While hearing a petition on Thursday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that marriage between first cousins is illegal.

This comes after a 21-year-old man moved the high court against state of Punjab seeking anticipatory bail in a case registered under Sections 363 (kidnapping), 366A (procuration of minor girl) of the IPC at police station Khanna City-2 in Ludhiana district on August 18.

National Capital Delhi is witnessing a fresh wave of Covid-19 pandemic. Delhi recorded the second highest death toll in the past 24 hours on Saturday.

The national capital recorded 6,608 fresh COVID-19 cases in a single day, taking the infection tally to over 5.17 lakh.

According to authorities, 118 people have succumbed to the virus in the last 24 hours, taking the death count due to coronavirus to 8,159.

US President-elect Joe Biden on Friday appointed an Indian-American, Mala Adiga, as the policy director of his wife Jill Biden, who will be the first lady.

Adiga has served as a senior advisor to Jill and a senior policy advisor on the Biden-Kamala Harris campaign. Previously, Adiga was director for Higher Education and Military Families at the Biden Foundation.

Delhi recorded 7,546 fresh COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the infection tally in the national capital to over 5.1 lakh, even as 98 more fatalities pushed the death toll to 8,041, authorities said.

These fresh cases came out of the 62,437 tests conducted the previous day, including 22,067 RT-PCR tests, the highest till date.

Vaccine maker Serum Institute of India's CEO Adar Poonawalla on Thursday said the Oxford COVID-19 vaccine should be available for healthcare workers and elderly people by around February 2021 and by April for the general public, and will be priced at a maximum of Rs 1,000 for two necessary doses for the public, depending on the final trial results and regulatory approvals.

India's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the 90-lakh mark on Friday with 45,882 new cases, while the recoveries surged to 84.28 lakh pushing the national recovery rate to 93.6 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

The total coronavirus cases mounted to 90,04,365 and the death toll climbed to 1,32,162 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 584 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country, the data updated at 8 am showed.

Shares of Bharti Infratel moved higher by 7 per cent to Rs 200 on the BSE on Friday after the company completed merger with Indus Towers to create a mega tower company (renamed Indus Towers).

Bharti Airtel's stake in the combined entity will be 36.73 per cent while Vodafone group and Providence will hold 28.12 per cent and 3.25 per cent, respectively. Vodafone Idea (VIL) has received Rs 3,760.1 crore cash for its 11.15 per cent holding in Indus.

Gold price today fell by Rs 40 to Rs 50,850 from Rs 50,890 per 10 gm, while silver decreased by Rs 1,300 to trend at Rs 61,600 per kg, according to the Good Returns website.

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

Shares of Bharat Electronics (BEL) were up 5 per cent to Rs 107.95 on the BSE in trade on Friday, and have rallied 12 per cent in the past two trading days on strong management commentary. The company has guided for double-digit growth, sustainable margins and better order inflows suggest strong performance in the medium-term. The stock of state-owned defence company hit a 52-week high of Rs 118.45 on August 14, 2020.

With the Delhi government increasing fines for not wearing a mask in public places from Rs 500 to Rs 2,000, the Delhi Police issued 2,110 challans on Thursday for not wearing a mask, taking the total figure of challans to 4,98,984.

Data from the Delhi Police says that while most of the challans have been issued for not wearing a mask, a total of 3,368 challans were issued for spitting at public places and 37,774 challans were issued for violating social distancing norms.

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