It's better to be a multi-billionaire politician than displaying wealth: Vijay Mallya

New Delhi, Mar 23: The total number of novel coronavirus cases in India rose to 415 on Monday including seven deaths.

"A total of 18,383 samples from 17,493 individuals have been tested for SARS-CoV2 as on March 23 at 10 am IST. A total of 415 individuals have been confirmed positive among suspected cases and contacts of known positive cases," ICMR said in a release.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Maharashtra is the worst affected state with 67 confirmed cases, including 64 Indian nationals.

Kerala also has 67 confirmed cases with 60 Indian nationals.

Next on the list with most coronavirus-affected patients is Delhi with 29 confirmed cases.

Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan have 28 and 27 confirmed cases respectively. Telangana and Karnataka have reported 26 cases each. In Punjab, the number of COVID-19 affected patients stands at 21.

A total of 24 patients have been cured and discharged.

The Centre on Monday asked state governments to strictly enforce the lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus and directed legal action against violators.

"States have been asked to strictly enforce the lockdown in the areas where it has been announced. Legal action will be taken against violators," a tweet by Principal Director General of PIB, KS Dhatwalia read.

A 'Janata curfew' was observed yesterday to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed and over 13,000 lives worldwide.

New Delhi, Feb 11 Congress's performance touched a record low in the Delhi Assembly election as the party bagged less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled and 63 of its candidates lost their deposits.

The party, which ruled Delhi for 15 years on the trot under former Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, failed to open its account for the second consecutive assembly election in Delhi.

Only three of its candidates Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Devender Yadav from Badli and Abhishek Dutt from Kasturba Nagar managed to save their deposits.

Security deposit of a candidate is forfeited if he/she fails to secure one-sixth of the total valid votes cast in a constituency.

Most of Congress candidates got less than 5 per cent of the total votes polled in their respective constituencies.

Delhi Congress chief Shubhash Chopra's daughter Shivani Chopra, who was the party candidate from Kalkaji, also could not save her deposit.

Former Delhi Assembly Speaker Yoganand Shastri's daughter Priyanka Singh also forfeited her deposit.

The party's campaign committee chairman Kirti Azad's wife, Poonam Azad, lost badly and stood fourth, polling only 2,604 (2.23) votes.

New Delhi, Mar 29 : Notwithstanding the 21-day coronavirus lockdown, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to go ahead with the merger plan of ten state-run banks into four larger bank from April 1. The apex bank has issued four separate releases announcing that the branches of merging banks will operate as of the banks in which these have been amalgamated from next month.

RBI's statement comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's clarification on Thursday that the mega bank consolidation plan was very much on track and would take effect from April 1.

The government on March 4 had notified the amalgamation schemes for 10 state owned banks into four as part of its consolidation plan to create bigger size stronger banks in the public sector.

Bank officers' unions, however, earlier this week wrote to the prime minister seeking to defer the merger schemes of lenders due to the lockdown triggered by coronavirus outbreak.

As per the scheme, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will be merged into Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank; and Andhra and Corporation banks into Union Bank of India.

Under this, the branches of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will operate as branches of Punjab National Bank from April 1, 2020, and branches of Syndicate Bank as that of Canara Bank, the RBI said in a separate releases.

Allahabad Bank branches will operate as those of Indian Bank while the branches of Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank will function as the branches of Union Bank of India from the beginning of next fiscal year 2020-21, the RBI said.

"The Amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India into Punjab National Bank Scheme, 2020 dated March 4, 2020, issued by the Government of India... The scheme comes into force on the 1st day of April 2020," RBI said.

Customers, including depositors of merging banks will be treated as customers of the banks in which these banks have been merged with effect from April 1, 2020, the RBI noted.

Banking services across the country are impacted due to the effect of COVID-19 as a near shut down is being observed across the country.

In a letter written to the Prime Minister on March 25, the All India Bank Officers'' Confederation (AIBOC) said, "The finance minister yesterday announced a slew of measures in view of the deleterious effect of the contagion. We are also expecting an extension of closing related activities and the revision of the closing date itself from March 31 to June 30, which is the need of the hour."