Gets bids for 24.08 lakh shares by 17:00 IST on 9 March 2020

Gets bids for 24.09 lakh shares by 17:00 IST on 11 March 2020

Antony Waste Handling Cell has decided to withdraw its initial public offering (IPO) on Monday, 16 March 2020, as it failed to secure enough subscription.

At the Make in India event, the DIPP secretary said some of this work will be outsourced to the IITs

Food Processing Minister pushes for national e-platform bypassing mandis for farmers, food producers

Soft drink maker to put in Rs 500 cr to set up juice factory; Monsanto identifies Buldhana district for a seed plant

Minister of Commerce and Industry & Railways Shri Piyush Goyal held discussions with the Export Promotion Councils(EPCs) of the country. He called upon the Exporters to identify their strengths, potentials and competitive advantages in specific sectors, and focus on harnessing them in the world markets. Goyal said that in the post-Covid era, there is going to be perceptible change in the global supply-chains, and Indian industrialists and exporters should be looking to capture significant share in the world trade. He assured them that the Government will be a pro-active supporter and facilitator in their efforts, and the Indian Missions abroad can play an important role in that. The Minister said that Incentives can be given, but they have to be justified, reasonable, and WTO-compliant.

KareRing adheres to standards like data encryption. Advanced tracking technology increases accuracy by using other sensory data. The app leverages AI-powered global identity verification to authenticate users' identity before onboarding them and uses data analytics and intelligence techniques to visualize user data. An inbuilt, WHO-compliant bot is used for user self-health assessment. The app has also an added functionality for healthcare organizations to evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine under trial.

Most exit polls see loss for Jaya; Assam for BJP; left turn for Kerala

DMDK's vote share plummeted to 2.4% in the 2016 Assembly polls from 7.88% in 2011, even as the party failed to return a single legislator

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his second budget is likely to focus on steps to accelerate economic growth

South India constitutes nearly 60% of India's plantation sector

Wants patient treatment, which is currently exempt from service tax, to continue to enjoy this sop under GST for 10 years

NLC India fell 0.46% to Rs 43.70 after the company said eight workers were injured in a fire accident at the TS II power plant in Neyveli, Tamil Nadu.

Sales rise 49.79% to Rs 21.69 crore

Ivanka Trump's personal assistant has tested positive for the deadly coronavirus, making her the third White House staff member to be infected from COVID-19, a media report said on Saturday. The assistant, who works in a personal capacity for US President Donald Trump's daughter, has not been around her in several weeks, the CNN reported. She has been teleworking for nearly two months and was tested out of caution, the report quoted a source as saying. She was not symptomatic. Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner both tested negative on Friday, the person familiar with the matter told the US news channel. The development comes a day after President Trump confirmed that Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller had tested positive for the coronavirus. "She's a wonderful young woman, Katie, she tested very good for a long period of time and then all of a sudden today she tested positive," Trump said during a meeting at the White House. He said Miller had not come into ...

The flight from Italy was one of the last arrivals that day at the Stockholm airport. A Swedish couple in their 50s walked up and loaded their skis into Razzak Khalaf's taxi. I t was early March and concerns over the coronavirus were already present, but the couple, both coughing for the entire 45-minute journey, assured Khalaf they were healthy and just suffering from a change in the weather. Four days later, the Iraqi immigrant got seriously ill with COVID-19. Still not able to return to work, Khalaf is part of the growing evidence that those in immigrant communities in the Nordic nations are being hit harder by the pandemic than the general population. Sweden took a relatively soft approach to fighting the coronavirus, one that attracted international attention. Large gatherings were banned but restaurants and schools for younger children have stayed open. The government has urged social distancing, and Swedes have largely complied. The country has paid a heavy price, with 2,769 ...

Jihadists burst into the gold mine where Moussa Tambura worked in Burkina Faso, forbidding everyone from smoking and drinking. It wasn't long before the men returned and leveled the place to the ground. They attacked the site, killed people and burned houses, said Tambura, 29, clenching his fists. He was able to find work again after fleeing to Bouda, another town in country's north that still has small-scale mining. Still, he struggles to provide for his family since his new job isn't as lucrative as his old one. Jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State organization have been overrunning gold mines like Tambura's one by one as they try to gain control of Burkina Faso's most lucrative industry. The extremists are then collecting a protection tax from communities living around the gold mines and also forcing the miners to sell them the gold exclusively, which is then smuggled and sold across the border in places like Benin, Ghana or Togo. The violence already has shuttered ...

A two-week course of an antiviral therapy, started within seven days of experiencing COVID-19 symptoms, may improve clinical recovery of patients and reduce their hospital stay duration, according to the first randomised trial of this triple drug combination. The study, published in the journal The Lancet, involved 127 adults from six public hospitals in Hong Kong, and tested the effectiveness of an antiviral drug combination in reducing the load of the novel coronavirus in their bodies. According to the researchers, including those from the University of Hong Kong, treatment involving combination of the drugs interferon beta-1b, plus the antiviral therapy lopinavir-ritonavir and ribavirin, is better at reducing the viral load than lopinavir-ritonavir alone. They stressed on the need for larger phase 3 trials to examine the effectiveness of this triple combination in critically ill patients, adding that these early findings were only observed in patients with mild to moderate ...

The UK is planning to bring in compulsory 14-day quarantine for all travellers arriving in the country from any part of the world, except the Republic of Ireland, as part of measures to track the spread of coronavirus, according to UK media reports. The new restriction, which means travellers including Britons arriving in the UK would have to self-isolate at a private residence and fined up to 1,000 pounds or deported for flouting the rules, is expected to take effect at the end of this month. According to The Times', the quarantine will form part of the announcements when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson makes a televised address to the nation on Sunday in relation to the COVID-19 lockdown. He has vowed to move with maximum caution as he reopens the economy by lifting some of the social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders next week, enabling people to exercise more than once a day and visit garden centres. These measures will help protect the British public and reduce the

Anyone home-quarantined for suspected coronavirus infection but found breaching the seclusion rules will invite home confinement for all his family members, the Kangra police warned on Friday. Kangras Senior Superintendent of Police Vimukt Ranjan said the new provisions have been made on Friday. As per the fresh orders issued today, any person who has come to the district from other districts of Himachal Predesh or other states of India and placed on home quarantine for 28 days from the date of his entry in district Kangra will be shall be dealt more strictly for its violations, said Ranjan He added that if a home-quarantined person with his other family members not confined along with him is found violating the seclusion rules, in any form, then his entire family members would be put in home0confinement along with him, he said. In Himachal around 90,000 persons returned home from other states on passes issued by state government in the past one week and another 20,000 plus are ...

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has said the West Bengal government is not allowing trains with migrant workers to reach the state that may further create hardship for the labourers. In a letter to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state. Referring to the 'Shramik Special' trains being run by the central government to facilitate transport of migrant workers from different parts of the country to various destinations, the home minister said in the letter that the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants workers to reach home. Shah said migrant workers from West Bengal are also eager to reach home and the central government is also facilitating the train services. "But we are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This ...

Maharashtra Revenue Minister Balasaheb Thorat on Saturday expressed concern over the stand taken by several states to not take in migrant workers who were stranded in Maharashtra due to the COVID-19 lockdown. In a statement, Thorat, who is also the state Congress president, alleged that arbitrary decisions taken by many states regarding migrant workers had worsened the situation. The Maharashtra government was making every possible attempt to send stranded migrants back to their hometowns, but several states were not willing to take in their own citizens, the minister claimed. Thorat demanded that the Centre intervene in the matter and give clear guidelines to all states before the situation worsens. There were nearly 10 lakh migrants in Maharashtra who wished to return to their home states and so far, 32 trains had been operated from the state, he said. Thorat further claimed that there were several workers from West Bengal and Odisha who wanted to return to their ...

Mild tension prevailed at the LG Polymers at RR Venkatapuram village near here as villagers staged a protest on Saturday demanding immediate closure of the plant. A styrene vapour leak from the plastics manufacturing plant caused the death of 12 people on Thursday. Tens of villagers, who were provided shelter in Visakhapatnam after the vapour leak, returned to the village on Saturday morning, raising slogans against the factory management and demanding its closure. A large police force was present near the factory as DGP DG Sawang was scheduled to visuit it. The police tried to prevent the villagers from going near the plant but the latter ran past the former and staged a it- in protest near the factory gate. Police immediately took the protesters into custody and whisked them away.

High tension prevailed at the LG Polymers at RR Venkatapuram village near here as irate villagers staged a protest on Saturday demanding immediate closure of the plant. The protesters placed two bodies of the dead in front of the factory main gate as part of the agitation while some youths barged into the plant even as state Director General of Police D G Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy. The bodies were brought to the village for cremation on Saturday from the KGH mortuary after post-mortem. The angry villagers, however, stopped the ambulances in front of the plant gate and laid the bodies on the road. Emotions ran high as the villagers demanded that the plant be shut down immediately as it completely ruined our lives. A styrene vapour leak from the plastics manufacturing plant caused the death of 12 persons on Thursday. Hundreds of villagers, who were provided shelter in Visakhapatnam ...

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.

Hyundai Motor India on Saturday said its Chennai-based manufacturing facility rolled out 200 cars on the first day of resuming production. The company re-started manufacturing activities at its plant in Sriperumbudur (near Chennai) on May 8. The auto major has commenced production at the facility adhering to 100 per cent compliance of safety and social distancing norms, Hyundai Motor India said in a statement. In line with the government's objectives of reviving the economy and company's global vision of progress for humanity, the commencement of manufacturing operations is aimed at boosting economic activities and bringing back normalcy, it added. Several industries are resuming operations in a phased manner following an over month-long shutdown due to the coronavirus lockdown.

Jammu and Kashmir has been able to achieve "remarkable improvement" in multiple indicators related to maternal and child health in recent years, with a decline in infant mortality rate (IMR), an official spokesman said. The IMR has been reduced from 52 (2005) to 22 (2018), according to the latest data released by the Registrar General of India in the SRS bulletin on Friday. "The current national average of infant mortality rate stands at 32 much higher than that of J-K," the spokesman said. "The entire Health and Medical Education Department with active support from the National Health Mission (NHM) has put in strenuous efforts to provide essential newborn care at government health institutions across the Union Territory," Atal Dulloo, the financial commissioner in Health and Medical Education Department, said. Special newborn care units (SNCUs) have been established in 27 districts and other equivalent hospitals, three NICUs, newborn stabilisation units (NBSUs) and newborn care ...

The TMC on Saturday accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of "lying" about the West Bengal government not allowing trains to reach the state, and said they have already planned eight trains to ferry migrants from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Telangana. The first train will be leaving on Saturday from Hyderabad to Malda, the TMC said. Shah on Saturday wrote to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, saying while the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants to return home, it is not getting expected support from the state. "The Centre is lying, eight trains ready to ferry passengers to Bengal from different states: It is no right to say CM Mamata Banerjee not allowing migrants to come back.16 migrants died on your watch, will rail minister take responsibility," asked TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. In a zoom meeting with several TMC MPs, including Rajya Sabha MP Derek O'Brien, said West Bengal is running 711 camps for migrants in the state and were taking good care of ..

Hundreds of migrant workers came onto the streets and clashed with the police at a village in Surat district of Gujarat on Saturday to demand that they either be sent back to their home states or allowed to resume work at local industrial units to earn money, police said. The police resorted to lathicharge and fired tear gas to disperse the mob. Over a 100 workers were detained in this connection, an official said. The incident took place at Mora village near industrial town of Hazira. "Over 100 workers were detained after they took to the streets, demanding that they either be sent back home or allowed to work at the industrial units they were employed at in Hazira and paid salaries," joint commissioner of police (Sector 2) D N Patel said. Protesting workers came out of their homes in the workers' colony at Mora village and started walking in a large group towards Hazira industrial area, he said. The migrants demanded that the district administration should arrange for ..

Meritorious students hailing from poor sections of the society in Odisha have been provided smartphones to help them attend online classes during coronavirus-induced lockdown to sustain their focus on the NEET exam scheduled on July 26 for admission in medical colleges. These wards of humble vegetable sellers, fishermen and marginal farmers are students of "Zindagi foundation" run by a non-governmental organisation for talented students of Odisha, to help them give wings to their dreams. The man behind the initiative is academician Ajay Bahadur Singh, who was forced to quit medical studies due to his father's kidney ailment in 1990 and had to sell tea and sherbet to help his family survive. There are 19 medical aspirants, both boys and girls, at present under the project from remote corners of Odisha who will be undertaking the national level undergraduate medical entrance exam on July 26 next to qualify for admission in medical colleges. The lockdown caused by the ...

In the wake of the death of 16 workers from Madhya Pradesh in a train accident in Maharashtra on Friday, MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Saturday urged the stranded migrants to be patient as his government was making arrangement for their safe return to the state. He also asked them not to risk their lives by undertaking return journey on foot. Sixteen migrant workers- part of a group of 20 headed towards villages in Madhya Pradesh and who were resting on the tracks, were crushed to death by a goods train in Aurangabad district in the early hours of Friday. According to police, they had left Jalna around 7 on Thursday evening and decided to rest on the tracks after walking for about 36 km. In a video statement, Chouhan said, "The migrant labourers should be patient and avoid return journey on foot as the state government has made arrangements to bring them back." "Eleven trains carrying people from other states have already reached Madhya Pradesh and 10 more ...

Migrant workers returning from Rajkot to Ballia on a special train on Saturday claimed that Gujarat Police charged them Rs 725 fare. Authorities here, however, said they had no information about it. The train carrying 1,170 migrant workers from parts of UP reached Ballia in the morning, following which they were screened and provided food packets, District Magistrate Hari Pratap Shahi said. "The migrants were then sent to their states. As many as 420 are from Ballia, while rest of them are from Prayagraj, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Maharajganj, Kushingar, Etawah and other districts," he said. Some passengers claimed that they had to pay Rs 725 train fare to Gujarat Police, the district magistrate said, adding that he had no information on this.

LG Polymers India Ltd on Saturday blamed leaking vapour from a storage tank for the leakage of deadly styrene monomer gas at its Visakhapatnam plant that killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands. Status quo at the plant was restored on Saturday morning, the company said in a statement. The gas leakage from the plant was reported on Thursday morning after the company tried to restart operations following the partial easing of the coronavirus lockdown. "Our initial investigations suggest that the cause of the incident is prima facie by the leaking vapor from the Styrene Monomer (SM) storage tank near the GPPS (General Purpose Poly Styrene) factory on Thursday, May 7," the statement said. The unit of South Korean chemical giant LG Chem said it is committed to working closely with the concerned authorities to investigate the cause of the incident, prevent recurrence in future and secure the foundation for care and treatment. "While focusing on stabilizing the ...

A man has been arrested for allegedly obstructing a public servant and damaging property in east Delhi''s Kalyanpuri area, police said on Saturday. The incident, which took place on Friday, was captured in a video and circulated on social media, they said. In the video, a shirtless man can be seen in inebriated state and obstructing a police gypsy. He repeatedly bangs on its windscreen and makes a crack on it. People are trying to take him out of the way, but he refuses and stands in front of the gypsy. "The incident took place on Friday around 4.30 pm in Trilokpuri area. The accused, identified as Harkesh, has been arrested. He was drunk at the time of the incident, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east) Jasmeet Singh said. "A case under IPC sections 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) and damage to ...

The Andhra Pradesh government on Saturday said the situation was "normal" in RR Venkatapuram village, where a styrene vapour leak from the LG Polymers plant claimed 12 lives and left over 300 people hospitalized with various ailments. Director General of Police D Gautam Sawang and Special Chief Secretary (Industries) Karikal Valaven inspected the plant and spoke to the LG Polymers plant management. Later they told reporters "everything is normal and there is no need to panic." Even as Sawang was inspecting the vapour leak spot and talking to the management on the measures taken to restore normalcy, irate villagers staged a protest demanding immediate closure of the plant. According to the DGP, temperature at the styrene storage tank, where the vapour leak occurred, has come down, as also the PPM (ambient air quality) level. "Definitely the air is also fresh and there is nothing to worry about. In the coming days, life will come back to normalcy," the DGP said. "Just to ..

The Indian Railways has operated 302 Shramik Special' trains since May 1 and ferried home more than 3 lakh migrants stranded in various parts of the country amid the coronavirus-induced lockdown, officials said. The national transporter has planned to operate 47 trains on Saturday, out of which 34 trains have already departed, they said. Every Shramik Special train has 24 coaches, each with a capacity of 72 seats. The railways, however, is allowing only 54 people in a coach to maintain social distancing norms by not allotting the middle berth to any passenger. While the railways has not yet announced the cost incurred on the special services, officials indicate the national transporter has spent around Rs 80 lakh per service. The government had earlier stated that the cost of the services has been shared on 85:15 ratio with states. Since the beginning of running the Shramik Special trains, Gujarat remained one of the top originating stations followed by Kerala. Among the receiving ...

Despite having a valid official pass to move between Jammu and Kashmir, hundreds of travellers have ended up at administrative quarantine centres set up by the government on the outskirts of the winter capital as part of its efforts to combat the coronavirus. The move is agitating the people who questioned the logic behind sending them to an institutional quarantine when they are given the passes in extremely exceptional situations, like a medical emergency or joining their duties after completing the formalities due to a lockdown. One such quarantine centre is set up at Excise and Taxation Training institute in Nagrota, 15 km from Jammu city, where 35 persons, including women and a seven-year-old girl, are anxiously waiting for their sample reports the outcome of which will decide their future at the sprawling facility. While a majority of them are expected to be released after their test reports are negative, four labourers from Amritsar in Punjab who had travelled from Srinagar to

Stopped by police from proceeding further, hundreds of migrant workers going home on foot created a ruckus at a Ganga bridge on the National Highway-24 in Uttar Pradesh's Amroha district, officials said on Saturday. According to them, the workers started arriving at the bridge from the Delhi side on Friday afternoon and wanted to go home at the earliest. Dhanoura Circle Officer Monica Yadav said they had assured them that buses would be arranged for their journey but they were adamant on going home on foot. Amroha DM Umesh Mishra said they arranged buses for them but some of the workers on bicycles refused to go in these. They wanted to proceed on their bicycles, he said.

In Vadhan's new book, there is an anti-hero who takes law into his hands but the author says this is not meant to glorify vigilantism and the character's only agenda is to enforce law through a fiery and extreme form of justice system and not destabilize anything. The story of "Fear of God" weaves law, corruption, vigilantism and courtroom drama to follow the three central characters who are looking to achieve the same thing but through different means. A parliamentarian is brutally murdered. The vigilante's next target is a war hero and top constitutional lawyer. A top police officer has to race against time to stop the killings. The vigilante is as devious as he is effective in instilling the fear of God into those who think they are above the law. When asked whether the anti-hero taking law into his hands in a way glorifies vigilantism, Vadhan says, "But then, what is the goal of this anti-hero? Is he a voice against law? He only reiterates that one has to obey the law to be ...

Over 1 lakh migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh stranded in different parts of the country following the coronavirus-induced lockdown will return to the state by Saturday night on 114 trains, a senior government official said. Another 98 trains will reach the state on Sunday and Monday, while talks are on to allow 15 to 20 more, he said on Saturday. "Till Saturday morning, 97 trains have reached the state and another 17 will reach by the evening. With this, more than 1.20 lakh migrant workers and labourers will be back in the state," Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Awasthi said. These trains arrived at 36 railway stations of the state, with Lucknow and Gorakhpur receiving 11 trains each, he said. Awasthi said Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has stressed that no migrant should undertake the journey home on foot or bicycle. The government has also given permission for 98 more trains which will bring back migrants from other parts of the country on Sunday and Monday, he said, ...

The Arunachal Pradesh government has made institutional quarantine for a period of 14 days mandatory for people returning to Arunachal Pradesh from across the country, a senior minister said on Saturday. Among the returnees, students will also have to go into institutional quarantine for the same duration, he said. Earlier a group of six students, lodged in a quarantine centre, was allowed to go home after five days when their swab samples had tested negative. People are coming back after the Centre allowed those stranded across the country in view of the lockdown to return to their respective states. The state cabinet headed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu at a meeting also decided to make RT-PCR test for detection of COVID-19 compulsory for the returnees, including the asymptomatic ones, state Home minister Bamang Felix told reporters here on Saturday. "We have decided to segregate returnees on the basis of green, orange and red zones and make arrangements ...

NCP chief Sharad Pawar has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk to chief ministers of those states who are not allowing migrant workers to come back home. Pawar spoke over phone to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the issue of repatriation of migrant workers to their home states during the coronavirus-induced lokdown period. "I humbly request our @PMOIndia Shri. Narendra Modi ji to intervene in this matter by talking to the CMs of the respective states who are not allowing these people to come back home," the NCP chief tweeted. Though he did not name any specific state, the NCP had recently accused the BJP-led Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka of not wanting to take back labourers hailing from the two states. "Had a telephonic conversation with Shri @OfficeofUT - Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Shri @PiyushGoyal - the Union Railway Minister regarding the issue of migrant workers," Pawar twitted. He said Thackeray has

The ruling JD(U) on Saturday slammed AAP for claiming that it bore the cost of ferrying migrant workers from Delhi to their home in Bihar, saying the party was speaking "half-truth" as the Arvind Kejriwal government has sought reimbursement of the payment. The Janata Dal (United) headed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar accused the Aam Admi Party (AAP) of resorting to "cheap politics to gain popularity". The JD(U) also came down heavily on Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav for lapping up the issue to attack the NDA dispensation, asking him to stop the rhetoric and do something good for the people of Bihar. The AAP had on Friday claimed that the Kejriwal government paid for the migrant labourers travelling home after the Bihar government left them in the lurch. The train carrying 1,200 migrant labourers left for Muzaffarpur, Bihar today. The Arvind Kejriwal government will bear their full travel cost, Delhi minister Gopal Rai had tweeted on Friday. In a ...

In a bright sign for resumption of economic activities amid the Covid-led lockdown across the country, the migrant workers, who left various states for their native places amid the shutdown, have begun expressing willingness to return to work, indicate developments in Haryana. Haryana Home Minister Anil Vij on Saturday said over 1.5 lakh migrant workers have applied on government portal, expressing their willingness to return back to work in the state. Vij said most of these 1.5 lakh workers, who have registered themselves to return, belong to Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. He also said on the same portal nearly 8 lakh migrant workers, however, have registered themselves for leaving the state. Nearly 1.5 lakh migrant workers want to return to Haryana while 8 lakh of them have registered themselves for leaving the state for their native states, Vij said. Most of the 1.5 lakh who want to come back are from Bihar, UP and MP. They want to come here as commercial activities have .

Responding to concerns expressed by farmers with respect to labour shortage, Punjab Chief MinisterAmarinder Singh on Saturday announced advancement in the paddy nursery sowing and transplantation dates by 10 days. The paddy nursery sowing and transplantation operations will now commence on May 10 and June 10, respectively. The agriculture department had earlier fixed May 10 as the date to begin sowing of paddy nursery and June 20 for paddy transplantation, during the current kharif season. The farmers had raised concerns about meeting the cultivation/sowing requirements in view of the labour shortage resulting from migrant labourers returning to their homes in view of the COVID-19 crisis. Describing these concerns as "understandable", the chief minister said it was in the interest of farmers to push the dates ahead by 10 days. Underlining the need to adopt the latest practice of Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), as well as mechanised paddy transplantation technologies, the chief minister .

The Karnataka government has clarified that migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons can hire and use buses provided by state-run road transport corporations on payment basis for travel to other states with relevant permissions. Inter-State travel of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourist, students and other persons stranded in different states due to lockdown were recently permitted to travel through notified entry and exit points of Karnataka by the government. The Shramik special train services too have been ferrying migrant labourers stranded in the state to destinations like Bihar, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh among others. In a circular, Revenue (Disaster Management) Principal Secretary T K Anil Kumar said similar facility on payment basis be made available by state run road transport corporations- KSRTC/NWKRTC/NEKRTC/ BMTC to transport workers to industries permitted under the issued guidelines.

IIT Kharagpur Director V K Tewari has said central institutes like the IITs and NITs have a major role to help the micro, medium and small enterprises (MSME) by guiding them to manufacture personal protective equipment, parts of diagnostic kits and other products required in the Covid-19 era. Tewari advocated creating mobile apps for the MSMEs, hit hard by the novel coronavirus triggered lockdown, to provide them with training by the institutes. "For instance, if we provide them (MSME units) with designs of gloves, masks meeting certain guidelines, they can come up with products in 3-4 months. Similarly, these enterprises can be roped in for making parts of diagnostic kits and PCR machines... after required training," he said. Delivering an address on Facebook Live on the page of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishads (ABVP) West Bengal unit on Friday, the IIT-KGP director suggested that such units may also be asked to produce PPE. "We have to know what the MSMEs want, what .

By Sara Germano and David Benoit The restaurant that Dan Loeb said Sotheby’s management wined and dined at to a bill that was in the “multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars,” was the famed Blue Hill, according to people familiar with the matter.

Amid an increase in confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in the U.S., more companies, religious institutions and schools are asking people to stay at home if they may have come into contact with the virus. WSJ follows the case of one man under voluntary self-quarantine. Photo: Sam Dziekan