discovered. subscribe to. documentary. this is d w z on today's program and unwelcome milestone. the country's official coronavirus to slow it. the 3rd highest in the world. a cause for concern is this we can expect in delhi. and all smiles as for going to schools of a supermajority in the fall and fair elections a controversial change in the constitution be on the cards we look at what this means for the country's democracy.

welcome to the doctor news asia glad you could join us in the past 3 weeks alone india has added 1000000 cases of confirmed infections do it store tally this stands at more than the 3rd highest in the world off of the united states and brazil while testing rates in the country have gone up dramatically there are concerns the figure of 2000000 may not represent the true extent of covered 1000 infections in the country. 2000000 cases of a deadly highly contagious virus these are not the scenes you expect to get into seems to have taken called 19 minutes straight. shopkeep but then vito is keeping busy. business is fos lower than what it once was he is just glad to be up and

running once more simple but life has to start again everyone knows that we need to take precautions people know that they have to maintain social distancing because things are going to stay this way life. despite the high caseload people are still finding via short and simple other numbers out of every tree cool but 19 patients in india have recovered the official mortality of each is low as well and delhi has set an example. in june that he has handcuffed october home ben by a dramatic rise in cases but that's the best thing on isolation today that it probably didn't stand that 90 percent there could be more than meets the eye in the sample survey the delhi government found that a fault of the people tested had had the good will not by this. this would mean 5000000 cases in delhi alone yet people seem confident. but the light doesn't

keep sitting at one place and you have to move on and see if these basically these events are handled leave you have to take precautions and move on and look at the hospitals are doing better people were getting pushed around while in line for treatment but now they're getting help there's no longer anything to be afraid of there's no problem we're doing ok. india does have the was fostered growing outbreak normalcy however seems to be steadily fighting its way back. joining me now is professor schama kind of obvious from the nonprofit brookings institute and he was also a member of the prime minister's economic advisory council professor are we welcome the 3rd highest caseload in the world with more than 2000000 cases would you say this is a coals of water you put in there well it's more the cause of what because in terms of the absolute number one india's get infrastructure can. it. not as much

a concern from a global perspective if. you know 12 or 3 in terms of the caseload but there is by constraint becomes. you know the relatively weak health infrastructure in a lot of the states where the infection is spreading now let's just talk about that health infrastructure i mean last month in some research on these having scenes from hospitals in mumbai and delhi the 2 biggest metros in the country and arguably cities with the best health infrastructure in the country people couldn't find beds over there i mean does that make you confident indian health infrastructure can actually cope with this well given that the situation in delhi has started to improve as of last month and a half we have seen similar moves in chennai which is the 2nd highest the lot is the 2nd largest agent of the case one where things have not lessened it was they haven't improved. so there is reason to believe that if managed well you know

i think states. sort of handle the crisis but i do think now given the overall case you know the focus off oh policymakers truly has to be in terms of minimizing the death rate rather than you know keeping count. and speaking of that debt through it as far as i understand india's death rate is one of the lowest in the world i think something along the lines of 24.22 deaths per 1000000 yet you have more than 2000000 confirmed cases can you explain this mismatch. well one is now the best rate isn't $24.00 anymore it's close to 30 so clearly the death rate is increasing overall if you look at but a 1000000 people in the population this is pretty low compared to the oyster countries if you consider western europe are the us or visit but within the south

asian region this is not that uncommon so which seems to allude that perhaps the virus the strain of whiteness in the region is different all perhaps there is a need immunity i think the signs of it is still at a very early stage in terms of their immunity and what what it might mean for people of this region and want i just like to come back to the 2000000 figure we talk about these as confirmed cases but i wonder if they really give us the whole picture of infections in india i mean confirmed cases doesn't necessarily equal the total number of infected people i mean these could be people who have had the virus but don't show up anywhere in official figures so do you think the extent of their covered $1000.00 pandemic in india is far bigger than just 2000000 figure as. i do think that that it was likely that that is

a situation almost everywhere the numbers will eventually reflect the amount of testing that the state of the country is getting out now while india has really of amped up the testing for corbett over the last few months and particularly since june and what we're seeing is in some of the states across india the plaza to deteriorate which means out of every 100 test how many cases do come confirmed positive for the virus that has been quite high now w. what you're basically sets of benchmark was 5 percent and yet we do have to rush to and then i'm going to which are relatively economically more developed part of the country where positivity rate is much above 15 percent so i do think that you have variations and. india doesn't have one uniform story that there are many stories unfolding slightly it's almost the case for them there isn't a professor shari from the brookings institute thank you very much for joining us.

to sri lankan as we're next where the party of the president. has secured and overwhelming majority in parliament elections that means a bit his brother in the departure returns as prime minister celebrations broke out on the streets in the island nation as there are departures is sri lanka people's party secured 59 percent of the vote with the support of several minority parties the party will be able to reach a 2 thirds majority of $150.00 seats in parliament and as we had to force it on tuesday this is a crucial number because the party can now bring changes to the constitution that would read greater powers for the president. and joining me now from melbourne is a month he's a researcher at australia's c.q. university a month we were talking about this just days back and you had called the election a choice between military oriented public administration and civil freedoms so what

has she long chosen. well i think obviously. the former. but i think the choice is not entirely unexpected why do you say that is that because sri lanka has appears to have gone down the route of let's make my daughter terrorism. well. and that 3 lankans. for our security oriented administration has been quite clear in the last one and a half years or so. they eased attacks last year i think. the country kind of went back into a shell and probably the majority decided that the security of the country and of the citizens matters more than anything else right now. so what security is being

a primer on the agenda and now with this super majority in parliament can read therefore expect a change in the constitution as president talk about our departure as party wants or do you think even face opposition from his brother the prime minister. no i think the constitutional changes that are likely to go ahead and they probably would be vpon the very 1st. time that this government would look into because from even before you was elected president last november we're going to write a parser and this party has been emphasizing that they need they need a very strong presidency not only to make sure that the country's security is not jeopardized but also to make sure that their policies that carry through without any kind of brill back or slow down within the government what do these policy is especially centered as they are as their parents appear to start around the

security issue what does all this mean for sri lanka's minorities especially tamils and muslims. well if you look at who is them i know that is war dead that i know it is also there is indication that there is change they did not want especially the tamil northern them as did not war holy to a party that that's too far all. right for them i know they do you see that is also in the o.t. so i guess in terms of the might only be what you would all you can also see signs that they sense that you know being in opposition and trying to fight for certain things and not getting them probably is not the right choice and people are probably voting for a candidate who i need to be parliament and getting the government and get things done for them. but what does that mean for democracy in general in sri lanka i mean

effectively should not that doesn't really have a very powerful opposition hours into it. well if you look at the opposition i think the opposition is in in for the really hard regrouping if this really i'm going to opposition has been done we needed by one count right here with them saying that since $994.00 that is a long time and this time around he lost this seat so the opposition and i'm in opposition parties will probably have to regroup and then think about mounting. possible challenge that's going to take some time i'm on top of really very leave it there for the time being but thank you so much for joining us. thank you. and that's it for today be sure to check out other stories on beat up the dot. on facebook and believe in i would some other images also from sri lanka where one day

before the election that is so loud that i heard our 1st of all was said approach of this time without spectators because of the us from there right thank you for watching and have a good weekend we'll see you back on monday. combating the corona pandemic. where does research stand. what are scientists learning. background information and. our corona update. from the 19th special next on d w. time and place captured in pictures. images of cars on. the photo studios archive documents lives in bygone

eras. and leads to those living today. are guarding gaza's fast in a box. to memories stories focused fourteen's on. what does it mean to grow up in the middle of a pandemic it still has to be a time of learning experimenting and discovering it's just not as it once was school isn't the same forming friendships is different now to the kind of childhood young people now have all shaped their i dealt lives socially and you can. how to best prepare them. welcome to the w.'s called $900.00 special i'm just thanks for joining us it's obviously

not the same for children everywhere but some of them are lucky digital offerings allow them to keep learning virtually during school closures however it's not a system without flaws as one family here in germany has found out. the humility piece gets you in with comments. this berlin family is using smartphones and flip charts as they try to organize daily school life during the coronavirus pandemic using messaging services like watts up video games and education ops it's an unusual situation for both parents and children and to get them have to list them as often of course we have concerns biggest fear is that they will become dependent that they won't be able to stop playing or watching videos we're also worried about content games and apps they use even though it's not the family has imposed rules every evening the mobile phones have to be put away also the children may only install ops once their parents of for.