India

The Taj Mahal has reopened its doors to visitors after a six-month-long closure. To ensure people's safety, various Coronavirus measures have been implemented, e.g. reduced capacity, temperature checks and mandatory face masks.

With 307,930 newly reported Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the increase has never been higher in a single day. The leading countries in the increase were India, the United States and Brazil.

In addition, the reported deaths have increased by 5,537 to a total number of 917,417 since the beginning of the pandemic.

The foreign ministers of China and India announced an agreement to ease tensions after recent clashes on their contested Himalayan border.

Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi and Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met in Moscow on Thursday and issued a five-point statement aimed at ending a simmering confrontation.

Wang Yi said, "it is normal for China and India to have some differences as two neighbouring powers, but to put the differences in the proper place in bilateral relations."

S. Jaishankar stated "India does not want to see an escalation of tension in the border areas between India and China. India’s China policy has not changed, and I believe China has not changed either."

India reported 96,551 new Coronavirus infections in a 24-hour period, reaching 4.5 million total cases since the beginning of the outbreak.

The Taj Mahal will reopen on September 21st," mit Srivastava, deputy director of Uttar Pradesh state’s tourism department has announced. Masks, social distancing and other Covid-19 protocols will be required for visitors. Instead of the usual daily 20,000 visitors, only 5,000 will be allowed. Visitors will have to buy tickets only as no physical tickets will be sold.

Dehli's metro is resuming again after being suspended for five months due to the Coronavirus lockdown measures. The Indian economy has started to reopen even though the country experiences high daily counts of new infections.

Commuters will have to wear masks, keep a safe distance and have their temperature checked.

India has reported 90,632 Coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours; the highest single-day count. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been 4,113,811 confirmed cases. 70,626 people have died.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India announced  118 Chinese mobile apps have been banned, as tensions between the two countries continue to rise.

Those on the list include several of Tencent's products including the hit video game PUBG Mobile and WeChat Work.

Previously the government had banned 59 of the most popular apps including TikTok over national security concerns.

As the first country to cross the mark India has reported 80,000 new Covid-19 infections on Sunday. The growth rate of new cases and fatalities has more than doubled compared to the previous week.

In total India has reported 3,616,730 Covid-19 cases out of which 2,767,412 patients already have recovered.

Former Indian President Pranab Mukherjee has died at age 84. He tested positive for the Coronavirus and was in a coma following a brain surgery earlier in August. His death is followed by seven days of state mourning.

His son bhijit Mukherjee took to Twitter to release a statement: "With a Heavy Heart , this is to inform you that my father Shri #PranabMukherjee has just passed away inspite of the best efforts of Doctors of RR Hospital & prayers ,duas & prarthanas from people throughout India ! I thank all of You 🙏."

In the past 24 hours, India had 78,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases. This is the highest single-day case record globally. The country has been easing restrictions recently and reopened subways in Delhi. India has reported over 3.5 million cases since the start of the pandemic.

The global Covid-19 death toll has reached the 800,000 mark Saturday, according to data provided by the John Hopkins University. Worldwide confirmed cases are nearing 23 million, as countries see a new surge in infections. India has been reporting over 60,000 daily cases for four days while Germany sees a new rise in cases, reporting 2,000 new infections on Saturday.

According to Indias Prime Minister Narendra Modi his government has identified 7,000 infrastructure projects to invest in in order to boost the economy that has been hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. The country currently has reported over 2,5 million confirmed Covid-19 cases with over 49,000 deaths.

Modi also stated that "infrastructure will not be created in silos anymore. All infrastructure has to be comprehensive, integrated and linked to each other. Multi-modal connectivity infrastructure is the way forward".

According to an official statement, multiple premises of Chinese entities have been raided by the tax authorities of India.

The Indian authorities are investigating suspected money laundering but did not specify which entities and individuals have been raided. Following the statement over 40 bank accounts in dummy entities have been created and entered into credits of over $134,03 million in the local currency rupees.

One of the checked Chinese companies has allegedly taken over $13,4 million from shell companies to open "retail showrooms" in India.

The Indian company Serum Institute has announced that its Covid-19 vaccine once developed and approved will have a ceiling price of $3 per dose for India and low-and-middle-income countries. Serum is the world's largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume and has now received at-risk funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. The money will be used to produce possible candidates for vaccines.

A fire broke out at the hotel Swarna Palace, a temporary Covid-Clinic, on Sunday. The cause seems to be a PPE kit that caught fire. Recent reports say that at least 7 people have died in the fire, all other patients were moved to another hospital. It was the second fire at a Covid clinic in recent days.

The Air India Express plane from Dubai crashed in the southern city of Calicut in Kerala. The Boeing-737 plane had 191 passengers and crew on board when it crashed under heavy rain on Friday, police said.

At least fifteen people including both pilots died in the crash. Most onboard have been evacuated and at least 50 injured, including 15 in serious condition, have been taken to hospital, authorities said.

The United Kingdom's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has started supporting a campaign that is to help the recognition of black and minority ethnic (BAME) people in shaping modern Britain.

The Royal Mint Advisory Committee has now started working on a coin that will feature Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of the independence movement in India who was assassinated in August 1947 just five months after the end of the British rule.

Sunak has stated that "black, Asian and other ethnic minority communities have made a profound contribution to the shared history of the UK".

According to the Japanese national broadcaster NHK, Japan is seeking to ban TikTok for the app's alleged sharing of domestic user data with the Chinese Government. A group of lawmakers has proposed the ban of several in China developed apps which will most likely be submitted to the government by September. Early this year, India banned several Chinese apps, including TikTok, WeChat and others.

The Indian Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar has announced that India is home to 70% of the world's tiger population. According to him: "in 1973, there were just nine tiger reserves which have now increased to 50" and added that all of the tiger reserves are in good quality.

The published report covering the status of Tigers in India states that 1,923 tigers live in all reserves combined which makes 65 percent of the Indian tiger population.