lockdown might be further extended in Telangana

Going by the latest comments made by the chief minister of Telangana K Chandrasekhar Rao, the lockdown might be further extended in the state.

“If the common public cooperates with us for a few more days and stand by the lockdown regulations, it would make the situation better,” he said .

The TRS chief further added that the prime minister of India Narendra Modi has called for a video conference with the chief ministers across the country and final decision regarding the lockdown will be taken after the same.

KCR’s comments might be an indirect indication that the lockdown will be extended indefinitely in order to bring th situation under control.

The Coronavirus graph in Telangana has been showing a downward trend and that is a positive news. But the lockdown will be extended till the curve is flattened completely.

Modi will be addressing the nation over the weekend

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi last addressed the nation, he announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3rd. The initial lockdown period was for 21 days, from March 25th to April 14th.

However, as the intensity of Coronavirus started to increase in the country, the Prime Minister was forced to extend the lockdown. Now that the even the second phase of lockdown is coming to an end, with May 3rd fast approaching, the Prime Minister is once again set to address the nation.

Sources say that Modi will be addressing the nation over the weekend, listing out the plans the government will be implementing in case the lockdown is lifted.

When Modi conducted a conference with eh Chief Ministers of various states, he asked all of them to come up with their own exit strategy keeping in mind the situation in their state.

Railway emergency cell for Covid-19 is a comprehensive nationwidea

In a bid to address the grievances of passengers during the nationwide lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus, the Indian Railways emergency cell has responded to over 13,000 calls on a daily basis.

A railway ministry spokesperson said that railway emergency cell for Covid-19 is a comprehensive nationwide unit comprising of about 400 officers and staff from railway board to divisions.

“During the lockdown, the cell has been responding to about 13,000 queries, requests and suggestions everyday, from five communication and feedback platforms – helplines 139 and 138, social media, email and CPGRAMS. And more than 90 per cent of the queries were responded on one-to-one basis, mostly in the local language of the caller, over telephone,” he said.

The official said that due to this 24-hour working railways emergency cell for Covid-19 had its ears to the ground, leading to fleet-footed response to redress grievances of both Railways’ customers and general public.

He said that even RailMadad Helpline 139 answered over 2,30,000 queries on one-on-one basis in first four weeks of the lockdown, in addition to queries answered by its IVRS facility.

“During the same period, over 1,10,000 calls were received on Helpline 138, which is geo-fenced, that is, calls land on the nearest railway divisional control office (manned round-the-clock by railway personnel well-versed in local language and familiar with local issues) as per the location of the caller,” he said.

The railways has suspended passenger, mail and express train services until further orders to combat the spread of Covid-19. Only freight and special train services are running to ensure the supply of essential goods across the country.

Actress Samantha Akkineni 33rd birthday

Telugu star Naga Chaitanya baked a cake for his wife, actress Samantha Akkineni, who celebrated her 33rd birthday on Tuesday.Samantha took to Instagram and shared a string of photos and videos from her birthday celebration.

In one image, Samantha sits in front of a pair of chocolate cakes, folding her hands in prayer. In another picture, she strikes a pose for a selfie with husband Naga Chaitanya.The actress also shared a clip of Chaitanya baking cake for her in their kitchen and captioned it: “Family…. (no points for guessing what I am praying for).”

Samantha is set to make her digital debut with Manoj Bajpayee’s much-awaited web-series “The Family Man 2”Samantha, who shot to fame as Samantha Ruth Prabhu, married actor Naga Chaitanya Akkineni in October 2017, and is a daughter-in-law of South Indian superstar Akkineni Nagarjuna.

On the work front, she was last seen in the fantasy drama “Oh! Baby”. She also had a cameo in “Manmadhudu 2”.

More than 900 people have died in India

Along with the rest of the world, India too is facing and dealing with its own share of misery that the global pandemic of novel coronavirus has been causing over the past few weeks. Nearly 30,000 people have been infected by the virus so far, and more than 900 people have died in India.

However, even despite all the tragedy and chaos, 80 districts in India have not reported a single coronavirus case in the last 7 days. As many as 16 districts have not reported any case in the last 28 days. This is very promising, given the grim situations we are looking at.

More than 30 Lakh people have been infected by a coronavirus in the world, and the USA has crossed the mark of 10 Lakh cases.As of now, there is no official vaccine or cure for coronavirus yet.

Megastar Chiranjeevi in his recent web interaction

Megastar Chiranjeevi in his recent web interaction revealed that his next projects after Acharya are going to be with Saaho fame Sujeeth, Meher Ramesh and Bobby respectively. While Sujeeth film is said to be a remake of the Malayalam hit, Lucifer, the other two projects are going to be original Telugu scripts.

When Chiru himself revealed that Mehre Ramesh will be directing his film, fans and the moviegoers went under shock by recollecting the director’s disastrous track record. But the interesting fact is that Meher Ramesh is not only close to mega camp but also share a relationship with Chiru’s family.

Gossip among film circles is that it is the main reason behind Chiru giving Meher a chance. Buzz is also that Chiru is taking special care about the project and even appointed a group of talented writers to help Ramesh.

New Twist In Pushpa Movie

Allu Arjun and Sukumar’s new film, Pushpa, is carrying high expectations among the fans and trade circles. The film’s shooting is temporarily stalled and will be resumed in June after the lockdown is lifted. Star heroine Rashmika Mandanna is the film’s leading lady.

Meanwhile, from the past few weeks buzz has been circulating that the film has a space for the second heroine role and the makers are in search of the appropriate girl. Now, the latest update from our sources is that the film has no chance for the second heroine character and Rashimka is the only female lead in the film.

Pushpa is being produced under Mythri Movie Makers banner. DSP is scoring the soundtrack.

New Bollywood Actress For Darling

Rebel star Prabhas has received global acclaim for his performance in Bahubali and went on to star in another huge budget film Saaho alongside Bollywood beauty Shraddha Kapoor.

The latest news is that the actor will act with another Bollywood beauty for his upcoming film with Mahanati director Nag Ashwin. The makers are reportedly trying to rope in Kiara Advani opposite Prabhas.

They have reportedly approached Deepika Padukone first for the role but the actress could not join the project due to her packed call-sheets post lockdown.

India’s coronavirus cases are rising more rapidly

Although many experts are saying that the trajectory of India’s new cases will come down very soon, many other sources are saying that the total number of coronavirus cases in India will reach the mark of 50,000 in the next 8 days.

According to recent studies, new cases have been increasing at a rate of 15% in two days, taking the current total to nearly 28,000.India’s cases are rising more rapidly when compared to other Asian countries such as Japan, Indonesia, and Pakistan. India saw a very low number during the initial days, but over the past few weeks, the number of new cases started to increase greatly.

On the other hand, Singapore too is experiencing a sudden surge in the number of new cases, when it thought that the virus was controlled.

Janasena has a large following on social media

Janasena, led by Pawan Kalyan has achieved a mighty rare feat on social media platform, Twitter and Pawan himself has commented about the same.

Pawan Kalyan stated that Janasena has garnered over 1 million followers on Twitter and this is the highest ever follower count for a regional party in South India.

“1 MILLION JANASAINIKS on Twitter @JanaSenaParty . Got to know that this is the highest for any regional party in South India. Heartfelt thanks to @jspshatagniteam & each and every JanaSainik on social platforms. Let’s build an army that Our Nation should be proud of.. Jai Hind!”, Pawan tweeted.

On the other hand, the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, YSRC has 559K followers and Telugu Desam Party has 396K followers on Twitter.Janasena has a large following on social media and that is very much evident in this case.

Message limit in Whatsapp

Facebook-owned WhatsApp which earlier thin month introduced a limit on frequently forwarded messages to one chat at a time has seen a massive 70 per cent drop in such posts being shared or going viral globally, the micro-blogging platform informed on Monday.

With billions of people unable to see their friends and family in person due to COVID-19 social distancing in place, people are relying on WhatsApp more than ever to communicate and in such a scenario, the probability of misinformation or wrong health facts going viral is high.

“WhatsApp is committed to doing our part to tackle viral messages. Since putting into place this new limit, globally there has been a 70 per cent reduction in the number of highly forwarded messages sent on WhatsApp,” a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with IANS.

“This change is helping keep WhatsApp a place for personal and private conversations,” the spokesperson added.In a bid to curb the flow of misinformation in COVID-19 times, Facebook-owned WhatsApp on April 7 announced to introduce a new limit on frequently forwarding messages where a WhatsApp user can forward such messages to one chat at a time.

This limit kicks in once a message has been previously forwarded five times or more.WhatsApp which has over 400 million users in India last year introduced users to the concept of messages that have been forwarded many times.

These messages are labeled with double arrows to indicate they did not originate from a close contact.WhatsApp introduced limit to forwarding to 5 contacts in July 2018 and the move reduced the total number of forwards to 25 per cent.

The company said it bans two million accounts per month for attempting to send bulk or automated messages.WhatsApp is working with NGOs and governments, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and over 20 national health ministries, to help connect people with accurate information. It has also announced the WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub.

M.S. Dhoni Bike Ride With His Cutest Daughter

The talk around whether M.S. Dhoni would don the India jersey again does not seem to end. But the former India captain is unfazed by all of it, as he always has been. Known for his cool demeanour, Dhoni has kept a low profile during the COVID-19 lockdown and can only be seen through his wife Sakshi’s social media posts.

One such Instagram video shared by Sakshi brought to the fore Dhoni’s daddy duties. The 38-year old was seen riding his bike with daughter Ziva in his lawn.Clad in casual attire, the decorated wicketkeeper batsman who led India to two World Cup titles (2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 50-over World Cup), was seen in a relaxed mood.Recently chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav heaped praise on Dhoni and stated he has helped him become a better bowler at the international level.

Kuldeep went on to the extent of saying that because of Dhoni, he didn’t miss his childhood coach too much because they believe in similar philosophy as far as spin bowling is concerned.Dhoni has been on a sabbatical after India’s 2019 World Cup semi-final exit.

With him on a break, India first tried Rishabh Pant behind the wicket before turning to K.L. Rahul to don the wicket-keeping gloves in the shorter formats of the game.Rahul has said that while he is always looking to improve, the boots of Dhoni are big to fill.

Speaking on Star Sports show Cricket Connected, Rahul said: “People who follow cricket know that I haven’t been away from wicket-keeping for too long as I donned the gloves in the IPL and every time I played for Karnataka. I am always in touch with wicket-keeping. I am also somebody who is more than willing to take up the role if the team needs me to.

“I was nervous when I was doing it for India because of the crowd pressure. If you fumble a ball, people feel that you cannot replace M.S. Dhoni. The pressure of replacing a legendary wicket-keeper like MSD was immense as it involved people accepting someone else behind the stumps.”

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video conference with the Chief Ministers of various state Ministers

The nationwide lockdown in India meant the closing of almost every other business except that of daily essentials. As a result, the economy has been suffering ever since the lockdown has been put into effect.

In the video conference with the Chief Ministers of various states, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed on the fact that the economy has been suffering because of the lockdown, and that it needs to be given importance as well.

While the lockdown has helped save thousands and lakhs of lives in India, it has depleted the country’s economy. Even if the lockdown is lifted, life will not go back to the way it was, but the economy can be revived a little.

We have to now see what steps the government will take to make sure that both, lives and the economy is safe.

RBI Writes off Rs 68k cr. loans

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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has admitted to writing off a staggering amount of Rs 68,607-crores due from 50 Top Wilful Defaulters, including absconding diamantaire Mehul Choksi, according to a reply under RTI.

Prominent RTI activist Saket Gokhale had filed an RTI query seeking details of the 50 Top Wilful Defaulters and the status of their current loans till February 16.

“I filed this RTI because Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur, but they had refused to reply to this starred question asked in parliament by Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, in the last budget session, on Feb 16, 2020,” Gokhale told IANS.

Disclosing what the government didn’t, the RBI’s Central Public Information Officer Abhay Kumar provided the replies on Saturday (April 24), with several startling revelations in the ‘diamond-studded list’, said Gokhale.

The RBI said that this amount (Rs 68,607-crore) comprising outstanding and the amounts technically/prudentially Written-Off, till September 30, 2019.

“The apex bank also declined to provide the relevant information on overseas borrowers citing a Supreme Court judgment of December 16, 2015,” Gokhale told IANS.

Topping the list is Choksi’s scam-hit company, Gitanjali Gems Limited which owed Rs.5,492 crore, besides other group companies, Gili India Ltd. and Nakshatra Brands Ltd. which had taken loans of Rs 1,447 crore and Rs 1,109 crore, respectively.

Choksi is currently a citizen of Antigua & Barbados Isles, while his nephew and another absconder diamond trader Nirav Modi is in London.

The second in the list is REI Agro Ltd., with an amount of Rs 4,314 crores, and its directors Sandip Jhujhunwala and Sanjay Jhunjhunwala who are already under the scanner of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) since over a year.

The next on the list in the Rs 4,000-crore bracket is absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta’s Winsome Diamonds & Jewellery owing Rs 4,076 crore and which is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation for various bank frauds.

In the Rs 2,000-crore category, there is the Kanpur-based writing instruments giant, Rotomac Global Pvt. Ltd., part of the famed Kothari group, which owed Rs 2,850 crore.

The others in this category include Kudos Chemie, Punjab (Rs.2,326 crore), Baba Ramdev, and Balkrishna’s group company Ruchi Soya Industries Ltd., Indore (Rs.2,212 crore), and Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd., Gwalior (Rs.2,012 crore).

There are 18 companies in the Rs.1K-segment with some prominent names like Harish R. Mehta’s Ahmedabad-based Forever Precious Jewellery & Diamonds Pvt. Ltd. (Rs.,1962 crore), and absconder liquor baron Vijay Mallya’s defunct Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. (Rs 1,943 crore).

Another 25 companies fall in the sub-1K-crore category with outstandings ranging from Rs 605 crore to Rs 984 crore, either individually or as group companies.

Six among the 50 Top Wilful Defaulters are connected with the glittering diamond and/or gold jewelry industries.

“A majority of them have defaulted prominent nationalist banks over the past several years and many of them are either absconding or facing action by various probe agencies and some are under litigation,” Gokhale said.

No industry is sacrosanct as the top 50 willful defaulters are spread across various sectors of the economy including IT, infrastructure, power, gold-diamond jewelry, pharma, etc.

Samantha Akkineni quarantine time

South beauty Samantha Akkineni is spending most of her quarantine time with her cute puppy, Hash amid lockdown. Her Instagram posts are all proof! In a latest post, the 32-year-old actress posted an adorable video of her furry friend following her wherever she goes in the house. Be it the home theatre, bedroom, lawn, cooking space or gym, Hash seems to accompany her lady boss everywhere in the house.

Recently, Samantha and Amala Akkineni were on the news headlines as the latter spelled beans on Samantha’s cooking skills. In an interview, Amala told that Samantha doesn’t cook at home and she further added that, “When the family has a good cook in Nagarjuna, why do we need to hire someone to do it?” Amala sang praises for her husband’s culinary skills. However, Samantha did not comment anything on it.

Talking about the professional front, after wrapping up the second season of The Family Man, Samantha has recently signed Vignesh Shivan’s Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kadhal which stars Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara.

Netizens started trolling the ‘Baahubali’ director

Tollywood director, SS Rajamouli in a recent interview said that oscar-winning film, ‘Parasite’ is a boring movie for him. He expressed his feeling that he started watching the film at around 10 pm and halfway through, he dozed off and slept. The comments made by SS Rajamouli shook the filmy buffs and some of the netizens started trolling the ‘Baahubali’ director.

Prashanth Kumar the director of the film, Mithai took to his Twitter and wrote a letter to SS Rajamouli. He tweeted as, “S.S Rajmauli slept off while watching Parasite & found it boring and slept off. More than anything, Parasite is an original piece of work. Originality deserves respect, especially when it is powerful enough to cut across language barriers, and Parasite has done that, my open letter.”

His letter reads as, “I read recently about how boring you found Parasite. Fair enough. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. As a fellow filmmaker, I found this comment disrespectful, and distasteful. More than that, I found that it defies logic.

Parasite is a film that created history, by sweeping the Oscars as a foreign language entry, a category that your films also come under. It’s a film that has been acclaimed by masters of the craft like Scorcese and Tarantino. Last I heard, I don’t think they had anything to say about Bahubali.

More than anything, Parasite is an original piece of work. Originality deserves respect, especially when it is powerful enough to cut across language barriers, and Parasite has done that more effectively than any foreign language film in history. It’s the beauty of cinema, and a testament to its power, when it can strike a chord even across languages, cultures and preferences.

Speaking about originality, I have come across many instances in your films, like Sye for example, when you have lifted entire scenes from other films, without as much as an acknowledgment. I didn’t hear fellow filmmakers come out in public and talk about it, although it was impossible to miss that you ‘stole’ it? It’s because of a mutual respect.

I understand that watching a film requires a certain mood and mind space. Perhaps you were not in the mood for something as layered as Parasite. But to hear you use a public platform to dismiss a film that the entire film world has acknowledged, shows badly on you. As a representative of the Indian film industry, it’s fair to say that you have embarrassed us.

Personally, I don’t think your films come anywhere close to being judged on a world stage. And therefore, I don’t think we have the right to judge something that the cinema world has collectively honoured, especially on a public platform. But of course, everybody is entitled to their opinion. All the best”.

One of the most loved and favourite star kid in B-town

One of the most loved and favourite star kid in B-town, Taimur Ali Khan, enjoys a massive fan following on social media. Son of Kareena Kapoor Khan and Saif Ali Khan has been enjoying massive stardom ever since he was born. The little prince of Pataudi has been the apple of everyone’s eyes not just because of the royalty he has been inherited with, but also for his adorable looks and dream like eyes.

And now, we got our hands on an adorable of Tim Tim in which he looks cute as button in night suit. The star kid is all smiles for the picture and we can’t get enough of him. This happy photo and cute photo of little munchkin will surely light up your gloomy day.

In a recent interaction, Saif opened up about his son’s reaction to the lockdown. He reportedly said that his son is happy to have his parents around. It gives them a lot of positivity. They have been spending time by indulging in painting.

Sai Pallavi wrote an emotional message

The ‘Fidaa’ girl Sai Pallavi is all praises for Halitha Shameem. She wrote an emotional message after watching the movie Sillu Karupatti, a Tamil anthology movie. Sai Pallavi emailed Halitha, “Hello Halitha, my parents and I were so emotional after watching the film. I’m very happy for you. Thank you for making us feel so warm!. May you create more gems like this! Sending you lots of love n prayers.”

Samuthirakani, Sunanina, Leela Samson, Nivedita Sathish were seen in the key roles in the film, Sillu Karupatti. Venkatesh Velineni produced the film and it was distributed by actor Suriya’s 2D Entertainment. The story of the film is all about the bittersweet mixture of four delightfully woven stories with love as a common motif.

Going by Sai Pallavi’s review, my dear readers those who have missed watching the film in theatres can now catch it on Netflix.Sai Pallavi entered into films in 2015 and the actress has created her place in the world of south cinema. She was praised for her performances in the films, Premam, Kali, Fidaa, Athiran, Maari 2. Sai Pallavi is not only a talented actress but she is an incredible dancer.

On the professional front, the actress will be seen in Virata Parvam in which Rana Daggubati is the male lead. Venu Udugula is the director of the film. The actress will also be seen in Shekar Kammula’s Love Story. The ‘Premam’ girl is going to share screen space with Naga Chaitanya for the first time.

Finally the actor accepted the challenge

Finally, the actor accepted the challenge and shared a video. The video opens with Vijay Deverakonda waking up from his bed at nearly 11:45 AM and folds his bedsheet. Later, he fills the bottles and keeps them in the fridge. He also gives a tip that alcohol and wine bottles can be reused as water bottles. Vijay says to drink one litre of water every morning. He takes an old cover and uses it as a dust bin cover.

In the video, Vijay tried a mango recipe which his friend has told him. He cleans the TV and plays video-game. Finally he serves mango ice cream to his mother and brother who were seen playing some game in the video.

Vijay gives the message that “It’s is not a crisis when you are with the people who love me most on the planet, Thinking and praying for all those who are not. Help each other out by keeping your belongings and by staying cheerful. Be a good son, good husband, good father, and finally be a real man.”

On the professional front, Vijay Deverakonda will be seen in Puri Jagannadh’s Fighter. Bollywood beauty Ananya Panday will be sharing the screen space with Vijay.

Coach Pullela Gopichand about Olympics

India’s chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand believes the Tokyo Olympics should be postponed given the unprecedented crisis that the world is facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The call to defer the Olympics, scheduled to be held in Tokyo from July 24 to August 9, is growing after most of the major sporting events were either cancelled or postponed due to the deadly outbreak, which has killed over 8000 people and infected more than 2,00,000 globally. The International Olympic Committee (IOC), however, said on Wednesday it expects the Games to begin on time.

“I have my doubts about the Olympics. It is not like it is far away. The preparation has to start now. So, the IOC has to take a call now for everyone to relax,” Gopichand. “I think, in the present scenario, with the health scares and all the travel restrictions and all, it is a tough time and at the moment the whole world is thinking about health and safety for its citizens, so I think given the situation it is better if the Olympics are postponed,” he added.

The Badminton World Federation was severely criticised for conducting the All England Championship earlier this month, despite the rapid spread of the deadly disease. International players, including London Olympics bronze-medallist Saina Nehwal, slammed BWF saying players’ safety was compromised for financial gains and Gopichand also didn’t mince any words.

“Definitely, I think it was a wrong decision on BWF’s part to put the players at risk by hosting the All England,” said Gopichand, who is currently in self-isolation after returning from Birmingham. After being condemned by the players, the BWF suspended all tournaments till April 12. There have been calls to extend the Olympic qualification period, which ends on April 28, following the postponement of a number of Olympic qualifiers.

Gopichand, however, feels there are no easy answers and BWF is in a tough spot. “What is happening is unprecedented, so I think any decisions will have its merits and demerits. I think whatever is equal and fair for everybody should be done. We can’t satisfy everybody and hopefully it is equal for most people,” said the 2001 All England Champion.

“I think BWF is in a tough spot, any decision will be criticised. When you extend Olympic (qualification) period, you are talking about a lot of things like accreditations, visas, support teams, local associations. “So it is not easy and there are constraints. Unfortunately it is an unprecedented situation, so we have to follow whatever decision they take.” The SAI-Gopichand academy in Hyderabad has been shut down till March 31 to contain the virus following the directive of the Telangana state government.

Asked if it will affect the preparations of the Olympic-bound players, Gopichand said, “The players who had come from All England via various places like Dubai, they have to be quarantined. They don’t have any tournaments in April, so till the time it is a two week break from training it is fine. If it extends further then we will have see.