Year: 2020

Amid lockdown, the nation waits for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is expected to address the nation today at 8 pm, amid speculations about lockdown 4.0. PM Modi’s address comes a day after his meeting with chief ministers over the Covid-19-induced lockdown. Taking to social media, the prime minister’s office confirmed, “PM Modi will be addressing the nation at 8 PM this evening.”   This will be the Prime Minister’s fourth special address to the nation in the last two months. PM has been continuously interacting with each zone CM…

Avianca Holdings, Latin America’s second largest airline, announced bankruptcy after failing to meet a bond payment deadline, while its pleas for coronavirus aid from Colombia’s government have so far been unsuccessful.   If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Bogota-based Avianca would be one of the first major carriers worldwide to go under as a result of the pandemic, which has crippled world travel.   Avianca has not flown a regular scheduled passenger flight since late March and most of its 20,000 employees have gone without pay through the…

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fifth meeting with state Chief Ministers on coronavirus took an unexpected turn as Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accused the Centre of playing politics over the issue and discriminating between states.   The Centre was working according to a “script”, she said. “This is not the time to play politics. Nobody ever asks our opinion… Don’t bulldoze the federal structure,” sources quoted her as saying at the meeting, called to discuss a phased exit from the lockdown, the migrants’ issue and the economic situation.   Calling the nationwide lockdown a “poorly planned” exercise, she suggested that…

Senior Congressman and former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh got admitted to Delhi’s AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) on Sunday night over chest problems. The veteran was taken to the cardio-thoracic ward of the hospital at 8.45 pm and is under observation by doctors.   The 87-year-old two-time Prime Minister is not in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), and is being treated by Dr Nitish Naik, a Pprofessor of Cardiology, as per reports.   Singh suffered a fall shortly before parliament was adjourned in March amid the coronavirus…

“I am absolutely healthy,” Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared on Saturday, issuing an uncommon statement at a time 39,834 Indians are battling COVID-19 in hospitals across the country.    “For the last few days, rumours have been spread about my health through social media. Some even wished for my death,” Shah said in the statement in Hindi posted on his Twitter handle. “I’m absolutely healthy and not suffering from any disease.” Shah, whose conspicuous absence from the forefront has attracted wide attention, said he had been working late nights…

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will hold a meeting with Chief Executives of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and Chairman of State Bank of India to review the flow of credit into the economy from these banks.   Amidst national lockdown due to coronavirus, this meeting will review the credit sanction and disbursements since March 1 this year. It will also look at COVID-19 related sanctioned/pre-approved emergency credit and reassessment based additional working capital, it is learnt.   Also on the agenda is review of the support given to NBFCs (credit as…

Three Virus Task Force members from White House along with Dr Anthony Fauci (Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a leading member of the task force) have put themselves under self isolation after a contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, another stark reminder that not even one of the nation’s most secure buildings is immune from the virus.   Fauci has become nationally known for his simple and direct explanations to the public about the coronavirus and COVID-19, the disease it causes.  Fauci’s institute said he has tested negative for COVID-19 and will continue to be…

In an effort to further the use of technology in India’s fight against COVID-19, National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) today announced the successful delivery of an end to end COVID platform to the Government of Telangana. Developed by NASSCOM’s Task Force, the platform brings together solutions from multiple technology leaders and delivers more than 100 dashboards, across 30+ government and public datasets, with hundreds of thousands of data points.   Working closely with the Government of Telangana, the platform, with its various technology led models will assist the government in sustainable…

Digital technology is rapidly transforming society and the world with, unprecedented opportunities to meet the newer challenges. Growing opportunities created by the application of digital technologies including AI, ML, Bigdata, Blockchain, Crypto and e-commerce has lead to accelerate to keep pace. At the same time the present pandemic has slowed down the vision of running flying cars which was a far-fetched dream, and the lockdown grounded the airplanes as well.   But the luck seems to be favouring the Billionaire Mukesh Ambani to achieve his vison of making him debit free. Mukesh Ambani has laid out a road map to make Reliance…