Back-channel used to ‘urge’ Pak to release Kulbhushan Jadhav: Harish Salve
INDIA RESORTED to “back-channel” efforts to “persuade” Islamabad to release Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former Indian Navy officer who is on death row in Pakistan on charges of spying and terrorist activities. This was revealed by India’s lead counsel in the case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Harish Salve, a senior Supreme Court lawyer and […]
Karnataka IAS officer served showcause notice over Tablighi Jamaat tweet, says ‘can’t please everyone’
A day after being served a showcause notice by the Karnataka government for a tweet on the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin on Saturday said he “can’t please everyone all the time”. Mohsin, posted as a secretary in the Backward Classes Welfare Department in Karnataka, was served a showcause notice by the state government over […]
ICMR plans to study whether novel coronavirus strain in India changed form
NEW DELHI : The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is planning to study whether the novel coronavirus strain in India has undergone mutation while spreading within the country over the last two months. According to a senior scientist of the country’s apex health research body, determining whether or not the SARS-CoV2 strain has changed form […]
Students Bear The Brunt As AMU, Jamia Scurry To Send Them Home
A day after the MHA revised its lockdown guidelines on Thursday to allow the movement of migrant workers, students, and other stranded persons, a bus with about 20 students left the Aligarh Muslim University campus for Saharanpur. The students expected they would be dropped home but the bus went past the city and reached a […]
Centre permits 193 Pak nationals to return on May 5, asks states to help them
Over 190 Pakistani nationals stranded in India due to the Covid-19 lockdown across 10 states have been allowed to exit the country via the Attari-Wagah crossing next week, the external affairs ministry has told state police chiefs and asked them to facilitate their travel. The Pakistani nationals have been told to reach the Attari-Wagah border […]
Situation normal, but all locked up: How Modi govt has risked incapacitating India
Just how successful has the lockdown been? Just how bad would the situation have been if it wasn’t this total? How can you take a chance in a country of 138 crore, mostly poor, people? Didn’t the prime minister say, “jaan hai toh jahan hai”? Jaan toh hai. We have the lowest per million fatality rate […]
Coronavirus: India to Cap Stimulus Package at $60 Billion to Protect Credit Rating
New Delhi: The Indian government is likely to cap its overall spending on coronavirus-related relief at around 4.5 trillion rupees ($60 billion), due to concerns that excess spending could trigger a sovereign rating downgrade, two senior government officials said. “We have to be cautious as downgrades have started happening for some countries and rating agencies treat […]
Covid-19 impact: Automakers’ domestic sales draw a blank in April
MUMBAI : Indian automakers have for the first time reported zero local sales in April as factories and dealerships across the country remained shut to comply with a stringent lockdown. For comparison, nearly 250,000 vehicles were sold in the domestic market in April 2019. Indian automakers count the dispatch of vehicles from factories to dealers as […]
130 districts identified as Covid-19 hotspots home to nearly 400 million
The Centre on Friday listed 130 districts as hot spots of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), down from the previously designated 170 “red zones”, even as the number of “green zones” – areas that largely remain outside the spectre of the pathogen – decreased from 353 to 319, an announcement that came hours before the national […]
MHA okays ‘Shramik Special trains’ for migrants, railways sets terms for travel
Migrant workers, students and others stranded in different parts of the country are allowed to return home by special trains that will be run by the Indian Railways, the Union home ministry said on Friday, expanding the scope of an earlier order that said such transportation can happen only by buses. The railways ministry will […]
