Archives for September 2020

A notice to this effect was issued by the government on Monday while also extending the lockdown till then end of September but with more relaxations.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government has cancelled the e-pass requirement for inter-district travel from September 2 and allowed hotels in the state to function with 100 per cent capacity.

A notice to this effect was issued by the government on Monday while also extending the lockdown till the end of September but with more relaxations.

As per the notification, government offices in Mumbai and metropolitan regions – Pune, and Pimpri Chinchwad will operate with 30 per cent capacity against the current 10 per cent.

In other regions of the state, government offices can operate with 50 per cent capacity while private offices can operate with 30 per cent staffers.

Moreover, in all government offices, a vigilant officer will be appointed to ensure social distancing protocols including disinfection of the premises on a regular basis. 

The state government on Monday also lifted restrictions on obtaining e-passes for movement of private and goods vehicles but continues to place restrictions on travel of senior citizens and children below the age 10.

Schools and colleges will remain closed while e-learning and online classes will continue.

The government however, has not lifted restrictions on the operation of gyms, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums, metro rails and religious places in the state and they will remain closed.

Opposition parties on the other hand, have been demanding reopening of religious places.

On Monday, Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar also staged a protest to reopen ‘Vittar Mandir’ in Pandarpur.

Ambedkar said that he had spoken with CM Uddhav Thackeray who had promised to take a decision on this shortly.

Schools, colleges, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks and theatres will remain closed till the end of September.

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday decided to go ahead with three days of complete lockdown in September, clearing the air over the issue after Unlock 4 guidelines asked states to take the Centre into confidence before imposing any local shutdown outside containment zones.

CM Mamata Banerjee said there will be a complete lockdown in the state on September 7, September 11 and September 12. Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said the lockdown will be extended in containment zones in Bengal till September 30.

Schools, colleges, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks and theatres will remain closed till the end of September.

Meanwhile, The discharge rate of COVID-19 patients in the state rose to 82.49 per cent after 3,318 patients recovered from the disease on Monday, a bulletin released by the health department said.

On Sunday, the discharge rate was close to 82 per cent.

So far, 1,34,270 people have recovered from the disease in the state.

The state’s coronavirus caseload went up to 1,62,778 as 2,993 new cases of infection were registered in the state on Monday.

The death toll due to the disease also mounted to 3,228 after 52 fresh fatalities were reported, the bulletin said.

The number of active cases is now 25,280.

Of the 52 casualties on Monday, 41 were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.

Thirteen of the fresh fatalities were recorded in North 24 Parganas district, 10 in Kolkata, nine in South 24 Parganas and four each in Nadia and Hooghly districts, the bulletin said.

The remaining 12 deaths were reported from several other districts.

North 24 Parganas also registered 447 new cases, while 444 people from Kolkata and 316 others from Paschim Medinipur district tested positive for the contagion.

Altogether 42,239 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, while 18,87,635 such tests were conducted in the state till date, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, plasma collection for treating coronavirus patients started at Malda Medical College and Hospital on Monday, state government officials said.

Bars allowed to reopen

The Mamata government has also allowed bars in the state to reopen from Tuesday by following social distancing and other COVID-related protocols.

An order issued by the Excise Department on Monday said that services have to be kept within the stipulated hours of opening of the outlets.

Restaurants serving liquor can do so by allowing only 50 per cent of total occupancy at a time and following all COVID-19 guidelines, it said.

The Excise Directorate said those serving liquor at their clubs, canteens and other places will have to inform the government prior to restarting services.

The modalities to resume Metro Railway services in Kolkata are yet to be finalised, its general manager Manoj Joshi said on Monday.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines under which Metro services will be allowed to resume services from September 7 in a graded manner.

Modalities for running the services have not yet been finalised and discussions in this regard with the state government will be held after the standard operating procedure (SOP) is issued by the ministry concerned, he said.

“After SOP is issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as indicated in the MHA order, we will approach the state government to discuss the modalities.

In an order, the West Bengal government said that Metro Railway services will be allowed in a graded manner from September 8.

The West Bengal government had earlier written to the Railway Board, seeking resumption of Metro and suburban train services in a limited manner, maintaining the norms of physical distancing, and health and hygiene protocols.

In the letter to the chairman of the Railway Board, West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay urged that before the resumption of services, required modalities and logistics to ensure smooth operations may be worked out in consultation with the state government.

The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been holding trial runs of its rakes for maintenance of rolling stock, signalling systems and other facilities to keep them ready as and when services are allowed to be restarted, an official said.

In a bid to encourage social distancing when it resumes service, the Metro Railway has introduced an online system of recharging smart cards, according to the official.

NEW DELHI: BJP IT department head Amit Malviya on Monday alleged that over 98 per cent of the ‘dislikes’’ for the YouTube video posted by the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat show came from abroad and alleged involvement of the Congress in this.

He also claimed that there’s a trend based on data analysis that bots are being used to build up campaigns, including against holding of the JEE examinations.

“Over the last 24 hours, there’s been a concerted effort to dislike the ‘Mann ki Baat’ video on YouTube (posted by All India Radio). So low is the Congress on confidence that it has been celebrating it some sort of conquest. However, data from YouTube suggests that only two per cent of those dislikes are from within India,” said Malviya.

Malviya shared several Twitter handles purportedly originating from Turkey which has been twitting on JEE examinations. 

He added in another tweet, “The rest 98%, like always, came from outside India! Bots and Twitter accounts from overseas have been consistent feature of the Congress’s anti JEE-NEET campaign. There is huge spike in activity by Rahul Gandhi’s favourite Turkish bots! What is this Turkish obsession, Rahul?”

Several Congress handles, representing its state units and other departments, had run a campaign on social media to “dislike” the ‘Mann ki Baat’ video.

Worrying, nominal GDP — widely used in government estimates — contracted 20.6% or from Rs  44.8 lakh crore to Rs  35.6 lakh crore.

India’s first quarter GDP shrunk to a level unknown in our economic history. At 23.9%, it’s the sharpest contraction since 1996 when we began bean-counting quarterly data and probably the worst since 1980s.

Assuming a 5-6% trendline growth, the effective output loss in Q1 is upwards Rs 10 lakh crore. That’s the national output lost, perhaps, forever, as Covid-19 cut the economy fiercer than a Samurai blade.

Just as misfortune conspires with bad luck during crises, several key metrics pounded each other into the ground leaving Asia’s third-largest economy in a quicksand with both demand and supply side contraction standing witness.

On the supply side, all but agriculture saw a de-growth with some like construction, manufacturing and services contracting indecently at 40-50%.

Demand side too mirrored this with investments shrinking 47%, while consumer spending saw a negative growth of 27%. Like in the past, government expenditure saved the day with 16.4% growth, but that’s an impolite increase given the pandemic and the sovereign’s role of riding to everyone’s rescue.

That said, excluding government spending, GDP would have contracted even worse by 30%. So that’s some solace.

In essence, just two life-sustaining arteries — agriculture and government spending  —pumped our economy.

As if that’s not disappointing, fiscal deficit data released separately showed that the government continued to pinch both revenue and capital spending. Whether this was anticipating lower tax receipts or fearing deficit scolds is unclear.

Almost every country is emptying its public purse to fight the pandemic-led downturn, but India’s fiscal deficit in July stood lower than June, reflecting overt caution against a debt binge.

Meanwhile, economists believe the latest data betrays the inferno inside as they expect revisions to toss shocking de-growth grenades later. Policy watcher Anil Sood offered some proof.

Take inventory, which should have seen depletion because production was shut for two months. Instead, it recorded a quarterly increase similar to last year at Rs  53,000 crore.

Ditto consumption spending, which Sood thinks could be sharper than what’s captured in Monday’s provisional estimates.

Interestingly, valuables — including high value purchases — saw an unmistakable decline indicating spending curbs not just by lower income households, but also by India’s burgeoisie and the super rich.

Moreover, given the unglamorous state of core sector data, chances are we are in a recession right now, though the official word will be out in November.

In nearly seven decades, we’ve seen only four years of negative growth, but economic pundits are entering heavy discussions not about recession, but when the worst will be behind us, so recovery can begin.

Chief economic adviser K V Subramanian signalled that India was experiencing a V-shaped recovery with high frequency indicators like rail freight and power consumption showing promise.

But even with some improvements in next three quarters, several believe the rate of FY21 contraction could be beyond -5%.

The choice for the government will be whether consumption or investment side needs to be pushed. Given the limited fiscal space economists believe a demand or consumption-led recovery is crucial for the economy, but that requires government measure to arrest job losses and increase disposable incomes.