Sukumar Ranganathan is the Editor-in-Chief of Hindustan Times. He is also a comic-book freak and an amateur birder.
Articles by R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
New York State accounts for 356,278 (as of Tuesday morning) of the total of around 1.51 million cases in the country – around 23.5%. And 28,302 deaths – 31.3% of the 90,293 deaths in the country.
Updated on May 20, 2020 06:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
As India enters the next phase of its exit from a complete lockdown – that’s what the next two weeks to May 31 are, more than an extension – testing becomes even more significant. Only widespread testing can show the real extent of the spread of the viral pandemic.
Updated on May 19, 2020 02:25 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
‘Focus on where money is going’, says Nirmala Sitharaman
Saying that she was “amazed” by the comparisons with other countries, which had the advantage of better systems and data, the finance minister said that reforms brought in by the Narendra Modi government such as the direct benefits transfer scheme helped the government provide direct aid to different segments.
Updated on May 18, 2020 01:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar and Shishir Gupta
Economic package will have multiplier effect, says FM Nirmala Sitharaman
The union finance minister is confident that the relief measures will spur demand and will also provide much needed relief from the pandemic to small and large businesses.
Updated on May 18, 2020 04:24 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar and Shishir Gupta
The office is dead; long live the office
WFH assumes that people have the connectivity they need to work from home; that their homes have quiet (or not-so-quiet) corners from where they can work; and that they do not mind work becoming all consuming.
Updated on May 16, 2020 04:55 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Many people infected by Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, are asymptomatic, and that many people who show symptoms, have mild infections.
Updated on May 15, 2020 03:05 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
It is now becoming clear that starting May 17, the lockdown could be eased even further. Over the past week, the refrain in government circles has changed from “flattening the curve” to “learning to live with the virus”.
Updated on May 14, 2020 04:54 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
As India exits the lockdown, albeit in stages, it would do well to focus on states accounting for the most deaths, and those that are not testing enough.
Updated on May 13, 2020 05:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
India’s trajectory of cases and deaths has been unique for reasons that are still not clear. The increase in the number of cases has been slower than it has been in other countries. And the death rate is still around 3.2%.
Updated on May 12, 2020 05:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The number of cases in India rose to 67,085 on Sunday night, the number of deaths to 2,140, and the number of recoveries to 20,901.
Updated on May 11, 2020 03:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Fear of the coronavirus disease will restrict our movements and interactions, and while there may be few of us willing to risk it all, families, societies, organisations, service providers, even governments will try and insist that people follow basic safety protocols in everything they do.
Updated on May 10, 2020 05:23 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
A vaccine to treat Covid-19 may be available later this year or early next year – whether it will be accessible to all is a different question altogether.
Updated on May 09, 2020 05:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The global scale of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has no cure right now, has meant everyone knows the significance of ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. This is the vaccine being developed at the University of Oxford.
Updated on May 08, 2020 05:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Coronavirus update: Containment and zoning are actually good approaches to dealing with Covid-19 given the geographical concentration of cases. This has been known since Wuhan, and how the Chinese dealt with it, but merits repetition.
Updated on May 07, 2020 05:45 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
As India exits the lockdown gradually – phase 3 of the nationwide lockdown is actually a graded exit – this will be the number to watch.
Updated on May 06, 2020 05:43 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
For 40 days, everyone has been waiting to exhale, but the huge collective exhalation may end up being counterproductive to India’s efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus disease.
Updated on May 05, 2020 05:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The death tallies for the week before April 22 in India were as follows: April 21: 54; April 20: 32; April 19: 39; April 18: 32; April 17: 40; April 16: 24; April 15: 33.
Updated on May 03, 2020 03:48 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Most people also said they’d like to think that India has dodged the bullet — that things won’t get as bad here as they did in Italy, the US, and the UK — but that they are not sure.
Updated on May 02, 2020 06:13 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Coronavirus update: Delhi and Tamil Nadu, in that order, suffered the most from the irresponsibility of the Tablighi Jamaat, which insisted on hosting a weeks-long gathering at its headquarters in Delhi in March.
Updated on May 01, 2020 06:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Correlation isn’t causation, but it’s interesting to note that India, Peru and Portugal have almost universal coverage of the BCG vaccine — given to children to fight tuberculosis, and which helps them build immunity to several other respiratory ailments.
Updated on Apr 30, 2020 04:40 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The number of coronavirus cases in India continues to grow, but the curve is not, by any stretch, an exponential one.
Updated on Apr 29, 2020 05:55 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
By Sunday night, the number of tests carried out in India was 665,819.
Updated on Apr 28, 2020 05:35 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19 lockdown: India should open up now
The country is better prepared on almost every front — testing, protective equipment, hospitals — than it was on March 25, when the first lockdown kicked in, and on April 14, but it isn’t clear whether this is enough should the number of cases rise when the lockdown ends.
Updated on Apr 27, 2020 06:41 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Here’s something for you to do this Sunday: Birding
Since the lockdown began, and people started spending all their time at home, there’s been a huge upsurge of interest in birding.
Updated on Apr 26, 2020 08:30 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
There’s long been a theory that the number of people infected with the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, is actually higher than that reported.
Updated on Apr 25, 2020 07:27 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The World Bank said remittances to India will fall by 23%. The fall by almost a fourth is more bad news for India, whose economy, like that of most other countries, has been ravaged by Covid-19.
Updated on Apr 24, 2020 09:46 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The US President touted the malaria drug Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) as a wonder cure but several studies and opinions from experts have recommended against its use.
Updated on Apr 23, 2020 06:04 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Research from Italy has shown that the viral load in some asymptomatic patients is as high as that in patients with severe Covid-19 symptoms.
Updated on Apr 22, 2020 05:38 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
A previous time series analysis by Hindustan Times showed that in general, across states, the number of cases increased with the number of tests.
Updated on Apr 21, 2020 07:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What to read during, after a pandemic
Given how popular the movie Contagion has become over the past few months, and the huge renewal of interest in the genre after the emergence of Covid-19, this Sunday column is dedicated to the huge volume of end-of-the-world fiction that’s out there.
Updated on Apr 19, 2020 06:56 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar