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Coronavirus Outbreak LIVE Updates: Positive results of plasma therapy on four COVID-19 patients, says Arvind Kejriwal; infected to be shifted to private wards

12:37 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Updates

US-Based Franklin Templeton shuts six India funds due to illiquidity

Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Thursday announced it would wind up six yield-oriented, managed credit funds in India, effective April 23, citing severe market dislocation and illiquidity caused by the coronavirus.

"The decision has been taken in order to protect value for investors via a managed sale of the portfolio," the Fund said in a statement.

The decision was limited to funds which have "material direct exposure to the higher yielding, lower-rated credit securities in India that have been most impacted by the ongoing liquidity crisis in the market," the statement said.

12:27 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates

Nagpur reports 100 COVID-19 cases

The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nagpur climbed to 100 after two more individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the district on Friday, said Civil Surgeon, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

12:19 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Plasma theory to be conducted on two-three COVID-19 patients in Delhi today

We are happy with the positive results of plasma theory in four COVID-19 patients. Blood and plasma is ready for two-three other patients that we have at LNJP hospital, we may give them the plasma therapy on FFriday, said Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver & Biliary Science.

12:16 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Four COVID-19 patients shifted to private wards from ICU: Arvind Kejriwal

The four COVID-19 patients who were earlier admitted in the ICU with serious conditions, have now been shifted to private wards after being treated with plasma therapy, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday.

Their conditions are stable now, said Kejriwal.

12:12 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Plasma theory conducted on four COVID-19 patients till now: Arvind Kejriwal

The plasma therapy has been conducted on four COVID-19 patients in the last few days at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday.

"Till now the results are encouraging," said Kejriwal.

12:10 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Nine RPF personnel test COVID-19 positive in Bengal and Odisha

Nine Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff, part of a 26-member team that had been to New Delhi from Kharagpur division in West Bengal, have tested positive for for the noevl coronavirus.

The nine included a 32-year-old constable posted at Balasore in Odisha. He is undergoing treatment at Ashwini COVID Hospital at Cuttack.

12:00 (IST)

Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh Latest Updates

13 madrasa students, contacts of infected Tablighi Jamaat members, test positive in Kanpur

As many as 13 madrasa students, who had come in contact with Tablighi Jamaat members suffering from coronavirus, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Kanpur, a senior health official said on Friday.

So far, the city in Uttar Pradesh has reported 107 confirmed cases.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Ashok Shukla said, "50 samples were tested on Thursday of which results of 13 have come positive. They are the students of a madrasa in Coolie Bazaar, a hotspot zone, from where about 30 people have already tested positive."

11:55 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Update

Maharashtra confirms 293 COVID-19 deaths, 6,427 confirmed cases

With 778 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Maharashtra, the total number of confirmed cases in the state rose to 6,427 on Friday. The state health department said that 14 more deaths were reported, bringing the toll to 283.

11:48 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Centre should come out with health insurance scheme for scribes, says Union minister

Expressing concern over a large number of journalists in Mumbai testing positive for COVID-19, Union minister Pratap Sarangi on Friday urged the Centre to introduce a health insurance scheme for scribes covering the pandemic, in line with the one for frontline health workers.

In the last few weeks, several journalists in Chennai, Bhopal and other places have also tested positive, Sarangi said in a letter to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar.

"This unfortunate development has adversely affected the spirit of our fearless journalists for whom this is the worst and most dangerous kind of occupational hazard," said Sarangi, the Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises.

11:41 (IST)

Coronavirus in Pakistan Latest Update

Pakistan's cases rise to 11,155; 79% cases locally transmitted

About 79 percent of the total coronavirus cases in Pakistan are now locally transmitted, health authorities said on Friday as the number of people affected by the deadly virus rose to over 11,000.

According to the Ministry of National Health Services, 13 more patients died due to the novel coronavirus, taking the toll to 237, and another 2,527 recovered.

In the last 24 hours, 642 new cases were reported, taking the tally to 11,155 in the country, health officials said on Friday.

Punjab reported 4,767 patients, Sindh 3,671, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,541, Balochistan 607, Gilgit-Baltistan 300, Islamabad 214, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 55 patients.

11:32 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Saumitra Yojana will help property issues

Prime Minister Narendra on Friday while launching the new app said that now there is no need for varied applications as the E-Gram Swaraj app will help people get the latest information on various issues at one platform, which will ensure transparency and will help record-keeping. Completion of projects will be faster, he says.

Through the Saumitra Yojana, drone mapping of each property in a village will be done and property papers will also be made available to the residents, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. This will help solve disputes and aid loan-taking, he added.

11:25 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Pandemic calls for self-dependency, says PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday while interacting with sarpanches said that the coronavirus pandemic has given the world a new message — "Coronavirus's biggest message is making people learn the path of self-dependency. We cannot fight such epidemics without being self-reliant. Villages should at their level become self-reliant, so should zillas."

The Coronavirus pandemic has taught that we have to become self-dependent: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during interaction with Sarpanchs from across the nation via video conferencing. #PanchayatiRajDiwas pic.twitter.com/ydWhD9vyGh

— ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020

11:21 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Ensure non-COVID-19 patients get proper medical care, says Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court has said it is imperative that the Union government and the authorities in Maharashtra find an "effective solution" to ensure 'non-COVID- 19' patients are not denied medical treatment at a time when the focus is on fighting the coronavirus outbreak.

Justice KR Sriram made the observation on Thursday while hearing three different petitions highlighting the plight of people suffering from several chronic or serious ailments, who the pleas said, are being turned away from clinics and hospitals.

The petitions also highlight issues such as lack of adequate facilities and medical infrastructure in the state, municipal-run, and private hospitals in current times.

The judge said the authorities must take a serious note of the issues and directed the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file a reply to the pleas by 29 April.

11:15 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal and a mobile application, on the occasion of "Panchayati Raj Diwas'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal and a mobile application, on the occasion of #PanchayatiRajDiwas pic.twitter.com/ADgj15Adum

— ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020

11:12 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

JUST IN: Narendra Modi begins meeting with sarpanchs on coronavirus

11:03 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Update

Mumbai estimated to have 70,000 cases by 15 May, warns BMC

After the Union Health Ministry's projections that Mumbai would have 6.50 lakh, COVID-19 patients, by 15 May, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) own estimates say that positive cases could reach 60,000 to 70,000 by mid-May, reports Mid-day.

Keeping in mind these projections, BMC is on an overdrive to set up at least 3,000 COVID-care beds for patients with moderate to severe symptoms of the viral infection, which is about 5 percent of the projected caseload, reports Times of India.

10:49 (IST)

Coronavirus in Gujarat Latest Update

Surat hospital shuts down after 14 staffers test positive

After 14 staff members including a resident medical officer, 12 nurses, and a computer operator tested positive for COVID-19 in the last few days, the 550-bed Kiran Super Multispeciality Hospital in Surat has been temporarily shut down till 1 May, reports Indian Express.

Surat is the second worst-hit city in Gujarat by COVID-19 after Ahmedabad. Vadodara follows Surat in the list of highly-affected COVID-19 cities in the state.

10:44 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Update

Sensex tumbles over 500 pts in early trade; Nifty slips below 9,200

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 500 points in early trade on Friday dragged by losses in banking and IT stocks amid weak cues from global markets. After hitting a low of 31,278.27, the 30-share index was trading 534.23 points or 1.68 percent down at 31,328.85.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 129.35 points, or 1.39 percent, to 9,184.55.

Bajaj Finance was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding up to 5 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC twins, SBI, Infosys and TCS. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, L&T, ONGC and HCL Tech were among the gainers.

Follow LIVE Updates on Stock Market here

10:38 (IST)

Coronavirus in US Latest Update

COVID-19 has pushed US unemployment toward highest since Depression

Unemployment in the US is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus, according to new data released Thursday.

In response to the deepening economic crisis, the House passed a nearly USD 500 billion spending package to help buckled businesses and hospitals.

More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported. In all, roughly 26 million people the population of the 10 biggest US cities combined have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks, an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to ease the shutdowns of factories and other businesses.

In the hardest-hit corner of the US, evidence emerged that perhaps 2.7 million New York state residents have been infected by the virus 10 times the number confirmed by lab tests.

10:37 (IST)

Coronavirus in Assam Latest Updates

Assam govt sends officials to evacuate 350 stranded students in Kota

The Assam government has sent a team of officials and police personnel to evacuate over 350 students stranded in Kota after requests from families in the state and the government of Rajasthan, NDTV reported.

They will be brought back by road to Guwahati from Kota via Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

10:31 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Kejriwal to address media on results of plasma therapy used in Delhi at 12 pm

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will address media at 12 pm regarding the initial positive results of the use of plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients, ANI reported.

Plasma therapy has been applied in the treatment of a COVID-19 positive patient, admitted to a Delhi hospital on Tuesday for the first time in India.

The patient, who underwent convalescent plasma therapy at Max Hospital in Delhi’s Saket, has responded well to the treatment, the hospital had said in a statement.

10:25 (IST)

Coronavirus in Bihar Latest Updates

Bihar reports 176 COVID-19 cases, two deaths

Six new coronavirus cases were reported in Bihar, according to data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday. This brings the total reported cases of coronavirus in Bihar to 176, said Sanjay Kumar, State Health Principal Secretary.

Among the total people infected, 46 have recovered while two lives were claimed by the infectious disease.

10:06 (IST)

Coronavirus in Rajasthan Latest Updates

36 new COVID-19 cases emerge in Rajasthan taking confirmed cases to 2,000

Rajasthan reported 36 fresh coronavirus cases taking the total number confirmed cases in the state to 2,000, ANI reported. Of the new cases, 18 were reported in Kota, 13 in Jaipur, four in Jhalawar and one in Bharatpur, said the Rajasthan Health Department.

09:50 (IST)

Coronavirus in Kerala Latest Updates

Recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in Kerala at 70.48%

With an additional 10 COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, the total positive cases in Kerala stood at 447, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The state reported three coronavirus-related deaths so far.

While the recovery rate in the state was at 70.48% with 324 COVID-19 patients being cured.

09:38 (IST)

Coronavirus in Karnataka Latest Updates

Two of 121 held for attack against health workers contract COVID-19 in Padrayanpura

Of the 121 people arrested for violence against health workers in Bengaluru, two have contracted the novel coronavirus in Padrayanpura ward in the city on Friday. Both of them who were lodged at Ramanagara jail have now been shifted to Victoria hospital in Bengaluru.

The remaining 119 accused have been shifted to the city, ANI reported.

09:31 (IST)

Coronavirus in Kerala Latest Updates

Four-month-old dies of COVID-19 in Malappuram

A four-month-old died of the novel coronavirus in Kerala's Malappuram city after he tested positive for the infectious disease on Thursday. The infant succumbed to the virus on Friday morning at Kozhikode medical college.

"The child was undergoing treatment for heart-related problems for past three months and had pneumonia," said the Malappuram District Medical Officer.

09:25 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Updates

Modi to interact with sarpanchs at 11 am

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with sarpanchs from across the nation via video conferencing at 11 am on Friday. All of them will be able to join this interaction through Doordarshan, from their respective homes adhering to social distancing norms.

Those sarpanchs who will be sharing their views with Modi will be doing so by joining the interaction at a Common Service Centre close to them.

09:07 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Updates

India confirms 23,077 COVID-19 cases with 718 deaths, recovery rate at 20.58%

India's coronavirus cases rose to 23,077 with 1,684 fresh cases, and the overall toll reached 718 with 37 new deaths on Thursday, according to the recent Union Health Ministry data.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 17,610 as 4,749 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 20.58 percent of the cases have recovered so far.

08:56 (IST)

Coronavirus in Karnataka Latest Updates

Bengaluru lakes appear clearer as dumping of industrial wastage stops

Staying indoors and decreased industrial activities have led to the visible difference in the amount of garbage thrown in the lakes of Bengaluru. Bellandur lake, known for frothing and foaming, showed a slight change in terms of garbage dumping and the water looked clearer.

However, the lake marshalls contradicted because the damage to the water bodies has been done over several years.

#IndiaFightsCOVID19 – Bengaluru’s frothing lake appears a bit clean due to the lockdown. CNN-News18’s @RevathiRajeevan brings a ground report from Bellandur Lake, Bengaluru.#StayHome pic.twitter.com/zPIr228XlF

— CNNNews18 (@CNNnews18) April 24, 2020

08:47 (IST)

Coronavirus in United States Latest Updates

US registers over 3,000 deaths in past 24 hrs

The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 50,000 people in the United States, after one of the deadliest days of the pandemic on Thursday which saw 3,176 deaths in 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The deaths were recorded in the 24 hours up to 8.30 pm on Thursday, bringing the overall coronavirus toll in the US to 49,759, according to the Baltimore-based university.

The US, the worst-hit country in the world, now has 866,646 confirmed cases of coronavirus.

08:39 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Updates

Kamakhya temple to call off Ambubachi Mela in view of COVID-19

The management committee of Maa Kamakhya Devalaya has, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, decided not to hold the annual Ambubachi Mela in June this year.

"Only traditional rituals associated with the festival will be performed. Pilgrims will not be allowed to visit the Kamakhya temple or stay on the temple premises," a statement by the temple management committee issued in Guwahati on Thursday, said.

The committee has also notified residents of the areas near the temple atop Nilachal Hills not to let out their houses for the festival to visitors and pilgrims.

08:34 (IST)

Coronavirus in United States Latest Updates

Donald Trump calls for phased reopening of US economy

US President Donald Trump has favoured safe and phased reopening of the American economy, which has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 50,000 people and infected over eight lakh in a matter of few months.

More than 95 percent of the country's 330 million people are under stay-at-home order as a result of the social mitigation measures including social distancing being enforced till 1 May.

08:14 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates

Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad tests positive for COVID-19

Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The senior NCP leader and prominent Maharashtra cabinet minister had admitted himself to a private hospital in Thane for a precautionary check-up.

The minister had recently gone into self-isolation after some aides and security personnel were found to be COVID-19 positive. He had quarantined himself from 13 April, after 16 people close to him came positive including bodyguards and cook.

08:06 (IST)

Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates

In Photos: People at Byculla vegtable market buy supplies

Maharashtra: People make purchases at Byculla vegetable market in Mumbai, amid #CoronavirusLockdown. pic.twitter.com/ctxw4dOEhL

— ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020

08:04 (IST)

Coronavirus in Tripura Latest Updates

Tripura becomes COVID-19 free after second patient tests negative: CM

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday said the state has become coronavirus- free after its second COVID-19 patient tested negative for the virus.

"UPDATE! The second coronavirus patient of Tripura has been found negative after consecutive tests. Hence our state has become COVID-free. I request everyone to maintain social distancing and follow government guidelines. Stay home stay safe,” the chief minister tweeted.

Tripura now has 111 coronavirus suspected cases under surveillance and 227 others have been placed under home quarantine.

07:59 (IST)

Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates

Customers gather at Okhla vegetable market to buy supplies for Ramzan

In view of Ramzan, which begins on Saturday, many gather at Okhla vegetable market in Delhi on Friday to buy supplies to avoid venturing out during Islam's holiest month without further spreading the coronavirus outbreak.

A customer at the market said, "I've come here to buy one week's supply of vegetables as Ramzan begins from Saturday. It's advised not to venture out to the markets many times due to coronavirus."

Delhi: Few customers at Okhla vegetable market during the extended lockdown period. A customer at the market says, "I've come here to buy one week's supply of vegetables as Ramzan begins from tomorrow. It's advised not to venture out to the markets many times due to coronavirus". pic.twitter.com/DFYb6XT1zV

— ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020

07:50 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates

Sunlight, temp above 35 degrees can kill COVID-19 in 30 seconds: US Official

Sun light, heat and humidity can create conditions that are less favourable for the spread of coronavirus, a public health official of the Trump Administration has said.

The results of a just concluded scientific study conducted by the Science and Technology Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security, announced during a White House news conference on coronavirus, could be good news for India in its fight against COVID-19.

"Coronavirus dies at a much more rapid pace when exposed to sunlight and humidity. The virus dies the quickest in direct sunlight. Isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds," Bill Bryan, the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology told White House reporters in the presence of President Donald Trump.

07:44 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates

ICJ to function during COVID-19 pandemic, will hold meets via video conference

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, on Thursday released a press release saying that it would continue to function despite the containment measures put in place around the world to curb the fast-spreading coronavirus.

With the help of modern technologies, the world court has made the necessary arrangements to hold virtual meetings via video conference during the pandemic. On Wednesday, it held the first virtual plenary meeting in its history.

07:29 (IST)

Coronavirus in India Latest Updates

India registers 21,700 COVID-19 cases, toll nears 700

India's coronavirus cases rose to 21,700 with 1,229 fresh cases, and the overall toll neared 700 with 34 new deaths on Thursday. The Union health ministry, meanwhile, said that it has been able to "cut coronavirus transmission", minimise its spread and increase the doubling time of cases in the duration of the nationwide lockdown.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 16,689 as 4,324 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 19.93 percent of the cases have recovered so far. The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals.

Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: The four COVID-19 patients who were earlier admitted in the ICU with serious conditions, have now been shifted to private wards after being treated with plasma therapy, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday.

Their conditions are stable now, said Kejriwal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday while interacting with sarpanches said that the coronavirus pandemic has given the world a new message: 'Coronavirus's biggest message is making people learn the path of self-dependency. We cannot fight such epidemics without being self-reliant. Villages should at their level become self-reliant, so should zillas.'

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will address media at 12 pm regarding the initial positive results of the use of plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients, ANI reported.

Plasma therapy has been applied in the treatment of a COVID-19 positive patient, admitted to a Delhi hospital on Tuesday for the first time in India.

While the recovery rate in the state was at 70.48% with 324 COVID-19 patients being cured.

"The child was undergoing treatment for heart-related problems for past three months and had pneumonia," said the Malappuram District Medical Officer.

India's coronavirus cases rose to 23,077 with 1,684 fresh cases, and the overall toll reached 718 with 37 new deaths on Thursday, according to the recent Union Health Ministry data.

Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday said the state has become coronavirus- free after its second COVID-19 patient tested negative for the virus.

Tripura now has 111 coronavirus suspected cases under surveillance and 227 others have been placed under home quarantine.

AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Thursday said that it was "important to reach out to patients who are missing out of treatment because of the stigma and panic", adding, "It is important to encourage more and more people to get tested, get treated."

"...It (stigma) is actually causing increase in morbidity and mortality. Because of the stigma that is happening many patients who have COVID-19 or flu like symptoms are not coming to health care facilities," he added.

Representational image. AP

He also said that at various centres, "we've started using convalescent plasma that is the blood of COVID-19 patients who have recovered. A large number of patients who have become alright have come forward and volunteered to donate their blood."

Centre says no exponential growth in COVID-19 cases so far

In its press briefing on Thursday, the Union health ministry asserted that the growth of coronavirus cases in the country has been more or less linear and not exponential, and added that testing has been ramped up consistently.

CK Mishra, the chairman of Empowered Group Two, said, "One crucial weapon we employed during the 30-day lockdown period is RT-PCR test to ascertain if one has contracted the disease or not."

As on 23 March, nearly 15,000 tests were done across the country and by 22 April more than 5 lakh tests were conducted, which is about "33 times in 30 days", he said, adding, "But we are conscious of the fact that this is not enough and we have to continuously ramp up testing in the country and we will do that."

Of the empowered groups formed to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce misery of people once the lockdown is lifted, Mishra is the chairman of Empowered Group Two tasked with coordinating availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance, testing and critical care training.

"The growth of COVID-19 cases has been more or less linear, not exponential; this indicates that the strategies we adopted have succeeded in containing the infection to a particular level. Post imposition of lockdown, while the number of new positive cases has increased by 16 times, testing increased by 24 times," Mishra said in his presentation.

Mishra also said that in the last month, the number of dedicated hospitals for treating coronavirus patients has been increased 3.5 times and the number of isolation beds rose by 3.6 times.

"Despite a 24-fold increase in testing, the percentage of positive cases is not rising. The percentage of positive cases as a ratio of testing is more or less the same as that a month ago," he said.

Mishra also claimed that India has done better than a majority of developed countries with respect to the percentage of test cases yielding positive results.

Maharashtra, Gujarat worst-affected states

Coronavirus cases have spiked in Gujarat, and the rising infections in the state have become a new cause for major concern. Just five days ago, Gujarat was at number six, with Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh — apart from Maharashtra — having more confirmed cases.

As of Thursday night, 217 more cases were reported in Gujarat, taking the total number to 2,624 in the state, and Maharashtra reported a jump of 778 new cases, taking the total to 6,427.

A total of 34 deaths were reported since Wednesday evening of which 18 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, eight from Gujarat, three from Andhra Pradesh, two from Rajasthan and one each from Delhi, Telengana and Madhya Pradesh.

Of the 686 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 269 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 103, Madhya Pradesh at 81, Delhi at 48, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh at 27 each and Telengana at 24.

The death toll reached 21 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Tamil Nadu while Karantaka has reported 17 cases. Punjab has registered 16 deaths while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each.

Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data.

However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Thursday showed 21,673 cases and 689 deaths in the country.

There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states.

According to the 5 pm update on the health ministry's official website, Delhi recorded 2,248 cases, Rajasthan was at 1,890, Madhya Pradesh at 1,695 and Tamil Nadu at 1,629.

The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,509 in Uttar Pradesh, 960 in Telangana and 895 in Andhra Pradesh. The number of cases has risen to 456 in West Bengal, 443 in Karnataka, 438 in Kerala, 407 in Jammu and Kashmir, 277 in Punjab and 262 in Haryana.

Bihar has reported 148 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 83 cases. Forty-nine people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 46 in Uttarakhand. Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases, Chhattisgarh has 36, while Assam has registered 35 infections so far.

Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, Ladakh 18, while 17 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 cases each. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each.

"Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. States wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said.

Uddhav Thackeray says govt's focus is to reduce mortality rate

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said that his government's focus was to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients and increase the period during which the number of positive cases double.

He made the remarks during his video-conference interaction with the members of two central teams that toured Mumbai and Pune cities, the two coronavirus hotspots in the state.

The teams took a review of the medical machinery, implementation of the lockdown measures and social distancing, safety of health workers and situation of labourers in shelter camps, supply of essential goods, among other things.

A statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that Thackeray told the teams that reducing the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients and increasing the period of doubling of positive cases were his government's focus.

At present, the period of doubling of patients in the state is seven days, which has to be increased to more than 10 days, Thackeray told the teams. He asked the state administration to take into consideration all the suggestions made by the central teams.

US sees record levels of unemployment

Unemployment in the US swelled to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with one in six American workers thrown out of a job because of the coronavirus.

More than 4.4 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, the US government said on Thursday.

In all, roughly 26 million people — more than the population of the six biggest US cities combined — have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks, an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to lift the state-ordered stay-at-home restrictions that have closed factories and other businesses from coast to coast.

Meanwhile, some countries — including Greece, Bangladesh and Malaysia — announced extensions of their lockdowns. Vietnam, New Zealand and Croatia were among those moving to end or ease such measures.

In Africa, COVID-19 cases rose 43 percent in the past week, up from 16,000 to 26,000 cases, according to John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures underscored a recent warning from the World Health Organization that the virus could kill more than 3,00,000 people in Africa and push 30 million into desperate poverty.

Huge lines have formed at food banks from El Paso, Texas, to the Paris suburbs, and food shortages are hitting Africa especially hard.

The European Union has pledged 20 billion euros to help vulnerable communities globally. EU leaders scheduled a virtual summit on Thursday to take stock of the damage the crisis has inflicted on the bloc’s own citizens and to work out an economic rescue plan.

The coronavirus has killed over 1,84,000 people worldwide, including about 47,000 in the United States, according to a tally compiled by John Hopkins University from official government figures. The true numbers are almost certainly far higher.

With inputs from agencies

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thewebofslime · 6 years ago

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DEFENSE TECH STARTUP FOUNDED BY TRUMP’S MOST PROMINENT SILICON VALLEY SUPPORTERS WINS SECRETIVE MILITARY AI CONTRACT Lee Fang March 9 2019, 5:00 a.m. In partnership with A STARTUP FOUNDED by a young and outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump is among the latest tech companies to quietly win a contract with the Pentagon as part of Project Maven, the secretive initiative to rapidly leverage artificial intelligence technology from the private sector for military purposes. Anduril Industries is the latest venture of Palmer Luckey, the 26-year-old entrepreneur best known for having founded the virtual reality firm Oculus Rift. Luckey began work on Project Maven last year, along with efforts to support the Defense Department’s newly formed Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, according to documents viewed by The Intercept. The previously unreported Project Maven contract could be a boon for Anduril’s bottom line. Founded in 2017, the company has said it seeks to remake the defense contracting industry by incorporating the latest innovations of Silicon Valley into warfighting technology. Last year, Google’s involvement with Project Maven stirred a controversy inside the tech giant. The company had signed a contract with the Defense Department to develop artificial intelligence that could interpret video images in order to improve drone targeting. But after the contract’s disclosure sparked an internal rebellion among employees, Google allowed its contract to expire. The Google flap and the wider military drive to adopt commercial artificial intelligence technology unleashed a fierce debate among tech companies about their role in society and ethics around advanced computing. Anduril Industries is developing virtual reality technology using Lattice, a product the firm offers that uses ground- and autonomous helicopter drone-based sensors to provide a three-dimensional view of terrain. The technology is designed to provide a virtual view of the front lines to soldiers, including the ability to identify potential targets and direct unmanned military vehicles into combat. The first phase of the research has been completed, according to the documents reviewed by The Intercept, with initial plans to deploy virtual reality battlefield-management systems for the war in Afghanistan. (Anduril and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.) “We’re deployed at several military bases. We’re deployed in multiple spots along the U.S. border. We’re deployed around some other infrastructure I can’t talk about.” Luckey dropped hints about Anduril’s involvement in the project last November in Lisbon, Portugal, at the Web Summit, a technology conference. “We’re deployed at several military bases. We’re deployed in multiple spots along the U.S. border,” Luckey said, cryptically adding: “We’re deployed around some other infrastructure I can’t talk about.” He also discussed how he hoped the military would apply Anduril’s technology. “What we’re working on is taking data from lots of different sensors, putting it into an AI-powered sensor fusion platform so that you can build a perfect 3D model of everything that’s going on in a large area,” Luckey said. “Then we take that data and run predictive analytics on it, and tag everything with metadata, find what’s relevant, then push it to people who are out in the field.” “Practically speaking, in the future, I think soldiers are going to be superheroes who have the power of perfect omniscience over their area of operations, where they know where every enemy is, every friend is, every asset is,” he said. Luckey said he thinks it is “unlikely” that soldiers of the future will directly carry weapons in the field; instead, they would remotely operate machines and weapons from far away. Anduril previously garnered attention for its efforts to help U.S. Customs and Border Protection create a “virtual wall” at the U.S.-Mexico border. The initial 10-week demonstration used Anduril’s Lattice technology to monitor a stretch of land along the Rio Grande Valley. The system reportedly helped the government identify and apprehend 55 unauthorized individuals crossing the border. The company has also publicly acknowledged work to develop perimeter defense monitoring around two U.S. Marine bases. Anduril’s pitch deck, the presentation it provided to solicit investors, imagines a future of warfighting by means that might look like science fiction to the average observer. The company is pushing battlefield management technology capable of utilizing long-range bombers and swarms of military attack drones. The firm has reportedly rented a warehouse in Oakland, California, to develop at least one remote-control tank, designed for fighting California wildfires. Palmer Luckey, founder of Anduril Industries, smiles during the Wall Street Journal D.Live global technology conference in Laguna Beach, Calif., on Nov. 12, 2018. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images A Defense Contractor in Flip Flops Palmer Luckey stands out among other defense industry executives. In contrast to the buttoned-down image of executives at Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman, he typically appears in public wearing flip-flops and a partially unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. And he stands out in other ways: Unlike other tech industry leaders, Luckey is unabashedly partisan. Being an avowed supporter of the Republican Party has made him a lightning rod in Silicon Valley. In contrast to the buttoned-down image of executives at Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman, Palmer Luckey typically appears in public wearing flip-flops and a partially unbuttoned Hawaiian shirt. The son of car salesman, Luckey was homeschooled by his mother in Long Beach, California. He got his start by parlaying his passion for tinkering with video game-optimized home computers into a virtual reality business. Using funds raised on Kickstarter, Luckey developed a new model for virtual reality headsets at age 17. Four years later, he sold Oculus Rift to Facebook for over $2 billion, earning him an estimated fortune of around $700 million. During the 2016 election, Luckey posted on pro-Trump forums on Reddit, encouraging community members to develop memes critical of Hillary Clinton. He donated $10,000 to a group called Nimble America, which paid for a billboard stating that Clinton was “Too Big to Jail.” Amid the ensuing controversy, Palmer lost his job at Facebook, which has adamantly denied that he was let go over his political views. According to the Wall Street Journal, however, Palmer retained an employment lawyer and negotiated a $100 million payout corresponding to bonuses and stock options that he would have had if he had stayed on at Facebook. In a detailed profile of Anduril, Wired magazine reported that Luckey was first inspired to develop a military technology company through an event hosted by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, another Silicon Valley conservative. At a 2016 retreat in Canada, Luckey met Trae Stephens, a former intelligence official who works at Thiel’s venture capital firm, Founders Fund. The pair bonded over an interest in reshaping defense contracting using the incentives and structures of the tech startup scene. Stephens had previously worked at Palantir, the secretive data-crunching company backed by Thiel, which is known for its work on behalf of spy agencies and the military. (Both Palantir and Anduril are references to the classic fantasy trilogy “Lord of the Rings”; Anduril is the unbreakable sword used by one of the series’s protagonists.) Thiel’s high-profile support for Trump during the 2016 election gave him influence with the new administration. Stephens, the Thiel deputy, was appointed to the group on Trump’s transition team that dealt with the new administration’s move into the Defense Department. By March 2017, Luckey had left Facebook and was ready to work with Stephens on launching a new company focused on weapons systems. The Military-Tech Complex Anduril needed talent, political connections, and an injection of capital. Enter the Founders Fund, Thiel’s venture capital firm. Several Palantir alumni quickly joined up. Stephens came on as Anduril’s chair and another Founders Fund partner provided seed funding. Other executives followed suit, including Brian Schimpf, the former director of engineering at Palantir, who now serves as chief executive at Anduril. The timing of Anduril’s founding was fortuitous in many ways. Under the Obama administration, the government had begun massive efforts to swiftly incorporate commercial technology into its security efforts. In 2015, both the Department of Homeland Security and the Defense Department opened satellite offices in Silicon Valley as beachheads to coordinate partnerships with the private sector. The Defense Department opened a Defense Innovation Unit office in Mountain View, California, where Google is based. And the Homeland Security opened its Silicon Valley Innovation Program in Menlo Park, California. In 2017, as part of an initiative that had begun the previous year, the Defense Department also unveiled the Algorithmic Warfare Cross-Functional Team, known as Project Maven, to harness the latest artificial intelligence research into battlefield technology, starting with a project to improve image recognition for drones operating in the Middle East. This wave of outreach from the government provided a unique entry point for Anduril, which partnered with the Department of Homeland Security’s satellite office to successfully pitch its test project for the virtual wall. As Luckey recently explained to Defense and Aerospace Report, a trade publication, he also worked closely with the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, crediting its former director, Raj Shah, with making his company possible. The Defense Innovation Unit, said Luckey, proved “that people in Silicon Valley could actually get stuff into production, actually do work with the government.” He added, “I don’t think that I would have started this company if it wasn’t for the work of people like Raj Shah doing great work and proving that you actually could get into it.” Lobbying and Political Donations Building out major government contracts is an inherently political endeavor — something that appears not to be lost on Luckey. Publicly filed lobbying disclosures show that Anduril paid $290,000 last year to Invariant, a lobbying firm founded by Heather Podesta, a Democratic fundraiser known for her extensive relationships in Washington, D.C., including with Hillary Clinton. The lobbying effort focused on shaping the border security appropriations issued by Congress, as well as on educating lawmakers on “artificial intelligence and autonomous systems and their application to military force protection,” according to the filings. Luckey donated $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration through a company he founded and gave over $670,000 to congressional Republican campaign funds over the last two years. Luckey also opened his wallet to the powers that be in Congress and the White House. He donated $100,000 to Trump’s inauguration through a company he founded and gave over $670,000 to congressional Republican campaign funds over the last two years. Rep. Will Hurd, R-Texas, a former CIA agent turned moderate border-district lawmaker, received a $2,700 donation. Hurd worked to help Anduril find a volunteer land owner to test its sensor technology along the border, according to Wired. Hurd later sponsored legislation to finance a virtual border wall likely using Anduril’s technology. Among his political largesse, Luckey donated to political action committees supporting Trump, the senior lawmakers on the defense and appropriations committees, and a number of controversial conservative lawmakers, including Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, who has defended white supremacy and questioned the contributions of nonwhite people to society. In previous interviews, Luckey has sharply criticized traditional defense contracting, noting that the iPhone and other commercial technology innovations were developed with massive incentives, rather than the “cost-plus” model preferred by the Pentagon. That approach has seen the Defense Department negotiate with contractors to provide a fixed price for expenses and profits, one that, in Luckey’s telling, has limited the military’s ability to encourage the kind of breakthrough technologies needed for the future of war. In a white paper filed with the Defense Department’s National AI Strategic Plan last year, Anduril urged officials to consider the ambitious approach by the government in China with regard to AI technology. China, an Anduril employee wrote in the paper, has provided a “multibillion-dollar national investment initiative to support ‘moonshot’ projects, start-ups and academic research in A.I.” Even as it seeks to shake up the model for contracts, though, Anduril is also embracing the traditional approach. In November, the company announced its first major revolving-door hire. Anduril brought on Christian Brose, a former top staffer with the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees defense spending, as its head of strategy. Brose formerly worked under the late Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and served as a speechwriter to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Two months later, Anduril formally joined the National Armaments Consortium, a nonprofit that facilitates bids by traditional defense contracting firms for business with the military. Scott Sanders, head of operations for Anduril Industries, prepares a Lattice Modular Heli-Drone for a test flight at the Red Beach training area, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2018. Photo: Cpl. Dylan Chagnon/U.S. Marine Corps No “Digital Geneva Convention” As the military worked to bring in leading Silicon Valley firms as contractors, the resulting relationships have sparked massive resistance from workers, many of whom have argued that they became engineers to make the world a better place, not a more violent one. After the The Intercept and other media outlets revealed that Google had been quietly tapped to work on Project Maven, applying its AI technology to help analysts identify drone targets on the battlefield, thousands of workers protested the contract. The uprising led Google to announce that it would not renew its contract with the military on the initiative. Microsoft, too, faced internal opposition as the company prepared work on a $480 million contract with the Army to develop augmented reality headsets for soldiers. The ethical debates that have rocked large technology companies — Amazon, Salesforce, and others have similarly faced worker protests over contracts on immigration enforcement — have presented Anduril with an opportunity. Despite the various protests around Silicon Valley, Anduril’s brash attitude has not prevented it from recruiting top engineering talent. In its white paper filed with the Defense Department’s National AI Strategic Plan last year, Anduril boasted that it has recruited engineers from top tech firms like General Atomics, SpaceX, Tesla, and Google. In an opinion column for the Washington Post, Luckey and Stephens sharply criticized Google for abandoning the U.S. government by rejecting Project Maven. “We understand that tech workers want to build things used to help, not harm,” the pair wrote. “We feel the same way. But ostracizing the U.S. military could have the opposite effect of what these protesters intend: If tech companies want to promote peace, they should stand with, not against, the United States’ defense community.” What was left out of the column, however, was that, as the piece went to print, Anduril was beginning its own work on Project Maven. In Anduril, Luckey is presenting a company that is unapologetic about its work capturing immigrants or killing people on the battlefield. In interviews and public appearances, Luckey slammed engineers for protesting government work, arguing that those claiming conscious opposition to military work are among a “vocal minority” that empowers American adversaries abroad. Moreover, he said that the Defense Department has failed to connect with top tech talent because many engineers are “stuck in Silicon Valley at companies that don’t want to work on national security.” In Anduril, Luckey is presenting a company that is unapologetic about its work capturing immigrants or killing people on the battlefield. The U.S., Luckey argued in a previous interviews, “has a really strong record of protecting human rights” and should be trusted to use AI without any ethical constraints. “The biggest threats are not going to be Western democracies abusing these technologies,” he told the audience at the Web Summit in Lisbon. The real enemies are China and Russia, both of which have invested in AI military technology. China is not only investing in AI, but has unfair advantages to develop the technology using its entire population as a data training set through use of mass surveillance to run experiments. In contrast, Luckey told Defense and Aerospace Report, the U.S. can train its AI software “in industry, in enterprise, in national security.” The U.S., Luckey went on, could test AI “using our current military advantage to train future AI developments and we need to start using our current military advantage.” He called for employing these technologies in ongoing “large-scale conflicts” around the world. Asked in Lisbon about a digital Geneva Convention or another ethical rulebook to govern the use of AI weaponry, Luckey was forthright in his rejection of the idea. “That’s not really going to solve the problem,” he said. “I have no hopes that a digital Geneva Convention, whatever it will be, will prevent China from using surveillance tools to watch every citizen in their country. I have very little confidence that it will prevent Russia from building autonomous systems that can acquire and fire on targets without any kind of human intervention whatsoever.” Join Our Newsletter Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I’m in Ethics experts have criticized the development of AI-based weapons, noting that the lethal autonomous weapons could be hijacked by hackers, kill without clear explanation, or lead to catastrophic accidental conflict if weapons are used as escalation in response to an incident that appears to be an act of war. Moreover, as humans are removed from face-to-face combat, the dehumanization of lethal decisions could lead to more killing. Luckey hasn’t proffered any direct answers to the questions being raised over the use of artificial intelligence in warfighting. Anduril, however, has stated that it will not sell to Russia or China, but would be willing to sell its products to U.S. allies. A request for comment about whether the company would sell to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or other undemocratic U.S. allies was not returned. Among the many Palantir alumni who joined Anduril, one name sticks out to those concerned with abuse of civil liberties and human rights. In May of last year, the firm hired former Palantir executive Matthew Steckman. Steckman took a lead role in the HBGary Federal scandal in 2011. In the scandal, a cache of hacked emails showed that Palantir and two other defense contractors had cooked up a plot to spy on journalists, trade unions, and activists on behalf of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest pro-business lobby in America. The plot included hacking target computers and using social media analysis to monitor the behaviors of a large set of left-leaning figures and journalists viewed as sympathetic to Wikileaks, including The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald. In negotiations with the Chamber’s law firm, Steckman wrote at the time that he and another Palantir executive were “spearheading this from the Palantir side.” After the plan was revealed, Palantir briefly placed Steckman on leave. He is now at work as head of corporate and government affairs at Anduril. One thing is clear: Luckey wants to win — in every way imaginable. The U.S.’s goal, Luckey said at the Web Summit, should be dominance and beating other foreign adversaries to control the best artificial intelligence technology. “You have to be the leader,” he said. “Technological superiority is a prerequisite for ethical superiority.” Nick Surgey contributed research.

#TheWebOfSlime

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fmservers · 6 years ago

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Why can’t we build anything? (Part 2)

One of the major themes we are working on these days at the Extra Crunch Daily is trying to understand why America and many other Western nations can’t seem to build infrastructure anymore. The answers are complicated but critical: our infrastructure is decrepit, climate change is intensifying, and population growth will put even more strain on existing facilities.

In our first part in this series, we wrote about a book entitled Politics across the Hudson, which was written by Phil Plotch. He formerly headed the redevelopment of the World Trade Center following 9/11 and is now a professor finishing up a book on the travails of the Second Avenue subway slated for publication later this year.

We interviewed Plotch this week to get more details on what causes delays and cost overruns in infrastructure, and these are some of the most interesting highlights of our conversation:

Misinformation is a huge challenge at all levels of infrastructure planning. “People at the bottom don’t understand what is happening at the top, and the people at the top don’t understand what is happening at the bottom,” Plotch said. A cost increase that might be relatively cheap to handle immediately won’t be reported since it might piss off politicians whose support is critical for a project.

That type of purposeful misinformation is a huge problem at the Federal Transit Administration, which administers funds for mass transit across the country. Many of the funds are competitive, and “when there is competition, there is a lot more … gamesmanship,” Plotch said. Cities will overstate benefits and understate costs in the hope of winning funding from the federal government. “The FTA figured this out and Congress figured this out so they put in this whole bureaucracy to review the benefits,” he said. “They are trying to do the right thing … but it just slows down the process.”

Plotch uses a term called “vaportrain” (the locomotive version of vaporware) to describe many American infrastructure projects. Politicians want to demonstrate their bold and entrepreneurial risk-taking on infrastructure, but are daunted by the time and expense required. So they study things. Regarding the Tappan Zee bridge replacement, which is the focus of his book, Plotch wanted to ask “why was the state studying the same thing over and over again? … It wasn’t until I talked to three governors that I realized what was going on.” The issue was that a train over the bridge was widely popular but expensive, so it “just got studied year after year … it was easier to study something than actually cancelling it.”

Another challenge is scope creep, which should be familiar to any software engineer. While working at the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, Plotch worked to draft a plan to connect a train from lower Manhattan to JFK Airport in Queens. When he reached out to a Congressman in Queens for federal sponsorship, “he came back and said he wanted 5%.” What he meant was “5% to be invested into his community in some shape.” Plotch analogized it as “they see it like a Christmas tree with a whole bunch of ornaments on it, and they want to add their ornaments to it as well.”

A better model for infrastructure today is to focus on minimal operable segments. The idea is that, instead of planning an entire route such as California’s SF to LA high-speed rail line, try to identify more limited routes that can be built efficiently and get to operation as quickly as possible. It’s the equivalent of an MVP in startuplandia, except that the MVP here often costs billions of dollars.

Wicked problems are policy challenges that are “difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize” in the Wikipedia definition. In infrastructure, Plotch said that wicked problems are often just problems of realistically assessing what is possible given constraints. When it came to the Second Avenue subway, “by overpromising they tied themselves up” for years, and with no progress to show for it.

France’s new high speed rail trains will do everything but cure cancer

Video still courtesy of Alstom

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Continuing discussions on infrastructure, French national rail operator SNCF launched its new high-speed train that it will be rolling out through 2023. The new model will be faster, more spacious, consume 20% less energy, and perhaps most importantly, will cost 20% less than the SNCF’s current model. In addition to being more profitable and efficient from a ridership perspective, the new model offers up a cost-efficient solution to actually save money while reducing emissions as the climate change fight seems to grow more dire daily. The launch is the latest in France’s broader expansion of its high-speed rail network and shores up the national rail operator’s economics before the country begins allowing companies to provide competing service in 2021.

India’s overlooked SaaS startups

Image by jayk7 via Getty Images

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Earlier this week, Extra Crunch spoke with The Billionaire Raj author James Crabtree about the hurdles India has to overcome in order to reach the same magnitude of tech relevance as China or the US. The discussion called our attention back to a feature in the Times of India last month focused on the rapidly growing SaaS ecosystem in Chennai and greater India. The piece explains how the strength of India’s SaaS startups often gets overlooked in favor of the country’s more brand name consumer unicorns, despite raking in massive revenues and rapidly gaining share in the global SaaS market.

Chennai alone is home to multiple billion dollar companies including Freshworks and Zoho and has brought in more than half a billion in venture capital. One of the main takeaways of the piece was that much of the sector’s growth can be attributed to the city’s growing talent pool which in part flows out of its comprehensive university system and engineering think tanks.

Yet talent has also now become one of the largest limitations to the growth of the ecosystem, as India struggles to bring in foreign expertise to help propel it through its next phase of expansion:

“If only we could also make it attractive for global talent from anywhere in the world to work in Chennai or elsewhere [in India], a lot of challenges can be solved better,” says Chargebee’s [Krish] Subramanian.

India’s SaaS sector is an interesting candidate for examination. On a global level, the ecosystem is yet another example of how talent can make or a break a country’s entrepreneurial future, as we’ve discussed several times in regards to immigration. On a national level, India’s SaaS community seems to mimic a broader dynamic in India’s tech industry, where critical structural impediments stand in the country’s path to becoming a dominant innovation economy.

India’s founders are losing trust in VCs?

Alessandro Di Ciommo/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Written by Arman Tabatabai

Indian financial publication Mint published a detailed walkthrough of the country’s long history of rocky founder-investor relationships. The story explains how the shaky track record has led to a fundamental distrust between new Indian entrepreneurs and VCs, as founders have become increasingly skeptical, combative, and demanding of venture capitalists.

The piece frames the trend largely through Indian rideshare giant Ola’s ongoing tussle with SoftBank, following public reports about Ola’s determination to avoid additional SoftBank’s money.

Investor battles in India’s tech scene seem poised to only become more frequent. Having now seen billion dollar companies, exits, and success stories, India’s more knowledgable and experienced entrepreneurial community no longer views venture capital as a blessing and feels it has the leverage to demand better terms and more control.

And as founders and alumni from the many successful Indian companies that have had less than peachy investor relationships — such as Flipkart, Snapdeal or Ola — reinvest time, money and knowledge back into the ecosystem, the negative bias towards investors has the potential to get recycled through the entrepreneur community.

There is a clear lack of trust between India’s startup and venture communities, which ultimately threatens the sustainability and growth outlook of the country’s tech sector.

But a solution to the problem is not so cut and dry. Mega growth funds like SoftBank and Tiger Global have given limited control to their Indian portfolio companies and have forced their hands on numerous occasions. Yet Ola’s avoidance of SoftBank has led to lower valuations and more difficult and lengthier fundraising processes.

According to Mint, other potential investors have even shied away from writing checks due to the sheer fact that there’s no chance for a future SoftBank mark-up or cash injection. As more and more companies surpass the billion dollar valuation mark, the avenues for capital become more limited, which often means terms are pushed in favor of investors. Ola is taking a hard stance for control over capital but it’s unclear what impact that will have if and when it no longer has the luxury to do so. In either case, the tradeoffs that come with megafund capital is something more and more growth stage companies will have to consider if they want to follow the trend of staying private for longer.

Obsessions

We have a bit of a theme around emerging markets, macroeconomics, and the next set of users to join the internet.

More discussion of megaprojects, infrastructure, and “why can’t we build things”

Thanks

To every member of Extra Crunch: thank you. You allow us to get off the ad-laden media churn conveyor belt and spend quality time on amazing ideas, people, and companies. If I can ever be of assistance, hit reply, or send an email to [email protected].

This newsletter is written with the assistance of Arman Tabatabai from New York

Via Danny Crichton https://techcrunch.com

#TechCrunch

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moonwalkertrance · 7 years ago

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President Trump on Saturday took fresh aim on Twitter at the “wacky” Florida congresswoman who criticized him over a military condolence call, stoking a controversy that has dogged his presidency for nearly a week, with many questions still unanswered.

The president’s tweet was the latest volley in a White House effort to discredit Rep. Frederica S. Wilson (D-Fla.), a friend of the family of one of four service members killed in an ambush in Niger. And it came on the day that hundreds of people streamed to a church in suburban Fort Lauderdale for the funeral of the soldier, Sgt. La David Johnson.

(Myeshia Johnson, widow of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, who was among four special forces soldiers killed in Niger, sits with her daughter, Ah'Leeysa Johnson and son Le David Johnson Jr. at a graveside service in Hollywood, Fla., on Saturday. )

“I hope the Fake News Media keeps talking about Wacky Congresswoman Wilson in that she, as a representative, is killing the Democrat Party!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The tweet capped off a week that began with Trump falsely claiming that past presidents didn’t call Gold Star families and that he called the families of “virtually everybody” killed in action during his presidency.

On Saturday, the White House declined to spell out how many families Trump had actually called, though administration officials have acknowledged that he did not personally phone all of the more than 20 personnel who have been killed in hostile actions.

Roll Call reported Friday that Trump’s comment in a radio interview about calling “virtually everyone” sent White House aides scrambling to gather an up-to-date list of those who had been killed, aware of the fact that Trump had overstated his claim.

Citing an internal Defense Department email, the report said that the executive secretary to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis provided the White House with information about how each service member had died and contact information for his or her survivors.

“The White House ensured that the President had contacted all families of soldiers killed in action that had been presented to him through existing protocols,” deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said in a statement Saturday.

Earlier in the week, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders suggested that some families might not have been contacted yet because of the time required to complete those protocols. Aides also acknowledged that not every “contact” was a phone call from the president.

The controversy over Trump’s handling of condolence calls has largely overshadowed Trump’s legislative agenda, including his promise to deliver “massive” tax cuts.

In a separate tweet Saturday morning, Trump complained that the mainstream media had not done enough to cover the passage of a budget by the U.S. Senate, a move that will make it possible for a tax-cut package to be approved without Democratic support.

Within the hour, however, he started tweeting about the condolence controversy.

Besides the attack on Wilson, Trump retweeted the message of a Twitter user who suggested that the media was focusing so heavily on the congresswoman to deflect attention from a story Trump has said is undercovered: the purchase of U.S. uranium mines by a Russian-backed company in 2010.

The agreement was reached while Hillary Clinton led the State Department, and some investors in the company had relationships with former president Bill Clinton and donated to the Clinton Foundation.

“People get what is going on!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Those tweets came a day after a video emerged showing that White House chief of staff John F. Kelley had made false claims about Wilson.

Kelly was highly critical of Wilson for listening in on Trump’s call to the widow of Johnson and also for her role in a 2015 dedication ceremony for a federal building that was named for two slain FBI agents.

Speaking to reporters Thursday in the White House briefing room, Kelly said he had been “stunned” to hear Wilson claim credit at the ceremony for securing the funding for the building.

[Video shows Kelly made inaccurate claims about lawmaker in feud over Trump’s condolence call]

A video of her speech at the ceremony showed Wilson did not take credit for securing the money. She instead spent about two minutes of a nine-minute speech recalling the effort that she led in Congress to name the building for the agents, whom she praised effusively in her remarks.

On Friday, Sanders stood by Kelly’s comments and cautioned a reporter that it would be “highly inappropriate” to get into a debate with “a four-star Marine general” over whether he misstated facts.

During interviews Friday, Wilson accused Kelly of lying about her.

“He can’t just go on TV and lie on me,” she said on CNN. “I was not even in Congress in 2009 when the money for the building was secured.”

In an interview with Fox Business Network taped Friday, Trump accused Wilson of debasing Kelly by suggesting that the chief of staff had defended the president at Trump’s insistence, to keep his job.

“When she made that statement, I thought it was sickening, actually,” Trump said. He added that Kelly is “doing an incredible job” and said the general, who had listened in on his call with Johnson, was “offended” that Wilson would make it public.

#Donald Trump #Frederica S. Wilson #La David Johnson #Politics #Trump Lies #Trump Insults #Vindictive #Spiteful

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brajeshupadhyay · 5 years ago

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12:37 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Updates US-Based Franklin Templeton shuts six India funds due to illiquidity Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund on Thursday announced it would wind up six yield-oriented, managed credit funds in India, effective April 23, citing severe market dislocation and illiquidity caused by the coronavirus. "The decision has been taken in order to protect value for investors via a managed sale of the portfolio," the Fund said in a statement. The decision was limited to funds which have "material direct exposure to the higher yielding, lower-rated credit securities in India that have been most impacted by the ongoing liquidity crisis in the market," the statement said. 12:27 (IST) Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates Nagpur reports 100 COVID-19 cases The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Nagpur climbed to 100 after two more individuals tested positive for COVID-19 in the district on Friday, said Civil Surgeon, Nagpur, Maharashtra. 12:19 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Plasma theory to be conducted on two-three COVID-19 patients in Delhi today We are happy with the positive results of plasma theory in four COVID-19 patients. Blood and plasma is ready for two-three other patients that we have at LNJP hospital, we may give them the plasma therapy on FFriday, said Dr SK Sarin, Director, Institute of Liver & Biliary Science. 12:16 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Four COVID-19 patients shifted to private wards from ICU: Arvind Kejriwal The four COVID-19 patients who were earlier admitted in the ICU with serious conditions, have now been shifted to private wards after being treated with plasma therapy, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday. Their conditions are stable now, said Kejriwal. 12:12 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Plasma theory conducted on four COVID-19 patients till now: Arvind Kejriwal The plasma therapy has been conducted on four COVID-19 patients in the last few days at Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday. "Till now the results are encouraging," said Kejriwal. 12:10 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Nine RPF personnel test COVID-19 positive in Bengal and Odisha Nine Railway Protection Force (RPF) staff, part of a 26-member team that had been to New Delhi from Kharagpur division in West Bengal, have tested positive for for the noevl coronavirus. The nine included a 32-year-old constable posted at Balasore in Odisha. He is undergoing treatment at Ashwini COVID Hospital at Cuttack. 12:00 (IST) Coronavirus in Uttar Pradesh Latest Updates 13 madrasa students, contacts of infected Tablighi Jamaat members, test positive in Kanpur As many as 13 madrasa students, who had come in contact with Tablighi Jamaat members suffering from coronavirus, have tested positive for COVID-19 in Kanpur, a senior health official said on Friday. So far, the city in Uttar Pradesh has reported 107 confirmed cases. Chief Medical Officer Dr Ashok Shukla said, "50 samples were tested on Thursday of which results of 13 have come positive. They are the students of a madrasa in Coolie Bazaar, a hotspot zone, from where about 30 people have already tested positive." 11:55 (IST) Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Update Maharashtra confirms 293 COVID-19 deaths, 6,427 confirmed cases With 778 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Maharashtra, the total number of confirmed cases in the state rose to 6,427 on Friday. The state health department said that 14 more deaths were reported, bringing the toll to 283. 11:48 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Centre should come out with health insurance scheme for scribes, says Union minister Expressing concern over a large number of journalists in Mumbai testing positive for COVID-19, Union minister Pratap Sarangi on Friday urged the Centre to introduce a health insurance scheme for scribes covering the pandemic, in line with the one for frontline health workers. In the last few weeks, several journalists in Chennai, Bhopal and other places have also tested positive, Sarangi said in a letter to Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. "This unfortunate development has adversely affected the spirit of our fearless journalists for whom this is the worst and most dangerous kind of occupational hazard," said Sarangi, the Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises. 11:41 (IST) Coronavirus in Pakistan Latest Update Pakistan's cases rise to 11,155; 79% cases locally transmitted About 79 percent of the total coronavirus cases in Pakistan are now locally transmitted, health authorities said on Friday as the number of people affected by the deadly virus rose to over 11,000. According to the Ministry of National Health Services, 13 more patients died due to the novel coronavirus, taking the toll to 237, and another 2,527 recovered. In the last 24 hours, 642 new cases were reported, taking the tally to 11,155 in the country, health officials said on Friday. Punjab reported 4,767 patients, Sindh 3,671, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa 1,541, Balochistan 607, Gilgit-Baltistan 300, Islamabad 214, and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir 55 patients. 11:32 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Saumitra Yojana will help property issues Prime Minister Narendra on Friday while launching the new app said that now there is no need for varied applications as the E-Gram Swaraj app will help people get the latest information on various issues at one platform, which will ensure transparency and will help record-keeping. Completion of projects will be faster, he says. Through the Saumitra Yojana, drone mapping of each property in a village will be done and property papers will also be made available to the residents, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. This will help solve disputes and aid loan-taking, he added. 11:25 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Pandemic calls for self-dependency, says PM Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday while interacting with sarpanches said that the coronavirus pandemic has given the world a new message — "Coronavirus's biggest message is making people learn the path of self-dependency. We cannot fight such epidemics without being self-reliant. Villages should at their level become self-reliant, so should zillas." The Coronavirus pandemic has taught that we have to become self-dependent: Prime Minister Narendra Modi during interaction with Sarpanchs from across the nation via video conferencing. #PanchayatiRajDiwas pic.twitter.com/ydWhD9vyGh — ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020 11:21 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Ensure non-COVID-19 patients get proper medical care, says Bombay HC The Bombay High Court has said it is imperative that the Union government and the authorities in Maharashtra find an "effective solution" to ensure 'non-COVID- 19' patients are not denied medical treatment at a time when the focus is on fighting the coronavirus outbreak. Justice KR Sriram made the observation on Thursday while hearing three different petitions highlighting the plight of people suffering from several chronic or serious ailments, who the pleas said, are being turned away from clinics and hospitals. The petitions also highlight issues such as lack of adequate facilities and medical infrastructure in the state, municipal-run, and private hospitals in current times. The judge said the authorities must take a serious note of the issues and directed the Maharashtra government and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file a reply to the pleas by 29 April. 11:15 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal and a mobile application, on the occasion of "Panchayati Raj Diwas' Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates e-GramSwaraj portal and a mobile application, on the occasion of #PanchayatiRajDiwas pic.twitter.com/ADgj15Adum — ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020 11:12 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update JUST IN: Narendra Modi begins meeting with sarpanchs on coronavirus 11:03 (IST) Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Update Mumbai estimated to have 70,000 cases by 15 May, warns BMC After the Union Health Ministry's projections that Mumbai would have 6.50 lakh, COVID-19 patients, by 15 May, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) own estimates say that positive cases could reach 60,000 to 70,000 by mid-May, reports Mid-day. Keeping in mind these projections, BMC is on an overdrive to set up at least 3,000 COVID-care beds for patients with moderate to severe symptoms of the viral infection, which is about 5 percent of the projected caseload, reports Times of India. 10:49 (IST) Coronavirus in Gujarat Latest Update Surat hospital shuts down after 14 staffers test positive After 14 staff members including a resident medical officer, 12 nurses, and a computer operator tested positive for COVID-19 in the last few days, the 550-bed Kiran Super Multispeciality Hospital in Surat has been temporarily shut down till 1 May, reports Indian Express. Surat is the second worst-hit city in Gujarat by COVID-19 after Ahmedabad. Vadodara follows Surat in the list of highly-affected COVID-19 cities in the state. 10:44 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Update Sensex tumbles over 500 pts in early trade; Nifty slips below 9,200 Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 500 points in early trade on Friday dragged by losses in banking and IT stocks amid weak cues from global markets. After hitting a low of 31,278.27, the 30-share index was trading 534.23 points or 1.68 percent down at 31,328.85. Similarly, the NSE Nifty declined 129.35 points, or 1.39 percent, to 9,184.55. Bajaj Finance was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, shedding up to 5 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank, HDFC twins, SBI, Infosys and TCS. On the other hand, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, L&T, ONGC and HCL Tech were among the gainers. Follow LIVE Updates on Stock Market here 10:38 (IST) Coronavirus in US Latest Update COVID-19 has pushed US unemployment toward highest since Depression Unemployment in the US is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus, according to new data released Thursday. In response to the deepening economic crisis, the House passed a nearly USD 500 billion spending package to help buckled businesses and hospitals. More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported. In all, roughly 26 million people the population of the 10 biggest US cities combined have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks, an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to ease the shutdowns of factories and other businesses. In the hardest-hit corner of the US, evidence emerged that perhaps 2.7 million New York state residents have been infected by the virus 10 times the number confirmed by lab tests. 10:37 (IST) Coronavirus in Assam Latest Updates Assam govt sends officials to evacuate 350 stranded students in Kota The Assam government has sent a team of officials and police personnel to evacuate over 350 students stranded in Kota after requests from families in the state and the government of Rajasthan, NDTV reported. They will be brought back by road to Guwahati from Kota via Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 10:31 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Kejriwal to address media on results of plasma therapy used in Delhi at 12 pm Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will address media at 12 pm regarding the initial positive results of the use of plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients, ANI reported. Plasma therapy has been applied in the treatment of a COVID-19 positive patient, admitted to a Delhi hospital on Tuesday for the first time in India. The patient, who underwent convalescent plasma therapy at Max Hospital in Delhi’s Saket, has responded well to the treatment, the hospital had said in a statement. 10:25 (IST) Coronavirus in Bihar Latest Updates Bihar reports 176 COVID-19 cases, two deaths Six new coronavirus cases were reported in Bihar, according to data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday. This brings the total reported cases of coronavirus in Bihar to 176, said Sanjay Kumar, State Health Principal Secretary. Among the total people infected, 46 have recovered while two lives were claimed by the infectious disease. 10:06 (IST) Coronavirus in Rajasthan Latest Updates 36 new COVID-19 cases emerge in Rajasthan taking confirmed cases to 2,000 Rajasthan reported 36 fresh coronavirus cases taking the total number confirmed cases in the state to 2,000, ANI reported. Of the new cases, 18 were reported in Kota, 13 in Jaipur, four in Jhalawar and one in Bharatpur, said the Rajasthan Health Department. 09:50 (IST) Coronavirus in Kerala Latest Updates Recovery rate of COVID-19 patients in Kerala at 70.48% With an additional 10 COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, the total positive cases in Kerala stood at 447, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The state reported three coronavirus-related deaths so far. While the recovery rate in the state was at 70.48% with 324 COVID-19 patients being cured. 09:38 (IST) Coronavirus in Karnataka Latest Updates Two of 121 held for attack against health workers contract COVID-19 in Padrayanpura Of the 121 people arrested for violence against health workers in Bengaluru, two have contracted the novel coronavirus in Padrayanpura ward in the city on Friday. Both of them who were lodged at Ramanagara jail have now been shifted to Victoria hospital in Bengaluru. The remaining 119 accused have been shifted to the city, ANI reported. 09:31 (IST) Coronavirus in Kerala Latest Updates Four-month-old dies of COVID-19 in Malappuram A four-month-old died of the novel coronavirus in Kerala's Malappuram city after he tested positive for the infectious disease on Thursday. The infant succumbed to the virus on Friday morning at Kozhikode medical college. "The child was undergoing treatment for heart-related problems for past three months and had pneumonia," said the Malappuram District Medical Officer. 09:25 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Updates Modi to interact with sarpanchs at 11 am Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with sarpanchs from across the nation via video conferencing at 11 am on Friday. All of them will be able to join this interaction through Doordarshan, from their respective homes adhering to social distancing norms. Those sarpanchs who will be sharing their views with Modi will be doing so by joining the interaction at a Common Service Centre close to them. 09:07 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Updates India confirms 23,077 COVID-19 cases with 718 deaths, recovery rate at 20.58% India's coronavirus cases rose to 23,077 with 1,684 fresh cases, and the overall toll reached 718 with 37 new deaths on Thursday, according to the recent Union Health Ministry data. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 17,610 as 4,749 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 20.58 percent of the cases have recovered so far. 08:56 (IST) Coronavirus in Karnataka Latest Updates Bengaluru lakes appear clearer as dumping of industrial wastage stops Staying indoors and decreased industrial activities have led to the visible difference in the amount of garbage thrown in the lakes of Bengaluru. Bellandur lake, known for frothing and foaming, showed a slight change in terms of garbage dumping and the water looked clearer. However, the lake marshalls contradicted because the damage to the water bodies has been done over several years. #IndiaFightsCOVID19 – Bengaluru’s frothing lake appears a bit clean due to the lockdown. CNN-News18’s @RevathiRajeevan brings a ground report from Bellandur Lake, Bengaluru.#StayHome pic.twitter.com/zPIr228XlF — CNNNews18 (@CNNnews18) April 24, 2020 08:47 (IST) Coronavirus in United States Latest Updates US registers over 3,000 deaths in past 24 hrs The novel coronavirus has killed nearly 50,000 people in the United States, after one of the deadliest days of the pandemic on Thursday which saw 3,176 deaths in 24 hours, according to Johns Hopkins University. The deaths were recorded in the 24 hours up to 8.30 pm on Thursday, bringing the overall coronavirus toll in the US to 49,759, according to the Baltimore-based university. The US, the worst-hit country in the world, now has 866,646 confirmed cases of coronavirus. 08:39 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Updates Kamakhya temple to call off Ambubachi Mela in view of COVID-19 The management committee of Maa Kamakhya Devalaya has, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic, decided not to hold the annual Ambubachi Mela in June this year. "Only traditional rituals associated with the festival will be performed. Pilgrims will not be allowed to visit the Kamakhya temple or stay on the temple premises," a statement by the temple management committee issued in Guwahati on Thursday, said. The committee has also notified residents of the areas near the temple atop Nilachal Hills not to let out their houses for the festival to visitors and pilgrims. 08:34 (IST) Coronavirus in United States Latest Updates Donald Trump calls for phased reopening of US economy US President Donald Trump has favoured safe and phased reopening of the American economy, which has been devastated by the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 50,000 people and infected over eight lakh in a matter of few months. More than 95 percent of the country's 330 million people are under stay-at-home order as a result of the social mitigation measures including social distancing being enforced till 1 May. 08:14 (IST) Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates Maharashtra cabinet minister Jitendra Awhad tests positive for COVID-19 Maharashtra Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The senior NCP leader and prominent Maharashtra cabinet minister had admitted himself to a private hospital in Thane for a precautionary check-up. The minister had recently gone into self-isolation after some aides and security personnel were found to be COVID-19 positive. He had quarantined himself from 13 April, after 16 people close to him came positive including bodyguards and cook. 08:06 (IST) Coronavirus in Maharashtra Latest Updates In Photos: People at Byculla vegtable market buy supplies Maharashtra: People make purchases at Byculla vegetable market in Mumbai, amid #CoronavirusLockdown. pic.twitter.com/ctxw4dOEhL — ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020 08:04 (IST) Coronavirus in Tripura Latest Updates Tripura becomes COVID-19 free after second patient tests negative: CM Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday said the state has become coronavirus- free after its second COVID-19 patient tested negative for the virus. "UPDATE! The second coronavirus patient of Tripura has been found negative after consecutive tests. Hence our state has become COVID-free. I request everyone to maintain social distancing and follow government guidelines. Stay home stay safe,” the chief minister tweeted. Tripura now has 111 coronavirus suspected cases under surveillance and 227 others have been placed under home quarantine. 07:59 (IST) Coronavirus in Delhi Latest Updates Customers gather at Okhla vegetable market to buy supplies for Ramzan In view of Ramzan, which begins on Saturday, many gather at Okhla vegetable market in Delhi on Friday to buy supplies to avoid venturing out during Islam's holiest month without further spreading the coronavirus outbreak. A customer at the market said, "I've come here to buy one week's supply of vegetables as Ramzan begins from Saturday. It's advised not to venture out to the markets many times due to coronavirus." Delhi: Few customers at Okhla vegetable market during the extended lockdown period. A customer at the market says, "I've come here to buy one week's supply of vegetables as Ramzan begins from tomorrow. It's advised not to venture out to the markets many times due to coronavirus". pic.twitter.com/DFYb6XT1zV — ANI (@ANI) April 24, 2020 07:50 (IST) Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates Sunlight, temp above 35 degrees can kill COVID-19 in 30 seconds: US Official Sun light, heat and humidity can create conditions that are less favourable for the spread of coronavirus, a public health official of the Trump Administration has said. The results of a just concluded scientific study conducted by the Science and Technology Directorate of the US Department of Homeland Security, announced during a White House news conference on coronavirus, could be good news for India in its fight against COVID-19. "Coronavirus dies at a much more rapid pace when exposed to sunlight and humidity. The virus dies the quickest in direct sunlight. Isopropyl alcohol will kill the virus in 30 seconds," Bill Bryan, the Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Science and Technology told White House reporters in the presence of President Donald Trump. 07:44 (IST) Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates ICJ to function during COVID-19 pandemic, will hold meets via video conference The International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principal judicial organ of the United Nations, on Thursday released a press release saying that it would continue to function despite the containment measures put in place around the world to curb the fast-spreading coronavirus. With the help of modern technologies, the world court has made the necessary arrangements to hold virtual meetings via video conference during the pandemic. On Wednesday, it held the first virtual plenary meeting in its history. 07:29 (IST) Coronavirus in India Latest Updates India registers 21,700 COVID-19 cases, toll nears 700 India's coronavirus cases rose to 21,700 with 1,229 fresh cases, and the overall toll neared 700 with 34 new deaths on Thursday. The Union health ministry, meanwhile, said that it has been able to "cut coronavirus transmission", minimise its spread and increase the doubling time of cases in the duration of the nationwide lockdown. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 16,689 as 4,324 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 19.93 percent of the cases have recovered so far. The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals. Coronavirus Outbreak LATEST Updates: The four COVID-19 patients who were earlier admitted in the ICU with serious conditions, have now been shifted to private wards after being treated with plasma therapy, said Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal during media briefing on Friday. Their conditions are stable now, said Kejriwal. With 778 more people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in Maharashtra, the total number of confirmed cases in the state rose to 6,427 on Friday. The state health department said that 14 more deaths were reported, bringing the toll to 283. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday while interacting with sarpanches said that the coronavirus pandemic has given the world a new message: 'Coronavirus's biggest message is making people learn the path of self-dependency. We cannot fight such epidemics without being self-reliant. Villages should at their level become self-reliant, so should zillas.' After the Union Health Ministry's projections that Mumbai would have 6.50 lakh, COVID-19 patients, by 15 May, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) own estimates say that positive cases could reach 60,000 to 70,000 by mid-May. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will address media at 12 pm regarding the initial positive results of the use of plasma therapy to treat coronavirus patients, ANI reported. Plasma therapy has been applied in the treatment of a COVID-19 positive patient, admitted to a Delhi hospital on Tuesday for the first time in India. With an additional 10 COVID-19 cases reported on Thursday, the total positive cases in Kerala stood at 447, said chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The state reported three coronavirus-related deaths so far. While the recovery rate in the state was at 70.48% with 324 COVID-19 patients being cured. A four-month-old died of the novel coronavirus in Kerala's Malappuram city after he tested positive for the infectious disease on Thursday. The infant succumbed to the virus on Friday morning at Kozhikode medical college. "The child was undergoing treatment for heart-related problems for past three months and had pneumonia," said the Malappuram District Medical Officer. India's coronavirus cases rose to 23,077 with 1,684 fresh cases, and the overall toll reached 718 with 37 new deaths on Thursday, according to the recent Union Health Ministry data. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 17,610 as 4,749 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 20.58 percent of the cases have recovered so far. Tripura chief minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Thursday said the state has become coronavirus- free after its second COVID-19 patient tested negative for the virus. "UPDATE! The second coronavirus patient of Tripura has been found negative after consecutive tests. Hence our state has become COVID-free. I request everyone to maintain social distancing and follow government guidelines. Stay home stay safe,” the chief minister tweeted. Tripura now has 111 coronavirus suspected cases under surveillance and 227 others have been placed under home quarantine. India's coronavirus cases rose to 21,700 with 1,229 fresh cases, and the overall toll neared 700 with 34 new deaths on Thursday. The Union health ministry, meanwhile, said that it has been able to "cut coronavirus transmission", minimise its spread and increase the doubling time of cases in the duration of the nationwide lockdown. The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 16,689 as 4,324 people were cured and discharged, and one patient migrated, the ministry said. Thus, about 19.93 percent of the cases have recovered so far. The total number of cases include 77 foreign nationals. AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Thursday said that it was "important to reach out to patients who are missing out of treatment because of the stigma and panic", adding, "It is important to encourage more and more people to get tested, get treated." "...It (stigma) is actually causing increase in morbidity and mortality. Because of the stigma that is happening many patients who have COVID-19 or flu like symptoms are not coming to health care facilities," he added. Representational image. AP He also said that at various centres, "we've started using convalescent plasma that is the blood of COVID-19 patients who have recovered. A large number of patients who have become alright have come forward and volunteered to donate their blood." Centre says no exponential growth in COVID-19 cases so far In its press briefing on Thursday, the Union health ministry asserted that the growth of coronavirus cases in the country has been more or less linear and not exponential, and added that testing has been ramped up consistently. CK Mishra, the chairman of Empowered Group Two, said, "One crucial weapon we employed during the 30-day lockdown period is RT-PCR test to ascertain if one has contracted the disease or not." As on 23 March, nearly 15,000 tests were done across the country and by 22 April more than 5 lakh tests were conducted, which is about "33 times in 30 days", he said, adding, "But we are conscious of the fact that this is not enough and we have to continuously ramp up testing in the country and we will do that." Of the empowered groups formed to suggest measures to ramp up healthcare, put the economy back on track and reduce misery of people once the lockdown is lifted, Mishra is the chairman of Empowered Group Two tasked with coordinating availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance, testing and critical care training. "The growth of COVID-19 cases has been more or less linear, not exponential; this indicates that the strategies we adopted have succeeded in containing the infection to a particular level. Post imposition of lockdown, while the number of new positive cases has increased by 16 times, testing increased by 24 times," Mishra said in his presentation. Mishra also said that in the last month, the number of dedicated hospitals for treating coronavirus patients has been increased 3.5 times and the number of isolation beds rose by 3.6 times. "Despite a 24-fold increase in testing, the percentage of positive cases is not rising. The percentage of positive cases as a ratio of testing is more or less the same as that a month ago," he said. Mishra also claimed that India has done better than a majority of developed countries with respect to the percentage of test cases yielding positive results. Maharashtra, Gujarat worst-affected states Coronavirus cases have spiked in Gujarat, and the rising infections in the state have become a new cause for major concern. Just five days ago, Gujarat was at number six, with Delhi, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh — apart from Maharashtra — having more confirmed cases. As of Thursday night, 217 more cases were reported in Gujarat, taking the total number to 2,624 in the state, and Maharashtra reported a jump of 778 new cases, taking the total to 6,427. A total of 34 deaths were reported since Wednesday evening of which 18 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, eight from Gujarat, three from Andhra Pradesh, two from Rajasthan and one each from Delhi, Telengana and Madhya Pradesh. Of the 686 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 269 fatalities, followed by Gujarat at 103, Madhya Pradesh at 81, Delhi at 48, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh at 27 each and Telengana at 24. The death toll reached 21 in Uttar Pradesh, 18 in Tamil Nadu while Karantaka has reported 17 cases. Punjab has registered 16 deaths while West Bengal has reported 15 fatalities. The disease has claimed five lives in Jammu and Kashmir, while Kerala, Jharkhand and Haryana have recorded three COVID-19 deaths each. Bihar has reported two deaths, while Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Assam have reported one fatality each, according to the ministry data. However, a PTI tally of the figures reported by various states as on Thursday showed 21,673 cases and 689 deaths in the country. There has been a lag in the Union Health Ministry figures, compared to the number of deaths announced by different states, which officials attribute to procedural delays in assigning the cases to individual states. According to the 5 pm update on the health ministry's official website, Delhi recorded 2,248 cases, Rajasthan was at 1,890, Madhya Pradesh at 1,695 and Tamil Nadu at 1,629. The number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 1,509 in Uttar Pradesh, 960 in Telangana and 895 in Andhra Pradesh. The number of cases has risen to 456 in West Bengal, 443 in Karnataka, 438 in Kerala, 407 in Jammu and Kashmir, 277 in Punjab and 262 in Haryana. Bihar has reported 148 coronavirus cases, while Odisha has 83 cases. Forty-nine people have been infected with the virus in Jharkhand and 46 in Uttarakhand. Himachal Pradesh has 40 cases, Chhattisgarh has 36, while Assam has registered 35 infections so far. Chandigarh has 27 COVID-19 cases, Ladakh 18, while 17 cases have been reported from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Meghalaya has reported 12 cases, and Goa and Puducherry have seven COVID-19 cases each. Manipur and Tripura have two cases each, while Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have reported a case each. "Our figures are being reconciled with the ICMR," the ministry said on its website. States wise distribution is subject to further verification and reconciliation, it said. Uddhav Thackeray says govt's focus is to reduce mortality rate Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday said that his government's focus was to reduce the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients and increase the period during which the number of positive cases double. He made the remarks during his video-conference interaction with the members of two central teams that toured Mumbai and Pune cities, the two coronavirus hotspots in the state. The teams took a review of the medical machinery, implementation of the lockdown measures and social distancing, safety of health workers and situation of labourers in shelter camps, supply of essential goods, among other things. A statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said that Thackeray told the teams that reducing the mortality rate of COVID-19 patients and increasing the period of doubling of positive cases were his government's focus. At present, the period of doubling of patients in the state is seven days, which has to be increased to more than 10 days, Thackeray told the teams. He asked the state administration to take into consideration all the suggestions made by the central teams. US sees record levels of unemployment Unemployment in the US swelled to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with one in six American workers thrown out of a job because of the coronavirus. More than 4.4 million laid-off workers applied for unemployment benefits last week, the US government said on Thursday. In all, roughly 26 million people — more than the population of the six biggest US cities combined — have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks, an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to lift the state-ordered stay-at-home restrictions that have closed factories and other businesses from coast to coast. Meanwhile, some countries — including Greece, Bangladesh and Malaysia — announced extensions of their lockdowns. Vietnam, New Zealand and Croatia were among those moving to end or ease such measures. In Africa, COVID-19 cases rose 43 percent in the past week, up from 16,000 to 26,000 cases, according to John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The figures underscored a recent warning from the World Health Organization that the virus could kill more than 3,00,000 people in Africa and push 30 million into desperate poverty. Huge lines have formed at food banks from El Paso, Texas, to the Paris suburbs, and food shortages are hitting Africa especially hard. The European Union has pledged 20 billion euros to help vulnerable communities globally. EU leaders scheduled a virtual summit on Thursday to take stock of the damage the crisis has inflicted on the bloc’s own citizens and to work out an economic rescue plan. The coronavirus has killed over 1,84,000 people worldwide, including about 47,000 in the United States, according to a tally compiled by John Hopkins University from official government figures. The true numbers are almost certainly far higher. With inputs from agencies

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