Indian industry body says time to ‘curtail’ economic activity

Billionaire Uday Kotak says ‘maximal response’ is needed to cut the transmission links as cases and death toll rise.

A leading Indian industry body has urged authorities to take the “strongest national steps” and to curtail economic activity to save lives as the country battles surging coronavirus cases that have overwhelmed the healthcare system. The rate of new infections dipped marginally on Sunday but deaths kept climbing. Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours, pushing total cases to 19.56 million. Deaths jumped by a record 3,689, taking the overall toll to 215,542. Billionaire Uday Kotak, the managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said on Sunday a “maximal response measure at the highest level is called for to cut the transmission links”, as building healthcare infrastructure will take time.