Several states of the country are battling grim flood situations that have affected lakhs of people and have also resulted in loss of life and property.
The Railways has drawn up a schedule to operate 2,600 Shramik Special trains over the next 10 days across the country to ferry around 36 lakh migrant workers, stranded due to the COVID-19 lockdown, to their home states, Chairman of the Railway Board V K Yadav said on Saturday.
"When the SHO sir asked me about my interest of area, I told him that I am a dance teacher and want to continue it. The SHO sir said that they will try to find me a suitable job. He sent me to Sandoz to restart earning livelihood till the time I get a job in dancing. I am also thinking to apply in schools for dance teacher," Balaji Sawalkar said.
Journalist Rana Ayyub rejected allegations on Friday that she "misused" donor funds raised in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying money-laundering charges levelled against her are "preposterous and wholly mala fide".
'When you are on these drugs, there is a possibility that you come to the hospital late, just by virtue of the fact that you believe that things are going to turn around, because you are on all these medicines.'
The local, district and police administration are reaching out to meat traders to ensure this, officials said.
While there is a glimmer of hope and India's COVID-19 numbers are on a definite decline for a combination of reasons, a vaccination programme continues to be important, particularly given the presence of a mutant, more transmissible strain, several experts said while cautioning against infection upticks ahead.
For the first time ever, Alia has scored a Rs 100 crore+ weekend opener, which takes her straight to the superstar league.
Fearing another lockdown in the wake of a sudden spike in COVID-19 cases in Gujarat, migrant workers and their families have started leaving Surat and Ahmedabad, two of the state's most severely affected cities.
Replying to the debate in Lok Sabha on Motion of Thanks to President Ram Nath Kovind's address to the Parliament, Modi said the Congress' 'arrogance' has not gone away despite multiple electoral defeats and its 'misdeeds' seem to indicate that it has made up its mind not to come to power for the next 100 years.
The move comes in the wake of the unsanctioned conduct of the Bihar Cricket League.
According to government data, the Centre procured only 35,179 ventilators out of the 50,000 originally ordered.
The migrants said that they prefer trucks and tempos to go back to their native places as the trucks drop them close to their villages, while buses drop them only till the state border, from where they have to find another mode of transport to reach home.
Many factors like women, caste combination, education qualification, age and performance of the legislators will be taken into consideration before the formation of the Yogi government 2.0, sources said on Thursday. Several rounds of meetings have taken place within the party after the poll results came out on March 10.
Rajiv Gauba says there is a gap in the number of passengers who should have been monitored and the actual number which may seriously jeopardise efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Whether the third wave will ravage us depends on the pace of vaccinations, careful and calibrated opening up of establishments, and a strategy to contain the spread in specific states or pockets.
The panel also stated that without the lockdown the country would have witnessed a peak of over 140 lakh cases.
There should be no clampdown on citizens seeking help on the presumption that they are raising false grievances on the internet, the Supreme Court said on Friday, terming the second wave of Covid-19 cases as a national crisis.
Hours before Union Home Minister Amit Shah's virtual rally in Bihar on Sunday, Rashtriya Janata Dal leaders and workers staged protests, beating utensils and blowing conch shells against what their leader Tejashwi Yadav dubbed as the ruling party's celebration of the devastation caused by COVID-19 and the lockdown.
He said every individual who plans to join the three forces through the Agnipath scheme will have to give an undertaking that they were not part of any protest, arson or vandalism.
For the residents of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Camp, living next to a crematorium is as much a struggle as keeping COVID-19 at bay.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday sacked its recalcitrant Bihar member of legislative council Tunnaji Pandey whose utterances against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar were putting a strain on the tenuous relations between the two alliance partners.
'India definitely has a sporting tradition but unfortunately we don't have a sports culture'
With the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government marking its first anniversary on Saturday, the first year is likely to be remembered for the fulfilment of decades-old Hindutva demands as Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the huge majority his party won in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls to push through its core agenda.
The central government may, however, advise state authorities to continue with strict curbs in COVID-19 containment zones in the worst-affected 30 municipal areas that account for 80 per cent of the positive cases in the country. These 30 municipal areas are from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Odisha.
With COVID cases declining, Delhi will see further relaxation in lockdown, including reopening of markets and malls and resumption of metro services, from June 7 while Maharashtra will implement a five-level plan to ease curbs based on weekly positivity rate and occupancy of oxygen beds in districts.
A weak economy coupled with rising Covid-19 cases and inflation that is above RBI's comfort zone, geopolitical developments, and upcoming India Inc's second quarter results for FY21 could impact sentiment, analysts say.
Ayyub is the account holder and deposits totalling Rs 1,77,27,704 have been attached by the ED.
IMD has said the temperature in April-June across most parts in India is expected to be 0.5-1 degrees Celsius warmer than normal. However, doctors and scientists say they haven't found any direct correlation between the speed of COVID-19 spread and warm weather.
A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah took note of the submissions of the Centre and state governments on steps taken so far to mitigate the miseries of the migrant workers stranded across the country during the Covid-19 lockdown.
At a meeting convened by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on a range of issues ahead of Monsoon Session of Parliament, the seven chief ministers unanimously agreed to the need for filing a review petition urging the Supreme Court to reconsider its recent order rejecting the postponement of the competitive exams.
Experts point to the higher contribution of rural from the north for the growth reported by the region, a point endorsed by companies who've been pushing their presence aggressively there.
Earlier, the guidelines for reopening activities issued on September 30 were to be in force till October 31.
As the COVID wave gradually shifts to rural areas, several states are gearing up to check its spread through self-proclaimed lockdowns by Panchayati Raj institutions, creating a database of migrants and providing free online medical consultation to the sick.
'A delay of two years has happened, but stretching it to 2024 is a bit too far.' 'And we do not know about 2024 also.'
During the last three days, more than 2 lakh persons have been transported per day. In days to come, it is expected to be scaled up to 3 lakh passengers per day, the Railways said.
Out of the 932 trains which have been operated so far, 215 are in transit while 717 have terminated at various stations. Sixty-seven more are in the pipeline, an official said.
'There is no rationale behind the modelling methodology used by WHO to arrive at the estimate'
Official celebrations in most states were restricted to unfurling of the national flag and chief ministers and governors addressing the people, with fewer guests in attendance.
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