The Evening Wrap Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying home and staying safe. Here are the big stories that you need to follow today: Second tranche of relief Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today shared details about the second tranche of the ₹20 lakh crore ‘Atma Nirbhar’ economic package announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week. Sitharman had unveiled the first tranche on Wednesday. The second tranche, the FM said, is targeted at migrant workers, street vendors, small traders, farmers, and the self-employed. Here are its highlights: - Free food grains to all migrant workers for the next two months. Those without ration cards will get 5 kg of rice/wheat and 1kg of chana per family per month for two months.
- A ‘One Nation One Ration Card’ scheme to be rolled out, under which migrants will be able to obtain rations under the Public Distribution System (PDS) from any fair price shop in the country. The scheme is expected to be fully operational by March 2021.
- For small businesses, a 2% interest subvention on the smallest category of loans given under the MUDRA scheme. As much as ₹1,500 crore interest subvention would be given for MUDRA-Shishu loans of up to ₹50,000.
- For street vendors, a ₹5,000 crore special credit facility under which they can avail of working capital loans of up to ₹10,000. This is expected to benefit 50 lakh street vendors.
- For farmers, a ₹30,000-crore additional emergency working capital funding through the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
- For those in the middle-income group with an annual income of ₹6-₹18 lakh, a credit-linked subsidy scheme for affordable housing that was operationalised in May 2017 has been extended by a year, up to March 2021.
Train tickets till June 30 cancelled The Indian Railways has cancelled all train tickets booked for travel till June 30 and said a full refund will be issued. However, the Railways clarified that this move will not impact the running of Shramik trains or the 15 pairs of ‘Special trains’ that were started from May 12. In April, the Railways had announced that advance reservation, including e-tickets, will not be allowed “till further notice”. Additionally, the Railways had stopped regular passenger train services from March 22. With effect from May 13, the IRCTC has started taking the destination address of all passengers booking tickets. This will help in contact tracing, if required later, a Railways spokesperson said. Meanwhile, there was chaos at the Bengaluru station today. Passengers who arrived on the first train from Delhi to Bengaluru this morning claimed that they not been informed – at the time of booking -- about an institutional quarantine that they would have to undergo for 14 days. They only got to know of it after they boarded the train in Delhi. Many of them refused to go into quarantine, pointing out that they did not have the financial resources to afford a hotel room for 14 days. Work from home the new normal Central government employees will continue with staggered and variable work hours, even post-lockdown. The Personnel Ministry has floated a draft consultation paper on best work-from-home practices. The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) may provide the option of work from home to eligible officers/staff for 15 days in a year as a matter of policy, the paper said. Ministries and departments have to send in their suggestions by May 21. “As per instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs, no classified information shall be handled through e-office. Therefore, classified files shall not be processed in e-office during work from home,” one of the guidelines said. Mallya loses appeal, offers to pay up Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya lost an appeal in the U.K. today for permission to move the Supreme Court there against his extradition to India in the IDBI Bank fraud case. However, he reiterated his offer to the Indian government to pay back 100% of his loan dues and in exchange, have the case against him closed. “Congratulations to the Government for a COVID-19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of State-owned Bank loans be constantly ignored?” he said in a tweet, shortly before he lost his appeal today. Mallya, who is wanted in India on alleged fraud and money-laundering charges amounting to ₹9,000 crore, added, “Please take my money unconditionally and close.” Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of positive coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 81,421 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 2,641. In Kerala, the State that has had the most success in dealing with Covid-19, as many as 26 people, including seven foreign returnees, tested positive on Thursday. Though it has reported no new infections for several days, the return of a large number of migrant workers from abroad is expected to pose a fresh challenge. Cases in Tamil Nadu also continued to go up. As many as 447 people tested positive today, taking the total number of confirmed cases to 9,664. Meanwhile in Maharashtra, which is still very much in the red zone in terms of cases, the government is considering extending the lockdown till May 31. Kejriwal crowd-sourcing ideas Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been crowd-sourcing ideas for the national capital to come out of the lockdown. He said today that his government has received over five lakh suggestions in the last two days. In an online media briefing, Kejriwal said that the majority of respondents wanted schools, colleges, spas, swimming pools, and malls to remain shut during the summer vacations. Many also suggested that hotels should not be opened but restaurants dedicated to home delivery and takeaway should be allowed to operate, he added. No trouble on the border? The army is playing down the recent clashes between Indian and Chinese troops in Eastern Ladakh and North Sikkim last week, saying they were neither “correlated” nor have any connection with other global or local activities. Army Chief Gen Manoj Naravane, who issued a press statement today said, “Indian border troops have always been upholding peace and tranquillity along the border areas. I can say with confidence that development of infrastructure capabilities along our northern borders is on track. He added “It is reiterated that both these incidents are neither correlated nor do they have any connection with other global or local activities.” In brief: The government released truncated data for April wholesale price-based inflation, on the grounds that there was limited transaction of products in the market due to the outbreak of COVID-19. As per the data released by the Commerce and Industry Ministry, wholesale price index (WPI) deflation in primary articles was 0.79% in April, as against an inflation of 3.72% in March. The World Health Organisation on Wednesday said the novel coronavirus “may never go away” and that people will have to learn to live with it. “This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities and this virus may never go away,” Michael Ryan, the world body’s emergencies director, said at a virtual media briefing in Geneva. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
Post a Comment