Centre has extended till June 30 the validity of documents like driving licenses, permits and registration that expired since February 1, in a move to ensure hassle-free transportation of cargo amid the lockdown over the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In an advisory to all states and Union territories, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has asked them to treat such documents as valid till June 30.

The decision was taken to facilitate the citizens facing difficulties in renewing the validity of various documents related to the Motor Vehicles Act and the Central Motor Vehicles Rules due to nationwide lockdown in the country and closure of government transport offices, according to the advisory.

The documents include fitness, permit (all types), driving licence, registration or any other concerned document under the Motor Vehicles Act.

National Gallery of Modern Art has celebrated 66 years by launching virtual tour of its permanent collection amid lock down. The Gallery launched virtual tour of its permanent collection for the visitors to enjoy without having to physically visit the Museum during these days. It is for the first time that National Gallery of Modern Art has provided the facility of virtual tour of its permanent collection to art lovers.

Director General of National Gallery of Modern Art Adwaita Gadanayak said that the permanent collection reflects its repository as an institution of dynamic and progressive collective acumen.

he worldwide death toll has risen to 31,412 due to Novel Coronavirus today. More than two-thirds of the deaths from Coronavirus have now been recorded in Europe.

Over six lakh 67 thousand declared cases have been registered in 183 countries and territories since the epidemic first emerged in China in December. Of these cases, at least one lakh 34 thousand are now considered recovered.

Italy, which recorded its first Coronavirus death in February, has declared ten thousand fatalities so far. Spain has more fatalities than 6500 as well as 78,747 infections.

China -- excluding Hong Kong and Macau -- has declared 3,295 deaths and 81,394 cases, with 74,971 recoveries.

The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has suspended all planned events till June 30 and froze the world rankings due to the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The ITTF Executive Committee met yesterday to discuss the effects of the Corona virus outbreak on the international table tennis events schedule.
 
The ITTF said in a statement that due to the continued uncertainty caused by COVID-19 pandemic and postponement of Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympics Games, the Executive Committee decided to suspend all currently planned ITTF events and activities that involve international travel until 30th of June.
 
ITTF also decided to freeze ranking lists as of March, 2020 and further evaluate all implications related to the postponement of events, travel restrictions and other complications, with scope for further decisions on potentially necessary adjustments. The Federation will hold another follow-up meeting on 15th April to further evaluate the situation.

Multilateral institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday announced a 100 million US Dollars funding for the Indian infrastructure sector through the government-promoted National Investment and Infrastructure Fund-NIIF.
 
The Manila-based body will be investing in NIIF, tranche of funds, which will ensure that the actual money invested will be a few times more than the 100 million dollars. NIIF's Chief Executive Sujoy Bose said that the ADB's commitment to NIIF fund during these extraordinary and challenging times is highly meaningful.
 
Mr Bose said, ADB has been funding Indian private equity funds for over two decades now and added the latest move will help NIIF commit money to private equity fund managers who may be struggling to raise money from overseas sources. The statement said, it has made commitments to three funds aggregating to over 2,600 crore rupees or 350 million dollars.

Centre has asked state governments and Union Territory administrations to effectively seal state and district borders to stop movement of migrant workers. It has ordered to ensure adequate arrangement of temporary shelters and provisions of food and other facilities for poor and needy people stranded due to lockdown announced in view of COVID -19 outbreak.
 
In its fresh directive, the Home Ministry said, the migrant people, who have moved out to reach their home states, must be kept in the nearest shelters by the concerned states and quarantined after proper screening for a minimum period of 14 days. The Ministry has also directed the employers including industry, shops and commercial establishments to make payment of wages of their workers on the due date without any deduction.

The  Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts, EPCH has cancelled the 49th edition of Delhi Fair Spring-2020 in view of present status of COVID-19.

Director General of EPCH, Rakesh Kumar said, as the nation is in a state of lock down, it has become unviable to organize a show of such magnitude in near future.

Earlier, the fair was scheduled to be held from 15 to 19th of next month. The Textile Ministry said, the fair could  be organized in June or July. 

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will transfer 611 crore rupees in the accounts of 27.15 lakh MNREGA labourers today. The amount will be transferred electronically to help the labourers in the situation of Lock down due to Corona Virus. State Government has said that there are no signs of community spread of the virus in state.
 
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed private enterprises and organisations to must give one month salary to their employees without any deduction. Additional Chief Secretary, Home Awanish Awasthi said that no landlord would charge one month's rent from any worker or labourer. On receiving any such complaint, the police will take strict action against the landlord who took the rent.

The United States has announced financial assistance of 174 million US Dollars to 64 countries including  2.9 million US Dollars to India to help fight the Corona virus pandemic. This is in addition to the 100 million US Dollars aid announced by the US in February.

The funding is for 64 of the most at-risk countries facing the threat of the global pandemic.

The US State Department said, it is providing 2.9 million US Dollars to help the Indian government prepare laboratory systems, activate case finding and event-based surveillance and support technical experts for response and preparedness and more.

In another development, President Trump signed the largest-ever financial stimulus package, worth 2 trillion US Dollars today, to tackle the economic distress caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.

Health experts from SAARC countries will form a WhatsApp or an email group to exchange information on the coronavirus pandemic in real-time, officials said on Friday. This was one of the proposals made by New Delhi at the video-conferencing of SAARC health professionals on Thursday. It was a follow-up to the SAARC leaders’ conference on March 15.

“India proposed a shared electronic platform for all SAARC nations to share and exchange information, knowledge, expertise and best practices for jointly combating the coronavirus epidemic,” a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. “It was informed that considerable work has already gone into creation of the platform, which could also serve as a multipurpose vehicle to further discuss and conduct activities such as online training for emergency response personnel, knowledge partnerships, sharing of expertise in disease surveillance, including the corresponding software, and joint research for new diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for epidemic diseases.”