'The challenge is to put in place a strategy for future courses of action beyond April 14 when the lockdown comes to an end,' notes Brigadier Narender Kumar (retd).
'Some districts have said that areas which are away from the urban centres and where there have been minimal to zero Covid-19 cases may be exempted from the lockdown and construction activity should be allowed,' said a person in the know.
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list with an estimated earnings of 1.8 million pounds.
Amarinder said predictions by health experts about the spread of the pandemic are 'horrendous and frightening'.
The confinement hasn't ended even though he is back home from one but celebrated Indian hockey goalkeeper P R Sreejesh is not complaining as, at least, there are no mental demons to fight. The two-time Olympian said the more-than-two-month long stay at the Sports Authority of India's south centre in Bengaluru owing to the COVID-19 lockdown was beginning to weaken his and several other players' mind and he took to reading motivational books to keep himself going.
Most listed corporate entities in the country are in a fix. With the sudden declaration in late March of a nationwide lockdown to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, the final calculations of their financial results for the year 2019-20 (FY20) are hanging in limbo. Till April 19, only 41 of the 3,947 companies listed on the BSE have managed to finalise the dates for the declaration of their yearly financial results.
India is currently under the 21-day lockdown since March 25, with only essential services exempted to contain the fast-spreading virus.
Just where are the stars travelling? We find out.
Sarfaraz Khan's dominating performance against England's spinners in just his debut Test was no fluke.
During his talks with the chief ministers, Shah sought to know the areas of concern of the states and the sectors they want to open up further from June 1, the official said.
Speaking at an Education Webinar for coaches, jointly organised by the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the Sports Authority of India (SAI), Leander Paes touched upon various topics including his junior days, transition to men's circuit, the role mental fitness plays in tennis, dealing with pressure, nutritional knowledge and coaching tips.
'You cannot start an MSME again.' 'It is not like a Yes Bank that someone comes and saves the bank.' Once the shutter is down for an MSME, nobody will come to its rescue.'
Hardik Pandya said he had always focused more on the process rather than the end result.
From making 'COVIDIOTS' (a term coined for those flouting restrictions) squat on the road and do sit-ups, to making them pose with pamphlets admitting their fault, police officials have pulled out all the stops from their kitty of creativity to drive home the message.
Once the coronavirus lockdown is over in India and commercial passenger flights are permitted again, IndiGo will deep clean its aircraft more frequently, stop in-flight meal service for a brief period and will fill a maximum 50 per cent capacity in airport buses, the airline's CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Friday. "In situations like these, companies do not manage to growth or profitability but to liquidity. That means our singular focus is on cash flow. We are examining all our fixed costs and looking for ways to minimise them," he said.
'The economic impact of this lockdown is evidently huge.' 'Its impact on the livelihood of vulnerable sections of the society is immeasurably bigger,' observes Mahesh Vyas.
'Imagine having a conversation with your parents, where you say, "I want to break up with someone because he's bad in bed".'
'We have to scale down our theatre's seating capacity by tweaking the arrangement of seats.' 'We have to stop screening back-to-back shows to ensure that people do not bump into one another.'
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.
'Don't be under the illusion that we are in a lockdown for 21 days and then we are free.'
Likening the situation in the country to a "social emergency", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday made it clear that the nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 cannot be lifted in one go on April 14, asserting that the priority of his government is to "save each and every life".
Sabyasachi Dutta, managing director, Vidatec India, tells us how he spent 40 days under lockdown.
At Srinagar's famed Lal Chowk, Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf meets a computer engineer who drives an auto for a living and discovers that Kashmiris are more interested in finding jobs than discussing the assembly election.
Indian cricket team remains stranded in Barbados due to hurricane
Business activity has fallen by a fourth of the pre-COVID levels due to lockdowns imposed by states to contain the spread of the second wave of COVID-19, Japanese brokerage Nomura said on Tuesday. However, it said the falling activity levels will have a muted economic impact and maintained its growth estimates for the year, saying the lockdowns present "downside risks". As of April 25, the Nomura India Business Resumption Index (NIBRI) registered its steepest weekly fall in over a year of 8.5 percentage points to 75.9, which is 24 percentage points below pre-pandemic normal, the brokerage said in a statement.
In the global platform, India continues to register and maintain the lowest COVID-19 mortality rate, it said and asserted that this is a testimony to the focused, coordinated, pre-emptive, graded and evolving "test, track, treat" strategy and efforts of the Centre, states and Union Territories.
'As 1.3 billion people wait for our prime minister to tell us what to do and then vanish again from our television screens, it is worth noting that this is not how the rest of the world is being led,' points out Mihir S Sharma.
The announcement comes amid a rise in domestic violence cases due to the ongoing lockdown. It was found that many women who are victims of domestic violence are more vulnerable during the lockdown period.
'A hundred days later, it is a moot point whether the lockdown has been partially or totally effective, or, as sceptics indicate, plain ineffective.' 'Did it actually deflect infections and the loss of lives, or was it merely a hasty decision rammed down the populace's throats that choked the economy and caused the searing tragedy of dispossessed migrant workers?' ask Radha Roy Biswas and Manoj Mohanka.
Sukanya Verma quizzes you to find out just how much you know about the movies.
'In the first phase, you might allow 30 per cent of the workforce to come in and see how it goes,' says industrialist Harsh Goenka.
'Over 27 million youngsters in their 20s lost their jobs in April.' '33 million men and women in their 30s lost jobs in April,' points out Mahesh Vyas.
With the lockdown in force, live online teaching has become the order of the day, report Peerzada Abrar and Sai Ishwar.
The outbreak and lockdown have thrown up a number of challenges, such as layoffs, pay cuts and a general slowdown. Many subscribers after their unsuccessful attempts to use the scheme have taken to social media to voice their complaints, as the EPFO website and grievance portal suffer outages and its customer helpline remains unreachable.
Amid the crisis has risen an outpouring of empathy from ordinary people across India led by the civil society, who have stepped up to help migrant labourers, domestic helps, construction workers, and small scale workers who were left jobless because of the nationwide lockdown.
Sakshi further said that the coronavirus-imposed lockdown has not changed much of their routine and her daughter, Ziva, has kept them occupied.
Cricketers have an extended break at home but they are not sitting still. They have taken to social media to urge everyone to practice social distancing to fight the spread of coronavirus.
Dangal's and Shemaroo's entry shows there is ad-supported gold at the bottom of the Indian consumer pyramid if you can keep the costs low.
There has been an exponential increase in the use of technology to validate financial numbers, with a greater reliance on electronic evidence, use of live videos where possible, data analytics, and project management software to overcome the physical limitations in verifying transactions and accounts.
The 21-day coronavirus lockdown in force since Wednesday has triggered a mass exodus of migrant workers across the country since the last few days.
