‘Nothing for states’: Mamata dubs Centre’s stimulus ‘big zero’

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‘Nothing for states’: Mamata dubs Centre’s stimulus ‘big zero’

Terming the economic stimulus package announced by the Centre as “a big zero”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said it was nothing but an “eyewash” and full of “misleading information”.

“In the name of lockdown, the Centre is trying economically cripple all the state governments. The announcement made by the Union Finance Minister was full of misleading information. It is nothing but a big zero as the states have got nothing,” Banerjee told a press conference at the state secretariat Nabanna here.

She said that the economic activities and the lives of common people have virtually come to a standstill across India, but there was nothing in the stimulus package.

“Democracy has also come to a halt. The Centre is misleading us with false figures. The recession has already started. And the Central government has not mentioned anything about the special package for Covid-19 crisis, no funds for healthcare sector’s revival, job creation, market development, any waiver for the farmers and special grants to the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector,” she said.

Banerjee said that, meanwhile, her government has taken up a series of revolutionary steps for reviving the economic conditions of the rural folk. The decisions were taken to observe the 9th year of the Trinamool Congress’ government.

“We came to power and formed our government on May 13, 2011. Thus, we decided to take a few revolutionary steps across the state. This initiative will include measures of developing about 50,000 acres of land sprawling over six districts – Bankura, Purulia, Jhargram, Birbhum, West Midnapur and West Burdwan,” she said.

The state government will develop these huge acres of land which is not agriculturally fertile, the Chief Minister said, adding that activities such as animal rearing and fisheries will be carried out involving the self-help groups (SHG) to generate income for the local people.

“We don’t indulge in tall talk of being self-reliant. Rather we try to prove it. We have already readied at least 550 micro-plans, covering about 6,500 acres of land sprawled across these six districts,” she said, indirectly taking a jab at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation Tuesday night.

Banerjee also announced that her administration would carry out sentinel survey across Bengal to understand the nature of Covid-19 spread in various districts. “Four of our green zone districts have already turned orange. Our challenge is to make then green once again,” she added.

India’s $45 billion PE/VC deals in 2019 highest in 10 years

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India’s $45 billion PE/VC deals in 2019 highest in 10 years

With more than 1,000 private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) deals valued at $45 billion, the highest in the last decade, India continued to be the second largest deal market in Asia-Pacific in 2019, said a Bain & Company report on Wednesday.

In 2019, India saw an increase in the number of large deals greater than $100 million, a rise in their average deal size and a surge in VC investments, said the “India Private Equity Report 2020”.

India’s share of the Asia Pacific deal market increased to nearly 25 percent in 2019 and investment value was about 70 percent higher than 2018 and nearly 110 percent higher than the previous five-year average.

The top 15 deals in India, which constituted more than 35 percent of total investment value in 2019, five were in real estate; three in IT and IT-enabled services (ITES); and the rest across banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), telecommunications, energy and consumer technology.

However, exit value in 2019 decreased, finishing at nearly $13 billion, compared to $17 billion in 2018 (excluding Flipkart’s exit), but was still the third-highest for the last decade, said the report.

The dip over last year was driven by a decrease in the number of exits from 265 to 200.

With an unpredictable public market, strategic sales became the preferred mode of exit, accounting for about 50 percent of exit volume.

According to Bain’s analysis, India-focused dry powder will remain healthy, but a potential reduction in investments could occur in the first half of 2020, accompanied by a price correction across the board due to COVID-19 disruptions.

“From an investment perspective, we will likely see a short-term dip in investment activity with Covid-19, as already evidenced globally,” Arpan Sheth, Partner, Bain & Company and one of the lead authors of the report, said in a statement.

“However, this imminent price correction across the board will present an investment opportunity. Investors need to triage their portfolio and take actions to adapt to the changes in the economy which includes taking immediate actions to ensure business continuity and plan for value creation to retool their businesses for the future,” Sheth added.

The report added that Software as a Service (SaaS) and cross-sector technologies will be the most attractive opportunities for investors in the future, expected to grow around 50 percent annually from nearly $6 billion in 2019 to over $20 billion in 2022.

“The market disruption caused by Covid-19 could lead to growth in select pockets such as e-commerce, enterprise technology/SaaS, healthcare, on-demand services,” Sheth said.

Haryana to provide potable water to rural households by 2022

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Haryana to provide potable water to rural households by 2022

Haryana is geared up to provide tap water connection to all rural households by December 2022, ahead of the national goal by 2024-25, a statement said on Wednesday.

The state provided 1.05 lakh tap connections during 2019-20 under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Now the state is planning 100 percent coverage by December 2022, a government statement said.

By doing so, Haryana will be among the leading states to accomplish the ambitious target of providing tap connection to each rural household.

Presenting their action plan to the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation on Tuesday for achieving the goal of every household with tap water supply under the JJM, state officials said there are 28.94 lakh households in Haryana, out of which 18.83 lakh are already provided with functional household tap connection.

Out of the remaining 10.11 lakh households, the state plans to provide tap connections in seven lakh households by 2020-21.

In the current year, the state is planning for 100 percent coverage of one district and 2,898 villages out of total 6,987 villages.

More emphasis has been given to cover rural households in drought prone areas and aspirational districts. The state is likely to get Rs 290 crore as Central share under JJM for this fiscal, which will be supplemented by same amount of state’s matching share.

The state is eligible for additional allocation based on physical and financial performance.

Out of 44 water testing laboratories, the state plans National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) accreditation of 18 labs in the current year.

Field testing kits will be provided at community level for testing of water quality for taking corrective measures. The state has planned to provide drinking water to all 35 quality-affected habitations.

During this testing time of Covid-19 pandemic, such attempts to provide household tap connections in rural areas will definitely improve the ease of living especially the women and girls, reducing their drudgery, making them safe and lead a dignified life.

The government of India is implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) in partnership with states to ensure every rural household in the country has functional household tap connection for drinking water in adequate quantity of prescribed quality on regular and long-term basis at affordable service delivery charges leading to improvement in their living standards.

Discoms to get Rs 90K liquidity support to clear dues

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Discoms to get Rs 90K liquidity support to clear dues

In a bid to save the financially stressed discoms from further crisis, the central government on Wednesday announced a Rs 90,000 crore liquidity injection plan that would allow these entities to clear their dues towards power generation companies.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the liquidity window for discoms was essential as its revenue has plummeted and they are in the midst of unprecedented cash flow problem accentuated by demand reduction during the current lockdown.

Under the plan unveiled by the Finance Minister, power sector financiers — PFC and REC will infuse liquidity of Rs 90,000 crore to DISCOMs against receivables. Loans will be extended against State guarantees for exclusive purpose of discharging liabilities of Discoms to Gencos.

Discoms dues towards gencos have risen to Rs 94,000 crore and this was making operations unsustainable as unpaid power producers were looking to stop power supplies to states.

As with earlier power sector reform initiatives, the loans will be given to discoms against specific activities and reforms: digital payments facility by Discoms for consumers, liquidation of outstanding dues of State Governments, Plan to reduce financial and operational losses.

To make the exercise beneficial even to power consumers, it has been decided that Central Public Sector Generation Companies shall give rebate to Discoms on clearance of their dues, which shall be passed on to the final consumers (industries) by way of rebate of power tariff.

The Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown has squeezed power demand sharply in months of March and April and the fall has been such sharp that demand for full year 2020-21 is set to report 1 per cent decline, first time in almost 36 years.

Not only this, with expectation that the lockdown may continue in large parts of the country for some more time, the discoms are set to return of yesteryears of adding losses after losses every year making their operations unviable. Extension would also impact demand further.

According to an analysis done by rating agency Moody’s unit ICRA, expected losses at state-run electricity distribution utilities (DISCOMs) would rise two-thirds to Rs 50,000 crore in FY21 with an addition of Rs 20,000 crore in book level losses in current year itself.

Discoms have already been reeling under low demand conditions for some time and this has impacted their revenue and ability to service payment dues to generators. Accordingly, the debt-laden DISCOMs’ overdue payment to electricity generators had risen to Rs 94,000 crore now, more than 50 percent higher compared with the same period last year.

What has added to problems of discoms is that the lockdown has resulted in consumption decline from the high tariff paying industrial and commercial consumers (tariff almost twice that for households) and the likely delays in cash collections from other consumer segments.

Covid-19 impact leads to liquor prices hiked up to 35% in Kerala

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Covid-19 impact leads to liquor prices hiked up to 35% in Kerala

The Kerala cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday decided to hike the tax rates on liquor, beer and wine ranging from 10 to 35 per cent.

The office of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that this has been done to tide over the difficulties faced on account of the lockdown and an ordinance to this effect will be issued soon.

“The tax rate on beer and wine would go up by 10 per cent, while all forms of liquor will be taxed by an additional 35 per cent,” said Vijayan.

The liquor vends and bars are all closed and in all likelihood, might open very soon.

The state exchequer has been reeling under lack of revenue and last month all what the state government could collect from various sources was a mere Rs 250 crore.

For fund-starved Kerala, revenue from liquor and beer is one of the biggest cash cows and in the last fiscal, garnered it a total of Rs 14,504.67 crore and hence the devolution of IT into Bevco, would be a big relief for the state’s finances.

The profile of liquor users in the state, in a study conducted earlier, reveal that around 32.9 lakh people – 29.8 lakh men and 3.1 lakh women – out of the state’s 3.34 crore population consume liquor.

Around five lakh people consume liquor on a daily basis. Of this, 83,851 people, including 1,043 women, are addicted to alcohol.

2 killed in reactor blast at biofuel plant in Telangana

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2 killed in reactor blast at biofuel plant in Telangana

Two workers were killed and another injured in a reactor blast at a bio-diesel plant near Zaheerabad town in the Sangareddy district of Telangana on Wednesday, the police said.

The incident occurred when workers were doing repair work at the reactor in the plant, which was getting ready to re-open after the lockdown.

According to the police, the reactor’s roof exploded and the workers were thrown away. Ghousuddin (35) and Saber (33) died on the spot, while Krishna Reddy was admitted to a hospital with injuries.

The bodies were shifted to a government-run hospital for autopsy.

After the accident, locals gathered at the plant and demanded compensation for the victims’ families and the injured.

Local legislators Manik Rao and Mohammed Fareeduddin visited the plant and assured the aggrieved families of all help from the government.

The Telangana accident has occurred after an industrial disaster in Andhra Pradesh, which claimed 12 lives and injured hundreds due to gas leak from a chemical plant near Visakhapatnam on May 7.

The styrene gas leak from LG Polymers affected people in five villages. The accident occurred after the plant was re-opened after 40 days due to the lockdown.

The officials suspect the gas leak was caused by the initiation of polymerization of styrene in liquid form due to prolonged storage during the lockdown. The safety system failed to prevent the gasification of styrene, causing its leak.

Indian hotel industry dips 18.5% in RevPAR in Q1 2020: Report

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Indian hotel industry dips 18.5% in RevPAR in Q1 2020: Report

The Indian hotel industry has declined by 18.5 percent in revenue per available room (RevPAR) in the first quarter of 2020, says a report.

According to JLL’s Hotel Momentum India (HMI) Q1 2020, all major 11 markets of India – Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Goa, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Pune – witnessed a decline in RevPAR in the first quarter of 2020, over the same period last year.

Bengaluru saw the sharpest decline with 28.5 percent of RevPAR, compared to the same period in the previous year. Mumbai reported 20 percent in Q1 2020 compared to Q1 2019. Hyderabad witnessed a RevPAR decline of 13.6 percent, Ahmedabad and Pune witnessed a drop of 13.2 percent and 13.4 percent, respectively in this quarter.

The COVID-19 outbreak and the containment measures introduced by the government have resulted in a severe drop in foreign and domestic travel, across both business and leisure travel segments.

In terms of development, new hotel brand signings declined by 10 percent in Q1 2020 Year-on-Year. Amongst the hotel operators, Indian hotel companies signed more keys than their international counterparts, increasing the share from 40 percent to 59 percent of total signings.

“Domestic hotel operators dominated signings over international operators with the ratio of 59:41, in terms of inventory volume. Most of these signings took place in January and February 2020 and many of them will fall through from 2019. It is also important to note that 23 percent of these new signings are conversions of old hotels,” said the report.

Jaideep Dang, Managing Director, Hotels & Hospitality Group (India), JLL commented: “Glimpses of travel decline started in late February, and by March, the writing was on the wall that hotels would be facing their toughest test since the Global Financial Crisis. The high performance of the hotel industry in 2019 was followed by a positive start in January of 2020, but the script would change diametrically within the last two months. On the back of halted travel, pressure on hotel occupancies will be felt through the year.”

FM announces 15 measures to revive MSMEs, NBFCs and real estate sectors

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FM announces 15 measures to revive MSMEs, NBFCs and real estate sectors

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday announced 15 measures to revive and support business under the mega stimulus package — Self-Reliant India Movement — which was announced by last evening.

Giving detail about the measures, the minister said that six measures are exclusively meant for the MSME sector, while the others pertain to real estate, NBFCs, and general businesses.

Attempts have also been made via these measures to decrease the regulatory burden on companies while increasing the take-home pay of employees.

For the MSME sector, the minister detailed six measures including the new definition of the sector.

Accordingly, the investment limit for defining MSMEs has been revised upwards.

Besides, she highlighted that additional criteria such as turnover have been considered for defining MSMEs.

The Centre has also decided not to go in for global bidding for government procurement for tenders up to Rs 200 crore, thereby, promoting the participation of MSMEs, she said.

Furthermore, e-market linkage for MSMEs will also be provided and that CPSEs will pay all receivables to MSMEs within 45 days.

Allu Arvind have sent a proposal to Telangana government

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Allu Arvind have sent a proposal to Telangana government

Mega producer Allu Arvind has launched his OTT app Aha, just before the country slipped into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. If there is no lockdown or no Covid-19 pandemic, he might have released some 6-10 webseries by now already. But the crisis has stopped Arvind big time.

Taking things into hands, other day, Allu Arvind is said to have sent a proposal to Telangana government to allow his company to shoot web series with a limited crew of 15-20 members. According to an English daily report, Arvind is said to be trying very hard to get the permission such that he could resume many projects that he gave green signal to, already.

However, just a couple of days after relaxing some of the lockdown rules, Hyderabad experienced another worst nightmare other day. A whopping 79 positive cases are registered, thus alarming the authorities with the new Covid-19 positive cases surge. Exactly at this point of time, Allu Arvind has sent a proposal to the government, which might not evince any interest, feel observers.

Also, theatre owners are also sending proposals to Govt to allow them run the business with limited public consumption.

Small Tribute to highly talented actor Irfan Khan

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Small Tribute to highly talented actor Irfan Khan

A couple of weeks ago, highly talented actor Irfan Khan breathed his last and left this world permanently, leaving a lot of films in his memory. But not just films, even in real life, the actor has done lots of good work. As a tribute to the work done by him, a neighbourhood as now changed their area’s name.

Near the village of Igatpuri in Maharashtra, actually Irfan Khan has built farmhouse years back. But then the has come to know that the surrounding habitat is not even having proper electricity and the villagers are suffering from poverty as well.

In order to change their lives, Irfan is said to have provided them with electricity, built a school and also gave computers to the poor students to learn new things. Also, the actor donated an ambulance to the village such that any medical emergency could be dealt with easily.

As a tribute to the help done by the versatile actor, the villagers have named that neighbourhood as Herochi Wadi. That means “neighbourhood of a hero” in Marathi langauge. Also they are said to be planning to install a staute of the actor in their locality once the lockdown gets lifted.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media

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Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is addressing the media to share details of the fiscal and monetary measures worth Rs 20 lakh crore announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, to tackle the impact of coronavirus and weeks of lockdown on the economy. This is the first of a series of press briefings by the Finance Minister in the coming days.

The Finance Minister’s address comes at a time when the country remains in a nationwide lockdown with few exceptions to curb the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The coronavirus-triggered lockdown has pushed an already-ailing economy into a standstill, hampering businesses and landing thousands jobless. Economists say details of the package will be watched closely for assessing its effectiveness to aid the economy’s fight against COVID-19.

Dr Nair passed away after a prolonged COVID-19 illness

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Dr Nair passed away after a prolonged COVID-19 illness

An “outstanding” Indian-origin woman doctor has died in the north-east of England after a long battle with the deadly coronavirus.Dr Poornima Nair, a 55-year-old Keralite from Delhi worked at the Station View Medical Centre in Bishop Auckland in County Durham of England.

She died at the University Hospital of North Tees Hospital at Stockton-on-Tees after a long battle with COVID-19.Dr Nair is believed to be the tenth General Practitioner (GP) to die on the frontlines of the UK’s medical community fighting the coronavirus. The highly contagious infection has claimed the lives of over 32,000 people in the country.

“The practice is very sorry to announce to our patients the death of our much loved and valued colleague and friend Dr Poornima Nair,” the medical centre said in a message.

“Dr Nair passed away after a prolonged COVID-19 illness, which she fought with her great strength of character. We are all devastated and upset by this tragic news and hope you will join with us in our thoughts and prayers,” it said.

Tributes have been pouring in for the doctor on social media from friends, colleagues and others known to the general practitioner (GP).She had been on ventilator support for a few days before she succumbed to the disease this week.

University in Himachal to study Covid-19 drugs

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University in Himachal to study Covid-19 drugs

A team of scientists from a university in Himachal Pradesh has been offered a grant through Microsoft to conduct research on finding drugs to cure and prevent Covid-19.

This project will directly influence the anti-viral drug development.

It has been funded through High-Performance Computing Consortium and the team is led by Gurjot Kaur, Associate Professor, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Shoolini University. It will have access to Microsoft Azure credits for six months to perform work using Microsoft licensed resources like online platforms and virtual machines.

The team will perform much-needed screening of phytochemical constituents for anti-viral activity through interaction with Covid-19 specific targets using molecular modeling studies.

Indian medicinal herbs have same or similar phytoconstituents and do show great promise as anti-Covid-19 drugs.

This project will directly influence the anti-viral drug development for Covid-19 and thus has high impact, said the university on Wednesday.

New health tracking Apple Watch

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New health tracking Apple Watch

Apple Watch 6 is on the cards and the company might bring some new health tracking features that may broaden the scope of audience for the smart watch. Apple has patented a new technology that might make its way to the Apple Watch 6. Using this new technology, the wearable is expected to start tracking blood pressure.

Conventional blood pressure checking machines come with an elaborate setup that requires equipment like pressure cuff and stethoscope. According to a report by TechRadar Apple filed patent no. 10646121 which describes how the company is planning on using a non-invasive technology in order to get a read on the blood pressure using the smartwatch.

Apple will try to achieve this by using applanation tonometry, a method optometrists use to measure pressure in the eye especially for diseases like glaucoma in which the test measures the amount of force needed to temporarily flatten a part of your cornea.

For now, there’s no confirmation if the patent will materialize in the upcoming Apple Watch 6 or any of the later versions.

The company recently launched a new mid-range smartphone iPhone SE that starts at a price of ₹42,500. Apple’s upcoming iPhone 12 series has also been subjected to various leaks in the past week. The company is expected to launch four new models, the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Max, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. The latest leaks claim the price of the new series will begin from $649 (roughly ₹48,900) in U.S.

‘TN to follow Centre in resource allocation to revive economy’

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‘TN to follow Centre in resource allocation to revive economy’

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K.Palaniswami on Wednesday said the state government will follow the Central government in the case of allocation of resources for kick-starting the economy.

Addressing the District Collectors at a Covid-19 review meeting, via video conference, he said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Rs 20 lakh crore economic stimulus package, and the state government will follow the allocation pattern of resources to various sectors announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the benefit of industrial and farm sectors and the general public.

He said the government is willing to relax the lockdown restrictions if people extend their cooperation in controlling the Coronavirus spread.

Palaniswami said combating the virus spread is in the people’s hands, if they follow the guidelines issued by the government.

He said the spike in Coronavirus infection numbers in the state is due to higher testing of swab samples.

Modi assured About special economic package

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Modi assured About special economic package

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the nation regarding the pandemic, number of cases and tried to boost the morale. In a major announcement, the PM announced ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ (Mission Self-Reliant India) a mammoth special economic package with Rs 20 Lakh Crore to the people of the country.

PM Modi announced the helicopter money package which is 10 percent of the country’s GDP and assured of assisting all sections of people with it, including the migrants and farmers. Modi affirmed that the special package will uplift the land, labor, and liquidity.

Modi said that India has been fighting coronavirus from four months and many lost their near and dear to this epidemic. The PM tried to induce strength in people by saying that the whole world is fighting the same and we should be determined and should not lose the spirit.

Modi assured that this special economic package is to support and strengthen the country’s small and medium scale industries. Further details about the Aatma Nirbhar Abhiyaan package will be revealed by Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman from tomorrow.

Speaking about the necessity and message to the nation brought by the outbreak, Modi said that India was not producing even one PPE kit in the beginning and now we have lakhs of masks and PPE kits manufactured within the country.

Two Telugu States CMs are in good terms

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Two Telugu States CMs are in good terms

Once again the water war has begun between in the Telugu states. To provide water for Rayalaseema region, AP CM YS Jagan has issued G.O. number 203 to use the flood water from Srisailam dam. The YSRCP government has also issued administrative sanctions regarding the same. Telangana CM KCR has severely opposed this and lodged a complaint against AP government at Krishna Tribunal.

However, the oppositions in Telangana smell something fishy here and added that there is a secret deal between Jagan and KCR in this issue. Speaking on it BJP leader DK Aruna said, “This fresh action of AP government will do a lot of damage to the joint Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Nalgonda districts. It will also affect the irrigation projects like Kalvakurthi and Palamuru-Rangareddy. I suspect an understanding between the CMs of Telugu states.”

The former minister also said, KCR is neglecting South Telangana and is doing complete injustice to the region. “For North Telangana irrigation projects, KCR passes orders in hours, sanctions budget in days whereas for South Telangana projects, they take years to complete,” said Aruna and added that she had met CM KCR on couple of occasions and urged him to complete projects in south Telangana at faster pace.

“Palamur-Rangareddy project was allotted two TMC of water. But very recently this was reduced to just one TMC and still the government is yet to allocate funds for it. This is an evidence of KCR’s pure negligence and he has no intentions of completing irrigation projects of South Telangana. I don’t think KCR has no knowledge about AP CM Jagan’s order on G.O. 203,” said Aruna.

Shahid Kapoor compliments tollywood star

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Shahid Kapoor compliments tollywood star

Stylish Star Allu Arjun had set a bar for dance in films and this is what earned him fans across India. Not just common fans but there are many celebrities too. We have heard about Bollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan and sultry siren Disha Patani complimenting Bunny’s dance and there is another hero too now.

He is Shahid Kapoor. The ‘Kabir Singh’ hero went for a Twitter Q&A last night and when an enthusiast asked one word about Allu Arjun, Shahid Kapoor replied that “Love his dancing skills.”

Bunny’s fans were once again delighted to see other industry heroes appreciating their favourite hero. However, Allu Arjun who is usually active on social media, is yet to react on Shahid’s flattering words.

Twitter India launches gratitude emoji

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Twitter India launches gratitude emoji

Micro-blogging platform Twitter India on Wednesday launched a new gratitude emoji that can be triggered with ‘#thankful’, ‘#gratitude’ and other variations of the words.

Since March 15, there have been over 250 million tweets worldwide expressing gratitude and thanks – a 26 percent increase from February’s average.

“Who do we see people expressing that gratitude for? The most common word is ‘everyone’. Everyone who is an essential worker. Everyone who has helped. Everyone in healthcare. Everyone who has reached out. Everyone,” the company tweeted.

“To give you another way to show your gratitude, we’ve created an emoji that will appear when you use #thankful or other hashtags for #gratitude (in various languages),” it added.

Earlier in April, on WorldHealthDay, Twitter had also sent out a token of appreciation for healthcare workers by tweeting with ‘clap’.

The platform recently onboarded the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (@MoHFW_INDIA) to Twitter Seva to help Indians with a speedy resolution to their health-related queries.

Matthew Hayden to do commentary for online cricket game WCC

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Matthew Hayden to do commentary for online cricket game WCC

With the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent cancellation of all cricket matches, former Australia cricketer Matthew Hayden will now aim to bring fans closer to actual cricket by lending his voice to the online gaming world as a commentator on the World Cricket Championship (WCC).

Hayden will offer English commentary with his familiar banter bringing life into the virtual game. He will join former India opener Aakash Chopra who recently came on board as a Hindi commentator to cater to 110 million players.

“Any gamification of a real sport can be a very creative and a liberating space. I loved the freedom that I got in the commentary box of the virtual cricketing world,” said Hayden.

The former Australian opener believes that amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, online sports becomes all the more relevant and entertaining as everyone is staying at home and no live cricket action is taking place.

“Since there are no live cricket matches, this is a way that I can be involved and still communicate with the cricket audience through WCC. Games like these provide a space for people to enjoy themselves and relax, which is important during COVID-19 lockdown.

When asked about the difference of commentating in a live match as compared to doing the same for an online game,” Hayden said: “The game has surely given me a lot of freedom to put my own spin to the commentary script of 1500 words that I was provided with.”

“I never felt like I was commentating on virtual cricket as the commentary included everything from weather conditions, to the size of grounds, different grounds around the world.

“It was almost like doing commentary for a live game. I generated energy in my voice creatively with variation in my voice and patterns in my voice. It was fun to bring to life a situation, maybe a big 6 or an out for the game, as if for a real match,” he added.

P R Rajendran, MD and CEO, Nextwave Multimedia and creator of WCC, said: “With no actual cricket games taking place currently, we hope to fill the gap with commentators like Matthew Hayden and Aakash Chopra to build familiarity and comfort on the game enabling people to come as close to actual cricket as possible.

 

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