Breaking News: September 19, 2020 | As it happened

 Lok Sabha on Saturday passed a taxation bill that seeks to provide various reliefs in terms of compliance requirements for taxpayers amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Former Chhattisgarh chief minister and senior BJP leader Raman Singh on Saturday tweeted that he had been detected with COVID-19.

Sulochana Subrahmanyam, mother of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, passed away on Saturday. Jaishankar informed about the demise of his mother in a tweet, along with a picture of her.

"Deeply grieved to inform of the passing away today of my mother Sulochana Subrahmanyam. We ask her friends and well-wishers to keep her in their thoughts. Our family is especially grateful to all those who supported her during her illness," he said.

With the aim to help the state's unemployed people start new businesses, the West Bengal
government has decided to launch the 'Karmasathi Prakalpa', under which soft loans up to Rs two lakh will be provided to them.

Unemployed people aged between 18 and 50 years will be benefited by the new scheme, a senior official at the state secretariat said on Saturday.

Besides, people who have passed Class 8, as well as those who have registered themselves in the employment bank, will be able to apply for the scheme, he added

Contractual employees of the National Health Mission (NHM) in Chhattisgarh went on an indefinite strike on Saturday demanding regularisation of service. The move would hit health services in the state which is struggling with rising number of coronavirus cases.

Around 13,000 NHM contractual health employees also held protests at all district headquarters, except Raipur where they stayed away from work, as part of their indefinite strike, said Hemant Kumar Sinha, president, Chhattisgarh Pradesh NHM Karmchari Sangh.

The net direct tax collection during April-August was Rs 1.92 lakh crore, down 31 per cent over the same period of the last fiscal. The net indirect tax collection during the five-month period till August fell 11 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3.42 lakh crore.

 In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said net direct tax collection was Rs 2,79,711 crore in April-August 2019, compared to Rs 1,92,718 crore in April-August 2020.

The net indirect tax collection in April-August 2019 was Rs 3,85,949 crore, as against Rs 3,42,591 crore in April-August 2020.

During April-August, the Centre's Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection stood at over Rs 1.81 lakh crore. The Budget had estimated Centre's GST collection for full fiscal at Rs 6,90,500 crore.

In 2019-20, the Centre's actual GST revenue stood at Rs 5,98,825 crore, against the revised estimate of Rs 6,12,327 crore.

Kerala reported the highest single-day surge of COVID-19 cases- 4,644 on Saturday, taking the infection count to 1,31,025, while the toll mounted to 519 with 18 more deaths.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone of nine highway projects in Bihar through video conference on Monday and also inaugurate optical fibre internet services through which the state's all 45,945 villages will be connected, the PMO said on Saturday.

Congress has called a meeting of AICC general secretaries, states in charges, and members of special committee to assist interim party president Sonia Gandhi to chalk out the party's strategy on the issue of three farm bills in Parliament, in New Delhi on Monday.

The Finance Ministry on Saturday informed the Lok Sabha that no decision has been taken to discontinue the printing of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said printing of bank notes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the RBI to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public.

The Punjab government on Saturday said it has decided to use advanced certification technology, including barcodes and QR (quick response) codes, to ensure that farmers get genuine seeds of various crops, including wheat and rice.

Several parts of Kannur District receive rainfall. "A red alert has been declared in Kannur for today and tomorrow. Traffic movement to hilly areas between 7 pm and 7 am has been restricted due to the risk of landslides," says Kannur District Collector.

Rajya Sabha adjourned till 9 am tomorrow

Rajya Sabha passes Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Bill 2020

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) calls for an all-party meeting on 21st September to discuss over the Farm Bill, 2020 issue.

Bus services resume in Vijayawada from today with necessary COVID-19 protocols. 

Union Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan moves motion for consideration of the Epidemic Diseases Amendment Bill 2020

Rajya Sabha passes the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (Second Amendment) Bill 2020

7 deaths and 813 fresh positive cases reported in Rajasthan today till 1030 hours. The total number of cases in the state rise to 1,12,103 including 92, 303 recovered, 18, 485 active cases and 1315 deaths

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman moves Bill for amendment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016

Farmers hold a protest demonstration against the Centre over recent agriculture ordinances. 

Leu Yean Ahmed and Abu Sufiyan from West Bengal and Mosaraf Hossen & ​Murshid Hasan from Kerala are among the nine Al-Qaeda terrorists arrested by National Investigation Agency (NIA)

India's COVID-19 case tally crosses 53-lakh mark with a spike of 93,337 new cases & 1,247 deaths in last 24 hours. The total case tally stands at 53,08,015 including 10,13,964 active cases, 42,08,432 cured/discharged/migrated & 85,619 deaths: Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

National Investigation Agency (NIA) busts Al-Qaeda module in Murshidabad, West Bengal and Ernakulam, Kerala; arrests few Al-Qaeda operatives after raids. 9 Al-Qaeda operatives arrested by NIA, in raids conducted at multiple locations in Murshidabad, West Bengal and Ernakulam, Kerala

Yog guru Swami Ramdev reveals yoga asanas to cure arthritis | WATCH NOW 

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson says second wave of virus inevitable, new restrictions possible

Hello and welcome to today's live coverage of coronavirus news in India and across the world, with me, Sushmita Panda and my colleagues  Himanshu Shekhar, Shashwat  Bhandari, Vani Mehrotra, Priya Jaiswal, and Rashi Hardaha. You can get in touch with us directly on Twitter @sushmitapanda, @himaanshus, @ShashBhandari​ @vani_mehrotra​ @priyajais, and  @rashihardaha for news, tips, photos, questions and comments. Stay tuned to Indiatvnews.com (@indiatvnews) for all the latest updates on what's happening around the world. 

Here's a quick overview: 

The total number of global cases has surpassed 30.6 million, including more than 956,000 fatalities. More than 22,333,000 patients are reported to have recovered.

Total positive cases country-wise:

• USA 6,828,301
• India 5,115,893
• Brazil 4,421,686
• Russia 1,079,519
• Peru 744,400