: Chief Minister of Puducherry V Narayanasamy on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to appoint an expert committee to help states overcome the fiscal situation in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown. He told reporters here that he had written a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to constitute immediately the expert committee to go into the poor fiscal condition of the states during the current lockdown and help mobilise funds to meet their commitments. The expert committee should be given a time-frame of one week to come out with its recommendations as to how the Centre could help the states wriggle out of the fiscal crisis and how States could rise to the exigency, he said. Narayanasamy hoped the Prime Minister would consider his suggestion and take appropriate action. "I am speaking candidly and making the suggestion for all states which no BJP-ruled state Chief Ministers will express,", Narayanasamy a former Central Minister, said. Already, he said, ...

BJP president J P Nadda said on Saturday that making "inhuman" comments about the health of Home Minister Amit Shah is "extremely condemnable". "Making inhuman comments about the health of Home Minister Amit Shah is extremely condemnable. Spreading such misleading remarks about anyone's health shows the mindset of people doing so. I strongly condemn it and pray to God to grant them good sense," Nadda said in a tweet. His tweet came after Shah, also Nadda's predecessor as the BJP president, asserted in a statement that he is "totally healthy" and rejected rumours being spread about his ill health on social media.

An NGO from Indore in Madhya Pradesh has sent a letter petition to the Chief Justice of India seeking direction to government authorities to ensure people with disabilities, or Divyangjan, reach their homes safely amid the lockdown for the novel coronavirus outbreak. The letter was sent to the CJI on Friday, Anand Service Society's directors Gyanendra and Monica Purohit told PTI. "More than 150 Divyang persons are stuck in different parts of the country and waiting endlessly to go back to their homes. We have sent a letter petition to the Chief Justice of India requesting him to issue necessary directions to the concern authorities," Purohit said. "After our successful mission to rescue 23 speech and hearing impaired persons, a large number of people with disabilities have approached us to make arrangements for their safe return to their homes. "We need government support for it and, therefore, requested the Chief Justice of India to give necessary directions to National

The TCS World 10K Bengaluru run will be held on November 22 as the organisers on Saturday announced the new date for the rescheduled event. The race, the lone Gold Label event in Asia, was earlier scheduled to be held on the third Sunday of May, like the previous years, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Safety and precaution are paramount for the event. This re-scheduling of the Tata Consultancy Services World 10K, was imminent to regain some form of normalcy, especially for the travel and participation of our international stakeholders," said Vivek Singh, Joint-MD Procam International, the organisers of the run. "The support and co-operation received from all our stakeholders, has been unparalleled. 22nd November 2020, should give us all necessary time to heal, re-energise and deliver the event with our customary zeal," he added. The online registrations for the rescheduled event will commence on September 8. Race Director Hugh Jones said, "Postponing an event of

Despite having a valid official pass to move between Jammu and Kashmir, hundreds of travellers have ended up at administrative quarantine centres set up by the government on the outskirts of the winter capital as part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus. The move is agitating the people who questioned the logic behind sending them to an institutional quarantine when they are given the passes in extremely exceptional situations, like a medical emergency or joining their duties after completing the formalities due to a lockdown. One such quarantine centre is set up at Excise and Taxation Training institute in Nagrota, 15 km from Jammu city, where 35 persons, including women and a seven-year-old girl, are anxiously waiting for their sample reports the outcome of which will decide their future at the sprawling facility. While a majority of them are expected to be released after their test reports are negative, four labourers from Amritsar in Punjab who had travelled from Srinagar to

Confined to their homes without access to courts due to the lockdown, India's young shuttlers are an "irritated" and "frustrated" lot, says chief junior national coach Sanjay Mishra, who feels more like a counsellor these days. The national lockdown to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far killed nearly 2000 people and infected more than 59,000 in India, is in place till May 17. "It has been nearly two months, the young players have been staying at home and now they are getting irritated and frustrated by the sheer mention of the word lockdown," Mishra, who took up the position in 2017, told PTI during an interaction. "I keep telling them it is happening to the whole world not to you in particular and ask them to focus on boosting their mental toughness." Mishra says he tells his wards to try and control the negative thoughts which would also help them deal with tough match situations. "I tell them to remember the times when they got frustrated or irritated and lost crucial ..

Four persons were detained by Ahmedabad police on Saturday for allegedly spreading misinformation about Union Home Minister Amit Shah's health by creating a fake Twitter account in his name. Earlier in the day, Shah had issued a statement saying that rumours about his health were being spread through social media, and he was in good health and not suffering from any disease. The local crime branch detained four persons for spreading misinformation about Shah's health, special commissioner of police (crime) Ajay Tomar said. A screenshot of a fake Twitter account in Shah's name with his photo, claiming that he was suffering from a serious ailment, had gone viral on social media platforms, Tomar said. The suspects were detained from Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar and they were being questioned, he said. A case has been registered in this regard under sections 66(c) (punishment for identity theft) and 66(d) (cheating by personation using computer resource) of the Information ...

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh on Saturday informed that India cricket skipper Virat Kohli and his wife actor Anushka Sharma have contributed Rs 5 lakh each for police welfare amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. "Thank you, @imVkohli and @AnushkaSharma for contributing Rs. 5 lacs each towards the welfare of Mumbai Police personnel. Your contribution will safeguard those at the frontline in the fight against Coronavirus. #MumbaiPoliceFoundation," Singh tweeted from his official handle. Earlier, Kohli and Sharma had given undisclosed amounts to the PM CARES fund and Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to support the fight against COVID-19. Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus positive cases in the country.

The Delhi High Court has asked the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to ensure that dispensation of medicines from its pharmacy, which was functioning in limited capacity due to the coronavirus lockdown, resumes without any delay. A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar asked AIIMS to work out the modalities and file a compliance report before May 14, the next date of hearing. The order came on a PIL claiming that outstation non-coronavirus patients who had come for treatment at AIIMS are not being provided medication from the hospital's pharmacy anymore due to the lockdown. The petitioner, Rachna Malik, further claimed that patients were unable to procure medicine as there was no endorsement on their OPD cards permitting dispensation of medicines as the OPD of AIIMS was closed due to COVID-19 lockdown. AIIMS told the court that its pharmacy has been made fully functional since May 6 and it operates from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm. It also told the court that it .

A robot has been inducted into service at the Chandrapur civil hospital, and it could be used for collecting swab samples for COVID-19 test with some modifications in near future, an official said. District collector Dr Kunal Khemnar handed over the "medi-rover robot", which can be used for handing food or medicines to patients, to the hospital on Saturday. It has been developed by Tata Technologies in association with the Government Engineering College, Chandrapur, Khemnar said in a statement. "The robot will help the medical staff in treating and nursing of patients at the hospital," he said. With some modifications, the battery-operated robot, which weighs about 30 kg, can even be used for collection of swab samples of suspected COVID-19 patients in the coming days, he added. So far, only one coronavirus positive case has been found in Chandrapur district.

A bulk of the COVID-19-related fact-checks in April were related to communal rumours, most of which were false allegations against Muslims of purposefully spreading the virus, claimed a report by BOOM Live. BOOM Live, a fact-checking platform that works with social media companies like Facebook, said its study analysed 178 fact-checks on COVID-19 related to misinformation/disinformation around the pandemic from January to May this year. "During April, a new trend was observed communally charged disinformation targeting Muslims became more frequent," the report said. By the end of April, a bulk of BOOM Live's fact-checks (34 unique fact checks) were on communal rumours, it claimed. The report further noted that after several members of the Tablighi Jamaat an Islamic missionary group tested positive, "Islamophobic rumours around them purposefully spreading the virus became viral on the internet". Other trends also witnessed in April were: spike in fake news related to politics, more .

With 224 new instances of the novel coronavirus infection, the total number of cases reported in the national capital climbed to 6,542, the Delhi government said on Saturday. The fresh cases were reported between 4 pm to midnight of May 8. No fresh death due to the virus was reported in this period. Delhi has so far reported 68 deaths. Of the total cases reported in the city, 4,454 are active while 2,020 patients have been cured of the disease, the health bulletin stated.

Police have arrested a couple for allegedly snatching mobile phones from people in central Delhi, officials said on Saturday. Following reports about a couple on white scooter snatching mobile phones, Arjun (22) and Vaishali Kaushal (20) were arrested near Railway Colony, Kishanganj, they said. The woman riding pillion on the scooter used to snatch the mobile phones from people, a senior police officer said. Arjun had been involved in 31 cases. Three months ago, he married Vaishali, a tattoo artist, and both are addicted to drugs, police said. Vaishali had also allegedly snatched the mobile phone of a jewellery showroom security guard in Karol Bagh, they added.

The ruling JD(U) on Saturday slammed AAP for claiming that it bore the cost of ferrying migrant workers from Delhi to their home in Bihar, saying the party was speaking "half-truth" as the Arvind Kejriwal government has sought reimbursement of the payment. The Janata Dal (United) headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accused the Aam Admi Party (AAP) of resorting to "cheap politics to gain popularity". The JD(U) also came down heavily on Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav for lapping up the issue to attack the NDA dispensation, asking him to stop the rhetoric and do something good for the people of Bihar. The AAP had on Friday claimed that the Kejriwal government paid for the migrant labourers travelling home after the Bihar government left them in the lurch. The train carrying 1,200 migrant labourers left for Muzaffarpur, Bihar today. The Arvind Kejriwal government will bear their full travel cost, Delhi minister Gopal Rai had tweeted on Friday. In a ...

A youth was arrested in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl in Muzaffarnagar's Kidwai Nagar on Saturday, police said. He was arrested after almost four months of the incident. Police said the girl was raped by the accused, identified as Nadeem, on January 16. He has been on the run since then, they said.

A number of entrepreneurs based in rural areas of the country have taken to manufacturing face masks amid dwindling demand for their regular produce in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, an official said on Saturday. Around, 500 rural entrepreneurs have so far produced and sold 3.5 lakh such masks under the Start-up Village Entrepreneurship Programme (SVEP), he said. They produce around 2,500 masks per day for health professionals, policemen, media personnel and cleaning staff, the official said. In West Bengal, 38 entrepreneurs manufacture nearly 600 masks a day in blocks of Dinhata, Pathar Pratima and Manikchak in different districts of the state. The entrepreneurs, trained under SVEP -- under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) -- have sold 49,000 masks in the state till date, he said. Apart from West Bengal, the programme is active in the rural belts of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Haryana, he added. The masks are made in hygienic ..

The Tamil Nadu government on Saturday set up a high-level committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan to examine fiscal challenges facing the state owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest the way forward to improve its fiscal position. The committee, which will also consist of Finance Secretary S Krishnan as coordinator, will submit its report to the government within three months, according to a Government Order. The committee, with 21 members, would assess the overall immediate and medium term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different sectors of the state's economy including the impact of lockdown, additional costs and implications due to social distancing and their precautionary measures. Also, it would assess the opportunities and threats in the short and medium term, suggest measures required to help the important sectors of the economy to overcome the impact of the virus pandemic. Apart from identifying specific reform measures to ..

A 23-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly raping a girl on multiple occasions, recording the act and using it to blackmail her in Rajasthan's Jhalawar district, police said. The incident took place in a village under the Khanpur Police Station limits and the arrest was made on Friday, they said. The 17-year-old girl and her father had approached the Jhawalar SP with their complaint on Thursday, following which a First Information Report (FIR) was lodged under sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, DSP and Circle Officer Bhanwar Singh Hada, who is investigating the case, said. The accused, identified as Saddam Hussain Pinjara, was on Saturday produced before a Jhalawar court which sent him to two days' police remand. In her complaint, the minor alleged that the accused, who is her neighbour, took her to an isolated place around three months ago and raped her at knifepoint and also clicked her pictures and recorded the

A 44-year-old woman has been arrested for allegedly selling e-cigarettes to minors in northwest Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar area, police said on Saturday. The accused was identified as Pooja Sawhney, a resident of Rajouri Garden area of the city. She is from an affluent family, they said. "Police received a complainant that a woman was supplying e-cigarettes and other psychotropic substances to minors. We learnt that the accused would come to deliver the same in the Mukherjee Nagar area," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Northwest) Vijayanta Arya said. A trap was laid and the woman was caught red-handed while delivering the banned product on Friday, the police said. During investigation, it was found that the woman operated a cartel and used to target minors from well-off families as they can easily bear the high cost of the products, they said. She had formed groups on social media and accepted orders from there. The whole process of placing orders and payment was carried out online, a ...

The Karnataka government has clarified that migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons can hire and use buses provided by state-run road transport corporations on payment basis for travel to other states with relevant permissions. Inter-State travel of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourist, students and other persons stranded in different states due to lockdown were recently permitted to travel through notified entry and exit points of Karnataka by the government. The Shramik special train services too have been ferrying migrant labourers stranded in the state to destinations like Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh among others. In a circular, Revenue (Disaster Management) Principal Secretary T K Anil Kumar said similar facility on payment basis be made available by state run road transport corporations- KSRTC/NWKRTC/NEKRTC/ BMTC to transport workers to industries permitted under the issued guidelines.

Nearly 3,000 patients were provided assistance for treatment and medicines by the Srinagar district administration in Jammu and Kashmir through its helpline amid teh coronavirus-driven lockdown, officials said. The IVRS-based call centre was inaugurated by Lt Governor Girish Chandra Murmu on April 17 and it replaced a series of helpline numbers launched in March aimed at attending to health emergencies on priority during the lockdown. A dedicated fleet of 10 vehicles and a team of 12 professionals have been deputed on the job round-the-clock for attending to issues related to health emergencies, demands related to dialysis, chemotherapy, diabetes and other such ailments, the officials said. Apart from the IVRS call centre, they said four mobile numbers have also been made available. Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar Shahid Iqbal Choudhary empanelled 13 dialysis centres across the city for providing dialysis services, the expenses of which are borne by the district administration. Most ..

Andre Harrell talks to the WSJ’s Lee Hawkins about the reasoning behind his decision to fire Sean Combs as his A&R at Uptown Records. Photo Associated Press

This week, Senate lawmakers return to Washington to start working on the next round of aid for households and businesses. WSJ's Gerald F. Seib explains how Congress may need to come to a trade-off that pleases both parties. Photo: Patrick Semansky/AP

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Potomac Watch: With the release of Rod Rosenstein’s “scope” memo, and the Justice Department withdrawal of its case against Michael Flynn, the spotlight turns to Robert Mueller. Image: Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly

Country's largest commercial banking entity State Bank of India (SBI) is now developing a low-cost model to compete with payments banks. "We are working out on a low-cost structure to compete with the payments banks for getting access to people ...

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U.S. and Mexico have agreed to limit border crossings, restricting most nonessential traffic but allowing trade and workers to continue crossing amid the new coronavirus pandemic. Photo: Evan Vucci/Associated Press

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Careful planning, adequate budgeting and close cooperation of government and NGOs will be needed this summer in Barmer and nearby Thar desert areas of Rajasthan, says Bharat Dogra

Ravi Agrawal and Kishore Wankade say that the state of mercury pollution in India is alarming and needs the concern of all. They provide a factsheet with alternatives.

In addition to the aftermath of Bhopal's catastrophic gas leak of 1984, severe contamination of water and soil has taken its own toll on citizens. At a Greenpeace organized November 2004 symposium, experts put the cost of cleanup in the range of Rs.135 crores. K Rajani Priya looks at the possibilities.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. is seeking environmental clearance for a proposed Rs 2000 crore expansion project in Chhatisgarh. A public hearing this January witnessed plenty of local opposition. The 17 July visit of a Ministry of Environment expert committee has not inspired faith in due process, writes Kanchi Kohli.

How did two major operators in the POPs manufacturing-sector become part of India's official delegation to a conference which aims to eliminate their production and use? P N Venugopal reports on the embarassing, but unabashed capture of officialdom by a manufacturer.

Twenty-one families were relocated from the core area of Sariska Tiger Reserve to a newly built township last year. The signs are that this has gone off well both for the people and the forests, reports Malini Shankar.

Over 170 organisations and individuals came together to highlight Vedanta's history of environmental irregularities to the Golden Peacock jury members, prompting a second look. Kanchi Kohli reports.

Many of the institutions or departments who have sent in applications for IPR consideration to the NBA are also represented on the committee which evaluates the applications, reports Kanchi Kohli.

The spirit of a public hearing must be respected, says a recent verdict from the Delhi High Court, refusing to accept the literal interpretations of the rules which the environment appellate authority used. Kanchi Kohli reports.

It is plain for all to see that untreated mining waste is being discharged into the river around Khamaria, but it is equally plain that the government is doing nothing about it. Kanchi Kohli reports.

A new study stirs up an old debate - whether the melting of the Himalayan glaciers is only evident at lower reaches, and the higher altitudes are in fact adding snow. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Iron ore from the proposed Rowghat mines in Chhattisgarh is crucial for the sustenance of the Bhilai steel plants. This, however, not only poses a grave threat to the forest ecology of the area, but is also itself vulnerable. Kanchi Kohli details the complexities.

July 26, 2017 marked the 12th anniversary of Mumbai’s mega flood in 2005. Darryl D’Monte looks into the causes and effects of the deluge.

Darryl D’Monte reviews Indira Gandhi – A Life in Nature , a new book focussing on Indira Gandhi as a naturalist.

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In this edition we celebrate the World Mental Health Day by bringing you stories of some mental illness surviors, we remember the Father of the Nation with a review of film Gour Hari Dastaan inspired by his ideals. We also take a look into why developing Amravati, the capital Andhra Pradhesh, in the land earmarked for it could be a disaster, the pollution caused by chemical factories in Vapi , the corruption that is derailing our Tribal Sub Plan and more.

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45 years after their settlement in Arunachal Pradesh, these refugees are still fighting for citizenship and livelihood rights. There is sustained local opposition to their settlement, reports Ratna Bharali Talukdar.