With Vande flights facing curbs, India plans ‘travel bubbles’

With Vande flights facing curbs, India plans ‘travel bubbles’

Saurabh.Sinha@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  24.06.2020

Pressure is mounting on India to allow foreign airlines to operate schedule passenger charters, as Air India is doing under the Vande Bharat Mission (VBM). The US administration on Monday ruled Air India would require prior approval for operating flights to and from its soil from July 22 unless the issue of its airlines flying like AI between the two countries is resolved.

France has not been allowing passengers to fly on the India-Paris sector of VBM while permitting repatriation of Indian citizens on Paris-India leg of those flights since Monday. The European Union has initiated talks with India for its carriers resuming flights.

In response to the American and French moves, the civil aviation ministry on Tuesday said it is considering “travel bubbles” between India and the US, France, Germany and UK.

The India-US travel corridor could be the first to get activated between specific cities — Delhi and Mumbai on one side and New York, Chicago and San Francisco on the other — next month.

Quarantine restrictions for bubble flyers could be milder to facilitate quicker access to key categories of travellers, said sources. Some country pairs like Australia-New Zealand, which are in similar levels of the pandemic, are in advanced stages of creating the same.

AI seeks UAE nod to fly Indians to Dubai

Air India Express has sought clearance from the UAE to fly Indians working in Dubai from India on the India-Dubai leg of Vande Bharat flights. The Dubai government has allowed foreign nationals holding residency visas issued in Dubai to return to the emirate starting June 22, and will open its doors to tourists from July 7. TNN

US: Op rights of carriers impaired

The US department of transportation (DoT) on Monday said in an order that India “has impaired operating rights of US carriers and has engaged in discriminatory and restrictive practices with respect to US carriers’ services to and from India.” It specifically gave the example of Delta seeking permission on May 26 to operate charters like AI’s VBM and not getting the same till now. The DoT also said AI VBM operations to and from the US are more than half of its normal pre-pandemic schedule and that “AI may be using its passenger repatriation charters as a way of circumventing government of India (GoI)-imposed prohibition of all scheduled services”.

While the US action is from a month later, AI officials say 78 passengers booked on the Mumbai-Paris CDG VBM flight of Monday could not be flown due to the last-minute decision of France. “Monday flight went as ferry (without passengers) and came back full. On Tuesday also, our Mumbai-Paris CDG flight was used as ferry. Now we will be able to take passengers to Paris on VBM only when France allows us to do so,” said an AI official.

India on Tuesday said the request of countries like the US, France and Germany for their airlines to operate flights on the line of AI’s VBM are being considered. Discussions have been held with US authorities and their proposals were received last Friday.

Delay in tests may cause super spread

Delay in tests may cause super spread

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Amaravati:  24.06.2020

With the state government determined to screen almost the entire population of the state for Covid-19, the burden on testing laboratories has gone up multifold.

The government labs are struggling to deliver test reports leading to delay in tracing and quarantining people who test positive.

Sources said that thousands of swab samples are lying at the labs due to mismatch in testing capacity of the labs and the samples collected. In many cases, the results are coming five to 10 days after the collection of sample, which according to senior medical professionals, serve no purpose in treating the positive cases.

With schools still shut, home tutors earn big bucks

With schools still shut, home tutors earn big bucks

Nirupa.Vatyam@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  24.06.2020

The extended ‘lockdown’ of school premises in the city have brought home tutors back into business. With many children unable to cope with online classes, parents are turning to in-house tuitions to ensure their kids do not lag behind. And this despite the hefty price tag that most of these tutors come with — anywhere between Rs 4,000 and Rs 7,000 a month, for three classes a week. In rare cases the fee is even higher, confess tutors.

“A parent from DRDL offered to pay Rs 8,000 only to clear the doubts of his two sons, who are in classes 6 and 7. It is for an hour-long class every day,” said B Shiva a tutor who is employed at a school in Ameerpet. Like him there are others too who, courtesy the pandemic, have suddenly found themselves in great demand. Unlike other years when home tutors would start getting year enquires only after the first summative tests i.e around October or November, and that too only from parents whose children were set to appear for board examinations, this year parents they already have their phones ringing incessantly.

“Last year, during the beginning of academic year, I got about 10 enquires. This year, I have already received enquiries from close to 30 parents,” said T Mahesh, a mathematics tutor adding that this year even parents of classes 8 and 9 students are inclined on hiring home tutors for core subjects. And despite job/salary cuts, many are willing to pay 20% to 30% more for availing tuitions — particularly Physics and Mathematics. Same is the case with parents of class 6, 7 students looking at hiring a teacher for all subjects.

“It’s worked out well for us too,” said Ali Basha saying how many teachers, with no salary from schools, are falling back on this income. “I teach Maths, Science, and English to two brothers, who are in classes 7 and 8, for two hours every day and charges Rs 10,000 for it. I am currently surviving on this,” Basha said and added that he is planning to take on more home tuitions to increase his income.

Parents say, hiring a home tutor is not just more convenient — as they do not need to send their children out for private tuitions in these circumstances — but also more fruitful for their kids. “My son’s school started online classes from June 1. But I noticed that he is unable to grasp the subjects taught through this format. So, I have now hired a home tutor to come in and clear his doubts. He charges Rs 5,000 per months,” said M Suhasini, parent of Class 7 student.

For over a week now, I have started taking home tuitions for class 10 students. Currently, I am teaching physics to three students and conduct classes on alternate days. I charge about ₹6, 000 per month from each student. — Ch Venkata Raghavan.

I have started taking home tuitions for class 10 students. Currently, I am teaching physics to three students and conduct classes on alternate days. I charge about ₹6, 000 per month from each student

Ch Venkata Raghavan | PHYSICS TUTOR

Govt staff to get full pay for June

Govt staff to get full pay for June

Koride.Mahesh@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad:  24.06.2020

In what could come as a huge relief, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Tuesday announced that the government would pay full salary and pension to the employees for this month. The CM said since the state economy was improving, the government has decided to pay full salaries and pensions to the retired. He instructed the officials to make arrangement for the same.

While a press release by the CMO said full salary and pension would be paid “for this month,” there is no clarity whether the government would continue to make full payment in subsequent months or take a decision after reviewing the financial situation every month.

The government has not taken any decision on payment of deferred salaries and pension amount. Owing to the financial crisis and poor revenues accruing to the government departments due to the lockdown, Telangana had imposed deferment of salaries and pension for the last three months.

While 50% cut in salaries of all government employees except police, doctors and sanitation workers was implemented, there was 75% cut for elected representatives like CM, ministers, MLAs and MLCs, 60% salary deferment to IAS, IPS and IFS officers. Even outsourcing and contract employees had to endure a 10% cut in salaries. Initially, retired government employees were also slapped with 50% cut in their pensions and later, it was revised to 25% cut.

The employees’ unions have been requesting the government to review its decision and make full salary payments. Some unions, a couple of days ago, had threatened to protest if they are not paid full salary in June. Since there were court cases on salary cut, the government has recently promulgated an ordinance empowering it to make part payment of salaries and pensions in wake of a health emergency declared by the government such as Covid-19.

Meanwhile, Telangana employees’ JAC leaders Karam Ravinder Reddy and V Mamata expressed happiness over the decision and urged the CM to make payment of the balance to the staff.

India has 1 Covid death per lakh against world’s 6

India has 1 Covid death per lakh against world’s 6

Sushmi.Dey@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  24.06.2020

India has one death per lakh population due to Covid-19 while the global average is more than six times at 6.04, the health ministry said on Tuesday, claiming that India had one of the lowest deaths per lakh population in the world due to timely detection of cases, extensive contact tracing and effective clinical management.

On June 2, India’s Covid-19 fatality per lakh population was 0.41, against 4.9 globally.

Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) expanded the network of laboratories across the country to 1,000 to test for Covid-19. This includes 730 government labs and 270 in the private sector.

“This is an important milestone in the fight against coronavirus. Since the beginning, we have been focusing on 3Ts — testing, tracking and treating to fight the disease. Through increased testing, we are fighting this virus. Our goal was to establish a lab in every district of the country, which we have achieved to a large extent,” ICMR director general Dr Balram Bhargava said.

The health ministry has recorded 14,011 deaths due to Covid-19 so far. This includes 312 fatalities reported in 24 hours till 8 am on Tuesday, while 14,933 new cases took the total caseload to 4,40,215.

Citing the World Health Organisation’s latest situation report, the ministry said coronavirus-related fatalities per lakh population in the UK was 63.13, while it was 60.60 in Spain, 57.19 in Italy, 36.30 in the US, 27.32 in Germany, 23.68 in Brazil and 5.62 in Russia.

“This is also a testimony to the graded, pre-emptive and proactive approach taken by the government along with states/UTs for prevention, containment and management of Covid-19,” the ministry said.

So far, 2,48,189 patients have recovered from the disease, taking the recovery rate to 56.38%. There were 1,78,014 active cases.

Google to offer fact-checking of images

Google to offer fact-checking of images

Anam.Ajmal@timesgroup.com

New Delhi:  24.06.2020

To curb misinformation, technology giant Google will start adding factchecking labels in its image search results globally, the company said late on Monday. The labels will provide additional information to make it easier for users to identify manipulated photos.

“Photos and videos are an incredible way to help people understand what’s going on in the world. But the power of visual media has its pitfalls — especially when there are questions surrounding the origin, authenticity or context of an image,” Google product manager Harris Cohen wrote in a blog post announcing the feature.

Rlys offers refunds, regular trains not likely till mid-August

SPECIAL RUN

Rlys offers refunds, regular trains not likely till mid-August

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:  24.06.2020

The Indian Railways will refund the full booking amount of all tickets booked up to April 14 for all regular time-tabled trains, an indication of the national transporter not resuming the earlier regular passenger train services at least till mid-August.

Currently, it’s running only 230 mail and express trains as “special trains”. Though the railway ministry has repeatedly said more trains are likely to be operated to meet any demand, sources said these may be branded as “special” ones as well.

The railway ministry, on Monday, issued a circular to all zones informing them about the decision to cancel all tickets booked on or before April 14 and to generate full refund of tickets.

The railways had allowed advance booking of tickets for 120 days. As per the current rules, passengers don’t need to cancel tickets, if the railways cancel trains and the process of automatic full refund starts.

Railways had suspended advance reservation for regular train services from April 15, though the regular train services were cancelled from March 25.

Railway ministry officials had told reporters on Monday that the average occupancy of the special trains being operated now was 70%. All these special trains presently being run are fully reserved services.

Meanwhile, considering the restricted movement of passengers and less demand due to pandemic, the railways has decided to focus more on freight movement and getting the ground ready for private investment.