At least 24 migrant labourers were killed and several others injured in the wee hours of Saturday after the trailer truck they were travelling home in collided with a DCM van in the Auriya district of Uttar Pradesh, around 200 km from state capital Lucknow.

The road accident occurred at around 3 AM, sources confirmed, making this the latest in a series of unfortunate incidents involving stranded migrant workers meeting their hapless fate after facing scores of difficulties while traversing home to their native states, mostly on foot.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra crossed 29,0000-mark on Friday as the state added as many as 1,576 fresh cases to the tally, data released by the health department said.

As the virus claimed 49 more lives, the death toll rose to 1,068 while the total number of cases reached 29,100.

While the number of cases reported on Friday was less than the Thursday's tally of 1,602, it was still the second-highest single-day for the worst-hit state in the country.

The Allahabad High Court on Friday allowed the Muslim call tor prayer, or 'azaan' by a single individual in Uttar Pradesh mosques without the use of any loudspeaker during the coronavirus-enforced lockdown.

While allowing 'azaan' during lockdown, the court said it may be an essential and integral part of Islam but its recitation through loudspeakers or other sound-amplifying devices cannot be said to be an integral part of the religion.

After media reports showed a migrant woman pulling a suitcase with her child sleeping half hung on it as she walked on a highway in Uttar Pradesh's Agra, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) India has taken suo motu cognizance of the matter and issued notices to the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh and the District Magistrate of Agra.

As per reports, the migrant woman was walking all the way from somewhere in Punjab to Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh till she caught the attention of the media persons.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked how anyone can stop incidents like Aurangabad when they sleep on railway tracks, referring to the death of 16 migrant workers, who were run over by a goods train in Maharashtra last week while returning home on foot to their home in Madhya Pradesh amid the coronavirus lockdown.

Dismissing a plea filed by Advocate Alakh Alok Shrivastav raising concerns over migrant workers, a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao observed that it was not possible for the court to monitor the situation and that it was up to the state Governments to manage the situation.

Indian restaurant aggregator and online food delivery platform Zomato on Friday said it is going to layoff around 13% of its workforce as it does not have enough work for all of its employees on account of the impact of COVID-19 pandemic.

Deepinder Goyal, Zomato Founder and CEO, said in a blog post that multiple aspects of our business have changed dramatically over the last couple of months and many of these changes are expected to be permanent.

‘Work from home' may become a new normal post-lockdown for government employees to ensure social distancing norms till the coronavirus pandemic is checked.

Draft guidelines in this regard have been circulated by the Personnel Ministry to all central government departments asking them to send their comments on it by May 21, failing which, it would be presumed that they are in agreement with the proposed draft.

Global economic losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic could be between $5.8 trillion and $8.8 trillion this year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Friday, more than double its earlier estimates as containment measures paralyse economies.

The ADB's forecast, equal to 6.4% to 9.7% of global gross domestic product, was worse than projections in April when it said the global economy could suffer between $2.0 trillion and $4.1 trillion in losses, depending on how long containment measures were in place.

Delhi University's decision to hold 'open-book' mode online exams for post-graduate and under-graduate exams, if the situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic doesn't normalise, has drawn criticism from student bodies as well as teachers.

Notably, students would be allowed to refer to their notes, and other study materials to answer the questions after they download question papers for their respective course from the web portal sitting at home, and upload the answers in two hours.

The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in India neared the 82,000-mark on Friday, while the death toll has crossed the 2,600-mark. As of 9:15 AM on this day, the COVID-19 tally in India has reached 81,970, which includes 51,401 active cases; 27,920 cured, discharged or migrated patients, and 2,649 deaths.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, as many as 3,967 new COVID-19 cases and 87 deaths were reported in the country in the last 24 hours, marking a significant spike.

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