The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Wednesday allowed cinema halls and theatres to operate with more people while swimming pools have been permitted for use by all in fresh COVID-19 reopening guidelines.
The Indian Army will showcase the main battle tank T-90 Bhishma, infantry combat vehicle BMP-II-Sarath, mobile autonomous launcher of the Brahmos missile system, multi-launcher rocket system Pinaka, electronic warfare system Samvijay among others during the parade on Tuesday, the Defence ministry noted.
Last year, 50,291 cases were registered for crimes committed against Scheduled Castes, an increase of 9.4 per cent over 2019 (45,961 cases). The crime rate had increased from 22.8 per lakh population to 25 per lakh population in 2020, the National Crime Records Bureau stated.
The panel was informed that the economic impact of the second wave of viral infection was "asynchronous in its onset and wider in its spread particularly in rural hinterland", a source said.
From March 1, as many as 2,35,901 beneficiaries more than 45 years old with specific co-morbidities and 16,16,920 people aged more than 60 years have received anti-coronavirus vaccine dose, it stated.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday inaugurated the second Khelo India Winter Games in Gulmarg and said that the event is a step towards making Jammu and Kashmir a hub of winter sports in the country.
Six Covid-19 cases were reported on Wednesday after screening 3,476 passengers of 11 flights that arrived in India from "at-risk" countries and the samples have been sent for genomic sequencing, the Health Ministry said amid concerns over the 'Omicron' variant of coronavirus.
The first nationwide mock drill was held on January 2 which, the health ministry said, helped to iron out any glitches in the final execution and further refinement of the operational procedures.
The COVID-19 vaccines can be "tweaked" to provide protection against new variants of the virus, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, Director Dr Randeep Guleria said.
Stressing on the need to protect both lives and livelihoods, he said public health action in India and across the world must be continually guided by evidence from four key questions -- how transmissible is the variant, severity of the disease it causes, how well vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect and how common people perceive risk and follow control measures.
Among states and union territories, the analysis by Lahariya showed that Uttar Pradesh missed the highest number of cases. With every case reported in that state, 98 cases were missed or remained undetected.
The home ministry has already written to all state governments informing them about the exemptions given for holding the examinations across the country with certain conditions.
In a virtual interaction with state chief ministers over the pandemic situation and the ongoing vaccination drive, Modi said in states like Maharashtra, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh the number of COVID cases has seen a rise while nearly 70 districts in the country have seen an increase in the positivity rate by over 150 per cent of late.
Five states -- Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala -- account for 65.02 per cent of India's the active cases.
India has come a long way from conducting the first COVID-19 test in January in a laboratory in Pune to crossing the milestone of conducting four crore such tests.
The Cabinet on Wednesday approved public private partnership mode for the rollout of BharatNet project for broadband services in villages in 16 states with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Prasad said the decision to involve private players was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 15, 2020 that around 6 lakh villages in the country will be connected with broadband in 1,000 days. "The Cabinet has in-principle approved implementation of BharatNet in 16 states in a public private partnership model with total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.
The Delhi high court on Thursday sought response of the Centre and the Election Commission on a plea seeking to ensure that masks are worn mandatorily by everyone involved in poll campaigns during the ongoing elections in various states and union territories.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Wednesday announced an extension of interim ways and means advances (WMAs) limit of Rs 51,560 crore to state governments till September, to help them tide over the financial stress posed by the second wave of COVID-19. WMAs are temporary advances given by the RBI to the states to tide over any mismatch in receipts and payments. There are two types of WMA - normal and special. While normal WMA are clean advances, special WMA are secured advances provided against the pledge of the government of India dated securities.
The Centre has warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outpace the Delta variant where there is community transmission.
The Centre has told all states and union territories that the power to administer the new rules on digital media publications has not been delegated to them, a day after the Union government overturned a Manipur district magistrate's order issued under the recently implemented guidelines.
Referring to the incident, a fresh plea has been filed for urgent hearing of the PIL, pending since March this year, saying "The right to freedom of speech and expression cannot supersede the right to life and if this protest is allowed to go in like this, the nation at large will be at a loss."
Almost all states and Union Territories have extended the curbs which they first started imposing in mid-April as the second COVID wave hit the country.
America's top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said that the new COVID-19 Omicron variant is in 'fluid motion' in South Africa and the US scientists are in 'very active' communication with their colleagues in that country to test the strain, get facts and find out whether or not it evades the antibodies.
A team of Delhi Police's Crime Branch took Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar, the prime accused in the alleged murder case of wrestler Sagar Dhankar, and his associate Ajay Bakkarwala to three locations in Delhi connected with the incident.
Hyderabad on Monday became the second metro city in the country to see petrol price crossing Rs 100 per litre mark after fuel prices were raised yet again. Petrol price was hiked by 29 paise per litre and diesel by 30 paise, according to a price notification of state-owned fuel retailers. The hike -- 24th in six weeks -- pushed fuel prices across the country to new historic highs. In Delhi, petrol hit an all-time high of Rs 96.41 a litre, while diesel is now priced at Rs 87.28 per litre.
The basic aim behind establishing PSA oxygen plants at government hospitals in the district headquarters is to further strengthen the public health system and ensure that each of these hospitals has a captive oxygen generation facility.
The Union home ministry said several steps have been taken to augment the production and supply of Remdesivir injections from 38.80 lakh units per month to 74 lakh units per month by early next month, and asked the states to ensure its seamless supply and transport.
The state governments and UT administrations should strictly enforce the test-track-treat protocol in all parts of the country, ensure observance of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour by everyone and, scale up the vaccination drive to cover all the target groups, the guidelines said.
More than 43.29 lakh (43,29,673) doses were administered on Friday, according to a provisional report complied at 7 pm.
The Union health ministry on Friday urged eight states and Union Territories to take up immediate containment measures including preventing crowds, conducting widespread testing as well as increasing vaccine coverage on a priority basis in districts where the Delta Plus variant of coronavirus has been detected.
People must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity, the government said.
'What is taught here is a mockery of the English language.'
According to the latest data available from the Centre and the states in the night, the total number of Omicron cases in the country was around 1,200.
50 lakh doses of 'Covishield' vaccine earmarked by the Serum Institute for export to the United Kingdom have now been made available for the inoculation of 18-44 age group in 21 states/UTs in India, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, official sources said.
India received 41 per cent more rainfall than normal from October 1-21 with Uttarakhand alone recording more than five times its normal precipitation, IMD data showed on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Saturday briefed about the new 'Omicron' variant of the coronavirus, and he asked officials to review the plans to ease international travel restrictions in light of the 'emerging new evidence.'
Universities and schools across the country were ordered shut on March 16 to contain the spread of the coronavirus. On March 25, the Centre announced a nationwide lockdown.
Extending the ongoing COVID-19 guidelines for one more month till September 30, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said the overall pandemic situation now appears to be largely stable at the national level, except for the localised spread observed in a few states.
In a countrywide advisory, the Union home ministry also said the state governments and UT administrations must ensure that the COVID-19 guidelines issued with regard to health and social distancing are strictly followed.
India has one of the lowest cases per million at 1,469 as against the global average of 2,425, the government said.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances