Fight Against Coronavirus: Observation from 30th April Data

A few observations from 30th April on the basis of National Data on the Coronavirus pandemic:-

1. Doubling period has increased to 12.27 days with 5 days growth rate of 5.81%.

लॉकडॉउन का कोई विकल्प नहीं

कोरोना वायरस के संक्रमण को रोकने उद्देश्य से भारत में लगाए गए लॉकडॉउन का दूसरा चरण भी खत्म होने वाला है। इस लॉकडॉउन के कुछ अपने फायदे हैं तो कुछ निहित नुकसान भी हैं। लॉकडॉउन से संबन्धित हानि व लाभ को देखते हुए आज देश में बहुत सारे लोग लॉकडॉउन के औचित्य को लेकर अनेक प्रश्न कर रहे हैं। प्रश्न करने वाले व्यक्ति में हर क्षेत्र से संबन्धित हैं। अब तक अनुभवों व लोगों की परेशानियों को देखते हुए इन प्रश्नों का उठना स्वाभाविक ही है। फिर भी बाकी लोगों की तुलना में राजनैतिक क्षेत्र के व्यक्ति इन प्रश्नों को लेकर अधिक मूखर हैं। इन प्रश्नों को देखते हुए ये आवश्यक हो जाता है कि इनका उत्तर कुछ अतिरिक्त प्रश्नों एवं उपल्ब्ध आंकड़ों के आधार पर दिया जाए।

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.