Five Bihar Military Police (BMP) personnel have tested positive for novel coronavirus, taking the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state to 579, a top health official said. All the fresh cases are from Khajpura area of Patna and their infection trail is being ascertained, Health Department Principal Secretary Sanjay Kumar said. Kumar tweeted late on Friday evening, "5 more COVID-19 positive cases in Bihar taking the total to 579. 5-males 30,36,50,52 and 57 years from Khajpura Patna. All are BMP jawans. We are ascertaining their further infection trail." Coronavirus has spread to 36 of the 38 districts in the state, officials said. Five patients have died so far and 307 people are still afflicted with the disease, while 267 have recovered, they said. One death each was reported in Rohtas, Munger, Vaishali, East Champaran and Sitamarhi districts. All the deceased were males and barring one, every one of them was below 60 years of age and with pre-existing medical conditions, the ...

Demanding a return passage to their home states, hundreds of agitated migrant workers clashed with the police at Mora village in Gujarat's Surat district on Saturday, an official said. Over 40 workers were detained, after hundreds of them clashed with the police and pelted stones at police vehicles in Mora village near the industrial town of Hazira, the official said. Protesting workers demanded that the district administration arrange for their travel back to their hometowns in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, among others, he said. Most of these labourers worked in industrial units at Hazira and lived in Mora village, the official said, adding that the police had cordoned off the area and tightened security there.

The Telangana Police will soon rollout an Artificial Intelligence (AI)- based system through CCTVs to check face mask norm violations. Describing it as a first such initiative in the country,State DGP M Mahendar Reddy has tweeted that the system shall be enabled shortly across the three police commissionerates of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda which cover Hyderabad and its suburbs. He said the initiative involved leveraging computer vision and deep learning techniques on closed cirucuit television (cctvs) "#AI based #FaceMaskViolationEnforcement is being rolled out by TS police. Leveraging ComputerVision & #DeepLearningTechnique being implemented on surveillance CCTVs across the cities is #FirstOfItsKind in INDIA. Shall be enabled shortly across the 3Commissionerates *Hyd,Cyb&Rck," he said. The state government, which has made wearing a mask mandatory in public places, on Thursday issued orders imposing Rs 1000 as fine for those not complying with it. "In ...

The Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC) on Saturday announced an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh for its employees in the forefront of the coronavirus fight in case of death due to the disease. As the country battles the COVID-19 pandemic, the DSGMC has been providing free food to the lockdown-hit homeless people and shelter to health workers in its gurudwaras. It will now provide an insurance cover of Rs 2 lakh each to its 2,500 frontline workers who are providing free community meals, and sanitation and transport-related services across the national capital, its president Manjinder Singh Sirsa said. Staff members of the DSGMC-managed gurudwaras have been distributing food and relief material in JJ colonies, labour camps, shelter homes, etc., as a result of which there is a risk of them contracting the novel coronavirus, Sirsa said. The life insurance scheme will include sanitation staff, cooks preparing langar, religious preachers, security staff and other frontline ...

Realtors' apex body Credai on Saturday said cement and steel rates have increased by 40-50 per cent in last few weeks despite the lockdown and alleged price cartelisation and unfair trade practices by the manufacturers. The association has written a letter to Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri seeking his intervention in the matter. "We would like to bring your attention to the cartelization by the cement and the steel manufacturers by imposing a sudden increase in their selling price," Credai said in the letter. Across various states, there has been an increase of Rs 100-250 per bag cement and about Rs 2,000-2,500 per tonne of steel, it added. During the past few weeks, there has been a sudden, steep increase in prices of essential raw materials such as cement and steel by 40-50 per cent despite the nationwide lockdown. The Centre has allowed construction work on sites where labourers are already available. Given the current crisis faced by the real estate ...

A 51-year-old police constable who had tested positive for coronavirus died in Maharashtra's Nashik district on Saturday afternoon, an official said. This is the sixth death of a police personnel due to COVID-19 in the state, he said. The constable, a resident of Nashik city, was deputed on security duty in Malegaon town in the district which has emerged as a coronavirus hotspot. He was admitted to the civil hospital in Nashik after showing symptoms of infection on May 1, the police official said. Three policemen in Mumbai and one each in Pune and Solapur had died due to the virus infection before.

Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh on Saturday informed that India cricket skipper Virat Kohli and his wife actor Anushka Sharma have contributed Rs 5 lakh each for police welfare amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. "Thank you, @imVkohli and @AnushkaSharma for contributing Rs. 5 lacs each towards the welfare of Mumbai Police personnel. Your contribution will safeguard those at the frontline in the fight against Coronavirus. #MumbaiPoliceFoundation," Singh tweeted from his official handle. Earlier, Kohli and Sharma had given undisclosed amounts to the PM CARES fund and Maharashtra Chief Minister's Relief Fund to support the fight against COVID-19. Maharashtra has the highest number of coronavirus positive cases in the country.

A wave of new technologies is giving people like Max Plansky, who are unable to speak due to a debilitating condition, a more personal synthetic voice. Photo/Video: Denise Blostein/The Wall Street Journal

Aiming to eliminate bureaucratic bottlenecks, the Ministry of Environment and Forests published a 'good practices in regulation' note earlier this year. Sunita Dubey finds that instead, the charter may further weaken environmental protection.

After one round of public scrutiny and an adverse order from the Supreme court, UCIL's plans for uranium mining in Nalgonda seemed to be defeated. But the company now proposes to continue down the same path, apparently unmindful of local opposition or legal strictures. Sunita Dubey reports.

Jyotsna Sitling's gargantuan assignment involved ridding a buffer zone of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve in Uttarakhand of mountain-high piles of plastic and non-biodegradable waste, dumped by pilgrims over the last three decades on their way to Hemkund Sahib. She elicited the help of the community and did it, reports Neeta Lal.

Can Jairam Ramesh, who was the Minister of State for Power during his last tenure, suffer a change of heart suddenly and come down heavily on non-compliance by those power projects he once presided over? Himanshu Upadhyaya has more.

A group of committed individuals in Alappuzha, Kerala are battling odds to revive cultivation of the unique Pokkali variety of paddy that had given way to the more lucrative business of shrimp farming. P N Venugopal reports.

Around the country tribal communities are fighting against the mining companies, whose operations have threaten their livelihoods and ecosystem. The Kashipur movement to protect Baphlimali in Odisha is a classic example. Unfortunately, this too, like many other protests, saw merciless suppression and gross violation of human rights, reports Abhijit Mohanty.

Hasmukh Dhumadia narrates his experience of helping the local residents of a village in Gujarat in their fight for environmental justice.

The government-run vocational training system in India has a total annual training capacity of about 28 lakh (2,800,000) students. But most curricula 'followed' at institutes imparting vocational training have little relevance for wage or self-employment. Varupi Jain reports on the macro-picture.

Despite all that she has endured, Neelam Katara remains a picture of stoic determination and motherly affection. Vasudha Mehta visits her to learn what her son's murder and the subsequent trial have taught her about the justice system.

The Clemenceau has set sail for India, and the spotlight is on the ship-breaking industry at Alang, where workers' safety takes a last-row seat and owners operate without fear of regulatory enforcement or punishment. Ramesh Menon writes that the toxic cargo presents an opportunity to reverse this tide of disgrace.

The central paradox of Indian communism is that its practice is vastly superior to its theory. Communist leaders and activists are probably more intelligent than their counterparts in other parties. This is why it is such a great pity that their often honourable practice is crippled with an archaic and outmoded theory, says Ramachandra Guha.

Government schools are unable to deliver quality education in most cases. This has prompted some to argue for vouchers - coupons from the government to be given to parents that would let them admit their children in private schools instead. Krithika Ramalingam reports on a movement that is gathering steam.

Gene Campaign writes to the Agriculture Minister demanding compensation for Indian farmers payable under the laws for failure of Monsanto-Mahyco's Bt cotton variety.

2004 is being celebrated as the International Year of Rice, and the starchy grain has undergone a complete metamorphosis, says Devinder Sharma.

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Swiss biotech corporation Syngenta has tightened its monopoly control over rice. Seeking global patents over thousands of genes in rice, the multinational based in a country that produces no rice itself, is set to own the world's most important staple food crop, says Devinder Sharma.

An assessment of factors from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Third in the series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the Corruption factor.

Fourth in a series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the weaknesses in civil society as a factor for our ailing public services.

Is incompetence and lack of motivated the cause for the malaise? Second in the series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Concluding article of the series on "What ails our public services?" adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore.

Fifth in a series of articles adapted from the book Holding the State to Account by Samuel Paul of the Public Affairs Center, Bangalore, the author looks at the low priority given to productivity as a factor for our ailing public services.

Autonomy will not improve the IPS, instead it will simply make a system already tainted by its conduct even less accountable, says Arvind Verma.

The Police Act Drafting Committee's term came to an end on 31 January. Any significant attempt to reform the Indian police must begin with the men at the bottom, the constabulary, not at the top. However, such changes would call for a struggle against the nature of Indian society itself, says former IPS officer K S Subramanian.

Police officers are uniform in the belief that political interference in their work is uniquitous. They also see themselves as crime fighters first and foremost, and hence view all other work as a distraction. But in fact, says Arvind Verma, there is little truth to either of these beliefs.

The health, efficiency, relevance and role of our over-centralised security agencies in an ostensibly federal set up need greater debate. This is all the more important, as the politicians' approach to the nature of violence in the country lacks seriousness, writes K S Subramanian.

Governments have taken to announcing monetary compensation for victims' kin in cases of criminal acts as well, but it hardly masks their failure to impose the rule of law or bring about systemic improvements, says Harish Narasappa.

While the old town is chaotic and crowded, on the other side the roads are wide and well maintained. There appears to be a complete disconnect between the two halves of Mirzapur, writes Kalpana Sharma.

The pernicious threat of pollution looms large over India’s most celebrated heritage structure and one of its most prominent emblems, the Taj Mahal, for decades now. Darryl D’Monte shares the findings of a recent study indicating that the ravages of pollution continue unabated.

At MasterCard’s New York City tech hub in the Flatiron District, a mix of business and startup sensibilities informs office style, whether it’s hoodies, tailored jackets or the occasional bow tie.

Competitors may especially worry about losing higher-income customers.

Uber Technologies Inc. this week brought its motorcycle-taxi hailing service to Indonesia, where it will face strong competition from similar apps as startups battle for users in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

HTC just released the HTC 10, arguably the best phone it’s ever built, but its price all but guarantees it’ll go unnoticed by the masses.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi looked and sounded pleased as punch at having outmanoeuvred her rivals and enacted a coup of sorts by bringing in the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, and that too a Dalit.

Voting is an important duty. But giving the state coercive power ostensibly in the name of saving the people from themselves is undemocratic paternalism, writes Pratap B Mehta.

Days before the much-hyped showdown between Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal in Varanasi, Prabhu Mallikarjunan pays a visit to the holy city to know more about the loyalties and concerns of people on the ground.

'Perhaps it is too much to expect the channels which run on celebrity content and arrogance to say that they had to eat crow. But because television news networks are arbiters of the moral and the political right and who dare ask them questions?'

High rhetoric and token gestures abound on International Women’s Day. Yet, a brave woman of the soil was threatened, attacked and prevented from holding a rally that would have voiced the real issues faced by many women. Freny Manecksha met Soni Sori days before she was attacked, and recounts her story.

In mid-June, the Election Commmission of India directed Chief Electoral Officers of all states and Union Territories to enforce the law against "paid news" during elections. The institutionalised racket has been running into hundreds of crores of rupees. Ammu Joseph brings you up to speed.

It is clear that people across the country are driven by strong environment values. Therefore, without having a policy process that channelises their perceptions and crystallises them in policy statements, it is not possible to sequence and prioritise our environmental problems, says Videh Upadhyay.

Total plan funding for urban areas is Rs 3,500 crores, but for rural programmes, it exceeds Rs 40,000 crores. In the meantime, the urban poor often live in sub-human conditions, and the infrastructure is barely able to cope. Ramesh Ramanathan says we need more rigour in our policy discourse.

Taking a 360-degree view of the Union Budget 2013, Shankar Jaganathan points out that despite 'inclusive and sustainable development' being a stated goal, the emphasis has primarily been on growth and finances.