Hard taskmasterUttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath knows there is nothing like a tough target to keep his officials on their toes. A pandemic breathing down their necks means there’s no rest for the medical education department, which runs 52 medical colleges across the state. At the start of the lockdown, UP was testing 100 samples per day. The CM increased the target to 5,000 per day and then to 10,000, which the health department was able to meet by May 31. Department officials who caught a breather at a review meeting that day were back to the grind the same evening when the CM asked them to double the testing capacity.Rebel in the Family Union minister of state for consumer affairs and senior BJP leader from Maharashtra Raosaheb Danve had faced some embarrassment during the Lok Sabha election last year. His son-in-law, former Shiv Sena MLA Harshwardhan Jadhav, had contested as an independent, leading to the defeat of then alliance partner Shiv Sena’s Lok Sabha candidate in Aurangabad. Jadhav recently announced he was quitting politics and alleged that Danve had his phone tapped. Danve clearly has a rebel on his hands..preferred-source-banner{ margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}Reddy Retort Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy’s attempt to replace state election commissioner (SEC) N. Ramesh Kumar with retired Madras High Court judge V. Kanagaraj, has boomeranged. Kumar was removed via an April 10 ordinance, following a row over the postponement of the local body polls. Armed with a state high court order striking down the ordinance rem­oving him, Kumar issued a circular reinstating himself and is threatening to move court again accusing the state of contempt. Kumar’s five-year term would have ended March 31 next and Reddy was advised against the move. But the CM rem­ains adamant, doing all he can to obstruct Kumar’s return.Food for thoughtThe humble samosa hit the headlines this week 1. Australian PM Scott Morrison shared pictures of home-cooked ‘ScoMosas’, tagging PM Narendra Modi.2. Were being eaten by a Pakistani spy as he was arrested by the police in Old Delhi.3. Two persons arrested by Mumbai police for organising a rooftop samosa party.The week in Numbers71%Reduction in use by Indians of retail and leisure spaces over five weeks up to May 25, shows the most recent Google mobility trends report. The baseline is usage recorded between January 3 and February 6, 2020. Use of parks and similar spaces was down 55%. Data for the USA over a similar period showed the use of parks and public spaces had increased by 60%, while retail and recreation was down 28%.$328.2 millionRevenue generated by Chinese video-conferencing app Zoom for the quarter that ended on April 30. Zoom now has 265,400 customers with more than 10 employees, a 354% year-on-year rise. Free participants, the company said, included 100,000 K-12 schools around the world. Zoom’s rocketing growth, of course, is due to COVID-19-enforced lockdowns that have required people to work from home and children to attend virtual school.3 times in just over a week, that’s how often Pinjra Tod activist Devangana Kalita has been arrested by Delhi police over alleged involvement in anti-CAA violence. Despite the high court giving her bail after her first arrest on May 23, the police re-arrested her in connection with a second case and then a third. On June 2, a judge ordered that Kalita be released on bail since her direct involvement in violence at an anti-CAA protest in Daryaganj in December 2019 had not been established. She remains in jail over alleged involvement in the riots in Northeast Delhi in Feb. 2020.$2.1 trillionOwed by countries classified by the World Bank as ‘low income’ and ‘low middle income’ to foreign investors and governments. This, while the COVID-19 pandemic has left their currencies plummeting. Poorer countries were encouraged to borrow over the last decade by low interest rates, but much of that debt has been bought up by investors seeking greater returns than are possible in developed economies, leaving these countries now facing a debt crisis. The G20 has called for a temporary suspension of repayments.80People offered shelter for the night in Washington DC by Indian-American Rahul Dubey. They were protesting the death of Minneapolis man George Floyd, killed by policemen kneeling on his neck and back despite his protests that he couldn’t breathe. The protesters, in violation of a 7 pm curfew, were hemmed into a narrow street. Dubey opened his doors to what became a flood of people seeking refuge from aggressive police. “I did what anyone would do,” he said.111.9 millionDownloads of Chinese-owned TikTok in May, the most downloaded non-game app worldwide. India accounted for 20% of the downloads, revealed Sensor Tower, a San Francisco-based website tracking apps data. The US was the next highest, accounting for 9.3% of downloads. According to reports, the Google apps store removed a free Indian app that enabled users to remove Chinese apps from their phones. The app had already been downloaded around five million times since late May, as tensions rose between Indian and China over the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh and northern Sikkim. Published By: Iram Ara IbrahimPublished On: Jun 6, 2020--- ENDS ---
