To tide over the economic distress caused due to the&nbsp;coronavirus-induced lockdown globally, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday stressed on the need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs.&nbsp;At a video conference of the foreign ministers of BRICS, Jaishankar said the bloc of Brazil Russia India&nbsp;China&nbsp; and South Africa had an important role to play in shaping global economic and political architecture.&nbsp;He&nbsp;emphasised&nbsp;that&nbsp;govts&nbsp;need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs, to tide over the crisis and ensure livelihoods are not lost.&nbsp;

To tide over the economic distress caused due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown globally, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday stressed on the need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs. At a video conference of the foreign ministers of BRICS, Jaishankar said the bloc of Brazil Russia India China and South Africa had an important role to play in shaping global economic and political architecture. He emphasised that govts need to provide support to businesses, especially MSMEs, to tide over the crisis and ensure livelihoods are not lost.

Public transport usage is likely to see a sharp fall over the next six months, while the use of personal vehicles is expected to surge, analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment shows. Before the lockdown as much as 37% of Delhi&rsquo;s commuter traffic was carried by the Metro. In the next six months, it is expected to fall to 16%. The use of private vehicles, on the other hand, will increase significantly, from 28% to as much as 38%.

659 of the 684 containment zones in Mumbai are in slums and chawls. These densely populated areas and small tenements, which house a population of 35 lakh, are crucial to Mumbai&rsquo;s fight against Covid-19, Hindustan Times has reported. Dharavi, the biggest slum cluster in Mumbai, has 11 containment zones, housing a population of close 2 lakh. Overall, more than 7-and-a-half lakh households and close to 36 lakh people in Mumbai, which is the worst affected city,&nbsp;are under containment zones.&nbsp;&nbsp;Small houses, common toilets and high population density lead to faster spread in slums and chawls, say civic officials. Home quarantining a positive patient is practically.

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The Supreme Court finally intervened to protect the interests of stranded migrant workers on Thursday. It issued a seven-point interim order that said it was the job of the state to provide them food and transport and that they cannot be charged for their travel. The court also asked the Union government a volley of questions on the logistics of ferrying workers back home on trains and buses, including the time they have to wait for transport
Public transport usage is likely to see a sharp fall over the next six months, while the use of personal vehicles is expected to surge, analysis by the Centre for Science and Environment shows. Before the lockdown as much as 37% of Delhi&rsquo;s commuter traffic was carried by the Metro. In the next six months, it is expected to fall to 16%. The use of private vehicles, on the other hand, will increase significantly, from 28% to as much as 38%.
With lockdown 4.0 drawing to an end on May 31, state governments are considering, if central guidelines allow, the imposition of restrictions only in the containment zones and allowing a range of activities elsewhere. These include opening more markets, enabling more inter-state transport facilities, allowing more commercial activity, and possibly even religious places with social distancing norms. They are also planning the eventual opening of schools in a month.

Three more employees of the office of Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal have tested positive for Covid-19. This comes a day after a junior assistant was found infected with the novel coronavirus. Reports quoting sources said that entire staff at the L-G office may undergo Covid-19 test in the next few days, since four cases of coronavirus infection have so far emerged at the L-G Secretariat.

Karnataka has requested the civil aviation ministry to reduce the number of incoming flights from five states - Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan - to contain the coronavirus infection in the state. The Karnataka government issued a clarification on Thursday evening, after earlier reports said that the state has asked for a complete ban on flights from these five states. Most of the fresh coronavirus cases in the state have been of people travelling in from other states or countries.

With the number of coronavirus cases crossing 1.6 lakh on Thursday, India is now the ninth worst-hit country by the deadly virus infection. The number of deaths has crossed China's official count, data from America's Johns Hopkins University showed. India has reported nearly double the number of cases in China at 84,106. India also surpassed China with as many as 4,711 deaths, compared to 4,638 by Thursday night, the data showed. The other countries with more cases than India are US, Brazil, Russia, UK, Spain, Italy, France and Germany.

Reiterating his offer to mediate on the border dispute between India and China, US President Donald Trump has said that he spoke with PM Narendra Modi about the "big conflict". Trump asserted that PM Modi is not in a "good mood" over the latest flare-ups between the two countries. Speaking with the reporters in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday, Trump said a "big conflict" was going on between India and China. "I like your prime minister a lot. He is a great gentleman," the president said. A day earlier, the president offered to mediate between India and China.
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The southwest monsoon is expected to reach the Kerala coast around June 1, the India Meteorological Department said on Thursday. The IMD changed its initial forecast, which had predicted monsoon could be delayed by a week due to Cyclone Amphan. The maximum temperatures are likely to recede from Thursday in north India, which is reeling under a severe heatwave. Temperatures north and central India have soared over 47 degrees celsius at a few places for the past four-five days.

India has effectively ruled out the US offer of mediation on the current standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava on Thursday said India is 'engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve' the current situation in response to a question on US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s offer to mediate between the two sides. The govt said India and China are engaged at both the military and diplomatic levels to peacefully resolve the matter, and that diplomatic channels are at work both in New Delhi and in Beijing. He added that there are at least five bilateral agreements between the two sides, to ensure of peace and tranquility in the border areas.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to all chief ministers on Thursday, and sought their views on extension of the ongoing nationwide lockdown beyond May 31.&nbsp;The telephonic conversations of the home minister came just three days before the end of the fourth phase of the lockdown. The nationwide curbs, which were first imposed on March 25 to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, and has been extended thrice.

The annual Amarnath Yatra, earlier curtailed on account of the coronavirus pandemic, will this year be held only for 15 days, say reports.&nbsp;Pilgrims will be allowed to travel to the holy shrine only from the Baltal route.&nbsp;The Amarnath Shrine Board has however said, a decision on the pilgrimage would be taken after a fresh review of the coronavirus situation in the near future.&nbsp;The 42-day-long yatra to the 3,880-metre-high cave shrine of Amarnath in south Kashmir Himalayas was scheduled to start from Pahalgam in Anantnag district and Baltal in Ganderbal district on June 23.

Delhi saw its highest single-day rise of 1024 fresh cases with its tally of confirmed cases rising to 16,281 and death toll to 316. This was the first time when Delhi reported over 1000&nbsp;Covid-19 cases in a single day. India's tally increased to 158,333 and the death toll to 4,531, registering a growth of 6,566 cases and 194 deaths in 24 hours. Over 6,000 fresh cases have been registered in India for the seventh straight day, while the recovery rate improved further to over 42 percent.

A lower court has pulled up the Delhi Police on its probe into the communal violence in northeast Delhi in February 2020. Additional Sessions Judge Dharmender Rana, during a hearing at the Patiala House Court, said, perusal of the case diary reveals a disturbing fact. The investigation seems to be targetted only towards one end. Upon inquiry, inspectors Lokesh and Anil, have failed to point out what investigation has been carried out so far regarding the involvement of the rival faction. The court made the observation during a hearing on the custody of Jamia Millia Islamia student Asif Iqbal Tanha, who was arrested by the police last week. The observation is extremely significant since a majority of the arrests made by the police in connection with the riots, are those who were part of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act. The &ldquo;rival faction&rdquo; therefore would be pro-CAA elements who may have taken part in the communal violence.

Around 97&nbsp;lakh migrants have been transported to their states since the special train service was started on May 1, the centre told the Supreme Court on Thursday. The top court had on Tuesday taken suo motu cognisance of the plight of the migrants and had said that there have been inadequacies and lapses on part of both central and the state governments. The central government said it would not stop its efforts or the train service "till even a single migrant remains".

Taking cognisance of the plight of migrant workers, the Supreme Court issued interim directions to centre, states, and UTs that need to be implemented immediately. The Court said:&nbsp; 1. No fare either by train or bus will be charged from migrant workers. Railways to share fare but no fare from migrants 2. All migrants who are stranded shall be provided food by the concerned state at places publicized and notified to them so that they can meet both ends.&nbsp; 3. The originating state should provide food and water and thereafter food should be given by railways. Post reaching, the state shall give transport, food and meals from stations to their villages. This is applicable to both camps on the way or buses. 4. States shall speed up registration of migrant workers and build help desks near places where they are stranded, where they would be asked to board buses or trains at an early date. Complete information needs to be publicized so that migrants are aware of the arrangements made for them. 5. The Court added, that whenever a migrant is found walking on the road they will be taken to the camps at the earliest and help them with facilities. The Apex Court will take up this matter next on June 5.

The Delhi government on Thursday issued an advisory on preventive measures to control a probable locust attack in the national capital. It called for organising awareness programmes for the public and farmers to prevent the attack of swarms of locusts in the national capital territory. It said that since the swarms usually fly during the day and rest at night, they should not be allowed to rest. The advisory asks concerned authorities to spray insecticide as needed. The locust swarms which first attacked Rajasthan have now spread to four other states - Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

The Karnataka&nbsp;govt has again suspended incoming transport from 5 neighbouring states to contain the&nbsp;coronavirus infection in the state. No flights, trains, or other vehicles will be allowed to come to the state from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The ban will be observed for 8-10 days before a review will be conducted. The state government took the decision after it turned out that most of the fresh coronavirus cases have been of people travelling in from other states or countries.

Briefing the media, Principal Scientific Advisor to the govt, Prof K. Vijay Raghavan said, 30 groups in the Indian industry and academia are working on developing the Covid-19 vaccine. He said, vaccines take 10-15 years to develop but India is trying to develop it in a year but for that, we need a parallel process. He added that when the vaccine is made it will not be a switch, everybody, from the youngest to oldest will need a vaccine. In a unique initiative, he said the AICTE and CSIR have embarked on a drug discovery hackathon, this is a high-end hackathon where students are trained with information on how to do computational drug discovery and those promising will be selected.

In what could blow up in the govt's face, the Centre seems to be admitting that it is not paying the 85% rail travel fare of migrant workers, something that union ministers have repeatedly told the public. After Supreme Court pulled up the Centre, asking who is paying for the transportation of migrant workers, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court on Thursday, that, either originating state pays their fare, or the receiving state. Mehta said originating state picks up migrant workers and gets them to railway stations, where they are screened, meals during their travel are provided by the railways free of cost. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press conference had said the union govt is bearing 85% of the train fare for migrant workers, while states were bearing the remaining 15%.

BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra has been admitted to a private hospital in Gurugram&nbsp;after he showed symptoms of COVID-19, according to reports.&nbsp;Patra is one of the most visible BJP faces on news channels and is very active on social media. Reports indicate that he has been admitted to Medanta&nbsp;hospital in Gurugram.&nbsp;

Need to support MSMEs: Jaishankar at BRICS meet

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Need to support MSMEs: Jaishankar at BRICS meet

Apr 29, 2020 00:14 IST

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