Aman Sharma
The cells or verticals will report either to principal secretary to PM, PK Mishra, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, principal advisor to PM, PK Sinha and the two advisors to PM, Amarjeet Sinha and Bhaskar Khulbe, from April 4.
Indore has seen 57 deaths while the fatality count has also alarmingly risen in neighbouring districts like Ujjain which has seen 15 deaths now. Dewas and Khargaon districts have also seen six deaths apiece while nine people, all Bhopal Gas Tragedy survivors, have died in Bhopal due to coronavirus.
The same has been done with an eye on reviving the economy and focussing on the MSME sector, the two focus areas of the government while the country sees a phased exit from the lockdown. Their replacements at the PMO were not immediately announced – Bajaj and Sharma, both from the 1988 batch, were the only additional secretaries posted at the PMO and handled a host of responsibilities.
Narendra Modi has made it a point this week to make these short phone calls, lasting about three-five minutes, daily to veteran leaders of the party and the organisation across the country at around 9 AM as he begins his day, ET has learnt.
There is no credence to the theory yet that coronavirus has higher chances of spread in colder temperature. Officials told ET that the hilly north and north-eastern regions of the country had shown a better fight against the disease given their ‘natural advantages’ of less accessibility, less density of population, and most importantly a stricter adherence to the lockdown.
The discharge ratio is also growing in UP, with 187 people cured so far translating to an above 12% recovery rate. In fact, in one of the hotspots of Gautam Budh Nagar district (NOIDA), there are now only 49 active cases left while a bigger number of 54 people have been cured of the Covid-19.
Low recovery, coupled with high fatality rate, in the worst affected metros which are seeing the most number of cases and deaths, are emerging as a big concern for the government.
He further wrote that the 15th Finance Commission should review its interim report for 2020-21 in the context of the much lower revenue share for the states compared with what was expected from the earlier projections which assumed 7 percent growth of GDP.
Industrial hubs such as Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Indore and Ahmedabad account for most deaths. Some states have been unable to pass the litmus test that the Prime Minister had mentioned in his speech on April 14, the official said. He had appealed to states to ensure that their coronavirus-free districts remained so and that others didn’t become hotspots in the future.
State health minister Raghu Sharma said nearly 52,000 tests have been conducted in Rajasthan so far and the state is aiming at expanding its capacity with help of rapid antibody kits to conduct 10,000 tests daily, rivalling the testing levels of states like Kerala.
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