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  • Coronavirus impact: Apple India shuts down four sales offices and map development centre

    As per two industry executives aware of the plans, over 5,000 employees and associates of Apple in India will be largely working from home. Apple has four sales offices in India located at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon.

    Writankar Mukherjee | ET Bureau

    KOLKATA: Apple India is shutting down its four sales offices in India and the development centre for maps in Hyderabad as part of the global step which the iPhone maker has taken to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus amongst its employees and associates.
    As per two industry executives aware of the plans, over 5,000 employees and associates of Apple in India will be largely working from home. Apple has four sales offices in India located at Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurgaon. An email sent to Apple India is yet to elicit any response.

    The status of Apple’s local manufacturing operation with two partners – Foxconn and Wistron – will be decided by the partners as per their protocol, an executive said.
    In a global advisory issued by Apple CEO Tim Cook, he said all offices globally outside China is moving to flexible work arrangements. “That means team members should work remotely if their job allows, and those whose work requires them to be on site should follow guidance to maximize interpersonal space. Extensive, deep cleaning will continue at all sites. In all our offices, we are rolling out new health screenings and temperature checks,” he said.

    Cook also said all hourly workers will continue to receive pay in alignment with business as usual operations. “We have expanded our leave policies to accommodate personal or family health circumstances created by COVID-19 — including recovering from an illness, caring for a sick loved one, mandatory quarantining, or childcare challenges due to school closures,” he said.

    Apple CEO said the committed donations to the global COVID-19 response — both to help treat those who are sick and to help lessen the economic and community impacts of the pandemic — has reached $15 million worldwide.

  • People cancel weddings in Kashmir amid COVID-19 scare

    Srinagar, April 9: Amid coronavirus scare, people are cancelling scheduled weddings in Kashmir.

    As there is coronavirus scare, the disease that has gripped the world, claiming thousands of lives across the GLOBE, there has been increasing number of cases in Kashmir too.

    There is complete lockdown in Kashmir to contain the coronavirus. At the same time, people also prefer to cancel their weddings to halt spread of the disease.

    It was nearly after a decade that someone from Mohammad Shafi’s family in Pampore is getting married.

    His lone son-Shabir Ahmad was scheduled to get married on April 4. Bhat’s family however decided to cancel his wedding.

    “We had decided to cook five-quintals of meet on his wedding. But we cancelled his wedding in view spread of COVID-19,” he told Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS).

    “We did not want any gathering at our home even our close relatives so we cancelled his weddings,” he said.

    Mohammad Sharif, a resident of Ganderbal’s, whose daughter was scheduled to get married on March 30.

    But his family also cancelled his weddings. “We all have to maintain social distancing and stay at home this is the only way to protect ourselves,” he told KINS. “We decided to cancel wedding of my daughter. We did not want even groom to come out of his home and come to our home with few guests so we cancelled the weddings,” he added.

    Valley weddings are elaborate affairs with extravagant feasts; exotic dishes are prepared for days together at homes of bride and groom.

    Last year too after abrogation of Article 370, scores of marriages were either postponed or the Nikkah ceremonies were held with simplicity.

    (KINS)

  • World faces ‘worst economic fallout since Great Depression’, says IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva

    Kristalina Georgieva warned that “global growth will turn sharply negative in 2020.”

    AFP

    The global coronavirus pandemic is causing an economic crisis unlike any in the past century and will require a massive response to ensure recovery, IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva said on Thursday.

    She warned that “global growth will turn sharply negative in 2020,” with 170 of the International Monetary Fund’s 180 members experiencing a decline in per capita income.

    “In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression,” Ms. Georgieva said in a speech previewing next week’s spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank, which will be held virtually due to the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19.

    Even in the best case the IMF expects only a “partial recovery” next year, assuming the virus fades later this year, allowing normal business to resume as the lockdowns imposed to contain its spread are lifted.

    But “it could get worse,” and “there is tremendous uncertainty around the outlook” and the duration of the pandemic.

    Countries already have taken steps worth a combined $8 trillion, but Ms. Georgieva urged governments to do more to provide “lifelines” for businesses and households to “avoid a scarring of the economy that would make the recovery so much more difficult.”

    On Tuesday the IMF will release its World Economic Outlook with grim forecasts for its members for this year and next. In January, the IMF projected global growth of 3.3 percent this year and 3.4 percent in 2021. But that was a different world.

    “The bleak outlook applies to advanced and developing economies alike. This crisis knows no boundaries. Everybody hurts,” Ms. Georgieva said.

    She noted that about $100 billion in investments already had fled emerging markets — more than three times the capital exodus seen in the 2008 global financial crisis.

  • Either Apologise or Step Down: SDSJK To DC Bandipora

    Srinagar: Society of Dental Surgeons J&K (SDSJK) strongly condemns the inhuman & indecent behaviour shown by DC Bandipora who has misbehaved with the health care workers of Block Hajin, Bandipora.

    Terming this act inhuman and barbaric SDSJK President Dr Imtyaz Banday said that during the current Covid Crisis when whole world is appreciating the role of health care workers, DC Bandipora has come out as strong exception and demoralized the whole health care workers of J&K who otherwise are working tirelessly to treat Covid patients.

    SDSJK demands he should step down or seek apology immediatedly for this unparlimentarian behaviour.

  • “At times my son insists me to keep him in Lap, but I deny with tears”, Father of 10 year old Covid-19 patient

    Srinagar, Mar 09: Emotions run high in the Isolation ward here in Sher-I-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, as a father refuses to leave his 10-year-old son alone.

    The boy was tested positive for Covid-19.

    “At present I am going through the worst time of my lime. “I am trying to keep distance from my son here in same room but at times my son insists me to keep him in lap, but I deny with tears,” the father told Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS) over phone from SKIMS.

    My daughter is in quarantine along with my wife at another place. She calls me oftenly and says

    “Baba mujay apnay pass lelo yahan mama roti hain”

    “Dad take me there, mom is crying, and then my daughter also starts crying”, this makes me to sob too.

    He said how he can leave his son alone in the ward. “He is too little to be left alone,” the father said.

    My brother-in-law came to visit us keeping at least 20 feet distance. All of sudden when my son saw him, he cried “MAMU, I want to go to home”

    Then my brother-in-law cried and rest was tears and tears.

    “Kya pata kab milana ho, Apnay bacho kai saath agar na milay tou Jannat mai Zaroor. Aur mere betay ka khayal rakhna”

    “We don’t know when we will meet again, if we won’t meet here we will meet in paradise, take care of my son”

    My wife told me over a telephone line.

    He said he has no complaint against administration, doctors, Paramedical staff and others in SKIMS, Soura Hospital. “All are doing tremendous job here. The doctors are cooperative and so are the paramedical and other staffers,”

    “I hope my son will get well soon and we all will be together at home again. I appeal people to take covid-19 as a tremendously serious issue”.

    The 10-year-old boy was tested positive for the coronavirus however all the family members were tested negative.

    Authorities had quarantined the father, mother, and sister of the Covid-19 patient shortly after he was tested positive.

    According to the father of the boy, his son had hugged a Tableegi Jamaat member in Srinagar on March 21 and for at least a week he showed no symptoms. Suddenly, the boy complained of high fever on March 28. On the same day the doctors had advised him for 2 week home quarantine.

    However after KINS exclusively reported the ordeal of father and his son, on March 29.

    The on March 30 a medical team reached his residence along with an ambulance, admitted him in SKIMS, Soura where his tests were done, which came positive on March 31. (KINS)

  • 11 family members of deceased Covid-19 patient test positive 

    Bandipora, April 15: Eleven family members of 3rd deceased Covid patient from North Kashmir’s Bandipora were tested positive for Coronavirus on Thursday.

    The patient from Gund Jahangir area of Bandipora district breathed his last a couple of days after ago at SMHS Hospital. Shortly after his death, police was asked to lodge an FIR against a private hospital owner for negligence as the patient had arrived there amid when other patients especially neonates were present in the hospital for treatment.

    The said hospital has been sealed and turned into a quarantine centre.
    All the family members and neighbours of the deceased Covid-19 patient were quarantined and their samples were collected. Today 11 family members including little children were tested positive.

    Nodal Officer for Coronavirus Shahnawaz Bukhari confirmed to KNT that 11 members including 6 women tested positive belong to a single family.

    The news sent shockwaves among general public in Hajin Belt.
    Sources told KNT that out of the 24 confirmed cases that surface today, 12 are from Bandipora, and 8 are from Tangmarg.

    This is not the only case when family members of any confirmed case were tested positive for Covid-19. Earlier two little kids of Natipora Srinagar man were tested positive. In Tangmarg as well, a couple of family members including a teacher as well of a deceased Covid-19 patient were tested positive.

    In Bemina also the son with a travel history infected his mother and brother.

    “We have to learn from the emerging situation and behave like responsible citizens. The situation is grave and alarming and yet people venture out from their homes and queue up near shops and waste time in gossips in every locality,” President Doctors Association of Kashmir, Dr Nisar-ul-Hasan told KNT.

  • Doctors in Hajin allege misbehaviour by DC Bandipora, announces “Strike”

    Hajin, Apr 09: As Covid-19 spreads rapidly throughout the Kashmir, Doctors in Hajin block have gone on strike after DC Bandipora allegedly misbehaved with their senior colleagues at Hajin today. The doctors alleged that they were abused by DC Bandipora when he was on a visit to Hajin block

    While speaking to wire service—Kashmir News Observer(KNO), Dr Muzafar Zargar said that it the second time that the DC Bandipora misbehaved with the staff. He said, despite Hajin Block is working day and night during present Covid-19 crisis, but the block are not getting an effective cooperation from district administration.

    He said the entire medical staff of the block will keep their strike on till the futher investigation is taken place by the higher authority. They raised slogans against DC Bandipora demanded his immediate suspension forthwith.

    The disease is spreading throughout Kashmir during these days and we doctors and medical staff, work very hard to stop its spread despite this we are being mistreated.

    The Deputy Commissioner Bandipora, Shabaz Mirza, did not respond to repeated call from this reporter to seek his comments about the said matter. It is pertinently mentioned here that Hajin block of Bandipora is still leading the Covid-19 disease so far while as the number of cases in the block is increasing day by day.

    When contacted Block medical officer(BMO) Dr. Ajaz Hajin told—KNO that he is also a part of this protest, and strike will not end until and unless the matter is taken into consideration by higher authorities—(KNO)

  • 24 More Positive in Kashmir; Toll 184

    #COVID19
    #Jammu&Kashmir

    24 more positive in Kashmir.

    32 in Jammu

    Toll: 184

    All are contacts. A result of aggressive testing.

  • Coronavirus: Indore doctor dies, toll goes up to 22 in city

    Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan offers condolences on Twitter

    PTI

    A 62-year-old doctor from Indore, Madhya Pradesh, died of COVID-19 on Thursday morning while undergoing treatment at a hospital, taking the toll owing to the illness to 22 in the city.

    “We received the news this morning that one of our doctor friends has also died,” confirmed Indore Chief Medical and Health Officer Pravin Jadia.

    The doctor, a general physician, had tested positive for the disease on Wednesday, said Rahul Rokade of the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, Indore. “Days ago, he was admitted to the CHL hospital, and later shifted to another hospital,” he added. Details of comorbidities, if any, are awaited.

    The doctor had been running two clinics for the past 40 years in the city, said a representative of a pharmaceutical firm. “Recently a family whose member tested positive for the disease later had visited him for consultation,” she said.

    He was not involved in the continuing efforts of the government to tackle the outbreak in the city.

    Offering condolences, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan wrote on Twitter: “We pray that the soul of the doctor rests in peace. He was sacrificed while protecting invaluable lives of others and fighting the battle against COVID-19. Superhumans like you can never be forgotten.”

    In Indore, which has so far recorded 213 cases, the disease has infected two other doctors and a male nurse, who had become the first patient in the city to be cured of the illness.

    With the death, the case fatality rate in Indore climbed to 10.3% on Thursday from 8.6% on Tuesday, remaining the highest for any city in the country. The rate is a measure of disease severity which records the proportion of those who die from a disease among all those diagnosed with it over a certain period of time.

  • Dubai allows alcohol home delivery as virus shuts down bars

    Maritime and Mercantile International, a subsidiary of the government-owned Emirates airline known as MMI, and African & Eastern partnered to create the website offering home delivery.

    AP

    The Champagne corks no longer pop at Dubai’s infamous alcohol-soaked brunches. The blaring flat-screen televisions stand silent in the sheikhdom’s sports bars. And the city-state’s pubs have shrink-wrapped their now-idle beer taps.

    This skyscraper-studded desert metropolis on the Arabian Peninsula has long been one of the wettest places in the Mideast in terms of alcohol consumption, its bars and licensed restaurants serving tourists, travelers and its vast population of foreign workers.

    Up until the global coronavirus pandemic, that is. With the virus now threatening a crucial source of tax and general revenue for its rulers, Dubai’s two major alcohol distributors have partnered to offer home delivery of beer, spirits and wine, yet another loosening of social mores in this Islamic city-state.

    “Luxury hotels and bars have been the worse impacted within the sector and this had a direct impact on the alcohol consumption … in the United Arab Emirates,” said Rabia Yasmeen, an analyst for market research firm Euromonitor International.

    Maritime and Mercantile International, a subsidiary of the government-owned Emirates airline known as MMI, and African & Eastern partnered to create the website offering home delivery. Its products range from a $530 bottle of Don Julio 1942 Tequila to a $4.30 bottle of Indian blended whiskey, with beers and wines in between.

    Their website legalhomedelivery.com, a nod toward the online bootleggers long operating in the gray margins of Dubai, describes the service as needed “in these unprecedented times”.

    Tourists, the few remaining here, can use their passports to buy the alcohol. Residents, however, need an alcohol license, a plastic red card issued by Dubai police that requires annual renewal. Only non-Muslims 21 and older can apply for a license — though bartenders across the city never check for them before pouring drinks.

    Text-message alerts give imbibers a predicted delivery time within a few hours, though a crew showed up some six hours early for one delivery Tuesday, wearing masks and disposable gloves.

    Officials at African & Eastern, a private company believed to be at least partially held by the state or affiliated firms, and MMI both acknowledged that the pandemic will likely affect their revenues for the year. Most of their physical stores also remain open, though Dubai now is under a 24-hour lockdown that requires the public to have police permission to go to the grocery store.

    “We are in the early days of the service and interest has been high already,” Mike Glen, MMI’s managing director for the UAE and Oman, told in an emailed statement.

    Glen and Sean Hennessey, African & Eastern general manager for UAE and Oman, declined to offer any sales statistics to the AP. Hennessey also declined to say who owned African & Eastern.

    A push to keep alcohol shops open during the pandemic may be surprising to some, especially as drinking is illegal in the neighboring emirate of Sharjah and the nations of Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. But alcohol sales long have been a canary in the coal mine — or in this case, the cocktail lounge — for the wider economy of Dubai, one of seven sheikhdoms in the United Arab Emirates.

    There’s a 50% import tax on a bottle of alcohol, as well as an additional 30% tax in Dubai on buying from liquor stores. Dubai Duty Free, which is also government owned, sold 9 million cans of beer, 3.1 million whiskey bottles and 1.5 million bottles of wine to those passing through airport terminals in 2019. Duty-free sales, while limited, never require an alcohol license.

    Even before the pandemic, lower global energy prices, a 30% drop in the city’s real estate market value and trade war fears have seen employers shed jobs. Dubai now is trying to postpone its Expo 2020, or world’s fair, to next year, another major blow.

    Overall sales of alcohol by volume fell sharply in 2019 to 128.79 million litres, down some 3.5% from 133.42 million litres sold the year before, according to Euromonitor’s latest statistics. The 2019 sales are down nearly 9% from 2017, which saw 141.51 million litres sold.

    Those lower sales affect everyone from waitresses to Dubai’s ruling Al Maktoum family, which has worked over decades to make the city a major tourist destination, home to the world’s tallest building.

    That weakened economy may prove to be a threat long after the pandemic. The Mideast’s hotel sector took longer to recover from the Great Recession for instance, Ms. Yasmeen said. Most bars in Dubai are attached to hotels.

    The home service also charges 50 dirhams ($13.60) per delivery. That’s additional revenue for the stores, even as bars and restaurants remain closed. While some aid groups have sprung up to offer help to out-of-work bartenders elsewhere, there’s been no similar measure here in the UAE, whose waitstaff comes from all across the world.

    “We do have a long and significant relationship with the on-trade, that we will be looking to support through what is a trying time for all parts of the industry,” Hennessey of African & Eastern said in a statement.