Good news for Maharashtra economy amid coronavirus lockdown

Amid rising number of deaths and cases due to covid 19 pandemic, here is some relief and good news for economy of Maharashtra. In a major development, the Maharashtra government has permitted as many 20,037 industries to open during lockdown and start working to gradually kickstart the economy, Industries Minister Subhash Desai confirmed. These include 6,589 industries which are in the essential services category which were permitted before April 27 and another 13,448 that were permitted in the past one week.

After the state eased the lockdown only for industries in non-Corona zones in the state from April 20, the government was deluged with over 25,000 applications. Of these, 13,448 which complied with the Covid-19 norms have been permitted to start so far, to enable the labourers get work, the minister added.

However, Desai made it clear that no permissions have been granted for the country's biggest industrial corridor comprising Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivali, Panvel, Pune, etc which are in the 'red zone'.

Meanwhile, the death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 934 and the number of cases climbed to 29,435 in the country on Tuesday, according to the Union Health Ministry.  The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 21,632, while 6,868 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, the ministry said. The total number of cases include 111 foreign nationals

A total of 48 deaths were reported since Monday evening of which 27 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra. Of the 934 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 369 fatalities.

The ministry's data updated on Tuesday morning stated that the highest number of confirmed cases in the country are from Maharashtra at 8,590.