CYCLONE AMPHAN: 10 KILLED IN WEST BENGAL; WIDESPREAD DAMAGE

Cyclone Amphan, one of the worst storms over the Bay of Bengal in years, has

left a trail of destruction in Bengal and Odisha on Wednesday, destroying

thousands of houses, damaging buildings, uprooting trees, electricity poles

and killing at least 10 people in Bengal. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee

said the impact of Amphan was worse than the coronavirus pandemic and

claimed damages due to the cyclone could be in the region of Rs 1 lakh

crore. The cyclone, whose eye was about 30 kilometre in diameter, made

landfall with gusting winds of up to 185 kmph and waves about 15 feet tall.

At least 6.58 lakh people were evacuated in West Bengal and Odisha before

the cyclone struck the coastal areas in the state. In Bangladesh, at least

10 lakh people have been evacuated, reports said.

Cyclone Amphan has been forecast as the worst such event since the 1999

super cyclone in Odisha, which had left about 10,000 people dead.

DOMESTIC FLIGHT SERVICES TO RESUME FROM MONDAY

The Centre on Wednesday said domestic flight services would resume from

Monday in a “calibrated manner”, laying the ground for gradual resumption of

scheduled commercial flight operations that have been shut since March 25.

“Domestic civil aviation operations will recommence in a calibrated manner

from Monday May 25, 2020. All airports and air carriers are being informed

to be ready for operations from May 25. SOPs for passenger movement are also

being separately issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation,” Union Minister

Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted.

The development comes despite some state governments, including West Bengal

and Tamil Nadu, expressing concern on resuming flight operations during the

meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief ministers. In

addition to this, certain state governments have been apprehensive of

allowing people from locations highly impacted by Covid-19 to enter their

borders.

A number of new rules and regulations are expected to be put into place that

will change the flying experience.

INDIA REJECTS NEPALÂ’S NEW MAP

Reacting to Nepal officially issuing a new political map Wednesday that

shows Kalapani, Limpiadhura and Lipulekh as parts of their territory, India

has said the “unilateral act is not based on historical facts and evidence”

and that it would not accept “artificial enlargement of territorial claims”.

The Ministry of External Affairs also said that it hopes that Nepal will

create a positive atmosphere for dialogue to resolve the issue.

“It is contrary to the bilateral understanding to resolve the outstanding

boundary issues through diplomatic dialogue. Such artificial enlargement of

territorial claims will not be accepted by India,” an MEA spokesperson said,

adding that the neighbouring country is well aware of IndiaÂ’s position on

the issue. “We urge the Government of Nepal to refrain from such unjustified

cartographic assertion and respect IndiaÂ’s sovereignty and territorial

integrity,” the spokesperson added.

Nepal Prime Minister Oli had on Tuesday had asserted that the

Kalapani-Limpiadhura-Lipulekh area in the trijunction of Nepal-India and

China (Tibet) will be brought back within NepalÂ’s map at any cost. Oli had

said that with the approval of the new map by the Cabinet, “we will now be

relentlessly engaging to realise those areas back through diplomacy”. “The

issue will not fade away any more, we are least bothered if anyone gets

angry and we will reclaim that land at any cost,” he had said.

US MAKES ALL THE RIGHT NOISES, VIS-À-VIS INDIA, CHINA

The US has come out in support of India in its current tensions on the

border with China. It has also asked India to open talks with the Taliban

considering that it will soon be a part of the governing structure in Kabul.

“The border dispute is a reminder that Chinese aggression is not always just

rhetorical. So whether it is in South China Sea or whether it is along the

border with India, we continue to see provocations and disturbing behaviour

by China that raises questions how it seeks to use its growing power,Â’Â’ said

Alice G Wells, US State DepartmentÂ’s top official for Central and South

Asia.

This aggressive Chinese behaviour has led to a rallying of like-minded

nations in the ASEAN or of US-led diplomatic groupings such as the

trilateral with Japan and India or the quadrilateral that includes

Australia, said Wells in her strongest backing of India in the land border

dispute with China.

“We want to see it an international system that provides benefit to everyone

and not a system where there is suzerainty to China. In this instance the

border disputes are a reminder of the threat posed by China,” she said in a

webinar with journalists of the region.

Wells also had harsh words to say about China with respect to Nepal and

Pakistan. Calling upon Nepal to accept a $ 500 million US loan to improve

roads and electricity transmission, she said this would show that Nepal will

not take “dictation from China’’. The US loan offer has turned controversial

because it is linked with the Indo-Pacific Strategy, triggering opposition

from a chunk of ruling Nepal Communist Party.

Wells said the Covid epidemic had made it incumbent upon China to write-off

“predatory and unfair” loans to Pakistan for the China Pakistan Economic

Corridor (CPEC). The project lacked transparency, guaranteed unfair rate of

profits to Chinese companies and distorts PakistanÂ’s economy due to mass

imbalance in trade with China. “We hope China will waive the loans and

create a fair and transparent deal with Pakistan,” she said.

COVID-19 DASHBOARD – (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)

(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data from

worldometers.info/coronavirus/ )

Total Cases 1,12,021 (+5,552) / 50,85,504 (+99,172)

Total Deaths 3,434 (+132) / 3,29,731 (+4,821)

Total Recovered 45,422 (+3,113) / 20,21,666 (+63,170)

Active Cases 63,165 (+2,307) / 27,34,107 (+31,181)

Serious / Critical Cases (Not Available) / 45,802 (+377)

Top impacted nations so far: (And some of IndiaÂ’s Neighbours)

Country / Total Cases / Deaths / Total Deaths per 1M Pop.

1 USA 15,91,991 / 94,994 / 287

2 Russia 3,08,705 / 2,972 / 20

3 Brazil 2,93,357 / 18,894 / 89

4 Spain 2,79,524 / 27,888 / 596

5 UK 2,48,293 / 35,704 / 526

6 Italy 2,27,364 / 32,330 / 535

7 France 1,81,575 / 28,132 / 431

8 Germany 1,78,531 / 8,270 /

99

9 Turkey 1,52,587 / 4,222 / 50

10 Iran 1,26,949 / 7,183 / 86

11 India 1,12,028 / 3,434 / 2.5

19 Pakistan 45,898 / 985 / 4.6

28 Bangladesh 26,738 / 386 / 2.4

103 Sri Lanka 1,028 / 9 / 0.4

Top 17 impacted Indian States so far: (Total No. of Confirmed case / No. Of

Deaths)

State / Confirmed Cases / Active Case / Recovered /

Deceased

Maharashtra 39,297 / 27,589 / 10,318 /

1,390

Tamil Nadu 13,191 / 7,221 / 5,882 /

88

Gujarat 12,539 / 6,571 / 5,219 / 749

Delhi 11,088 / 5,720 / 5,192 / 176

Rajasthan 6,015 / 2,464 / 3,404 /

147

Madhya Pradesh 5,735 / 2,734 / 2,734

/ 267

Uttar Pradesh 5,175 / 1,982 / 3,066 /

127

West Bengal 3,103 / 1,714 / 1,136 /

253

Andhra Pradesh 2,560 / 843 / 1,664

/ 53

Punjab 2,005 / 173 / 1,794 / 38

Telangana 1,661 / 610 / 1,013 /

38

Bihar 1,607 / 1,027 / 571 / 9

Karnataka 1,462 / 864 / 556 /

41

Jammu and Kashmir 1,390 / 694 / 678 /

18

Odisha 1,052 / 703 / 343 / 6

Haryana 993 / 331 / 648 /

14

Kerala 667 / 161 / 502 / 4

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

======================

PANDEMIC TO PUSH 60 MN INTO POVERTY, WB OFFERS $160 BN AID

The coronavirus pandemic is expected to put over 60 million people into

extreme poverty globally, the World Bank has said as it announced emergency

operations worth $160 billion in 100 developing countries to fight the

deadly virus.

“The pandemic and shutdown of advanced economies could push as many as 60

million people into extreme poverty — erasing much of the recent progress

made in poverty alleviation,” World Bank President David Malpass told

reporters during a conference call on Tuesday.

“The World Bank Group has moved quickly and decisively to establish

emergency response operations in 100 countries, with mechanisms that allow

other donors to rapidly expand the programmes,” he said.

“To return to growth, our goal must be rapid, flexible responses to tackle

the health emergency, provide cash and other expandable support to protect

the poor, maintain the private sector, and strengthen economic resilience

and recovery,” Malpass said. “This represents a significant milestone in the

World Bank GroupÂ’s effort to deploy $160 billion over a 15-month period. So

this is a milestone in the $160 billion that we have committed to,” he said.

CHINA DESTROYED LIVE COVID-19 SAMPLES INSTEAD OF SHARING THEM: POMPEO

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday accused China of destroying

live COVID-19 samples instead of sharing them and said that America stands

with over 120 nations who have taken up the American call for an inquiry

into the origins of the virus.

China banned beef exports and levied 80 per cent tariffs on barley from

Australia as the country supported international call for an investigation

into the pandemic.

Pompeo said China threatened Australia with economic retribution for the

simple act of asking for an independent inquiry into the origins of the

virus.

“That’s not right. We stand with Australia and the more than 120 nations now

who have taken up the American call for an inquiry into the origins of the

virus, we can understand what went wrong and save lives now and in the

future,” Pompeo told reporters at a news conference.

"The PeopleÂ’s Liberation Army has claimed more features in the South China

seas international waters, sank a Vietnamese fishing boat, threatened

Malaysian energy prospector, and declared Pompeo said.

He said that China also chose to pressure the WHO Director General Tedros

Adhanom into excluding Taiwan from this weekÂ’s assembly in Geneva.

THE REST

========

ONLY 6.39 PC COVID PATIENTS IN INDIA ON HOSPITAL CARE: GOVT

In positive signals for IndiaÂ’s COVID 19 response and management, only 6.39

per cent of the currently active cases in the country are on hospital care.

IndiaÂ’s recovery rate is steadily improving in signs that the health

infrastructure prepared under the lockdown period is responding well.

Current recovery rate is near 40 per cent as against 7.1 per cent at the

start of the first lockdown; 11.5 per cent at the start of the second and

26.59 per cent at the start of the third lockdown.

Amid skepticism over whether the lockdown has worked the government

yesterday presented comparable data from the most affected nations in the

world, with India now the 11th country with the highest COVID cases.

RESUME OPERATIONS, SAYS FM SITHARAMAN; INDIA INC CITES HURDLES IN WAY

Industry needs to quickly resume operations and increase investments to ride

out the Covid-19-induced economic slowdown, Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman told industrialists on Wednesday. But it may be easier said than

done, said India Inc, highlighting low levels of demand and several

challenges being faced by businesses, big and small.

SitharamanÂ’s virtual conference with senior members of the Confederation of

Indian Industry (CII) was designed to gauge industryÂ’s mood on the recent

economic package, a senior government official said.

CII members flagged the lack of demand, suggesting direct cash transmission

into the hands of the poor needs to be stepped up.

“Even with all government support, there’s no way to get back a skilled

labour who has left for at least a couple of months. More coordination with

state governments in assuring that labour stays back is the need of the

hour,” said a CII member present at the meet.

“The issue is that even in the most optimistic of scenarios, growth

projections are currently at 2-4 per cent. The government is pushing

industry to take this to almost 8 per cent by sheer investments and scaling

up of operations. But we have told them foreign investment flows need to be

widened at a much faster pace if this is to be achieved,” said a senior CII

functionary.

Sitharaman said the National Infrastructure Pipeline would be given a big

push in order to create demand with a multiplier effect. “Large projects

would be front-loaded and this would bring in positive energy and

sentiment.” Infusion of Rs 90,000 crore into the power sector would be

fast-tracked, she said.

THREE OF FOUR KITS LOCAL

Amid projections of cases rising in June-July, self-sufficiency in testing

kits forms an important part of the governmentÂ’s Covid-19 strategy.

“In the first fortnight of April, we were struggling a little with supplies.

But today, that has changed in two ways — the supply has improved and we

have also proactively taken measures to reduce the dependence on imports for

our testing. To help us go ahead, we made sure we handhold all organisations

which can produce RNA extraction kits and VTM (viral transport medium) kits.

I would say that more than 75% of the supplies are from domestic

manufacturers and new players are coming in every day,” said C K Mishra,

Environment Secretary and chairman of the empowered group on hospitals,

quarantine facilities, disease surveillance, testing and critical care.

While the RNA extraction kits and VTM kits are needed to prepare samples,

the RT-PCR kit is needed for carrying out the test.

At present, four of the six VTM suppliers and five of the eight RNA

extraction kit suppliers are domestic manufacturers. Of the 28 companies

whose RT-PCR kits have been approved by the ICMR, 14 are domestic firms. The

Centre has given a free hand to the states to procure their own testing

kits.

CENTRE EXPRESSES CONCERN OVER TELANGANAÂ’S LOW RATE OF TESTING

The reported “low proactive testing” in Telangana has drawn the Centre’s ire

with the Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan expressing concern over the

issue in her letter to stateÂ’s Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar.

Sudan has told Telangana that the lower than national average of testing was

a serious cause for concern.

Telangana, she said had a high positivity rate (ratio of positive diagnosis

to the number of tests conducted) than the national average.

In a strongly worded letter, Sudan wrote: “We need to chase the virus rather

than the virus chasing us.” The number of tests, she pointed out, was far

behind Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu.

It was earlier reported that Telangana averaged about 225 tests per day as

compared to 9,000 tests conducted per day by neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.

Asked about the letter, TS health minister Etela Rajender said it was

addressed to the chief secretary who would give an appropriate reply

explaining the stateÂ’s approach.

BOOKING FOR TRAINS THAT WILL RUN FROM JUNE 1 TO BEGIN TODAY

The Railways on Wednesday issued a list of 100 pairs of trains that it will

operate from June 1, putting in operation popular trains such as Durontos,

Sampark Krantis, Jan Shatabdis and Poorva Express.

While in a statement issued earlier, the Railways had said that these trains

will be fully non-air conditioned, on Wednesday it said these will have both

AC and non-AC classes and fully reserved coaches. It said the general (GS)

coaches shall also have reserved seats for sitting, meaning there will be no

unreserved coach in these trains.

DEFAMING ON SOCIAL MEDIA: MAHARASHTRA COPS GIVE ‘LAST WARNING’ TO 100

Maharashtra Cyber Police Wednesday sent notices to over 100 individuals for

publishing defamatory content against “prominent persons” on social media.

The notices, sent under section 149 CrPC, are a “final reminder” that

repeating such action will result in a cognisable offence.

“We have observed that certain users are using social media platforms for

posting offensive/ abusive/defamatory/malicious posts. Maharashtra Cyber

Police DepartmentÂ…is issuing a notice under section 149 CrPC to all such

users posting offensive messages to refrain from doing so as it is an

offence under Information Technology Act,” a note issued by the Maharashtra

Cyber Police said. “…Any user found violating the provisions of the said

laws will have to face strict penal action. We will be issuing separate

notices individually, to users posting offensive messages in their inboxes,”

it said.

An officer said this was the “last opportunity” for those regularly posting

hateful and defamatory content including “paid users” to stop doing so

before the police begins “a campaign to take legal action” against such

offenders. A source said the cyber police was monitoring people who were

regularly using abusive and defamatory content against prominent

functionaries including Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.

A ‘LOUD SOUND’ SENDS BANGALORE IN A TIZZY, IAF CLARIFIES IT WAS A TEST

FLIGHT

A loud noise – much like a huge crash – was heard across Bengaluru around

1.20 pm Wednesday. While for hours, there was mystery around what had caused

it, the reason was later revealed to be an IAF Test Flight involving a

supersonic profile.

Bengaluru Defence PRO said in a statement, “It was a routine IAF Test Flight

involving a supersonic profile which took off from Bluru Airport and flew in

the allotted airspace well outside City limits. The aircraft was of Aircraft

Systems and Testing Establishment (ASTE), whose Test Pilots & Flight Test

Engineers routinely test out all aeroplanes. The sonic boom was probably

heard while the aircraft was decelerating from supersonic to subsonic speed

between 36,000 and 40000 feet altitude.”

PRO Bengaluru, Ministry of Defence, said in a tweet: “The aircraft was far

away from the city limits when this occurred. The sound of a sonic boom can

be heard and felt by an observer even when the aircraft is flying as far

away as 65 to 80 kilometres away from the person.”

Residents across the city took to social media about the sound, some even

reaching out to the Bengaluru City Police Control Room.

Before the tweet by the Ministry of Defence PRO, the training command

headquarters, Indian Air Force, had issued a statement saying no aircraft

was flying in the area.

INDICATORS

Sensex 30,819 (+622), Nifty 9,066 (+187), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

46,365

Nasdaq 9,376 (+191) Dow 24,576 (+369), S&P 2,972 (+49)

US$-Rs. 75.05 GBP-Rs. 91.93, Euro-Rs. 82.26, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.42, Can$-Rs.

53.94, Aus$- Rs. 49.31

GBP 0.81 /US$, Euro 0.91 /US$, Jap.Yen 107.63 /US$, Aus$ 1.52 /US$, Sing

1.41 /US$, Bang Taka 83.36 /US$, Can$ 1.39 /US$, Mal Ring 4.34 /US$,

Pak Re 160.07 /US$, Phil Peso 50.61 /US$, Russian Rouble 71.76 /US$, NZ$

1.63 /US$, Thai Baht 31.80 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 26.35 /US$, Norway NOK 9.93

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 9,463

Dollar Index 99.36 Brent Crude 35.95 BDI 477

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,740 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,760 / 4,660

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 47,670

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all

the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than

on the opinion of others. - Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

OFF TRACK

“We were having such a romantic afternoon making love in the back of the

Mercedes - then they kicked us out of the showroom.”