Poovamma wins 400m gold in Kolkata meet

Bengaluru, May 10 The asymptomatic and healthy people among international passengers will now have to undergo institutional quarantine for 14 days, according to the new standard operating procedure (SoP) issued by the Karnataka government for a third time.

The SoP, which has been revised twice, was issued by the Health and Family Welfare Department on Saturday, May 9.

The international passengers will be divided into two categories upon their arrival at the airports. Symptomatic will be directly sent to the covid-19 hospitals. Asymptomatic will not be allowed to go home directly. They will be sent for mandatory quarantine for 14 days in hotels and guest houses. 

Earlier, international passengers had to undergo seven days of institutional and seven days of home quarantine.

Passengers will also be tested only twice — once on arrival and for the second time on the 14th day — instead of the earlier decision to test thrice. They will be discharged from the facility if they test negative.

The first group of 350 people are expected to arrive from London at 3 am on Monday at the Kempegowda International Airport, said Lakshman Reddy, Joint Director, Social Welfare Department. 

Flights are expected from Singapore on May 13, Jeddah on May 14 and San Francisco on May 15. 

Among the stranded include 4,408 tourists and visitors, 3,084 students, 2,784 migrants and 557 ship crew.

Bengaluru, Apr 27: A 50-year old coronavirus patient allegedly committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of a hospital building here on Monday, police said.

The patient jumped from the trauma ward of the Victoria Hospital, a senior police official said.

According to hospital sources, the man, who was admitted with acute respiratory problem on Friday, was also suffering from kidney problems.

This morning, he jumped off the fifth floor of the building, they said.

Further investigations are on, police said.

Bengaluru, Jan 15: The Indian startups secured 12.7 billion in funding last year -- a 15% growth compared to 2018 - and Bengaluru startup community topped the list, with securing $5.3 billion across 267 deals, a new report said on Tuesday.

In total, the Indian startups attracted 766 deals in 2019, taking total deal count between 2014-2019 to 5,011, said DataLabs by Inc42 in its annual startup funding report.

Sequoia took the top spot as the most active VC in 2019 with 53 deals, followed by Accel that participated in 38 deals. Blume Ventures, Matrix Partners and Tiger Global were in the top five VCs in 2019.

"The Indian startup economy is entering new decade with over $58 billion in fundraising and 2,984 funded startups between 2014-2019," the findings showed.

With an average of $21 million, the ticket size value of funding increased by 15% in 2019.

Ecommerce and fintech -- with $2.6 billion funding each -- took the top slot with 93 deals and 125 deals, respectively.

"Ecommerce continued to remain at the top by the end of 2019. The growing investor confidence towards sub-sectors such as vertical ecommerce, social commerce and private label businesses is one major factor for ecommerce maintaining its lead," a DataLabs spokesperson said in a statement.

According to the estimates, the funding amount and deal count in 2020 will be around $12.6 billion at a 1% decline from 2019.

"Nevertheless, the investment activity is expected to rise in 2021," said the report.

The data suggests that 2019 had lowest number of startups funded (664) in the last five years, with seed-stage funding deals dropping by 53%, compared to 2016.

With $252 million in funding, seed-stage deal value fell by 44% (compared to 2018) as only 306 seed funding deals were recorded, the report said.

The enterprise tech had a blockbuster year with total funding of $1.15 billion across 114 deals in 2019. The sector recorded a 49% surge in total funding amount, compared to 2018.

The Indian startup economy saw 275 unique VCs participating in funding in 2019, said the report.