The Week Ahead: Maha gears up for reopening of schools, religious places; RBI to take rate call

Mumbai and the rest of Maharashtra face a key Covid-19 test this week. Schools reopen on Monday with the state government allowing students from Grades 8 to 12 to attend school, 18 months after their closure in March 2020. On Thursday, places of religious worship will be open to the general public, with certain Covid protocols.

The state Covid task force and other experts, including those in the chief minister’s office, will be observing the daily trends, especially if there are spikes in certain areas. This is Maharashtra’s first tryst with some degree of pre-Covid normalcy. The country’s worst-affected state is taking a calculated risk, and every other state would be looking at Mumbai to figure out whether they can replicate the experiment.

It’s not going to be easy, but several experts this correspondent spoke to said they could think of no other way to take baby steps towards the old normal.

In Delhi, too, the hot button issue will be education. Admissions to Delhi University (DU) colleges for undergraduate courses begin on Monday. Eligible students can apply till Wednesday night through DU’s admissions portal. Will it be a crazy rush? Last Friday, breaking all previous records, eight DU colleges announced 100% cutoff for admission into 11 UG courses programmes. With the number of top scorers almost double of last year, it remains to be seen whether colleges will be able to fill course-wise seats under first cutoff. Last year, after announcing 100% cutoff in three subjects, Lady Shriram College had reduced the cutoff in the second list based on the demand of the courses.

Delhi is also likely to make significant strides in climate change mitigation when chief minister Arvind Kejriwal releases the city’s climate action plan today. This time around, the Delhi government has formulated what it calls a “detailed winter pollution action plan”, which will act as a guiding document for the city this winter to control the annual increase in the air pollution level.

This week - the first in the second half of the fiscal - will be a busy one at the Reserve Bank of India. On October 8, the monetary policy committee of the RBI will come up with its resolution. While policy rate is expected to stay unchanged, the RBI will release the results of its forward-looking surveys such as the Consumer Confidence Survey and the Inflation expectation survey of Households. These numbers will give a much needed insight into the nature of economic recovery.

On October 5, we will also have the results of the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) services for September. The PMI had crossed the psychological barrier of 50 — it signifies expansion over last month - in August itself.

Local politics may remain volatile through this week, especially in Uttar Pradesh following the Lakhimpur Kheri incident on Sunday. Congress leader and UP in-charge Priyanka Gandhi will visit Lakhimpur Kheri on Monday, where eight people, including four farmers, died. She will be accompanied by Chhattisgarh Chief Minster Bhupesh Baghel.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will take oath as MLA from Bhawanipore this week, after winning the bye-poll. The TMC is also sending 5 MPs to Lakhimpur Kheri.

In Assam, political parties will release names of candidates for bye-elections to five assembly seats to be held on October 30. Hectic parleys are on in the ruling and opposition camps at present. The last date of filing of nominations is on October 8.

In Uttarakhand, preparations are afoot for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit on October 7. The PM will inaugurate an oxygen plant at AIIMS Rishikesh.

In Madhya Pradesh, a hearing is scheduled in the bangle-seller case at the Indore bench of MP high court on Monday. The bangle seller, who was beaten up for allegedly sexually harassing a girl, filed a petition in the MP high Court for bail after a lower court rejected it.

After a well-fought draw in the only pink ball test between Australia and India at Carrara, the two teams will face off in a three-match T20 series from October 7.

In men’s cricket, with CSK and DC having booked their last-four berths, the battle for remaining slots heats up as the IPL heads into the play-offs from Sunday, October 10.

Club football takes a break for the FIFA World Cup qualifiers scheduled this week. Brazil play bottom-placed Venezuela and Argentina play Paraguay on Friday morning. In Europe, Germany play Romania (October 9) and England play Andorra (October 10) among other matches.

Having reclaimed his lead in the Formula One drivers’ standings, Lewis Hamilton will look to consolidate his position at the Turkish GP on Sunday, October 10.

US deputy secretary of state Wendy Sherman’s visit to India this week will be an opportunity for the two countries to discuss the way forward on Afghanistan, how to deal with the Taliban regime and handle terrorism emanating from Afghan soil. Sherman is also set to visit Pakistan at a time when US ties with that country are strained.

Foreign secretary Harsh Shringla is currently visiting Sri Lanka to take stock of bilateral relations and to assess the island nation’s needs in terms of development aid and infrastructure projects. The need to resolve the long-standing Tamil issue is also expected to figure in his talks with the Sri Lankan leadership.