The only thing that might justify a response is the desperate state of Pakistan's economy and how its people are suffering. But it's better to be heartless for now, argues Shekhar Gupta.
Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV on Friday said the Delhi police's crime branch questioned him about the assistance being provided by him to people during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Asked if the efforts of the government should have been more in providing relief right now than managing their own image and perception, the National Award-winning actor said it is important for the government to rise to the occasion and do things for the people who elected them.
A day after the Patna high court slammed the Bihar government for its poor handling of the second wave of the pandemic and sought to know whether it was enforcing lockdown or not, the administration on Tuesday announced imposition of lockdown from May 5 to May 15.
India shifted gears in rejuvenating strategic ties with its major partners like the US and Russia and focused on drumming up global support for its distinct strategy in the Indo-Pacific to check Beijing's increasing muscle-flexing in the region.
Rather than worry about what picture of India is being painted in the foreign media, the focus must be on marshalling all our energies to provide relief and solace to our deeply wounded and dispirited citizens, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
The two key messages of Modi's over 20 minute-long address was, however, to virtually rule out any immediate nationwide lockdown, a move that had triggered a massive migration of workers from big cities last year and hit the economy hard, and to reach out to migrants.
Terming coronavirus as a big health crisis before humanity, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Thursday said the only way to break the chain of transmission and contain COVID-19 cases is for people to 'close down everything' till May 15.
'When Covid first struck, the lockdown resulted in clean air in major Indian cities.' 'You were able to see the Himalayan range from Ludhiana.' 'In Delhi, you were seeing deer and stags all over the city because there was no traffic.' 'It was incredible. Nature was waiting to come back.'
Counted as a judge who enriched the 'verdict docket' of the apex court, Justice Chandrachud is viewed as sharp, articulate and forward looking.
The Delhi government will provide free ration for two months to 72 lakh ration card holders and financial assistance of Rs 5,000 to auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers in the city to help them tide over the Covid-19 crisis, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday.
'...of the non-availability of doctor expertise or appropriate treatment.' 'That's because of the nature of the disease at this point of time, it is very difficult to contain.'
'Both the Centre and the states cannot say that they have been taking good care of public health.'
SII's CEO Adar Poonawalla took to Twitter to announce the "philanthropic" gesture.
The central government should provide for free vaccination to all Indian citizens and greatly ramp up RT-PCR testing in both rural and urban areas, a group of former civil servants said on Thursday in an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Nearly 20-25 per cent cases need hospitalisation and 5 per cent need ventilators or admission to ICU.
After losing his driver to Covid, Ahmedabad engineer Shivam Dhruva felt the need to build an app that will provide latest medical updates at the click of a button, free of cost.
'The situation has improved because oxygen tankers are now coming.' 'Before this it was chaotic.'
To build one's political and ideological arguments on the dead bodies piling up outside our crematoriums is despicable and breaches the basic tenet of human civility, argues Vivek Gumaste.
'The problem is delaying (or missing) the second dose would probably keep you at a 20 per cent risk of still getting COVID-19, till you are fully immunised.'
One Chinese source informed ANI that 10 million new infections are probably occurring daily in China.
"Why was the server down for four hours? We are willing to accept people's mandate but if the result of one place has anomalies, there may be something beyond what appears. We have to seek the truth," she added.
The India off-spinner's his wife, Prithi Narayanan, said her family had been through a "nightmare of a week" after as many as 10 members of the house tested positive for COVID-19.
Labuschagne has admitted that being overlooked at the IPL auction turned out to be 'blessing in disguise'
Poonawalla noted that reducing the timeframe would give "real relief" to the people who want to travel abroad.
'Now is the time for politicians to stop thinking of their own interests, for companies to stop making money out of vaccines, and become one country fighting the virus.'
"These powers will help Formation Commanders to establish and operate quarantine facilities/ hospitals and to undertake procurement/ repair of eqpt/ items/ material/ stores, besides provisioning of various services and works required to support the ongoing effort against COVID," his office tweeted.
This follows a widespread criticism of its pricing policy as it sold Covaxin to the central government at Rs 150 per dose.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is critically important for India to become a $5 trillion economy, Deloitte CEO Punit Renjen said while noting that over two-fifths of the 1,200 business leaders surveyed in the US, UK, Japan and Singapore are planning additional or first-time investments in India. Referring to the survey, he said India continues to be "one of the most attractive" FDI destinations. "Despite the COVID-19 destruction, inflows hit a record high last year. "Business leaders, whom Deloitte surveyed, are preparing to make additional and first-time investments in India," Renjen said.
'We may be weak now, but the importance of the Congress cannot be denied.'
It is too early to write Narendra Modi's political obituary, asserts Virendra Kapoor.
Criticising the handling of the COVID-19 crisis in Uttar Pradesh, a ruling party leader has claimed that at least 10 people died in every village during the second wave as no lessons were learnt from the first one.
A lot of Indian cricketers have been doing their bit, ranging from making financial donations to helping people procure essential medical care.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Friday accused the Modi government of having failed the people of the country in handling the pandemic and demanded that an all-party meeting be convened immediately on the Covid-19 situation.
Buoyed by an increase in public investment and incentives to boost manufacturing, India's economy is expected to grow by 8.3 per cent in the fiscal year 2021-22, less than the previous projection early this year before the country was hit by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank has said in its latest report. World Bank chief economist for the South Asia Region Hans Timmer told PTI here that when one looks at the high frequency data, they see that as a result of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recovery paused, and some indicate that the recovery actually declined briefly. "We project for this fiscal year 8.3 per cent (growth rate for Indian economy) that is less than we projected early in the year before the health crisis caused by the second wave. "Given the sharp contraction of the economy last year, it might not look like a lot, but in my view, that is actually very positive news, given the violent second wave and the severity of the health crisis," he said on Thursday.
The president said he had discussed with Prime Minister Modi on when the US would be able to send actual vaccines to India.
Bharat Biotech on Thursday said it plans to produce additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine 'Covaxin' at its subsidiary's Ankleshwar (Gujarat) based facility, taking the overall production volume of the vaccine to 1 billion (100 crore) dosages per annum.
Aggarwal, 62, who was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi and was on ventilator support since last week, died at 11.30 pm on Monday after a lengthy battle with Covid-19, according to the statement.
Replying to a short duration discussion on COVID-19 management in Rajya Sabha, the minister said technology transfer to several companies has started and they will begin production in the coming days to reduce vaccine shortage in the country.
Australia on Tuesday suspended all direct passenger flights from India with immediate effect until May 15 due to the "very significant" spike in COVID-19 cases
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