28,941 samples tested on April 15, says ICMR; WHO lauds health ministry

ICMR has also issued a list of 176 government laboratories and 78 private laboratories for the coronavirus testing.

Continuing its fight against coronavirus, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said a total of 2,74,599 samples have been tested for Covid-19 detection so far, with 28,941 samples being tested on Wednesday.

The samples were taken from 2,58,730 individuals which is lower than the samples tested because many suspected patients were tested more than once, according to the statement released by ICMR.

On April 15, till 9 p.m., 28,941 samples have been reported, out of which 953 were found positive for Covid-19.

"At least 11,297 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases in India," it said.

ICMR has also issued a list of 176 government laboratories and 78 private laboratories for the coronavirus testing.

ALSO READ: Coronavirus LIVE: India cases at 12380; IMF and WHO back India's efforts

Delhi has 8 government labs, including AIIMS, Lady Hardinge Medical College, National Centre for Disease Control, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Institute of Liver & Biliary Sciences, Army Hospital Research & Referral, Maulana Azad Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Safdarjung Hospital.

Other than Delhi, there are 17 in Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, 15 in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Karnataka, 10 in Kerala, nine in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, eight in Rajasthan, seven in Andhra Pradesh, five in Assam and Bihar among others.

Apollo Tyres prunes FY20 and FY21 capex by Rs 300 cr on auto slowdown

The move is in line with other tyre makers' plans to pare their outlays.

Apollo Tyres has decided to cut back its capex by about Rs 300 crore to Rs 2,400 crore in 2019-20 and by a similar amount in FY21, following the slowdown in auto sector. The proposed capex mainly will be at company's upcoming unit in Andhra Pradesh and at its Hungary facility.

During the recent analyst call, company's management said, “The company had started the year with an estimate of Rs 2,700 crore capex, which has now been scaled back to Rs 2,400 crore. Over the last nine months, the company incurred a capex of about Rs 2,000 crore”.

For the next year, the number should be in the range of Rs 1,400-1,500 crore from Rs 1,700-1,800 crore earlier. The decision is in line with other tyre makers' plans to cut down capex due to the slowdown in the auto sector.

"All the competitors, including us, were surprised at the drop in OEMs and particularly the extent of drop in OE business. Because of that, from the announced plans, the capexes have been slowed down by everybody like we have," Gaurav Kumar, chief financial officer of Apollo Tyres told analysts.

"Based on the market information that we get, all the players have slowed down their capital expenditure. So is there specifically some capacity coming up, which will alter the demand‐supply economics in near term? (The answer is) No," he added.

Speaking about the Andhra Pradesh facility, he said, that the plant ramp up may depend on how the demand situation pans out. The ramping up is scheduled to happen over two years, and the full capacity will be available in Fiscal 2023. When it reaches 100 per cent utilisation, it can genrate over Rs 4,000 crore in revenue.

The plant will start making tyres by the end of this year and then its capacity will be expanded to 15,000 car tyres and 3,000 truck radials over a two-year time frame, that is by FY22-end.

Read More : Market News

Chandrababu Naidu begins fast over Andhra special status; Opposition to extend support

A TDP delegation led by Chandrababu Naidu will submit a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu began a day-long fast in Delhi on Monday, demanding that the Centre grant special status to the state and fulfil all promises made before its bifurcation in 2014.

A number of Opposition party leaders - including Congress president Rahul Gandhi, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal - are expected to extend their support to the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief's fast at the Andhra Pradesh Bhavan.

Before beginning the fast, Naidu offered tributes to Matama Gandhi at Raj Ghat and to B R Ambedkar at Andhra Pradesh Bhavan.

ALSO READ: LIVE: Priyanka in Lucknow, Modi in Vrindavan; Naidu begins day-long fast

A TDP delegation led by Naidu will submit a memorandum to President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday.

Naidu has been trying to unite the opposition parties to take on the BJP in the general elections. Over the last three months, he has held a number of meetings with the opposition party leaders on forming an anti-BJP front.

In March last year, the TDP had pulled out of the NDA government over its refusal to grant special status to Andhra Pradesh.

The party has been accusing the Narendra Modi government of not releasing enough funds for the Polavaram irrigation project, the Kadapa steel plant and Amravati, the under-construction ultra-modern state capital.

On June 2, 2014, Andhra Pradesh was split into two, and Hyderabad became the capital of the new state Telangana.

Business Standard

Karnataka to West Bengal: How climate change is ravaging India's coastline

West Bengal has lost 99 sq km of land in the past 26 years, making up 63% of the state's coastline and equivalent to the area occupied by 18,500 football fields.

Business Standard : First, in 2011, the sea took away some of their land. Three years later, the waves demolished a section of their home. That is when Budhwant Karvi, 40, knew it was time to move but his elderly parents refused.

“They said we have lived here for generations and will continue to do so,” said Karvi, a worker on a fishing trawler that sails the Arabian sea.

Karvi’s home is in Pavinakurve, a village along the scenic Honnavar coast with blue waters reflecting the sky in Western Karnataka. The view from the home was once a narrow strip of sandy beach and the vast Arabian sea. On the right is the island of Basavaraj Durga, a popular tourist destination.

The view from Pavinakurve and the island of Basavaraj Durga in northwestern Karnataka. The sandy beaches of Pavinarkurve are being steadily eroded.

Seven years ago, the waves began to crash against the walls of Karvi’s home made of red, large bricks. “At times the waves would completely wash over our home and leave behind plastic bottles that were discarded in the sea by people,” Karvi said, pointing to the waste bottles on the land. Soon the sandy strip of the beach went under water. Then one by one the sea swallowed six guntas (1/7th of an acre) of the land the family owned, roughly six times the size of an average two-bedroom flat.

Millions living on India’s coasts are threatened as India has lost 33% of its coastline to erosion in 26 years between 1990 and 2006, according to a report released in July 2018 by the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) in Chennai, which is mapping changes to India’s shoreline, and is affiliated to the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

This is the second story in our series on how climate change is disrupting people’s lives (you can read the first part here). The series combines ground reporting from India’s climate change hotspots with the latest scientific research.

India has a coastline of 7,500 km--nearly three-and-a-half times the distance between Ahmedabad and Kolkata--divided almost equally on the east and the west of the country. Along it are nine states, two union territories (UT) and two island territories. Of the country’s 1.28 billion people, 560 million, or 43%, live within these coastal territories.

Of the coastline that is eroding, 40% is in four states/UTs alone. West Bengal has lost 99 sq km of land in the past 26 years, making up 63% of the state’s coastline and equivalent to the area occupied by 18,500 football fields. Puducherry has lost 57% of its coastline, Kerala 45%, and Tamil Nadu 41%, to heavy erosion.

India’s coasts are under attack both from man-made activities--such as growing construction, damming of rivers, sand mining and destruction of mangroves--as well as natural causes linked to climate change such as rising sea levels, according to the report... Read More

Cyclone 'Titli' turns into severe storm, approaches Odisha, Andhra coast

It is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 18 hours.

Cyclone 'Titli' over the Bay of Bengal intensified into a severe cyclonic storm Wednesday and is moving towards the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh coast, triggering rainfall in several parts of Odisha, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The cyclonic storm is likely to make a landfall between Gopalpur in Odisha and Kalingapatanam in Andhra Pradesh early Thursday morning at a wind speed of 145 kmph, it said.( Business Standard )

"Titli moved with a speed of about 10 kmph and intensified into a severe cyclonic storm and lay centred over the west-central Bay of Bengal, about 370 km south-southeast of Gopalpur in Odisha," the IMD said in a bulletin.

It is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm during the next 18 hours. The storm is likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Odisha and adjoining north Andhra Pradesh coast between Gopalpur and Kalingapatnam around Thursday morning, it said.

Thereafter, it is likely to re-curve northeastward, move towards Gangetic West Bengal across Odisha and weaken gradually, Director of the Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar, H R Biswas told PTI.

While some areas in coastal Odisha recorded rainfall Wednesday, the IMD has forecast "heavy to very heavy rainfall" at several places and "extremely heavy rainfall" at isolated areas till Thursday under the impact of the severe cyclonic storm.

The districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Nayagarh, Cuttack, Jajpur, Bhadrak and Balasore are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Thursday, the IMD said.

It also forecast heavy to very heavy rainfall for Kandhamal, Boudh and Dhenkanal district from Thursday.

The IMD said rainfall would be accompanied by gale wind speed reaching 60-70 kmph and gusting to 80 kmph along and off Odisha and north Andhra Pradesh coasts.

The wind speed will gradually increase to 120-130 kmph and gusting to 145 kmph from Wednesday night along and off south Odisha coast and 70-80 kmph gusting to 95 kmph along and off north the Odisha coast, the IMD bulletin said.

The sea condition is very high over the west-central Bay of Bengal. It is very likely to be phenomenal over the west-central and the adjoining north Bay of Bengal and along and off the south Odisha coast till Thursday, it said.

Storm surge of a height of about 1 metre above astronomical tide is very likely to inundate low lying areas of Ganjam, Khurda and Puri districts, it said.

The IMD advised total suspension of fishing operations and shifting of coastal hutment dwellers to safe places. Fishermen along the Odisha coast, and central and north Bay of Bengal were advised not to venture into sea till Friday... Read More

Govt faces no-trust vote; BJP confident of punching holes in Oppn's efforts

The BJP has also upped the ante in its criticism of the Congress, and has succeeded in catching it on the wrong foot.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan surprised the Opposition on Wednesday, the first day of the monsoon session of Parliament, when she not only accepted their notices for a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government but also announced that the debate and voting on the motion would be held as early as Friday.

During the Budget session in March, Mahajan had pointed to disruptions in the House for not taking up a discussion on the notices of no-confidence motion, drawing criticism from opposition parties.

According to sources, this change in the government’s strategy of being amenable to facing a no-confidence motion came at the suggestion of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah.

If the Opposition believes it will use the debate to embarrass the government on a host of issues, the BJP brass thinks the Opposition has offered it a gilded opportunity, that too close to elections to three key north Indian states, and the Lok Sabha polls not far away.

The PM has already started addressing public rallies across the country. The BJP has also upped the ante in its criticism of the Congress, and has succeeded in catching it on the wrong foot by describing it a party for Muslims. Modi’s reply to the debate in the Lok Sabha on Friday, with his speech set to be telecast live, is expected to mark the launch of his campaign for the 2019 polls.

Unless the PM does the unthinkable by quitting and recommending the dissolution of the House, which will also pave the way for much speculated early Lok Sabha elections, there is little danger to his government. In the Lok Sabha, the BJP continues to command a majority of its own in the House.

Therefore, the no-confidence motion will be less about number-crunching and more about optics. The Opposition will try to embarrass the government on a host of issues – agrarian distress, atrocities on dalits, special status for Andhra Pradesh, increase in deposits of Indians in Swiss banks, lynching incidents, foreign policy, and economy.

The BJP and government strategists are confident the debate and subsequent voting on the motion will expose Opposition disunity, while the PM will punch holes in the Opposition’s efforts at building a narrative against the government on issues such as farm distress. On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs increased the minimum price sugar mills pay to sugarcane growers by Rs 20 a quintal.

The news of the Speaker accepting the notices for a no-confidence motion rattled the market on Wednesday morning. The benchmark BSE Sensex closed nearly 150 points in the red after hitting a new all-time high in the morning.

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