The real economic activities in Rajasthan are taking place in the rural areas. On April 18, we had 62,000 NREGA (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers; on May 5 the number jumped to 16.5 lakh, said Pilot.

India's battle against Covid-19 is proving to be a harrowing time for the police, who must negotiate anxious families, unruly crowds and an invisible virus.

​​When the novel coronavirus began to appear in India, I was concerned for the people of the Himalayas above Rishikesh, where I have been blessed to live for the past 24 years. If Covid-19 spread to the remote and unequipped villages of India, how much life would be lost?

Participants will be enrolled continuously during the trial and vaccine candidates that are not working will be dropped from testing.

"I have seen a significant amount of evidence that suggests that the lab was underperforming, that there were security risks at the lab and that the virus could well have emanated from there," US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Ben Shapiro in an interview on Friday.

The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers from countries like India and China in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise.

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The LRS transactions are currently permitted by banks based on the declaration made by the remitter.

Nearly 82 per cent of the total remittances received by the country originated from eight countries - the UAE, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UK, and Malaysia.

India is followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and Philippines ($34 billion each), according to World Bank.

India was the top recipient of remittances worldwide in 2018, data from the World Bank shows. The remittances were boosted in part by migrants from Kerala sending.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday inaugurated the road link from Dharchula, a town in Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district, to the Lipulekh pass, which is located at an altitude of 17,060 feet at the border between India and China.

They said while the government is strictly enforcing the COVID-19 lockdown, the additional restrictions were imposed on Friday to ensure that the day passes off peacefully.

The Global Times is published by the People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party. The party has been known to float ideas and guide public sentiments via the Global Times, which tends to take a nationalistic stance on issues involving other countries.

"Thirty new cases of COVID-19 (six from Delhi and 24 from Tripura) have been reported from different establishments. All of them are under the best available medical care at AIIMS-Jhajjar and G B Pant Hospital, Agartala," BSF spokesperson Shubhendu Bhardwaj said in a statement.

In response to queries on inauguration of road on 8th May in Pithoragarh district Uttarakhand, MEA Spokesperson stated, “We have seen the Press Release dated 9th May 2020 issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nepal pertaining to the inauguration of a road in India.”

Industry leaders said April-June quarter would be a washout even for the high and mighty.

After nearly a month and a half in lockdown, the country's mega manufacturing engine is taking baby steps towards opening factories, but under strict hygiene and social distancing norms.

The guidelines mandate companies to strictly observe the social distancing protocol, including restricting the number of people in a lift, providing health insurance to workers and random testing for Covid-19.

It took for the company’s HR department to visit the villages and show them the letters of approval received from the ministry of textile, local administration and to explain to the residents how this will help the country’s effort to fight the pandemic. HR departments face the additional task of convincing not just employees but their neighbours too of the hygienic conditions.

75% companies lack a structure or policy to address frauds in CSR programs, the report said. Many companies that are now looking to allocate their CSR funds towards Covid-19 related programs, but still do not have structures in place that could avoid frauds, it said.

On Monday, the court had also said that the order is not sustainable in view of the fact that orders and/or directions were passed interfering with the holding of AGM by the companies that are separate juristic entities without first deciding the issue of jurisdiction.

The decision of the Birlas comes in spite of a favourable verdict from a two-judge division bench of the Calcutta High Court which on Monday had asked the probate court to hear the appellant MP Birla Group companies afresh, which was one of their key petitions.

Industry captains say economy and jobs must be central focus now, and policymakers have to recognise that the country will have to live with and work around Covid-19. India Inc’s growing call on reopening India for business comes amidst a blizzard of grim economic forecasts. Economic growth in FY21 can be negative, according to Nomura, ICRA and others.

Production cuts will be most in premium product portfolio as companies expect consumers to curb discretionary spending as the impact of the Covid-19. Manufacturing orders fall by up to 40% year on year as they expect much of current stock to remain unsold till then, company executives said.

Knowing and following the fundamentals takes much of the risk out of investing.

The country's largest carmaker Maruti will resume operations at its Manesar plant from May 12.

Car and bike-makers are gearing up to sell more in Bharat to counterbalance shortfall in demand in the cities.

Component makers are also working overtime to restart factories, but delays in getting approvals are causing hindrance in some states, especially in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu that have the biggest automotive manufacturing hubs, industry insiders said. This, they said, could weigh on the plans of the automakers.

“I have been trying for the last two years to pursue the scrappage policy. I have asked the Secretary (ministry of road transport and highways) to expedite the scrappage policy. Because this will help reduce production cost,” Gadkari said in an interaction with SIAM Institute on Thursday.

About 20% of the auto retail network, or 3,500 outlets, opened for business this week, with one-third staff to comply with social-distancing norms. As of Wednesday evening, some 50,000-60,000 employees were back at work, industry insiders said.

Maruti Suzuki restarted operations at 680 dealerships till Wednesday, covering almost 35% of the addressable market. The nation’s largest carmaker is seeking permission from local authorities to reopen all but 500 of its remaining over 2,400 outlets. The 500 showrooms are in Covid-19 containment zones.

Kamal Jain, a professor at the institute's civil engineering department, claims that the software will not only reduce testing costs but will also reduce the risk of exposure to healthcare professionals. ​So far, there is no verification of his claim by a medical institution.

The device, called VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally), passed a critical test this week at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, an epicentre of COVID-19 in the US, NASA said.

While over 20 technical and scientific institutions are working on developing a vaccine for coronavirus, IITs have already set up "COVID-19 specific research centres", encouraging developments in the innovation ecosystem.

Texas A&M is the first US institution in the clinical trial to have federal clearance for testing on humans. Researchers hope to demonstrate that Bacillus Calmette-Guerin or BCG mitigates the effects of the novel coronavirus, allowing fewer people to be hospitalised or to die from COVID-19.

The study, published in the journal Pathogens, found that all four drugs were effective in inhibiting, or blocking, the coronavirus' RNA proteins from making genomic copies of the novel coronavirus.

CSIR's Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), Delhi, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad and Institute of Microbial Technology, Chandigarh are currently sequencing the genomes of the novel coronavirus, he said. Other CSIR institutes are also expected to join the process.

Mortality and morbidity apply to enterprises, too; MSMEs more pronounced than most. Baseline GDP growth was already in slowdown mode and a capital crunch was compounded by lockdown’s labour constraint.

The rationale behind the lockdown was not that it would prevent infections but that it would allow us to build the health infrastructure to be able to cope with larger numbers infected, opined Montek Singh Ahluwalia

Nitin Gadkari, the minister for MSME and road transport and highways, also called upon the retailers to start exploring option of home delivery.

Seven companies including Aditya Birla Financial Services, Mahindra Financial Services, Bajaj Finance, Tata Capital and L&T Finance collectively raised ₹3,544 crore out of the targeted ₹10,400 crore on Monday and Tuesday.

In the past two weeks, at least five companies have either issued, or announced plans to issue, non-convertible debentures worth a total of Rs 5,500 crore, as per information available from filings with stock exchanges.

The tenure of the instrument is two years and 364 days from the deemed date of allotment.

These will be issued in three tranches of Rs 500 crore, Rs 300 crore and Rs 200 crores with redemptions due on September 30, 2022, November 28, 2022 and December 29, 2022 respectively, it added.