The military preparations underway show that the PLA may undertake operations this summer to achieve whatever objectives they could not achieve last May, asserts Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
India is struggling with a second wave of the pandemic with more than 3,00,000 daily new coronavirus cases being reported in the past few days, and hospitals in several states are reeling under a shortage of medical oxygen and beds.
The guidelines listed several services including government and private offices that will be out of bounds during the period, while exempting establishments such as hospitals, ration shops, dairies, banks, insurance offices, and print and electronic media. Delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through e-commerce has also been exempted from the purview of the lockdown.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports, is expected to increase the country's production by $520 billion in the next five years. Addressing a webinar on PLI scheme, organised by Department of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT) and NITI Aayog, through video conference, Modi said the government is continuously carrying out reforms to boost domestic manufacturing. In this year's Budget, about Rs 2 lakh crore was earmarked for the PLI scheme for the next five years and "there is an expectation that the scheme would result in increasing the production by about $520 billion in the next five years", he said. He added that there is also an expectation that the current workforce in the sectors, which will avail the benefits of the PLI scheme, will be doubled and job creation will also increase.
In a tweet, India's Ambassador to China, Vikram Misri said the medical kits were dispatched early on Thursday from Guangzhou Airport in southern China. Over two million test kits being procured from China will be sent to India in the next 15 days, Misri told PTI in Beijing.
The prototype, which may cost around Rs 30,000, is now awaiting Indian Council of Medical Research clearance to go into production, the Railways said.
The cities where services have resumed include Bengaluru, Mysore, Pune, Ludhiana, Noida, Gurugram, Raipur, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Industry experts believe it would be at least 4-5 days before the backlog of orders can be cleared.
16 national and regional industry bodies and sectoral business lobbies video-conferenced with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday and raised key concerns facing Indian industry in the wake of the 21-day lockdown over coronavirus.
In a communication to chief secretaries and director generals of police of all states, the ministry asked them to take action to allay apprehensions and maintain peace and tranquillity, and inform people about the availability of food, medicine and other essential commodities.
This is in addition to 6.50 lakh Antibody Tests and RNA Extraction Kits dispatched from China earlier this week. India is procuring the medical supplies from China in recent weeks to ensure availability of adequate supplies. The Rapid Antibody Test Kits deliver results in 15 minutes and work on blood samples instead of nasal swabs to tell whether a patient has ever been exposed to the novel virus.
'In countries like Japan, one out of 11.7 tests turns out to be positive, which is among the highest in the world. Italy tests 6.7 persons for one positive test while the USA tests 5.3 persons and the United Kingdom 3.4'
In a letter to all the zonal general managers on Monday, the board has said that initially 5,000 coaches will be converted.
The fund generated a lot of interest immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its formation of the fund in the last week of March after the COVID-19 outbreak and appealed for donations, prompting several private firms, government bodies and individuals, including celebrities, to donate money.
According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Centre, more than 4,000 people in the US have died due to COVID-19 and nearly 190,000 have been infected by it.
The first fatality from COVID-19 was reported from the Washington state on February 26.
The main purpose of the meeting is to assess their views on reforms that are required to attract long-term capital into the country.
The railways' first such COVID-19 care centre was deployed at Shakur Basti railway stations in Delhi on May 31. It consisted of 10 coaches with a capacity of 160 beds. The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the coronavirus care centres according to guidelines issued by the health ministry.
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Sector enormously contribute to the GDP of the country. The sector is characterised by low investment requirement, operational flexibility, location wise mobility, and import substitution.
Exports to China saw sustained double-digit growth for the fourth straight month in August, led by eightfold rise in iron and steel shipments.
The death of Italian second division soccer player Piermario Morosini during a game on Saturday has triggered investigations into a delay in the ambulance's arrival and calls for more medical equipment at sporting events.
The start-up mentors debated if they could drive the price further down, but feared an even lower price would raise doubts about its quality, as was the case with the Tata Nano, reports Amrita Singh.
In a fresh crackdown on the multi-billion National Rural Health Mission scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation on Friday carried out as many as 30 raids across five different cities in Uttar Pradesh.
The nation in a post-coronavirus future could well look back on the pandemic period as a 'blessing in disguise' if Indians imbibe hand, respiratory and environmental hygiene and practise it in their everyday lives, the minister said.
'It would be very difficult to relegate somebody, particularly from the Premier League, if the season hasn't played out'
'It is unclear whether clothing or home items qualify as essential items. A lot of professionals are working from home, and they need electronics for their productivity. Does this qualify as essential?'
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said, a hike in GST rates would have hampered consumption amid the economic slowdown. The revenue augmentation panel in the Council meeting recently recommended revisiting and restructuring the GST rate slabs, besides correcting the inverted duty structure. The panel listed 24 items, including mobile phones, footwear, fabrics, LED light, medical equipment, utensils, agri machinery, pharma, and renewable components, which have an inverted duty structure, resulting in refunds of close to Rs 20,000 crore annually.
'We are having an outsize impact not only on the lives of the customers and livelihood, but also the economy of India.'
What the UK is getting out of the Serum Institute is what India is losing. And the responsibility of the Indian State ought to have been to dictate where Serum Institute's vaccine doses should go, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The military is 'totally prepared to stand up to the demands made by the government and the people.'
However, many of these firms were facing an uphill task of convincing the people on the ground to return to work, as many are apprehensive of their safety.
The ministry said there should be no interruptions in the services of small retail shops, large organised retail stores and e-commerce companies.
US President Donald Trump identified New York, California and Washington as the three major coronavirus hot spots.
Dairies, milk plants, grocery shops, chemists and petrol pumps, ATMs, e-commerce services of essential items like food and medicines will remain open, he said.
On the other hand, mobile accessories, medical equipment energy efficient CFL lamps, set top boxes, compact disc, toys and books will be cheaper on account of some tax concessions offered on these items by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Union Budget for 2010-11.
The GoM was apprised that as of now, the death rate is around 3.1 per cent while the recovery rate is more than 20 per cent, which is comparatively better than most of the countries and may be taken as a positive effect of the lockdown in the country, along with the cluster management and containment strategy.
Bodies of five of the deceased have been recovered so far, while efforts are on to find the remaining five persons, whose chances of survival are bleak, a police official said in Srinagar.
A private hospital's alleged refusal to admit some persons injured in a road accident that left six dead in 24 South Parganas district on Tuesday morning enraged locals, who set afire furniture, medical equipment and vehicles leading police to fire in the air to quell the mob.
Considering the huge investments required in the Indian Healthcare sector, both for domestic and to take care of rising medical tourism from global markets.
'Saving our economy is a priority.' 'We have to save our people and save our country.'
US-India Business Council President Nisha Biswal believes once the economic activity and demand resumes, India could hold the potential for diversification of supply chains and manufacturing.
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