Country has been adding 11,000-plus cases and over 300 deaths daily; new high in Delhi.
With 11,220 new COVID-19 cases and 325 deaths registered on Sunday, the total number of infections and the death toll in India reached 3,32,777 and 9,521 respectively. This data was based on reports from State Health Departments and collated by The Hindu.
The recovery rate was nearly 51%. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the total number of samples tested on Sunday was 1,51,432, up from 1,43,737 on Saturday. Maharashtra led the tally with 3,390 new cases and 120 deaths. Delhi registered 2,224 cases and 56 deaths.
India now ranks third, behind Brazil and the U.S. in the daily increase in COVID-19 cases (7-day rolling average) across the world.
In the number of deaths registered every day, India ranks fourth below Brazil, the U.S. and Mexico. It again ranks fourth in terms of total number of cases behind the U.S. (with nearly 2.1 million), Brazil (8,50,514) and Russia (5,28,267) and ninth in total fatalities, according to the Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 tracker.
While India’s infection rate in terms of cases per million people was much lower, the country has conducted fewer tests per million (3,000) than others with the most infections, according to data maintained by the website Our World in Data.
The comparable testing rates for the U.S., Russia and the U.K. are 70,000, 99,870 and 55,860 respectively. Brazil’s testing data was not available.
Petrol price on Monday was hiked by 48 paise per litre and diesel by 23 paise a litre as oil companies for the ninth day in a row adjusted retail rates in line with costs since ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from State to State depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.
This is the ninth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus.
In nine hikes, petrol price has gone up by ₹5 per litre and diesel by ₹4.87 a litre.
The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.
Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of fall in international oil prices.
“Sushant Singh Rajput has been murdered, he cannot commit suicide. I demand CBI enquiry into the matter,” says Sushant Singh Rajput’s brother-in-law, suspected some foul play in the crime. He is seeking a thorough probe into the incident.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s brother-in-law O.P. Singh, who is the Additional Director General of Police and posted as Special Officer in the Haryana Chief Minister’s Office, suspected some foul play in the crime, it is reliably learnt on Monday. He is seeking a thorough probe into the incident.
File Photo
“Sushant Singh Rajput has been murdered, he cannot commit suicide. I demand CBI enquiry into the matter,” Jan Adhikar Party Chief Pappu Yadav told media persona at the actor’s residence in Patna, where his family resides.
#SushantSinghRajput has been murdered, he cannot commit suicide. I demand CBI enquiry into the matter: Jan Adhikar Party Chief Pappu Yadav, at the actor’s residence in Patna, where his family resides. (14.06.2020) pic.twitter.com/WNFlvLWirA
The 34-year-old actor was found hanging at his apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra on Sunday.
His sister lives in Chandigarh.
State officials said Singh has left for Mumbai soon he came to know about the suicide incident.
Expressing condolences, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said actor Rajput’s death is an “irreparable loss” to not only the film industry but also for the entire society.
It is reported that Rajput’s last rites will be performed in Mumbai after his father and other family members arrive in Mumbai from Patna, according to a report in indiatoday.in.
Ahmedabad: Stating that water of India’s share from three of six rivers in “Akhand Bharat” is flowing into Pakistan, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Sunday said the Central government is trying to stop this outflow. He said Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh will get this water.
Addressing virtual ”Jan Samvad” rally of Gujarat BJP from Nagpur in Maharashtra, he also said India believed in peace and non-violence and do not want to be strong by becoming an expansionist.
“There were six rivers in Akhand Bharat (passing through both India and Pakistan. As per division, waters of three rivers was reserved for Pakistan, while water of other three rivers was to be used by India. Water of our share was also flowing into Pakistan,” Mr Gadkari said.
He said states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh were not coming together on this issue earlier.
“For the first time since 1970, I asked our (former J&K governor Satya Pal Malik and Punjab Congress CM (Amarinder Singh) to sign a treaty. We are working to stop the water from flowing into Pakistan. Now Kashmir, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttarakhand and Himachal will get this water. Our government shows the courage to take this decision, otherwise nothing has happened since 1970,” he said.
He said, “Seven out of nine projects (related to division of water of rivers) where consensus had eluded states earlier have been cleared after CMs of these states were brought together to resolve the matter”.
New Delhi: The peak stage of COVID-19 pandemic in India has been delayed by the eight-week lockdown along with strengthened public health measures and it may now arrive around mid-November during which there could be a paucity of isolation and ICU beds, and ventilators, according to a study.
The study conducted by researchers from an Operations Research Group constituted by ICMR said the lockdown shifted the peak of the pandemic by an estimated 34 to 76 days and helped bring down the number of infections by 69 to 97 per cent thereby allowing time for the healthcare system to shore up resources and infrastructure.
In the scenario of intensified public health measures with 60 per cent effectiveness after lockdown, the demand can be met until the first week of November. After that, isolation beds could be inadequate for 5.4 months, ICU beds for 4.6 and ventilators for 3.9 months, projections by the health researchers showed.
However, this shortfall is estimated to be 83 per cent less than what it could have been without the lockdown and public health measures.
With sustained government steps at increasing the infrastructure and different pace of epidemic in different regions, the impact of unmet need can be reduced. If the coverage of public health measures can be increased to 80 per cent, the epidemic can be mitigated, the researchers stated.
According to the model-based analysis for COVID-19 pandemic in India, with the additional capacity which has been built up for testing, treating and isolating patients during the lockdown period, the number of cases at the peak would come down by 70 per cent and the cumulative cases may come down by nearly 27 per cent.
In terms of COVID-19 mortality, approximately 60 per cent deaths were prevented and one-third of this mortality prevention is attributed to the reduction in unmet need for critical care as a result of the intervention, the analysis showed.
The researchers said the management of COVID-19 will involve a dynamic review of policies and significant strengthening of the healthcare system.
“While lockdowns will delay the onset of peak and will give the much needed time for the health system to respond, strengthening the health system response in terms of testing, isolation of cases, treatment and contact tracing, as is being done currently, will have to be the mainstay to reduce the impact of the pandemic in India until vaccine becomes available,” it said.
The overall economic health system cost of this pandemic is estimated to be 6.2 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The country saw a record spike of 11,929 cases pushing India’s COVID-19 caseload to 3,20,922 on Sunday while the death toll rose to 9,195 with an increase of 311 fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.
India registered more than 10,000 cases for the third day in a row and is the fourth worst-hit nation by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ministry on June 9 said coronavirus related health infrastructure in the country has been strengthened with the availability of 958 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals with 1,67,883 isolation beds, 21,614 ICU and 73,469 oxygen supported beds.
Also, 2,313 dedicated COVID Health Centres with 1,33,037 isolation beds, 10,748 ICU beds and 46,635 oxygen supported beds have also been operationalised. Moreover, 7,525 COVID Care Centres with 7,10,642 beds are now available to combat COVID-19 in the country.
The ventilators available for COVID beds are 21,494, the ministry had said, adding that order of 60,848 more ventilators has been placed. (PTI)
Mumbai: Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging at his Bandra apartment on Sunday, police said. He was 34.
His last screen appearance was “Chhichhore”, directed by Nitesh Tiwari.
He has committed suicide at his residence in Bandra. He was found hanging today. We are investigating,” Manoj Sharma, additional commissioner of police, Western Region, told PTI.
Actor Sushant Singh Rajput was found hanging at home, Mumbai Police have confirmed | Photo Credit: HT Entertainment Desk
Sources from the Bandra Police said on the basis of primary information, a case of accidental death report will be registered. No suicide note was found from the spot, they said.
Rajput’s former manager, 28-year-old Disha Salian, ended her life by jumping from a high rise building on June 9.
Last week, the actor mourned Salian’s death and called it “devastating news”.
“It’s such devastating news. My deepest condolences to Disha’s family and friends. May your soul rest in peace,” he had written on his Instagram stories.
The last social media post shared by the actor, who hailed from Patna, was dedicated to his mother, who passed away in 2002 when he was a teenager.
“Blurred past evaporating from teardrops. Unending dreams carving an arc of smile.
“And a fleeting life, negotiating between the two,” read the Instagram post shared on June 3 with his mother’s picture.
An engineering dropout, Rajput was inclined towards dancing when he was a student at Delhi Technological University. He soon enrolled in choreographer Shiamak Davar’s dance classes and later joined acting guru Barry John’s classes.
He also performed as a background dancer in the song “Dhoom again” with Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the 2006 film “Dhoom 2”.
But it was the small screen that gave the “outsider” his breakout role as the coy and mild-mannered Manav in soap opera Pavitra Rishta , which ran from 2009-11, and was produced by Ekta Kapoor.
Two years later, he made his foray into films with Kai Po Che! in 2013.
Police outside Sushant Singh Rajput’s home | Photo Credit: HT Entertainment Desk
He has starred in movies such as Shuddh Desi Romance , Raabta , Kedarnath and Sonchiriya but his most prominent role came as cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s in the 2007 biopic, MS Dhoni: The Untold Story .
In his last screen appearance, “Chhichhore”, Rajput played the role of a father who conveys the message of hope and affirmation to his son after he attempts suicide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi mourned Rajput’s death, remembering him as a “bright young actor”.
“Sushant Singh Rajput…a bright young actor gone too soon. He excelled on TV and in films. His rise in the world of entertainment inspired many and he leaves behind several memorable performances. Shocked by his passing away. My thoughts are with his family and fans. Om Shanti,” the PM tweeted.
“Chhichhore” director Tiwari said he had spoken to Rajput last week.
“I had to call people to confirm. It’s so shocking and unfortunately true. I am at a loss for words. I spoke to him last week over messages. We would text each other on and off. Now this is what I get to hear. He was like a younger brother to me,” Tiwari told PTI.
Abhishek Bachchan tweeted, “This is just so shocking. A wonderful talent. RIP Sushant.
Actor spoke of ‘fleeting life’ in last Instagram post, remembered late mother
https://www.instagram.com/p/CA-S3cIDWOx/?utm
Sushant had shared a black and white collage of his picture and that of his mother’s on June 3 and wrote, “Blurred past evaporating from teardrops. Unending dreams carving an arc of smile. And a fleeting life, negotiating between the two…”
Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has claimed to have found Covid-19 cure. Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna cited results of ‘clinical case studies’. Many researchers are working on a vaccine for Covid across the world. Experts have said that it would take 1-1.5 years to develop a vaccine. Covid has infected over 77 lakh worldwide, and over 3 lakh in India so far.
New Delhi: India saw the highest single-day spike of 11,929 novel coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the number of infections to 3,20,922 on Sunday, while the death toll rose by 311 to 9,195, the Health Ministry said.
This is the third day in a row that there were more than 10,000 cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in India, which is the fourth worst-hit nation by the pandemic.
There are 1,49,348 active COVID-19 cases, while 1,62,378 people have recovered and a patient has migrated, according to the ministry data updated in the morning.
The number of recoveries are more than the active cases as 50.60 per cent of the patients have recovered so far, an official said.
Of the 311 more deaths, 113 were from Maharashtra, followed by 57 in Delhi, 33 in Gujarat and 30 in Tamil Nadu.
There were 20 more fatalities in Uttar Pradesh, 12 in West Bengal and 10 in Rajasthan. Haryana and Telangana registered eight more coronavirus deaths each, followed by seven in Madhya Pradesh, three in Bihar.
Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Punjab and Uttarakhand reported two deaths each.
Of the total 9,195 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 3,830 fatalities, followed 1,448 by Gujarat and 1,271 in Delhi.
The toll from the pandemic rose to 463 in West Bengal, 447 in Madhya Pradesh, 397 in Tamil Nadu and 385 in Uttar Pradesh. There have been 282 COVID-19 deaths in Rajasthan and 182 in Telangana.
The number of fatalities reached 82 in Andhra Pradesh, 81 in Karnataka, 78 in Haryana and 65 in Punjab. Jammu and Kashmir has reported 55 COVID-19 deaths, followed by 39 in Bihar, 23 in Uttarakhand and 19 in Kerala.
Odisha registered 10 deaths so far, followed by eight each in Jharkhand and Assam, and six each in Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh.
Five people have succumbed to the contagion in Chandigarh, followed by two in Puducherry, and one each in Meghalaya, Tripura and Ladakh, the ministry said.
More than 70 per cent of the deaths have happened due to comorbidities, it added.
New Delhi: Petrol price on Sunday was hiked by a record 62 paise per litre and that of diesel by 64 paise as oil companies for the eighth day in a row adjusted retail rates in line with cost since ending an 82-day hiatus in rate revision.
Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 75.78 per litre from Rs 75.16 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 74.03 a litre from Rs 73.39, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.
Rates have been increased across the country and vary from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.
The 62 paise a litre increase in petrol and 64 paise hike in diesel price is the highest surge in rates since the daily price revision was started in June 2017.
This is the eighth daily increase in rates in a row since oil companies on June 7 restarted revising prices in line with costs, after ending an 82-day hiatus.
In eight hikes, petrol price has gone up by Rs 4.52 per litre and diesel by Rs 4.64 — a record increase in rates in any eight days since the daily price revision was introduced.
The freeze in rates was imposed in mid-March soon after the government hiked excise duty on petrol and diesel to shore up additional finances.
Oil PSUs Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), instead of passing on the excise duty hikes to customers, adjusted them against the fall in the retail rates that was warranted because of international oil prices falling to two-decade lows.
The government had first raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each on March 14 and then again on May 5 by a record Rs 10 per litre in case of petrol and Rs 13 on diesel. The two hikes gave the government Rs 2 lakh crore in additional tax revenues.
State-owned fuel retailers IOC, BPCL and HPCL had frozen petrol and diesel prices since March 16, as if anticipating the government move and set off gains they accrued from continuing drop in international oil prices against the excise duty hike.
They, however, promptly passed the increase in local sales tax or VAT by state governments such as Rs 1.67 increase in VAT on petrol and Rs 7.10 in diesel by the Delhi government on May 4.
The total incidence of excise duty on petrol has risen to Rs 32.98 per litre and that on diesel to Rs 31.83. The excise tax on petrol was Rs 9.48 per litre when the Narendra Modi government took office in 2014 and that on diesel was Rs 3.56 a litre.
The government had between November 2014 and January 2016 raised excise duty on petrol and diesel on nine occasions to take away gains arising from plummeting global oil prices.
In all, duty on petrol rate was hiked by Rs 11.77 per litre and that on diesel by 13.47 a litre in those 15 months that helped government’s excise mop up more than double to Rs 2,42,000 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 99,000 crore in 2014-15.
It cut excise duty by Rs 2 in October 2017 and by Rs 1.50 a year later. But it raised excise duty by Rs 2 per litre in July 2019.
It again raised excise duty on March 14 by Rs 3 per litre.
The study, which remains underway, has been conducted by a user of the social media portal Reddit who goes by the username ‘/u/onosmosis’.
New Delhi: For each pro-Congress account spreading propaganda and fake news on Twitter, there are 120 doing the same for the BJP, a study has claimed.
The study has been conducted by a user of the social media portal Reddit who goes by the username ‘/u/onosmosis’. The user claims to have analysed lakhs of unverified Twitter accounts to identify trends in online misinformation.
Illustration by Soham Sen | ThePrint
Conducted with the help of an algorithm, the study started by identifying around 4 lakh Twitter accounts with a clear political leaning. Around 1.2 lakh of these accounts were identified as pro-Congress and 2.7 lakh as pro-BJP, according to the research, published on the user’s webpage UrbanNazi.com.
The study also identified the number of accounts that served as sources of misinformation and propaganda — while 17,779 pro-BJP accounts were identified thus, the number for the Congress stood at 147.
How the study was conducted
/u/onosmosis chose to stay anonymous for this report fearing troll attacks, but told ThePrint that he works as a software analyst at a tech start-up developing a platform for content management and sharing.
The study they conducted focused on identifying unverified politically-oriented Twitter accounts, because, according to /u/onosmosis, “unverified accounts publish tweets with hate, abuse and false information in larger volume than verified accounts”.
To do so, /u/onosmosis said they devised an algorithm to sift through lakhs of Twitter accounts in a bid to shortlist those that checked certain boxes.
For an account to be identified as pro-BJP, their Twitter bio had to feature something like “Followed by Narendra Modi” or “India supports CAA”. Other criteria included being followed by one or more verified accounts of a BJP office-bearer or minister, or at least 2 per cent of its total retweets coming from the verified accounts of a BJP party or leader.
The accounts were identified as pro-Congress if the Twitter bio mentioned “INC Supporter” or “I support Priyanka Gandhi”, or if at least 2 per cent of its total retweets came from verified accounts of the party or any of its leaders.
/u/onosmosis also put in four hours each day “to analyse stuff or modify my [computer] algorithm to capture tweets better and faster”.
The computer, which ran 24 hours a day, eventually shortlisted over 3.9 lakh unverified Twitter accounts with a clear leaning towards the BJP or the Congress.
The research started 19 September 2019. While /u/onosmosis published these findings on 25 January, the analysis of tweets is still underway, the user said.
Throughhashtags
According to the study, social media’s hashtag feature, which first took root with Twitter, is a common way to spread misinformation and propaganda.
For example, on the night of 5 January, as a masked mob bore down on students and teachers on the JNU campus in Delhi, a pro-BJP account called “@pandeymanishmzp” started using the hashtag #LeftAttacksJNU around 10.30 pm. The hashtag was then used over 2.3 lakh times in under 30 minutes, according to /u/onosmosis.
Within an hour-and-a-half of @pandeymanishmzp’s tweet, BJP IT head Amit Malviya used the same hashtag, tweeting, “…Left backed student’s union are targeting members of ABVP…”. He appeared to back these claims with an accompanying video that shows a man identified as ABVP secretary Manish Jangid purportedly making the same allegations.
Manish Jangid, ABVP Secretary, narrates what happened in JNU. Left backed student’s union are targeting members of ABVP so that academic session can be disrupted… #LeftAttacksJNUpic.twitter.com/1PLH6SefH6
The post was retweeted over 3,000 times with the video notching nearly 40,000 views.
The allegations are crucial because the exact perpetrators of that night’s attack remain unidentified. In the immediate aftermath of the assault, the Left and the Right had blamed the violence on each other, creating a web of chaos around the unprecedented episode that triggered protests across the nation.
/u/onosmosis also shared a purported instance of a pro-Congress account starting misinformation — Twitter user @Me_nehru, which is followed by the likes of Srivatsa YB, the Congress in-charge for Youth Congress national campaigns, and party spokesperson Udit Raj, a former MP.
@Me_nehru suggested in a tweet Wednesday that “shahin bagh protesters [were] arrested by police and kept in private school instead of police station?”. The tweet was posted with a video of an unidentified man making the same claim. It has been retweeted 119 times, while the video has been viewed 1,200 times.
Asked about the research, Pratik Sinha and Karen Rebelo, who are associated with the fact-checking portals AltNews and BOOM Live, respectively, said it was possible that each party had so many accounts affiliated to them.
They said they personally didn’t have data to back this claim, but acknowledged coming across misinformation perpetrated by Twitter accounts that support a political party.
The research falls in line with a 2018 BBC study on fake news in India, according to which “many more of the Twitter handles that have published fake news sit in the pro-BJP cluster, than in the anti-BJP cluster”.
‘Don’t support misinformation’
Approached for comment, both the BJP and the Congress denied the allegation that they supported accounts propagating misinformation.
Khemchand Sharma, a member of the BJP’s national IT and social media campaign committee, said the party’s online strategy relied on volunteers. He added that it “is not possible to give an exact number for the number of volunteers with Twitter accounts”, but said the party had at least one lakh social media volunteers.
“Working on misinformation is not the BJP’s motto,” he added. “We focus on a positive campaign and there is little the organisation can do about what volunteers do in their personal capacity.”
Congress social media head Rohan Gupta also acknowledged that the party depended on volunteer social media users but said it was not possible to estimate how many such accounts supported the party.
“We do not work on fake news,” he added. “Everyone knows the official trollers [sic] are official BJP office-bearers like [Sambit] Patra and [Amit] Malviya.”
