Notice how Tamil Nadu spells names differently? The state renames 1,018 cities, neighbourhoods to hammer this lesson home

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Just last week, even as Tamil Nadu began inching towards 2,000 in the total number of COVID-19 cases reported every day, the state government presented 68 million of its inhabitants with an amusing decision that had nothing to do with the novel coronavirus. The government announced that it was changing, not the names, but the spellings of a mind-boggling count of 1,018 cities, towns and even tiny neighbourhoods across the state.

New tongue-twisters

Overnight, the state’s industrial town Coimbatore was re-christened ‘Koyampuththoor’, Vellore is now ‘Veeloor’, and Madurai will henceforth be spelt ‘Mathurai’ — the names remain, but the pronunciation is now a whole new kind. The idea, apparently, is to ensure that the English names of Tamil Nadu’s cities are phonetically proximal to their Tamil counterparts.

The same applies to the names of popular neighbourhoods in Chennai that have now been re-christened. South Chennai’s up-market Adyar is now ‘Adaiyaaru’, Vepery is ‘Vepperi’ and Tondiarpet is ‘Thandaiyaarpettai’. If you’re going to succeed at pronouncing the name of any city, town or neighbourhood in Tamil Nadu, you better pronounce it as we Tamil-speakers do!

I know what you’re thinking: “how in the world could we possibly remember a thousand new names and their significantly longer spellings?” And “What is ‘Koyampuththoor’, even?!” If either of these thoughts has crossed your mind, you clearly haven’t been paying enough attention. For Tamil Nadu, has had a long history of being rebellious with pronunciation.

What’s your South Indian name?

This is exactly why if your name is spelt ‘Shruti’ above the Vindhyas, it is most certainly spelt and pronounced ‘Sruthi’ below the Deccan Plateau.

While Tamil-speakers enjoy killing off the ‘h’ in the beginning, we derive a special kind of joy in resurrecting it at the very end — or even introducing it out of nowhere. That’s how ‘Vinod’ becomes ‘Vinoth’ ,‘Lata’ is always ‘Latha’, and it’s never ‘Gautam’ but ‘Gautham’ or sometimes even ‘Goutham’, in these parts. Extra emphasis is the key.

Undying love for extra emphasis

It is this love for extra emphasis that has compelled policymakers in Tamil Nadu to re-name cities and neighbourhoods. Take for instance the double ‘th’ in ‘Koyampuththoor’ and ‘Thooththukkudi’ (erstwhile Tuticorin). It’s all about extra emphasis. Consider the double ‘p’ in ‘Vepperi’ (erstwhile Vepery); extra emphasis to the fore again.

Speaking of emphasis, another pet practice that Tamil-speakers employ is that of emphasising the ‘u’ at the end of names. It’s not Tamil enough to call your neighbourhood ‘Adyar’. It has to be pronounced ‘Adaiyaaru’ in order to roll off the mouth while in conversation, just as the ‘Nadu’ in ‘Tamil Nadu’ is to be pronounced ‘Nadih’ and not ‘Nadoo’ or ‘Nad’ like some English-speakers and North Indians do.

While most pronunciations have now been corrected to reflect what they’d sound like if spoken in Tamil, some names have seen a long-awaited modification. The iconic yet colonial ‘Egmore’ is now ‘Ezhumboor’ and ‘Vellore’ is now ‘Veeloor’ — a nod to the use of ‘oor’ (as opposed to the Colonial ‘ore’) to refer to a place of dwelling, in Tamil.

And no, it has to be ‘oor’ and not ‘ur’ — which is why Sholinganallur is now ‘Solinganalloor’ and ‘Kodungaiyur’ is ‘Kodungaiyoor’, thanks to extra emphasis.

The dreaded ‘zh’

While we’re dwelling on ‘Ezhamboor’, it pays to re-visit another much-parodied and amusing Tamil pronunciation of names that have ‘zh’ in it. ‘Mazhai’, for instance (Tamil for ‘rain’) ought to be pronounced with a slight roll of the ‘r’ in place of ‘zh’ — like in the American accent. The same applies to a name like ‘Kanimozhi’ — pronounced ‘Kanimori’, but with the roll of the ‘r’.

Sadly, the practice hasn’t caught on north of the Coromandel Coast, leading to several Non-Tamil speakers calling the DMK MP, ‘Kanimozzi’. No wonder then former Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers in the UPA Government, MK Azhagiri hastily changed his name to ‘Alagiri’ much to the relief of his parliament colleagues in New Delhi.

What’s in a name?

In the history of Independent India, one of the more widely observed and chronicled administrative practices however insignificant it may seem to be is the re-naming of cities. The idea is simple: get rid of the colonial hangover and give your city a desi name. In the 1990s, this served as soft nationalism. That’s how Bombay became Mumbai, Madras turned Chennai and Calcutta was re-christened Kolkata.

Then the hard-line right-wing was voted to power. This faction decided to get rid of existing Indian names and give these cities whole new names that the dispensation considered more suitable for the city in question. That’s how Allahabad became Prayagraj, a decision widely regarded as the attempt to remove any Mughal influence from the city, even as the Uttar Pradesh government made no bones of the unmistakable Islamophobia that came with its decision.

The Tamil Nadu Government, however, seems to have gone one step further. Forget colonial hangover or cultural appropriation — phonetic accuracy in line with the native Tamil language is important if you’d like to pronounce the names of these towns and neighbourhoods.

So, get those spelling books out and sit for your dictation exam. A total of 1,018 new names beckon and their spellings are anything but easy.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Recovery likely in small CV segment once COVID-19 lockdown ends: Survey

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

The commercial vehicle market may be facing its worst rut in recent times, but when recovery does eventually occur, it will first be felt in the small commercial vehicles (SCVs) segment as opposed to medium and heavy commercial vehicles (MHCVs) segment, according to truck-buying “digital playground” TrucksDekho.

“The sub-2-tonne and sub-3.5-tonne categories will see demand picking up significantly,” said Manish Harodia, chief business officer, TrucksDekho, a part of Cardekho.com.

“Most businesses, including regular provision stores and those that sell supplies, will carry out local or hyper local transportation activity, and will be looking for a last-mile connectivity option,” he said, adding, “They will form a new-found customer base for small CVs.”

Harodia’s projections come amid one of the worst periods for commercial vehicle sales on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, with CV major Ashok Leyland reporting a whopping 90 percent year-on-year drop in domestic sales for May 2020. Daimler India, on its part, has said that it expects the Indian MHCV market to suffer de-growth of 50 to 60 percent in 2020, before some semblance of recovery begins next year.

A TrucksDekho study has predicted that 85 percent of prospective commercial vehicle buyers would continue with their purchase plans post lockdown. The study also claims that 50 percent of these prospective customers are interested in buying their commercial vehicle online while 35 percent of these potential buyers could make their purchase decision within a month after the lockdown is completely lifted. The survey was carried out on a sample size of 800 comprising an in-market audience across segments, according to a company release.

While these projections may seem misplaced given the damage that the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on the automobile market and specifically to commercial vehicles, a significant chunk of these projections is understood to be made in the SCV segment.

“The likes of Ashok Leyland and Maruti Suzuki, who sell a significant chunk of SCVs and small loading vehicles, could capitalise on this demand,” Harodia said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Philippine journalist convicted of libel, given 6-year term

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

An award-winning journalist critical of the Philippine president was convicted of libel and sentenced to jail Monday in a decision called a major blow to press freedom in an Asian bastion of democracy.

The Manila court found Maria Ressa, her online news site Rappler Inc. and former reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr. guilty of libeling a wealthy businessman.

The Rappler’s story on May 29, 2012, cited an unspecified intelligence report linking him to a murder, drug dealing, human trafficking and smuggling. The site’s lawyers disputed any malice and said the time limit for filing the libel complaint had passed.

“The decision for me is devastating because it essentially says that Rappler, that we are wrong,” Ressa said in a news conference after the ruling. Her voice cracking, she vowed that “we will keep fighting” and appealed to journalists and Filipinos to continue fighting for their rights “and hold power to account.”

Ressa was sentenced to up to six years but was not immediately taken into custody. She posted bail for the case last year, and her lawyer, Theodore Te, said they will appeal the verdict.

“The verdict against Maria Ressa highlights the ability of the Philippines’ abusive leader to manipulate the laws to go after critical, well-respected media voices whatever the ultimate cost to the country,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, adding the verdict was “a frontal assault on freedom of the press that is critical to protect and preserve Philippines democracy.”

President Rodrigo Duterte and other Philippine officials have said the criminal complaints against Ressa and Rappler were not a press freedom issue but a part of normal judicial procedures arising from their alleged violations of the law.

Businessman Wilfredo Keng dismissed the allegations in the 2012 story as baseless and false and said Rappler refused to take down the story online and publish his side of the story. He provided government certifications in court to show that he has no criminal record and sought 50 million pesos ($1 million) in damages, but the court awarded a much smaller fine.

Rappler’s lawyers said the story was based on an intelligence report and that the one-year period under Philippine penal law when a libel complaint can be filed had ended when Keng filed a lawsuit in 2017, five years after the story was published online.

A cybercrime law, which Rappler allegedly violated, was also enacted in September 2012 or four months after the story written by Santos was published. Rappler’s lawyers said Philippine penal laws cannot be retroactively applied.

Rappler, however, acknowledged that it updated the story in February 2014 to correct a misspelled word but said it did not make any other changes. The Department of Justice, which brought the libel charges to court, contended that by updating the story, Rappler effectively republished the story online in 2014, an argument dismissed by the news site’s lawyers.

The Department of Justice cited another law to say that a complaint can be filed under the 2012 cybercrime law for up to 12 years, countering Rappler’s argument that Keng’s complaint was invalid due to being outside the one-year deadline for libel.

If the Manila court upholds the Justice Department’s position, journalists and media agencies can be sued up to 12 years after publishing a story.

As Rappler’s chief executive officer, Ressa faces seven other criminal complaints in relation to legal issues hounding her news agency, including an allegation that it violated a constitutional ban on media agencies receiving foreign investment funds.

Ressa, who has worked for CNN and was one of Time magazine’s Persons of the Year in 2018, has accused the government of abusing its power and of using the law to muzzle dissent.

Many news outlets in the Philippines and beyond have criticized Duterte’s policies, including his signature anti-drug campaign that has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead.

Duterte has openly lambasted journalists and news sites who report critically about him.

He has openly lashed out against the owner of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, a leading daily.

He has vowed in the past to block the renewal of the congressional franchise of leading TV network ABS-CBN. It was shut down by the government’s telecommunications regulator last month after its 25-year franchise expired. Congress has been hearing the major network’s request for a renewal of its franchise.

The shutdown has been criticized as it cut off a major source of information on the COVID-19 pandemic in a Southeast Asian hot spot of the disease.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Ed-tech startup Edvizo raises $150,000 in seed round

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Bangalore-based early stage ed-tech startup Edvizo has raised $150,000 (more than Rs 1.13 crore) in seed round funding from Inflection Point Ventures. This is the venture’s first institutional investment while IPV has closed its 8th investment in the last 60 days.

Edvizo acts as an online marketplace to search, compare and enroll in the best institutes for competitive exam preparation. It enables coaching institutes to get more students through their platform thereby helping them reduce their expenses on marketing and branding and invest more in acquiring top teaching talent.

Edvizo has associated with 2650 institutes already and has over 50,000 registrations on its platform. The venture intends to utilise these funds to strengthen its technical & sales team, along with acquiring more users and expanding to more cities.

“We are excited to work with IPV to continue building and rolling out our ed-tech platform at another level. Since the education sector is undergoing an enormous transformation due to the COVID-19 lockdown, most of the institutes are currently facing a lot of difficulties from conducting online classes to getting students for their new session. We are trying to tap into this opportunity,” Ravi Nishant, Founder & CEO, Edvizo, said.

IPV has been investing in startups in sectors like health tech and ed tech among others to help companies working in these areas scale up and help people manage the COVID situation.

Vinay Bansal, Co-founder and CEO, IPV, said, “Most ed tech startups are going after the school, universities or directly to students kind of a market. But the coaching institute market is an untapped opportunity which Edvizo seems to be capitalising quite well. Their understanding of the market, pain points faced by the coaching institutes and application of tech in solving those issues has put them in the market very well. We are happy to back a very unique, an already profitable business model, being run by a passionate founding team. We look to support the business in its growth journey.”

Edvizo plans to up its tech prowess to continuously improve data quality which would help them get on-board credible institutes. The company currently has a layered process to filter an institute and bring it on-board. Institutes are brought post personal visits and checks & balances, guaranteeing authenticity and building trust among the users.

In India, more than 71 million students take help of private coaching and tuitions, pursuing mainstream education system parallelly. A Google-KPMG report mentions that the current size of private coaching industry in India stands at $40 billion, along with a record growth rate of 35%. Edvizo hopes to tap this potential market with its current and upcoming offerings.

Inflection Point Ventures is an initiative of CXOs & Angel Investors who firmly believe that ‘Everyone can Grow with Startups’. Started in 2018, IPV has invested more than Rs 100 crore across over 35 startups.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Maha Police ask people not to post pictures of deceased actor

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Maharashtra Police’s cyber department has asked people to refrain from circulating online pictures of the body of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, who was found hanging in his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra area.

Terming it as a “disturbing trend”, it warned that circulation of such pictures could attract legal action.

Rajput, 34, was found hanging in his apartment on Sunday, sending shockwaves rippling through the Hindi film industry and elsewhere.

Later, some people circulated pictures of the actor’s body on social media platforms, following which the state police’s cyber department said it was in “bad taste”.

A disturbing trend has been observed on Social Media platforms by Maharashtra Cyber that pictures of deceased actor Sushant Singh Rajput are being circulated, which are disturbing and in bad taste,” it tweeted late Sunday night.

“It is emphasised that circulation of such pictures is against legal guidelines and court directions, and are liable to invite legal action,” it added.

Urging netizens to refrain from posting such photos, the cyber department said the pictures already circulated should be deleted henceforth.

“In the digital age, every piece of information we read or watch needs to be cross-checked, verified and we all have to be careful before believing or forwarding them,” it said.

After the actor’s death, police said no note was found at the spot.

Policesources also said they did not find any foul play in their initial investigation.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Opening Bell: Sensex falls 100 points, Nifty holds 9,900, banks, metals drag

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Indian shares tracked lower Asian markets on Monday amid concerns over a resurgence of coronavirus cases and gloom after Wall Street recorded its worst week in nearly three months. Asian markets traded lower after Beijing reported an outbreak of new infections and took strict measures to tackle the spread.

At 9:15 am, the Sensex opened 110.34 points, or 0.33 percent lower, at 33,670.55, while the Nifty50 index opened at 9,919.35, down 53.55 points, or 0.54 percent. Broader indices outperformed the benchmark indices with Nifty Smallcap100 and Nifty Midcap100 indexes trading higher 0.64 percent and 0.16 percent respectively.

Among sectoral indices, the Nifty Private Bank and Nifty Financial Services fell the most over 1 percent each followed by Nifty Auto, Nifty Metal and Nifty FMCG. Buying was witnessed in Nifty IT, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Media.

JSW Steel, IndusInd Bank, Tata Steel, L&T and Tata Motors led t decline among Nifty50 constituents while Zee Entertainment, Wipro, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Infosys and Hindalco were the top index gainers.

Shares of Reliance Industries eased even after it announced that global investment firm TPG will invest Rs 4,547 crore in Jio Platforms for a 0.93 percent stake while L Catterton will invest Rs 1,894.50 crore for a 0.39 percent stake. With these investments, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 104,326.95 crore from leading technology investors.

PNB Housing Finance declined over 3 percent after it reported a net loss of Rs 242.06 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 due to higher provisioning amid the COVID pandemic. The company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 379.77 crore in the same period last year.

Globally, Asian shares stumbled on Monday and oil prices slipped as fears of a second wave of coronavirus infections in Beijing sent investors scurrying for safe-havens while underwhelming data from China further weighed on sentiment.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.3 percent.

Catch all the latest updates from the stock market here.

(Disclosure: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Petrol price hiked by 48 paise/litre, diesel by 23 paise; ninth straight day of increase

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Petrol price on Monday was hiked by 48 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre as oil companies for the ninth day in a row adjusted retail rates in line with costs since ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 76.26 per litre from Rs 75.78, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 74.26 a litre from Rs 74.03, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

This is the ninth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus. In nine hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 5 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.87 a litre.

The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.

Also Read: Select Mumbai local train services resume for “essential staff”: Here are the details

Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr to rope in 2,000 online teachers on its learning platform

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Less than 18 months since it started operations, edtech start-up WhiteHat Jr is on a massive hiring spree. CNBC-TV18 learns that the Mumbai-based firm, founded by former CEO of Discovery India Karan Bajaj , will be hiring 400 employees in a month and get 2,000 teachers aboard the platform, within the same period.

“We were growing 40 percent month-on-month, and since February, revenues have been doubling every month,” said Bajaj in an exclusive chat.

“It is a conscious decision to hire aggressively because the more teachers we have on the platform, the more slots we have for students who end up paying. So, not only are we hiring 2,000 teachers a month, but also scaling up the  team recruiting.”

WhiteHat Jr is an ed-tech platform focused on teaching coding to children between the ages of 6 and 14. The start-up secured its Series-A funding of $10 million in September 2019 within six months of going operational.

US operations registering 200 percent growth

The company launched its US operations a month before the COVID-19 Pandemic hit — a fortuitous decision given that the United States alone has accounted for a revenue growth of 200 percent albeit in nascence, according to Bajaj.

Today, these encouraging growth numbers are prompting WhiteHat to hire  big, even in the midst of the lockdown. “The company has begun hitting maturity at around our 18-month stage, while the product itself gained maturity in January,” said Bajaj who is quick to dismiss any notion that the COVID-19 lockdown may have primarily contributed to this stellar growth: “We can’t really say it (the lockdown) has worked to our advantage. The conversion rate of customers is the same as it was pre-corona.”

No uptick in customers paying for edtech

This simply means that WhiteHat’s stellar growth notwithstanding there is no uptick in the number of customers paying for the platform’s edtech services now as opposed to those using the free version. “There are people who have managed to sample ed-tech, but there isn’t a wave of customers who are paying more now than before,” said Bajaj, “The customers are hesitant to purchase.”

What the company can report for itself is its cash-positive revenue run rate, which means WhiteHat is using income from revenues to scale up operations. “We don’t need funding to grow, what we need funding for now, is to venture into new categories and operations,” said Bajaj, “We have aggressive expansion plans outside our core business.”

WhiteHat will look to raise its Series-B funding either later this month or early next month, and is targeting an investment of around $50 million.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Europe reopens many borders but not to Americans, Asians

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Europe is taking a big step toward a new normality as many countries open borders to fellow Europeans after three months of coronavirus lockdowns — but even though Europeans love their summer vacations, it’s not clear how many are ready to travel again.

Tourists from the US, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East will just have to wait for now. Europe is expected to start opening up to some visitors from elsewhere next month, but details remain unclear.

The European Union home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, told member nations last week that they “should open up as soon as possible” and suggested Monday was a good date.

Many countries are doing just that, allowing travel from the EU, Britain and the rest of Europe’s usually passport-free Schengen travel area, which includes non-EU countries like Switzerland.

Europe’s reopening won’t be a repeat of the chaotic free-for-all in March when panicked, uncoordinated border closures caused traffic jams that stretched for miles. Still, it’s a complicated, shifting patchwork of different rules. And although tourist regions are desperately counting on them, a lot of Europeans may decide to stay close to home this summer.

That’s something tourism-dependent Mediterranean countries such as Greece are keen to avoid. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis acknowledged Saturday that “a lot will depend on whether people feel comfortable to travel and whether we can project Greece as a safe destination.”

Greece has emphasized its handling of its outbreak, which saw only 183 deaths. Overall, Europe has seen more than 182,000 virus-linked deaths this year, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that also shows Europe has had 2.04 million of the world’s 7.8 million infections.

Hard-hit Spain, which on Sunday moved forward its opening to European travelers by 10 days to June 21, is allowing thousands of Germans to fly to its Balearic Islands for a trial run starting Monday — waiving its 14-day quarantine for the group.

“This pilot program will help us learn a lot for what lies ahead in the coming months,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said. “We want our country, which is already known as a world-class tourist destination, to be recognized as also a secure destination.”

Border checks in some places have already wound down. Italy opened its borders on June 3 and towns on the German-Polish border celebrated early Saturday as Poland opened the gates. At midnight, the mayors of Goerlitz, Germany and Zgorzelec, Poland cut through chains on a makeshift fence that had divided the towns.

Germany, like France and others, is lifting remaining border checks on Monday and scrapping a requirement that arrivals must prove they have a good reason to enter. It also is easing a worldwide warning against nonessential travel to exempt European countries – except, probably, Finland, Norway and Spain, where travel restrictions remain, and Sweden, where the level of new coronavirus infections is deemed too high.

Many German regions have reimposed a quarantine requirement for arrivals from Sweden, whose virus strategy avoided a lockdown but produced a relatively high death rate.

Czech authorities will require arrivals from Sweden to show a negative COVID-19 test or to self-quarantine – along with travelers from Portugal and Poland’s Silesia region.

Austria is opening up Tuesday to European neighbors except Spain, Portugal, Sweden and Britain — and keeping a travel warning for Italy’s worst-hit region of Lombardy. France is asking people from Britain to self-quarantine for two weeks.

Britain recently introduced a 14-day quarantine requirement for most arrivals, to the horror of its tourism and aviation industries, which say the move will hit visits to Britain hard this summer.

Denmark is opening up only for tourists from Germany, Norway and Iceland — and only if they can prove that they’re staying for at least six nights. Norway also is keeping shut its long border with Sweden.

“I realize this is a big disappointment. But the restrictions are based on objective criteria that are the same for everyone,” Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said. “If we open too quickly, the infection can get out of control.”

With flights only gradually picking up, nervousness about new outbreaks abroad, uncertainty about social distancing at tourist venues and many people facing unemployment or pay cuts, this may be a good summer for domestic tourism.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz are both planning to vacation in their homelands this year.

“The recommendation is still, if you want to be really safe, a vacation in Austria,” Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg told ORF television, recalling the scramble in March to bring home thousands of tourists as borders slammed shut. “In Austria, you know that you don’t have to cross a border if you want to get home, and you know the infrastructure and the health system well.”

The German government, which helped fly 240,000 people home as the pandemic grew exponentially, also has no desire to repeat that experience.

“My appeal to all those who travel: Enjoy your summer vacation — but enjoy it with caution and responsibility,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. “In the summer holidays, we want to make it as difficult as possible for the virus to spread again in Europe.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow