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Firstpost March 16, 2020 After days of resisting screening for the  the novel coronavirus,   President Donald Trump tested negative for the virus, officials said Saturday night. Meanwhile, the White House began checking the temperature of anyone coming into close contact with the president and other officials. Prior to his testing, Trump said his personal physician told him he didn't show any symptoms and didn't need to take the test. But Trump decided to do it anyway after repeated questions from reporters about why he was hesitating to undergo screening when he had been exposed to at least three people who have tested positive for the virus. The White House released the test results just hours after Trump told reporters that he had been tested and that his temperature was "totally normal". He was recently in close proximity with three people at his Florida resort who have tested positive for the virus, including two aides to Brazilian President Jair

Firstpost March 16,2020 The floor test in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly will be held on 16 March, state Governor Lalji Tandon said.  Governor orders floor test in Madhya Pradesh Assembly on 16 March, days after 22 Congress MLAs tendered resignations This comes after a BJP delegation met the Governor on Saturday and requested him to conduct a floor test in the Assembly. BJP leaders Gopal Bhargava, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Narottam Mishra, and Bhupendra Singh were part of the delegation that met the Governor. "Our delegation comprises up of fellow partymen met Governor, 22 MLAs have resigned. We have submitted a letter to the Governor and demanded a floor test for Kamal Nath-led government before the commencement of the Budget session of the Assembly," Chouhan told reporters. "Kamal Nath-led government is in minority now. The government does not have any constitutional authority to run the state. They are not having the power to take decisions. They should

Firstpost March 16, 2020 Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates, who made the company one of the world’s most valuable technology firms, stepped down from the board on Friday to focus on philanthropic works related to global health, education and climate change. The billionaire and his wife Melinda run one of the world’s largest charities, the Gates Foundation, which has billions in assets and funds global health programmes to combat disease and poverty. Gates quit his full-time executive role at Microsoft in 2008 and remained as chairman of the board till 2014. Since then he has been a board member. “It’s been a tremendous honour and privilege to have worked with and learned from Bill over the years,” Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella said. With the departure of Gates from Microsoft Board, it will now consist of 12 members, the company said. Gates also stepped down from the board of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, where he has served since 2004.

Fisrpost March 14, 2020 The government has notified the Yes Bank reconstruction scheme as per which the moratorium on the troubled private sector lender will be lifted on 18 March. Current administrator Prashant Kumar has been appointed managing director and CEO of the newly-reconstructed board.  The Yes Bank Reconstruction Scheme 2020, shall come into force on 13 March, the gazette notification said. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had on 5 March put a moratorium on Yes Bank restricting withdrawals to Rs 50,000 per depositor till 3 April.  "The order of moratorium on the reconstructed bank issued by the government...shall cease to have effect on the third working day at 18:00 hours fron the date of commencement of this scheme," the notification said. The scheme has been notified on 13 March and hence the moratorium will be lifted on the third working day or 18 March.  The notification also clarified that "all existing contracts, agreements, etc., will co

Firstpost March 14, 2020 Private sector Bandhan Bank said it will invest Rs 300 crore in Yes Bank as part of RBI's reconstruction plan for the crisis-hit lender. In a late night filing on Friday, Bandhan Bank said its board has "granted approval for an equity investment of Rs. 300 crore for acquiring upto 30 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each of YES Bank Limited, for cash, at a premium of Rs 8 per equity share, under the proposed Scheme of Reconstruction of YES Bank Limited under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, subject to regulatory and government approval". ICICI Bank, Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank too on Friday said they will join the SBI-led consortium and invest in Yes Bank. ICIC Bank and HDFC will invest Rs 1,000 crore each, Axis Bank will invest Rs 600 crore by buying 60 crore shares and Kotak Mahindra Bank Rs 500 crore through buying 50 crore shares. On Thursday, SBI said it will invest Rs 7,250 cror

Firstpost March 13, 2020 What exactly is the coronavirus or COVID-19 trying tell investors as it shakes the planet in which bears take over from bulls in a matter of weeks? What do we say on a day when India's stock exchanges halt trading for 45 minutes after a crash of about 10 percent in the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) benchmark Nifty -- only to rebound when trading resumes? Profound and philosophical as it may seem, it makes sense to view the disease, officially declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as more of a life event than one restricted to the economy, even if the economy is what weighs on one's mind for the investor. Many must have lost hard-earned savings invested in the markets, whether directly or through indirect vehicles like mutual funds. It is time for contemplation. Benchmark indices have crashed to levels comparable to 2008 when the world financial crisis hit the markets to lead global markets into what is now ca

Firstpost Reuters, Alison Lampert March 14, 2020 MONTREAL (Reuters) - The UN's aviation agency on Friday approved restrictions for a global program designed to help airlines offset their carbon emissions, a move that curbs industry funding for older projects whose environmental benefits have been challenged by climate activists. The International Civil Aviation Organization council approved recommendations to exclude offset projects begun before 2016 while delivering emission reductions through end-2020, ICAO said in a statement, confirming a report earlier in the day by Reuters. ICAO cannot impose rules but sets standards approved by its 193 member countries. Its 36-member council was tasked with weighing which programs would be eligible under the venture for airlines, known as the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The council's decision to accept credits from six programs for CORSIA's pilot phase from 2021-2023 cam

Firstpost Reuters,  Stanley White, Terje Solsvik and Jonnelle Marte March 14, 2020   HONG KONG/LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Central banks worldwide acted to shore up money markets after cratering share prices drove a rush for cash, hitting many regional currencies and threatening a surge in short-term borrowing costs. 2.  In China, which bore the brunt of the economic fallout from the coronavirus in the first few months of 2020, authorities late on Friday cut banks' reserve requirements for the second time this year. 3.   The U.S. Federal Reserve followed suit with a wave of $37 billion of Treasury bond purchases, accelerating the enhanced market liquidity measures announced Thursday. 4.   With most developed economies moving into partial shutdowns as the epidemic tightens its global grip, Norway and Sweden announced far-reaching stimulus packages as European trading got under way. 5.   European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, meanwhile, drew fire for not

Firspost The Associate Press, March 13, 2020   The US launched airstrikes Thursday in Iraq, targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for the rocket attack that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad, the Pentagon said The strikes marked a rapid escalation in tensions with Tehran and its proxy groups in Iraq, just two months after Iran carried out a massive ballistic missile attack against American troops at a base in Iraq  Kataib Hezbollah was responsible for a late December rocket attack on a military base in Kirkuk that killed a US contractor, prompting American military strikes in response 2.  Washington: The US launched airstrikes Thursday in Iraq, targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for the rocket attack that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad, the Pentagon said. 3.  US officials said multiple strikes by US fighter jets hit fi

Hindustan Times Rhytma Kaul, March 16, 2020 India’s efforts to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) have received a boost as the country’s apex virology laboratory, the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV) in Pune, has managed to isolate the strains of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the infection. The virus strains have been isolated using the throat swabs of the initial three patients in Kerala — all students from Wuhan in China. The isolation of virus strains is the first step towards expediting the development of drugs, vaccines and rapid diagnostic kits in the country. Other countries such as Japan, Thailand, the United States of America and China have already isolated the virus strains. Countries isolate strains from their patients to check for variations in samples. ICMR has been working in close coordination with the ministry of health, and other departments in its efforts to tackle the new

Hindustan Times Rajeev Jayaswal, March 16, 2020 Consumers pay about 54% taxes (or Rs37.83 per litre) on petrol while other price components, including freight charges and dealer commission, make up the remaining Rs 32.04 of the total retail price of Rs 69.87 (as of Saturday), according to latest official data in Delhi. The total of taxes on diesel add up to about 46% at Rs 28.06 per litre, and the total of other cost components is Rs 34.52 a litre, showed the data on fuel price components released after the Centre raised excise duties on the two fuels by Rs 3 on Saturday. Fuel station prices of petrol and diesel that change daily were Rs 69.75 per litre and Rs 62.44 a litre on Sunday. Before the latest price revision, the total tax on petrol was Rs 35.23 a litre and levies on diesel were Rs 25.31 a litre. The Union government could raise the central excise duty without an effective increase in fuel station rates of the two fuels because of a steep fall in international oi

The Hindu C Maya, March 16, 2020 Several senior doctors, including the heads of several core departments, have now gone into forced self-isolation  Patient-care activities at Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST) is on the verge of a shutdown after several senior doctors and an unknown number of health-care personnel and patients were exposed to the SARS CoV-2 from a doctor colleague of theirs who had returned from Spain and had been working amongst them. The said case had been officially declared as positive for COVID-19 by the Health Minister on Sunday evening, without divulging details. Several senior doctors, including the heads of several core departments, have now gone into forced self-isolation and have been left with no option but to abandon patient care, so that more people are not exposed to the COVID-19 threat. They have written to the Director of the institution to discharge patients waiting for surgery and other treatme

The Economist March 12, 2020 A s the number  of deaths among people infected by the new coronavirus mounts, it is tempting to divide that figure by the number of reported cases and conclude that the result is the fatality rate. Apply such maths to the world’s total of confirmed cases and deaths on March 11th and you get a fatality rate of 3.6%. But this figure, which epidemiologists call the “naive” case fatality rate, may be wrong in two different ways. First, many of the infections detected at this early stage of the epidemic are recent, so some will eventually result in deaths. That will push the fatality rate up. Second, many infections have not been spotted because testing for the virus has been patchy. Lots of mild cases of the disease have gone unnoticed. If all infections were actually counted, the result would be a bigger denominator. That would push the fatality rate down. As China began to trace infections more carefully, its fatality rate fell (see chart 1).

Hindustan Times HT Correspondent, March 15, 2020 The nullification of the constitutional provisions in August to strip Jammu & Kashmir of its special status, which prevented non-residents from buying land and taking up jobs in the region, has triggered concerns about demographic changes in the erstwhile state. Union home minister Amit Shah on Sunday dismissed the talk of demographic change in Jammu & Kashmir as baseless and assured a delegation of a newly-formed party in the Union Territory that it will have a better domicile policy than other parts of the country and that there will be no discrimination in implementing Central laws in the region. In his interaction with a Jammu & Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) delegation in New Delhi, Shah emphasised interests of all sections will be taken care of. “The home minister assured the delegation that Jammu & Kashmir will have a better domicile policy than other states in the country and said that a reasonable Economi