India’s economic growth, which was already slowing, has been hit hard by the coronavirus lockdown. Some of the leading indicators only tell the magnitude of its impact.

Power demand, for example, has fallen sharply. From an average of 148,282 megawatts (MW) during March 1-22, demand fell to 122,025 MW between March 23 and April 23, a decline of 17.7 per cent.

The central government had Rs 1.35 trillion in outstanding loans with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under ways and means advances in the week ended April 17, the central bank said on Friday.

The central government had Rs 1.11 trillion in outstanding loans in the previous week, according to the RBI’s weekly statistical supplement.

A US lawmaker has urged President Donald Trump to suspend the foreign workers programme, including H-1B, as more than 26 million Americans have lost their job because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a letter to Trump, Congressman Paul Gosar sought additional suspension of the H-1B, H4, L1, B1, B2, Optional Practical Training Program, and further guest worker admissions in order to promote wages and opportunities for American workers during this period of rising unemployment.

From next week, US President Donald Trump might ‘pare back’ his daily coronavirus task force briefings, which usually last more than two hours a day. There has been a concerted effort among his aides and allies to get the President to cut short his daily briefings on coronavirus, which has so far killed over 50,000 Americans. On Friday, too, Trump took no questions from reporters to be able to shorten the daily coronavirus task force briefing.

The death toll due to the coronavirus pandemic in the US crossed the 50,000 mark on Friday, as the number of confirmed cases rose above 8.8 lakh.

According to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus trackers, 50,114 people have died in the pandemic in the US alone, with the number of infections reaching 880,112.

As the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic continues to create chaos with most of the countries across the globe imposing lockdown measures, the hunt for a vaccine has also picked up the pace. Several trials and studies are being conducted in the US, UK, China, and India with the hopes of finding the elusive vaccine to stop the novel coronavirus pathogen.

After US President Donald Trump suggested the possibility of studying injecting disinfectants into COVID-19 patients or bringing UV light inside their bodies to kill the deadly virus, Lysol and Dettol maker issued a strong warning asking people not to inject or drink disinfectant.

Trump's suggestion came after Homeland Security for Science and Technology Under Secretary Bill Bryan on Thursday said the coronavirus dies at a much more rapid pace when exposed to sunlight and humidity.

Fifteen districts in the country have not reported a fresh case of coronavirus infection for the last 28 days despite having reported COVID-19 patients before, the Centre said on Friday. Durg and Rajnandgaon in Chattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh's Shivpuri were added to the list on Friday.

There are 80 districts where no case has been reported in last 14 days, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Luv Aggarwal said during a press briefing.

The Centre on Friday said it has formed 4 more Inter-Ministerial Central Teams (IMCT) which are being sent to Ahmedabad, Surat, Hyderabad and Chennai to assess the ground situation of COVID-19 management.

Earlier, six IMCTs - two each for West Bengal and Maharashtra and one each for Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan - were formed to make an on-spot assessment of the situation and issue necessary directions to state authorities for its redressal on coronavirus crisis.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that the coronavirus crisis has taught the country to become self-reliant. He made the while remark interacting with village heads from across the nation via video conferencing on the occasion of Panchayati Raj Day.

The coronavirus pandemic taught us the biggest lesson - that we have to become self-dependent. The villages became self-reliant, and it’s very important that districts, states and the entire country should become self-reliant, he said.

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