The Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Indian Consulate in Dubai started e-registrations on Wednesday night to form a database of those wanting to return to India. Over 50% of the applicants are from Kerala. Malayalees comprise more than 1 million of the 3.4 million Indians in the UAE.

Ashok Michael Pinto, who has worked as a Special Assistant and Associate Counsel to former president George W Bush, was on Monday nominated as US Alternate Executive Director of IBRD for a term of two years.

Indian-American NASA astronaut Sunita Williams has advised Indian students stranded in the US due to the coronavirus-linked global travel restrictions to use the occasion to think how they could be a productive and positive addition to the society.

The committee will consist of four Democrat and three Republican senators. Democratic senators include David Frockt, Manka Dhingra, Christine Rolfes and Rebecca Saldana and Republicans include senators Randi Becker, Tim Sheldon, while one member is yet to be named.

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan gave data according to which as many as 13,665 complaints were received in 2019 (till October 31), while 17,379 complaints were received in 2018.

Nine Indian fishermen who were allegedly harassed and not paid by their employer in Yemen for nearly a year have escaped that country by stealing their employer's boat and sailing for Kochi, a peril-filled voyage of than 3,000 km of open sea, according to the families of two of the fishermen.

Kuwait has announced an amnesty till April 30 for those who do not have valid residency permits in the country. The initiative allows such people to leave the country without paying any fines.

"It is informed that the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi and the Consulate General of India, Dubai, have started a database to register Indians wishing to travel back to India under COVID-19 situation. The details can be entered through the website of the Embassy by following the link 'Register in Database of Indians to Travel Back to India under COVID-19 situation'," India in Dubai tweeted.

Within minutes, the site faced technical issues, prompting the missions to delete the tweet about it and repost it hours later. In a tweet posted in the wee hours of Thursday, the Indian Consulate asked applicants "to bear with it if it takes time for the page to load due to high traffic.

The Indian nationals cleared by the UAE health authorities and found to be asymptomatic will only be allowed to fly back home in one of India's biggest ever repatriation exercises, the Indian Embassy in Abu Dhabi has said ahead of the first set of flights on Thursday.

The temporary suspension of immigration will affect those who are legally seeking entry into the United States for employment but it will not impact the ones who are already living in the country, the order said.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) argued that the American technology workers, who had challenged the 2015 ruling on giving work permits to H-4 visa-holders, have not been irreparably harmed by such work authorisation.

All existing visas issued to nationals of any country who have not yet entered India, will remain suspended till prohibition on international air travel of passengers from/to India is lifted. Exceptions include Visa issued to diplomats, official passport holders, those in UN/international organisations, and those on Employment and Project visas.

Millions of Indian workers are staring at an uncertain future as Covid shuttered businesses and crashed oil.

In order to avoid any misinterpretation, it is clarified that in case of an Indian citizen who becomes deemed resident of India under this proposed provision, income earned outside India by him shall not be taxed in India unless it is derived from an Indian business or profession.

The headcount has now come down from more than 1,000 employees a year ago, with the majority of job cuts in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak that forced shutdowns in the February-April period. The headcount comprises staff on the company’s rolls as well as those on contract and outsourced manpower.

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A report said that India (receiving USD 69 billion in remittances in 2017) was followed by China (USD 64 billion) and the Philippines (USD 33 billion).

India received $69 billion in overseas remittances last year, equivalent to almost 3 percent of GDP, Capital Economics said, citing World Bank data.

The data was provided by Indian missions in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia but the Embassy in the UAE refused to give information. The Indian embassy referred to data on their website which was only 2014 onwards.

The embassies in Gulf countries have not been forthcoming in providing data under RTI on the number of deaths.

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

India was followed by China (USD 67 billion), Mexico (USD 36 billion), the Philippines (USD 34 billion), and Egypt (USD 29 billion).

The acceptance of Indian currency is good news for Indian tourists as earlier they lost a sizeable amount due to exchange rates.

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.

NRI deposits between April & August saw an inflow of $4 billion, compared with $5.7 billion in the same period last year. NRIs in the Gulf, who contribute the maximum to the deposit chunk, are showing preference towards mutual funds.

India continues remains the top recipient of remittances, with its diaspora sending back $78.6 bn in 2018.

Immediately on receipt of information, on May 7 , Indian Army rescue columns with personnel of ITBPs too, moved on foot, traversing dangerous terrain in bad weather, to the helicopter landing site to evacuate the individuals and provide medical aid, for which a doctor of the ITBP also accompanied.

The US asked India to get involved in the internal political process in Afghanistan. Sources said this formed the core of the discussions between US special envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad and foreign minister S. Jaishankar, NSA Ajit Doval and foreign secretary Harsh Shringla in Delhi.

Nepal's Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement said the government "has learnt with regret" about the inauguration of the link road connecting to Lipulekh pass, which Nepal claims to be part of its territory. The 80-Km new road inaugurated by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday is expected to help pilgrims visiting Kailash-Mansarovar in Tibet in China.

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.”

With donations to the PM-Cares Fund and Covid-19-related relief work eligible to be considered CSR expenditure, most companies are likely to nearly exhaust their current CSR budgets after donating to this fund or related relief work.

India Inc’s first attempts to move goods across states after the easing of lockdown curbs were hobbled by expired e-way bills which made it near impossible for transporters to cross checkpoints.

There has been a 35-40% increase in the number of cases of stress and panic attack in April over previous months, according to data from counselling firms. A large number of the callers seek cure for mental stress arising out of social isolation and the workfrom-home milieu — leading to anxiety, depression, loneliness.

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.

The company said it was able to restart operations at the plant in less than 24 hours after receiving permission from local authorities as it had started intensive preparation even before the lockdown in India came into effect in March, DICV said in a statement.

German car maker BMW commenced operations at the Chennai plant in accordance with the government-initiated guidelines. The company also stated that the BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad dealerships across the country would restart the operations in adherence to local government directives.

The timing of the peak will depend on how India is able to control physical distancing and on the level of infection spreads after restrictions are relaxed, they said.

IIT Kanpur is developing a vaccine against Covid-19, while researchers at Madras and Kanpur have built desi drones for surveillance and IIT Ropar has produced robots to deliver food and medicines to patients in hospitals and quarantine zones. These innovations are in various stages of development.

IIT-Guwahati has shown the way cornering the biggest pool of projects, followed by IIT-Madras and IIT-Hyderabad. Nearly 50% of the key research in India’s premier technical schools are happening in six of the old IITs. Majority of the researches are happening in the field of personal protective care equipment (45 projects), followed by sanitisation (33) and treatment.

Recent reports have suggested that the combination of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, and the antibiotic azithromycin may help patients with COVID-19, said scientists from the New York University School of Medicine in the US.

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.