The Chinese capital, which is battling the spread of the Omicron variant similar to Shanghai, has ordered mass testing from Tuesday in 11 of its districts, virtually covering all its 21 million population.
Delhi faces a severe financial crunch and the deficit is largely due to numerous welfare schemes without adequate revenue flowing in. The success of welfare schemes and electoral promises will need careful financial planning and out of the box thinking to whip up additional revenue, notes Ramesh Menon.
Even when China's widely-publicised exchange with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in response to the queries over the reports of surging cases of mycoplasma pneumonia and influenza flu triggered the worldwide alert, including in India, China said the spike in respiratory diseases was due to an 'immunity gap'.
Delhi's air quality improved for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with the Air Quality Index (AQI) recorded in the "moderate" category at 165. This marks a significant improvement from the "poor" category recorded on Tuesday. Several restrictions imposed under Stage 4 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) were lifted, but some restrictions under Stage 2 remain in place. The Decision Support System (DSS) has not been updated since Friday, with technical difficulties hindering the update of data for the last six days.
A Dalit student at Delhi University's Shaheed Bhagat Singh College has filed a police complaint alleging that its principal hurled casteist slurs and assaulted him after he was falsely accused of sending obscene messages on the official WhatsApp group of his department. The student, a third-year BA Hindi Honours student, claimed the incident caused him mental trauma and defamation. He has also written to the University Vice-Chancellor and the National Commission for Scheduled Castes, seeking action against those involved. The principal has denied the allegations, claiming the student was being manipulated by a faculty member against whom an inquiry is underway.
What stood out in his 15-year journey as a member of the political executive at the Centre was his glowing record as India's most successful and effective finance minister. Both as prime minister and finance minister, he understood the importance of gradualism, except when the economy or the polity was in a crisis.
The death toll due to nCoV rose to 1,016 and the confirmed cases have gone up to 42,638, according to the commission.
As of Friday, the total confirmed cases on the mainland were 82,875. As many as 77,685 patients have been recovered, the NHC said.
The reality is, the worldwide toll could have been checked within time if China had been more transparent and had warned countries regarding the new strain of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like infection, which originated at a 'wet market' in its province of Hubei late last year.
However, Beijing residents will still require a negative Covid-19 test taken within 48 hours to enter restaurants, schools, bars, internet cafes, indoor gaming stadiums, nursing homes, welfare facilities, hospitals and medical institutions.
According to a recent CareEdge Ratings report, Bangladesh accounts for around 50-60 per cent of India's total medical tourism inflow
The epidemiologist estimates that more than 60 per cent of China and 10 per cent of Earth's population are likely to be infected over the next 90 days with deaths likely in the millions.
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took potshots at the rival Shiv Sena over its minister not finding a place in the reconstituted NITI Aayog.
China has opened up the country fully after the coronavirus cases declined. The businesses and factories of the world's second-largest economy have fully opened and are functioning.
Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani drew nil salary from his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries for the fourth straight year in a row while his children earned a sitting fee and a commission for being on the board of India's most valuable company. Ambani, 67, had capped his annual remuneration at Rs 15 crore from financial year 2008-09 (April 2008 to March 2009) to 2019-20 (FY20); and since FY21, he opted to forego his salary, due to COVID-19 pandemic, until the company and all its businesses were fully back to their earnings potential.
Rise in raids on illicit drug manufacturing units, alongside arrests for the production, sale, or distribution of spurious or adulterated drugs.
The city's 24-hour Air Quality Index, recorded at 4 pm every day, stood at 418, up from 334 the previous day, and it may trigger stringent restrictions under the third stage of the graded response action plan to mitigate hazardous conditions.
A senior citizen was mistaken for dead at an elderly care centre in Shanghai and sent to a morgue where he was found alive, prompting authorities to launch an investigation into the shocking incident that triggered a new wave of anguish in the locked down city.
The World Health Organization on Thursday had said that a sharp rise in reported COVID-19, (official name for coronavirus) cases in China was due to a change in counting methods and it did not represent a big shift in the epidemic.
The Wold Health Organisation has granted approval on June 1 to China's second COVID-19 vaccine, Sinovac, which was expected to strengthen China's vaccine diplomacy.
According to China's National Health Commission, five imported cases and 10 asymptomatic cases were reported in the country on Monday.
According to the Federation of Resident Doctors Association, during the indefinite strike, all outpatient departments, operation theatres, and ward duties will be shut, but emergency services will continue to operate as usual, ensuring that urgent patient care remains unaffected.
In an exclusive interview with PTI video, the minister also said an extensive risk-based analysis is done continuously to ensure the production of quality medicines in the country, and the government and regulators are always alert to ensure that no one dies due to spurious medicines.
Delhi Water Minister Atishi ended her indefinite fast over the water scarcity in the national capital after she was hospitalised early Tuesday, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said.
The agency has slapped Section 120B of IPC (criminal conspiracy) read with Section 420 IPC (cheating and dishonesty) and Section 7 of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (amended in 2018) which covers unlawful acceptance of gratification by a public servant.
The NHRC has observed that the content of the news report, if true, raise a serious issue of human rights of the workers in violation of the labour laws and the guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment from time to time.
Chief ministers of three Congress-ruled states -- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana's Revanth Reddy -- have announced they will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting over alleged bias against their states in the Union Budget.
In his fresh directive, Xi said that more targeted patriotic health campaigns should be conducted as the country's COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control faces new situations and new tasks.
Several countries started screening travellers coming from China, especially from Wuhan to detect symptoms like fever.
Seeking to address international concerns, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said China has been adjusting the zero-COVID policy based on the changing circumstances.
An Allahabad high court bench of Justice Shekhar Yadav had on Thursday last urged the government and the poll panel to consider postponing the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections for a month or two and banning all political rallies amid the fears of an impending third wave of Covid.
The virus, which has infected more than 14,562 people, continues to spread beyond China.
Karnataka has the highest number of medical seats in the country at 11,745, of which 3,750 seats were in government institutions and 7,995 seats were in private colleges.
Restoration of Article 370 and Jammu and Kashmir's statehood as well as implementation of the autonomy resolution passed by the erstwhile assembly in 2000 are among the National Conference's 12 guarantees announced in its manifesto for the upcoming polls.
Apart from Shanghai, 15 other provincial-level regions on the mainland saw new local Covid cases .
China's Zero-COVID-19 case policy is increasingly coming under stress as the country is reporting a spike in the number of coronavirus infections from different provinces ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games with over 2,500 people undergoing treatment.
Temperatures in 17 locations breached 45 degrees Celsius on Monday, with the punishing heat affecting health and livelihoods.
The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 3,472 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, besides 20,782 asymptomatic cases, according to the National Health Commission.
People in a Beijing district with some 2 million residents were ordered Sunday to undergo mass coronavirus testing following a series of infections as China tightened anti-disease controls ahead of the Winter Olympics.
In the event of the BJP's poor performance in the assembly polls this year and in early 2025, Modi's hold will get further weakened because he will no longer remain the invincible electoral persona tightly controlling the machine at his disposal, asserts Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
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