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By all means these days are critical. In India this stage of the pandemic is the most decisive one. Its dangerous threat of spreading wide was predicted by experts. A national crisis does stare at the face of India. Its impact on India's future is unpredictable today. One thing is certain. Contemporary history will be divided into before and after Corona. The task of utmost importance at the moment is to fight COVID-19, the corona virus. All out efforts with real perspective are needed. India sees the necessity of a government that could rise to the occasion and mobilize the whole population to meet the challenges. Unfortunately, that exactly is what we lack today. The Modi government is unveiling its absolute incapacity to fulfil the people's expectations. Rhetoric of the highest volume will not suffice to meet this deep crisis, the challenge of the century.

The lockdown has completed a week and has two more weeks to go. By that time one hopes the lakshman rekha will be wiped off by Modi, who gloomily declared the lockdown and before on 19 March, ordered Indians to follow janata curfew and thali bajao campaign on March 22 to morally support the medical community involved in combating the coronavirus.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh’s opposition parties have come together in a big way to help the general public during the current corona crisis.

Central trade unions of India have written a collective letter addressed to the Union Minister of Labour and Employment, Santosh Gangwar, highlighting the plight of workers, especially the informal workers, in the wake of the coronavirus disease COVID-19 induced 21-day lockdown. The joint letter has been signed by Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC), Trade Union Coordination Centre (TUCC), Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), All India Central Council of Trade Unions (AICCTU), Labour Progressive Federation (LPF) and United Trade Union Congress (UTUC).

God versus Virus. Who would have thought! Praying for divine intervention at times of crisis has been in the nature of man from time immemorial. But for religions, which came rather late in the day, to take everything, including viruses, as a challenge to God’s supremacy and therefore to be challenged, even at the risk of total annihilation, is foolish to the extent of being suicidal!

The whole country is under lockdown for 21 days, even though WHO has warned that a lockdown alone cannot defeat the coronavirus. Was our country fully prepared to meet both the corona and the economic pandemic? Have we learnt any lesson after the outbreak in China? There is an acute shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) like masks, gloves, cover all suits, etc. There is also shortage of ventilators.

Welcome to ghost-town Britain, a land none of us was prepared for.

Humanity has been winning the war against epidemics because in the arms race between pathogens and doctors… Once scientists understood what causes epidemics, it became much easier to fight them. Vaccinations, antibiotics, improved hygiene, and a much better medical infrastructure have allowed humanity to gain the upper hand over its invisible predators…. global campaign of smallpox vaccination was so successful, that in 1979 the World Health Organization declared that humanity had won, and that smallpox had been completely eradicated.

– Yuval Noah Hariri, author of Sapiens, Homo Deus and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century.

Indore, the commercial hub of Madhya Pradesh, not only happens to be the worst affected town of the state, but also among the few worst affect cities of the country. From Monday it’s been under complete lockdown for three days. No one is being allowed on the streets, but for police and medical personnel, and barring medicine shops no other trade is to remain open. Even milk supply is shut. Those who violate the lockdown may end up in an open jail.

The coronavirus pandemic will leave some deep and fundamental lessons for organising our economy and for a new kind of social policy. If lockdown was the essential way to fight the spread of the virus, it has also shown where our social policies are flawed and how those can be remedied.