According to a Reuters report India&rsquo;s electricity use fell to the lowest in nearly five months on the first day of a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.&nbsp;National electricity demand fell to 2.78 billion units on March 25,&nbsp;which was&nbsp;the first day of the three-week total shutdown called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday.&nbsp;That was nearly 20 per cent below the average of 3.45 billion units per day in the first three weeks of March, a Reuters analysis of government data showed.&nbsp;

According to a Reuters report India’s electricity use fell to the lowest in nearly five months on the first day of a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. National electricity demand fell to 2.78 billion units on March 25, which was the first day of the three-week total shutdown called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Tuesday. That was nearly 20 per cent below the average of 3.45 billion units per day in the first three weeks of March, a Reuters analysis of government data showed.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday trained guns at the Modi govt over its handling of the Covid outbreak. Addressing a virtual press meet, Gandhi said that India is the only country where the virus is exponentially rising and we are removing the lockdown. He added that the aim and purpose of the lockdown has failed. India is facing the result of a failed lockdown. ((Byte))

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and NCP chief Sharad Pawar met on Monday evening amid reports of a rift within the ruling coalition over the handling of the coronavirus crisis. Pawar, reports suggest, has been unhappy at Thackeray's reluctance to end the lockdown and actively explore his suggestions. Confirming the meeting, Sena MP Sanjay Raut rubbished reports of any rift and insisted that govt was stable and strong. Pawar's meeting with state governor before meeting the CM on Monday also sent the political rumour mill abuzz.

A 24-year-old man was arrested on Monday for the murder of nine people in Telangana's Warangal district last week. The bodies of six from a family and three others were found in a well. The accused killed them to cover up the murder of a woman who went missing in March, police said. Sanjay Kumar Yadav, the accused, allegedly had an affair with the woman and murdered her on March 6. He then killed nine others, including six from the woman's family, after spiking their food with sleeping pills and then dumped the bodies in a well, police said.

Quarantine is for commoners not our netas. Union Minister Sadananda Gowda landed in Bengaluru on Monday and refused to quarantine himself, as is mandated by the Karnataka govt for every individual arriving in the state. Gowda justified it, saying that these rules apply to citizens but not to him, as he has important responsibilities. Soon after the Karnataka govt amended its quarantine order to exempt ministers and state officials engaged on Covid duties.

The rate of coronavirus infections has been increasing in the country, Hindustan Times has reported based on an in-house analysis. Over 6500 cases were reported on Tuesday taking the overall tally to over 1,45,000. Nearly 7,000 were reported on Monday. The infection has been steadily rising in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi due to which there has been an 11% increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the last 3 days. More than 76,000 cases have been reported in the last 2 weeks. Before this, it took 100 days for the infection to increase by 68,000.

Double whammy for Assam. Floods in the time of Covid-19. On Monday, even as Assam crossed&nbsp;the 500-mark in Covid cases, flash floods have hit at least 5 districts. More than 30,000 people are facing floods in the districts of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Darrang and Goalpara. 127 villages have been affected and 579 hectares&nbsp;of crop land is already under water, the government said. Goalpara is the worst affected district by the floods with close to 23,000 people in 89 villages affected.

Swarms of crop-munching desert locusts from Pakistan entered deeper into Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh over the weekend and are now close to the national capital. Officials have put farmers on high alert and deployed insecticide spraying devices through drones, SUVs and tractors. Locust invasions from Pakistan are common in parts of Rajasthan but this is the first time they have reached Jaipur, which is 700km from the border. Locusts can fly up to 150km in a day and a one-square-kilometre swarm can eat as much food as 35,000 people,

Here are the latest coronavirus&nbsp;updates from HT Epaper
Two months after India grounded domestic flights to halt the coronavirus spread, passenger jets took to the air again on Monday. But only half of the scheduled operations could resume amid widespread confusion over operations and reluctance by some states to allow inbound travellers. About half of the estimated 1,100 expected flights had to be cancelled as airlines reconciled with the varying public health rules of states.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Monday that home isolation was effective for Covid-19 patients with mild or no symptoms. The CM also tried to ease concerns about the adequacy of Delhi&rsquo;s hospital infrastructure to accommodate serious cases, as the city&rsquo;s coronavirus disease tally rose past 14,000.
((Page 5)) The Indian Council of Medical Research&rsquo;s (ICMR) has collected around 24,000 blood samples from 60 districts in 21 states for random testing. The cross-sectional sampling of adults will detect infection in the community by testing for the presence of antibodies against the virus that are found in the blood of people who have recovered from it.

The Indian Army has increased its presence in Uttarakhand following reports of a Chinese troop build-up in an area on their side of the LAC, The Indian Express has reported. In eastern Ladakh also the Army has inducted additional troops and has enhanced round-the-clock surveillance of the LAC through UAVs. The report added that the Army has also increased its presence along the boundary with China in Uttarakhand following reports that Chinese troops have been deployed in increased numbers in the Guldong sector.

Churu in Rajasthan recorded the highest temperature of the season at 47.5 degrees Celsius on Monday, followed by&nbsp;Prayagraj&nbsp;in Uttar Pradesh where the mercury soared to 47.1 degrees. In&nbsp;Delhi,&nbsp; Palam&nbsp;area recorded the highest temperature at 46.2 degrees Celsius. On Monday, the Meteorological Department had warned of heatwave conditions in Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, east Madhya Pradesh, and Vidarbha till May 28.&nbsp;It, however, emphasized that dust and thunderstorms will bring some to respite to northern India from the blistering heat on May 29 and 30.

An employee of the Rail Bhavan in Delhi tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Monday, leading to the closure of all offices of the Railways Ministry for the next two days. This is the second time in less than a fortnight that the Railways office will be shut.&nbsp;A fourth-grade multitasking staffer who attended office till last Tuesday is the fifth Covid-19 case detected in the building in less than two weeks.&nbsp;According to an official, what is of concern is that the multitasking staff is responsible for taking files from one official to another and&nbsp;come in contact with&nbsp;a lot of people throughout the day. These files can go to the chairman, Railway Board or even the railways minister.&nbsp;

The HRD Ministry is working with the NCERT on devising basic guidelines for reopening of schools, whenever it is greenlighted by the Home Ministry. The Indian Express has reported that older children of Classes 9, 10, 11, and 12 are expected to be back in schools first as they are better able to comply with rules on masks and social distancing. According to ministry officials, students in Classes 1 to 5, in the 6 to 10 years age group , are unlikely to go back to classrooms for the next three months, the report added.

The Rajasthan government has allowed taxis and auto rickshaws to operate in the red zones of the state. The state government has also lifted the ban on the sale of paan, gutkha and tobacco products while making it clear that spitting in public is still a punishable offence. Amending the lockdown 4.0 guidelines, the government allowed the use of taxis, including Ola and Uber, and auto rickshaws within the red zones on a condition that social distancing and sanitisation will be ensured.

China may have posted 5000 more soldiers along the disputed border in the Ladakh sector amid standoff with India, the Hindustan Times has reported. Indian and Chinese soldiers are eyeball-to-eyeball at four locations along the LAC. Several rounds of talks between local military commanders have failed to end the standoff. The latest crisis began with a violent confrontation between the patrol parties three weeks ago near Pangong Tso. China&rsquo;s state-run media has described the latest tensions as the worst since the 2017 Doklam standoff that lasted 73 days.

5-year-old Vihaan&nbsp;Sharma&nbsp;flew alone from Delhi as a 'special category' passenger&nbsp;and was received by his elated mother at the Bengaluru&nbsp;airport. Vihaan&nbsp;was at his grandparents house and returned home to Bengaluru&nbsp;after 3 months. But it wasn't a happy story for everyone who had booked a flight for the first day of resumption of domestic air travel. There was confusion and despair as many found out that their flights had been cancelled after reaching the airport. According to reports 630 flights were cancelled on Monday after Centre said that flights to Andhra&nbsp;and Bengal would resume later and also&nbsp;due to&nbsp;limited operations at major airports such as Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep&nbsp;Puri tweeted that&nbsp;532 flights flew with 39,231 passengers. The numbers are set to increase with Andhra Pradesh&nbsp;resuming&nbsp;operations from Tuesday and West Bengal from 28 May.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In more woes for the people travelling from Uttar Pradesh to Delhi, the Ghaziabad district administration on Monday once again decided to seal its borders with the national capital after witnessing a surge of 10 fresh cases of coronavirus in last 24 hours. The district administration in an order said a large chunk of these cases are linked to those who travel between Delhi and Ghaziabad.&nbsp; The district administration had earlier ordered to seal its border with the national capital on April 26.&nbsp;The administration said that the people employed in essential services will be allowed.&nbsp;&nbsp;

A political war of words between Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra CM&nbsp;Uddhav&nbsp;Thackeray&rsquo;s close aide Sanjay Raut panned out on twitter, with each of them taking pot shots at each other over the special trains for migrants.&nbsp;Raut took Goyal head on after he sought details from the state government&nbsp;to furnish passenger details like boarding stations, medical certificates, destination station. CM&nbsp;Uddhav&nbsp;Thackeray had said on Sunday that Centre&nbsp;had only provided 50% of the trains&nbsp;to shift migrants hope. Goyal&rsquo;s requisition&nbsp;fetched&nbsp;a response&nbsp;and also&nbsp;a jab from Raut, who reminded the railway minister of special train which was to reach Gorakhpur but had ended up in Odisha.&nbsp;Goyal&nbsp;then sent out a nocturnal tweet, claiming that&nbsp;he received a list of only for 46 trains&nbsp;instead of 125. Raut&nbsp;replied to this by asking the minister to state the efforts made the Railways to arrange trains and gather passengers.&nbsp;

The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Centre and the DGCA for booking middle seats on flights, saying that the govt should worry more about the health of citizens than airlines. It ordered Air India not to take advance bookings for the centre seats on international flights being run for Indians stranded abroad. A bench headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde asked the govt why it deemed social distancing norms was not necessary on flights when it has insisted on maintaining six feet distance in all guidelines. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who was appearing for both DGCA and Air India, argued that keeping the middle seats vacant served no purpose as the flights have air circulation, and said the best practice was increased testing and quarantine, and not a vacant middle seat.

Uttar&nbsp;Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath&nbsp;on Sunday said that states will have to seek permission from his government before hiring workers from Uttar Pradesh. Battling with the migrant crisis, the Yogi government laid down some measures to safeguard social security for migrant labourers in the future. Unhappy with the treatment meted out to migrants from UP, Yogi said that states will have to guarantee insurance and security for workers and seek his government&rsquo;s clearance before hiring. A migrant commission will be created to see that workers are not exploited. Thousands of migrant workers returning to the state because of the Covid-19 lockdown has created pressure on the govt to ensure social and monetary safeguards. Though the UP govt was the first to send buses to bring back stranded students and workers, the delay in arranging transportation forced thousands to walk back home.

BJP leader Manoj Tiwari&nbsp;was seen violating the national&nbsp;lockdown and flouting social distancing norms to play cricket in Haryana. The state chief of the Delhi&nbsp;BJP&nbsp;visited Sheikhpura Unique Cricket Stadium in Sonipat without any facial covering. Taking to twitter, Tiwari was a good sport as he wished everyone a strong immunity but in pictures he can be seen risking his immunity and health, entertaining a small crowd with his song &lsquo;Rinkiya ke Papa&rsquo;.&nbsp; With 1,184 Covid-19 cases in the state, Haryana like the rest of the country is following the mandatory social distancing norms to slow the spread of the virus.

Day 1 of lockdown: India’s electricity demand fell to 5-month low

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Day 1 of lockdown: India’s electricity demand fell to 5-month low

Mar 27, 2020 19:05 IST

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