COVID-19: Karnataka reports 1,321 fresh cases, 10 deaths
Bengaluru:: Karnataka on Sunday reported 1,321 fresh COVID-19 infections and 10 mortalities taking the total cases and fatalities to 8,93,006 and 11,856 respectively, the health department said.
The total number discharged were 8,55,750, including 889 today. As many as 25,381 were active cases including 280 in the ICU, the department said in its bulletin.
Almost all the districts in Karnataka saw a steep decline in the cases and fatalities, including Bengaluru though it alone was on the higher side with the figures of infection in three digits.
The city today reported 733 infections and seven fatalities more than half of the total infections and deaths in the state.
Cumulatively, the city reported 3,74,024 infections, 4,183 deaths, 3,50,204 who got discharged, including 275 today, and 19,636 active cases.
The reduction in cases and infections since the past two months finally culminated in zero infections in Bidar whereas only four districts reported deaths, including Bengaluru.
Districts that reported infections in single-digit were Ramanagar (2), Koppal (3), Bagalkote (5), Chikkaballapura (7), and Gadag (8).
While Bengaluru reported seven deaths, one death each was reported in Bidar, Dakshina Kannada, and Kolar.
According to the bulletin, 68 fresh cases were reported in Mysuru, 52 in Tumakuru, 43 in Haveri, 41 each in Hassan and Mandya.
Cases were also reported in Ballari, Belagavi, Chamarajanagar, Chikkamagaluru, Chitradurga, Dakshina Kannada, Davangere, Dharwad, Kalaburagi, Kodagu, Kolar, Raichur, Shivamogga, Udupi, Uttara Kannada, and Vijayapura.
There were as many as 99,320 tests done during the day and the number included 83,698 using the RT-PCR and other methods taking the total tests done so far to 1.17 crore, the department added.
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India should create strategic buffers to navigate 'most difficult' energy shock: CEA Nageswaran
New Delhi (PTI): Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran on Saturday said India needs to create strategic buffers in the face of the "most difficult" energy shock that the country is facing amid the West Asia crisis.
Nageswaran also said the rising prices of fertiliser and petroleum products globally due to the crisis will make it challenging to achieve the 4.3 per cent fiscal deficit target for the current fiscal, while below normal monsoon and pass-through of higher energy prices could lead to "potential inflation spike".
He also said India has employment challenge emanating from AI, and there is a need to ensure that IT sector becomes more competitive and not lose jobs to AI, and instead create jobs that use AI within the IT sector or in other services.
Speaking at the ICPP Growth Conference organised by the Ashoka University, Nageswaran said the current account deficit (CAD) in the current fiscal could rise to over 2 per cent of GDP, from less than 1 per cent in FY'26.
"The ... priority for us is to create strategic buffers. This energy shock is the most difficult one compared to any other previous energy shock in terms of energy lost as a percentage of total global energy supply, not just oil, including gas.
"And we also need to use this occasion to think about other areas where we are vulnerable in terms of import dependence, nickel, tin, and copper. We need to build strategic buffers if we have to make a shot at manufacturing and becoming indispensable," Nageswaran said.
Since the beginning of the war in West Asia on February 28, crude oil prices soared to a four-year high of USD 126 per barrel on Thursday, from about USD 73 level before the war.
Stating that geopolitics will compel policymakers to be nimble and flexible and shed old model of thinking, Nageswaran said India is better prepared than many other countries to deal with the crisis because of the fiscal leeway that the country has due to lowering of fiscal deficit ratio to 4.4 per cent of GDP in FY'26.
Nageswaran said the West Asia conflict is more of a price shock than supply shock for India as the government is managing the supply side deftly.
"This particular conflict, which is going to be on a low simmer or a high flame situation, whatever it is, it is going to be there with us in some form or the other because the military conflict may be over, but the strategic conflict is well and truly alive. It will be so for some time," Nageswaran said.
He said the conflict has four channels of shock: price and supply shock, trade impact, sticky logistics costs and remittance shock.
India imports 60 per cent of its LPG usage and of that, 90 per cent flows through the now closed Strait of Hormuz.
Nageswaran said the pass-through of high global energy prices would have to be a "balancing act". He said some pass-through is already happening in commercial LPG, and the levy of export duty on diesel and ATF.
The government has cut excise duty on petrol and diesel to shield customers from the impact of the rise in petroleum prices. "We are coming around to arriving at a certain modus vivendi with respect to burden-sharing between the fiscal policy side, inflation, households and the oil marketing companies. So it has to be a balancing act," Nageswaran said.
