也受到影响，疫情似乎挺严重，而我们要去到印度的医院里拍摄，老婆当时问我还要去吗？我也确实有点担心。” 不过，林明伦和节目监制谈过之后，对方表示会尽力确保团队的安全，他便决定依照计划出发，“我事前和导演沟通后决定一进到医院就戴上口罩，拍摄时也和受访者保持安全距离。但到了当地，我发现那里的疫情并没有很严重。”

他观察环境后决定不戴口罩入镜，“医院里的医生和护士都没有戴口罩，我戴的话有点奇怪。但我有注意安全，拍摄期间不和其他人握手或者有身体接触，一离开病房就不碰触脸部，还勤加洗手和消毒。” 节目的导演余俊权受访时说，他被林明伦的专业感动，“明伦心里可能也很矛盾，而且有所顾虑，但他为了节目决定不戴口罩。” 余俊权坦言，这次带队到印度压力不小，既要拍好节目也要顾及团队的安全，“但我们是评估了风险后才决定去的。我们有工作人员负责照顾大家，为大家准备口罩和消毒液，也帮我们量体温，确保大家的健康。我们已经回来一个星期了，大家身体都没问题。”

印度宣布事先向未入境的日本人等发放的签证无效，暂时禁止入境。

印度健康及家庭福利部3日宣布，以日本、韩国、伊朗和意大利4国为对象，即使持有当地大使馆等发放的签证，未入境的情况下也将暂时禁止入境。印度从2月底开始限制“落地签”等签证，此次扩大了限制对象。2月1日之后还限制曾到访上述4国的外国人入境。

India’s internet-savvy PM Narendra Modi said he may soon abandon his highly-trafficked social media pages, prompting an outpouring of posts from supporters begging him to stay, and threats of an exodus to locally-made platforms.
“This Sunday, thinking of giving up my social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & YouTube. Will keep you all posted,” Modi said in a tweet on Monday, offering no further explanation for the decision.

Yet this relationship is a new one. India has traditionally looked closer to home to satisfy its military needs – to the mighty Soviet Union. Though a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War, India has long relied on Russian arms imports. Today, Russian weaponry accounts for roughly 60-70 percent of India’s arms imports.

And business only blossomed further after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Defense deals between Russia and India are set to exceed $16 billion. The latest orders include the S-400 air-defense system, joint production of Kalashnikov rifles and Kamov helicopters for the navy.

During the recent DefExpo 2020 exhibition in Lucknow, New Delhi signed 14 memorandums of understanding with Russian firms for the development and production of land, air and naval systems.

Despite some challenges, India has been able to successfully integrate systems from across the world, including both the US and Russia — two major military competitors and geopolitical adversaries. This ability to balance relations between rival superpowers has led to India being dubbed a ‘swing power’ by some experts.

India’s second-largest mobile service provider, Vodafone Idea, is at the brink of collapse, threatening a staggering blow not just to the country’s telecoms sector but also to the country’s sluggish economy.
What was once a high-flying operator, the joint venture between the UK’s Vodafone Group and India’s Idea Cellular was brought to its knees when India’s Supreme Court ruled in October that the company owed the government billions of dollars in usage charges and licence fees. The court gave Vodafone Idea 90 days to pay, with the deadline later extended to March 17.
Following a period of intense negotiations, the financially stressed telecoms operator sent a letter to the government on Wednesday seeking a series of relief measures including deferred and reduced payments of its overdue levies.
Vodafone Idea’s 300 million subscribers remain on tenterhooks waiting to see if the company can weather the storm. It has lost over 100 million customers since 2016, and more than 36 million subscribers switched from Vodafone Idea in November alone.
Vodafone Idea owes US$4 billion to the government in additional revenues, on top of an overall debt of US$14 billion accumulated through short-sighted strategies, a bleeding balance sheet and continuing operational losses – making it one of India’s most indebted companies.
The Digital Communications Commission – the highest decision-making body under India’s Ministry of Communications – held a crisis meeting on Friday, where top government officials were expected to discuss how to resolve the situation, but the meeting ended with no credible outcome.

A police complaint has been filed in India accusing the Wall Street Journal of fueling sectarian hostility during recent unrest in Delhi and falsely reporting that a mob had shouted a Hindu slogan before stabbing a man to death.
The complaint was filed on Friday over a February 26 report in the Journal, which stated a gang of attackers chanted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ – a Sanskrit expression meaning ‘Glory to Lord Rama’, sometimes used by Hindus as a greeting – as they murdered intelligence officer Ankit Sharma during days of riots in India’s capital city. The formal protest, filed with police in Delhi and Maharashtra, was first reported by Indian public broadcaster Prasar Bharati.
While the Journal relayed the claim in a quote from Sharma’s brother, Ankur, he now insists the quotation is a fake, intended to smear his late sibling.

“I never gave such a statement to The Wall Street Journal,” Ankur told Prasar Bharati. “This is a ploy to defame my brother and my family. The Wall Street Journal is lying.”

Sparked over a controversial citizenship law passed in December, Delhi was gripped by riots for three days starting last Sunday, with intense clashes between rival protesters leaving 39 dead and more than 200 with injuries.

At least 13 people have been killed and 150 injured in sectarian clashes over a new citizenship law in Delhi, India, since intense violence erupted in parts of the capital on Sunday, hospital officials said.
There were reports of stone-throwing by protesters, with some seen bearing metal bars, when fresh skirmishes broke out on Tuesday between people supporting the legislation and those against it.
Around 3,500 police and paramilitaries have been deployed, according to local authorities, with cops firing tear gas and pellets to disperse crowds of protesters.

Delhi Police called for calm and posted a message on Twitter appealing to people not to spread rumors online that could incite further violence.

US President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi have pledged to seal a comprehensive trade accord soon as the two sides are engaged in “positive” talks on the matter.
“Our commerce ministers have had positive talks on trade. Both of us have decided that our teams should give legal shape to these trade talks. We also agreed to open negotiations on a big trade deal,” said Modi during a joint statement with Trump outside Hyderabad House in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The two leaders held formal talks on issues like economic relations, trade and energy, as well as security issues. The meeting resulted in two memorandums of understanding (MoUs) — on mental health and on the safety of medical products — and a letter of cooperation between Exxon Mobil and India’s energy sector.

The US-India trade agreement was expected to be forged before the US leader’s trip to India, which started on Monday, but Washington and New Delhi failed to reach a deal. Trump announced that it won’t be inked during the visit, but later noted that the two sides are making “tremendous” progress.

“I’m optimistic we can reach a deal that will be of great importance to both countries,” he said on Tuesday. He also boasted that since he took office US exports to India jumped nearly 60 percent and exports of American energy products have grown by 500 percent.