India

Mumbai, Apr 17 (PTI) The Reserve Bank on Friday debarred all commercial and cooperative banks from paying dividends to shareholders and promoter groups as the regulator fears the Covid-driven economic shocks would continue longer and may put the health of the financial system at risk.

Mumbai, Apr 17 (PTI) The aviation industry may take between six months to two years to recover from the severe blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a survey carried out by global consultancy ICF.

The survey, conducted among senior and mid-level executives from across the world between late March and early April, also revealed that there may be increased scrutiny placed on the health and sanitary conditions of individual countries that could impact air service and passenger demand.

New Delhi, Apr 17 (PTI) The RBI measures will revive credit flow by commercial banks and targeted long-term repo operation (LTRO) would further activate the corporate bond market and also provide much needed liquidity to NBFCs, Niti Aayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar said on Friday.

The RBI on Friday further eased bad-loan rules, froze dividend payment by lenders and pushed banks to lend more by cutting the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points, as it unveiled a second set of measures to support the economy hit hard by coronavirus-led slowdown.

Kottayam/Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 17 (PTI) A 50-year-old woman travelled 2,700 km in a car crisscrossing 6 states to meet her critically ill son, a BSF jawan in Jodhpur, despite strict lockdown restrictions due to Covid-19.

The woman was accompanied by her daughter-in-law and another relative during the journey, which they covered in 3 days time.

Amaravati(AP), Apr 17 (PTI) The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday imported one lakh rapid test kits (RTKs) from South Korea to step up Covid-19 testing in the state.

The AP government chartered a special flight to import the RTKs from Seoul directly to Vijayawada airport.

Mumbai, Apr 16 (PTI) Maharashtra Minister of State for Home Shambhuraje Desai on Thursday said the state government's `demand' of special trains for taking migrants back to their home states was valid.

Speaking to a Marathi news channel, Desai said that Shiv Sena leader and state tourism minister Aaditya Thackeray had been saying that migrant labours stranded in Maharashtra should have been allowed to return to their home states.

Kolkata, Apr 17 (PTI) Petrol pumps across West Bengal have decided not to sell fuel to those visiting without a mask, an official of the dealers' association said on Friday.

To create awareness about the measures to contain the spread of coronavirus, it has been decided not to sell petrol or diesel to those drivers and bike owners who are not wearing masks, said S Koley, general secretary of the West Bengal Petroleum Dealers Association.

Uttarkashi, Apr 17 (PTI) Eleven migrant labourers were caught while trying to escape to Saharanpur through forests and a case was registered against a WhatsApp group admin for spreading rumour that they were jamaatis, police said on Friday.

The migrant labourers were caught when they reached a village named Syalna on their way and the villagers informed the police saying some dubious persons had entered the village on foot, Badkot police station SHO D S Kohli said.

(AP) --- The street peddler watched the prime minister’s speech on a battered TV, with her family of five crowded around her in a one-room house with no toilet and no running water. It’s squeezed into a Mumbai shantytown controlled by an obscure Mumbai organized crime family.

Mina Jakhawadiya knew that outside, somewhere in India, the coronavirus had arrived, wending its way through this sprawling nation of 1.3 billion people. But the invisible danger seemed far away.

Then suddenly it wasn’t.

NEW DELHI (AP) — With no approved drugs for the new coronavirus, some people are turning to alternative medicines, often with governments promoting them.

This is most evident in India and China, densely populated countries with a deep history and tradition of touting such treatments, and where there’s sometimes limited access to conventional medicine.