UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday said states seeking to employ migrant workers from Uttar Pradesh in the future will need to take his government’s permission. Adityanath, addressing a webinar, said, “Now, if any state needs manpower, the UP government will give the manpower social security. We will give them insurance and security. But, without our permission, our people cannot be taken by other states. Because the kind of treatment that was meted out [to UP residents]. Seeing that, we have taken the people’s social security in our hand.”

• China reports 51 new cases: China has reported 51 new coronavirus cases including 40 asymptomatic infections, majority of them in the contagion's first epicentre Wuhan, where over six million tests have been conducted in the last 10 days, health officials said on Monday.
• Millions of children in Australia return to schools: Millions of children in Australia have returned to schools in the states of New South Wales and Queensland as numbers of COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the country fall. The two states on Monday joined the less populous Western Australia and South Australia states and the Northern Territory in resuming face-to-face learning, instead of studying from home online. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said on Monday students and teachers had to observe one key message: Stay home if sick.
• Italy’s hard-hit regions reports zero deaths: Italy’s hard-hit northern Lombardy region, center of the country’s outbreak, for the first time Sunday reported no fatalities, according to statistics from the regional government. New cases fell nationally.
• Iran begins to reopen businesses: Iran has recorded 7,417 deaths and 135,701 confirmed cases, Kianush Jahanpur, spokesman for Iran’s Health Ministry, said in an interview with state TV as the nation begins to reopen the economy.
  The head of a trades union association in Tehran said all businesses, including those deemed “high risk,” should reopen on Tuesday, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Mosques and shrines are due to reopen on Monday, after the Muslim holiday of Eid.
• US limits travel from Brazil: The White House has announced a ban on travel to the U.S. from Brazil due to the spread of coronavirus in Latin America's hardest-hit country. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany says in a statement Sunday evening that the ban applies to foreign nationals who have been in Brazil in the 14 days before they sought to travel to the United States. McEnany cast it as a move by President Donald Trump ``to protect our country.'' Trump has already banned travel from the United Kingdom, Europe and China, all of which have been hit hard by the virus. Brazil had reported more than 347,000 COVID-19 cases, second behind the US in the number of infections

From an Indian food company placing one of its top-selling products against the tri-colour background to a foreign shoemaker invoking its 89-year old presence in the country to buttress its Indian roots, companies are bracing to either leverage Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “vocal for local” call as a tool to market their brands under the nationalistic banner or are gearing up to tackle potential backlash on account of a brand’s foreign identity — depending on which side of the divide they’re on.

According to senior people in several companies The Indian Express spoke with soon after the Prime Minister said that every Indian “has to become vocal for their local, not only to buy local products, but also to promote them proudly”, C-level executives scrambled to come up with a plan to get the brand’s messaging across.

By the time the week ends, everyone will be watching out again for what the government decides on the lockdown. The lessons from the limited reopening of air travel, rail travel, and inter-state movement will guide the next course of decision. There is another, non-Covid development that is likely to linger this week – the Chinese transgressions along the LAC in Ladakh, writes Ravish Tiwari in this week's ExplainSpeaking column

India on Monday reported 1,38,845 cases. Of these 77,103 are active, while 57,720 patients have been discharged. The death toll stands at 4021. Data from Johns Hopkins University show that the total number of cases in India has surpassed that of Iran (with 1,35,701 confirmed infections). India now has the 10th highest number of confirmed cases worldwide. Globally, over 5.5 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus, including 3.4 lakh deaths.

The biggest news on the state of the Indian economy will come towards the end of this workweek — on May 29, to be precise — when the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) releases the “Provisional Estimates” (PE) for the last financial year — that is, 2019-20. The provisional GDP data carries crucial clues for the FM and her team to understand which sectors were struggling the most anyway (say manufacturing or trade) and which could lead us to recovery (say agriculture) and the policy mix needed for turning around the economy.

The provisional estimates on Friday will provide the essential basis for forecasters to start projecting GDP for the current year. There is only one difference though: unlike normal year, when this data would have resembled the floor for the next year’s growth, this time, it is likely to be the roof, writes Udit Misra in this week's ExplainSpeaking column

Experts on a special government panel have approved a plan to remove a coronavirus state of emergency from Tokyo and four other remaining prefectures, paving the way for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to declare entirely ending the measure to allow businesses to gradually resume. Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura told reporters that experts on a government-commissioned panel approved the plan to end the state of emergency that has lasted for more than a month and a half. Abe is to officially declare the end of the state of emergency later Monday after endorsement from parliamentary committees. Nishimura said lifting of the emergency does not mean the end of the pandemic. He said the goal is to minimize next possible recurrences of infections while balancing preventive measures and the economy. (AP)

The first flight has landed in Srinagar. "Eight flight will operate today and numbers will increase in the coming days," says Director Srinagar Airport, Santosh Dhoke. In Jammu and Kashmir, all incoming passengers will have to undergo "administrative quarantine" for a fortnight. Thirty kiosks have been set up at Srinagar airport for the collection of samples. (Input from Adil Akhzer)

While the government has maintained that the low positivity rate (share of tests that yield positive cases) does not warrant more intensive testing for Covid, ICMR records show a steady rise in positivity rates over the last four weeks. More so in the last 10 days when migrant workers have started returning home on board Shramik Special trains.

ICMR records show that between April 16 and 28, the positivity rate slumped from 4.8 per cent to 3.0. But this began inching up since then to 7.0 at the end of day on May 23. Replying to a question from The Indian Express, ICMR DG Balram Bhargava admitted that rising positivity is a cause for concern.

Air travel resumed across India this morning, two months after the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Hundreds of people across the nation reached airports to take flights. The first domestic flight took off from New Delhi for Pune at 4:45 am.

The first flight from Delhi's IGI airport since resumption of domestic flight operations, lands at Pune. A passenger who has arrived in the city by the flight says,"I was nervous before the flight but all passengers were taking precautions. Very few people travelling right now". pic.twitter.com/NgBY9L6h4i

— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2020

In Delhi, domestic flights will operate out of T3 and passengers will be advised to arrive two hours before departure. At the entry road, hoardings and placards with flight details will be displayed, and there will be several entry gates to prevent crowding. All passengers will be required to have the Aarogya Setu app installed, where officials will check the person’s status, along with his or her temperature on a thermal screening device.

Delhi: Passengers onboard Delhi-Bhubaneswar Vistara flight were seen wearing face shields as a precautionary measure against COVDI19. BJD MP Anubhav Mohanty on
board the flight said "I was in Delhi since the Parliament's Budget session. Now, I am returning to my state Odisha". pic.twitter.com/lFgGSZJpj8

— ANI (@ANI) May 25, 2020

Senior Congress leader and Public Works Department Minister Ashok Chavan has tested positive for Covid-19. He is the second minister in the Uddhav Thackeray government to catch the infection after Housing Minister Jitendra Awhad. Chavan is currently admitted at a hospital in Nanded. His condition is stable, sources said, adding that he was reportedly under home quarantine for the last few days.

In the nearly three months the Coronavirus has been in India, the one enduring trend has been the dominance of Maharashtra in the growth of Covid in the country. If anything, this has steadily strengthened with time. As India’s caseload has gone past 1.3 lakh, Maharashtra’s share has increased to more than one-third. In the last ten days, more than 40 per cent of new infections detected in the country have come from Maharashtra.

Such is the dominance that whenever Maharashtra has managed to slow down its growth for a while, it has slowed the national growth rate as well. And, the opposite has been true as well. In fact, the curve for the national growth rate very closely resembles that of Maharashtra (see chart). Same is true when it comes to doubling time of cases.

Days after the state government declared Pimpri-Chinchwad a non-red zone, the industrial city continues to see a spike in Covid-19 cases with Anandnagar slums emerging as a hotspot. The rapid spread of infection in the slum has raised concern among PCMC officials, who are busy devising new strategies to bring the situation under control.

On Saturday, Anandnagar slums reported 26 positive cases. And on Sunday, 37 more tested positive, taking the tally of cases to 107. The figure is the highest for any suburb or slum of Pimpri-Chinchwad. Read more here