Demonetisation and Agniveer reveal the two mindsets India has become. In both these government schemes, one sees a desire to play the country like an orchestra anchored by conductor/conductors, argues Shyam G Menon.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) on Friday allowed Chhath Puja celebrations at designated sites in the city except the banks of Yamuna river.
'The decision to supply free food grains is not an economically sound decision because the government will find it very difficult in future to charge anything for food grains.'
The senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader also said that the troubles of the hapless workers grew manifold, in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, as their employers did not implement the provisions of the existing Inter State Migrant Labour Act, 1979.
Several opposition members, including from the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham and the Communist Party of India-Marxist, also pointed out that the government took almost two months to impose the lockdown after the first case came to light in January, and claimed the delay had proved costly.
The Government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme, 'Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan', to "empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens". Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch this scheme on June 20 through video conference in the presence of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
The total number of positive cases has increased by 106 in the last 24 hours to reach 1,024.
'How the lockdown is phased out or lifted will tell us if the government has succeeded in its battle against COVID-19.' 'If it cannot sequence its decisions on exiting the lockdown, the few gains secured so far may be frittered away,' says A K Bhattacharya.
The RJD leader, who is the Mahagathbandhan's chief ministerial face, said that if voted to power, providing jobs to unemployed youth would be his topmost priority.
Modi did not consider these deaths important enough to express regrets. Will these lives continue to count for nothing? asks Jyoti Punwani.
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In the wake of 73 confirmed cases of coronavirus in India so far, the Union health ministry has made functional 52 laboratories for testing samples while 57 labs have been designated for helping in sample collection for Covid-19 to enhance capacity for diagnosis and detection of the disease. "Following the increase in load of screening samples from suspected cases with symptoms and travel history to the affected countries, the department of health research/ICMR has commissioned 52 laboratories for COVID-19 testing in India," an official said.
Stressing the need to support the party high command, he said, "... we have to fight unitedly. It has pained me that some senior leaders have spoken against the party and its leadership."
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asserted that her administration will stand by Alapan Bandyopadhyay in the tussle with the central government which has seen the former chief secretary of the state being recalled to Delhi and later served a notice by the Union Home Ministry for allegedly violating the Disaster Management Act, by not attending a meeting called by the prime minister.
Counting of votes in all elections will be held on May 2.
Maharashtra has reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 74, including three foreigners, followed by Kerala at 52 including seven foreign nationals.
The demands include pension for former players who have played less than 25 first-class games, pension for widows of former cricketers, increase in medical insurance from Rs 5 lakh to 10 lakh and a benevolent fund for Manoj Prabhakar.
Noting there have been instances of "excess" by police and paramilitary personnel against the migrant workers, the court also asked authorities to consider "withdrawal" of criminal cases against some of them for violating social distancing norms.
As the month-long fasting observed by the people of the Muslim community during Ramzan came to an end on Modnay, devotees across the country offered namaz on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr in large numbers on Tuesday.
The number of active cases stands at 2,20,114 ,while 3,47,978 people have recovered, and one patient has migrated, according to the updated data at 8 am.
'When the virus, in a way, tires itself out, because it is not finding any more people to attack or keep itself viable, that is when the peak actually has been reached and you are on the downward limb (of the curve).'
As many as 77 rape cases were reported across India on an average every day in 2020, totalling to 28,046 such incidents during the year, according to the latest National Crime Records Bureau data.
Ivanka, who is advisor to President Trump on job creation, has visited India twice, most recently in February this year along with her father. In 2017, she led the US delegation at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in India.
As people crisscross the country, eager to return to their homes, the cases have raced past 80,000 with at least 2,649 deaths, according to the Union health ministry on Friday. While there is no exact count, this includes a large number of those who have returned to their states.
According to an IMD forecast issued on Thursday, a heatwave spell will persist over northwest and central India during the next five days and over east India during the next three days.
The prime minister may go for new faces with an eye on grooming younger leaders while also factoring in caste and regional balances
'The outbreak of COVID-19 in Ayodhya and surrounding areas is a matter of concern...Uttar Pradesh's minister Kamal Rani (Varun) lost life (due to the disease), while three other ministers are infected'
Authorities have put almost the entire country under lockdown, banning gathering of people and suspending road, rail and air traffic till March 31.
He laid stress on workers' connection with the ground and cited his own example when he was party in-charge for various assembly elections in the past.
According to them, these marches were a "rehearsal" for their proposed January 26 "Kisan Parade" to the national capital from different parts of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
Christmas was celebrated across the country on Saturday, but the festivities were low-key for the second year in a row due to Covid, with churches and other events witnessing lower footfalls, people avoiding large get-togethers and the administration in some areas imposing certain curbs.
The Congress will reach out to various parties in this regard.
The Bharatiya Janata Party will hold a month-long campaign staring from June to mark the first anniversary of the Modi 2.0 government and will hold digital rallies in all districts across the country, its general secretary Bhupendra Yadav said.
"I will have to remove the mask of chief minister to respond to politics. I don't speak doesn't mean I don't have answers," Thackeray said.
The sudden spike in cases of fever in India has claimed over 100 lives in five states, including UP, MP, Bihar, Haryana, and West Bengal. In UP, Firozabad and Mathura alone have reported 72 cases.
To achieve herd immunity, rapid vaccination is the only hope.
Around 275,000 migrant labourers and their family members have returned to the state. According to the state government, this number could exceed 1 million by the end of this month. As the NDA government in Bihar is scheduled to face polls at the end of this year, providing livelihoods to these people is on the top Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's agenda.
The mercury at the Safdarjung Observatory is expected to breach the 43-degree mark on Thursday and touch 44 degrees Celsius by Friday, according to the India meteorological department.
As many as 74,44,260 voters would exercise their franchise using ballot papers to elect their representatives in the 150-ward Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, according to official data.
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.
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