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www.indiatoday.in
KERALA AhEAd of thE cuRvE

STRATEGY
how to mAKE it woRK
thE tEsting gAp
april 27, 2020 `60

oc
 FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
A
s the deadly coronavirus rages across the world, it
has put many facets of a country to test—its medical
infrastructure, its economy, its social security net, the
discipline of its people and the nature of its polity. Most
importantly, it has tested the mettle of its leaders. The president
of one of the richest and most powerful countries in the world—
the idiosyncratic Donald Trump—has been floundering, with
disastrous consequences. He was first in denial of the crisis, then
he acted too late, causing confusion with dubious medical advice,
quarrelling with state governors over jurisdiction, seeming more
interested in reviving the economy than in saving lives and, in a
final piece de resistance, withdrawing funding from the World
Health Organization. No wonder, the US is the worst hit in terms
of cases and deaths. There was also British prime minister Boris
Johnson, who meandered around the crisis before taking ac-
tion, and ended up being afflicted himself. Then there have been
exemplary leaders like French president Emmanuel Macron and
German chancellor Angela Merkel, who have demon-
strated firm resolve in the face of the crisis.
In a sense, their choices were much easier
than those before India’s prime minister.
They are leaders of developed countries
which have excellent medical facilities and
an enviable social welfare system. Naren-
dra Modi, on the other hand, has to bal-
ance not just lives and livelihoods but also
lives versus lives, considering the country’s
precarious financial state; 269 million, or
21 per cent of the country’s people, live below
the poverty line, and will be pushed down even
further if the lockdown continues endlessly.
It could not have been easy for him, therefore, to announce, on
April 14, that the lockdown was being extended by another 19 days.
But Narendra Modi did it with conviction, combining firmness
with optimism. It was also a collaborative rather than a unilateral
decision as several chief ministers, all battling spikes in CO-
VID-19 cases in their respective states, favoured an extension of
the lockdown. History will be the better judge of this decision, but
there is no disputing the necessity of the lockdown. A study by the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) estimates that if even
one person is not isolated, he or she can infect 406 people in 30
days. At the end of the first phase of the lockdown, India reported
12,338 infections and 420 deaths. Testing remains a big issue. The
slow pick-up in testing means we don’t have enough data to accu-
rately predict if we have achieved what we set out to do on March
24—break the chain of infections and arrest community spread
of the disease. India’s rate of testing as on April 16 was an abysmal
196 per million. To reach South Korea’s level of testing (10,550
per million), we need to test 13.9 million people, and to match the
UK’s 4,750 per million, we need to test around 6 million people
as against the mere 258,730 individuals who had been tested till
April 16. Clearly, we have a long way to go. For, unless we know the
size of the problem, we won’t know how to manage it. It is a race
against time, as the disease spreads like wildfire. Worse, there is a
worldwide shortage of testing kits and expertise.
There is no one playbook in the fight against the virus. Different
countries have to fight it differently. South Korea, for instance,
chose aggressive testing over a complete lockdown. It tested a
quarter of its population in six weeks and invested in new forms
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
of treatment. The US did not go for a lockdown either, but it
was, until recently, complacent about its strategy. South Korea
has lost 229 persons to the disease so far, the US, over 28,000.
Spain and Italy also locked down late, and the death toll in these
countries too has been punishing. Complacency, clearly, is not an
option. These are things India must keep in mind as it reopens for
business on May 4. But it should also remember that it is a poor
country which cannot afford an indefinite lockdown.
T
he costs to the Indian economy are already staggering.
Industry bodies and analysts estimate the world’s big-
gest lockdown is costing the country $26 billion or
Rs 2 lakh crore per work week, and there is every likeli-
hood that we may not grow at all this financial year. It is, there-
fore, imperative for the government to restart the economy. The
process has begun, with the home ministry issuing guidelines
allowing agricultural and MSME operations, transportation of
goods without distinction and resumption of manufacturing in
industries with access control.
The government seems to have opted for a gradual
recovery rather than a sudden restart for various
reasons. There is no demand, so it doesn’t make sense
to run major industries. The second priority is to get
the economy back on track while ensuring there is
no resurgence of the disease. The government has,
therefore, identified ‘hotspots’, or districts with high
incidence of COVID-19, for focused attention. A vital
element of this strategy will be testing and the use of
technology to track and treat the infected. With Lock-
down 2.0, the government has given itself some breathing
space to enhance medical infrastructure and help the needy.
These are some of the key aspects of the exit plan that our cover
package analyses. The lead story, by Group Editorial Director
(Publishing) Raj Chengappa, examines what’s behind the strategy
and the imperatives ahead. Associate Editor Sonali Acharjee
focuses on the critical aspect of testing. Deputy Editor Amarnath
K. Menon looks at the strategy to manage the hotspots while
Deputy Editor Shwweta Punj assesses whether the new guidelines
expected after April 20 will be enough to revive the vital MSME
sector. mail today photo editor Pankaj Nangia, meanwhile, takes
us to the frontlines of the war—inside the intensive care unit of a
designated COVID-19 hospital in Delhi.
Tough times call for tough measures. The lockdown will conti-
nue. There will be hiccups in getting the economy back on the rails.
At the same time, the disease and death will have to be kept in
check. It is, no doubt, a long haul. But with a proactive government
and clear-headed leadership, coupled with the enterprise and forti-
tude of its people, India, I firmly believe, will overcome this crisis.
(Aroon Purie)
P.S.: In this crisis, authentic information is your best weapon.
We at india today remain committed to bringing you clarity
and correct information. A PDF version of this issue is available
free on www.indiatoday.in/emag or www.indiatoday.in/magzter.
We also bring you daily Insights on India’s response to the crisis.
Log in to www.indiatoday.in/india-today-magazine-insight.
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 3
 INSIDE
UPFRONT LEISURE
AAROGYA SETU: LONG Q&A: NEENA
www.indiatoday.in ARM OF THE APP PG 5 GUPTA PG 66

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16
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TESTING HOTSPOTS

Volume XLV Number 17; For the week

April 21-27, 2020, published on every Friday
Editorial/Corporate Office Living Media India Ltd., India Today Group Mediaplex,
26 GAPS IN
DETECTION
India’s testing strategy leaves much
32 THE LINE OF
COVID CONTROL
The country’s ‘hotspots’ are a
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 UPFRO
BUILDING A A CRISIS THAT
POST-COVID CUTS TO THE
REALITY PG 8 BONE PG 10

A A RO G YA S E T U

THE ‘LONG
ARM’ OF
AN APP
By Kaushik Deka

I
n his April 14 address that announced the extension of the
coronavirus lockdown till May 3, Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi appealed to Indians to follow a seven-pronged
strategy to combat the pandemic. One of the measures was
to download the Aarogya Setu contact-tracing app. The app,
conceived by NITI Aayog, has been developed in two weeks
by the National Informatics Centre in collaboration with the
developers of makemytrip.com and 1mg.com.
Aarogya Setu is designed on the premise that if two
mobile phones are within Bluetooth range of each other,
their users are potentially close enough to transmit the novel
coronavirus to one another. Since its launch on April 2, the
app, which is available in 11 Indian languages, has registered
nearly 50 million downloads. A World Bank report released
on April 12 says innovative solutions like the Aarogya Setu
could greatly help track contagious diseases while a Uni-
versity of Oxford study considers digital contact-tracing as
effective, provided there is widespread adoption.
Despite such praise, Aarogya Setu has attracted criti-
cism over privacy issues as it seeks users’ personal infor-
mation, such as name, age, sex, profession and countries
visited in the past 30 days. Every 15 minutes, it collects
data about the user’s location and the places the user

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

UPFRONT
visits. According to the app’s terms
of service, personal information and
location data are securely stored on
the mobile device. The information is
uploaded to a central server only when
a user tests positive for COVID-19 or
a self-assessment of symptoms indi-
cates the possibility of infection.
W
hile uploading to the server,
the information is hashed
with a unique, randomly
generated device ID (DiD) number,
which is used to identify the user in
all subsequent app-related activi-
ties. “The DiD is reconnected to the
personal information only when the
user’s risk of infection is so high that
the government needs to tell the
person to get tested,” says Rahul Mat-
than, a cyber-law expert consulted
by the Union government during the
development of the app.
When two registered users come
within each other’s Bluetooth range,
their apps automatically exchange
DiDs and information about where
the contact happened and for what
duration. Every phone builds a log of
every other phone in its close proxim-
ity, thereby creating a social chain
of people a user has come in contact
with. If such a user tests positive for
COVID-19, the system alerts all those
who came in close proximity of the
person. Such users are advised to
quarantine themselves and, should
they develop symptoms, get tested.
Like Aarogya Setu user Aarti Singh
(name changed) from Delhi, who
received an alert when a buyer at a
grocery store she had been to tested
positive. “The app sent me an alert
because it had recorded my location,”
says the 42-year-old architect. To
Singh’s relief, her RT-PCR (reverse
transcription polymerase chain reac-
tion) test turned out to be negative.
Cyber security experts claim
contact-tracing apps in other coun-
tries, such as Singapore and Israel, are
not so intrusive. Singapore’s Trace-
Together app requires only the user’s
mobile number. Data is transferred to
a central server only after a COVID-
positive user grants consent. The
6 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
HOW
AAROGYA
TraceTogether app doesn’t collect
location data either.
In its guidelines on using technol-
ogy to combat COVID-19, the Euro-
SETU
pean Commission has advised against
processing data on location or move-
ment of individuals. Aarogya Setu asks
for GPS location even though this has
WORKS
no role in contact-tracing. “Location
data will not be used for surveillance,”
says NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
“It is used only for hotspots or where
more testing is required. The identity
T
of a COVID-19 person will never be he Aarogya Setu
revealed to anyone.” contact-tracing app is
The app’s privacy policy states that a key resource ad-
the information is uploaded to a cloud dition in India’s fight against
server in anonymised and aggregated COVID-19, garnering nearly 50
datasets only “for the purpose of gen- million downloads in less than
erating reports, heat maps and other a fortnight besides praise in a
statistical visualisations”. Critics, how- World Bank report. Its de-
ever, argue that it is unclear as to what sign, however, has raised the
the government views as ‘anonymised’. hackles of privacy advocates
In a detailed report on contact-tracing and cybersecurity experts,
apps, New Delhi-based NGO Inter- who feel the app seeks too
net Freedom Foundation (IFF) has much personal information.
flagged the app’s shortcomings in They are not convinced by
terms of data collection and storage, the official assertion that only
purpose limitation and transparency. data of COVID-positive users
The app’s privacy policy states that is uploaded to the central
information will be purged from the
server—in anonymised form—
phone after 30 days and from the
and purged 60 days after
server after 45 days if the user does not
such users have been
test COVID-positive in that period.
declared cured.
Information about users who test pos-
itive will be purged 60 days after they
have been declared cured. However,
personal data collected while register-
ing with the app will be retained till
the account exists and, thereafter, “as
long as required under any law in force
for the time being”. Nowhere in the
policy, though, is the legal requirement
for this defined.
“Users have no way of checking if
the government has deleted the data.
They should have a judicial remedy
to hold the government account-
Similar apps in other
countries are less
intrusive. Singapore’s
TraceTogether app
requires only the
user’s mobile number
and does not record
location data
 A
PERSONAL
DETAILS SOUGHT
(while downloading app)
able,” says Sidharth Deb, policy and
Name parliamentary counsel at IFF. The
Phone number other sore point is that the liability
clause exempts the government in
Age Sex
the event of unauthorised access
Profession and modification of a user’s infor-
Countries visited in past 30 days mation. Kant allays such fears. “The
government will not use the data
gathered by the app for any purpose
other than COVID-19 medical
examination,” he asserts.
APP’S While the personal informa-
up to the test of proportionality,” says
Amber Sinha, executive director at
the not-for-profit Centre for Internet
& Society. “Only data of COVID-
19-infected users should be pulled to
the cloud server.”
For Matthan, this criticism does
not hold water as the details of only
those infected are uploaded to the
server. “Let’s assume 100,000 people
will be infected in India. So, the data
of only 100,000 people will be pulled

B ACCESS
Knows your
GPS location
tion collected cannot be disclosed or
transferred to a third party, critics
point out that since the privacy policy
out by the government for analysis
and it will remain on the server for
only 60 days. So that’s the canvas of
does not specify which government the app in a country with 1.3 billion
department owns the data, it remains people,” he explains.
a property of the Union govern- Deb says the fact that the app’s
METHOD ment and is, arguably, open to use code is not open source compromises
by all agencies, including the police. transparency. “The Singapore tracing
1 Personal information and location data The other fear is that the govern- app has a dedicated website, which
are stored on the user’s mobile phone
ment could significantly expand its details how the data is collected,
and a unique device ID number (DiD) is
surveillance powers by combining the
generated. The app can log data from
app’s data with existing government
all mobile devices within the Bluetooth
range of the user’s phone. databases, many of which are seeded NITI Aayog CEO
with mobile numbers. Amitabh Kant says
2 On testing COVID-positive, a user’s data Deb questions a clause that the data gathered by
and details of all people who came within
the Bluetooth range of his/ her phone
allows the government to share the Aarogya Setu will not
are uploaded to the central cloud server
personal data with “other necessary be used for any other
in anonymised form. Alerts go to such and relevant persons” for COVID-19 purpose except
people to go for quarantine/ testing. related “medical and administra-
COVID-19 medical
tive interventions”. “Administrative
functions can also mean that such
examination
DATA ANALYSIS AND ACTION
information can be used towards, say,
implementing lockdown and quar-
GREEN YELLOW
antine orders. This is against global stored, used and deleted. The source
No symptom, no Symptomatic but best practices. For instance, the EU code is published for public scrutiny,”
travel history no travel history says that to comply with its General he says. Aarogya Setu, in contrast,
Zero risk, safe or contact Data Protection Regulation, the data prohibits users from reverse engi-
with COVID-19
Social collected by contact-tracing solutions neering the backend source code,
patient(s)
distancing should be used only for healthcare-re- which means independent research-
Moderate lated responses to the crisis,” he says. ers cannot ascertain the veracity of
Data deleted risk
after 45 days Matthan argues that the health official claims that the app is doing
Self-isolation ministry cannot possibly work in this and not that.
Data deleted isolation while combating CO- Despite these concerns, the of-
ORANGE after 45 days, if VID-19, and inter-departmental ficial line is that Aarogya Setu has
not infected cooperation and sharing of informa- enough built-in security features to
Travel history,
contact with tion is critical. perform its legitimate task without
COVID-19 India has an estimated 400 infringing upon the privacy of citi-
RED million or more smartphone users. If zens. Privacy concerns can be dealt
patient(s)
Tested positive even half of them download Aarogya with by legislating sunset clauses on
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

High risk
Located and Setu, it could create a contact-tracing tracking systems,” says the World
User, auth- map of 200 million—15 per cent of Bank report. The next goal is to
quarantined for
orities alerted;
treatment the total population. “In a unique scale up Aarogya Setu by integrat-
testing advised
Data deleted crisis, the app may have a very legiti- ing it with feature phones through
Data deleted mate objective, but it doesn’t stand IVR support. n
after 60 days
after 45 days, if
from the day of
not infected
getting cured
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 7
Action advised Data retention
UPFRONT
GUEST COLUMN
BUILDING A
GAUTAM
BHATIA
POST-COVID REALITY
I
t hardly needs stating that the first two decades of this
century have led humanity into serial crises. Climate
change, terrorism, economic meltdowns, growing
nationalism, viral attacks and, finally, a pandemic. The
rising cascade of catastrophes seems to be our selected path
into the future. It is obvious that most such disasters are
the result of failing political and economic policies, coupled
with the lack of will and consensus between governments.
Just look at global ambitions related to climate change:
as part of the Paris Agreement, governments grudgingly
agreed to limit global temperature
rise to less than two degrees; all this
while cyclones, forest fires and famines
will continue. Unwilling to give up
ingrained food choices like dairy and
beef—whose production contributes
to global warming—some people may
switch to cultured meat and artificial
milk. As a concession to cut vehicular
pollution, some will ride electric self-
driving cars; but the current system
of highways will remain intact, even
grow. Air travel will continue, but will
be supplemented by hyperloops and
maglev trains. Technological advances Is this an end to
are merely used to offer more choices in bloated houses, big
conventional living and retain, as the expensive cars, familiar
Americans say, ‘our way of life’.
But things have suddenly changed.
fast foods, obesity and all everywhere
With the novel coronavirus spreading the excesses of travel?
everywhere, the wide boundless arc of
the good life is now compressed into
a more focused domesticity. People are huddled at home,
working from there, entertaining
each other. The fear of contaminating and being
contaminated keeps public life in check. What impact
will this have in the long term?
Is this an end to bloated houses, big expensive cars,
familiar fast foods, obesity and all the excesses of travel?
How then do we imagine life in the city? Our current state
of closeted well-being will need a future outlet as places
forge an altogether new urban life—a life that adapts the
gains of the lockdown into measurable routines. It falls on
architects and planners to create a blueprint for the physical
structure of the city and, if need be, define extreme and
radical solutions. Invention comes at times of crises, and the
8 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
current situation is the loudest call to break fresh ground.
Can design then ask important civic questions? In cities
reeling with inequities and physical shortage of space, can a
family of four learn to live in a quarter of the area occupied
by the current middle-class home? Could its compaction
also include other ideas of vertical vegetable gardens, solar
kitchens and work space to make it an efficient comfort
machine? Since work from home would be the new reality,
movement in the city would be unnecessary. Could then
battery-less mini solar cars operate locally and only in
daylight, forcing people to complete
their daily tasks before dark, in
accordance with the sun’s rotation?
With schools, colleges, restaurants,
commerce and entertainment online,
neighbourhood community centres
could become crucial social connectors,
also functioning as primary schools and
health clinics? Moreover, in a world
digitally connected, physical travel to
distant places could be avoided, and
entire lives constructed within the
ambit of a shortened radius.
Doubtless, there is a tendency to
project a utopian idealism when there
is a dramatic shift of direction; but
it goes without saying that societies
will be profoundly shaped
by the pandemic. Those that have the
capacity to radically alter their future
thinking will gain immensely from the
changed circumstances. India, sadly,
has been a timid follower of world trends and has rarely
set a path of its own. The failed approaches of the most
advanced of countries, which still remain mired to the
belief of preserving ‘our way of life’, demands that we create
models of our own. At a time
when extraordinary shifts in physical space, city life
and living patterns are being revealed to us, it seems the
right time to forge an independent direction. Shorn of
overconsumption, it will dictate the difference between
surviving alone or living well together. A new urban future,
however uncertain, is always preferable to one that returns
to revive a dead cow. n
Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based architect
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
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AMRITAPURI I BENGALURU I CHENNAI I COIMBATORE I AMARAVATI*

ANI
M E AT/ F I S H / P O U LT RY
CRISIS CUTS
TO THE BONE
By Shubham Shankdhar
A
tif Parvez, 28, a poultry
farmer in Uttar Pradesh’s
Saharanpur district, is a
worried man. Prices of
broiler chicken have nearly halved in
the state, from Rs 90-110 a kg in De-
cember to Rs 50 in early April, first on
rumours that chicken meat and eggs
caused COVID-19 and later from the
lockdown. His costs are around Rs 65
a chicken, including chicken feed and
staff wages. “If costs can’t be recovered,
what’s the point of running a busi-
ness?” he asks.
India’s poultry sector is valued at
about Rs 80,000 crore (2015-16), ac-
10 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
cording to the Department of Animal
Husbandry, and broadly divided into
two areas—the organised commer-
cial sector, with about 80 per cent of
the market, and the unorganised or
‘backyard poultry’ sector. According to
the Livestock Census 2019, India had a
poultry population of 851.8 million, of
which 534.7 million were commercial
poultry and 317.1 million, the backyard
variety. Some of the largest poultry-pro-
ducing states are: Tamil Nadu (120.8
million), Andhra Pradesh (107.9 mil-
lion) and Telangana (80 million). There
are around 30 million farmers engaged
in backyard poultry and, overall, the
sector employs about 60 million.
The All India Poultry Breeders As-
sociation (AIPBA) has estimated that
the sector incurred Rs 22,500 crore
in losses from February to mid-April.
Sanjeev Gupta, vice-president of the
Poultry Federation of India, claims that
farmers are left with just 15 per cent
of their original livestock, having been
forced to cull the rest with demand
dropping to almost nothing. The only
businesses that will survive, he says, will
be the larger ones in the organised sec-
tor. Aside from the curtailed business
as a result of the lockdown, rumours on
social media that drew a link between
the coronavirus and chicken meat and
eggs have also hit this sector badly. In
an attempt to rein in such misleading
information, the Ministry of Fisheries,
Animal Husbandry & Dairying and
the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards
Authority of India) issued separate
statements to clarify the matter. The
Maharashtra government also report-
edly announced that FIRs would be
UPFRONT

SUBIR HALDER
INTERRUPTED (Facing page) A poultry
farm in Morigaon, Assam; Dumdum
fish market in Kolkata on April 14 at
the end of the 21-day lockdown
BREAKING IT DOWN
including a restructuring of loans for
poultry farmers, compensation based
on the size of the affected farms, and
subsidised poultry feed. Gupta says
that the government must also issue
clear guidelines to local authorities for
poultry shops to be opened. If problems
continue and farmers stay away from
raising chicks, prices will shoot up when
the market returns to normal.
On a related note, prices of mutton
are already soaring. Rezaur Rahman,
a farmer from Chandanbara in East
Champaran, Bihar, says the price of
mutton rises every year around Holi, but those with leftover stock might be sell-
drops soon after. This time, prices have
remained high, at Rs 550 per kg. Rates
says. “Neither are fish being caught nor
is business being done.” India’s fisheries
sector, employing 14 million, produced
12.6 million tonnes of fish in 2017-18,
says the National Fisheries Develop-
ment Board. Over 50 different types
of fish and shellfish are exported to 75
countries around the world. But today,
countries in West Asia and Europe have
completely stopped imports. Moham-
mad Afzal, 40, promoter of export firm
Al Tayyaba Dry Fish in Mumbai, points
out that there can be no business when
even fish farming is in limbo. “Only
ing,” he says. The ban on catching fish
during the lockdown impacted not only

22,500 crore
` with supply faltering in some areas.
Estimated losses of the poultry
sector from February 1 to April 14
`
1,500 crore
Estimated losses for meat
exporters till early March
in Delhi have risen to Rs 700 per kg, fishermen and fish farmers, but also
the hundreds of thousands employed in
As per reports, India’s exports of sorting and drying of stock.
buffalo meat, the coun- Kerala, the second
try’s second largest farm THE POULTRY largest seafood-export-
export, have fallen 50 per
FEDERATION ing state by value in India
cent, to 50,000 tonnes, in
the first week of March.
The industry had lost Rs
OF INDIA SAYS
SOME FARMERS exported
after Andhra Pradesh,
about Rs 5,919
crore worth of marine
1,500 crore by then, as ex-
HAVE BEEN products in 2017-18. This
ports to Vietnam—which FORCED TO year, since January 15, no
caters to the Chinese mar- CULL 85 % OF consignment has shipped

50 per cent
Fall in chicken meat prices
in UP from Dec 2019 to Apr 2020
ket—were stalled. Fauzan
Alavi, vice president, All
THEIR FLOCK out of Kochi port. And
all export units in the
India Meat and Livestock state have remained
Exporters Association, said export closed since March 23, when Kerala
units are facing a shortage of shipping imposed its lockdown (a day prior to the

60 million
containers, but with the Chinese market Centre’s announcement). “Normally, we
improving, enquiries have begun. India get a lot of orders in January. After the
exported 1.2 million tonnes of buffalo virus outbreak, we lost all orders from
Jobs in India’s poultry sector
meat, worth Rs 25,168 crore, in 2018-19. China,” says Vishakan V., 57, who owns
“The situation will not change much a seafood processing unit in Alappuzha

14 million
Jobs in India’s fisheries sector
filed against rumour-mongers.
On April 15, the Centre allowed the
resumption of all fishing-related opera-
tions, including harvesting, process-
ing, cold chain, transport, sales and
marketing. Shops are allowed to sell
poultry, meat and fish, as long as they
ensure strict social distancing. But the
pain remains. The AIPBA has report-
edly sought urgent help from the Centre,
(after the new guidelines) because there district. Europe and the US also started
is lack of coordination between states,” cancelling orders from February. He says
says Payal Kaur, international sales head the situation may normalise in another
of Al Hasan Group in Delhi, a top ex- three months, but by then, the ban on
porter of meat to Hong Kong, Iraq and trawling will be in force. “We have lost
African countries. The firm says it faces a year due to the pandemic.” Although
restrictions at the local level, leading to a restrictions have now been eased, with-
50 per cent drop in business. out export orders and blocked payments,
The lockdown has badly hit the marine processing units can’t operate,
fish industry as well. Babu Raja Bhai, he adds. Local fishermen are not going
a fisherman from Gujarat’s Amreli to sea as auction centres remain closed.
district, says that apart from his own Each additional day of the lockdown
catch, he used to buy 300-400 pendis brings more pain to sectors like these.
(3,000-4,000 kg) of fish daily from And with no end in sight, millions of
other small fishermen to supply to the livelihoods are in peril. n
market. “Everything has halted,” he —with Jeemon Jacob

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 11
UPFRONT

BOOKS

HOW TO RUN A COUNTRY

By Ashok V. Desai

A
rvind Panagariya is a pro- First, with its shrinking population,
lific writer. He has written 20 China’s labour force will also decline, and
books, 170 academic papers wages will rise. Second, the trade war
and twice as many press ar- with the US will make it less competi-
ticles in a career of 47 years and lists be- tive. And India can expand manufactur-
ing the prime minister’s Sherpa in three ing without giving up its specialisation
G20 meetings among his exceptional in services; there is no conflict. But the
honours. Economists learn policy-mak- Bharatiya Janata Party government has
ing as a part of their curriculum. Few powerful supporters in industry; under
find any use for it—except to comment their influence, it has been raising import
on policies—but many harbour the am- duties on goods they produce, making the
bition to apply it. Panagariya is keen on Indian industry even less competitive.
making policy. He spent a couple of years Panagariya writes that he would presum-
as the first vice-chairman of NITI Aayog ably favour unilateral free trade (UFT),
immediately after it replaced Planning but sees no chance of the government
Commission. He said he left because he listening. So he recommends a uniform
INDIA UNLIMITED
prized his Columbia professorship; but 10 per cent import tariff on everything.
Reclaiming the Lost Glory
the hard work he put into making NITI Why not devalue by 10 per cent and have
by Arvind Panagariya
Aayog a useful intermediary between HARPERCOLLINS UFT? In the early 1990s, when I was
the Centre and the states and between `302 (Kindle); 423 pages briefly in government, we reduced tariffs
economic policy and opportunism went and simultaneously devalued. It is best for
to waste. But he is not one to give up. the government to ignore industry’s pres-
He has a vaulting ambition for India, sure for protection; but if it is too weak or
irrespective of whether he participates A shopping bag of partisan to do so, it should use exchange
in achieving it. He published India: the reforms—Arvind manipulation rather than tariffs or im-
Emerging Giant in 2008, and India’s Panagariya’s book port restrictions. Panagariya makes con-
Tryst with Destiny in 2013; now he has essentially outlines structive suggestions in many other policy
written India Unlimited. While the what he would do areas, including labour laws, land market
first book was more or less an economic if he were India’s laws, affordable housing and dormitories
history of independent India, the second for migrant workers, and slums.
made a case for growth. His latest is a
prime minister Finance has been one of the economy’s
shopping bag of reforms—it outlines most closely-regulated sectors; regulators
what Panagariya would do if he were have made a perfect mess of it—especially
India’s prime minister. of the banking sector. Panagariya outlines
He would give the poor a cash subsidy that would permit beautifully how they did it—except that he has nothing to say
all the controls that afflict agriculture to be abolished. about the equity market, which SEBI destroyed so perfectly
Rationing, or the public distribution system, can go and with that nothing further could go wrong with it. He lists govern-
it procurement at minimum support prices. Competition ment research institutions, but forgets to mention that their
would come to agricultural markets; agriculture can then research is practically useless, and omits private corporate
specialise in crops in which it is competitive and start export- research which, though tiny, is more likely to be used.
ing. Panagariya wants states to make leasing of agricultural At the end, Panagariya has a chapter on governance,
land easy so that the large number of villagers who own tiny which reads more like a lecture to the prime minister on how
plots can lease them and go and work in cities, instead of dig- to run the economy. This is perhaps the most relevant, though
ging pits and filling them up under MNREGA. That would unlikely to find a listener. But there is no harm in being an
remove a major obstacle to a rise in productivity. optimist, especially if one has a pensionable job in the US. n
In the past three decades, China has become highly com-
petitive in manufacturing and dominated world trade; India Ashok V. Desai was Chief Consultant to the
lost out. Arvind believes this can be reversed for two reasons. finance minister during the reforms of the 1990s

12 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
 Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
GL ASSHOUSE

LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

Congress president Sonia Gandhi recently suggested a two-
year ban on all government advertising to media in the wake of the
COVID-19 crisis—an idea roundly criticised by the media. Partymen
instantly began speculating about its source. Could it be Jairam
Ramesh? But turns out, it was the brainchild of the Nehru-Gandhi
siblings—Rahul and Priyanka. The duo believes the media favours
the Narendra Modi government only because they are dependent
on government revenue. If the funds stop flowing, they feel the
Congress could level the playing field a little. Wishful thinking?

NO FREE
PASSES
M
aharashtra
principal
secretary (home)
Amitabh Gupta
landed himself in trouble recently
for issuing a curfew pass permitting
businessman Kapil Wadhawan and
23 of his family members to travel
from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar
during the lockdown. It didn’t help
that Wadhawan is under the CBI
lens in the YES Bank fraud case.
Gupta was sent on compulsory leave
by the state government pending an
inquiry. But who let the cat out of
the bag? It’s being speculated that
one of Gupta’s colleagues tipped off
a senior government official in Delhi
about the free pass.
Dream in
Quarantine
T he district administration
in Rampur, Uttar Pradesh,
recently took over the Mohammad
Ali Jauhar University to convert it
into a quarantine centre for COVID-
19 patients. The Samajwadi Party,
however, smells vendetta. The
100-bed medical university was
established in 2006 by Azam
Khan, their party leader from
Rampur. It was his dream project,
they insist. But Khan has bigger things
to worry about: he’s currently serving
time in Sitapur jail, with his wife and
son, for their role in a forgery case.
MANEESH AGNIHOTRI

—Sandeep Unnithan with Kaushik

Deka, Ashish Mishra and Kiran D. Tare
Jeevan ka

Ek SIIP - Do Fayede
Saving bhi : Suraksha bhi
Anmol safar Part - 3
BOLD MOVE
Prime Minister Modi
announces the extension of
the lockdown till May 3

16 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
 COVER
STORY

LEAD
E S S AY

HOW TO
MAKE THE
EXIT
STRATEGY
WORK
The key is to strengthen India’s health
capacities to battle a possible second
wave of infection, apart from providing
substantial relief to the needy and a
stimulus package to revive the
flailing Indian economy
By RAJ CHENGAPPA

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 17
 COVER
STORY
LEAD
E S S AY
W
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi
began his televised address to the nation at
10 am on April 14, he made two gestures that
summed up the dilemma that India faced. He
started by greeting the nation with a lengyan
wrapped around his nose and mouth. And
then lowered it soon after to deliver his speech,
the substance of which was that the national
lockdown would continue for another 19 days.
This was to ensure that the curve on the graph
showing the number of people infected by the
COVID-19 virus in the country flattens and
levels out. However, as an incentive, he added
that if, within one week, there were clear signs
that the containment strategy was working,
there would be a gradual reopening of the econ-
omy. It was in keeping with what he told state
chief ministers in a video conference three days
earlier—“Jaan bhi, jahaan bhi (Life as well as
livelihood)”. This phrase signalled a departure
from the one he used when he first announced
the 21-day lockdown on March 24—“Jaan hai
to jahaan hai (Health is wealth)”.
So, what prompted the prime minister’s
decision to extend the lockdown and opt for a
phased opening up of economic activity? And
what does the country need to do to make the
exit strategy he outlined work to save lives and
livelihoods? These are valid questions because
18 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
The prime minister takes
stock of the COVID-
19 situation via a video
conference with state CMs
with burgeoning unemployment numbers and
the humongous loss to the economy (expected
to be 3-4 per cent of GDP), there were worries
that, as an expert put it, “the crisis of corona
THE EXTENDED
LOCKDOWN
WILL GIVE THE
may be replaced by the crisis of hunger”.
CENTRE AND THE
BENEFITS OF THE LOCKDOWN STATES TIME
When the prime minister announced the lock- TO RAMP UP
down on March 24, the previous week had seen
a steady rise in cases, but it was still low at 516
INDIA’S HEALTH
cases and nine deaths. On April 14, when the CAPABILITIES
prime minister announced the extension of the TO COMBAT A
lockdown, the number of cases had grown to
11,487 and the deaths to 393. The Union min-
FURTHER SPREAD
istry for health and family welfare (MoHFW)
believes the lockdown helped to considerably
slow down the spread of the disease. India took
six days to move from 6,000 cases to 12,000
as compared to the two days it took the US,
Italy three days and Spain four. Lav Agarwal,
joint secretary in the MoHFW, said in a press
briefing that studies by the ministry indicated
that without a lockdown and other contain-
ment measures, there would have been a 41
per cent cumulative rise in cases. As against
12,000 cases, the number would have shot up
to 820,000 by April 15, he suggested.
The other key benefit of the lockdown was
that the Centre and the states used the 21-day
 GLIMMER OF HOPE?
The lockdown has helped slow down the
COVID-19 spread, but it’s still a long haul
40%
COVID-19 growth rate (%)
30%
20%
10%
0%
5 10 15
March
Growth rate = (Cases today/ cases previous day) - 1
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
ANI
reprieve to bolster the country’s health capabilities to
meet the enormous challenges of COVID-19. The real
worry for Team Modi was that should there be an expo-
nential growth in cases, afflicting some 100,000 people
in a populous city like Mumbai (as has happened in New
York), it would immediately need 20,000 hospital beds
to isolate these patients and treat them. Of these, some
3,000 would require some sort of ICU care, including
ventilator support. When the lockdown was imposed,
Mumbai had about 2,600 isolation beds and about 300
ICU beds—far, far short of the requirement to meet a
potential crisis. Worse, across the country, there was a
huge shortage of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE),
particularly for medical personnel who were risking their
own lives in trying to save the lives of COVID-19 patients.
The other pressing need was to ramp up testing to
assess the spread of the virus. One of the major criticisms
levelled at the Modi government—by Rahul Gandhi,
among others—was that our rate of testing was dan-
gerously low. Initially, the government had followed
the advice of the Indian Council of Medical Research
(ICMR) to test only symptomatic high-risk patients,
partly because of the limited availability of testing kits
and laboratory facilities in the country. That saw India
conducting an average of 5,000 tests a day as compared
to South Korea, which with one-twentieth our popu-
lation, was doing 20,000 tests daily. That limitation
impacted the country in two ways: one, the low testing
numbers meant that asymptomatic carriers could be
LOCKDOWN PERIOD
20 25 5 10 15
April
As on April 15, 2020, 5 pm
spreading the virus and, two, the country’s policymakers
did not have a correct estimate of how widespread the
threat really was for them to lift the lockdown.
To rapidly overcome these and other impediments,
the prime minister, on March 29, five days after the lock-
down, set up 11 empowered groups comprising senior
bureaucrats and top experts (see graphic, The COVID-19
Response Team). Of these, three were dedicated to up-
grading the health system. These groups were entrusted
by the Prime Minister’s Office to cut red tape and get
the job done, including importing equipment, if needed.
Modi’s instruction to them was simple: “Don’t tell me
what you are doing—tell me what you have delivered. I
want outcomes, not inputs.”
GETTING BATTLE-READY
The Centre then sanctioned Rs 15,000 crore to meet
emergency health needs. By the second week, the groups
had begun to show visible results. When it came to PPE
requirements, the concerned group adopted a twin strat-
egy. India had 300,000 pieces of PPE as against the
estimated need of 20 million. Import orders, therefore,
were immediately placed with foreign companies—
mainly in China and South Korea—for 17.5 million kits.
Meanwhile, some 30 Indian companies, both in the pub-
lic sector and in the private sector, were asked to start
manufacturing these indigenously after the government
gave them the specifications and ensured that they could
meet the requisite quality standards.
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 19
THE COVID-19
RESPONSE TEAM
1. Medical emergency
management plan
Dr V.K. Paul
Member, NITI Aayog
Dr Renu Swarup
Secy, Dept of Biotechnology
Dr V. Thiruppugazh
Joint Secretary, NDMA
Lav Agarwal
Jt Secy, Health
Dr Amandeep Garg
Jt Secy, Cabinet Secretariat
Rajender Kumar
Director, PMO
2. Hospitals, isolation
& quarantine facilities,
disease surveillance
& testing
C.K. Mishra
Secy, Environment Ministry
Vinod Yadav, Chairman,
Railway Board
Prof. Randeep Guleria
Director, AIIMS
Dr Raman R. Gangakhedkar
Head-ECD, ICMR
Jiwesh Nandan
Addl Secy, Defence
Rachna Shah
Addl Secy, Cabinet Secretariat
Vikas Sheel, Jt Secy, Health
S. Pardeshi, Jt Secy, PMO
Mayur Maheshwari, Dir., PMO
3. Availability of
essential medical
equipment
P.D. Vaghela, Secy,
Dept of Pharmaceuticals
Guruprasad Mohapatra,
Secy, DPIIT, Commerce Min.
Ravi Capoor, Secy, Textiles
Dr G. Satheesh Reddy,
Secy, DRDO
M. Ajit Kumar, Chairman,
Central Board of Indirect
Taxes & Customs (CBIC)
Naveen Srivastava
Jt Secy, External Affairs
Anu Nagar, Jt Secy, Health
Mandeep Bhandari
Jt Secy, Health
Piyush Goel, Jt Secy, Home
A. Giridhar, Addl Secy,
Cabinet Secretariat
A.K. Sharma
Addl Secy, PMO
Rohit Yadav, Jt Secy, PMO
The 11 empowered committees, set up on
March 29, are at the forefront of the Union
government’s response to the pandemic
4. Augmenting 6. Coordination with
human resources & private sector, NGOs,
capacity-building international organisations
Arun Panda, Secy, MSMEs Amitabh Kant, CEO, NITI Aayog
R.S. Shukla, Secy, Parl. Affairs Prof. K. VijayRaghavan
Rajesh Kotecha, Secy, AYUSH Principal Scientific Advisor
Arun Singhal, Spl Secy, Health Kamal Kishore, Member, NDMA
Rakesh Kumar Vats, Secy, S.M. Bhatnagar, Member, CBIC
National Medical Commission Anil Malik, Addl Secy, Home
Dr P. Ravindran, Dir., Emer- Tina Soni, Dy Secy, Cabinet Sect
gency Med. Relief, Health Min. Gopal Baglay, Jt Secy, PMO
Pankaj Agarwal, Jt Secy, Aishvarya Singh, Dy Secy, PMO
Cabinet Secretariat
V. Sheshadri, Jt Secy, PMO
P.K. Mishra
Principal Secretary
to the PM
Rajiv Gauba
Cabinet Secretary
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
Chairman, National
Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA)
5. Facilitating supply chain &
logistics management for essentials
Parameswaran Iyer, Secy, Dept
of Drinking Water & Sanitation
Rajendra Singh, Member, NDMA
Ravi Kant, Secy, Dept of Food & Public Distribution
Pawan Kumar Agarwal, Secy, Consumer Affairs
N.N. Sinha, Secy, Dept. of Border Management
Ashok Kumar Pandey, Member, CBIC
N. Sivasailam, Spl Secy, Commerce Ministry
AVM S.K. Jha, Jt Secy, Air, Defence Ministry
Usha Padhee, Jt Secy, Civil Aviation
Ashutosh Jindal, Jt Secy, Cabinet Secretariat
Tarun Bajaj, Addl. Secy, PMO Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

7. Economic & welfare measures
Atanu Chakraborty, Secy,
Dept of Economic Affairs
T.V. Somanathan, Secy, Expenditure
Heeralal Samariya, Secy, Labour
Rajesh Bhushan, Secy, Rural Dev.
Pankaj Jain, Addl Secy,
Dept of Financial Services
Amrapali Kata, Dy Secy, Cabinet Sect
Arvind Shrivastava, Jt Secy, PMO
Kavitha Padmanabhan, Dy Secy, PMO
8. Information,
communication and
public awareness
Ravi Mittal, Secy, I&B
Sunil Kumar, Secy,
Panchayati Raj
Lt Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain
Member, NDMA
COVER
STORY
LEAD
E S S AY
The team faced a similar problem when it came to testing
kits. Two types of kits—the confirmatory test kit called RT-PCR
(Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction) and the
rapid blood test kit—are being used. RT-PCR kits were already
being made in India, but not in sufficient quantities. The rapid
test, which promised results within half an hour instead of
the days RT-PCR tests take, would only indicate whether the
immune system had antibodies, signifying an infection; an
RT-PCR test would be needed to confirm if it was COVID-19.
The government is beefing up the availability of both kits, plac-
ing orders for 4.5 million rapid kits and 2.5 million PCR kits,
mainly with Chinese companies.

A
Punya Salila Srivastava part from the kits, there was also a need for
Jt Secy, Home
labs across the country to analyse the samples. The
Padmaja Singh
group identified laboratories across the country, in-
Jt Secy, Health
Sandeep Sarkar cluding in medical colleges and, with online training,
Jt Secy, Cabinet Sect approved close to 219 as on April 13, even as more are being
Gopal Baglay, Jt Secy, PMO added. When the group took over, 5,500 tests were being done
Hiren Joshi, OSD, PMO daily; within a fortnight, they had been scaled up to 24,000
Pratik Mathur tests a day, or by almost five times. By the end of April, the
Dy Secy, PMO target is expected to hit 40,000 tests. Yet, crucial gaps remain,
9. Technology & data whether in the testing itself, or in the availability of kits and labs
management (see accompanying story, Detection Gaps).
The groups tackled the problem of hospital quarantine
Ajay Sawhney, Secy,
Electronics & IT Min. facilities, including ICU beds and ventilators, with the same
vigour. To make best use of the already available facilities, the
Anshu Prakash, Secy,
groups worked on a graded system of healthcare: one for cases
Dept of Telecom
with mild symptoms and the other for those exhibiting serious
G.S. Toteja, ADG, ICMR
respiratory issues. They followed the thumb rule that 20 per
Dr N. Yuvraj, Dy Secy,
cent of those infected will need some sort of hospitalisation,
Ayushman Bharat
Bharat H. Khera, Jt Secy, and 3-5 per cent will require ICUs with ventilators. For the
Cabinet Secretariat former, the members of the group told the district collectors
Pratik Doshi, OSD, PMO to identify beds across private and public hospitals, apart
Manharsinh Yadav from medical colleges, and requisition them to create isola-
Dy Secy, PMO tion wards with beds. Over 138,000 such isolation beds have
Hardik Shah been set up across the country, including those provided by
Dy Secy, PMO the railways, defence and public sector units.
10. Public grievances India also had just 32,000 ventilators, when it needed
& suggestions around 80,000. Here again, the policy of asking Indian com-
Amit Khare, Secy, HRD
panies to chip in and placing orders with foreign firms was
cleared rapidly to acquire 40,000 additional ventilators.
K. Shivaji, Secy, Min. of
Group leader C.K. Mishra, secretary in the Union environ-
Personnel
Ashutosh Agnihotri ment and forests ministry, had instructed his team thus: “We
Jt Secy, Home Min. should be prepared for the worst-case scenarios because it will
Meera Mohanty be a huge tragedy if we don’t—every life is precious.”
Dir., Cabinet Sect
Saurabh Shukla, Dir., PMO POST-LOCKDOWN IMPERATIVE
Abhishek Shukla Even as most groups were working on fortifying the health
Dy Secy, PMO services to meet any exponential growth in cases, one of them
was concentrating on planning an exit strategy to contain
11. Strategic issues linked to lockdown the virus and restart economic activity. Based on the spread
Ajay Kumar Bhalla, Secretary, Home and concentration of the positive cases, the team worked out
Dr V.K. Paul, Member, NITI Aayog a strategy whereby it split areas into hotspots with large out-
V.P. Joy, Secretary (Coordination), Cabinet Sect
A.K. Sharma, Addl Secy, PMO
Arvind Shrivastava, Jt Secy, PMO A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 21
Abhishek Shukla, Dy Secy, PMO
 COVER
STORY
LEAD
E S S AY
breaks, those with clusters of infection in them
and potential hotspots. This was done in consul-
tation with states and plotted on the Indian map
(see accompanying story, The Line of Corona
Control). The figures, as on April 16, were 123
hotspots with large outbreaks, 47 with clusters
and 207 potential hotspots—in all 377 affected
districts, a little more than half of India’s total
720 districts. In the next two weeks, there will
be a concentrated focus on these hotspots, where
there will be a total lockdown in containment
zones, which number 1,500 so far. This will be
followed by intensive testing, along with the iso-
lation and treatment of those who test positive.
T
his is one of the major reasons
why Modi extended the lockdown for
another 19 days to give the government
greater confidence to lift it after May
3. Yet, the threat will remain even after the
lockdown is lifted. Dr Vinod K. Paul, member,
NITI Aayog, points to three challenges ahead.
Firstly, he advocates that individuals, families
and members of society observe a new normal to
maintain social distancing in their interactions
and ensure the continued use of masks, hand-
washing and restrictions on congregations. He
terms these ‘30 per cent of lockdown behaviour’
and warns, “We cannot go back to our old ways
as this would be a recipe for disaster.” The second
point he makes is that the lockdown will not kill
the virus, only contain it. It is bound to prolifer-
ate again and the preparatory effort the country
has put in during the lockdown for surveillance,
health delivery and containment systems should
help keep it in check. Thirdly, he says the lock-
down has to be eased out in a manner that, in
his words, can help “get maximum economic
gain with minimum loss of lives through the
pandemic—that is the balance we have worked
out through the lockdown”.
This was what Modi did too, by announc-
ing that the government would, from April 20
onward, start the process of restoring livelihoods
by permitting economic activity in key sectors,
such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, packag-
ing, exports, e-commerce, construction and
self-contained industrial clusters. The prime
minister is deeply concerned about the looming
economic crisis not just in India but the entire
world. A top official involved in the decision-
making process reveals that while planning for
restarting economic activity, it was evident that
22 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
ALL HANDS ON
DECK Finance
minister Nirmala
Sitharaman
undergoes a
thermal scan at
North Block; far
right, defence
minister Rajnath
Singh chairs
GoM meeting on
COVID-19
it could not be what he termed a digital stop-
start, “you cannot go from 0 to 1—even if you
TEAM MODI
open up all industry, it cannot go to 100 per cent IS WORKING
in a week. It will have to be gradual, possibly ON A RADICAL
one step at a time, for it to ramp up production.”
Officials confess that they have not dealt with an
REBOOT OF THE
economic crisis of this magnitude in the past— ECONOMY, MADE
neither in 2008 nor in 1991—when both supply POSSIBLE—EVEN
and demand have been totally depressed and
almost all economic activity, barring in essential
NECESSARY—BY
sectors, has ceased, a phenomenon most econo- THE WORLDWIDE
mies in the world are grappling with. DISRUPTIONS
THE LONG ROAD TO RECOVERY OF THE GREAT
One of the empowered groups, headed by Union LOCKDOWN
secretary Atanu Chakraborty, who also heads
the department of economic affairs, has been
tasked with working out appropriate economic
and welfare measures. Based on their inputs
and those from other departments, including
the department of promotion for industry and
internal trade, the government is approaching
economic rehabilitation and revival through
three broad strategies. Its top priority is to en-
sure that the poor, migrant labour and farmers
who have been hit hard by the lockdown are
provided adequate relief both in terms of food
and cash. On March 25, a day after the lock-
down, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced a raft of measures totalling Rs 1.7
lakh crore for these groups, including increas-
ing grains and pulses entitlements under the
public distribution system and cash transfers
to farmers, women and senior citizens in addi-
tion to free cylinders to BPL families. Already,
Rs 32,000 crore has been disbursed in the past
week, and a second round is expected next month.
Despite suggestions from experts, including Nobel
laureates Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee, to give direct
cash benefits to people rather than route assistance through
various relief schemes, the Modi government so far has
been averse to what it sees as disbursing doles without ac-
countability. As a senior official put it, “The prime minister
is against such loose doles and is judicious, even stingy,
about spending money—he will do so only when he is con-
vinced it would go to the right people.” He also points out
how the government has given states Rs 11,000 crore for the
700,000 migrant labour in cities, including construction
workers, to ensure their basic needs are met.
Even for the first stage of reviving the economy, Modi
insisted on focusing on agriculture and ensuring that the
rabi harvest was a success. The measures included freeing
all truck movement and pushing through radical reforms
such as bypassing the Agricultural Produce Marketing
Committees (APMCs) to purchase grain directly from
the farmers. Great attention was paid to detail, includ-
ing allowing dhabas to remain open on the highways so
that truck drivers transporting supplies could have food
en route. The government also stopped discriminating
between essential and non-essential goods for transport,
in an order dated April 12, as it was causing enormous
blockages at check-posts. As an officer put it, “The speedy
movement of the entire supply system was dependent on
the whims and moods of the constable manning the post.”
The government also lifted all restrictions on the poul-
try, fisheries and meat industry as well as milk distribution,
which should see close to 30 million people return to work.
For medium, small and micro enterprises (MSMEs), a sec-
tor that employs 120 million, the Reserve Bank of India has
announced an indirect relief package totalling Rs 50,000
crore. But getting the MSME sector back on its feet will be
an uphill task (see accompanying story Getting Down to
Business). If the process of harvesting goes smoothly, and
much of the labour finds adequate work in this sector, the
government is confident it will stem the growing unrest
and despair resulting from the lockdown and also infuse
liquidity and demand back into the economy.
H
owever, a State Bank of India report,
after the extension of the lockdown, bears grim
tidings, including GDP growth dropping to 1 per
cent in FY21. It estimates that the total loss in in-
come to the 373 million workers—whether self-employed
(52 per cent of the total), casual workers (25 per cent) or
the remaining regular workers—works out to around Rs
4 lakh crore (or 2 per cent of GDP) and that any fiscal
package should strive to make up the loss. In addition,
merchandise exports are expected to decline by 16 per cent
while the output loss is expected to be $50 billion (Rs 1.86
lakh crore). Some of this can be compensated by exports
of services, particularly in the field of information and
communications technology, as the pandemic is certain to
give a push to digitisation and enhanced use of software to
maintain social distancing norms for a while. But key sec-
tors such as automotives, textiles, construction, aviation
and tourism saw an average 50 per cent drop in output.
Top economic experts talk of the need for an additional
stimulus of at least 5 per cent of GDP, or about Rs 10 lakh
crore. As part of the second leg of its strategic recovery,
the government is working on a stimulus for sectors that
urgently require it. However, as a senior official put it,
“Don’t expect us to spend like mad or throw away money—
the bucks will go wherever we get the most bang out of
it.” The government is likely to step up its plans to spend
the Rs 20 lakh crore it had earlier set aside for infrastruc-
ture, whether roads, rail or ports, to boost employment.
The third prong of the strategy Team Modi is work-
ing on is a radical reboot of the economy which the Great
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 23
 COVER
STORY

LEAD
E S S AY

Lockdown (a term coined by IMF’s chief economist Gita
Gopinath) offers an opportunity for. The argument put
forward by many senior officials is that the pandemic will
forever change the way we do business and could see a ma-
jor churning in the global trade and financial architecture.
“It gives the Modi government an opportunity to aspire for
big-ticket reforms,” says an official. BJP ideologue Ram
Madhav even talked in terms of the prime minister laying
a New Deal for India as Franklin D. Roosevelt had done
for the US after the Great Depression in the 1930s. Cur-
rently, the thinking is not to dilute the process by trying
to focus on widespread reforms but to concentrate on a
handful of sectors such as power, agriculture, petroleum,
mining and labour and ensure that these are achievable.
NO EASY EXIT
Yet, industry has serious concerns about the
government’s moves to restore economic ac- APART FROM
real estate consultant Anarock.
The key remains in clearing the hotspots, particularly
in metros such as Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai and parts
of Delhi, which have the highest demand for consumer
goods and durables, automobiles and garments. The
Rs 7.6 lakh crore automotive sector, for instance, will
find it pointless to start production if the dealerships
in cities and towns remain closed. “In fact, the starting
point of the automotive business is the dealerships. For
us, it makes sense to start only when the inventory gets
moving,” says Vikram Kirloskar, president of the Confed-
eration of Indian Industry (CII). Only a free movement of
goods into and out of factories can make it sustainable for
businesses to operate. R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti
Suzuki, says that his company cannot start operations
immediately since the automotive
industry is a highly supply chain-
driven one. Between 70 and 80 per

tivity even after May 3. The key would be to
reduce the designated hotspots to a mini-
mum, otherwise manufacturing activity will
continue to be stymied. A study by the HDFC
A STIMULUS
cent of the parts that go into making
a Maruti Suzuki vehicle are sourced
PACKAGE, INDIA from different suppliers, mostly In-
MUST CONTAIN dian. “If my company has, say, 350

Bank research team shows that areas with
high incidence of COVID-19 and falling in
the hotspot zones are the biggest contributors
to the Indian economy. The group that has
THE NUMBER OF
suppliers, and even if five of them
are in the ‘red’ zone, I won’t be able
VIRUS HOTSPOTS to manufacture,” he says. The com-
TO PUT pany doesn’t have a problem opening

INDUSTRY
the highest number of cases, including Maha-
rashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi, cumulatively
accounts for 30 per cent of India’s GDP. Ma- ON ITS FEET
harashtra and Tamil Nadu alone account for
27.6 per cent of India’s manufacturing output
and 23.5 per cent of services output. These three states also
account for as much as 22 per cent of all-India construction
output. Another cluster of states—UP, Rajasthan, Andhra,
Telangana and MP—which accounts for 34 per cent of all-
India manufacturing activity, has fewer number of cases,
but remains vulnerable.
BACK
its dealerships, as some 60 per cent
of them are outside the so-called
hotspots. But the disruption in the
supply chain will make production
of cars impossible.
It is not easy, therefore, to muster optimism unless
industry is confident that it can resume business without
major disruption. Yet, with the virus lurking around, the
uncertainty will persist. In India, the virus may be con-
tained in the coming months by what an official called
“General Summer’s help”, referring to the approaching
season. But experts expect a second wave in September-

E
ven the restricted number of industries
outside the COVID-19 ‘hotspots’ that have been
allowed to resume activity will take a couple of
months to actually come on stream. The gov-
ernment has permitted construction activity, provided
strict social distancing guidelines are adhered to. But the
hotspots are the areas where normally most construction
activity takes place. For instance, Mumbai, a hotspot,
currently has the highest under-construction residential
stock of nearly 465,000 units. This accounts for 30 per
cent of the 1.56 million under-construction stock across
the top seven cities. Moreover, most of the migrant labour-
ers have already left for their home states, so getting them
back to the construction sites will not be easy. Migrant
workers comprise at least 80 per cent of the total 44 mil-
lion workforce in the construction sector at present, says
November—the prime season for flu flare-ups. Of course,
as South Korea has shown, strong intervention can keep the
virus in check and help resumption of economic activity.
The one ray of hope is that with several groups across
the world and in India working on a vaccine, we could well
have one by the end of the year. India is well positioned
to not only mount such an R&D initiative, but also has
the manufacturing capacity to become one of the world’s
largest producers of such a vaccine. Characterising it as a
great opportunity, Dr V.K. Paul says, “We should chase the
R&D solution crazily and relentlessly not just in India but
across the world. Because if we succeed, we will remove all
commas against the virus and put a full stop to it.” That
is a venture India and the rest of the world should invest
heavily in. n
—with M.G. Arun

24 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
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 COVER
STORY
COVID
TESTING
DETECTION
GAPS
India’s testing strategy leaves much to be
desired, even as it struggles to procure test
kits and assess the progress of the disease to
formulate an appropriate response
By Sonali Acharjee
H
aving reconciled to a
three-week
lockdown, most
Indians waited
anxiously on the
morning of April 14
to hear how the
prime minister
would lift it—fully
or incrementally—only to find that the
shutdown had been extended by another 19
days. No one disputes the necessity of a
lockdown—according to a study by the
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR),
one person can infect 406 people in 30 days
if he or she doesn’t isolate—but at the end of
three weeks, everyone is asking if the move
did achieve what it had set out to do when it
was imposed on March 24. The jury is still
out. As India reported 12,338 cases and 420
deaths on April 16, it wasn’t clear if the
country had managed to flatten the curve.
“We still have to wait 7-10 more days to know
if we have flattened the curve,” says K.
Srinath Reddy, chairman of the Public
Health Initiative of India (PHFI), a not-for-
profit public-private initiative. “We can’t
assess if the lockdown has been successful till
more data is collected and analysed,
especially age and state-specific data.” And
there is only one way to get that data—
through intensive and widespread testing.
Testing in India
India has a long way to go before it can come
even close to the 10,550 tests per million
that South Korea has conducted—without
resorting to a lockdown—to restrict its total
number of COVID-related deaths to 229.
As on April 16, India had tested 258,730
individuals or 196 tests per million. But with
the death rate now doubling every four days,
the country has no option but to drastically
revise its strategy if it has to limit minimise
the number of coronavirus deaths. Extend-
ing the lockdown has been one measure; the
other will be to ramp up testing.
Towards that end, the government issued
new guidelines for testing on April 13. India
will now test symptomatic cases not just in
areas with high rate of infections, or what are
called hotspots, but also in areas with low
or no infections, or cold spots, using rapid
antibody tests that can alert one to an infec-
tion before it can be confirmed with a reverse
transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-
PCR) test. Asymptomatic high-risk contacts
and healthcare workers, on the other hand,
can directly go for the RT-PCR test. “There
are significant changes to our testing strategy
now,” says Raman Gangakhedkar, chief
scientist at ICMR. “We are doing all we can to
increase our capacity to nearly 100,000 tests
a day (from the 24,000 or so per day current-
ly).” Rapid tests for symptomatic cases had
VIKRAM SHARMA
TESTING TIMES Dr Dangs
Lab technicians rehearse
drive-though testing at New
Delhi’s Punjabi Bagh West
POSITIVELY India has two kinds of tests in its arsenal
to combat COVID-19: the confirmatory

VICIOUS RT-PCR test and the indicative rapid

antibody test. Here is what both entail

The novel coronavirus is surrounded by 29 crown-like spike proteins that attach themselves to human
cells and infect them. To detect its presence, the RNA in a sample has to be first converted into DNA, then
amplified to help sequester the gene specific to COVID-19

1 Indian strategy Is it reliable?

RT-PCR
Reverse Transcription- Both symptomatic as well The test itself is considered
Polymerase Chain as asymptomatic high- the gold standard for testing.
Reaction Test) risk cases can get these However, for the test to be
confirmatory tests completely foolproof, you
need to ensure:
How it works î Sample or the chemicals
used to convert RNA to DNA
are not contaminated
î The primers and probes
to target COVID-19 genes
are designed accurately to
match its genetic sequence
1. A swab is collected 4. DNA is amplified in the î The PCR machine is spun a
7. Chemical
from a patient’s PCR machine which is minimum number of times to
markers
throat and nostril. spun around 40 times, adequately amplify the DNA
attached to the
The sample is kept heating and cooling the
DNA release
in a viral transport sample and creating
fluorescence
medium and taken to thousands of copies of
when the binding
an ICMR-approved lab
for testing
the DNA for the test to
measure
occurs Variations
î Some states are
considering pool
testing, in which
multiple samples are
clubbed and a single
test run on them
î If the result is
2. The RNA or 5. Primers, which are designed 8. The flashes of positive, each person
Ribonucleic to match the genetic sequence fluorescence are has to be tested
acid in the unique to the virus, ensure that measured by a individually
coronavirus is the PCR machine amplifies only machine to determine
first extracted that part of DNA which matches the presence of the î Pooled tests require
from the sample its genetic sequence virus in a sample zero false negatives
î ICMR has also
approved the use of
TrueNat, a machine
used to detect drug-
resistant tuberculosis,
for COVID testing. It
will be a screening
3. It is then 6. Probes that complement 9. If there is no test requiring a throat
converted to DNA DNA fragments found in coronavirus in the or nasal sample.
using reagent the virus are then used. If sample, the primers TrueNat tests cost
chemicals any viral genetic material is will not amplify the Rs 1,000-1,500 and
present, these fragments DNA and the probes produce results in
bind to it will remain dark under an hour

28 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0

2
Rapid/ Antibody/
Serology Test
India’s strategy
î All symptomatic cases in hotspots will
have to take a rapid antibody test if they
have been ill for more than a week to
detect the presence of infection
î If they test positive, they are sent for
clinical assessment and treatment
î If the result is negative, then they are
required to get a confirmatory RT-PCR test
î There is no strategy as of now to test
asymptomatic cases who might not have
come in contact with a positive case
How it works
î It involves a simple prick of the finger
to get a blood sample
î The sample is then examined to
see if it has any antibodies, which
develop in response to an infection
in the body. Immunoglobin M (IgM)
antibodies develop first, 5-8 days after
an infection, followed by Immunoglobin
G (IgG) antibodies
Is it reliable?
î ICMR has clarified this is a screening
and not a confirmatory test by itself
î IgM and IgG antibodies can develop
against any infection. The presumption is
that COVID-19 being the most prevalent
infection in a hotspot, antibodies would
have developed as a response to it
î These tests are useful to gauge if
someone has been infected by COVID-19
and recovered on their own. They could
also be an indicator of pre-existing
immunity against the virus
î It is also a quick and cheaper way to
judge if symptomatic cases need to go
for further clinical assessment or an RT-
PCR confirmatory test
Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY AND RAJ VERMA
been greenlighted by the empow-
ered committee set up on March
29 under Dr V.K. Paul, member,
NITI Aayog. “Rapid tests will help
gauge the extent of the spread and
make it quicker to isolate potential
cases,” says Dr Paul.
To prepare for the widespread
testing, ICMR has granted
licences to 51 companies to sell
rapid test kits and another 33
firms to sell PCR test kits in
India. The body has also floated a
tender to acquire 5.3 million kits
for the transport of viral samples,
2.5 million PCR test kits and 4.5
million rapid test kits.
But Is It Enough?
For sure, the country has come a
long way since ‘patient zero’ tested
positive in Kerala on January 30.
Between then and March 27, only
27,686 samples had been tested,
of which 834 were positive. Ten
days from then, the number of
samples tested went up to 73,380,
and the number of cases rose to
3,955. As many as 11,432 samples
were tested on April 6 alone, of
which 311 were confirmed cases.
But testing still varies widely
between states. So, while West
Bengal with 99 million people
has conducted only 38 tests per
million, Kerala, with 34 million
people, tested 497, as on April 16.
A primary reason for slow
testing in India is the unavailabil-
ity of test kits. In early February,
the National Institute of Virology
in Pune had procured 1 million
reagents (chemicals that convert
RNA in the virus to DNA) and 1
million primers and probes (which
amplify DNA and then detect
the genetic sequence specific to
COVID-19) for PCR tests. Though
Gangakhedkar insists India has
enough test kits for the next six
weeks, there is no available official
count on the current stock with
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
COVER
STORY
COVID
TESTING
ICMR. The 500,000 rapid kits or-
dered earlier departed from China
only on April 16, almost a month
late. “There is a global shortage in
rapid kits, as almost all countries
are looking to introduce it,” says
Malini Aisola, co-convenor of
advocacy group All India Drugs
Action Network. “Till we have
enough quality equipment for
testing, you cannot ramp it up.”
Not just rapid kits, PCR kits
too are in short supply. While
rapid kit manufacturers are yet to
be cleared in India, the empow-
ered committee is trying to give
domestic manufacturing a push
for PCR kits. Three labs—NIV
and the National AIDS Research
Institute (NARI) in Pune, and
the National Institute of Patholo-
gy in New Delhi—evaluated non-
FDA or non-European CE-certi-
fied commercial kits. On March
23, MyLabs in Pune became the
first to get ICMR approval to sell
its COVID-19 kit. Though the
company, in existence since 2016,
claims to be ‘FDA approved’ on
its website, its products do not
have FDA approval. MyLabs CEO
Hashmukh Rawal clarifies: “We
spent the last six years work-
ing to develop our ID NAT kit,
which detects HIV molecules in
blood samples. We have received
CDSCO (Central Drugs Standard
Control Organisation) clear-
ance for this, equivalent to an
FDA clearance in India.” The kit,
priced at Rs 800, was designed in
six weeks by Minal Bhosale, R&D
head at MyLabs, who had earlier
worked with NIV Pune during
the 2009 swine flu outbreak.
On April 2, Bhopal-based
Kilpest India became the second
Indian company to receive clear-
ance for its kit. The company had
earlier been rejected after its kit’s
true positive correlation scored 75
per cent, even as the true negative
INDIA TODAY 29
 COVER
STORY

COVID
TEST CASE
TESTING The countries that got it right—and wrong

correlation was 100 per cent. “After the first Best Practices
attempt, we added one more targeted gene
and played around with the internal chem­
istry a bit,” says Dhirendra Kuber Dubey,
director of the company.
Together, the two companies claim they
can manufacture 8.3 million kits per month.
Adar Poonawalla, whose Serum Institute has
partnered with MyLabs, says, “Our produc­
tion capacity is 1.5 lakh units a week, we will Test, track, At ease Privacy
soon scale it up to 20 lakh a week.” Asked
how many kits his company has delivered so
treat testing In Singapore and
Countries such Some countries have South Korea, a copy
far to the government, Rawal vaguely offers: of your test is sent
“We have delivered thousands across the cou­ as Iceland, South pioneered creative
Korea and Singapore ways to test, such to you via text and
ntry to state departments and private labs.” e-mail and a hard
ramped up testing as the drive-through
copy given. Private,

T
and followed it test by South
hen, there is the question of the easily accessible
up with rigorous Korea, home and
validity and reliability of the tests result drives more
contact tracing of phone-booth testing
themselves. Of the 51 firms the people to test
positive cases elsewhere
government has cleared for rapid
kits, seven are Chinese. Of these,
two—Wangfo and All Test—are the ones
from which the UK too has ordered about a
Awareness Home made
million kits. On April 6, Professor John Bell, Vietnam has only With global test kit
267 infections, no shortage, S. Korea
coordinator of coronavirus testing for
deaths. A study by began home
government agency Public Health England,
data firm Premise production. One
announced that the tests had “not performed
shows 52% knew Korean firm, SD
well” when being evaluated and that they had
testing was available; Biosensor, alone
a high number of false positives and nega­ 87% of them knew makes 2.5 kits per
tives. Spain, too, allegedly withdrew 58,000 where to go for it second
kits made by Chinese firm Shenzen Bioeasy
Biotechnology as they were not accurate,
though India is not importing from them.
The RT­PCR test itself is the gold sta­ America Fails the Test
ndard in testing, asserts biotechnologist and
gene specialist Virander S. Chauhan. “Unless
the samples or chemicals are contaminated,” The lost Faulty
he says, “it gives an extremely accurate month primers
picture of whether a sample has a virus or The US now has On March 4,
not; it is, after all, hunting for a gene specific over 28,000 COVID the Centers for
to COVID­19.” But a lot also depends on the deaths. Many Disease Control and
design of the kit, the genes it targets and attribute this to Prevention sent test
how samples are collected and tested. As per the fact that the
country took a
kits using four sets of
primers to state labs.
Price of
ICMR’s own declaration, neither Kilpest nor
MyLabs was tested as per its guidelines for relatively long time Three were designed treatment
sensitivity or specificity as no false positive or to ramp up testing. to detect COVID-19, Studies show that
false negative samples were taken. False nega­ By March 16, it while the other was a many Americans
tive and positive determinations for kits are a had done only 74 negative control. The are reluctant to be
step requisite for both FDA and European CE tests per million labs reported getting tested fearing that
approvals. “We are ensuring every test has a inhabitants, while false positive results they will have to bear
100 per cent true negative and a 100 per cent S. Korea had done in negative controls, significant expenses
true positive,” says Dr Gangakhedkar. There 5,200 per million by The entire batch had for treatment if they
the same date to be recalled test positive
are methods by which repeatedly testing a kit
could ascertain its sensitivity and specific­

30 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
A LONG WAY TO GO
Where India stands Vis-a-vis the rest
in terms of testing As on April 16, India had tested
258,730 individuals, or 196 tests per
Current no. of Rapid test million. In order to reach the average shortage of PPE and trained person­
tests kits ordered testing levels of other countries, nel. “We have one virologist and three
India needs to conduct the following microbiologists, but we need expert
24,000 4.5 number of tests: technicians and an automated RNA
per day million extraction machine,” he says.
13,926,000 What is also needed is communica­
Desired no. of Orders for to match South Korea’s
tion about testing. “Public outreach is
tests PCR tests 10,550 tests per million
the foundation of a good public health
100,000 2.5 12,361,800 strategy,” says Chapal Mehra, a public
per day million to compete with the US’s health analyst in Delhi. “People need to
9,365 tests per million know basics—the kinds of tests, their
Domestic Firms granted reliability and cost, who should be tested
manufacturing import licences 6,270,400 and at what stage.” Communication,
capacity to keep up with the UK’s after all, played a huge role in Kerala’s
33 51 4,750 tests per million success in dealing with the disease.
8 mn for PCR for rapid Source: South Korea health dept, Field workers made door to door calls
per month kits kits NHS UK and CDC, as on April 16
to tackle any fear of being tested. “No
disease can be stopped without people’s
participation,” says Dr Amar Fettle, the
State of HIGHEST TESTS LOWEST TESTS nodal officer for infectious diseases in
PER MILLION PER MILLION
testing West
the state health department. “The public
Andaman will step up when they know what to do.
How different Bengal
& Nicobar So we made it extremely clear that if you
states
measure up
3,307 38 have symptoms, go to a quick centre for
a PCR test. If you don’t have symptoms
Uttar but have been in contact with someone
All figures as Delhi Pradesh who does, consult a doctor and get a
on April 16.
States with 830 92 PCR test. We ensured everybody knew
less than five this, from schoolchildren to the elderly.”
COVID cases Rajasthan Bihar There is now an effort to dissemi­
were not
included 599 72 nate information via social media,
radio and television, but confusion
remains. Many do not know the differ­
ence between rapid and RT­PCR tests,
and do not realise that the rapid test is
not a confirmatory test for COVID­19.
ity, but ICMR is yet to make public its sample of the COVID­19 RNA, which Bengaluru­based start­up Bione has
protocol for testing kits before approval, can be extracted either from a human been selling single­use rapid kits for Rs
in the absence of which it is impos­ sample or a synthetic one.) 2,500, claiming in their description that
sible to judge the reliability of the kits The reliability of RT­PCR tests also they can provide results in 5­10 minutes.
being cleared for sale. “We would have a depends heavily on lab infrastructure, On April 5, CDSCO released a public
clearer picture of whether false negative trained lab technicians and the avail­ notice saying the company did not have
or positive samples are needed for kits ability of PPE, or personal protection a licence to sell in India and was not on
if we knew how the tests for sensitivity equipment, to prevent sample contami­ the list of ICMR­verified rapid kits.
and specificity were being conducted,” nation. India still has only 219 testing India has bought itself some more
says Aisola. A false positive can mean facilities for 720 districts, which means time by extending the lockdown, but
isolation for a person, but a false nega­ samples have to be packed and trans­ has yet to get its act together. The gov­
tive for an infected person will mean no ported, delaying results. Various state ernment has placed orders for PPE, an­
treatment or isolation—undesirable for governments have requested ICMR to nounced plans to enlist ENT specialists
a disease as infectious as COVID­19. clear 45 labs, but only eight had been to collect samples and to expand testing
ICMR declined to comment on either cleared till April 13. Dr Pradip Kundu centres to include medical colleges. Test­
the protocol for kit clearance or why of the School of Tropical Medicine, ing, however, has still not been ramped
manufacturers are not being provided an ICMR­approved testing centre in up to desired levels. Lockdowns, after
human controls. (A positive control is a Kolkata, says they have an extreme all, can only be temporary reprieves. n

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 31
HIGH ALARM
A doctor, in protective
suit, screens residents
of Dharavi in Mumbai

COVER
STORY

HOTSPOTS

THE LINE OF
CORONA CONTROL
Hotspots and containment zones within them are the
thrust areas as the government looks to maximise
gains from the extended lockdown
By AMARNATH K. MENON
 VIRUS FOOTPRINT Hotspots with large outbreaks
More than half of India’s districts have been Hotspots with clusters of infection
identified as ‘hotspots’ or ‘potential hotspots’ Potential hotspots reporting cases

LADAKH HIMACHAL BIHAR

0 1 1 PRADESH 1 3 7
0 5 0
JAMMU & KASHMIR JHARKHAND
6 2 5 CHANDIGARH 0 2 3
1 0 0
PUNJAB ARUNACHAL PRADESH
4 4 9 UTTARAKHAND 0 0 1
1 2 3
HARYANA ASSAM
4 2 12 UTTAR 0 5 7
PRADESH
DELHI MEGHALAYA
9 4 28
9 1 1 0 0 1
RAJASTHAN MIZORAM
11 1 13 0 0 1
GUJARAT TRIPURA
5 1 14 0 0 2
MADHYA PRADESH WEST BENGAL
5 1 17 4 0 8
MAHARASHTRA ODISHA
11 3 15 1 1 7
GOA ANDHRA PRADESH CHHATTISGARH
0 0 2 11 0 0 1 1 3
KARNATAKA PUDUCHERRY ANDAMAN
3 5 11 0 0 2 0 1 0
KERALA TAMIL NADU TELANGANA
6 1 6 22 0 9 8 1 19
Source: MoHFW

ANI
123
Hotspot districts with
47
Hotspot districts
207
Non-hotspot districts with
large outbreaks with clusters clusters (potential hotspots)

O
n the 90-foot road, an
otherwise vibrant spot
in Mumbai’s Dharavi,
policemen take out
a flag march appeal-
ing to people to stay
home. Teams of the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation (BMC) go
checking door to door for those
with symptoms of COVID-19, such
as high fever, persistent cough and
breathing difficulty. With 86 positive
cases and nine deaths (as on April
16) among its estimated 850,000
residents, Dharavi, one of Asia’s most
densely populated slums spread over
just 2.4 km, has been the focus of
considerable attention by worried
municipal officials.
By mid-April, the BMC had
marked out nearly 400 ‘outbreak
containment zones’ across Mumbai.
Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban
are two of the 170 ‘hotspots’ of coro-
navirus in the country—and among
Maharashtra’s 14—as classified by
the Union ministry for health and
family welfare (MoHFW). In Delhi,
where the ministry has identified 10
hotspots, the number of containment
zones has gradually risen to 55. It is
these hotspots where the Centre and
states aim to focus their energy and
resources in the coming weeks of the
extended lockdown to try and flatten
the coronavirus curve.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
address to the nation on April 14
made this amply evident. Modi said

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 33
 COVER
STORY

HOTSPOTS

DESPERATE TIMES
A deserted stretch of Ramganj
in Jaipur; (far right) security
personnel on the streets of
Delhi’s Nizamuddin

that states and Union territories

that will effectively contain the CO-
VID spread in their hotspots could
expect some relaxations from the
prevailing restrictions after April 20.
In their rounds of discussions, too, the
prime minister and the chief ministers
have concurred that the way forward
is to stringently enforce protocols in
the hotspots in order to contain any
spurt in cases.
Announcing its new national-level
classification of 170 hotspots and
207 potential hotspots on April 15,
the MoHFW laid down the strategy
to contain the spread of COVID-19
within and from them (see Virus
Footprint). According to the new
administrative etiquette, hotspots are
districts where the number of cases
is doubling in less than four days,
or districts which contribute more
than 80 per cent of cases in a state or
in the country. Based on how many
outbreak containment zones, or clus-
ters, a hotspot has, the ministry has
categorised them as districts that have
experienced ‘large outbreaks’ (123)
or have ‘clusters’ of infection (47).
The ministry hoped that these ‘red
zones’ could move to the ‘orange zone’
category if they remained free of new
cases for 14 days, and further to the
‘green zone’ if this was maintained for
another fortnight (so far, 25 districts
in 15 states have moved to the orange
zone). The potential hotspots were
classified as districts that do not
meet the hotspot criteria, but have
reported cases nonetheless.
PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR
CONTAINMENT STRATEGY
Outbreak containment zones in the
hotspots form the building block of the
states’ strategy to slow down the spread
of COVID-19 (see Covid Checkpoints).
It is estimated that there are already
more than 1,500 of them across the
country, and officials are bracing for
many more as the number of positive
cases rises steadily. States have marked
out the containment zones going by
their assessment of the potential risk
of spread, based on the number of
positive cases and the suspected cases
among their primary contacts.
So, the area of a containment
zone varies. In Uttar Pradesh, these
are areas with a minimum of six
positive cases. In the initial days of
the outbreak, the Madhya Pradesh
administration had defined a contain-
ment zone as an area of 1 km radius
from the outermost geographical
point an infected person had come in
contact with, along with an additional
2 km buffer area. As cases mounted,
the definition was amended, with the
infected person’s house as the epicen-
tre and a ‘practical area’ around it, as
determined by the health authorities.
Definitions may vary, but the
focus in all outbreak containment
zones is sanitation, isolation of positive
cases, controlling the spread of infec-
tion by identifying suspected cases
early and sending them for lab tests.
The detection of every new case is fol-
lowed by their primary contacts being
tracked down within and outside the
containment zone.
Confining residents of a contain-
ment zone to their homes has been
somewhat easier in places with high
public awareness. Otherwise, au-
thorities are known to have deployed
stronger means, such as heavy police
patrolling and concertina wire

34 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0

fencing of the zones. Across states,
now, there is increasing reliance on
technology, such as the use of drones
for surveillance.
DEMAND AND SUPPLY
A dedicated supply of daily essentials
by the authorities is critical for the
containment strategy to succeed. But
supplies in many clusters are neither
uniform nor regular. A successful
enterprise has been the delivery of
cooked meals, priced at Rs 5, to the
poor by the Telangana government-
run Annapurna canteens in some of
the containment zones in Hyderabad.
In Delhi, the historic Nizamuddin
quarter, where two adjoining areas
have been demarcated as containment
zones, is emblematic of the social and
administrative tensions simmering in
the cordoned-off areas. Ratish Nanda
of the Aga Khan Foundation, which
A smooth supply of daily essentials
is critical for any containment zone
to succeed. Like in Hyderabad,
where state canteens are offering
subsidised meals to the poor
has been working in the locality for
several years, points out that although
the neighbourhood is now notorious
for the outbreak of COVID-19 infec-
tions among Tablighi Jamaat mission-
aries, who had gathered at their global
headquarters here in March, “there
have actually been very few cases in
the Nizamuddin basti itself”.
N
anda says the area is very
socially diverse, with 10
distinct mohallas, ranging
from the wealthy blocks of
Nizamuddin West to the extremely im-
poverished tenements where as many
as 10 people may be crammed together
in a single room. “So inevitably, they
will spill onto the street at some point,
where the police may go after them,” he
says. Although the government is or-
ganising periodic deliveries of rations
by truck, these may not be reaching
everyone. “The rations only come to
K ASIF/MAIL TODAY
people who can access delivery notices
on the internet,” says former Delhi
mayor Farhad Suri. He is particularly
peeved about the police allegedly ob-
structing a community initiative to
provide cooked meals to more than
200 needy families in the area. The
young men who tried to deliver these
meals have been beaten on several
occasions, alleges Suri. Meanwhile the
Aga Khan Foundation has begun dis-
tributing packets of rations to needy
families this week.
For the authorities, people’s
tendency to flout social distancing
and lockdown rules poses practical
challenges. But Raju Korde, a social
worker in Dharavi, points towards the
“unavoidable circumstances” behind
such behaviour by the slum’s residents.
“Their houses are like tinderboxes with
no proper ventilation. They go out to
breathe fresh air,” says Korde. It is no
different in the ghetto-like conditions
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 35
 COVER
STORY

HOTSPOTS
COVID CHECKPOINTS
How outbreak containment clusters designed
to check the spread of COVID-19 work
of several Muslim-dominated clus-
ters, such as Mallepally in Hyderabad
and Sher Galli in Secunderabad. MARKING OUT THE ZONES
Confinement brings in logistical
problems for the people. Life remains
paralysed in Bimbisar Nagar, in  The cluster containment  The containment zones are
strategy is meant to contain the determined by state health
Mumbai’s Goregaon (East) suburb,
novel coronavirus within a defined authorities based on the number
as the entire area, housing eight
geographical area through early of positive cases and the number
apartment complexes and close to
detection of cases and breaking of people the infected came in
2,000 people, has been turned into
the chain of transmission. States contact with. A containment
a containment zone. Manisha S., 43, mark specific areas, covering zone is usually the ‘epicentre’
who works in a private company, says households, as containment zones (residence of the infected person)
she is too scared to step out of her or clusters. and an area of unspecified extent
third-floor apartment using the stair- around it; can be redefined if
case or the elevator. “I had ordered there is a spurt in cases.
groceries online, but could not have
them delivered as no outsider can
 The containment zone
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

enter our society,” she says. Another

resident, 36-year-old homemaker is surrounded by a buffer
zone—an additional 5 km
Lalita Tiwari, says people realised the
radius area in the urban
importance of isolation only when
belts and 7 km in the rural
the residential society was declared a
areas. The zone is divided
containment zone. “Even the elderly
into sectors of 50 houses
people used to go out for walks. Now, each (30 in ‘difficult’ areas).
they are staying put at home and
advising others too not to venture
about,” says Tiwari.
In Maharashtra, which has reg-
istered more positive cases than any
other state, a team of five—two doc-
tors, a nurse and two health officials—
are deputed to each containment zone
to regularly screen residents and take
those showing COVID-19 symptoms
for testing. The protocol recommends
daily surveillance by a two-member
health team of 30-50 households in
the cluster to identify suspected cases.
This is easier said than done because
there aren’t enough professional
health workers, with surveillance
experience in malaria, tuberculosis
or other public health campaigns,
around. In several areas, district
collectors, who are the nodal officers
entrusted with efficiently running all
containment zones in their adminis-

NO-GO ZONE
Police enforce the nationwide
lockdown in Delhi’s Dilshad Garden
QAMAR SIBTAIN/MAIL TODAY

36 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0

 The district collector is the nodal
officer for cluster containment in
each district and is assisted by a
team of health workers
 The frontline team for real-time
reporting of new cases consists of
accredited social health activists
(ASHA), auxiliary nurse midwives
(ANM) and anganwadi workers.
They do house visits, maintain a list
of suspected and confirmed cases,
identify the primary contacts
of these cases and inform the
supervisory medical officer.
 The supervisory medical officer
collates data from the door-to-
door surveillance and shares it
with the control room daily
 If there is a paucity of
professional workers, volunteers,
including from the National Service
Scheme (NSS) and National Cadet
Corps (NCC), are roped in. They
are briefed about their roles
and responsibilities.
A stringent implementation of the
screening and testing protocol is
now needed, particularly in the
crowded containment zones
trative jurisdiction, have been forced
to rope in revenue and police person-
nel to overcome the staff shortage.
TRUST DEFICIT
Often, health workers avoid going for
the intensive daily surveys and wait
for suspected cases to emerge in the
containment zones. The failure to
establish trust and gain people’s con-
fidence is another hindrance. A doctor
in Bhopal recalls, “We went house to
house in Professor’s Colony, the first
containment cluster announced in
PROTOCOL AND ACTION
 The supervisory officer informs
the control room about all contacts
14-day home-quarantine. However,
Bhopal. But most people did not want
to meet us. Also, the containment
zone was announced five days after a
case was reported. The damage had
already been done.” In Dharavi, when
BMC officials found several residents
reluctant to open up to the visiting
medical teams, they enlisted some 150
local doctors to encourage the people
to come forward.
Officials who manage clusters say
physical containment of people is of-
ten the easier part, the real challenge
being to identify suspected cases
who, fearing testing, hospitalisation
 The frontline health workers
ensure that the contacts of
positive/ suspected cases are
home-quarantined and wear
three-layered surgical masks at
all times. Their families are briefed
about the precautions to be taken.
 The workers and medical
officers are entrusted
with transferring suspected
COVID-19 cases by ambulance to
one of the listed health facilities
for testing. Thereafter, their
contacts are line-listed.
of confirmed/ suspected cases
along with their addresses. These
contacts are tracked down for the
they are monitored for COVID-19
symptoms for a total of 28 days.
If a contact lives outside the
containment zone, the designated
official of that area is informed.
and social stigma, may not be forth-
coming. The way to go forward is to
successfully isolate positive cases,
test all those they came in contact
with, identify those with symptoms
and scale up random testing. This
will require stringent implementa-
tion of the screening and testing
protocol, particularly in the crowded
clusters, and abundant supply of reli-
able testing kits. The Delhi govern-
ment says it will soon start rapid
testing in the city’s containment
zones and is procuring 100,000 kits
for the purpose. Unless other states
show similar intent, the national
lockdown will fail to serve its critical
purpose of limiting the spread of the
deadly coronavirus. n
—with Kiran D. Tare, Sonali
Acharjee, Rahul Noronha, Gulam
Jeelani, Rohit Parihar, Romita Dutta
and Amitabh Srivastava
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 37
 COVER
STORY

PHOTO FEATURE
GEARED
FOR BATTLE
Medical professionals across the globe are on the front­
lines in the war against COVID­19. Earmarked on April
4 as a dedicated hospital for corona patients, Delhi’s
Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital is handling the
largest number of cases—780—in the city. A look inside
reveals the hardships the doctors are facing, but also
their steely determination to overcome the odds
Photographs By PANKAJ NANGIA
Text by SONALI ACHARJEE

Two doctors at LNJP tend to a COVID-19 patient.

It is emotionally exhausting. “I saw a woman die
of air hunger,” says Dr Richa Narang, the resident
anesthesiologist. “COVID-19’s attack on the body
has left me shocked. It depletes the oxygen-
carrying capacity of blood. No matter how much
oxygen we gave her, she couldn’t breathe. She
died alone, with no family or friends by her side.”
 1. A doctor gets into PPE coveralls. Every building at
LNJP has been converted into a quarantine facility.
There are 1,500 beds, including 66 for critical care,
and 45 ventilators. Each one of the hospital’s 1,000
resident doctors is on call, along with every postgrad-
uate student, junior resident and consultant. “It is all
hands on deck. We have a 14-day shift of 8-12 hours,
followed by a 14-day quarantine,” says Dr Dinesh
Singh. All healthcare workers have to take preventive
doses of hydroxychloroquine, which can have side
effects. “Most people are fine but a few have reported
palpitations,” says Dr. Narang.

2. COVID-19 patients can be released only after

they test negative for two tests within 24 hours
once symptoms subside. There is no respite for the
doctors, though. “We have a shortage of PPE kits in
the general quarantine wards, especially for nurses,
orderlies and sweepers,” says Dr Sarvari Damaraju,
a non-PG, junior resident. “With some 60 patients in
each quarantine room, the viral load is tremendous.”
Doctors estimate LNJP has about 6,000 PPE kits
(although there is no official count available); they
have to wear a fresh set daily. 2
 COVER
STORY

PHOTO FEATURE

3. “I have not seen my parents or been home in three months,”

says Dr Narang, who lives in Kaushambi, 15 kilometres away
from the hospital. “They are both heart patients and I don’t want
to be a risk to them,” says the doctor, who has been on
eight-hour shifts in the ICU for the past 16 days. “Most of the
patients in the ICU are old and very scared. We have been
treating them based on symptoms, usually a combination of
Tamiflu, azithromycin, HCQ, Augmentin and lopinavir/ ritonavir.
They beg us to help them breathe, but we are helpless
against the virus,” she says.

3

1.
A 15-year-old boy is the
only minor among the 780
COVID patients at LNJP.
Though asymptomatic, he
has tested positive for the
virus. He spends his time
talking to the staff and on
his phone. “He is not un-
well, but I had to explain to
him that he could make me
unwell since I do not have
protective coveralls, only
a mask,” says a nurse who
does not wish to be named
or photographed. “Some-
times, even gloves are hard
to get. I handle infected
glasses, clothes, utensils. I
need money for my family. I
won’t get another job
if I leave here.”
1
COVER
STORY
PHOTO FEATURE
2.
Patients read namaaz in an
LNJP ward. “Those from
the Tablighi Jamaat markaz
gathering outnumber all
patients. They are brought
here in packed buses. The
asymptomatic ones are an-
gry to be here. There is no
medication for COVID-19
unless you have symp-
toms,” says Dr Damaraju.
Of the 1,561 positive cases
in Delhi, 1,080 have been
linked to the gathering in
Nizamuddin. They were
initially sent to quarantine
facilities where they are
being tested. “Conditions
can deteriorate quickly,
especially among the
elderly” adds Damaraju.
3.
An LNJP doctor at the
Hotel LaLit in Delhi. On
completing their 14-day
work period, residents
and junior residents are
kept for two weeks at the
LaLit. Here, they catch up
on their studies, speak to
their friends and family
and try to process the
realities of their lives for
the next few months.
“Everything has changed
for medical workers. It
is mentally draining, but
as doctors, we know our
duty. What we need most
right now is protection
from assault and from
infection within the hos-
pital,” says Dr Narang.
3
 COVER
STORY

How
KERALA
MODEL

Kerala
Flattened
the The southern state’s
pandemic fighting skills
and fabled healthcare

Curve
system have helped it
beat back COVID-19.
What others can learn
from its example
By Jeemon Jacob

O
n January 23, when Kerala’s health
minister K.K. Shailaja chaired a high-level
meeting of her department officials, worry
lines had begun creasing her brow. China had
announced a lockdown in Wuhan and other
cities in Hubei province. Hundreds of students
from Kerala were studying for professional
courses in Wuhan, and there were fears they
would carry the virus back to the state. The
sprightly health minister, who had been at the forefront of the state’s
battle against the Nipah virus in 2018, had the task of drafting the
action plan against a possible novel coronavirus outbreak. Three
medical students from the Wuhan Institute of Medical Sciences had
returned to their homes in Alappuzha, Thrissur and Kasargod that
day and were in home quarantine. A week later, on January 30, when
one of the three became India’s ‘patient zero’, the state was prepared.
SWAB CENTRE A control room had been set up on January 23 itself at the General
A walk-in COVID-19 Hospital premises in Thiruvananthapuram. The state machinery had
sample kiosk at
Ernakulam Medical its strategy in place to counter the spread of the infection, but there
College, Kochi was every reason to worry.

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 45
ARUN CHANDRABOSE/ GETTY IMAGES
 COVER
STORY

KERALA
MODEL

Kerala is connected to the world in

Ahead of the Curve
a way few other Indian states are. It has
Kerala’s COVID-19 infection rates are now near
an expatriate population of 2.5 million rock bottom. The lockdown has helped too
people and four international airports
Cases
servicing over 17 million passengers double
every year. A population density of 819 every 2
people per square kilometre makes days
Log scale
it India’s eighth most densely popu-
lated state. But it also had two trump 10,000
cards—a world-class healthcare system
and experience in containing the 2018
outbreak of the lethal Nipah virus.
Today, January 30 appears to be a
lifetime away. Over 128,000 people have
since died across the world of COVID-19,
Maharashtra
392 of them in India. Even as the disease Cases
begins to spike across the country, Tamil double
1,000 Nadu
prompting an extension of the 21-day every 5
Delhi days
lockdown till May 3, Kerala is one of the
few states that has managed to flatten Telangana
Uttar Pradesh
the disease curve. The state has so far Andhra
Pradesh Kerala
lost only three people to the infection.

Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY

Madhya Pradesh
Of the 387 infected, 211 have recovered
fully. On April 13, it reported just two Karnataka
new cases. The state has a recovery rate 100
of 84 per cent, compared to 14 per cent 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
in the rest of the country. It hasn’t been Number of days passed after 100 cases
an easy struggle and the aftereffects will
endure. The lockdown has reduced its Data as of 5 pm, April 10, 2020
Source: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India Today Data Intelligence Unit

major revenue streams—overseas remit- at modest incomes compared to the

tances, revenues from the sale of alcohol,
tourism and sale of lottery tickets—to a
trickle. Preliminary estimates suggest
the state could incur a revenue loss of Rs
50,000 crore (FY2021) due to the CO-
VID-19 crisis. According to state finance
minister Dr Thomas Isaac, the lockdown
period itself has led to a revenue loss of
Rs 4,980 crore (based on revenue collec-
tions for March-April 2019).
The state’s exemplary social indica-
tors led to the coinage ‘Kerala Model’
in the 1970s, to note how a low-income
state with high literacy rates and
healthy citizens boasted a standard of
living comparable to life in the devel-
oped nations. In 2018, it earned praise
from the World Health Organization for
‘achieving impressive health outcomes
rest of the states in India’. Kerala has
consistently topped the country in the
overall health index—from low neonatal
mortality rates to total fertility rate.
This is when it has the same number of
hospital beds to people—1.05 per 1,000
people—as national capital Delhi does.
Yet, it was more than just its fabled
world-class healthcare system that
delivered tangible results. What helped
the state of 34 million people was a
combination of factors. A leadership
that geared itself up to tackle a pan-
demic with contingency plans and then
relentlessly followed it up with commu-
nication strategies and social mobilisa-
tion even as it set up mechanisms to
identify, isolate, test and treat the in-
fected. Huge awareness campaigns were

46 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 Illustrations by RAJ VERMA

kicked off and hundreds of thousands
of health workers dispatched through
the 14 districts of the state to fight the
epidemic. If Prime Minister Narendra
Modi likened COVID-19 to a world war,
Kerala was already on the frontlines.
The Kerala Model 2.0 is a story the rest
of the world can well take lessons from.
ANTICIPATING THE
PANDEMIC
Kerala was battle-inoculated against
viruses in 2018. In May that year, it
grappled with South India’s first case
of Nipah virus, which often leads to
acute respiratory distress, encephalitis,
seizures and coma in its patients within
24 to 48 hours. The mortality rate was
estimated at between 40 and 75 per cent.
The virus, thought to have travelled
from the fruit bat to humans, spread
rapidly through the two northern dis-
tricts of Kozhikode and Malappuram
with 17 deaths and 18 confirmed cases.
The state health machinery acted fast
with then Union health minister J.P.
Nadda and Chief Minister Pina-
rayi Vijayan leading the day-to-day
outbreak analysis and response. Key
learnings in the fight were a focus
on infection prevention and control
Our battle
began when
the first
travellers from
Wuhan arrived
in the state on
January 23”
—K.K. SHAILAJA
Health minister, Kerala
measures based on isolating patients,
the use of personal protection equip-
ment and decontaminating surfaces.
The WHO praised Kerala for ‘relying
on the strengths of its health system to
contain the outbreak. The leadership
and commitment of all levels of Indian
health authorities were seen’.
What also helped was the ramped-
up spending on healthcare—Rs 5,000
crore over the past five years. Since 2016,
the state government has focused on
developing infrastructure at government
hospitals, right from the primary health
centres (PHCs) to medical colleges.
Around 600 doctors and 1,500 nurses
were appointed in this period (fresh ap-
pointment orders for 276 doctors from
the Public Service Commission rank list
were issued on March 24). New build-
ings were constructed even as the state
charted a plan to get National Quality
Assurance Standard (NQAS) accredita-
tion for government hospitals. This year
alone, 12 of them got NQAS certifica-
tion. Hospital development committ-
ees were constituted to monitor their
functioning. The state also introduced
‘star ratings’ for its PHCs.
In January, as evidence began mou-
nting of a large-scale pandemic, Kerala
was already off the blocks. The state
identified four priorities—checking com-
munity spread of the infection, insulat-
ing doctors, nurses and paramedical
staff, home quarantining high-risk
category people to break the chain and,
finally, putting the state under high
surveillance against the infection.
When the three medical students
from Wuhan arrived, the state imme-
diately placed them in isolation wards.
Their fellow travellers on the Kolkata-
Kochi flight were identified and also
home quarantined. “Our battle began
when the first travellers from Wuhan
arrived in the state on January 23,”
says Shailaja. On February 3, as a third
patient tested positive for COVID-19,
Kerala declared the virus a state calam-
ity. It helped the government put col-
lectors as point persons in the districts
with magisterial powers to mobilise all
manpower and logistics at their disposal.
The battle had now escalated into a war.
IDENTIFY, TEST,
ISOLATE
On February 3, the state government
requested the National Institute of
Virology, Pune, to set up a testing facility
at its field unit in Alappuzha to facili-
tate speedy testing for COVID-19. The
state health department constituted
three task forces—planning, execution
and monitoring—to reinforce its battle
against the disease. Principal secretary,
health, Dr Rajan Khobragade was the
coordinator for all the three task forces.
The state issued guidelines to health
workers and others on the frontlines
about COVID-19 symptoms and
alerted them about how it could be mis-
taken for viral fever or a common cold.
Helplines were set up in all districts and
the government appealed to the people
who had returned from Wuhan or other
Chinese territories to remain home
quarantined for 28 days. The state also
started testing and screening high-risk
people who were in the contact lists of
the infected on January 25. A team of
doctors started contact tracking and
home quarantined all contacts in the
first phase. Above all, the chief minister
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 47
 COVER
STORY
KERALA
MODEL
directed local self-government bodies
to get involved and scan their localities
for people who had returned from the
infected countries after January 14.
By January 30, the date when
‘patient zero’ was confirmed, the govern-
ment had begun setting up isolation
wards in all medical colleges, general
and district hospitals. Doctors and nurs-
ing staff were deployed across the state
after training. The government also set
up 12 testing labs to enable early identifi-
cation of COVID-19 patients.
The health department provided
personal protective equipment (PPE) to
all caregivers and paramedical staff and
issued guidelines for sample collection,
handling of swabs and testing proce-
dures. Early screening had helped the
three patients with COVID-19 to swiftly
recover. On February 13, their tests
turned negative and became a morale
booster for the health department. “But
we decided to continue our vigil as a
large number of passengers were still
coming in from the Gulf and other coun-
tries. We feared that despite the screen-
ing at all four airports, someone with
an infection would slip through,” says
48 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
Dr R.L. Saritha, director, state health
services. There were many anxious mo-
ments after March 8 when an NRI fam-
ily from Italy returned to the state on a
domestic flight without declaring that
they had come back from Europe.
The family triggered off the second
phase of the COVID-19 outbreak.
They arrived in Kochi on February 29,
travelled to their village in Pathana-
mthitta district by car and visited
several locations, including a local bar.
Their primary contact list included over
800 people in three districts. Nearly
250 families in a single district were
sent into home quarantine after seven
members of the family tested positive
for COVID-19.
The state had been anticipating
community spread of the infection any
time and had prepared an action plan.
Soon, the health department notified
28 hospitals, including medical coll-
eges, as COVID-19 specialty hospitals
in the state. Meanwhile, four more
testing centres opened in the state. “We
decided to intensify surveillance across
the state and charted a plan B and C
for the future. We realised we had to
set up corona care homes to quaran-
tine passengers arriving from foreign
countries and other states,” says the
health minister. The state government
identified hostels, educational institu-
tions and unoccupied buildings and set
up 635 corona care centres for isolation.
Apart from this, around 125,000 rooms
have been designated as isolation wards
to accommodate suspected cases of CO-
VID-19 during the quarantine period.
Today, anyone who enters the state
has to undergo mandatory isolation.
The period is 14 days if the traveller
is coming from another state, and 28
days if he/ she is coming from outside
the country (a Gulf returnee in Kannur
tested positive on the 26th day, April 14,
after arrival). “We have followed global
norms and a targeted approach in this
battle against COVID-19,” says Dr B.
Ekbal, Kerala Planning Board member
and a public health expert. Kerala has
conducted 17,400 tests as on April 16.
The state introduced a lockdown
on March 23 before it hit the 100
infections mark. The 21-day national
lockdown came at a critical point for
the state, government officials say. Else,
there would have been a fresh wave of
infections from its returning emigres.
SOCIAL DISTANCING
Kerala promoted social distancing and
use of masks by the public from January
30, the first state in the country to do
so. A state calamity was declared on
February 3. Schools and colleges were
closed on March 10. The same day, the
government appealed to all religious
groups to cancel community gather-
ings at religious places after the second
outbreak in Pathanamthitta district.
On March 15, as the number of
infections in the state touched 95, Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan convened a
video conference with religious leaders
of all faiths. The Christians readily
agreed to close their churches. Muslim
leaders also appealed to the community
to stop daily prayers at the mosques.
The Hindu temples closed down despite
March and April being festival season in
Kerala. Beginning March 10, all temple
festivals had anyway been cancelled
in the state. The few religious leaders
who violated the code saw police cases

slapped against them. The government
also used the media effectively. On
March 15, the ‘Break the Chain’ cam-
paign was launched to check the spread
of infections and promote social dis-
tancing and personal hygiene practices.
Social media played a pivotal role
in the success of these campaigns.
Superstars like Mammootty, Mohanlal
and other popular actors promoted the
campaigns on their Facebook pages.
Youth organisations, merchant associa-
tions, resident associations, they all
joined the ‘Break the Chain’ campaign.
Even the Kerala police got into the act,
with dance videos promoting masks
and drone footage set to film music.
“Washing hands, wearing masks and
social distancing became the thumb
rule for Kerala after March 15. Every-
one followed it in the right spirit,”
says Varghese Madassery, 49, an NRI
businessman in Kochi.
FOCUSED APPROACH
On February 18, Kerala constituted
three high-level committees and ex-
pert groups to advise the government
on COVID-19. Among their members
were specialist doctors, virologists, di-
saster management experts, software
professionals, hospital administra-
tors, former civil servants and retired
defence personnel.
Also set up was a special monitoring
group headed by R. Mohan, secretary to
the chief minister, and officer on special
duty (OSD) M. Sivasankar. State chief
secretary Tom Jose was directed to co-
ordinate with various departments and
the Centre. At 3 pm every day, a dossier
containing consolidated reports of state-
wide activities lands on the CM’s table
before he begins his review meeting. The
assembly session was also cut short on
March 13 and legislators requested to
undertake COVID-19 awareness activi-
ties in their constituencies.
Amid all these efforts, two northern
districts—Kasargod and Kannur—be-
came a health challenge for the state.
These districts today account for 77
per cent of the infections in the state,
mainly because of the huge presence of
Kerala will
continue its
vigil till the last
patient recovers
and completes
the quarantine
period”
—PINARAYI VIJAYAN
Chief Minister, Kerala
returning NRIs in the district. Their re-
luctance to follow social distancing and
the quarantine code triggered the infec-
tion levels in the districts. The situation
improved only after the district admin-
istrations intensified surveillance.
The state government has also now
set up a dedicated COVID-19 hospital
at the Kasargod Medical College to
plug any deficiencies in the system.
With 34 COVID-19 cases reported in
a single day (March 27), the district
had reported the single biggest spike in
coronavirus cases in the state.
PEOPLE POWER
A mere government-led top-down
approach would never have succeeded
without the social mobilisation in the
state. The state set up a 250,000-strong
volunteer force in just two days on
March 26. Over the next three days,
these volunteers (all in the 22-40 age
group and without criminal records)
were made eligible for working with
their respective local government bodies.
After a brief training schedule, they are
assigned voluntary work commensu-
rate with their qualifications. The work
includes being standby ambulance driv-
ers, and nurses and paramedical staff to
assist the 3,000-strong health work-
force. Others are deployed to deliver food
packets to the poor or keep surveillance
on those under home quarantine. All of
it is voluntary, with no one getting paid
anything apart from a travel allowance.
Starting March 26, the state also set
up 18,828 camps for its ‘guest workers’—
the migrant labour from other states.
Over 300,000 people are being hosted
in the camps and provided free food and
medical care. The state has set up 1,255
community kitchens; 280,000 food
packets are distributed daily. Free ra-
tion kits of 35 kilos of rice and Rs 1,000
worth of essential commodities have
gone out to 3.69 million families.
All this would not have been possible
without the cooperation of civil society,
the vigilant state police force and com-
munity volunteers. CM Vijayan admits
as much while explaining how the state
lowered the infection curve. But there
will be no lowering of the guard. District
administrations will remain on high
alert till mid-May. “We will continue
our vigil till the last patient recovers and
completes the quarantine period,” the
chief minister told india today. Kerala
was one of the states which backed the
Centre’s plan to extend the lockdown.
The chief minister believes the next four
weeks are critical. Complacency, clearly,
has no place in Kerala Model 2.0. n
A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 49
 COVER
STORY

MSMEs

GETTING
DOWN TO
BUSINESS
MSMEs are the lifeblood of the
Indian economy. This sector
needs much greater support to
survive the lockdown

By SHWWETA PUNJ

T
he indirect impact of COVID-19 will be as
brutal as the lives the pandemic itself might
claim. One of the starker changes, already
in plain view, is that millions of small estab-
lishments will be out of business—among
them perhaps your favourite restaurant, the
salon next door, the local tailor, the roadside
juicewala—businesses that were an integral
part of your everyday existence but don’t have the economic staying
power to outlast this storm. MSMEs (micro, small and medium en-
terprises) are the lifeblood of the Indian economy, employing about
120 million, contributing 33.4 per cent of India’s manufacturing
output and making up 45 per cent of India’s exports. Even so, they
are also among the most vulnerable—relying heavily on day-to-day
business to stay afloat and more exposed to the vagaries of demand
than their larger counterparts. It goes unsaid that they have minimal

63.4
reserves to dip into in times of trouble.
S. Jayaprasad, 49, downed the shutters of his small Mumbai-
based firm on March 19, when the government ordered all private
businesses closed. His firm, Michael Gunnis, exports metal parts MILLION
The number of
MSMEs in India

AMITABH KHARBANDA, 48
Sunlord Apparels, Noida
Worse than the Plague
K
harbanda’s 41-year-old
company has three
factories in Noida and
Greater Noida. A month ago,
he was getting orders ready
for shipment to the US and
Europe. Nearly 90 per cent
of the company’s revenues
come from apparel and home
furnishing exports. He says
orders worth Rs 16 crore
have been cancelled. “The
plague of 1994 in Surat saw
33.4 %
Contribution of MSMEs to
120 MILLION
Approximate number of
manufacturing output people employed by MSMEs
SHEKHAR GHOSH
order cancellations too,” he
says, “but this is by far the
worst I have seen in the past
25 years.” With 40 per cent of
his labourers having returned
to their villages, Kharbanda
says his big worry is how to
resume operations once the
lockdown is lifted. He antici-
pates that he will have to let
go of 60 per cent of his labour
force in the short term.
—Shwweta Punj
45 %
Contribution of MSMEs to
India’s overall exports
 COVER
STORY
MSMEs
to construction outfits in west Asia. He
says the shutdown left him unable to
execute orders that were to be shipped
by March-end: “We are worried about
our clients, and are unsure if they will
continue with us after the lockdown.”
He says that firms like his need im-
mediate support in deferring fixed costs
like electricity. Although he has a small
team of four, he also worries about pay-
ing wages: “Over time, even [sustain-
ing] that becomes painful—salaries
form 40 per cent of our overall cost.”
The biggest challenge for small
business owners has been dwindling
operating capital. The lockdown has
left them with a pile of expenses—util-
ity bills, rents, salaries. On the other
hand, payments owed to these units are
stuck, creating a double squeeze.
Rhea Mazumdar Singhal is the
CEO of Ecoware, a sustainable food
packaging company that employs
about 120 people at a factory in Greater
Noida. Her clients include major firms
like fast-food chain Haldirams and
the Indian Railways. She says that
payments of up to Rs 1 crore have been
delayed, and that while she has man-
aged to pay salaries for March, doing
the same in April will be a challenge.
In his address to the nation on April
52 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
repeated an appeal his government has
frequently made to businesses since
the lockdown began—that employees
not be fired or have their salaries cut.
But exasperated business owners ask
how this is even possible. Complicating
matters is that authorities have issued
official notifications on the subject. For
instance, in a letter dated March 20, by
Kalpana Rajsinghot, joint secretary at
the Union ministry for labour and em-
ployment, employers’ associations were
advised to ‘extend their coordination by
not terminating employees, particularly
casual or contractual workers or reduc-
ing their wages’, and that ‘if a place of
employment is made non-operational
due to COVID-19, employees will
[still] be deemed to be on duty.’
Official orders or not, business own-
ers are running out of options. Singhal
says she has no choice but to consider
salary cuts and reductions in employee
numbers. Others say much the same.
Amitabh Kharbanda of Sunlord Appar-
els, a textile exporter, says he will have
to let 60 per cent of his workers go, and
that much of his current production
run is now ‘dead stock’—textiles is a
fashion-sensitive seasonal market, and
having missed deliveries for this season,
ABHIJEET PATIL, 45
Raja Rani Travels, Mumbai
Cancelled
Bookings
P
atil’s company employs 25 peo-
ple, working with companies
and celebrities in Bollywood
to manage their overseas travels and
film shoots and with tourists inter-
ested in film tourism. (His agency was
one of the pioneers of film tourism in
India.) In 2019, he organised nearly
200 tours. In 2020, nearly all his tours
his stock has lost most of its value.
On April 15, businesses were
given some relief. The government an-
nounced certain relaxations of the lock-
down, including permitting the opera-
tions of IT and IT-enabled services (up
to 50 per cent strength), e-commerce
companies, courier services, industries
operating in rural areas, manufactur-
ing and other industrial establishments
in special economic zones, export-ori-
ented units, and industrial estates and
townships. This has been permitted
with a caveat that transportation and
accommodation facilities on site must
be provided for workers.
O
ther sectors that have
been given permission
to start operations
from April 20 include
rural food processing
units, manufacturing of IT hardware,
coal production, manufacturing of
packaging material, the jute industry,
brick kilns and construction activities,
including of MSMEs in rural areas,
among others However, the ambiguity
of geographical limits prescribed in the
notification—which stated that these
relaxations applied to units outside
municipal areas—has left industry
have been cancelled. “We will not
be able to recalibrate the travel
plans as we are not sure whether
the tourists would like to visit the
same destination they had earlier
chosen,” he says. His firm is cur-
rently negotiating with airlines for
refunds of cancellations, and he
says he plans to focus on domes-
tic, short-distance tours after
the lockdown has lifted. He does
not expect international tourists
in the country for some time to
come, and is hoping for a stimulus
package for the tourism industry,
one of the worst affected by the
COVID-19 pandemic.
—Kiran D. Tare
 LOCKDOWN
CHALLENGES
The various pain points for
MSMEs and the relief sought

PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR
 Salaries
Government assistance has been
sought for salary payments

 PF contributions
Suspension sought of provident
fund contributions by employers and
RAJ KUMAR GARG, 61 employees for three months for all
MSMEs. The Federation of Indian Mi-
Aquila Furniture, Jaipur cro and Small & Medium Enterprises
says the government’s PF relief for

Standing Idle units employing less than 100 work-

ers and for salaries less than 15,000
will have limited impact

G
arg’s firm has an annual turnover of about Rs 20 crore, and
employs about 100 people. His monthly expenses during the
 Power bills
lockdown—salaries, wages, interest and rent—come to about
Waiver sought for ‘demand’ and
Rs 20 lakh. He says payments worth crores are stalled and that he
‘fixed’ charges for three months
is at risk of losing customers. Nonetheless, letting go of labour is not
an option. “Any wise factory owner will retain manpower, so as to
restart work immediately after the lockdown ends. But I do not know  Compliance dates
how long we can survive. I hope the government allows [on-site] staff An automatic extension of compli-
to work for a few hours [a day] without exposure to outsiders.” He ance dates for all regulatory pay-
suggests the government enable this by ensuring regular site visits ments—whether GST, income tax,
by doctors, or by making it binding on factory owners to ensure that house tax or others—to June
all workers are healthy.
—Rohit Parihar  Contractual obligations
MSMEs supplying under government
contracts want a reprieve from
penal clauses for non-delivery due
to the lockdown
confused. For example, in Delhi, government and clarifications on its
most industrial areas are within notifications, the relaxations have  Declaration as NPAs
To spare MSMEs from being
municipal limits. Anil Bhardwaj, come as a relief, and the industry
designated thus at this juncture, all
secretary general of the Federation of is back to planning and executing
measures announced by RBI to be
Indian Micro, Small and Medium post-COVID strategies. According
made mandatory for banks
Enterprises, says, even with the to an assessment by the Federation
relaxations, it will take until the first of Indian Export Organisations, the
 Demurrage
week of May to get operations relaxations will help restart about The Rs 8,000 per day charge that
running again, and this notification 80-85 per cent of manufacturing ports impose after cargo has not
largely impacts players in the formal units geared towards exports. If these been cleared for three days and
economy. “For instance, in Delhi, 70 units are able to start operations by shipping lines after 14 days should
per cent of the industry is in areas like end April or early May, it would leave start applying two weeks after the
Paharganj and Karol Bagh, among them in a better position to pay wages lifting of lockdown over and above
others,” he points out. for May. Further, industries like food the standard period
However, even as the battered processing and construction and
sector waits for a stimulus from the those in rural areas are all labour-

A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0 INDIA TODAY 53
 COVER
STORY
ECONOMY
MSMEs
intensive, and restarting them would
allow migrant labourers to begin earn-
ing again. Allowing transport, ware-
housing and cold storage would ensure
a smoother functioning of the supply
chain. Steps like these are essential to
India’s exit strategy from what has been
the most stringent lockdown imposed
anywhere in the world.
INTERVENTIONS SO FAR
In a speech in the Rajya Sabha on
March 19, India’s Union MSME
minister Nitin Gadkari noted the chal-
lenges facing this sector. Referring to a
meeting with Union finance minister
Nirmala Sitharaman and the heads of
major banks, he said that credit outflow
was discussed in detail. “It is true that
banks [aren’t giving] loans easily,” he
conceded, saying that his ministry was
reviewing data of loans sanctioned at
the district level. In an address to Par-
liament, he said the Government was
underwriting bank loans to SMEs up to
75 per cent, and in some cases, even 100
per cent. “I have a corpus of Rs 10,000
crore for these guarantees, so, in effect,
banks can only ask for collateral on 25
per cent of the amount,” he said.
Gadkari also said that under
the government’s credit guarantee
scheme—launched in 2000 to provide
collateral-free credit, then with limited
participation from the financial sector
and a total corpus of Rs 2,500 crore—
financial institutions across the board,
from scheduled commercial banks
to NBFCs (non-banking financial
companies) have been asked to extend
credit to MSMEs. On a related note, the
RBI has also announced a three-month
moratorium on loans, saying that all
commercial, regional, rural NBFCs
and small finance banks were permit-
ted to allow three-month moratoriums
on payment of instalments for all term
loan EMIs outstanding on March 31.
To ease the flow of credit, the RBI
has also reduced repo rates by 75 basis
points (0.75 per cent) and the reverse
repo rate by 90 basis points (0.9 per
54 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
cent). And to ease the financial strain
on employers, the Government has an-
nounced that it will fund both employer
and employee contributions to provi-
dent funds, for firms with less than 100
workers and for employees earning less
than Rs 15,000, for three months.
However, execution remains a
major problem. A number of small
business owners complain that banks
have not extended the RBI’s morato-
rium voluntarily and that it takes a lot
of negotiation to secure this relief. Also,
this three-month reprieve is not a waiv-
er—and will, in fact, accrue additional
interest, which means that borrowers
I have a corpus of
Rs 10,000 crore
to guarantee
bank loans to
MSMEs. In effect,
banks can only
ask for collateral
on 25 per cent of
the loan amount”
—NITIN GADKARI
Union minister for MSMEs
will end up paying additional EMIs
if they avail of it. And some say the
provident fund waiver, while welcome,
is not substantive relief. Businesses
also complain of soaring insurance
premiums, saying that some payments
have increased by 200-300 per cent;
they have pleaded for the moratorium
on interest payments to be extended to
cover insurance companies as well.
MOVING FORWARD
Sources in the MSME ministry say that
officials are working on identifying the
problems on both generic and sector-
specific levels. For instance, some sec-
tors have had problems getting curfew
passes during the lockdown, while
others cannot possibly restart business
without financial assistance.
On one frequently identified
problem—paying utility bills—officials
in Gadkari’s ministry say they have
been in touch with their counterparts
in the ministry of power. While the
central electricity regulatory commis-
sion issued a circular on the waiver of
utility bills, state electricity regulatory
commissions have yet to follow suit.
“Consumers not paying power distrib-
uting companies (discoms) but discoms
continuing to pay power-generating
companies will not work,” explains a se-
nior ministry source. He also says that
interventions to ease the pain are run-
ning into “unforeseen difficulties”. For
instance, the State Bank of India has
designed a new loan product to issue
credit to existing borrowers. However,
the paperwork for this requires pay-
ment of stamp duty, which is challeng-
ing, to say the least, during a lockdown.
This has held up the entire initiative.
Ministry sources say that they are
also looking at other ways to address
the problems MSMEs face, such as
through the Employees State Insur-
ance Act, under which, if a worker is
on medical leave, the Employees State
Insurance Corporation can be tapped
to pay salaries. The corporation has a
corpus of Rs 75,000 crore, which can be
utilised to meet the rising demand for
state support in paying wages.
“Small is beautiful. Small is power-
ful. Small is wonderful,” said Jack Ma,
founder of Alibaba, on the future trend
of businesses, highlighting the need to
support MSMEs. And there is much the
government can do—like relaxing NPA
norms and getting banks to extend
working capital loans, says Bhardwaj.
Restoring pre-COVID levels of
purchase could take six months or
more. And until then, businesses and
workers need to brace for drastic cuts
in demand, salaries and jobs. But with
speedy action, the government could
significantly ease the damage. n
—with inputs from M.G. Arun
 SMART EDUCATION

OUT OF THE
BOX JOBS
Novel opportunities
for fresh graduates

Illustration by RAJ VERMA

VIKRAM SHARMA

LEADERS OF TOMORROW
Graduates need to be go-getters

SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS

MANAGEMENT

WINDOW
HOW TO INFLUENCE PEOPLE
ANANDORUP GHOSE Partner, Deloitte India, Delhi

I
n addition to the typi- post COVID-19. While com-

TO THE
cal competencies—an
analytical mindset, drive
and critical thinking—one
key skill that has become a
differentiator in the corpo-
panies looking to hire might
find these resources available
in abundance in the talent
pipeline, on the other hand, a
lot of organisations may want

FUTURE
What the top performing
sectors are looking for in fresh
graduates—and what they offer
C O M P I L E D B Y S H E L LY A N A N D
AND MRINI DEVNANI
rate world is navigation. It’s a to restrict their expenditure
combination of street smarts on trainee management. n
and the ability to influence
without authority. Digital and
analytics skills also attract NAVIGATION
significant pay premiums. IS CRITICAL—A
Advanced technology and en- COMBINATION
gineering skills relating to ar- OF STREET
tificial intelligence, machine SMARTS AND
learning and the Internet THE ABILITY
of Things have also become TO INFLUENCE
critical for companies. At the WITHOUT
same time, cost-conscious- AUTHORITY
ness has taken centre stage

56 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0

SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS
NUTS AND BOLTS
Technical know-how is
key to success in the field
T
ENGINEERING he current trend in the engi-
neering sector is the emer-
BUILDING gence of functional areas such
A NEW WORLD as cloud services, data science,
MONA BHARADWAJ blockchain, artificial intelligence
Head of university and machine learning. It is projected
relations, IBM India, Bengaluru that by 2022, we will move to cloud
services worldwide and there
will be an increased need for data
researchers, application develop-
ers, technical support engineers,
robotics engineers and analytical
experts. At workplaces, there are
two clear shifts that are drawing
the demand for new hires for fresh
roles. While there is a large-scale
decline in mundane roles across
the sector, there is growth in new
products and services—artificial
58 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0
RAJWANT RAWAT
BY 2022, WE
WILL MOVE TO
CLOUD SERVICES
WORLDWIDE.
THERE WILL BE
AN INCREASED
NEED FOR DATA
RESEARCHERS,
APP DEVELOPERS,
TECHNICAL
SUPPORT
ENGINEERS,
ROBOTICS
ENGINEERS AND
ANALYTICAL
EXPERTS
intelligence-related jobs are being
created. The industry has evolved
over the years from just being a
structural and business-oriented
model to a constantly changing
landscape. Today, graduates need
to not only get themselves a degree
but also develop soft skills and
technical knowhow to increase their
chances of getting hired. That’s
what we look for in candidates
during our campus placements at
top engineering colleges like the
IITs and other institutes in Tier 1
and Tier 2 cities. Graduates who
have problem-solving skills, critical
thinking abilities, a willingness to
learn and can adapt well to changing
environments always top the list. n
 SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
THE INDUSTRY
HAS A DEMAND
FOR EMPLOYEES
WITH SOFT
SKILLS AND
THE ABILITY TO
INCORPORATE
A MINDSET
OF LIFELONG
LEARNING,
ACROSS
VERTICALS

ICING ON THE CAKE

The industry looks for
team spirit while hiring

HOSPITALITY
as well as the ability to incorporate
SETTING THE TABLE a mindset of lifelong learning across
DILIP PURI, founder and CEO, Indian School of Hospitality, Gurgaon verticals. Employers are looking for
flexible talent, those who can adapt to

T
he growth of the hospitality sec-
tor in India, like all other indus-
tries across the globe, has been
severely disrupted by the COVID-19
crisis. However, the sector is well-
placed to rebuild itself when the crisis
eases because it is full of opportunities.
Those graduating with degrees in hotel
management can expect to find jobs in
various roles across sectors, including
restaurants, hotels and resorts, luxury
lifestyle and retail and real estate,
to name a few. The industry has a
demand for employees with soft skills,
different roles and situations easily.
Communication skills, managing in-
terpersonal relationships, networking,
good manners, sportsmanship, team
spirit and leadership are some of the
abilities and skills that employers look
for in candidates. n

MEDICINE

R
obotics, telemedicine, ge-
HEALING HANDS netic diagnosis and other
SAVITHA KUTTAN technology-driven in-
CEO, Omnicuris, Bengaluru novations are currently the most
YASIR IQBAL
promising trends in the field of
medicine. They can improve
treatment outcomes, reduce the
burden of non-communicable
diseases and improve health-
care infrastructure. Some of the
most sought-after specialisa-
PATIENTS ARE
BECOMING ACTIVE
PARTICIPANTS
IN HEALTHCARE
DECISIONS AND
EXPECT CLEAR
COMMUNICATION
RESEARCH LED Knowledge of FROM THEIR
the latest developments is essential DOCTORS
tions will be emergency and
internal medicine, obstetrics and
gynaecology, radiology, paedi-
atrics, general surgery, ortho-
paedic surgery and cardiology.
Problem-solving, attention to
detail and decision-making are
some of the skills needed. Since
the field is constantly evolving,
a major requirement is step-
ping out of one’s comfort zone
to unlearn and relearn things.
Seminars, conferences and
continuing medical education
platforms can help doctors stay
up to date. Graduates should be
able to work with people from all
age groups and backgrounds,
work well in a team and manage
their time well. n
 SMART EDUCATION T RE NDS
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT Lawyers must know
how to deal with clients in and out of court

I
LAW f you are a persuasive such as in acquisitions, problems. Mediators for
speaker, an effective bankruptcy, arbitrations, dispute resolution are
LEGAL EAGLES listener and have an employment and labour. also in demand. At the
GAURANG KANTH eye for detail, law might Security breaches, phish- same time, cyber secu-
Managing Partner, be a rewarding career ing and data hacks are rity, data protection, in-
Kanth & Associates, Delhi choice for you. The pro- on the rise and lawyers solvency and liquidation
fession is all about facts will have a major role to could be new fields with
and figures, research and play in addressing these emerging opportunities.
awareness. In order to be It is important for those
successful, your stepping studying law to have a
stones would be writing THOSE client-centric approach
ability and analytical WELL VERSED and a knowledge of
skills and the ability WITH THE current developments in
to develop long-term REGULAR local, national and global
relationships with clients AMENDMENTS businesses. Those well-
and colleagues. There IN LAW WILL versed with the regular
are opportunities for HAVE AN amendments in law also
graduates across sectors, ADVANTAGE have an advantage. n

62 INDIA TODAY A PR I L 2 7, 2 02 0

Galgotias University
Greater Noida
Smart Education In
requisite to Education 4.0
“We are amongst the few Universities in Asia who have adopted the
International standards of Outcome Based Education, and also having all kinds
of modern pedagogies like Flipped classroom Teaching, Project-based Learning,
Activity-based Learning, Case Studies methods and specially are tuned to
Education 4.0”
says Suneel Galgotia, Chancellor, Galgotias University
Chancellor, Galgotias University
G
algotias University is now known as
a diverse, interdisciplinary university
with innovative ecosystem of learning
comprising of distinguished faculty,
researchers and students. We believe in holistic
development of its students and empowering
them to face the challenges of corporate
world and become competitive professional
of International standards. The graduates
attributes like positive personality, critical
thinking, problem-solving approach, leading
by influence, agility and adaptability, initiative
and entrepreneurialism, effective oral and
written communication, accessing and analyzing
information, curiosity, imagination etc are few
of the qualities which we inculcate amongst
students in addition to strong base of knowledge
and fundamentals polishing with skills.These
skills are given to the students by exceptionally
trained faculty who are the best at what they do.
University provides extensive computing resources and
laboratories for education and research. We ensure that
SUNEEL GALGOTIA
the curriculum is designed by leading industries and
professionals and is unique combination of knowledge,
skills, behaviour and attitude. Logic building, critical
thinking, mandatory industry internships – to
experience live projects and hands on to know industry
environment and expectations, international exposer,
exposer to cutting edge technology, emerging trends
through choice based credit system are some of the
parameters which are taken care since induction and
ensured are being attained in each of the graduates.
According to Dr. (Ms.) Preeti Bajaj, Vice Chancellor,
Galgotias University “When there are agencies to claim
that only certain percentage of students are employable,
we claim that 100% of our graduates in every program
are not only employable but placed in all leading
corporates. Looking at the current age of competitiveness,
we have retuned the educational paradigms and are
focusing on the areas that need rethinking. In today’s
new world of fast changing technology, trends of being
online 24 hours for work, fun for entertainment and
education, we believe that students need to be trained
and not taught. Information needs to be made accessible
FOCUS
EDUCATION
and students need to learn how to find the learning and
thinking skills rather than the teacher offering it to them
in a rigid structure.”
We also believe every student is unique and every
student needs different way of teaching and thrust
on different area and for this, we have adopted with
Choice Based Credit System which give them minimum
mandate and opportunity to grow towards excelling
in various domain like Artificial Intelligence(AI), Data
Science, IPR, and IOT, Industry 4.0, Electric Vehicle,
Smart Farming, World-class Leader, Modern Healthcare
practitioner. Industry 4.0 is nothing but Smart
Industry, Smart City, Smart People through Creativity.
We also believe everyone’s starting point might be
same but needs choices, aspirations and ending
point is different and for that extensive use of Digital
Technology, Career counsellors, helping students to
carve their goals and assisting them to achieve their
goals is integral part of Galgotias culture.
The courses available with the university with School
of Medical and Allied Sciences MLT, CVT, Physiotherapy
and Pharmacy are very much in demand in the
Healthcare Industry. The current period of covid-19
has shown the world- importance and opportunities
and demand of medical practitioners in the specialised
healthcare domains.
The school of hospitality ensures that the graduate
shall be globally competent and acquire specialized
knowledge in emerging technologies for creativity,
innovation and design of solutions in the various
domain of hospitality and allied services
School of Business ensures students are well prepared
with business analytics, economics and leadership
and managerial skills to emerge as ethical world class
leaders and practitioners in such challenging times
post the pandemic.
The school of Law ensures that their graduates
are enriched with comprehensive theoretical and
practical knowledge in indigenous as well as foreign
legal traditions, lawyering skills and research to meet
the contemporary challenges. It also prepares the
graduates to be lawyers of tomorrow for handling
legal issues that are not only restricted to the national
boundaries, but also cutting across complex cross-
border transactions, by developing legal skills in core
areas, such as Civil Laws, Criminal Laws, Corporate
Laws and IPR etc
“Today students are required to be given smart
education – the education which connects
with Technology, Employment, Creativity
and Innovation. At Galgotias we ensure that
the students are prepared for the future and
embrace the challenges of the future post the
COVID pandemic by adapting to the digital
world,” says Dhruv Galgotia, CEO, Galgotias University
 SMART EDUCATION
TALENT RUSH
Having a degree isn’t enough these days,
recruiters are looking for soft skills, an
analytical mind and a willingness to unlearn
B Y S H E L LY A N A N D
H
iring in haste just leads to
chaos and disorganisation,
says Canadian businessman
and Flickr co-founder Daniel
Butterfield. Headhunters will agree—
one wrong decision and an organisa-
tion might find itself being stuck with
someone who is not the correct fit.
So, what do human resource (HR)
professionals look for in freshers while
hiring, and what are the new fields
where job prospects are the brightest?
Two experts weigh in on the subject.
Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE
E X PE RT VOICE S
RAJ NARAYAN, CHIEF HUMAN
RESOURCES OFFICER, TITAN GROUP
People should be themselves. If they
put on an act, they will be found out.
They must know their areas of expertise
and think through how they will apply
their knowledge in different situations.
TEAM SPIRIT: Freshers must have a
positive, can-do attitude. Their views
on life and career are important too.
Working well in a group is key for us. In
our organisation, the collective power
of people trumps individual brilliance in
most situations.
HIRING HUB: We hire freshers through
the different campus programmes that
we have—management trainees from
leading B-schools, graduate engineer
trainees from engineering colleges,
design trainees from the National
Institute of Design (NID), Ahmed-
abad, and the three NIFTs, optometrist
trainees, diploma engineer trainees and
graduate trainees. Lateral recruitment
is minimal. Analytics, design, customer
relationship management, sales and
marketing and technology are some
new job areas.
SHIRIN SALIS, VICE-PRESIDENT, HR,
TRANE TECHNOLOGIES INDIA
While there’s a strong focus on diversity
and machine learning, attention will be
given to attract talent with transferable
skills, a flexible workforce, as well as
building and sharing missions. Most in
demand will be expertise in technical
areas such as cyber security, data sci-
ence, deep learning along with design,
project management, entrepreneurship
and client interactions.
SKILL SETS: In interviews, hiring teams
are looking for talent that can comple-
ment the job profile and the company’s
values. They need candidates with good
communication skills so that they can
express their ideas, are articulate and
can resolve conflicts with confidence.
Problem-solving skills, the ability to
think neutrally and logically and a
knack for coming up with quick, prag-
matic solutions are pluses. Those who
have high learning agility vis-a-vis new
technologies and domain areas have an
edge over others.
WHAT’S IN DEMAND: Amid rising costs
and competition, businesses are looking
at hiring a job-ready workforce that
comes equipped with emerging tech-
nologies and is willing to upgrade their
skills. Another focus area is a candi-
date’s ability to apply the right technol-
ogy to solve given problems. n
 FOCUS
EDUCATION
Sanskriti University
Excellence in Life
S
anskriti University, set up in a serene
environment with state of the art
infrastructure, is ensuring 360 degree
holistic development of students. Sanskriti’s
intellectual capital comprises highly qualified and
experienced faculty drawn from Industry as well as
from Academia. Industry aligned curriculum coupled
with use of latest technological pedagogies transform
the students into job ready resources. Sanskriti is
committed to elevate itself to the status of top 100
universities of the world on all key parameters by
delivering exceptional skill-based education.
In order to ensure the holistic development of
students, “LIFE SKILLS”has been introduced as a
compulsory course for all students. The course is
practice oriented and brings about improvements in
students in their attitude, aptitude, soft and social
skills etc. The students not only become professional in
HEMANT GoyAl
Chairman, Mangalayatan University
their approach but also become ethically and morally
robust. With these qualities of head and heart, they are
being very well received by reputed companies.
Collaborations with reputed International Universities
for exchange of students, faculty, research etc paves
the way for better exposure for students. An illustrious
advisory board, state of the art infrastructure, best
intellectual capital, various awards and accolades
makes Sanskriti students proud of their alma mater.
The focus of the University is on outcome and research
based education. The University is proud of its students
who are under the guidance of 285 plus faculty, were
instrumental in the publication of more than 1000
research based publications as well as filing of about
100 patents during last year. With these credentials,
the students are assured of placements at very
handsome packages as well as in companies of repute.
It is a matter of pride that 91 % of the eligible students
Mangalayatan University
LEARN TODAY TO LEAD TOMORROW
T
o be a leader in education, an institution must
be founded on two basic principles: keeping
the interest of students as its foremost priority
and recognizing that knowledge is ever-
growing, omnipresent and requires the opening of
minds.
At Mangalayatan University, we take pride in these
two qualities being at the core of our existence.
Mangalayatan (translated as the germinal bed of
positive thought) aims to perpetuate a culture of
hardwork, embracing change and preparing oneself for
the fast progressing world with the latest skills and the
highest level of social and personal values.
Mangalayatan University vision is to give students
from all kinds of background, a quality educational
experience leading to legitimately rewarding career
opportunities where the most formative years of
a young mind are spent in the guided pursuit of
excellence while developing a spirit of inquisitive
questioning, an ability to excel in the pressure of a
fast-changing professional world, and a desire to grow
SACHIN GUPTA
Chancellor, Sanskriti University
were placed with a few of them getting multiple offers
for placement.
The students of Sanskriti have become its Brand
ambassadors and are its torch bearers. The passed
out students are very helpful in recruitment of the
students. Due to word of mouth publicity by our
students , the student strength has surpassed 6000.
There are students from 22 states , besides more
than 100 international students , which has created a
cosmopolitan culture in the campus as well as hostels.
Sanskriti is proud of its students.
into a personality than a person, in an environment
that fosters strong moral and ethical values, teamwork,
community service and environment consciousness.
In keeping with this spirit, Mangalayatan University
has focused on providing wholesome, relevant
education to its students in an environment that
inculcates values, mutual respect and cooperation says,
Hemant Goyal, Chairman, Mangalayatan University
“Mangalayatan University committed
to explore more about students skills
and capabilities in order to perform
best in their academics. It support to
individual belief, academic freedom,
equal opportunities and promote
diversity to cultivate an academic
environment to produce versatile
and efficient professionals to the
corporate world”
 Q A
WHETTING
HER APPETITE In her second innings as an entertainer, Neena
Gupta says she is happy jumping platforms if the
roles she gets offered keep leaving her excited

Q. A new hairstyle, head massages from the hus-

band, pretty hillside views. What else have you
been up to during the lockdown?
I am in my Mukteshwar home. I was supposed to be here
for a week, but the lockdown means we are stuck here.
All is well; we have a view of the mountains, a garden to
ourselves and nobody around us. I am trying to write
something with a writer through WhatsApp calls. But I
have started missing Bombay, home and work. I try to stay
happy by telling myself that this tough phase will pass.

Q. In the Amazon Prime show

Panchayat, you play a sarpanch
who has made peace with the fact
that her husband will do her job.
How did you see Manju Devi?
She is a typical woman whose life
revolves around her household, her hus-
band and her daughter. She isn’t bothered
if her husband is doing the duties of a
pradhan. Then somebody says something
that hits her hard and makes her think.

Q. Panchayat is your first

web series. What do
you make of this fast-
growing medium?
I will jump at any good role on any
platform. As it is, at my age, you
get very few good roles. In such
a scenario, whether it is a play, a
TV show, web series or a short
film, I am very excited.

Q. A lot of old shows are

being aired on Doordar-
shan again. Is there one
you would like to revisit?
I would like Star to telecast
Saans again. On DD Metro, I
would love to watch my show
Dard again. From Doordarshan,
I hope we get to see Hum Log,
Nukkad, Kora Kagaz,
and Khandaan.

—with Suhani Singh

66 Volume XLV Number 17; For the week April 21-27, 2020, published on every Friday Total number of pages 68 (including cover pages)