Senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Sunday said the Maharashtra government should give permission to private vehicles for ferrying migrant labourers to their native places during the lockdown. Raising concern over migrant workers setting off for their hometowns on foot, Raut said they were falling sick and some have also died. "The labour class is walking back home, this is not a good picture. Their children are with them. Railways is not ready to operate trains for them. The state government should give permission to private vehicles to ply," Raut tweeted. "People are falling ill while walking. Some have died. Even then their walking hasn't stopped, the Rajya Sabha member further said. Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on rail tracks while returning to Madhya Pradesh were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra in the early hours of Friday. The labourers, rendered jobless due to the coronavirus-enforced lockdown, had set off for their ...

He hops off a helicopter, whips off his shades and makes a dash through the grounds towards his home to give his mother a surprise, but there she is, waiting at the door with a pooja thali' in her hand. That admittedly cheesy scene between Shah Rukh Khan and Jaya Bachchan from the blockbuster Hindi film Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham was playing in Sonali Puri's mind when she was on a Mumbai-Jammu flight to give her mother a surprise last month. Her mother was at the door just as she had imagined but instead of a thali' was a hand sanitiser! Good hygiene is a blessing in times of coronavirus, my mother told me, laughed the 37-year-old. That was in mid-March, a few days before the coronavirus forced lockdown began on March 25. And home in Jammu is where Puri still is, the short vacation turning into extended mother-daughter downtime, both recalibrating their equations as they spend focused time with each other after years. This Mother's Day, the first time in years perhaps that Puri has been .

Former Australia captain Ian Chappell has proposed radical changes in the LBW laws, stating that a batsman should be given out leg before as long as the ball is hitting the stumps irrespective of the spot of its landing and impact. Chappell also said captains should agree on one way of working up the ball which will encourage swing bowling, even as the ICC is considering the use of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of sweat and saliva in post COVID-19 scenario. "The new lbw law should simply say: 'Any delivery that strikes the pad without first hitting the bat and, in the umpire's opinion, would go on to hit the stumps is out regardless of whether or not a shot is attempted'," he wrote in a column for ESPNcricinfo. "Forget where the ball pitches and whether it strikes the pad outside the line or not; if it's going to hit the stumps, it's out." The 76-year-old said the change in lbw law would attract expected criticism from the batsmen but it would make the game more ...

Sitting on a liquor stockpile of around Rs 3,000 crore, restaurants and hotels across the country are asking state governments to allow them to sell the stock lying with them due to the coronavirus lockdown. "We are truly living in unprecedented times where on one hand we are sitting with expensive liquor inventory and on the other hand, we are cash starved," National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI)PresidentAnurag Katriar said. The industry sees a ray of hope as many states have permitted sales of retail alcohol. "We request every state government to allow us an opportunity to sell our liquor stocks, preferably through home delivery model. "This will help us deplete our stocks, raise some money to take care of urgent people needs and will still be compliant to social distancing norms. We understand that this may require some amendments to the law but I am sure it can be carried out under the current extraordinary circumstances," Katriar said. In similar vein, The Beer Cafe ...

Mizoram has registered a 10 per cent drop in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in 2019-20 fiscal, making it to the second spot in the country after Nagaland. State health minister R Lalthangliana said the IMR has dropped from 15 per cent to 5 per cent (per 1000 live births), citing the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin. With 10-point drop in IMR in 2019-20, Mizoram is the best-performing state in the country, he said. Over the past three years, the state has achieved 27- point drop in IMR. The minister attributed the achievement to efforts of healthcare workers and support of people. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had on Saturday congratulated Mizoram and Lalthangliana on the achievement. The state had recorded 21 per cent IMR in 2016-2017, with 405 infants dying before attaining the age of one. During 2017-18, it fell to 20 per cent, and the following year to 15 per cent. According to Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin released recently, Nagaland tops ..

Municipal leaders, including mayor of the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), on Sunday took part in a sanitisation drive outside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on Flagstaff Road here. The sanitisation exercise is part of the NDMC's campaign to prevent spread of COVID-19, said Jai Prakash, chairman of the standing committee of NDMC. "We have been sanitising the whole municipal area with mechanical and manual spray of sanitisers. So, we are here on Flagstaff road which comes under the NDMC's jurisdiction," Jai Prakash said. The municipal corporation has deployed nearly 40 large truck mounted power sprays and around 40 smaller mechanical sprays, to cover roads, residential areas, markets and other public places under the NDMC, he said.

A special train carrying 1,140 migrant workers stranded here in the lockdown has left Mangaluru railway station for Jharkhand. Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel and Vedavyas Kamath, MLA, were present at the railway station on Saturday night when the train left. Kamath said the workers who had registered on the state governments Seva Sindhu portal were brought to the railway station in Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation buses. A health check-up was carried out before they boarded the train. The district administration also provided food packets and water to the migrants at the station. Three more trains will leave from Mangaluru for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand soon, he said. Meanwhile, in a statement, Dakshina Kannada Deputy Commissioner Sindhu P Rupesh said train services are being arranged for migrant workers who have registered their names on the Seva Sindhu portal. The workers will be informed when trains are arranged to their destinations and they .

Senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Chairman of the Western Odisha Development Council (WODC), Subash Chauhan died at a private hospital here on Sunday following a prolonged illness. He was 54. Chauhan, who was undergoing treatment for liver ailment was a bachelor and breathed his last in the morning, family sources said. Closely associated with the RSS and VHP for many years, the former national Convenor of the Bajrang Dal had quit the BJP and joined the Biju Janata Dal in the run-up to the 2019 general elections. Chauhan was subsequently appointed the chairman of WODC in September last year. A host of dignitaries including Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi condoled the demise of Chauhan describing it as a big loss for the state. Expressing deep grief, Patnaik said the contributions made by Chauhan for the welfare of the people will always be remembered by all in the state. Praying for peace for the ...

Superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday warned the ruling AIADMK against reopening state-run liquor outlets in Tamil Nadu, saying if it was done, it should not harbour "dreams" of coming to power again, apparently in next year's Assembly elections. In a tweet, he also asked the government to work out alternate modes of revenue generation. His remarks came a day after Tamil Nadu moved the Supreme Court, seeking a stay against a Madras High Court order directing closure of liquor shops in the state. The AIADMK cannot have "dreams of coming to power again if the government re-opens TASMAC shops at this juncture," the veteran said in the tweet. "Please #Look out for better ways of filling the coffers," he added. The Tamil Nadu government had on Saturday moved the apex court challenging the High Court order for closure of TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) liquor outlets on grounds of violations of COVID-19 guidelines, arguing that it would lead to "grave losses" in ...

Azaan is an integral part of the faith, not the gadget, says veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar, asking that the Islamic call to prayer on loudspeakers should be stopped as it causes "discomfort" to others. In a tweet on Saturday, Akhtar wondered why the practice was 'halaal' (allowed) when it was, for nearly half a century in the country, considered 'haraam' or forbidden. "In India for almost 50 years Azaan on the loud speak was Haraam. Then it became Halaal and so halaal that there is no end to it, but there should be an end to it. Azaan is fine but loud speaker does cause of discomfort for others. I hope that atleast this time they will do it themselves (sic)," Akhtar tweeted. When a user asked his opinion on loudspeakers being used in temples, the 75-year-old writer said everyday use of speakers is a cause of concern. "Whether it's a temple or a mosque, if you're using loudspeakers during a festival, it's fine. But it shouldn't be used everyday in either temples or mosques. "For

As part of a stimulus package for the coronavirus-hit economy, the government is working on a credit guarantee scheme to enable banks to provide additional 10-15 per cent working capital to MSMEs for payment of wages, sources said. Currently, banks are offering an extra line of credit of 10 per cent based on working capital limits, which the government intends to increase further. Since units are closed due to lockdown and there has been no operation for the past two months, most micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) do not have money for paying wages and financial assistance for them is under consideration of the government, the sources said. One of the proposals under consideration is to provide 10-15 per cent additional line of credit by banks over the working capital limit of the MSME sector, which is the largest employer in the country after agriculture. This loan, especially for wage payment, will be backed by a proposed credit guarantee fund so that lenders' money is ...

Former India opener Gautam Gambhir doesn't see major changes in the way cricket is played in the post COVID-19 scenario besides the ban on using saliva on the ball. The International Cricket Council is considering legalisation of the usage of artificial substances to shine the ball instead of saliva. "I don't think a lot of rules and regulations will be changed, you can probably have an alternate for the usage of saliva apart from that I don't think so many changes will happen," Gambhir told Star Sports. "Players and everyone else need to live with this virus; probably they have to get used to it that there is a virus and that it will be around. Players might end up catching it, and you got to live with it." Though social distancing is possible in cricket to a certain extent, other sports will find it tougher when sporting action resumes, said the southpaw. "Social distancing and other rules may not be easy for any sport to maintain. You can still manage to do it with cricket, but ...

The Dakshina Kannada district administration has made arrangements to quarantine non- resident citizens arriving here by flights from various countries amid the COVID-19 crisis. The first repatriation flight from Dubai carrying 170 passengers is expected to land at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) here on Tuesday. Nearly 1,000 rooms at lodges, hostels and service apartments have been kept ready as quarantine facilities for the NRIs. The authorities have reserved rooms in 18 hotels, lodges and six hostels for the mandated two-week quarantine. The returnees will be given the option of staying either at hotels or in government facilities, sources said. All the quarantine facilities will have the services of doctors to monitor the health of those coming from abroad. Around 3,000 Indian citizens have sought repatriation to DK and Udupi districts from different countries, sources said. Some of them will arrive in ships once the services are started to the New Mangalore ..

Nearly a month after recovering from the coronavirus, actor Zoa Morani says she has donated her blood plasma to do her bit in helping the patients currently suffering from the novel virus. The actor, who was quarantined and kept under medication in April, also urged those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate their plasma. "Donated my blood today for the Plasma therapy trials at Nair hospital. It was fascinating! Always a silver lining I suppose. The team there was so enthusiastic and careful. There was a general physician on standby just incase of emergency and the equipment brand new and safe (sic)," Zoa wrote on Instagram on Saturday. She thanked the doctors for taking care of her and hoped patients benefit from the donation. "All #Covid19 recovered people can be a part of this trial, to help others covid patients recover! I hope this works #IndiaFightsCorona. They even gave me a certificate and Rs 500. Wont lie, I felt super cool today (sic)," she added. Zoa, along with her ..

Only 200 of the 403 MLAs will be able to sit inside the Uttar Pradesh Assembly if social distancing norms are implemented in the House as there are not enough seats, Speaker Hriday Narayan Dixit said. However, Dixit is "optimistic" and feels that by the time the next sitting of the Legislative Assembly is convened the situation will improve. "At present, the House is not in session. The Monsoon Session of the UP Legislative Assembly should be held some time in August and I am optimistic that by then the situation would have changed," the speaker told PTI in an interview. When asked to elaborate, Dixit said, "If we adhere to social distancing and leave one seat vacant, we will not have enough seats. There are 403 MLAs. Already there are not enough seats for everyone." "There is a shortage of 10-12 seats. The work goes on as (generally) 10-12 (members) are absent. In these circumstances, if one seat is left vacant then not more than 200 MLAs will be able to sit," he said. On being asked

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a review meeting with CEOs of public sector banks (PSBs) on Monday to discuss various issues, including credit offtake, as part of efforts to prop up the economy hit by the COVID-19 crisis. The meeting, to be held via video-conferencing, will also take stock of interest rate transmission to borrowers by banks and progress on moratorium on loan repayments, sources said. The RBI had on March 27 slashed the benchmark interest rate by a massive 75 basis points and also announced a three-month moratorium to be given by banks to provide relief to borrowers whose income has been hit due to the lockdown. Earlier this month, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das held a meeting with heads of both public and private sector banks to take stock of the economic situation and review implementation of various measures announced by the central bank. The deployment of excessive funds by banks under the reverse repo route may also come up for discussion on Monday, ...

Mizoram's corona-free status can be attributed to the discipline of its people and the combined efforts of the church, NGOs and administration, says Chief Minister Pu Zoramthanga. While happy that his state has managed to contain the spread of COVID-19, the chief minister told PTI he was worried about the economic slump due to the lockdown and the threat posed by corona carriers from neighbouring Bangladesh and Myanmar. On Saturday, Mizoram became coronavirus-free with its lone COVID-19 patient being discharged from hospital, officials in the state capital Aizawl said. The credit, Zoramthanga said, goes to the discipline of the people who allowed the state to execute all the provisions suggested by a special task force constituted for the sole purpose to curb the spread of the virus. "Mizoram is a very disciplined state With the help of the church, NGOs and administration, we have so far survived this crisis and are determined to continue to do so in the future," he said in a phone ..

The coronavirus lockdown has brought a sea change in the buying behaviour of many Indians, such as purchasing vegetables and other consumables without asking for prices, far from the old habit of asking 'dhaniya' or 'mirchi' free from vendors, according to a survey by Enormous Brands. The web-based survey, conducted between March 30 and April 22, took feedback from 3,737 respondents in cities including Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad. It found that there has also been a sharp increase in adoption of digital technology by older people to join the e-commerce bandwagon for ordering items like milk, grocery and home essentials and paying through wallets and UPI. The study also found that COVID19 has helped in forming an opinion for pushing the 'Make in India' agenda, with 42 per cent believing that "there is an active and deliberate attempt by China to spread COVID across the world for economic gains" which has led to a strong anti-China sentiment. "The ...

Several NGOs working in the disability sector are facing severe financial crunch as most of the funds and donations they would earlier get has been diverted towards tackling the COVID-19 crisis. Prashant Verma, general secretary, National Association for the Blind, says he could just pay 65 per cent salary to his employees in the last two months due to financial crunch and if no fresh donations are made he does not have any money to pay his 120 staff members this month. "We feel as if we are at the end of the line," he told PTI. Verma said his organisation used to get grants from many companies under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and even from individuals, especially during March as it was the end of the financial year. "But this year we didn't get any money. Some of the companies, which even committed to us, are saying that this time they have to think about their own survival. Many individuals (who earlier donated) don't have money to support us. A lot of the money is ...

Left without jobs and desperate to return home amid the lockdown, 10 migrant labourers have set off on foot from Pune in Maharashtra for their native place hundreds of kilometres away in Uttar Pradesh. The Pune administration has asked the officials concerned to make necessary arrangements for such migrants at hotels and halls available on highways in the district and set up camps for them, in the wake of the death of 16 migrant labourers after being run over by a goods train in Aurangabad. The 10 migrant workers, all natives of Allahabad district in Uttar Pradesh, started walking to their homes from Pune on Saturday evening after losing their jobs and finding to difficult to sustain their livelihood here. "We all were working as construction labourers in Pune. Now we don't have food to survive. Therefore, we have started for our native place in Uttar Pradesh," one of the labourers from the group said. Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram has ordered tehsildars and ..

An Air India flight landed here from London at 1.30 am on Sunday carrying 239 Indians from the UK who were stranded there due to suspension of commercial passenger air services and the subsequent lockdown, an official statement said. In addition to this, two more repatriation flights -- one each from Singapore and Manila ( Philippines) -- are expected to arrive in Mumbai on Sunday, it said. While the flight from Singapore (AI 343) will be carrying 243 passengers, the Manila-Mumbai flight (AI 387) would bring back 241 Indian nationals from the South East Asian country, as per the statement. "1st flight 2 #Mumbai landed- crew interaction less with the passengers. Protective kit was given 2 all-along with snack n meal kept on the seat beforehand. Next #quarantine. Watch the space," tweeted a passenger on the flight. "Reached Mumbai safely from UK. Thank you so much to @airindiain @HCI_London, @NISAU_UK, @MEAIndia," another passenger tweeted. The Mumbai airport authorities, in a statement

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac back about half of new mortgages in the U.S. Now, talks are heating up about reshaping or shrinking the two companies, a move that could impact millions of Americans. Photo: Heather Seidel/The Wall Street Journal

Nomadic communities make up about 7 percent of India's population, but policy makers have largely ignored them, says Bahar Dutt.

A number of new NCERT textbooks for class I to class XII have been designed to encourage children to question social prejudices, discrimination and inequalities. This is a conscious reversal of the earlier trend where textbooks reinforced prevailing stereotypes, notes Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

To mark its fifth anniversary, EducationWorld asked several educationists and industry leaders with proven commitment to improving the education system to write prescriptions for a renaissance of Indian education. Dilip Thakore threads the responses together.

A draft curriculum for teacher training acknowledges several problems in preparing teachers properly for the classroom, but it's unclear if the proposed revisions would adequately tackle these. The typical classroom in India is nothing like the environment that teachers train in, and this, say experts, must change first. Deepa A reports.

The abrupt transition from Konkani and Marathi in primary schools to English in Standard V puts tremendous pressure on children from rural communities in Goa. By the time these learners reach the crucial higher grades, nearly half of them drop out of school. Rupa Chinai reports.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s report on Tamil Nadu (General and Social Sector) for the year ending on March 31, 2014 got tabled in the state assembly last month. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses the report and asks question on the non-responsiveness of the state government to CAG’s performance review.

Women domestic workers and children narrated horrific stories of violence and abuse at a recent public hearing in New Delhi, co-organized by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Organizers aimed to raise public awareness. Teresa Barat reports.

Numerous laws and rules at the Central as well as State levels are in place to assess the extent of child labour in the country, and to tackle it. Court directives too lend a hand. But CAG reports show that those responsible for carrying out this reform are indifferent to the vast tragedy. Himanshu Upadhyaya reports.

The Centre's latest piece-meal approach to child labour is likely to be as ineffective as the previous failed schemes and plans. Unless the underlying causes of child labour are addressed, and the rights of children are properly secured, India will remain prone to wide-spread child labour, writes Ingrid Srinath.

As more poor migrant children face exploitation in Kerala, some schools are coming up with ways to enrol and retain them. A few schools now have more migrant than local students, Navya P K points out.

Citizen participation is important not just for inspiring goals, but simply to create a society where governments gain and hold the confidence of the people.

The disconnect between civil society and government has led to successive generations of policy and implementation failures. The India Together editorial.

Possibly, but perhaps not alone. There are plenty of obstacles within our unjust and deeply hierarchical civil society outside of the media. Still, an important connection exists between journalism and the strengthening of civil society: citizenship. The India Together editorial.

Why are our publicly held/debated notions of morality limited to a few things such as the world of those castigated as sexual outliers? Partly, the fault lies in our public discourse - a discourse that has turned conversations about morality itself into rare events. The India Together editorial.

Volunteers for development find mutual encouragement, as well as learning, during the three-day event in Pittsburgh.

Despite laws banning dry latrines and the transport of human excreta, thousands of people still make their livelihood this way, sometimes even working in government departments. The social structure has also forced nearly all of this work on to Dalit women and girls. Sachin Kumar reports.

A largely oral system for transfering knowledge has been shaken by the advent of modern methods of learning, and by great changes in Indian society. But there are positive developments too; learning music is now more democratic than in the past. Varupi Jain speaks to noted practitioners who are alert to this transformation.

Ruth Manorama is a women's rights activist well known for her contribution in mainstreaming Dalit issues. Herself from the Dalit community, she has helped throw the spotlight on the precarious situation of Dalit women in India. She calls them "Dalits among the Dalits." A peacewomen profile from the Women's Feature Service and Sangat.

Are they members of a Church without caste hierarchy, or are they still Dalits, with all that it implies in Hinduism? Dalit Christians find that despite being a numerical majority in the faith in India, the promise of equality is as distant as before. They're taking their protests to Parliament this winter, reports Padmalatha Ravi.

If charitable giving in India is to rise to the next level, the social sector needs to take more serious note of donors' preference for active involvement in the use of donations, explains Shankar Jaganathan.

What's in a name? Apparently a lot in a country like ours, where even today regressive practices like identifying a person's caste by his or her surname or identifying a woman by her husband's name continue unabated, writes Navya P K.

The Social Work Research Centre addresses community problems by building upon people's skills, and placing the solutions in their own hands.

The Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS) has developed long-overdue indicators to assess gender sensitivity in governance.

In the workplaces of the times - the call centres of global corporations - Indian expertise is rewarding, but also has significant downsides, says Geeta Seshu.
Part II : Stress in the sunshine sector

Men who think of themselves as allies and supporters of women need to break the culture of silence that surrounds rape, says Radhika Chopra.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act must be modified to ensure that women are protected against coercive and sex-selective abortions, says Pavan Nair.

Activists within the Muslim community are demanding reforms to tackle questions of personal law such as dowry, divorce and polygamy. Ashima Kaul reports.

At the receiving end of society's expectations and demands, many women find social work a natural calling. While their engagement of society's deepest problems may begin for very personal reasons, it often transcends these beginnings, and has much larger impacts, writes Puja Awasthi.