Fight Against Coronavirus: Observation from 29th April Data

A few observations from 29th April on the basis of National Data on the Coronavirus pandemic:-

1. Doubling period has improved to 11.5 days. 5 days growth rate is 6.22%.

2. Active cases are growing but at stable rate.

Fight Against Coronavirus: Observation from 28th April Data

A few observations from 28th April data on the Coronavirus pandemic:-
1. Doubling period is still around 10.5%. There is no improvement in it since last three days.
2. Numbers of total active cases are growing at increasing rate and growth in recovered cases is slower in comparison to yesterday.

Fight Against Coronavirus: Observation from 27th April Data

A few observations from yesterday’s data on the Coronavirus pandemic:-

1. Total recovered cases growing at higher rate than that of the total active cases. This indicates that lockdown is working for India.

2. Growth in active cases is lower than that of the growth in recovered cases and the trend is continuing for the last few days. This pandemic will be over in a few months.

Fight against Coronavirus: Maharashtra, Gujarat and West Bengal are Cause of Concern

Almost half of the total numbers of districts in India are now free from any Coronavirus infection. States like Goa, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal are Corona free. This is really good news for the whole country. Economic activities in these areas can slowly be resumed in a staggered manner. But as per data, the situation in West Bengal in front of testing is a cause of concern for the whole country. Testing in West Bengal is among the lowest in India, considering the population and comparatively has very high confirmed cases in comparison to other states. Still as per news reports, the state government of West Bengal seems little serious about the severity of the situation.

लॉकडॉउन: एक जरूरी कदम

बहुत सारे अर्थ शास्त्री प्रश्न कर रहे हैं कि भारत ने बिना सोचे-समझे व तैयारी किए ही पूरे देश में लॉकडॉउन लागू कर दिया। बहुत सारे राजनैतिक व्यक्ति लॉकडॉउन के उपयोगिता पर ही प्रश्न खड़े कर रहे हैं! साथ ही बहुत सारे विद्वान और लेखक लॉकडॉउन के खिलाफ लेख लिख रहे हैं जिसमें अनेक तरह के प्रश्न सरकार और समाज दोनों से ही पूछ रहे हैं। कुछ विद्वान तो इस लॉकडॉउन को भविष्य की इमर्जेंसी का रिहर्सल तक बता रहे हैं! हालाँकि इमर्जेंसी जैसी बातों में किसी को विश्वास नहीं है। शायद प्रश्न पूछने वालों को भी नहीं!

ये बात सही है कि लॉकडॉउन के कारण करोड़ों लोगों को तकलीफों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। लाखों लोग अपने घर परिवार से दूर अंजान शहरों में कुछ घरों में तो कुछ सड़कों पर बन्द पड़े हैं। लाखों या फिर करोंड़ों मजदूर शहरों में भूख व अन्य परेशानियों का सामना कर रहे हैं और सरकारों व दूसरों की सहायता पर जीवित रहने के लिए निर्भर हैं। हालाँकि अब धीरे-धीरे सरकारें लोगों को उनके घर पहुँचाने का प्रयास कर रही हैं। परन्तु यदि उनको लॉकडॉउन के दौरान ही कोरोना प्रभावित शहरों से उनके घरों को जाने देने दिया जाता तो हर गाँव के कोरोना से संक्रमित होने की संभावना थी। इसलिए न चाहकर भी बाकी लोगों को कोरोना के संक्रमण से बचाने के लिए ये ऐतिहात जरूरी था।

A Narrative and Religion of Violence

You may find all the valid reasons to justify the attack on Arnab Goswami. You can put forth n numbers of arguments against him to justify what happened. Even you may end up having a fabulous vision too! That's okay. No questions asked.

But remember, you would also be treated in the same way some day by somebody for the same reason that is airing your views! That moment you will feel vulnerable. Then perhaps you will find yourself very weak and will cry when nobody will stand up for you. However, that also would be a bad thing but that would be just a continuation of the same bad precedent that has been and is being justified on social media by many. A narrative and religion of violence! But the Karma comes back to haunt us all till the end! No matters who we are?

India's Response to Chinese Efforts to Buy Stakes in Indian Firms

People's Bank of China, the Chinese central bank amid the Covid crisis has increased its shareholding in India's HDFC. Not only in India but it has bought shares of financial institutions and technology firms in most of the countries across the globe during the stock market crash caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. This particular transaction is an official transaction. It is quite possible that a number of such transactions might have been carried out by Chinese firms (real and dummy) and individuals in many Indian firms which are strategically important for India.

There remains no doubt that it would be very difficult for many Indian firms to survive the financial onslaught post Covid and would be prone to hostile takeover by foreign entities. It was also possible that pursuing its own design China might have bought out many Indian firms through backdoor such as firms from tax havens and other allied nations besides the direct share purchases by Chinese nationals and firms. There was a need for policy intervention and thankfully Indian government did that by amending the automatic foreign direct investment rules. It is expected to check and reining in such possibilities.

Indian Economy Post Covid-19

It’s now certain that Indian economy has already ventured into recessionary mode. It is expected to post a GDP growth rate of around 2% in the last fiscal year 2019-20. Also, if Indian economy contracts in the first quarter of the current fiscal year then it would not be surprising. Pre-Covid-19, Indian economy was already in bad shape along with a weak financial sector and ailing real estate. So there is not much room left for Indian economy to venture into any kind of adventure rather than to a policy precision which instead of holding investment and expenditure (public and private) could rather promote it.

India has to Extend Lockdown

It is now almost certain that Indian government is going to extend the ongoing lockdown which is scheduled to end on 14th April. It is quite possible that it will be extended till 30th April 2020. Tomorrow it will be known to all. However many states have already acted on it on their own. However, there are some strong reservations about the extension of lockdown as this lockdown will result in doom for many sections of the society such as daily wages labourers, small and medium industries and farmers (fruits and nuts) and considering the weak implementation as well as the vision of the social security schemes, it would end up increasing distress and inequality. It is not that it is known but governments (central and state) are forced to take this route and we have to follow without doubting or questioning.

कोरोना और दीपक जलाना

मैं नहीं जानता कि दीपक जलाने या फिर ताली बजाने से इस आपद काल में कितना लाभ होगा? होगा भी कि नहीं; नहीं मालूम। परन्तु इस बात को लेकर सभी सहमत होंगे कि इससे किसी का किसी भी तरह से कोई नुकसान नहीं होगा। आपद काल में हर वो तरीका जिससे थोडा सा भी लाभ मिल सकता है या फिर लाभ मिलने की लेस मात्र की संभावना है उसे आजमाने से नहीं चुकना चाहिए। चाहे वो लाभ प्रत्यक्ष हो या फिर अप्रत्यक्ष ही क्यों ना हो?

कोरोना वायरस, लॉकडॉउन और बैंकों लगती भीड़

केन्द्र और राज्य सरकारों ने कोरोना वायरस के प्रकोप को देखते हुए गरीब, मजदूरों और अन्य वंचित वर्गों के लिए सहायता राशि देने का निर्णय लिया है जो भारत जैसे गरीब एवं सीजनल रोगजार वाले देश के लिए एक बहुत ही जरूरी एवं कारगर पहल साबित हो सकती है। हालाँकि सहायता हेतु घोषित योजनाओं (केन्द्र व राज्य) को देखकर ऐसा लग रहा है कि शायद सरकारें कोरोना को सिर्फ कुछ हफ्तों की फीनोमिना मान रही हैं। हालाँकि ये भी संभव है कि सरकारें चरणगत तरीके से योजनाएँ बना रही हों।

केंद्र और राज्य सरकारों ने जबसे कोरोना वायरस के कारण फैलती महामारी और लॉकडॉउन के कारण संकट में आए लोगों के लिए सहायता एवं नरेगा राशि रीलीज किया है तबसे देश भर के बैंकों में बहुत ही ज्यादा भीड़ लगने लगी है। इस भीड़ के कारण सोशल डिस्टेंसिंग की सारी कोशिशें नाकाम हो रही हैं और लॉकडॉउन के कारण जो कुछ भी हाशिल हुआ है उसे खोने का डर पैदा होने लगा है। इस स्थिति में सरकार को इस सहायता राशि को लोगों तक पहुँचाने के तरीके को बदलना चाहिए। बेहतर होगा कि लोगों के बैंक जाने के बदले बैंक ही गाँव-गाँव जाकर इस पैसे का वितरण करें। इस काम में ग्राम पंचायतें एवं पुलिस एक बहुत ही सकारात्मक व बेहतर भूमिका निभा सकती हैं।

Book Review: Broken Bangles: A Literary Corpus by Vaidehi Sharma

It is small story book consisting three stories namely ‘Literature Kotha’, ‘Perfume’ and ‘The House of Widows’. The first story ‘Literature Kotha’ is about a prostitute who loves to read English literature. This story has a very large canvas but the story ends perhaps earlier. However it is able reflect the mental trauma that protagonist ‘Meina Jaan’ had to undergo when she was forced in the business of prostitution by her friend ‘Zeinat’.

The second story ‘Perfume’ is story of family which is about an unspoken truth which destroyed a family as foundation of trust was shaken and in the end ‘Sudesh’ and ‘Nisha’ end up losing their son ‘Chinmay’ and ‘Priya’ her brother.