An artist in Kolkata gives the final touches to an idol of Goddess Kali ahead of the Kali Puja festival, October 25, 2021.
Fissures appear to have emerged in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) as its two key allies, the Congress and the Trinamool Congress, on Thursday clashed over seat sharing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal.
The West Bengal government on Friday ordered the shutdown of all shopping malls, salons, restaurants, bars, sports complexes, gyms, spas and swimming pools in the state with immediate effect until further orders, amid the surge in Covid-19 cases.
The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
A decrease of 2,238 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.
The death toll climbed to 4,52,290 with 166 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.
Popular Tollywood heroine and Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Nusrat Jahan on Wednesday claimed her marriage with businessman Nikhil Jain was not a legal one but a live-in relationship as their wedding in Turkey did not have recognition in Indian law.
'The last three phases, the Trinamool gained more than expected due to Covid mismanagement by the Centre.'
The TMC had swept all the 16 assembly segments in Kolkata in the last election.
At present, there are 4,94,657 active cases in the country which comprise 5.73 per cent of the total caseload
PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced that all people will be provided free of cost vaccines.
The protection gained after being fully vaccinated with both doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines against Covid-19 wanes over time, a new UK study reported on Wednesday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday described her party Trinamool Congress's "landslide victory" in the state assembly poll as a vindication of its fight to protect communal harmony.
Banerjee scored a personal point with a massive victory in the bypoll with a record margin of 58,835 votes.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday reiterated that an international arbitration ruling on India's sovereign right to taxation sets the wrong precedent, but said the government is looking at how best it can sort out the issue arising out of New Delhi being ordered to return $1.2 billion plus interest and cost to UK's Cairn Energy Plc. The government, which participated in an international arbitration brought by the Scottish firm against being taxed retrospectively, has appealed against The Hague based tribunal's ruling asking the government to return the value of shares expropriated and liquidated, tax refunds withheld and dividend seized to recover a wrongly levied retroactive tax demand.
Kejriwal said there will be no restrictions on the number of people travelling in four-wheelers, two-wheelers, auto-rickshaws, e-rickshaws and other vehicles in the city. He said that until now, shops in markets were being allowed to open on odd-even basis, adding that there are no such restrictions mentioned by the Centre in its latest guidelines.
The Delhi high court on Friday dismissed with a cost of Rs 20 lakh actress Juhi Chawla's lawsuit challenging the 5G wireless network technology and said the plea was defective and filed for gaining publicity.
With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking a uniform vaccination policy for the country, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday assured her that the Modi government was firm in its resolve to help the state fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but also flagged more than 40 per cent positivity rate in some districts of the state.
'With sufficient gaps between polling dates, the BJP will have time to convert the 'fence-sitter' votes,' observes Payal Mohanka.
Religious places and places of worship for the public, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services along with shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8, the ministry of home affairs said on Saturday. However, these facilities will not be able to resume operations inside containment zones designated by authorities in states, said a government notification.
'When an individual becomes authoritarian, you can overthrow the individual easily. 'When the system becomes authoritarian, whoever challenges the system will be called a criminal or an anti-national.'
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