FM ANNOUNCES 2ND TRANCHE OF STIMULUS PACKAGEThe second tranche of the economic stimulus announced yesterday by FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman sought to alleviate the lockdown-induced miseryof migrant labour and street vendors, extend more credit to farmers and easethe repayment worries of the smallest borrowers in banks.In monetary terms, the largest announcement was for the farmers. Thegovernment will extend Rs 2 lakh crore of concessional credit to benefit 2.5crore farmers. In addition, NABARD will provide emergency working capitalfund of Rs 30,000 crore in addition to its budgeted refinance support of Rs90,000 annually.For the migrants, even with no ration cards, Sitharaman announced freesupply of 10 kg foodgrain and 2 kg pulses for the next two months.The government has estimated the number of migrants at 8 crore and the costfor this exercise at Rs 3,500 crore. However, the onus is on the states fortracing these migrants.She said states have been asked to enrol migrants returning to theirvillages in MNREGA work for which the government had earlier enhanced thewage floor from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day. MNREGA has already generated worktill May 13 which is 40 to 50 per cent more than in May last year, shenoted.However, the other two measures will benefit migrants when the next calamityoccurs. The first is to make ration cards nationally portable whichSitharaman hailed as "one classic example" of the Prime Minister's accent ontechnology-driven systems. This would benefit 67 crore beneficiaries in 23states.While this portability will be implemented by March 2021, the other proposalof providing affordable housing to migrants is still a blueprint. Sitharamansaid the government was considering three options under the PPP mode ofbuilding rental, affordable accommodation.For the middle-income group, the government has extended an incomecredit-linked subsidy scheme for simple, affordable houses by a year toMarch 2021. Three lakh families have benefited in the three years of thisscheme and Sitharaman expects 2.5 lakh families to take up this offer in aCovid-affected year.Sitharaman said the government has allowed states to use Rs 6,000 crore ofafforestation funds for providing work. Street vendors will get a specialcredit facility of Rs 5,000 crore within a month and Shishu Loans under theMudra scheme have been given interest subvention on loans worth Rs 1.62 lakhcrore for one year. This will benefit about 3 crore people.Sitharaman mentioned migrants several times in her address and pointed outthat many of the facilities being extended to them by the states wereactually bankrolled or facilitated by the Centre. "The government is notsitting idle. It has kept in mind and prioritised migrant workers. If I havenot spoken about something, it is not as if the government has not plannedfor it. It will be there in the next package," said Sitharaman.GOVT'S 'JUMLA PACKAGE' WAY SHORT OF WHAT PM MODI HAD PROMISED: CONGRESSThe Congress, on Thursday, said the government's economic package had, sofar, fallen way short of what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised thenation and dubbed it as a "jumla package".A senior spokesperson of the party, Anand Sharma, said the country believedthat Prime Minister Narendra Modi was serious when he made the "dramatic"announcement of giving 10 per cent of the GDP as a package to revive theeconomy and support workers and migrant labourers, and that expectations hadsoared."The Finance Minister's announcements dashed all hopes," he said. Congress'chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman's announcements were nothing but a "jumla package".Senior party leader Ahmed Patel said: "It is not an economic package. It isan empty package wrapped with speeches since the last three days."Congress spokesperson Manish Tewari pointed out that Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman articulated the second tranche of the bailout or economicpackage that this government had conceptualised. "It is unfortunate that theentire press conference (of Sitharaman) was a classic display of arrogance,ignorance and insensitivity," he said addressing reporters via a video link."We expected that the Finance Minister would come out with what thegovernment is doing to ferry the migrants who are walking on the roads backto their homes safely. But nothing like that happened," Tewari said.There was an expectation that a package aimed at migrant workers, farmersand street vendors would strive to offer immediate relief given that theyhave borne the brunt of the lockdown-related distress for over 50 days now.But more than half the nine major proposals announced by Union FinanceMinister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday have a longer-term horizon.Besides, the second leg of the relief package continues with the basicdesign of leveraging large stimulus with minimal fiscal cost - of the totalliquidity infusion of Rs 3.10 lakh crore, the likely outflow from theCentre's exchequer is only about Rs 5,000 crore.MEA DOWNPLAYS SINO-INDIA TENSIONThe Ministry of External Affairs, like the Defence Ministry earlier, hasplayed down the recent scuffles between Indian and Chinese troops in twosectors of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). In fact, due to severalconfidence building measures between the two miltaries, the India-Chinaborder has largely been peaceful, it noted.The Ministry of Defence had sought to underline that though there were someportions on the LAC that have claims by both the sides, troops from bothsides have acted with restraint. The MEA also took a similar stand whilereiterating that "India remains committed to the objective of maintainingpeace and tranquillity in the India-China border areas."Indian troops were maintaining their "posture" along the border with Chinawhile infrastructure development in the frontier areas was on track, ArmyChief Gen MM Naravane said on Thursday, days after personnel of the twocountries were locked in two separate incidents of violent face-offs.Gen Naravane said the incidents in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim involvedaggressive behaviour by Chinese and Indian troops resulting in minorinjuries to personnel from both the sides.The Army Chief said both sides "disengaged" after dialogue and interactionat the local level."It is reiterated that both these incidents are neither corelated nor haveany connection with other global or local activities," he told journalistswhen asked about the face-offs.COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE)(Indian data from covid19india / and World Data fromworldometers.info/coronavirus/ )Total Cases 81,995 (+3,945) / 45,26,850 (+97,614)Total Deaths 2,649 (+98) / 3,03,405 (+5,240)Total Recovered 27,969 (+1,569) / 17,04,268 (+45,273)Active Cases 51,377 (+2,278) / 25,19,177 (+47,101)Serious / Critical Cases (Not Available) / 45,560 (-361)Top impacted nations so far: (And some of India's Neighbours)Country / Total Cases / Deaths / Total Deaths per 1M Pop.1 USA 14,57,593 / 86,912 / 2632 Spain 2,72,646 / 27,321 / 5843 Russia 2,52,245 / 2,305 / 164 UK 2,33,151 / 33,614 / 4955 Italy 2,23,096 / 31,368 / 5196 Brazil 2,03,165 / 13,999 / 667 France 1,78,870 / 27,425 / 4208 Germany 1,74,975 / 7,928 /959 Turkey 1,44,749 / 4,007 / 4810 Iran 1,14,533 / 6,854 / 8212 India 81,997 / 2,649 / 2.019 Pakistan 37,218 / 803 / 3.830 Bangladesh 18,863 / 283 / 1.8101 Sri Lanka 925 / 9 /0.4Top 17 impacted Indian States so far: (Total No. of Confirmed case / No. OfDeaths)State / Confirmed Cases / Active Case / Recovered /DeceasedMaharashtra 27,524 / 20,446 / 6,059 /1,019Tamil Nadu 9,674 / 7,368 / 2,240 /66Gujarat 9,592 / 5,253 / 3,753 / 586Delhi 8,470 / 5,310 / 3,045 / 115Rajasthan 4,534 / 1,771 / 2,638 /125Madhya Pradesh 4,426 / 2,018 / 2,171/ 237Uttar Pradesh 3,902 / 1,742 / 2,072 /88West Bengal 2,377 / 1,394 / 768 /215Andhra Pradesh 2,205 / 965 / 1,192/ 48Punjab 1,935 / 1,680 / 223 / 32Telangana 1,414 / 428 / 952 /34Bihar 999 / 592 / 400 / 7Karnataka 987 / 491 / 460 /35Jammu and Kashmir 983 / 487 / 485/ 11Haryana 818 / 368 / 439 /11Odisha 624 / 463 / 158 / 3Kerala 561 / 64 / 493 / 4INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS======================'DON'T WANT TO SPEAK TO PRESIDENT XI RIGHT NOW': TRUMPU.S. President Donald Trump has ruled out renegotiating the trade deal withChina and expressed disappointment over Beijing's handling of thecoronavirus outbreak.The U.S. and China in the beginning of the year signed Phase-1 of a tradedeal, ending a bitter two-year tariff war that had rattled the globaleconomy."The Chinese said somewhere that they would like to renegotiate the (trade)deal. We are not going to renegotiate," Mr. Trump told Fox Business News onThursday.Responding to a question, Trump said the Chinese have always stolenIntellectual Property (IP) from the U.S. "They were never called (out). Nowthey are being called out," he said."We can stop them, they are going to try doing it. I mean you could alsostop doing business with them, that is one thing. Look, we have lost afortune dealing with China. We have rebuilt China," he said.Trump also confirmed that his administration has asked for the withdrawal ofbillions of dollars in American pension fund investments in China and thatother similar actions were in consideration.THE REST========AS COVID-19 CASES RISE, MARGINAL GROWTH IN PATIENTS REQUIRING CRITICAL CAREAs of Thursday morning,185 patients across the country were on ventilators,1,425 patients were in ICUs, and 1,282 required oxygen support. Thesefigures of patients needing additional care also show that as coronaviruscases in the country have trebled over the last fortnight, the percentage ofpatients needing critical care has risen only marginally.The total number of tests done so far across the country is 19,47,041.According to the ministry, the last three days' doubling time is 13.9 days;doubling time in the past 14 days was 11.1 days.STATES, UTs CAN HIRE BUSES FOR TRANSPORTATION OF TRAIN PASSENGERS: CENTREThe Centre on Thursday allowed states and union territories to hire specialbuses to ferry train passengers from stations where public and privatevehicles are not available to their destinations.In a letter to all state governments and Union Territory administrations,Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said some of the state governments haverequested to allow special buses to ferry passengers arriving by train totheir home, keeping in view restrictions placed on public and personaltransport in various zones."Keeping in view the situation, state and Union Territory governments areallowed to engage special buses from railway stations wherever public orpersonal transport is not available, maintaining proper social distancingnorms," Bhalla said.OPEN MARKETS & MALLS ON ODD-EVEN DATES, ALLOW METRO, BUSES: DELHI TO TELLCENTREThe Delhi government is set to suggest to the Centre that post-May 17,markets, shopping complexes and malls should be allowed to open - onodd-even basis for non-essential outlets - and public transport services,including the Metro, buses, taxis and auto-rickshaws, should resumeoperations.Earlier this week, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sought suggestionsfrom residents on easing restrictions. Addressing an online media briefingon Thursday, he said most were in favour of relaxing the curbs, making wayfor a gradual reopening of public transport, markets, restaurants and parks.Later, during a meeting of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority chairedby Lt Governor Anil Baijal, Kejriwal conveyed his government's position.Sources said the L-G will write to the Centre, giving details of theproposal.ICMR CLEARS 1ST BATCH OF KEY ELISA ANTIBODY TESTING KITS MADE IN INDIAIn another step towards deploying antibody testing kits manufactured in thecountry for a nationwide household Covid-19 survey, the Indian Council ofMedical Research (ICMR) has approved the first batch manufactured byZydus-Cadila.The test kits, called "COVID KAVACH ELISA", was developed at the NationalInstitute of Virology, Pune, by isolating the virus from patients in Indiaearlier this week.According to an ICMR official, the ELISA kits will be used in the HealthMinistry's new nationwide "sero-survey", meant to detect prevalence ofantibodies that appear after a patient has recovered. The ICMR will lead thetesting of 24,000 individuals in 69 districts at household level as part ofthis sero-survey.The ICMR says the first manufactured batch of ELISA kits has a sensitivity(accurate positive test results) of 98.7 per cent and a specificity(accurate negative test results) of 100 per cent.The Council stated in a release, "While real-time RT-PCR is the frontlinetest for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2, robust antibody tests arecritical for surveillance to understand the proportion of population exposedto infection."ELISA antibody tests are different from the rapid antibody tests previouslyused heavily by Indian authorities. The WHO has called ELISAs "highlysensitive and specific" tests that are suitable for "for testing largenumbers of samples per day, as well as in blood banks or for surveillancestudies".While only Zydus-Cadila had earlier accepted a non-exclusive agreement toproduce the test kits, ICMR stated that "now, ICMR has been approached byCipla Pvt. Ltd. and NextGen Life Sciences".PLEA SEEKS DECLARATION OF AMOUNT RECEIVED, SPENT BY PM CARES FUNDThe Bombay High Court has sought the Centre's response to a petition seekingdeclaration of the funds received by the Prime Minister's CitizensAssistance and Relief in Emergency Situation (PM CARES), a public charitabletrust created by the government amid the COVID-19 pandemic.Justice Madhav Jamdar of the high court's Nagpur bench was, on May 12,hearing a petition filed by advocate Arvind Waghmare, seeking a direction tothe government to declare funds received and the expenditure of the same onthe government's website periodically.The court asked the Union Government to file an affidavit in response to theplea and posted the matter for further hearing on May 15.UDDHAV THACKERAY ELECTED UNOPPOSED TO MAHARASHTRA UPPER HOUSEMaharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was among nine candidates fromdifferent political parties who were declared elected unopposed in theelections to the state legislative council on Thursday.Their election became a mere formality after four other nominees for thenine seats withdrew from the fray on Tuesday. The nomination of the fifthwas rejected on technical grounds.All nine were elected by the MLAs of the lower house.Thackeray (59) makes his debut as a legislator following his election to thestate legislative council. He was sworn in as Chief Minister on November 28last year and had to be elected to either house of the state legislature byMay 27.RSS-AFFILIATE BMS THREATENS AGITATIONS AGAINST LABOUR LAWS DILUTIONSThe RSS-affiliated trade union, Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), has condemned"complete burial" of labour laws by some states, including BJP-ruled UttarPradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. The outfit has threatened nation-wideagitations unless there is a rollback.Senior BMS functionaries Saji Naraynan and Virjesh Upadhyay said theirobjection was not about a particular party or a state. It was about the"gross violation" of the laws by governments, whichever party they belongedto, they said, terming it as "criminal" withdrawal of laws in a civilisedsociety.The ruling BJP's sister organisation in the 'Sangh parivaar' said it was infavour of economy-boosting measures and inviting investments for the same,but not through means and methods such as the "anti-worker" ordinancesbrought by UP, MP and Gujarat, and increase of working hours by Rajasthan,Maharashtra, Goa and Odisha.LONDON HC REJECTS MALLYA'S PLEA TO TAKE HIS CHALLENGE TO SUPREME COURTIn a big jolt to fugitive liquor baron Vijay Mallya, the London High Courtyesterday rejected his plea seeking to challenge his extradition to Indiabefore the UK Supreme Court.A CBI official said with Mallya's plea being rejected, he had no legaloptions left in the UK and was likely be extradited within 28 days. "He willbe brought back in a special plane as normal flights are not operatingbecause of the lockdown," he said.SWIMMING FEDERATION TAKES A SHORT CUTFour days ago, when the government asked the Swimming Federation of India(SFI) to propose ways to resume aquatic activities in a post-pandemicscenario, they were not expecting a reply within a day. And that too, ameticulous framework with references to the White House's guidelines for'Opening Up America Again' and advisories issued by the US Centers forDisease Control and Prevention.It turns out the SFI had simply forwarded a set of guidelines USA Swimminghad prepared for swimmers in their country. Not copy-pasting bits orborrowing ideas, but passing on the eight-page document titled 'USASwimming: Facility re-opening, messaging and planning' as is. The documentstates that the pool should be disinfected with chlorine and bromine to"inactivate the virus in the water", citing the Center for Disease Control'sadvisory that "there is no evidence the disease spreads through treatedwater".The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has now asked the SFI to rework therecommendations and make them relevant in India's context.Training in all sports has been halted from the time the lockdown was firstimposed on March 24. And while it is unlikely there will be any competitiveevent held for the foreseeable future, the sports ministry is considering aphase-wise resumption of training at government-run institutes by the end ofthis month.As a first step, SAI formed two committees last Sunday to prepare a StandardOperating Procedure - and asked all federations under its watch to submitrecommendations to restart sporting activities.INDICATORSSensex 31,123 (-886), Nifty 9,142 (-241), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)48,694Nasdaq 8,944 (+81) Dow 23,625 (+377), S&P 2,852 (+32)US$-Rs. 74.80 GBP-Rs. 91.32, Euro-Rs. 80.80, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.36, Can$-Rs.53.10, Aus$- Rs. 48.15GBP 0.81 /US$, Euro 0.92 /US$, Jap.Yen 107.02 /US$, Aus$ 1.55 /US$, Sing1.42 /US$, Bang Taka 83.41 /US$, Can$ 1.40 /US$, Mal Ring 4.33 /US$,Pak Re 160.32 /US$, Phil Peso 50.43 /US$, Russian Rouble 73.86 /US$, NZ$1.67 /US$, Thai Baht 32.06 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 26.46 /US$, Norway NOK10.18 /US$Bitcoin - USD 9,496Dollar Index 100.37 Brent Crude 31.29 BDI 398Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,733 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,620 / 4,520Silver (Rs. 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