A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
Dubbing terrorism as 'an undeclared war' on humanity, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Saturday said the Centre was likely to enact a federal law to enable the newly set up National Investigation Agency to fight the scourge.
In a review meeting through video conference with chief ministers and representatives of seven states with a high burden of COVID-19 cases, Modi said having micro containment zones will help states in dealing with the spread of the infection and also allow normal activities to continue.
A 9-minute lights-out by most of households on Sunday evening can potentially collapse the grid due to sudden drop and then a quick surge after the event. But to manage the dramatic changes in electricity and its impact on the grid, the government has drawn an elaborate plan to manage it.
Medical experts feel an aggressive containment strategy in red zones and insulation of green zones is a must while giving relaxations.
Commonwealth Games champion Parupalli Kashyap knocked out top seed Lee Hyun Il of Korea in the men's singles opening round of the US Open Grand Prix Gold badminton tournament in Anaheim, United States.
'Modi forgot to ask Trump for anything that India may need -- and there is so much shortfall all around!', states Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The special package assistance would be used to augment irrigation structures in drought-prone areas to address the agrarian distress and drinking water crisis.
'Toll system can never end though the rates may vary from time to time. Toll is my brain child'
The MHA on Friday, while extending the lockdown for two more weeks till May 17, lifted many restrictions in green and orange zones. There are no restrictions on sale of non-essential items by e-commerce platforms in green and orange zones, a home ministry spokesperson said, adding barber shops and salons are also allowed to open in these areas.
As the Indian Army reported its first case of the infection with a 34-year-old soldier testing positive in Leh, the Army said it has taken a series of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus among the forces such as checking flu symptoms among soldiers on their return from leave and cancelling non-essential travel, conferences and recruitment drives.
It is doubtful that our political masters are even aware of the features of the Model Law.
Tamil Nadu, the best-performing state, managed to do this in 63 days. Land allotment took 156 days nationally and 28 days in Himachal Pradesh. Environmental approval took 91 days nationally and 25 days in Chhattisgarh.
The ministry said that states can also develop their own protocol with regards to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment.
'The Modi government must create conditions to integrate millions into the rural economy as many migrants are certainly not going to return to live an undignified life,' notes Ramesh Menon.
Religious places and places of worship for the public, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services along with shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8, the ministry of home affairs said on Saturday. However, these facilities will not be able to resume operations inside containment zones designated by authorities in states, said a government notification.
An overview of India's underwhelming performance in athletics
In containment areas, movements of people is totally banned and essential services are delivered at the doorsteps.
Average overall sales which used to be around 8,000 units a year ago has dropped to 7,000-7,500 units in a month. A lot of government projects have been announced but these are yet to translate to boost CV sales.
The tightening of traffic restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the coronavirus by Gurgaon and Ghaziabad administrations on their borders with Delhi led to chaos and traffic congestion on Friday.
As the issue remained deadlocked with both sides sticking to their respective positions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while laying the foundation stone for a new Parliament building, invoked Guru Nanak to underscore the importance of dialogue and noted that the Sikh Guru had said that interaction should continue till eternity.
As India reached the halfway point in the 21-day coronavirus lockdown on Saturday, some states and rail and airline operators were considering measures to relax restrictions in phases from April 15. Simultaneously, the Centre has drawn up a cluster containment strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic within a defined geographic area by early detection of cases, breaking the chain of transmission and thus preventing its spread to new areas.
The Congress leadership has become stunted, it does not understand agriculture and the party is trying to mislead farmers for its own vested interests, said Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar.
"We are now living in an era when non-state military actors are a major factor," Narendra Modi said in a veiled reference to threats posed to India from Pakistan
He questioned why only migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will be given citizenship under the amended law and not the Sri Lankan Tamils.
Four members of the Bengal Table Tennis girls team were physically assaulted at a guest house in Pondicherry.
At the Ghazipur border, they huddled close together, only some with masks -- aware of the coronavirus threat that had led to an unprecedented 21-day lockdown of the country and taken away their jobs, but helpless to do anything about combating the infection.
Since the legal changes in the draft laws would take some time, it was decided to postpone the November 25 meeting
'Sharing of water from a river which flows through several states is a crucial challenge which comes in the way of maintaining the spirit of good neighbourly relations.'
Anju set a new meet mark of 6.53 metres at the 46th National Senior Inter-State Athletics championships.
For states like West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where migration is high, the return of workers could be as much an opportunity as a liability. All states have launched portals to register migrant workers; additional fields like nature of employment and remuneration in the past 2-3 years are being added to help in skill mapping.
The Haryana Chief Minister also asked his Delhi counterpart what steps he has taken to end stubble burning by farmers in areas near the national capital as air pollution peaked to alarming levels.
ICICI Infotech outsmarted Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro to get the mandate from states for setting up a national tax information exchange system (Tinxsys) to track inter-state transactions and check tax evasion.
As the Centre's decision ahead of the end of the 40-day lockdown brought cheers to lakhs of migrant workers across the country, quarantine centres and shelter homes were also being readied for the returning migrants with Uttar Pradesh alone preparing to receive an estimated 10 lakh people.
The heptathlete scored a whopping 6162 points on the concluding day of the Inter-state Athletics Championships and made the grade.
'The handling of the pandemic, under this totally constitutional and legal three-level dictatorship, has begun to show its downside,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
The investigating agency said it does not have adequate resources to take up the probe of all cases.
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