Industry bodies such as CII, FICCI and ASSOCHAM suggested a slew of measures and sought relaxations such as increasing working hours to 12 hours per day from the existing 8 hours per day to help them revive operations, according to a release by the Labour Ministry.

India has allowed discounting of prolonged stay period for determining the residency status in relief for NRIs.

Earlier, such registrations/approvals were granted without any specific expiry period unless specifically withdrawn by concerned tax authority. Under the new law introduced by Finance Act 2020 and effective from June 1, 2020, all such registrations/ approvals would now be issued with an expiry period of 5 years.

Echoing similar sentiments put forth by several eminent economists, he had appealed to the central government to shed its reservations and borrow more in 2020-21.

'Does it mean that till the COVID-19 fight is over, the governor should be non-functional, in sleep mode, and fiddling in the Raj Bhavan while the state is burning?'

At the invitation of United States President Donald Trump, Pujari Harish Brahmbhatt from the BAPS (Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha) Swaminarayan Mandir in New Jersey joined religious leaders from other faiths offering prayers on the occasion of National Day of Prayer Service.

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.

'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.

'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.'

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

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.

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

'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.'

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

Irrfan was hoping he would get a role as one of the kids in Salaam Bombay!, and when that didn't happen, heartbreak and tears followed.

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

'Different people resonated with different films of his, but beneath all of that was his unique ability to capture the human spirit in an intimate and honest way.'

'You always knew that you were special, that you had something that must be cherished, nourished and not fritted away.' 'That's what you gave us, in each of your roles.'

'He was a very shy man of few words. Whenever we spoke about girls, he would run away.'

Time to look at intriguing flashback pix, posted by Bollywood folk.