New Delhi: PM Modi’s high-level meeting with different ministers to power the country’s economic engines gets top billing Friday. All newspapers also note the death of actor Rishi Kapoor.
Financial papers note Reliance Industries’ big move to raise Rs 53,215 crore by selling shares to existing investors in a bid to reduce its debt pile.
In The Times Of India’s lead story ‘States face daunting task of evacuating millions of migrants’, the paper reports, “A day after the Union home ministry opened the floodgates for the return of stranded migrant workers” the “herculean challenge” of screening and transporting lakhs of migrants appears to weigh down on states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
In some data analysis, TOI says, ‘Share of under-60 age group in India’s Covid deaths rises’. “More than half of India’s Covid-19 deaths – 51.2% — are among those aged above 60 years; of them, 42% were in the 60-75 age group, according to the latest data from the health ministry. Though less at risk, those between 45 and 60 years accounted for 34% deaths due to the disease, while 14% of those who died were younger than 45,” it writes.
The lead story in The Indian Express is about the much sought after fiscal stimulus — ‘Second stimulus: Govt plans targeting based on need, MSMEs to begin with’. The paper reports that more than six meetings have been held at Prime Minister’s Office — including Thursday’s with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal but “what has held back an announcement is the open-endedness of the stimulus being pushed by sections within the government.”
In continuation of the series on private hospitals, Express finds that ‘Sealing fears, dip in patients, wary staff are making private hospitals play safe’.
It cites an example: “It has been a struggle for Dr Rohintan Dastur, Medical Director at South Mumbai’s Bhatia Hospital, to get his 700-odd staff back to work after it was first sealed on April 8. He offered them transport, hotel stay to cut travel risks, and even one-and-a-half times the salary.” Though nurses and doctors have reported to work, the housekeeping staff has stayed away.
Moving east for some worrying news, ‘What Bengal’s official tally doesn’t say: One in 8 who tested positive died of virus’. The daily reports that 105 persons infected with coronavirus had died in the state, but maintained that only 33 of these deaths could directly be attributed to COVID-19”.
Following TOI’s lead, even Hindustan Times also leads with migrant workers — ‘States prepare to bring migrant workers home’.
And in relief to Uddhav Thackeray, who needs to be elected to remain chief minister, ‘Maha Governor says conduct polls to nine seats of MLCs’. According to the paper, “A day after Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over phone and sought his intervention to end the impasse in the state over the former’s election to state legislature, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari requested the Election Commission of India to hold elections for nine seats to the state legislative council at the earliest…”
In some non-Covid news, Pakistan cannot locate terrorists within its territory. In ‘Can’t locate listed terrorists: Pak to UNSC committee’, HT reports, “The decision by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government to delete nearly 4,000 names from its terror watch list was part of a well-orchestrated effort to scrub its terror record clean not just at home, but also at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), people familiar with the developments told Hindustan Times.”
And in an apt headline that encompasses the past two days, the paper says, ‘Cinema left poorer twice in two days: Rishi Kapoor dies’ Thursday after actor Irrfan Khan passed away just a day earlier Wednesday.
The Hindu’s affair with data continues with the lead story, ‘Recovery rate rises to 25%, says govt.’. The paper says, “India reported 1,823 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 33,610 on Thursday with 8,373 recoveries. An additional 71 deaths have now taken the total number of fatalities to 1,074.”
And in bad news for the economy, ‘March core sector output slumps 6.5%’. Hindu reports, “Output at India’s core sector contracted by 6.5% in March, Commerce Ministry data show, reflecting the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent nationwide lockdown”.
The Kolkata daily’s front page notes, ‘Even richest Ambani is cutting salary’. The paper says , “Mukesh Ambani, Asia’s richest tycoon, on Thursday decided to forego his salary as a slump in crude prices and demand for fuels at home led to a fall in quarterly profits at Reliance Industries for the first time in three years.”
And on Rahul Gandhi and Raghuram Rajan’s video conversation Thursday, the paper notes, ‘Message & contrast in Rahul-Rajan conversation’. Telegraph writes, “Rahul Gandhi appears to have brought off a tactical masterstroke by engaging globally renowned economist Raghuram Rajan in a conversation about the struggling economy and post pandemic politics, signalling subtly that Prime Minister Narendra Modi could have done more to tackle the Covid-19 crisis”.
The New Indian Express leads (‘PM wants proactive…’) with PM Modi’s meeting with top ministers to develop a roadmap for “Made in India, Made for World” to make India an attractive FDI destination “in the wake of companies intending to relocate from China”. A scheme to promote “more plug-and-play infrastructure in industrial land, plot or estates” was also discussed, it reports.
A small item notes how states like Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan and Telangana have demanded special trains to move migrant workers as operating buses for long-distance travel would be “difficult”. Controversially, Telangana and Maharashtra suggest either the Centre or “native states of the migrant workers” bear the travel cost, it adds.
In a shock to almost “4.4 lakh” migrant workers in Oman, the Gulf country has asked all “state-owned companies to fire all expat workers and replace them with Omani nationals”. However, the report includes MEA’s assurance that this is a “decades-old policy” that does not target Indians.
Mint’s lead, ‘Reforms back on the agenda’ reports PM Modi’s message to top ministers to “accelerate reform measures …to boost investment and fuel growth”. It reports, Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and minister of state for finance Anurag Thakur and some other officials were part of the PM’s “high level meeting.”
In a bid to clean out its closet, Reliance Industries is to sell shares to existing investors to the tune of Rs. 53,215 crore, notes a brief report. This is “the biggest such fundraising by a company in India, as the energy conglomerate aims to wipe off its massive debt,” the report adds.
Unlike Mint’s brief report, Business Standard chooses to lead with news on Reliance’s fundraising plans. In ‘RIL announces rights issue’, it mentions the “company will issue shares at a price of Rs 1,257 per fully paid-up equity share”.
Meanwhile, other big corporations continue to suffer. A report notes that Hindustan Unilever, the country’s largest consumer goods company, had a 7 per cent decline in volumes for Q4, far “worse than the demonetisation quarter (October-December 2016), when the fall was 4 per cent”.