“The police learnt that a hospital in the area, through advertisements, was making objectionable comments about a minority community which could lead to unrest. The owner/proprietor has been booked and the matter is being investigated,” said Ajay Sahni, SSP, Meerut.

The issue was flagged in a meeting of the Ministry of Rural Development with state officers handling MGNREGA for the post-April 20 situation.

The usage of cash and other cash-based services, however, dipped during the period, the data showed.

Pharma giants Cipla, Dr Reddy’s, Torrent and Zydus Cadila are among the majors that have been permitted to induct workers from “nearby areas, inside and outside the state” to ramp up production.

At a review meeting, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath formed a high-level committee led by the Agricultural Production Commissioner to figure out how these workers can be given jobs.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal repeatedly referred to the situation in European countries like Italy, Spain and France in making a case for prohibitory measures, which have remained in force in the city for nearly a month now.

In its April 15 guidelines, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said e-commerce companies would be allowed and “vehicles used by e-commerce operators will be allowed to ply with necessary permissions”.

Three districts — Patna (Bihar), Nadia (West Bengal) and Panipat (Haryana) — which had not reported any new cases for over 14 days, have seen fresh cases in the last 24 hours.

A highly placed source said, “This means that whoever comes forward to get tested, we will test, regardless of whether the person has travel and contact history or not.”

While some like Chhattisgarh plan to use these as tracers to check for community transmission, others like Goa and Karnataka are prioritising it for persons with ILI (influenza-like illness) symptoms.

Pokhriyal said the CBSE has instructed its course committees to start work on reducing the load for the exams next year.

On Saturday, Maharashtra conducted a snap survey seeking feedback on the viability of its operational guidelines from 115 major industrial establishments.

Under the Disaster Management Act, states are bound by guidelines issued by the Centre — while they have the liberty to make lockdown measures stricter, states can’t be seen as diluting the measures suggested by the Centre.

According to amendments to India’s consolidated FDI Policy, 2017, while non-resident entities can continue to invest in India, except in prohibited sectors or activities, firms in neighbouring countries will have to seek approval.

Between April 1 and 14 that number has dramatically shrunk to just 19,145 with 15,813 being notified by the government sector.

Samples from 60 people had been taken from the Jahangirpuri locality as part of the government’s community testing efforts in coronavirus hotspots.

While the Centre has mainly advocated resumption of manufacturing and industrial activity in areas outside the 170 hotspots, Maharashtra appears to have made an exception for underconstruction projects in Mumbai and Pune.

“In the red zones, lockdown should be properly monitored and maintained. No one should be allowed to exit from and enter these areas. If necessary, police can deliver food at doorsteps," said Mamata Banerjee.

Nationally, when it comes to recovered patients, more than half (55.55 per cent) come from these three districts in a state; also, an average 63.9 per cent of deaths, too, are from here.

Stating that COVID-19 has “severely impacted” small and mid-sized corporates, including NBFCs and micro-finance institutions, the RBI slashed reverse repo rate — the rate at which the RBI borrows funds from banks.

The WMA are short-term loan facilities which allow the Centre and states to borrow funds from the RBI at repo rate (4.4 per cent now) and bridge the mismatch between expenditure and receipts.

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Friday said three strains of the virus have been detected in the country so far.

Despite the lockdown, the three had managed to cover a distance of 120 km, till they were stopped by a sentry of the forest department near Gadchinchle village, which is close to the border that Maharashtra shares with the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli.

The Indian Express traced around 40 coronavirus cases or their contacts to the hospital from Agra, while at least a dozen belong to the surrounding districts of Kannauj, Mainpuri, Firozabad and Mathura.