Delhi

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) Moody's Investors Service on Tuesday slashed India's growth forecast to 0.2 per cent for the 2020 calendar year from the earlier projection of 2.5 per cent released in March.

Stating that the economic costs of shutdown of the global economy are accumulating rapidly, Moody's in its Global Macro Outlook 2020-21 (April 2020 Update) projected that all G-20 advanced economies would contract by 5.8 per cent in 2020.

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) BJP president J P Nadda on Tuesday said that people should be "mentally ready" for a long fight against coronavirus and expressed confidence that the country will prevail over the pandemic.

In a video interaction with party leaders from Assam, he asked them to be "role models" with their conduct during the lockdown by following the guidelines and acting as a bridge between people and administration, a party statement said.

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) WhatsApp on Tuesday said it will now allow up to eight people to connect on a group video call as an increasing number of people turn to digital platforms to connect with friends and family amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Facebook-owned company said over the last month, people on average are spending over 15 billion minutes talking each day on WhatsApp calls, well above a typical day before the pandemic.

New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over the issue of bad loans, accusing it of weakening the entire banking architecture fiscally and imprudently in the name of cleaning the system.

The party was responding to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's tweet on Tuesday night in which she accused the Congress and its leaders of "misleading" people on loan write-offs.

Pithoragarh (U'khand), Apr 29 (PTI) Uncertainty prevails over the timely start of Mansarovar Yatra' through the Lipulekh pass this year, with preparations for the annual pilgrimage yet to begin.

The pilgrimage begins by the second week of June every year and the preparations for the yatra usually begin two months in advance, but the COVID-19 induced lockdown has delayed the process.

New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI) The Delhi High Court has directed that arrests in connection with the recent riots in the national capital, shall be done in accordance with the Supreme Court guidelines related to arrest and detention.

The direction was issued by a bench of Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh which also issued notice to the Centre, Delhi government and police seeking their stand on a plea alleging that arrests in connection with the riots were being made during the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic.

NEW DELHI, April 28 (NNN-PTI) – Discussions are underway in India, regarding whether to extend the 40-day lock-down, imposed to fight COVID-19, and slated to end on May 3.

Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, yesterday held a video conference with chief ministers of states, and received feedback on the matter.

The lock-down has so far yielded positive results, as the country managed to save thousands of lives in the past one-and-a-half months, said Modi, during the conference.

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) This institution is not hostage of government, the Supreme Court said on Monday as it sought reply from the Centre on a plea seeking direction to authorities to allow migrant workers across the country to return home after conducting coronavirus tests.

The top court's remark came after advocate Prashant Bhushan told the court that the government's view is being blindly considered without verifying it, while fundamental rights of people especially migrant workers are not being enforced.

New Delhi, Apr 27 (PTI) As many as 33 staffers of a leading private hospital in east Delhi, including two doctors, nurses and paramedic staff, have tested positive for coronavirus over the last two weeks, sources said on Monday.

Max Healthcare group had announced two weeks ago that it was going to conduct tests for COVID-19 on all its employees and patients at its facilities across the country.

New Delhi, Apr 26 (PTI) Remaining risk-averse amid the coronavirus pandemic, overseas investors have withdrawn net Rs 10,347 crore from Indian capital markets in April so far.

Between April 1-24, foreign portfolio investors (FPI) pulled out a net sum of Rs 6,822 crore from equities and Rs 3,525 crore from the debt segment, depositories data showed.

The total net outflow stood at Rs 10,347 crore.