Thursday is high on Reliance Jio-Facebook’s massive equity deal before it descends to the coronavirus crisis and how physical attacks on health workers is now a non-bailable offence with jail term up to seven years, and the surge in number of cases in some states .
The Times Of India goes innovative with its headline, ‘Jio accepts FB friend request…’ It reports, “In what is being touted as the largest strategic investment for a minority stake by a technology company anywhere in the world, social media giant Facebook has agreed to invest $5.7 billion or Rs 43,574 crore for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms…’’ It adds that their “combined reach will be well over a billion, albeit with considerable overlap.”
Back to coronavirus: ‘Gujarat goes from No. 6 to 2nd worst-hit in 5 days’, reports TOI as it added 229 fresh cases in the last 24 hours. Gujarat was at number six on 17 April.
In a show of solidarity ‘Rlys offers to supply 2.6L meals daily, says states can pay later’. The paper reports, Railways offer 2.6 lakh “nutritious and tasty meals daily at Rs 15 each”. State governments can take now, pay later.
And for those in Delhi a story that will make them sweat: ‘Noida border firewall makes most, even patients, wait & sweat’. According to TOI, “Noida’s decision to stop all movement to and from Delhi without screening led to chaos at the borders on Wednesday, especially at the DND Flyway…’’ as all commuters had to show passes many didn’t have.
The Indian Express also reports on the Jio-Facebook partnership that is “set to tap into vast Whatsapp user base.”
In an accompanying story, ‘Collaboration looks at new areas…’ it says the two will partner on Jio-mart, the e-online platform, and Jio may use WhatsApp to bring on board local stores.
In an investigation into the Palghar lynching, “…Sarpanch says she watched attack for 2 hrs…,’’. Express reports that while the lynching of two sadhus and their driver is seeing a war of words between BJP and the Aghadi government, “On the ground in the forest, though, is a story of how local officials, including an NCP leader and former MLA candidate, a sarpanch and the police could do little to check a mob fired by a dangerous rumour mill.”
Moving east, there is a war of words in Bengal too: In ‘Governor says no takers for Bengal Covid toll….’ Express says that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “accused the Centre of dispatching faulty COVID-19 testing kits to the state, and strongly criticised it for sending teams to assess the situation on the ground.’’ The paper quotes her saying, “They are showing an attitude that they would have been happy if there were more COVID-19 cases in Bengal”.
And in a sign that people in rural areas need to earn, ‘Ten-fold jump in MNREGS numbers, more than double in Maharashtra as curbs ease’. The paper notes, “In six days, the numbers in the state had gone up from 62,000 on April 17 to 6.08 lakh on April 22.”
In a positive lead after multiple attacks on health workers, Hindustan Times notes ‘Covid warriors get bigger legal shield’. The paper reports, “The Centre has approved an ordinance to make such attacks a cognisable and non-bailable offence.”
HT also paints a grim picture for those at the forefront of the coronavirus. In ‘Excruciating hours, bad PPE…’ HT says that medical staff at Covid-19 hospitals report they work with “substandard protective gear, lack access to proper meals’’ and have to put in “long, gruelling shifts’’.
And in a challenge for the post-lockdown world, the report ‘Opening movement is tricky…’ says an analysis by the paper, found that “The 170 districts that the government identified last week as Covid-19 hot spots are home to seven in 10 people who migrate between states for reasons other than marriage, and nine in 10 of all domestic air passengers embark on their journeys from airports in these place.”
In news that is good and bad, The Hindu says, “Confirmed cases cross 20,000; nearly 4,000 people recover”. The paper says the recovery rate has gone up to “19.36% from 17% previously’’. Since Tuesday, 1,383 new cases were reported, it adds.
To keep spirits high amid the lockdown, here’s the government’s principal economic advisor: ‘Most sectors will be open by May 3, says Sanjeev Sanyal’.
“The process of “unwinding” the lockdown imposed to contain COVID-19 has already begun, and most sectors of the economy will be open by May 3’’ Sanyal told the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Instead of a lead story, the Kolkata daily has a lead photograph — of rats and a dog scrambling for the same crumbs of food left on a road amid the nationwide lockdown.
The paper also has a different take on the Centre-West Bengal spat in, ‘Mamata: Bengal being maligned’. The Telegraph writes that the Bengal government accused the Centre “and its agencies’’ of trying to malign the state. Telegraph quotes Mamata saying, “Bengal is being repeatedly maligned… against Bengal, they kept telling the national channels, continuously, Bengal not doing, not doing, not doing. That is not correct”.
Another report ‘Warning on coveted drug…’ reports that “Hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug India exported to the US after a request from President Donald Trump, does not improve mortality in severe Covid-19 patients or reduce their need for ventilation, US doctors said on Tuesday.”
In a brief but unusual report (‘Pak trying to push infected terrorists into J&K, says DGP’), the New Indian Express says the Director General of J&K Police Dilbagh Singh claimed Pakistani militants infected with Covid-19 are stationed at the border, ready to be “exported” to India.
In another interesting anchor, ‘Docs look out for white patches in lungs’, the newspaper reports that Tamil Nadu doctors have been advised by the State Level Technical Committee to closely monitor oxygen levels of Covid-19 patients. It has been observed that “deaths were occurring among people who had white patches on lungs, indicating the onset of pneumonia”, adds the report.
In a teaser below its masthead, Mint notes the Reliance Jio-Facebook tie up — a deal worth $5.7 billion — will help Reliance Industries “cut its spiralling debt pile”.
More importantly, the report observes: “At the core of their partnership lies millions of offline small businesses, whom both Jio and Facebook have been courting to integrate into their digital ecosystems.”
In ‘Big Hopes Pinned…’, Mint notes, “The council, led by Fifteenth Finance Commission chairman N.K. Singh, will over two days, starting Thursday, deliberate on the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on economic growth in this fiscal year and the next, and possible assumptions for tax buoyancy and revenue during the period.”
Business Standard leads with news Reliance Industries and Facebook’s equity deal — what else?
It makes two interesting observations. One, that Facebook will “get a board seat in JPL and an observer seat without voting powers”. Second, Facebook India CEO Ajit Mohan’s statement that announcing the deal amid the coronavirus crisis “is a reflection of our commitment to invest in the country.”
The pink paper’s anchor story focuses on how the economy and stock market have taken “divergent paths”. While the IMF predicts India is heading for a recession, the equity market “soared 20 per cent from its coronavirus lows exactly a month ago”, it reports. The report attributes the market’s surge to a variety of reasons — “Aggressive stimulus packages announced in the developed world”, hopes of Covid-19 cure and slowing cases in key geographies”.