Cases with the Omicron variant have already been detected in Karnataka and Gujarat.
Still, the earliest India will get to experience Apple online will be early 2020 and the company's first fully-owned signature store should be up around 2022 -- almost two decades after it had opened its first store worldwide, writes Nivedita Mookerji.
'An armed helicopter equipped with counter-drone systems will provide the airborne counter-drone capability and flexibility needed to protect India's critical assets.'
States are now gearing up to implement the scheme, integrating it with their own public health insurance plans and tying up the loose ends.
Any defeat for the BJP now would imply that anti-incumbency against Modi has set in, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'We should not minimise the seriousness of Chinese encroachments because their perception is different.' 'Nor should we fall into the trap of accepting so-called 'buffer zones' in areas of overlapping claims. We cannot have buffer zones in our own territory,' asserts Ambassador Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary.
While some experts believe that a large part of India is still vulnerable to the virus that could trigger a third wave, others feel the country is not likely to be engulfed by another deadly wave unless a new variant emerges.
In an apparent attempt at assuaging his feelings in the wake of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's denunciation of the government, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying schemes launched under his leadership have helped millions of people from the marginalised sections.
Rather than talking endlessly about lost and marginal opportunities, India's climate envoys need to start thinking bigger, says Mihir S Sharma.
The SBI report ruled out a October rate hike
Xi spoke of the importance of implementing the new development philosophy and advancing the new development paradigm of "dual circulation" in the country's new development phase to ensure a good start for the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period.
'The party in the present form cannot pose a challenge to the BJP and Modi.'
India's factory output climbed 22.4 per cent in March, benefiting from the base effect of the lockdown-marred month a year back as well as a turnaround in the manufacturing sector, while retail inflation slipped to a three-month low of 4.29 per cent in April. The high positive annual growth in the index of industrial production (IIP) in March 2021 came on back of a contraction of (-)0.9 per cent and (-)3.4 per cent in January and February 2021 respectively, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Wednesday. This turnaround was led by recovery in the mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors.
A combination of demonetisation, a poorly and hurriedly implemented GST, and more recently the "botched up" lockdown of the economy to control the spread of Covid has brought the economy to its knees.
A total of 40,845 cases of black fungus or mucormycosis have been reported in the country so far, of which 31,344 are rhinocerebral in nature, and the death toll from the infections stands at 3,129, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said.
The study suggested tax rebates for high-end technology companies that set up research and development centres in India.
'More than losing Bengal, the worry for their national leadership is the current crisis.' 'If people perceive that the government does not do enough, then there's trouble.'
The study claims that from its peak of 18 per cent of gross domestic product in 2008, the crony capitalists' wealth is now down to three per cent
Prime Minister Modi has certainly pulled back, and his political capital -- dependent as it is on an image that he knows best and never retreats -- may have taken a bit of a beating. But, equally, it is hard to say that the protesters have 'won', argues Mihir S Sharma.
A culture of science and innovation must be embedded in society wherein people not only use new technology but understand it as well. Without this, obscurantism and blind faith can sit side by side with digital technology and, in fact, use the same technology to reinforce their hold on people, says Shram Saran.
The best-case scenario -- to which Morgan Stanley attaches 30 per cent probability -- pegs the S&P BSE Sensex at 41,500 levels in the next 12 months.
Earlier, an inter-ministerial group used to take these decisions.
The states and UTs having a recovery rate higher than the national average include Ladakh (85.45 per cent), Delhi (79.98 per cent), Uttarakhand (78.77 per cent), Chhattisgarh (77.68 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (76.59 per cent), Haryana (75.25 per cent), Chandigarh (74.6 per cent), Rajasthan (74.22 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (73.03 per cent) and Gujarat (69.73 per cent).
If international crude oil prices zoom past the current level of about $90 per barrel and move towards $100 and beyond, middle-class consumers are not going to keep quiet about their discomfort, points out Arun Balakrishnan, former chairman and managing director, Hindustan Petroleum.
So vaccinate employees and families, staff at home, rickshaw drivers, milkmen, service providers, shopkeepers and street vendors, says Naushad Forbes.
Labour law changes for three years may not be enough as it takes a couple of years for factories to build and operations at a proper scale start only in the third or fourth year.
Will a time come when people will look beyond what they see as Modi'S strengths and begin to wonder why they have got poorer or sicker under his rule, asks Vir Sanghvi.
It is important to approach the belief of people in ancient India's achievements with a sense of proportion, balance and empathy, argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
The resentment against the government has increased.
Amid the protests against leading e-commerce firms, Flipkart and Amazon, shipments through the online route in fact witnessed a double-digit growth every quarter.
'The Aam Aadmi's prophet is out of touch with both the city and his own flock.'
Sitharaman, who became the first full-time woman defence minister in the first tenure of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government -- will also head the Corporate Affairs ministry in the new cabinet.
Colombo seems to be veering to the middle path between China and the US on global matters, but in regional matters of strategic security, it is increasingly identifying with India, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'India's future: To manufacture so efficiently that we do not need protection,' says Naushad Forbes.
National artificial intelligence unit stuck for lack of anchor department
A total of 27,920 people have been cured of the disease with 1,685 in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 34.06 per cent, the ministry said.
Expressing concern over slow growth in the farm sector, President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Wednesday asked the policy makers to keep agriculture at the centre stage of the country's development agenda.
What does the National Educational Policy 2020 mean for students, parents and teachers?
Chief Minister MK Stalin has shown that he is cut from a different cloth when it comes to embracing what is current, modern and absolutely necessary. Thus, even while retaining the spirit and content of the pan-Tamil, Dravidian socio-political and socio-economic ideology to the 't', his government has also acknowledged the need to accepting scientifically-proven facts in operational matters, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Chetan Ghate, Pami Dua and Ravindra Dholakia have been appointed for 4 years
