India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stand before an honour guard ahead of a meeting at Abe’s official residence in Tokyo on October 29, 2018. (Photo by Kiyoshi Ota / POOL / AFP)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said the India-Japan special strategic and global partnership can help develop new technologies and solutions for the post-COVID world.
The prime minister made these remarks on Twitter after speaking with his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe on the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Had fruitful discussion with my friend, Japanese PM @abeshinzo about the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The India-Japan Special Strategic & Global Partnership can help develop new technologies and solutions for the post-COVID world – for our peoples, for the Indo-Pacific region, and for the world,” he said.
Had fruitful discussion with my friend, Japanese PM @abeshinzo about the COVID-19 pandemic . The ???? Special Strategic & Global Partnership can help develop new technologies and solutions for the post-COVID world – for our peoples, for the Indo-Pacific region, and for the world.
Prime Minister Abe had recently declared a state of emergency in Tokyo and six other prefectures to contain the spread of the killer virus.
Modi also spoke with Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli on the coronavirus issue.
“Spoke today with Prime Minister of Nepal, Shri @kpsharmaoli. We discussed the prevailing situation due to COVID-19,” Modi tweeted.
“I appreciate the determination of people of Nepal to fight this challenge. We stand in solidarity with Nepal in our common fight against COVID-19,” the Prime minister said.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra has called for ramping up testing facilities to check coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh, saying it can prove to be a lifesaver in the big state.
In a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief minister Yogi Adityanath, she called for steps that could win over the confidence of everyone by creating a fear-free atmosphere, while keeping aside political ideology, to ensure that people come up voluntarily for testing.
“We are with you in this fight against the pandemic. Coronavirus does not see any religion or caste and affects everyone. In this battle, there is need to take steps by keeping our political ideologies away and help bring people together and create a fear-free atmosphere,” she said in her letter.
Stressing on the need for ramping up testing facilities, she said for a state with such a big population “increasing testing can prove to be a lifesaver”.
She said state authorities have to conduct testing on more and more people, on “mild to moderate high risk cases” and treat them on a war footing so that there is less pressure on ICUs.
The Congress leader also called up creation of more isolation wards and quarantine centres soon.
She said with reports of community transmission coming from some parts and clusters in urban areas are being formed, she said there are also reports about COVID infected people hiding their disease.
“This is happening because of fear mongering in the society about this disease. Hence it is important, especially in these clusters to provide right information on a war footing in these areas and immediately stop fake news and myths about the coronavirus,” she said in her letter.
She also called for taking such steps that people win the confidence of the government and come forward to get testing done voluntarily.
“It is important that the government takes such steps to inspire confidence of people so that they come up voluntarily for testing,” she said, while also calling for seeking the help of NGOs and social and political organisations to unitedly fight the coronavirus pandemic.
Making a host of suggestions in her letter to UP CM, the Congress general secretary for Uttar Pradesh also called for improving sanitation facilities and provision of free ration to the poor and the marginalised.
An offence has been registered against DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan and 21 others, including their family members, for travelling to a hill station in violation of prohibitory orders during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, official said on Friday.
The offence under relevant sections of the IPC and the Disaster Management Act, one of them related to disobedience of lawful order, was filed at the Mahabaleshwar Police Station in Satara district of Maharashtra, they said.
Wadhawan family members along with others were detained by civic officials on Thursday from their Diwan Villa farm house in Mahabaleshwar, a popular hill station located more than 300km from Mumbai, an official said.
Though lockdown is in force, all the 23 persons had travelled from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar on Wednesday evening in their cars despite Pune and Satara districts being sealed to contain the viral infection, he said.
As the Satara district collectors prohibitory orders restricted anyone from visiting the hill station, the Prant officer of Wai lodged a complaint against them at the Mahabaleshwar Police Station on Thursday, he said.
According to the complaint, the Wadhawan family had no medical or family emergency to visit the place and they had not obtained any permission in this regard.
Based on the complaint, an offence was registered against all the 23 persons under IPC section 188 (disobedience of lawful order of public servant), other relevant sections and also provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005, which has been invoked to deal with the coronavirus crisis, he said.
All of them have been sent for institutional quarantine, he said, adding a probe was on.
Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan are accused in Yes Bank and DHFL fraud cases.
They were spotted at their farmhouse by civic authorities, officials had said on Thursday.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recently issued summons to Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan in Yes Bank case and asked them to appear on March 17. The duo reportedly cited the pandemic and skipped the appearance, they had said.
Urging people not to believe rumours, the finance ministry on Thursday said Rs 500 has been deposited in each PMJDY account held by women for April and Rs 1,000 more will be given over the next two months in equal instalments.
Meanwhile, state-owned SBI, which has the highest number of PMJDY accounts, asked the beneficiaries not to believe in rumours that the money will be taken away by the government if not withdrawn amid large numbers of people flocking banks.
As a result of this, there are rush at bank branches leading to violation of social distancing guidelines to check the spread of coronavirus.
The Department of Financial Services (DFS) in a tweet said the government has deposited Rs 500 in the PMJDY accounts held by women for April and beneficiaries could withdraw it “any time”.
“This amount (Rs 500) has reached your bank account and you can withdraw it any time,” it said, and added Rs 500 will also be deposited during May as well in June.
The DFS, in the finance ministry, also asked the beneficiaries not to believe in rumours and withdraw the amount from ATM, customer service point or banks as per their convenience.
Of the total 38.08 crore accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), as many as 20.60 crore were held by women. As on April 1, the deposits in the PMJDY accounts stood at over Rs 1.19 lakh crore.
State Bank of India (SBI) further said, “We would like to assure our customers that the funds in your account will not be blocked or returned to the government.”
The country’s largest lender also asked the PMJDY account holders to withdraw money at their convenience anytime.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this as part of the Rs 1.70-lakh crore relief package announced last month.
The minister had said as many as 20.5 crore women Jan Dhan account holders will get Rs 500 per month for next three months to run their households, a move aimed at mitigating the hardships caused by the lockdown.
BSF Director-General SS Deswal on Wednesday said that alertness continues to be there at borders as no reduction has been made from border deployment.
Deswal has an additional charge of DG BSF apart from being the DG ITBP.
Speaking to ANI, Deswal said that while forces are serving the needy amid the prevailing situation in the country, the border deployment has not been affected in any manner.
“Complete alertness is there at the borders. There has been no reduction in terms of troops deployed at the borders,” he said.
Deswal informed that on orders of the central government, BSF units have been deployed in different states to help the local administration during the lockdown in the wake of COVID-19.
Instructions have been issued to all formations of BSF that leave of personnel, who are already on leave, should be extended up to April 21. To avoid any communication gap, they are telephonically informed.
Similar instructions have been given for the training centres where training programmes were already running and due to terminate in coming days.
162 more COVID-19 cases have been reported in Maharashtra on Thursday, taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 1,297, state Health Department said on Thursday.
With an increase of 540 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 5,734, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday.
Out of the 5,734 cases; 5,095 are active COVID-19 cases and 472 cases have recovered or discharged, while one case has migrated. The death toll has also risen to 166 after 17 new deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
Jammu & Kashmir saw an increase of 26 percent in the Coronavirus cases today as 33 more persons tested positive for COVID-19.
Out of the 33 cases 30 cases were reported from Kashmir with the other three reported from the Jammu division. With today’s fresh cases the number of positive cases of Coronavirus in the union territory reached 158.
As three persons have died due to the Virus and six others have recovered, the active cases of COVID-19 are 149 in Jammu & Kashmir. The fresh cases of Coronavirus were reported from Srinagar, Baramulla, Bandipora, Kupwara, Jammu, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts of the union territory.
Highest number of seven cases were reported from Bandipora district followed by Baramulla and Shopian with six cases each, five cases from Srinagar, three cases each from Jammu and Kupwara districts, two cases from Pulwama and one case from Kulgam district.
Spokesman for Jammu & Kashmir government, Rohit Kansal confirmed about the latest cases of Coronavirus in the union territory. Kansal in separate tweets said that 33 cases of Coronavirus came to fore from different districts of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir on Wednesday. He first confirmed about 14 cases and later on confirmed about 19 cases.
However, the media bulletin issued by the government at the end of the day mentioned only about 14 cases and not 33 cases of Coronavirus reported on Wednesday. The media bulletin said that three cases were reported from Jammu and 11 from Kashmir division. It said that the total number of positive cases in Jammu and Kashmir has gone up to 139.
“Out of 139 positive cases, 130 are active positive, six have recovered and three have died. Furthermore, till date 40,336 travelers and persons in contact with suspected cases have been put under surveillance which includes 8,494 persons in home quarantine including facilities operated by government, 518 in hospital quarantine, 130 in hospital isolation and 23,364 under home surveillance,” said the media bulletin.
The bulletin said that besides, 7,830 persons have completed their 28-day surveillance period. It said that till date 2,269 samples have been sent for testing of which 2,116 have tested as negative and 14 reports are awaited till April 8, 2020. It said that two more COVID-19 patients have recovered and have been discharged from SKIMS Soura, Srinagar today.
COVID-19, lockdown had pushed the prices of vegetables northwards, the cost of mutton is soaring. In the last few days, few mutton shops in the city are willing to sell mutton for the price of Rs 800 per kg, far higher than the reigning Rs. 400 a kg. The price went up to almost double per kg in some places on Sunday when the demand for mutton is normally high.
Khalis, a mutton merchant in Borivali, told Afternoon Voice that “They are finding it difficult to procure sheep at a financially viable cost amid lockdown. The type of mutton that is available in frozen form is not preferred by the people,” he said and added that the cost price for a mutton merchant itself is around Rs. 400 to 450 per kg.
Khalid Hussain, another mutton merchant, said “He used to sell meat of around 10 sheep every day till a few days ago when the scarcity of sheep began to hit the merchants. “Today, I manage to find only one or two sheep’s because there is lot of checking and hazard in bringing the sheep for butchery,” he said. Though the availability of sheep had been drying up in the last few weeks, the situation had turned worse in the lock down period. Many mutton merchants are unable to supply mutton to hotels due to the scarcity, he said. “Only merchants, who have firmed up a contract of regular supply to hotels, are meeting their contractual obligations. Others are not being able to do so,” he added.
Some meat shop owners reportedly faced trouble getting goats to Mumbai and even had to bribe police on their way in. Sellers fear that this may eat into their profit margins given that the markets are shut and people are unwilling to pay a steep price for the same. Last year, in regions like Kolhapur and Sangli, mutton prices saw a steep rise due to the floods. Several parts of Mumbai are currently sealed to curb the spread of Coronavirus.
The poultry industry is slowly making a comeback with an increase in demand for chicken and eggs, lovers of red meat in Mumbai are being forced to pay a heavy price for indulging in their cravings as buffaloes are also in short supply. As a consequence, mutton prices, which were at Rs 560 per kg, have now reached up to Rs 800 per kg. Chicken, on the other hand, has returned to its normal price of Rs 160 per kg.
General Manager of the Deonar slaughterhouse Yogesh Shetye, said “That around 3000 sheep and goats and 250 buffaloes were slaughtered at Deonar every day with animals coming from neighboring regions of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. “Now, all that has stopped. We shut the abattoir also because social distancing became an issue.”
Shahnawaz Thanawala, president of Bombay Mutton Dealers Association told Afternoon Voice that “The poultry industry is somehow back in business with chicken selling for even Rs 200 per kg as the rates for sheep and goat meat have shot up due to the unavailability of buffalo meat. In between, people had completely stopped eating chicken with the rates crashing to Rs 50-Rs 80 per kg. But now due to the lockdown, we are unable to get chicken and the prices have gone up.”
Macrobiotic Nutritionist and Health Coach, Shilpa Arora ND, also agrees, “there is no harm whatsoever in consuming cooked meat. People suggesting avoiding meat entirely should know that there is no evidence of the same.”
Despite the COVID-19 scare, the price and demand for mutton has remained unchanged across the city. Coronavirus has been declared a global epidemic, with the disease spreading to more than sixty countries across the world. Several cases of Coronavirus reported in India too resulting in widespread panic across the country. Apart from maintaining personal hygiene and cleanliness at all times, the most common question was whether or not non-vegetarians should consume meat during the times when coronavirus is rapidly spreading. There were trends on Twitter like “Stop Eating Meat” and “No Meat No Coronavirus”. But all this could not stop meat eaters eating their favourite mutton. Doctors too endorsed that there is no need to entirely cut the meat out of the diet, but consumption of raw meat should definitely be avoided. There is no conclusive evidence as far as meat or diet is concerned. But, as a precaution and especially in India, it is a good idea, generally also, to avoid raw meat. It is better to have cooked meat. As of now, there is no advisory that prevents you from eating any non-vegetarian food.
Both World Health Organisation (WHO) and Government of India have released a series of tweets about general queries relating to Coronavirus to curb unwarranted pandemonium. The fact that meat-eaters and non-vegetarians are being held responsible for spreading Corona-virus is a complete myth which is scientifically baseless. Cooked meat poses no risk to anyone, and doctors have reiterated that several times to avoid spreading rumours that suggest the contrary. Doctors and government both gave go ahead on eating meat but there is scarcity of supply in the market. Mutton is priced between Rs. 440 and Rs. 480 a kg now, the demand has not fallen, but nor has it risen given the high cost and the fact that many just don’t like mutton. Meanwhile, the price of chicken hovered between Rs. 130 and Rs. 150 a kilogram. However, a drop in both demand and price is expected in the coming days. This lock-down, mutton prices are all set to go up due to the increase in the rates of goats and sheep. The prices have escalated by a couple of thousands owing to huge demand for the mutton. Surprisingly, Meat consumption goes up phenomenally during these forced holidays. To meet the huge demand, cattle farmers from Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and other States bring goats and sheep to sell in the city markets. The meat is currently priced between Rs. 400 and Rs. 450 a kilogram. Sheep weighing about 10 kg, which is now sold for a price between Rs. 4,000 and Rs. 5,000 even more, will be sold for around Rs. 6,000, while the price will be higher for livestock weighing between 12 and 15 kg. The hike in diesel prices and tension in the regions has also impact the prices. Transportation costs are expected to drastically go up, and traders will eventually pass on the costs to the customers. Right now, transportation of sheep to butchering and selling everything has taken a slow pace, the meat market is not as open as it was earlier. Storage is also big issue, because keeping the shop open for all day is not allowed. Not only human but also animals in Byculla Zoo are offered with chicken but not beef or mutton due to non-supply of the same.
Corona or no corona, meat has become way of food pattern for many and their survival is non vegetarian food. At the end of the day, the fact remains that corona-virus is simply a respiratory virus that can spread primarily through contact with an infected person. As a preventive measure, it is okay to avoid consuming raw meat but to obliterate meat entirely from the diet would be unnecessary.
(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@www.afternoonvoice.com)
India entered the fourteenth day of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19. India’s unemployment rate spiked to the highest level recorded in 43 months in March, even before the lockdown to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Mumbai-based think-tank Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) said. Between January and March, the labour participation rate has fallen an entire percentage point – from 42.96 per cent in January to 41.90 per cent in March, as the number of employed people fell from 411 million to 396 million, while the number of the unemployed increased from 32 million to 38 million, according to CMIE. The unemployment rate – or the share of jobless people in an economy – stood at 8.7 per cent in March – the highest since September 2016, climbing steeply from 7.16 per cent in January. The report comes as India entered the fourteenth day of a 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Even before the lockdown, which began on March 25, the country’s economy suffered from a prolonged period of slowing growth. For the financial year 2019-20, official estimates peg the annual expansion rate of GDP at 5 per cent – the slowest since the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
Earlier this month, Fitch Ratings said India’s GDP may expand 2 per cent in financial year 2021 – the slowest pace since the liberisation of the economy 30 years ago. Previously, Moody’s Investors Service had slashed its estimate of the country’s growth in 2020 to 2.5 per cent from an earlier estimate of 5.3 per cent, saying the coronavirus pandemic will cause unprecedented shock to the global economy.
“It (LPR) seems to have nosedived in March after having struggled to remain stable over the past two years. Then, there is a precipitous fall,” wrote Mahesh Vyas, head of the Mumbai-based think tank, in a post. “We had feared a fall in labour participation rate because of the national shutdown to contain the spread of coronavirus. But this fall seems to have happened even before the lockdown,” he added. “Of course, it gets much worse as we move into the lockdown.”
Jammu & Kashmir saw an increase of 26 percent in the Coronavirus cases today as 33 more persons tested positive for COVID-19.
