Heeding to demands made by several states, the GST Council on Friday put on hold a decision to hike the tax rate on textiles to 12 per cent and referred to a panel of state ministers to recommend rate by February, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. The panel, the highest decision-making body for indirect taxes, met under emergency provisions after states made a request for deferring the tax rate hike on textiles, from the current 5 per cent, to be effective from January 1, 2022. Currently, the tax rate on manmade fibre (MMF) is 18 per cent, MMF yarn 12 per cent, while fabrics are taxed at 5 per cent.
'Unlike Andhra Pradesh or Tamil Nadu, there is no opportunity for workers to earn a livelihood in Bihar.'
V K Paul, Member (Health), Niti Aayog said, "Spread of transmission through water is not a concern. Not to worry."
'The second Covid wave spread due to the irresponsibility of the Election Commission of India and now they are committing the same mistake.'
'It is a terrible time, but yet there are enough examples of the goodness of people.'
The ministry said 24.44 per cent of the total active cases in the country have been reported from 10 districts including Bengaluru Urban, Pune, Delhi, Ernakulam, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Thrissur, Jaipur, Kozhikode and Mumbai.
Several bodies, decomposed, bloated and suspected to be of people who succumbed to COVID-19, were on Monday found floating in the river Ganga in a Bihar district.
Till Tuesday night, the national transporter had run 88 trains for the migrant workers who were stranded at their workplaces due to the coronavirus lockdown and wishing to go back to their homes. Each special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. But the national transporter is allowing only 54 persons in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger.
The highest number of confirmed cases are from Maharashtra (748), followed by Tamil Nadu at 571 and Delhi with 523 cases. Cases in Telangana have gone up to 321, in Kerala to 314, in Uttar Pradesh to 305, while the number of cases has gone up to 274 in Rajasthan.
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Telengana and one from Karnataka, ministry data stated.
Sheela Bhatt reports from Firozabad, the country's centre for glass bangles, on what life is like for its workers in the wake of the national lockdown.
There are 6,76,514 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.45 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has surged to 20,37,870.
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
A total 134 deaths deaths were reported since Wednesday morning, of which 54 were in Maharashtra, 29 in Gujarat, 20 in Delhi, 9 in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four in Rajasthan, three in Tamil Nadu, two each in Telangana and Karnataka and one each in Andhra Pradesh,Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh.
The country's COVID-19 count includes 6,73,166 active cases, 19,77,780 discharged/migrated patients.
According to an official statement, in a letter to Goyal, Pawar said that the migrant workers, stranded in different parts of Maharashtra, may step out in big numbers to return to their states when the train services resume after the lockdown is lifted. This can lead to law and order problem (with workers coming out in big numbers), he added. To avoid this, the railway ministry should run special trains, he demanded.
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.
The death toll due to the disease rose to 42,518 with 933 fresh fatalities being reported in a day, data updated at 8 am showed. There are 6,19,088 active cases of COVID-19, comprising 29.64 per cent of the caseload.
There are 9,73,175 active cases of COVID-19 in the country which comprises 20.47 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.
The fatality rate has further dropped to 2.07 per cent, the data stated.
'...the President is pleased to accept the resignation tendered by Shri Ashok Lavasa, Election Commissioner with effect from the 31st August, 2020,' the notification said.
The RSS wants three nominees inducted: Tejaswi Surya, the young BJP MP from Bengaluru South, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, a Rajya Sabha member, and former Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.
'If deaths had been properly reported, it would have helped contain the pandemic.'
Daily wagers are running out of resources, including ration and cash, and the state governments might not be able to sustain their needs for a longer period of time, given the lockdown has already been extended until May 3.
As the Centre's decision ahead of the end of the 40-day lockdown brought cheers to lakhs of migrant workers across the country, quarantine centres and shelter homes were also being readied for the returning migrants with Uttar Pradesh alone preparing to receive an estimated 10 lakh people.
The COVID-19 case fatality rate has dropped to 1.42 per cent, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 1,06,56,845 which translates to a national COVID-19 recovery rate of 97.32 per cent.
Brajkishore Gupta was fired without notice for calling Indian Muslims 'coronavirus spreaders' and hailing the Delhi riots as 'divine justice' in his Facebook posts, the Gulf News reported.
Of the total trains, 2,875 have terminated, while 401 are in transit. The top five states and union territories from where maximum trains originated are Gujarat (897), Maharashtra (590), Punjab (358), Uttar Pradesh (232) and Delhi (200).
He had uploaded a video on social media in which he demanded that the Maharashtra government make travel arrangements for migrants, who are stranded due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown and want to go back to their native places.
Two women doctors were injured in Indore when a five-member team of health officials was pelted with stones in Taatpatti Bakhal area on Wednesday while they were trying to trace a person who had come into contact with a COVID-19 patient, police said.
The Centre has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who will be given vaccine in the initial phase. The Centre will procure the vaccine directly and make it available free-of-cost for the priority beneficiaries.
In his weekly column 'Rokhthok' in Sena mouthpiece Saamana, Raut questionned the sudden rise of 'Mahatma' Sood on the social scene of Maharashtra during the lockdown. Raut also referred to a 'sting operation' against Sood ahead of the 2019 general elections, saying he had agreed to promote the BJP-led government at various platforms through his official social media accounts.
The total number of COVID-19 cases rose to 34,63,972, while the death toll due to the disease climbed to 62,550 with 1,021 people succumbing to it in a span of 24 hours, the ministry's data updated at 8 am showed.
India achieved a major milestone in its vaccination programme against COVID-19 as the cumulative vaccine doses administered in the country surpassed the 200-crore mark on Sunday.
This is the sixth consecutive day when COVID-19 cases increased by more than 30,000.
The prominent recipients include Maharashtra (275), Delhi (275), Gujarat (175), Bihar (100), Karnataka (90), Rajasthan (75).
A Delhi Police spokesperson said that nearly 500 personnel have tested positive for the deadly virus so far.
The PM said there was a need to 'fight' rumours that the lockdown could be reimposed.
In his monthly Mann ki Baat broadcast, Modi noted that the country was also faced with several natural disasters, including cyclones, landslide and earthquakes, during the pandemic, and said more lives were saved than the past with the Centre, states and local administration coming together to carry out relief and rescue operations.
Police officials said over 5,000 people gathered at Anand Vihar including at ISBT as well as the railway station and the numbers were rising.
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