Sangeeta received the Indian team call-up after impressing in the age-group tournaments but before her dream to play for the senior national side could take flight, the pandemic struck leading to a nationwide lockdown.
With the former prime minister stepping aside on Sunday night saying it was "simply not the right time" for his comeback, the prospect of a Diwali victory for Sunak cannot be ruled out.
Closures, travel restrictions, and self-isolation measures due to the coronavirus have cleared public squares, roads, and travel destinations across the globe. Photographers have been capturing the eerie stillness of these public spaces, recently emptied of the crowds they were built for.
Asia's largest tulip garden overlooking the Dal Lake in Srinagar has been thrown open to the public, marking the beginning of the new tourism season in the valley. Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the Tulip Garden was opened in 2008 by then chief minister of erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir state Ghulam Nabi Azad. The idea of the garden, spread over 30 hectares in the foothills of snow-clad Zabarwan range, was conceived to advance the tourism season in the valley by two months.
The Centre and state governments are struggling to restart at least some industrial activity as it becomes apparent that the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) could be extended beyond April 14, and stocks of essential commodities need replenishing across the country. State governments, particularly those like Delhi that witnessed an exodus of migrant workers after the lockdown was announced, say there are not enough labourers in the city to work in factories and warehouses.
The Reserve Bank will go for a "dovish pause" at Wednesday's policy review announcement amid developments such as a rise in inflation, government maintaining the inflation target band and a likely impact on growth due to local lockdowns on rising COVID-19 infections, analysts said on Monday. Economists at American brokerage Bofa Securities said price stability, growth and financial stability will become the prime focus areas for the central bank going forward. "The RBI MPC (Monetary Policy Committee) should deliver another dovish pause on Wednesday," it said. The policy announcement, the first for the fiscal, will come days after the government maintained the RBI's target to ensure inflation to be within 2-6 per cent band for five more years.
Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said that India is facing a health crisis that has led to a sudden stop of the economy.
In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures.
Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmed Bukhari and Shahi Imam of Fatehpuri mosque Mufti Mukarram Ahmed also said the moon was sighted and the fasting will start from Saturday. They appealed to Muslims to perform all rituals and prayers at home during Ramzan while adhering to social distancing and lockdown norms.
In an address during the virtual meeting of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) on Saturday, Modi said COVID-19 had been used as an opportunity to work towards making the country self-reliant.
While the Delhi government announced that schools will not be allowed to hike fees during the lockdown period and only tuition fee will have to be paid, Maharashtra has said parents can lodge complaints with district education officers if schools demanded fees. The Gujarat government had on Monday announced that private schools will not hike fees for an year. The West Bengal government has appealed to schools to refrain from hiking fees.
Cautioning that there will be social and psychological consequences for the rest of the country too, Guha said the migrant tragedy could have been averted or at least minimised if Prime Minister Narendra Modi had given them a week's notice to return home before the lockdown kicked in.
The development comes after Sebi received representations from listed entities, chartered accountant firms, and industry bodies, seeking further extension of time for filing of financial results for the quarter/half year/financial year ended March 31, 2020.
The Governor said the MPC had voted to maintain its accommodative stance, implying more rate cuts in the future if the need arises.
"It is unrealistic to expect that COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated at this stage given that community transmission is already well-established across large sections or sub-populations in the country," the report said.
Most of the economic activity in the country had come to a standstill after the government imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown beginning March 25 to check the spread of coronavirus.
The family of nine, Mukesh, his parents, wife and five children, the youngest less than a year old, set out from their 'home' under a flyover in Palam in southwest Delhi on the long walk to their village. While he pushed the cycle, the others walked alongside, some holding bags, others unwieldy bundles on their heads, some barefeet as they walked on the hot tarred road under a scorching sun and others wearing flimsy footwear.
Clearly, the domestic market has taken sharp knocks in April, which is likely to be visible in May as well, said analysts tracking the market, as FMCG companies are grappling with improving capacity utilisation and dealing with labour shortage.
That would reverse the growth trend of around 11 per cent per annum, which the industry has logged over the past ten years, making it one of the most adversely-affected sectors of the economy.
Industry fears waiver of interest on interest would distort credit culture, may encourage borrowers who can pay to defer repayment.
This is following revival of demand from the corporate sector and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), even as a nascent economic recovery is taking shape. Credit growth of scheduled commercial banks had accelerated to 9.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) by the end of December 2021 after breaching the 7 per cent-mark in November, for the first time since April 2020.
With 521 fatalities, Maharashtra accounts for the maximum of the nationwide 1,306 deaths.
Public sector banks may have to bear a burden of Rs 1,800-2,000 crore arising due to a recent Supreme Court judgement on the waiver of compound interest on all loan accounts which opted for moratorium during March-August 2020, sources said. The judgement covers loans above Rs 2 crore as loans below this got blanket interest on interest waiver in November last year. Compound interest support scheme for loan moratorium cost the government Rs 5,500 crore during 2020-21 and the scheme covered all borrowers including the prompt one who did not avail moratorium.
Empowerment of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) with extra territorial jurisdiction and declaration of Maulana Masood Azhar, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and Dawood Ibrahim as terrorists after legislative amendment were counted among its achievements by the MHA, headed by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Detailing the guidelines for examinations and academic calendar for the universities in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, the commission said the exams for final semester students be conducted in July. The varsities may decide whether to conduct exams online or offline keeping in view the support system available with them and ensuring fair opportunity to all students.
Record liquidity infusion by the central bank in the banking system during the financial year 2020-21 amid sluggish economic activity resulted in banks investing more in safe government papers than in extending loans, data from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed. This trend has not been seen in nearly two decades, barring 2016 - the year of demonetisation.
Launching the scheme, Modi said during the nationwide lockdown, the talent from cities returned to villages and it will now give a boost to development of rural areas. The 'Garib Kalyan Rozgar Abhiyaan' will be implemented on a mission mode in 125 days in 116 districts of six states -- Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha -- that received the maximum numbers of migrant workers back.
Concern is growing among healthcare experts who believe that if people do not follow the lockdown or social distancing seriously, the situation can quickly go out of control.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das on Friday said the central bank will ensure adequate liquidity in the system to ease the financial stress caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The central bank reduced the reverse repo rate -- the rate at which banks park their fund with the central bank -- by 25 basis points to 3.75 per cent.
BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal on Monday said that their Cricket Operations and National Cricket Academy (NCA) teams are working on organising a training camp for the top Indian cricketers but didn't commit to any time frame amid the prevailing circumstances.
The only fuel that showed growth was LPG as the government dole of free cooking gas cylinders to poor households fired up consumption by 21 per cent during April 1 to 15.
Boundary-breaking Designer Ujjwal Dubey is shaking up the fashion industry with his gender fluid collection.
HDFC was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 7 per cent, followed by HCL Tech, M&M, HDFC Bank, Tata Steel, SBI, Bajaj Finance and Infosys. On the other hand, Axis Bank, Asian Paints, HUL, Titan and IndusInd Bank were among the laggards.
ICICI Bank was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, sinking over 10 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, HDFC, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Maruti. Bharti Airtel and Sun Pharma were the gainers in the BSE index. NSE Nifty suffered a heavy loss of 566.40 points, or 5.74 per cent, to settle at 9,293.50.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday lavished praise on Indian chess players, including former World champion Vishwanathan Anand, for coming up with an "innovative" way to raise funds for the country's fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Five leading players Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and B Adhiban, Koneru Humpy and Dharika, alongside Anand had participated in an online chess exhibition and helped raise Rs 4.5 lakh for the PM-CARES Fund.
COVID-19 and the lockdown has not dampened Manu Bhaker's spirit.
Modi said the biggest challenge would be to ensure that the disease does not spread to villages across the country after relaxations provided by the government.
But demand has shown signs of pick up in the last 10 days of April after the government allowed resumption of economic activity beyond the urban municipal limit.
Kiren Rijiju said the coronavirus-forced nationwide lockdown, which has been extended till May 17, forced his ministry to delay the resumption of the training camps at Sports Authority of India (SAI) centres. The lockdown was earlier meant to end on May 3.
For Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M), which has just started executing a comeback strategy for wresting back ground it lost to rivals, this could not have come at a worse time. The maker of the Bolero Neo and the Thar models on Thursday said it would have to halt production at its automotive plant for a week due to the worsening supply situation of semiconductors.
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