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New Delhi/METRO n Vol. XCVI No. 80 n Price ₹5.00/with Hindustan ₹ 9.00 (₹ 7.50 in Faridabad)/with Mint ₹ 9.50 n 14 Pages + 2 pages of HT City. Area specific pages extra.
TONY LEWIS, PART OF THE DUO BEHIND
DUCKWORTH-LEWIS METHOD, DIES AT 78
1,000,000 AND COUNTING
CORONAVIRUS DISEASE Cases hit seven figures worldwide, deaths exceed 50,000; spike in India
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: At exactly 12pm IST on
December 31, a 280-word report
from news agency AFP made its
way to newsrooms around the
world. Citing local media, the
report said a mystery virus was
causing “viral pneumonia of
unknown origin” in the city of
Wuhan, where 27 people had been
infected till then. The story drew
little attention, as the world pre-
pared to celebrate the beginning
of a new year later that night.
In less than 100 days in the new
year – Thursday is the 93rd day to
be precise – the virus has infected
1 million people and killed 50,000,
ripping through 203 countries in
a rampage that will likely exact as
severe an economic, social and
psychological toll as the number
of casualties by the time human-
ity can beat it. Till now, a little
over 200,000 have recovered from
the disease.
In India, infections crossed
2,000 on Wednesday and the coun-
try was on course to add 514 more
on Thursday -- the first time daily
new cases crossed the 500 mark.
New fatalities too logged a big
jump -- 19 -- taking the total toll to
72 in the country, which is in the
middle of a three-week long
nationwide shutdown to ensure
the coronavirus disease (Cov-
id-19) outbreak does not assume
the proportions it has in coun-
tries such as Italy and the United
States.
The United States is now the
worst-hit region, accounting for
more than a third of all daily new
cases around the world. New
York has lost 2,200 people and the
virus was on course to surpass
the 9/11 terror attacks in the next
36 hours as the deadliest tragedy
in a city that is at the heart of mod-
ern day pop culture.
Almost 10 million Americans
filed for unemployment benefits
in the last two weeks.
The United States and Europe
are largely being regarded as the
current hot spots of the pan-
demic, with world leaders expect-
ing “the roughest two or three
weeks” in their country. “We’re
going to lose thousands of peo-
TRACKING THE VIRUS
GLOBAL
CASES DEATHS
1,000,168 51,354
INDIA DATA COMPILED BY COVID19INDIA.ORG AND CROSS-CHECKED
FROM INPUTS BY HT’S CORRESPONDENTS AND NEWS AGENCIES
‘No evidence Covid
will go away; need
to reorganise lives’
Sanchita Sharma
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: There is no evidence to
suggest that the coronavirus dis-
ease will suddenly disappear,
says Dr David Nabarro, the WHO
special envoy on the disease, add-
ing people may have to consider
new norms for the foreseeable
future. Commenting on India’s
response to the threat, Nabarro
told HT: “This was really a far-
sighted decision because it gave
the whole country the opportu-
nity to come to terms with the
reality of this enemy. “ ››P6
Payment of motor,
health insurance
premiums deferred
NEW DELHI: Last dates for paying
all health and third-party motor
vehicle insurance premiums
falling in the lockdown period —
March 25 to April 14 — have been
extended to April 21, 2020,
finance minister Nirmala
Sitharaman said on Thursday.
“The government has pro-
vided relief for third-party auto
insurance policy holders and
health insurance policy holders
in light of the #Covid19 situa-
tion,” Sitharaman tweeted. The
decisions have been taken in
public interest, a finance minis-
try spokesperson said. HTC
www.twitter.com/htTweets
FROM A MYSTERY TO A PANDEMIC, IN 93 DAYS
Headlines from news reports that tell the story of how Covid-19 spread to change the world
DECEMBER
DEC 31:
China probes
pneumonia
outbreak in
Wuhan for
SARS links:
State media
First news report covering the
outbreak, at the time thought to
be similar to SARS
JAN 30:
India's first
coronavirus
case detected
in Kerala
APRIL 2: COVID-19 CASES WORLDWIDE SURPASS 1 MILLION
ple,” US President Donald Trump
said earlier in the week, while
projecting that up to 240,000 peo-
ple could die.
Italy, with a large ageing popu-
lation that is the most vulnerable
to the Sars-Cov-2 pathogen, has
seen the highest number of
deaths at 13,000. Spain, the United
Kingdom, France and Germany
together account for close to
20,000 fatalities.
China, where the pathogen is
believed to have mutated in
either bats or pangolins to jump
to humans, has recorded 3,300
deaths – with a rate of growth that
slowed into single digits only
after what has been a close two
months of lockdown in large
parts of the country.
CONTINUED ON P 14
INDIA
CASES DEATHS
2,520 (+514) 72 (+19)
17 companies asked
to help meet 38mn
unit PPE shortfall
Sunetra Choudhury
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: How do you produce
millions of coveralls (a key part of
personal protective equipment or
PPE) that health care workers
need when dealing with some-
thing as infectious as the corona-
virus disease (Covid-19), when,
till last month, they were mostly
imported ?
How do you do so, and quickly,
when no one had a design specifi-
cation till February 27?
For 17 firms that have been
tasked with making the coveralls
-- Hindustan Times spoke to six of
them -- it is a race against time
that involves dealing with raw
material shortage, workers wor-
ried about their safety, and learn-
ing to quickly produce under the
watchful and anxious eyes of the
government.
And for the only laboratory
that tests them, it simply means
working around the clock.
It’s an experience that Tanmay
mustread
TRUMP SAYS CHINA’S FIGURES DODGY
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the coronavirus
numbers being reported by China were “a little bit on the light side”.
China reacted sharply, with a foreign ministry spokeswoman telling
reporters that “to slander, to discredit, to blame others or to shift
responsibility cannot make up (for) the time that has been lost”.
n DOWNLOAD OUR iPAD APP
>>p13
JANUARY
JAN 4: China pneumonia
outbreak spurs WHO action as
mystery lingers
First official response from WHO.
Infections in China rise to 44
JAN 9: Chinese report says
illnesses may be from new
coronavirus
New virus, tentatively titled
nCov-2019, identified
JAN 11: China reports first death
from mysterious pneumonia
outbreak
JAN 23: China locks down
epicentre of virus outbreak; nearly
600 infected
JAN 24: WHO says 'bit too early'
to declare coronavirus a global
emergency
JAN 31: WHO declares
‘international emergency’
over novel coronavirus
By now, more than 7,700 people
have been infected in 18 countries
across 4 continents
Jamaat accounts for lion’s
share of Delhi’s infections
HT Correspondents
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: The number of corona-
virus disease (Covid-19) infec-
tions in the national capital
jumped on Thursday by 141 – the
biggest single-day increase yet –
with nearly 92% (129) of them
linked to the Tablighi Jamaat, a
religious group that is now
feared to be driving the outbreak
in the country despite an unprec-
edented lockdown that has
forced people to stay indoors for
three weeks.
The number of fatalities rose
by two – both of these patients
had also been to the Nizamuddin
building – and the country’s
overall number of confirmed
cases rose 2,520, also soaring by
a record number over Wednes-
day’s figure of 2006.
The national surge, too, was
Singhal, a recent graduate of OP
Jindal School, didn’t anticipate
in the first year of joining his
father’s business. Their Harya-
na-based firm, Sai Synergy, was a
supplier of fire protective gear
that was used by oil rig workers in
West Asia, till February. That’s
when it received an SOS from the
textile and health ministries of
the Government of India.
Director of Research and Devel-
opment in the textiles ministry,
Balram Kumar, reached out to
the company to attend a meeting.
At the meeting, there were a
handful of other companies; all
had one thing in common: they
worked with or made unwoven
fabric (used to make the protec-
tive clothes).
The agenda of the meeting was
simple: could these companies
make PPEs?
“We were ready but it took
some time and paperwork for the
manufacturing to start,’’ said
Singhal. The work started two
CONTINUED ON P 14
››P8
www.hindustantimes.com/iPad
ANOTHER
QUARANTINE
FOR NETANYAHU
A JULY WITHOUT ROGER FEDERER
FANS AFRAID THEY MAY NOT SEE THE LEGEND AT WIMBLEDON AGAIN >>p9
>>htworld p8
FEBRUARY
FEB 11: Novel
coronavirus
named
'Covid-19':
UN health
agency
‘Co’ stands for corona, ‘vi’ for virus and
‘d’ for disease
FEB 23: Italy battles surging
coronavirus outbreak as cases rise
over 100
Iran's neighbours impose travel
bans as coronavirus toll rises (AFP)
New epicentres of the contagion
outside of China
MARCH 25:
MODI DRAWS
LAXMAN
REKHA
India orders
21-day lockdown
to break chain
of infection
largely driven by Tablighi
Jamaat-linked infections from
states such as Tamil Nadu,
where all 75 new infections
reported the same origin. In all,
about 9,000 members linked to
the gathering in Delhi have been
quarantined or are being sought
out to be isolated after they
attended events at the Delhi
building that is believed to have
turned into a hotbed of the infec-
tion this month.
“The home ministry along
with states and Union territories
launched a massive effort and
about 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat
workers and their primary con-
tacts were identified and quar-
antined. Among these, 1,306 peo-
ple are foreigners,” said Punya
Salila Srivastava, joint secretary
in the Union home ministry, dur-
ing a daily briefing on Thursday.
Srivastava said that 2,346 peo-
Pak court overturns
murder conviction
in Daniel Pearl case
NEW DELHI: Ahmed Omer Saeed
Sheikh, the terrorist convicted of
the 2002 kidnapping and murder
of journalist Daniel Pearl, had
his death sentence commuted to
a prison term of seven years by a
Pakistani court on Thursday.
The court also acquitted three
other men who were earlier sen-
tenced to life imprisonment.
Omar’s defence lawyer said,
“Omar has already served 18
years... He will be out in a few
days.” ››P13
A peek inside the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz
Mayank Austen Soofi
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Most nights, the
main avenue of Delhi’s tony
Nizamuddin East is as silent
as a grave. There is no traffic
except for an occasional car, a
“Niz East” dweller probably
returning to his or her elegant
apartment. The 17th-century
tomb of Abdul Rahim Khan-i-
Khana remains shrouded in
darkness.
Sometimes though, in this
silence, footsteps are heard —
those of men walking in small
groups, each holding a bundle
under their arm or on the
head. They are the Jamatis,
members of the Tablighi
Jamaat, on their way from the
MARCH
MARCH 11: WHO describes
coronavirus outbreak as
pandemic
By now, there are over 118,000
cases in 114 countries. 4,291
people are dead
MARCH 19: ITALY OVERTAKES
CHINA'S CORONAVIRUS
DEATH TOLL
Italy becomes the world’s
worst-hit country, with deaths
exceeding China’s. A day later,
global deaths top 10,000 as
virus’s spread accelerates
MAR 30: New York state
surpasses 1,000 coronavirus
deaths
By now, New York is a global hot
spot, less than a month after
reporting its first case. The US
too has the highest number of
infections
ple were evacuated from
Tablighi Jamaat’s six-storey
complex in Nizamuddin since
March 29. Of these, 250 were for-
eigners and 1,804 people were
shifted to different quarantine
centres, while 334 positive cases
were hospitalised, the official
said.
Earlier in the day, Delhi chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal said
that the number of cases linked
to the Tablighi Jamaat could
shoot up since the government
has decided to test all of the 2,346
people linked to the building.
The government has begun
action at several levels against
the missionary group, booking
its leader Maulana Mohammad
Saad under sections that punish
offences that could lead to the
worsening of an epidemic and for
criminal conspiracy. home min-
CONTINUED ON P 14
ICMR suggests antibody
tests in all new hot spots
Rhythma Kaul
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The Indian Council of
Medical Research (ICMR)
advised on Thursday antibody
tests (or blood tests) in areas that
are emerging as hot spots of the
coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a
move that will ensure faster
detection of all possible cases in
these clusters and help authori-
ties buy some precious time to
NIZAMUDDIN BASTI
n The Markaz building in Nizamuddin area.
Nizamuddin railway station
to the Markaz, the organisa-
tion’s headquarters. It is
located across Mathura Road,
next to the equally upscale
n OUR EDITION ON KINDLE
Plan staggered exit from
lockdown, PM tells CMs
HT Correspondents
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Underlining India’s
goal of ensuring minimum loss of
life and detailing the next steps in
India’s strategy to deal with the
coronavirus disease (Covid-19)
pandemic, Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi on Thursday indi-
cated that once the lockdown
ends, the Centre and the states
will together ensure a staggered
re-emergence of the citizenry.
Interacting with the state chief
ministers over a video conference
from his residential office at 7,
Lok Kalyan Marg, the PM empha-
sised that in the next few weeks,
“testing, tracing, isolation and
quarantine” should remain the
focus areas of the local adminis-
trations, according to an official
statement.
Many CMs praised the Cen-
tre’s role in dealing with the out-
break, especially in identifying
and quarantining suspect cases
arising from Nizamuddin
Markaz in Delhi. But nearly all
states demanded more financial
support and help with ramping
Health workers, police PM Modi to share
attacked in some states video message
BENGALURU/BHOPAL: Madhya Pra-
desh police arrested seven people
on Thursday for allegedly attack-
ing and hurling stones at two doc-
tors in Indore, the latest in a
string of assaults on frontline
health workers by local residents
across India, complicating the
already uphill battle against the
coronavirus disease.
The attack in Indore came on
the same day a group of Asha
workers were attacked and their
belongings snatched in Benga-
luru, policemen and medical per-
sonnel were pelted with stones in
Bihar and local residents clashes
with law-enforcement authori-
ties in West Bengal. Also on
Wednesday, relatives of a
49-year-old coronavirus patient
who died at a government hospi-
tal assaulted the doctor and the
staff on duty, alleging negligence.
In Indore, the two women doc-
tors were surrounded by a mob
when they asked an elderly local
contain the fast-spreading pan-
demic.
The test used now -- PCR
(polymerase chain reaction) --
identifies the Sars-Cov-2 virus
from throat of nasal swab sam-
ples of people with symptoms or
high-risk individuals (health
workers and family members)
who might have come in contact
with a Covid-19 patient.
The antibody detection blood
test will identify people who
MAYANK AUSTEN SOOFI/HT
Nizamuddin West, in the con-
gested and not-upscale-at-all
Nizamuddin Basti.
This village takes its name
from the shrine of Sufi saint
http://read.
FRIDAY, APRIL 03, 2020
CASH-STRAPPED STATES ASK
CENTRE FOR URGENT FUNDS
NEW DELHI: The government
may borrow about ~40,000
crore to compensate cash-
strapped states for their rev-
enue shortfall under the
GST regime, and push its
departments and public sec-
tor firms to clear their ven-
dors’ dues , to rescue them
from an acute liquidity
crunch caused by the 21-day
coronavirus lockdown,
three officials aware of the
developments said. Apart
from states, government
departments also owe
money to companies across
up health care facilities to meet
the surge in the Covid-19 cases.
According to an official, all
states were represented in the
meeting. However, only few CMs
spoke. West Bengal chief minis-
ter Mamata Banerjee was the
only CM not present at the meet,
WHILE ASHA WORKERS
WERE ATTACKED IN
BENGALURU, TWO
WOMEN DOCTORS WERE
SURROUNDED BY A
MOB IN INDORE
woman, who was suspected to
have come in contact with a Cov-
id-19 patient, to accompany the
medical team for tests. Television
visuals showed the 100-strong
mob chasing the doctors and
hurling stones at them.
“We have been visiting the
locality for the past three days for
the screening of residents. We
had information about a person
coming in contact with a Covid-19
patient…We were talking to the
person (the elderly woman)
when, all of a sudden, residents
got agitated and attacked us,”
said one of the doctors. ››P7
already have been infected, but
have mild or no symptoms,
according to experts who say the
move will help us know how
many have been able to fight off
the infection. The antibody test
uses a few drops of blood to deter-
mine whether a person has anti-
bodies against the coronavirus.
While the results of PCR tests
take up to five hours, the antibody
test results will be available in
15-30 minutes. ››P5
Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya,
which lies deep in the heart of
the basti. The Markaz’s grey
building stands near the
entrance, very close to the
famous Karim’s restaurant,
and a few steps away from a
great literary landmark: poet
Mirza Ghalib’s grave.
The front facade of the six-
storey building is studded
with long arch-shaped win-
dows that look strangely simi-
lar to traditionally built win-
dows seen in the bylanes of
distant Venice – currently
ravaged by the coronavirus
disease (Covid-19), another
thing it has in common with
the Markaz building that has
emerged as India’s biggest
CONTINUED ON P 6
sectors for products bought,
services rendered, or such
things as subsidies.
In a meeting with PM
Modi though video confer-
ence on Thursday, several
state chief ministers
demanded that the Centre
pay their GST compensa-
tion, immediately release
the wages of workers
enrolled under MGNREGS
and sought help in Corona-
virus relief efforts. The gov-
ernment is considering
their proposals, the three
officials said. ››P4
but the state was represented by
its chief secretary.
During the interaction, Modi
spoke about formulating a “com-
mon exit strategy” to ensure
“staggered re-emergence of the
population” once the lockdown
CONTINUED ON P 14
at 9am today
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Nar-
endra Modi will share a video
message with countrymen on
Friday amid a nationwide lock-
down to combat the coronavirus
outbreak.
“At 9 AM tomorrow morning,
I’ll share a small video message
with my fellow Indians,” the
prime minister tweeted on
Thursday.
Modi held a meeting with chief
ministers on the Covid-19 out-
break via video-conferencing on
Thursday. In his last address to
the nation on March 24, the
Prime Minister had announced
a 21-day lockdown in the country
to contain the spread of the dis-
ease. HTC
Second virus case
linked to Dharavi
worries officials
MUMBAI: Mumbai’s overworked
public health workers have a
new, daunting challenge on their
hands -- Dharavi.
After a 56-year-old garment
shop owner died of Covid-19 in
India’s largest slum on April 1, 70
high-risk residents were quar-
antined. On Thursday morning,
a second case emerged – a munic-
ipal worker who was assigned to
the area tested positive for Sars-
Cov-2. It is not just Dharavi’s
population that is the worry, its
inhabitants live in some of the
most cramped spaces in the
country. In an area measuring
2.1 sq km, the slum has over
57,000 shanties, and small flats,
almost all of them illegal. ››P11
Celebrated gurbani
singer dies, eye on
event he attended
AMRITSAR: Bhai Nirmal Singh
Khalsa, 67, a Padma Shri awardee
and a former hazoori ragi (Gur-
bani exponent) at Amritsar’s
Golden Temple, died of a heart
attack on Thursday a day after he
was diagnosed with coronavirus.
“A health department team
visited his (Khalsa’s) house on
March 3 after we got the informa-
tion that two guests... from the US
visited him. They were found
asymptomatic,” said civil sur-
geon Dr Prabhdeep Kaur Johal.
Khalsa then went to Chandigarh
for a devotional event on March
19 where over 100 people had
gathered. The Chandigarh civic
body has quarantined 84 people,
who attended the event. ››P11
02 hindustantimes
spotlight
htspotlight
n A health worker disinfects a Nizamuddin resident’s house. One of the occupants of the house recently returned from the UAE and tested
positive for Covid-19. Health workers on Thursday went from door to door in the area as part of sanitisation operations.
62% of Delhi’s 293 Covid-19
cases now linked to Jamaat
NIZAMUDDIN Two new deaths in the Capital have also been traced to the Markaz
Sweta Goswami
n sweta.goswami@htlive.com
NEWDELHI: At least 182 (62%) of the
293 coronavirus disease (Cov-
id-19) cases in Delhi were linked
to the Tablighi Jamaat congrega-
tion that took place in Nizamud-
din early in March, the Delhi gov-
ernment said on Thursday, while
maintaining that the outbreak
had not entered the community
transmission phase in the
national capital.
Between Wednesday and
Thursday, Delhi reported 141
new Covid-19 cases.
Chief minister Arvind Kejri-
wal, in a digital news briefing on
Thursday, said the number of
deaths caused by the disease in
Delhi increased to four on Thurs-
day, up from two a day earlier.
The two new deaths were traced
to Nizamuddin Markaz, an
emerging hot spot of infections
discovered late in March.
Kejriwal also announced that
a one-time compensation scheme
F O R TA B L I G H I AC T I V I T I E S
Home min put 4.2k Sanitation workers in hot spots say
foreigners on visa they are working without safety gear
blacklist since 2015
Shishir Gupta
n shishir.gupta@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: On Thursday, the Min-
istry of Home Affairs said in a
statement that it has blacklisted
960 foreigners “present in India
on tourist visas” for their
“involvement in activities of the
Tablighi Jamaat.”
As many as 4,200 foreigners
have thus far been blacklisted by
the Home Ministry’s Immigra-
tion Department for flouting
tourist visa norms and engaging
in Tablighi activities, particu-
larly missionary work, since
2015, according to government
officials familiar with the matter.
The focus on the activities of
the Tablighi Jamaat has
increased after a gathering in
March organised by it has been
found to be responsible for hun-
dreds of Covid-19 infections
across India.
It is likely the first of its mem-
bers to be infected may have come
in touch with infected foreigners
staying at the organisation’s
headquarters in Delhi’s Nizam-
uddin area.
While Maulana Saad, the
fourth emir of Jamaat, has made
it clear, from his quarantine-base
that Tablighi workers must fol-
low medical advice, the initial
resistance or hesitation by the
group in following government
guidelines regarding large gath-
erings, social distancing, and the
nationwide lockdown has been
blamed for a spike in positive
cases all over India.
The home ministry has
directed Delhi Police and the
police of other states to act
against these foreigners under
the Foreigners Act and the Disas-
ter Management Act.
The government on Thursday
said among 9,000 Tablighi Jamaat
members, who are under quaran-
tine across the country, 1,306 are
foreigners.
About 216 foreigners were still
in the six-storey building in cen-
tral Delhi when Indian officials
began their evacuation a few days
back.
of ₹5,000 for Delhi’s construction
workers will be extended to cover
those operating public service
vehicles such as auto-rickshaws,
taxis and e-rickshaws.
“We currently have 208 active
coronavirus patients in various
hospitals, out of which one is still
on ventilator and five are on oxy-
gen. The remaining 202 are sta-
ble,” Kejriwal said.
Out of the 2,346 people evacu-
ated from the Tablighi Jamaat
headquarters in Nizamuddin, 536
are in the hospital as they showed
Covid-19 symptoms, according to
the government. The remaining
have been taken to seven govern-
ment quarantine centres, includ-
ing one in Tughlakabad Railway
colony and DDA flats in Bakkar-
wala, Narela and Sultanpuri.
The CM reiterated that the
number of cases could increase
further as the government
planned to begin testing even
those Markaz evacuees who were
under government quarantine.
“The patients who were
Cabinet Secretary Rajiv
Gauba has told state police chiefs
to run a quick background check
on them to ascertain their activi-
ties.
According to North Block offi-
cials, Tablighi followers from
abroad are put on an immigration
blacklist if they are found preach-
ing or proselytizing in India. It is
not a violation to merely listen to
sermons from the Jamaat leader-
ship, one of the officials cited in
the first instance clarified.
Foreign members of the
Jamaat engaged in missionary
work on a tourist visa are black-
listed for two years. Since Janu-
ary 2020, at least 2,000 foreigners
particularly from Indonesia,
Malaysia, Bangladesh and Myan-
mar have visited the Markaz at
Nizamuddin, the organisations
HQ.
Hindustan Times learns that
in cases where a Tablighi
preacher with a large following is
misusing visa norms, then the
home ministry blacklists the per-
son permanently. HT couldn’t
ascertain how many preachers
have been permanently black-
listed since 2015.
A foreigner on the blacklist
will not be given a visa again for
two years. Now the home minis-
try is debating if it should extend
the validity of the blacklist to at
least four years or more to send a
strong message.
“Under the existing provi-
sions, such kind of visa violations
do not attract permanent black-
listing. But we intend to revisit
the issue,” said a second official.
A Delhi police officer, who did
not wish to be named, said legal
action against Jamaat members,
who violated their visa condi-
tions, will entail registration of
cases against them and arrest.
The Tablighi Jamaat, an off-
shoot of the Deobandi movement,
preaches on how to be a good
Muslim by focusing on Quran
and Hadiths while also incorpo-
rating some local traditions. In
that way, it is different from Ahle-
Hadith and Wahabbi movements
of Islam.
brought out from the Markaz are
serious. So, we will conduct tests
on each of the 2,346 persons evac-
uated from there. Some of them
could be corona positive as more
results arrive in a day or two. The
Delhi tally will then shoot up,”
Kejriwal said.
He said it was vital that every-
one followed the 21-day national
lockdown to control the spread of
the disease that has killed at
51,000 people worldwide.
Kejriwal narrated a tale from
Mahabharata in which Yudhish-
thir tells Vidur that neither the
strongest nor the fastest would
survive a forest fire and only
those animals that live in bur-
rows would see themselves
through the fire. “This coronavi-
rus is like a forest fire. Those who
stay home will remain healthy,”
Kejriwal said.
Giving the latest figures of
those under quarantine, he said
2,943 people were in the govern-
ment’s quarantine facilities out of
which 1,133 were those who came
Ashish Mishra
n ashish.mishra2@htlive.com
NEWDELHI: With Nizamuddin and
Dilshad Garden emerging as the
Covid-19 hot spots in Delhi, and
more quarantine facilities being
developed across the city, sanita-
tion workers have raised con-
cerns about their safety.
The Akhil Bhartiya Safai Maj-
door Sangh, an association of san-
itation workers, has demanded
they be provided more effective
protective gear, along with regu-
lar screenings of sanitation work-
ers and their families.
On Thursday, the South Delhi
Municipal Corporation (SDMC)
said it will start screening staff
deployed in Nizamuddin.
With close around 40-50 sanita-
tion workers deployed in Nizam-
uddin and a similar number in
Dilshad Garden, Sanjay Gehlot,
president Akhil Bhartiya Safai
Majdoor Sangh, said sanitation
employees work at the forefront
and, as a result, are prone to be
infected with the highly conta-
gious virus.
“The civic bodies should iden-
D AY A F T E R C B S E D I R E C T I V E
Most pvt schools say exams ended before lockdown
HT Correspondents
n htreporters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: A day after the Central
Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) advised its affiliated
schools to promote all Class 9 and
Class 11 students to the next
grades based on their internal
assessments given the Covid-19
pandemic, a majority of private
schools in the city on Thursday
said they had managed to conduct
the exams for these classes before
the lockdown began, while those
run by the Delhi government said
they were yet to take a call on
ways to implement the direction.
In Delhi government schools,
which are also affiliated to the
CBSE, one exam was yet to be
conducted for Class 9 and two for
Class 11 before the lockdown was
announced. However, the situa-
tion is different in both private
BIPLOV BHUYAN/HT
from abroad and 1,810 were cases
linked to the Markaz. By late
Thursday evening, the count of
those in government quarantine
touched 3,075.
The CM announced that the
Delhi government will give a one-
time compensation of ₹5,000 to
those who have a public service
vehicle (PSV) registered in Delhi.
The decision is likely to benefit
more than 250,000 owners of PSVs
such as auto-rickshaws (nearly
95,000), e-rickshaws (around
85,000), taxis (nearly 75,000) and
Gramin Sewas (over 6,100).
“Many auto, e-rickshaw and
taxi drivers have complained
that their income has stopped as
they cannot operate their vehi-
cles due to the lockdown. My gov-
ernment has decided to give them
Rs 5,000 each so they do not have
to sleep hungry. Implementing
this scheme will take about 10
days since we are still devising
the system through which the
money will be disbursed,” he
said.
n The SDMC used drones to spray disinfectant in areas surrounding
the Nizamuddin Markaz on Thursday.
tify those who have worked in hot
spots. Such employees and their
families should immediately be
screened for the coronavirus,”
Gehlot said.
A senior SDMC official said the
civic body was “concerned”
about its workers and all neces-
sary steps would be taken.
“So far, no symptoms of Cov-
id-19 have been observed in sani-
tation workers. We will screen
these workers in two or three
days,” the official said.
and government schools of north-
east Delhi where exams were first
suspended in February due to
communal riots and in March
after Covid-19 hit the Capital.
On Wednesday, the CBSE
directed its schools to promote
students of these classes based on
internal assessments.
The internal assessment gen-
erally carries 20% weightage in
the final results. It includes unit
tests, projects, practicals and
extracurricular activities.
A senior official in Delhi gov-
ernment’s education department
said that in their schools, only the
Urdu language exam was left for
Class 9 students and sociology
and engineering graphic exams
for Class 11. However, govern-
ment schools in north-east Delhi
were yet to take at least four
exams for Class 9 and five for
Class 11.
Fire dept sanitises
Tablighi Jamaat
HQ in Nizamuddin,
adjoining areas
Anvit Srivastava
n anvit.srivastava@htlive.com
NEWDELHI: Firefighters on Thurs-
day sprayed thousands of gallons
of disinfectant in south Delhi’s
Nizamuddin and adjoining areas,
which has emerged as the single-
largest source of the Covid-19
across India.
A six-storey building — the
Tablighi Jamaat headquarters —
has emerged as the biggest Cov-
id-19 hot spot in India so far, with
at least 182 people from there test-
ing positive for Covid-19 in the
Capital alone, and more than xx
in hospital for showing Covid-
like symptoms. More than 1,810
people who attended the congre-
gation have been placed in quar-
antine in the city.
Senior officers from the fire
department said Nizamuddin is
the first hot spot they were tasked
with sanitising and the exercise
will be carried out in other parts
of the city as well, if required.
Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire
Service (DFS), said on Thursday
that his team had sanitised the
building (markaz) in Nizamud-
din, the lanes surrounding the
building and other adjoining resi-
dential areas.
“We sprayed at least two fire
trucks full of disinfectants. One
fire tender usually carries 10,000
litres of water mixed with sodium
hypochlorite. On Thursday, we
sprayed at least 5,000 gallon of dis-
infectant,” he said.
Garg added that they sprayed
disinfectant on shutters of shut
shops, footpaths, walls, parked
vehicles and other buildings in
the vicinity.
On Wednesday, in a meeting
with the chief secretary and top
bureaucrats in Delhi, lieutenant
governor Anil Baijal had directed
that the fire department be used
in carrying out a disinfection
drive in Covid-19 hotspot clus-
ters, quarantine centres and vul-
nerable public places in the city.
Garg said that even though the
department is handling such a sit-
uation for the first time, they are
fully prepared. “At present we
have four dedicated teams, each
having one fire tender. If need be,
more teams will be pressed into
action,” he said, adding that his
men have been provided with
adequate safety gear.
BIPLOV BHUYAN/HT PHOTO
But sanitation workers said
they are not being provided
proper protective gear.
“In the name of protective
gear, employees have been given
substandard masks and gloves.
Many are made to work even
without these. I have convened
several meetings with the author-
ities of the three municipalities
but to no avail,” he said.
Lokesh Kumar, a sanitation
employee working in Dilshad
Garden, under the East Delhi
“We are considering evaluat-
ing students based on internal
assessments conducted through-
out the year and the annual
exams that were held until the
lockdown was announced. We
will have to plan everything dif-
ferently for north-east Delhi
schools,” the official said.
Gayyur Ahmed, principal of
Sarvodya Bal Vidyalaya in Jama
Masjid, said the schools are ready
with the internal assessment
marks of these classes. “We will
promote the students as soon as
we receive a direction from the
government,” he said.
Bharat Arora, general secre-
tary of the action committee of
private unaided schools, an
umbrella group of around 1,000
private schools in Delhi, said,
“Almost all schools affiliated to
our organisation had completed
their internal exams between
At city virus tracking hub,
Markaz takes centre stage
Anonna Dutt
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: “No entry from this
gate due to Covid-19”. This note is
stuck on the door of the four-room
office in a Delhi government
building in Laxmi Nagar. The
door opens to the hub from where
all coronavirus disease (Cov-
id-19) cases in the city are tracked
and containment plans are
charted for the infected.
So far, Covid-19 has infected
293 people in Delhi, of which four
have died. An alarming 182 of
these cases, including two deaths,
are linked to the Tablighi Jamaat
headquarters at the Markaz
building in Nizamuddin Basti,
which has emerged as the biggest
coronavirus hot spot in the coun-
try over the past three days.
With staff from other offices
assisting the Covid-19 team as
numbers swell, there are around
20 people here at any given time.
They type out letters, official
orders, and guidelines to be sent
to health authorities; they call
nodal officers in Covid-19 hospi-
tals and quarantine facilities for
an update on the number of
vacant beds; and they make
arrangements for resources that
may be needed in the wake of a
possible rise in cases.
This is also where the lists of
positive cases and the people they
might have come in contact is
generated. These lists are then
sent to teams in all the 11 districts
of Delhi over e-mail and What-
sApp to arrange home visits and
calls or what is referred to as
“community surveillance”. If the
contacts have developed symp-
toms, they are transported to iso-
lation facilities in dedicated Cov-
id-19 ambulances for testing.
There are five computers in
the office, several files and lists
are arranged in piles, and geospa-
tial maps of all cases are pinned
up on walls to aid the officers.
The biggest task the authori-
ties have at the moment is finding
the people who might have left
the Nizamuddin Markaz building
before they started testing people
there on March 25.
“We did not get a list of all those
who had been in the Markaz but
left before the operations to
vacate the premises started.
However, our teams are going to
mosques around the city to check
whether they have anyone who
Municipal Corporation (EDMC),
said authorities have not yet pro-
vided him with PPE kits.
“We have been given low qual-
ity masks and gloves. These
masks become useless within two
hours of work, so it is like work-
ing without any protection,”
Kumar said.
An EDMC spokesperson said
that as per standard guidelines,
tests for Covid-19 are done only a
person displays symptoms.
“None of our sanitation staff has
shown symptoms, so till now
there is no need to conduct Cov-
id-19 tests,” he said.
The official also claimed PPE
kits were meant primarily for
doctors, paramedic staff other
workers engaged in hospitals
treating Covid- 19.
The SDMC on Thursday
started a drive to sanitise areas
neighbouring the markaz. It used
drones to spray disinfectants in
Nizamuddin East, Nizamuddin
Basti and surrounding areas.
The drones conducted 18
rounds, of 20 minutes each, of dis-
infecting operations, an official
said.
March 10 and 15, like every year.
Many had also declared the
results before the lockdown was
announced. However, some
schools were yet to conduct the
compartment exams.”
Deeksha Khera, principal of
DPS Mathura Road, said, “All our
papers were conducted before the
lockdown because generally
exams are already done by that
period. The results were declared
online keeping social distancing
measures in mind.”
Experts said it was the best
alternative the CBSE could have
come up with at the moment. Shy-
ama Chona, an education expert,
said, “The schools can now test
these students immediately after
they get promoted to the next
grades just to assess their learn-
ing levels so they can bring the
students at par in another two-
three months in the same class.”
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0
CORONAVIRUS: METRO
We did not get a list of all those who had been in the
› Markaz but left before the operations to vacate the
premises started. However, our teams are going to
mosques around the city to check whether they have
anyone who had been at the Markaz living with them.
DELHI HEALTH DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL
had been at the Markaz living
with them,” said an official from
Delhi’s health department who
asked not to be named.
The surveillance teams also
keep an eye on the amount of food
being prepared at these establish-
ment to see whether there may be
several people living in the same
compound.
The district surveillance offi-
cer takes down a detailed travel
history of anyone infected, trying
to figure out if the source was
someone they came in contact
with, or if they passed on the
infection to someone else. The
teams – comprising of staff from
dispensaries -- then visit houses
in the vicinity of the patients to
see if any of their contacts are
showing symptoms. All the con-
tacts are asked to self-quarantine
at home, and are placed on com-
munity surveillance.
Officials from the district mag-
istrate’s office have now been
roped in for surveillance. “If we
find that the address provided is
wrong or the people no longer live
there, then we send the list of the
people to the district magistrate’s
office. They take the help of the
police to find these people and
bring them to quarantine facili-
ties if need be,” said a second offi-
cial from Delhi’s health depart-
ment.
The officials also keep in touch
with their counterparts from
other states for tip-offs on Delhi
residents who might have come
in contact with positive patients
from other states. Alerts from
Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,
Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir
and Andoman & Nicobar are
what prompted the state authori-
ties to first inspect the Markaz
building last week.
All the hospitals in the city
with isolation facilities for Cov-
id-19 patients also have a nodal
officer who sends updates to the
office in Laxmi Nagar as soon as
someone tests positive.
The Delhi government has
Admin of gurdwara in
Majnu Ka Tila booked
HT Correspondent
n htreporters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: Police Thursday regis-
tered a case against the manage-
ment of the gurdwara in Majnu
Ka Tila for violating prohibitory
orders and the 21-day lockdown
norms, after 227 persons from
Punjab were evacuated from
there on Wednesday to prevent
the spread of the coronavirus.
They were later shifted to two
quarantine centres in the city.
On Tuesday night, the police
had received information regard-
ing a gathering of around 300 peo-
ple at the gurdwara in Majnu ka
Tila. Upon confirming the infor-
mation, the Delhi government
was intimated and 227 migrants,
who were from Punjab, but work-
ing in Delhi-NCR, were evacu-
ated on Wednesday.
Police said the FIR has been
registered under sections 188, 269,
and 270 of the Indian Penal Code.
“The FIR was registered fol-
lowing the instructions of the
Delhi government since the gurd-
wara committee did not inform
the police or the concerned subdi-
visional magistrate about the
n Homeless people and those stranded due to the lockdown are given
food at Yamuna Pushta near Nigambodh Ghat.
declared five of its hospitals -- Lok
Nayak, Deen Dayal Upadhyay,
Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Guru Teg
Bahadur, and Rajiv Gandhi
Super Speciality – as designated
Covid-19 centres. The five hospi-
tals, when fully converted to Cov-
id-19 centres, will have at least
5,850 beds for the patients.
There are also 75 isolation beds
in Safdarjung Hospital, at least 32
beds at Ram Manohar Lohia Hos-
pital, and over 100 beds in the AIl
India Institute of Medical Scien-
ces (AIIMS) Jhajjar campus for
Covid-19 cases. The AIIMS
trauma centre, with 250 beds and
100 ventilators, has been con-
verted into a dedicated Covid-19
facility.
Another key area the Laxmi
Nagar office tracks is testing. It
receives real-time updates from
government centres and, most
importantly, eight private labs
across the city authorised to test
patients. “Since these are
patients who are not under our
surveillance, our team is immedi-
ately sent to their home to take
history and start contact trac-
ing,” according to a third official.
Data is shared with the state
health minister and the chief
minister every day. The officials
from the hospitals, the integrated
disease surveillance programme
(IDSP), and other government
departments, also have regular
meetings with the ministers to
track the number of infections
and preparedness measures.
The ministers and health sec-
retary, in turn, are in touch with
the central government for
requirements such as PPE, test-
ing kits, and viral transport
medium needed to collect sam-
ples. As of now, the health depart-
ment, and by extension the Laxmi
Nagar anti-Covid hub, is on high
alert to track people people across
the city who might have come in
contact with those from the
Nizamuddin Markaz building.
“Many more will test positive,”
says a fourth official.
mass gathering of people at the
gurdwara. The management offi-
cials violated the government
orders that banned the gathering
of five or more people in any place
to avoid the spread of the corona-
virus,” a senior police officer, on
condition of anonymity, said.
The officer said none of the 227
rescued persons showed symp-
toms of the Covid-19 infection
when tested by doctors at the
gurdwara. A Delhi government
official said all evacuees are being
screened and their samples are
being collected for testing.
“There were chances of people
getting infected, as maintaining
social distancing was not possible
at the religious place. The man-
agement committee should have
informed the police or govern-
ment authorities and got the
migrants staying at the gurdwara
isolated,” the officer added.
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Manage-
ment Committee (DSGMC) presi-
dent, Manjinder Singh Sirsa,
said, “This is a desperate attempt
to malign the services done by
Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Manage-
ment Committee and the Sikhs
across India and the world.”
SANCHIT KHANNA/HT
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0 hindustantimes 03

p g
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: METRO

Capital catching up to Shortage at some of Delhi’s

handle inevitable spike food camps, excess at others
HT Correspondents
n htreporters@hindustantimes.com

COVID-19 Delhi is not testing enough people to have the complete picture of the spread of
the disease. But, on the other hand, it is ramping up its hospital infrastructure to treat patients
Anonna Dutt
n anonna.dutt@htlive.com
NEW DELHI: Across ministries in
the Delhi government, in hospi-
tals treating Covid-19 patients,
and among health experts closely
tracking the pandemic and its
spread, there is a degree of una-
nimity — Delhi is about to see a
rise in cases.
But if this is the hypothesis, is
Delhi ready?
Interviews with five key offi-
cials across the city government
and in hospitals presents a mixed
picture.
Delhi is not testing enough
people to have a full sense of the
spread of the disease. It is also suf-
fering from a shortage of personal
protective equipment (PPEs),
which has put health care work-
ers in the line of danger.
But it is ramping up its hospital
infrastructure to treat Covid-19
patients, putting in place isola-
tion facilities, and maintaining a
reserve of ventilators for severe
cases. This means, experts advis-
ing the government suggest, that
if there are 100 new cases every
day, Delhi will be able to handle it.
THE NUMBERS
As of Thursday evening, 219 peo-
ple have tested positive in the city
and four have died.
Of the 219, 108 cases are among
people from the Nizamuddin
Markaz. The numbers are likely
to rise further, with reports of
most of the 536 people in hospital
isolation yet to come back.
The number of infected cases
could also rise because all those
who have flown in from interna-
tional destinations are not yet out
of the danger zone. It could rise
because of the huge congrega-
tions of migrant workers Delhi
saw in the aftermath of the
announcement of the lockdown.
It could rise because those who
are at the forefront of battling the
disease — the health workers —
themselves are getting infected. It
could rise because one person —
any one person — may emerge as
a “super spreader”. Or it could
rise just because India may be at
the stage of community transmis-
sion — where the source of the
infection cannot be located —
despite the government empha-
sising that this is not yet the case.
The government believes it is
ready to deal with this spike —
but up to a point.
n A security guard checks the temperature of a customer in front of a
store in Saket on Thursday . The city has so far witnessed 219
Covid-19 positive cases and four deaths.
S K Sarin, director of the Insti-
tute of Liberty and Biliary Sci-
ence, is the head of a medical com-
mittee which is advising chief
minister Arvind Kejriwal on Cov-
id-19. In its report, the committee
has said that Delhi is prepared to
deal with 100 cases daily.
“The committee will prepare a
blueprint of what we have and
what is needed in the next three to
four days.,” said Sarin.
THE PPE CHALLENGE
At the moment, Delhi’s biggest
challenge is a shortage of PPEs,
which are essential to prevent
infection among the medical staff
who interact with Covid-19
patients. Eight doctors in the city
have already got infected with the
virus, and there are reports of
medical staff in hospitals contem-
plating resignations.
When cases surge, the short-
age will create a deeper crisis.
“We are ensuring that the PPE get
used rationally — everybody who
enters the ward, including the
sanitation staff, has to put on the
protective gear. We have enough
at the moment, but there can be a
scarcity in the future ,” said a doc-
tor from AIIMS.
The Delhi CM on Wednesday
appealed to the Centre to ensure
the availability of more PPEs,
which are in short supply.
“I want to assure the doctors
that the government is with you.
I am personally pursuing the sup-
ply of sufficient PPE for the doc-
AMAL KS/HT PHOTO
tors. I am in touch with suppliers,
manufacturers. I have also
requested industrialists to
donate PPEs for the doctors,
instead of the donation in the CM
relief fund,” Kejriwal said.
Sarin — the head of the medi-
cal committee — suggested that
people with businesses overseas
should donate PPE kits to man-
age the disease. “Many people are
donating food to the poor, but the
government is already making
arrangements for that. What we
really need are PPE kits and I
would suggest all those who have
businesses overseas buy the kits
there and ship it to government
here,” said Sarin.
HOSPITAL INFRA
On the positive side of planning,
however, the government has
ramped up its health infrastruc-
ture dedicated to Covid-19 cases.
It has declared five of its terti-
ary care hospitals — Lok Nayak
hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Superspe-
ciality hospital, Baba Saheb
Ambedkar hospital, Deen Dayal
Upadhyay hospital, and Guru
Teg Bahadur Hospital — as dedi-
cated Covid-19 facilities. This will
earmark at least 5,850 beds for the
management of Covid-19
patients. These hospitals are
working on moving their non-
Covid-19 patients to secluded
building or other facilities. The
AIIMS trauma centre, with 250
beds and 100 ventilators, has also
been dedicated for the treatment
of Covid patients. All the trauma
cases are now being redirected to
the main AIIMS campus.
The Rajiv Gandhi Super Speci-
ality hospital in Tahirpur already
has 400 beds for Covid-19 patients
and is adding another 100 in the
next few days. There are 25 venti-
lators in the hospital. “We had
stopped our elective procedure
and started discharging people
who were getting better. Now, we
have very few non-Covid-19 cases
in the hospital and they will be
discharged soon too,” said an offi-
cial.
The Lok Nayak hospital has
shifted its out-patient clinics to a
separate orthopaedics block, the
medical emergency facilities to a
separate new emergency block,
and surgical emergency facilities
to its Sushruta Trauma Centre in
Civil Lines.
“The hospital has dedicated 35
ventilators for Covid-19 patients
currently; we need ventilators for
our emergency cases too. There
are about 88 ventilators at GB
Pant hospital that can also be
used later on when the numbers
go up,” said Dr JC Passey, medi-
cal director of the Lok Nayak
campus.
Countries across the world,
where cases have spiked, have
struggled with providing ventila-
tors for those with severe symp-
toms. But the medical committee
advising the government
believes that there are enough
ventilators in the city for now.
TESTING CAPABILITY
But even if the infrastructure for
a limited number of cases is
slowly being put in place, there
remains uncertainty over how
many people in the city actually
have the infection — and that is
because of the low rates of testing.
Kejriwal has requested the
Centre for more test kits.
There is also a lag of two to
three days in receiving reports.
“Right now we are testing
about 4,000 to 5,000 people a day
across the country. This is a very
small number. My feeling is that
Delhi alone should test about
3,000 people a day. Now that we
have kits that can be manufac-
tured indigenously, we should be
more liberal,” said Sarin.
He added, somewhat omi-
nously, “I think, by nature’s
design, community transmission
must have started — I would be
very surprised if it hasn’t.”
NEWDELHI: The free lunch and din-
ner programme that is being run
by the Delhi government for
nearly a week now, has grown to
2,800 centres across the city.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kej-
riwal said on Thursday that the
Delhi government served lunch
to 5,85,386 and dinner to 5,79,162
people at around 1,423 centres.
“We are feeding 3.5 lakh-4 lakh
people daily, and will start feed-
ing 10-12 lakh people from tomor-
row. We found that people were
crowding at food centres. So we
decided to create more centres,”
he added in a videoconference.
On Thursday, Hindustan
Times reporters visited about a
dozen of the centres set up by the
Delhi government and found that
a few facilities were out of food.
And that some remain crowded.
Some of the centres are in shel-
ters run by the state. Others are in n People queue up to collect food outside a distribution centre near the Akshardham flyover. The Delhi
schools. government is feeding nearly 350,000 to 400,000 people daily through such centres . RAJ K RAJ/HT PHOTO
According to Sujit Kumar,
caretaker of one of the bigger the left over food in nearby colo- because it is located in a gated res- Nagar, Ramesh Yadav, 43 who
shelters run by the Delhi Urban nies. Today also we have a lot of idential area. School authorities was brought to a shelter by the
Shelter Improvement Board Rajma and rice left,” said Ravi said the food was transferred to police four days ago, said he
(DUSIB) in Sarai Kale Khan, Chandran, an official from the another government school in doesn’t mind staying, but is get-
lunch and dinner are prepared Delhi government’s education the nearby Chilla village. ting less to eat.
for around 500 persons twice a department, who is overseeing At the centres at AIIMS, and “We are labourers and are
day, but on Thursday 600-700 peo- the arrangements in a school in the one at Yamna Pushta, there used to eating three meals a day.
ple turned up for lunch. Ghazipur which has been turned was no shortage. Both are in shel- Here there is nothing in the morn-
“There are two more centres in into a centre. ters and at the latter, close to 1,000 ing. The first meal comes around
nearby colonies, both of which The hunger relief centre in people are served two meals a midday a small bowl of khichdi or
are within walking distance but Vasant Vihar’s C block is in a day. dal-rice. The quantity is too less.
have fewer takers. But because school in a quiet residential lane Vinay K Stephen, chief func- Another meal comes at 7pm,
this centre falls along the main inside a colony, where most gates tionary, Sadik Masih Medical which again is not enough,” said
road, a lot of people turn up have been closed because there Social Servant Society which Yadav, who is one of the 41people
here.We have asked for an are no guards. The school itself is manages some of the shelters staying in the government school
increase in supplies, “ he added. in a part of the block that doesn’t said, “After the government that has been converted into a
Similarly, the Kalindi Kunj have access gates. Like in some of opened new centres to provide shelter.
centre, which again doubles up as the other camps, there have been food to migrants and poor people, He added that the policemen
a shelter, cooks for around 50 peo- complaints of social distancing there is not much pressure on picked him up when he was walk-
ple a day, but in the last 3-4 days, norms not being maintained in shelter homes . We are providing ing back to his rented accommo-
60-70 persons have started turn- this camp. A park in front of the food to 3,000 people daily. We are dation in Paharganj from the
ing up for each meal. “Some have school has become a place for just hoping that the government Anand Vihar ISBT, after failing
to return hungry,” said Afzal those who come to the camp to releases the payment soon, as we to catch a bus back to Uttar Pra-
Khan, caretaker. hang out, before or after meals. are running out of funds.” desh. “There are eight of us here
But, at other centres in Ghazi- The government has set up two Nearly 2,500 schools and 250- from the same area. I want to
pur, Patparganj and Mayur more centres at Kusum Pahari night shelters have started dis- request the authorities to let us go
Vihar Phase 2, there was excess and Bhawar Singh Camp to cater tributing food to 500 people a day, back to the room where we can
food. “We do not use the same to the poor in Vasant Vihar. each bringing the total number of cook and feed ourselves or give us
meal for dinner since it is getting In Mayur Vihar Phase 1, the distribution centres in the city to enough to eat,” said Yadav, who
warm. So we ask our civil defence food centre at Janki Devi SKV nearly 2,800. stitches bags at a workshop in
volunteers to go and distribute school no longer serves as one In central Delhi’s Rajendra Paharganj for a living.

9-month pregnant
wife of AIIMS doc
also tests positive
for Covid-19
HT Correspondent
n htreporters@hindustantimes.com

GURUGRAM: Hours after a doctor

from the All India Institute of
Medical Sciences (AIIMS) tested
positive for Covid-19 on Thurs-
day, his nine-month pregnant
wife, too tested positive for the
infection.
The AIIMS doctor’s wife is the
first pregnant woman in the city
to have tested positive for the
virus.
So far, the health ministry has
no guidelines for managing Cov-
id-19 during pregnancy. The
World Health Organisation says
that there is limited data on the
impact of Covid-19 on pregnant
woman, but so far there is no evi-
dence of higher risk of severe ill-
ness.
The 28-year-old doctor from
AIIMS worked in the physiology
department of the hospital and
had not come in direct contact
with any Covid-19 patient being
treated there. He has been admit-
ted to an isolation facility with his
wife. Their three year old daugh-
ter has also been admitted to the
hospital as a suspected Covid-19
case. They did not have a history
of foreign travel.
“We have not been able to
establish where he got the virus
from as he has no history of inter-
national travel and he was not
involved in treating patients with
Covid-19. The only history that
we have come to know is that he
had gone to a mosque, but we are
not sure whether he got the infec-
tion there,” said Dr DK Sharma,
medical superintendent of
AIIMS.
It is unclear which mosque the
doctor had visited in the city.
At least five other doctors have
tested positive for Covid-19 in the
past one week, officials said.
04 hindustantimes
p g
htspotlight
Govt may borrow ₹40k crore as
DISPATCH 16
cash-strapped states seek funds
Covid-19: What
you need to
know today
R Sukumar
s Delhi prepared?
I
That isn’t a question designed to be
alarmist. On Thursday, the number of Cov-
id-19 cases in Delhi rose to 293, driven
upward by more people who attended the
gathering of the Tablighi Jamaat at its HQ
testing positive. That trend is likely to con-
tinue — in terms of both an increase in
cases, and more from the Jamaat gathering
testing positive. Hundreds evacuated
from the Markaz Nizamuddin are in
hospitals in Delhi; around 1,800 are
LESSONS in quarantine. Which is why this
is an opportune time to ask the
FROM NY question.
Is Delhi prepared?
New York City clearly wasn’t pre- New York City clearly
pared to handle the contagion. As wasn’t. On Thursday, the
Delhi’s Nizamuddin becomes a hot number of Covid-19 fatalities in
spot, officials in India would do well the city touched 1,397. On
to study what NYC got right and Wednesday, the New York
what it didn’t Times listed the wishlist, in terms
of critical medical equipment, of the
city’s mayor Bill de Blaiso: 3.3 million
N95 masks, 2.1 million surgical masks,
100,000 isolation gowns, 400 ventilators. All
these are incremental numbers — require-
ments additional to what the city currently
has.
Administrators and health care profes-
sionals shaping India’s response to the pan-
demic would do well to study what is hap-
pening in New York City — what it got right
and, more importantly, what it didn’t.
It emerges that the big issue in Delhi
right now is the shortage of PPE (personal
protective equipment). This is a problem in
other cities and states, and, indeed, in many
parts of the world. Last week, the Indian
government said it has placed orders with
local and global manufacturers for around
six million units of PPEs. Work on these to
be proceeding apace, despite the hurdles
posed by the lockdowns (see page 1).
Delhi government officials and doctors
also say the city-state has enough isolation
wards, ICUs, even ventilators (see page 3),
but many of these assessments are based on
SERIOUS
CONCERNS
conservative estimates of the number of
daily cases, in some cases, as low as 100. On
April 1, New York City reported 3,144 new
cases in a day. That’s the kind of number for
With at least two positive which Delhi should be ready — and then
cases linked to Asia’s
largest slum, Dharavi, in
Mumbai, there are serious
heave a sigh of relief and celebrate when the
numbers stay low.
It’s also the kind of number for which
concerns over the
Mumbai should be ready. On Wednesday, a
infection raging through
the area, which has a 56-year-old man in Dharavi, Asia’s largest
slum, in Mumbai, died of Covid-19. On
population density of
Thursday, another person who worked in
66,000 per square km
Dharavi tested positive. The prospect of the
infection raging through the shanty town
with a population density of 66,000 per
square km is the stuff of which nightmares
are made (see page 11).
Parts of Mumbai are already being
treated as hot spots where clusters of
infected people are found. There are around
13 such across India. The area around
Markaz Nizamuddin is another cluster —
where door-to-door surveys of people
within a 3km and a 5km radius of the epicen-
fiscal tre (in this case, the six-storey HQ) were
undertaken on Thursday (see page 2).
Amidst all these local developments, US
unemployment numbers soared to 6.6 mil-
lion from 3.3 million last week — a statistic
that should worry India because it shows
the extent of economic havoc that can be
FISCAL wreaked by the pandemic (see page 8).
Around the world, companies are being
PACKAGE forced to lay off people to cope — in India,
Amid the crisis, US apart from the few companies providing
unemployment numbers essential products and services that con-
soared to 6.6 million from
tinue to function through a 21-day lock-
3.3 million a week before ,
down, every other business is idle, incur-
signalling the havoc that
can be caused by the ring costs with no revenue. The US has
pandemic. With this in already announced a fiscal package
mind, India – following in amounting to roughly 10% of its GDP, with
the footsteps of the US some of this amount going to businesses.
and France -- should also France has said it will pay companies to not
think of a fiscal package
retrench people. India, too, needs to think in
for businesses
terms of a fiscal package for businesses.
Even with one, the recovery will be slow
and painful. Without one...
htweather
ALMANAC TEMPERATURE
Today is
3rd April 2020 IN FOUR METROS
l 8 Shaban 1441
FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY l Chaitra, Shukla
Paksha, 10
Strong surface winds Mainly clear sky Partly cloudy sky
l Samvat 2077
during day time Sunset: Friday
at 06:40 p.m.
Sunrise: Saturday
at 06:07 a.m.
32°c I 18°c 33°c I 17°c 34°c I 18°c Moonrise: Saturday
at 02:34 p.m.
• • Moonset: Sunday
at 04:17 a.m.
RELIEF MEASURES Move aimed at compensating states for their revenue shortfall under GST regime, say officials
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The government may
borrow about ₹40,000 crore to
compensate cash-strapped states
for their revenue shortfall under
the Goods and Services Tax (GST)
regime, and push its departments
and public sector firms to clear
their vendors’ dues , to rescue
them from an acute liquidity
crunch caused by the 21-day coro-
navirus lockdown, three officials
familiar with the matter said.
Apart from states, government
departments also owe money to
firms across sectors for products
bought, services rendered, or
such things as subsidies.
In a meeting with the Prime
Minister Narendra Modi through
video conference on Thursday,
several state chief ministers
demanded that the Centre pay
their GST compensation, imme-
diately release the wages of work-
ers enrolled under the Mahatma
Gandhi National Rural Employ-
ment Guarantee Scheme
(MGNREGS) and sought help in
Coronavirus relief efforts. The
government is considering their
proposals, the three officials said.
The cabinet secretariat and the
department of expenditure are
continuously monitoring the sit-
uation so that the states do not
face a funding crunch in fighting
the coronavirus pandemic and
companies, particularly micro,
small and medium enterprise
(MSME), receive their dues in
time to tide over the crisis, the
officials said on condition of ano-
nymity.
Several states have cited a
funding crunch and announced
salary cuts for their employees
for March. Industry, particularly
the MSME sector, has asked for
the speedy release of outstanding
payments by government agen-
cies. “The expenditure secretary
has told all ministries and CPSEs
(central public sector enter-
prises) not to sit on vendors’
money and clear their dues expe-
ditiously,” one of the officials
familiar with the matter said.
An official in the West Bengal
government said the Centre must
pay the entire compensation
amount due to the states at this
crucial juncture to meet their
Covid-19 expenses. Punjab has
asked for the release of ₹6,752.83
Tracking to testing: Control rooms at
forefront of efforts to contain spread
HT Correpondents
letters@hindustantimes.com
n
New Delhi: With more than 100
positive Covid-19 cases detected
in at least nine states around the
country -- apart from Delhi --
Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala, among
others, have set up control rooms
to act as nodal centres to track the
spread of the virus by processing
real-time data from the districts,
coordinating door-to-door sur-
veillance, and testing people.
Here is a look at what how these
control rooms function.
UTTAR PRADESH
A 1,600 sq feet hall on the fourth
floor of the health directorate
office in Lucknow has about 20
people sitting before computer
screens processing data, making
calls, and coordinating with
health officials in 75 districts.
“We are connected to the state
helpline (18001805145) to get
inputs from across the state. We
are also in touch with officials to
pass on necessary inputs to dis-
tricts,” said a staff member,
requesting anonymity.
The control room has data of
nearly 60,000 people with names,
cell numbers and addresses.
“The number of outbound
calls had gone up to 2,000 a day
when migrant workers were
entering the state last week,” a
control room official said. UP has
earmarked 246 hospitals to treat
Covid-19 patients.
TELANGANA
Control rooms have been set up at
the state secretariat in Hydera-
bad, the Greater Hyderabad
Municipal Corporation office,
and at all three major police com-
missionerates in Hyderabad,
Cyberabad and Rachakonda.
Delhi
Apart from these, each district
32°c I 18°c has its own control rooms to mon-
Mumbai itor Covid-19 cases and to enforce
33°c I 24°c
the national lockdown.
Kolkata The statewide control rooms
37°c I 26°c are monitored by two IAS offi-
Chennai
cers, Rahul Bojja and Anil
36°c I 25°c
Kumar; while the state ministers
of information technology,
MAHARASHTRA
n ~16,000 cr pending
GST compensation to
be released
n Permission to procure
WEST BENGAL
n ~25,000
n ~36,000 cr under different accounts
and manufacture PPE
kit and N-95 masks
n Approval to start
antibody testing on a
n Immediate release of GST compensa-
n Protective suits for medical staff
mass scale
ANDHRA PRADESH
n Immediate supply of
medical and safety
equipment
n Release of all pending
funds
n Raising fiscal deficit limit
for the next financial year
ODISHA
n Unemployment allowance
for registered MGNREGA
workers
n Funds to buy protective
equipment for medical
staff
crore in GST arrears immedi-
ately; the payment has been
pending since October , 2019.
A recent report on Covid-19
prepared by the Federation of
Indian Chambers of Commerce
and Industry (Ficci) also asked
the Centre to provide liquidity to
states by increasing the overdraft
facility available to them from the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and
pay pending GST compensation
immediately.
According to the Union gov-
ernment officials mentioned
above, the total compensation
payout to the states in 2019-20 is
expected to be over ₹1.20 lakh
crore while total collection from
GST compensation cess was less
than ₹80,000 crore. “The govern-
ment will put up a proposal to the
GST Council to borrow from the
market to pay compensation to
states,” the second official said.
The GST law assures the states
a 14% increase in their revenue
for five years and the Centre is
committed to meeting any short-
fall in revenue through the cess
levied on luxury goods and sin
products such as liquor and other
tobacco products.
n A man stands inside a decontamination tunnel in Srinagar on
Thursday.
health, animal husbandry and
home coordinate regularly with
the chief minister’s office.
The district control room
interacts with the police and med-
ical teams tracking Covid-19 sus-
pects through door-to-door sur-
veillance. An application,
TSCop, helps geotag the houses of
foreign returnees .
TAMIL NADU
The state has a 200-person strong
24x7 control room run out of the
Directorate of Public Health
office in Chennai, in addition to
specific control rooms in each dis-
trict. “We have a portal (stopco-
rona.tn.gov.in) on which we put
out information,” a senior official
from the National Health Mission
- Tamil Nadu said.
Districts provide three
updates to the state control room
every day: one on medical sup-
plies, and two daily reports on the
number of people quarantined;
their health status, how many
samples have been tested, and
how many have tested positive.
Responsibilities have been
divided at the state control room:
collecting data on home quaran-
tines; an integrated disease sur-
veillance portal desk where the
acute respiratory infection
details are entered; and a dedi-
cated call centre for the public.
KERALA
One-hundred and twenty offi-
pandemic
crore grant to fight the
that had not been released earlier
tion and cess amount
WHAT
STATES
WANT FROM
CENTRE
BIHAR
n Raising
fiscal deficit limit to
4% from existing 3%
n A million N-95 masks, half a
million PPE kits and 100
ventilators
n Availability of medicines,
medical equipment
Most of the states asked the
Centre to relax their borrowing
limits,and demanded an addi-
tional grant in the aftermath of
Covid-19 and advance wage pay-
ments to MGNREGS workers.
Bihar chief minister Nitish
Kumar requested the Union gov-
ernment to consider raising the
fiscal deficit limit for the state to
tide over the emergency. A simi-
lar demand also came from the
Punjab and Rajasthan govern-
ments. The states’ current fiscal
deficit limit stands at 3 % of Gross
State Domestic Product (GSDP).
West Bengal has demanded a
grant of ₹25,000 crore to fight the
pandemic, besides face masks,
gloves, sanitizers to fight the
virus and protective suits for
medical staff. It also demanded
that the Centre release ₹36,000
crore under different accounts
that had not been released ear-
lier. “...to uphold the spirit of
cooperative federalism, we need
this minimum help from the cen-
tral government to cope with the
unprecedented impasse at this
hour to fight against the Covid-19
pandemic,” chief minister
Mamata Banerjee wrote to the
WASEEM ANDRABI /HT
cials work in the central control
room in three shifts. Kerala’s toll
free helpline (1056) is monitored
from this facility.
The network of people on the
ground who survey their areas
submit reports to district medical
officers every day. These are fed
to the district control room,
which sends it to the state control
room, where at least four people
have been assigned to each dis-
trict.
Apart from giving instructions
to the ground staff, these control
rooms track people who have
returned from overseas and
made self-declarations at air-
ports and police stations. Those
under quarantine use a geo-
tracking application that maps
their movements if they step out
of their homes. Information
about them is tracked by local
body workers and sent to the con-
trol rooms.
Kerala has six Covid-only hos-
pitals and each of the 14 districts
have Covid care homes.
KARNATAKA
The central control room has at
least 120 people from various gov-
ernment departments tasked to
update district-wise numbers,
track developments, field calls,
and coordinate efforts across the
states.
Bangalore-based Pro-digital
labs helped the government setup
the control room. While initially
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0
CORONAVIRUS: NATION
RAJASTHAN
n ~1
n
lakh-crore grant
Cancellation of interest
payment to RBI and
other central financial
institutions
n Allowing the state to
take loans of up to 2%
of its GDP
CHHATTISGARH
n Deposit of ~750 per month for
next three months in every Jan
Dhan account
n Special relief package,
including advance payment
and unemployment allowance,
for MGNREGA workers
PUNJAB
n Release of ~6752.83 crore
towards the state’s arrears of
GST compensation
n 15-day unemployment
allowance per month for three
months on 90:10 Centre-state
sharing pattern
PM on Wednesday. She did not
take part in the video conference
with PM Modi on Thursday.
Maharashtra CM Uddhav
Thackeray sought the release of
GST compensation worth ₹16,000
crore. The state government also
sought help with procurement
and manufacturing of personal
protective equipment (PPE) kits
and N-95 masks, a government
statement said.
Punjab also demanded pay-
ment of 15 days’ unemployment
allowance per month for three
months to mitigate rural distress
on account of the national lock-
down, suggesting a 90:10 centre-
state sharing for these. It asked
for a special insurance package
for frontline workers such as the
police and sanitary workers.
Rajasthan demanded ₹1 lakh
crore from the Centre to fight
Covid-19. In a statement after the
video conference with the PM,
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok
Gehlot said he had sought a relief
package and asked for an
enhancement of the state’s bor-
rowing limit.
Gehlot requested an inter-
state supply chain protocol for
the tracking was through excel
sheets, now a specialised app
called “Quarantine Watch” has
been built in-house by the gov-
ernment.
All those under home quaran-
tine are required to upload
hourly photos/selfies. This app
automatically sends location
data, which is checked to ensure
that those being tracked are actu-
ally at the location they claim to
be. Locally, information at dis-
trict level is fed by Asha workers,
Anganwadi workers and village
volunteers. The data is centrally
collated at the war room to moni-
tor progress and track patients.
Several government and pri-
vate hospitals have been set aside
for Covid-19 patients.
MAHARASHTRA
The state has set up a dedicated
control room in state secretariat,
with 14 senior bureaucrats han-
dling different responsibilities.
For instance, Manoj Saunik,
additional chief secretary,
finance, has been tasked with
ensuring that all government
departments receive the grants
allotted to them, while Rajiv
Jalota, additional chief secretary,
has been directed to formulate
measures to implement all policy
decisions taken by different
departments.
The state has earmarked 30
government hospitals and 1,000
private hospitals for free treat-
ment of Covid-19 patients.
ANDHRA PRADESH
A control centre at Vijayawada
operates round-the-clock with
staff from 21 government depart-
ments working in shifts. It fields
about 1,000 calls every day on a
toll free number (104) for Covid-19
related questions and concerns.
A state-level task force has
been set under CM’s office, while
each district has separate control
centres. Village and ward volun-
teers, secretariat employees, aux-
iliary nurse midwives (ANMs)
and Asha workers survey houses
and record details of people who
have come from abroad or other
states and check for symptoms.
essential items, medicines and
medical equipment, advance pay-
ment of wages to registered and
active MNREGS workers and
demanded cancellation of pay-
ment of interest to the Reserve
Bank of India (RBI) and other cen-
tral financial institutions. Some
CMs including Thackeray also
demanded immediate distribu-
tion of Coronavirus safety equip-
ment and testing kits.
Odisha chief minister Naveen
Patnaik did not present any wish-
list in the video conference with
PM Modi, but he wrote to him ear-
lier this week demanding unem-
ployment allowance to 3.61 mil-
lion MGNREGS workers in the
state for the lockdown period of 21
days. He requested the Centre to
allow the state to utilise ₹380.39
crore from the MNREGS fund to
provide the unemployment
allowance for 21 days.
Chhattisgarh chief minister
Bhupesh Baghel in a letter to PM
Modi on Wednesday demanded
the allocation of a special relief
package for labourers under
MGNREGS. He also requested a
support of ₹750 per month to all
Jan-Dhan account holders for the
next three months. Under a relief
package announced last week,
the government will pay ₹500 a
month for three months to
women who hold Jan Dhan
accounts.
The Union government has
also received industry requests to
release payments that are due to
private sector units.
According to an industry esti-
mate, the outstanding payments
to companies run into lakhs of
crores. The Associated Cham-
bers of Commerce and Industry
of India (Assocham) estimated
payments owed by state distribu-
tion companies to power genera-
tion units at ₹90,000 crore. In the
delayed payments monitoring
portal MSME Samadhaan, only
14% of the ₹3,774.36 crore (against
11,619 claims) filed by MSMEs
have been settled so far, it said.
Assocham president Niranjan
Hiranandani said the payment
delays had created a massive
liquidity crunch in two ways:
“One, government is taking over
all the cheap borrowing in the
system (though inadequate), and
two, they do not release cash flow
to vendors – so the liquidity crisis
has exacerbated. ”
coronanotes
PM-CARES
TO ACCEPT
FOREIGN AID
NEW DELHI: The Prime
Minister’s Citizen Assistance
and Relief in Emergency
Situations (PM-CARES) Fund
will accept contributions from
abroad on the same lines as
the PM’s National Relief Fund
to cope with the Covid-19
situation, people familiar with
developments said on Thurs-
day. The people, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said
the PM-CARES Fund will
accept donations and contri-
butions from individuals and
organisations based in foreign
countries. This is consistent
with the government’s policy
for the PMNRF, which has
received foreign contributions
as a public trust since 2011.
CRPF MEDICAL
OFFICER TESTS
POSITIVE
NEW DELHI: A CRPF chief
medical officer, who was
residing in Officers’ Mess in
Saket (Delhi), has been tested
positive and is now quaran-
tined at AIIMS Jhajjar, officials
said on Thursday. A ministry of
home affairs official said the
CMO was tested positive on
Thursday after which Transit
Officers’ Mess (Saket), where
the officer was staying, has
been sanitized and orders
have been issued to quaran-
tine the working staff.
RAMAYANA SETS
VIEWERSHIP
RECORD
NEW DELHI: The retelecast of
Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan
garnered the highest viewer-
ship for a Hindi general
entertainment channel
programme since 2015 when
the Broadcasting Audience
Research Council (BARC)
started formulating these
ratings, the government said
on Thursday. The TV series
garnered 170 million viewers in
four shows over the weekend.
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0 hindustantimes 05

spotlight
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: NATION

Hoarding, transport snags In lockdown, farmers

despair about future
choke supply of essentials Smriti Kak Ramachandran, Neeraj
Mohan, Tanmay Chatterjee and
Venkatesha Babu
n letters@hindustantimes.com

LOCKDOWN Businesses blame lean inventories on panic-buying and issues with the transportation of food supplies NEWDELHI/KARNAL/KOLKATA/BENGA-
LURU: Vegetable farmer Jagdish
Zia Haq and Anisha Dutta Kumar cultivates cabbage and
letters@hindustantimes.com cauliflower on his farm in Theog,

THE SPREAD OF COVID-19

n

in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla

NEWDELHI:A supply crunch of con-
sumer items has cascaded across
states, as buyers, rich and poor,
scour markets for everyday
needs amid a lockdown to stop the
spread of Covid-19.
Businesses blame their lean
inventories on panic-buying of
goods equivalent to two-three
months of household supplies by
affluent classes, as they hun-
kered down for the shutdown.
They also blame issues with
the transportation of food sup-
plies, including grains, edible oil,
fruits, vegetables, milk, even con-
sumer products. Some stores are
selling limited quantities of items
to discourage hoarding. “The
excess buying has strained back-
end stocks and godowns,” said
market tracker Comtrade in a
note. Inventories that should
have lasted two months were
exhausted in a week, it said.
And deliveries at the last-mile
are hobbling under tight local
rules of individual states.
Federal instructions and
orders issued by state adminis-
trations are not in tandem, first-
hand reports suggest. India is one
economy but many individual
markets. Steering all of them in
one direction, all of sudden, has
been a key challenge, ground
reports indicate.
Part of the problem is also that
modern supply chains are intri-
cate. A bread maker typically
depends on three: agriculture,
biological and chemical leaven-
ing agent producers and the pack-
aging sector, each with its own
supply chain.
A soaring milk demand ahead
of the lockdown followed by a
sharp fall now has upset supply
district . The crop is ready for har-
vest, but Kumar has a prob-
A total of 514 new cases were reported on Thursday, taking the total District-wise
lem:there are no farm workers
number of Covid-19 cases across India to 2,520, according to data cases around in the village.
Scale 1 to 174 for “Even if I myself harvest the
released by state governments the smallest to produce, there is no way I can
the largest circle send it to the market. It will rot in
Total confirmed cases, including new cases added on April 2 New cases
fields, I have no option,” he said.
District-wise cases District with highest cases
In neighbouring Punjab’s Lud-
hiana, Sukhwinder Singh, who
grows cauliflower and peas, is
UT Jammu UT Ladakh Assam confronting the same problem. n People carry vegetables on a cycle rickshaw at Preet Vihar in New
and Kashmir 13 0 11 Leh 16 3 “We have a large amount of vege- Delhi on Thursday. SUSHIL KUMAR/HT PHOTO
tables waiting to be moved out of
70 8 25 Srinagar Himachal Pradesh
8 Jorhat our fields. We need to remove lockdown started,” he said. to throw unsold milk,” he said.
them to prepare the fields for the States have been asked to oper- In Karnataka, unverified vid-
upcoming kharif season but there ate wholesale markets to ensure eos emerged of people purport-
6 3 3 Kangra Arunachal is no labour,” Singh said. supplies across India even as edly dumping 1,500 litres of milk
Punjab Pradesh Down south, in Karnataka’s Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and into a drain and a river in Belgavi.
Chandigarh Koppal, grape farmer Sharana- UP have deferred procurement of Similar videos were put up on
47 1 19 SBS
Nagar 18 2 1 1 Lohit basappa Hiregoudar is heart- winter crops. social media from West Bengal,
broken— he is letting a bountiful In UP, farmers have not been Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Haryana Uttarakhand Manipur harvest of seedless grapes on his able to sell their produce since Sixty per cent of the milk pro-
seven-acre plot rot on the vines. March 22, the day of the Janata duced in Bengal every day is used
43 0 24 Gurugram 7 0 4 Dehradun 2 1 In previous years, he has sold Curfew, said two of them. Similar by confectioners, but with eater-
2 Imphal
West
them at ~23-25 a kg; this year, he
was offered ~2-3.
reports came from Madhya Pra-
desh, Karnataka and Rajasthan.
ies shut, most of the milk is going
waste. “One of the main reasons
DELHI Uttar Pradesh The plight of Kumar, Singh A food industry representa- behind this crisis is that retail
293 141 121 5 45 Gautam
Budh Nagar
and Hiregudar illustrates a larger tive, who requested anonymity, outlets are either closed because
problem confronting India — a said factories engaged in process- of the lockdown or operating only
26 South
Delhi disruption of the agricultural ing and producing packaged for limited hours,” said Bhaskar
supply chain — in the aftermath foods were running at half their Nandy, managing director of
Rajasthan of the nationwide, three-week capacity because of a shortfall in Bhagirathi Milk Cooperative
lockdown that took effect on the supplies of raw materials. He Society in West Bengal’s Mur-
133 13 March 25 as part of an attempt to said input provisions were run- shidabad district.
32 Jaipur contain the spread of Covid-19.
The lockdown prompted an
ning at a fifth of the normal sup-
plies. A dip in supplies from farm-
Ranjit Singh, procurement
manager at the Haryana Dairy
exodus of migrant workers back ers has disrupted the entire chain Development Cooperative Feder-
Gujarat home to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, from markets to wholesale buy- ation (HDDCF), known as VITA,
Odisha and West Bengal from the ers to factories, this person said. said, “There is no demand; we are
87 5 farming states of Punjab, Hary- According to the agriculture able to sell only 5,000 litres per
33 Ahmedabad ana and Himachal Pradesh,
depriving farmers of labour to
ministry’s website, agmark-
net.gov.in, which monitors daily
day against 20,000 litres before
the lockdown. Even we don’t
harvest their crops. Transport arrivals and sales at various have enough containers to keep
Madhya Bihar Mizoram too has been disrupted because of wholesale markets, the arrivals the remaining 95,000 litres of milk
Pradesh strict enforcement of the lock- after the lockdown have dipped we procure daily as there is no
30 6 1 1 Aizawl
107 21 8 Munger
down by the police although
essential services are exempt
by up to 70%. For instance, at the
Azadpur market in New Delhi,
demand for milk products.”

schedules, RS Sodhi, the manag-
ing director of Amul, India’s larg-
est dairy cooperative, said . Small
milk suppliers and aggregators
were under pressure but the
overall availability is adequate,
he added.
Some states have seen milk
demand drop, leading to farm
losses. “Owing to regulatory
measures in the wake of Covid-19,
there is a decline in milk and milk
products, and difficulties have
arisen in interstate movement for
its conversion to milk powder,”
Rajesh Kumar Singh, additional
chief secretary of Kerala said.
Hundreds of trucks are stuck
on state borders, despite home
ministry’s orders allowing move-
ment of both essentials and non-
essentials. “The home ministry’s
orders have not percolated to the
ground level... Trucks are still
being stopped at state borders ...,”
Kultaran Singh Atwal, president
of the lobby group All-India
Motor Transport Congress said.
The Food Corporation of India
is ramping up supplies.
“During the lockdown, the FCI
is replenishing 10 lakh (1 million)
tonne of foodgrains through 352
rakes of Indian railways,” Union
food minister Ram Vilas Paswan
said in a tweet.
But there is a problem. It only
stocks cereals (rice and wheat),
and limited quantities of pulses
and sugar. The crisis is concen-
trated in a clutch of other items:
flour, biscuits, edible oil, soaps,
handwash, some lentils, vegeta-
bles, baby food, packaged juices,
medicines for a variety of condi-
tions, even matchboxes.
“Earlier, wholesalers would
deliver to my shop. Now, I have to
make beeline to the wholesaler,”
general provisions store proprie-
tor Ravindra Ghosh said from
Ranchi’s Kokar locality.
To resolve logistics issues, the
Union government has formed a
committee under the ministry of
home affairs. It comprises secre-
C A N G I V E R E S U LT S I N 1 5 M I N U T E S
12 Indore
Chhattisgarh
9 0 5 Raipur
Maharashtra
416 81 174
Mumbai
Goa
5 0
Karnataka
124 14 21 Bangalore
Kerala
286 21 115 Kasaragod
FROM TABLIGHI JAMAAT
AT LEAST
9,000
Tablighi Jamaat members
quarantined across India
taries to various ministries, apart
from railway board chairman. It
is tasked with ensuring supply of
essential and medical goods.
On the ground, however, bro-
ken chains of command are test-
ing the limits of ensuring a billion
people’s needs are met. The coun-
try went into a lockdown with
less than four hours of notice.
Police crackdown on agricul-
tural activities have upended
harvesting and transportation of
crops. Md Moinuddin, a vegeta-
ble wholesaler in Assam’s Kam-
rup district, said he has not been
able to hire trucks to get stocks
Tamil Nadu
309 75 37 Chennai
*Data compiled by covid19india.org and cross-checked from inputs by HT’s correspondents and news agencies
AT LEAST
400
Covid-19 positive cases can
be tracked to Jamaat
into Assam city after police seized
trucks plying without permits.
Cultivators are piling perisha-
bles in cold chains, as buyers
aren’t purchasing in large quan-
tities, unsure of transport.
Truckers have sought exten-
sion of the due date for payment of
road tax and GST to September
30. “On the 8th day of the country-
wide lockdown, the government
is making efforts to restore sup-
ply chains. There is no clear pol-
icy on whether to run vehicles or
not, especially those with non-es-
sential goods,” Singh said.
Three major wholesale hubs
Jharkhand
2 1
1 Ranchi &
Hazariagh
Odisha
5 1
3 Khordha
Telangana
154 57 44 Hyderabad
Andhra Pradesh
149 38 15 YSR and
Prakasam
Puducherry
3 0 2 Puducherry
AT LEAST
42 HOT SPOTS
potential areas
identified across country
run by state-regulated agricul-
ture produce market committees
— Lasalgaon in Maharashtra,
Mullana near Haryana’s Ambala
and Gollapally in Telangana’s
Karimnagar — said they were
operating with 30-40% less staff.
In this vacuum, Indian Rail-
ways has stepped up.
A railway ministry official said
issues at many terminal points,
loading and unloading opera-
tions were being resolved now.
There are issues of shortage of
labour, he said. As many as
1,43,458 wagons of essential goods
were loaded over the past three
West Bengal
53 16
17Kolkata
Andaman
and Nicobar
10 0
10 South
Andaman
days. Special focus is being given
to essential commodities like
foodgrains, sugar, fruits & vege-
tables, petroleum products and
fertilisers.
Scheduled passenger flights
have been pressed into service to
supply cargo nationwide. Over
the past few days, 85 flights have
carried 76 tonnes. All passenger
flights are grounded till April 14.
“We are operating flights
despite logistical challenges in
transportation of cargo to and
from airports and in movement of
aviation personnel,” a ministry of
civil aviation official said.
from the restrictions.
In many states such as Karna-
taka, Assam and West Bengal,
there have been reports of farm-
ers dumping their vegetables and
milk because of the absence of
buyers and a dip in the prices of
fruits and vegetables.
In Haryana’s Yamunanagar
district, farmer Sushil Kumar of
Radaur village sold cauliflower
for ~10 per kg on Wednesday com-
pared to ~24-27 per kg before the
lockdown came into effect.
Minister of state for animal
husbandry, dairying and fisher-
ies Sanjeev Kumar Balyan
admitted to problems in these
sectors, adding that the Centre
has already issued an advisory
allowing the transportation of all
farm and dairy products.
“We have also asked coopera-
tives to purchase more milk from
farmers. Already, the collection
has increased by 8% since the
Cops on boats to
stop infiltration
at Nepal border
Mohan Rajput
n letters@hindustantimes.com
RUDRAPUR: Uttarakhand govern-
ment has deployed jal police
along the Indo-Nepal border on
the Sharda river after reports of
people crossing the river ille-
gally amid a 21-day nationwide
lockdown and sealing of inter-
national borders to curb the
spread of Covid-19.
Uttarakhand and Nepal share
275 km on the international
boundary, along which the
Sharda river flows.
According to police, Tanak-
pur, Banbasa, Jhulaghat, Dhar-
chula, Baluakot and Jauljibe
are the points which provide the
facility to cross the border.
However, after the borders
were sealed due to the coronavi-
rus disease outbreak, the num-
132,000 tonnes of cabbage arrived
on March 1; this fell to 19,500 ton-
nes on March 31.
In states with poorer road con-
nectivity such as West Bengal,
Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha,
the arrival of several vegetables
was in single digits in tonnes, a
fall of 80% since March 1.
DAIRIES
While vegetable farmers are
struggling to sell their produce,
milk producers in states that do
not have a strong cooperative
network of collection centres and
milk processing units, such as the
one that exists in Gujarat, are in
dire straits.
Ajit Singh, a dairy owner in
UP’s Gosaiganj, said the demand
for milk has declined because
sweet shops were closed. “I use to
sell milk for ~50 per litre but now
I am not getting even ~25-30 per
litre. I am left with no option but
n Municipal workers spray disinfectant on the building of Rajiv
Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai on Wednesday.
All 75 new TN cases
linked to Jamaat
Sowmiya Ashok
n letters@hindustantimes.com
CHENNAI:Tamil Nadu on Thursday
reported 75 fresh cases of Cov-
id-19, of which 74 had attended the
POULTRY
Sandeep Punia, a farmer in
Ambala’s Nagla village, said
poultry farmers were selling
broiler chicken at ₹20 per kg
whereas the rearing cost is ₹80
and were also losing money on
the sale of eggs.
Atul Sonkar, president of the
Chandigarh Meat Market Wel-
fare Association, said the it was
the “worst of times” for the busi-
ness and if the pandemic contin-
ues to rage, the industry would be
dead. In some places, poultry
owners have started home deliv-
ery of chicken and eggs.
Balyan said the government
was taking stock of the situation
on a daily basis.
“We have also issued an advi-
sory to the states to ensure that
meat and poultry items are
included in the list of essential
commodities,” he said.
(With inputs from state bureaus)
ANI
attended the religious conference
held in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin.
Until Wednesday, the state had
traced 1103 persons.
“All 1103 people have been
tested but some of the results are

ICMR advises antibody testing in hot spot areas ber of people trying to cross the
border by swimming through
the river has increased, an offi-
cial said.
Tablighi Jamaat religious confer-
ence held in Delhi in March. The
75th person who is from Chennai
contracted the virus after coming
under process. Of these 264 have
tested positive,” she said. “All
have been tested but results are
under process.”
Rhythma Kaul
letters@hindustantimes.com
THE ANTIBODY (polymerase chain reaction) —
identifies the Sars-CoV-2 virus
body test. And antibody positives
to be confirmed by RT-PCR
said, the move will mean getting
quicker results even if there is a
Teams of Champawat Jal
police are patrolling over
in contact with someone from the
group, state officials said.
Rajesh said that the state was
increasing the testing facilities
DETECTION BLOOD
n

NEWDELHI:India has allowed faster
and cheaper antibody tests to
check for the coronavirus disease
in so-called hot spots — these
show clusters of infections — of
which there are 20 in the country,
the health ministry said on
Thursday.
An expert said the decision
could be a game-changer in
India’s fight against the pan-
demic, not just because of the
time and the cost, but also
because Indian companies and
laboratories have experience in
doing such antibody tests (which
are blood tests) and can easily
develop inexpensive kits for it.
TEST WILL IDENTIFY
PEOPLE WHO ALREADY
HAVE BEEN INFECTED,
BUT HAVE MILD OR
NO SYMPTOMS,
ACCORDING TO EXPERTS
The Indian Council of Medical
Research advised on Thursday,
these tests, a move that will
ensure faster detection of all pos-
sible cases in these clusters and
help authorities buy some time to
contain the pandemic.
The test used now — PCR
from throat or nasal swab sam-
ples of people with symptoms or
high-risk individuals who might
have come in contact with a Cov-
id-19 patient.
The antibody detection blood
test will identify people who have
been infected, but have mild or no
symptoms, according to experts
who say the move will help us
know how many have been able
to fight off the infection and have
become what could be called a
“corona-blocker”. While the
results of PCR tests take up to five
hours, the antibody test results
will be available in 15-30 minutes.
“Population in hot spot areas
may be tested using rapid anti-
(reverse transcription-PCR)
using throat/nasal swab, and
antibody negatives to be quaran-
tined at home,” said the interim
ICMR advisory. This means posi-
tive results will be reconfirmed
using the PCR test.
The antibody test uses blood to
determine whether a person has
antibodies against the coronavi-
rus. Antibodies in the immune
system means the person either
had the disease at some point in
the past, even though the person
was never tested for it, and has
now recovered, or has the disease
now, minus the symptoms.
An ICMR official, who spoke
on the condition of anonymity
large number of people.
“However, to ensure there are
no false positives or false nega-
tives, we recommend confirma-
tory PCR-based test for all posi-
tive results,” this official said.
Experts say that India’s deci-
sion to introduce antibody testing
kits could be a game-changer.
“The Indian health system has
lot of experience in such tests, like
the ones for dengue and chikun-
gunya. So it will be easy to ramp
up the screening...a great tool for
surveillance, and building epide-
miological data. Indian compa-
nies would be able to produce
them easily,” Lalit Kant, a senior
infectious disease expert, said.
Sharda river to monitor and
stop illegal crossing the river by
the people, the official added.
“Jal police personnel are con-
ducting patrolling over Sharda
river to watch or to stop people
of both sides for crossing the
river in view of coronavirus epi-
demic. People of both sides cross
the border by swimming in
remote areas,” said Bipin Pant,
circle officer (CO) Tanakpur
Chamapawat.
There are around 1000 Nepa-
lese citizens who are stuck in
the Dharchula area, awaiting
opening of border so that they
can go to their native places in
Nepal.
The state now has 309 positive
Covid-19 cases, of which 264 are
related to the religious confer-
ence, which is now being treated
as the largest cluster in the
country.
Including Thursday’s fresh
cases, the virus has now spread
across 20 districts in Tamil Nadu.
“There are 75 fresh cases in
Tamil Nadu today of which 74
were people who took part in this
Delhi Conference. One person
had contact with someone who
has travel history to Delhi,”
health secretary Dr Beela Rajesh
said.
Nearly 1,500 people from Tamil
Nadu are believed to have
and six more labs will be added
soon. Each lab can carry out 100
tests every day.
Tamil Nadu was using the
lockdown time to ramp up testing
facilities and focus on infrastruc-
ture and equipment.
“We have enough masks, Per-
sonal Protective Equipment kits,
enough to give all nurses who are
working in isolation wards. We
have made it mandatory for all
who have to see patients in isola-
tion wards. Daily there is a
20-minute ‘mock drill’ on how to
put on the PPE and remove it,
how to interact with the patients,
and how to maintain the dis-
tance,” she said.
06 hindustantimes HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0

p g
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: SCIENCE

HOW WORLD REACHED A MILLION CASES

1
As the world reaches a million coronavirus cases, we take a look at the grim numbers that a global pandemic has left behind in its 93-day rampage. Some scary trends
emerge if we break down the spread into four phases — each with a quarter million new cases. While the first case was officially confirmed on Dec 31, 2019, the 250,000th
case came 80 days later on March 20, 2020. From there, it took only six days for the 500,000 mark, four days for the 750,000 mark and another three for a million.

80 DAYS TO 250,000 6 DAYS TO 500,000 4 DAYS TO 750,000 3 DAYS TO 1,000,000 MILLION

272,035 NEW
CASES 257,556 NEW
CASES 252,774 NEW
CASES 253,675 NEW
CASES

782,365

10 WORST-HIT COUNTRIES 10 WORST-HIT COUNTRIES 10 WORST-HIT COUNTRIES 10 WORST-HIT COUNTRIES

Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases Country Cases
China 81,250 United States 19,100 United States 83,836 France 29,551 United States 161,807 France 45,170 US 228,727 France 56,100
Italy 47,021 France 12,758 China 81,782 Iran 29,406 Italy 101,739 Iran 41,495 Italy 115,242 Iran 59,358
Spain 20,410 Korea, South 8,652 Italy 80,589 United Kingdom 11,812 Spain 87,956 UK 22,453 Spain 110,238 UK 22,652 529,591
Germany 19,848 Switzerland 5,294 Spain 57,786 Switzerland 11,811 China 82,198 Switzerland 15,922 Germany 81,766 Switzerland 18,294
Iran 19,644 United Kingdom 4,014 Germany 43,938 Korea, South 9,241 Germany 66,885 Belgium 11,899 China 81,568 Turkey 18,014
It took the infection nearly 23 days to spread to 500 people. Around 10 The next 250,000 cases only took six days. Between March 21 and 26, In just four days between March 27 and 30, the next batch of quarter Covid-19’s unrelenting exponential advance in the US
days later, global cases stood at 10,000. By March 3, there were over the virus has spread heavily through the western hemisphere. With one million cases poured in. The massive surge of cases continued in the US continued through the end of March into April as the
100,000 cases. Two weeks later, the global case toll touched a quarter exception, all countries in the 10 worst-hit nations were in Europe and as it reported nearly 78,000 new cases in these four days. In this period, nation remained on the unenviable top slot in terms
million, with China having reporting the lion’s share of cases. The next North America. With nearly 65,000 cases, the numbers started rising Spain, Germany and France continued to post massive load of new of new cases. Spain and Italy also continued
closest country was Italy which had 47,000 cases. At this point, the exponentially in the US. Spain, Italy and Germany also were reporting cases as well with the three nations accounting for nearly 90,000 new reporting more cases at an alarming rate, with
United States, which reported its first case on January 20, has 19,100 high numbers in this period as well. In China, meanwhile, the epidemic cases combined. This meant that nearly half the new cases in these four the United Kingdom also starting to report a high
cases and is out of the five worst-hit nations at this point peaked as the country reported only 500 cases in this time period days came from only five countries. number of new cases.

272,035
DEC 31, 2019 JAN 9, 2020 JAN 30, 2020 MAR 12, 2020
First case First death First case First death
50000
recogonised reported in reported in reported in 37,582
by China China India India
11,299 23,970

Dec 31, Mar 20 Mar Mar Apr

2019 2020 26 30 2
DATA SOURCE: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY; WORLDOMETER

Cats susceptible to virus, but facetoface

DAVID NABARRO, Special envoy, World Health Organization

unlikely to pass it to humans ‘Lockdown in India was early, this

RESEARCH Dogs, chickens, pigs and ducks are less vulnerable, according to pre-print study
Jayashree Nandi
n jayashree.nandi@htlive.com
NEW DELHI: Ferrets and cats are
susceptible to contracting coro-
navirus (Covid-19) but not dogs,
ducks, chickens and pigs, a non-
peer reviewed study published
in bioRxiv has found and said
these findings can be important
for vaccine and antiviral drug
development for the disease.
BioRxiv is a free online archive
and distribution service for
unpublished preprints in life
sciences.
There is, however, no reason
for panic among pet keepers or
cat lovers because the findings
are based on only lab experi-
ments, and there has been no
study on whether cats can pass
on the infection to humans. It is
also unclear which species of
cats was used for the study.
According to the authors
Hualan Chen et al, the experi-
ments were conducted to under-
stand how the virus behaves in
animals and which among them
can be used to model the efficacy
of control measures in humans
like drugs or vaccines.
The authors are scientists
affiliated to Harbin Veterinary
frompageone
A peek inside the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz
Covid-19 hot spot so far.
Social activist Faisal Khan,
convener of Khudai Khidtmatgar
welfare organisation, spends a
couple of days every year inside
the Markaz, in the month of Ram-
zan, for “peace and meditation”.
Talking on the phone from his
office in south Delhi’s Ghaffar
Manzil, he gives an idea of the
interiors of the Markaz complex.
“The entrance hall is littered with
hundreds of chappals that spill
far out into the street. It’s a mira-
cle that every Jamati finds his
own sandals from that great pile.”
Khan says that each floor in
the Markaz has the same layout
— a spacious hall lined with small
n The study, however, is not conclusive.
Research Institute (China), Chi-
nese Academy of Agricultural
Sciences and National High
Containment Laboratory for
Animal Diseases Control and
Prevention (China).
Animals studied were inocu-
lated and the viral RNA load was
quantified from organs of those
euthanised and faeces of ani-
mals isolated.
“In summary, we found that
ferrets and cats are highly sus-
ceptible to SARS-CoV-2 [which
rooms, each being the temporary
dwelling of some learned elderly
person to whom younger Jamatis
might go for counsel. Most resi-
dents (some might stay for a
week, others for just a weekend)
would, however, settle with their
backpacks and beddings in the
big halls, sleeping at night on the
floor. Sermons will be held in the
mosque at different times of the
day. An average day in the
Markaz, Khan says, “is about per-
forming prayers and listening to
maulanas about how to be a good
Muslim”.
The eating arrangement, he
says, “is just like the langars held
in Sikh gurdwaras.” Simple
SATISH BATE/HT FILE
causes Covid-19], dogs have low
susceptibility, and livestock
including pigs, chickens, and
ducks are not susceptible to the
virus. Ferrets have frequently
been used as an animal model
for the study of human respira-
tory viruses. Unlike influenza
viruses and other human SARS-
coronavirus, which replicate in
both the upper and lower respi-
ratory tract of ferrets, we found
SARS-CoV-2 only replicates in
the nasal turbinate, soft palate,
meals such as dal and chawal are
prepared communally, and
served in a basement hall, he
reports. In the evening, the Jama-
tis can be seen milling around in
the basti. The Tablighi centre
attracts visitors from countries
such as the UK, the US, Germany,
the Netherlands, Malaysia, Indo-
nesia, Nigeria, Sudan and South
Africa. A mere walk in the lanes
of the Basti might take you to dif-
ferent corners of the world, as
you are likely to overhear con-
versations in British-accented
English, Chinese, French, or Ara-
bic. Until a few years ago, the area
had a popular telephone booth
advertising special call rates for
and tonsils of ferrets,” the study
concluded.
But its too early to conclude
whether cats can contract the
infection in natural conditions
(non-experimental) and
whether they can infect
humans.
Dr Nivedita Gupta, a viral
diseases expert at the Indian
Council of Medical Research,
said some animals will be sus-
ceptible to the virus and that is
how animal models are created
for research on vaccines. “But
to jump to the conclusion that
they can infect pet owners and
humans is not right. We have
domestic cats in India which can
be very different from the cats in
China. First, we need to under-
stand what is the spill over point
to cats there. Such spill overs
happen due to zoonotic interface
between humans and wild ani-
mals. In the SARS epidemic also
we saw that civet cats were a
reservoir of the virus. Nobody
keeps civets as pets.”
Some media reports have
suggested that even dogs can be
infected. Bloomberg carried a
report on March 19 saying two
dogs tested positive for the virus
in Hong Kong.
places such as Yemen and
Morocco.
Almost all the Jamatis are
men. One evening, just a few days
before the lockdown, this
reporter spotted a few young
Jamatis huddled in a small park
not far from the Markaz. Some of
these boys were exercising on the
fitness equipment installed in the
park. One man in a loose shalwar
kameez was shyly working out on
the chest press machine; two
were sitting at the two ends of a
see-saw.
The “open gym” remained
crowded for a long time, and then
the boys walked back towards the
Markaz.
was far-sighted, courageous move’
NEW DELHI :There is no evi-
dence to suggest that the coro-
navirus disease (Covid-19)
will disappear, says Dr David
Nabarro, the World Health
Organization’s (WHO) special
envoy on the disease, adding
that people may have to con-
sider new norms for the fore-
seeable future. Declaring a
lockdown when there was rel-
atively a small number of
cases in India gave the coun-
try time to come to terms with
the new virus, he tells San-
chita Sharma in an inter-
view. Edited excerpts:
Can Covid-19 be stopped?
If you don’t get in early and
the outbreaks grow, they get
very big very quickly and
then managing them is a mas-
sive task.
So, where you have coun-
tries with not many cases and
strong, robust responses at
the community level sup-
ported by governments, we
are most hopeful.
Everything starts at the
community level, detecting
people with disease and isolat-
ing them, finding their con-
tacts and quarantining them,
and maintaining, as far as pos-
sible, a ready state to respond
to outbreaks quickly, and
widespread efforts to reduce
opportunities of transmission
through lockdowns. During a
lockdown, you must build
community capacity for inter-
rupting transmission where
its starts and I see it recog-
nised in India.
How would you rate India’s
response?
The lockdown in India was
quite early on, when there
was relatively a small number
of cases detected. This was a
far-sighted decision because it
gave the country the opportu-
nity to come to terms with the
reality of this enemy. People
understood that there is a
virus in our midst. It gave
time to develop capacities at
the local level and sorting out
hospitals.
Of course, there is a lot of
debate and criticism, and
inevitably with a lot of frus-
tration and anger that life is
being disturbed this way. I
think it is courageous of the
government to take this step
and provoke this enormous
public debate and let the frus-
tration come out, to accept
that there will be hundreds of
millions of people whose lives
are being disrupted. For poor
people on daily wages, this is a
massive sacrifice. And to do it
now as opposed to waiting toll
when the virus is more wide-
spread, was very courageous.
Unlike in Europe and USA?
Comparisons between gov-
ernments are not very help-
ful, but I can say that there
have been countries where
that kind of strong action was
not taken early on and we see
they now have to struggle
with immense suffering. We
are seeing health workers
absolutely at the end of their
tether, and getting infected
because they are exhausted.
We see long term lockdowns
being talked about... some
people are talking about six
weeks, eight weeks.
Is a 21-day ockdown enough?
That all depends on how well-
organised the basic communi-
ty-level public health services
and hospitals are. And
whether people can see it as a
battle that requires solidarity
right across society. I don’t
make any recommendation
because I don’t know what is
happening [on the ground].
India is looking carefully to
make sure that when the lock-
down is lifted, there won’t be a
windfall, with lots and lots of
cases, hospitals overwhelmed
and a national crisis. I think
that strategy is right.
What about the people worst
affected?
We need to save the lives of
people who are badly affected.
We must be looking after our
hospitals, treating our health
workers like they have to be
treated considering they are
on the front line, protecting
them as much as we can and
supporting them in society so
they get looked after... really
making sure they are secure.
In imposing major lock-
downs, all governments are
having to juggle with the need
to really get on top of out-
breaks quickly and, at the
same time, ensure that people
through the lockdown are not
experiencing extreme impov-
erishment or shortage of food.
There is growing recogni-
tion all across the world that
we have to manage lockdowns
very carefully.
The size of some of these
lockdowns is really massive,
so having an integrated policy
of lockdown management
that deals with the social and
economic consequences is
always important. As far as I
know, there are 70 countries
and territories where lock-
down is being applied, which
is somewhere around one-
third or half of the world’s
population. So lockdown
management is a key activity
to get right alongside the
response to the disease.
Will the virus go away or will it
become a seasonal?
We don’t know how it will
behave over time or whether
it will become less serious and
whether it will have a particu-
lar distribution pattern. The
virus is four months old, to
our knowledge, and we are
learning.
I don’t know what will hap-
pen in hotter weather. I’m
really eagerly awaiting infor-
mation from your country
which is now going into the
summer to know whether or
not there is the same level of
transmission, or whether it is
the same level of illness that
we’ve seen in temperate cli-
mate.
I’m really hoping that it
won’t be quite so severe and
that weather will be on our
side. We also don’t know how
the virus will behave in com-
munities where there is quite
a lot of illness, like malaria or
other infectious diseases.
Will social distancing be the new
normal?
Let’s wait and see but let us
plan for the virus to be with us
for the foreseeable future.
There is no evidence to sug-
gest it will suddenly disap-
pear.I believe the coming real-
ity for the world will be one
where we are always defend-
ing against this enemy, like a
kind of fire brigade is needed
in place.
And within that defence,
then have the recovery of
social interaction and eco-
nomic activity but done in a
way that keeps us all safe. I
don’t think we have an impos-
sible task, but if we call on our
collective ingenuity to estab-
lish norms that will enable
society and business to get on
with what they do best, which
is enterprise that creates
wealth and enables people to
have a decent standard of life.
I’m asking people to consider
the new norms at the same
time they are imposing lock-
downs because the norms are
going to be key to exiting
safely from lockdowns with-
out exposing them to disease.
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0
HTSPOTLIGHT
Front-line health
staff battle attacks
LAWLESSNESS Doctors, police assaulted while making inquiries
Venkatesha Babu and Ranjan
n letters@hindustantimes.com
BENGALURU/BHOPAL:For five years,
Krishnaveni has been going door-
to-door in north Bengaluru’s
cramped Sadiq Palya area, col-
lecting information, spreading
awareness about Malaria and
Cholera, and helping the low
income neighbourhood access
community health care.
An Accredited Social Health
Activist or Asha worker in her
forties, Krishnaveni was well
known to many local residents
but her painstakingly developed
ties to the local community came
undone on Wednesday evening
when she and her colleagues
were assaulted by a group of
young men. The reason: They
were going to every home, asking
if something was coughing or had
fever – some of the most-common
symptoms of Covid-19.
“They heckled us, snatched
our belongings and we couldn’t
call anybody. We are here for
their health and look how they
treat us,” she fumed, after city
police rescued the group of health
workers. Taken aback, the Asha
workers have now vowed to
never go back to the neighbour-
hood without police protection.
They aren’t the only one.
Across India, front-line health
workers and doctors are battling
attacks by local residents, com-
plicating the already uphill battle
against the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) that has infected at
least 2,500 people. The central and
state governments have praised
health workers and appealed to
the citizenry to help them, but to
little effect.“The doctors are
doing humantarian work under
difficult circumstances and they
need the state’s support. Without
them, we will not be able to con-
tain Covid-19,” said KK Aggar-
wal, head of medical associations
of Asia and Oceania, calling for
enhanced security.
Many of the attacks have been
reported while health workers
are out collecting samples or
spreading awareness. Experts
blame panic, misinformation and
NEWSPAPERS CARRY
TREMENDOUS CREDIBILITY
AND THE LOCAL PAGE OF
A REGION IS WIDELY READ
BY PEOPLE.
Narendra Modi
Hon. Prime Minister of India
n Residents of Tatt Patti Bakhal in Indore apologise to a team of
doctors a day after health workers were attacked by locals.
deliberately planned rumours as
having fuelled the assaults.
In Indore city’s Tatt Patti
Bakhal area on Wednesday, two
women doctors were surrounded
by a hostile mob while combing
the area for people with Covid-19.
A police official said the mob
started gathering when the doc-
tors asked an elderly local
woman, who was suspected to
have come in contact with a Cov-
id-19 patient, to accompany the
medical team to a hospital for
tests. Television visuals showed
the 100-strong mob chasing the
doctors and hurling stones at
them. “We have been visiting the
locality for the past three days for
the screening of residents. We
had information about a person
coming in contact with a Covid-19
patient…We were talking to the
person (the elderly woman)
when, all of a sudden, residents
got agitated and attacked us,”
said one of the doctors on condi-
tion of anonymity because of
safety concerns.
State police arrested seven
people on Thursday and Chhatri-
pura police station incharge
Karni Singh Shaktawat said the
accused were identified on the
basis of a video clip and they have
been booked for rioting, endan-
gering the lives of public ser-
vants, and disobeying govern-
ment orders. “At least three of the
accused arrested have criminal
record. A manhunt has been
launched for arrest of 15 other
PTI
accused,” he added.
The state government also
vowed strong action against the
assaulters. “I have directed police
to provide adequate security to
health workers and have asked
them to take strict action against
those who harass health work-
ers,” chief minister Shivraj Singh
Chouhan said.
But reports of similar attacks
kept pouring in from different
parts of the country.
In Bihar, police and medical
personnel were attacked by resi-
dents of Munger town when they
tried to collect samples. Stones
were hurled at the quick response
team (QRT), comprising police-
men and an ambulance.
In Hyderabad, relatives of a
49-year-old coronavirus patient
who died at a government hospi-
tal assaulted the doctor and the
staff on duty, alleging negligence.
Telangana director general of
police M Mahendar Reddy prom-
ised strong action against them.
In Maharashtra, a group of
local villagers assaulted a
56-year-old man in Solapur dis-
trict for informing a village offi-
cial about those who attended the
Tablighi Jamaat gathering in
Delhi.
In West Bengal, police clashed
with locals in the north 24 parga-
nas district after residents pre-
vented health workers from col-
lecting Covid-19 data.
(With inputs from HT Correspondents
in Kolkata, Hyderabad and Patna)
Three suicides in
UP linked to Covid;
police, authorities
on high alert
S Raju, Utkarsha Tyagi &
Tariq Khan
n letters@hindustantimes.com
MEERUT/BAREILLY: A 35-year-old
vegetable vendor was found
hanging from a ceiling fan at a
quarantine centre in Uttar Pra-
desh’s Shamli on Thursday,
police said, adding that it is the
latest in a spate of suicides linked
to the coronavirus (Covid-19) out-
break in the state.
“A ward boy spotted his body
hanging from the ceiling fan and
chief medical officer Sanjay Bhat-
nagar informed the authorities
about the incident,” said Shamli’s
police superintendent Vineet
Jaiswal. He added the vendor’s
body has been sent for a post mor-
tem examination.
The vendor allegedly commit-
ted suicide even as the result of
his Covid-19 test was yet to come.
He had returned to his village
from Delhi on March 30 amid the
21-day lockdown imposed across
the country to check the spread of
the disease. He was quarantined
the next day as he was feeling
unwell.
Another 23-year-old migrant
worker allegedly committed sui-
cide in Bareilly after escaping
from a quarantine centre. Police
said he had earlier escaped from
the centre twice to meet his fam-
ily, but was brought back on both
occasions.
Sub-divisional magistrate Dig-
vijay Singh said the worker was
quarantined following the gov-
ernment’s directions. “We told
him that the isolation was a pre-
cautionary measure to ensure the
safety of his family members and
neighbours. The victim had fled
from the camp to meet his family.
When police reached the village
searching for him, he escaped and
was later found hanging.”
The 23-year-old was the young-
est among six siblings and was
quarantined at a school after
returning from Gurugram on
March 28. Police said his body has
been sent for autopsy and the dis-
trict administration will provide
compensation to his family.
A farmer suffering from fever
and cold committed suicide to
“save his village from being
infected” in Mathura on Tuesday.
‘ P R E PA R E O R S U F F E R ’ WA R N I N G
Must break virus chain: Gen Rawat
Shishir Gupta
n shishir.gupta@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: India’s Chief of Defence
Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat
believes that India must break
the Covid-19 virus chain by April
14, through the lockdown and
social distancing, or be prepared
to weather the long-term conse-
quences of the pandemic.
“The military dictum is ‘pre-
pare or perish’, but in these times
of Covid we have refined it to ‘pre-
pare or suffer’. We must arrest
the spread of the virus through a
100% lockdown and social dis-
tancing by April 14. With the har-
vesting season around the cor-
ner, India cannot afford the num-
bers to go up. The military is
totally prepared to stand up to the
demands made by government
and the people,” Gen Rawat said
in a phone interview.
He said that the army, navy
and air force have moved into
action by dedicating 17-18 hospi-
tals to care for the infected, and
the total bed capacity in the forces
has been ramped up to 15,000 so
far. “We have hospitals ready
even in far-off places like Dima-
pur and Zakhama in Nagaland,
Ex-servicemen being Navy’s temperature
mobilised to aid fight guns to cost ₹1,000
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The defence ministry
on Thursday announced that it is
mobilising thousands of ex-ser-
vicemen (ESM) to assist state gov-
ernments and district adminis-
trations, wherever required, to
supplement the country’s efforts
to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.
A ministry spokesperson said
the department of ex-servicemen
welfare has taken the initiative.
“Rajya Sainik Boards, Zila Sainik
Boards are playing a dynamic
role in identifying and mobilising
maximum ESM volunteers to
assist the state and district
administration in performing
public outreach activities such as
contact tracing, community sur-
veillance, management of quar-
antine facilities or any such tasks
assigned to them,” the ministry
said in a statement.
n General Bipin Rawat
even though the virus has not
spread in North-east India. We
have now two to three hospitals
ready in each zone to treat, man-
age and control the infection,” he
said.
The CDS said that the military
and its doctors were constantly in
touch with the Union health min-
istry, and he, as secretary of mili-
tary affairs, was attending meet-
ings with PK Mishra, principal
secretary to the Prime Minister,
and cabinet secretary Rajiv
Gauba.
Gen Rawat said that one ward
in each hospital, including places
such as Delhi where the base hos-
pital is normally crowded, will be
dedicated for Covid-19 patients.
More than 8,500 military doc-
tors and support staff are ready to
help the government, while 9,000
hospital beds have been prepared
to meet emergency require-
ments, the armed forces told the
government on Wednesday.
It said more than 4,200 ESM are
assisting in data collection from
villages in Punjab, Chhattisgarh
has employed veterans to help
the police, district collectors in
Andhra Pradesh have sought the
assistance of ESM volunteers and
retired medical personnel have
been kept on standby in Uttar
Pradesh.
The ministry also said the
National Cadet Corps (NCC) has
issued guidelines for temporary
employment of its cadets, aged
over 18, to augment relief efforts
and the functioning of various
agencies involved in battling the
pandemic under ‘Exercise NCC
Yogdan’.
hindustantimes
CORONAVIRUS:NATION
“We have created isolation and
quarantine facilities in Jais-
almer, Jodhpur and Jhansi to
accommodate 500 patients each
for treatment, to add to the capac-
ity of para-military facilities,
such as the one in Manesar,” he
said.
The single-point military
advisor to the government said
that since army, navy and air
force schools are closed due to the
lockdown, the premises can be
prepared as quarantine centres.
“We have three army public
schools, one navy school and one
air force public school in Delhi. It
has been decided that these
schools should be made ready to
be made quarantine centres, if
required. Even though the capac-
ities of these schools is about 1,500
patients each, only 200 will be put
up in each school due to proper
sanitation requirements. The
same model is being readied in
other parts of the country if there
is a requirement, or in a worst-
case scenario.”
Gen Rawat also said that the
defence ministry has made an
important change in the procure-
ment manual by allowing
advance payments to be made to
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: The Naval Dockyard,
Mumbai, has designed and devel-
oped a hand-held infrared tem-
perature sensor, and has the
capacity to scale up its produc-
tion, if agencies require the
instruments in large numbers to
screen people for fever amid the
Covid-19 outbreak, the navy said
in a statement on Thursday.
The navy said the instrument
has been developed due to the
scarcity of temperature sensors
in the market, where these are
being sold for a high cost. “The
instrument has been manufac-
tured for under ₹1,000 using
in-house resources. The cost is a
fraction of the price of the temper-
ature guns in the market,” the
statement said, adding that the
country’s medical infrastructure
was being tested by the surge in
07
the manufacturers of medical
equipment such as ventilators,
masks and protection suits. “We
have already placed an order of
370 ventilators with the DRDO
{Defence Research and Develop-
ment Organisation} and are ask-
ing ordnance factories also for
manufacture of masks and PPE
{personal protective equipment}
suits. The power to make advance
payments has been given to
director generals of armed medi-
cal services, army commanders,
corps commanders and brigade
commanders so that there is no
shortage of any medical supplies,
both for troops and the public,” he
said.
The CDS also said that two
naval medical ships were ready to
help neighbouring countries in
case of a medical emergency. The
air force, which recently flew a
14-member team to the Maldives,
is prepared to ferry medical sup-
plies in and out of the country.
Although Gen Rawat is opti-
mistic that India can contain the
virus, he is “keeping his fingers
crossed” and hoping that “social
distancing, lockdown, and the
Indian summer heat” will end the
threat.
the count of Covid-19 cases.
The dockyard’s temperature
sensor has an accuracy to 0.02
degree Celsius, as per the state-
ment. The temperature guns will
be used for screening the 20,000
personnel who visit the dockyard
daily. “In view of Covid-19, initial
screening of these personnel
entering the dockyard was essen-
tial to prevent the spread of the
disease within the yard and the
navy’s Western Fleet. The most
preliminary method to screen a
probable patient is to check for
body temperature by non-contact
means,” the statement said.
As the country prepares to
handle a rising number of cases
and meet its need for ventilators,
which about 5% of the Covid-19
patients may require, the navy
has also pitched in with an inno-
vative ventilator design that can
cater to six patients simultane-
ously.
08 hindustantimes HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0

spotlight
htspotlight CORONAVIRUS: WORLD

US sees deadliest day so far AMERICAN NIGHTMARE As 884 die in 24 hours, a record
6.6 million people in the US apply for unemployment benefits
Yashwant Raj
n yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com
WASHINGTON:The death toll in the
US from the coronavirus pan-
demic has topped 5,300, while
the country witnessed a stun-
ning single-day record of 884
people killed in just 24 hours.
The US death toll is lower
than those of Italy and Spain but
above the 3,318 recorded in
China, where the pandemic first
emerged in December. The US
leads the world in the number of
cases, with at least 227,000.
And in a sign of the devastat-
ing economic impact of the epi-
demic, a record 6.6 million
Americans applied for unem-
ployment benefits last week as
businesses were forced to shut
down as part of the mitigation
efforts and layoffs in manufac-
turing, transportation and
other sectors, according to num-
bers released on Thursday.
More people had applied for
jobless benefits in the last two
week - 3.3 million had filed the
week before - than in the six
n Window lights are illuminated in the shape of a giant heart at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco, California. AFP months of the Great Recession,
The Washington Post reported.
Also, in line with White
House experts’ earlier warning
that 100,000 to 240,000 Ameri-
cans could die in the epidemic
even if mitigation efforts were
implemented fully, the Penta-
gon is reported to be preparing
to provide 100,000 body bags for
civilian use.
US President Donald Trump,
who earlier had downplayed the
pandemic’s impact on the US,
said on Wednesday that “we’re
going to have a couple of weeks,
starting pretty much now, but
especially a few days from now,
that are going to be horrific”.
As the number of coronavi-
rus cases and fatalities contin-
ued to climb, health services
across America, especially in
areas with high incidence of the
illness, have complained of crip-
pling shortages of protective
gear for health care workers
such as masks, gloves, gowns
and face shields.
There is an additional
urgency to the crisis as the
health services brace them-
selves for a peak in cases and
deaths, which is feared in two
weeks.
The number of confirmed
cases in the country increased
by about 29,000. New York state
remained the worst impacted,
with at least 84,000 cases and
over 2,220 deaths. New York
City accounted for a large num-
ber of them with 1,374 at one
stage, almost a fourth of all
deaths in the country.
With NYC’s hospitals under
severe pressure, Samaritan
Purse, a charity from North
Carolina, set up a 68-bed field
hospital in Central Park, the
city’s hub of major concerts, ral-
lies and other public events. It
took in its first patient on
Wednesday. “We are here to
stand with New Yorkers and
meet the needs of people
stricken with the coronavirus,”
the charity said in a statement.
A six-week-old baby girl has
died from Covid-19 in the state
of Connecticut, governor Ned
Lamont said on Thursday,
stressing that the death is a
reminder that “nobody is safe
with this virus”.
Netanyahu is back
in quarantine as
Israel’s health
minister tests +ve
JERUSALEM:Israeli health minister
Yaakov Litzman, a leading mem-
ber of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish
community, has tested positive
for Covid-19, forcing Prime Min-
ister Benjamin Netanyahu to
re-enter precautionary quaran-
tine, officials said on Thursday.
Netanyahu’s previous quaran-
tine, imposed earlier this week
after one of his staffers tested pos-
itive for the novel coronavirus,
had ended on Wednesday night,
his office said. The premier’s new
seven-day self-isolation was
imposed following his contacts
with the 71-year-old Litzman, the
prime minister’s office said.
IRAN’S PARLIAMENT
SPEAKER TESTS +VE
TEHRAN: Iran’s parliament
speaker Ali Larijani has con-
tracted the coronavirus, the high-
est-ranking official among sev-
eral senior government figures to
catch the disease, as several top
Israeli officials entered quaran-
tine after Israel’s health minister
tested positive on Thursday.
The parliament in Iran, the
regional epicenter of the corona-
virus, announced Larijani’s ill-
ness on its website. AGENCIES

Trump says China hid numbers, Beijing rejects claim AS WORLD BATTLES CORONAVIRUS,
Yashwant Raj
n yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com
eign ministry spokeswoman told
reporters “to slander, to dis-
credit, to blame others or to shift
these reports and a particular US
intelligence report given to the
Trump administration last week
that, relative to what we wit-
nessed and what was reported.”
China has 82,431 confirmed
“Unfortunately, we are just
not in a position to confirm any of
the numbers that are coming out
GOVERNMENTS COME UNDER FIRE
WASHINGTON:US President Donald responsibility cannot make up that reportedly said China is cov- coronavirus cases on Thursday, of China,” Trump’s national
While countries around the world are imposing lockdowns and firmly handling
Trump said on Wednesday that the time that has been lost”. ering up the scale of the outbreak. according to the Johns Hopkins security adviser Robert O’Brien violators, some citizens and activists are raising a few hard questions
the coronavirus numbers being Trump administration offi- Trump denied receiving that University’s tracker; and 3,332 said at the briefing. He went on to
reported by China were “a little cials and lawmakers have long report, when asked at the daily deaths. point to “public reporting” and
bit on the light side”, echoing been sceptical of the number of White House briefing on the coro- The Chinese tally has “Chinese social media” reporting
claims that Beijing may have cases Beijing has reported on the navirus outbreak. But he echoed remained in this range for a while about the numbers being low.
been underreporting them in a outbreak that started last Decem- the underlying sentiment. “Their now, showing that the outbreak Bloomberg News reported that
bid to overstate its response and ber in Hubei province. numbers seem to be a little bit on has been stopped from spreading a US intelligence report given to
bolster its image. They have pointed to lack of the light side,” he said, adding, and growing, a narrative not the Trump administration last
China reacted sharply. A for- independent corroboration of “And I’m being nice when I say widely subscribed outside China. week said the numbers were fake.

VIRUS TRACKER Nations across Europe

1,000,168
GLOBAL CASES
mark grim milestones
HT Correspondent & Agencies

51,354
■ Police cars patrol during a lockdown in Hyderabad, Pakistan on Thursday. AP
n letters@hindustantimes.com
French disconnection Denial, denial, denial
LONDON/MADRID:Spain’s death toll
GLOBAL DEATHS from the coronavirus pandemic
In France, where the government imposed a lockdown on March 17 in a
bid to get a grip on soaring cases and deaths, calls for national unity
Much is at stake in countries that have
been dominated by a single ruler for
rose above 10,000 on Thursday have been mixed with scathing criticism of the government, particularly decades, where the public will expect
even as France and Belgium over a shortage of face masks. The head of the right-wing opposition political stability to deliver some kind
WORST-HIT NATIONS (BY CASES) announced grim milestones of Republicans in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau, described the of sanctuary from the crisis. The
their own. government's response as "chaotic". Several criminal complaints have Turkish government under President
COUNTRY CASES DEATHS Spain now has the world’s sec- been lodged against members of the French government, accusing Recep Tayyip Erdogan was boasting in
ond-highest death toll after Italy them of endangering lives, even of manslaughter. early March that the country had not
1 USA 235,747 5,620 at 10,003. The total deaths rose by a single confirmed case. By now it has
just over 10%, with a record 950 registered nearly 300 deaths. Russian
‘Everyone is exposed’
2 ITALY 115,242 13,915 fatalities overnight. The number
In Europe and America, there are clear signs of public anger.
President Vladimir Putin said on
March 17 that the situation was
of registered coronavirus cases "We don't have enough money, we don't have enough tests
3 SPAIN 110,238 10,096 rose about 8% from Wednesday to and we don't have enough protective equipment. Everyone
"under control" in his country but the
increasing number of cases has since
110,238, the government said. in the hospital is extremely exposed," seethes Andrew who forced a lockdown in much of the
4 GERMANY 84,264 1,074 “A glimpse of hope: the curve
has stabilised. We have reached ...
works in a New York hospital. "People we could have saved country. And an escalating crisis
are dying, as they could not be admitted into intensive in Iran belies early statements
5 CHINA 81,589 3,318 the peak of the curve and we have
started the slowdown phase,” n #HOPE: Matterhorn mountain located on the Italian-Swiss border is
care," said Sara Chinchilla, who works at a Madrid hospital. by its leadership that the
■ A police officer in New York City. AFP epidemic would soon end.
Health minister Salvador Illa told lit up as sign of solidarity during the coronavirus pandemic.
6 FRANCE 59,105 4,503 parliament.
AFP

France became the fourth
7 IRAN 50,468 3,160 country to pass the 4,000 corona-
virus deaths threshold on
8 UK 33,718 2,921 Wednesday, after Italy, Spain and
the United States.
9 SWITZERLAND 18,827 536 French health authorities
reported 509 new deaths, taking
10 TURKEY 18,135 356 the total to 4,032. The rate of
increase of deaths has deceler-
(AS OF 11:35 PM IST) SOURCE: WORLDOMETER ated in France.
Belgium passed the 1,000 mark
on Thursday, health officials
said.
The official toll has doubled in
the space of three days. There
have now been 1,011 deaths and
15,348 officially recorded cases.
President Vladimir Putin
extended his order keeping Rus-
sians at home until April 30,
warning that the spread of coro-
navirus has yet to reach its peak.
The Russian leader said cer-
tain parts of the country, includ-
ing Moscow, haven’t managed to
get the situation under control.
He said he would give additional
authority to regional leaders to
determine the level of response
locally. Russia has more than
3,500 confirmed cases of corona-
virus after a 28% increase over-
night.
Italy reported 760 deaths from
the coronavirus on Thursday as
the number of fatalities rose
again after three weeks of nation-
wide lockdown.
The toll over the past 24 hours
compared with 727 on Wednes-
day. There were 4,668 new cases
of the coronavirus on Thursday
compared with 4,782 a day earlier,
as growth in infections slowed.
Confirmed cases in the coun-
try, Europe’s worst-hit nation,
now total 115,242, while deaths
reached 13,915. .
In the UK, plans are afoot to
enable MPs to question the gov-
ernment virtually when parlia-
ment resumes after the Easter
break on April 21. The develop-
ment comes after speaker Lind-
say Hoyle and several lawmakers
pushed for using technology to
continue parliamentary work.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the
UK’s House of Commons, said in
a statement on Wednesday even-
ing that the government and par-
liament hoped appropriate tech-
nology would be in place by April
21, when MPs may or may not be
physically present in the House.
Rees-Mogg said, “We are
exploring options with the parlia-
mentary authorities in readiness
for parliament’s return.”
The government’s worst case
scenario envisages a coronavirus
death toll of 50,000 people if self-
isolating is not adhered to, but the
UK is not right now on course for
a toll of that scale, a source famil-
iar with the government’s emer-
gency discussions said.
According to the source, who
spoke on condition of anonymity,
the worst day for deaths is projec-
ted to be April 12.
A so-called best case scenario
in the circumstances would be a
death toll of 20,000, according to
the source. The UK virus death
toll rose 24% in one day to 2,921, as
of April 1.
‘SHOOT THEM DEAD,’ SAYS DUTERTE
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has warned violators of coronavirus lockdown
measures they could be shot for causing trouble and said abuse of medical workers was a
serious crime that would not be tolerated. " My orders to the police and military… if there is
trouble… shoot them dead. "Is that understood? Dead."
Canada to repatriate those
stranded in India in six flights
Anirudh Bhattacharyya India on Tuesday. About 25,000 14-day self-isolation.
n letters@hindustantimes.com Canadian passport holders and Meanwhile, Canadian PM Jus-
permanent residents are in India tin Trudeau has sought an emer-
TORONTO: Canada will arrange now. The arrangement came gency session of the parliament to
flights to repatriate citizens and about after discussions between pass urgent legislation required
permanent residents who have India’s external affairs minister S for measures required to counter
been stranded in India due to the Jaishankar and his Canadian the impact of the pandemic.
national lockdown. counterpart Francois-Philippe The focus will be on a stimulus
They will be flown back in six Champagne. package to help workers and
flights: four will depart from New Canada continues to impose a businesses survive.
Delhi and two from Mumbai. The ban on the arrival of foreign Direct support and liquidity
first of these flights will depart on nationals. All those who return measures will cost the exchequer
Saturday and the last will leave will have to go into a mandatory CA$ 190 billion.

FA L L O U T O F PA N D E M I C

UN climate talks in Glasgow moved to 2021

Prasun Sonwalkar
n prasun.sonwalkar@hindustantimes.com
LONDON: COP26, the UN Cli-
mate Change Conference
scheduled for November in
Glasgow, has been postponed
due to the coronavirus pan-
demic. A decision was taken
at a virtual meeting attended
by UN climate chief Patricia
Espinosa on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi was to attend the meet-
ing that will now take place in
2021, which will be hosted in
Glasgow by the UK in partner-
ship with Italy.
The Scottish government
announced this week that the
SEC Arena, where COP26 was
due to take place, will be
turned into a field hospital to
cope with coronavirus cases.
UK business secretary
Alok Sharma, the COP26 pres-
ident-designate, said, “The
world is facing an unprece-
dented global challenge and
countries are rightly focusing
their efforts on saving lives
and fighting Covid-19. That is
why we have decided to res-
chedule COP26. We will con-
tinue working tirelessly with
our partners to deliver the
ambition needed to tackle the
climate crisis.”
Espinosa said, “Covid-19 is
the most urgent threat facing
humanity today, but we can-
not forget that climate change
is the biggest threat facing
humanity over the long term.
“Soon, economies will
restart. This is a chance for
nations to recover better, to
include the most vulnerable
in those plans, and a chance to
shape the 21st century econ-
omy in ways that are clean,
green, healthy, just, safe and
more resilient.”
Experts involved with the
Paris Agreement endorsed
the postponement. Ajay Mat-
hur, director-general of the
Energy and Resource Insti-
tute, said, “The momentum
for climate action has acceler-
ated considerably, and we will
have to ensure that this
momentum is sustained as
COP26 is moved to 2021.”
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0
spotlig t
htspotlight
A July without Roger Federer
MISSED How a Wimbledon-less year affects
the 38-year-old champ and his legion of fans
BEYOND
THE NEWS
ADITYA IYER
O
ver the last fortnight,
have you found your-
self feeling deeply
apologetic about miss-
ing live sports?
Watching millionaires smack
a ball with their foot, racquet or
bat has always been a great way
to rise above the drudgery of
everyday life; but where we are
now, is very far from ordinary.
That perspective made it easy
to dismiss the personal anguish of
fellow sports fans. The suspen-
sion of Liverpool’s title-run in the
English Premier League? Get a
grip. The postponement of the
European Championship and
Tokyo Olympics? Forget about it.
The cancellation of the Indian
Premier League? About time
already.
That resolve remained firm
until the most highbrowed sports
event of them all got called off for
the year, and all perspective and
apologies streamed out of sani-
tised windows. For the first time
in 75 years, since the end of World
War II, Wimbledon has been can-
celled. More poignantly for those
who have witnessed the ongoing
era in the sport, this will be the
first June/July in 23 years with-
out Roger Federer featuring on
his beloved bed of grass.
In the bygone decade, Federer
didn’t win a single US Open,
started ignoring the French Open
and required great miracles to
survive at the Australian Open. It
was only at Wimbledon that he
remained omnipresent—like his
court coverage—and a constant
in the far reaches of the second
week of the tournament. Those
reasons alone are enough to
make the third Grand Slam of the
year the one that matters the
most to tennis fans; tradition and
strawberries can take a walk.
Online coaching classes: India’s top athletes log in at home
HT Correspondents
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: “What do you think
your body is like—a Mercedes or
a Ferrari?” asks Ryan Fernando,
a nutritionist who works with
some of India’s top athletes, as he
begins a workshop unlike any he
has done before.
Instead of sitting down with his
athletes to figure out their spe-
cific nutritional needs, Fernando
is addressing them via Facebook.
“As an athlete if you believe your
body is a high-end dream vehicle
then you need to put the correct
fuel inside to run it,” he says, and
goes on to explain in detail how to
boost immunity levels and how to
preserve muscle strength at
home during the lockdown
period.
The advice includes eating
“beetroot, green peas, and rocket
leaves, because they help in
vasodilation which means the
widening of blood vessels. When
the pipeline widens, you can send
more blood to the muscles, more
O2, water, vitamins... and you can
take out more lactic acid.”
For Fernando, the biggest con-
cern is how to prevent athletes
from putting on weight; working
HTSPOTLIGHT
Sonia condemns unplanned
lockdown, ‘miserly’ relief
Aurangzeb Naqshbandi
n aurangzeb.naqshbandi@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, the
interim president of the Con-
gress, said on Thursday that
while the 21-day lockdown may
have been required to fight Cov-
id-19, the unplanned manner in
which it was implemented caused
chaos and pain, provoking a reac-
tion from BJP president JP
Nadda who accused the Congress
of politicising the issue.
Gandhi was speaking at a
meeting of the Congress Working
Committee, which also found
fault with the relief package
announced by the government.
“The Financial Action Plan
(FAP) I announced on March 25
was miserly, hopelessly inade-
quate and left out several vulner-
able sections. It failed to instil
Surprisingly enough, the
greatest Wimbledon career on
the men’s side of the draw, which
saw eight titles, is enclosed
within two five-set losses to dif-
ferent Novaks—Jiri in first round
of 1998 and Djokovic in the final of
2019. I cannot remember the
former and do not want to
remember the latter. For Roger
fans (and doesn’t that include
everyone who watches tennis?),
the life and times of Federer at
SW19 is bracketed within two
monumental victories: the first
against Pete Sampras, in the
fourth round of 2001; and the last
against Rafa Nadal, in the semi-fi-
nal of 2019, which set the record
straight against the Spaniard.
I can only illustrate the inter-
val between those two moments,
and hence Federer’s longevity,
using personal milestones.
When Federer snatched the
baton from the seven-time Wim-
bledon winner in Sampras, I had
just completed my 10th standard
board exams. More than half a
lifetime (or 18 years) later, I was
fortunate enough to be on Centre
Court for the father of all
rematches—Federer v Nadal at
Wimbledon for the first time
since their epic, era-defining final
in 2008. Apart from a period of
play in the fourth set, the quality
of that semi-final didn’t quite live
up to the hype. But Centre Court’s
immaculate love for Federer did.
Federer is revered everywhere
he plays around the globe—his
groundstrokes can lift every
spectator in the largest tennis
arena in the world, the Arthur
Ashe Stadium in New York. But
even that pales when compared
to Wimbledon’s passion for any-
thing Federer. For one, that
romance has little to do with his
shot-making abilities.
2019: sometime in the second
set, Nadal ran along the length of
his baseline and curled in a mag-
nificent forehand down-the-line
winner. Urged by a sprinkle of
loud Rafa supporters, Centre
Court followed with a belated and
out at home simply cannot match
the rigours of a training camp,
but the body gets used to a certain
amount of calories and craves it.
“Do a fasting in lockdown. Get
up, have a cup of coffee and do an
intense workout,” he says. “Skip
breakfast and have lunch.” Foods
to burn fat? Cinnamon, lemon,
moringa, black coffee.
Fernando, who has worked
with the likes of two-time Olym-
pic medallist Sushil Kumar, is
among several specialists—top
coaches, physiotherapists and
mental conditioning experts who
are live streaming sessions for
the Sports Authority of India
(SAI) to help athletes manage this
unprecedented challenge of
maintaining their fitness levels at
home, with no top-end training
facilities at their disposal.
Social media platforms and
WhatsApp were things that
coaches would exhort their train-
ees to stay away from, lest they
waste their precious time and
lose focus. Now, connecting
online is the only way to help elite
athletes maintain their condi-
tioning.
India’s top boxers have their
‘Online Pathsala’. Santiago
Nieva, the high performance
confidence in the poor and, as a
result, we witnessed the tragic
spectacle of thousands of migrant
workers desperately trying to go
back to their villages,’’ it said in a
statement.
Gandhi hit out at the Centre
over the exodus of migrant work-
ers, saying that the “tragic spec-
tacle” will “forever remain a blot
on the Modi government”.
Information and broadcasting
minister Prakash Javadekar said
the comments were “unfortu-
nate, false, and unnecessary”.
Thousands of migrant work-
ers began fleeing cities for their
homes on foot last week. The Cen-
tre announced an economic stim-
ulus plan to provides direct cash
transfers and food to the poor.
The CWC, which is the Con-
gress’s highest decision-making
body, demanded FAP II to reas-
n Roger Federer had two match points on his serve in the fifth set of the 2019 Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic. It is difficult to comprehend how he lost from there.
sympathetic ripple of applause.
Next point, Nadal crashed his
backhand into the net and Centre
Court exploded—men in croco-
dile-leather shoes and tweed
jackets forgot time and again that
they weren’t at a football match.
That Friday may mark the last
time Federer won a match at
Wimbledon. It is still hard to fully
comprehend how he managed to
lose two days later on Sunday. At
8-7 and 40-15 in the fifth set, Fed-
RANI RAMPAL
director for the men’s team, and
Raffaele Bergamasco, the
women’s team head coach, have
prepared a detailed schedule for
the nine boxers who have quali-
fied for the Olympics, as well as
for those who hope to make it to
future trials for categories where
India is yet to seal a berth. Boxers
will have to film their training
sessions and upload them on a
WhatsApp group. The coaching
staff will then analyse the videos
and offer their inputs, or adapt
the sessions.
Similar classes are being con-
ducted for close to 300 junior and
youth boxers as well.
sure the poor and also to provide
adequate financial support to the
sections left out earlier.
“The NYAY [minimum
income guarantee] scheme put
forward by the Congress [as a pre-
poll promise last year] offers a
useful model that can be adapted
and implemented,” said the reso-
lution, passed after Gandhi
chaired a CWC meeting via video
conferencing.
Former Congress chief Rahul
Gandhi said the country has to
fight Covid-19 with a specific
strategy and consultation, and
stressed the need to ensure that
the most vulnerable and the poor
as also aged are protected.
Former Prime Minister Manmo-
han Singh said the Congress
stands one with the nation to take
on the challenge posed by the
pandemic.
erer had two match points on his
serve to win his ninth trophy at
Wimbledon and tie Martina Nav-
ratilova for the record. On the
second match point at 40-30, he
even set up the point just as he
had set up the match point
against Andy Murray in 2012.
Seven years apart, Federer
served down the T and Murray
and Djokovic blocked it back.
Federer then whipped his fore-
hand down-the-line and charged
AMIT PANGHAL
“I am using the stairs for differ-
ent strength endurance exer-
cises, side jumps, single leg
jumps,” says the 2019 Asian Box-
ing Championships silver medal-
list Kavinder Bisht. “Also, lots of
bodyweight exercises and
shadow boxing. The important
thing is that I am constantly in
touch with coaches and try and
maintain a routine.”
Physiotherapist Nikhil Latey,
who worked with Mary Kom
when she won her bronze at the
2012 Olympics, sounds a caution
for athletes in his online session,
‘Training in times of coronavi-
rus’.
‘ C A S E - B Y - C A S E ’ T R E AT M E N T
Puri: Will decide on int’l
flights after curbs end gaps in policy, equipment shortage
Anisha Dutta
n anisha.datta@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: The civil aviation min-
istry is clear that the 21-day
nationwide lockdown (due to the
Covid-19 pandemic) will cease in
mid-April, after which the
resumption of international
flights will be considered on a
case-by-case basis, Union civil
aviation Hardeep Puri said on
Thursday.
The lockdown suspending rail-
ways, road and air transport was
announced by the Union govern-
ment on March 25 for three weeks
till April 15. All domestic and
international flights stand sus-
pended till then. “The govern-
ment has to examine this, both
the health ministry and the home
ministry will have to take a holis-
tic view on the fact that when con-
ditions become safe in other
towards the net to stifle the angle
of the return. In 2012, Murray’s
crosscourt passing shot sailed
wide and Federer slipped to his
knees and cried. In 2019, Djok-
ovic’s crosscourt passing shot
landed on the edge of the service
box. Everything after that
remains a blur. It is hard to focus
when you’re blinking back tears.
Djokovic has now beaten Fed-
erer in three Wimbledon finals
(three!) to take his SW19 count to
“Assuming that the lockdown
is extended to two months, you
will be at 40-45 per cent of your
maximum capacity (on return to
full training) and you will take
two months to reach match fit-
ness. If you push yourself at that
time then there will be risk of
injury. There is no major compe-
tition schedule for next few
months so you have time, do not
be scared and in a hurry,” Latey
says.
Latey gives tips on how to do
bodyweight strength training,
and fitness and flexibility exer-
cises at home using resistance
bands, the one piece of equipment
countries, we can think of open-
ing the international flights,”
ministry of civil aviation secre-
tary Pradeep Kharola said.
Puri also said incoming flights
to bring Indians back home will
have to remain suspended for
now. “We have a lockdown for the
next 15 days, and any incoming
flights to bring Indians back
home will have to await the lifting
of the lockdown,” Puri said. “But
in so far as the lockdown is con-
cerned, the lockdown is till April
15, and we can start considering
the resumption of (international)
flights, on a case by case basis,
dependent on where they are
coming from after that.”
He said airlines can begin
advance bookings as per their
own discretion. “...we are pro-
ceeding as a ministry on the basis
and on the understanding that
the lockdown is till mid-April.”
hindustantimes
five and over all Slam tally to 17—
three Big Ws and three majors
away from tying both of Federer’s
all-time records. Even the most
rabid Federer fans have probably
accepted that Djokovic is going to
reel Federer’s numbers in, what
with the Serb having won five out
of the last seven Slams (including
the only one played this year) in
what is already a full-fledged hot
streak, the third such streak of
his career.
he expects athletes to have at
home.
“Ensure that you maintain dis-
cipline and do morning and even-
ing sessions for at least one and
half hours each. Remember, this
is off season training and not a
holiday,” he says.
David John, Hockey India’s
high performance director sets
an interesting assignment for his
athletes via Facebook.
“There are seven attributes of
fitness—cardio vascular endur-
ance, speed, agility, muscle
strength, muscle power, muscle
endurance and flexibility. You
have to determine and rank
IAS officers identify hot spots, flag
Deeksha Bhardwaj
n deeksha.bhardwaj@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: From the domestic pro-
duction of Covid-19 testing kits
and ventilators to lifting the lock-
down cautiously, young civil ser-
vants across the country have
offered a host of suggestions to
tackle the coronavirus disease
(Covid-19) pandemic.
In a survey, conducted by the
Department of Administrative
Reforms and Public Grievances,
266 Indian Administrative Ser-
vice (IAS) officers submitted a
host of suggestion and identified
hot spots across 16 states. They
flagged some crucial gaps in pol-
icy, and highlighted the shortage
of medical staff, equipment and
facilities such as ICU beds, venti-
lators, ambulances, oxygen cylin-
ders. “PPEs (personal protective
equipment) such as masks,
CORONAVIRUS: SPORT
GETTY
A cancelled Wimbledon is
bound to hurt Djokovic’s rhythm
but not as much as it is bound to
impact Federer’s ticking career-
clock. If and when Wimbledon is
held next year and if—and that’s
the big if—Federer returns to
play it, he will be almost 40, and
playing for both lost and leftover
time. But because it’s Federer at
Wimbledon and that occurrence
has often defied logic, his fans will
still expect him to win it.
which are the qualities most
important for my sport and activ-
ity,” he says.
“In some sport only some of
these qualities are needed, while
in other sport you need a more
complete range. If you are a
sprinter, speed, power and flexi-
bility are most important while
agility and CV endurance is not
nearly as important,” he says.
John says many athletes, with-
out supervision, end up wasting
their time on exercises that don’t
add to their sport-specific fitness.
They should be spending time
on physical attributes that can
actually make a difference in
their sport. This is most impor-
tant.”
Dr Kartik Doshi, head of the
Abhinav Bindra Targeting Per-
formance centre in Bhubanes-
war, says technology has been of
immense help during the lock-
down.
“You need a programme and
athletes who are serious will fol-
low,” he says. “We are also plan-
ning to start tele-consultation
with all the ABTP centres.”
While trainers have stepped up
their efforts using the digital plat-
form, athletes are finding innova-
tive ways to implement them.
gloves etc. for medical staff was
an area of concern for several dis-
tricts and across states,” said the
report by the National Prepared-
ness Survey that was released on
Thursday. The survey was con-
ducted from March 25 to March
30, with 410 district collectors and
IAS officers (batches 2014-2018)
who have served as assistant sec-
retaries registering for it.
Of these, 266 submitted com-
pleted reports to the DARPG.
“This is the feedback we have
received from across the coun-
try,” a DARPG official said. “This
the situation on the ground and
the gaps that we want to highlight
in the fight against Covid-19. The
suggestions have been noted and
will be addressed appropriately.”
The respondents, while high-
lighting that the national, state
and district administration has
been “effective and purposeful”
09
shortpasses
SPURS’ SON TO
TRAIN AS A
MARINE: REPORT
SEOUL: Tottenham Hotspur’s
South Korean striker Son
Heung-min will report to a
marines boot camp later this
month to fulfil military service
duties, a report said Thursday.
Son was spared a mandatory
stint as a conscript when
South Korea took gold at the
2018 Asian Games in Indonesia,
earning the team an exemp-
tion. Son will report to a
marines boot camp on the
island of Jeju on April 20 for his
basic training, an industry
source told the South’s Yonhap
news agency.
Tour de France dates
remain on schedule
PARIS: Cycling’s shutdown was
extended until June due to the
Covid-19 pandemic, meaning
French one-week stage race
the Criterium du Dauphine will
be postponed, organisers said.
However, the Tour de France,
due to start in Nice on June 27,
remains on schedule. The only
remaining key Tour de France
warm-up race not yet post-
poned is the Tour de Suisse.
“For now the Tour de France
dates remain the same,”
president of the race organiz-
ers, Christian Prudhomme,
said. However, the Interna-
tional Cycling Union (UCI) said
it is preparing a new potential
calendar taking into account
different scenarios and will
present it in the coming
weeks.
Stokes to race against F1
drivers in virtual GP
LONDON: Ben Stokes will test
his driving skills against five F1
drivers, including Ferrari’s
Charles Leclerc, in the sport’s
second virtual grand prix this
weekend. Stokes will team up
with Thai racer Alexander
Albon in the Red Bull line-up
for his first e-sport competi-
tion. McLaren’s Lando Norris
and Williams’ George Russell
and Nicholas Latifi will also be
competing along with retired
British GP winner and TV
pundit Johnny Herbert. The 28
lap race will see 20 drivers
joining remotely from their
homes, will be staged on a
virtual version of Albert Park.
From rooftops to balconies to
porches, they are using limited
space to great effect, and from
stools to trash bins, they are
improvising when it comes to
equipment.
Amit Panghal, the first Indian
male boxer to win a silver at the
2019 World Championships, does
not have a rope ladder to do his
footwork drills, so he’s painted
one in his garage.
“Innovation is the key since
there is no access to the gym and
weights,” says golfer Chiragh
Kumar, winner on the Asian
Tour and Asian Games silver
medallist.
“I place a stool in the driveway
and do three sets of 10-15 jumps
for power,” he says. “The trash
bin nearby is tall, and I often jump
over it as well. Since the driveway
allows room, I do 20-yard sprints,
shuttle runs, jumping jacks and
on-the-spot jogging. For squats
and lunges, I lift my daughter
Aynaz on my shoulders.”
Chirag then uploads these vid-
eos on Twitter or Instagram and
challenges his golfer friends to
pull them off. “It’s also a way to
break the boredom.”
Inputs from Avishek Roy, Robin Bose,
Sandip Sikdar
CORONAVIRUS
in response to the pandemic, rec-
ommended that issues related to
procurement, logistics and sup-
ply chain of medical equipment
should be addressed on priority
to bridge the demand-supply
gap.They also called for more
testing centres (with separate
centres in rural areas) and isola-
tion wards to be set up.
“The respondents suggested
increase in the fiscal spending
(around 5 - 10 Lakh Crore/
around 2% of GDP) on health
infrastructure, essential com-
modities for poor and vulnerable
groups,” according to the report.
Other economic relief could
include partially waiving com-
mercial rent of shops under lock-
down, they suggested.
The civil servants also noted
that more needed to be done to
increase Covid-19 awareness in
backward districts.
10 hindustantimes
E STA B L I S H E D I N 1 9 24
Help the health
workers, now
The absence of PPEs is having
disastrous implications
I
ndia cannot fight the coronavirus pandemic if its health
care warriors — doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, and
support staff in hospitals — are not safe. This is obvious,
but needs to be reiterated because of the rapid rate at
which members of the medical fraternity are getting
infected. In Delhi alone, eight doctors
have tested positive. In Chandigarh,
two nurses and a doctor have tested
positive. Mumbai’s Jaslok Hospital has scaled down operations
after two nurses tested positive. In Bihar’s Nalanda, according
to a report in the Los Angeles Times, doctors were exposed to a
patient who tested positive — and developed symptoms them-
selves. Yet, they were told to keep working, which in turn, has
potentially put all of them and the newer patients at risk.
These are just illustrative examples of a larger pattern. The
implications are clear. One, this will lead to the spread of the
infection — for the interaction of medical workers with each
other and patients is very high in these times. Two, India already
has a grave shortage of health care workers in relation to the
population. An increase in cases is inevitable. This will require
all available human resources — but if doctors and nurses get
infected on a large scale, the opposite will happen. They will need
to be quarantined and treated, depleting resources. Three, it
deals a blow to the morale of the medical fraternity. There are
already reports of doctors and nurses contemplating mass resig-
nations — which authorities are in no position to accept. While
this may seem irresponsible, it is important to recognise that
they are individuals, with anxieties and fears, families, and want
to survive. India cannot afford its health care workers to be low
on motivation at a time when it needs them at their finest.
There is only one solution: Source and supply personal pro-
tective equipment (PPE) immediately. The government is aware
of the challenge. On Monday, it announced its plans to ramp up
manufacturing and procurement of protective gear. But on the
ground, each passing day without adequate gear puts at risk the
lives of doctors, medical staff, their families, and patients they
are treating. This will undermine the lockdown, lead to the emer-
gence of many more “super-spreaders” and clusters, and under-
mine the effort to flatten the curve with the lockdown. Empathise
with the frontline workers — and act on it by giving them what
they need, to save their lives and lives of citizens.
§
The dollar cements
its position
The Fed will exchange treasury bonds for
overnight dollar loans. This is positive
T
he pre-eminence of the United States (US) dollar has
been underlined with a thick green line during the
present pandemic. The dollar has surged against all
currencies since the crisis began. Which is why there
was a collective sigh of relief among central banks everywhere
when the US Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday that it
would exchange US Treasury bonds for overnight dollar loans.
The facility was also extended to the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI), though it is yet to take advantage of the offer. It carried out
a $2 billion swap recently, and with oil prices having crashed, it
has no urgent need for dollars. Like most major economies, the
bulk of India’s international financial transactions are dollar-de-
nominated. If its external position unravels further, India’s cen-
tral bank may yet need a dollar infusion. With the recently
announced swap arrangement, RBI can use its roughly $160 bil-
lion holdings of US Treasury bonds, about a third of the country’s
foreign exchange reserves, to match any dollar requirements.
The bank’s decision to greatly increase its dollar holding over the
past several years has proved prescient.
While there has been much talk about the rise of the Chinese
renminbi, about 90% of international transactions are denomi-
nated in dollars. The sudden surge in dollar demand caused by
the pandemic put many central banks in a tight spot, including
that of China. The Fed’s decision immediately eased pressure on
the dollar as it meant the trillions of dollars of US Treasuries held
by other central banks were effectively as good as cash dollars.
Dollars represent 60% of global foreign exchange reserves. The
US central bank, in a simple and responsible action, has served
to remind that there is still only one central bank of central
banks.
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Printed & Published by DINESH MITTAL (Interim) for and on behalf of HT Media Ltd. 18-20, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi-110001 and printed at HT Media Ltd. Presses at Plot No.-8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida, Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar. (UP). Pin-201306,
§
Nizamuddin: Why liberals are wrong
The Jamaat’s action was criminal. Don’t defend it
because of a flawed notion of secularism
VIR
SANGHVI
A
s the full scale of the damage to
public health caused by the
Tablighi Jamaat meeting —
and its aftermath — in Delhi’s
Nizamuddin area emerges,
ourtake clear about.
there are some things we can be
One of them is that attempts by Hindutva
communalists to try and turn this into a Hin-
du-Muslim issue are despicable. It is shame-
ful that TV channels allow terms like “bio-ji-
had” to be used.
The second thing we can be certain of is
that various authorities are not blameless.
There appears to have been laxness in grant-
ing visas. The Delhi Police, who have a sta-
tion located next to the Markaz, failed to clear
the building.
Equally, it is as clear that the Jamaat lead-
ers behaved with extreme irresponsibility,
using religion to encourage people to stay
inside the building and to ignore health
warnings. The videos and audiotapes that
have now been discovered show Jamaat cler-
ics saying things like “Yes there is a virus.
But 70,000 angels are with me and if they can’t
save me, who will? This is the time for more
such gatherings.” A voice, believed to be that
of Maulana Saad, is heard saying, “This is a
plan to end amity between Muslims, to alien-
Covid-19 should lead to One mantra for India:
more investment in health Test-isolate-treat-trace
Invest in human resources and technology; strengthen
district hospitals; and consider universal health insurance
NANDITA
BHAN
MADHAVI
MISRA
T
he coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19)
has exposed the new nature of
health threats and emergencies,
linked to food systems, human-wild-
life and anthropogenic conflicts, and the
dynamics of globalisation. To counter this
emergency, an unrivalled response has
been initiated by all governments, the scien-
tific community and citizen groups.
On March 25, despite fewer notified cases
compared to other countries, India initiated
a 21-day national lockdown, adopting social
distancing and citizen isolation, state bor-
der closures and a call to action for low-cost
innovations to support the government
through this crisis.
While the health care system attempts to
ramp up for what seems like a long battle
ahead, this is a wake-up call and a chance to
invest in health care systems like never
before. India’s investments in the health
sector have historically been low, at no time
over 1.3% of its GDP. Compare this to 5% in
China, 8.1% in South Korea, 10.9% in Japan.
Despite instituting one of the earliest archi-
tectures of rural primary care, the Indian
public health system is struggling to com-
prehend the challenges that Covid-19 has
brought with it.
In 2005, the National Rural Health Mis-
sion (NRHM), now known as National
Health Mission (NHM), attempted to
strengthen the primary, secondary and ter-
tiary health services. But this was not fol-
lowed through with robust investments in
health infrastructure, workforce, supply
chains, and community models for deliver-
ing care. While the Prime Minister’s Ayush-
man Bharat Yojna (PMJAY) has led to risk-
pooling and greater health access for poorer
households, the issue of quality assurance
needs more attention in the future.
The response to Covid-19 provides an
opportunity for meaningful health reform.
India needs to make low-cost, client-centred
medical and health innovations. A four-
pronged approach may help.
First, we need to invest in human resour-
ces for health, now and in the future. India
must strive to meet the World Health Orga-
nization norms (2016) for health workforce
density: 44 health workers per 10,000 people.
Recent estimates indicate that current total
human resource density is at 29 per 10,000,
with wide variations among states. While
India increases this number, it needs to also
look at enhancing quality through upskil-
ling. Through emergency response training,
WE REQUIRE STATE-LEVEL
TASK FORCES THAT REPRESENT
NOT JUST ADMINISTRATORS
AND DOCTORS BUT THAT
ENGAGE WIDER CIVIL SOCIETY
TO ADDRESS SOME OF LONG-
TERM EFFECTS OF COVID-19
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Managing Editor: SOUMYA BHATTACHARYA
comment
ate them from each other.”
At a time when millions of Indians are
making sacrifices to fight the coronavirus,
this kind of behaviour is not just criminal, it
amounts to attempted murder.
All this seems clear cut enough. So, why is
there a problem?
Well, because of what seems like a knee-
jerk reaction from sections of the secular
establishment.
I cannot believe that any sensible person
— Hindu or Muslim, secular or communal —
can approve of the primitive fundamental-
ism of the Jamaat, an orthodox group that
would take Islam back several centuries to
fulfil its objectives.
And yet, such is the nature of our political
dialogue that many secular liberals believe
they must respond vigorously to everything
that Hindu communalists say. So, if Hin-
dutva extremists and trolls are using terms
like jihad and using the incident to attack all
Muslims, then the answer must be to find
some way to defend the Jamaat.
All of Wednesday, we heard the excuses.
There was, first of all, the constant blaming
of the authorities. “Why didn’t the police
break up the gathering?” “The IB was keep-
ing a watch on the Markaz: why did it allow
the foreigners who had attended to travel
around India?” And so on.
There are valid questions but they, in no
way, lessen the horror of what the Jamaat
did.
A murderer is no less responsible for his
actions because an inept police force failed to
capture him in time.
When their explanations fail to hold, some
secularists then switch to a tactic that is often
competencies such as testing, referral,
quarantining and using medical equipment
can be developed. The fight against Covid-19
cannot be won without the active involve-
ment of the private sector and other health
care providers who can play an important
role in identifying potential cases and
ensuring early quarantines. We need to
rethink the roles and responsibilities of
frontline health workers such as Accredited
Social Health Activists, Auxiliary Nurse
Midwives and multi-purpose workers, tak-
ing into account the skills they have.
Second, with citizens under lockdown
and their mobility restricted, the role of
community health centres and district hos-
pitals will be key. State and district adminis-
tration will need support from local commu-
nity bodies, panchayats, urban local bodies,
and citizen groups to ensure that cases are
isolated early and supply chains for drugs
and essential equipment are functioning
optimally. A communication plan to spread
the right messages will be important. Dis-
trict hospitals need appropriately trained
staff and medical equipment to ensure that
cases are managed effectively at the facility
and mortality is minimised. Effective use of
telemedicine can deal with complicated
cases, especially in inaccessible areas. We
should be careful to not concentrate servi-
ces in some cities alone.
Third, the government must make all
efforts to encourage low-cost innovations in
medical technology to meet the needs of
essential equipment, both to respond to the
pandemic now and to develop the capacity
for the next flu season. Identifying and eas-
ing the regulatory frameworks for develop-
ing new medical products can help enable
rapid responses. Regulating the prices of
essential drugs, low-cost mass production of
masks and protective gear, will ease the bur-
den. In the medium-to-long-term, India
needs to further strengthen its biomedical
research capabilities, and invest in cutting-
edge “made in India” health technologies
and make it easier for health technology
start-ups to function with tax cuts. Scientific
innovations hold the key to solving social
crises.
Finally, a task force to understand the
impact of Covid-19 on the health system and
households is required. The pandemic
presents an opportunity to expand the cov-
erage of the PMJAY, including considering
a universalised health insurance model.
Social distancing may lead to new challen-
ges of anxiety and mental health all round.
The costs of this pandemic could also be
borne by other health and nutrition pro-
grammes as services and attention are
likely to get diverted. We require state-level
task forces that represent not just adminis-
trators and doctors but that engage wider
civil society to address some of these long-
term effects.
Covid-19 presents an opportunity to bol-
ster India’s health system, sustain invest-
ment in technology and reorient budgeting
priorities towards what is truly essential —
our health. As our medical workforce fights
this invisible enemy, India owes them a
robust health system that can facilitate all
their efforts.
Madhavi Misra and Nandita Bhan have extensive
experience of working in the public health system
The views expressed are personal
HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0
n At a time when millions of Indians are
making sacrifices to fight the coronavirus,
this kind of behaviour is not just criminal,
it amounts to attempted murder HT
associated with their ideological opponents
on the right — whataboutery.
Ok, they say, if this was wrong, then why
was it okay for Parliament to remain in ses-
sion even when social distancing was the
norm? What about Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s
victory celebrations in Bhopal when legisla-
tors hugged each other despite the risk of cor-
onavirus infection? Why was it okay for Yogi
Adityanath to refuse to call off Ram Navmi
celebrations till the very end?
There are two answers to the whatabout-
ery.
The first is that not only were all of these
things wrong, they were widely criticised
and condemned at the time. The second
answer is that it does not matter what else
happened. You cannot explain away the 2020
Delhi riots by saying that the 1984 riots were
Even if all Indians stay home for 21 days, the virus will
only be down, not out. Increase testing tenfold
SUJATHA
RAO
T
he coronavirus pandemic (Cov-
id-19) may or may not be a viral flu.
It is infectious, but only a third as
lethal as SARS. In the recent past,
the world has witnessed more deadly epi-
demics: SARS, MERS, Ebola, and H5N1.
Yet, the coronavirus has been overwhelm-
ing due to the speed with which it has
spread, infected people, and claimed lives.
The virus breached India’s borders on
January 30 through the 1.5 million Indians
returning to India since then till the ban on
international travel. We do not know how
many among them were active and passive
carriers of the infection due to our abys-
mal state of testing.
Two months down the line, we have
over 2,000 infected, and over 50 dead.
These figures are not worrisome when
compared to other countries, except that
the curve is moving upwards and flatten-
ing horizontally: Today, more than double
the districts are affected than a week ago.
Due to poor testing, we have no idea
among whom the virus is lurking, and in
which direction it is spreading. Fighting a
war blindfolded has its risks. One hope is
the onset of the searing summer and if, as
is being said, this epidemic follows the
same trajectory as the 2009-10 swine flu,
we may end up with a more reasonable
count of the infected.
The response has been unprecedented
with heartbreaking consequences for the
poor, homeless and marginalised. I have
not found any compelling evidence in the
public domain to give the nation less than
four hours to lock down. Surely it is not
based on a model prepared by some indi-
viduals based in the United States that
estimates that 300 million people will get
the flu, and since questioned by other
experts?
Regardless, India has to take strong pre-
ventive measures. There were two models:
The China model of social distancing by
banning all movement, except for essen-
tials; and the South Korean model of mass
testing.
Both strategies seek to isolate the virus
and disrupt transmission. Of the two,
South Korea’s was more sensible, but not
possible as we messed up our testing pol-
icy and do not have enough testing kits.
On the other hand, social distancing
through lockdowns gave the government
time to marshal its scarce resources to
fight the next phase of the battle (treat-
ment) and getting related requirements —
doctors, nurses, personal protective
equipment, intensive care unit beds,
equipment, drugs, and trained personnel
— in place.
Given our iniquitous health system,
putting in place such infrastructure in the
event of a surge is vital, if we want to mini-
mise fatalities.
The suddenness of the lockdown with-
out preparation, however, has created
worse. All riots are bad and should be con-
demned.
The problem with knee-jerk secularism is
that it can sometimes offer up excuses for the
indefensible. We think we are defending the
Muslim community from attacks by bigots.
In fact, we are damaging Indian secular-
ism.
Each time secularists take a stand that
runs totally counter to morality or even to
common sense, we damage the liberal idea of
India. Yes, communalists will play the Hin-
du-Muslim game. But we must never fall into
the trap of doing the same thing.
We must condemn disgraceful and crimi-
nal behaviour wherever we see it. Once we
start defending people only because they
belong to a particular religion, we are no bet-
ter than the religious bigots on the other side.
Secularism does not mean that you rush to
the defence of every Muslim, no matter what
he or she has done. It means that you fight
against all religious bigots and their primi-
tive mindset that ignores science and pro-
motes religious mumbo-jumbo.
The issue with the Jamaat gathering is not
only that it endangered the lives of so many
people. It is that it did so in the name of reli-
gion. In the process, it strengthened the com-
munal Hindu propaganda that Muslims are
fundamentalists who do not regard them-
selves as subject to Indian laws.
Of course, this is complete nonsense. The
average Muslim is as sensible and as patri-
otic as the average Hindu. Many influential
Muslims have condemned the Jamaat.
But when secularists feel obliged to find
excuses for Muslim bigots, they obscure this
reality. If India is to move forward, then all of
us should unite to fight bigots, no matter
whether they are Hindu or Muslim. Find
excuses for one or the other and the battle is
already lost.
The views expressed are personal
another battlefront. In the best adminis-
trative system, at least three days are
required for a balanced response system to
implement such an order: Framing guide-
lines for clarity, understanding and opera-
tionalising them to reach the last mile. But
the sudden lockdown led to misunder-
standing and panic, forcing migrant work-
ers to flee cities.
The chaos that followed has, however,
diverted attention from what caused it,
besides creating the added worry of the
potential spread of the infection to the hin-
terland. It reminds me of the spread of HIV
in Surat. The sudden dismantling of a 400-
year-old brothel, by an enthusiastic police
chief, forced sex workers to flee, making
containment of the infection difficult.
But now, India has a window of opportu-
nity, provided it acts quickly and deci-
sively. The lockdown itself has limited
value. Even if all 1.3 billion stayed home
for 21 days, the virus will only be down, but
not out.
For optimal results, the lockdown has to
be accompanied by scaling up testing ten-
fold from the current levels, and rigor-
ously implementing the mantra — test-iso-
late-treat-trace. And for such a scale-up,
testing has to be free and accessible.
With several manufacturers of test-kits
now authorised, prices will fall with vol-
ume. This will be much cheaper than what
India is paying in terms of economic and
social costs. Removing the deterrence of
price and distance is critical in these
times.
The second measure is relaxing move-
ment restrictions for goods required for
the manufacture and delivery of all
health-related items — medical devices,
consumables, drugs and instruments —
and ensuring the running of the out-pa-
tient departments in hospitals. The Chhat-
tisgarh government is reportedly organis-
ing five additional vehicles per block to
ensure the steady supply of drugs for
tuberculosis and chronic patients, besides
transporting patients to and from hospi-
tals.
We cannot allow the tap to run dry for
the essential care of millions of sick people
who need their medicines and surgeries,
without creating another health crisis.
Closing down outdoor patient units could
also mean missing out potential carriers of
the virus.
It must be remembered that money can-
not buy all the essentials needed to cope
with a surge of cases, but quick decision-
making can. The Centre has now consti-
tuted working groups to deal with differ-
ent aspects of the pandemic. This is a posi-
tive step, provided they are empowered
and held accountable for delays. Indian
companies have also come forward, mak-
ing available all their resources — knowl-
edge, expertise, infrastructure. This is
inspiring.
Working together may give rise to inno-
vation with the long-term triggering of
more self-reliant and less dependent poli-
cies.
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi said:
It’s a battle we have to win.
Sujatha Rao is former Union secretary of health
The views expressed are personal
HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0
shortstories
MOODY’S CUTS
OUTLOOK FOR
INDIAN BANKS
MUMBAI: Moody’s Investors
Service slashed the outlook for
the Indian banking system to
negative from stable citing
disruptions to economic activity
from the coronavirus pandemic
that will worsen the ongoing
slowdown and impair lenders’
asset quality. A deterioration in
global economic conditions and a
21-day lockdown imposed by
India will weigh on domestic
demand and private investment,
the ratings agency said in a
statement Thursday. This in turn
will cause a spike in unemploy-
ment and worsen banks’ asset
across the corporate, small
business and retail segments,
pressuring their profitability and
capital, it said. India has an-
nounced a raft of monetary
easing measures including sharp
cuts to policy rates and a $50
billion cash line to lenders in order
to boost credit and ease financial
stress in a sector that was bat-
tered by a crisis among shadow
lenders and witnessed default by
a private sector bank even before
the viral outbreak hit India. The
country has the worst bad loan
ratio among major economies and
last month engineered its
biggest-ever bank rescue to
maintain confidence.
TELCOS SEEK
RELIEF MEASURES
AMID COVID-19
MUMBAI: While telecom service
providers have been grouped
under essential services to keep
businesses running during the
nationwide lockdown, the Cellular
operators Association of India
(COAI) has written to the Finance
Minister to offset the sector’s
financial concerns. The industry
body that represents private
telecom operators Bharti Airtel,
Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio
has requested for refund of
unitilised input tax credits, low
cost funding, rationalisation of
levies and reduction of spectrum
usage charges (SUC) among
others. According to various
reports, the telecom companies
differ from government numbers
on the increase in internet usage
and subsequent pressure on
telecom resources. While govern-
ment bodies noted up to 10%
increase in usage, COAI has given
an estimate of 20% increase.
REPORTERS AND AGENCIES
HTSPOTLIGHT
In Dharavi, cramped quarters and
squalor make Covid fight difficult
Rupsa Chakraborty
n rupsa.chakraborty@htlive.com
MUMBAI : Mumbai’s overworked
public health workers have a
new, daunting challenge on their
hands--Dharavi.
After a 56-year-old garment
shop owner died of the coronavi-
rus disease (Covid-19) in India’s
largest slum on April 1, two teams
of 50 officers and volunteers
arrived in Dharavi to spread
awareness of Sars-Cov-2, the
virus that causes the disease, and
to quarantine 70 high-risk resi-
dents of the eight-building Slum
Rehabilitation Authority com-
plex in which the man stayed.
The neighbourhoods also has
91 shops, all of which have been
ordered shut. The next day an
additional 2,500 people were
home-quarantined, and will
probably be tested for the virus.
On Thursday morning, just as
the two teams plus 800 more com-
munity health volunteers were
getting ready for another busy
day in Dharavi, a second case
emerged – a municipal conserv-
ancy worker from south Mumbai
who was assigned to the area
tested positive for Sars-Cov-2.
Twenty of his friends and
co-workers were quarantined.
Neither the garment shop
owner nor the conservancy
worker has a recent travel his-
tory, according to information
released by the city’s health
department.
Gurbani singer dead, event he attended under scanner
Mandeep Kaur Narula
n letters@hindustantimes.com
AMRITSAR: Bhai Nirmal Singh
Khalsa, 67, a Padma Shri awardee
and a former hazoori ragi (Gur-
bani exponent) at Amritsar’s
Golden Temple, died of a heart
attack on Thursday a day after he
was diagnosed with coronavirus
(Covid-19).
Amritsar’s civil surgeon, Dr
Prabhdeep Kaur Johal, said
Khalsa was put on ventilator on
Wednesday night after his condi-
tion worsened due to his bron-
chial asthma.
Manufacturing activity
at 4-month low in March
MOUNTING STRESS Export orders, future activity indices signal falling demand
Asit Ranjan Mishra
n asit.m@livemint.com
NEW DELHI: India’s manufactur-
ing sector growth slowed to a
four-month low in March, with
the nationwide lockdown to
contain the covid-19 outbreak
throwing normal economic
activity out of gear, according to
a private survey released on
Wednesday.
The manufacturing Purchas-
ing Managers’ Index (PMI) for
India declined from 54.5 in Feb-
ruary to 51.8 in March. A figure
of above 50 indicates expansion,
while a sub-50 print signals con-
traction.
The survey by data analytics
firm IHS Markit tracks new
orders, output, jobs, suppliers’
delivery time, and stocks of pur-
chases for around 400 manufac-
turers.
The most prominent signs of
trouble for Indian manufactur-
ing came from the new export
orders and future activity indi-
ces, which indicated falling
global demand and softening
domestic confidence, respec-
tively, said Eliot Kerr, econo-
mist, IHS Markit.
“Should the trajectory of
injections continue in the same
vein, the Indian manufacturing
sector can expect a much
sharper negative impact in the
coming months, similar to the
scale seen in other countries,”
said Kerr.
Other lead indicators also
suggest substantial impact of
the covid-19 outbreak on the
economy. In March, India’s
goods and services tax (GST)
collection fell to ₹97,597 crore,
against the ₹1.25 trillion target
for the month.
India’s largest carmaker
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s
domestic vehicle sales also
declined sharply by 48%. It sold
76,976 units during the month,
compared to 147,613 units a year
ago.
With the disruption in eco-
nomic activity, most economists
n Small industries’ workers lineup for the food packets at Dharavi
during lockdown in Mumbai on Wednesday. SATISH BATE/HT PHOTO
“It is going to be an uphill task
identifying asymptomatic
patients in an area that has more
than 850,000 people,” said Kiran
Dighavkar, assistant commis-
sioner of the Brihanmumbai
Municipal Corporation and the
officer in charge of the city’s G
ward, where Dharavi is situated.
It is not just about Dharavi’s
population. Its inhabitants live in
some of the most cramped spaces
in the country.
In an area measuring 2.1 sq
km, the slum has over 57,000
shanties, huts and small flats,
almost all of them illegal.
Its estimated population den-
sity – 66,000 people per square
kilometre – is more than double
“He had visited England in
November. A health department
team visited his house on March
3 after we got the information that
two guests–his uncle and aunt–
from the US visited him. When
the home quarantine period of
the guests was over on March 17,
they were found asymptomatic.
Bhai Nirmal Singh then went to
Chandigarh for a kirtan sama-
gam [a devotional event] on
March 19 where over 100 people
had gathered,” Johal said.
She added he tested positive for
coronavirus on Wednesday. “He
may have caught the infection
n The June quarter will witness hardships as the lockdown will lead to production cuts and job losses for
casual labourers, and even after the lockdown, it will be gradual step to see the implications of it on new
infections, say experts.
CRISIL HAD SLASHED ITS
GROWTH ESTIMATE FOR
FY21 TO 3.5% AND SAID
THAT ADVERSE EFFECTS
OF LOCKDOWN CAN
DWARF GAINS FROM
DROP IN CRUDE OIL
PRICES, AND STIMULI
projected a gross domestic prod-
uct contraction for the June
quarter, while slashing their
FY21 economic growth esti-
mates.
The June quarter will wit-
ness hardships as the lockdown
will lead to production cuts and
job losses for casual labourers,
said Indranil Pan, chief econo-
mist, IDFC Bank.
“Even as the lockdown opens
that of Mumbai (32,303 people per
square kilometre), the fifth most-
densely populated city in the
world, according to a United
Nations Population Prospects
study released in July 2019.
Mumbai is also the city worst
hit by Covid-19 in India, with at
least 235 people having teste posi-
tive and 17 deaths.
With private laboratories also
testing for Covid-19, this number
will only rise, health officials
said.
Mumbai’s – and Dharavi’s –
population numbers make social
distancing – one of the key pre-
ventive measures recommended
by the World Health Organisa-
tion (WHO) – almost impossible
n Bhai Nirmal Singh Khalsa.
during his trip to Chandigarh. He
died of sudden cardiac arrest on
Thursday.”
With his death, the toll from
up, we think that it will be grad-
ual, one step at a time, to see the
implication of it on new infec-
tions. Thus, there is potential
for domestic demand to remain
low and crunched for an even
more significant period,” said
Pan.
Rating agency Crisil Ltd had
last week slashed its growth
estimate for FY21 by 170 basis
points to 3.5% and said that the
adverse effects of the ongoing
lockdown can dwarf the gains
from the sharp drop in crude oil
prices, and the anticipated mon-
etary and fiscal stimuli.
The government is working
on a fiscal stimulus to jumpstart
the economy apart from provid-
ing support to the healthcare
and industrial sectors, eco-
nomic affairs secretary Atanu
Chakraborty had hinted on
Tuesday.
to implement.
“It is almost certain that the
cases will spike in Dharavi due to
overpopulation,” said Baburao
Mane, a former state legislator
from Dharavi. “There are, on
average, 10-12 people living in
thousands of 250 sq ft huts. As
summer approaches and the tem-
perature soars, it will be almost
impossible to prevent home-
quarantined people from coming
out of their cramped spaces.”
For Dharavi, BMC has put a
special plan in place. It has cre-
ated two teams of 25 people each
that work round the clock in two
shifts. These teams include a san-
itary inspector, medical officers,
police personnel jand community
volunteers. In addition, the ward
officer has on board 800 commu-
nity health volunteers whose pri-
mary responsibility will be to
trace vulnerable residents such
as senior citizens, patients with
respiratory ailments and preg-
nant women.
“I have sought permission to
convert the Rajiv Gandhi District
Sports club into a quarantine
facility with 300 beds,” said
Dighavkar. “Once approved, we
will shift high-risk people {to the
facility}.”
The primary concern of health
officers is the people’s coopera-
tion. “People in slums don’t coop-
erate. The family can’t confirm
his activity, and we don’t know
how many people he may have
infected.”
Covid-19 in Punjab has risen to
six.
Khalsa was referred to the
Guru Nanak Dev Hospital on
March 30 after he complained of
breathlessness.
The Chandigarh Municipal
Corporation has quarantined 84
people, who had attended the reli-
gious gathering where Khalsa
performed in the city on March
19. An official said the 84 include
14 members of a family.
The religious gathering was
held at a house in Chandigarh’s
Sector 27. After Amritsar health
authorities alerted their Chandi-
BLOOMBERG
Finance minister Nirmala
Sitharaman had last week
rolled out a ₹1.7 lakh crore relief
package, to limit the economic
damage caused by the coronavi-
rus outbreak and to address the
loss of livelihood of millions of
poor hit by the unprecedented
lockdown.
The relief package, under the
newly-framed Prime Minister
Garib Kalyan Yojana, aims to
alleviate the financial pain
faced by migrant workers, farm-
ers, urban and rural poor, and
women.
Pan said while everyone is
clamouring for a fiscal stimu-
lus, the first job for the govern-
ment now is healthcare, Pan
said. “A stimulus for the general
economy can be focused on only
after the lockdown has ended, to
ensure that the fiscal stimulus is
spent and not saved,” he said.
AarogyaSetu app
to tell people their
Covid-19 risk score
Rhythma Kaul
n rhythma.kaul@htlive.com
NEW DELHI : The government on
Thursday launched a mobile
app— AarogyaSetu— developed
in a public-private partnership to
help people assess the risk of their
catching the Coronavirus disease
(Covid-19).
“The app will calculate the risk
score based on their interaction
with others, using cutting edge
Bluetooth technology, algo-
rithms and artificial intelli-
gence,” Neeta Verma, director-
general, national informatics
centre, the government of India,
said.
The app can be installed in
both Android and iOS-based
smartphones. Once it is installed,
and Bluetooth is switched on, one
would need to set location shar-
ing to “always”. The app detects
other devices with Aarogya Setu
that are in the Bluetooth/GPS
proximity of one’s phone.
In case anyone whose phone
has been in proximity to one’s test
positive, the app calculates one’s
risk of infection based on recency
and proximity of one’s interac-
tion and recommends suitable
action.
The health ministry on
Wednesday also announced an
email id—technicalquery.cov-
id19@gov.in—to address queries
related to the disease. In the past
24 hours, the ministry received
900 emails on the topic.
garh counterparts about
Khalsa’s condition, tracing of his
contacts was started in Chandi-
garh.
A Sector 27 resident said the
gathering was held for a pre-wed-
ding ceremony. “During three-
four days, lots of functions were
held and many people visited the
house,” said another neighbour.
A third neighbour said after
reading the news about Khalsa’s
death, she called police to inform
them about the event in Sector 27.
“As their children had come from
abroad, they could not change the
plan at the last moment.”
Aurobindo Pharma
abandons $1 bn
deal with Sandoz
Swaraj Singh Dhanjal
n swaraj.d@livemint.com
MUMBAI: Aurobindo Pharma Ltd
has abandoned a proposed $1 bil-
lion purchase of the US derma-
tology business as well as three
manufacturing plants of Sandoz,
the generics unit of Swiss drug
maker Novartis, as it did not get
approval from the US Federal
Trade Commission (US FTC).
“Aurobindo today announced
the mutual agreement with San-
doz Inc. to terminate the agree-
ment to buy the Sandoz US
generic oral solids and dermatol-
ogy businesses from Sandoz Inc.
This decision was taken as
approval from the US Federal
Trade Commission for the trans-
action was not obtained within
anticipated timelines,” the com-
pany said in a regulatory filing
on Thursday.
Hyderabad-based generics
drug maker Aurobindo had
agreed in September 2018 to
acquire these businesses from
Sandoz for an upfront payment
of $900 million and performance-
based payouts of $100 million.
At the time, the transaction
was the largest outbound
pharma deal by an Indian com-
pany. The previous largest was
the acquisition of Gavis Pharma-
ceuticals Llc and Novel Labora-
tories by Lupin Ltd for $880 mil-
lion in 2015.
In 2016, Aurobindo bid for
Israel-based Teva Pharmaceuti-
cal Industries Ltd’s Actavis UK
Ltd and Actavis Ireland Ltd
units. It was pipped to the post by
domestic rival Intas Pharmaceu-
ticals Ltd, which paid close to
£600 million (around ₹5,000
crore).
Other notable transactions in
the outbound pharma space in
recent years include Cipla Ltd’s
acquisition of three products
from Teva in the US. In Novem-
ber 2016, Aurobindo had also
acquired a few products from
Teva’s France portfolio.
At the time of the Sandoz
acquisition, Aurobindo claimed
that the deal would catapult it to
the second position in the derma-
tological drugs segment and
would also make it the second-
largest generics company in the
US by prescriptions.
facetoface
BS YEDIYURAPPA , Karnataka chief minister
‘Isolation, social distancing
will do wonders, not testing’
NEW DELHI:Karnataka chief
minister BS Yediyurappa has
credited his government’s
proactive strategy for the rel-
atively fewer number of coro-
navirus (Covid-19) cases and
deaths in the state after it
reported the first fatality in
the pandemic in the country
on March 13. Yediyurappa
spoke to Sunetra Choud-
hury about how his govern-
ment was responding to the
crisis. Edited excerpts:
What did Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi convey to chief minis-
ters in Thursday’s video confer-
ence?
The PM suggested several
measures [to check spread of
coronavirus] such as utilisa-
tion of AYUSH staff and doc-
tor’s services and popularisa-
tion of AYUSH-suggested
food items for strengthening
the immune system. Karna-
taka has already imple-
mented or is in the process of
implementing most of the
steps suggested by the PM.
What are you doing to trace 45
people from Karnataka who
were at the headquarters of a
religious organisation in Delhi
where some people have been
found to be Covid-19 positive?
We have tracked many of
them and they will be quar-
antined. One of the three dead
in Karnataka, who hailed
from Sira town in Tumkur
district, is suspected to have
been among the 45. The whole
town is being monitored.
Karnataka has fewer Covid-19
cases compared to states like
Kerala. What are you doing to
keep the number down?
Karnataka was the first state
to announce a lockdown (on
March 22) much before other
states did so. When we
reported the first Covid-19
death, we initiated various
measures to contain the
spread. We created a 1,500-
hindustantimes
POWERED BY
Firms react to the
virus with pay cuts
Team Mint
n feedback@livemint.com
Amid a nationwide lockdown to
slow the spread of covid-19, com-
panies are reworking cost struc-
tures to survive, as remote work
and lower discretionary spend-
ing have become the new normal.
Companies in the worst-hit
sectors such as aviation and hos-
pitality have announced immedi-
ate pay cuts. Indigo, India’s most
profitable airline, was the first to
announce a 25% cut in senior staff
pay. Rival airlines SpiceJet and
GoAir too have announced simi-
lar pay cuts. GoAir has also
retrenched its entire workforce of
expat pilots, who are considered
expensive. It has introduced
leave without pay and up to 50%
pay cut for its top leadership.
On Thursday, SoftBank-
funded Oyo reduced salaries for
senior and top-level executives.
Founder and CEO Ritesh Agar-
wal decided to forgo his entire
FY21 salary while the company’s
executive leadership took a vol-
untary pay cut beginning at 25%.
Many companies are also
revisiting organisational struc-
tures to manage costs. Headhunt-
ers who spoke to Mint requesting
anonymity estimated that C-suite
hiring is already down by 50%,
worse than during the economic
slowdown in 2008-09. Many com-
Oil firms supply cleaner
BS-VI fuel across India
Rajeev Jayaswal
rajeev.jayaswal@htlive.com
n
NEW DELHI: State-run oil market-
ing companies (OMCs) have
launched cleaner BS-VI grade
petrol and diesel across the
country from Wednesday with
an investment of ₹35,000 crore
without raising their pump pri-
ces, thanks to the slump in inter-
national oil rates.
As per the commitment, the
three public sector companies –
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC),
Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Ltd
(HPCL) have fully transitioned
n HT ARCHIVE
bed facility at the Victoria
hospital (Bengaluru) for
treatment of Covid-19 cases.
Immediately, we summoned
experts and went according
to their suggestions.
Are you going to increase test-
ing like Kerala, which has intro-
duced rapid testing? Many say
that the more we test,
the better it is.
More you isolate and dis-
tance the people from min-
gling, more we will be able to
control the disease.
The first case was reported
in Karnataka on March 6. On
Wednesday, we had 91 posi-
tive cases and this indicates
how effective our measures
are. This was the third worst-
hit state, and has slid to 5th
place.
Are your five testing labs
enough?
We are increasing the testing
facilities. We now have seven
testing centres. We are buy-
ing more than one lakh rapid
testing kits from abroad. Iso-
lation, quarantining and
social and physical distanc-
ing will do wonders and not
the testing centres.
How are you dealing with the
difficult situation that migrant
workers are facing because of
the 21-day national lockdown?
It is wrong to say that the
migrants are harassed. We
have created all the facilities
11
SOME COMPANIES HAVE
STOPPED OR DELAYED
PAYMENTS TO SAVE
CASH BY INVOKING
FORCE MAJEURE
panies are trying to fill critical
roles internally even if the person
does not tick all the boxes.
E-commerce and online deliv-
ery companies have struggled to
keep operating, and some have
tapped technology solutions to
keep going. Ashish Jhina,
co-founder of Jumbotail, an
online wholesale marketplace for
food and grocery products, said
the company is working to reduce
delivery touch points by artificial
intelligence-driven delivery
promise, and route optimisation.
These have resulted in 50-60%
increase in productivity within
the last week itself, he said. “We
are working with non-essential
services companies to utilise
their workforce to ramp up deliv-
ery capacity,” Jhina said.
Some companies have stopped
or delayed payments to suppliers
to conserve cash, by invoking
force majeure clauses. One of
them is commercial vehicle
maker Volvo Eicher Commercial
Vehicles, which has decided to
temporarily delay payments to
some suppliers.
to BS-VI compliant petrol and
diesel across the country, an
IOC spokesperson said. Execu-
tives of the three oil companies
said on condition of anonymity
that consumer prices of petrol
and diesel have not been raised
to recover the investments in
upgrading refineries as prices of
auto fuels had been freezed
since March 16 despite a steep
fall in their international rates.
Petrol is currently sold at
₹69.59 per litre in Delhi and die-
sel is priced at ₹62.29 a litre since
March 16 despite India’s aver-
age crude oil purchase price
(Indian basket) has dropped by
over 27%.
CORONAVIRUS
for them. All construction
workers are being given food,
advance ration for two
months and monthly ₹1,000 .
Is there a case of cluster spread
at a Mysuru pharma company?
In Mysuru, the disease was
first detected among two
workers. We quarantined all
the workers. On Monday, six
more workers tested posi-
tive. We are tracing others. It
cannot be described as a clus-
ter case. The pharma com-
pany had to be kept open.
How is your government helping
people from the northeast fac-
ing racism because of Cov-
id-19?
No incident of such discrimi-
nation has been reported
from our state. People of Kar-
nataka are known for toler-
ance and humanity... Do not
compare the situation else-
where with Karnataka.
How would you react to criti-
cism regarding breach of pri-
vacy over Karnataka’s move to
publish addresses of those who
have travelled internationally
since March 8?
It is false news that we have
published the addresses.
However, we have made a list
of the people, who arrived
here from abroad, to keep a
watch on their health.People
coming from abroad are car-
riers. In the larger interest of
the society, some measures
have been initiated.
Do you think the lockdown
should go beyond 21 days and
how will you offset its economic
impact?
It is too premature to predict
anything. If the disease sub-
sides , there is no question of
extending it. The Centre will
take the decision. Our state
has a robust economy and we
are going to bounce back
soon. I am sure the lockdown
impact on the economy will
be minimal.
12 corporate buzz hindustantimes HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0

buzz
NHIDCL donates to PM-CARES Fund
The management and staff of Na-
tional Highways and Infrastructure
Development Corporation Limited
(NHIDCL), a Government of In-
No fresh symptoms seen in evacuees from Indian Coast Guard deploys NPC’s CoE cell hosts
ship Varad at Paradip webinar
Italy at ITBP Quarantine Facility National Productivity Council’s
(NPC) Centre of Excellence
Total 481 Indian evacuees from
coronavirus-hit Milan and Rome, (CoE) cell hosted a webinar on
Italy are being looked after at ‘Implementation of Industry

‘MY WAY OF dia Enterprise under the Ministry

of Road Transport and Highways
ITBP Chhawla Quarantine Facil-
ity, New Delhi. No fresh symp-
4.0 in SMEs’ in order to create
awareness on the concepts of
CONTRIBUTING IS BY have made a humble contribution
of Rs 67,25,000 which includes
toms of coronavirus have been
seen in them till now. The two The North-Eastern sea border got
Industry 4.0. The expert speaker
Umashankar Prasad, Project
NOT TELLING’ one day salary of its employees, to
the PM-CARES Fund with their
batches of 218 and 263 persons
reached India from Italy on March
a major fillip when Indian Coast
Guard Ship Varad joined the fleet
Head, CoE: IT for I4.0, dis-
cussed about various technolog-
commitment to stand firmly with 15 and 22, respectively. at Paradip. The ship has joined ical domains of I4.0, framework
Check out today’s HT City the government in the fight against All basic facilities are being as the third Offshore Patrol Ves- for its implementation and pre-
the coronavirus. provided at the centre as done sel (OPV) class of Indian Coast sented various initiatives being
NHB contributes Rs 1 crore to PM- with the previous lot of evacuees. Guard ship under the operational undertaken by NPC to upscale
CARES Fund Daily monitoring and checkups control of Coast Guard Region- the adoption of smart manu-
The Government of India recently are also been undertaken by the quarantine period is 14 days plus. also been made including isola- al Headquarters (North-East), facturing in Indian industry(s)/
announced a public charitable trust ITBP medicos. The expected Emergency arrangements have tion beds and ambulances. Kolkata. SME(s).
under the name of ‘Prime Minis-
ter’s Citizen Assistance and Relief
in Emergency Situations Fund’
Subrat Sahoo takes charge NATA 2020 first test CBSE starts toll-free Record breaking NBT, India provides books
(PM-CARES Fund) with Prime as ACS to CM Chhattisgarh postponed helpline on coronavirus performance by LIC online for free
Minister as the Chairman of the Subrat Sahoo (IAS) has taken over The Council of Architecture has CBSE has recently decided to start Life Insurance Corporation of India In the wake of preventive meas-
trust. Under its Corporate Social the charge at the secretariat ‘Ma- decided to postpone the ensuing a helpline for students to create (LIC), continues to better its per- ures of the government to con-
Responsibility (CSR) activity, the hanadi Bhawan’ as the additional first test of National Aptitude Test awareness on the pandemic coro- formance, thereby winning people’s tain the spread of Covid-19, and
National Housing Bank (NHB) chief secretary to the chief minister in Architecture (NATA 2020) ex- navirus. This facility is available trust by crossing last financial year’s to encourage people to #StayIn
has contributed one crore rupees to of Chhattisgarh. Sahoo will also be amination scheduled to be held on on the toll-free no 1800 11 8004 number of policies on March 17 and #StayHome, the National
the fund to fight against Covid-19 holding additional charges of ACS, April 19 in pursuance of Ministry from 8 am to 8 pm initially up to itself, a fortnight ahead of year end Book Trust, India in its efforts to
pandemic. home and jails, power, electron- of Home Affairs, GoI announcing March 31. and with the most productive period encourage people to read books
BHEL and its employees contribute ics and information technology, complete lockdown in the coun- CBSE has also played a proac- still ahead. while at home, is providing its
to fight against Covid-19 commerce and industries (rail line try for containment of pandemic tive role in creating mass aware- As against 2,14,03,905 policies select and best-selling titles for
INVITATION FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST BHEL and its employees have projects) government of Chhattis- coronvirus (Covid-19). The new ness in public by way of memes completed last year as on March free download as part of its ini-
Rail Coach Factory (RCF) is a Production Unit under Ministry of made a humble contribution of garh. date of first test of NATA 2020 ex- on social media platforms, issuing 31, 2019, the corporation has cre- tiative of #StayHomeIndiaWith-
Railways manufacturing Mainline coaches and Self-Propelled donating their one-day’s salary to After taking over charge, Sahoo amination will be announced after guidelines to students/parents and ated a new record by completing Books. The 100+ books, in PDF
coaches for Indian Railways. the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund held discussion on improving cus- the period of complete lockdown the schools for creating awareness 2,14,22,370 policies as on March 17, format, can be downloaded from
In view of Covid-19 Pandemic, RCF is exploring the possibility to to bolster the fight against this un- tomer services, expediting projects is over. Also, the registration date about coronavirus and its preven- 2020 and is confident of crossing its the NBT’s website. Available in
collaborate with established Ventilator manufacturers by offering precedented medical emergency. and schemes of the companies as per for the first test of NATA 2020 has tion or even changing seating ar- target of 2.5 crore policies well be- multiple languages, the books
its component manufacturing and assembly capacity to ramp up Significantly, BHEL’s Ranipet the policy of the state government. been extended till April 15. rangements in exam halls. fore March 31, 2020. cover all genres.
manufacturing of ventilators in the country with an objective to unit has developed in-house a
increase the availability of ventilators to deal with crisis. The list of spray assembly that atomises the
resources (Machinery and Plant, Infrastructure) available with sanitising liquid and can be used
RCF is available at www.rcf.indianrailways.gov.in for mass sanitisation for combat-
Interested Manufactures of Ventilators are requested to visit ing the coronavirus.
www.rcf.indianrailways.gov.in download ANNEXURE-RCF-
NBT, India to launch corona studies
EOI and submit duly filled in along with attachments, if any, by series books
email to cdercf@gmail.com. Realising the extraordinary psy-
Last date of submission - 06th April, 2020. chological, social, economic and
In case of any queries, Please contact Mr. Manish Bhimte, cultural significance of corona
Chief Design Engineer, RCF. Contact No. 9779241406 pandemic for the human society
Chief Design Engineer in times to come, National Book
Trust, India, under Ministry of
Notice No. G-122/01/Design-136/2020-21 Dated : 02.04.2020 Human Resource Development, is
launching a publishing series titled
‘Corona Studies Series’ to docu-  Rajesh Ranjan, DG, CISF along with MA Ganapathy, SDG, CISF Airport Sector visited IGI Airport, New  IOC’s Refineries HQ has provided support to the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) for purchasing
ment and to provide relevant read- Delhi to take stock of the situation and arrangements made by CISF to meet the challenge of Covid-19. safety gear worth nearly Rs 80 lakh, including 2,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits, two lakh
DG praised health officials and CISF personnel for their dedication and contribution. pair of gloves, two lakh surgical masks and 10,000 litres of cleaning solution.
ing materials for all age-groups for
the post-corona readership needs.
BUSINESS OFFER IRCON extends support of Rs 5
crore to fight coronavirus
Ircon International Limited (IR-
CON) has come forward to pro-
vide a financial assistance of Rs
five crore to PM-CARES Fund
through its CSR fund and em-
ployees contribution. SK Chaud-
hary, CMD, IRCON said that due
to Covid-19, the current situation
in India is unprecedented and this
amount would be utilised towards
fighting Covid-19. He further
 Delhi Division of Northern Railways is working 24/7 for the supply of essential commodities.  10th Shaheed Manoranjan Singh, Memorial CRPF State Open Football Tournament-2020, organised by
added that, IRCON stands strong- Operation of freight trains is continuing in wake of coronavirus. Commodities, such as foodgrains, CRPF and Imphal West football Association under the aegis of all Manipur Football Association, has
ly by the society in these testing salt, sugar, fruits & vegetables, fertilisers, etc are being loaded at railway terminals. concluded at SAI Sports Complex, Imphal (Manipur) in which 25 teams participated.
times.

COVID-19 HAS SHOWN US

THAT FAKE NEWS IS A
REAL ISSUE
It seems fake news on social media is
spreading faster than the virus itself. And
answers are harder than ever to come by.
Now we aren’t medical experts, but we know
how to get to the truth. By thoroughly
researching and verifying every word before
it’s actually printed. So, in these uncertain
times, might we ask you to wait. Wait before
you share something you have no way of
confirming. Wait until the truth in print makes
its way to your doorstep.
At this time, your trusted newspapers and news sites
are the best sources of credible and trustworthy information.

While you enjoy reading the paper,

here are the QR codes to our news sites.

https://epaper.hindustantimes.com https://epaper.livemint.com https://epaper.livehindustan.com

HIN DUSTA N T IMES, N EW D E LH I
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2 02 0 hindustantimes 13

news
Conviction overturned in 3 Guj firms fined DELHI VIOLENCE

~10cr for running Jamia PhD scholar held for

without green nod
Daniel Pearl murder case
ESCAPING GALLOWS Ahmed Omer Saeed Sheikh’s death sentence commuted to 7-yr jail
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com

NEWDELHI:The Supreme Court has

Rezaul H Laskar
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: Ahmed Omer Saeed
Sheikh, the terrorist convicted of
the 2002 kidnapping and murder
of journalist Daniel Pearl, had his
death sentence commuted to a
prison term of seven years by a
Pakistani court on Thursday.
The Sindh high court delivered
its ruling in response to appeals
by Sheikh and three other men
convicted in connection with the
killing of the Wall Street Journal
reporter in Karachi. The high
court overturned the verdict of an
anti-terrorism court.
Reacting to the ruling,
US House foreign affairs commit-
tee tweeted, “Deeply concerned
by Pakistan court’s overturning
of convictions...It’s critical Paki-
stan demonstrate a real commit-
ment to addressing its longstand-
ing terrorism problem by holding
those involved accountable.”
Sheikh, 46, a British citizen of
Pakistani origin, was freed by
India with Jaish-e-Mohammed
founder Masood Azhar and ter-
rorist Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar in
exchange for the passengers of
Indian Airlines flight IC-814,
which was hijacked by a group of
Pakistani terrorists from Kath-
mandu to Kandahar in December
1999.
The murder conviction of
Sheikh was overturned by the
high court, which found him
guilty of the lesser charge of kid-
napping, for which he was given
the seven-year prison term.
The court also acquitted and
freed the three other men – Fahad
Naseem, Salman Saqib and
n Omar Sheikh comes out of a Karachi court.
Sheikh Adil, who were earlier
sentenced to life imprisonment.
“The court has commuted
Omar’s death sentence to a seven-
year sentence,” defence lawyer
Khawaja Naveed told Reuters.
“The murder charges were not
proven, so he has given seven
years for the kidnapping.”
Naveed added, “Omar has
already served 18 years...He will
be out in a few days.” It was not
immediately clear whether the
Pakistan government will appeal
against the high court’s ruling.
A two-judge bench headed by
Justice Mohammad Karim Khan
Agha announced its verdict on
the appeals filed by the four men
18 years ago. The high court also
dismissed the prosecution’s
appeal that the life sentence given
to the three other men should be
enhanced to capital punishment.
Pearl, an American national
and the South Asia bureau chief
AFP
of the Wall Street Journal, was
kidnapped in Karachi on January
23, 2002 and later beheaded. The
four men were convicted by the
anti-terrorism court on July 15,
2002. They filed appeals in the
high court four days later, and the
defence lawyers had contended
the prosecution had failed to
prove beyond reasonable doubt
that the men participated in or
abetted the crime.
Sheikh is being held in a prison
in Hyderabad city of Pakistan’s
Sindh province. A former student
of the London School of Econom-
ics, Sheikh was accused by offi-
cials of India and several Western
countries of having long-stand-
ing ties with the Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) agency. Several
media reports from 2002 said
Sheikh had given himself up after
Pearl’s murder to his ISI contact,
Ijaz Shah, who is Pakistan’s cur-
rent interior minister. Those
reports also said Sheikh was held
by the ISI for a week before he was
handed over to police.
Pearl disappeared in Karachi
on January 23, 2002, while
researching links between Paki-
stani militants and Richard Reid,
who was arrested the previous
month on a flight from Paris to
Miami with explosives in his
shoes. Pakistani prosecutors said
Saeed lured Pearl into a trap by
promising to arrange an inter-
view with an Islamic cleric, who
police believe was not involved in
the conspiracy. A video emerged
of Pearl being beheaded. Khaled
Sheikh Mohammed, one of the
key plotters of the 9/11 attacks,
confessed in 2007 to beheading
Pearl, according to a statement
issued by the Pentagon.
Sheikh was also a member of
the Harkat-ul-Ansar and was
involved in the 1994 kidnapping of
four foreign tourists – three from
the UK and one from the US – in
New Delhi. The tourists were sub-
sequently freed and Sheikh was
arrested by police. He was in
prison in connection with the kid-
nappings when he was freed
along with Masood Azhar.
Perhaps the most bizarre inci-
dent involving Sheikh was the
phone call he reportedly made
from prison to then Pakistan
President Asif Ali Zardari at the
time of the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Sheikh pretended to be then
Indian external affairs minister
Pranab Mukherjee and appar-
ently threatened Pakistan with
military action.
The situation was defused
after then US secretary of state
Condoleeza Rice intervened.
‘conspiring’ in rioting case
Karn Pratap Singh and
Fareeha Iftikhar
ruled that environmental clear- n letters@hindustantimes.com
ances (EC) granted with retro-
spective effect cannot be sus- NEW DELHI: Delhi Police have
tained, directing three Gujarat- arrested a PhD scholar from
based industrial units to pay ~10 Jamia Millia Islamia in connec-
crore each as compensation for tion with a case of rioting and
operating without valid green criminal conspiracy linked to the
approvals and causing environ- February riots in north-east
mental degradation. Delhi, officers with knowledge of
A circular issued by the minis- the development said.
try of environment and forest Joint commissioner of police
(MOEF) on May 14, 2002, that (special cell) Neeraj Thakur con-
envisaged granting ex post facto firmed Wednesday’s arrest of the
(with retrospective effect) ECs scholar, Meeran Haider, but did
was set aside by the Supreme not disclose details.
Court bench of justices DY Chan- The suspect’s alleged “involve- n Women stand beside charred remains of vehicles and vandalised
drachud and Ajay Rastogi. ment in the conspiracy to insti- properties at Shiv Vihar, Delhi, on March 2. PTI
The decision came on an gate the riots, funding the vio-
appeal filed against a January lence and the agitation against interrogated at the special cell’s had approached his residence
2016 order of the National Green the Citizenship (Amendment) Lodhi Colony office. enquiring about him. He was
Tribunal (NGT) that ordered the Act (CAA) in Shaheen Bagh” is Haider, a resident of Jamia taken into custody around
closure of the three industrial also being probed, the officers Nagar, was served a notice on 10.30pm. The JCC demands that
units – Alembic Pharmaceuti- cited above said, requesting ano- March 31, asking him to join the he must be released as charges
cals, United Phosphorous and nymity.. probe in the case that was regis- against him are baseless,” the
Unique Chemicals – that com- At least 53 people were killed tered by the crime branch after committee said.
menced operations without valid and more than 400 injured in the the riots. He Haider was asked to The University administration
EC and later obtained it with ret- February 23-25 rioting in north- reach the special cell’s Lodhi Col- said it had not been informed
rospective effect. The Environ- east Delhi that started as clashes ony office at 10am on Wednesday. about the incident by the police
mental Impact Assessment noti- between supporters and oppo- “We arrested Haider as we and declined to comment further.
fication of January 1994 man- nents of the CAA before acquir- have evidence to prove the char- The JNU unit of RJD on Thurs-
dated prior EC for setting up and ing a communal colour. Shaheen ges against him. His role in fund- day also issued a statement
expanding industrial projects. Bagh was the venue of an anti- ing the riots and anti-CAA pro- demanding his release. “Delhi
The three industrial units com- CAA sit-in protest in December. tests is being probed,” the officer Police had asked Meeran Haider,
menced production and expan- A senior police officer, one of two said. The Jamia Coordination the president of the young RJD,
sion of their operations without cited in the first instance, said Committee (JCC) alleged that Delhi, to join the investigation
valid ECs. “Penalties must be Haider was president of the Delhi Haider was called for interroga- and then arrested him without
imposed for the disobedience unit of the Bihar-based Rashtriya tion by the Delhi Police’s special giving any valid reason. We
with a binding legal regime,” the Janata Dal (RJD)’s youth wing, cell on Wednesday. “Yesterday demand his release,” the state-
court ruled. Chhatra RJD. Haider is being around 10pm, men in uniform ment read.
Deals

shortstories
PLEA IN SC TO
Anti-migrant quota
RESTORE 4G
SERVICES IN J&K
nations violated law,
NEW DELHI : Patients, doctors, and
general public of Jammu &
Kashmir (J&K) are unable to access
latest information, guidelines,
rules top EU court n Tony Lewis THE MOST AWESOME BUSINESS DAILY THERE IS.

advisories and restrictions about

COVID- 19 because of restrictions
on mobile internet speed to 2G, a
plea filed before Supreme Court
by an NGO. The petitioner
challenged the order issued by
the J&K administration on March
26 restricting internet speed in
mobile data to 2G and prayed
that 4G internet services be
restored in the Union Territory of
J&K. Slow internet speed renders
telemedicine or online video
consultation impossible, it said.
WALL COLLAPSE
KILLS COUPLE,
GRANDDAUGHTER
SAMBALPUR: An elderly couple
and their granddaughter died
after the wall of their house
collapsed following an attack by a
wild tusker at a village in Odishas
Sambalpur district, officials said
on Thursday. The wall fell on the
three when the marauding jumbo
tried to enter their house in
Kolgaon village under the Dhama
Forest Range in Sambalpur Forest
Division on Wednesday, they said.
The deceased have been identi-
fied as Kandha Mirdha (70), his
wife Urmila Mirdha (65) and their
granddaughter, Rashmita Majhi
(12). Forest officials said the
woman and the girl died on the
spot while the man succumbed to
his inujries later.
Associated Press
n letters@hindustantimes.com
BRUSSELS:The European Union’s
top court ruled on Thursday that
the Czech Republic, Hungary
and Poland broke EU law by
refusing to comply with a refu-
gee quota programme launched
after well over a million
migrants entered the bloc, most
fleeing war in Syria and Iraq.
In an emergency move in 2015,
EU nations agreed to relocate up
to 160,000 refugees from Italy and
Greece as those two countries
buckled under the number of
migrant arrivals. Five years on,
Greece is still struggling to man-
age the burden, with thousands
of people held in deplorable con-
ditions in the Greek islands.
That “temporary relocation
mechanism” decision was made
in a vote requiring about a two-
thirds majority among the EU
member countries — 28 at the
time.
The Czech Republic, Hungary
and Poland were among a small
group of nations that voted
against the move. In the end,
only about 40,000 refugees were
relocated. The Czech Republic,
Hungary and Poland took in
almost none over the two years
the scheme was in operation.
The EU’s executive arm, the
European Commission, sought
THE FAILURE OF NATIONS
TO TAKE PART IN THE
MEASURE TO HELP EU
PARTNERS IN DISTRESS
WAS AT THE HEART OF
ONE OF THE BIGGEST
POLITICAL CRISES
an explanation but they gave no
satisfactory answers.
In its ruling, the European
Court of Justice said that “by
refusing to comply with the tem-
porary mechanism for the relo-
cation of applicants for interna-
tional protection, Poland, Hun-
gary and the Czech Republic
have failed to fulfil their obliga-
tions under European Union
law.”
The ECJ said it weighed coun-
ter-arguments by the three
states but found them lacking.
The three had argued that EU
countries alone are responsible
for ensure public safety and not
the commission, which drew up
the quota scheme and took the
countries to court.
The failure of nations to take
part in the measure to help EU
partners in distress was at the
heart of one of the bloc’s biggest
political crises. Immigration
issue later became a major vote-
winner for far-right parties.
Tony Lewis of
Duckworth-Lewis
method is dead
LONDON: Tony Lewis, one of the
men behind the Duckworth-Le-
wis-Stern method used in
weather-affected limited-over
cricket matches, has died aged
78, the England and Wales
Cricket Board announced on
Wednesday.
“It is with much sadness that
the ECB has learned of the pass-
ing of Tony Lewis MBE, aged
78,” it said a statement. “Tony,
alongside fellow mathematician
Frank Duckworth, devised the
DL method which was intro-
duced in 1997 and adopted offi-
cially by the International
Cricket Council two years later.
ICC condoled Lewis’ death.
Renamed the Duckworth-Le-
wis-Stern Method in 2014, the
mathematical formula to calcu-
late the target score of the team
batting second in a truncated
limited-over cricket match con-
tinues to be used in rain reduced
limited-over cricket games.
Lewis received an Member of
the Order of the British Empire
for his services to cricket and
mathematics in 2010. AFP/HTC

HTSPOTLIGHT
Fact-check unit busts
social media fake news
HT Correspondent
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEW DELHI: “A #CBSE press
release, stating that examination
of standard 10 and 12 would
resume from 22 April 2020, is
#Fake and not issued by CBSE.”
“An MCI advisory being circu-
lated on social media, stating that
MBBS UGs and students will be
recruited for assistance in
healthcare against #Covid19, is
FAKE.”
These were among the first
bits of fake news busted by a new
fact check wing of the govern-
ment, constituted to keep the
social media discourse clear of
rumours and canards.The
agency will also provide speedy
responses to queries on email.
A Covid-19 Fact Check Unit
(FCU) was constituted in the
Press Information Bureau (PIB)
and the unit has become opera-
tional, the Information and
Broadcasting ministry said in a
statement on Thursday.
Official news on Covid-19 can
be obtained from the unit, the
statement said. The unit can be
sent messages at pibfac-
tcheck@gmail.com. The unit is
headed by Shri Nitin Wakankar,
DG, PIB, the statement said.
The I&B ministry is exploring
various ways to curb the flow of
incorrect information and
rumours. A dedicated Twitter
handle was also created for the
purpose.
On Wednesday, Union home
secretary Ajay Bhalla had writ-
ten to his counterpart in the I&B
ministry, Ravi Mittal, emphasis-
ing the importance of accurate
information, for which a website,
where people can verify facts and
clear their doubts about unveri-
fied news, should be created.
In the letter, the home hecre-
tary mentioned that the Supreme
Court had taken serious note of
the panic created by fake news
leading to mass movement of
migrant labourers, their plight
and untold suffering.
‘Stranded in India’
app to help tourists
Amrita Madhukalya
n letters@hindustantimes.com
NEWDELHI: A French woman, who
had landed in Rishikesh two
months ago to enter an ashram,
missed the news of India’s 21-day
lockdown as she had decided to
stay off news alerts and internet.
But on Wednesday, as she
found out about it, a local told her
to try the tourism ministry. She
filed a request, and by Thursday,
she was on a bus to Delhi. A relief
flight to France is slated for the
coming week. She filed a com-
plaint on a portal the Centre had
launched on March 31. The tour-
ism ministry said it received 500
queries and requests for help
since the launch. The ministry
had launched a portal on March
31, ‘Stranded in India’. The minis-
try said its task force dealing with
the complaints said most of the
queries were about information
for travelling back home, about
extension of visas, and the logis-
CORONAVIRUS
tics of travelling within India .
Tourism ministry officials
said they are coordinating with
the ministry of external affairs,
embassies as well as state offi-
cials to help stranded tourists.
Director General (Tourism)
Meenakshi Sharma said the min-
istry’s regional offices and state
governments have intervened
and involved local hotels in these
states. Tourism ministry offi-
cials said anywhere between
3000-4000 foreign tourists have
been stranded in India. Most of
them are from the United States,
Italy, United Kingdom and East-
ern Europe.
A flight to Finland and another
to Germany left with around 650
passengers from Goa, and in the
coming days Italy and France are
sending flights for tourists
stranded from their own coun-
tries. From Delhi and Mumbai,
four flights took off for Frankfurt
this week, and flights to the US
are slated later this week.
14 news hindustantimes HIN DUSTA N TIMES, N EW D E LHI
FRIDAY, A PRIL 03, 2 02 0

LIFEINTHETIMEOFCOVID-19

Ready, aim, click: Up your Insta profile www.hindustantimes.com/delhi

Poulomi Banerjee

Instagram has become a very dif- AN INSTANT TREND: DALGONA COFFEE

ferent place, with no eating-out
and no travel. Most views are n There are suddenly pictures of peaks start to form. Put some Mayank Austen Soofi EXPERIENCE YOUR CITY LIKE NEVER BEFORE
now of drawing rooms and kitch- this concoction all over the ice in a glass and fill to two-
internet. Dalgona, a mix of thirds with cold milk. Transfer
ens, as the world remains in

Proust questionnaire with

chilled milk and beaten coffee,
lockdown for another week.
is reportedly named after
With the playing field, in that a Korean candy that
sense, levelled a bit, now is a looks like the top
good time to up your Insta pro- half of this iced
the whipped coffee foam on
top. Mix and drink.
n “Even my six-year-old
daughter did it, after

file. Some of the most popular
videos are things you can do with
little to no expertise or effort — a
quirky dance, a family playing
games, singing off-key a capella.
Instagram is also a good place
to record your notes from these
weeks lived in isolation. Here’s
how you can start to improve the
frame.
Always aim to tell a story:
That’s what banking profes-
sional and amateur photogra-
pher Abhisek Mukherjee tries to
do with every photograph. “An
image should make you think,
laugh or aspire to something,” he
says. Recent pictures include a
lamb nihari made by his wife
(something viewers might want
to attempt too), a glimpse of her
assembling a chair so she could
work from home better (context
and slice of life) and a view of
their garden (a quarantine diary
YOUR DAILY WORKOUT
Keep your legs toned and strong with the help of these simple lower-body exercises
1 Calf raises:
In a standing
position, lift
both heels off
the floor until
you’re on your
toes. Hold this
pose for a few
seconds before
you gently
lower leg back
to the ground.
Keep your
hands at your
sides as you do
a this exercise at
b a stand. Do this exercise at least 15 times.
least 20 times.
COOK A ONE-POT MEAL
Masala Rice with Vegetables
Ingredients: 1 cup rice; 1/3 cup red dal;
2 cups mixed vegetables,
chopped; 1 tsp garam
masala;
1 cardamom,
3 cloves and
1” cinnamon,
powdered;
1 tsp ghee; salt to taste
n Start with easy, candid shots
full of colour, says Instagram
influencer Sonal Devraj, seen
here with her cat Dum Dum.
shot). “My friend took a photo of
his wife stockpiling toilet paper.
That’s bound to make others
laugh,” he adds.
Capture the beauty of the
mundane: Take your camera to
different corners of the house. A
pretty bottle on a bathroom
shelf, washed utensils glinting
on granite — pick things that you
normally miss during your daily
2 Alternating reverse
lunges: Stand with your
feet together, then take a
lunge backwards with one
foot. Lower hips so your
right thigh is parallel to
the floor. Ensure
your knee is
positioned
directly above
your ankle. Hold,
repeat on the than shoulder-width apart, toes turned out about
other side. 45 degrees. Bend the knees and lower yourself
Continue for into a squat with your hands clasped in front of
one minute. your chest. Lower your hips until your thighs are
parallel to the ground. Then slowly straighten to
Rakhshanda Jalil
watching a video
beverage. online,” says food
n To make it, you take writer Debjani
2 tbsp each of Chatterjee Alam.
instant coffee, sugar n It tastes like coffee
and hot water and
beat it all to a foam.
your grandma might
have made, but looks a
Wading deep into the heart of fellow citizens
Keep beating till little lot more Insta-friendly.
The Proust Questionnaire represents a A gardener; to plant seeds in the soil, watch
confessional game that owes its them sprout and grow is the greatest marvel
structure to answers given by cele- Where would you like to live?
routine, says photographer Anu- Keep it realistic, says Devraj. PRIVATE brated French writer Marcel Proust in
CAPITAL two parties that he attended at ages 13 Ideally, in a cottage in the hills with a little
rag Banerjee. While sharing your efforts in the
and 20 in the late 19th century. patch of a garden; But I guess I am doomed to
Use the light: Start by focus- kitchen, for instance, don’t the city you
live in this benighted city
never see
ing on natural light; plants in the upload only the end result, beau- We bring these Parisian parlour
balcony, sunlight through a win- tifully plated. Sharing the proc- confessions into the Indian capital to Your favourite colour and flower
dow, says choreographer and ess is likely to connect with peo- explore people’s lives, thoughts, values and Favourite colour: red
Instagram influencer Sonal Dev- ple better. experiences. In a series, we interview folks
from diverse backgrounds. Flower: I love the narcissus for their delicate
raj. Let it be a character in your Don’t get into every frame: beauty and tremulous fragrance. They come
photos, suggests Banerjee. You can share photos of your So today, say hello to Rakhshanda Jalil. An to us in Delhi for a very short while tied in
Through the day, follow it house and activities without author, literary critic and an acclaimed bunches with a bit of a twine. Called Nargis in
around the house. Whether it is being in the picture. Focus on translator of classic works, she often shares Urdu, they are a popular trope in Urdu poetry
natural or artificial light, also try your favourite plant, pet or child her baking experiments as well as reading and used as a simile for the seeing eye (nargisi ity, his elegance, his leadership and most
for quirky effects — silhouettes, (just kidding). Mix it up. Swap experiences with friends on Facebook. These ankhein). And then there are the divine importantly his writings – be it his big books
shadows, visual confusion. vanity for the element of fresh- days, she is coping with coronavirus-induced nargisi kofte, too! or the notes he wrote even to the most casual
Don’t aim for perfection: ness and surprise. isolation in her lovely central Delhi residence
Your favourite bird of acquaintances... Also, Dr Rashid Jahan
with her husband and two daughters. For the
whose biography I wrote: a feminist writer,
first time in a very long time, she says, she is Sunbird; it is quick and agile, I love the way activist, doctor, a complete human being
doing absolutely no writing, not even the sun glints off its small, shiny body
READ translation. “Oh, yes, I am also losing a lot of
Your favourite prose authors
What characters in history do you most
Hopscotch by Julio Cortazar: friends ... to the virus of communalism.” dislike?
Bohemian intellectuals of the The Urdu writer Intizar Husain – for the way Hitler rather obviously but all those emperors
Your favourite qualities in a man
Serpent Club gather in the evenings he fashioned stories, the expressions and as well as modern-day politicians who
for a tipple, talk politics and art, and Intelligence idioms he used, culled from what was once a
foolishly, and proudly, rushed into wars that
discuss their walks Your favourite qualities in a woman real, spoken Urdu and a living literary culture, caused thousands to die as collateral damage
and the fact that he has single-handedly
around Paris. One of
Empathy, kindness crafted a new literary sensibility Your heroines in world history
the first Latin
American novels Your chief characteristic Your favourite poets The British suffragettes who fought for the
with multiple I bounce back and find something to do most basic of rights for women: the right to
endings, in its Oh, too many but chiefly, in English: TS Eliot. vote
a b WB Yeats, John Keats; and in Urdu: Faiz, Iqbal,
search for meaning, What do you appreciate the most in your
friends? Ghalib, Mir, Shahryar and Zehra Nigah Your favourite food and drink
3 Sumo squats: Stand with your feet wider it asks some
difficult questions. When they stand by me Your favourite heroes in fiction Paratha with aam ka achaar; coconut water
Your favourite names
WATCH Your main fault Odysseus; not for the wars he fought but the
adventures he had on his way home! Tara, Ali, Benazir
A Separation: In this dark Iranian Quick to judge, quicker to get angry
Your favourite heroines in fiction
film about the burdens of the past, Your favourite occupation What do you hate the most?
Asghar Alice from Alice in Wonderland… nothing Bigotry
Farhadi has a Writing, writing, writing fazed her ever!
couple filing The military event you admire the most
Method: Pressure-
coo
Your idea of happiness Your favourite composers The idea of military intervention goes against
2.5 cups water and
k rice and dal with for divorce
When the thoughts are in full flow, when I everything I hold dear. There is no nobility or
Cook vegetables in
salt, for 5 minutes. because the
have written a para or two of good writing,
I have been listening rather a lot to the Sabri
2 cups water and wife wants to Brothers recently glory in war
salt to taste. When good by my own standards, that makes me
vegetables are do move their 12-year-old daughter to How do you wish to die?
mix in garam masal ne, sigh with satisfaction Your favourite painters
a and powdered another country, for a different life,
whole spices. Simme In my own home, and as painlessly as possi-
r for 5 minutes. and the husband wants to stay back Your idea of misery or what would be Amrita Sher-Gil, Frida Kahlo, and I adore A
Mix vegetables wit ble. Just as the Believer has been promised
h cooked rice-dal with his ailing father. How will they your greatest misfortune? Ramachandran and his ‘Lotus pond’ series
mixture on a low fire death, like fragrance leaving the flower – as
for 5 minutes. Top explain any of this to an Islamic Your heroes/heroines in real life
with ghee and ser To, God forbid, lose or somehow be distanced an aunt told me by way of solace when my
ve hot, with curd, divorce court, and what does the
papad and pickles. from my family Jawaharlal Nehru: there is nothing not to like father passed away suddenly sitting in his
girl want for herself? Available on
Amazon Prime and YouTube. If not yourself, who would you be? in the man. I admire his erudition, his human- favourite armchair, talking to my mother

frompageone thecrosswords
1 million need to be protected. But now, the
states get about 13-14 days to plan
the state’s GSP and asked for the
Indian Council of Medical
self-quarantine, as advised by
doctors.” Ayyubi also said that
tory, which is the only one of two
producers of N 95 masks in the
CRYPTIC CLUES PUZZLE 15568 © Gemini Crosswords 2012 All rights reserved

Stock markets around the
world suffered historic losses in
the first three months of the year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Aver-
age and London’s FTSE 100 saw
their biggest quarterly drops
since 1987, plunging 23% and 25%
respectively. In India, Bombay
Stock Exchange investors lost
around ₹33.38 lakh crore (in mar-
ket value) in March, the month
when the coronavirus contagion
spread to equities. In an age
largely defined as the era of social
media, Covid-19 has now intro-
duced a new zeitgeist: social dis-
tancing. Jobs that can be done are
now being done from home -- as
are classes for schools and col-
lege, and even the UK parliament.
As a result, digital pipelines are
sagging under the load of unprec-
edented video streaming and con-
ferencing.
PM to CMs
ended. The PM asked the state
governments to send suggestions
on how to do this. He emphasised
that even after the lockdown
ends, the importance of social dis-
tancing to prevent the spread of
Covid-19 must be kept in mind.
This is the first hint of the gov-
ernment’s thinking on what hap-
pens after April 14; it suggests
that while a complete lockdown
will not continue, neither will
there be free movement of people,
with restrictions in place for cer-
tain geographical clusters, demo-
graphic groups and on travel. The
PM announced on Tuesday last
week that a 21-day lockdown was
being put in place to control the
spread of Covid-19, which has
infected a million people across
the world since last December.
Experts believe this may be a
sensible approach. Ravindra
Mehta, chief of pulmonary and
critical care medicine at Apollo
Hospitals, Bengaluru, said:
“Staggered re-emergence of the
public is the best option at the
point as continuous lockdown for
a long term is not sustainable.
The government will test the
waters and even when people
come out, the government must
enforce social distancing and
restrict all non-essential activi-
ties such as foreign travel. But in
the next few weeks, the top prior-
ity should be accorded to beefing
up health care infrastructure.”
But the staggered re-emer-
gence will have implementation
challenges. Yashovardhan Azad,
a retired senior Indian Police Ser-
vice officer, said: “Even after the
lockdown is officially lifted, the
identified hot spots of the virus
their exit routes well. And they
must use it well.”
The PM praised different
states for their “teamwork”
which helped check the speed of
the virus, and thanked them for
supporting the lockdown, due to
which, the PM suggested, India
had achieved some success in
limiting the spread of Covid-19.
He emphasised the need for
quick identification of virus hot
spots and to encircle them to
ensure the virus does not spread
out. The PM also pointed to the
need to maintain law and order
across the country — law and
order is a state subject.
He also asked the states to
make available dedicated hospi-
tal facilities for Covid-19 patients,
tap into the resource pool of
AYUSH doctors, organise online
training and utilise paramedical
staff and civil society volunteers.
At a time when there remains
a debate about whether India is
testing enough, the PM under-
lined that data for testing must
come from accredited labs so that
there is congruence in data of dis-
trict, state and the Centre.
The PM also asked for stag-
gered release of funds to the bene-
ficiaries under PM Garib Kalyan
Yojana to avoid crowding at
banks. A video clip of the meeting
also showed PM Modi asking
political leaders needed to reach
out to community leaders and
social welfare organisations.
State governments put forth
their demands at the meeting.
The Rajasthan government
asked for a package of ₹1 lakh
crore, while West Bengal sought
a grant of ₹25,000 crore, over and
above their dues of ₹36,000 crore.
Experts believe that the crisis
demands a strong Centre-state
collaboration, and the former
needed to be more supportive of
financial needs of the states.
Yamini Aiyar, president and
chief executive of the Centre for
Policy Research, said: “Genuine
cooperative federalism is imper-
ative. States are at the front lines
and best placed to devise inter-
ventions suited to their contexts.
But they are fiscally strapped.
The Centre needs to devise a
mechanism for support that is
untied and flexible and but-
tresses state action rather than
undermine it with central
schemes. The demand for greater
financial support from states is
critical and the Centre must take
heed.”
Many CMs also sought medi-
cal equipment apart from cash to
tackle the situation. Rajasthan
wanted to take loans of up to 2% of
Research (ICMR) to be made the
nodal office for buying personal
protective equipment (PPE) and
ventilators so that they are avail-
able to every state at best price
and on time. It also underlined
the need to focus on interstate
supply chain protocol for essen-
tial items, medicines and medical
equipment. West Bengal
demanded more face masks,
gloves, sanitisers, special suits
for medical staff and also immedi-
ate release of the Goods and Ser-
vices Tax (GST) compensation
and cess amount.
Speaking to the media after the
interaction, Karnataka CM BS
Yediyurappa said: “The PM said
that migrant labourers should be
provided all facilities; lockdown
should be implemented in full;
food, medicine and other essen-
tial items should be made easily
available; there should be no
shortage of doctors or medical
facilities; the PM Garib Kalyan
package should be implemented
smoothly; and states should
ensure that there is no impact of
lockdown on agricultural activi-
ties.” The Opposition asked the
PM to be more consultative. The
chief spokesperson of the Con-
gress, Randeep Singh Surjewala,
said that if the PM had consulted
the CMs before announcing the
nationwide lockdown, all the
problems emerging now could
have been avoided.
Jamaat
ister Amit Shah said on Thurs-
day the government has black-
listed 960 foreigners for their
involvement in activities with
the group while they were in
India on tourist visas. Their
visas have also been cancelled.
The home minister added that
the state director generals of
police and Delhi Police commis-
sioner have been directed to take
necessary legal action against
the overseas Tablighi Jamaat
members as they violated the
provisions of Foreigners Act,
1946 and Disaster Management
Act, 2005.
On Thursday, the Delhi Police
mailed 24 questions to the
group’s head, the first step in
launching its formal investiga-
tion. The questions are related to
the gathering of over 2,000 people
at the building and Saad’s
alleged violation of the orders
that prohibited an assembly of
large groups. Saad’s counsel,
Fuzail Ayyubi, said, “We are pre-
paring a reply. There are about
two dozen questions. The mau-
lana is not absconding. He is in
Saad has released an audio mes-
sage urging all his followers to
comply with the lockdown direc-
tions and be safe. In a minute-
long video released on social
media groups, Saad asked his fol-
lowers to remain indoors and
cooperate with the government.
PPEs
weeks ago and, on a good day,
when trucks aren’t stuck at the
highway because of the lock-
down, the unit produces 12,000 to
15,000 of these suits. “The raw
material is coming from Banga-
lore for us and so many times they
get stranded, else we didn’t have
any problems delivering our
order,’’ said Singhal. Neither
Singhal, nor the other firms, were
willing to specify the exact orders
that the government had placed
with them. However, supply of
raw materials is a common chal-
lenge for all of them. Nisheeth
Dand of the Vadodara-based firm,
Sure Safety, which is also
involved in the production of
these coveralls, said that the com-
pany is slowly trying to increase
the pace of production but the
lockdown isn’t helping. His raw
materials also come from differ-
ent parts of the country and their
flow is proving to be a bottleneck.
There is help, though -- in the
form of nodal and field officers
that the government has assigned
to each of these firms, so that they
can troubleshoot, call the local
administration in the area that a
particular truck is stuck in, but
the delays are inevitable.
Then, there are other obsta-
cles. “I have 180 workers in my
unit but right now only 44% are
coming to work,’’ said Dand.
“Their families won’t allow them,
they are scared so the only thing
I can offer them is higher pay.’’
So for coming to the factory in
times of lockdown, Dand says, he
pays a worker who would usually
get ~15,000 , ~25,000. “It’s not just
labour, even the raw materials
have become expensive. I know
banks have been told to help us
but they are totally unrespon-
sive. They should be giving us
interest-free credit.’’
Despite these hurdles, Sure
Safety is producing more and
more kits every day. If it was 500
earlier, it is now 700 and the com-
pany hopes to be able to increase
it to 1,500 soon. If it isn’t a supply
problem, it’s the problem of
learning to run a factory with
social distancing, to take care of
workers’ needs and concerns. At
the Mumbai-based Venus Safety
and Health Private Limited fac-
country, this involves free food,
free medical camps and upping
the hygiene conditions for the
700-800 workers that work there.
The company’s chief market-
ing officer, Ravi Shinde, said: “We
have increased the space that’s
occupied by individual workers
and even though I am sure they
have concerns, they know that
this is for the country and so
haven’t really objected to work-
ing.’’ Earlier the company was
producing 2.5 lakh masks daily
and now it is hoping to amp up
their production to 3.5- 4 lakh per
day.
Every step of the way, the tex-
tile ministry’s officials are keep-
ing an eye. Vijay Shankar of
Shree Hari Healthcare in Chen-
nai said that several ministry offi-
cials arrived at his unit on March
20, the day production started.
“We normally wouldn’t work
with the government but this was
an urgent moment and we felt we
had to pitch in,’’ said Shankar. He
has been lucky with raw materi-
als for his coveralls, with the min-
istry suggesting alternative sour-
ces when his were stuck. How-
ever, the challenge has been to
take care of his workforce, major-
ity of which are women.
“We are working at a feverish
pace but we can’t do so at the cost
of their health,’’ he said. The com-
pany has mandatory hand wash
hygiene breaks every hour and a
compulsory Sunday off but the
pace of production is “satisfac-
tory”. The Kolkata-based Fron-
tier Protective Wear has just
started production of its coveralls
in its Gurugram unit and will
start in the Kolkata unit on Mon-
day. “The ministry has assured
us that we will continue to get all
supplies that we need, so I am con-
fident that we can deliver on
time,’’ said Sweta Chaudhry
Singh, one of the promoters.
The one place that is stretched
is Sitra, the government testing
lab in Coimbatore that is receiv-
ing each of the samples from the
manufacturers. “Before, we
would get one sample a week,’’
said Prakash Vasudevan of Sitra.
“Now we are getting 15-20 sam-
ples a day.’’ Considering that the
lab has only four or five people
working during the lockdown, it
means that workdays go on till 2
or 3am. “We need to clear each
sample that comes in daily and so
we are really stretched.’’
So when all 17 of these firms
have fulfilled their orders and
they are tested and ready to go,
will this fulfil India’s protective
gear deficit? Last week, Reuters
reported that India needed
ACROSS
1 Can start out to do business (8)
5 Open a pickle container for example (4)
9 It’s poisonous, so mother gets a doctor in (5)
10 He makes a practice of seeing complaints (7)
11 He may make several calls before getting
the contract (6,6)
13 Having a certain inclination (6)
14 It’s still produced in Ireland, though illegally (6)
17 Undecided fate of a plane taking
20
paratroopers into battle (4,2,3,3)
Hide the real difference (7)
21 Call attention to high point inside (5)
22 It’s a lot older than you (4)
23 Axle-bushes, for instance, for carriages (8)
DOWN
1 It’s up to me to find a great healer, perhaps (4)
2 He has the main control (7)
3 Result of refusing to take things lying down?
QUICK CLUES
(5-2,5) ACROSS DOWN
4 Was less agitated in prison (6) 1 Outlook (8) 1 Power to attract (4)
5 Capital of Ukraine (4) 2 Obsolete (7)
6 First half of June is very cold and wet (5)
9 A water lily (5) 3 Troublesome (12)
7 Shy about going to bed? (8)
8 Work in harmony as rowers should (4,8)
10 Primitive (7) 4 Cost (6)
11 Racing bird (6,6) 6 Mental picture (5)
12 After autumn an apartment appears to 13 A curdling agent (6) 7 Neighbourhood (8)
produce no response (4,4) 14 Become less severe (6) 8 By chance (12)
15 One form of literary work? (7)
16 Five have a good look round, but go hungry (6)
17 Interpretation (12)
20 Shock grossly (7)
12
15
Affable (8)
Feeling (7)
18 Very light, for example (5) 21 Situated (5) 16 Splendid (6)
19 There’s a singular example of these in ancient 22 Middling (2-2) 18 Paper money (5)
history (4) 23 Temporary suspension (8) 19 Malarial fever (4)
YESTERDAY’S SOLUTIONS (15567)
CRYPTIC QUICK
htsudoku
Fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row,
column and each of the 9X9 squares contains all the
digits from 1 to 9.
DIFFICULTY LEVEL
SUDOKU>> SCAN THIS SUDOKU UNIT FOR
THE SOLUTION AND MANY MORE PUZZLES
around 38 million masks and 6.2 An official of the textile minis- across the country. The three-
million pieces of PPE to take care try, which is tasked with the all week lockdown in India till April
of Covid-19 patients, quoting an important coveralls and masks, 14 will, if successful, flatten the
internal report from Invest India. said that they are hopeful of hit- curve of the disease’s spread --
Invest India said it had contacted ting peak production by the mid- giving the administration enough
730 companies for ventilators, dle of the month. Last week, the time to stockpile enough medical
ICU monitors, protective equip- government issued a statement equipment, including masks.
ment, masks and testing kits, of detailing its plans to procure 6.2 People like Singhal are at the
which 319 firms had responded. million PPEs desperately needed forefront of that effort.
 HIN DU STA N T IM ES , N EW DE LHI
F RIDAY, A PRIL 03 , 2020 TIME OUT htcity
Shilpa Shetty
15
Kundra and her

Online masterclass Crafting memories this quarantine son, Viaan

from your film gurus W ith the ongoing

lockdown leaving us
confined to our homes,
many are taking this time to
celebrities are no different!
Particularly celeb-parents,
who are making
#craftingmemories with their
Actor
Shilpa
Shetty
Kundra is
unwind, have fam-jam little ones and coming up with seen crafting
Radhika Bhirani sessions and take up new, creative ways to keep them handmade
exciting hobbies. And engaged. love notes with
Vivek ilmmakers are utilising the son, Viaan, in a
Ranjan
Agnihotri F lockdown period to engage
with film buffs through
various online platforms.
Karanvir Bohra with his
daughters Bella and Vienna
video she recently
posted. While the actor
hopes for the situation to get
PHOTO:
INSTAGRAM/
THESHILPA
SHETTY

While some of them are better, she says, “While at wrote, “From working out
responding on chats to queries home, I’m getting to spend a together to dancing to playing,
on scriptwriting, others have lot of time with Viaan, and we Bella and Vienna have filled
taken a step further by keep coming with new things immense happiness in our
conducting online classes. to do with each other. We lives. Even though home-
Rishabh Suri Director Ritesh Batra talks spent this morning creating bound for such a long stretch,
about screenwriting in his these little love notes for each I just love spending time with
er story has been going #AskMeAnything session on other.” Adding to the them! Today we thought of

H viral for all the right

reasons. Who’d have
imagined that someone so
young would work closely
with Covid-19 suspects and
patients? Actor Shikha
Malhotra, seen in films such
as Fan (2017), tells us what
made her decide to work
as a nurse.
“When I heard the PM’s
address to the nation about
the 21-day lockdown, I
couldn’t sit at home. As
someone with a medical
background, I realised the
situation was serious. I
started visiting hospitals in
Mumbai from the very next
day, until I found a
government hospital. I was
directed to the medical
superintendent, who was
surprised that I wanted to do
this. They wanted to place
me in the isolation ward for
Covid-19, as they required
more people for that. My
shift lasts around 11-12
hours, I want to put in
Twitter. He says, “I like talking
about films, and you’re
welcome to join.”
lockdown diaries, actor
Karanvir Bohra also shared a
video in which he is seen
making a moustache — a
“moochi” for the real hero of
the house: our mommy
Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan enjoying precious moments darling!”
Shikha Malhotra RS Agnihotri is hosting free online with his twin daughters, and Sanchita Kalra
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/KARANVIRBOHRA
Prasanna classes, urging people to
more,” says Malhotra, who PHOTO: AALOK “make your first indie short
has a BSc degree in Nursing. SONI/HT film”.
Talking about how she is Director RS Prasanna is
dealing with the situation, hosting YouTube sessions, Nitesh Tiwari
given that hospitals are
brimming with people
infected by the virus,
Film Learning in Corona
Times. He uploads a video
every day, talking about the
and Ashwiny
Iyer Tiwari
PHOTO: YOGEN SHAH
CAUGHT ON
Malhotra, 25, says,“I’m a
little upset as we even have
patients as young as seven
Ritesh
Batra
PHOTO: YOGEN
technicalities of filmmaking.
Inspired by other online
teachers, he says, “I thought,
INSTA
months as corona positive in SHAH ‘Hey, I’m a filmmaker, let me Couples who
our hospital. I feel bad when teach that’!” work out
I see people roaming in the Directors Nitesh Tiwari and together, stay
streets, even after the PM Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari have together. Actor
requested everyone to take started an Instagram class on Sushmita Sen
precautions. We’ve to wear screenplay writing. He says, set some
three layers of dressing, two “We want to encourage #CoupleWorkout
head covers and two pair of budding writers, who have goals with her
shoes, one can’t breathe queries, but didn’t get a chance boyfriend, model
properly. You have been to interact with professionals. Rohman Shawl.
requested to be at home only We were getting requests for a Think before
to protect yourself. We feel while, and now that we have taking the
dehydrated after a point.” time, we decided to go for it.” plunge at home!
n rishabh.suri@htlive.com n radhika.bhirani@hindustantimes.com PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/SUSHMITASEN47

Staying well SUDOKU DIFFICULTY LEVEL CALVIN AND HOBBES Bill Watterson
groomed during
the lockdown has
become a
challenge for men
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/
DAVIDGANDY_OFFICIAL

STAY
GROOMED
AS YOU MATHDOKU DID YOU KNOW?
SELF-ISOLATE Even before actor Ranbir Kapoor
worked with his father, actor Rishi
Kapoor, in Besharam (2013), he
Fill in all the squares in the grid so that each row, column and
Akshay Kaushal shape: Trim the eyebrow each of the 9X9 squares contains all the digits from 1 to 9. had assisted on Rishi’s directorial,
hair longer than the rest Aa Ab Laut Chalen (1999).
ecently, actor Ranveer with scissors and use a SCRAMBLE - 3410
R Singh shared a photo of
himself sporting an
unruly beard and dreadlocks
tweezer to remove extra hair.
n Groom your nose: Trim your
nose hair with scissors, but
Solve the four anagrams and move one letter to each square to
form four ordinary words

— a look that he anticipates to

have post lockdown. But you
wouldn’t want to look like him,
would you? However, most
men depend on salons for their
grooming rituals, and with all
shops shut now, it’s time to
take the pair of scissors in
your own hand.
Here are some quick tips:
n Get rid of facial hair: Beard
styling isn’t easy, so shave
off that beard, and get a
neat look.
n Keep your eyebrows in
be careful while doing it
yourself.
n Exfoliate skin: Scrub your
face with sea salt mixed with
olive oil for 10 minutes. This
helps in removing dead skin.
n Home pedicure: Soak your
feet in lukewarm water
mixed with liquid soap. Trim
your nails with a clipper.
Rub your heels with pumice
stone. Wash your feet, wipe
them, and apply moisturiser.
Cover them with socks.
n akshay.kaushal@htlive.com
AGTAE
DE EST
ABDL LY
E H IST F
Now arrange the letters marked with an asterisk (*) to form the
answer to the riddle or to fill in the missing words as indicated.
Our insignificance is often the cause of our _________.
- Aesop (6)
SOLUTION SUDOKU
SOLUTION MATHDUKU
- Aesop
Place numbers into the puzzle cells so that each row and column contains each of the digits from 1 to 5. No number is to be repeated in any row or
ANSWER: Our insignificance is often the cause of our safety.
column. Each bold-outlined cells contain a hint of a number and one of the mathematical symbols + x - /. The number is the result of the operation
SCRAMBLE SOLUTION: Agate, steed, baldly, fetish
represented by the symbol to the digits contained.

Astrologer Prem Kumar Sharma can be contacted at: Delhi: 011-47033152, Eddie Murphy: The actor, comedian and singer,
FRIDAY,
DAILY HOROSCOPE APRIL 03,
2020
40532026 (Sat to Mon): Panchkula: 91-172-2562832, 2572874 (Tues to Thurs);
Mumbai: 09716145644 (Last week of every month)
known for films such as 48 Hrs., Trading Places,
The Nutty Professor, Dolemite Is My Name, and
Dreamgirls, turns 59 today.

Nobody can deter you from your resolve to
make more money. You are likely to take
up a creative pursuit and earn
appreciation. Irregular hours can upset
your routine and reflect on health. There
ARIES is no point in stepping outside the house
(MAR 21 - APR 20) unless really required to. Many options
will open up on the academic front.
Someone you dislike may extend a helping
hand, so don’t hesitate to extend a hand of friendship.
Love Focus: Getting involved in too many things will automatically
shift romance to a low key.
Lucky Number: 11 Lucky Colour: Cream
A deal you thought you had clinched may
show signs of slipping through your
fingers if you are not proactive. Keep the
pace up on the work front to avoid
lagging behind. Self-discipline will keep
TAURUS you in good health. Changes you wanted
(APR 21 - MAY 20) to bring to the home front will now be
possible. Those freshly out of college can
opt for higher studies. Things that you are
passionate about may come to you, even without you seeking them.
Love Focus: Someone you secretly admire is likely to set your heart
aflutter on the romantic front!
Lucky Number: 17 Lucky Colour: Electric Grey
Your enthusiasm for work is likely to keep
you energetic throughout the day. Don’t
pay the full amount for a service till you
have availed it. A new exercise regimen
will prove immensely useful in getting
GEMINI back into shape. Going to any extent for
(MAY 21 - JUN 21) the welfare of your family is ingrained in
your nature and you are not likely to leave
any stone unturned to help and support them.
Don’t take any chances on the road today. Keep someone who you are
suspicious about under close observation.
Love Focus: Don’t get too possessive in love.
Lucky Number: 9 Lucky Colour: Peach
Appreciation for something you have
achieved on the work front is likely to
add to your high morale. A venture may
require heavier than anticipated
expenditure for being successful.
CANCER Being a choosy eater has its advantages,
(JUNE 22 - JULY 22) as you remain in good health today.
Someone is likely to prove of immense help
to you on the family front. Today, travel is
best avoided.
Love Focus: Those waiting for love to happen can be in for a long
wait!
Lucky Number: 5 Lucky Colour: Green

In your eagerness for earning more,
don’t disturb the source providing you
steady income. Initiative on the
professional front will prove
indispensable in promoting your
interests. A change of routine may lead
some to perfect health. A great family
time is foreseen for some. Those spiritually
inclined will find mental solace in religious
activities.
Love Focus: Some problems may threaten to crop up on the
romantic front.
Lucky Number: 22 Lucky Colour: Royal Blue
Things look most promising on the Be careful at work today. A financial Your one-point programme of cutting
professional front and may give your dispute is amicably settled, thanks to costs will help you conserve money
career a push. Health tips are likely to your patience and perseverance. today. For success, you will need to
come in handy for those wanting to Alternative medicine will come in handy pursue your professional goals with all
come back in shape. Be careful in in curing an ailment. Parents or elders the energy and focus today. Some
LEO handling money. Parents may nag you VIRGO may insist on doing something that you LIBRA good advice on the health front will SCORPIO
(JULY 23 - AUG 23) over an issue and compel you to do their (AUG 24 - SEPT 23) don’t approve of. A journey you were (SEPT 24 - OCT 23) lead you to perfect fitness. Domestic (OCT 24 - NOV 22)
bidding. Your travel plans may undergo a looking forward to may have to be work is likely to be shared by your family
few changes due to someone’s insistence. Your cancelled. A disputed property bothering you is members today. A trip may get cancelled or
popularity is set to rise on the social front, as you increase your social not likely to get you into any legal wrangle. postponed for some of you. Don’t take things for granted on the
circle by networking. Love Focus: Your romantic endeavours may not bring immediate academic front.
Love Focus: Giving some space to lover will be a good idea. results. Love Focus: Spending time with lover looks possible.
Lucky Number: 7 Lucky Colour: Beige Lucky Number: 18 Lucky Colour: Magenta Lucky Number: 14 Lucky Colour: Dark Yellow

Some of you are likely to gain goodwill by
helping somebody commute. Handling
complicated tasks on the work front will
not pose much difficulty today. Love life
will prove most satisfying as lover
showers love and affection. Health
SAGITTARIUS problems disappear by only a slight
(NOV 23 - DEC 21)
change in lifestyle. You will find the family
more than supportive today in your
endeavours. A property matter may not get resolved due to delay in
paperwork.
Love Focus: Love life will prove most fulfilling.
Lucky Number: 6 Lucky Colour: Magenta
Saving money can be on the top of your
agenda today, but make sure that doing
so does not rub others the wrong
way. Those of you who may be
preparing for some kind of
important competition or interview will
CAPRICORN need to be more deliberate about it.
(DEC 22 - JAN 21)
Good health is assured to you as you get
back to your routine today. A religious
event or marriage ceremony is quite likely to be postponed to a
later date.
Love Focus: Love life remains satisfactory.
Lucky Number: 8 Lucky Colour: Coffee
You will need to give some more time for
financial troubles to be completely over.
Your ideas on the professional front are
likely to be accepted. Bringing changes
in lifestyle is likely to earn you better
health. Remaining on the right side of
AQUARIUS those who are important on the social
(JAN 22 - FEB 19)
front will be in your interest today.
Students can get distracted from their focus
due to peer pressure.
Love Focus: You are romantic by nature and will keep the fires of
passion burning in your love life.
Lucky Number: 4 Lucky Colour: Purple
Careful investments will soon start giving
rich dividends. An opportunity on the
business front will prove profitable.
Excellent physical condition may find
some full of energy today. Something
you were hoping on the family front will
PISCES happen. You will have to take time out to
(FEB 20 - MAR 20)
guide someone on the academic front. Your
attempts to hog the limelight on the social
front may be partially successful.
Love Focus: Your advice will work in sorting out the differences
between newlyweds.
Lucky Number: 1 Lucky Colour: Light Red

NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, APRIL 03, 2020 I Entertainment & Promotional Features
Humour does what force can’t
Cops are using cool and quirky moves to prevent the common man
from stepping out without reason
Desi nuskhe get a modern twist
Srinidhi Gopalakrishnan
F
ritters, chai tea, seasoned
foxnuts, turmeric latte — do
they sound familiar? These
are things we have probably
grown up eating or drinking
(Read: pakode, masala chai,
makhana, haldi doodh). Age-old
recipes from our homes have
found their place in the West,
albeit under fancier names.
The latest to make it to this
list is Dalgona coffee. A Korean
beverage, this delicacy has
become the talk of the town, and
is a few steps away from being
declared as the official
‘quarantine drink’! While it has
caused a stir on social media, a
section of Indian netizens
wonder what all the fuss is
about, as ‘pheti hui coffee’ has
been a childhood favourite.
While one may ask, ‘What’s in
a name?’, experts believe a dish
is an amalgamation of
taste, plating and its
name. “It is the
final product
served — the ideal
match of taste,
presentation and
Shekhar Suman
FILE PHOTO
I didn’t see my dad
on his last day: Sana
Sangeeta Yadav
A
ctor Sana Saeed’s world
came crashing down
when she got to know that
her father, Urdu poet Abdul
Ahad Saeed, passed away due
to a prolonged illness on
March 22, when the nation
observed Janata Curfew.
Sitting miles away in Los
Angeles, USA, and amid a
lockdown situation due to the
coronavirus pandemic, it was
all the more difficult for her to
cope with the loss.
“My dad was a diabetes
patient, and this led to
multiple organ failure. It was
around 7am in LA when I got
the news and I wanted to rush
back home and hug my mother
and sisters. I haven’t got
closure since then. The
circumstances under which I
lost my father were very
unfair, but I know in my heart
‘MY WAY OF
CONTRIBUTING
IS BY NOT
Shara Ashraf Prayag
L
aughter is the best
medicine, even in times like
these. In order to spread
awareness about coronavirus,
TELLING’
police officers are coming up
with fun and novel ideas.
Dancing to demonstrate how to
wash hands, doing an aarti of
those stepping out without a
reason and singing parodies —
police officers across India are
exhibiting their quirky side.
In Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh,
people who are out without a
reason, are getting their aarti
done. Lalita Mehar, the DSP
sees in the video performing
the aarti, says, “Why use lathis
when aartis work better? The
purpose was to make people
realise how they are putting
everyone’s life at risk.”
Police officers in other states
are also singing to urge people
to stay at home. A video of a
Pune police officer singing
Zindagi Maut Na Ban Jaye is
also being shared on social
PHOTO: P RAVIKUMAR /REUTERS
media. The Kerala police, too,
had earlier released a video of
Iced
Dalgona Coffee
PHOTO: ISTOCK
DIY DALGONA COFFEE
Ingredients
1tbsp coffee, 1tbsp sugar,
2tbsp water, 250ml milk,
3 ice cubes IF YOU’RE LOOKING
Method
n In a bowl, mix coffee,
FOR SOMETHING SWEETER,
sugar and water. Whip it
together till it reaches a
YOU COULD REPLACE COFFEE
firm peak stage. POWDER WITH MATCHA, THE
n In a glass, add ice cubes
and pour in the milk. Top
GREEN TEA POWDER. THIS
it up with the whipped COULD ALSO WORK FOR
coffee. Garnish with
coffee granules. THOSE WHO PREFER TEA
OVER COFFEE.
name — that determines the
success of the dish!” says chef
Dekh Bhai Dekh
Arun Sundararaj.
Turmeric latte sounds
appealing, but it is plain old
haldi doodh. And the
importance of this drink at a
time like this needs no
explanation, given its
properties as an
immunity booster.
resurrected my
career, says Shekhar
n srinidhi.gopalakrishnan@hindustan
times.com
Kavita Awaasthi entertained during the
lockdown, the channel has
S
hekhar been airing old TV shows
Suman’s which were popular and are
social media still remembered by viewers.
feed is Thrilled that his superhit
inundated sitcom DBD is airing again,
with posts Suman says, “I am happy that
from his a family entertainer will be
followers watched by youngsters. They
about the will realise the joy of living
return of the together in a joint family. We
iconic comedy need the spirit of being
Dekh Bhai Dekh together with our loved ones
(DBD) — a comedy in tough times like these.”
show that captures He reminisces that the
the lives of the three show was a huge hit from day
generations of one. “Doing TV wasn’t the
Mumbai-based plan but DBD resurrected my
Dewan family who career. I debuted with Utsav
live together under (1984) and had a few hit films
one roof — on
Doordarshan. In a
move to keep
but then my career dipped
badly. I got B-grade film
offers so I didn’t take them on
audiences and waited at home for two
Sana Saeed, as
a child actor,
played
Shahrukh
Khan’s daughter
in Kuch Kuch
Hota Hai (1998);
(inset) her late
father Abdul
Ahad Saeed
that he was really suffering but after seeing the death
and he’s definitely in a better certificate, they allowed them
place now,” says Saeed, 31, to go. Though I wasn’t there
who went to USA for an event. physically, my sister kept
Due to the Janata Curfew, texting me all the time during
the actor’s family decided to the ceremony,” Saeed shares.
keep the funeral low profile to Uncertain about when she’ll
avoid a large gathering. “My get to return home, the actor is
family had decided to do the keeping herself occupied by
funeral on the same day and “praying a lot, doing yoga, and
we had only three hours in has also taken up an online
hand. On their way, they were business course”.
stopped by the cops to check, n sangeeta.yadav@hindustantimes.com
www.hindustantimes.com
www.facebook.com/HTcity
twitter.com/htshowbiz
instagram.com/htcity
www.youtube.com/user/ht
officers dancing to show how
to wash hands properly, while
a police officer in Chennai
made violators wear
coronavirus helmet. People
were also made to hold
placards reading ‘Don’t step
out, don’t go near corona’.
Inspector Rajesh babu, himself
wore one of these headgears,
hoping that people get scared
and do not step out.
Bilaspur DSP Abhinav
Upadhyay, says that he and his
wife also made a parody of Ek
Pyaar Ka Nagma Hai (Shor;
1972) and when the lyricist of
the original, Santosh Anand,
heard it, he called Upadhyay to
appreciate him. He says that it
was “emotionally
overwhelming”.
Singer Daler Mehendi says,
“Huge respect for these
officers who have taken this
initiative. It’s a great way to
bring the nation together.”
“The aarti video is the
coolest thing I have seen. It’s
much better than hitting
anyone,” says actorSonu Sood.
n shara.ashraf@hindustantimes.com
years. I was at my all-time
career low. So, when I was
approached for DBD in 1993, I
was sceptical,” he shares.
During this lockdown,
Suman is catching up with
life and “being reintroduced”
to himself. He feels in the fast
pace of life, one forgets who
we are. “It’s ironic that most
people dream of owning a big
house but how many of us
stay at home to enjoy it?
Circumstances have now
forced us to stay at home.
This is the time to catch up
with life, learn more about
yourself and appreciate what
you have. This virus is
nature’s way of teaching us a
lesson. It has taught us to
slow down. The pandemic has
ambushed us and we have to
fight it out,” he says.
n kavita.awaasthi@htlive.com
Adam Schlesinger and Ali
Wentwort (below) PHOTOS: AFP,
INSTAGRAM/THEREALALIWENTWORTH
Sonakshi Sinha
believes in ‘doing
her bit and moving
on’; adds that she
has taken a break
from social media
as a lot of posts
there are fake
STOP PRESS
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/PAYALDEVOFFICIAL
THERE’S NO PROOF:
PAYAL DEV
A mid the ongoing
controversy around
Badshah’s song Genda
Phool on using folk artiste
Ratan Kahar’s lyrics without
crediting him, co-singer
Payal Dev has now told
Bollywood Life, “They don’t
have proof. The same song
has been used six to seven
times on YouTube and credit
has not been given to them
in Bengal as well.”
RAM GOPAL VARMA
JOKES ABOUT BEING
COVID-19 POSITIVE
F ilmmaker Ram Gopal
Varma tweeted that he
tested positive for the
coronavirus, causing panic
among his followers. But
later, Varma clarified in
another tweet that his
coronavirus diagnosis was
an April Fool’s joke. HTC
NOTE TO READERS: Some of the
coverage that appears on our pages
is paid for by the concerned brands.
No sponsored content does or shall
appear in any part of HT without it
being declared as such to our valued
readers.
HOLLYWOOD
STRUGGLES
WITH
COVID-19
E
mmy-winning
singer Adam
Schlesinger
passed away due to
Covid-19 on
Wednesday. The singer
was 52, and gave in to
complications caused by the
virus. Actor Tom Hanks
took to Twitter to condole
the death of the Fountains of
the Wayne member. “There
would be no Playtone
without Adam Schlesinger,
without his That Thing You
Do! He was a One-der. Lost
him to Covid-19. Terribly
sad today. Hanx,” he
tweeted.
Meanwhile, actor Ali
Wentworth took to
Instagram to confirm that
she, too, has tested positive
for Covid-19. The actor
shared a photo, and wrote,
“I have tested positive for
the Corona Virus. I’ve never
been sicker. High fever.
Horrific body aches. Heavy
chest. I’m quarantined from
my family. This is pure
misery. #stayhome”. ANI
Fashion designers stand by their artisans
Prerna Gauba Sibbal
T
hey sit in nondescript,
cramped rooms, and
sometimes, in derelict
factories, weaving couture
dreams with their magical
fingers. For years, they have
fought for their rights and
often, a section of design
houses have given them due
credit. This time, as Covid-19
hits the globe, many designers
are safeguarding their
artisans’ interests.
Some designers have paid
them in advance. “Our
primary focus at this time is to
ensure that our employees’
salaries and benefits reach
them so they are able to
sustain themselves at a
difficult time,” says designer
Rina Singh of Eka. Even
Kolkata-based designer
Adarsh Makharia of label
Osaa is doing the same. “Our
artisans are provided all basic
amenities,” he says.
Also, Mumbai-based
designer Anita Dongre has
created a fund for all people,
who are affiliated with her
design house.
Medical needs and
Jacqueline Fernandez
Sonakshi
Sinha
PHOTO: NUPUR
AGARWAL
Artisans at work in
designer’s atelier
PHOTO: INSTAGRAM/ASHAGAUTAM
transferring money to
artisans in clusters are
what some designers are
looking after. “As a
brand, we work with
artisans full-time. We
have given them their
salaries not only for
March, but till mid April.
Since a lot of them work in
clusters where work is
stopped, we have
made sure they have enough
funds to take care of their
family. We have kept some
I wish my parents were
with me: Jacqueline
Juhi Chakraborty
L
ife has been thrown
completely out of
gear amid this
pandemic, and with travel
being out of question,
people are unable to meet
their families who are stuck
in different countries.
Jacqueline Fernandez, too, is
in a bit of misery, as her
parents live in Bahrain and
she can’t be with them.
“I wanted my parents to
be with me right now; I’m
concerned about their health,”
shares Jacqueline as she talks
about her father Elroy and
mother Kim.
The actor of Sri Lankan
origin adds that she feels
people, who have their parents
by their side at present, are
rather “lucky”. She explains,
“Right now, they need all the
love, care and attention. They
are vulnerable, and we need to
Titas Chowdhury
S
onakshi Sinha recently
took to Instagram to say
that she’ll be doing a
social media detox
during the lockdown period.
Ask her about it and she says
that she wanted to take a break
and battle the panic that’s
stemming from the false
information which is floating
around on the web. She
elaborates, “Things have
suddenly changed so much
and I felt like I shouldn’t be
spending so much time on my
phone. A lot of stuff that’s
posted online and reposted by
people are fake. Now is the
time to keep your mental
sanity intact. I wanted to take a
break from all of that and do
things that keep me sane,
grounded and normal at a time
like this.”
She says that she would
rather spend her time doing
something productive that
helps her grow. “Our fast-
paced life has come to a
standstill. You can’t be your
chirpy self at this time. There
are days when you might feel
low,” Sinha states, adding, “I
just want to do things that
make me happy such as read
and catch up on the movies
that I’ve missed. There are
better things in life than to be
on my phone. I play a lot of
games on my phone. It’s
always in my hand and
that’s something that I
want to change
consciously.”
A while ago, Sonam
Kapoor was trolled on
twitter for not making a
donation to the PM-CARES
fund. The Dabangg (2010)
actor remains unfazed by
trolls and says that
everyone has their way of
contributing to the crisis.
“If someone wants their
contributions to be
known and that
inspires five more
people to also make a
donation, that’s a great
idea. My way of doing
it is by not telling
everyone. Social
media is place where
everyone has an
opinion for
everything and that’s
also a reason why I
don’t like it
anymore. Even if I
tweet a full stop,
people will have an
opinion on it. I
believe in doing my
bit and moving on,”
she signs off.
amount for medical
contingencies for the entire
team as well,” explains
designer Gautam Gupta of
label Asha Gautam.
n prerna.gauba@htlive.com
be there for them.”
Further, sharing an update
on the other members of her
family, the 34-year-old says
that her sister in North
Carolina, USA, is having a very
tough time. “The supermarkets
there are completely out of
stock, there are no products
and medicines. My brothers,
who are in Australia, are sorted
as they are in a remote part in
the country,” she shares.
The actor has been keeping
busy with the help of social
media and is sharing workout
videos and her piano skills. “It
took me some time to realise
what was happening and the
first week was difficult. I felt a
bit lost thinking about what I
would do. However, I figured
that I may not be able to go on a
film set but I have my
audiences and a platform and I
decided to be as creative as
possible,” she shares.
n juhi.chakraborty@htlive.com