The northeastern region, which has traditionally been disciplined, has emerged as the model of coronavirus management and the rest of the country should emulate it, Union minister Jitendra Singh said on Saturday. He said people in the eight northeastern states - Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Assam - have been following the lockdown-related guidelines in letter and spirit. "By tradition and by lifestyle, people of northeastern region are civilised and disciplined. That is why they could very easily follow the lockdown guidelines. There has been no problem in ensuring implementation of the lockdown-related guidelines there," Singh told PTI. He said within six years of the Modi government, the northeastern region has emerged as the model for development for the entire country. "Similarly, during the lockdown due to COVID-19, entire northeast has become model for the whole country to emulate it," he said, adding that the way people are ...

The Maharashtra government has appointed Ramesh Bharmal as the director and dean of Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Hospital at Sion in Mumbai, which was in the eye of a storm after a video showing COVID-19 patients being treated next to the bodies of victims there had gone viral. In the wake of the viral video, Pramod Ingle had been transferred from the post of the hospital dean and the additional charge had been given to Mohan Joshi. As per the government order issued on May 5, Joshi who will now be the dean of civic-run Nair hospital. Prajakta Lavangare will work as an overall coordinator of both the hospitals, it said. Bharmal was previously the dean of Nair hospital.

The TMC on Saturday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of "lying" about the West Bengal government not allowing trains to reach the state, and said they have already planned eight trains to ferry migrants from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Telangana. The first train will be leaving on Saturday from Hyderabad to Malda, the TMC said. Shah on Saturday wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying while the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants to return home, it is not getting expected support from the state. "The Centre is lying, eight trains ready to ferry passengers to Bengal from different states: It is no right to say CM Mamata Banerjee not allowing migrants to come back.16 migrants died on your watch, will rail minister take responsibility," asked TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. In a zoom meeting with several TMC MPs, including Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien, said West Bengal is running 711 camps for migrants in the state and were taking good care of ..

He hops off a helicopter, whips off his shades and makes a dash through the grounds towards his home to give his mother a surprise, but there she is, waiting at the door with a pooja thali' in her hand. That admittedly cheesy scene between Shah Rukh Khan and Jaya Bachchan from the blockbuster Hindi film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was playing in Sonali Puri's mind when she was on a Mumbai-Jammu flight to give her mother a surprise last month. Her mother was at the door just as she had imagined but instead of a thali' was a hand sanitiser! Good hygiene is a blessing in times of coronavirus, my mother told me, laughed the 37-year-old. That was in mid-March, a few days before the coronavirus forced lockdown began on March 25. And home in Jammu is where Puri still is, the short vacation turning into extended mother-daughter downtime, both recalibrating their equations as they spend focused time with each other after years. This Mother's Day, the first time perhaps that Puri has been home, she

At least 1,200 people from Manipur stranded in Chennai will be brought back in a special train that will reach Jiribam at the state's border with Assam on May 12, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said. The train will start from Chennai later on Saturday, he said in a video message on Friday night. From Jiribam they will be brought to Imphal, around 200 km away, in special buses, Singh said. All of them will have to undergo isolation at the institutional quarantine centres set up at schools and colleges with the assistance of local MLAs and other organisations. Singh said that they will undergo full medical checkup before leaving Chennai and will further undergo check-up, including thermal screening, after reaching Jiribam. The cost of ferrying the stranded people from Chennai to Jiribam is around Rs 12,00,600, while the cost of transporting them in 50 buses is around Rs 1,05,000, Singh said. Two other special trains carrying migrants will also depart from Punjab and ...

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Saturday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to put the proposed amendments to the Electricity Act on hold till these were thoroughly discussed with state governments after the Coronavirus pandemic subsides. Recalling his earlier objections to the amendments, the Chief Minister said the proposed amendment bill sought to take away the power of the state government in deciding the constitution of the State Electricity Regulatory Commission, which is against the federal principles of the Constitution. In a letter to Modi, a copy of which was made available to the media, Palaniswami said the proposed amendments for which the Ministry of Power has invited comments from state governments, require detailed consultations with them and otherstakeholders. "You are aware that all states are currently pre-occupied with fighting the Coronavirus pandemic and will, therefore, require some time to give their detailed response to the proposed ...

The Karnataka government has announced one-time financial relief of Rs 5,000 each to over 11,000 cobbler families in the state, whose daily life was affected by the COVID-19 induced lockdown. According to Deputy Chief Minister Govind Karjol, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has announced one time financial relief of Rs 5,000 for each of these families. "Due to COVID-19 lockdown about 11,722 families involved in road side leather work, like mending chappals and shoes, are in financial distress and their daily life has been affected," he said on Friday. The compensation will be distributed to beneficiaries through Babu Jagjivan Ram Leather Industries Corporation, Karjol, who is also in-charge of Social Welfare department, said. A delegation of opposition leaders led by the leader of opposition Siddaramaiah had met Chief Minister Yediyurappa yesterday and demanded that people belonging to sections like goldsmiths, carpenters, cobblers, tailors and ironsmiths be considered ...

Hundreds of migrant workers came onto the streets and clashed with the police at a village in Surat district of Gujarat on Saturday to demand that they either be sent back to their home states or allowed to resume work at local industrial units to earn money, police said. The police resorted to lathicharge and fired tear gas to disperse the mob. Over a 100 workers were detained in this connection, an official said. The incident took place at Mora village near industrial town of Hazira. "Over 100 workers were detained after they took to the streets, demanding that they either be sent back home or allowed to work at the industrial units they were employed at in Hazira and paid salaries," joint commissioner of police (Sector 2) D N Patel said. Protesting workers came out of their homes in the workers' colony at Mora village and started walking in a large group towards Hazira industrial area, he said. The migrants demanded that the district administration should arrange for ..

Meritorious students hailing from poor sections of the society in Odisha have been provided smartphones to help them attend online classes during coronavirus-induced lockdown to sustain their focus on the NEET exam scheduled on July 26 for admission in medical colleges. These wards of humble vegetable sellers, fishermen and marginal farmers are students of "Zindagi foundation" run by a non-governmental organisation for talented students of Odisha, to help them give wings to their dreams. The man behind the initiative is academician Ajay Bahadur Singh, who was forced to quit medical studies due to his father's kidney ailment in 1990 and had to sell tea and sherbet to help his family survive. There are 19 medical aspirants, both boys and girls, at present under the project from remote corners of Odisha who will be undertaking the national level undergraduate medical entrance exam on July 26 next to qualify for admission in medical colleges. The lockdown caused by the ...

The Telangana Police will soon rollout an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- based system through CCTVs to check face mask norm violations. Describing it as a first such initiative in the country,State DGP M Mahendar Reddy has tweeted that the system shall be enabled shortly across the three police commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda which cover Hyderabad and its suburbs. He said the initiative involved leveraging computer vision and deep learning techniques on closed cirucuit television (cctvs) "#AI based #FaceMaskViolationEnforcement is being rolled out by TS police. Leveraging ComputerVision & #DeepLearningTechnique being implemented on surveillance CCTVs across the cities is #FirstOfItsKind in INDIA. Shall be enabled shortly across the 3Commissionerates *Hyd,Cyb&Rck," he said. The state government, which has made wearing a mask mandatory in public places, on Thursday issued orders imposing Rs 1000 as fine for those not complying with it. "In ...

Tanishq, a jewellery brand from the house of Tata, on Saturday announced plans to re- open its 328 stores across the country in a phased manner by opening its first 50 stores by Sunday. It would continue to comply with all rules related to COVID-19 lockdown while re-opening and running operations, said a statement. Tanishq said it has rolled out a gold standard safety e-book that reiterates the company's commitment to safety and well-being of customers and its employees at the store. It covers all staff and customer touch points, entailing numerous safety measures, including contactless shopping and strict social distancing at all times, the statement said. CEO of jewellery division at Titan Company Limited Ajoy Chawla said: We are reopening our stores in a phased manner because each store has to pass an eligibility test prior to re-commencing operations. This is to ensure each store is 100 per cent prepared to manage the store, staff and customers.

In the wake of the death of 16 workers from Madhya Pradesh in a train accident in Maharashtra on Friday, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday urged the stranded migrants to be patient as his government was making arrangement for their safe return to the state. He also asked them not to risk their lives by undertaking return journey on foot. Sixteen migrant workers- part of a group of 20 headed towards villages in Madhya Pradesh and who were resting on the tracks, were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district in the early hours of Friday. According to police, they had left Jalna around 7 on Thursday evening and decided to rest on the tracks after walking for about 36 km. In a video statement, Chouhan said, "The migrant labourers should be patient and avoid return journey on foot as the state government has made arrangements to bring them back." "Eleven trains carrying people from other states have already reached Madhya Pradesh and 10 more ...

A truck carrying fodder was damaged in a fire on Jammu-Pathankot highway in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir on Saturday, police said. The truck reached Pla-Morh from Punjab and was being unloaded when it suddenly caught fire as the driver tried to move it forward, a police official said. He said fire and emergency services personnel rushed to the scene and put out the blaze. The truck was completely damaged but its driver escaped unhurt, the official said.

A 55-year-old woman died of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh's Indore district on Saturday, taking the toll in the region to 87, an official said. A COVID-19 patient died on Thursday after undergoing treatment at a city hospital for 10 days, chief medical and health officer (CMHO) Praveen Jadia said. The woman was already suffering from high blood pressure, sepsis and other ailments, he added. With 53 persons testing positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, the count in the district has reached 1,780, of which 732 patients have recovered from the infection, the official said. According to the latest data, the COVID-19 mortality rate in Indore was 4.89 per cent, which was a decline of 5.44 per cent registered last month.

Seventy-six fresh coronavirus cases surfaced in Rajasthan on Saturday, pushing the state's infection count to 3,655. The state has so far reported 103 deaths. Among the fresh cases, the maximum 23 were reported from Udaipur, followed by Jaipur where 20 people were found infected with the virus on Saturday. Thirteen cases surfaced in Ajmer; six in Jodhpur; four in Pali; three in Jalore; two each in Rajsamand and Churu; and one each in Kota, Barmer and Dausa, according to a government official. Jaipur is the worst-hit Rajasthan district with a total of 1,165 case, including 54 deaths.

Four more people tested positive for COVID-19 in Uttarakhand on Saturday taking the total number of coronavirus cases in the state to 67. The cases were reported from Udham Singh Nagar district, a health department bulletin here said. With this, COVID-19 cases in Uttarakhand have risen to 67 out of which 46 patients have been discharged after recovery and one has died. The number of active cases in Uttarakhand currently stands at 20, it said.

A 23-year-old woman allegedly committed suicide at the AIIMS here after her mother died of cancer at the hospital, police said on Saturday. She was reported missing after her mother passed away on Wednesday and her body was found near the new private ward block of the hospital on Saturday, they said, adding that she fell to her death from a building. "Her mother was a cancer patient. She was being treated at the hospital and had died during treatment on Wednesday," Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) Atul Kumar Thakur said. Her father was busy in the formalities when she left the area. She was reported missing since Wednesday. The family hails from Moradabad district of Uttar Pradesh, a senior police officer said. Hospital staff noticed the body and informed the police. The block was closed due to which nobody found out about it earlier, police said. Police said she had called her friends and told them that she was going to kill herself. The body has been recovered and an inquest ...

Migrant workers returning from Rajkot to Ballia on a special train on Saturday claimed that Gujarat Police charged them Rs 725 fare. Authorities here, however, said they had no information about it. The train carrying 1,170 migrant workers from parts of UP reached Ballia in the morning, following which they were screened and provided food packets, District Magistrate Hari Pratap Shahi said. "The migrants were then sent to their states. As many as 420 are from Ballia, while rest of them are from Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Maharajganj, Kushingar, Etawah and other districts," he said. Some passengers claimed that they had to pay Rs 725 train fare to Gujarat Police, the district magistrate said, adding that he had no information on this.

Why men rape? A new book seeks to find out answers by examining a slew of factors that shape male behaviour. In her book "Why Men Rape: An Indian Undercover Investigation", Tara Kaushal sets out to understand the reasons why women feel unsafe through a detailed investigation which includes interviews and meetings with nine men who have an inclination to commit acts of sexual violence. The core of Kaushal's research methodology for the book, scheduled for release next month, entailed spending up to a week each with nine men who have raped, across different parts of the country. The author spent time in their home environments; interviewing and observing them, and their families and friends. Kaushal says through a study of these "mostly 'undetected' (the experts' term for rapists outside the criminal justice system), some unconvicted rapists, I sought to determine how history, economics, environment, upbringing, education (or lack thereof), psychological state, and attitudes towards ...

A sugarcane farmer was killed and his brother sustained injuries in a clash between two groups of farmers over a land dispute at Jalalpur village in Uttar Pradesh's Shamli district, police said. Police said trouble started when Nareshpal and his brother Harender were confronted by Pardeep with a group of farmers who attacked him with sticks while working in his field. The injured Nareshpal was rushed to hospital where he was declared dead. Nareshpal and Pardeep's agricultural land lie adjacent to each other and a dispute arose over it, police pointed out. A case was registered on Friday under IPC Sections 147 (punishment for rioting) 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object), 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) and 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) while a search is on to catch hold of the accused, police added. According to the complaint lodged by .

: The 10th standard public examination will be conducted in Tamil Nadu after the COVID- 19 attack wanes and the resultant lockdown goes, state education Minister K Sengottaiyan said on Saturday. A decision on the exam would be taken based on the recommendations of a high-level education committee and getting concurrence from health officials, he said at Savakkatupalayam village near Gobichettipalayam where he distributed welfare schemes to 450 handloom weavers. The Minister said candidates appearing for the board exams would be seated in line with social distancing norms stem the spread of coronavirus. He said schools for the coming academic year would be re-opened only after the coronavirus attack blows over. He further said 2,000 mathematics teachers would be roped in to provide online training to students. Similarly, students keen on accountancy would be given online classes, he said. Replying to a query, the Minister said a decision on increasing the retirement age for

Adani Transmission on Saturday reported a 60 per cent drop in consolidated net profit at Rs 58.97 crore for the March quarter. The fall was mainly on account of a one-time writeoff of Rs 185 crore finance sunk cost, it said in a regulatory filing. The company's consolidated net profit stood at Rs 146.7 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2019. Total income of the company rose to Rs 3,317.51 crore in the quarter under review from Rs 2,569.16 crore in the year ago period. For full fiscal 2019-20, consolidated net profit rose to Rs 706.49 crore, from Rs 559.20 crore in 2018-19.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday stressed on the need to understand the "chemistry of corona while administering its treatment". The chief minister chaired a high-level meeting of UP government officials at his residence here to review the situation arising out of the coronavirus outbreak in the state. "The need is to understand the chemistry of corona, while administering its treatment," he said. Asserting that increasing the immunity level of the body can prevent the infection, Adityanath said the 'Aayush Kavach COVID' app launched by the state government has a host of information on ayurveda, which can be adopted by people to boost their immunity. He added that the application should be widely publicised and people encouraged to download it. The UP chief minister also stressed on working on all possibilities for revenue generation, and directed officials to prepare a plan to identify alternate sources of revenue. He said an elaborate work plan should be ...

LG Polymers India Ltd on Saturday blamed leaking vapour from a storage tank for the leakage of deadly styrene monomer gas at its Visakhapatnam plant that killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands. Status quo at the plant was restored on Saturday morning, the company said in a statement. The gas leakage from the plant was reported on Thursday morning after the company tried to restart operations following the partial easing of the coronavirus lockdown. "Our initial investigations suggest that the cause of the incident is prima facie by the leaking vapor from the Styrene Monomer (SM) storage tank near the GPPS (General Purpose Poly Styrene) factory on Thursday, May 7," the statement said. The unit of South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said it is committed to working closely with the concerned authorities to investigate the cause of the incident, prevent recurrence in future and secure the foundation for care and treatment. "While focusing on stabilizing the ...

Filmmaker Satyanshu Singh has launched a unique initiative to raise relief money for those affected by the coronavirus pandemic. The director has started online classes for budding cinema students and has roped artistes from different fields of filmmaking for the initiative. Actor Vinay Pathak, screenwriters Anjum Rajabali and Sudip Sharma, cinematographer Siddharth Diwan and director Shoojit Sircar have come aboard the initiative. Since April 1, more than a dozen lectures have been conducted with students from cities like Bokaro, Kota, Bhilai, Almora, and Coimbatore taking part in them. Overseas students have also showed interest in the lectures. Through the initiative, Satyanshu has so far raised Rs 15 lakhs which has been donated to non-for-profit organisations like Milaap, Goonj, Sarvahitey, and Sneha, providing food and support to out-of-work labourers, women and children in slums, and the homeless. The daily wage workers from the film industry are also benefitting from this ...

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said he is "totally healthy" and not suffering from any disease. In a statement, Shah said rumours about his health conditions have been spread through social media. "I am totally healthy and I am not suffering from any disease," he said in the statement in Hindi which was posted on his Twitter handle.

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Saturday announced an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh for its employees in the forefront of the coronavirus fight in case of death due to the disease. As the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic, the DSGMC has been providing free food to the lockdown-hit homeless people and shelter to health workers in its gurudwaras. It will now provide an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh each to its 2,500 frontline workers who are providing free community meals, and sanitation and transport-related services across the national capital, its president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said. Staff members of the DSGMC-managed gurudwaras have been distributing food and relief material in JJ colonies, labour camps, shelter homes, etc., as a result of which there is a risk of them contracting the novel coronavirus, Sirsa said. The life insurance scheme will include sanitation staff, cooks preparing langar, religious preachers, security staff and other frontline ...

A man has been arrested for allegedly obstructing a public servant and damaging property in east Delhi''s Kalyanpuri area, police said on Saturday. The incident, which took place on Friday, was captured in a video and circulated on social media, they said. In the video, a shirtless man can be seen in inebriated state and obstructing a police gypsy. He repeatedly bangs on its windscreen and makes a crack on it. People are trying to take him out of the way, but he refuses and stands in front of the gypsy. "The incident took place on Friday around 4.30 pm in Trilokpuri area. The accused, identified as Harkesh, has been arrested. He was drunk at the time of the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Jasmeet Singh said. "A case under IPC sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and damage to ...

The West Bengal government is arranging special trains to bring back over 30,000 residents of the state stranded in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Punjab due to the ongoing lockdown, a senior official said on Saturday. The stranded people are mostly migrant workers, patients and their attendants, students, pilgrims and tourists from West Bengal, he said. "Talks are on with officials of other state governments in this regard. Everything has been finalised.... Our nodal officers are monitoring developments," the official told PTI. A total of 31,224 people are stranded in the four states, of whom more than half (17,000) are in Telangana, he said. Three trains carrying around 7,500 people from West Bengal will start their journeys from Bengaluru in Karnataka on Saturday and reach their destinations -- Bankura, Purulia and New Jalpaiguri stations -- in the state on Sunday and Monday, the official said. Two trains with around 2,418 people, mostly patients, will depart Vellore in Tamil

The "government" was responsible for the death of 16 migrant labourers who were mown down by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district, Shiv Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' said in its editorial on Saturday. The newspaper, however, did not make it clear whether it blamed the BJP-led Centre or the Sena-led Maharashtra government for the tragedy. "The government did not think of allowing them to go back to their native place, nor did it make arrangements for their food," the editorial said, adding that the authorities should have taken into consideration the problems of the poor before enforcing lockdown on account of coronavirus. The sight of 'rotis' strewn on the railway track where the migrants -- who had fallen asleep due to exhaustion while on their way to Madhya Pradesh -- were crushed to death showed a heart-wrenching and harsh reality, Samanaa said. "The labourers were in fine health and had no symptoms of coronavirus and still they died. The responsibility of ...

: 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, ...

The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday said the situation was "normal" in RR Venkatapuram village, where a styrene vapour leak from the LG Polymers plant claimed 12 lives and left over 300 people hospitalized with various ailments. Director General of Police D Gautam Sawang and Special Chief Secretary (Industries) Karikal Valaven inspected the plant and spoke to the LG Polymers plant management. Later they told reporters "everything is normal and there is no need to panic." Even as Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy, irate villagers staged a protest demanding immediate closure of the plant. According to the DGP, temperature at the styrene storage tank, where the vapour leak occurred, has come down, as also the PPM (ambient air quality) level. "Definitely the air is also fresh and there is nothing to worry about. In the coming days, life will come back to normalcy," the DGP said. "Just to ..

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

ICICI Bank on Saturday reported a 26 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 1,221 crore for the March quarter. The bank had posted a net profit of Rs 969 crore in the corresponding January-March period of 2018-19. Total income during the quarter under review increased to Rs23,443.66 crore, from Rs20,913.82 crore in the same period of the preceding fiscal, ICICI Bank said in a regulatory filing. On the assets front, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) stood at5.53 per cent of gross advances as on March 31, 2020, compared to 6.70 per cent last year. Net NPAs or bad loans were trimmed to 1.41 per cent as against 2.06 per cent.

Rane Holdings Ltd, part of Rane Group, has commenced partial operations at most of its plants with restricted manpower, the company said on Saturday. The city-based company had closed its plants and offices across India due to outbreak of COVID19 and in-line with instructions from Central and state governments. ".. based on the various relaxations and guidelines issued by Ministry of Home Affairs and respective State governments, the company has partially resumed its operations in most of its plants and offices with restricted manpower with effect from May 8," the company said in a filing. Rane Holdings said the continuance of operations in the places would depend on directives of local authorities issued time to time and based on incidence of COVID-19 cases in area concerned. The Tamil Nadu government had announced extension of lock-down from May 4 to 17 by allowing some restrictions towing with Centre's directive to control the spread of coronavirus. The company has six

The Indian Railways has operated 302 Shramik Special' trains since May 1 and ferried home more than 3 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, officials said. The national transporter has planned to operate 47 trains on Saturday, out of which 34 trains have already departed, they said. Every Shramik Special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. The railways, however, is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger. While the railways has not yet announced the cost incurred on the special services, officials indicate the national transporter has spent around Rs 80 lakh per service. The government had earlier stated that the cost of the services has been shared on 85:15 ratio with states. Since the beginning of running the Shramik Special trains, Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations followed by Kerala. Among the receiving ...

A 51-year-old police constable who had tested positive for coronavirus died in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday afternoon, an official said. This is the sixth death of a police personnel due to COVID-19 in the state, he said. The constable, a resident of Nashik city, was deputed on security duty in Malegaon town in the district which has emerged as a coronavirus hotspot. He was admitted to the civil hospital in Nashik after showing symptoms of infection on May 1, the police official said. Three policemen in Mumbai and one each in Pune and Solapur had died due to the virus infection before.

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

Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Saturday expressed gratitude to policemen in the frontline in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak by keeping the state police logo as the display picture or DP of his social media accounts. He asked people to do so in large numbers to encourage the men in khakhi who have been working round the clock, with several of them having got infected, and six losing their lives. In a Facebook post, Deshmukh said, "There is a need to highlight that the brothers in my police family are not alone. The people care for the police as much I do as home minister." "I will keep the logo of Maharashtra Police as the DP of all my social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in the honour of our brave police. You too should use the logo (as the DP) to participate in big numbers to honour the police brothers," he added.

The West Bengal government on Saturday said it had brought back around 6,000 residents stranded outside the state and ensured safe return of people of other states stuck here due to the lockdown, virtually refuting the claims of non-cooperation made by Union Home Minister Amit Shah. The state government is doing its best to ensure that migrant labourers -- those stranded in Bengal and also the state's people stuck outside -- return home, West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay said. Bandopadhyay said so far around 6,000 people, including migrant labourers, pilgrims and students of Bengal, stranded in other states have come back. "We have also issued 18,000 passes to small trucks so that those stuck in West Bengal can return to their states," he said. He, however, declined to comment on the letter sent by Shah to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the issue of migrant labourers and said it is not his subject to comment on. Shah has said the West Bengal government is not allowing .

Stopped by police from proceeding further, hundreds of migrant workers going home on foot created a ruckus at a Ganga bridge on the National Highway-24 in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district, officials said on Saturday. According to them, the workers started arriving at the bridge from the Delhi side on Friday afternoon and wanted to go home at the earliest. Dhanoura Circle Officer Monica Yadav said they had assured them that buses would be arranged for their journey but they were adamant on going home on foot. Amroha DM Umesh Mishra said they arranged buses for them but some of the workers on bicycles refused to go in these. They wanted to proceed on their bicycles, he said.

In Vadhan's new book, there is an anti-hero who takes law into his hands but the author says this is not meant to glorify vigilantism and the character's only agenda is to enforce law through a fiery and extreme form of justice system and not destabilize anything. The story of "Fear of God" weaves law, corruption, vigilantism and courtroom drama to follow the three central characters who are looking to achieve the same thing but through different means. A parliamentarian is brutally murdered. The vigilante's next target is a war hero and top constitutional lawyer. A top police officer has to race against time to stop the killings. The vigilante is as devious as he is effective in instilling the fear of God into those who think they are above the law. When asked whether the anti-hero taking law into his hands in a way glorifies vigilantism, Vadhan says, "But then, what is the goal of this anti-hero? Is he a voice against law? He only reiterates that one has to obey the law to be ...

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.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said Rs 18,253 crore has been disbursed to 9.13 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme during the ongoing nationwide lockdown. Under the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme, each farmer gets Rs 6,000 in a year in three equal installments directly in bank account. Front-loading the release of the first installment under the PM-KISAN scheme was part of the Rs 1.70 lakh crore Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) announced on March 26 to protect the poor from the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. The lockdown was imposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 25 to curb the spread of COVID-19, and since then it has been extended twice. With regard to further assistance to farmers, the finance minister said that 3 crore farm loan borrowers have opted for a three-month moratorium. "Since March 2020, 9.13 crore farmers have been paid Rs 18,253 crore under PM-KISAN during the #lockdown. About three crore farmers with

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.

Over 1 lakh migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh stranded in different parts of the country following the coronavirus-induced lockdown will return to the state by Saturday night on 114 trains, a senior government official said. Another 98 trains will reach the state on Sunday and Monday, while talks are on to allow 15 to 20 more, he said on Saturday. "Till Saturday morning, 97 trains have reached the state and another 17 will reach by the evening. With this, more than 1.20 lakh migrant workers and labourers will be back in the state," Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi said. These trains arrived at 36 railway stations of the state, with Lucknow and Gorakhpur receiving 11 trains each, he said. Awasthi said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stressed that no migrant should undertake the journey home on foot or bicycle. The government has also given permission for 98 more trains which will bring back migrants from other parts of the country on Sunday and Monday, he said, ...

Fintech company Razorpay on Saturday said it will hire more than 50 people for critical roles across product and engineering teams, and is on schedule with appraisals, bonuses and promotions for its existing employees. With businesses seeing significant impact due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many startups have frozen hiring and slashed salaries. There have also been reports of layoffs by many firms. Razorpay said in view of the restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, an increasing number of businesses are considering adopting online payment methods. "As a company, we are sufficiently capitalised and are on schedule with appraisals, bonuses and promotions for our employees, which will be announced this month end. We have always believed in rewarding our employees with healthy merit increases," Razorpay Head - People Operations Anuradha Bharat told PTI. While she did not disclose the quantum of hikes to be given, Bharat said the wage increases have been typically higher than the average

Ahead of the arrival of a Naval ship here with stranded Indians from Maldives, a top police officer on Saturday said all arrangements were in place in the southern state to facilitate safe stay of those repatriated comprising over 400 Keralites and people from other parts of the country. INS Jalashwa, participating in Indian Navy's "Operation Samudra Setu" to bring home Indians stuck in foreign countries due to COVID-19 pandemic, has departed from Male port for Kochi with 698 Indian nationals on board on Friday night. This is the Indian Navy's first massive evacuation exercise during the COVID-19 lockdown. The ship is expected to arrive at the Cruise Terminal of the Cochin Port Trust on Sunday between 9.30-10 am, a Defence source said here. Inspector General of Police Vijay Sakhare said 440 people traveling via ship are from Kerala. Rest of the passengers are from other parts of the country including Tamil Nadu (187 people), Goa (1), Haryana (3), Andhra Pradesh (8), ...

The Arunachal Pradesh government has made institutional quarantine for a period of 14 days mandatory for people returning to Arunachal Pradesh from across the country, a senior minister said on Saturday. Among the returnees, students will also have to go into institutional quarantine for the same duration, he said. Earlier a group of six students, lodged in a quarantine centre, was allowed to go home after five days when their swab samples had tested negative. People are coming back after the Centre allowed those stranded across the country in view of the lockdown to return to their respective states. The state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu at a meeting also decided to make RT-PCR test for detection of COVID-19 compulsory for the returnees, including the asymptomatic ones, state Home minister Bamang Felix told reporters here on Saturday. "We have decided to segregate returnees on the basis of green, orange and red zones and make arrangements ...