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Congress, BJP neck and neck in Gujarat: Fresh opinion poll

News Network
December 5, 2017

New Delhi, Dec 5: The Gujarat elections could be a dead heat between BJP and Congress with the former just scraping through to a win, according to an opinion poll released on Monday. The poll predicted that both parties would get 43% of the votes but BJP could win between 91 and 99 seats in the 182-member assembly while Congress would have to settle for between 78 and 86 seats.

The latest projections are a remarkable turnaround from the 30-point lead for BJP projected by a poll done by the same agencies in August. At that time, the seat projections were that BJP could cross the 150 mark while Congress would struggle to cross 30. BJP won 115 seats in the 2012 assembly polls while Congress won 61. However, thanks to desertions from its ranks, Congress had just 43 MLAs in the outgoing assembly, BJP 116 and others 5 with 18 seats vacant.

The Lokniti-CSDS poll done for ABP News indicated that the sentiment against both demonetisation and GST has hardened as the campaign has progressed and even the changes made to GST rates last month left more people dissatisfied than satisfied.

Farmer resentment is also playing an important role in fuelling the rise of Congress in the state, according to the poll.

Congress, according to the poll, has a lead in north and south Gujarat, while BJP is a touch ahead in Saurashtra and central parts of the state. The traditional urban-rural divide continues to play out, with BJP dominant in urban areas and Congress comfortably ahead in the villages, suggested the poll.

In terms of age groups, the youngest voters, those aged 18 to 29 years, prefer BJP, the 30-39 and 40-59 age groups have a slight preference for Congress and the elderly are split down the middle in the poll.

If the polls findings are right, now a majority of even those who voted BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections agree that achhe din haven't arrived. It found that 54% of those who voted for BJP in the parliamentary polls now back this statement.

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News Network
May 27,2020

New Delhi, May 27: With 6,387 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, India's count of COVID-19 rose to 1,51,767 on Wednesday, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

170 people have also died in the last 24 hours due to the infection.

Currently, there are 83,004 active cases while 64,425 COVID-19 positive patients have been cured/discharged and one has migrated. So far, a total of 4,337 deaths have taken place across the country.

Among all states, Maharashtra has the highest number of COVID-19 cases with 54,758. Tamil Nadu has 17,728 cases with Gujarat at 14,821 cases. The national capital has 14,465 reported cases of coronavirus.

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Agencies
July 30,2020

New Delhi, Jul 30: India's gold demand in 2020 is expected to fall to the lowest level in 26 years with domestic bullion prices hitting a record high and as falling disposable incomes could curtail retail purchases, the World Gold Council (WGC) said on Thursday.

Lower demand by the world's second-biggest bullion consumer could limit a rally in global prices, which hit a record high earlier this month, although it could also reduce India's trade deficit and support the ailing rupee.

"Fast rising gold prices could act as headwinds," said Somasundaram PR, the managing director of WGC's Indian operations.

Local gold futures have jumped 35% so far this year after rising a quarter in 2019.

India's gold consumption in the first half of 2020 plunged 56% on-year to 165.6 tonnes. Meanwhile, the coronavirus-triggered lockdown also slashed demand by 70% in the June quarter to 63.7 tonnes, the lowest in more than a decade, the WGC said in a report published on Thursday.

Millions of Indians have lost their jobs or taken a pay cut after the country imposed a lockdown on its 1.3 billion people to curb the spread of the virus that has infected more than 1.5 million Indians.

Consumption is generally high during the June quarter due to weddings and key festivals such as Akshaya Tritiya, but lockdown restrictions kept shoppers indoors this year.

The weak demand in the first half could drag down India's gold consumption in 2020 to the lowest since 1994, when demand stood at 415 tonnes, Somasundaram said, adding that it is still difficult to provide an estimate for full-year demand as the coronavirus crisis is still unfolding.

"Indian demand has previously jumped as much as 300 tonnes in a quarter. Latent demand could come out in the second half," Somasundaram said.

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News Network
April 11,2020

Apr 11: India has sent back 20,473 foreigners who wanted to return to their countries following the Covid-19 global pandemic, it was revealed on Friday (April 10).

"So far, we have successfully evacuated 20,473 foreign nationals as of yesterday. This is an ongoing process," said Dammu Ravi, Coordinator on Covid-19 issues at the Ministry of External Affairs, MEA.

"This involves several countries," Ravi said during the daily government briefing on Covid-19, although he could not list the countries offhand. "We are receiving excellent cooperation from governments all over the world for this process."

Many foreigners, especially tourists, were stranded in India when domestic and international flights were abruptly cancelled last month in a bid to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

The Ministry of Tourism has asked stranded foreigners to get in touch with the government through a special portal started for the purpose, through their embassies in India and other sources to facilitate their evacuation if they wished to head home.

As of Friday evening, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had confirmed 6,761 Covid-19 cases in India, of whom 515 patients have been cured.

There were 206 deaths reported from across the country.

Two states, Punjab and Orissa, have extended the ongoing lockdown until April 30.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will consult state chief ministers on Saturday to decide whether to extend the country-wide lockdown, which is due to end at midnight on April 14.

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