Mumbai

The Bombay High Court has directed the Maharashtra government to take a decision on whether it would procure additional food grains from the Food Corporation of India for supplying to migrant workers and other needy persons who do not have ration cards.

The tennis season was suspended in early March due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and the hiatus will continue at least until mid-July with many countries in lockdown to contain the virus.

The petition sought the court to direct the governor to take a decision on the proposal submitted by the cabinet expeditiously or within three days. Arora's plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on May 5.

Rising for the fourth straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 997.46 points, or 3.05 per cent, higher at 33,717.62.

At 9:56 am, the benchmark BSE Sensex was down 627.15 points, or 2 per cent, to 30,532.47, while the Nifty 50 fell 189.75 points, or 2.1 per cent, to 8,922.15.

Among the new cases, 44 have been found in Mumbai, nine in Pune, four in Nagpur, and one each in Ahmednagar, Akola and Buldhana, a health official said.

He said the Prime Minister's Relief Fund was started by Jawaharlal Nehru in January 1948 to help refugees from Pakistan.

The lockdown will impact industrial production and domestic demand, it said, adding this will exacerbate the economic slowdown of the past few quarters that was partly caused by weaker credit availability from non-bank lenders from September 2018.

In the first hour of Monday's trade, benchmark indices cracked over 10%, triggering a 45-minute trading freeze as coronavirus-led lockdowns across the world stoked fears of a massive global recession.

The Wadhawan brothers, who denied any wrongdoing in their dealings with the bank, were supposed to appear before the central agency on Tuesday at its office in south Mumbai.

The BSE barometer swung over 2,488.72 points in a highly volatile session, before ending 1,709.58 points or 5.59 per cent lower at 28,869.51.

The shadow cabinet, a legacy of British parliamentary politics, comprises a team of senior spokespeople chosen by the leader of the opposition to mirror the cabinet in government.

Adequate testing facilities were in place in Mumbai, Nagpur and Pune, the chief minister said.