Social stigma and low testing are the key reasons for the high mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in West Bengal, where the disease, like elsewhere in the country, is still an urban phenomenon, experts say. The state's Trinamool Congress government has been drawing consistent criticism from the Centre and opposition parties over the way it has tackled the pandemic, and has been accused of under-reporting data about the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths.

A bench, headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel, set up a five-member Committee to probe Thursday's gas leak incident in the chemical factory, in which 11 people were killed and 1,000 exposed, and submit a report before May 18.

'India is ahead only of Pakistan in the amount spent on each soldier a year.' 'The Indian military is a manpower-heavy throng that is poorly armed, equipped, and trained,' observes Ajai Shukla.

Thackeray said he was in constant touch with the Centre over the issue of running more trains to ferry migrant labourers, stranded due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, to their native places.

The new road is expected to help pilgrims visiting Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet as it is around 90 km from the Lipulekh pass. After inaugurating the road through video-conferencing, Singh said pilgrims going to Kailash Mansarovar will now be able to complete their journey in one week instead of up to three weeks.

A cyclone shelter building at Kelambakkam, which was recently given a fresh coat of paint, is the current home of nearly 100 Rohingyas who belong to 18 families. The neighbourhood is on the way to Mamallapuram, about 25 km from Tiruvanmiyur in south Chennai. While some Rohingya men work as butchers, some are helpers in restaurants and others do odd jobs like delivering goods on their fish cart.

The Tamil Nadu voter may not be in the mood to test new talent, not when the state and the people are going through unprecedented and unanticipated crises, of which coronavirus is only the first. All of it boils down to an election between the ruling AIADMK and the Opposition DMK next year, with small-timers, had-been parties and promised parties left on the sidelines, says N Sathiya Moorthy.

Senior state BJP leaders Eknath Khadse and Pankaja Munde don't find a place in the list, which instead has lesser-known faces like Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke and Ajit Gopchhade.

Pradhan also asserted that the fumes that were seen coming out was a 'technical' issue and there was no need to panic.

Chilling details emerged about the tragedy involving a group of migrant workers who were on their way to native places in Madhya Pradesh on foot from Maharashtra and had taken a break to rest on rail tracks out of sheer fatigue.

Gandhi also called upon the government to immediately put money into the hands of the poor and provide a financial package to the industry to help revive the economy.

The SC asked special judge to control the proceedings in accordance with law so that inordinate delay that is beyond the time-frame is no longer breached.

While class 12 exams will be conducted across the country, the class 10 exams are only pending in North East Delhi where they were affected due to the law and order situation.

An IAF spokesperson said the MiG-29 aircraft was on a training mission. "The aircraft had developed a technical snag and the pilot ejected safely as he was unable to control the aircraft," he said.

'In Mumbai the mortality rate was reaching a percentage of almost 8 plus in about April.' 'But now over last one month, we have come down.' 'We have drastically controlled mortality.' 'We are now about 3.9.'

'Every morning, when I had to step out, my wife would cry.' 'I would tell her that if I don't do it, many people will suffer; many people would die.'

The migrant workers were walking along the rail tracks apparently to escape the attention of police. A video clip from the scene of the tragedy shows the bodies of migrant workers lying on the tracks and nearby with their meagre personal belongings scattered around.

If the precautions are not taken and guidelines are not followed properly, there can be chances of spike in cases, the government said.

'This doesn't mean that Mumbai will be handed over to the army'

The border guarding force has the maximum confirmed cases of the disease among the Central Armed Police Forces, also known as paramilitary forces.

The INS Jalashwa, the Navy's amphibious warship, reached Male on Thursday to undertake the massive repatriation mission named 'Operation Samudra Setu' (Sea Bridge).

"The mortal remains of the 16 migrant labourers, who died after they were run over by a freight train near Aurangabad yesterday, were sent to Madhya Pradesh on a special train -- carrying migrant labourers to the state -- on Friday night," said an official.

'The government will have to provide something for migrant workers or 'Farmers will still survive because they will eat what they produce.' 'What will the rest of the people do? What will happen to them?'omething else like that or else you will see some huge uprising or unrest.'

A total 95 deaths deaths were reported since Friday morning, of which 37 in Maharashtra, 24 in Gujarat, nine in West Bengal, seven in Madhya Pradesh, four each from Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, three from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and two from Delhi and one each from Punjab and Haryana.

Uttam Ghosh pays homage to these martrys for India.

Only patients developing severe illness or having compromised immunity will have to test negative through RT-PCR test before being discharged by a hospital, the Union health ministry said.

'All the animals -- buffaloes and dogs -- in the proximity of the factory are dead.' 'The situation is so serious that almost one lakh people from nearby localities have moved to safer places fearing the after-effects of the gas leak.' 'There is lot of panic.'

Indian agencies have been engaged in countering Pakistani cyber-attacks on social media platforms for a very long time. But just like the fight against the coronavirus, only through the active participation of ordinary citizens that this war on fake news can be won, suggets Colonel S Dinny (retd).

Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.

This upgrade will allow air operations by military and civil aircraft even in poor visibility and adverse weather conditions.

Status quo at the plant was restored on Saturday morning, the company said in a statement.

The migrants demanded that the district administration should arrange for their return to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha and other states.

Shah said rumours about his health conditions have been spread through social media.

Since the beginning of running the Shramik Special trains, Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations followed by Kerala.

'It was always 'See you soon', 'Just a routine visit to the hospital', 'I will be back shortly'.' 'I never visited him in hospital. I never wanted to see distress on his smiling, cherubic, face.'

'When Chintu told me about his plans to go to Delhi in February for a wedding, I advised him against it.' 'But he still went, and had a relapse.'

'It will take me a while to process the meaning of the loss of a man who meant so much to me through my entire life,' says Aseem Chhabra.

Did you have a favourite song? Favourite movie? Share your Rishi Kapoor memory.

Juhi Chawla remembers her co-star Rishi Kapoor.

'He was in form right to the very end.'

'It's difficult to explain what a wondrous, beautiful, overwhelming, painful and exciting this journey has been.'

We have lost Irrfan, but his legacy lives on.

'Rishi Kapoor was a complete original.' 'He dazzled the screen and stayed a livewire off it as well,' remembers Sukanya Verma.

Joginder Tuteja lists 10 of the actor's movies that you can watch on the OTT platform in India to relive his magic.

'This 100-minute film just doesn't entertain you for even 10 minutes,' complains Joginder Tuteja.

'Irrfan was known in his friend circles as a Sufi-esque man who was never detached from any incident, person or situation,' remembers Rajesh Abhay, a friend of the actor since their days at NSD.

Lockdown life has forced everybody to stay indoors. But Bollywood celebrities are health conscious as ever ensuring they receive their daily dose of Vitamin D.

His sister has passed away. 'We were planning to reschedule the shoot according to his convenience, but he said, "No. The one thing I have learnt from my father is the show must go on".'

'I have hot water with haldi. It's great for immunity.'

Bollywood stars, clearly missing their summer holidays, have been posting throwback pix from vacations past.