Maharashtra today emerged as the leader in the COVID-19 vaccination drive and also became the first state in the country to cross 5 million doses benchmark, Dr Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary of Maharashtra Public Health Department, said. The state has also administered the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to 6,72,128 people, thereby reaching the cumulative vaccination figure of 50,14,774. Interestingly, Maharashtra is the only state to have covered half a crore of the population in terms of vaccination. Maharashtra has surpassed Rajasthan in the vaccination drive on March 24. Rajasthan now ranks second as it has vaccinated 43,27,874 people.
The Supreme Court today said "the structures of our society has been created by males for males", and "equality will be farce" if change does not occur and women get equal opportunity. The apex court was directing the Centre to consider granting permanent commission (PC) to women Army officers, within a month and allow permanent commission within 2 months after following due process.
With mere days left before West Bengal votes to elect a new Assembly, the Nationalist Congress Party has lent its support to the Trinamool Congress. At the beginning of April, NCP chief Sharad Pawar is set to campaign in West Bengal in support of Mamata Banerjee. From April 1, the NCP leader will be on a three-day visit to Bengal, where he is slated to hold various rallies and press conferences. According to Maharashtra NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase, he will also meet Mamata Banerjee and TMC workers at the Trinamool Bhavan.
Deepak Kochhar, husband of former ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar, has been granted bail by the Bombay High Court. He was under investigation for the alleged ICICI Bank-Videocon money laundering case which was investigated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). His bail comes a month after Chanda Kochhar was granted bail by a special PMLA court. Less than two weeks back, another dominant name in the case, Videocon Group promoter Venugopal Dhoot was granted bail too.
Equity benchmark Sensex plunged 740 points today, dragged by losses in index majors Reliance Industries, Infosys and HDFC Bank as monthly derivatives expired amid weak cues from global markets. The 30-share BSE index ended 740.19 points or 1.51 per cent lower at 48,440.12, and the broader NSE Nifty declined 224.50 points or 1.54 per cent to 14,324.90.