Kerala has the country's highest Covid-19 recovery rate with218 out of the 387 coronavirus positive cases recovering . The state has also decided to increase the number and extent of testing, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told mediapersons.

The need of the hour is to promote remote working and expand gig economy, speakers at a Niti Aaayog-organised Webinar said.

Among the possibilities, the government could garner some revenues from sale of the BPCL’s 61% stake sale in Numaligarh Refinery, which will be sold to state-run firms.

In the case of Covid-19, hazardous waste is being generated in hospitals, quarantine zones or red zone areas within cities. They are potential sources of Covid-19 and can cause further spread within the locality.

At least 13 states hike VAT on petrol/diesel since mid-March, many make liquor costlier with new imposts.

Companies need to seek permission from the local administration – the office of the district magistrate – by submitting a host of information. Apart from the process being tedious and time-consuming, the final decision rests at DM's discretion.

"It is the time to review the policy of cross subsidisation of power as this plays a part in making our industries non-competitive,” former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said at an online panel discussion on the power sector.

With the entertainment industry shut down by the virus, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to extend aid for out-of-work actors and performers until next year, and to set up a fund to help the paralysed film industry

The 22-year-old travelled on the same flight which the first case took.

At present, around 2,000 people are under observation in Kerala. “A total of 1,999 people have recently returned from China.

The review meeting comes a day after India reported two new confirmed coronavirus cases, one each in Delhi and Telangana. This took the total cases in the country to five.

As of now, the state government has not shut down schools and colleges, and is watching the situation closely, CM Uddhav Thackeray said.

SAARC leaders are set to hold a summit on video-conference on coronavirus on Sunday, 5 pm, after Pakistan late Friday night accepted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's proposal to hold such a meeting.

The DGCA has mandated that all aircraft need to be equipped with hand sanitisers, soaps and universal precaution kits to protect crew members who assist people.

This community transmission test is running separately from the testing and tracking of symptomatic travellers as well as those who have come in contact with confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The Kerala government on Thursday announced a Rs 20,000-crore stimulus package to address the economic slowdown caused by the spread of Covid-19.

The Union Home Ministry said that in an order under the Disaster Management Act, “Directions were issued that district and state borders should be effectively sealed. States were directed to ensure there is no movement of people across cities or on highways.”

There was an institutional response by the Centre and the situation was monitored at the highest political and executive level by the Prime Minister, the government said.

According to officials who traced the movement of the group, the entire group travelled in a second class coach (S9) of AP Sampark Kranti Express. They first got down on March 13 at Ramagundam in Peddapalli district of Telangana.

The presence of antibodies would mean the person is immune to the virus. The antibody test happens to be a faster alternative to the direct test, known as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), in which throat or nasal swabs are taken.

According to the district collectorate data, half the cases in Pune came from travellers who returned from overseas and the other half got infected through contacts.

The institute, based in Thiruvananthapuram, aspires to emerge as a digital university with emphasis on blockchain, artificial intelligence, data analytics, cognitive science, internet of things and augmented reality.

In his address, the PM said detailed guidelines on the new lockdown would be announced on April 15 and some conditions could be relaxed after April 20 in places reporting no new infections.

The labour ministry has started mapping details of such workers from April 8. Along with basic details such as name, age, gender, occupation, residential address and native district/state, details of their bank accounts and Aadhhar cards are also being collected.

Meanwhile, member of the Bhartiya Rail Sangharsh Samiti Shan Khan has demanded for special trains from Surat to Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for stranded labourers.

After 21 employees of Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals were found to be corona positive, the administration acted quickly and sanitised the entire campus of the company near Dholka.

This weekend's matches in the leading two divisions in Switzerland, where football's global governing body FIFA has its headquarters, were postponed on Friday after the government banned all events involving more than a thousand people.

The World Cup will now held in two parts before the Olympic Games.

The IPL is slated to start on March 29 with the opening match between the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings and Rohit Sharma-led Mumbai Indians in what is arguably the clash of the titans at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.

This is the first postponement of an EPL game, after UEFA Champion's League and Europa League games were played behind closed doors and Italy, Spain and France league fixtures have gone haywire.

The game will begin at 9 a.m. local time (0000 GMT) at the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium with two further fixtures, Italy v United States and Mexico v Canada, later in the day.

The MCG in its statement shared the Australian DHHS's recommendation for those who were seated in section N42 of the ground during Sunday’s ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Final.

As a result, no foreign player will be available for the IPL till April 15. Before that, the shooting World Cup and the Indian Open golf tournament were postponed while badminton's India Open will be played without any spectators.

IPL is scheduled to begin on March 29 between the Chennai Super Kings and the defending champions Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Earlier, the Maharashtra state government had expressed reservations against hosting the IPL matches in Mumbai maid the fears of contagion from the virus.

The postponement of the tournament was in thick of things since the time Maharashtra’s Health Minister Rajesh Tope had said that the state government was in discussion with the BCCI to postpone the annual cricket tournament that features cricketing stars from across the world.

The first ODI between the two sides in Dharamsala was washed out. Both the sides had reached Lucknow on Friday.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF) said in a statement that the escalation of the COVID-19 outbreak globally has forced it to cancel or postpone all tournaments from March 16 to April 12.

More than 77,000 people have recovered from it so far, mostly in China where the outbreak started late last year.

Recently, Team India captain Virat Kohli had also called upon people to "stay safe and vigilant" in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.

The IOC's executive board will meet via conference call to prepare an "information exchange" ahead of a series of talks with athletes' representatives, National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs), planned for Tuesday and Wednesday.

Cricket Australia has not directed the players officially with its chief executive Kevin Roberts on Tuesday saying that players were individually contracted to their IPL teams and can make up their own minds to compete in the 2020 IPL or not.

In India, the shooting World Cup and Indian Open Golf has been postponed so far, while badminton's India Open was also deferred after the Badminton World Federation (BWF) suspended all World Tour and sanctioned events.

This year's 12-nation Copa America was also postponed until 2021 on Tuesday, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said.

If the Coronavirus goes on to postpone the Tokyo Olympics scheduled in July this year, it will hit yet another prominent sporting event after it delayed the Indian Premier League to April 15 from the scheduled March 29 start.

Coronavirus Scare: Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar has released a video urging Indian citizens to fight the novel Coronavirus battle.

Olympics 2020 Japan: Canada announced that it would not participate in the Tokyo Olympics, and the International Olympic Committee said the decision on the Japan Olympics would come within weeks.

Japan has asked for a one-year postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Games over the global coronavirus pandemic, and the International Olympic Committee has agreed, the country's prime minister said Tuesday.

The Games were scheduled for July 24-August 9, but after telephone discussions between IOC president Thomas Bach and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a historic joint decision was taken for the first postponement of an Olympics in peacetime.