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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced Rs 3 lakh crore collateral free automatic loan for businesses, including MSMEs.
This will benefit 45 lakh small businesses, she said detailing parts of the Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package.
The loan will have 4 year tenure and will have 12 month moratorium, she said.
Also, Rs 20,000 crore subordinate debt will be provided for stressed MSMEs, she said adding this would benefit 2 lakh such businesses.
Dakshina Kannada district recorded its fifth COVID-19 death on Thursday.
According to a statement issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department, an 80-year-old woman, a resident of Kulashekhara in Mangaluru, succumbed to the infection at the COVID Hospital. She is the second coronavirus victim in the limits of Mangaluru City Corporation.
The woman, who was suffering from high blood pressure and stroke, had tested positive for coronavirus on April 26.
New Delhi: Passengers who are disallowed from travelling on trains because of symptoms associated with the novel coronavirus will receive full refund for their tickets, the railways has said.
According to the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, all passengers shall be compulsorily screened and only asymptomatic passengers shall be allowed to enter/board trains.
“If, during screening, a passenger has very high temperature/symptoms of COVID-19 etc., he shall not be allowed to travel despite having confirmed tickets. In such case full refund shall be provided to the passenger,” the order stated.
It said that on a group ticket if one passenger is found unfit to travel and all other passengers on the same PNR also do not want to travel, in that case full refund shall be granted for all passengers.
In case of a group ticket if one passenger is found unfit to travel but the other passengers on the same PNR want to travel, full refund of fare shall be granted to the passenger who was not allowed to travel.
“For all the above cases, TTE certificates as per extant practice shall be issued to the passenger at the entry/checking/screening point itself mentioning number of passengers not travelled due to symptoms of COVID-19 in one or more passengers,” it stated.
“Full fare for the part passenger/full who have not travelled shall be refunded by IRCTC in the customer’s account,” it said.
Muzaffarnagar: Six migrant workers, who were walking to their homes in Bihar from Punjab, were killed and five others seriously injured when a speeding bus ran over them on the Delhi-Saharanpur Highway in Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar district, officials said on Thursday.
The incident took place on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday between Ghalauli check-post and Rohana Toll Plaza, about 20 km from here, Senior Superintendent of Police Abhishek Yadav said.
The bus driver has been arrested, the SSP said. Locals suspect that the driver was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident.
Two of the deceased persons were identified as Bijender, 25, and Harsh, 20. The rest were yet to be identified, police said. The injured — Sushil, Nathu Saini, Pawan Saini, Pramod and Ramji Rai –were rushed to hospital, they said.
New Delhi: Embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya, who is fighting against his extradition to India, on Thursday asked the government to accept his offer to repay 100 per cent of his loan dues and close case against him.
While congratulating the Indian government over the Rs 20 lakh crore economic package, Mallya lamented that his repeated offers to repay his dues have been ignored.
“Congratulations to the Government for a Covid 19 relief package. They can print as much currency as they want BUT should a small contributor like me who offers 100% payback of State owned Bank loans be constantly ignored?” he said in a tweet.
Mallya, promoter of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines, who is wanted in India over alleged fraud and money laundering charges amounting to estimated Rs 9,000 crore, added,”Please take my money unconditionally and close.”
Earlier this month, Mallya had filed an appeal in the UK Supreme Court after losing an appeal in the London High Court against an extradition order to India on alleged charges of fraud and money laundering related to unrecovered loans to Kingfisher Airlines.
In the past, Mallya had tweeted that he had offered to pay 100 per cent of the amount borrowed by Kingfisher Airlines to the banks but neither banks were willing to take the money nor the Enforcement Directorate was willing to release his attached assets at the behest of the banks.
Bengaluru: Around 1,000 passengers arrived in Bengaluru from Delhi on Thursday on board the first train to Karnataka since limited rail services resumed in the country, officials said.
Soon after arrival at the Bengaluru City Railway Station, the passengers were screened for COVID-19 on the station premises itself, the officials said.
The train that left Delhi on Tuesday at 9.30 pm was scheduled to arrive at 6.40 am on Thursday but got delayed by 40 minutes.
According to a senior railway officer, the Bengaluru civic agency along with the Karnataka Health Department had set up 10 health check-up counters to screen the passengers.
The passengers were disembarked coach-wise as Railway Protection Force personnel kept a strict vigil on them.
“It’s heartening that everyone is maintaining discipline and seated inside. No chaos,” the South Western Railway public relations officer said.
These travellers will be taken to the quarantine centres as the state government has decided not to allow them mingle with anyone else till they complete 14 days in isolation and test negative for COVID-19, the officials said.
Around 15 buses belonging to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), a subsidiary of the state government, were deployed at the railway station to take these passengers to the quarantine centres.
Elaborate arrangements were made to receive these passengers. As many as 4,200 rooms were booked in 42 hotels around the Majestic Railway Station.
“We have reserved 90 hotels in and around the railway station. These are for institutional quarantine. The passengers willing to stay in these hotels will have to bear the cost. Separate arrangements have been made for those who don’t wish to stay in hotels,” the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district G L Shivamurthy said in a video message.
He made it clear that everyone coming to Bengaluru will have to compulsorily remain quarantined for 14 days and undergo COVID-19 medical tests.
General public was not allowed to enter the railway station area.
A cluster of six new cases was recently found in one part of the city, the first local infections the government has reported in Wuhan since before the lockdown was eased in early April.
BANGKOK: Authorities in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic began were moving forward Wednesday with efforts to test all 11 million residents for the virus within 10 days after a handful of fresh infections were found there.
The US government’s top infectious disease expert, meanwhile, issued a blunt warning that cities and states could see more COVID-19 deaths and economic damage if they lift stay-at-home orders too quickly — a sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, who is pushing to right a free-falling economy.
“There is a real risk that you will trigger an outbreak that you may not be able to control,” Dr. Anthony Fauci warned a Senate committee and the nation Tuesday as more than two dozen states have begun to lift their lockdowns.
China, the first nation to put a large number of its citizens under lockdown and the first to ease those restrictions, has been strictly guarding against any resurgence.
District health commissions and neighborhood committees in the city of Wuhan have been told to develop a plan to test all residents in their jurisdictions, local media reports said. The directive also said the testing should focus on the elderly, densely populated areas and places with mobile populations.
A person who answered the mayor’s hotline in Wuhan on Wednesday said local districts had been given 10 days to carry out the tests. The official declined to give his name because she was not authorized to speak to reporters.
The first cases of the new coronavirus were found in Wuhan in December, and by the end of January the government had placed the entire city and the surrounding region, home to more than 50 million people, under a strict lockdown.
A cluster of six new cases was recently found in one part of the city, the first local infections the government has reported in Wuhan since before the lockdown was eased in early April.
It wasn’t clear how many people would actually still need to be tested, as one expert at Wuhan University told the Global Times newspaper that up to 5 million residents of Wuhan have already been tested since the outbreak began.
Worldwide, the virus has infected more than 4.2 million people and killed over 291,000 — with more than 82,000 deaths in the US alone, the world’s highest toll. Experts say the actual numbers are likely far higher.
According to official data, 55 migrant labourers infected with the COVID-19 have returned from New Delhi between May 4 and May 12 by trains to Bihar.
PATNA: In the past nine days, the number of migrant labourers turning positive for COVID-19 is higher for retuness from New Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra in Bihar.
With the mass return of migrant workers by the special trains, the health department prepared for data for the period of May 4 to May 12 till 10 am.
The data has been prepared first nine days after the positive cases started getting reported from rural areas in particular w.r.t return of migrant workers by trains.
According to official data, 55 migrant labourers infected with the COVID-19 have returned from New Delhi between May 4 and May 12 by trains to Bihar.
Gujarat followed New Delhi with 46 migrant workers infected positive with COVID-19.
After Gujarat has been followed by Maharashtra from where 44 migrants have returned carrying COVID-19 infection. Out of the 44, two of them, aged about 60 and 45, were among the six positive patients who have died so far in the state.
The neighbouring state West Bengal stands as the fourth state from where 16 migrant labourers have returned carrying infection including a group of six in Samastipur.
Compared to West Bengal, another neighbouring state Uttar Pradesh repatriated only 11 migrant labourers infected with COVID-19 followed by six from Rajasthan,3 from Telangana, 3 from Haryana and 1 from Kerala and 1 from Jharkhand.
Among all the 190 COVID-19 positive cases, infection trails of four migrants are still not being ascertained as to from where or whom they have been infected with.
Among Bihar’s 37 affected districts, Begusarai has witnessed the highest number of 26 COVID- 19 positive migrant labourers followed by 15 in Nalanda, 13 in each Bhagalpur and Munger, 11 in Saharsa, 10 in Khagaria, 8 in Samastipur, 7 each in Sheikhpura, Darbhanga and Madhepura, 6 each in Muzaffarpur and Arwal and rest in other districts.
Principal Secretary of Health Department, Sanjay Kumar said that all these migrants have been placed under institutional quarantine centers across the concerned areas. He said that the total count of Covid-19 positive reached 830 on Tuesday with 52 fresh cases reported positive.
New Delhi: Over 80,000 passengers have booked tickets worth over Rs 16 crore on the special trains so far, the Indian Railways said on Tuesday, hours before the first such train is scheduled to depart from the New Delhi station for Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh.
The bookings for these special trains began at 6 pm on Monday.
So far, 45,533 bookings (PNRs) worth Rs 16.15 crore have been recorded for the special trains for the next seven days, the railways said, adding that around 82,317 passengers will travel against these bookings.
The railways issued guidelines on Monday for 15 special trains, which will be operated from Tuesday, asking the passengers to carry their own food and linen, and arrive at stations at least 90 minutes before departure for a health screening.
On Tuesday, the national transporter said installing the Aarogya Setu mobile application was mandatory for the passengers.
The railways will run eight trains on Tuesday — three from New Delhi terminating at Dibrugarh, Bengaluru and Bilaspur, and one each from Howrah, Rajendra Nagar (Patna), Bengaluru, Mumbai Central and Ahmedabad, which will terminate at Delhi.
These special trains will only have air-conditioned coaches.
Since the trains will be operated amidst the ongoing nationwide lockdown, only the passengers with confirmed e-tickets will be allowed to enter the stations.
The fares of these trains will be equivalent to that of the Rajdhani trains and passengers can book tickets up to seven days in advance. However, no RAC, wait-list ticket or on-board booking by the ticket-checking staff will be permitted, the railways said.
The national transporter had suspended its passenger services in view of the lockdown imposed to check the spread of coronavirus.
Bengaluru: Total number of COVID-19 infections in Karnataka has breached 900 mark, with the state reporting 42 new corona positive cases, the health department said on Tuesday.
Interestingly, Hassan that had not reported a single case so far, has confirmed five new infections.
“42 new positive cases have been reported from last evening to this noon…. Till date 904 COVID-19 positive cases have been confirmed. This includes 31 deaths and 426 discharges,” the department said in its bulletin.
Forty two new cases include- fifteen from Bagalkote, nine from Dharwad, five from Hassan, three from Bengaluru urban, two each from Dakshina Kannada, Yadgir and Bidar, and one each from Ballari, Chikkaballapura, Mandya and Kalaburagi.
Among the cases, 25 are with travel history to Ahmedabad in Gujarat, six are with travel history to Mumbai in Maharashtra, seven are contacts of patients already tested positive, two are from containment zone in Bidar, one with history of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and the others contact is under tracing.
At least four out of these 42 cases are children.