Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has announced the replacement of strict curfew with a lockdown till May 31 in the State, while indicating resumption of limited public transport and maximum possible relaxations in non-containment zones from May 18. The containment zones would be strictly sealed to enable the resumption of shops and small businesses in the non-containment areas, he announced, adding that details of all relaxations would be announced by Monday, taking into account the new guidelines of the Centre for Lockdown 4.0. He, however, made it clear that educational institut

Gurdas Singh Badal, father of Punjab's Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal, and brother of the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Parkash Singh Badal has passed away. 90 year old Gurdas Singh Badal was not keeping well due to multiple issues related to acute diabetes, blood pressure, and heart problem. He was recently admitted to a private hospital in Mohali. Manpreet Badal shared the news of his father's demise on his twitter handle, "It is with great sorrow that I inform about the demise of my father S.Gurdas Singh Badal. He passed away last night at Fortis Hospital, Mohali. He was 90. His h

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in India reached 74,281 on Wednesday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The tally is inclusive of 47,480 active cases, 24,385 cured/discharged patients and 2,415 deaths due to the infection. While the doubling time earlier was 10.9 days, it has improved to 12.2 in the last few days. According to MoHFW, Maharashtra has the most number of positive COVID-19 cases with 24,427 positive cases, followed by Gujarat with 8,903, and Tamil Nadu with 8,718 cases. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan today held a meeting via video conference with

Former Olympic gold medallist and hockey legend Balbir Singh Senior on Tuesday, suffered a cardiac arrest and is currently on ventilator support. Balbir's grandson Kabir said doctors will continuously assess the condition of the former player over the next two days. "Balbir Singh suffered a cardiac arrest today morning. He is currently in ICU at Fortis Hospital, Mohali. He was admitted here on May 8 in a very serious state. His condition had improved slightly but he's still critical," Kabir said in a statement. "Doctors will be continuously assessing his condition over the next 24-48 hours be

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Monday pitched for extension of the lockdown with a "carefully crafted strategy", which is to be backed by fiscal and economic empowerment of the states to save lives and secure livelihood. During a video conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singh said that states needed to be given greater flexibility in micro-planning as part of a carefully planned exit strategy, encompassing both COVID containment and a defined path of economic revival. He demanded urgent financial assistance to states to meet at least 33 per cent of their committed

In view of the COVID-19 situation in the state, Punjab government has canceled the class 10th exams saying that students will be promoted based on their performance in pre-Board exams."Class X students under Punjab School Education Board will not have to take any exams and will be promoted on basis of their performance in pre-Board exams," said Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.The state government has also decided to promote students from classes 5th to 9th. "The state government has decided to promote all students of Classes V to X under Punjab School Education system to next class without any

Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on Thursday chaired a high-level meeting to take stock of the steps being taken in response to the gas leak incident in Vishakhapatnam. The Prime Minister discussed at length the measures being taken for the safety of the affected people as well as for securing the site affected by the disaster, read a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs issued on Thursday. The meeting was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah, Ministers of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai and G Kishan Reddy, besides other senior officers. On rec

Punjab Home Department on Wednesday said that shops would remain open from 7 am to 3 pm in the State during the coronavirus-induced lockdown. "The State government has now decided that the shops will remain open from 7 am to 3 pm," said the state Home Department in a notification. "The district authorities shall ensure that there is no overcrowding and social distancing is maintained as already advised," adds the notification further. It, however, said that banks shall continue to open for public works only from 9 am to 1 pm but allowed to carry out their non-public dealing office work as per

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting of the task force on coronavirus vaccine development, drug discovery, diagnosis and testing and took a detailed review of the current status of India's efforts in these areas. The review by the Prime Minister took note of the extraordinary coming together of academia, industry and government, combined with speedy but efficient regulatory process. According to an official release, the Prime Minister desired that such coordination and speed should be embedded into a standard operating procedure. It said over 30 Indian vaccines are in dif