First india ahmedabad edition-02 may 2020

HOLY
BLISS
INDIA: 77 DEATHS
IN LAST 24 HOURS
New Delhi: India on Friday reported
the maximum number of 77 deaths
due to COVID-19 in the last 24
hours as compared to 67 deaths on
Thursday. As many as 1,755 new
cases of COVID-19 were reported
in the last 24 hours taking the total
number of cases to 37,257, said the
Union Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare on Friday.
New Delhi: The armed forces will express their gratitude to all “corona war-
riors” by conducting fly-pasts, showering petals on hospitals treating COVID-19
patients and illuminating naval vessels, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin
Rawat said on Friday. Addressing a special press briefing along with the three
service chiefs, Gen Rawat said the nation stood together and showed resilience
in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. “We are expressing our gratitude to
all ‘corona warriors’ who are working hard to keep us safe,” he said. Indian Air
Force will carry out fly-pasts across the country on May 3 to display gratitude to
coronavirus warriors, the CDS said, Turn on P6
IAF TO CONDUCT FLY-PASTS FOR CORONA WARRIORS
Covered in a thick layer of snow, the majestic
Kedarnath Temple, decorated with 10 quintals
of marigold flowers, stands tall after the portals
were opened on Wednesday. Devotees are not
allowed for darshan in the temple, which opened
after a six-month-long winter break, due to
ongoing pan-India lockdown in place because of
coronavirus outbreak. First puja was performed
on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
1 GOAL, 2 WEEKS, LOCKDOWN 3.0
New Delhi: The Minis-
try of Home Affairs
(MHA) on Friday issued
an order under the Dis-
aster Management Act,
2005 to further extend
the lockdown for a fur-
ther period of two
weeks beyond May 4.
Thecurrentlockdown
period is scheduled to
end on May 3. “After a
comprehensive review
and in view of the lock-
down measures having
led to significant gains,
the COVID-19 situation
in the country, Ministry
of Home Affairs issued
an order under the Dis-
aster Management Act,
2005, today, to further
extend the lockdown for
a further period of two
weeks beyond May 4,
2020,” read the order of
the Home Ministry.
In red zones and out-
side containment zones,
certain activities in-
cluding plying of cycle
rickshaws and auto-
rickshaws, taxis and
cab aggregators, intra-
district Turn on P6
Stay home till
atleast May 17! New Delhi: The Union
Health Ministry has list-
ed 130 districts across the
country in the red zone,
284 in orange zone and
319 in green zones based
on incidence of cases of
COVID-19, doubling rate,
extent of testing and sur-
veillance feedback.
This classification of
districts is to be followed
by states and UTs. Metro-
politan cities like Mum-
bai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hy-
derabad, Pune, Bengalu-
ru and Ahmedabad have
been designated as red
zones in the new classifi-
cation. The new classifi-
cation of districts was
announced following a
video conference chaired
by the Cabinet Secretary
on April 30 with the Chief
Secretaries and Health
secretaries of states.
“It is important to en-
surethatweidentifypock-
ets of critical interven-
tions for a focused man-
agement of COVID -19 at
the field level,” Union
HealthMinistrySecretary
Preeti Sudan said in a let-
ter to the Chief Secretar-
ies of all states and UTs.
She said the districts
were earlier designated
as hotspots/red-zones, or-
ange zones and green
zones Turn on P6
New Delhi: The Indian Railways began running spe-
cial “shramik” trains on Friday to ferry migrant
workers and others back home from various states
where they were stranded since the nationwide lock-
down began on March 25. It has already run the first
such train with 1,200 passengers from Hyderabad to
Jharkhand at 4:50 am on Friday. Full report P6
State-wise division
of red, green zones
Miles to go...
Rlys announces 6 ‘Shramik Special’ trains
to ferry stranded migrant workers, students
CORONA IN GUJARAT
In the past 24 hours, the state has
seen 326 new cases, 22 deaths,
and 123 recoveries. With this, the
overall total tally stands at 4,721,
with a death toll of 236. As many as
89% of all positive cases come from
Ahmedabad, Surat and Vadodara.
For more, see P3
USA 11,11,510 64,884 +1028
SPAIN 242,988 24,824 +281
ITALY 207,428 28,236 +269
UK 177,454 27,510 +739
GERMANY 163,542 6,640 +17
TURKEY 122,392 3,258 +84
RUSSIA 114,431 1,169 +96
IRAN 95,646 6,091 +63
CHINA 82,874 4,633 +3
COUNTRY TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
GLOBAL STATE
OF AFFAIRS
WWW.WORLDOMETERS.INFO
LAST UPDATED: MAY 1, 2020, 11:00 PM
68,774
SAMPLES TESTED
64,053
0
NEGATIVE CASES
UNDER EXAMINATION
IN GUJARAT
CORONA
ALERT
AHMEDABAD l SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020 l Pages 12 l 3.00 RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208 l Vol 1 l Issue No. 156
28°C - 43°C
OUR EDITIONS:
JAIPUR & AHMEDABAD
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COVID-19
UPDATE
WORLD
2,37,466
DEATHS
33,64,220
CONFIRMED CASES
GUJARAT
236
DEATHS
4,721
CONFIRMED CASES
Health Ministry’s Red, Orange, Green zoning has districts seeing red
First India News
Ahmedabad: The Un-
ion Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare has
released a list of dis-
tricts falling under the
red, orange and green
zones. According to this
dynamic list, Gujarat
currently has nine dis-
tricts in the red zone, 19
in the orange and five in
the green. The lack of
clarity about the crite-
ria used to determine
the various zones has
left many district ad-
ministrators seeing red.
Many have demanded
that the list be revised
immediately, instead of
waiting for it to be up-
dated on a weekly basis.
The Ministry has
stated the zoning is
based on cumulative
cases reported, and
the doubling rate,
since the recovery
rate has gone up. But
still, some district au-
thorities are not hap-
py with the criteria.
For instance, Jam-
nagar and Rajkot are
both in the orange
zone, while Panchma-
hal, Banaskantha and
Aravalli are in the red
zone. According to
state government
data, Jamnagar dis-
trict does not have a
single active case of
COVID-19. Rajkot, on
the other hand, has 58
positive cases and saw
its first death on
Wednesday. At the
same time, Panchma-
hal has 34 cases and
two deaths, Banas-
kantha has 28 positive
cases and one death
and Aravalli has 19
cases and one death.
In fact, the Jamnagar
District Development
Officer clarified that the
issue will be taken up
with the state govern-
ment and even with the
Government of India to
ensure that the district
is put in the green zone
and all norms of the
green zone are imple-
mented in the district.
It is also grating to
some district admin-
istrators that dis-
tricts with one active
case, such as Suren-
dranagar and Tapi, or
two cases (Dangs) or
three (Sabarkantha),
have been grouped
alongside Rajkot in
the orange zone.
Districts with none or a few active
cases are unhappy to be grouped
with Rajkot in the orange zone
DISTRICTS IDENTIFIED BY ZONE
DISTRICT TOTAL TOTAL NEW
CASES DEATHS DEATHS
AHMEDABAD 3293 165 16
VADODARA 308 21 5
SURAT 644 26 1
RAJKOT 58 1 0
BHAVNAGAR 47 5 0
ANAND 74 4 1
BHARUCH 31 2 0
GANDHINAGAR 49 2 0
PATAN 18 1 0
PANCHMAHAL 37 3 0
BANASKANTHA 29 1 0
NARMADA 12 0 0
CHHOTA UDEPUR 13 0 0
KUTCH 7 1 0
MAHESANA 11 0 0
BOTAD 21 1 0
DAHOD 5 0 0
PORBANDAR 3 0 0
JAMNAGAR 2 1 0
MORBI 1 0 0
SABARKANTHA 3 0 0
ARAVALLI 19 1 0
MAHISAGAR 17 0 0
KHEDA 6 0 0
GIR SOMNATH 3 0 0
VALSAD 5 1 0
TAPI 1 0 0
NAVSARI 6 0 0
DANG 2 0 0
SURENDRANAGAR 1 0 0
TOTAL 4721 236 22
RED ZONE ORANGE ZONE GREEN ZONE
Ahmedabad Rajkot Amreli
Surat Bharuch, Surendranagar Junagadh
Vadodara Botad, Jamnagar Devbhumi Dwarka
Anand Narmada, Tapi Porbandar
Banaskantha Chhota Udepur, Dangs Morbi
Panchmahal Mahisagar,Sabarkantha
Bhavnagar Mehsana, Gir Somnath
Gandhinagar Patan, Navsari
Aravalli Kheda, Kutch
Affected Area
Not Affected Area
PROHIBITED
RED ZONE
Plying of cycle
rickshaws and auto
rickshaws, running of
taxis and cab aggre-
gators, intra-district
and inter-district ply-
ing of buses, barber
shops, spas and
saloons.
ORANGE ZONE
Taxis & cabs permit-
ted with 1 driver and
1 passenger only. In-
ter-district movement
of individuals and
vehicles for permitted
activities only. Four
wheelers with max 2
passengers besides
driver and pillion on
two-wheelers.
GREEN ZONE
All activities are permit-
ted except those pro-
hibited throughout the
country, irrespective of
the zonal division.
INDIA
37,257
CONFIRMED CASES
1,223
DEATHS

KEEPING IT GREEN: WHAT AMRELI ADMN IS DOING RIGHT!
Haresh Jhala
Amreli: Despite its
links with Ahmedabad
and Surat--the two
worst-hit cities in the
state--Amreli district is
one of three districts to
remain free of Sars-
Cov-2.Thishasbeenpos-
sible by using a combi-
nation of controlled en-
try, strict enforcement
of protocolandahealthy
level of coordination be-
tween the revenue de-
partment, police, and
health departments.
As Collector Ayush
Oak explains, “The
first thing we did was
channelize entry into
the district. There are
300 entry points con-
necting with neigh-
bouring districts
Bhavnagar, Botad, Gir
Somnath, Rajkot and
Junagadh. We kept
only 39 of these points
openandscreenedany-
one who entered the
district. If the person
was carrying a valid
pass, he or she would
be advised to home
quarantine. Those
without passes had to
undergo institutional
quarantine for five
days. If no symptoms
were found after five
days, they were re-
leased with advice to
be home quarantined
forthenextninedays.”
Post lockdown, 74,000
persons have entered
the district. Each of
these was screened and
quarantined. This dis-
trict has direct human
linkswithAhmedabad’s
Bapunagar and Nikol,
as well as Surat’s Var-
achha area, all of which
are red or orange zones.
Yet, Amreli remains un-
affected because, even if
one person arrived from
outside the district, the
entire family was home
quarantined. As a re-
sult, Amreli has 8,900
home-quarantinedfami-
lies, the highest in the
state, Oak elaborated.
Moreover, the dis-
trict has focused on
testing, with random
sampling bolstering
the door-to-door sur-
veillance and health
checks. The health
team has carried out
random 550 RT PCR
tests. Every day, at
least 50 such samples
are collected and test-
ed. At the Pipavav sea-
port, 10 random sam-
ples from drivers and
others are collected
each day. Similarly,
random sampling is
also conducted at the
six major vegetable
markets, with a view
to keeping a check on
potential super
spreaders.
When the state police
was looking for
Jamaatis who had at-
tended Sura congrega-
tions, Amreli district
administration with
the help of Muslim cler-
ics prepared a list of
those who had attended
events in Vadodara,
Bharuch, Mumbai and
Hydarabad. A random
sampling of 31 attend-
ees was carried out.
Oak’s next target is
to protect senior citi-
zens. “With the entire
district being a green
zone, there is a strong
possibility that lock-
down here will be lift-
ed after May 3. In such
a situation vulnerable
senior citizens needs
to be protected. So we
will put a standard
protocol in place for
them and their fami-
lies,: he said.
Amreli Collector Aayush Oak at a checkpoint. Amreli Collector Aayush Oak
FIRST INDIA CHATS WITH
COLLECTOR AYUSH OAK ON HOW
HE MANAGES TO KEEP HIS
DISTRICT CORONA-FREE
NEWSAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
02www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
COVID CONCERN
GET WELL SOON! MODI TO
RUSSIAN COUNTERPART
RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER MIKHAIL MISHUSTIN SAID HE HAS TO “OBSERVE SELF-ISOLATION” TO
PROTECT HIS COLLEAGUES, SUGGESTING A TEMPORARY ACTING PRIME MINISTER FOR RUSSIA
rime Minister
Narendra Modi
wished fast re-
covery from
COVID-19 to his
Russian counter-
part Mikhail Mishustin,
who was found infected
with the highly infectious
coronavirus on Thursday.
In a televised meeting
with Russian President
Vladimir Putin, Mishustin
said he has to “observe self-
isolation” to protect his col-
leagues, suggesting a tem-
porary acting Prime Minis-
ter for Russia.
“My best wishes to Rus-
sian PM Mishustin for
early recovery and good
health. We stand with our
close friend Russia in ef-
forts to defeat the COV-
ID-19 pandemic. @Gov-
ernmentRF,” PM Modi
tweeted this morning.
Putin swiftly signed a de-
cree appointing First Depu-
ty PM Andrei Belousov as a
temporary replacement.
The Russian President
assured Mishustin that
contracting COVID-19
“can happen to anyone”
and that no major deci-
sions would be taken with-
out his input, news agency
reported. “I hope that you
stay able to work,” Putin
told Mishustin, who is the
highest Russian official to
become infected.
Putin has not held any
face-to-face meetings for
weeks, according to the
Kremlin website, and was
last shown in the same room
as Mishustin on March 24.
British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson was also
found infected with COV-
ID-19 weeks ago. He has
recovered now.
A spike of 7,099 con-
firmed infections in the last
24 hours brought Russia’s
total to over one lakh cases
and 1,073 deaths, according
to the Russian govt’s daily
coronavirus update. With
its number of cases in-
creasing by several thou-
sand each day, Russia is
now the European coun-
try registering the most
new infections.
But Russia’s coronavirus
deathrateremainsrelatively
low and Kremlin spokesman
DmitryPeskovsaidthecoun-
try’s actions had helped it
avoid the catastrophic “Ital-
ian scenario”. —Agencies
P
PM discusses ways to reinforce
defence, aerospace sectors
New Delhi: Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi on
Thursday held a de-
tailed meeting to delib-
erate the potential re-
forms to ensure a ro-
bust and self-reliant
defence industry in In-
dia that caters to short
and long term needs of
the armed forces and
initiatives to give a
boost to the economy in
wake of the coronavi-
rus situation.
During the meeting, PM
Modi laid emphasis on po-
sitioning India among the
top countries of the world
in Defence and Aerospace
sectors, from design to
production, with the ac-
tive participation of pub-
lic and private sector ful-
filling the twin objectives
of self-reliance & exports.
He reviewed the proposed
reforms for attracting do-
mestic & foreign invest-
ment in the defence
sector,said PMO. It was
discussed that defence ex-
penditure should be econ-
omised and savings be
channelised for strategic
defence capital acquisi-
tion. Issues relating to de-
fence procurement pro-
cesses, offset policies, in-
digenisation of spares,
transfer of technology
were also deliberated.
Further, the discus-
sion involved reforming
of the functioning of
the Ordnance factories,
streamlining procure-
ment procedures, fo-
cused resource alloca-
tion, encouraging R&D/
innovation, attracting
investment in critical
defence technologies
and promotion of ex-
ports. —Agencies
Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other ministers during the
meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
Prime Minister of Russia Mikhail Mishustin. —FILE PHOTO
Prime Minister Narendra Modi

GUJARATAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
First India News
Ahmedabad: With the
COVID-19 pandemic
raging in the city, prop-
er precautions while
taking care of a corona
patient or performing
last rites of a deceased
patient is of paramount
importance. But, this
protocol was broken by
the sons and relatives
of a deceased patient
Somaji Thakor, resident
of Behrampura, who
passed away on Friday
morning.
After Somaji
breathed his last his
body was driven to the
VS Crematorium by a
van driver who just
dropped the body at the
location and left. There-
fore, in order to get the
body into the crema-
tion ground, Thakor’s
family members had to
step in. Since, barring
one, none of them had
nay protective gear on
while carrying the
body, it is likely that
they might have con-
tracted Sars-CoV-2 in-
fection.
Dr Badal Gandhi,
casualty medical of-
ficer, said, “There
must have been a mis-
understanding be-
tween the morgue van
driver and municipal
health team. Usually, a
driver is accompanied
by a stretcher bearer
and if, in this particu-
lar case, the stretcher
bearer was not accom-
panying the driver, we
will look into it.”
Hearse driver puts family of corona fatality at risk
INEXPLICABLE
Family members had to step in to carry the body into the crematorium (left); the facility is sanitized. —PHOTOS BY HANIF SINDHI
First India News
Gandhinagar: Even af-
ter 37 days in lockdown,
Ahmedabad, Surat and
Vadodara continue to be
ground zero of the
state’s current health
crisis. As many as 89%
of all positive cases of
COVID-19 come from
these three cities.
In the past 24 hours,
the state has seen 326
new cases, 22 deaths,
and 123 recoveries. With
this, the overall total
tally stands at 4,721,
with a death toll of 236.
A total of 736 patients
have been discharged.
Again, Ahmedabad
had the highest number
of positive cases, with
267 new cases being reg-
isteredonFriday,includ-
ing five inmates of Sa-
barmatiCentralJailand
a post-graduate medical
student from the Civil
hospital campus.
The city, which also
reported 16 deaths in
past 24 hour, now has
3,293or69%of thestate’s
total cases. The city also
leads in number of
deaths. Its 165 fatalities
account for almost 70%
of all Sars-CoV-2-related
deaths in the state.
While the reason for
Ahmedabad’s constant-
ly rising numbers re-
mains unclear, the state
governmenthasdecided
to convert the 262-bed
hospital at the Gujarat
Cancer and Research In-
stitute (GCRI) into a
dedicated hospital to
treat COVID-19 patients.
The state govern-
ment in consultation
with private doctors
and members of Indian
Medical Association
have permitted open
clinics and dispensa-
ries to conduct and at-
tend patients in OPDs.
The state has also de-
cided to bear the cost of
the coronavirus test
conducted on pregnant
women or any person
undergoing surgery.
However, the condition
is that only 77 lakh Maa
Amrutam or Maa Vats-
alya card holders can
enjoy the benefit.
On Foundation Day,
Chief Minister Vijay
Rupani held a meeting
with nagarpalika and
municipal corporation
members and village
sarpanches and asked
them to take pledge to
keep villages, towns and
cities free of the virus.
He also announced that
the government would
give free rations to APL-
1 category cardholders.
With this, some 61 lakh
cardholders will benefit
from the programme
from May 07 to 11.
Ahmedabad accounts for 81%
of fresh cases, 69% overallWith 326 new cases and 22 deaths, the state now 4,721 cases, and a death toll of 236
The 262-bed GCRI hospital is being converted into a dedicated hospital to treat COVID-19 patients.
2 held under PASA
for assaulting
corona warriors
First India News
Ahmedabad: State po-
lice have arrested two
persons, one each from
Sabarkantha and Morbi
district for assaulting
corona warriors, both
are arrested under
PASA. State police have
blocked 553 social me-
dia accounts and ar-
rested 5,337 for viola-
tions of public orders,
Director-General of
Police Shivanand Jha
said. He added that 20
such cases have been
registered till date and
46 persons booked un-
der PASA.
On Thursday night
stone pelting took place
on police in Godhra
town and this connec-
tion police have field
FIRs against 200 per-
sons for rioting and un-
der the Disaster man-
agement Act and Epi-
demic Diseases Act.
Jha said that some
police personnel infect-
ed with Sars-CoV-2 have
recovered and resumed
duty. Those under treat-
ment are stable.
In the past 24 hours,
25 cases have been filed
for spreading rumours
and hatred on social me-
dia. Till date 585 cases
are registered and 1,229
have been arrested.
SUPERVISION
Docs protest,
demand more
precautions
First India News
Ahmedabad: Since the
COVID-19 positive case
toll has started to rise in
the state, it has been an
all-hands-on-deck situa-
tion. To that end, sev-
eral doctors from other
districts have been
called to the city in or-
der to support medical
staff at Samras Hostel
and Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel (SVP) Hospital.
But, a few doctors
staged a protest on Fri-
day demanding better
precautionary meas-
ures at the workplace
after five of them tested
positive for novel coro-
navirus. According to
the doctors, appropriate
measures are not being
taken to ensure that
they do not get infected
with the virus while
caring for patients at
work.
These doctors, who
have been working in
community health cen-
tres and primary health
centres in different
blocks of the district,
have been provided
with accommodation at
Club O7 in Shela.
MLA pays `500 fine
for public spitting
First India News
Rajkot: Breaking sani-
tary protocol, a Rajkot
EastMLAof theBharati-
ya Janata Party Arvind
Raiyani was caught spit-
ting in a community
kitchen on camera. Rai-
yani initially denied the
incident, but when the
video was shown to him,
he accepted his mistake
and paid a fine of Rs500.
In the video which viral
on Friday afternoon, he
is seen with Rajkot BJP
president Kamlesh Mi-
rani and leader Nitin
Bhardwaj. After Mirani
and Bhardwaj leave, Rai-
yani is clearly visible
whenheremoveshisface
mask and spits on the
floor of the community
kitchen, which he and
other BJP leaders have
been running to serve
food to those in need.
Strict action against paan, tobacco sellers
First India News
Rajkot: After two cases
of peoplesellingtobacco,
cigarettes, bidi, betel nut
and other items from
home were reported in
the city in the past four
days,Rajkotpoliceissued
a statement on Friday
banning sale of such
items during the lock-
down period.
According to the state-
ment,if peoplearefound
selling tobacco, paan,
cigarettes and other
items despite the ban,
then strict action will be
initiated for violation of
the notification. The po-
lice also warned of legal
consequences for people
whospitinpublicplaces.
Meanwhile, the police
on Friday felicitated four
residential societies from
four zones of the city for
strictly adhering to lock-
down guidelines. These
societiesincludeTanishq
Apartment near Trikon
Baug, Avantika Park on
Bolbala Road, Garden
City on Sadhu Vaswani
Road and Haridwar
HeightsonNanaMahuva
Road.Sofar,around5,253
cases have been lodged
for lockdown violation
and over 16,527 vehicles
have been detained.
First India News
Ahmedabad: The larg-
est COVID Care Centre
inthecitySamrasHostel
saw a protest from its oc-
cupants, comprising of
asymptomatic patients,
regardingalackof basic
amenities at the hostel.
The patients currently
stationed there com-
plained that there was
no water to drink and
that breakfast and lunch
was not served on time.
The situation took a
turn for the worse on
Friday when police had
to intervene and pacify
the patients staying
there. “Since Thursday,
we haven’t received any
bottled water. What we
don’t understand is if
this building is a hostel
building, then it should
have a potable water
system. But, we have
been getting bottled wa-
ter since we arrived
here. But now, even that
has not been provided
to us,” said one of the
patients at the hostel.
He added, “How can
we survive this summer
heat without any water?
The people here have a
battle to fight against
novel coronavirus.”
Nitin Sangwan, depu-
ty municipal commis-
sioner, said, “Each floor
of the hostel building
has a water filter. But,
due to the floating num-
ber of patients, there
are a few glitches that
we are currently sorting
out. There is a hostel
mess though, where
they can get food when-
ever they want.”
Masuma Bharmal Jariwala
Rajkot: Standing be-
hind her husband’s dec-
laration of ‘Vijay
Sankalp’ against novel
coronavirus, Anjali Ru-
pani, wife of state Chief
Minister Vijay Rupani,
posted a video of her-
self urging citizens to
join the campaign.
The chief minister on
Friday urged people to
wear masks, wash their
handsoftenandpractice
social distancing. Com-
memorating the occa-
sion of Gujarat Day, he
asked citizens to upload
a photo or video taking
the vow using the hash
tag ‘Vijay Sankalp’.
Those who were
quick to upload their
videos included former
deputy mayor of Rajkot
Darshita Shah and Ra-
jkot police commission-
er Manoj Agarwal.
In her video, Anjali
Rupani can be heard
saying, “Let us follow
the chief minister’s in-
structionsandmakeGu-
jarat safe from corona.”
First India News
Ahmedabad: The
Ahmedabad Municipal
Corporation (AMC) on
Friday declared three
more wards of the city
part of the red zone, due
to growing number of
COVID-19 cases detect-
ed this week.
Municipal commis-
sioner Vijay Nehra an-
nounced that Saraspur,
Asarwa, and Gomtipur
have been added to the
list of wards in the red
zone, which brings the
tally to nine. Earlier, six
red zone wards an-
nounced by the local
civic body were Khadia,
Jamalpur, Dariyapur,
Shahpur, Danilimda,
and Behrampura.
In a video briefing on
Friday, Nehra said the
decision was taken after
reviewing the situation.
Interestingly, all nine
wards in the red zone
are located on the east-
ern side of the Sabar-
mati River that divides
the city into two parts.
The number of
wards in the orange
zone stand at 39, while
there is not a single
green zone in the city. A
green zone can only be
declared when not a
single case is reported
for 28 days.
Further, with the
lockdown extended for
two more weeks, no re-
laxations have been is-
sued for the red zone.
The orange zone may
receive partial relaxa-
tion and the green zone
will, for the most part,
return to the pre-COV-
ID-19 situation, barring
a few restrictions relat-
ed to mass gathering
and transportation.
Cops intervene after
Samras residents
demand amenities
CM’s wife posts video in
support of ‘Vijay Sankalp’
Civic body places three more city
wards in red zone, total now nine
Paan and tobacco shops were the ﬁrst to tbe shut. —FILE PHOTO
Samras Hostel in Ahmedabad. —FILE PHOTO
DGP Shivanand Jha. —FILE PHOTO
GOOD JOB
A cop patrols a quarantined cluster in a red zone. —FILE PHOTO
Anjali Rupani

G Vol 1 G Issue No. 156 G RNI NO. GUJENG/2019/16208. Printed and published by Anita Hada Sangwan on behalf of First Express Publishers. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Planet Survey No.148P, Changodar-Bavla Highway, Tal. Sanand, Dist. Ahmedabad.
Published at D/302 3rd Floor Plot No. 35 Titanium Square, Scheme No. 2, Thaltej Taluka, Ghatlodiya, Ahmedabad. Editor: Jagdeesh Chandra, responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act
PERSPECTIVEAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
A SWEETENED
DOSE OF
LOCKDOWN 3.0
f you’ve not had a hair cut ever
since the nation was locked down
since March 25, your wait just got
longer. On Friday the Union Home
Ministry announced lockdown ex-
tension for another two weeks beyond May 4
till May 17. But that’s a minor price to pay in
the bigger national interest of containing the
spread of coronavirus.
While restrictions will remain firmly in
place in the Red zones, the Orange and Green
zones, in which the 733 districts have been
divided, will importantly see the easing of
curbs for a lot of economic activities to re-
start. It is still a guarded response of the Cen-
tral government to concerns of the states
over the revenue losses they were incurring
but with the Covid-19 curve yet to flatten a
cautious approach was needed.
The first major decision has been to allow
movement of trains for ferrying migrant
workers as buses were considered logisti-
cally impractical for long journeys under the
circumstances. A train carrying the first
batch of 1200 workers started its journey
from Telangana for Jharkhand on Friday.
More such trains are likely to be introduced
to mitigate the problems of workers, stu-
dents, pilgrims and tourists stranded far
away from their homes.
The other significant decision for Lock-
down 03 is the permission to allow standalone
liquor and paan shops to open in the Green
zone (where there are no cases) with the ca-
veat that there shouldn’t be more than five
persons present at a time and a distance of
six feet is maintained. With excise being an
important source of revenue for several
states like Maharashtra, Punjab, and Kerala
the relaxation will be especially welcomed.
Movement of buses and taxis are now al-
lowed in these zones through with curbs.
It is not that economic activity has not been
allowed in the Red zones which have been
segregated into urban and rural areas. To
facilitate employment to rural workforce con-
struction activities under MNREGA have
been allowed. Also allowed are opening of
offices but with only 33 percent staff. The re-
maining will have to work from home.
What really matters most for the economy
is restarting industrial activity. Manufactur-
ing units of essential goods, including drugs,
pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw
materials, and intermediates; production
units, which require continuous process and
their supply chain have been allowed. Even
MSMEs in rural areas of Red zones will be
allowed to open. It has been left to the state
governments to decide on the extent of re-
laxations to be given. So, while Kerala may
consider liquor shops to do business, Uttar
Pradesh has already banned the sale of meat,
chicken, and liquor till May 30.
How far will these guidelines help in boost-
ing economic activity when Mumbai, Pune,
Delhi, Noida and Greater Noida, all falling in
Red zones, have too many hot spots is any-
body’s guess?
IN-DEPTH
I
n April 17th, RBI Governor an-
nounced a Special Refinance
Facility of Rs 15,000 crores for
SIDBI to be provided to banks
for onward lending to MSMEs.
Thereafter SIDBI vide circular
issued on 22 April, said: “In the
wake of COVID-19 pandemic,
the Reserve Bank of India has
provided a Special Liquidity Fa-
cility (SLF) of 15,000 crores to
Sidbi to enable it to provide li-
quidity support to micro, small
and medium enterprises
(MSME) sector and meet secto-
ral credit needs,”. While the cir-
cular did not specify the quan-
tum of these loans, it said this
support would be available to all
eligibleentitieswithinvestment-
grade ratings. Small businesses
shouldhavebeeninbusinessfor
at least three years and must
have an external rating of BBB-
or higher as on 31 March 2020.
A rating of BBB- is the low-
est investment-grade rating for
which banks are willing to
lend. Any adverse development
like the current Covid19 crisis
can seriously impact the enter-
prise with its rating downgrad-
ed. Any rating below BBB- is
considered junk rating and
banks avoid lending to such en-
tities or charge higher interest
rates with additional security.
CREDIT RATING
DOWNGRADES
With the Covid19 crisis and
lockdown, all businesses have
come to a halt, and MSMEs
have been the worst hit. In all
likelihood, the ratings of a
large number of MSMEs would
be reviewed by the Credit Rat-
ing Agencies(CRAs) and a ma-
jority of them would fall below
investment grade. Already a
large segment of the rated sec-
tor is of poor credit quality. For
instance, the mean rating of
the rating universe of Crisil is
BB i.e. below investment grade.
Also, of the bank loans rated by
Crisil almost over 70% are sub-
investment grade. The experi-
ence of the other CRAs may not
be materially different.
As a consequence of down-
grades, the lending banks will
jack up their interest rate on
loans as rating determines the
rate. This will be disastrous for
the rated entities, particularly
from the MSME sector. Their
cost of borrowing will immedi-
ately increase and access to the
financial market will be re-
stricted.
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
A way needs to be found out
which will permit the CRAs to
perform their function of flag-
ging the risk level without com-
promising evaluation but with-
out placing additional interest
burden on the rated entity.
Towards that end, it may be
worthwhile that instead of
downgrading a rating, the con-
cerned CRA should put the pre-
vailing rating ‘under watch
with negative implications’.
This watch should hold good
for, say, nine months whereaf-
ter it can be reviewed and fresh
rating accorded. In such an ar-
rangement the concerned rat-
ing agency will be able to flag
the risk, the rated entity
(MSME unit) will not have to
pay higher interest (as its rat-
ing stands unchanged) and it
has sufficient time to take suit-
able measures. The govt of In-
dia would need to step in and
work out a solution in consulta-
tion with RBI, SEBI, and banks.
Thereafter SEBI can issue an
advisory in this regard.
PENDING PAYMENTS
Another help that can bring
some liquidity to the MSMEs
and keep them afloat is a re-
lease of all pending payments
to them by the Central Govern-
ment, State Governments, and
PSUs. In most cases authorities
will be, for good and justifiable
reasons, reluctant to release
full payment without due scru-
tiny which can be time-consum-
ing and litigious. A via media
can be found by releasing 75%
of the pending amount of the
accepted claim immediately as
“on account “ payment. The
balance amount can be released
in due course. Such a measure
will inject funds directly into
the hands of industry/suppli-
ers; thus kick-starting the eco-
nomic cycle. This will also not
add to the fiscal deficit.
A large portion of the pend-
ing payments would be on ac-
count of the supplies made to
the state power companies
which are in poor financial con-
dition. In case the State Govern-
ments can set apart an amount
to be used for making these pay-
ments it can be a big help to the
concerned MSME units.
RESTRUCTURING OF
EXISTING LOANS
A one-time restructuring of
loans to MSMEs that were in
default but ‘standard’ as on
January 1, 2019, was permitted
by RBI without an asset classi-
fication downgrade. Later RBI
extended restructuring of such
loans by one more year till
March 31, 2021. Now a new di-
mension of the Covid19 crisis
has been added which calls for
addressing the issue of restruc-
turing post-haste. Needless to
say, micro, small and medium
enterprises contribute more
than 30 percent to the total
GDP, more than 40 percent to
exports, and employ more than
11 crore people. In their growth
lies the country’s growth.
POST COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
KEEPING MSMEs
INVESTMENT GRADEWith the Covid-19 crisis, all businesses have come to a halt, and MSMEs have been the worst hit
O
Needless to say,
micro, small
and medium
enterprises
contribute more
than 30 percent
to the total
GDP, more
than 40 percent
to exports, and
employ more
than 11 crore
people. In their
growth lies the
country’s
growth
The government of
India would need to
step in and work out a
solution in
consultation with RBI,
SEBI, and banks.
Thereafter SEBI can
issue an advisory in
this regard
ie-hard green
militants re-
gard it as obvi-
ous: the COV-
ID-19 crisis only
strengthens the urgent
need for climate action.
But die-hard industrialists
are equally convinced:
there should be no higher
priority than to repair a
ravaged economy, postpon-
ing stricter environmental
regulations if necessary.
The battle has started. Its
outcome will define the
post-pandemic world.
Both the public-health
crisis and the climate cri-
sis highlight the limits of
humanity’s power over na-
ture. Both remind us that
the Anthropocene epoch
may end badly. And both
teach us that benign every-
day behavior can result in
catastrophic outcomes.
Defying linear reason-
ing, the pandemic and cli-
mate change both force us
to adapt to situations
where a little more leeway
results in a lot more dam-
age. As the climate econo-
mist Gernot Wagner has
noted, the pandemic in a
sense replicates climate
change at warp speed. This
may explain why public
opinion overwhelmingly
considers global warming
as serious a threat as COV-
ID-19 and wants govern-
ments to emphasize cli-
mate action in the recov-
ery. The pandemic has also
provided a crash course on
the collective implications
of individual behavior.
Each of us has been com-
pelled to recognize that our
responsibilities vis-à-vis
the community are more
profound and cannot be
fulfilled merely by paying
taxes and making a few do-
nations. This “pay and for-
get” attitude is clearly in-
appropriate in a public-
health crisis – and in a cli-
mate crisis.
Moreover, the last few
weeks have highlighted the
narrowness of the state-
versus-markets perspec-
tive on the challenge we
face. As the economists
Samuel Bowles and Wendy
Carlin have argued, the so-
lution will not come from
some combination of gov-
ernment decrees and mar-
ket incentives. Communi-
ties whose members be-
have responsibly and
gratefully toward one an-
other are an indispensable
part of the response. Even
though the fundamental
contribution of social capi-
tal and norms is not re-
corded in national ac-
counts, we acknowledge it
every time we applaud
health-care and other es-
sential workers. But while
we must recognize these
strong commonalities, we
must also not overlook the
obstacles to a transforma-
tion of our economic mod-
el created by the COVID-19
crisis. If anything, impedi-
ments to climate action
will be even more formida-
ble in the post-pandemic
era than they were a few
weeks ago.
For starters, climate ac-
tion is inherently global,
whereas the fight against a
pandemic has a much more
local character. To burn a
ton of carbon has exactly
the same effect on Earth’s
temperature wherever it is
burned – which is why
fighting climate change re-
quires global agreements.
The same does not apply
to the pandemic. Prudent
individual behavior bene-
fits relatives more than
neighbors, neighbors more
than residents of the same
city, and compatriots more
than foreigners.
Climate protection and
public-health protection
thus tap fundamentally dif-
ferent impulses. One leads
us to regard ourselves as
responsible citizens of the
world, the other takes us
back to our local roots and
the shelter provided by na-
tional borders.
FOR FULL REPORT LOG ON TO
WWW.THECONVERSATION.COM
Building a post-pandemic world will not be easy
D
Climate action is
inherently global,
whereas the fight
against a
pandemic has a
much more local
character
Now faith is the assurance of
things hoped for, the
conviction of things not seen.
—Hebrews 11:1
Spiritual
SPEAK
Top
TWEET
Piyush Goyal @PiyushGoyal
Held a marathon meeting with
captains of the logistics industry
to transform freight operations of
the Railways.Discussed a host of
innovative suggestions from the
industry towards making freight
operations more efﬁcient
& scalable.
Dharmendra Pradhan
@dpradhanbjp
LPG for cooking under #PMUY has
ensured safety, security, health and
well-being of more than 8 crore poor
women in India. Free LPG cylinders
under the PMGKY is helping them
tackle the economic distress
resulting from #Covid19 crisis.
DR GS
SANDHU
The author is a retired
IAS, Rajasthan

New Delhi: Delhi Chief
Minister Arvind Kejri-
wal on Friday said plas-
ma therapy was admin-
isteredtoafewCOVID-19
patients and the initial
results have been good.
“We were permitted
by Centre for the trial
of plasma therapy at
LNJP hospital. We ad-
ministered it to a few
patients. The first one
among them was dis-
charged after he made
recovery. He was criti-
cal and in ICU but was
discharged on Thurs-
day. Initial results of
the therapy are good,”
Kejriwal said. He fur-
ther stated that trails of
plasma therapy are go-
ing on in Delhi.
“I feel happy that
around 1,100 people who
have recovered in Delhi,
we are getting in touch
with them. Almost all of
them are ready to do-
nate plasma. I thank all
those who have recov-
ered and donating their
plasma,” he stated.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal
also stated that around
40 buses are leaving
from Delhi to Kota, Ra-
jasthan to bring back
the students who are
stranded there due to
the COVID-19 lockdown.
“Today, around 40
buses from Delhi are
leaving for Kota, Ra-
jasthan. I am hoping
that by tomorrow these
buses will come back,”
Kejriwal said. Kejriwal
also urged the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP)
workers to help the
needy people in their
respective areas. —ANI
INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
Initial results of plasma
therapy are good: Kejri
Volunteers shower flower petals on cops & Corona warriors as a mark of gratitude for their services during lockdown in Bengaluru.
Mumbai: We will go
ahead with patience
and caution, said Maha-
rashtra CM Uddhav
Thackeray asserting
that the state govern-
ment will give relaxa-
tions in lockdown after
May 3 seeing the condi-
tion of specific areas.
“We will surely give
relaxations after May 3
seeing the condition of
specific areas but be
cautious and co-oper-
ate, else whatever we
have achieved in the
past few days will be
lost. So, we will go
ahead with patience
and caution,” Thacker-
ay said. “I want people
to not panic about COV-
ID-19. It's only about
starting the treatment
on time. From few days
old babies to 83 years
old people have recov-
ered and gone home.
People on ventilators
have also recovered
well,” he said.
The ongoing lock-
down, which was im-
posed to contain coro-
navirus is scheduled to
end on May 3. Maha-
rashtra as the highest
number of COVID-19
cases in the country
and the state's tally
stands at 10,498.
The CM said that
lockdown is working as
a “circuit breaker”.
“Yes cases are rising
but most of the cases
are of contacts. And
most are already in
quarantine. 75-80% peo-
ple are asymptomatic
of the disease so we are
putting them in quaran-
tine,” CM said. He also
wished the people of
the state on the occa-
sion of Maharashtra
Foundation Day and La-
bour Day. —ANI
‘Will decide on relaxation
after assessing situation’
Amritsar: As many as
76 people in Amritsar
district, who recently
returned from Nanded,
Maharashra's Takht Sri
Hazur Sahib, were test-
ed positive for Covid-19
on Thursday.
“Among the devotees
who have returned
from Hazur Sahib to
our district, around
300 have been tested,
out of which 76 are
positive,” said Om
Parkash Soni, Punjab's
Medical Education and
Research Minister. The
Sikh pilgrims were
stranded at Sri Hazur
Sahib Gurdwara in
Maharashtra due to
the sudden annunce-
ment of nationwide
lockdown. They start-
ed returning to Punjab
from April 22. —ANI
76 pilgrims
tested positive
after returning
from Maha
Kolkata: West Bengal
government wrote to
Centre to remove 6 dis-
tricts from its list of 10
Red Zones in state. This
move came hours after
Centre issued a list of
Green, Orange and Red
Zones for the whole
country after the na-
tionwide lockdown is
lifted on May 3.
Terming it an “erro-
neous assessment”,
Principal Secretary of
the West Bengal Health
Department Bibek Ku-
mar, in his letter to
Preeti Sudan, Secretary
in Union Ministry of
Health and Family Wel-
fare, Kumar said, “With
regards to the presenta-
tion made in the cabinet
secretary's video confer-
ence with the states on
April 30, as many as 10
districts of West Bengal
were shown in the Red
zone. This is an errone-
ous assessment.”
BengalGovtcallsCentre’sCOVID-19
categorisation list ‘erroneous’
PREPS ON TO OPEN BADRINATH
DHAM PORTALS ON MAY 15
Dehradun: Preparations
are in their final stage for
the opening of the portals
of Shri Badrinath Dham
on May 15. Snow has
been removed from the
temple premises. And the
water and power sys-
tem has been restored.
Special attention is also
being given to social
distancing and wearing
masks has been made
mandatory, informed
Uttarakhand Chardham
Devasthanam Board. The
media in-charge of Dev-
asthanam Board said that
the staff officers of the
Devasthanam Board had
reached Badrinath Dham
for preparations. Raman
Ravinath, the Garhwal
Commissioner and CEO of
Devasthanam Board, had
ordered the preparations.
‘AVAIL IR THERMAL SCANNERS
AT BENGALURU FEVER CLINICS’
Bengaluru: Karnataka Health and Family welfare
services Directorate on Friday instructed health
officers to ensure availability of fingertip pulse
oximeter and IR thermal scanners at every fever
clinic in Bengaluru. “The District Health officers
are hereby instructed to ensure availability of fin-
gertip pulse oximeter and IR thermal scanners at
every fever clinic of the district,” the Directorate
of Health services said. “All ILI and SARI cases
with SpO2 < 95 percent should be subjected
for a COVID-19 swab test,” the order said.
5 ITBP JAWANS TEST POSITIVE
IN DELHI IN LAST 48 HOURS
New Delhi: Five Jawans of the Indo-Tibetan
Border Police (ITBP) have tested positive for
COVID-19 in the last 48 hours. “In the last 48
hours, five jawans of ITBP have tested COVID-19
positive in Delhi. Two of them were performing
law and order duty in Delhi with the police,” said
the ITBP. Earlier in the day, Delhi Health Minister
Satyendar Jain had said that the people living in
coronavirus 'Red Zones' will be screened again
for COVID-19. He said that medical teams will
conduct door-to-door health checkups.
LT GEN MANOJ PANDE IS CHIEF OF
ANDAMAN & NICOBAR COMMAND
New Delhi: Lieutenant
General Manoj Pande has
been appointed
as the next chief
of Andaman and
Nicobar Com-
mand at Port
Blair. This is the
only tri-services
operational com-
mand and focus-
es mainly on amphibious
warfare. He is currently
posted at the Army
headquarters. Lt Gen Raj
Shukla appointed
as the new Army
training command
chief at Shimla.
He is presently
posted at the
Army headquar-
ters and would be
in charge of look-
ing after training aspects
of the force.
Hyderabad: Anabstract
painting by Sadhguru,
Founder, Isha Founda-
tion titled ‘To Live To-
tally!’ was sold out for Rs
4.14 crore for the 5 x 5 ft
canvas. The money will
fund Isha’s pandemic re-
lief efforts in rural Ta-
mil Nadu around Isha
Yoga Center.
Sadhguru announced
that “whoever donates
maximum amount for
#BeattheVirus fund,
will get the painting,”
adding that “smaller
copies of the painting”
will also be available for
buyers. #BeattheVirus
is Isha’s on-ground
campaign to prevent
the pandemic from en-
tering villages of
Thondamuthur block
which has over 2lakh
residents. —Agencies
Sadhguru’s painting
goes under hammer;
fetches Rs 4.14 crore
We conducted
2300 tests per 1
million people in
Delhi on Friday. Total
1,100 people have been
cured and discharged till
date. On the other hand,
the average of the entire
country is around 500.
—Arvind Kejriwal,
Delhi Chief Minister
583 NEW CASES
President of India
@rashtra bhvn
“On the occasion
of Labour Day, best
wishes to all our
labour brothers
and sisters who
work tirelessly. This
day is dedicated to
honoring the hard
work and dedication
of our crores of our
workers.”
—Ram Nath Kovind,
Pesident of India
CLOUDS OF HOPE...
Dark clouds hover over the sky on Ganga River during a nationwide lockdown imposed in
the state to curb the spread of coronavirus in Patna on Friday. —PHOTO BY ANI
New Delhi: The SC
sought a response
from the Delhi govern-
ment on a petition
filed by JNU student
Sharjeel Imam seek-
ing to tag all FIRs filed
against him and have
them investigated by a
single probe agency.
A two-judge bench
of the apex court,
headed by Justice
Ashok Bhushan and
also comprising Jus-
tice Sanjiv Khanna
sought a detailed reply
from Delhi govt within
10 days. Justice Bhush-
an said that there is
nothing wrong with
registration of FIR
when they come to
know about some cog-
nizable offence. Delhi
Police recently slapped
sedition and UAPA
charges against Imam
and alleged that he gave
a speech that “promot-
ed enmity” between
people that led to riots
in and around Delhi's
JMI University on De-
cember 15. —Agencies
New Delhi: The Delhi HC refused
to entertain a petition seeking di-
rections to telecom firms and Inter-
net Service Providers (ISPs) for not
charging offices, shops or business
establishments which were “com-
pulsorily” closed due to the lock-
down amid the outbreak of the
deadly COVID-19.
A division bench of HC presided
over by Justices Vipin Sanghi &
Yogesh Khanna hearing the matter
via vc, observed that the SC has al-
ready dealt with a similar issue and
the High Court is not inclined to
entertain the plea. —Agencies
New Delhi: The SC protected law-
yer Prashant Bhushan from arrest
in an FIR lodged in
Gujarat by a retired
Army personnel
Jaydev Joshi for
hurting Hindu reli-
gious sentiment by
using “opium” with
Ramayana and Ma-
habharata. Prashant Bhushan had
tweeted that “as crores starve, our
heartless ministers celebrate con-
suming and feeding the opium of
Ramayana and Mahabharata to
the people.” —Agencies
Delhi HC refuses to
entertain plea on telcos
SC protects Bhushan
from arrest for tweets
SC seeks Delhi govt’s response
on Sharjeel Imam’s plea on FIRs
IN THE COURTYARD
New Delhi: Commu-
nications and Elec-
tronics and IT Minis-
ter Ravi Shankar
Prasad emphasised on
the responsibility of
G20 nations to focus
on making inclusive
and sustainable econ-
omies and societies
that are more resilient
in the face of the ongo-
ing pandemic.
The Minister was
attending an extraor-
dinary virtual G20
Digital Economy Min-
isters meeting to dis-
cuss the challenges
posed by the pandemic
and to forge a global
coordinated response
harnessing Digital
Technologies.
Union Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad
highlighted the steps
taken by Indian Gov-
ernment to contain
the spread and of-
fered the roadmap for
the world to emulate.
The Minister also em-
phasized the impor-
tance to revive the
economy while con-
tinuing the fight
against COVID-19.
Union IT Minister
said that next phase
of digitalization is
about applications
that will impact live-
lihoods, accelerate
various sectors,
strengthen the supply
chain and build a cy-
ber safe world.
G20 Digital Ministers seeks digital response

INDIAAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
RAJIV KUMAR WAS TIPPED FOR CAG?
According to insiders, newly appointed Chairman
of the PESB Rajiv Kumar was tipped for CAG. He
is former 1984 batch IAS officer of Jharkhand
cadre. Meanwhile , he has taken over as Chair-
man of the PESB on Thursday.
NAGENDRA KUMAR TO
BE MEMBER CBIC?
Chances of becoming DP Nagendra Kumar as new
Member of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes
and Customs (CBIC) are rated high. IRS (C&CE)
officer of the 1985 batch, who is the youngest in
his batch, is presently posted in Bangalore.
SUNGITA SHARMA TO BE MEMBER CBIC?
If all goes well, Sungita Sharma will become new
Member of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes
and Customs (CBIC). She is a 1985 batch IRS
(C&CE) officer presently posted in Mumbai.
WILL PRAVEEN GUPTA BE
SENIOR ADVISOR BOB ?
Outgoing MD of the State Bank of India, Praveen
Gupta is likely to be appointed Senior Advisor in
the Bank of Baroda for a period of one year.
SURESH K REDDY TO BE NEXT
AMBASSADOR TO BRAZIL
Suresh K Reddy, presently Additional Secretary
in the Ministry of External Affairs, has been
appointed as the next Ambassador of India to
the Federative Republic of Brazil. He is an Indian
Foreign Service officer of the 1991 batch.
FIVE ADDL JUDGES APPOINTED
IN KARNATAKA HC
Shivashankar Amarannavar, Makkimane Ga-
neshaiah Uma, Vedavyasachar Srishananda,
Hanchate Sanjeev Kumar and Padmaraj Nemach-
andra Desai have been appointed as Additional
Judges of the Karnataka HC for a period of two
years with effect from the date, they assume
charge of their respective offices.
THREE ADDL JUDGES
ELEVATED AS PERMANENT
JUDGES IN CALCUTTA HC
Justices Bibek Chaudhuri, Subhasis Dasgupta
and Suvra Ghosh, Additional Judges of the Cal-
cutta High Court have been appointed as per-
manent Judges of the Calcutta High Court with
effect from the date, they assume charge of their
respective offices.
INDIA’S HIGH COMMISSIONER TO
UK, RUCHI GHANSHYAM RETIRES
India’s High Commissioner to UK, Ruchi Ghan-
shyam retired on April 30, 2020.She is the last
Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1982 batch
to have retired.
WILL KAUMUDI BE NEW DG OF ITBP?
Meeting of DG BPR&DVS Kaumudi with
Home Minister, Amit Shah has fuelled specu-
lations about his appointment as DG ITBP or
BSF. He is 1986 batch IPS officer of Andhra
Pradesh cadre.
AJAY TIRKEY JOINS AS SECRETARY,
WOMEN & CHILD DEVELOPMENT
Ajay Tirkey has taken over the charge as Secre-
tary, Ministry of Women and Child Development
(WCD) in Government of India. He is a 1987 batch
IAS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre. He succeed-
ed Rabindra Panwar retired on April 30, 2020.
BAJAJ TAKES OVER AS SECRETARY,
ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Tarun Bajaj, Additional Secretary in Prime
Minister’s Office, has taken over the charge as
Secretary, Economic Affairs. He is a 1988 batch
IAS officer of Haryana cadre.
LT GEN RAJ SHUKLA APPOINTED
CHIEF OF ARTRAC
Lt Gen Raj Shukla presently posted at Army HQ,
has been appointed as GOC-in-C, Army Training
Command (ARTRAC).
POWERGallery
New Delhi: Priyanka
and Rahul Gandhi on
Friday, highlighted the
plight of migrants due
to continued lockdown
as they greeted labour-
ers on May Day, also
called Labour Day, and
said workers are the
backbone of the na-
tion, if they stopped,
India will come to a
standstill.
Rahul Gandhi tweet-
ed: “Greetings to crores
of sisters and brothers
on labour day. This
country has been build
on your struggle and
bravery. We salute and
support you at this time
of crisis.”
Congress General
Secretary Priyanka
Gandhi also tweeted:
“Lakhs of labourers
have to migrate as
crores of them are in
crisis. The labourrs are
backbone of this coun-
try if they stop the
country will stop.
Please help them.”
The Congress also
highlighted the plight
of the migrants, who
are stuck in different
parts of the country
and want to go home.
The party urged the
government to start ply-
ing trains immediately.
The Congress party
has been criticising PM
Narendra Modi on the
way the plight of the
migrants have been
handled by the govern-
ment. —ANI
Conghighlightsworkers’distress
MAY DAY Workers are the backbone of the nation, said party leaders Rahul Gandhi &Priyanka Gandhi
New Delhi: The Con-
gress on Friday
slammed the govern-
ment over interstate
movement of migrant
labourers, saying it's a
cruel joke that the Un-
ion government has
asked the migrants to
move by buses though
trains would have been
easier to move them to
their native places.
Congress spokesper-
son Abhishek Manu
Singhvi said that only
two days ago, a “tughla-
qi farmaan” was issued
by MHA,”which is very
quaint and funny”. “It
is as if it was issued by
an ignorant and uncar-
ing person.”
The government
should allow trains to
start from designated
points to send the mi-
grants back home.— PTI
Orderonmigrantsmovement
a Tughlaqi Farman: Singhvi
New Delhi: Congress
has attacked govern-
ment on the Central
Vista project which has
been given priority by
the Centre. It alleged
the government fast-
tracked the project dur-
ing the lockdown. Con-
gress said that the na-
tion is fighting the
COVID-19 pandemic
and the government is
in construction mode
and asked the govern-
ment to scrap the pro-
ject which is to cost
around Rs 20,000 crore.
A Govt of “Misplaced
Priorities” & “ill-con-
ceived Goals,” tweeted
Randeep Surjewala,
chief spokesperson of
the party. Govt wants to
go ahead with project
only to satisfy its ego,
the Congress said.
Cong attacks
govt on Central
Vista Project
New Delhi: The Indian
Newspaper Society
(INS) has urged the gov-
ernment to provide a
strong stimulus pack-
age to the newspaper
industry which it said
has lost over Rs 4,000
crore and is likely to
suffer further losses of
up to Rs 15,000 crore in
the next six to seven
months, if relief is not
provided.
In a letter to I&B Sec-
retary, INS said the
newspaper industry is
amongtheworstaffected
with hardly any reve-
nues coming in from ad-
vertising or circulation
during the pandemic.
‘Newspaper biz
could face losses of
up to Rs 15,000 cr’ New Delhi: The Centre
said the production ca-
pacity of personal pro-
tection equipment
(PPE) kits has increased
from around 3,300 per
day in March end to 1.8
lakh per day in one
month, and will soon be
above two lakh per day.
“From the production
capacity of around 3,300
PPE kits per day in the
March end, in one
month, we have in-
creased our capacity to
1.8 lakh PPE kits per
day. It will soon be above
two lakh per day. Our
PPE kit needs will sure-
ly be met with,” said P D
Vaghela, chairman, Em-
powered Group 3, which
hasbeenmandatedwith
the production and pro-
curement of medical
supplies in the nation's
fight against COVID-19.
Vaghela said, “The
demand for PPE kits has
been projected at 2.01
crore in India. We have
placed orders for 2.22
crore kits out of which
1.42 crore kits are being
procured in the domes-
tic market. —ANI
New Delhi/Hyderabad:
The Railways rolled out
non-stop “Shramik Spe-
cial” trains to ferry mi-
grant workers, students
from various states
where they were strand-
ed since the nationwide
lockdown began on
March 25. In a meticu-
lous pre-dawn opera-
tion that coincided with
the International La-
bour Day and planned
in virtual secrecy, the
first train with 1,200 mi-
grant workers departed
from Hyderabad in Tel-
angana to Hatia in
Jharkhand at 4:50 am.
After more than a
month of suspension of
passenger services, the
Railways announced
special trains for
stranded migrant work-
ers, students amid indi-
cations by officials that
more such services are
being planned in the
coming days with the
40-day lockdown due to
end on May 3 being ex-
tended for another two
weeks. —PTI
1st train with 1, 200 migrants
from TS, leaves for J’khand
PPEkitsproductionrisesto1.8lakhper
day,willgoupto2lakhsoon:Centre
1.87 Lakh PPE kits are being produced daily in the country.
Palghar: The five peo-
ple, who were arrested
in Palghar lynching
case, were remanded
to the custody of CID
till May 13. As many as
115 people, including
nine minors, have
been arrested in the
case. The case pertains
to two sadhus and
their driver, who were
travelling from Kandi-
vali in Mumbai to Gu-
jarat. They were beat-
en to death on April 16,
allegedly by
Gadchinchle villagers
in Palghar, after they
suspected them of be-
ing thieves. —ANI
New Delhi: 'Kamal
Sandesh', the national
mouthpiece of BJP is
now available in digital
medium, said party
president JP Nadda.
“In difficult times of
COVID-19, Hon'ble PM
has urged to adopt in-
novative and digital
ways of working. Fol-
lowing his ideas, BJP
has used new ways to
work effectively in lock-
down. Now @Kamal-
Sandesh has also gone
digital,” Nadda tweeted.
The ten-page long Ka-
malSandeshisavailable
in both Hindi and Eng-
lish. In the first digital
bulletin, the decisions
taken by PM Narendra
Modi for farmers amid
the outbreak of corona-
virus are mentioned.
The bulletin also
has details of video
conference meetings
conducted by Nadda
with various members
of society. —ANI
BJP’s ‘Kamal Sandesh’
bulletin now goes digital
New Delhi: The price
of non-subsidised LPG
or market-price cook-
ing gas was cut by over
Rs 160 per cylinder.
Non-subsidised LPG
price was cut by a re-
cord Rs 162.50 per cylin-
der in wake of a slump
in benchmark interna-
tional rates due to fall-
ing oil demand.
A 14.2 kg LPG cylin-
der will now cost Rs
581.50 in Delhi, down
from Rs 744 till Thurs-
day. In Mumbai, it will
now be available for
Rs 579 per cylinder,
compared to Rs 714.50
earlier.
This is the third
straight monthly reduc-
tion in rates of non-sub-
sidised LPG cylinders. It
isalsothesteepestreduc-
tion in non-subsidised
LPG price ever. —PTI
LPG price cut by ` 160
New Delhi: A Delhi
Court granted bail to
corporate lobbyist
D e e p a k
T a l w a r,
arrested
in a mon-
ey laun-
d e r i n g
case relat-
ed to re-
ceiving foreign funding
illegally, saying that
“further custody of the
accused will not serve
any purpose as the
charge sheet in the case
has already been filed.
The bail was granted
on a personal bond of
Rs 5 lakh. —PTI
Deepak Talwar
granted bail in
aviation case
Palghar lynching:
5 remanded to
CID custody
Rahul Gandhi @RahulGandhi
My heartiest congratulations to the
millions of laborers and brothers of
the country on International Workers'
Day. This country is made up of the
courage and struggle of the workers
like you. My condolences and support are with you
in this difficult time. We salute you. Jai Hind.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra
@priyankagandhi
Workers are not only the power of
the country, they are the symbol of
our collective will. # Majdur_divs mil-
lions of workers salute the recent #
Mahaprsthan have suffered. Millions
of workers are in crisis today. These workers are
the axis of the country. If it stops then the country
will stop. Helping them is the biggest task today.
A fiscal injec-
tion especially
designed for
the migrant labourers
is the need of the hour.
Recent reports pub-
lished say that in the
duration of the lock-
down, we have had
an average 20 per
cent increase in pric-
es. Is this a double
whammy?
—Abhishek Manu Singhvi
Senior Congress leader
Stay home...
and inter-district ply-
ing of buses and barber
shops, spas and salons
will be prohibited in ad-
dition to those prohibit-
ed throughout India.
Sale of liquor has
been allowed in all
zones. However, if the
shops are located in
malls, marketing com-
plexes and in contain-
ment areas, they cannot
open. A limited number
of activities will re-
main prohibited across
the country, irrespec-
tive of the zone, includ-
ing travel by air, rail,
metro and inter-state
movement by road, run-
ning of schools, col-
leges, and other educa-
tional and training/
coaching institutions,
the order said.
This came after
Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi’s meeting
with chief ministers of
several states last
month where some of
them suggested exten-
sion of lockdown.
“No state/UT shall
stop the movement of
cargo for cross land-bor-
der trade under treaties
with neighbouring
countries. No separate
pass of any sort is need-
ed for such movement,
which is essential for
maintaining the supply
chain of goods and ser-
vices across the country
during the lockdown pe-
riod,” the ministry said.
“All other activities
will be permitted activi-
ties, which are not spe-
cifically prohibited, or
which are permitted
with restrictions in the
various zones under
these guidelines. How-
ever, states/ UTs, based
on their assessment of
the situation, and with
the primary objective of
keeping the spread of
COVID-19 in check, may
allow only select activi-
ties from out of the per-
mitted activities with
such restrictions as felt
necessary,” it added.
The ministry said
that no separate/fresh
permissions will be re-
quired from authorities
for activities already
permitted to operate
under the guidelines on
lockdown measures up
to May 3, 2020.
“The Standard Oper-
ating Protocols (SOPs)
issued by MHA will
continue to operate
such as transit arrange-
ment for foreign nation-
al(s) in India; release of
quarantine persons;
movement of stranded
labour within states/
UTs; sign-on and sign-
off of Indian seafarers,
movement of stranded
migrant workers, pil-
grims, tourists, stu-
dents and other persons
by road and rail.”—ANI
State-wise
division...
primarily based on the
cumulativecasesreport-
edandthedoublingrate.
“Since recovery rates
have gone up, the dis-
tricts are now being
designated across vari-
ous zones duly
broad-basing the crite-
ria. This classification
is multi-factorial and
takes into consider-
ation incidence of cas-
es, doubling rate, extent
of testing and surveil-
lance feedback to classi-
fy the districts,” Sudan
said in her letter.
A district will be con-
sidered under green
zone if there has been
no confirmed cases of
COVID-19 so far or there
is no reported case
since last 21 days in the
district, according to
the letter. —ANI
IAF to conduct...
flanked by Army chief
General M M Naravane,
Navy chief Admiral Kar-
ambirSinghandChief of
Air Staff Air Chief Mar-
shal R K S Bhadauria.
Gen Rawat said the
Indian Air Force will
conduct fly-pasts from
Srinagar to Thiru-
vananthapuram, from
Dibrugarh to Kutch as
thanksgiving to the cor-
onavirus warriors.
Fixed wing and fight-
er aircraft of the IAF
will participate in the
fly-pasts on May 3 even-
ing, he said.
Also, Navy helicop-
ters will shower flower
petals on hospitals
treating COVID-19 pa-
tients, the CDS said.
The Army will con-
duct mountain band dis-
plays along some COV-
ID-19hospitalsinalmost
every district, while na-
val ships will conduct
special drill and illumi-
nate vessels to convey
gratitude to corona war-
riors, Gen Rawat said.
FROM PG 1

Places of worship -
cutting across reli-
gion, gods and saints
havebarredpublicentry
in totality post the Cov-
id-related lockdown an-
nounced by the Govern-
ment. While daily ritu-
als and prayers are con-
ducted by a select group
of priests and clerics,
devotees are desisted
from thronging in.
All major religious
institutions are open-
ing up online channels
to stay connected with
their devotees. Online
live darshans, dona-
tions and pooja booking
options are made avail-
able for public by many
many institutions. A
few cash-rich religious
trusts are also reaching
out to the lockdown-af-
flicted people with re-
lief materials and fi-
nancial assistance.
With COVID-19 glob-
al pandemic the gov-
erning body of ISK-
CON (GBC) has advised
all devotees across the
globe to support the
government body of
their country by follow-
ing due instructions.
All devotees have
been advised to observe
Isolation and not to
visit the temple or even
move out of their hous-
es all across the globe.
ISKCON (Interna-
tional Society for
Krishna Conscious-
ness) Spiritual leader
Radhanath Swami Ma-
haraj said, “All our lec-
tures and classes, Sun-
day programmes and
meditation continue in
full swing even now but
the difference is that
now everything is hap-
pening online and not
in person. We have re-
quested all devotees to
continue with their
sadhana bhakti from
their homes.”
“We have ensured
that all devotees are
connected with their
respective temples in
their city through on-
line classes, meetings
on zoom & hangouts
and they can take on-
line darshan of Radha
Krishna deities and
are advised to chant
extra round for the
benefit of mankind.
Online yoga classes
have been started for
adults and separate on-
line yoga classes for
kids through Govard-
han Eco Village. All
retreats, yoga classes,
conferences and Sun-
day feasts are all can-
celled,” he added.
The trustees of
Ajmer Sharif Dargah,
the shrine of revered
sufi saint Moinuddin
Chishti, is contemplat-
ing whether to live tel-
ecast the daily pro-
ceedings to their devo-
tees. On an average,
the shrine attracts
over 20,000 visitors; on
Fridays and other im-
portant days, the tally
counters cross 50,000
worshippers.
T
he COVID-19
pandemic has
forced reli-
gious congre-
gations to stay at home
after the doors have
been closed to their
churches, synagogues,
mosques, temples, and
gurdwaras across Aus-
tralia.
But religious life has
not stopped. Congrega-
tions are discovering
new ways to meet vir-
tually on plenty of on-
line video platforms.
Google searches for
the word “prayer”
have skyrocketed in
recent months, appar-
ently in response to
the coronavirus out-
break.
Prime Minister
Scott Morrison, for
one, said his “prayer
knees were getting a
good workout” as he
prayed for the nation
and for religious com-
munities facing the
closure of sacred meet-
ing spaces due to the
pandemic.
And it is not just tra-
ditional religious com-
munities that are com-
ing together in virtual
assembly.
Spiritual and thera-
peutic activities, such
as yoga, meditation,
martial arts and con-
scious dance classes,
are also moving online
for those Australians,
particularly younger
people, who identify as
spiritual but not reli-
gious.
A global meditation,
for example, was held
earlier this month via
YouTube to send heal-
ing and love to those
struggling to cope dur-
ing the pandemic.
Some yoga studios
have even offered
classes for free or via
donation, challenging
popular assumptions
about links between
spirituality and con-
sumerism.
The resilience of
these groups in the
face of adversity backs
up the argument of
scholars such as Bos-
ton University sociolo-
gist Nancy T. Ammer-
man, who argue the
spiritual and religious
are not so distinct from
one another as popular
opinion would have us
believe.
Religious and spir-
itual practices deliver
something special
when they are done so-
cially – a deep sense of
community and con-
nection with some-
thing larger than our-
selves.
TALKING POINTAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
ALLMAJORRELIGIOUSINSTITUTIONSAREOPENINGUPONLINECHANNELSTOSTAYCONNECTEDWITHTHEIRDEVOTEES.ONLINE
LIVEDARSHANS,DONATIONS,ANDPOOJABOOKINGOPTIONSAREMADEAVAILABLEFORTHEPUBLICBYMANYINSTITUTIONS
RELIGIOUS GROUPS ARE EMBRACING
TECHNOLOGY DURING THE LOCKDOWN
INDIA CONNECTS WITH ITS SPIRITUAL SIDE VIRTUALLY
All religions are de-
pendent on their
cultural contexts.
Throughout history,
they have adapted to
changed circumstanc-
es and new technology.
This current move to
embrace live-stream-
ing and video-confer-
encing is no different.
In fact, in this rap-
idly developing crisis,
religious leaders have
at times been ahead of
political leaders.
For example, while
leaders in the UK were
debating whether to
embrace a “herd im-
munity” strategy for
the country, the arch-
bishop of Canterbury,
Justin Welby, made the
call to cancel in-person
church services and
move to live-streaming
instead.
Mega-churches in
Australia, such as Hill-
song and Gracepoint,
have also transitioned
to live-streaming their
services with relative
ease.Manyotherfaiths
are doing the same.
The Buddhist Society
of Victoria has been
live-streaming its Sun-
day talks for several
years now and has re-
cently shifted its guid-
ed meditations online.
The East Melbourne
Synagogue has simi-
larly made its Monday
lunchtime Jewish
classes virtual, while
many Hindu temples,
such as Melbourne’s
Durga and Interna-
tional Society for
Krishna Conscious-
ness, have moved their
weekly assemblies on-
line. Islamic leaders,
meanwhile, have
urged Muslims to stay
home for the holy
month of Ramadan,
whichbeganonThurs-
day, instead of break-
ing their fast in large
gatherings in the eve-
nings, as is customary.
For the 600,000 Mus-
lims in Australia – as
wellasthehundredsof
millions worldwide –
thiscomingmonthwill
be very challenging.
The grand mufti of
Australia has been of-
fering weekly lessons
following the Friday
prayer since the start
of the pandemic.
These lessons will be
expanded during
Ramadan.
However, the Eid al-
Fitr celebration at the
end of Ramadan in
late May will be a more
muted affair. Normal-
ly, millions return to
home towns and vil-
lages to celebrate with
family, but none of
this rich communal
activity will be possi-
ble during the pan-
demic.
While these tech-
nological chang-
es have shown prom-
ise in meeting people’s
more immediate spir-
itual concerns,
months of self-isola-
tion, rising unemploy-
ment, and mounting
death tolls will surely
present fresh chal-
lenges.
Especially worry-
ing is the fact religious
groups have long as-
sisted newly arrived
immigrants to settle
in Australia. With
many international
students and people on
temporary work visas
struggling to find
work and affordable
housing during the
pandemic, online com-
munity outreach by
religious groups will
likely not be enough.
Some religious
groups and individu-
als are still helping the
most needy in person,
abiding by social-dis-
tancing measures. Fa-
ther Bob Maguire’s
Community Pantry
Warehouse in Mel-
bourne, for instance,
is still offering food
packages, though its
community meals in
parks have been tem-
porarily suspended.
And what about
death and dying, of
having to bid farewell
online, and not being
able to honour loved
ones in funeral rites?
The lack of these ritu-
als, which bring peo-
ple together, will sure-
ly affect the process of
grieving.
Being able to lever-
age the digital domain
to connect virtually is
a great blessing in this
crisis. But it is diffi-
cult to replace in-per-
son human connec-
tion when we are at
our most vulnerable.
Once we get
through this, Austral-
ia’s rich religious and
spiritual landscape
will be awash again
with colourful cele-
brations affirming
the sanctity of real-
world connection and
community.
Nonetheless, some
things will be forever
changed by the crisis.
And the new skills
and online practices
learned at this time
will impact the ways
Australians engage
with the religious and
spiritual into the fu-
ture.
Religious freedom
is just one of the basic
liberties which Euro-
pean states continue
to suspend as they
cede emergency pow-
ers to executive gov-
ernments in the name
of public health.
A TIME TO PRAY ONLINE NOT THE SAME PERSONAL TOUCH
SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION CONCEPT: DIVYA HEMNANI DESIGN: ABHISHEK GUPTA

It is time to look within. Self discipline
is the only way forward. Do not wait
for the government or society to
enforce rules, follow them voluntarily.
—Jagdeesh Chandra, CEO & Editor, First India
AHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
08
2NDFRONT
First India News
Surat: When Vinod
Sharma sent his wife
to Surat to get his 7
year old daughter
treated for cancer, he
had little hope. Effi-
cient doctors and
blessings of almighty
the treatment was suc-
cessful and his daugh-
ter was discharged
from the hospital.
Since then he has
been pleading with
the district adminis-
tration for an e pass
to permit his wife
and daughter to trav-
el from Surat but to
no avail. District ad-
ministration has re-
peatedly refusing
the e pass. Vinod
Sharma has no idea
when will his wife
and daughter be per-
mitted to travel
home.
This isn’t story of
one person as out of
3180 applications for e
pass only 275 passes
have been given. In
some cases people
have not been per-
mitted to travel by
their own vehicle as
announced earlier.
Then there are lakhs
of people stranded
with no money or re-
sources which quali-
fy for a legal permis-
sion. Such people
might have nothing
but they don’t lack in
grit & determina-
tion.
Three migrant
workers demonstrat-
ed this by travelling
to Ganjam district in
Odisha on their bicy-
cles covering mam-
moth journey of
more than 16000
Kms. Pintu Swain (28)
of Bishnuchakra vil-
lage in Buguda block,
Babuli Behera (40) of
Dhunkapada village in
Polasara block, and
Karpur Nahak (42) of
Balichhai village in
Aska block reached
Ganjam on Tuesday.
Defeated cancer but can’t come home
RED TAPE
Waste water test to gauge Corona spreadWe have only tested slightly more than 9 lakh persons, far less than the number required. In this situation, WBE could be a boon
First India News
Gandhinagar: The po-
litical set up has its own
limitations in accepting
the fact that India is
conducting far less
number of tests than
required for is vast pop-
ulation to detect exact
spread of Civid-19 but
scientists of the Guja-
rat have not only admit-
ted the truth but have
also come up with a far
reaching substitute, if
successful. Taking a
cue from country’s suc-
cessful Polio surveil-
lance programme, sci-
entists will be analyz-
ing waste (sewage) wa-
ter to gauge the spread
of coronavirus in the
state. Wastewater epi-
demiology is a valuable
tool to monitor the
spread of the novel cor-
onavirus in communi-
ties, said Manish Ku-
mar of the Indian Insti-
tute of Technology in
Gandhinagar, who is
working with an inter-
national team of col-
laborators on the pro-
ject.The wastewater-
based epidemiology
(WBE) global collabora-
tion comprises over 50
institutes and research-
ers headed by Kyle
James Bibby of the Uni-
versity of Notre Dame
in the US.
The Indian num-
bers, so far, tell their
story. With a popula-
tion of 1.3 billion we
have only tested just
slightly more than 9
lakh persons till Fri-
day as per ICMR.
Over the last five
days, India has been
averaging 49,800 tests
a day. The number of
tests have almost dou-
bled in the last eight
days. India had con-
ducted just about five
lakh tests from 23
March to 22 April but
this is still not enough
to gauge the spread
of the disease.”The
current testing meth-
od is not enough to
tell the exact situa-
tion of the coronavi-
rus infection in India.
Even if the people
show symptoms for
novel coronavirus,it
will take three to 15
days actually to de-
tect it,” said Kumar,
assistant professor at
the Department of
Earth Sciences.
He said India’s polio
monitoring system,
which uses a similar
surveillance method,
could come handy in
the fight against coro-
navirus. It is a pub-
lished fact that if some-
body is infected with
the novel coronavirus,
they will excrete it
through their body, in
the form of faeces and
urine, which in turn
can be detected in
wastewater, Kumar
added.
According to Masa-
ki Kitajima, a world
renowned environ-
mental virologist
from Japan’s Hokkai-
do University, the
presence of genetic
material of novel cor-
onavirus provides an
opportunity to use
wastewater as a sur-
veillance tool for the
“invasion, prevalence,
molecular epidemiol-
ogy, and potential
eradication of the vi-
rus in a community”.
“We are not going to
detect the live corona-
virus in wastewater
but their RNA (genetic
material in viruses)
present in sewage wa-
ter. This collected
sample will then be
used in gene sequenc-
ing to assess how
much genetic material
of coronavirus is
available,” he said.
Kumar explained that
the results can then be
extrapolated for a ge-
netic material estima-
tion of the wastewater
and assigned with a
probable number of
people infected in a
given locality or com-
munity. “I have sent the
protocol to several insti-
tutes in India like in IIT
Chennai, IIT Roorkee,
IIT Guwahati and JNU
Delhi, so we all can do
sampling following one
protocol,” he noted. He
added that the Gujarat
Pollution Control Board
(GPCB) and Gujarat
State Biotechnology
Mission (GSBTM) are
providing his team all
the cooperation to ac-
complish the work. “I
believe that Kumar’s
team will certainly pro-
vide considerable in-
sights into WBE’s global
application,” Kuroda,
who has published sev-
eralpapersonthefateof
viruses and pharmaceu-
ticalsinurbanwatersof
Japan and Vietnam.
NO CHANCE TO PASS THROUGH
First India News
Ahmedabad: Immedi-
ately after Covid-19 pan-
demic broke out the
health advisories made
hand sanitisers one of
the most frequently
used commodities. Ma-
jority of the users are
still not aware of the
exact specifications of a
ideal hand sanitiser. Gu-
jarat Technological Uni-
versity (GTU) has initi-
ated research on hand
sanitizer with testing by
the Department of
Pharmacy. GTU will
come out with exact
specifications for alco-
hol based hand sanitis-
er. GTU has found dur-
ing research that hand
sanitizers only work ef-
fectively if the alcohol
content is 60% -95%.
Basic protective
measures have been
recommended by the
World Health Organiza-
tion (WHO) to take care
of one’s health in times
of global epidemics
such as Covid-19. Wash-
ing your hands with
soap or using a hand
sanitizer can help fight
the corona virus.
Research method has
been developed by the
professors of the Grad-
uate School of Pharma-
cy of GTU to check the
quality of hand sani-
tizer available in the
market. The use and
price of sanitizers has
increased in recent
times. This research
will be helpful in the
coming days to ensure
that manufacturers do
not distribute counter-
feit goods incorrectly to
take advantage of the
situation.The research
method has been devel-
oped by Kashyap Thum-
mar and co-starrer
Mehria using the Fou-
rier Transform-Infra-
red Spectrophotometer
(FT-IS) tool. In which
the quality of alcohol
based hand sanitizer
can be checked.
GTU to test efficacy of available hand sanitizers
First India News
Porbandar: Rizwan
Adatia became the lat-
est victim of spate of
abduction crimes in
Mozambique. His car
was found abandoned
near Matola.
It is believed that
Rizwan was return-
ing home from mar-
ket at 11 pm when
abductors stopped
his self driven car
abd forcibly took him
hostage.
Rizwan was self
driving and alone in
the car following so-
cial distancing due to
Covid-19 breakout.
Rizwan Adatia is the
Chairman of COGEF
group which spans
across 11 countries
and his group em-
ploys 3500 people.
Adatia hails from
Porbandar town of
Saurashtra and is
founder of Rizwan
Adatia Foundation.
As a leading philan-
thropist he has adopt-
ed Maliya Hatina vil-
lage in Gujarat and
also runs several
other social welfare
schemes in Saurash-
tra. Rizwan is consid-
ered to be one of the big
time overseas admirers
of PM Modi.
Gujarati NRI and philanthropist
abducted in Mozambique
Bizman Rizwan Adatia with Chief Minister Rupani.
The current testing method is not
enough to tell the exact situation
of the coronavirus infec-
tion in India. Even if the people
show symptoms for novel
coronavirus,it will take three to 15
days actually to detect it, we will
use WBE instead to gauge the virus
spread much quickly.
—Manish Kumar, IIT, Gandhinagar
First India News
Ahmedabad: Senior
Congress leader Shak-
tisinh Gohil has writ-
ten a letter to CM Vijay
Rupani demanding le-
gal action against Am-
reli MP Naranbhai
Kachdiya, district BJP
functionary Kaushik
Vekaria and city BJP
president Tushar Joshi
for violating secrecy
norms at board exam
evaluation centres. The
letter states that, ‘the
act by the three BJP
members violates the
very purpose of evalu-
ation of the board exam
answer sheets in total
secrecy’. He demand-
ed that an FIR be
filed against the
three immediately
and a judicial inquiry
also conducted as per
the provisions of Sec-
tion 7 of the Second-
ary Education Act
and the Indian Penal
Code. This was to en-
sure that the credibili-
ty of the government’s
process is maintained
among the 1.5 million
students appearing for
the board exams, the
letter said.
Gohil demands FIR
against BJP MP
Cong leader Shaktisinh Gohil
First India News
Vadodara: A crocodile
ventured out of nearby
Vishwamitri river and
ventured ou to the Kala
Ghoda circle on
Wednesday night. Cops
stationed there could
see something crawl-
ing on the main road.
On clos inspection they
realized it was a 4 feet
long reptile which
seemed to have come
out of nearby Vishwa-
mitri river which is
home to hundreds of
such crocs.The cops
immediately called
up forest officials and
Gujarat Society for
Prevention of Cruelty
to Animals (GSPCA)
volunteers who
rushed to the spot.
The reptile first
crawled near the tem-
ple on Kala Ghoda
circle stretch and
then sat in the middle
of the road. It had a
free run as there was no
traffic on the road until
it was caught and sent
back to safety.
Crocodile
takes a walk
on Kala Ghoda
13 undertrials
escape from sub-
jail in Gujarat
First India News
Dahod: At least 13
undertrial prisoners
lodged in a sub-jail in
Dahod district of Gu-
jarat escaped after
breaking the door
locks of their rooms
and barrack early on
Friday, officials said.
The incident
took place around 3
am in the sub-jail
of Devgadh-Baria
town in Dahod dis-
trict when 13 un-
dertrial prisoners
facing serious
charges, such as
rape and murder,
escaped after
breaking the locks
of their rooms and
barrack, District
Superintendent of
Police, Hitesh Joys-
ar, said.
“They first broke
the locks and then es-
caped by jumping
over the wall of the
sub-jail. The incident
happened despite the
presence of jail
guards. We have
launched a massive
search operation to
nab the escaped in-
mates,” Joysar said.
In-charge jailor
of Devgadh-Baria
sub-jail, Punam-
chand Rana, later
lodged a police
complaint against
the 13 prisoners.
“Out of around the
80 prisoners lodged
in the sub- jail, 13 in-
mates kept in room
number 3 and 4 of
barrack number 1
broke the locks on
the doors of their
rooms and barrack to
escape,” he said.
In the complaint,
Rana also sought
action against four
jail guards for their
negligence.
Sub-jail in Dahod district
THE SURVIVORS
According to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), 19 patients who recovered from
COVID-19 have been discharged from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) Hospital.

AHMEDABAD, SATURDAY
MAY 2, 2020
www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia
facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
09
n ‘Too Hot to Han-
dle,’ the latest reality
show at Netflix, a
group of attention-
hungryyouthgather
together at a beach-
front Mexican villa
and attempt to forgo sexual
contact of any kind in a bid
for a $100,000 prize. Each vio-
lation of the rules, which, by
the way, also bar self-gratifi-
cation, brings a fine, starting
at $3,000 for a kiss.
Like ‘Love Is Blind,’ which
followed couples as they dat-
ed in “isolation pods” and got
engaged before meeting face
to face, ‘Too Hot to Handle’ is
strangely well-timed in an
era of social distancing and
involuntary celibacy for mil-
lions. But while ‘Love Is
Blind’ became a pop culture
sensation, couples talked
about the magic of “being
back in the pods” as if they’d
just returned from a honey-
moon in Tahiti, not a win-
dowless room on a sound-
stage in Atlanta, ‘Too Hot to
Handle’ puts a knowing twist
on the guilty pleasure of dat-
ing shows.
There’s no host, just a nar-
ration by comedian Desiree
Burch targeting the contest-
ant, an international crew of
inked-up, musclebound bros,
and Kardashian clones wear-
ing bikinis that look like fet-
ishwear Spanx, for being vap-
id, manipulative, excessively
libidinous or all of the above.
Along with the usual day
drinking and poolside loung-
ing, there are group challeng-
es designed to encourage per-
sonal growth and/or torment
the randy singles, such as a
session in Shibari, Japanese
rope bondage.
There’s also an Alexa-like
talking “robot” named Lana
that plays the role of referee,
announcing every time
someone has breached the
rules, taking what is the sub-
text in most other reality dat-
ing shows, slut-shaming, and
making it explicit. And no
one got in more trouble with
Lana than Francesca Fara-
go, a 27-year-old Canadian
who captured the
heart, or at least
hormonal long-
ings, of baby-
faced Austral-
ian Harry
Jowsey. The
Insta g ram
model man-
aged to rack
up $32,000 in
fines over
the course of
the produc-
tion, including
$20,000 in a sin-
gle night with
Jowsey.
When she
signed up to do
the show last
year, she was
“very single”
and had little
idea of what she
was in for; contestants
only learned the rules once
they’d arrived at the “re-
treat,” as they call it, but she
left in a relationship. She and
Jowsey briefly broke up after
leaving Mexico but have reu-
nited and are still very much
together, though currently
isolating in different coun-
tries. Farago spoke by phone
from Vancouver about her
unlikely journey to enlight-
enment.
On asking if she didn’t
know the rules of the compe-
tition before she signed on,
Francesca said, “I was
reached out to via Insta-
gram DM by someone in
production. ‘Hey we have
this new reality show on
Netflix, we thought
you’d be perfect for it.’
She was asking me
about my sex life, about
my previous relation-
ships. It was very sexu-
ally oriented. I was
telling my friends
aboutitandthey’re
like, ‘You’re not al-
lowed, you’re going
to get kidnapped.’ It
was very sketchy at
the beginning.”
I
HANDLE
THE SOCIAL
DISTANCE
‘Too Hot to
Handle’ is
strangely well-
timed in an era of
social distancing
and involuntary
celibacy for
millions
Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2020-04-30/too-hot-to-handle-netflix-harry-francesca-update

10
ETCAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020www.firstindia.co.in I www.firstindia.co.in/epaper/ I twitter.com/thefirstindia I facebook.com/thefirstindia I instagram.com/thefirstindia
FACEOFTHEDAY
KHUSHBHU BIJAPARI, Model
YOUR
DAYHoroscope by
Saurabbh Sachdeva
LEO
JULY 24 - AUGUST 23
You will surely pay off all
your debt in coming times,
be rest assured about that.
On the professional front,
you have a strong bond with people in
your professional life. On the family
front, you must be able to open up
with your parents or your spouse
about your issues.
LIBRA
SEPT 24 - OCTOBER 22
You will get the chance to
renew old relationships in
some family function or a
gathering of some kind.
Some one of you may buy an office
or a shop. You must believe in
yourself before finding the right
partner. Your cards show profit from
your investment in stock market.
ARIES
MAR 21 - APR 20
You must take care of the
words coming out of your
mouth, on work front
today. Try to keep up the
promises made with the people who
matter to you, on romantic front. On
the personal front, you are in a very
peaceful state of mind as only
harmony prevails at your place.
SAGITTARIUS
NOV 23 - DEC 22
On the career front, you are
good at sports and may
pursue it as your career to
earn a living. On the
personal front, you must sit and think
about all your savings, assets and
finances before stepping into a new
venture, so that you have everything
that it takes.
GEMINI
MAY 21 - JUNE 21
A big opportunity is
waiting for you in real
estate business. You are
good at budgeting and
your finances are always under your
control. You are a smart person so
its not easy for other to fool you. You
must keep away from people have
talk negative.
AQUARIUS
JAN 21 - FEB 19
On the personal front, you
are a wise soul but
sometimes you go astray
from your path, so the
solution is to get in habit of meditating
regularly. On the financial front, all the
financial decision you will take today
will only make you more secure, so
think twice before any decision.
TAURUS
APR 21 - MAY 20
You will spend a lot of
money on comfort today.
You can expect decent
returns from your past
investments. Family will help you by
sharing some home burdens. On
professional front, you will live upto
the expectation of your boss and he
will reward you big time.
CAPRICORN
DEC 23 - JAN 20
There’s a good news for
you- you may get the
possession of your new
house today. On the family
front, you must pay heed to your
parents’s advice. Congratulations in
advance, as you will step into a new
business which will run out to be
successful in long run.
VIRGO
AUG 24 - SEP 23
On the personal front,
some of you may take to
initiative to organise some
event or a party. Looking at
your love life, your lover has
somewhat become your priority now,
and that’s how it should be. On the
personal front, someone close may
need your care and support.
CANCER
JUNE 22 - JULY 23
You plan to acquire a new
property and don’t worry
things will go smoothly.
You are really in love. On
academic front, sometimes you feel
you are fully prepared and sometime
you feel vice versa so don’t pay
much attention to the feelings rather
concentrate on your preparation.
PISCES
FEB20 - MARCH 20
On the professional front, a
huge profit from business
cannot be ruled out for
some. On a happy note,
you may meet your childhood friends
today.You must pay some heed to
you father or the fatherly figure in
your life as he give your the advice
worth million dollars.
SCORPIO
OCT 23 - NOVEMBER 22
Eating right and in
proportion is what you
need right now. Those who
have a wanderlust will
soon find themselves going on
frequents tours. You are famous in
your social circle but don’t let that
effect you in a way that you feel
forced to do things.
IT’S TIME TO COME
BACK HOME
mid corona crisis, the most af-
fected section of the society is
migrant labourers stranded in
various states. After the country-
wide lockdown announcement to
curb the spread of corona virus,
many of them started walking
towards home. With efforts of various
stakeholders like government’s continu-
ous assurances, public support and non-
governmental organizations, we were
able to contain a difficult situation for
sometime. Though, many voices were
raised meanwhile from different areas of
the country for their safe transportation
to home. As this time passes, we need to
think of solutions for current and future
situations both.
Let’s go to basics! Why do people mi-
grate? If I need to answer then the an-
swer is “Better livelihood opportunities”.
On 24 April, we celebrated “PANCHAYTI
RAJ DIWAS” to reiterate the power of
root democracy. This is the right time
when we should realise the fundamen-
tals of 73rd Constitutional Amendment
Act, 1993 and to make villages self reli-
ant autonomous entities. This is the
right time to enliven the ideas of Mahat-
ma Gandhi’s Gram swaraj and Dr APJ
Abul kalam’s PURA ( providing urban
amenities to rural areas) vision.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, Gram
swaraj meant making villages politically
and economicaly independent units of
democracy. Similar is the vision of Dr
Kalam to provide livelihood opportuni-
ties to the rural population and improve
the quality of life. He visualized four in-
gredients to make this vision successful;
physical connectivity, electronic connec-
tivity, knowledge connectivity leading to
Economic activity.
We need to think of a viable model of
Gram governance what we call it to-
day as “Smart village model” where
they are self sustainable and connected
to the rest of the world. Smart village
has the income generating opportu-
nites, health & education facilities,
roads, and access to energy. To achieve
these focus areas in a village, cluster ap-
proach is helpful where each cluster
should have its own plan, purpose and
way of development. It can be imple-
mented through coordinating with var-
ious stakeholders; Government & Non
Government. We can learn from the
experiences of successful villages in
the country. In Rajasthan, we have Tilo-
nia village in Ajmer district which is an
exampIe of economic and social devel-
opment for other villages. The Solar
mamas of this village were commended
by the United nations. I am sure, there
must be many such other examples but
now is the time to take GRAM GOVERN-
ANCE on mission mode and stop the
unnecessary migration to cities where
people lack basic sanitation, health,
education and proper livelihood oppor-
tunities as they are becoming over-
crowded. Afterall, The best journey
takes you home and home should be
worthwhile to stay.
DR KRITIKA YADAV
cityfirst@firstindia.co.in
A
SMART VILLAGES

A
s actor Anushka Sharma
ringed in her 32nd birth-
day on Friday, the star
opened about how she be-
lieved in herself, and recalled her
father’s saying that kept her go-
ing forward in life successfully.
The actor considers her fa-
ther Colonel Ajay Kumar
Sharma to be her greatest
teacher.
“I went to Army Public
School in Bangalore, and I
have had some really good
teachers there, and I was very
close to them, and they have
had a very lasting impression
in my mind and my principal
also. But my dad taught me
some invaluable lessons,”
Anushka said.
Opening about the lesson
from her father that left a
lasting impression on her,
the star added: “The thing
that he told me was no
matter what situation
you are in, no matter
how bad the situation
is, always do the right
thing and pray to god
that you know what is
the right thing to do is at
that moment.” The
‘Rab Ne Banadi Jodi’
star said that those
sayings ‘stuck’ with
her as she was so
young and that she
‘really look up’ to
her father.
—ANI
K
areena Kapoor Khan shared a
rare picture on Instagram, in
which, her uncle late actor, Ri-
shi Kapoor, is seen sharing a
happy moment with her late father-in-
law, legendary cricketer Mansoor Ali
Khan Pataudi.
Kareena captioned the image as
“Two Tigers.” Rishi Kapoor is the
brother of Kareena’s father, Ran-
dhir Kapoor, and Mansoor Ali
Khan Pataudi is Kareena’s husband
Saif Ali Khan’s father.
Also, on Thursday, Kareena posted a
cute childhood picture of Rishi and her
father Randhir Kapoor, and wrote: “The
best boys I know... Papa and Chintu uncle.”
Theimagewasatributetoheruncleandthe
legend Rishi Kapoor, who passed away on
Thursday after battling leukaemia for the
past two years. —IANS
P
riyanka Chopra
Jonashasjoined
handwithSwed-
ish teen activist
Greta Thunberg to
protect vulnerable
children across the
world from the corona-
virus.
Priyanka Chopra took
to social media to express
her concern over the effect
of Coronavirus on vulner-
able children.
She tweeted: “It’s heart-
breaking to see the effect
of Covid-19 on vulnerable
children across the world.
Theynowhavetocopewith
food shortages, strained
healthcare systems, vio-
lence & lost education. We
need to protect them.. the
onus is on us.”
“Join me in supporting
this much needed cam-
paign by @UNICEF and @
GretaThunberg.” Priyan-
ka and her American pop
singerhusbandNickJonas
contributed to several
charities to lend support to
the ongoing battle against
theCOVID-19pandemic.
Priyanka took to
Twitter to announce
that the couple has do-
nated to organisa-
tions like the PM-
CARES Fund,
Unicef, Feeding
America and Goonj
among many oth-
ers.Shealsopledged
to donate $100,000
to women doing
their bit in health
crisis. —IANS
ETCAHMEDABAD | SATURDAY, MAY 2, 2020
AIDING
MUSICIANS
B
illie Eilish, Ariana Grande, Justin
Bieber, and The Weekend are
among music stars releasing cloth
face masks to raise money for mu-
sicians affected by the COVID-19 pandem-
ic. Grande’s mask features a single tear
drop reminiscent of her ‘No tears left to
cry’ merchandise, Eilish’s offering in-
cludes her ‘Blohsh’ logo in neon green.
Bieber’s mask features his name in graf-
fiti style lettering, and The Weeknd’s of-
fering comes with XO on the front,
adorned by a heart.
Meanwhile, Eilish urged her fans to
take responsibility during the coronavi-
rus pandemic through Instagram. “I’ve
seen a lot of young people out in the
world, all over the place, going to the club
or going to the beach or just going out
and hanging out, and it’s really irrespon-
sible. Please take responsibility for your
endurance of this,” she said. The artistes
involved in the project belong to the Uni-
versal Music Group, and the charity is
part of the company’s ‘We’ve Got You
Covered’ initiative. The net proceeds of
the masks will go to MusiCares, which is
working to support the music community
affected by the virus crisis. —IANS
NEW PROJECT!ollowing her final outing in the
‘Star Wars’ franchise, actress Daisy
Ridley is in talks to take the lead
role in Swedish crime thriller ‘The
Ice beneath Her’. The movie pro-
ject, which will be financed by STX,
is based on the 2015 novel by Swed-
ishauthorCamillaGrebe.Thestoryisabout
a young woman found beheaded in a busi-
ness tycoon’s hallway, a crime that resem-
bles an earlier unsolved killing. It soon be-
comes a race against time. —IANS
F
Two tigers in one frame!
AGOODSAMARITAN!
RECALLSDAD’S
TEACHINGONB’DAY!
Daisy Ridley
Billie Eilish
Ariana Grande
Kareena Kapoor Khan
... her Instagram post
Anushka Sharma
Priyanka Chopra Jonas

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First india ahmedabad edition-02 may 2020