As covid-19 caseload crosses 90 lakh-mark, Centre plans to send high-level teams to states

Agencies

November 20, 2020

New Delhi, Nov 20: Covid-19 caseload in India crossed the 90-lakh mark on Friday adding another 45,882 fresh cases, a slight increase from the previous day, amid the positives of surging recovery rate and declining death rate.

With cases still rising, the Centre said it was contemplating sending high-level multidisciplinary teams to states and union territories that are reporting more Covid-19 cases, a day after sending four such teams to Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Manipur.

Amid cases in Delhi rising, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath also directed senior officials to maintain special vigil in districts adjoining the national capital.

Adityanath has asked senior officials to maintain vigil in Meerut, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad besides Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj and Gorakhpur while Bareilly administration has already deployed mobile vans at its borders to test all those coming here from Delhi.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the country tested 10.83 lakh Covid-19 tests in the past 24 hours taking the total number to 12.95 crore.

It said the widespread testing has ensured that the cumulative positivity rate is sustained at low levels and is presently following a downward trajectory. The cumulative national positivity rate stood at 6.95%. On October 31, the positivity rate was 7.48% and has been decreasing with the ministry saying higher volumes of testing eventually lead to low positivity rate.

Thirty-four states and union territories are testing 140 daily tests per million, as suggested by the World Health Organisation. Twenty-states are reporting a cumulative positivity rate lower than the national level with Bihar (1.81%) and Uttar Pradesh (2.95%) having the least positivity rate.

With the addition of new cases, the Ministry said, the present active caseload of 4,43,794 comprises 4.93% of India’s Total Positive Cases, and has been sustained below the 5% mark.

In the past 24 hours, it said the country witnessed 44,807 new recoveries taking the total recovered cases to 84,28,409. The recovery rate has improved to 93.60% and the gap between recovered cases and active cases is steadily increasing and presently stands at 79,84,615.

Among the recoveries, 78.02% is contributed by ten states and union territories. Kerala had the highest number of 6,860 persons recovering followed by Delhi (6,685) and Maharashtra (5,860). Twenty states have less than 20,000 active cases.

A total of 1,32,162 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 46,356 from Maharashtra followed by 11,604 from Karnataka, 11,550 from Tamil Nadu, 8,041 from Delhi, 7,873 from West Bengal, 7,480 from Uttar Pradesh, 6,910 from Andhra Pradesh, 4,556 from Punjab and 3,830 from Gujarat.

The Ministry also said the Union government has advised the state/UT governments to adopt aggressive and widespread testing to ensure that the missed out and undetected positive Covid-19 cases are promptly identified for timely and effective tracing, containment and subsequent treatment.

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Adani Group in Crisis: $30 Billion Wiped Out after US Bribery and Fraud Charges Emerge

News Network

November 21,2024

Shares of Adani Group companies lost about $28 billion in market value in morning trade on Thursday after US prosecutors charged the billionaire chairman of the Indian conglomerate in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme.

Gautam Adani's flagship company Adani Enterprises tumbled 23 per cent, while Adani Ports, Adani Total Gas, Adani Green, Adani Power, Adani Wilmar and Adani Energy Solutions, ACC , Ambuja Cements and NDTV fell between 20 per cent and 90 per cent.

Adani group's 10 listed stocks had a total market capitalisation of about $141 billion at 0534 GMT, compared to $169.08 billion on Tuesday.

US authorities said Adani and seven other defendants, including his nephew Sagar Adani, agreed to pay about $265 million in bribes to Indian government officials to obtain contracts expected to yield $2 billion of profit over 20 years, and develop India's largest solar power plant project.

Adani Green in a statement on Thursday said the US Justice Department had issued a criminal indictment against board members Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani and the Securities and Exchange Commission had issued a civil complaint against them.

The US Justice Department also included Adani Green board member Vneet Jaain in the criminal indictment, it said.

Adani Green's units had decided not to proceed with the proposed US dollar denominated bond offerings due to developments, it added.

"Investors will shy away from Adani Group stocks ... and that's what this sharp selling is signifying," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president of retail equities research at SMC Global Securities.

"This could hurt the credibility of the group and maybe borrowing costs will rise," he said.

The indictment comes nearly two years after US shortseller Hindenburg Research alleged that Adani had improperly used tax havens and was involved in stock manipulation, allegations the conglomerate denied.

Also in early Asian trading on Thursday, Adani dollar bonds slumped, with prices down 3c-5c on bonds for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone. The falls were the largest since the Adani Group came under a short-seller attack in February 2023.

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