The central government’s decision to come down heavily on states that are flouting its lockdown rules, China’s strong reaction to India’s firewall on FDI, the Palghar lynching and the dramatic fall in oil prices make headlines this Tuesday.
Also, liquor baron Vijay Mallya could be coming home soon after losing his case in a UK court.
The Indian Express’ lead ‘Centre steps in…’ says, “On Monday, the Centre informed West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan — all ruled by the Opposition — and Madhya Pradesh that lockdown measures were being routinely flouted in their districts, and it was sending six newly-constituted Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCTs) for on-the-spot assessment of the situation there.”
The second lead, ‘Lynchings in Palghar…’ points out that “The lynching of three men by a mob at Gadchinchle village in Palghar Thursday night happened right under the nose of a police team led by two officers — who should have known better. For, barely 48 hours earlier, they had responded to a similar situation in the same district.”
The incident occurred when three men in a car were on their way to Surat for a funeral and people nearby assumed they were child abductors and attacked them.
In an interesting piece, ‘Govt preparing for a second wave towards May end as lockdown eases’, Express reports that the government wants the doubling time — “an epidemiological metric of how long an infectious disease takes for the number of cases to double” — to increase to 12 days from the current 7.5 days till the gradual lifting of the lockdown in May, when the virus is expected to peak again.
The media is in trouble with the authorities: ‘UAPA against Kashmir photographer for posts, journalist faces FIR’ reveals that “the J&K Police have booked a 26-year-old woman photographer under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act for allegedly uploading “anti-national posts” on her social media accounts”. There’s a separate fake case against The Hindu’s Kashmir correspondent too.
Hindustan Times also reports on the Centre’s latest directives to states in ‘Don’t dilute curbs: Centre to states’ in a straightforward report of the government’s position: “The Centre has termed the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) situation ‘especially serious’ in Mumbai, Pune, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata …while forming six ground teams to assess the situation and issue directions….”
And, in reassuring news, according to the government database, ‘India has 11mn Covid warriors’. HT reports that the government’s stocktaking indicates, “India has at least 3 million medical professionals and roughly 8 million others who can be drafted for disease containment work…”
It adds, “The exercise comes amid worries that a runaway epidemic could overwhelm India’s health care system, much like it has in the United States and parts of Europe…”
Moving to non-Covid-19 news, ‘Vijay Mallya loses extradition appeal in UK high’, as the UK high court dismissed his appeal. He faces charges of fraud and misrepresentation amounting to Rs 9,000 crore. HT says he has 14 days to apply to the Supreme Court for permission to appeal against Monday’s judgment.
The Times Of India’s lead story, ‘FDI ban ‘discriminatory’, says China…’ notes how dependent India is on China: “Between April 4 and April 19, as many as 24 flights from China — from cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xi’an and even Hong Kong — carried 390 tonnes of medical supplies to India, including RT-PCR test kits, rapid antibody tests, thermometers and personal protective equipment (PPE).”
China said that the ban on FDI from the country “violated WTO’s principle of non-discrimination and hoped New Delhi would ‘treat investments from different countries equally’”.
And ‘First time in history, oil futures sell at below $0 in US’. TOI notes, “Oil futures collapsed to below zero for the first time ever…’’ as traders were “desperate to avoid taking delivery of physical crude.’’
Back in India, ‘80% +ve cases show no or mild symptoms, says govt’. The Health Ministry emphasised the need to follow “lockdown rules and maintain social distancing even within the family to avoid further spread of the infection”.
The Hindu chooses to lead with ‘Speed of virus infections slows…’. The paper says,18 states or UTs have “shown improvement” in containing the spread of COVID-19 “with Odisha and Kerala leading the pile”.
Hindu also had a different take on the Centre ensuring that states don’t ease lockdown rules — by only focusing on Kerala. It says, “Following the Centre’s strong objections to Kerala easing certain COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, the State government on Monday decided not to allow plying of buses in cities, opening of restaurants and pillion riding on two-wheelers.’’
And from Bengaluru comes a story of public violence: ‘Police detain 59 for violence over quarantine round-up’. The daily reports that the people arrested had either instigated or attacked the police when they arrived Sunday night “to take secondary contacts of a deceased COVID-19 patient into quarantine”.
Hindu highlights the FIR by the J&K Police against its Srinagar correspondent, Peerzada Ashiq in ‘J&K police file FIR on The Hindu report’. It notes that the report headlined “Kin allowed to exhume bodies of militants in Baramulla” by Ashiq was labelled as “fake news” by the police. The police claimed the news was published without seeking confirmation from the district authorities.” while Hindu said the report was “based on a quote from the uncle of a slain militant, Ghulam Nabi Magray. However, contrary to what he conveyed to the reporter, no permission for exhumation of the bodies had been given”.
In a brief report titled “WHOA!”, The New Indian Express reports US oil prices hitting rock bottom at (-)$3.7 which is the “lowest in history”. It attributes the steep fall in prices to lack of demand, lack of storage capacity and a “futures trading scandal”.
And there’s a heart-tugging piece about a mob in Chennai that protested the burial of a doctor suspected of contracting Covid-19 from one of his patients. In ‘He worked all his life for others, yet didn’t get a decent burial’, the paper spells out the tragedy in 4 key points with the caption “sad end for a saviour”.
The Mumbai daily reports about getting hospitals back on their feet as the government asks “private hospitals to reopen immediately, and issued them a set of guidelines to follow… BMC has made it clear that in case of a staffer or a patient found to be corona-infected, the entire hospital need not be sealed”.
In it’s lead story ‘First Day, First Tentative Steps’, Mint identifies ‘demand’ as the next key challenge for Indian companies. While industry executives “remain hopeful” amid the partial resumption of operations, they now await a demand stimulus from the government, it reports.
There’s a cheery anchor story, ‘J&K’s women adapt to lockdown;, reports on how women entrepreneurs in J&K on women like a young fashion designer who is now producing protective gear and another, who has shifted her women-only fitness centre classes online for free.
Business Standard’s lead (‘Chinese investors likely to face Sebi heat after change in FDI rules’) details SEBI’s cap on the purchase limit of investments, “beyond which additional approvals would be required”. The report pointedly adds: “The increase in vigilance comes after Chinese firms picked up stake in several domestic companies during the selloff in March.”
What does the alleged print media mean by this statmenetinsered ??”There’s a separate fake case against The Hindu’s Kashmir correspondent too.” please explain!