Heena Sharma Blog

India's newest coronavirus hotspot, Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz has been evacuated by authorities and the asymptomatic evacuees were sent to quarantine as 24 positive cases have been detected till Tuesday late night. Sources told IANS, that a total of 2100 people have been evacuated from the Markaz till early morning on Wednesday and symptomatic patients have been shifted to hospitals. As per Delhi government source, till Tuesday a total of 24 people have tested positive from the Nizamuddin Markaz Masjid. From the Markaz, while 441 symptomatic ones were taken to hospitals, while 1,447 more have been put in quarantine. Read More

At a time when there is a spurt in the number of Covid-19 cases in India, most hospitals are also running short of ventilators which are absolutely necessary to help the infected continue breathing. According to several estimates, the country has only around 50,000 ventilators for a population of around 1.3 billion people. A Bengaluru-based deep-tech start-up, Ethereal Machines, is addressing the problem to some extent by enabling the existing ventilators to cater to the different requirements of multiple patients, depending upon their criticality. The Blume Ventures-backed firm, which specialises in technologies associated with computerised numerical control (CNC) machining and 3D printing, has come up with an innovation to augment the capacities of existing ventilators, in dire circumstances. Simple 3D printed splitters that divide the supply of oxygen into two halves have been tried out successfully in Europe. “India is seeing a massive shortage of ventilators and manufac...

Budget carrier SpiceJet has decided to cut 10-30 per cent salary of all its employees in March, with Chairman Ajay Singh opting for highest 30 per cent trimming in compensation, the airline said in an e-mail communication to the staff on Tuesday. "SpiceJet management has decided to implement a pay cut between 10-30 per cent in March across our employee base. Our Chairman and Managing Director (Ajay singh), in fact, has opted for the highest cut of 30 per cent in compensation," the airline said in the communication. Other budget carriers IndiGo and GoAir have already announced similar move earlier. "These are extremely tough time and call for appropriate and exceptional measures to sale through the exceptional challenge," it said. Read More

A day after the Telangana government announced the death of 6 coronavirus patients from the state - all linked to Nizamuddin visit in Delhi, 17 new positive cases were registered on Tuesday. Thirteen of the new cases have been traced back to the religious congregation at the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat. With the additional 17 new cases in a single day, the total number of confirmed coronavirus patients in Andhra Pradesh has jumped to 40, spread across nine out of the thirteen districts in the state. Prakasham and Guntur districts have registered the largest number of 11 and 9 coronavirus cases respectively. It may be noted that most of many of those who attended the Markaz religious congregation in Nizamuddin have either tested positive or are being tracked and kept in quarantine in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Authorities of both the states are continuing their efforts to trace those who had attended the Markaz meeting in hundreds, in a bid to put them in quarantine faciliti...

Tamil Nadu on Tuesday reported 7 new positive cases of coronavirus (Covid-19) , in people with a history of travel to Kerala and Delhi. As on March 30, the state had 67 positive cases. C Vijayabaskar, Minister for Health and Family Welfare, government of TamilNadu said that the state has 7 new Covid-19 positive cases. The 7 cases include a 43-year-old male who had travelled to Trivandrum, a 28-year old male co-worker of a patient, who had earlier tested positive at Tiruvannamalai MC, three male patients at Vilupuram with a history of travel to Delhi, two male patients at Madurai Rajaji Hospital with a history of travel to Delhi. All patients are in isolation and stable. As of March 30, 2020, Tamil Nadu had tested samples of 2,040 people, of which 1,853 came in negative and 67 tested positive. Of the 67 positive cases, 5 were discharged. Read More

The S&P BSE Sensex is set to report its biggest quarterly fall in history of the stock market, with the benchmark index slipping 31 per cent during January-March 2020 quarter till Monday. The markets have entered a ‘bear phase’ on the back of panic triggered by the rampant spread of coronavirus ( COVID-19 ). Typically, a fall of 20 per cent or more from the peak level for a stock or an index is considered as a bear market territory for that traded unit. On the other hand, the Nifty 50, which declined 31.9 per cent, is likely to record its sharpest quarterly fall since June 1992 quarter when it fell 32.2 per cent during the quarter, while the Sensex had tanked 28.1 per cent during the same quarter. For the financial year 2019 - 2020 (FY20), the Nifty50 (down 28.8 per cent) and Sensex (down 26.5 per cent) recorded an over 25 per cent fall till Monday, March 30 – their worst performance in over a decade. Earlier in FY09, the S&P BSE Sensex had recorded 37.9 per cent fall,...

In a high-level review meeting conducted in the wake of State's financial situation amid coronavirus outbreak , the Telangna government on Monday decided a huge pay cut for its employees ranging from 10 per cent to 75 per cent. The meeting was held at Pragathi Bhavan in view of the State's economic situation which has been affected adversely due to the coronavirus scare. It was decided that there will be a 75 per cent cut in the salaries of the Chief Minister, State cabinet, MLCs, MLAs, State Corporation Chairpersons and Local Bodies representatives. Whereas, there will be a 60 per cent salary cut of IAS, IPS IFS and other such Central Services Officer and for all other category of employees, there will be 50 per cent salary cut. Read More

The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is likely to hit the global economy, including India, hard over the next few months. With nearly 75 per cent of the Indian economy in lockdown mode, Nomura has lowered the 2020 GDP growth forecast to -0.5 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) from 4.5 per cent. “We now expect GDP growth to slide from 4.7 per cent y-o-y in Q4 2019 to 3.1 per cent in Q1 and plunge to -6.1 per cent in Q2, when both domestic and external demand will weaken. We are building in a sequential pickup in the second half of 2020, but the pace of recovery is likely to be much weaker given some lasting damage to potential output,” wrote Sonal Varma, managing director and chief India economist at Nomura in a co-authored report with Aurodeep Nandi titled 'COVID-19’s impact on the world economy'. In its worst case projection if the Covid-19 pandemic becomes a full-blown credit crisis for India, corporates find it difficult to stay afloat, and banks struggle with the balan...

The central government has asked automobile manufacturers to use their facilities to produce ventilators to boost the country's capacity of such machines in view of rising COVID-19 cases. The Health ministry said that the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will begin manufacturing 20,000 N-95 masks per day within the next week. The ministry informed that over 14,000 existing ventilators are earmarked for COVID-19 patients in various hospitals in the country while there are 1.19 million N-95 masks in stock. Additional 500,000 masks were distributed during the last two days and 140,000 were distributed on Monday. "Automobile manufacturers have been asked to manufacture ventilators and they are working towards this end," the health ministry said in a tweet.   Read More

Facebook-owned WhatsApp has reduced the Status video limit from 30 seconds to 15 seconds in India to cut strain on Internet networks during the coronavirus lockdown in the country as millions of people have started sharing videos in Status. A tweet by WABetaInfo has revealed WhatsApp has put a bar on time limit for videos posted under the 'Status' section of the Facebook-owned instant messaging app. "You can no longer send videos to WhatsApp Status if they are longer than 16 seconds: only videos having a duration of 15 seconds will be allowed. This is happening in India and it's probably an initiative to reduce the traffic on the server infrastructures," WABetaInfo tweeted on Sunday. Read More

The government of Goa on Sunday issued a notice, whereby, it authorised Swiggy, Zomato and other home delivery platforms to operate and deliver food, groceries and other essential items at doorsteps during the lockdown due to COVID-19 . "ECommerce operators such as @swiggy_in, @ZomatoIN and other platforms have been permitted to deliver food and grocery items. #GoaFightsCOVID19 ," the Goa Chief Minister's Office tweeted today. Earlier, two more coronavirus positive cases were reported in Goa on Sunday taking the state's tally to five. A total of 1024 positive cases of COVID-19 have been found in India, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday. 27 persons have lost their lives due to this disease in the country. Read More

Asymptomatic COVID-19 patients are as virulent and infective as symptomatic ones and those having no clinical symptoms but tested positive for new coronavirus can infect several healthy people, according to new studies. Reported by Global Times, those silent virus carriers (asymptomatic patients) have been controversial regarding their infectivity but the news of a woman in Henan Province in China has further triggered public concerns". The woman in Central China's Henan Province was confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 after coming into contact with an asymptomatic patient, who also got the virus from another asymptomatic patient. "A recent study showed the infectivity of asymptomatic patients (having no clinical symptoms but testing positive for COVID-19) could be nearly the same as confirmed cases," the report said on Sunday. Read More

The government on Monday said there was no plan to extend the 21-day lockdown which came intro force on Tuesday midnight. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting tweeted, saying Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba has denied media reports claiming that the government will extend the lockdown. "There are rumours & media reports, claiming that the Government will extend the #Lockdown21 when it expires. The Cabinet Secretary has denied these reports, and stated that they are baseless," it said. The 21-day lockdown is aimed at checking the spread of the coronavirus. Following the lockdown, there has been a massive exodus of migrant workers from big cities to their villages after being rendered jobless. Read More

India's aviation regulator DGCA on Friday extended the validity of pilots' licences that were nearing expiry by 90 days, noting that they were facing issues in completing various requirements due to the restrictions imposed to curb the COVID-19 outbreak . Similarly, the regulator has also extended the validity of medical assessment certificates, aircraft rating certificates, skill test certificates, etc, for a period of 90 days. "DGCA is aware that operators and individual license holders are facing issues in completing their requirements towards renewal, issuance of various pilot licenses and ratings and to exercise the privileges of their respective licenses and ratings including temporary authorizations (FATA)," the regulator stated in a public notice on Friday. FATA stands for foreign aircrew temporary authorization, which is issued to foreign pilots that are working for Indian airlines. Read More

Cigarettes to hotels major, ITC Ltd has come up with a Rs. 150 crore contingency fund to address the exigency arising out of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the country. According to the company’s chairman and managing director, Sanjiv Puri, this fund will be utilised primarily to provide relief to the vulnerable and most needy sections of society who are impacted by the pandemic and are facing significant disruption in their livelihoods. Additionally, ITC will also also collaborate with district authorities to provide assistance to the district health and rural healthcare eco-system that reaches out to the weakest sections of society. The resources under this fund will be channelised towards the protection and well-being of people involved directly to reach medicines, groceries, other essential goods including sourcing of agri-commodities by providing protective personal gear and hygiene products. Read More

Telly actors like Sharad Malhotra, Shubhangi Atre and Donal Bisht have been putting many hours into their shows and entertaining their viewers. Now that it's all about "stay home, stay safe" in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak , the actors are joining their fans in either watching their own shows or the evergreen ones like "Hum Log". To tackle the pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a complete lockdown for 21 days beginning March 25. Some are doing the dishes, working out indoors or brushing up their culinary skills. Lockdown has also given a chance to small screen actors to catch up on their favourite shows. "I am watching Neena Gupta's 'Saans'. It was a cult show on relationships, and also 'Hum Log'. I was quite young when the shows were on air," Sharad told IANS. Read More

A rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was much expected this time and the Governor did not disappoint. The aggressive cut of 75 basis points (bps) in the repo rate is commendable, as it provides the balm required to revive the economy. This is evidently meant to counter the negative impact of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic . Governor Shaktikanta Das was very prudent in not giving a forecast for growth or inflation because, as he rightly stated, with things changing so fast, it is not certain how long the threat will last and how its spread and depth will impact the economy. Therefore, the policy is directed towards the immediate problem of mitigating the damage caused by the virus. The RBI has decided to use a novel way to influence interest rates. The repo rate has come down to 4.4 per cent, while the reverse repo rate is now 4 per cent with a difference of 40 bps. The idea is to ensure that banks do not deposit surpluses in the reverse repo auctions, which is av...

The year 2020 seems more about nostalgia than anything else, especially for the kids of the 1990s. Old phones are making a comeback in new avatars (we're talking about the Moto Razr (not Nokia, as it's long gone, and people have moved on), Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag opening the innings in a cricket match together, even if not for the national team (in the Road Safety World Series), and yes it’s happening: the F.R.I.E.N.D.S cast is reuniting for an exclusive special on HBO Max. In the middle of all this, Sony has brought its new Walkman, the Sony NW-A105 , which has a nostalgic appeal that takes us back to the good ol' days when things were simple and easy. One might wonder... what's the deal with Sony? Why would it launch a Walkman in the streaming age? We had the same question, so we spent a month with Sony's first Android Walkman and tried to find the answers. Read More

Following in the footsteps of global central banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday lowered the key repo rate by 75 basis points (bps) to 4.4 per cent, to help arrest the economic slowdown in the wake of the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak. The reverse repo rate now stands at 4 per cent, down 90 bps. Repo rate is the rate at which a country’s central bank lends money to commercial banks, and reverse repo rate is the rate at which it borrows from them. MPC voted 4-2 in favour of the reduction of the repo rate by 75 bps, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said in an address to media. The governor informed that the members of the MPC met on March 24, 25 and 27. "It is our effort to ensure normal functioning of the market," Das said. The governor further said that the economic growth and inflation projection would be highly contingent depending on the duration, spread and intensity of the pandemic. "Need of the hour is to shield the economy from the pandemi...

A 70-year-old COVID-19 patient died in Gujarat's Bhavnagar district early Thursday morning, a health department officials said. With this, the total number of deaths due to coronavirus inthe state has gone up to three, they said. "The 70-year-old man died at a government hospital in Bhavnagar," state principal secretary (health) Jayanti Ravi said. Earlier, one patient each from Ahmedabad and Surat had succumbed to the viral infection, she said. Four new COVID-19 cases have been reported in Lucknow, taking the total tally of coronavirus cases in the state to above 40 on Thursday. Read More

Chocolate and candy maker Mars Wrigley India on Thursday called for steps to mitigate disruptions in the free movement of goods, especially inter-state, as well as warehousing, manufacturing and distribution challenges for food companies during the lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic . The company, however, said it is working closely with local authorities to ensure product availability. "We deeply respect the stringent measures that the government has put in place to protect the country during the unprecedented outbreak of Covid-19, as well as efforts by all authorities at the frontline who are working tirelessly to maintain public safety," a Mars Wrigley India spokesperson said in an emailed response. The spokesperson further said," We are hopeful that steps will be taken to mitigate disruptions in the free movement of goods, especially inter-state, as well as warehousing, manufacturing and distribution challenges." Read More

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced free access to its e-book platform Juggernaut Books to support people in staying home during the lockdown. "As India stays at home to support the government's efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19, readers can now access thousands of top books and novels on Juggernaut Books (formerly known as Airtel Books) for free by simply downloading the app (Android/iOS) on their smartphones," Bharti Airtel said in a statement. Airtel acquired a strategic stake in Juggernaut in 2017. Juggernaut is also organising an innovative online literary festival as part of its efforts to promote reading. Read More

To resolve issues faced by the citizens during the entire lockdown period in the country due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak , the Delhi Police have included several online service delivery and diagnostic laboratories in the list of essential services that will be allowed to operate in Delhi during the 21-day lockdown. The online delivery companies that have been allowed and exempted to operate as essential service providers in Delhi are; Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon, 24Seven, Blue Dart, DTDC, Wow Express, Swiggy, Grofers, Big Basket, Milk Basket, Dunzo, Big Bazaar, Snapdeal, Licious, Medlife, Pharmeasy, Urbanclap, Ninjacart, Honasa Consumer, Healthians Diagnostics, Delhivery, Nutrimoo Milk dairy, More Retail, Easyday, Jabong, Myntra, Spencer’s, Reliance Fresh, Jubiliant Food Works, Foodpanda, Faaso’s, Pizza Hut, Ubereats, Needs Superman, 1Mg, Dr. Read More

Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday said it temporarily would not require sellers in its marketplace to repay loans it had made to them, as merchants confront the prospect of declining sales during the coronavirus pandemic . The world's largest online retailer notified sellers that its programme known as Amazon Lending would pause repayments beginning Thursday until April 30. Interest would not accrue during that period, it said. The programme has offered sums between $1,000 (846.5 pounds) and $750,000 to merchants looking for capital to acquire inventory, expand their product lines and advertise on Amazon. "Loan repayments will restart on May 1, 2020 ... You will have the same number of remaining payments once repayment resumes," Amazon said in a seller message obtained by Reuters. More than 20,000 merchants have gotten loans from Amazon, the company said in 2017. By the end of 2019, Amazon stood to receive $863 million from sellers to whom it provided financing thr...

Walmart-owned Flipkart said on Wednesday it would resume services and Amazon said it was working with the government to enable its deliveries after state governments reached out to the firms, which had temporarily stopped accepting new orders amid reports of police high-handedness. The Delhi police issued a statement saying they were proactively engaging with e-commerce portals and were issuing passes to ensure agents were able to commute seamlessly and deliver essential goods to residents during the 21-day lockdown. The Bengaluru police, too, came out with guidelines for issuing curfew passes. Following this, Flipkart Chief Executive Officer Kalyan Krishnamurthy said, “We have been assured of the safe and smooth passage of our supply chain and delivery executives by local law enforcement authorities and are resuming our grocery and essentials services later today (Wednesday).” Read More

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 8 PM on Tuesday on the coronavirus outbreak . "Will address the nation at 8 PM today, 24th March 2020, on vital aspects relating to the menace of COVID-19," Modi tweeted. He had addressed the nation on efforts to combat the virus on March 19. In his previous address to the nation on Thursday, the Prime Minister had urged people to follow a 'Janta Curfew' on Sunday which was, by and large, a success as citizens remained indoors. As of now, almost the entire country is under lockdown to restrict public movement in a bid to break the chain of transmission of coronavirus. Prime Minister Modi will also communicate with the people of his Lok Sabha constituency -- Varanasi -- on March 25 to discuss the situation arising out of coronavirus pandemic. Nearly 500 coronavirus cases have been reported in India so far, according to Health Ministry data on Tuesday. Read More

Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist who received the 2013 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing complex models of chemical systems, has an optimistic take on the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic . In his view, the fast-spreading disease is likely to come to a halt, but gradually. Levitt, whose specialty is not in epidemiology, cited the slowing rate of increase in the number of deaths in China to support his hypothesis. Levitt said that just like China, the United States too will get through the worst of the coronavirus outbreak sooner than many specialists anticipate, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday. The laureate had already started studying the number of coronavirus cases around the world back in January this year. According to him, the world needs to control the panic, and abide by the reasonable social distancing measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Read More

Video streaming major Netflix on Tuesday said it will reduce traffic on telecommunications networks by 25 per cent while maintaining the quality of service for users in India, as part of its efforts to help mitigate network congestion amid the coronavirus pandemic. Companies like Amazon Prime Video are also temporarily lowering bit rates - a measure of how much data is being transferred - to ease pressure on telecom network infrastructure. Consumption of digital content has gone up manifold as people are forced to stay indoors as almost the entire country is under lockdown to contain the spread of the deadly COVID-19. "Given the crisis, we've developed a way to reduce Netflix's traffic on telecommunications networks by 25 per cent while also maintaining the quality of our service. So consumers should continue to get the quality that comes with their plan - whether it's Ultra-High, High or Standard Definition," Netflix VP Content Delivery Ken Florance sa...

Telecom operators have demanded additional spectrum urgently on a temporary basis in order to cope with the unprecedented spurt in data usage as a result of “work from home” and “self-quarantine” at homes across the country due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak . In a letter to the department of telecommunications (DoT), the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has demanded additional spectrum both for “access and backhaul microwave” for a short term and temporarily as they need to augment their capacity to meet the growing demand. COAI director general Rajan Matthew however says they are still waiting for a response from the government. The telecom association has also asked DoT for expedited permission for tower enhancement from states (as thy ramp up capacity), extension in minimum roll out timelines by six months and permission for go for digital acquisition of new customers instead of physical documentation, especially as there has been a sharp rise in acq...

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has donated his three months' salary to the Chief Minister's Relief Fund to help those affected by coronavirus . Odisha Chief Minister's Office said, "Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has donated his three months' salary to Chief Minister's relief fund to help those affected by Covid-19, reiterating that extraordinary circumstance demands extraordinary response." The Chief Minister has appealed all to donate generously for the cause. As a precautionary measure to contain the spread of coronavirus, Odisha government on Monday extended the lockdown from five to 14 districts. The state government has extended lockdown to Puri, Nayagarh, Jagatsinghpur. Jajpur, Bhadrak, Balasore, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Jharsuguda districts from Tuesday morning till 9 pm on March 29. Odisha administration has also decided to mark with stickers the houses of those who have been advised home quarantine. Read More