FM SITHARAMAN ANNOUNCES PACKAGE WORTH RS 1, 70,000 CRORE FOR POOR

The government on Thursday announced a Rs 1, 70,000 crore package for the

Next three months for the vulnerable sections of the population.

Bundled under the PM Gareeb Kalyan Scheme, the Covid relief package

Comprises cash transfers as well as food security which would be implemented

From April 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. Asked if there

Would be more such packages for other vulnerable classes, Sitharaman said

This was the government's first response within 36 hours of the lockdown.

"At this moment, we reach out to the poorest of the poor. We will obviously

Think about the other things,'' she added.

Earlier, Sitharaman had relaxed compliance requirements relating to direct

And indirect taxes and life and health insurance policies to address the

Covid-related disturbances.

Sitharaman said the government would deliberate on ameliorating problems

faced by people who are enduring wage cuts or had to pay EMIs while they had

been asked to stay at home without salaries.

The government has decided to provide temporary three-month insurance

Cover of Rs 50 lakh for all frontline Covid health staff, including doctors,

Paramedics and health care workers.

In food security, Sitharaman said 80 crore people would get free 5 kg wheat

or rice over and above the existing allotment and 1 kg of preferred pulses

every month for the next three months. "We don't want anyone to remain

hungry. We will be giving enough to take care of requirement of grains. They

should also not remain without money in their hands,'' she explained.

For farmers, the government has decided to front-load Rs 2,000 paid to 8.69

crore farmers in first week of April under the existing PM Kisan Yojana.

MNREGA wages will be increased to Rs 202 a day from Rs 182 to benefit 5

crore families with an expected wage increase of about Rs 2,000 per worker.

Ex gratia of Rs 1,000 in two instalments will be given to three crore poor

senior citizens, poor widows and poor disabled. As many as 20 crore women

Jan Dhan Account holders will get Rs 500 per month for the next three months

to help them run their households.

Ujjwala beneficiaries will be given free LPG cylinders for the next three

months which will benefit 8.3 crore BPL families. Collateral-free loan will

be doubled to Rs 20 lakh to 63 lakh women self-help groups, impacting 7

crore households.

CENTRE ISSUES SOP FOR AVAILABILITY OF ESSENTIAL GOODS DURING LOCKDOWN

The Union Home Ministry on Thursday issued Standard Operating Procedure

(SOP) on availability of essential goods during the lockdown period and

asked state governments to ensure smooth functioning of people involved and

services.

In the two-page SOP, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said essential

commodities are available to people through small local retail shops, large

organised retail stores and e-commerce companies.

The SOP said in order to ensure smooth functioning of these three types of

operators, it is important that constituents of the supply chain, are also

allowed to operate.

These constituents include suppliers of essential goods, including

restaurants supplying home delivery of cooked food items; and facilities for

storage of such essential goods which, may be known as warehouse, godown,

etc.

It also allowed movement of transporters, drivers, loaders, etc., of

essential goods from the place of manufacture to wholesalers or retailers.

The SOP said such transportation may involve intra-city, inter-city in same

state or union territory or inter-state movement of essential goods; and

manufacturing units of essential goods, including drugs, pharmaceuticals,

medical devices, their raw material and intermediates.

The home secretary said the purpose of the lockdown is to prevent the spread

of COVID-19 epidemic by ensuring social distancing while maintaining supply

of essential goods, including health infrastructure and home delivery of

food.

He said several services were exempted from the lockdown that include ration

shops, shops dealing with food, groceries, fruits and vegetables, dairy and

milk products, meat and fish, animal fodder, seeds and pesticides and home

delivery of these essential goods shall be encouraged.

Bhalla said those enforcing authorities must note that these strict

restrictions fundamentally relate to movement of people, but not to that of

essential goods.

The state governments shall open a 24x7 control room to register complaints

or grievances and share these numbers widely, the SOP added.

COVID-19 DASHBOARD - (Nos. IN INDIA / Nos. WORLDWIDE) at 0930 IST

Total Cases 727 (+63) / 532,237 (+60,926)

Total Deaths 20 (+8) / 24,089 (+2,3796)

Total Recovered 50 (+7) / 124,331 (+9,689)

Active Cases 657 (+48) / 383,817 (+48,441)

Serious / Critical Cases 0 / 19,357 (+4,565)

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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

CORONAVIRUS: HALF-MILLION INFECTED WORLDWIDE, DEATHS SURGE

The United States now has more coronavirus cases than any other country with

close to 85,500 infections (with 1300 deaths), according to Johns Hopkins

University, pushing the total numbers worldwide to more than 531,000, with

at least 24,000 deaths as of early Friday. There were more than 81,300 known

cases in China and 80,500 in Italy.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose wife is infected with the virus, has

said this is the country's most difficult moment since its 1936-39 civil

war.

In Germany, 267 people have died, where the country has more than 43,000

declared cases of the virus, among the highest in Europe, but has managed to

avoid the high death rates seen in hard-hit Italy and Spain. Experts say

widespread testing and tracing of COVID-19 cases is key to limiting the

spread of the disease, an approach adopted in South Korea and Singapore

where the outbreak has largely been contained. Germany is testing up to

500,000 people a week for the new coronavirus, a virologist said Thursday,

adding that early detection has been key in keeping the country's death rate

relatively low.

China's National Health Commission reported on Friday at least 54 new

imported cases of coronavirus as of yesterday, slightly lower than the 67

cases the previous day. The health agency also reported five new deaths with

no new cases in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak.

3.3 MILLION FILE JOBLESS CLAIMS AS US ECONOMY COMES APART

More than 3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week,

sending a collective shudder throughout the economy that is unlike anything

Americans have experienced.

The report, released by the Labor Department on Thursday, provides some of

the first hard data on the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic.

Just three weeks ago, barely 200,000 people applied for jobless benefits, a

historically low number. In the half-century that the government has tracked

applications, the worst week ever, with 695,000 so-called initial claims,

had been in October 1982.

Thursday's figure of nearly 3.3 million set a grim record.

As staggering as the figures are for jobless claims, they almost certainly

understate the problem. Some part-time and low-wage workers do not qualify

for unemployment benefits. Nor do gig workers, independent contractors and

the self-employed, although the emergency aid package passed by the Senate

would broaden eligibility to include many of them. Others who do qualify may

not know it. And the sudden rush of layoffs led to jammed phone lines and

overwhelmed computer servers at unemployment offices across the country,

leaving many people unable to file claims.

G-20 ACTION PLAN TO JOINTLY COMBAT CORONAVIRUS

The first-ever virtual summit of the G-20 group of nations on Thursday

decided to spare no effort, both individually and collectively, to combat

Covid-19 and its disastrous effects on trade and informal employment.

The chair of the G-20 King Salman of Saudi Arabia indicated that another

virtual summit of G-20 besides sectoral groups of Finance and Heath

Ministers will pick up the threads of the resolve expressed at today's

summit.

"In his remarks at G20 Virtual Summit, PM Modi noted the alarming social and

economic cost of the pandemic. He added that 90% of the COVID-19 cases and

88% of deaths were in G20 countries, even as they share 80% of world GDP and

60% of world population," the Ministry of External Affairs said.

In a joint statement, the group said they are collectively injecting $5

trillion into the global economy to counteract the social and financial

impacts of the pandemic.

U.S. INDICTS MADURO FOR 'NARCO-TERRORISM'

The US government on Thursday indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro

and other top Venezuelan officials on charges of "narco-terrorism," the

latest escalation of the Trump administration's pressure campaign against

the socialist leader.

The State Department offered a reward of up to $15 million for information

leading to the arrest and conviction of Maduro, who has been in power since

2013.

Attorney General William Barr announced the charges against Maduro, who

already faces U.S. sanctions and has been the target of a U.S. effort aimed

at pushing him from power.

Barr accused Maduro and his associates of conspiring with a dissident

faction of the leftist Colombian guerrilla group FARC "to flood the United

States with cocaine."

The indictment, a rare US action against a sitting foreign head of state,

marks a serious escalation against Maduro by Washington at a time when some

US officials have privately said President Donald Trump is increasingly

frustrated with the results of his Venezuela policy.

THE REST

========

'DO NOT BRING FARMERS, FARM ACTIVITIES UNDER LOCKDOWN'

Amid reports of police "excesses", activists and farmer leaders have written

to the Central Government, asking it to not bring farmers and farm

activities under the 21-day lockdown. Such work should not be brought under

the lockdown, since without harvests of agricultural crops at the right

time, food supply chains will be greatly disrupted in the country before and

after April 15, they said in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi,

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Finance Minister Nirmala

Sitharaman, Home Minister Amit Shah and Member, Agriculture, in the NITI

Aayog Ramesh Chand.

According to Kavitha Kuruganti from the Alliance for Sustainable and

Holistic Agriculture (ASHA), there are reports of farmers not being able to

harvest ready crops and being harassed on their way to market their produce.

1 IN 50 CORONAVIRUS TESTS IN INDIA ARE POSITIVE COMPARED TO ITALY'S 1 IN 4

About one in every 50 tests conducted for Covid-19 in India as of March 25,

2020, have returned positive. In comparison, about a quarter of all tests in

Italy, about a sixth in Austria and a tenth in the UK were positive, our

analysis of data shows.

This could be due to varying testing criteria in different countries,

experts said. As the disease spreads in India, the percentage of tests

coming out positive may increase, they said.

India tested 25,254 samples as of 8 p.m. on March 25, of which 581 (2.3 per

cent) were positive, according to the latest update from the Indian Council

of Medical Research. This proportion is comparable with South Korea's (3per

cent) and higher than Taiwan's (1 per cent).

In comparison, 74,386 of 324,445 tests (23 per cent) in Italy, 6,001 of

35,995 tests (16.7 per cent) in Austria, 65,497 of 484,062 tests (13.5 per

cent) in the US and 9,529 of 97,019 tests (10 per cent) in the UK were

positive.

NEW-AGE WARRIORS AGAINST CORONAVIRUS: ROBOTS, DRONES, CHATBOTS, APPS

As the nation moves into a 21-day lockdown, start-ups, far from letting

their spirits sink, are rising to the occasion by building drones, chatbots,

apps, and robots to help healthcare professionals fighting on the Covid-19

frontline.

General Aeronautics, a Bengaluru-based aerospace engineering startup, has

deployed its drones to spray disinfectant across the city. The disinfectant,

a mixture of sanitiser and bleaching powder, is being sprayed in areas where

garbage has piled up to prevent the spread of any further infections.

In Tamil Nadu, Garuda Aerospace, a Chennai-based startup, is also helping

the civic bodies to spray disinfectant using drones with the help of

engineering students from Agni College of Technology.

For those fretting about the health of quarantined loved ones, Healthcare

start-up Dozee is giving out its heartbeat and respiration monitor for free

to those quarantined within Bengaluru city limits.

A brainchild of IIT alumni Mudit Dandwate and Gaurav Parchani, Dozee is a

portable device which gives continuous respiration data without the need for

wires or technical expertise.

Asimov Robotics began by using its robots to dispense sanitisers and

distribute masks to the employees of various startups in Kochi in Kerala.

Now it is looking to deploying robots called Karmi-bots to assist Covid-19

patients in isolation wards by carrying food to them.

Sophisticated medical equipment is being tweaked to meet current needs

The Mumbai-based start-up has also developed an app-based solution, qSCOUT,

for healthcare providers to use in contact tracing and remote triaging of

infected patients.

Health technology startup Mfine is building an AI-based cough analysis

feature that records the sound of a cough and predicts both if it is a wet

or dry cough and also if the infection is in the upper or lower respiratory

system.

Chennai-based Pixxon AI Solutions has tied up the state police to offer

quarantine monitoring services.

HIT BY LOCKDOWN, MIGRANT LABOURERS WALK FOR DAYS TO REACH HOMES

Hit by a sudden lockdown and no transport, hundreds of migrant labourers

from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan are walking for days to reach their homes

from the Delhi-NCR region and Gujarat, about 200 to 300 km away. And some

elsewhere try to make the desperate journey crammed inside container trucks.

Maharashtra Police on Thursday found over 300 migrant workers holed up

inside two container trucks meant for carrying essential commodities from

Telangana to Rajasthan.

Migrant labourers elsewhere in the country like in Kerala and Karnataka who

are yearning to go home in the absence of any work to make a living say they

have no choice but to stay back and be at the mercy of authorities.

With hundreds of hapless daily-wagers trudging along desolate inter-state

highways on the way back to Rajasthan from adjoining states, mainly Gujarat,

the Gehlot government is facilitating their return home from the border

after screening for any coronavirus infection.

DGCA EXTENDS BAN ON INTERNATIONAL FLIGHTS TILL APRIL 14

All international commercial passenger flights will remain suspended till

April 14, aviation regulator DGCA announced on Thursday, amid a nationwide

lockdown to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. "However, this

restriction will not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights

specifically approved by the DGCA," it said.

The DGCA on March 19 had announced that no international commercial

passenger flight operations will take place in India from 1.30 am on March

23 to 5.30 am on March 29.

The government suspended domestic passenger flight operations from midnight

on March 24.

MKTS EXTEND RALLY ON STIMULUS BOOST; SENSEX UP 1,411 PTs

The Indian markets surged for a third straight day on Thursday, posting

their best three-day gains in years, spurred by stimulus deals announced by

policymakers around the globe to combat the economic damage caused by the

coronavirus pandemic.

The Sensex rose 1,411 points, or 4.94 per cent, to end at 29,947. After

dropping to 2016 levels on Monday, the 30-share index has rebounded 15 per

cent.

Wall Street surged on Thursday as record weekly jobless claims came in below

investors' worst fears. The Dow Jones was up 937 points, or 4.4 per cent, as

on 11:30 pm IST.

Globally, investor sentiment has got a boost after the US Senate approved

the fiscal stimulus legislation worth $2 trillion to prop up the American

economy rattled by the pandemic.

This has helped minimise the selling by overseas funds in india. On

Thursday, they were net sellers only to the tune of Rs 485 crore, as against

the average selling of Rs 3,000 crore for this month.

INDICATORS

Sensex 29,947 (+1411), Nifty 8,641 (+324), Trading Value NSE ,(Rs.crores)

48,647

Nasdaq 7,798 (+413) Dow 22,552 (+1352), S&P 2,630 (+155)

US$-Rs. 75.30, GBP-Rs. 90.31, Euro-Rs. 82.57, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.49, Can$-Rs.

53.23, Aus$- Rs. 45.08

GBP 0.83 /US$, Euro 0.91 /US$, Jap.Yen 109.98 /US$, Aus$ 1.66 /US$, Sing

1.43 /US$, Bang Taka 82.98 /US$, Can$ 1.41 myr/US$, Mal Ring 4.34 /US$,

Pak Re 161.25 /US$, Phil Peso 50.84 /US$, Russian Rouble 77.91 /US$, NZ$

1.69 /US$, Thai Baht 32.65 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 27.78 /US$, Norway NOK

10.57 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 6,677

Dollar Index 99.29 Brent Crude 26.49 BDI 582

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,627 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,217 /

4,117, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 40,500

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on

a rainy Sunday afternoon. - Susan Ertz

OFF TRACK

Husband comes home early and sees wife with another guy!

Wife: Why Are You So Early?

Husband: Who Is He?...

Wife: Don't Try To Change the Topic...