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Bhaichung Bhutia opens his doors for migrant workers in Gangtok NEW DELHI: At a time when thousands of migrant workers around the country are struggling to make ends meet and have no shelter due to the 21 day lockdown, former Indian football captain and one of the biggest sports stars India has produced, Bhaichung Bhutia has come forward to help. Bhaichung has offered shelter to migrant workers in Sikkim, who mostly hail from Bihar and West Bengal at his new building in Lumsey, Tadong in Gangtok. About 100 people can be provided shelter in the building. Talking to TimesofIndia.com, Bhutia...

Randeep Hooda on his Hollywood debut: ‘It is a dose of extra action and emotion’ Actor Randeep Hooda is all set to make his Hollywood debut in the Netflix film Extraction, starring Chris Hemsworth, and the actor is naturally super excited. “20 years after I thought I’ll make a showreel to work over there. It finally happened. So grateful to most amazing crew and cast. It is a dose of Extra Action and emotion,” he tweeted. Extraction was initially titled Dhaka. It also stars Indian actors Manoj Bajpayee and Pankaj Tripathi. The movie revolves around Tyler Rake (essayed by Hemsworth), a fearless,...

BR Ambedkar received Bharat Ratna posthumously, other important events of March 31 Today’s date is not just any other day, it holds a greater significance for the nation. It was today, three decades back when Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar was awarded Bharat Ratna posthumously. BR Ambedkar was conferred Bharat Ratna on March 31, 1990. Ambedkar was born on April 14, 1891 in present-day Madhya Pradesh’s Mhow. The architect of the Constitution of India, Ambedkar led a crusade for the upliftment and empowerment of Dalits in the country. Source: Hindustan Times

Dr. Anthony Fauci sees ‘glimmers’ that social distancing is ‘dampening’ coronavirus outbreak U.S. health officials see “glimmers” that social distancing efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus are beginning to dampen the outbreak, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday. Americans are still “in a very difficult situation,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on CNN. “We hope and I believe it will happen that we may start seeing a turnaround, but we haven’t seen it yet. We’re just pushing on the mitigation.” Source: CNBC

We have done more success in getting people to self-isolate, says Canadian PM Justin Trudeau The Canadian Government is prepared to mobilise nearly 24,000 troops to assist in the effort to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, even as its Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pointedly said the country was on a different “trajectory” from the spread of the disease in the United States. Addressing his daily press conference, Trudeau said, “I think I would say we’re not necessarily on the same trajectory. We were quicker to get the screening done, and I think we have had more success in getting people to...

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Would be a Better Candidate Than Biden, Says Donald Trump US President Donald Trump said Monday that New York governor Andrew Cuomo, whose popularity has surged thanks to his handling of the coronavirus outbreak in the state, would make a better candidate to run against him in November’s elections than Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden. Cuomo, 62, is not in the running in the Democratic primaries, but his handling of the crisis in New York, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States with some 60,000 reported cases, had seen his approval rating skyrocket...

DIIs might soon run out of ammunition on D-Street: Gautam Chhaochharia What is happening on the FII front? India is still at the receiving end in terms of FII outflows. They continue to sell when global markets are looking better, things are stabilising, the virus spread has not been alarmingly high in India, the lockdown at least initially seems to be working, crude prices have got crushed. But foreign investors continue to throw in the towel, dump and sell and throw names like HDFC, HDFC Bank. Why is that?Three simple reasons. To begin with, India was coming out of a...

Research on coronavirus vaccine rapidly going on in India, we are moving in right direction: Health Ministry The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday asserted that research is rapidly going in India on the vaccine for the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and the government is moving in the right direction. Addressing the daily press conference to provide updates on the COVID-19 situation in the country, Joint Secretary in Health Ministry Lav Agarwal said that a total of 227 positive cases have been reported in the last 24 hours. India till now has tested positive for 1,251 cases including deaths of 32...

Michael Sorkin, 71, Dies; Saw Architecture as a Vehicle for Change Michael Sorkin, one of architecture’s most outspoken public intellectuals, a polymath whose prodigious output of essays, lectures and designs, all promoting social justice, established him as the political conscience in the field, died on Thursday in Manhattan. He was 71. His wife and only immediate survivor, Joan Copjec, said the cause was the coronavirus. In lectures and in years of teaching, Mr. Sorkin inspired audiences and students to use architecture to change lives, resist the status quo and help achieve social equity. His motivational writings and projects helped reset...

German minister takes own life allegedly over coronavirus concerns The minister of finance in Germany’s Hesse region, Thomas Schaefer, was found dead on Saturday after he took his own life, Deutsche Welle reported. The country’s financial capital Frankfurt is in Hesse region. His body was found on the railway tracks between Frankfurt and another city, Mainz. According to the report, he left a note before he died by suicide. The contents of the letter have not been released. State premier Volker Bouffier linked Schaefer’s death to worries about the coronavirus pandemic and its economic fallout. “His [Schaefer’s] main concern was whether he...