Protesting against discrimination Dalit IAS officer quits post, accepts Islam

Bengaluru, Jul 1: The Meteorological Department has issued a yellow alert and forecasted heavy rains for three coastal districts and 12 more in the south interior Karnataka region, an official said on Tuesday afternoon.

"Thunderstorm with lightning is likely to occur at isolated places over south interior Karnataka from Tuesday to Wednesday," said a Met official.

For Bengaluru city, the Met department has forecast a generally cloudy sky with light rain for the next three days.

Coastal Karnataka -- Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts have been issued a yellow alert for the next two days with thundershowers and gusty winds.

Winds blowing at speed of 40-50 km per hour are expected on the coast and the Met department warned fishermen against venturing into the sea.

Meanwhile, heavy showers on Sunday night in Vijayapura district gave rise to flash floods in the Doni river and Sogali stream.

An overflowing Doni river submerged the Talikote - Hadaginal bridge, a remnant from the colonial era, and also submerged some agricultural lands. Only recently, these agricultural lands were sown with toor dal plants.

Similarly, many SSLC students also struggled to cross the bridge to reach their examination centres on Monday.

Many houses were also flooded due to the rainfall at Nalatwad and Talikote taluk. Muddebihal, Basavana Bagewadi and Sindagi taluks also witnessed heavy rainfall.

A 40-year-old farmer from Dharwad district was washed away in the Tuppari Halla stream, which is prone to flood during the monsoon season.

Likewise, a truck carrying cotton also got washed away in a stream in Yadgir district.

"There is an offshore trough and a circulation, because of which rain will continue in the coastal area. Only Malnad has not got sufficient rain this year. Probably after two days, Malnad may get some rains," Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC) Director Srinivas Reddy said. Otherwise, entire state got normal rainfall, said Reddy, though it is not active over Malnad.

New Delhi, Mar 4: Tech giant Intel has said one of its employees in Bengaluru has "potentially been exposed" to coronavirus and is currently under quarantine.

The company also said it has implemented precautionary measures like travel restrictions, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions in India.

"An Intel employee in Bangalore has potentially been exposed and is currently under quarantine in accordance with government requirements," Intel said in a late night statement on Tuesday.

The company said it is monitoring the coronavirus situation closely and working to ensure that its employees have the information and resources they need to stay safe and informed.

In India, we have implemented precautionary measures such as travel and event restrictions, visitor screenings at all our offices, increased frequency of office sanitisation, and work-from-home provisions," it said.

The virus outbreak, which has seen cases being registered across the world including South Korea, Iran, Italy and Japan, has had a significant impact on businesses across industries.

Microblogging platform Twitter has asked its employees to work from home while other tech giants like Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies instructed staff to avoid non-essential travel as IT firms put in place measures to safeguard workers against the deadly coronavirus.

The coronavirus outbreak claimed over 3,000 lives globally, and fresh cases being reported in India.

The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the virus outbreak whose epicentre was in China.

Bengaluru, Jun 26: The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) on Thursday came up with a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for restaurants whereby among other physical distancing norms, it has suggested a 2-metre gap between tables.

Formulated in partnership with Releski, a Bengaluru based skill-tech company, the SoP suggests that in case of back-to-back seating, people sitting with their backs towards each other will have their seats divided by 'Plexiglass' divider raised up to 2 meters from the ground.

"In a typical restaurant, the improvised seating plan should have a minimum distance of 2 metres between tables. The distance of 2 metres (6 feet) between tables should measure from one edge of the table to the other table's edge," it said.

In case of loose or free seating such as in banquet style or food court style seating, a minimum 2 meters of distance should be maintained between tables.

The guidelines noted that, to encourage physical distancing, restaurants have to sacrifice their seating capacity, to promote health and safety, and also to gain trust from their patrons.

"In order to perform this, divide your restaurants under different sectors. Pull out your restaurant's floor plan and colour code different sections red and yellow. Red sections are potential areas where maximum footfall or traffic is observed. Yellow sections are areas where the footfalls are average," it said.

All the red sections are encircled or bordered by placing barricades or Q manager and will open at specific points to access the yellow section and all the opening points will have hand sanitisers and sprays, and every guest who walks from red zones to yellow zones will sanitise himself/herself to reduce the chances of contamination.

For air conditioning, the guidelines of CPWD shall be followed which inter alia emphasises that the temperature setting of all air conditioning devices should be in the range of 24-30 degree Celsius, relative humidity should be in the range of 40- 65 per cent, intake of fresh air should be as much as possible and cross ventilation should be adequate, the guidelines suggested.

The industry body has also suggested appointment of a COVID-free Ambassador who would operate as the Chief Health Officer within the restaurant team, preferably from the management team in each shift.

The ambassador's would put the new daily work routines into practice, to monitor compliance with good practice and to lead the preventative measures, adapt to health & safety recommendations and requirements of the restaurant and oversee the implementation of the norms.

Anurag Katriar, President of NRAI and CEO & Executive Director of deGustibus Hospitality, said: "Every restaurant cutting across formats is facing the harsh reality of subdued to shut business volumes in the present and the uncertainty of business environment in the future. One thing is certain that hygiene and safety will be a key differentiator in the post-pandemic restaurant operations."