As crisis looms for Congress in the Madhya Pradesh, Assembly Speaker NP Prajapati onn Friday accepted the resignations of 16 rebel MLAs who are presently lodged in a Bengaluru resort and sent their resignations on March 10.

Confirming the development, Prajapati said, The resignations of all the MLAs who are in Bengaluru and are not willing to come back, and who had submitted their resignation on March 10, have been accepted.

Italy on Thursday surpassed China in terms of most number of deaths due to novel coronavirus after recording 427 deaths in the last 24 hours.

The death toll in Italy rose to 3,405, against China's 3,245 even though the number of infections recorded in the European nation is half than that of the world's most populated country.

The Supreme Court directed the Speaker of Madhya Pradesh’s legislative Assembly that a vote test of the government’s majority be done on Friday and the proceedings be complete before 5 pm.

The test, which will be the only agenda item before the Assembly, is to be by raising of hands, said a Bench of judges D Y Chandrachud and Hemant Gupta. The proceeding are to also be recorded on video.

The Kerala government has announced a Rs 20,000-crore financial package for the state to tide over the present crisis being faced by the southern state in the wake of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This includes Rs 14,000 crore to clear all arrears pending in various sectors and a Rs 500-crore health package.

On Thursday, the state has reported one more positive case, taking the total confirmed COVID-19 cases to 28, of which 25 patients are under treatment, said state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The four death-row convicts in the Nirbhaya gangrape case were hanged in Delhi’s Tihar jail at 5:30 am on Friday. This was after the Supreme Court, in a pre-dawn hearing, brought the curtains down on the gangrape and murder case by dismissing a plea by one of the four against rejection of his second mercy plea by President Ram Nath Kovind.

In an indication of public outrage over the case that had shaken the conscience of an entire nation, several posters were seen outside the Tihar premises in the wee hours on Friday ahead of the hanging with placards and posters reading thanks to judiciary and the morning of justice.

The Indian rupee touched almost 75 a dollar, a record low, in morning trade as equities witnessed a rout on Coronavirus fear.

At 10 40 a.m., the partially convertible currency was trading at 74.95 a dollar, from its previous close of 74.26 a dollar. The RBI let the rupee to depreciate, but intervened once it reached the 75 mark to bring it down below the level, currency dealers say.

Shares of auto companies were trading with up to 19 per cent cut on the NSE on Thursday as panic selling continued amid growing fears of economic dislocation due to pandemic Coronavirus (Covid-19).

Nifty Auto index hit a six-year low today. At 10:33 am, the index was trading 7.5 per cent lower at 5,102 levels with 14 out of 15 components declining. In comparison, the benchmark Nifty50 index was hovering around 8,000 levels, down 466 points or 5.5 per cent.

A 30 per cent drop in the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty 50 thus far in the calendar year 2020 (CY20) has weighed heavily on the fortunes of state-owned life insurer, Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), which has suffered a notional loss of about Rs 1.9 trillion in the past two-and-half months. The insurer, known for making large equity investments, has substantial holdings in many listed companies. The dent comes at a time when the government is drawing up plans of listing LIC at the bourses, subject to legislative changes and regulatory approvals.

The number of positive cases of coronavirus in Telangana rose to 13 after seven Indonesian nationals who were on a pilgrimage tested positive for the virus.

According to the official information, all of them were part of a pilgrimage group and were put into isolation on March 16. They were confirmed to have the virus on Wednesday.

The total number of cases in the state is 13, which includes one person who was cured.

The Ministry of Human Resource Development has directed all autonomous organisation under it including UGC, AICTE, NTA, NIOS, CBSE, and NCTE to postpone all examinations till March 31 as a precautionary measure to contain to spread of coronavirus.

The directions have been issued to ensure safety of students, teachers and parents as well as maintenance of the academic calender.

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