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Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 23: Amid a spurt in coronavirus cases, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has asked the Centre to give the states authority to give clearances for manufacturing masks, gloves and sanitisers.

In a letter addressed to prime minister Narendra Modi, Vijayan said during the crisis, masks and sanitisers are needed in large numbers.

"As an interim, states must be given authority to give clearances of manufacturing of items related to medical devices, sanitisers, chemicals, etc. which are needed for fighting Covid-19," Vijayan said in the letter.

He also sought permission for the state home department to use drones for the relevant applications related to Covid-19.

"In China and elsewhere in the world, drones have been used extensively in minimising human contact, disinfection, etc. Unfortunately, with the current laws pertaining to the use of drones, none of these is possible in India," the chief minister said.

He also sought permission to access and use facilities available with all central institutions and research labs operating in the state.

The chief minister shared the letter on his Twitter handle.

With 15 new positive cases of Covid-19, the total number of infected persons in Kerala had gone up to 67, including the three who were discharged after recovery last month.

New Delhi, Feb 18: India emerged as the world's fifth-largest economy by overtaking the UK and France in 2019, says a report.

A US-based think tank World Population Review in its report said that India is developing into an open-market economy from its previous autarkic policies.

"India's economy is the fifth-largest in the world with a GDP of $2.94 trillion, overtaking the UK and France in 2019 to take the fifth spot," it said.

The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion.

The report further said that in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms, India's GDP (PPP) is $10.51 trillion, exceeding that of Japan and Germany. Due to India's high population, India's GDP per capita is $2,170 (for comparison, the US is $62,794).

India's real GDP growth, however, it said is expected to weaken for the third straight year from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent.

The report observed that India's economic liberalisation began in the early 1990s and included industrial deregulation, reduced control on foreign trade and investment, and privatisation of state-owned enterprises.

"These measures have helped India accelerate economic growth," it said.

India's service sector is the fast-growing sector in the world accounting for 60 per cent of the economy and 28 per of employment, the report said, adding that manufacturing and agriculture are two other significant sectors of the economy.

The US-based World Population Review is an independent organisation without any political affiliations.

New Delhi, Apr 19: With 1,334 fresh cases of coronavirus reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India has reached 15,712 including 507 deaths, said Lav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, here on Sunday.

As many as 2,231 people have recovered from the disease so far, said Aggarwal during the daily media briefing on the coronavirus. "This equals 14.1 per cent of the total cases," he added.

"A total of 15,712 confirmed cases have been reported in India including 507 deaths and 2,231 people, who were COVID-19 positive, have recovered. Out of the total deaths, 27 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours," said Aggarwal.

The Joint Secretary said that no new case was reported in Mahe in Puducherry and Karnataka's Kodagu in the last 28 days.

"A total of 54 other districts beside these two in 23 States/Union Territories did not report any cases in the last 14 days," he said.

He informed that there are 755 dedicated COVID-19 hospitals and 1,389 dedicated health care centres in the country, which takes the total dedicated facilities where severe or critical patients can be treated to 2,144.