Policy balance
The recent appointment of Sanjay Malhotra as Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), replacing Shaktikanta Das, signals a pivotal shift in India’s monetary policy dynamics.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has continued to downplay the COVID-19 situation with actions considered frivolous, such as riding a jet ski, as the pandemic has claimed 10,656 lives in the country and infected 156,061 others.
On Saturday, Bolsonaro rode a jet ski on a lake in Brasilia and took photos with his supporters.
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Initially, the President had planned to hold a barbecue celebration for some 30 guests, but due to a barrage of criticism, the President cancelled the gathering and opted to ride the jet ski instead.
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Brazil is already the sixth country in the world with the most deaths, behind the US, UK, Italy, Spain and France, and has surpassed the 10,000 fatalities mark less than two months after the confirmation of the first on March 17.
The figures confirm the rapid expansion of the pandemic. In just 10 days the numbers doubled in the country and on April 30, 5,901 deaths were recorded.
According to a British scientific journal The Lancet, “perhaps the biggest threat to Brazil’s COVID-19 response is its President, Jair Bolsonaro”.
Last Friday, Bolsonaro said that he would like all the citizens to return to work amid an ongoing lockdown imposed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The right-wing leader said he was sure that Brazil would “return to normalcy” soon, even though the pandemic has aggravated in the country and according to estimates by the health ministry, would peak after a few weeks.
Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, two of the most affected areas, have extended their measures until May 31 and their respective governors, Joao Doria and Wilson Witzel have not discarded the possibility of total confinement.
The President’s anger has focused mainly on Sao Paulo governor Joao Doria, and Rio de Janeiro governor Wilson Witzel, who are at the forefront of the regions hardest hit by the coronavirus and have decreed “soft” quarantines in their territories.
As the crisis deepens, some cities in the state of Maranhao are set to be the first to adopt a complete lockdown from May 5.
Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus has killed at least 274,617 people since the outbreak first emerged in China last December, according to AFP tally on Saturday.
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