The Evening Wrap Welcome to The Evening Wrap, your guide to the day’s major news developments with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying home and staying safe. Here are the major stories you need to know about today: Relief package Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman announced a ₹1.7 lakh crore ($22.6 billion) relief package today, providing free food and cash transfers to the poorest, who are most vulnerable during the COVID-19-linked countrywide lockdown. The benefits are largely targeted at farmers, migrant workers, and the disabled. “We do not want anyone to remain hungry, so we will be giving enough to take care of their food grain and protein requirements. On the other hand, they should also not remain without money in hand, so several measures through DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) are being taken so that money reaches them,” she said. Cash transfers — a mix of advances via existing schemes and additional sums — will be given to vulnerable groups under the Pradhan Mantri Gharib Kalyan Yojana. The food grain ration for 80 crore poor people will also be doubled for the next three months and supplemented by a kilo of local pulses. There are many components to the relief package that the Finance Minister announced and you can find the comprehensive list here. We anticipate a debate in the coming days over whether these relief measures are adequate given the magnitude of the crisis. Here are the highlights: - For 20 crore women with Jan Dhan Yojana accounts, an ex-gratia amount of ₹500 per month will be paid for the next three months. This is aimed at helping them with their household expenses.
- For poor pensioners, widows and the disabled, the government will give ₹1,000 in two instalments over the next three months. This is expected to benefit 3 crore poor people above the age of 60, widows, and the disabled.
- For MGNREGA workers: A wage hike of ₹20, from a daily wage of ₹182 to ₹202. This marginal hike has been slammed as too little by economists, who point out that such an increase was any way due. Also, given that worksites may not be operational due to the lockdown, it makes no sense to announce a wage hike, as no work means no pay. The sensible option would have been to simply transfer cash.
Incidentally, the U.S, with a much smaller population than India, has just cleared a $2 trillion package. Spain, with a much smaller economy than India’s, has announced a relief package of $200 billion, while Canada has earmarked $82 billion to offset coronavirus-related economic losses. In comparison, and even as a percentage of GDP, India’s $22.6 billion relief package seems meagre. COVID-19 Watch The number of confirmed cases in India has now crossed 700, of which nearly 650 are active, according to data from the Health Ministry and State governments. The death toll stands at 17. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Thursday extended the ban on all international flights till April 14, the last day of the lockdown. The DGCA had earlier banned all flights till March 31. In Delhi, after a doctor of a mohalla clinic tested positive for coronavirus, close to 900 people who came in contact him have been quarantined. The chain of infection had started with a woman who returned from Saudi Arabia on March 10, and visited the clinic with symptoms of COVID-19. Our Bihar correspondent Amarnath Tewary reports that as many as 83 junior doctors of the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) in Patna, which has been designated as the State’s first COVID-19 special hospital, have written to their superintendent seeking a 15-day home quarantine as many of them have developed symptoms of the viral disease in the absence of protective kits and masks. Reports are also coming in now that The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said that the rate of increase of cases in India has stabilised or is decreasing. The Ministry, however, added that this was only an initial trend. Some measures taken by States till now: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray have announced that all shops selling essential commodities in their respective states can remain open for 24 hours for the entire week during the lockdown. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has ordered private banks/small finance institutions and SHGs to stop collecting daily/weekly/monthly interest from parties until further orders. Criminal action will be initiated against violators. The Odisha government is planning to set up some of the biggest COVID-19 hospitals in the country. Tripartite agreements have been signed between the State, corporates, and two medical colleges in Bhubaneswar -- Kalinga Institute of Medical Sciences, and Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital -- to set up State-level hospitals with a capacity of 1,000 beds for treatment of COVID-19 patients. International developments: The number of COVID-19 cases in Europe have topped 250,000, according to an AFP tally on Thursday. More than half of these are in hard-hit Italy and Spain. In the U.S., with the country going into lockdown mode, a record 3 million people have filed claims for unemployment benefits. This marks the largest ever single-week rise in unemployment claims recorded in the U.S.. It offers a grim picture of the scale of job losses in the country due to the coronavirus pandemic. That’s it for this edition of The Evening Wrap. We’ll see you tomorrow. | 
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