Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL) on Monday said it will shut all its retail stores across India till March 31, in order to ensure safety of its employees across all its establishments from the coronavirus pandemic. The company has also stopped its factory operations in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Odisha till March 31, 2020, in line with the local guidelines, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail said in a regulatory filing. “In order to safeguard the risks to the health of our store employees & customers, as well as in line with the advisories from local, state and central government, the company has decided to shut all its retail stores until March 31, 2020,” it said.
“Game of Thrones” star Sophie Turner has taken a swipe at actor Evangeline Lilly who had said that she won’t be going into self-quarantine amid coronavirus outbreak, as she values freedom over everything else. The Marvel star’s comments on social distancing didn’t go down well with Turner, who urged her fans to take precautions against the spread of COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of over 14,000 people worldwide. “Stay inside, don’t be f**ing stupid.
Several Bollywood stars including actor Sonam Kapoor, Richa Chadha, Nimrat Kaur have criticised the way people “celebrated” janata curfew on streets on Sunday, defying social distancing as advised by the central government during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Janata Curfew was an initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which was meant to give a shout-out to people who have been providing medical and other essential services to fight the COVID-19 outbreak. The prime minister had urged people to come out to their doorsteps or balconies to express gratitude to those who have been providing essential services during this crisis.
The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Berhampur and an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) have jointly produced hand sanitisers for distribution to Odisha government employees who are on duty amid the coronavirus outbreak, officials said. “We have produced around 350 bottles of 30 ml hand sanitisers for use by on-duty government employees. We will hand these over to the Berhampur Municipal Corporation for distribution,” ITI principal Rajat Kumar Panigrahy said. The hand sanitisers were produced at an IISER laboratory by Panigrahy and three other staff of the ITI along with faculty members of the institute’s Department of Chemistry, he said. ”
The AAP government told the Delhi High Court on Monday that it had decided to decongest its prisons to check the spread of coronavirus by providing convicts with the options of special parole and furlough. The Delhi government told a bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Subramonium Prasad that it was going to amend its prison rules to provide the options of special parole and furlough. The submission was made by the Delhi government’s additional standing counsel Anuj Aggarwal who said a notification would be issued within a day to amend the prison rules to include the two new provisions.