India

Aurangabad, Mar 21 (PTI) Four persons were arrested for allegedly hoarding hand sanitisers worth over Rs 6 lakh in Maharashtra's Jalna city, police said on Saturday.

Acting on a tip-off, officials of Jalna police's crime branch and the Food and Drug Administration raided a shop on Old Mondha road, an official said.

Srinagar, Mar 21 (PTI) Strict restrictions on movement and assembly of people continued for the third consecutive day on Saturday in Kashmir to contain the spread of the new coronavirus that has infected one person in the valley, officials said.

They said adequate security forces have been deployed and barricades have been put up at several places in Srinagar. Only government and essential services employees with valid identity cards, mediapersons, and people with health emergency were allowed to move on streets, they added.

Thane, Mar 21 (PTI) Even as Mumbai prepares for a complete lockdown in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, daily wagers, including sex workers, seem to be worst affected in the crisis.

Over 300 sex workers in Bhiwandi town of Maharashtra's Thane district decided to keep their trade shut for a couple of days as a precautionary measure against the deadly virus.

Kolkata, Mar 21 (PTI) Researchers at the IIT-Kharagpur have developed an energy-efficient method that could support a wide range of applications in clinical and biological research.

Biological cells can be patterned by using the heat generated in closed electrical fields with the help of this method, the researchers said on Saturday.

Mumbai, Mar 21 (PTI) Commercial establishments, corporate firms and manufacturing units in neighbouring Navi Mumbai will remain closed till further orders to promote social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic, an official said.

Data centres, IT service providers will operate with only 10 per cent staff, while banks, insurance companies and internet service providers will function with essential staff only, he said.

Rajgarh (MP), Mar 21 (PTI) A four-year old girl was allegedly raped by an 18-year-old man at a village in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district, an official said on Saturday.

The accused allegedly lured the minor girl, while she was playing outside her house, when her family was away on Friday afternoon and raped her, Chhapiheda police station in- charge Umashankar Mukati said.

The incident came to light when the victim complained of pain to her parents, following which a police complaint was lodged and the accused was arrested, he said.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) Over 500 child marriages were reported in the country in 2018, with the maximum being from Assam, Union Women and Child Development minister Smriti Irani informed the Lok Sabha on Friday.

In a written reply to a question on whether the incidents of child marriages have increased over the years, the minister said the percentage of women (in the age group of 20-24 years), who were married before the age of 18, has reduced from 47.4 per cent in 2005-06 as per National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 to 26.8 per cent in 2015-16 as per the NFHS-4.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The women protesters in Shaheen Bagh will continue with their protest on Sunday, the day when Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged people to remain inside their houses under a self-imposed curfew.

The women have been blocking a side of a road connecting southeast Delhi to Noida since mid-December to protest against the amended citizenship law.

Chandigarh, Mar 20 (PTI) In a first such case in Punjab, a 26-year-old woman suspected to be suffering from coronavirus was booked for fleeing from the hospital here, police said on Friday.

The woman, a resident of Mohali, had returned from the US and was taken to a government hospital in Chandigarh for a check up.

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said on Friday that the global economic situation would affect all nations, but ruled out any impact on India's defence procurement.

Speaking at the launch of the draft Defence Procurement Procedure, 2020, Singh said the global economy could improve in the next two-five months.