The Central government has given a blanket approval to 13 states to immediately start procuring chana (gram) and masoor (lentil), the two big pulses grown during the rabi season. The Centre has also cleared Rs 1,250 crore for purchasing around 258,000 tonnes of both the pulses.

These 13 states won’t require any formal approval from the Centre before starting procurement. The states can start procuring up to 25 per cent of the produce immediately, without waiting for a formal clearance of their proposal from the Centre.

A pandemic that has so far claimed nearly 70,000 lives and has affected over 12.7 lakh people globally, putting almost half of the world's population under lockdown, is yet to be discussed by the United Nations in what is seen as a failure of the world body in a time of such an unprecedented crisis. This may, however, change soon with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) likely to discuss the novel coronavirus outbreak this week.

The UNSC in its release on the this week's agenda has said that it could discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. A meeting this week on this issue is possible.

The Provident Fund subscribers can now rectify their date of birth in EPFO records to ensure that their UAN is KYC compliant, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) said on Sunday.

EPFO has issued revised instructions to its field offices in this regard.

The decision has been taken to extend the availability and reach of online services in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Italy and Spain, the two European nations with the highest coronavirus death toll, saw a significant drop in the daily casualty numbers on Sunday, with officials hoping the trend to continue.

In Italy, daily coronavirus death toll plunge to its lowest in over two weeks. The 525 official COVID-19 fatalities were the lowest in the country since 427 deaths were registered on March 19.

The goods and services tax network (GSTN), the IT backbone of GST, has enabled more than 1,700 tax officers to work from their homes using a secure virtual private network (VPN) facility amid the lockdown.

This has provided officers a secured access to work on various GST applications such as processing of registration application, refund application, audit, assessment, appeal etc.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar police has extended for another nine days the restrictions imposed in the district under CrPC section 144, in view of the nationwide lockdown which will continue till April 14, officials said on Sunday.

All gatherings, including political, social and religious, protest rallies and sports events will remain banned across Noida and Greater Noida during the lockdown period, a senior officer said.

The Central government is scrambling to address distress calls of workers across the country, with the authorities intervening with employers to address concerns on layoffs or unpaid leave during the nationwide lockdown, which is aimed at minimising the spread of Covid-19.

The office of the chief labour commissioner, under the Union Labour and Employment Ministry, has written to SpiceJet Chairman and Managing Director Ajay Singh to comply with the instructions of the government and not deduct the salaries of workers in the lockdown period.

As Indians switched off lights for nine minutes at 9 pm on Sunday to show solidarity amid lockdown, power demand went down by close to 32 gigawatt (Gw). Official estimates indicated that power demand during the nine minutes was down to 85.3 Gw from 117 Gw earlier. Post the event, power demand restored to 110 Gw.

The power grid at national and at regional level did not face any glitch, as was being feared. The grid frequency remained normal at 49-50 gigahertz, indicating no major fluctuation in the grid.

Will a non-resident stuck in India for over 182 days because of the Covid-19 lockdown be liable to be taxed in India? Will cross-border workers stuck in India for a longer duration impact the tax residency or result in permanent establishment- (PE-) related tax concerns for his overseas employer?

These situations should be treated as ‘exceptional and temporary’ and should not trigger a change in residency or PE status, according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its guidance note.

Railways has begun preparing to resume all its services from April 15 after a 21-day suspension of its passenger trains in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Sources said all railway safety personnel, running staff, guards, TTE and other officials have been told to be ready to join their posts from April 15. Trains, however, will begin operations only after a green signal from the government which had formed a Group of Ministers (GoM) on the issue.

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