Rs 1000, Rs 500 currency notes to be out of circulation from midnight

New Delhi, Feb 1: The budget is a little more demanding of the non-resident Indian. Firstly, to be categorized a non-resident, an Indian now has to stay abroad for 240 days, against 182 previously. In other words, an Indian national, to claim the non-resident status, can’t stay in India for 120 days or more in a year.

“We've made changes in Income Tax Act where if an Indian citizen stays out of the country for more than 182 days, he becomes non-resident,” said Revenue Secy Ajay Bhushan Pandey. “Now in order to become non-resident, he has to stay out of the country for 240 days.”

The second rule is more deadly: a non-resident Indian, who is not taxed in the foreign country, will become taxable in India.

“If any Indian citizen is not a resident of any country in the world, he'll be deemed to be a resident of India and his worldwide income will be taxed,” said Pandey.

"It's a very big disadvantage for Indians residing overseas only to save on tax,"  said Dinesh Kanabar of Dhruva Advisors. He expects that many Indians stay abroad in countries, where the income tax is low or nil such as Dubai. Now they will be taxed in India if they are in the income tax bracket.

For Indians, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman revised income tax rats and proposed new tax slabs.

The new income tax rates will, however, not allow exemptions under Section 80C. Home loan exemption, insurance exemptions, the standard deduction will also not stay under the regime.

"The new tax regime will be optional and the taxpayers will be given the choice to either remain in the old regime with exemptions and deductions or opt for the new reduced tax rate without those exemptions," Sitharaman said while unveiling Budget.

Social media giant Twitter briefly blocked the Karnataka BJP's account after it posted several provocative tweets and taunted Muslim women.

Ironically, the BJP called its unhygienic tweets as "liberal views". "It is unfortunate that our handle was locked out by Twitter for speaking the truth about liberals," it said.

"A big thanks for your support and encouragement. Satymeva Jayate. Jai Hind," the political party said to its supporters.

However, it did not specify for how long Twitter blocked its account but tweeted again on Wednesday after Monday.

Last week Karnataka BJP drew flak on Twitter for taking a swipe at Muslim women who appear to be standing in a line to vote in Delhi's assembly polls. ""Kaagaz Nahi Dikayenge Hum" ! ! ! Keep the documents safe, you will need to show them again during NPR exercise (sic)," the party's Karnataka Twitter handle posted using the hashtag #DelhiPolls2020.

It tweeted on Monday, accusing Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh, Sushil Kumar Shinde and Vijay Bahuguna for "cheating" Dalits.

Karnataka BJP spokesperson G. Madhusudhan said that he had no idea about the account being blocked and then unblocked by Twitter.

"What has happened? I don't know," said Madhusudhana.

Reacting to the drubbing BJP suffered in the Delhi Assembly polls, the party tweeted that there is no need to lose heart.

"Now is the time to go back to voters to win their hearts and minds. Let us plan for 2025 from today. We are with you," tweeted Karnataka BJP on Wednesday.

Though BJP congratulated Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for winning the Delhi polls, the party highlighted that it managed to increase it vote share by six per cent compared to 2015.

Also Read: Karnataka BJP taunts Muslim women, asks them to keep document safe for NPR

Bengaluru, Mar 27: Oncologist Dr. Vishal Rao, HCG Hospital Bengaluru on Friday said that human body cells release interferon chemical to kill viruses but it cannot be released by cells in the case of COVID-19 cases, leading to weak immune system. However, a therapy of specific concoction could be useful in treating COVID-19 patients.

"We got hold of some preprint suggesting that interferon is effective in COVID19," said Rao.

Speaking to news agency, he continued saying "When we withdraw blood for regular check-ups, we get buffy coat which can be used to take out cells and form interferon. These two chemicals and some other cytokines, in a specific concoction, could be potentially very useful in treating COVID-19 patients."

Rao said that they have built a concoction of cytokines which can be injected to reactivate immune system in COVID-19 patients.

"We are in a very initial stage and hope to be ready with its first set by this weekend. We have applied to the governement for an expedited review. We have also presented this before the state government" said Rao.

"We have a team of infection specialist, ICU team and other...all of us have worked together to build something that we believe. We want to serve the society at this hour of need," he added.

Dr Rao clarified that this is not a vaccine and this particular interferon therapy does not help to prevent the infection of COVID-19. However, this is focused and targeted towards COVID-19 positive patients or those who have just incubated the virus.

"We believe that in early stages as well as the patients who have just incubated, this particular therapy of interferon gama and other concoction of cytokines could be an effective method. In the late stages we are looking at specific dosage of the cells which are our own body cells which can actually be affective and could also be of use for the ventilator patients," he added.

Meanwhile, Dr Gururaj, Immunologist and Scientist told ANI that they are trying to cover two aspects, one is the early stage patients where they are trying to improve their immune systems.

"As Dr Vishal said, we are trying to see whether we can use the cytokines from our own immune cells which is a natural process but it is hampered in infected patients," said Dr Gururaj.

"In the last phase we are using cells which are used from the bone marrow of the patient or donors. We can use those cells to reduce the inflation and so called cytokines release syndrome which is basically the inflammatory response of the body," he added.