Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra on Monday said lockdown extensions are not just economically disastrous but also create another medical crisis.

While acknowledging that choices are not easy for policy makers, he said a lockdown extension will not help.

Uber India on Tuesday announced it was laying off 600 of its employees – a fourth of its total headcount of 2,400 in the country – across customer & driver support, business development, legal, finance, policy and marketing verticals.

The retrenched employees would be paid 10 to 12 weeks of salary, besides medical insurance coverage for the next six months and outplacement support, the company said.

In a notable development, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has now banned the trial of the hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine drugs on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)-affected patients, citing a study by The Lancet journal which reports that the drugs might lead to an increased risk of death and the extent of their potential benefit or harm is yet to be completely understood.

The WHO, in an official press release, stated that the observational study by The Lancet noted the effects of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine on COVID-19 patients that have been hospitalised.

People living in north India are likely to get some relief as the India Meteorological Department has predicted dust and thunderstorms over several parts of north India on May 29-30.

The weather agency further said that the wind speed is likely to be around 50-60 kilometre per hour during this period and will help in bringing the mercury down.

A major fire broke out in the intervening night of Monday and Tuesday in the slums at the Tughlakabad area of Delhi. Around 1,000 to 2,000 shanties were reportedly caught ablaze in the fire.

According to the most recent updates, the situation is now fully under control and no casualty has been reported so far. As many as 30 fire tenders had been rushed to the spot.

A Pakistani-origin man has been arrested by the police in England's Derby for allegedly vandalising the Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurudwara in the area on Monday. According to sources, the man had posted a message seeking support for Pakistan on the Kashmir issue before going on to vandalise the gurudwara.

Sources added that the officials have identified the apprehended individual as a man of Pakistani origin and that he is being held for the attack on the Guru Arjan Dev Ji Gurudwara that took place on Monday morning in Derby.

The headquarters on Indian Railways in Delhi, Rail Bhavan, will be closed for two days starting May 26 as one more employee tested positive for coronavirus on Monday. This is the second time in a fortnight that the Bhavan will be closed for sanitisation.

Reports have said that while the office in the building will remain shut for two days, the entire fourth floor will be closed till May 29. The entire building will be sanitised. During this period employees will work from home, an order said.

The police in Warangal district of Telangana on Monday arrested a man accused of killing 10 people, three days after nine bodies were found in an abandoned well in the area.

The accused has been identified as 26-year-old Sanjay Kumar Yadav, who originally hails from Bihar and was living in Warangal for six years.

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) state government in West Bengal has on Saturday written to the Indian Railways, urging the latter to make provisions to stop sending 'Shramik Special' trains to the state till May 26 in view of the recent destruction left behind by Cyclone 'Amphan'.

In the letter that West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha addressed to the Railway Board chairman VK Yadav, the former said that the state has been severely impacted by Super Cyclone Amphan on May 20-21 which caused extensive damage to the infrastructure.

All domestic flights are set to resume in India from May 25, i.e. Monday, the central government has informed as part of its graudal reboot of air travel services in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic outbreak.

According to sources, the very first domestic flight will be at 4:30 AM on Monday. It will take off from the Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. In the first phase, 28 domestic flights will take off from Delhi towards various destinations across India.

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