Blog - The Purbottar

10 Apr

Tokyo Olympic CEO hints games could be in doubt even in 2021

editor0 CommentsEntertainment, Health, Sports, Travel

As the coronavirus spreads in Japan, the chief executive of the Tokyo Games said Friday he can’t guarantee the postponed Olympics will be staged next year — even with the long delay. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued an emergency declaration this week to battle the virus, putting the country under restrictions after it seemed it had avoided the spread. “I don’t think anyone would be able to say if it is going to be possible to get it under control by next July or not,” Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said, speaking through an interpreter at a news…

10 Apr

SAARC officials discuss impact of COVID-19

editor0 CommentsBusiness, Health

As follow up action of the announcement made by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the video conference of SAARC leaders on March 15, a video conference of senior trade officials of SAARC countries was held on Wednesday to discuss the impact of travel restrictions and the larger COVID-19 situation on intra-regional trade. Demonstrating keen shared interest and a problem-solving approach in the present challenging circumstances, all countries contributed actively to the discussions on a wide-ranging trade related agenda. “It was recognised in the conference that the COV- ID-19 pandemic is likely to have a considerable adverse impact on…

10 Apr

Pulitzer Prize announcement to be postponed due to pandemic

editor0 CommentsNorth East

The Pulitzer Prize Board will postpone the announcement of this year’s winners because some board members have been busy covering the global coronavirus outbreak, the organization announced Tuesday. The announcement of Pulitzer winners in journalism and the arts will be postponed from April 20 to May 4, the board said. Pulitzer Prize administrator Dana Canedy said the board includes many journalists who are on the front lines of reporting on the coronavirus pandemic. “As they focus on this critical mission, this postponement will provide additional time to thoroughly evaluate the 2020 Pulitzer finalists,” Canedy said.

10 Apr

Streaming service Disney+ crosses 50 mln paid subscribers globally

editor0 CommentsBusiness, Entertainment, Lifestyle

Walt Disney Co said on Wednesday that Disney+ has attracted more than 50 million paid users, with 8 million of them coming from India where the video streaming service was rolled out last week. Rival Netflix Inc, which has services available in over 190 countries, has nearly 167 million paid subscribers globally as of its last reported quarter.

07 Apr

Rakul Preet Helps 200 Families in Delhi Slum

editor0 CommentsEntertainment, Health, Lifestyle, North East

At the time of crisis, those celebs who respond and serve the needy are often hailed as the real big stars. And though some put the numbers they have donated on social media, some don't. But they silently doe their charity and it looks like even starlet Rakul Preet Singh comes under the same category. Apparently Rakul's family is right now settled in Delhi and they are said to have identified a slum of 200 families which stays close to their Gurgaon residence in the national capital. Along with the people of their society, Rakul Preet's father and other family…

07 Apr

Family – A short film by Indian Superstars

editor0 CommentsBusiness, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle, Technology

The corona virus lockdown has impacted daily wage workers and the poor. Many NGOs, volunteers are helping the people who are in need in whatever way they can. Simultaneously, the virus has affected the film industry too. It's the cine workers who are struggling to make the ends meet and the respective industries have stepped up to help these people. But now the whole of Indian film industry has come together and a short film has been made with Superstars of Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and other languages. Well the short film starts with India's biggest star Amitabh…

07 Apr

Corona: WhatsApp Limits Message Forwarding

editor0 CommentsBusiness, Entertainment, Health, Lifestyle

In order to slow down the Corona Virus misinformation which is widely shared online, the cross-platform messaging and Voice over IP service WhatsApp has decided to limit the message forwarding on its platform. Since WhatsApp amounts to the largest sharing of information across the globe, Facebook Inc's WhatsApp tightened message forwarding limits on Tuesday and the decision is taken at its head office at San Francisco. The new move restricts its users in sharing forwarded content one chat at a time. "We believe it's important to slow the spread of these messages down to keep WhatsApp a place for personal…

07 Apr

Spain’s coronavirus deaths near 14,000 as pace ticks up again

editor0 CommentsHealth, Lifestyle

The pace of coronavirus deaths in Spain ticked up for the first time in five days on Tuesday, with 743 people succumbing overnight, but there was still hope the national lockdown might be eased soon. Tuesday’s toll from the health ministry compared to 637 people who died during the previous 24 hours, taking the total to 13,798, the second highest in the world after Italy. Still, the proportional daily increase of 5.7% was about half that reported a week ago. “It is normal to have some oscillations … What matters is to see the trend and the cumulative data,” said Maria Jose…

07 Apr

China reports no new coronavirus deaths as cases decline

editor0 CommentsHealth, Lifestyle

Mainland China reported no coronavirus deaths for the first time since the pandemic began and a drop in new cases on Tuesday, a day before the central city of Wuhan, where the virus emerged late in December, was set to lift its lockdown. China had 32 new infections by Monday, down from 39 a day earlier, the National Health Commission said. For the first time since the commission began publishing nationwide data in late January, Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan saw no new deaths, joining the rest of mainland China, which has recorded none since March 31. Wuhan, a city of 11 million that…

06 Apr

Ekta Kapoor takes Rs 2.5 crore salary cut to help co-workers

editor0 CommentsEntertainment, Health, Lifestyle

Ekta Kapoor has taken a salary cut this year to help co-workers at her production house Balaji Telefilms. The producer has forsaken one year’s salary, which amounts to Rs 2.5 crore, so that her colleagues don’t have to take salary deductions. Her official statement read, “The impact of CORONA crisis is huge, unprecedented and multi-pronged. We all need to do things that will ease the hardships of people around us and of our country at large. It is my first & foremost responsibility to take care of the various freelancers & daily wage workers who work at Balaji Telefilms &…