Fresh guidelines were issued by the government on Wednesday for enforcing the second phase of the coronavirus lockdown, with the Union home ministry barring all kinds of public transport and prohibiting opening of public places during this period.
In a nearly 25-minute televised address to the nation, Modi said implementation of the lockdown will be strictly ensured in its second phase and detailed guidelines will be brought out on Wednesday to ensure that outbreak does not spread to new areas.
While the total disbursement of housing loans by PSBs as well as HFCs witnessed a deceleration in 2016-17, there was significant growth for the lower slabs
There has been a 45 per cent growth in 'active internet users' in rural India since 2019, according a study by Nielsen, a global company for audience measurement, data and analytics. The Bharat 2.0 Internet report said that female active internet users grew by 61 per cent since 2019. The report said that India has 646 million active Internet users aged 2 years and above as of December 2021. Rural India has 352 million internet users--almost 20 per cent higher than urban.
Demonetisaton has left many daily wage earners scrambling for a living.
To mark the anniversary of note ban, the Congress was observing a 'black day'.
'Wage earners are shrinking. In both, the organised and unorganised sectors. And, entrepreneurs are growing.' 'But the increase in entrepreneurship is of a kind that does not create salaried employment or daily wage employment,' says Mahesh Vyas.
A Ganesh Nadar/Rediff.com meets Chennai's all-girl street children football team who competed in the Street Child World Cup in Moscow.
Those who have studied Assam elections say the high turnout has the Congress worried.
'Your faith in the system, and in the fact that you are a citizen of this country and have rights, starts eroding.'
'Opportunity for a country like India is huge in terms of wealth creation.' 'That's the reason India is an attractive economy for investors.'
During the UPA government's second term in office, rural India's consumption expenditure grew at a faster pace than urban India's - for the first time since 1991.
62 candidates vye for Amma's mantle in the Radhakrishnan Nagar assembly by-poll in Tamil Nadu, but who will fortune favour?
Jyoti Punwani pays tribute to Syed Feroze Ashraf, the eternal do-gooder who changed the lives of many children.
'Reports of hitherto 'atmanirbhar' breadwinners having to stand in line for a plastic bag of khichdi or, travelling thousands of kms with nothing but packets of biscuits, have not moved the prime minister,' observes Jyoti Punwani.
About 9 million people in Mumbai live in areas where homes are hardly two metres apart. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com reports on the lurking dangers in the city's slums in the times of the coronavirus.
From the humble boxing ring of Dighwara village comes the amazing story of girl boxers who have started a revolution of sorts in Bihar's rural hinterland.
'When you don't have food to eat, will you be worried about the virus or the next meal?'
'This prime minister thinks he knows everything.' 'He has to consult, he has to talk and he has to mobilise the best people, but having seen him function, I have no expectations from him.'
'I'll survive for a month, but worry about what will happen if the lockdown isn't eased after that.'
Migrant workers are leaving Gujarat, PM Modi's home state, as they have no work.
'The experience so far is a shocking example of how critical scheme of national importance can be brought into disrepute by inefficient and badly designed implementation,' says Dr Madhav Godbole, the former Union home secretary.
Noida SEZ has 400 units and around 100,000 workers, and was shut down on March 23.
Two years after a midday meal took the lives of 23 children in Gandaman, Archana Masih sits down to have lunch at the same government school and discovers that much has changed and much remains the same.
'Some people petitioned the adhikari (government official) and a electricity pole was unloaded here, but because we were not here at that time, some people from a neighbouring village took it to their village instead.' As Bihar goes to the polls, Rediff.com looks at the state through the stories of its people.
'I am a dreamer, so I always dreamt that Village Rockstars would go places.' 'But I never ever imagined this.' 'The way people are responding... they come to me, hug me, they call me, shower me with love and I feel wonderful.'
From India's fight against COVID-19 to China face-off, Kovind spoke on several issues during the televised address.
Sarmesh Kumar is the first in his family, that comes from the community of rat eaters, to go to college. Archana Masih/Rediff.com met the young man and traveled to his village -- which Bill Gates visited a few years ago -- as Rediff.com looks at Bihar through the stories of its people.
From farmers to cement, steel, logistics, transportation and automobiles, the back-end is struggling to get going due to the liquidity crisis.
'This wipes out the entire black money in the nation in one stroke. Ninety per cent plus of the black money is kept in Rs 500, Rs 1,000 notes. What they have done is a brilliant move.'
'Our first great challenge is to create 12 million new jobs each year, to make the demographic dividend an economic dividend.' 'We are nowhere near that,' points out Mohan Guruswamy.
The former finance minister also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the words he chose to attack his predecessor Manmohan Singh, saying he should remember that the Chair he sat on was used by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee and hence he should use right language.
The lesson Waghmare sternly received on Monday from CBI Investigating Officer K K Singh and CBI Prosecutor Bharat Badami about the way a witness must answer questions from the defence seemed to have had only a marginal effect on him. On Tuesday the timid former office boy still chose, unpredictably and remarkably, to answer many a question in the manner of his choosing. He told the room categorically that he had asked Indrani's former secretary Kajal Sharma not to forge Sheena Bora's signature on her resignation letter.
For all the blame-game over the flood preparedness in Chennai and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, this is not the first of its kind. Nor would it be the last, given the nature of the north-east monsoon, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'There are some castes that grab power, then pass on the benefits to those who belong to their own caste.'
Some 800 million or more Indians gaze at their mobile phones all day. Whoever can crack what's news on the mobile phone for them and their families, for a nominal payment of Rs 10 a month, is a winner, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
