PM Modi to interact with CMs over Covid-19 situation; Supreme Court hearing on restoration of 4G internet services in J&K; RBI's special open market operation; UK to fly out stranded citizens from Amritsar, New Delhi; UK PM Boris Johnson to resume duties from today

• Death on pause? Even as the fatality count due to Covid-19 in India inches toward the 1,000 mark, turns out, deaths due to other and natural causes have shown a downward trend this year compared to the same period last year. A Reuters report cites both data and anecdotal evidence from hospitals, funeral services and crematoriums that suggests the number of non-Covid-19 related deaths have fallen in the period that India has been under a lockdown, since March 25. In Mumbai, for instance, home to 1.2 crore people, municipality figures show that overall deaths declined by almost 21% in March 2020, compared to March 2019 while Ahmedabad saw a whopping 67% fall in the number of deaths in the same period. Hospitals in Kerala have seen a 30-50% drop in patients with heart attacks.

• No one to kill: One of the major causes of death in India are road and train accidents — India, in fact, tops the global rankings in the number of road accidents, with the latest figures, as of 2018, showing that about 17 people died every hour in a road accident, amounting to 151,417 casualties. The lockdown has meant that there’s very little vehicular traffic, resulting in zero road accident casualties in the last one month — with a possibility that overall road accident deaths in 2020 could see a 15% dip. A crematorium on the banks of the Ganga river in UP which “used to get at least 10 accident-related bodies every day” and “perform up to 30 cremations a day” is only receiving bodies where the person has died of natural causes, with the number of cremations down to one or two a day — it has performed just 43 cremations since March 22. Crime rates too have fallen as the lockdown may have deterred criminals from venturing out.
• Under-reported deaths? Even as hospitals report fewer deaths related to alcohol and drug abuse — in Punjab, for instance, the number of drug addicts registering for the state’s de-addiction programme has seen an increase of 26,000 during the lockdown — as also due to strokes and heart attacks, they concede that the lockdown may be deterring people from reporting a family member’s death or reaching the hospital in time or even registering a death with the municipality, which is why there could be an increase in the number of deaths once the lockdown is lifted, even though funerals are allowed during the lockdown, albeit with a maximum of 20 people allowed in the funeral procession.

PS: A long term factor in improving longevity may turn out to be the decline in air and water pollution levels across India, especially northern India — with air pollution at a 20-year low and several rivers, such as the Ganga and the Yamuna, the cleanest they have been in years due to the shutting down of all industrial units since the lockdown.

The fallout from Covid-19 pandemic is cancelling corporate deals that were thought to be set in stone.

• On Saturday, American aircraft maker Boeing walked out of a $4.2 billion deal to purchase the commercial aircraft manufacturing business of Brazil-based Embraer. The companies were in talks since late 2017 and were to complete the transaction late last year. The deal was delayed following the 737 Max crisis and now the pandemic has forced Boeing to turn away.
• The deal was crucial to Boeing to take on its European rival Airbus on the narrow, single-aisle aircraft market — the type of aircraft that is fuelling growth in emerging markets such as India. But the financial cost following the crash of two 737 Max jets last year, and the possible cancellation or delay of orders from airlines due to the pandemic have forced Boeing to abandon the deal to conserve cash. Embraer is now threatening to take Boeing to court.
• This isn’t the first corporate deal to succumb to Covid-19. Early in April, Japanese giant Softbank terminated a $3 billion deal to buy shares in WeWork. The agreement was part of the arrangement Softbank worked out with company’s founder and former CEO Adam Neumann during his ouster from the company following a failed IPO. While Softbank did not cite the pandemic as a reason, the outbreak has had a significant impact on WeWork’s business of renting shared office space to companies and individuals.
• Pandemic has stained lingerie retailer Victoria's Secret’s relations with private equity player Sycamore, with the latter backing out of a $525 million deal to buy a majority share in the company. Victoria’s Secret has filed a lawsuit.
• In India, analysts have raised doubts on Reliance Industries’ plan to sell 20% stake in its petrochemical business to Saudi Aramco. The proposed deal was made public in August last year, when crude oil was selling for around $58 a barrel. Now, with the drop in demand due to the pandemic, crude oil has crashed to hover around $20 a barrel, hitting Saudi Aramco hard. As per IMF, Saudi Arabia should be selling oil at $76 a barrel to break even.
• The good news for RIL, though, was provided by Facebook, which invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms last week.

• A broken deal: Separatists in southern Yemen on Sunday broke a peace deal signed last year with the country's internationally recognised government and claimed sole control of the regional capital of Aden. The separatists, who are backed by the United Arab Emirates, accused Yemen's government, which is supported by Saudi Arabia, of corruption and mismanagement.
• The parties: Both the separatists and the government forces have been allies in the Saudi-led coalition's war against Yemen's Shiite Houthi rebels.
• The fight: In 2014, Houthi rebels (who are backed by Iran) had taken control of large parts of northern Yemen (including capital Sanaa) triggering a war that has killed thousands. Former President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi first fled to Aden and then to Saudi Arabia. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia intervened in the conflict in 2015 and has since been fighting the Houthi rebels to reinstall Hadi’s government to power. The separatists and the government forces had been fighting since August last year when the former took control of Aden but a deal was worked out between the two sides in November last year.
• It matters: Yemen is Arab world's poorest country and the war has pushed the country to the brink of famine. A fresh round of fighting will deteriorate the situation further.

Meanwhile in Israel, thousands of people demonstrated against the power-sharing agreement reached between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Benny Gantz after weeks of negotiations. Netanyahu is scheduled to face trial next month on charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes. The protesters oppose having Netanyahu as PM as long as he is a criminal suspect.

Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). India’s premier investigating agency has taken DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and RKW Developers promoter Dheeraj Wadhawan into custody from a Mahabaleshwar-based quarantine facility in connection with the case of bribery against former Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor, officials said on Sunday. A process of executing non-bailable warrants against both is going on, a CBI official said.