The intensity of rainfall is likely to increase with the likelihood of very heavy falls at a few places and extremely heavy falls at isolated places on May 15, reports Sanjeeb Mukherjee.
'Mortality or hospitalisation has not increased in South Africa because of the new variant.' 'There is nothing to show so far that it is more infectious.' 'I am of the opinion that at the moment, there is no reason to panic.'
The trade to-and-from India so far is not affected. But if the situation continues to remain the same for the next two to three months, it could definitely hurt India trade, including essential cargo.
The Modi government wants to have a smooth relationship with the DMK government.
The Union cabinet on Wednesday approved the roll-out of the 'PM POSHAN in Schools' scheme that will provide hot cooked meal to students of elementary classes in government and government-aided schools across the country.
In a major relief to passengers, whose flights got cancelled due to the Covid-19 lockdown, the Supreme Court on Thursday accepted the recommendations of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to refund ticket fares and also approved a credit shell scheme which will be valid till March 31.
V K Sasikala, who was eased out of the AIADMK years ago, on Saturday paid homage at the mausoleum of former party supremo J Jayalalithaa here and cryptically remarked that she has 'unburdened' herself and the party has a bright future.
The Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission of Inquiry that probed the circumstances leading to Jayalalithaa's death in 2016, in its concluding remarks said that V K Sasikala, the late Chief Minister's confidante, 'have to be found fault with and investigation is to be ordered'.
However, experts in the fields of genome sequencing and cell science have observed that such a small sample size cannot be considered as an indication of the spread of the mutated virus.
This will cost the government Rs 3.1 trillion, about 10 per cent of its annual expenditure, and higher than any other spending item in its Budget.
The government on Monday ruled out the possibility of free food-grains distribution to migrants saying there is no panic situation and no complete national lockdown unlike last year.
Gold demand in India dropped by 30 per cent during the July-September quarter to 86.6 tonnes, compared to the same period last year due to Covid-19 related disruptions and ruling high prices, the World Gold Council (WGC) said in a report.
May 2021 will end with double-digit unemployment rate, falling employment rate and substantial loss of employment, points out Mahesh Vyas.
It will be the year of preparation for the electoral test in Uttar Pradesh, due in 2022. But before that, the West Bengal Assembly election will set the mood for the rest of 2021.
'We are going to be overwhelmed by the need for hospital beds. There are simply not enough beds in government hospitals.' 'We will need a large number of medical professionals and without the private sector's involvement, the government won't be able to expand capacity.'
The health system is trying to ensure that it isn't caught by surprise -- the way it was last time. So, hectic preparations are on.
Rather than worry about what picture of India is being painted in the foreign media, the focus must be on marshalling all our energies to provide relief and solace to our deeply wounded and dispirited citizens, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Jayalalithaa was the third chief minister in Tamil Nadu to die in office, after her mentor M G Ramachandran (1987) and before that his mentor C N Annadurai (1969). The state government should have evolved protocols for the medical care of the incumbent, and institutional memory should have guided the government and officials in the matter, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Supreme Court on Friday paved the way for the reopening of State-owned liquor vends in Tamil Nadu by staying a Madras high court order which had ordered their closure for the time being on the ground that there was violation of guidelines, such as social distancing, meant to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao, S K Kaul and B R Gavai, in the proceedings held through video conferencing, stayed the May 8 order of the high court after taking note of the appeal of state government's firm, Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), which sells alcoholic beverages in the state.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'I'll give it to the vaccine manufacturers without guarantees, take the payment in advance and give me the supplies.' 'The moment you give me one lot of supply, I'll give you more.'
'We can't rule out the fact that the virus might have changed in such a way that it's actually causing more harm to young people.'
'The BJP wants an AIADMK government so that they can implement their policies.' 'All the policies implemented in UP are being implemented in Tamil Nadu.'
'It's a natural alliance and this alliance has been has been formed without compromising the core ideology of the AIADMK.'
With the Centre issuing guidelines for their resumption under Unlock 4, the rapid transit networks started operations in a graded manner in Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Kochi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad, but were still closed in Mumbai, Nagpur, Kolkata and Jaipur.
By getting the Tamil Nadu assembly to act on his very imaginative public declaration to keep petro-chemical industries out of the Cauvery delta, which has traditionally been a DMK stronghold, Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami has not only set the ball rolling for the assembly elections due a year later but also sent out a strong message to the BJP government at the Centre, which took a unilateral decision to exempt petro-complexes from environmental clearance, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Truth be acknowledged, Rajinikanth is not known for wanting to leave his comfort zone to take the politico-electoral plunge, even if it meant his becoming the chief minister of a state that has conferred Tamil cinema's superstardom on him over the past 25 years. Today, his fans belong to the younger generation all right, but their numbers are far fewer than their counterparts in the '90s. They are not devoid of personal ambitions and agendas, unlike what Rajinikanh wants them to be, if he and they were to enter politics, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Stalin owes his victory this time, like in 2019, to the hate-campaign of the local Hindutva forces, which kept haranguing him, and even his dead father, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The contemporary problem with the BJP in Tamil Nadu is that it has been trying hard to package the DMK especially as anti-god and anti-Hinduism, and seeking it to link to Periyar and M Karunanidhi, and by extension to Stalin, the latter's son and successor to the party mantle. Their hope was to consolidate the perceived 'pro-god, pro-religion votes', which they saw returning to the fold post-MGR, post-Jayalalithaa. But no such substantial vote-bank existed even in Periyar's time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
What will a split in the AIADMK mean for Tamil Nadu?
'Unfortunately, during this pandemic, everybody started saying that well, these are desperate times and desperate times need desperate solutions.' 'Purely out of fear, anxiety, panic, this knowledge that people started acquiring from WhatsApp University and social media, it pushed science completely to the backseat.'
Stalin has given due respect to seniority in the pecking order, but has also taken into consideration the demands of individual ministries and the suitability of individuals, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The larger number of patients, who are being affected by COVID-19, are essentially people who have a history of heart disease to begin with, and then experience a more severe form of the infection with COVID-19, because of the existing risk factor.'
'If you don't have a strong political leadership, however much expertise a country may have, in pandemic preparedness or infectious disease, will not matter.' 'It's really about having strong political leadership, that is proactive, that prioritises taking the right action.' 'And if you don't have that, then you will have a much worse pandemic experience.'
Though EPS has sworn peace for now, or so it seems, his camp is said to be considering the possibility of calling an early meeting of the party's general council, to get a mandate in his favour before things went out of control. Ground-level indications are that OPS had lost his limited base, which alone had forced him to patch up with the other, reportedly at the instance of the BJP ally at the Centre, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances