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
The Indian economy declined by almost a fourth in the first quarter of 2020-21 compared to a year ago, and there are fears that when data from smaller companies and the informal sector is factored in, the fall could be much higher.
Updated on Sep 01, 2020 11:43 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The vast difference between the absolute number of cases in the US and India makes comparisons difficult, but it is possible to look for similarities within the countries.
Updated on Sep 01, 2020 07:52 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Given India’s size and population, it definitely did not make sense for India to wait, like countries in Europe did, for the number of cases to start declining before opening up.
Updated on Aug 31, 2020 07:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
EAM S Jaishankar says strain on LAC peace to impact ties
Jaishankar said that the relationship between the two countries moved forward on various other dimensions, including the economic one, because of these agreements and the fact that both countries followed them.
Updated on Aug 30, 2020 05:36 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Shishir Gupta and R Sukumar
For peace along border, one must adhere to agreements: S Jaishankar
Union minister for external affairs S Jaishankar speaks about his book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World and speaks about the rise of India.
Updated on Aug 30, 2020 05:19 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | Shishir Gupta and R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The fact that most early antigen tests for Covid-19 were unreliable was worrying, but expected. Most people) were convinced that the problem was a temporary one.
Updated on Aug 29, 2020 02:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The need to answer questions such as these is why vaccine development usually takes years. The global health and economic crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has meant that vaccine developers have tried to shorten the development cycle.
Updated on Aug 28, 2020 07:51 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The trajectory of coronavirus disease in cities, provinces, and countries around the world suggests that most regions see a long plateau once cases have fallen to a retain level. The trajectory of the disease in Delhi shows a narrow peak (itself a rarity), and it is evident that the Capital is now seeing the plateau.
Updated on Aug 27, 2020 05:01 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
India’s Covid-19 numbers could well see an increase in the coming weeks – as testing increases (although states are blindly using rapid antigen tests without understanding when they should be used – a theme discussed several times in this column), and as the virus moves into rural India.
Updated on Aug 26, 2020 07:21 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Compared to many other viruses, Sars-CoV2 has stayed relatively stable – and that is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good because it means vaccines currently under development have a high chance of succeeding.
Updated on Aug 25, 2020 04:57 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: A testing primer
Many Indian states are testing above the 140-per-million daily benchmark recommended by the World Health Organization, but this is a woefully inadequate number.
Updated on Aug 23, 2020 06:03 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The big trend — no longer new; the HT newsroom has been writing about it for at least a month — is the fact that the growth in cases (and there is no sign that India has seen its peak) is being driven by states in the hinterland and the peninsula.
Updated on Aug 22, 2020 06:18 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Covid-19 update: While Delhi’s sero survey results are good news, it is important that the state government and people guard against complacency. The latter would do well to maintain mask discipline and practise social distancing.
Updated on Aug 21, 2020 07:42 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Maharashtra has thus far tested 26,750 people per million of its population; Andhra Pradesh 56,713, and Karnataka 32,435. The national average is 23,815. Clearly, these are India’s primary Covid-19 hot spots at this point.
Updated on Aug 20, 2020 04:58 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Based on data till July 31 (by which time India had registered 1.7 million cases), as many as 62% of those infected were below the age of 45 years.
Updated on Aug 19, 2020 06:54 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
With more countries, and, in India, more states and cities conducting antibody tests on a sample of the population to assess the prevalence of the coronavirus disease and understand just what proportion of people have antibodies against the virus, herd immunity is one of those concepts that is always likely to be in the news.
Updated on Aug 18, 2020 03:39 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The Covid-19 pandemic is now in evidence across India — the peninsula, the hinterland, and the eastern parts of the country have all become hot spots for the disease that was once restricted to a few states, and a few urban clusters within those states.
Updated on Aug 17, 2020 06:33 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The worrying thing for Mumbai is that its positivity rate has fluctuated wildly — from 46% on June 1 when it was doing very few tests (just a bit over 3,000), to 6.8% on July 28 when it conducted around 10,200 tests, to 10% on August 11 when it did around 9,200, to 16.3% on August 12 when it performed around 7,000 tests.
Updated on Aug 15, 2020 04:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The US, the world’s largest economy and also its most powerful country, has been laid low by the disease, with around 5.2 million cases and around 167,000 deaths. India has thus far seen 2.4 million cases and around 47,000 deaths.
Updated on Aug 14, 2020 03:37 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Russia’s move, more political gamesmanship than scientific achievement, is, at best, stupid and an example of science being led by politics, and, at worst, downright unethical – because an untested vaccine could do untold harm.
Updated on Aug 13, 2020 03:10 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
This column has previously focused on antigen tests, and when they are best used. Simply put (and there is no change in this writer’s position), antigen tests are best used when time, not capacity, is a constraint.
Updated on Aug 12, 2020 03:07 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Overall, according to data from worldometers.info, the US saw the addition of 22% of its total cases as on July 30 in the period between July 16 and July 30.
Updated on Aug 11, 2020 04:38 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R. Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Over the last two weeks, interestingly, the US has been on a decreasing curve of daily new cases, evident in its declining 7-day average, which has fallen by around 13,000 cases in this period.
Updated on Aug 10, 2020 05:02 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
With two-thirds of the year gone, there are six vaccine candidates in Phase-3 or Phase 2/3 trials, according to WHO. Three of these are Chinese – from Sinovac, Sinopharm and the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products, and Sinopharm and the Beijing Institute of Biological Products
Updated on Aug 08, 2020 07:21 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
India had recorded 25,594 deaths by the time it crossed a million cases; by Thursday, that number increased to 41,633, an additional 16,039 deaths in 21 days.
Updated on Aug 07, 2020 05:09 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Delhi has seen a sharp fall in cases, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have not – so the new wave is being driven largely by states such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
Updated on Aug 06, 2020 05:14 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
Deutsche Welle reported that “schools are considered low-risk”, citing research by doctors at the University Clinic of Leipzig that showed that “fewer than 20” of the 2,600 students and teachers tested showed Covid-19 antibodies, an indication of past infections.
Updated on Aug 05, 2020 05:32 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
The reason for the resurgence of the disease in Spain and France, and to a much lesser extent, in Germany and Italy, is that they opened up some time back, albeit with rules related to social distancing and the wearing of masks.
Updated on Aug 04, 2020 07:25 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
First, almost one in four people in Delhi show antibodies to the coronavirus disease, according to a recent survey of all of Delhi’s 11 districts, indicating that they have been exposed to it in the past (and infected, perhaps without showing any symptoms at all). I
Updated on Aug 03, 2020 12:07 PM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar
Covid-19: What you need to know today
How soon can an economy get back to its pre-pandemic levels? And the question is, how can a country protect itself from further coronavirus disruptions, which are inevitable?
Updated on Aug 01, 2020 05:44 AM IST
Hindustan Times, New Delhi | R Sukumar