United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the country has already 'flattened the curve', and it is ready for a 'phased and gradual reopening' even though coronavirus cases and deaths shows no sign of stopping.

Thanks to the profound commitment of our citizens, we have flattened the curve and countless American lives have been saved. Our country is now in the next stage of the battle - a very safe phased and gradual reopening, reopening our country, Trump said.

Shares of ITC were trading lower for the third straight day, falling 8 per cent to Rs 161 on the BSE on Wednesday on heavy volumes. The stock of cigarette manufacturer has slipped 12 per cent in the past three trading days on reports that the Health Ministry has notified new health warnings for tobacco products. The counter has seen huge trading volume, with a combined 22.4 million equity shares changing hands on the NSE and BSE till 10:13 am.

The month long lockdown in April led to services activity contracting at the fastest pace in over 14-years in India to unprecedented low levels, according to a monthly survey released on Wednesday.

The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) saw an extreme decline in April, posting just 5.4. This was significantly lower than March's 49.3. In PMI parlance, the 50-mark threshold separates expansion from contraction.

After killing a terrorist in the Awantipora sector of the Pulwama district in Jammu and Kashmir, security forces have a cornered a top terrorist in the area after an overnight operation.

The terrorist has been identified as as Riyaz Naikoo - a top Hizb-Ul-Mujahideen commander. He carries a bounty of Rs 12 lakh on his head.

Amid concerns about security and privacy of user data, the developers of the Aarogya Setu app, a smartphone application developed by the Centre to contain the spread of coronavirus, have issued an official statement reaffirming that no data and security breach has been identified and the application is safe to use.

The statement came after a French security researcher Robert Baptiste, better known as Elliott Alderson, claimed that it is capable of leaking data of the around 9 crore users who have downloaded the app.

Telangana government has decided to extend the lockdown period till May 29, two weeks beyond the Centre's dead-line, while keeping the earlier restrictions in Hyderabad and other 5 Red Zones in the state.

However, in a major relaxation, the state government has decided to allow liquor sales across the state from Wednesday while raising the retail liquor prices by 15 per cent.

As COVID-19 cases continue to spiral in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday decided to withdraw the relaxations given from lockdown in the city, including the permission to reopen liquor shops.

Only essential services will be available from Wednesday, the BMC said in an order issued on Tuesday night.

Facing a revenue crunch due to the lockdown over coronavirus, the Central government on Tuesday increased the excise duty and imposed additional road cess on petrol and diesel prices.

But this will not impact consumers and the retail price will remain unchanged, the government said.

The India Navy has deployed two ships as part of its Operation Samudra Setu (Sea Bridge) to repatriate Indian citizens from overseas as India rolled out a massive evacuation plan to bring back its citizens from abroad.

Lakhs of Indian citizens are stranded abroad due to the lockdown over the novel coronavirus. All international flights operations were suspended in March before the nationwide lockdown began on 25th that month.

Independent India's largest repatriation mission to bring back its citizens stranded abroad due to COVID-19 pandemic is all set to begin with New Delhi giving the formal green signal. India will be getting back 1,92,000 people in the first phase of the mammoth exercise starting May 7 with the focus on the Gulf.

UAE will be the first country from were India will start getting back its nationals with the first two Air India flights landing in Kerala on May 7.

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