The Odisha Cabinet on Friday approved as many as 22 proposals including amending the Factories Act, 1948, and allowing the workers to work 115 hours overtime in three months by enhancing the time limit.

The overtime limit is increased from 75 hours to 115 hours per quarter, and now the engagement of women workers will be allowed, with consent, between 7 pm to 6 am in factories with the condition that adequate safety, welfare and security measures and safeguards are taken by the concerned factories as prescribed, read an official statement issued by the Odisha government.

After doorstep delivery of diesel, the government is looking at starting home delivery of petrol and CNG for the greater convenience of customers, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.

Also, the government is looking at unveiling a new fuel retailing model where all types of fuels — petrol, diesel, CNG, LNG and LPG — would be available at one place, he said.

Indian Railways is running Corona Express in the name of Shramik trains, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday, alleging that social distancing is not being maintained in the special trains transporting migrant workers and others to their homes.

The law is equal for all but why are all trains running at full capacity? Why is the Railways not maintaining social distancing? Passengers are not being served water and food in the trains, Banerjee said.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that the Maharashtra government will announce a package soon to deal with the situation arising out due to coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak.

We will get to know about further plans for a lockdown of the Centre through the Prime Minister. I feel that the Prime Minister now will leave it on states because everything is shut for the last two-and-a-half-months. Schools, colleges, business and jobs are shut and hence, there is an economic crisis today, Pawar said.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India crossed the 1.73 lakh-mark on Monday, while the death toll neared the 5,000-mark as well. At 9:30 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in the country has reached 1,73,763 cases, which includes 86,422 active cases; 82,370 cured, discharged, or migrated patients, and 4,971 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 7,964 new COVID-19 cases and 265 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike. In fact, this is the highest spike in India's COVID-19 tally so far.

As the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the Centre completes one year of its second term, the premier himself has penned a letter to the citizens of India, addressing the pulse of the country. In his letter to the people of the country, Prime Minister Modi stated that the nation has progressed rapidly in this tenure, listing several big decisions, historic achievements, and initiatives taken by his government during this time. However, the Prime Minister also acknowledged that migrants, labourers and other sections of the society have undergone tremendous suffering during the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak.

Medical practitioners at the National Institute of Mental Health & Neurosciences (NIMHANS) have now posited that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case count in India will keep on increasing even after the fourth phase of the nationwide lockdown ends and that about 67 crore Indians, that is, almost half of the country's population, is estimated to be infected with the virus by the end of this year.

The doctors have, however, said that it is likely that about 90% of these infected people would not even know that they are coronavirus-positive since the symptoms do not show up in all the affected patients.

Tremors were felt in Delhi-NCR and nearby parts of north India on Friday evening.

The earthquake was felt at 9:08 pm and netizens took to social media platforms to share their experience.

Many people confirmed having felt tremors for several seconds. However, there was no report of any damage.

After three days of protests and riots, a former Minneapolis police was arrested on Friday in connection with the death of a black man in custody.

In a video recorded on Monday that has gone viral and has triggered massive protests in Minnesota's largest city showed officer Derek Chauvin pinning his knee on George Floyd’s neck for minutes and the man pleading to let him breathe. Floyd died soon after in police custody.

India's economic growth slipped to 3.1% in the January-March quarter while the GDP growth for 2019-20 slowed to an 11-year low of 4.2%, government data showed on Friday.

According to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by 5.7% in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19.

In 2019-20, the Indian economy grew by 4.2% against 6.1% growth rate in 2018-19.

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