It will be unfair to put a date for any COVID wave as the behaviour of coronavirus is unpredictable and a disciplined and effective pandemic response can help the country get away from any significant outbreak, COVID Task Force chief V K Paul said.
Here is an explainer on the functioning of the seven-year-old body.
India recorded economic growth of 7.8 per cent in the April-June quarter of 2023-24 against 13.1 per cent in the year-ago period, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data released on Thursday. India remains the fastest-growing major economy as China's GDP growth in the April-June quarter was 6.3 per cent.
Alternative investment funds (AIFs) - pooled investment vehicles catering to high net worth individuals (HNIs) - saw a 30 per cent increase in investment commitments during financial year 2022-23 (FY23). At the end of March 2023, the total investment commitments raised stood at Rs 8.33 trillion, up Rs 1.92 trillion from Rs 6.41 trillion at the end of March 2022. A commitment is the money clients are willing to put into AIFs.
In the worst-case scenario, it will be next to impossible for tech companies like Amazon and Google to run any service that requires user biometrics.
Top government officials in New Delhi have started discussions with stakeholders ranging from shipping and container companies to export promotion councils to understand the impact of the Iran-Israel tensions and plan ahead. Inter-ministerial talks are also being lined up amid the crisis situation in West Asia, sources confirmed. While the crude flows are not directly under any threat, elevated oil prices remain a concern, according to officials.
With the reality of coalition politics staring the BJP in its face, this was inevitable, points out Ramesh Menon.
Explore, engage, participate and excel in as many co-curricular activities and hackathons as possible to improve your self-confidence, communication skills and overall personality, advises rediffGURU Chocko Valliappa.
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India-European Union Broad-based Trade and Investment agreement came up for discussion in a meeting between Sharma and visiting Netherlands Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Lilianne Ploumen in New Delhi.
'Besides Ayodhya, the BJP lost in nine other constituencies with a Ramayana imprint; it tasted success only in Thrissur.' 'In Rameswaram, K Navaskani of the Indian Union Muslim League won with a 44% voteshare in a 84% Hindu constituency.' 'In the 21 seats in the Ayodhya and Varanasi regions, both crucial to the Hindutva project, the BJP won just 7.' 'It won just 3 out of 12 seats around Modi's constituency,' points out Krishna Prasad.
The biggest fear many of the e-commerce firms have is the possible requirement to change business models overnight, which would drastically increase costs as well as disrupt businesses.
The minister said the government was committed to ensuring the right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Constitution.
Switzerland has been facing international pressure as countries step up efforts to curb illicit fund flows.
The domestic technology industry's revenue is projected to grow 3.8 per cent to $254 billion this fiscal, industry body Nasscom said on Friday and highlighted creation of 60,000 more jobs during this period. The industry had clocked a revenue of $244.6 billion in the same period last year, according to Nasscom's annual strategic review report. Excluding hardware, the revenue is expected to touch $199 billion, a growth of 3.3 per cent over FY23, as per the report.
Many of India's fintech entities and banks have stored all their customer data in India; however, many do use foreign servers, for operations, providing services and for data analytics.
The rising dependence on discounted crude oil has resulted in India's trade deficit with Russia hitting the second-highest place last year, after China, reveals Department of Commerce data. From April through January 2022-23 (FY23), India's maximum trade deficit was with China, at $71.58 billion. This was followed by Russia, where the deficit expanded sevenfold - from $4.86 billion in April-January of 2021-22 (FY22) to $34.79 billion during the same period in FY23.
India's pharmaceutical exports to Iran have been hit owing to depleting rupee reserves in the West Asian country because of India stopping the import of crude oil from it in 2019 following US sanctions. Pharmaceutical exports dropped 71.25 per cent in April-August this year over the same period last year. The data from the Pharmaceutical Exports Promotion Council (Pharmexcil) showed exports to Iran had declined 31.29 per cent in 2022-23 as against the previous financial year.
The 50-share NSE Nifty ended flat, up 5.80 points, or 0.06 per cent, at 10,308.95.
Hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare's plans to sell its Gulf business may run into rough weather with voting advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) raising concerns over the transaction. Recommending an 'against' vote on the resolution, IiAS has said there is no clarity on how Aster DM will utilise the proceeds that it will obtain by selling the unit, which contributes to bulk of its revenues. In November, Aster DM had announced its plans to sell its wholly-owned subsidiary Affinity Holdings, which conducts business in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, to Alpha GCC for $1 billion.
Above-normal heatwave days are predicted in most parts of central, east and northwest India during this period.
The Centre on Saturday night announced that the probe into alleged irregularities in the medical entrance exam NEET will be handed over to the CBI for a comprehensive investigation.
'Corporates who donated to political parties were guaranteed by the electoral bond scheme that their names and to who they were donating funds will be not disclosed.'
Journalists will be exempted from seeking consent of individuals before collecting and reviewing their personal data to be used in news reports.
GST authorities have issued show cause notices worth Rs 1 lakh crore to online gaming companies for tax evasion so far, a senior official said on Wednesday. The official, however, said there is no data yet of foreign gaming companies registering in India since October 1. The government has amended the GST law, making it mandatory for overseas online gaming companies to register in India from October 1.
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,24,792 with 15 fatalities being reported in a span of 24 hours.
The focus will be on tackling the unfinished agenda requiring immediate attention like tax structure for solar projects, uniform tax rate on state-organised and state-authorised lotteries, taxing non-potable alcohol besides certain changes in the law, extension for NAA and rate rationalisation.
"I condemn in the strongest terms the ordinance passed by the Seattle City Council. Caste discrimination simply doesn't exist now," Niraj Antani, the first Hindu and Indian-American state senator in Ohio's history, said.
After strengthening physical security around establishments, it is now time for the Indian IT companies to focus on securing data, industry experts said.
International companies usually store data on global servers and the requirement to store data locally would require them to make an additional investment. But policymakers in India believe storing data locally would help monitor and conduct investigations if the need arises.
The active cases constitute 0.05 per cent of the total infections.
The death toll has climbed to 5,26,600 with 70 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The country's exports for the first time crossed the $400 billion mark in a fiscal on healthy performance by sectors such as petroleum products, engineering, gems and jewellery, and chemicals, according to the commerce ministry's data released on Wednesday. The merchandise exports rose by by 37 per cent to $400.8 billion in 2021-22 until March 21 against $292 billion in 2020-21. Previously, the outbound shipments had touched a record of $330.07 billion in 2018-19.
'There is no rationale behind the modelling methodology used by WHO to arrive at the estimate'
The death toll due to the disease has climbed to 5,26,110 with 36 new fatalities being recorded.
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also recommended to the Congress to raise the issue of religious freedom during US-India bilateral meetings, and hold hearings on it.
The data released at 8 am also showed that 22 fatalities -- 20 of them from Kerala alone -- were reported in a 24-hour period, taking the cumulative death toll to 5,24,024.
The daily rise in infections has been below 50,000 for 160 consecutive days now.
The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.98 per cent while the weekly figure was recorded at 0.76 per cent, the ministry said.
The active cases comprised 0.04 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.75 per cent, the health ministry said.
The death toll has climbed to 5,24,157 with 54 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
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