Category: National

15 migrant workers run over by goods train in Maharashtra.

The migrants were walking to Bhusawal from Jalna.

Fifteen migrants were killed and one injured after being run over by a goods train near Aurangabad early on Friday.

The Indian Railways said about 20 people were sleeping on the tracks and “14 persons were run over/died and two persons sustained injuries… between Badnapur-Karmad railway stations of Aurangabad Post jurisdiction of Nanded Division”.

Two injured were taken to a government hospital. However, one of them later died.

The migrants were labourers from Umarya and Shahdol (in Madhya Pradesh) and worked at SRG Company in Jalna, Maharashtra.

According to the survivors, the Railways said, they had left Jalna at around 7 in the evening and walked on road initially up to Badnapore and later started walking on the tracks towards Aurangabad. After walking for about 36 km, they sat on the tracks to rest and gradually slept.

“14 persons sat on the track, two members adjacent to the track, and three members away from track,” the Railways said.

“Extremely anguished by the loss of lives due to the rail accident in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Have spoken to Railway Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and he is closely monitoring the situation. All possible assistance required is being provided,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal tweeted that relief work was going on and an inquiry had been ordered into the incident.

“Deeply saddened to learn about the loss of lives in a train mishap in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. My heartfelt condolences to bereaved families,” Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu tweeted.

With inputs from The Hindu

Manmohan Singh

It is with a very heavy heart that I write this.

India faces imminent danger from the trinity of social disharmony, economic slowdown and a global health epidemic. Social unrest and economic ruin are self-inflicted while the health contagion of COVID-19 disease, caused by the novel coronavirus, is an external shock. I deeply worry that this potent combination of risks may not only rupture the soul of India but also diminish our global standing as an economic and democratic power in the world.

Delhi has been subjected to extreme violence over the past few weeks. We have lost nearly 50 of our fellow Indians for no reason. Several hundred people have suffered injuries. Communal tensions have been stoked and flames of religious intolerance fanned by unruly sections of our society, including the political class. University campuses, public places and private homes are bearing the brunt of communal outbursts of violence, reminiscent of the dark periods in India’s history. Institutions of law and order have abandoned their dharma to protect citizens. Institutions of justice and the fourth pillar of democracy, the media, have also failed us.

Charred soul of the nation

With no checks, the fire of social tensions is rapidly spreading across the nation and threatens to char the soul of our nation. It can only be extinguished by the same people that lit it.

It is both futile and puerile to point to past instances of such violence in India’s history to justify the present violence in the country. Every act of sectarian violence is a blemish on Mahatma Gandhi’s India. Just in a matter of few years, India has slid rapidly from being a global showcase of a model of economic development through liberal democratic methods to a strife ridden majoritarian state in economic despair.

At a time when our economy is floundering, the impact of such social unrest will only exacerbate the economic slowdown. It is now well accepted that the scourge of India’s economy currently is the lack of new investment by the private sector. Investors, industrialists and entrepreneurs are unwilling to undertake new projects and have lost their risk appetite. Social disruptions and communal tensions only compound their fears and risk aversion. Social harmony, the bedrock of economic development, is now under peril. No amount of tweaking of tax rates, showering of corporate incentives or goading will propel Indian or foreign businesses to invest, when the risk of eruption of sudden violence in one’s neighbourhood looms large. Lack of investment means lack of jobs and incomes, which, in turn, means lack of consumption and demand in the economy. A lack of demand will only further suppress private investments. This is the vicious cycle that our economy is stuck in.

Adding to these self-inflicted woes is the real threat of the COVID-19 epidemic that has originated in China. It is still unclear how far this global health hazard will spread and impact the world. But it is very clear that we should be fully prepared and ready to counter it. A health epidemic is one of the most dangerous threats that a nation can face. It is imperative that all of us collectively prepare to face this threat. We have not faced a public health crisis in contemporary times at the scale that the current crisis threatens to unfold. It is therefore important to launch a full-scale, mission-mode operation to counter this threat immediately.

Dealing with COVID-19

Nations across the world have sprung into action to contain the impact of this epidemic. China is walling off major cities and public places. Italy is shutting down schools. America has embarked aggressively both to quarantine people as well as hasten research efforts to find a cure. Many other nations have announced various measures to address this issue. India too must act swiftly and announce a mission critical team that will be tasked with addressing the issue. There could be some best practices we can adopt from other nations.

Regardless of whether this virus will enter our shores on a large scale or not, it is now evident that the economic impact of COVID-19 will be very big. International bodies such as the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have already pronounced a sharp slowdown in global economic growth. There are reports that China’s economy may even contract, which, if it happens, will be the first time since the Cultural Revolution of the 1970s. China today accounts for nearly a fifth of the global economy and a tenth of India’s external trade. The forecast for the world economy is quite dire. This is sure to impact India’s economic situation too. Millions of small and medium businesses in India that account for more than three-quarters of all formal employment are part of the global supply chain. In such an integrated global economy, the COVID-19 crisis can further slow India’s GDP growth by half to one percentage point, other things being constant. India’s economic growth was already tepid and this external health shock is bound to make things much worse.

Bringing in reforms

It is my belief that the government must quickly embark on a three point plan. First, it should focus all energies and efforts on containing the COVID-19 threat and prepare adequately. Two, it should withdraw or amend the Citizenship Act, end the toxic social climate and foster national unity. Three, it should put together a detailed and meticulous fiscal stimulus plan to boost consumption demand and revive the economy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi must convince the nation, not merely through words but by deeds, that he is cognisant of the dangers we face and reassure the nation that he can help us tide over this as smoothly as we can. He must immediately provide details of the contingency plan for the threat of the COVID-19 scare.

A moment of deep crisis can also be a moment of great opportunity. I recall that in 1991, India and the world faced a similar grave economic crisis, with a balance of payments crisis in India and a global recession caused by rising oil prices due to the Gulf War. But we were able to successfully turn this into an opportunity to reinvigorate the economy through drastic reforms. Similarly, the virus contagion and the slowing down of China can potentially open up an opportunity for India to unleash second -generation reforms to become a larger player in the global economy and vastly improve prosperity levels for hundreds of millions of Indians. To achieve that, we must first rise above divisive ideology, petty politics and respect institutional salience.

It is not my desire to offer a dire prognosis or to exaggerate fears. But I believe it is our solemn duty to speak truth to the people of India. The truth is that the current situation is very grim and morose. The India that we know and cherish is slipping away fast. Wilfully stoked communal tensions, gross economic mismanagement and an external health shock are threatening to derail India’s progress and standing. It is time to confront the harsh reality of the grave risks we face as a nation and address them squarely and sufficiently.

Dr. Manmohan Singh was the Prime Minister of India from 2004 to 2014

With inputs from The Hindu

‘Will take 6-8 quarters to bounce back’

The aviation industry will be one of the most adversely affected sectors of the economy this year, with a revenue loss of ₹24,000–25,000 crore this fiscal, CRISIL said.

It said the huge revenue loss would spur structural changes in the industry, with mergers and acquisitions taking place.

Even though the roads and highways sector would be impacted to a large extent, its rebound will be faster, the ratings agency said in a report.

Jagannarayan Padmanabhan, Director and Practice Leader, Transport & Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory, said the airlines would be the worst-affected, contributing more than 70% of the losses, or ₹17,000 crore, followed by airport operators with ₹5,000-5,500 crore, and airport retailers (including retail, food and beverages and duty-free) with ₹1,700-1,800 crore. “This would reverse the trend growth of 11% per annum the industry has logged over the past 10 years, making it one of the most adversely affected sectors of the economy,” he added. The losses will climb if travel restrictions last longer in hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata, he said.

“We expect the aviation sector to take at least 6-8 quarters to reach pre-pandemic levels. These are preliminary estimates, and aggregate losses could increase if the lockdown is extended beyond the first quarter,” he added.

“As and when operations resume, overall operational capacity will hover at 50-60% for the rest of the fiscal,” he said.

As far as the roads and highways sector is concerned, it will see developers/ toll operators incurring toll revenue losses of ₹3,450-3,700 crore during March-June, the report said.

The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) will lose ₹2,100-2,200 crore in toll over this period, it said.

In addition to the loss in toll revenue, stakeholders will suffer losses on account of accrued interest, increase in costs of under-construction projects, time overruns, and a rise in disputes between the private sector and government authorities, the report added.

Moreover, the NHAI had planned to raise ₹80,000-85,000 crore through fiscal 2025 by monetising 6,000 km of operational public-funded toll roads. This asset monetisation programme through toll-operate-transfer and infrastructure investment trusts will likely take a hit, CRISIL said.

Akshay Purkayastha, Director, Transport & Logistics, CRISIL Infrastructure Advisory said, “Tolling operations resumed on April 20 and construction on select projects has also restarted. Going forward, the ramp-up in traffic, availability of labour and raw materials for construction, and expeditious dispute resolution will be the key monitorables.”

“In addition, road authorities such as the NHAI will have to step up initiatives beyond conventional avenues such as development of way-side amenities and formation of special purpose vehicles/ joint ventures for both, financing and revenues,” he added.

With inputs from The Hindu

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan says India is doing better, launches two AYUSH-based studies.

India registered 3,561 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 52,952. With 89 deaths, the tally mounted to 1,783 on Thursday.

The country currently has 35,902 active cases, with All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) director Randeep Guleria stating that according to data released by experts and going by the current trend, the cases are likely to peak in June-July.

“While predictions vary from May to August and keep changing depending on parameters used according to modelling data and the way our cases are increasing currently, it is likely that our case peak can come in June and July. There are many variables to this and an exact prediction isn’t possible,” said Dr. Guleria.

According to data from the Union Health Ministry on Thursday, 15,266 persons have been cured so far with 1,084 patients cured in the past 24 hours. However, the State Health Departments put the total number of cases at 54,299, of which 36,761 are active. The number of deaths rose to 1,832.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday said that in comparison to other countries, India was in a better condition as the fatality rate was 3.3% and recovery rate was 28.83%.

“Currently there are 4.8% patients in ICU, 1.1% on ventilators and 3.3% on oxygen support of the active cases. The testing capacity has increased in the country and it is now standing at 95,000 tests per day with 327 government laboratories and 118 private laboratories. Cumulatively 13,57,442 tests have been done so far for COVID-19,” he said.

The Minister said that currently there were 180 districts with no new cases in the past week, 180 districts with no new cases in 7-13 days, 164 districts which had not had any new case in 14-20 days and 136 districts with no new cases since the last 21-28 days.

“There are 13 States/Union Territories — Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Jharkhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir UT, Kerala, Ladakh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Odisha — which have not reported any case in the last 24 hours. While Daman and Diu, Sikkim, Nagaland and Lakshadweep have not reported a single case till date,” Dr. Vardhan said.

The Union Minister said India now had 130 hotspot districts, 284 non-hotspot districts and 319 non-affected districts.

As of now India had 821 dedicated COVID hospitals with 1,50,059 beds (1,32,219 isolation beds and 17,840 ICU beds) and 1,898 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,19,109 beds (1,09,286 isolation beds and 9,823 ICU beds) along with 7,569 quarantine centres.

“States need to focus on more effective surveillance, contact tracing and early diagnosis to keep low fatality rate,” said the Minister. Surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) / Influenza Like Illness (ILI) should be intensified in unaffected districts and districts which had not reported cases for the past 14 days.

“Such measures will help to indicate the presence of any possible hidden infection at an early stage, helping in its timely containment,” he added.

The Health Ministry had also alerted States to be vigilant now with the surge in number of migrant labourers expected to reach back home.

“A robust strategy and mechanism needs to be drawn up for their testing, quarantine, and treatment of the positive cases. Some States shall also see immigrants from abroad too. An effective strategy also needs to be put in place for their testing, institutional quarantine and treatment, if needed,” said the Minister.

Dr. Vardhan on Thursday launched the ‘Sanjivani’ App and two AYUSH-based studies related to COVID-19. The Minister said COVID-19 management had provided a potent platform for alliance between the Health Ministry, the AYUSH Ministry and other scientific bodies.

Ayurveda research

Announcing the commencing of the two collaborative clinical research studies on Ayurveda interventions as Prophylaxis and as an add-on to standard care to COVID-19, the Minister said these studies would re-establish the importance of AYUSH-pathies.

“Ashwagandha for the Prophylaxis against SARS-COV-2 in high risk group and effectiveness of Ayurveda formulation as an adjunct to ‘Standard of Care’ for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 is being looked at,” noted Dr. Vardhan.

The study would be carried out through four research councils under the Ministry of AYUSH and national institutes in 25 States and several State governments, covering approximately 5 lakh population.

“The outcome of the study is expected to pave a new horizon in understanding the preventive potential of AYUSH interventions during pandemics like COVID-19 through scientific evidence,” added the Minister.

The ‘Sanjivani’ mobile app is aimed at helping generate data on acceptance and usage of AYUSH advocacies and measures among the population and its impact in prevention of COVID-19, noted the Ministry. “It is developed by the Ministry of AYUSH in collaboration with other agencies and shall reach out to a target of 50 lakh people,” it added.

With inputs from The Hindu

Traders are undergoing a tremendous financial crunch, it tells Minister.

The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) on Thursday wrote to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, expressing their inability to pay full salaries for April to their employees amid pressure from trade unions.

The letter, dated May 7, stated that “under the circumstances it is becoming more difficult…to pay full salary for April…since the traders are undergoing a tremendous financial crunch and full payment of salary for the April month is next to impossible.”

If these payments are made, the traders’ body warned that the business of traders will “fall like anything” and in the absence of any inflow of money, this will be disastrous for the retail trade as well as badly affect the economy.

“…receiving input from traders across the country we are constrained to inform that in the present situation when the business establishment of the traders are closed since March 25 across the country, they do not have any source of their income,” the letter added.

Asking the Minister to look into the “ground realities”, CAIT requested the government to intervene.

In a letter to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman earlier, CAIT had suggested that traders be allowed to pay salaries as per mutual agreement between the employers and employees, or allow payment of 30% of the salary “which is quite sufficient for livelihood of the employees”. Alternatively, it added, 50% salary be borne by the government and 25% by traders.

With inputs from The Hindu

According to initial reports, styrene gas from the plant spread over a radius of about five kilometres, affecting at least five villages.

PTI

Eight persons, including a six-year-old girl, died and scores of others were admitted to the government hospital at Gopalapatnam and the King George Hospital, following the leakage of poisonous gas from the Hindustan Polymers plant at RR Venkatapuram, Gopalapatnam, Visakhapatnam, on Thursday.

A toll free number 1800 4250 0009 is available for any assistance with regard to this.

The gas leak occurred at the LG Polymers Plant between 2.30 a.m. and 3 a.m. and reportedly spread over a radius of about three km, affecting at least five villages, including R.R. Venkatapuram, Padmapuram, B.C. Colony and Kamparapalem.

Aarogya Setu says no personal information had been proven to be at risk.

PTI

Ethical hacker Robert Baptiste on May 6 alleged that security flaws in the government’s Aarogya Setu application enabled him to see that five people at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and two people at the Indian Army headquarters were unwell.

Mr. Baptise, who goes by Elliot Alderson on Twitter, also claimed that there was “one infected person at the Indian Parliament and three at the Home office.”

On May 5, he tweeted that there were security issues with Aarogya Setu. Tagging the official account of Aarogya Setu, he said, “A security issue has been found in your app. The privacy of 90 million Indians is at stake. Can you contact me in private?”.

Rahul is right’

He went on to add that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who has termed the app “a sophisticated surveillance system”, was right.

In response to the issues raised by Mr. Baptise, the team of Aarogya Setu, in a statement, said no personal information of any user had been proven to be at risk. “ …we were alerted by an ethical hacker of a potential security issue of Aarogya Setu…No personal information of any user has been proven to be at risk by this ethical hacker. We are continuously testing and upgrading our systems. Team Aarogya Setu assures everyone that no data or security breach has been identified,” the statement said.

Following this statement, Mr. Baptise tweeted that he was able to “… know who is infected, unwell, made a self assessment in the area of his choice. Basically, I was able to see if someone was sick at the PMO office or the Indian parliament. I was able to see if someone was sick in a specific house if I wanted… This is the issue.”

He further called for making the application’s source code open source. “…When you ask (force) people to install an app, they have the right to know what the app is really doing. If you love your country @SetuAarogya, publish the source code,” he tweeted, adding that countries such as Singapore, Israel did it and Iceland did it.

As per the Aarogya Setu statement, Mr. Baptise pointed out that the application fetched user location on a few occasions. However, Aarogya Setu said, “This is by design and is clearly detailed in the privacy policy.”

It noted that the application fetched a user’s location and stored it on a server in a secure, encrypted and anonymised manner “1) at the time of registration, 2) at the time of self-assessment, and 3) when the user submits his or her contact tracing data voluntarily through the app or when we fetch the contact tracing data after the person turns COVID-19 positive.”

Further, the French hacker had said that a user can get the COVID-19 stats displayed on the home screen by changing the radius and latitude-longitude using a script.

The Aarogya Setu statement said, “The radius parameters are fixed and can only take one of the five values — 500 metres, 1 km, 2km, 5km and 10km. These values are standard parameters, posted with HTTP headers. Any other value as part of the ‘distance’ HTTP header gets defaulted to 1 km.”

It added that a user can change the latitude/longitude to get the data for multiple locations. “The API call though is behind a Web Application Firewall, and hence bulk calls are not possible. Getting data for multiple latitude longitude this way is no different than asking several people of their location’s COVID-19 statistics. All this information is already public for all locations and hence does not compromise on any personal or sensitive data.”

— raising serious data security & privacy concerns. Technology can help keep us safe; but fear must not be leveraged to track citizens without their consent.”

Mr. Baptiste sent out a tweet, saying: “Rahul Gandhi tweeted about the Aarogya app. I guess I’m forced to look at it now.” He claimed that the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) and the National Informatics Centre (NIC) got in touch with him 49 minutes after his initial tweet.

With inputs from The Hindu

PTI

The 3.25 lakh strong Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had reported 158 positive cases, of which have two recovered and one died.

A CRPF official said that since April 21, the force had screened 11,219 personnel and their contacts, of which 3,112 were quarantined. Of the 155 active cases, 152 were being treated in Delhi, two in Noida and one at Kupwara in J&K.

A 55-year-old Sub Inspector, who passed away, was a resident of Barpeta in Assam. He was posted at the force’s unit at Mayur Vihar in East Delhi. Many personnel, including the deceased, were placed in quarantine after a 43-year-old constable, posted as a nursing assistant at the unit, tested positive on April 21.

Forty-five personnel of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and 13 men of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) have tested positive till May 5.

Srinagar: Government has announced further relaxations for filing of Annual returns for Goods and Services Tax (GST) and movement of goods in the country.

Official sources told news KINS that the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has extended the time limit for furnishing of the annual return and GST audit for the financial year 2018-2019, till 30 September, 2020.

“Government has also given an extension till 31st May for all the e-way bills generated on or before the March 24th, whose validity were to expire between March 20th and April 15th. This relaxation will allow seamless movement of goods and supplies through road transport carriers ensuring availability of supplies across the county”. (KINS)