Eagle in the sky: Drone operators and Kerala Police are a winning combination to enforce lockdown

Nearly two years after the calamitous floods in 2018 when they helped the Kerala Police to rescue agencies in locating those trapped in their homes, hundreds of drone operators and technicians in the state joined hands once again for a public cause: tracking those evading the lockdown put in place to stop the spread of […]
Bring governance back on track within 100 days of resuming work, PMO tells ministries

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has asked all Union ministries to complete the backlog of the Covid-19 lockdown within 100 days of resuming work, ThePrint has learnt. The ministries are expected to get their full working staff above the rank of deputy secretary from 20 April onwards. According to sources from several ministries, the Prime […]
Govt lays out alternative study plan for classes 1 to 5, gives a fix for bad internet

New Delhi: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has come up with an alternative academic calendar for primary schoolchildren (classes 1 to 5) while also suggesting ways to beat internet troubles while conducting online lessons during the Covid-19 lockdown. The module, prepared by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), was made public by the […]
No proof on effect of summer on COVID-19 spread: Highlights of Health Ministry briefing

In the daily briefing, the Health Ministry said 941 new novel coronavirus cases and 37 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 12,759. The death count stands at 420. Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry said the fatality rate was much lower than the recovery rate in India and […]
Govt directs airlines to refund tickets booked during lockdown

The Centre on Thursday issued an advisory for all domestic and foreign airline operators to issue full refund to passengers who had booked during the lockdown period up till May 3 for both domestic and international flights. To be clear, the order categorically states the advisory is only for those passengers who have booked flights […]
‘Zoom Not Safe’: Govt Bans Officias From Using Video Meet App

Deeming it unsafe, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked government officials not to use Zoom video meet app for holding meetings. The software of the app is said to be made in China and it is believed that some calls are routed through the country. The US-based Zoom app, according to the government, can […]
Azithromycin, paracetamol, other APIs see upto 190% price jump as China resumes production

New Delhi: With China, the world’s leading manufacturer of raw materials for drugs, resuming production after a four-month Covid-19 lockdown, the prices of active pharmaceutical ingredients or APIs of four top-selling drugs have shot up sharply. According to data ThePrint collated from Indian pharma companies, antibiotics azithromycin and ornidazole, anti-inflammatory drug nimesulide and antipyretic drug paracetamol […]
Luck Has Favoured PM Modi So Far In His Covid-19 Battle. But How Long Will His Luck Hold ?

Consider the situation facing government leaders in a score of major countries from China, Japan and South Korea through West Asia and Europe to the UK and the US. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is, perhaps, the luckiest of them all. Relatively speaking, the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the pressures it has given […]
Coronavirus: How India’s Kerala state ‘flattened the curve’

On 12 March, a 33-year-old salesman disembarked from a flight from Dubai at an airport in southern India, feeling very sick. He was suffering from the chills, dry cough and breathlessness. Airport officials quickly moved him to hospital in the city of Trivandrum in Kerala state, where they tested him for coronavirus. Then they put […]
Covid-19 cases breach 12,000-mark in India, death toll at 414

The number of Covid-19 positive cases in India breached the 12,000-mark on Thursday morning, and the number of deaths reached 414. The figure of 12,380 includes 10,477 active cases, 1,488 cured/discharged/migrated and 414 deaths, the Union Health Ministry said in the figures released at 8 am on its website. Maharashtra continues to be the state […]