As coronavirus cases across the country continue to rise, the Karnataka government on Friday took action to control the spread and banned large gatherings at weddings and public functions across the state.

Gathering of people will be restricted to 200 from 500 earlier in halls or closed places for social and cultural events like weddings, state health secretary Jawaid Akhtar said in a circular.

US President Joe Biden spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the first summit of the Quad or Quadrilateral coalition on Friday. It was the first time Modi and Biden came face-to-face after the American leader took charge in Washington in January.

Prime Minister Modi... it's great to see you, President Biden, greeted PM Modi as he welcomed him to speak.

Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait will be in Kolkata today. The farmer leader said on Wednesday that he will go to Kolkata to urge farmers to defeat the BJP in the West Bengal Assembly elections.

However, he has claimed that he is not supporting any political party in the Assembly elections. Tikait further stated that farmers are distressed, and election will be discussed with them, adding that he is not going to West Bengal to seek votes.

With the rising number of coronavirus cases, concerns have been raised. After Maharashtra and Kerala, Punjab is the state where the maximum number of cases are being reported. This has forced the Punjab government into action and it has decided to impose night curfew in four more districts and close all schools from Friday.

Officials said that night curfew has been imposed in Ludhiana, Patiala, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar, Nawanshahar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur.

Gold price inched up by Rs 280 to Rs 44,710 per 10 gm on Friday, while Silver price rose by Rs 400 to trend at Rs 67,400 per kg, according to the Good Returns website.

Gold jewellery price varies across India, the second-largest consumer of the metal, due to excise duty, state taxes, and making changes.

Zomato co-founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal on Friday said that the food delivery firm was providing support to its delivery executive in Bengaluru who was de platformed after a customer complained that he assaulted her while delivering food.

Right from the get go, our topmost priority has been to get to the truth. Towards that, we are helping both Hitesha and Kamaraj (our delivery partner) with all the support they need while the investigation is pending, Goyal said in a tweet.

India recorded 23,285 cases of coronavirus infection in a day, the highest in around 78 days, taking thetotaltally of COVID-19 cases to1,13,08,846, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

Thedeath toll increased to1,58,306 with 117 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.

The Supreme Court on Friday said the Central and the state governments should not appoint persons holding government office as election commissioners.

A bench headed by Justice R.F. Nariman said entrusting additional charge of state election commissioner to a government official is a mockery of the Constitution.

The health condition of West Bengal Chief MInister Mamata Banerjee, who is nursing injuries suffered during poll campaigning at Nandigram, is stable and her improvement is satisfactory, doctors said on Friday.

Banerjee slept well at night and is responding well to treatment, said doctors at the state-run SSKM hospital, where the TMC supremo was rushed to on Wednesday after being allegedly pushed by unknown people while campaigning for the assembly elections in Nandigram in Purba Medinipore district.

About 45 per cent of re-contesting MLAs (182 of 405) who switched political parties between 2016 and 2020 joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to a report by poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR). This was followed by 38 who joined the Congress and 25 who joined the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

As many as 170 MLAs deserted the Congress during the elections held between 2016 and 2020, while only 18 BJP legislators switched parties to contest the polls, it said.

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