Daily briefing: Rajasthan hospital faces probe after anti-Muslim WhatsApp posts by staff; When and how India’s economy will recover

It has been nearly two and a half months since malls, hotels, restaurants and places of worship have been closed to the public. With the phase I of unlockdown kicking in from today, we look at how it will be different in some states. For example, Haryana has not put any cap on the number of people allowed inside malls, restaurants and religious places.

The question, however, remains: what shape will India’s economic recovery take. Will it be a Z or L-shaped recovery? Our in-house expert on the subject explores the five possible scenarios (or letters) of recovery.

There has been a sharp dip in the amount of money Indians send abroad, especially for travel and studies. In April, Indians remitted just $499.14 million in comparison to $1,287.91 million in the same month last year. The trend reflects economic distress, lockdown at home and curbs on overseas travel.

Having taken over as the president of industry body Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) last week, Uday Kotak, MD, Kotak Mahindra Bank told The Indian Express that bankers want to be cautious in lending to businesses in order to protect the financial system itself. “The last thing we want at the time of a health crisis is to do something that creates a financial crisis and lose the trust of depositors in the financial system,” he says.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi feels that the Narendra Modi-led government has grudgingly come around to the significance of the MGNREGA programme. “This is not a BJP versus Congress issue. You have a powerful mechanism at hand, please use it to help the people of India in their time of need,” she writes.

Rajasthan Police are probing a purported WhatsApp conversation, in which staff of a private hospital in Churu district allegedly discussed not attending to Muslim patients who test positive for the virus. “Kal me muslim ptnt ka x-ray ni krunga. Yah meri sapat hai (From tomorrow, I will not do X-rays of Muslim patients. This is my vow),” read one of the messages in the alleged chat.

In the 16 years that he spent outside the Mumbai Police force, this assistant police inspector joined a political party, created a Marathi social media platform, developed a mobile app, wrote two books and assisted investigating agencies. On Friday, he was reinstated along with three others after being suspended for his alleged involvement in the custodial death of 27-year-old Khwaja Yunus in January 2003.

With help from Mumbai Police, CISF and the airport authority, Randy Juan Muller, a Ghanian footballer, made a park outside the airport terminal his home for 73 days after he found himself stranded due to the ban on international flights amid the pandemic lockdown. “I was like ‘well, I’m gonna die here’,” he says.

🎧 In today’s episode of Three Things podcast, we take a look at what private hospitals are charging for treating coronavirus patients.

🍝 In our #LockdownLife How to series, we prepare a classic Italian dish — Spaghetti and Meatballs

Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad and Liu Chuen Chen