Latest News LIVE: Brief Rajasthan Assembly session may be held this week

Poltical crisis in Congress-ruled state takes new turn. In Assam, 2,678 villages are under water and 1,16,404 hectares of crop are damaged in floods

2:24 AM

Glenmark under fire for over pricing, 'misguided' claims of Covid-19 drug

Glenmark, which markets favipiravir under brand Fabiflu for treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid-19 patients, has come under the scanner of ‘the country’s drug regulator over pricing of the drug and claims of its therapeutic efficacy.

 

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has sent a letter to the Mumbai-based drugmaker seeking clarifications on pricing as well as claims of therapeutic efficacy. Read more

2:23 AM

Japan govt to pay at least $536 million for companies to leave China

Japan’s government will start paying its firms to move factories out of China and back home or to Southeast Asia, part of a new program to secure supply chains and reduce dependence on manufacturing in China.

 

Fifty-seven companies including privately-held facemask-maker Iris Ohyama and Sharp will receive a total of 57.4 billion yen ($536 million) in subsidies from the government, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Friday. Another 30 firms will receive money to move manufacturing to Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations, according to a separate announcement, which didn’t provide details on the amount of compensation.

2:23 AM

TikTok considering London for headquarters to distance Chinese ownership

TikTok has been in discussions with the UK government over the past few months to locate its headquarters in London, a source familiar with the matter said, as part of a strategy to distance itself from its Chinese ownership.

 

London is among one of several locations the company is considering, but no decisions have been made, the source said.

2:22 AM

Russian ambassador to Britain rejects Covid-19 vaccine hacking claims

Russia’s ambassador to the UK has rejected allegations that his country's intelligence services tried to steal coronavirus vaccine research.

 

“I don’t believe in this story at all, there is no sense in it,” Andrei Kelin said. However, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said it is “very clear Russia did this”, adding that it is important to call out this “pariah-type behaviour”.

2:22 AM

India is likely to see a wave of peaks in Covid-19 cases, say experts

India is likely to see a wave of peaks in Covid-19 cases across the country instead of one single high, with the coronavirus spreading at a different pace in most states, experts said.

 

While most epidemiologists have predicted a peak of infection in late July-August, many feel the concept of a national peak is nebulous. The three states — Maharashtra, Delhi, and Tamil Nadu — with highest case-counts are slowing down, but infections in eastern and southern states are surging. Reda more

2:21 AM

Corona Kavach health insurance policy evokes good response: Insurers

Amid spurt in Covid-19 cases in the country, Corona Kavach health insurance policy has evoked good response within days of its launch by almost all insurers.

Corona Kavach, which was launched on July 10 and is being offered by both general and health insurers, is a standard health insurance policy created to meet the treatment requirements for coronavirus.
 

The term of the policy ranges from three-and-a-half months to nine-and-a-half months, with maximum insured amount at Rs 5 lakh.

2:20 AM

PM Modi dials CMs, discusses Covid-19 situation amid spike in cases

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday had telephonic conversations with chief ministers (CMs) of several states and discussed the situation of the Covid-19 cases, sources said. Sources added that he spoke to CMs of Bihar, Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

 

During the conversation, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami apprised the PM that 48,000 Covid-19 tests — a national high — were being done daily (average), an official release said. The state has crossed 165,000 of cases.

12:32 AM

IIT Kharagpur students demand total waiver of mess fees

A section of students of IIT Kharagpur have demanded a total waiver of mess fees and reevaluation of tuition fees for the final year students pursuing MSc degree.

 

Students' Senate Chairman Ninaad Lohakare in a letter to the institute authorities on Saturday said there should be a complete waiver of the Rs 10,000 mess fee and complete waiver of hostel overhead charges.

 

Majority of students left the campus after suspension of offline classes and those who stayed back also mostly left by the end of June, a member of Students' Senate, the official representative body of IIT Kharagpur, said.

11:48 PM

Ten houses collapse in Delhi's Anna Nagar after heavy rains

Several residents of a slum area in Anna Nagar were displaced as over 10 houses collapsed following heavy rains that lashed the national capital on Sunday morning.

 

The colony is located behind the under-construction WHO headquarters in ITO and is next to a drain.

 

Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service and National Disaster Response Force teams rushed to the spot.

 

According to the Delhi Fire Service, a call was received about a house collapse around 8 am. As heavy rains started lashing the area on Saturday night, some of the people started vacating their houses.

11:47 PM

Kamal Nath holds meeting with Congress MLAs

Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Kamal Nath held a meeting with his party legislators here on Sunday night, two days after one more MLA quit the grand old party and joined the ruling BJP, second one do so within a week and 24th since March.

 

Congress leaders said that Nath held talks with the party lawmakers to feel the pulse aftertwo MLAs- Sumitra Devi Kasdekar and Pradymna Singh Lodhi- resigned from the state assembly in just six days and joined the BJP.

 

While Lodhi had resigned last Sunday, Kasdekar had done so on Friday.

 

An MLA said on the condition of anonymity that during the meeting, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) decided to expose those BJP leaders who come to them with allurements.

11:24 PM

How the Black Lives Matter generation remembers John Lewis

Of all the ways that John Lewis influenced American life and politics, his indelible impact on young people may be among the most enduring.

 

From student activist to elder statesman, Lewis continually encouraged the nation's youth to start good trouble and modeled just how to do that.

 

He was arrested alongside millennial activists pushing for comprehensive reform of US immigration laws in 2013. He led a sit-in in the House of Representatives over gun control following a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando in 2016.

 

And when he was not protesting, he was helping young people understand history, as when he cosplayed as his younger self at San Diego's Comic-Con to celebrate the release of his Selma, Alabama-themed graphic novel series in 2015.

11:06 PM

10 killed in lightning strikes in Bihar; four die in rain-related incidents in Delhi

Ten people were killed after being struck by lightning in Bihar on Sunday while four people died in rain-related incidents in Delhi, where many low-lying areas were inundated in heavy rains.

 

In Assam, the death toll in flood-related incidents increased to 84 after five more fatalities were reported, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking to Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal on the flood situation in the state.

 

The total number of people losing their lives in flood and landslides in Assam this year is 110. While 84 died in flood-related incidents, landslides claimed 26 lives.

 

Floods have affected over 25 lakh people in 24 of the 33 districts of Assam and has destroyed houses, crops, roads and bridges at several places.

 

The first heavy monsoon rainfall in the national capital claimed four lives, including that of a mini-truck driver who got trapped in a waterlogged underpass.

11:05 PM

Waterlogging under Minto Bridge a nagging problem for decades

Almost every monsoon in the last decade or so, an old black-and-white image of commuters being rescued off a nearly-submerged DTC bus below the iconic Minto Bridge goes viral on the social media.

 

Reason, its stark similarity to the situation every year below the nearly 90-year-old bridge post heavy rainfall in Delhi.

 

The water woes below the colonial-era bridge has again come into sharp focus in the wake of a56-year-old man drowning after his mini-truck was submerged in water under the bridge in central Delhi following a heavy downpour on Sunday morning.

 

The man, identified as Kundan Kumar, was a resident of Pithoragarh, Uttarakhand. He was driving a Tata Ace from the New Delhi Railway Station to Connaught Place when he got stuck in the waterlogged area, police said.

10:58 PM

2,426 firms 'looted' Rs 1.47 trillion from banks, will govt launch probe: Rahul Gandhi

10:58 PM

Four die as heavy rainfall lashes Delhi

Four persons, including an eight-year-old boy, died in rain-related incidents in the national capital which received its first spell of heavy rains on Sunday.
 

A 56-year-old man drowned after his mini truck got submerged in water under the Minto Bridge in central Delhi, police said.
 

The man identified as Kundan Kumar, a resident of Uttarakhand, was driving a Tata Ace from the New Delhi Railway Station to Connaught Place when he got stuck in the waterlogged area, they said.
 

In another incident, 8-year-old Md Mateen was found from Chhat Ghat at Saurabh Vihar in an unconscious state.