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Migrants run over by train, labour laws put on hold: Covid-19 news today
BJP-ruled states Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh now have new labour laws which has stoked controversy. Railways to announce new protocols to save lives after 16 migrant workers were crushed beneath a goods train in Aurangabad.
Sixteen people were run over by a freight train near Maharashtra’s Aurangabad while they were sleeping on railway tracks after a long journey on foot in search of a transport to return home in Madhya Pradesh. After the accident, the railways called for new protocols to alert train drivers about people walking on tracks. Meanwhile, the move by BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh to freeze major labour laws in order to bolster businesses and revive the economy in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak has drawn sharp criticism.
Train crushes 16 migrants on way home
The victims were in a group of 20 people who left Jalna for their villages the previous evening after deciding to no longer wait for their employer – a company running a steel factory – to pay their wages.These migrant workers did not have jobs, and sometimes food, for over a month as factories remained shut due to the nationwide lockdown in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). Read more here.
Industry says Rs 15 lakh crore package required for economic revival
CII president Vikram Kirloskar said the negative impact on the economy is expected to be even more significant than what the industry had previously anticipated, and that it needs to be offset by a large fiscal stimulus. Read more here.
Covid-19: What you need to know today
In the 52 days since, the global number of cases has increased to 3.91 million, a compound growth rate of 5.7% a day, and the global number of deaths to 270,740, a growth rate of 6.8% a day. Read more here.
Some states put freeze on labour laws to get business going
Undertaking a radical set of politically controversial economic reform measures, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP), two states with substantial workforces, have frozen major labour laws, except basic ones, in the hope that businesses will recoup from the blow of the Covid-19 pandemic and create more jobs on a net basis. Read more here.
Supreme Court advises states to initiate online sale, home delivery of alcohol
The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stop the sale of liquor across the country but took the view that states should consider its online sale or home delivery in keeping with social distancing norms. Read more
Centre must give stimulus, decentralise power, says Rahul Gandhi
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold regular conversations with chief ministers “not as the boss but as a colleague” to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, and called for an economic package for all sections of society -- from the poorest to large industries -- because they are all interconnected parts of the economic engine that need to be kick-started to spur demand. Read more
Covid-19 update: Must learn to live with the virus to beat it, says govt
The government said on Friday that Indians needed to make behavioural changes and learn to live with the Sars-CoV-2 pathogen, which causes the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), even as it said that close to one in three patients were now free of the viral infection. Read more
Govt expands reach of Vande Bharat mission to bring back Indians stranded abroad
India will expand its massive repatriation programme for citizens stranded abroad due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crisis to Russia, Central Asian states and European countries such as Germany and Spain next week, people familiar with developments said on Friday. Read more
Ensuring safety of migrants key policy challenge for govt
On Labour Day, 38 days after a nationwide lockdown was announced, the first train ferrying migrants ran from Lingampally in Telangana to Hatia in Jharkhand. As the country trudges back to the new normal, a critical policy challenge will be to ensure the safety of the millions of migrants returning home. Read more
Train operators told to spot and report to avoid deaths
A group of factory workers on a 36-hour journey by foot in Maharashtra to catch transport back to their hometown in Madhya Pradesh, fell asleep exhausted after walking along the tracks since they thought there would be no trains running, the safety regulator of the railways said on Friday, calling for new protocols for engineers and field staff to report any instance of people walking on tracks so that other trains can be warned. Read more
Centre says Bengal not testing enough, mismanaging Covid-19 cases
As a row between West Bengal and the Centre over the state’s efforts to control the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) escalates, officials of the Union government said on Friday that the region was failing to conduct adequate tests and grappling with confusion and mismanagement over identifying hot spots and containing them. Read more
Anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine fails another test as a Covid-19 treatment, says study
Anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine has failed another test to check its efficacy in treating the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), a new study has revealed, with patients admitted to hospitals showing no change in their conditions after being administered the medicine. Read more
Will India’s tour of Aus kick off cricket in 2020?
For the first time since the pandemic forced cricket to take cover, India captain Virat Kohli indicated he is ready to play behind closed doors. This comes on the same day Sydney Morning Herald reported that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is not averse to sending a team for a bilateral tour of Australia later this year even if that means keeping them in quarantine. Read more
