India Narrative

As several delegates who attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin West area of New Delhi earlier this month continue to be tested positive for Covid-19, the 'markaz mayhem'—as many put it—threatens to derail India's fight against the global epidemic. At a time when the entire country was emphasizing on the concept of social distancing, over 2,500 delegates had attended the gathering at the Banglewali Masjid and returned home to several parts of India earlier this month. However, while around 1,500 went back, more than a 1,000 stayed back even when the event was over. Now, dozens of them have been found Covid-19 positive, thus creating a nationwide panic. At the time of filing this report, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has confirmed that 1,548 people have been evacuated so far from Nizamuddin Markaz. Out of these, 1,107 have been quarantined, 441 symptomatic of COVID-19 and 24 cases so far have tested positive. The Markaz has also issued a s

Just a week ago, the Centre gave a clarion call to India Inc asking the captains of industry to protect jobs and salaries of their employees and even those who were on contract labor. On March 23, the government issued an advisory on the same. The advisory read that those who take leave from work as precaution to save themselves from the deadly coronavirus should be treated to be “on duty.” Despite this, several companies, especially in the aviation, travel, hospitality and manufacturing sectors, have already started announcing slashing of salaries of their employees or asking them to go on leave without any pay. The nationwide 21-day lockdown has dealt a severe blow to the business houses, which were already reeling under pressure in the wake of the spread of the novel coronavirus. The Confederation of All India Traders estimated a whopping loss of about $30 billion already incurred by the country's 70 million retailer in the last 15 days.  The Indian retail sector com