South Korea's president says his proposal to North Korea on jointly tackling infectious diseases such as the COVID-19 illness remains valid, though the North hasn't responded. President Moon Jae-in told reporters Sunday that he believes the North is suffering various difficulties over the coronavirus pandemic. Moon didn't elaborate. His spy agency recently told lawmakers the virus pandemic resulted in sharply shrinking the North's external trade and causing panic buying in Pyongyang, the North's capital. Moon says he'll try to persuade North Korea to accept his offers for reconciliation projects after the pandemic is stabilized. Moon has proposed reconnecting severed railways, resuming reunions of families split by war and sending South Korean tourists to North Korea. North Korea has been taking intense anti-virus quarantine steps but it has steadfastly claimed there hasn't been a single case of the coronavirus on its territory. Many foreign experts are skeptical of the North's claim.

Hollywood star Mark Wahlberg and Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House have joined hands to provide food to the city's healthcare workers and first responders. The Boston-based burger chain Wahlburgers - run by Wahlberg brothers, Mark, Donnie and Paul - has been shipping its patties to the steak house in Midtown to be cooked up, and the city's legendary firefighter themed sports bar Bravest have been helping deliver the meals. "They wanted to honour the hospital workers and first responders," Gerard Fitzgerald, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association, told Page Six. The meal deliveries started in Manhattan last week and end in Staten Island on Monday. The 'Jason Bourne' star said it was nice to help champion for someone else and give them the credit they deserve. "Not being able (to have our restaurants) fully operational these past several weeks has been heartbreaking for our entire organization. But that hasn't stopped our commitment to supporting the communities we ...

The first batch of 88 nurses from India arrived in the UAE to help the country's stretched healthcare professionals amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections in the Gulf nation that has crossed 17,000, according to media reports. The Ministry of Health and Prevention said the UAE reported 624 new cases on Saturday, taking the total number of infections to 17,417. The number of fatalities reached 185 after 11 deaths were reported on the day. The nurses, who are from Aster DM Healthcare hospitals in the states of Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, will be put under quarantine for 14 days after which they will be assigned to various field hospitals as per requirement, the Khaleej Times reported. They arrived on a special flight at the Dubai airport on Saturday. India's Ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor said that this would further strengthen the long-standing friendship between the two countries. "India and the UAE are showing how a strategic partnership translates into concrete ...

Pavle Jovanovic, who competed in bobsleigh for the United States at the 2006 Olympics, took his own life last weekend at the age of 43, the US Bobsled and Skeleton federation said Saturday. "The winter sports community has suffered a tragic loss," said federation chief executive Aron McGuire, a former teammate of Jovanovic. "Pavle's passion and commitment towards bobsled was seen and felt by his teammates, coaches, competitors, and fans of the sport. He lived life to the fullest and had a lasting influence on all those who had the opportunity to spend time with him." Jovanovic, who competed in bobsleigh for the United States at the 2006 Olympics, took his own life last weekend at the age of 43, the US Bobsled and Skeleton Federation said Saturday. "The winter sports community has suffered a tragic loss," said federation chief executive Aron McGuire, a former teammate of Jovanovic. "Pavle's passion and commitment towards bobsled was seen and felt by his teammates, coaches, competitors,

They prepared for icy cold and trained to be on the watch for polar bears, but a pandemic just wasn't part of the program. Now dozens of scientists are waiting in quarantine for the all-clear to join a year-long Arctic research mission aimed at improving the models used for forecasting climate change, just as the expedition reaches a crucial phase. For a while, the international mission looked like it might have to be called off, as country after country went into lockdown because of the virus, scuppering plans to bring fresh supplies and crew to the German research vessel Polarstern that's been moored in the high Arctic since last year. News of the pandemic caused jitters among those already on board, said Matthew Shupe, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Colorado and co-leader of the MOSAiC expedition. "Some people just wanted to be home with their families," he told The Associated Press in a video interview from the German port of Bremerhaven, where he and about 90 other

With many celebrities and even former president Barack Obama taking part in virtual graduation ceremonies in times of social distancing, actor Alec Baldwin's President Donald Trump turned keynote speaker for this year's class of seniors in the remotely filmed season finale of "Saturday Night Live". Kate McKinnon, who portrayed the principal of a fictitious school, mentioned that he was the class' eighth choice, behind such favourites as Obama, murder hornets and the "Elon Musk-Grimes baby". "Hello, everyone, I'm Principal O'Grady. Welcome to the St Mary Magdalene By The Expressway class of 2020 virtual graduation," she said in a video shared on "SNL" Twitter page. "I know this isn't how you expected your high school career to come to an end, but we're all making sacrifices. I have had to share my child's Adderall with him," McKinnon said to a zoom conference of the entire class playing students. Baldwin's Trump appeared wearing a red "Make America Great Again" cap in a call from ...

Pakistan reported a record number of 1,991 coronavirus cases in a single day, taking the total number of infections to over 29,000, the health ministry said on Sunday as the country began easing the month-long lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the deadly disease. Despite a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections, the first phase of the easing of the lockdown began on Saturday. The government announced removing restrictions by allowing more businesses to open and operate from dawn to 5pm. However, doctors have warned against easing the restrictions. The Representative of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) have demanded that the government observe the World Health Organization protocols and implement a strict lockdown. The Ministry of National Health Services said that 21 new deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of fatalities to 639. A total of 8,023 people have recovered so far. Punjab registered 11,093 cases, Sindh 10,771, ...

The governor of a province that surrounds Seoul ordered the two-week shutdowns of all nightclubs, hostess bars and other similar entertainment facilities in his province to guard against a possible new surge in coronavirus cases. Lee Jae-myung, the Gyeonggi province governor, announced the steps Sunday, a day after Seoul shut down more 2,100 nightclubs, hostess bars and discos in the capital city as dozens of fresh infections linked to clubgoers have been reported in recent days. The province and Seoul form the Seoul metropolitan area, where about half of South Korea's 51 million people reside. Earlier Sunday, South Korea reported 34 additional virus cases over the past 24 hours, the first time the country's daily jump has marked above 30 in about a month. Health authorities said that 24 of the 34 cases were those who had visited clubs in Seoul's Itaewon entertainment neighborhood in the past several days or people who came in contact with them later. New cases linked to the Itaewon ..

Union MinisterNitin Gadkari on Saturday suggested retailers to learn the "art of living" with the coronavirus pandemic while assuring them to look into their demands for MSME status. The minister also assured the retailers to look into their demands of financial aid from the government, which he would put forward to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. He also said that some proposals are under"serious consideration" by the government and asked the retail industry to have a positive outlook. We would have to develop a way forward to live with coronavirus, said Gadkari in a virtual meeting with the Retailers Association of India (RAI). He also assured RAI and Practicing Engineers, Architects and Town Planners Association (India) that their request for registering as MSMEs will be examined expeditiously. These people (retailers) also provide employment to some people and if they get recognition as MSME, then people working under them would get benefits ..

Air India crew members, who reside in Gautam Buddh Nagar and are involved in flight operations to evacuate Indian citizens stuck abroad due to lockdown, can return home from Delhi only after their COVID-19 test results are found negative, officials said on Saturday. The crew would be examined for COVID-19 through the real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction or the RT-PCR test, considered a gold standard but costly and time-consuming process as against the rapid anti-body tests, and put on duty again if found fit, the officials said. The Gautam Buddh Nagar police had requested the management of the national carrier to accommodate its crew members that reside in Noida and Greater Noida in Delhi for the duration of the Centre's Vande Bharat Mission. The request was made because Gautam Buddh Nagar in western Uttar Pradesh falls in the Red Zone' and the to and fro movement of the flight crew could increase the risk of COVID-19 infection, the officials said. "A letter from .

Dubbing Congress' criticism of the central government's handling of COVID-19 crisis as "absurd", the BJP on Saturday said the opposition party is weakening the country's fight against COVID-19 instead of extending cooperation. BJP's national media incharge Anil Baluni said Congress leaders, on a regular basis, are making "absurd statements on the behest of their party president Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, to remain relevant in news". Baluni said the BJP-led government at the Centre welcomes Opposition's constructive suggestions in the battle against COVID-19, but "the opposition party should not do politics" over the pandemic. "Rather than becoming a part of the battle against COVID-19, the Congress is unfortunately resorting to politics and its leaders are trying to weaken the fight by making absurd statements, Baluni said. Underscoring that India has done relatively well than other countries and has been praised for effectively handling the coronavirus, Baluni said the Congress ..

The concessions given by the UP government to traders will prove to be a pace setter for the revival of economic activity in the state at a time when the nation is going through a rough phase due to the COVID-19 outbreak, UP Vyapaari Kalyan Board chairman Ravi Kant Garg said. He said the exemption from labour laws for three years is bound to open gates for economic growth that was hit by the coronavirus lockdown. Such measures will spur economic activities and boost the investment climate in the state, Garg said while talking to a group of reporters on Saturday evening. He further said that exemption of 46 variety of fruits and vegetables from the clutches of Mandi Adhiniyam Suchana through Krashi Utapadan Mandi Adhiniyam (Sansodhan) ordinance 2020 would boost the trade. It is bound to help farmers as well as traders, he added. Now, the farmer would be free to sell his produce outside Mandi Parishad. Exemption of Mandi shulk (Mandi tax) from 46 variety of grains would provide maximum .

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday held a global video conference with the state's expatriates and enquired about their well-being amid the Covid-19 pandemic and assured them of the government's full help to their family members living in the country, if they need it. An official statement said Rajasthan natives living in more than 90 cities across 50 countries attended the video conference during which they appreciated the government's efforts to control the coronavirus spread and also offered their help. They proposed financial assistance to stranded migrant workers, arranging training for them to secure better employment abroad, besides cooperation with the state government in education and the developing villages, the release said. They also offered help in skill development for youths besides providing technical skills to new entrepreneurs, the release said. During the conference, many entrepreneurs also gave suggestions to bring the economy of the state back on ...

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi on Saturday said the BJP is in favour of reservation in promotion and against introducing the creamy layer provision for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribe categories. The central government headed by Narendra Modi is committed to protect the rights of SCs and STs, he said and expressed support to the demand of the states SC and ST MLAs to include "reservation" meant for them in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution so that they cannot be challenged in courts. The demand of the legislators belonging to SC and ST categories from all parties came in the wake of the recent Supreme Court order asking the Centre to revise the list of reserved categories for providing quotas so that benefits trickle down to the needy. The MLAs said the apex court judgment virtually advocated for implementing the provision of creamy layer in the reservation meant for SCs and STs. Sushil Modi said, When two Constitution benches ruled in ...

A teacher of a civic body-run school, who was involved in distributing ration during the lockdown, has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, officials said on Saturday. The teacher was posted at a primary school in Wazirabad under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation. The teacher had last come to school on April 28 and started showing COVID-19 symptoms from May 2. His test report came on Friday, an official of North Delhi Municipal Corporation said. "We traced his six primary contacts and they have been sent into quarantine. Since they are completely asymptomatic, no test has been done yet," he said, adding the school building has been sanitised.

Sixteen more people including two minors from nine districts tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday, taking the total number of cases to 595 in Bihar, a top health department official said. Seven of the 16 fresh cases are migrant people from other states, Health Departments Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said in a tweet. "We are ascertaining their further infection trail," Kumar said. Of the 16 new cases, three each are from Muzaffarpur and Arwal, two each from Begusarai, Munger, Nalanda and one each from Vaishali, Bhojpur, Siwan, Sheikhpura districts, the Principal Secretary said. Five people have died of the disease so far in Bihar which is now left with 272 active cases while 318 have recovered. The number of samples tested so far at seven facilities in Patna, Bhagalpur, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga is 32,767.

Doctors at the government-run ESIC Hospital here committed a "mistake" by not testing samples of a 16-year-old girl, who later died of Covid-19, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday. The girl breathed her last on Thursday at the B Barooah Cancer Institute. Her samples, which were taken after her death, tested positive for coronavirus infection/ "The girl first went to ESIC Hospital with all symptoms like fever and pain in legs. It was a mistake by doctors that her samples were not sent for testing... It is a matter of concern," Sarma told reporters here. Talking about the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), which was closed for new patients after a doctor at the facility tested positive on Thursday, he said a total of 529 samples have been collected from doctors, nurses, professors and superintendent of the institute for testing "Out of those, reports of 357 samples came out negative and one was positive. Results of the rest of the samples are awaited," .

Twenty-three Surat returnees were among 24 people who tested positive for COVID-19 in Odisha on Saturday, taking the total cases in the state to 294, the Health and Family Welfare department said. Of the 24 fresh Covid cases, Ganjam reported 18, while three came from Mayurbhanj and one each from Nayagarh, Bhadrak and Sundergarh. Nayagarh district reported its first novel coronavirus case when a 40-year-old Surat returnee tested positive to the disease. With this, the COVID-19 has now spread to19 of the 30 districts of Odisha. At present, there are 224 active cases in the state and 68 people have recovered. Two people from Bhubaneswar have succumbed to the disease, an official said adding that 343 persons are in hospital isolation. The state health department had on Friday conducted 3,348 tests for COVID-19, he said, adding that Odisha has so far tested 56,322 samples. As per an analysis by the department, 246 of the state's total 294 cases have been reported from five ...

The West Bengal Health Department on Saturday formed teams to support surveillance and monitoring of treatment at five hospitals treating COVID-19 patients in the city. The team members will pay regular visits to these hospitals and send reports to the department, the state government said in an order. The department has also set up a dedicated help line for issues regarding the non-availability of PPEs and other supplies. The feedback and suggestions will be duly recorded and acted upon by the state government for appropriate remedial measures, the order said. The West Bengal government has also constituted a team for guidance on containment activities in different districts of the state.

In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers. In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures. As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk. The same is true for the storage facilities with hazardous chemicals and flammable materials, it said. The NDMA guidelines said while restarting a unit, the first week should be considered as the trial or test run period after ensuring all safety protocols. Companies should not try to achieve high production targets. There should be 24-hour sanitisation ..

Ganjam district in Odisha reported its first COVID-19 death after a man succumbed to the virus on Sunday, taking the death toll in the state to three, an official of the health department said. The total number of coronavirus cases in the state has climbed to 352, with 58 more testing positive for the disease, the official said. At least 41 of them are those who returned from Surat in Gujarat recently, he said. Last month, Odisha had reported two COVID-19 deaths - both in state capital Bhubaneswar. Of the 58 new cases, 29 are from Ganjam district, 15 from Balasore, and 1 from Mayurbhanj. Angul district registered coronavirus cases for the first time, with 13 people there contracting the virus. Twenty of the 30 districts in the state have so far reported COVID-19 cases. The number of active cases in the state has climbed to 281. At least 68 people have recovered from the disease. On Saturday, 3,458 samples were examined in the state. A total of 59,780 samples have been tested so ..

The death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 2,109 and the number of cases climbed to 62,939 in the country on Sunday, registering an increase of 128 deaths and 3,277 cases in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 41,472, while 19,357 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases also include 111 foreign nationals. Of the 2,109 fatalities, Maharashtra tops the tally with 779 deaths. Gujarat comes second with 472 deaths, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 215, West Bengal at 171, Rajasthan at 106, Uttar Pradesh at 74, Delhi at 73, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu at 44. The death toll is 31 in Punjab, 30 each in Karnataka and Telangana. Jammu and Kashmir and Haryana each have registered nine COVID-19 deaths, Bihar five and Kerala four. Jharkhand has recorded three COVID-19 fatalities. Odisha, Chandigarh, Assam and Himachal Pradesh have reported two deaths each. Meghalaya and ...

At least 34 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Bihar, raising the total count in the state to 629, a top health department official said on Sunday. Of the 34, 11 hail from Begusarai, seven each from Saharsa and Madhepura, five, including a woman, from Rohtas, two from Darbhanga and one each from Khagaria and Araria districts, Sanjay Kumar, the principal secretary of the state health department, said. "We are ascertaining the infection trail. These are yesterday's results received late in the night," Kumar said, adding that seven out of 34 patients were minors. Barring Jamui, all 37 districts in the state have reported coronavirus cases. The number of active cases in the state currently stands at 306. Altogether, 318 people have recovered so far. Bihar has witnessed five COVID-19 fatalities -- one each from Rohtas, Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi districts. All five of them had pre-existing ailments. Munger has accounted for the maximum number of cases in the ...

The Indian automotive sector will continue to face challenges related to non-availability of labour and concerns over health and safety management on the shop-floor following the coronavirus pandemic, which may force firms to accelerate adoption of digital technologies in manufacturing, a report by consultancy firm EY said. This health crisis will settle gradually and would leave a profound impact on people and the ways of working especially on the shop-floor. There will be several changes to existing working norms and guidelines that organisations will need to abide by in order to ensure safety at the workplace, said the report titled 'Now, next and beyond: Auto factory of the future'. Elaborating on how automotive shop-floors will evolve and adopt digital technologies post COVID-19, the report said automobile companies will now have to rebuild and reinvent a new ecosystem to accommodate the new normal that is likely to emerge. "The auto sector will continue to face challenges ...

The Yenepoya medical college hospital at Deralakatte here has become the first private hospital in Dakshina Kannada district to get coronavirus (COVID-19) testing approval. The laboratory at the hospital has received the nod from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to conduct tests for COVID-19, a release here said. Dakshina Kannada will now have two centres for coronavirus tests, the first one being the district Wenlock hospital, the designated hospital for Covid-19. ICMR has approved 33 testing centres in the state of which 21 are government hospitals and 12 are private hospitals.

Delhi recorded five more deaths due to coronavirus, while 381 fresh cases of the virus were reported, the city government said on Sunday. With the fresh cases, the virus tally in the national capital has climbed to 6,923. Between midnight of May 8 and midnight of May 9, five fresh fatalities due to the virus were reported, taking the death toll to 73, the government said in its health bulletin. While there are 4,781 active cases of the virus in the city, 2069 patients have so far recovered from COVID-19.

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir doesn't see major changes in the way cricket is played in the post COVID-19 scenario besides the ban on using saliva on the ball. The International Cricket Council is considering legalisation of the usage of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of saliva. "I don't think a lot of rules and regulations will be changed, you can probably have an alternate for the usage of saliva apart from that I don't think so many changes will happen," Gambhir told Star Sports. "Players and everyone else need to live with this virus; probably they have to get used to it that there is a virus and that it will be around. Players might end up catching it, and you got to live with it." Though social distancing is possible in cricket to a certain extent, other sports will find it tougher when sporting action resumes, said the southpaw. "Social distancing and other rules may not be easy for any sport to maintain. You can still manage to do it with cricket, but ...

Himachal Pradesh reported two fresh cases of COVID-19, taking the total virus count in the state to 55, officials said on Sunday. Two people quarantined at Swarghat in Bilaspur district along the HP-Punjab border have tested positive, Bilaspur deputy commissioner Rajeswar Goel said. The two are taxi drivers and had recently ferried two families from Gujarat's Ahmedabad and Haryana's Gurgaon to their native places in Mandi and Kangra districts respectively. As the two showed symptoms during screening at the border, the two were quarantined and their samples were taken, he added. One of them is from Gujarat. They are being shifted to Nerchowk's Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri Government Medical College and Hospital (SLBSGMC) in Mandi, he added. Samples of their contacts will also be taken for testing. The number of active cases in Himachal Pradesh now stands at 13 three each in Chamba and Kangra, two in Hamirpur, Bilaspur each and one each in Mandi, Una and Shimla districts. While 35 patients

Nearly a month after recovering from the coronavirus, actor Zoa Morani says she has donated her blood plasma to do her bit in helping the patients currently suffering from the novel virus. The actor, who was quarantined and kept under medication in April, also urged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma. "Donated my blood today for the Plasma therapy trials at Nair hospital. It was fascinating! Always a silver lining I suppose. The team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe (sic)," Zoa wrote on Instagram on Saturday. She thanked the doctors for taking care of her and hoped patients benefit from the donation. "All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! I hope this works #IndiaFightsCorona. They even gave me a certificate and Rs 500. Wont lie, I felt super cool today (sic)," she added. Zoa, along with her ..

Plans are in place to start outdoor training in premier centres in India later this month and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government had to tread a careful path to ensure that athletes remained free from COVID-19. Rijiju had already said that his ministry was devising a plan for a phased resumption of national camps for Olympic-bound athletes, starting with the athletes currently based at NIS Patiala and SAI Centre in Bengaluru by the end of this month. "A roadmap is being prepared. If something happens to top athletes it will be a set back and so we are careful and that's why there are no positive coronavirus cases for our athletes till now. Players are pride of our country and so we can't risk anything," Rijiju said. "Medical experts, technical committee are working to start things. We have started preparing, NIS Patiala, Delhi IG stadium, SAI centres, premier sports centres will be opened after lockdown," he was quoted as saying by India Today. The coronavirus-forced ...

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a review meeting with CEOs of public sector banks (PSBs) on Monday to discuss various issues, including credit offtake, as part of efforts to prop up the economy hit by the COVID-19 crisis. The meeting, to be held via video-conferencing, will also take stock of interest rate transmission to borrowers by banks and progress on moratorium on loan repayments, sources said. The RBI had on March 27 slashed the benchmark interest rate by a massive 75 basis points and also announced a three-month moratorium to be given by banks to provide relief to borrowers whose income has been hit due to the lockdown. Earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with heads of both public and private sector banks to take stock of the economic situation and review implementation of various measures announced by the central bank. The deployment of excessive funds by banks under the reverse repo route may also come up for discussion on Monday, ...

Uttarkashi on Sunday reported its first COVID-19 case, raising Uttarakhand's coronavirus tally to 68. Uttarkashi district falls in the green zone.The red, orange and green zone classification is based on the number of coronavirus cases, doubling rate of coronavirus cases, and the extent of testing and surveillance The man, who tested positive, hails from Dhanaripatti village in Dunda block and had returned recently from Surat in Gujarat, Chief Medical Officer DP Joshi said. Three persons who came along with him in separate two wheelers from Gujarat have been kept in isolation, he said, adding contact tracing is underway. The 32-year-old man's swab sample was tested at AIIMS, Rishikesh, Joshi said.

The coronavirus lockdown has brought a sea change in the buying behaviour of many Indians, such as purchasing vegetables and other consumables without asking for prices, far from the old habit of asking 'dhaniya' or 'mirchi' free from vendors, according to a survey by Enormous Brands. The web-based survey, conducted between March 30 and April 22, took feedback from 3,737 respondents in cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. It found that there has also been a sharp increase in adoption of digital technology by older people to join the e-commerce bandwagon for ordering items like milk, grocery and home essentials and paying through wallets and UPI. The study also found that COVID19 has helped in forming an opinion for pushing the 'Make in India' agenda, with 42 per cent believing that "there is an active and deliberate attempt by China to spread COVID across the world for economic gains" which has led to a strong anti-China sentiment. "The ...

Several NGOs working in the disability sector are facing severe financial crunch as most of the funds and donations they would earlier get has been diverted towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis. Prashant Verma, general secretary, National Association for the Blind, says he could just pay 65 per cent salary to his employees in the last two months due to financial crunch and if no fresh donations are made he does not have any money to pay his 120 staff members this month. "We feel as if we are at the end of the line," he told PTI. Verma said his organisation used to get grants from many companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and even from individuals, especially during March as it was the end of the financial year. "But this year we didn't get any money. Some of the companies, which even committed to us, are saying that this time they have to think about their own survival. Many individuals (who earlier donated) don't have money to support us. A lot of the money is ...

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday said 75 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the city are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms. The chief minister said the government has also issued an order for requisition of ambulances of private hospitals, adding that the decision has been taken in the wake of shortage of state-run ambulances. "They (private ambulances) will have to be pressed into service when the government requires their service," Kejriwal said while addressing an online media briefing. The government has made arrangements for treatment of those at their homes with mild COVID-19 symptoms in accordance with the Centre's guidelines. "Out of 6,923 COVID-19 patients, only 1,476 are admitted at hospitals, rest getting treatment at their homes and COVID-19 centres," Kejriwal added.

: The Chennai Koyambedu connection had a clear reflection on the number of fresh coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday as the border districts of Chittoor and SPS Nellore reported 16 and five in the last 24 hours as the states overall tally shot up by 50 to 1,980. The official bulletin showed one fresh Covid-19 death in Kurnool district and put the overall count at 45, as the one fatality reported in Vizianagaram on Saturday was not added to the table. Over 160 people with contacts to people who returned from the Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai were traced in Chittoor district and tests so far revealed 27 COVID-19 positive cases in the last two days, official sources here said. With the fresh additions, the number of active cases in Chittoor rose to 38. SPS Nellores tally also crossed the century mark to 101 but the number of active cases here was 36. Nellore too had the Koyambedu connection and officials were busy tracing the contacts of the Chennai ...

The Supreme Court thinks that judges in the Best Bakery case should have taken a more pro-active role, using a range of mechanisms to ensure justice. This, the court says, can be done without undermining the fundamental fairness of the trial, or the accused's rights. Manju Dhall reports.

To mark its fifth anniversary, EducationWorld asked several educationists and industry leaders with proven commitment to improving the education system to write prescriptions for a renaissance of Indian education. Dilip Thakore threads the responses together.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s report on Tamil Nadu (General and Social Sector) for the year ending on March 31, 2014 got tabled in the state assembly last month. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses the report and asks question on the non-responsiveness of the state government to CAG’s performance review.

Palash Foundation helps people move on from the trauma and social challenges faced by those who are disfigured, or simply visually different. Freny Manecksha reports.

A Supreme Court ruling putting live-in relationships on par with marriages raises difficult questions. Will it pit one woman's right to legal protection against another's? Does it overlook bigamy? Shoma Chatterji reports.

In the workplaces of the times - the call centres of global corporations - Indian expertise is rewarding, but also has significant downsides, says Geeta Seshu.
Part II : Stress in the sunshine sector

Activists within the Muslim community are demanding reforms to tackle questions of personal law such as dowry, divorce and polygamy. Ashima Kaul reports.

Dilution or outright waiver of punishment if a rapist offers to marry his victim is an extra-legal step, one that is not written into law anywhere. But it continues to be entertained because the internalisation of stigmatisation is wide-spread, and even the victims believe it. Shoma Chatterji reports.

Women born into a Bedia family remain unmarried. They engage in prostitution in order to provide for the economic needs of their natal family. And Bedia men have developed a strong resistance to any change in their mode of living, writes Anuja Agrawal.

The government's move to regulate the retail sale of acid is a welcome one, but for the many hundreds who have been prey to such heinous acts, life continues to be a daily struggle against physical and social odds. Priyanka Nadgir talks to one such survivor.

Does inequality engender crime? S Venkatraman presents a graphical exposition of data from a recent WEF report and the NCRB to unravel the many layers of inequality and violence against women in India.

October is domestic violence awareness month. Pushpa Achanta shares stories of victims of domestic violence to point out why the dilution of IPC Section 498A by the Supreme Court is a blow to the fight against domestic violence.

The India Together editorial.

In a country where the need for collective and institutional engagement in social improvement is stark, Shankar Jaganathan explores the role and contours of individual responsibility - both towards self and society - as a necessary precondition for the former.