Three teenage college students drown in River Netravati while celebrating birthday

Bengaluru, Mar 21: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan on Saturday said that all the IT companies in the state have agreed to close their offices and have also allowed some employees to work from home in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.

"IT companies agreed to close their offices and allow employees, except for those discharging essential services, to work from home during a video conference with companies' representatives yesterday," said Narayan.

The Deputy Chief Minister said a circular regarding it will be issued soon.

Mangaluru, Jul 19: Palakkad Division of Southern Railway that has jurisdiction over Mangaluru Railway region has established a business development unit (BDU) to cater to the transportation of various sectors, including non-bulk goods traffic, namely, white goods, finished products, manufactured products, agricultural produce and raw material.

In a statement issued here on Sunday said that the BDU’s mandate was to facilitate seamless interaction between the Railways on the one hand and industry, trade representatives and rail freight customers on the other at appropriate zonal or divisional levels. The unit was also expected to help expeditious clearance of their proposals for freight movement.

Palakkad Divisional Railway Manager Pratap Singh Shami established the BDU in line with the similar unit at the zonal level with other divisions of SR too setting up similar units. Palakkad BDU would work under the supervision of Additional DRM-II CT Sakkeer Hussain while Senior Divisional Operations Manager PL Ashok Kumar was its convener with Senior Divisional Commercial Manager Jerin G Anand, Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer KV Sundaresan and Senior Divisional Finance Manager AP Sivachandrar were its members.

Mangaluru, May 6: The Karnataka NRI Forum - UAE has collected the details of those seeking to return to Karnataka amidst coronavirus lockdown.

Of these, 121 of these expats are pregnant women, 27 are senior citizens, 157 are in urgent medical need, 522 are unemployed, 377 are in the UAE on visit visa, 109 are in the UAE on expired residency visa, 30 are students and 566 others.

On Tuesday, May 5, the Government of India released a list of flight schedules for the repatriation of Indians who are stranded abroad. "...sadly we do not see any flights going from UAE to Karnataka," the KNRI said in a letter to Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda, who is also a Kannadiga.

"We, Dubai Anivasi Kannadigaru and KNRI have collected the information of those who are in dire condition and would like to travel immediately. We would like to bring to your attention that in this list there are pregnant women and senior citizens who are in critical conditions and are waiting to travel," the KNRI wrote, urging the Union Minister to start at least one flight to Mangaluru as the majority are from this coastal city and not from Bengaluru.

Additionally, in order to help these struggling Kannadigas, the KNRI has notified the Government of India and Government of Karnataka several times through letters and conference calls, along with the Kannadiga's helpline, UAE.

With the help of likeminded businessmen and professionals, the KNRI Forum and Dubai Anivasi Kannadigaru have opened a helpline called "Kannadigas Helpline" through which they have received around 2,500 requests for food, medical, legal and other assistance.