Telangana assembly dissolved, set for early polls

Kolkata, May 21: Around 300 nurses have left Kolkata for Manipur after resigning from their jobs, said JS Joyrita, Deputy Residence Commissioner, Manipur Bhavan, Kolkata on Wednesday.

"Around 60 more nurses will be leaving tomorrow. We are getting many calls from people who want to go back to Manipur," she said.

Earlier, it was reported that 185 nurses have quit their job from hospitals in Kolkata and returned to Imphal. Cristella, a nurse said: "We are not happy that we left our duties. But we faced discrimination, racism and people sometimes spit on us. Lack of PPE kits, and people used to question us everywhere we went."

According to the latest information available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2961 cases of the virus have been reported from West Bengal 1074 cured/migrated/discharged and 250 deaths.

India's COVID-19 tally reached 1,06,750 on Wednesday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As many as 140 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 3,303. Out of the total cases, 61,149 are actives cases and 42,298 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

Feb 28: Market benchmark Sensex plummeted over 1,100 points, wiping off over Rs 5 lakh crore investor wealth, in opening session on Friday amid a massive selloff in global equities as rising coronavirus cases outside China stoked fears of a pandemic that could dent world growth.

The 30-share index sank 1,100.27 points, or 2.77 per cent, to 38,645.39, while the NSE Nifty cracked 329.50 points, or 2.83 per cent, to 11,303.80.

All Sensex components were trading in the red, led by losses in Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, HCL Tech and Reliance Industries.

In the previous session, the Sensex settled 143.30 points, or 0.36 per cent, lower at 39,745.66, and the Nifty fell 45.20 points or 0.39 per cent to end at 11,633.30.

According to analysts, till last week the market was of the view that coronavirus was going to have minimum impact on global economy as situation in China was being contained. But the increase in the number of new cases is changing the view and investors are worried about an intense slowdown.

Further, incessant selling by foreign investors is also spooking domestic market participants, traders said.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 3,127.36 crore on Thursday, data available with stock exchanges showed.

Stock exchanges in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo plunged up to 4 per cent in their morning sessions.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 1,190.95 points, its largest one-day point drop in history, bringing its loss for the week to 3,225.77 points, or 11.1 per cent.

The S&P 500 has now plunged 12 per cent from the all-time high it set just a week ago.

World oil prices too tumbled by more than 4 per cent overnight as traders fretted about the impact of spreading coronavirus on crude demand, particularly from key consumer China.

Brent crude oil futures fell another 2.47 per cent to USD 50.45 per barrel early in the day.

The rupee depreciated 28 paise to 71.89 against the US dollar in morning session.

Kochi, Feb 14: A special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Friday extended the remand of Thalassery-based students Allan Shuhaib and Thaha Fasal till March 13.

They were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act in Kozhikode in November 2019.

Meanwhile, Alan Shuhaib has approached the High Court seeking permission to appear for the LLB 2nd semester exam scheduled on February 18.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on February 6 wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah, urging him to transfer the case of the two students, who were arrested for alleged links with Maoists, from the NIA to state police.

Allan and Thaha, students of law and journalism respectively of Kannur University, were taken into custody by the police from Pantheerankavu in Kozhikode on November 1 last year for alleged links with the Naxals.

The duo was charged under Sections 20 (punishment for being a member of terrorist gang or organisation), 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of the UAPA.