ALMOST THE WHOLE COUNTRY COMES UNDER CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNIndia's death toll from coronavirus contagion rose to nine on Monday, theUnion Health Ministry said in its latest update.India's confirmed infections rose to 471, the Indian Council for MedicalResearch, the country's nodal agency entrusted with overseeing coronavirustesting and framing policies, said in its own update issued on Mondayevening. The ICMR has decided to rope in private testing laboratories inthe light of the growing number of cases in India.Late at night, the Centre said 30 states have now imposed complete lockdowncovering 548 districts.The union health ministry said there were 12 private laboratory chains with15,000 collection centres all over India that have been registered to helpwith the testing.The alarming rise in cases has led to several states issuing lockdownorders. The central government has warned of strict action against peopleviolating the restrictions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also asked stategovernments to ensure that rules and regulations of the coronavirus lockdownare enforced as he noted that many people are not taking the measureseriously."Many people are still not taking the lockdown seriously. Please saveyourself, save your family, follow the instructions seriously. I requeststate governments to ensure rules and laws are followed," he said in a tweetin Hindi.Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray Monday announced a statewidelockdown till March 31 in order to contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).The government, which had already sealed state borders on Sunday, will nowseal the borders of each district. Section 144 is already in place in thestate."I am announcing curfew in the state. Not more than five people can cometogether," the chief minister said. "Yesterday we sealed the state bordersand today we are sealing district borders. We will not allow the virus tospread to the districts that are unaffected as of now," he added.However, Thackeray said essentials like groceries, milk, medical supplies,etc. will remain open and urged people not to panic."Private vehicles will be allowed only for emergencies. Private vehicles andtaxis will be allowed with the driver and two people. Autorickshaws will beallowed with driver and one person," he said.He also said all interstate borders will be sealed except for the movementof essential and perishable commodities.Most states have similar restrictions in place now.COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)Total Cases 499 / 381,520Total Deaths 10 / 16,553Total Recovered 37 / 102,429Active Cases 452 / 262,538SENSEX DIPS 13 PER CENT, POSTS WORST LOSS IN HISTORYThe Nifty50 index saw its sharpest one-day fall on Monday, crashing 13 percent, as the virtual shutdown of the economy to contain the spread ofcoronavirus spooked investors. Over the weekend, the Centre and many stategovernments announced lockdowns, bringing the economy to a grinding halt, asthe tally of those infected surged past 450 and the death toll reached nine,raising fears of a community spread.This was the steepest fall for the index, both in percentage and pointterms.In the opening trade, the Sensex plunged 10 per cent, triggering anhour-long trading halt. On March 13 - when the markets last hit a lowercircuit - the index had rebounded 16 per cent on the resumption of trade.However, on Monday, there was little respite as the benchmark indices endedclose to the day's lows.Most global markets also saw sharp declines, but India was the only majormarket to log a double-digit percentage fall.The rupee crossed 76 a dollar for the first time.GOVERNMENT CREATES ROOM TO INCREASE DUTY ON FUELThe government has raised the cap on special additional excise duty onpetrol and diesel to Rs 18 and Rs 12 per litre, respectively. The earlierlimit for special additional excise duty was Rs 10 per litre for petrol andRs 4 per litre for diesel."With the increased powers, the government can raise the levy to 18 perlitre on petrol and 12 per litre on diesel," said Abhishek Jain, a partnerat EY India. The government also increased the threshold for imposing roadand infrastructure cess to Rs 18 per litre from Rs 10 earlier. "Withreducing prices of crude, this change could incline to an expectation of thegovernment increasing duties on petrol and diesel in the short term forincreasing its revenues," Jain said. On March 14, the centre had increasedthe excise duty and cess on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 a litre. Every rupeehike in excise duty helps the government earn Rs 13,000-14,000 croreannually.INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS======================CORONAVIRUS: MORE NATIONS IMPOSE LOCKDOWN MEASURESMore than 6,000 Italians have now died from COVID-19, nearly double theconfirmed number of deaths in China where the virus first emerged.Some 1.7 billion people have been asked to stay home in over 50 countriesand territories around the world as governments battle the COVID-19 pandemicsweeping the globe.Some countries have imposed mandatory lockdown measures, while others haveissued stay-at-home recommendations to stem the spread of the virus.At least four countries with a collective population of more than 228million people, including Iran, Germany and Britain, have urged theirpopulations to stay indoors and limit contact with other people as much aspossible.At least 10 countries and territories with a total population of 117 millionpeople have issued curfews and barred overnight travel. These measures arein place in Burkina Faso, Chile, the Philippines's capital Manila, Serbiaand Mauritania, while in Saudi Arabia a curfew was imposed from Mondayevening. Elsewhere, some countries have imposed isolation measures in maincities, with measures barring people from entering or exiting.At least 34 more countries and territories have also established mandatorylockdown measures ordering people to stay in their homes, accounting forsome 659 million people. France, Italy, Argentina, the U.S. State ofCalifornia, Iraq, Zimbabwe and Rwanda have also rolled out enforcedlockdowns. Greece is the most recent country to impose mandatory confinementmeasures, which came into effect on Monday morning. Colombia will enforce anobligatory lockdown on Tuesday and New Zealand will follow suit onWednesday.Spanish soldiers helping to fight the coronavirus pandemic have foundelderly patients in retirement homes abandoned and, in some cases, dead intheir beds, the defence ministry has said. It said that staff at some carehomes had left after the coronavirus was detected. On Monday Spain recordedits highest daily death toll - 462 - bringing the total to 2,182.WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday said, "Thepandemic is accelerating. It took 67 days from the first reported case toreach the first 100,000 cases, 11 days for the second 100,000 cases and justfour days for the third 100,000 cases."TRUMP SAYS CORONAVIRUS NOT ASIAN AMERICANS' FAULTUS President Donald Trump - under fire for labelling Covid-19 the "Chinesevirus" - has said Asian Americans should not be blamed for the outbreak.Trump spoke out amid rising reports of verbal and physical attacks on thecommunity amid the pandemic.Coronavirus is still spreading in the US, which currently has over 43,000confirmed cases and 533 deaths."It is very important that we totally protect our Asian American communityin the United States and all around the world. They're amazing people andthe spreading of the virus is not their fault in any way, shape or form.They're working closely with us to get rid of it - we will prevailtogether."TOKYO OLYMPICS TO BE POSTPONED UNTIL 2021 DUE TO CORONAVIRUS: IOC MEMBERThe Tokyo Olympics which was scheduled to be held later this year will nowtake place in 2021, International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound saidon Monday night.The development comes after the chairman of the British Olympic Associationstated that Great Britain is unlikely to send a team to Tokyo this summer.Australia and Canada are the two other nations, which confirmed they willnot compete in Japan.THE REST========LS PASSES FINANCE BILL, NRIs, INCLUDING SEAFARERS, GET RELIEFThe Lok Sabha on Monday passed the Finance Bill, 2020, by voice vote andwithout holding any debate in the backdrop of COVID-19 outbreak. LAfterpassing the Finance Bill, Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Monday, nearlytwo weeks ahead of schedule.The Government amendments have now made the following changes in respect ofresidency provisions in the Finance Bill. For seafarers in particular, itmeans that there is no change in tax liability from how it existed duringlast few years.It has been provided that the required number of days, on visit to India,for an Indian citizen or person of Indian origin having total income fromIndian sources exceeding Rs 15 lakhs, to be considered a resident, shall be120 days. In other words, an Indian citizen or person of Indian originhaving total income from Indian sources of Rs 15 lakh or below will not besubject to the residency requirement of 120 days and the current provisionof 182 days of required number of days of stay will continue to apply forhim to be considered a resident.Further deemed residency provision has been amended to provide that this newprovision shall only apply to an Indian citizen having total income fromIndian sources above 15 lakh rupees. Such Indian citizen ( indian incomeabove 15 lakh) who is not liable to tax in any country shall be deemed to bea resident in India.Further, the conditions required for a person to be considered a notordinarily resident as it currently exists ( ie without amendment proposedin clause 6 of section 6 by the Finance Bill 2020) stays. The amendment inthis regard is withdrawn. However two more cases have been added. Thus thefollowing categories of persons will also be considered as not-ordinarilyresidents:An Indian citizen or a person of Indian origin having total Income fromIndian sources exceeding Rs 15 lakh and who has been in India for more than120 days but less than 182 days.An Indian citizen who is deemed to be a resident in India under the newproposed deemed residency provisions.What the amended provisions mean is that if you are Indian citizen or PIOwith Indian income not more than 15 lakh, 182 days shall continue to applyIf Indian is income more than 15 lakh, 120 days shall apply and if youbecome resident for the reason of staying for more than 120 days but lessthan 182 days then only your Indian income would be taxed at Indian rateMADHYA PRADESH: SHIVRAJ SINGH CHOUHAN TAKES OATH AS CM FOR FOURTH TERMBJP vice-president Shivraj Singh Chouhan took oath as Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister for a fourth term on Monday. Governor Lalji Tandon administeredoath of office and secrecy to Shivraj Singh Chouhan at 9 pm yesterday.The 61-year-old was chief minister of Madhya Pradesh for three terms between2005 and 2018 before the BJP lost the 2018 assembly elections.The 15-month-old Congress government fell when CM Kamal Nath resigned onMarch 20 before facing the Supreme Court mandated trust vote. The vote wasnecessitated after former Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and 22Congress legislators rebelled.INDIA INC SUGGESTS RELIEF MEASURESAt least six top corporate leaders are said to have recommended to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi that the government should make payments tounorganised sector workers since they bear the brunt of the severe lockdownmeasures to arrest the spread of Covid-19 disease.N Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons, who spoke first after the PrimeMinister's 15-minute opening remarks, called for a relaxation of the fiscaldeficit target by at least one percentage point of GDP. He stronglyadvocated DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) of funds to the lowest rung of thesociety.Uday Kotak, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, had amore specific suggestion. Given the exceptional circumstances, thegovernment must, as a one-off measure, immediately transfer Rs 5,000 intothe bank accounts of all those who are over 25 years. For those over 65, headvocated a one-time payment of Rs 10,000.Besides support for the unorganised workers, the CEOs sought relaxations forcompanies given that the Covid-19 stress came on top of an already sluggisheconomy.On Monday, the Finance Ministry issued an order which said all contractual,casual and outsourced staff with central government ministries, departmentsand other organisations would be considered to be on duty even if they areunable to attend office till April 30.ICMR RECOMMENDS HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE FOR THESE TWO 'HIGH RISK' GROUPSThe National Task force for COVID-19, constituted by the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR), has suggested the use of a medication known ashydroxy-chloroquine for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (Coronavirus) for twocategories of 'high risk population'.The two categories, namely, 'Asymptomatic Healthcare Workers' and'Asymptomatic household contacts' of laboratory-confirmed cases have beenadvised to use the medication to contain further spread of the pandemic. Theprotocol recommended by the National Task force has been approved by theDrug Controller General of India for restricted use in emergency situations."Hydroxy-chloroquine is found to be effective against coronavirus inlaboratory studies and in-vivo studies. Its use in prophylaxis is derivedfrom the available evidence of benefit as treatment and supported bypreclinical data," the advisory said.SHAHEEN BAGH SIT-IN PROTEST CLEARED AMID CORONAVIRUS LOCKDOWNWith Delhi tightening curbs on assembly and movement of people in the wakeof coronavirus, the police cleared the Shaheen Bagh sit-in protest onTuesday morning. The unique sit-in protest against the citizenship law,conducted mostly by women, had been on for more than 100 days.Deputy Commissioner of Police (southeast) R P Meena said people at theprotest venue in Shaheen Bagh were requested to vacate the site as lockdownhas been imposed due to coronavirus outbreak. However, when they refusedaction was taken and they were vacated, the official said.CORONAVIRUS: TIHAR JAIL TO RELEASE 3,000 PRISONERS TO EASE CONGESTION INPRISONThe Tihar Prison authorities on Monday said they are planning to releasearound 3,000 prisoners to ease congestion in jails over the coronavirusthreat."We will try to release around 1,500 convicts on parole or furlough, andaround the same number (1,500) of undertrial prisoners (on interim-bail) inthe coming three to four days to ease congestion in jails in the wake ofcoronavirus threat," Sandeep Goel, DG (Prisons), said.However, it will not include hardened or dangerous criminals, he said.AIRBORNE SPREAD OF COVID-19 NOT REPORTED SO FAR: WHO OFFICIALAirborne spread of COVID-19 has not been reported so far and it istransmitted mostly through respiratory droplets and close contact, RegionalDirector of WHO South-East Asia Dr Poonam Khetarpal Singh said on Monday.Her comments came in the backdrop of rumours about air borne transmission ofthe novel coronavirus doing rounds on social media."Airborne spread has not been reported for COVID-19. Based on theinformation received so far and on our experience with other coronaviruses,COVID-19 appears to spread mostly through respiratory droplets (for instancethose produced when a sick person coughs) and close contact. This is why WHOrecommends maintaining hand and respiratory hygiene," Singh said.LOCKDOWN IMPACT: INTERNET CONSUMPTION SKYROCKETS AS PEOPLE STAY HOMEWith scores of cities being locked down to arrest the spread of Covid-19,infrastructure of telecom and internet service providers has started to clogas consumption of data in the last few weeks has skyrocketed.This has led to telecom players reaching out to video streaming platformslike Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Hotstar to rationalise their services toease the pressure on telecom networks. One such measure includes temporarilymoving to SD (Standard Definition) rather than HD streaming.In addition to video streaming platforms, work from home policies adopted bycorporates have led internet traffic to rise to unprecedented levels asevident from the information made available by internet exchanges of India.BACHCHAN'S TWEET ON 'CLAPPING VIBRATIONS DESTROY VIRUS POTENCY' DRAWS IREMegastar Amitabh Bachchan on Monday was heavily criticised for one of histweets, which claimed vibrations from clapping, blowing conch shells as partof Sunday's 'Janata Curfew' would have reduced or destroyed coronaviruspotency as it was 'amavasya', the darkest day of the month.Bachchan's tweet comes in the wake of several similar fake news storiesmisinterpreting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's appeal of clapping andclanging plates to express gratitude to those providing essential servicesduring this global health crisis.The 77-year-old actor took to Twitter and, in a tweet that has now beendeleted, wrote, "An opinion given: 5 PM, 22nd Mar, 'amavasya', darkest dayof month; virus, bacteria evil force at max potential & power! Clappingshankh vibrations reduce/ destroy virus potency Moon passing to new'nakshatra' Revati. cumulative vibration betters blood circulation."Bachchan posted the tweet along with his picture, which had three questionmarks scribbled on it, leading many to wonder if the actor was sharing hisopinion or questioning the theory floating on social media.However, his tweet was met with criticism as netizens slammed him fortweeting something which was not factual.INDICATORSSensex 25,981 (-3,935), Nifty 7,610 (-1,135), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores)34,791Nasdaq 6,861 (-19) Dow 18,592 (-582), S&P 2,237 (-68)US$-Rs. 75.94 GBP-Rs. 87.99, Euro-Rs. 81.48, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.67, Can$-Rs.52.48, Aus$- Rs. 43.89GBP 0.86 /US$, Euro 0.93 /US$, Jap.Yen 110.64 /US$, Aus$ 1.72 /US$, Sing1.45 /US$, Bang Taka 82.92 /US$, Can$ 1.44 /US$, Mal Ring 4.43 /US$,Pak Re 158.11 /US$, Phil Peso 51.29 /US$, Russian Rouble 80.16 /US$, NZ$1.76 /US$, Thai Baht 32.84 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 27.16 /US$, Norway NOK11.57 /US$Bitcoin - USD 6,111Dollar Index 102.33 Brent Crude 28.26 BDI 625Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,576 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,065 /3,965, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 40,100THOUGHT FOR THE DAYIn a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. Thelearned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longerexists. - Eric HofferOFF TRACKA New York girl and a California sat side by side on an airplane (that iswhen planes still used to fly!).The New York girl, being friendly and all, said, "So, where you from?"The California girl said, "From a place where they know better than to use apreposition at the end of a sentence."The New York girl sat quietly for a few moments and then replied, "So, whereyou from, bitch?"