Ministry of health and family welfare adds Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of new COVID variant 'Omicron' in South Africa.
Other ministers who have presented five straight annual financial statements include Arun Jaitley, P Chidambaram, Yashwant Sinha, Manmohan Singh and Morarji Desai.
Three employees of a Noida-based pharmaceutical firm, whose cough syrup is alleged to have led to the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan last year, were arrested on charges of manufacturing and sale of adulterated drugs, officials said.
The bench terms the "two-finger test" as a violation of a woman's dignity and privacy.
Sixteen states -- Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal -- are displaying an upward trajectory in daily new cases.
A jumbo Pakistan squad, led by Babar Azam, arrived in New Zealand on Tuesday and is serving a mandatory 14-day quarantine period as per COVID-19 protocol.
Despite the best efforts of Indian vaccine makers to develop the H1N1(swine flu) vaccine, Swiss drug major Novartis and Australian vaccine maker CSL may be the first ones to bag the orders from the central government for its supply.
The Union home ministry on Tuesday allowed opening of shops selling school books and electric fans, services of bedside attendants of senior citizens and public utilities including recharge facilities for prepaid mobile phones during the ongoing lockdown.
The advisory stressed on capacity building, saying identified human resource needs to be trained online using online training programs developed by the ministry.
First Rajya Sabha approved the Rs 45 lakh-crore spending proposed in the Budget, followed by the nod to the Finance Bill that contains tax proposals.
Harsh Vardhan said that 51 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses will be made available by July and 216 crore more between August and December.
"Vaccination is our big weapon in the fight against COVID-19," he said. He added that India is the fastest country globally to reach the landmark of 17 crore doses in 114 days and thanked all the states and UTs for their contribution in achieving this feat.
Jitendra Chouksey from Pune tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar what he would like to see in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget.
The city's Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) has put in place all necessary measures to implement the health ministry's latest COVID-19 guidelines on international passengers arriving in India, the private airport operator said on Wednesday.
One more cheetah has died at the Kuno National Park in Madhya Pradesh, making it the sixth adult feline to have died since March, according to a statement from the Madhya Pradesh Forest Department on Wednesday.
The government has come out with comprehensive guidelines for the management of COVID-19 among children in which Remdesivir has not been recommended and rational use of HRCT imaging has been suggested.
As rural areas see a rise in COVID-19 cases, the Centre on Sunday issued new guidelines for containment of the virus advising that peri-urban and rural areas plan a minimum 30-bedded COVID Care Centre for asymptomatic cases with comorbidities or mild cases where home isolation is not feasible.
Notwithstanding the fact that the country's pharmaceutical (pharma) pricing regulator has allowed a 12 per cent price increase for medicines listed under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) in 2023, analysts and industry insiders predict that the overall domestic pharma industry will only witness a price hike of 5-6 per cent. This is attributed to higher competitive intensity in the market. Krishnakumar V, executive director and chief operating officer (CEO) of Eris Lifesciences, a domestic-focused pharma company, noted that the NLEM segment experienced growth suppression of around 150 basis points due to price reductions during the January to July period this year.
It was not immediately known how Arya, a 2008-batch Indian Foreign Service officer, died.
Credit to priority sectors as well as small and medium industries will be discussed to find ways to accelerate economic growth.
Vaccines provided to beneficiaries at the government health facilities will be entirely free of cost, while private facilities cannot charge the beneficiary a sum above Rs 250 per person per dose (Rs 150 for vaccines and Rs 100 as operational charges).
Bharti Airtel was the top loser in the Sensex pack, plunging around 6 per cent, followed by TCS, Bajaj Finance, Sun Pharma, Tech Mhindra, Infosys and Hero MotoCorp. On the other hand, Titan, Ultratech Cement, IndusInd Bank, Nestle India and ITC were among the gainers.
As the country eagerly awaits an expected coronavirus vaccination drive in January, at least 125 intended beneficiaries each in four states who had registered on the Co-WIN App were on Monday sent SMSes informing them about the time and place of their 'COVID-19 vaccination' under a mock-drill to administer the shots at designated centres.
The reshuffle had politics at its heart, so the biggest complement of new ministers, both Cabinet rank and below, came from UP, which will see assembly elections in a few months.
In a letter to states and union territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has suggested setting up of a state steering committee chaired by the chief secretary, a state task force led by additional Chief Secretary or principal secretary (health), and a district task force to be headed by the district magistrate.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of providing free inoculation to all adults will entail total spending of anywhere between Rs 45,000 crore and Rs 50,000 crore. This is higher than Rs 35,000 crore that the government had budgeted.
'Instead of ACs, the government should do something to increase our salary.'
The death toll rose to 5,394 after a record single-day spike of 230 fatalities in the 24 hours since Sunday 8 am, the Union Health Ministry said in its morning update. It showed the number of confirmed cases rising by 8,392 to 1,90,535. However, a PTI tally of figures announced by states and union territories, as of 9.35 pm, showed a higher death toll of 5,501.
Vaccine inequity remains an issue in India, where less than 2 per cent of the population has received a Covid booster
The Centre received 5.59 lakh public grievances against various government departments in the first half of this year, with the Department of Financial Services (DFS) getting most of such complaints, according to an official report.
The law provides for compensation for injury to healthcare service personnel or for causing damage or loss to property.
While Covishield supplies would meet the target of 500 mn doses between August and December, it looks like Covaxin would miss the target of 400 mn unless the partner sites of Bharat Biotech ramp up very rapidly, reports Sohini Das.
On Wednesday, the Maharashtra government had said that it would not be able to launch the 18-45 age group vaccination drive from May 1 due to the shortage of vaccines.
India has recorded more than 4 lakh daily COVID-19 recoveries in a single day for the first time, while new coronavirus infections settled below 3 lakh for the second day, the Union health ministry said.
Joint secretary in the ministry Lav Agarwal said 149 new COVID-19 cases, including two deaths, have been reported since Friday. Combined efforts are on to ensure 100 per cent lockdown and that social distancing gets implemented, he said at a press briefing on the current COVID-19 situation in India.
A prolonged break in monsoon rains in most parts of the country is threatening to hit the yield of kharif crops. It could even delay the upcoming rabi sowing. Major agricultural states, such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and Gujarat, have witnessed a deficit of 30-80 per cent in southwest monsoon rainfall in August compared to the long-period average for the month. Meteorologists see no big revival in monsoon rains from hereon, though they forecast "some activity" over the Bay of Bengal on September 5-6.
Alert to the looming threat from the 'Omicron' variant, states began to re-tighten curbs and urgently trace people who arrived from abroad in the last one month while a demand to not allow flights from the affected countries was made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
The central government said the railways and civil aviation ministry must suspend all concessional travel on trains and flights, except for students, patients and disabled people.
The government's focus is on containing and controlling coronavirus the ministry of external affairs said on Thursday and advised Indians to stay put wherever they are and travel only under compelling reasons.
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