3 youths held for kidnapping, trafficking 2-month-old baby

Mangaluru, Mar 24: A Covid-19 patient from Kasaragod, who recently came from abroad travelled to Mangaluru twice, revealed Karnataka department of health and family welfare.

The 54-year-old person is confirmed as Covid-19 positive case yesterday.

He landed at Mangalore International Airport on March 10 at 5.30pm by Air India Express flight.

From there, he had travelled in his own vehicle to Kasaragod. He had coffee near Kasaragod and reached home at 7.30pm.

On March 11, he had visited local fish market and returned home at 10pm.

He had consulted a local doctor at Kasaragod on March 18 and later visited to Kasturba Medical College, Attavar at 3pm, visited reception and consulted a doctor.

He had tea at KMC canteen and travelled in an auto to Medicity and brought medicines and returned to Kasaragod by KSRTC bus.

Again he travelled to Mangaluru on March 20 in a private vehicle and visited a doctor and returned back to Kasargod in a private vehicle.

The health department has requested all passengers who travelled in the above said flight/aircraft, and KSRTC bus can self-report by dialing 104 or other helpline numbers.

Bengaluru, Apr 20: Close on the heels of the Padarayanapura vandalism, Karnataka Cabinet on Monday decided to promulgate an ordinance that gives special powers to implementing authority and also provide protection to frontline health workers.

Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting here, Minister for Law J C Madhuswamy said that the ordinance will be on the lines of one promulgated by Kerala and Uttar Pradesh governments.

“Through the ordinance, a State Epidemic Act will be enacted to protect health workers and any non-cooperation will be punishable. Also, any attempt to deliberately spread the disease or float rumours will attract action,” he added.

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The Indian startups secured 12.7 billion in funding last year -- a 15% growth compared to 2018 - and Bengaluru startup community topped the list, with securing $5.3 billion across 267 deals, a new report said on Tuesday.

In total, the Indian startups attracted 766 deals in 2019, taking total deal count between 2014-2019 to 5,011, said DataLabs by Inc42 in its annual startup funding report.

Sequoia took the top spot as the most active VC in 2019 with 53 deals, followed by Accel that participated in 38 deals. Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global were in the top five VCs in 2019.

"The Indian startup economy is entering new decade with over $58 billion in fundraising and 2,984 funded startups between 2014-2019," the findings showed.

With an average of $21 million, the ticket size value of funding increased by 15% in 2019.

Ecommerce and fintech -- with $2.6 billion funding each -- took the top slot with 93 deals and 125 deals, respectively.

"Ecommerce continued to remain at the top by the end of 2019. The growing investor confidence towards sub-sectors such as vertical ecommerce, social commerce and private label businesses is one major factor for ecommerce maintaining its lead," a DataLabs spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the estimates, the funding amount and deal count in 2020 will be around $12.6 billion at a 1% decline from 2019.

"Nevertheless, the investment activity is expected to rise in 2021," said the report.

The data suggests that 2019 had lowest number of startups funded (664) in the last five years, with seed-stage funding deals dropping by 53%, compared to 2016.

With $252 million in funding, seed-stage deal value fell by 44% (compared to 2018) as only 306 seed funding deals were recorded, the report said.

The enterprise tech had a blockbuster year with total funding of $1.15 billion across 114 deals in 2019. The sector recorded a 49% surge in total funding amount, compared to 2018.

The Indian startup economy saw 275 unique VCs participating in funding in 2019, said the report.