Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Wednesday hailed the recent Supreme Court verdict that begging could not be banned until poverty is eradicated and said his government aims to put an end to it in the state in the next five years.

No one turns to begging as they want it but poverty and hunger force them to do so, he said in a Facebook post.

India recorded 43,654 fresh COVID-19 cases on Wednesday that took its tally to 3,14,84,605 while 640 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 4,22,022, according to Union health ministry data.

The number of active cases stood at 3,99,436, an increase of 1,336 in a span of 24 hours, and comprises 1.27 per cent of the total infections. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has improved to 97.39 per cent, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Over 30 people are reported missing after a cloudburst in a remote village in Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir early Wednesday, officials said.

Rescue teams have been rushed to Honzar village of Dacchan tehsil and further details are awaited, they said.

Most parts of the Jammu region have been receiving heavy rains for the past few days.

Basavaraj Bommai took oath as the 23rd Chief Minister of Karnataka at 11 am in the Raj Bhawan on Wednesday (July 28).

Earlier in the morning, Bommai visited the Anjaneya Temple near the Balabruyi guest house along with some leaders and sought the blessings of the divine.

The newly appointed CM had met Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Kishan Reddy and others before the swearing-in ceremony.

Eighteen people were killed when a truck rammed into a double-decker bus on the Lucknow-Ayodhya National Highway under the Ram Sanehighat police circle.

Fifteen persons have been seriously injured and have been referred to the Trauma Centre in Lucknow.

According to reports, the accident took place in the early hours of Wednesday.

Private sector lender Ind­usInd Bank’s consolidated net profit almost doubled year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1,016 crore in the June quarter compared to Rs 510 crore. Its standalone profit more than doubled to Rs 974.95 crore, aided by lower provisions and higher other income.

Net interest income was up 8 per cent YoY to Rs 3,564 crore, from Rs 3,309 crore in Q1FY21.

Airport De Paris (ADP) and GMR Airports are likely to jointly bid for future airport projects, that is, greenfield, brownfield or management of airports.

Last year, the GMR Group concluded a deal to complete a 49 per cent stake sale in its airport arm to Paris-based Groupe ADP — the operator of Paris airport and one of the largest airport companies in the world — for Rs 10,780 crore.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is working on expanding its 'Pay Later' credit offering and aims to clock 2X growth over the next six months.

Currently, there are over 2.8 million customers who have adopted Flipkart Pay Later and have made more than 42 million transactions on the platform to date.

COVID-19 vaccine for children is likely to be available by next month i.e. August, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya is said to have told PM Narendra Modi at a meeting on July 27.

Mandaviya said at the meeting that the government would likely start vaccinating children next month, according to a report by leading portal citing sources.

Shares of pharmaceutical companies were under pressure, with the Nifty Pharma index falling 5 per cent on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) in intra-day trade on Tuesday after Dr Reddy’s Laboratories and Alembic Pharmaceuticals reported a disappointing set of numbers for the quarter ended June 2021 (Q1FY22).

At 02:27 pm, Nifty Pharma, the top loser among sectoral indices, was down 5.1 per cent as compared to a 0.69 per cent decline in the Nifty50 index.

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