The daily rise in coronavirus cases in India remained below 3 lakh for the fifth consecutive day with 2.59 lakh new cases recorded in a single day, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

With the fresh cases, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases climbed to 2,60,31,991.

The Uttarakhand High Court came down heavily on the state government for not ensuring that COVID protocols were followed while holding religious events like Kumbh Mela and Char Dham Yatra in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL), a bench of Chief Justice R.S. Chauhan and Justice Alok Verma said, First we make the mistake of Kumbh Mela, then there is Char Dham. Why do we repeatedly cause embarrassment to ourselves?

At least 13 Naxals were killed in an encounter with police's C-60 commandos in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra early on Friday, officials said.

The skirmish took place around 5.30 am in the forest at Kotmi in Etapalli, where the Naxals had gathered for a meeting, said Sandeep Patil, Deputy Inspector General of Gadchiroli.

The overall global Covid-19 caseload has topped 165.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 3.42 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Friday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and death toll stood at 165,253,588 and 3,425,648, respectively.

The Karnataka government will resume the COVID-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years age group from Saturday.

The frontline warriors will be the first to receive the jabs followed by other eligible groups in the list, the state government said in an order on Thursday.

The number of U.K. cases of a worrying coronavirus variant from India more than doubled for a second week as authorities also monitor a new mutation of the virus, adding fresh doubt to U.K. plans to fully unlock the economy.

Health officials have now detected 3,424 cases of the B1.617.2 variant, also known as VOC-21APR-02, Public Health England said Thursday in a statement. That’s up from 1,313 last week, and 520 a week earlier.

Shares of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) rallied 8 per cent and hit a 52-week high of Rs 288.15 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday after reporting many-fold jump in its March quarter (Q4FY21) net profit to Rs 3,018 crore on the back of inventory gains and rise in refining margins. The state-owned oil marketing company had a net profit of Rs 27 crore in January-March 2020 (Q4FY20).

Shares of JK Lakshmi Cement surged 7 per cent and hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 499.70 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Friday after the company reported 37 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in March quarter (Q4FY21) standalone net profit at Rs 138.27 crore, on the back of healthy operational performance. It had a profit of Rs 101.21 crore in Q4FY20. The stock was trading close to its record high level of Rs 535, touched on May 17, 2017.

Oyo Hotels, one of India’s most valuable startups, is offering unusually generous terms to investors as it seeks to raise $600 million in debt, following a fresh surge of coronavirus cases in its home country that decimated travel and undercut its recovery plans.

Oravel Stays Pvt, as the parent company is officially known, is discussing with banks and investors a five-year term loan B at 850 basis points over Libor, higher than the usual guidance given for recently issued term loan Bs in the Asia-Pacific market, according to Bloomberg-compiled data.

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country has surpassed 19 crore, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

On the day-125 of the vaccination drive on Thursday, a total of 14,56,088 vaccine doses -- 12,73,785 first dose and 1,82,303 second dose -- were given according to provisional report till 8 PM, the ministry data showed.

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