‘Islamic State’ is not just anti-national, it’s anti-Islam too: PFI

Bengaluru, Apr 22: The Karnataka government has announced partial relaxation of COVID-19 lockdown norms in the state allowing certain construction activities, manufacturing of packaging materials, courier services, among others, from April 23.

The activities will be permitted only outside the COVID-19 containment zones identified by the government.

Service provided by self-employed people like electrician, IT repair, plumbers, motor mechanics, and carpenters in local areas have also been given exemption.

Tea, coffee and rubber plantation have been allowed to work with 50 per cent workforce, and a similar exemption have been given to processing, packaging, sale and marketing of these produce.

“To mitigate hardship to the public, select additional activities have been allowed,which will come into effect from 00.00 hours of April 23,” Chief Secretary TM Vijay Bhaskar said in an order on Wednesday.

However, these additional activities will be operationalised by District Administrations and BBMP (city corporation in the case of Bengaluru city) based on strict compliance to the guidelines on lockdown measures, it said.

Before operating these relaxations, district administrations and BBMP (city corporation) shall ensure that all the preparatory arrangements on social distancing in offices, work place establishments as also sectoral requirements are in place, it said, adding that relaxations will not apply in containment zones.

Facing a financial crunch, the state government has been eager to kick-start economic activities in the state that had come to halt due to the coronavirus lockdown.

While hospitality services, bars, malls, theatres, shopping complexes, religious and places of worship among others will continue to remain shut, relaxation of norms has been for activities that are linked to essential services such as health, infrastructure and agriculture.

As per the order, while, public transportation will continue to remain suspended till May 3,private vehicles with passes for emergency services and personnel commuting with passes to places of work and back will be allowed.

Activities permitted include construction of roads, irrigation projects, buildings and all kinds of industrial projects, including MSMEs, in rural areas and all kinds of projects in industrial estates, where workers are available on site and no one is required to be brought in from outside.

Also permitted to function are manufacturing units of essential goods – drugs, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, their raw materials and intermediates;

food processing industries in rural areas, coal production (mines and mineral production and activities incidental to mining) besides manufacturing units of packaging materials.

Bengaluru , Mar 21: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar exuded confidence that the party will return to power in the state and praised former chief minister Siddaramaiah's term.

"I am confident that we will come back to power. Everyone in the past has worked their best to build the party. Siddaramaiah being a full-term chief minister gave the best programs to Karnataka, his government's programs were the best of all time," Shivakumar said at a press conference on Friday.

He further assured his full support to anyone who wanted to work for the betterment of the party.

"Though I have become the state president of the party but I am still the worker of Congress and each of us should work for the party as ground workers. I am ready to give any kind of support to those who want to work for the party. We need to take all caste, communities along for the betterment of the party," he said.

Shivakumar was appointed the state Congress President on March 11, while Eshwar Khandre, Satish Jarkiholi, and Saleem Ahmed have been appointed working presidents of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

Mangaluru, Feb 8: Professional services company Cognizant on Friday opened a new facility in Mangaluru, expanding its presence in Karnataka. Located in the heart of the city, the new 100,000 sq- ft facility can accommodate more than 1,100 employees, the NASDAQ-listed company said in a statement.

Cognizant has had an association with Mangaluru since 2011 when it acquired CoreLogic Global Services Private Limited (CoreLogic India), the India-based captive operations of CoreLogic, one of the largest real estate information and analytics provider in the US market.

From its existing centre in Mangaluru, Cognizant provides consulting, enterprise applications and business process services in the area of mortgage processing covering property taxes, research and investigations, property data warehousing and management of geospatial data.

The company currently employs more than 600 professionals in Mangaluru, more than 50 per cent of whom are women.

In addition to experienced professionals, Cognizant also hires fresh graduates for its Mangaluru centre from leading institutions such as Sahyadari Institute of Technology and Management, Manipal Institute of Technology, N.M.A.M. Institute of Technology, St Joseph's College of Engineering, Canara Engineering College, N.I.T.K. Surathkal, PA College of Engineering and Srinivas College of Engineering, as mortgage origination and servicing specialists, business analysts, consultants, automation specialists and software engineers.

In Karnataka, Cognizant also has operations in Bengaluru and Mysuru. The company has more than 28,000 professionals in Bengaluru and nearly 700 professionals in Mysuru.

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