Transgender activist Sangeetha (60) was found dead at her residence in Coimbatore on Wednesday. According to police, the decomposed body of Sangeetha was wrapped in a cloth and dumped inside a plastic drum.
READ | Coimbatore: Transgender activist Sangeetha found dead at her residence
Sangeetha, who resided at Sai Baba Colony on NSR Road, was the president of Coimbatore District Transgender Association. She has been an active member of many NGOs and initiated many charity events for the welfare of the economically weaker section. She had been in the catering business for more than 15 years.
Also Read | NGT red-flags Kaleshwaram project: Green clearance was in violation of law, halt work
The results of the second serosurvey, which was conducted in Chennai recently to detect the transmission of coronavirus, have revealed that nearly one-third of the city’s population have been exposed to the pathogen. The results have shown an overall positivity rate of 32.3 per cent, authorities said.
READ | Tamil Nadu Covid-19 wrap: Nearly one-third Chennai population exposed to virus, sero survey reveals
Testimonials from victims of the August 2000 flash floods have been captured in a documentary aptly named “…And Nature Replied. A Statement on the Flooding of Hyderabad”. As visuals from the documentary draw an eerie resemblance to present-day Hyderabad, its producer and city-based social activists Mazher Hussain, who is the executive director of COVA (confederation of voluntary organisations) Peace Network, uploaded the film on YouTube on October 16, 2020.
READ | Deluge of August 2000 was the warning Hyderabad chose to ignore
On August 26, 2000, the India Meteorological Department’s Hyderabad observatory in Begumpet recorded a massive 24 cm of rainfall. The sudden high-intensity downpour had resulted in the breach of tanks and nullahs, leading to loss of lives while ravaging residential localities. Last week, reminding the city once again of the deluge of August 2000, the IMD’s observatory recorded 19.2 cm rainfall for October 13. The previous all-time highest rainfall recorded by IMD in October in Hyderabad was 9.8 cm.
An unusual phenomenon took place in late August, this year—thousands of butterflies could be seen travelling from the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats. A record 1060 butterflies were found to be migrating from one hill complex to another, in a single hour, on August 25. The movement itself was not unusual—but the timing was.
Every year, two seasonal butterfly migrations occur between the Western and Eastern Ghats of the Indian peninsula in search of food and survival.
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But this year was different. “This year, after a gap of eight years, early migration took place. The migratory butterflies started to travel back to the Western Ghats between the last week of August and September middle,” said A Pavendhan, president of The Nature and Butterfly Society (TNBS), over a phone call with indianexpress.com.
Butterflies are bioindicators, and the early migration means an early arrival of monsoon. With climate change altering weather phenomena across the world, tracking and studying seasonal butterfly migrations have assumed greater significance.
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Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has announced that metro timings in Chennai will be increased till 11 pm on Friday and Saturday owing to the festive season. The trains will be operated from 7 am to 9 pm on October 23 and 24 and also on October 29. Currently, the trains are being operated from 7 am to 9 pm.
Further, to faciliate the commute of passengers returning to the city from their holidays, trains will be operated from 5.30 am to 9 pm from October 27 and November 2.
The trains will be operated without peak hour service on these days.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Thursday said Tamil Nadu has attracted Rs 40,718 crore investments despite the coronavirus pandemic and stood first in the nation in attracting fresh investments in 2020. Palaniswami said for a slew of foreign investors, Tamil Nadu has been a favourite destination for making investments.
"Tamil Nadu is also the forerunner among industrialised states," he said while inaugurating a new facility of a diversified conglomerate which includes branded, packaged food business in Pudukottai. Successfully, two editions of Global Investors Meet have been held by the government and foreign visits were made to bring investments, he said adding, "Amma's government has attracted substantial foreign investments."
Even during the present coronavirus pandemic, 55 pacts have been inked with companies envisaging Rs 40,000 crore plus investments and this is set to open up job opportunities for 74,212 people, he said. "I am happy to say that through such investments, Tamil Nadu has achieved the first place in the country in attracting new investments in 2020," he said.
The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has identified 25 containment zones in Chennai till date.
Here are the names of the containment streets across the city's 15 zones as of Thursday:
VP Nagar 5th Street and Sanathi Street
Perumal Koil Street Chettimedu, 1st Street Bharathiyar Nagar Chinnamathur, MMDA – 51st Street, 106th Street, 116th Street and Manali – Thamaraikullam Street and NSK Street
KKD Nagar 5th Block 2nd Street, Nandhanar Street, MKB 16th West Cross Street, Sasthiri Nagar 3rd Street, Butchammal Street and Avoor Muthaiyah Street
Grace Garden 3rd Lane, Thandavarayan Street, Govindappa Street, Irulappan Street and Budraian Street
Aminjikarai – Limeklin Street
Choolaimedu - Aziz Mulk Street and Rakkiyappa Street
Narayanasamy 2nd Street
Ekkattuthangal – Danakotti Raja Street
Okkiyam Petti - Thiruvalluvar Street
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami unveiled a jallikattu statue at Viralimalai today. The statue depicts bull taming sport 'jallikattu' in which a man is shown successfully dominating a bull.
Parts of Chennai received light to moderate showers on Thursday afternoon, bringing some respite from the sweltering heat. According to the Regional Meteorological Centre (RMC) in Chennai, parts of north Tamil Nadu and neighbouring Puducherry will receive moderate rainfall accompanied by thunder today.
The Flipkart group’s ‘Best Price’ cash-and-carry business on Thursday announced the opening of a new wholesale store in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, to cater to the needs of kiranas and small businesses.
It is Best Price’s 29th store in the country where it is present in nine states, and serves kiranas, offices and institutions, and hotels, restaurants and caterers through a membership model.
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Following the representations from students who have lost their certificates in incessant rains in the state, the Telangana government on Tuesday announced that fresh or duplicate certificates will be given free of cost to such students. The special chief secretary of education, Chitra Ramachandran issued orders in this regard on Tuesday after hundreds of students who have either lost or their certificates got damaged communicated to the education department.
According to the statement, “Government after careful examination of the matter and hereby decide to issue fresh/ duplicate certificates as the case may be, as and when the students who require copy of their lost certificate shall apply through online or offline to the concerned authority duly giving their details- name, type of exam, hall ticket number and year of exam by free of cost.”
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Telangana reported 1,579 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the tally to 2,27,580 while five more deaths pushed the toll to 1,292, the state government said on Thursday.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 254, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri and Rangareddy districts with 98 each, it said in a bulletin. As many as 20,183 people are under treatment and 38,565 samples were tested on October 21.
Cumulatively, 39,78,869 samples have been tested. The samples tested per million population was 1,06,901, the bulletin said. The case fatality rate in the state was 0.56 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 90.56 per cent.
The number of individuals in home/institutional isolation stood at 16,977.
A 23-year-old mechanic was arrested after the partially-burnt and decomposed body of a nine-year-old boy, who was kidnapped four days ago, was recovered by Mahabubabad police on Thursday morning.
Mahabubabad Superintendent of Police, N Koti Reddy, told reporters that Mandha Sagar, who was known to the family, had kidnapped Deekshith on Sunday evening to earn easy and quick money. He added that the boy was killed by strangulation even before the accused made his first ransom call demanding Rs 45 lakh.
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The results of the second serosurvey, which was conducted in Chennai recently to detect the transmission of coronavirus, have revealed that nearly one-third of the city’s population have been exposed to the pathogen. The results have shown an overall positivity rate of 32.3 per cent, authorities said.
This was more than the number of those found affected by the virus during the first survey conducted in July.
“Results of Chennai Serosurvey-II: Serosurvey samples tested- 6,389 out of which 2,062 are positive for IgG antibodies presence with overall positivity of 32.3 per cent,” Greater Chennai Corporation said in a brief statement.
The first phase of the survey, with a sample size of around 12,000, had revealed (on September 1) that a fifth of the population (21.5 per cent) in the metropolis had an exposure to the pathogen.
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In a bid to help keep passengers and staff safe during commutes, Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) has introduced micro-plasma oxidation system to provide aqueous stabilised ozone and reduce exposure of harsh chemicals while sanitising the stations and trains in Chennai. According to CMRL, Chennai is the first city to utilise this method of sanitisation.
According to a release by CMRL, the micro-plasma oxidation system, which has been designed by ETA Purification is clean, safe and uses sustainable water for disinfection. Further, CMRL claimed that the system is non-toxic and is approximately 10 to 1000 times more effective than other chemicals against bacteria, virus, etc.
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Transgender activist Sangeetha (60) was found dead at her residence in Coimbatore on Wednesday. According to police, the decomposed body of Sangeetha was wrapped in a cloth and dumped inside a plastic drum.
Sangeetha, who resided at Sai Baba Colony on NSR Road, was the president of Coimbatore District Transgender Association. She has been an active member of many NGOs and initiated many charity events for the welfare of the economically weaker section. She had been in the catering business for more than 15 years.
A month ago, Sangeetha opened ‘Covai Trans Kitchen’, a restaurant entirely operated by transgenders. In an interview to indianexpress.com in September, Sangeetha said she wanted to help her community members who had lost jobs due to the pandemic. She said the response for the restaurant has been overwhelming and they are planning to open a second unit soon to provide more job opportunities.
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The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 409 fever clinics in Chennai on Wednesday. A total of 20, 610 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 686 people who were identified with ILI symptoms, while others were provided with medication for minor ailments.
The most number of camps were held in Teynampet (Zone 9) where 49 camps were set up, while Manali (Zone 2) had the least with four camps.
All shops, restaurants and commercial complexes in Tamil Nadu would be allowed to function till 10 pm from Thursday in view of the coming festive season and to facilitate further economic recovery, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said, easing coronavirus-induced curbs further.
Barring shops located in full containment zones, all others could function up to10 pm by following the Standard Operating Procedure to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Palaniswami said in an official release on Wednesday.
All shops, restaurants and commercial complexes in Tamil Nadu would be allowed to function till 10 pm from Thursday in view of the coming festive season and to facilitate further economic recovery, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said, easing coronavirus-induced curbs further.
Barring shops located in full containment zones, all others could function up to10 pm by following the Standard Operating Procedure to prevent the spread of Covid-19, Palaniswami said in an official release on Wednesday.
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A total of 160 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 80 arrivals and 80 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
Former Home Minister and Member of Legislative Council Nayani Narasimha Reddy died while undergoing treatment at a corporate hospital in Hyderabad. He had fully recovered from COVID19 but was later admitted to the hospital with complications.
“Shri Nayini Narsimha Reddy passed away at 12.25 am. He was admitted a week ago for post Covid complications with extensive lung damage,” read a statement from Apollo Hospitals.
The 86-year-old, a founder leader of the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), was the first Home Minister of the state post its formation between 2014 and 2018.
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Tamil Nadu’s coronavirus cases continued to decline as 29 districts in the state reported less than 100 cases. The state reported 3,086 fresh Covid-19 cases on Wednesday taking the overall tally to 6,97,116.
With 39 deaths, the toll reached 10,780. The number of recoveries reached 6,50,856 after 4,301 patients were discharged on Wednesday. In the past 24 hours, a total of 81,782 samples have been tested, taking the total number of samples to 91,93,849. There are 35,480 active cases in the state.
Of the total cases, Chennai reported 845 cases. So far, the capital city of Tamil Nadu has 1,92,527 Covid-19 cases.
Apart from Chennai, Coimbatore (314), Salem (198), Thiruvallur (180) and Chengalpattu (159) recorded maximum cases.
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Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai and Hyderabad where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19, lockdown in Tamil Nadu, lockdown in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, rains and floods in Telangana, Tamil Nadu rains and more across Chennai and Hyderabad through the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the states in real time.
All shops, restaurants and commercial complexes in Tamil Nadu will be allowed to function till 10 pm from Thursday in ahead of the festive season and to facilitate further economic recovery, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami said on Wednesday, easing coronavirus-induced curbs further.
Barring shops located in full containment zones, all others can function up to 10 pm by following the Standard Operating Procedure to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Palaniswami said in an official release.
Currently, shops are allowed to remain open till 9 pm.
Considering the upcoming festival season, and the need to facilitate further economic recovery, "vegetable shops, groceries, restaurants, and all shops including tea stalls and commercial complexes are permitted to function till 10 pm from October 22", the Chief Minister said.
The man-made Hussainsagar lake was Hyderabad’s main drinking water source till the early part of the last century. But even as the city, established by Muhammed Quli Qutb Shah of the Qutb Shahi dynasty in 1591, expanded beyond the fortified walls of the Golconda, the heart-shape lake built across a tributary of the river Musi, was only one of the several hundreds of lakes that dotted the region.
In less than a century, the city has expanded from 55 sq.km to 625 sq.km under the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC). The jurisdiction of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) spreads over 7,257 sq.km covering parts of a few neighbouring districts as well, and had 2,800 lakes as per as 2017 estimate.
But the rivers have since vanished. Discharge of sewage and industrial effluents, encroachments by government and private individuals, and decades of neglect had everyone thinking the river would never flow again. Most of the former waterways are open sewers now. But, on October 13, the river was in spate once again after a record downpour. Low-lying localities and colonies that were built on the lake beds and nullahs were submerged in no time. Many days later, hundreds of these colonies were still under water.
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The Board of Intermediate Education, Andhra Pradesh (BIEAP) started admissions into a two-year intermediate course or class 12 in general and vocational streams. The admission process will be held online. Those who have cleared class 10 can apply at bie.ap.gov.in. The application process will close on October 29, at 5 pm.
Students will have to pay a fee of Rs 200. For reserved category candidates, the fee is Rs 100. Students need to have their class 10 marks, roll number, and related details handy. Further, the Aadhaar number of the student, a mobile number will also be required. In case of any issue related to online admissions, students can talk to authorities through the toll-free number – 18002749868.
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Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday announced the schools would reopen on November 2 in the state. During the Spandana video conference, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy stated that the classes will be held on alternate days for the students.
While classes 1, 3, 5, 7 will be held on one day, students of classes 2, 4, 6, 8 will attend the next day. If the school has a strength of more than 750, classes will be held once in three days, he said and added that the schools will work only in the morning shift and students will be served mid-day meals.
The chief minister said this system will be implemented in November and the decision for December will be taken according to the situation then. He said that online classes will be conducted for students who are not willing to attend school.
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Telangana registered 1,579 fresh coronavirus cases taking the infection count to 2.26 lakh while five more fatalities pushed the toll to 1,287. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) accounted for the most number of cases with 256, followed by Medchal Malkajgiri 135 and Khammam 106, said a government bulletin.
As many as 20,449 patients are under treatment and 41,475 samples were tested on October 20. Cumulatively, 39.40 lakh samples have been tested, with the samples tested per million population at 1.05 lakh.
The case fatality rate in the state was 0.56 per cent while the recovery rate in Telangana was 90.38 per cent.
With the southwest monsoon still lingering, the onset of the northeast monsoon, which brings rain over the southern peninsula, will be delayed this year. Tamil Nadu, parts of Andhra Pradesh and Pudducherry receive their annual rain quota from the northwast monsoon between October and December.
Under normal circumstances, the southwest monsoon would completely withdraw from over most parts of the country by October 15. “Though October 15 is the normal date for completion of withdrawal from the entire country, there is an accepted deviation of seven days. That is, if the withdrawal is completed from the entire country by October 22, it is still considered as normal. But this year, it is unlikely to occur by October 22,” said IMD director general Mrutyunjay Mohapatra. “Unless the southwest monsoon withdraws completely, the northeast monsoon cannot commence.”
The withdrawal of the southwest monsoon has remained stagnant since October 6. The delay was mainly due to the formation of two low pressure systems over the Bay of Bengal. One system formed last week and had traversed across the southern peninsula, causing widespread rain and left behind a trail of destruction. Another low pressure system developed on October 19 and continues to remain in the Bay of Bengal.
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Chennai ranked 11th with a score of 63.6 while Hyderabad ranked 13th with a score of 63.1 following a report by Opensignal on top Indian cities for gaming.
The report has been compiled from data registered from 48 of the biggest cities in India between April 30 to July 29, 2020. The analytical firm had rated all the cities on a scale of 0-100 to check on how “users perceive real-time multiplayer mobile gaming on cellular networks.” The games taken into consideration for the study were popular multiplayer battle arena games like Call of Duty: Mobile, PUBG Mobile, and Clash Royale.
The study took three key factors for rating the gaming experience, User Datagram Protocol (UDP) latency, packet loss and jitter. UDP latency measures the responsiveness of the network connection. Packet loss is the amount of data packets that never reach their destination. And lastly, Jitter is the variability of the arrival time of data packets.
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A total of 1,76,363 people have recovered from COVID-19 in Chennai till date. Recoveries have crossed 19,000 in two of the city's 15 zones. Anna Nagar (Zone 8) leads the tally with 19,544, while Kodambakkam (Zone 10) comes second with 19,502 recoveries.
Here are the recoveries in the top 10 zones in Chennai:
Due to the incessant rainfall, the Telangana government has postponed all examinations- university, school, recruitment till Dussehra, October 25, informed Education Minister Sabitha Indra Reddy. The minister tweeted, “All the examinations have been postponed till Dasara.”
The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU-H) and Osmania University, Hyderabad have already decided to postpone all exams scheduled on October 19 and 20. The Osmania University has earlier deferred the exams scheduled on October 14 and 15. The varsity will also provide special chances to students considering the situations.
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Declaring the environmental clearance (EC) granted to the Kaleshwaram lift irrigation system in Telangana as ex post facto (retroactive, after it is done) and illegal, the National Green Tribunal has directed the Telangana government to stop all work, except the drinking water component of the project, until further orders.
The Tribunal’s principal bench in New Delhi also directed the state government to obtain forest clearance before moving ahead with the project. The Kaleshwaram Multipurpose Lift Irrigation Project, the world’s largest irrigation and drinking water system, was inaugurated last year by Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao. It is meant to provide water for drinking and irrigation to nearly 45 lakh acres in 20 of 31 districts of Telangana, apart from Hyderabad and Secunderabad.
The environmental clearance, granted to the project in Karimnagar district on December 22, 2017 by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, was cancelled by the NGT on October 12 – it was uploaded Tuesday — on a petition by a farmer from Siddipet district who said he was directly affected by the project.
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The Chennai Police on Tuesday registered a case against a social media user for allegedly issuing rape threats to the daughter of an actor.
“There has been lot of concern in social media regarding comments made in social media against a celebrity. On receipt of complaint to this effect a case in Cyber Cell has been registered”, Chennai Police Commissioner Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal said.
The threat was issued against an actor who recently opted out of a biopic following backlash from Tamil nationalists.
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Kumaran Silks, a popular textile showroom in Chennai’s T Nagar, was on Tuesday sealed by the Greater Chennai Corporation for violating the Standard Operating Procedures [SOPs] issued by the Tamil Nadu government to contain the spread of Covid-19.
PN Sridhar, the central zonal officer responsible for four zones, including Kodambakkam, told indianexpress.com that they had issued a warning to the shop two days ago.
“We received complaints of overcrowding in that shop. The shop officials failed to implement any measures to control the crowd. We issued a warning and a penalty was imposed. The shop owners had promised that they will follow the safety guidelines. After seeing the video, we decided to initiate severe action and today, the shop was sealed. Other shops in the area have also been warned of strict action if they fail to adhere to the SOPs,” he said.
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The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) conducted 393 fever clinics in Chennai on Tuesday. A total of 16,320 people attended the clinics, with swabs collected from 657 people. 657 people with ILI symptoms were identified, while others were provided with medication for minor ailments.
The most number of camps were held in Teynampet (Zone 9) where 49 camps were set up, while Manali (Zone 2) had the least with four camps.
A total of 172 flights will be operated between Chennai and major cities today, with 86 arrivals and 86 departures scheduled at the Chennai International Airport.
Tangedco has announced a powercut in parts of Chennai today from 9 am to 2 pm to carry out maintenance work.
Here are the affected areas:
Even as the flood situation in Telangana continues, several celebrities have come forward with contributions to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund.
While Chiranjeevi and Mahesh Babu came forward to contribute Rs 1 crore each, Jr NTR and Nagarjuna announced contributions of Rs 50 lakh each to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund. Arjun Reddy star Vijay Deverakonda and Ala Vaikunthapurramuloo director Trivikram donated Rs 10 lakh each to help flood victims.
Directors Anil Ravipudi and Harish Shankar came forward to do their bit by donating Rs 5 lakh each.
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Tamil Nadu Tuesday saw a drop in cases, with 3,094 patients testing positive for Covid-19, taking the overall tally to 6,94,030. The death toll rose to 10,471 after 50 more people succumbed to the virus.
A total of 80,371 samples were tested on Tuesday; the state has tested 91,12,067 samples so far. There are still 36,734 active cases in Tamil Nadu. As many as 4,403 patients were discharged from hospitals after recovering from the virus. The total number of recoveries has now increased to 6,46,555.
Chennai reported 857 cases followed by Coimbatore with 263, Chengalpattu with 191, and Salem with 169.
Till date, a total of 25,075 children under 12 years and 86,044 persons above 60 years have tested positive for Covid-19. So far, 13,31,705 people have entered Tamil Nadu through various modes of transport and 6,711 of them have tested positive.
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Good morning!
Welcome to the live blog from Chennai and Hyderabad where we bring to you the latest updates on COVID-19, lockdown in Tamil Nadu, lockdown in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, rains in Hyderabad and Telangana, Tamil Nadu rains and more across Chennai and Hyderabad through the day. Follow the blog to stay up to date with the states in real time.