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The Indian Express Dated: April 20, 2020 By P. Chidambaram The  coronavirus  challenge has no precedent in humankind’s recorded history. There was certainly nothing in history that affected 207 countries, afflicted over two million people (and rising) and caused the death of 1,35,163 (and rising). The long-term consequences of the  pandemic  are as yet unascertained. In such an extraordinary situation, there can be only one leader in each country, and that is the President or the Prime Minister or a despot masquerading as a popular leader. India has a duly elected prime minister, which is why I called him, in my statement of March 25, the Commander. We are foot soldiers. I therefore welcomed the lockdown effective March 25 as well as the extension of the lockdown after April 14 until May 3. We are all obliged to observe the rules and regulations of the lockdown until it lasts; that is the only way a democracy can be governed without boots and batons and b...

The Hindu April 15,2020   F rom UN to EU and African Union, leaders slam U.S. President’s decision to halt funding to agency Global efforts to join forces against the coronavirus faltered Wednesday after Donald Trump  froze funding for the World Health Organization , igniting a chorus of criticism from world leaders who urged solidarity in the face of a crippling economic crisis. The U.S. President’s shock move came as a patchwork of countries experiment with loosening lockdown measures, ushering the planet into a new and uncertain phase of a pandemic that has killed more than 1,25,000 people worldwide and infected at least two million. In Europe, Denmark became the first country on the badly-hit continent to start reopening schools, while  Finland lifted a travel blockade  on the Helsinki region. Italy and Spain have also allowed some businesses to restart after signs both are finally flattening the curve following weeks of punishing death tolls. ...

The Indian Express Abantika Ghosh dated April 16,2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19):  After days of sniping at the World Health Organization (WHO) over its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he would  halt the funding the US gives to the WHO , which he said was mismanaging the spread. This comes when the global case load approaches 2 million, including over 1 lakh deaths; the US has seen the most cases (over 6 lakh) and deaths (over 26,000). India reacted cautiously to Trump’s announcement, avoiding an official response and maintaining the country’s focus now is containment and management of the outbreak. Explained: Where does WHO get its funding from? It is funded by a large number of countries, philanthropic organisations, United Nations organisations etc. According to information uploaded by WHO, voluntary donations from member states (such as the US) contribute 35.41%, assessed contributions are 15.66%, ph...

The Indian Express   Pranav Mukul  ,  Aanchal Magazine  ,  Prabha Raghavan   Dated April 16,2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19):   The Centre’s move to restart economic activity across the country from April 20 in a staggered manner expands on guidelines issued earlier to add a number of activities permitted in areas beyond urban areas, and across sectors such as e-commerce operations, self-employed services, special economic zones and IT and IT-related services, but with riders. However, implementation of most of these guidelines present challenges at the ground level and will depend extensively on the interpretation by individual states, with the issue of migrant workers posing a major challenge, according to a cross-section of industry and state government representatives that  The Indian Express contacted after the guidelines were issued. Additionally, continued restrictions on hotspots across 170 districts, including thos...

The Indian Express   Divya A  ,  Sandeep Singh  ,  Pranav Mukul Dated April 16,2020 Coronavirus (COVID-19):  An estimated 7.3 million jobs are on the line as the restaurant industry braces to be battered by the second phase of the national lockdown, set to now span at least 40 days. Counting its losses each hour, its challenges are sweeping: from supplies to labour, skilled and semi-skilled, real estate to credit, overheads and utilities, delivery commissions and rental contracts. More so, when urban centres that fuelled this sector’s rapid growth are the worst hit. In fact, just six cities — Mumbai, Pune, Delhi, Indore, Ahmedabad, and Hyderabad — together account for over 65 per cent of all COVID-19 deaths. Also, Delhi has 33 containment zones, Mumbai more than 300 — most unlikely to reopen anytime soon. Some half-a-million restaurants across the country are hoping the Centre and the state governments announce quick relief measures — otherwis...

The Hindu Suhasini Haidar, Dinakar Peri April 15,2020 The donation would be a first as India has so far not taken funds from foreign state-run entities. In a first such donation of its kind, Russia’s State-owned defence exports company Rosoboronexport has committed $2million (₹15.3 crore) to the newly set up ‘PM CARES Fund’, diplomatic and government sources confirmed.  The proposed donation to the fund that has been set up specially to assist the government’s efforts in combating the  COVID-19  pandemic, marks a significant shift in India’s policy on accepting contributions from foreign government owned companies. Thus far, the government had been only open to contributions from “NRIs, PIOs and international entities such as foundations”. “The transfer is yet to be made” the sources told  The Hindu  on Tuesday, while confirming that Rosoboronexport — Russia’s umbrella group for all defence exports and a subsidiary of the state-owned defence manufa...

ORF Pushan Das Dated April 15,2020 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) recently released the draft Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2020. The new draft DPP amends existing military procurement rules in line with Governments’ long-running targets to boost indigenous defence capability and reduce reliance on imports under its “Make in India” initiative. The draft document like its previous iteration in the DPP 2016 continues to carry along a few below par policies and notions that may hinder India’s attempts at indigenisation vis-à-vis direct procurement which is generally cheaper and more efficient. The draft DPP 2020 proposes higher levels of local content, new multipliers in defence offsets, a procurement category for leasing, and new options for equipment sustainment activity. It attempts to better the 2016 iteration of the draft. The intent of the new DPP is to further promote indigenous design capacity and higher localisation, both of which, if implemented effectively,...