While saying that he will continue to discharge his duties from home, Sawant also requested his close contacts to take the necessary precautions.

India’s COVID-19 tally of cases galloped past 37 lakh on Wednesday with 78,357 new instances of the disease reported in a day, while the number of recoveries crossed 29 lakh pushing the recovery rate to 76.98 per cent, the Union health ministry data showed.

The death toll climbed to 66,333 with 1,045 more fatalities reported in 24 hours.

India has so far reported 37,69,523 cases of the viral disease, while the total number of COVID-19 recoveries in the country has surged to 29,01,908, while the fatality rate has further declined to 1.76 per cent.

There are 8,01,282, active cases in the country which comprises 21.26 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

Punjab has decided to continue with the lockdown restrictions in September, while others states like Himachal Pradesh are persisting with the curbs on inter-state transport. Some others like Delhi are yet to come out with the guidelines for this month.

Also, some states announced the lifting of local or weekend lockdowns, except in containment zones, following a direction by the Ministry of Home Affairs.

His premature release was owing to his good conduct over the years he spent in the jail.

RAIPUR: After spending over 15 years in jail, Anand Nageshiya was excited to be reunited with his family in Aamdarha village in Ambikapur, North Chhattisgarh. 

Nageshiya was more thrilled to see his daughter Yamini who was barely over an year when he was convicted.

The 40-year-old was jailed for murdering his paternal uncle over some family dispute in 2005 and spent 15 years and 5 months in jail.

However, the joy soon vanished when he saw his daughter’s struggle to attend her regular online classes as she didn’t have any gadgets.

He rushed to the market to purchase a smartphone for Yamini with the incentive money he earned all these years for his work inside the prison. Yamini is a student of Class 12 in government school.

“I was moved when my daughter told me she was not having any device to attend online classes. She wished to become a doctor and render her service to humanity by joining the medical profession. I realised the importance of education while in jail. I will leave no stone unturned to ensure my daughter doesn’t face any hurdle to pursue her dream,” Nageshiya averred.

His premature release was owing to his good conduct over the years he spent in the jail.

“He along with 19 others were recommended to the government for granting remission of sentence from Ambikapur Central Jail after they were found maintaining overall good behaviour consistently. We saw Nageshiya, who was serving a life imprisonment for murder, has downright reformed and disciplined himself and his name was cleared on the grounds of good conduct,” said Rajendra Gaikwad, superintendent at Ambikapur Central Jail.  

While lauding his decision to purchase smartphone for his daughter, Gaikwad stated that Nageshiya led by an example for others on giving importance to girl’s education in the family.

“The prisoners who work inside the jail get an incentive amount of Rs 60 per day for semi-skilled and Rs 75 for skilled labour. Earlier this amount was much less and revised at various intervals. He invested his savings for the good cause,” the jail superintendent added.

Inside the prison, Nageshiya has learned gardening and carpentry under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana.

“Our family including my two brothers have 3 acres of agriculture land. We look forward towards livelihood security in horticulture,” he said.

A notice to this effect was issued by the government on Monday while also extending the lockdown till then end of September but with more relaxations.

MUMBAI: Maharashtra government has cancelled the e-pass requirement for inter-district travel from September 2 and allowed hotels in the state to function with 100 per cent capacity.

A notice to this effect was issued by the government on Monday while also extending the lockdown till the end of September but with more relaxations.

As per the notification, government offices in Mumbai and metropolitan regions – Pune, and Pimpri Chinchwad will operate with 30 per cent capacity against the current 10 per cent.

In other regions of the state, government offices can operate with 50 per cent capacity while private offices can operate with 30 per cent staffers.

Moreover, in all government offices, a vigilant officer will be appointed to ensure social distancing protocols including disinfection of the premises on a regular basis. 

The state government on Monday also lifted restrictions on obtaining e-passes for movement of private and goods vehicles but continues to place restrictions on travel of senior citizens and children below the age 10.

Schools and colleges will remain closed while e-learning and online classes will continue.

The government however, has not lifted restrictions on the operation of gyms, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks, bars, auditoriums, metro rails and religious places in the state and they will remain closed.

Opposition parties on the other hand, have been demanding reopening of religious places.

On Monday, Dalit leader Prakash Ambedkar also staged a protest to reopen ‘Vittar Mandir’ in Pandarpur.

Ambedkar said that he had spoken with CM Uddhav Thackeray who had promised to take a decision on this shortly.

Schools, colleges, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks and theatres will remain closed till the end of September.

KOLKATA: The West Bengal government on Monday decided to go ahead with three days of complete lockdown in September, clearing the air over the issue after Unlock 4 guidelines asked states to take the Centre into confidence before imposing any local shutdown outside containment zones.

CM Mamata Banerjee said there will be a complete lockdown in the state on September 7, September 11 and September 12. Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha said the lockdown will be extended in containment zones in Bengal till September 30.

Schools, colleges, cinema halls, swimming pools, entertainment parks and theatres will remain closed till the end of September.

Meanwhile, The discharge rate of COVID-19 patients in the state rose to 82.49 per cent after 3,318 patients recovered from the disease on Monday, a bulletin released by the health department said.

On Sunday, the discharge rate was close to 82 per cent.

So far, 1,34,270 people have recovered from the disease in the state.

The state’s coronavirus caseload went up to 1,62,778 as 2,993 new cases of infection were registered in the state on Monday.

The death toll due to the disease also mounted to 3,228 after 52 fresh fatalities were reported, the bulletin said.

The number of active cases is now 25,280.

Of the 52 casualties on Monday, 41 were due to comorbidities where COVID-19 was incidental.

Thirteen of the fresh fatalities were recorded in North 24 Parganas district, 10 in Kolkata, nine in South 24 Parganas and four each in Nadia and Hooghly districts, the bulletin said.

The remaining 12 deaths were reported from several other districts.

North 24 Parganas also registered 447 new cases, while 444 people from Kolkata and 316 others from Paschim Medinipur district tested positive for the contagion.

Altogether 42,239 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, while 18,87,635 such tests were conducted in the state till date, the bulletin said.

Meanwhile, plasma collection for treating coronavirus patients started at Malda Medical College and Hospital on Monday, state government officials said.

Bars allowed to reopen

The Mamata government has also allowed bars in the state to reopen from Tuesday by following social distancing and other COVID-related protocols.

An order issued by the Excise Department on Monday said that services have to be kept within the stipulated hours of opening of the outlets.

Restaurants serving liquor can do so by allowing only 50 per cent of total occupancy at a time and following all COVID-19 guidelines, it said.

The Excise Directorate said those serving liquor at their clubs, canteens and other places will have to inform the government prior to restarting services.

The modalities to resume Metro Railway services in Kolkata are yet to be finalised, its general manager Manoj Joshi said on Monday.

The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued ‘Unlock 4’ guidelines under which Metro services will be allowed to resume services from September 7 in a graded manner.

Modalities for running the services have not yet been finalised and discussions in this regard with the state government will be held after the standard operating procedure (SOP) is issued by the ministry concerned, he said.

“After SOP is issued by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs as indicated in the MHA order, we will approach the state government to discuss the modalities.

In an order, the West Bengal government said that Metro Railway services will be allowed in a graded manner from September 8.

The West Bengal government had earlier written to the Railway Board, seeking resumption of Metro and suburban train services in a limited manner, maintaining the norms of physical distancing, and health and hygiene protocols.

In the letter to the chairman of the Railway Board, West Bengal Home Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay urged that before the resumption of services, required modalities and logistics to ensure smooth operations may be worked out in consultation with the state government.

The Metro Railway, Kolkata has been holding trial runs of its rakes for maintenance of rolling stock, signalling systems and other facilities to keep them ready as and when services are allowed to be restarted, an official said.

In a bid to encourage social distancing when it resumes service, the Metro Railway has introduced an online system of recharging smart cards, according to the official.

NEW DELHI: BJP IT department head Amit Malviya on Monday alleged that over 98 per cent of the ‘dislikes’’ for the YouTube video posted by the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Mann Ki Baat show came from abroad and alleged involvement of the Congress in this.

He also claimed that there’s a trend based on data analysis that bots are being used to build up campaigns, including against holding of the JEE examinations.

“Over the last 24 hours, there’s been a concerted effort to dislike the ‘Mann ki Baat’ video on YouTube (posted by All India Radio). So low is the Congress on confidence that it has been celebrating it some sort of conquest. However, data from YouTube suggests that only two per cent of those dislikes are from within India,” said Malviya.

Malviya shared several Twitter handles purportedly originating from Turkey which has been twitting on JEE examinations. 

He added in another tweet, “The rest 98%, like always, came from outside India! Bots and Twitter accounts from overseas have been consistent feature of the Congress’s anti JEE-NEET campaign. There is huge spike in activity by Rahul Gandhi’s favourite Turkish bots! What is this Turkish obsession, Rahul?”

Several Congress handles, representing its state units and other departments, had run a campaign on social media to “dislike” the ‘Mann ki Baat’ video.

Worrying, nominal GDP — widely used in government estimates — contracted 20.6% or from Rs  44.8 lakh crore to Rs  35.6 lakh crore.

India’s first quarter GDP shrunk to a level unknown in our economic history. At 23.9%, it’s the sharpest contraction since 1996 when we began bean-counting quarterly data and probably the worst since 1980s.

Assuming a 5-6% trendline growth, the effective output loss in Q1 is upwards Rs 10 lakh crore. That’s the national output lost, perhaps, forever, as Covid-19 cut the economy fiercer than a Samurai blade.

Just as misfortune conspires with bad luck during crises, several key metrics pounded each other into the ground leaving Asia’s third-largest economy in a quicksand with both demand and supply side contraction standing witness.

On the supply side, all but agriculture saw a de-growth with some like construction, manufacturing and services contracting indecently at 40-50%.

Demand side too mirrored this with investments shrinking 47%, while consumer spending saw a negative growth of 27%. Like in the past, government expenditure saved the day with 16.4% growth, but that’s an impolite increase given the pandemic and the sovereign’s role of riding to everyone’s rescue.

That said, excluding government spending, GDP would have contracted even worse by 30%. So that’s some solace.

In essence, just two life-sustaining arteries — agriculture and government spending  —pumped our economy.

As if that’s not disappointing, fiscal deficit data released separately showed that the government continued to pinch both revenue and capital spending. Whether this was anticipating lower tax receipts or fearing deficit scolds is unclear.

Almost every country is emptying its public purse to fight the pandemic-led downturn, but India’s fiscal deficit in July stood lower than June, reflecting overt caution against a debt binge.

Meanwhile, economists believe the latest data betrays the inferno inside as they expect revisions to toss shocking de-growth grenades later. Policy watcher Anil Sood offered some proof.

Take inventory, which should have seen depletion because production was shut for two months. Instead, it recorded a quarterly increase similar to last year at Rs  53,000 crore.

Ditto consumption spending, which Sood thinks could be sharper than what’s captured in Monday’s provisional estimates.

Interestingly, valuables — including high value purchases — saw an unmistakable decline indicating spending curbs not just by lower income households, but also by India’s burgeoisie and the super rich.

Moreover, given the unglamorous state of core sector data, chances are we are in a recession right now, though the official word will be out in November.

In nearly seven decades, we’ve seen only four years of negative growth, but economic pundits are entering heavy discussions not about recession, but when the worst will be behind us, so recovery can begin.

Chief economic adviser K V Subramanian signalled that India was experiencing a V-shaped recovery with high frequency indicators like rail freight and power consumption showing promise.

But even with some improvements in next three quarters, several believe the rate of FY21 contraction could be beyond -5%.

The choice for the government will be whether consumption or investment side needs to be pushed. Given the limited fiscal space economists believe a demand or consumption-led recovery is crucial for the economy, but that requires government measure to arrest job losses and increase disposable incomes.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday said that states and universities cannot promote students without holding final year exams by September 30.

Upholding the UGC decision to hold final year exams, a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said if any state feels they can’t conduct exams by that date, they must approach the UGC for new dates to hold the exam.

Yuva Sena, the youth wing of the Shiv Sena, is one of the petitioners in the apex court and has questioned the UGC’s directive to hold examinations amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The UGC had earlier said that the July 6 guidelines are based on recommendations of experts and have been made after due deliberation and it is wrong to claim that it will not be possible to conduct the final examinations in terms of the guidelines.

Assailing the decisions of some states like Maharashtra and Delhi to cancel final year examinations, the UGC had said that such decisions directly affect standards of higher education and will be an encroachment on the legislative field of coordinating and determining the standards of higher education that is exclusively reserved for Parliament under Schedule VII of the Constitution.

New Delhi: The government has permitted the airlines to serve pre-packed snacks, meals and beverages on domestic flights and hot meals on international flights, according to an official order.

Moreover, any passenger who refuses to wear a face mask in a flight can be put on the no-fly list by the airline, said a senior official of the aviation regulator DGCA.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, in-flight meal service was not permitted on domestic flights since their resumption on May 25. On international flights, only pre-packed cold meals and snacks were being served depending on the flight duration since May this year.

In an order issued on Thursday, the Civil Aviation Ministry said, “Airlines may serve pre-packed snacks/meals/pre-packed beverages on domestic flights depending on the duration of flight.”

Airlines and charter flight operators can “serve hot meals and limited beverages” on international flights “as per the standard practices”, it added.

The ministry said only single-use disposable trays, plates and cutlery should be used while serving food or beverages in domestic and international flights.

“Crew shall wear a fresh set of gloves for every meal/beverage service,” it noted.

The ministry also permitted the aircraft operators to let passengers use the in-flight entertainment system on international as well as domestic flights wherever available.

“Disposable earphones or cleaned and disinfected headphones will be provided to passengers at the start of the journey,” it noted.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said, “A passenger who refuses to wear a face mask can be put on no-fly list by the airline.”

The official said no new order has been passed in this regard as the airline and its cabin crew are sufficiently empowered under the existing DGCA rules to take action.

As per the DGCA rules, an airline can choose to put an unruly passenger on its no-fly list after internal deliberations. Subsequently, other airlines may follow suit in putting that passenger on their no-fly lists.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, special international flights have been operating under the ‘Vande Bharat Mission’ and bilateral air bubble arrangements that have been signed with various countries.

Domestic flights resumed in India on May 25 after a gap of two months in view of the pandemic. However, airlines are allowed to operate 45 per cent of their pre-COVID domestic flights.

New Delhi: Marking the sixth anniversary of the ‘Jan Dhan’ scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the initiative has been a “game-changer” and served as the foundation for many poverty alleviation initiatives.

After he led the BJP to power in 2014, this was one of his government’s first major projects under which bank accounts of crores of people, mostly poor, were opened.

“Today, six years ago, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana was launched with an ambitious aim of banking the unbanked. This initiative has been a game-changer, serving as the foundation for many poverty alleviation initiatives, benefitting crores of people,” the prime minister tweeted.

“Thanks to the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, the future of several families has become secure. A high proportion of beneficiaries are from rural areas and are women. I also applaud all those who have worked tirelessly to make PM-JDY a success. #6Years Of JanDhan Yojana,” he added.

The graphics shared by him showed that more than 40 crore bank accounts have been opened so far with more than 63 per cent of the beneficiaries belonging to rural areas. Over 55 per cent of them are women.

The government has said that it has been able to directly transfer welfare benefits to the needy due to the scheme.

New Delhi: A record single-day spike of 77,266 COVID-19 cases pushed India’s virus tally to 33,87,500, while the recoveries surged to 25,83,948 on Friday, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The death toll climbed to 61,529 with 1,057 people succumbing to the diseases in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The recovery rate was recorded at 76.28 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate has further declined to 1.82 per cent.

There are 7,42,023 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 21.90 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7 and went past 30 lakh on August 23.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 3,94,77,848 samples have been tested up to August 27 with 9,01,338 samples being tested on Thursday.