Covid-19: 17 new cases in Andhra Pradesh, 13 traced to Nizamuddin meet

A day after the Telangana government announced the death of 6 coronavirus patients from the state - all linked to Nizamuddin visit in Delhi, 17 new positive cases were registered on Tuesday. Thirteen of the new cases have been traced back to the religious congregation at the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat.
With the additional 17 new cases in a single day, the total number of confirmed coronavirus patients in Andhra Pradesh has jumped to 40, spread across nine out of the thirteen districts in the state. Prakasham and Guntur districts have registered the largest number of 11 and 9 coronavirus cases respectively.
It may be noted that most of many of those who attended the Markaz religious congregation in Nizamuddin have either tested positive or are being tracked and kept in quarantine in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Authorities of both the states are continuing their efforts to trace those who had attended the Markaz meeting in hundreds, in a bid to put them in quarantine facilities.
According to the AP government's medical bulletin, the five of the 17 people tested positive for coronavirus infection are found to have visited Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia while some of them have also attended the Delhi meeting. The infected vary between the range of 10 to 65 years of age. Overall, 30,000 persons are under the government surveillance for potential infection of coronavirus.
Though Telangana has relatively lower number of people under surveillance for potential infection, the number of confirmed cases stand as high as 72 apart from 6 deaths, mostly concentrated in the city of Hyderabad.

Last week Telangana government said the number of people under quarantine have declined to 13,000 from a level of over 20,000 persons as people were allowed to go home after completing the mandatory 14 day period in the quarantine facilities created by state medical and health department.

Apollo bullish about growth, to invest Rs 3,800 cr in new Andhra project

International News

Despite the economy facing a downturn Apollo Tyres has earmarked around Rs 3,800 crore for a green field project in Andhra Pradesh. The company is also expanding production of radial truck tyres to 12,000 units a day from the current 6,000 units.
Addressing the shareholders in Kerala, Apollo Tyres' Chairman, Onkar S Kanwar said "India lies on the cusp of a great opportunity. A strong government is in place with a renewed mandate and a commitment to keep India at the top of the global economic order. The environment around us is not easy, with trade wars, protectionism and uncertainty around the world. But India has the potential, the ability and the leadership to break free of these shackles and lead global economic growth".
Apollo's single-minded focus is to realise the Vision 2020 of becoming ‘a premier tyre company with a diversified and multinational presence’, he said. To achieve this vision, the company is focusing on key objectives of ‘building leadership in India’, ‘premiumisation in Europe’, and ‘exploring strategically attractive markets where Apollo is currently not represented’.
Today, the company has a market share of 30 per cent in the OE( original equipment) segment in India for small- and mid-sized cars and the company’s OE fitted tyres are in eight of the top 10 cars sold in India.
"There are certainly uncertain times ahead, yet the team continues to be bullish about the growth prospects," said Kanwar.

 The company has invested close to Rs 4,000 crore in a new Greenfield facility in Hungary and has also earmarked Rs 3,800 crore for a greenfield project in Andhra Pradesh. The facility will cater to both TBR (Truck, Bus Radial) and PCR (Passenger Car Radial) with a capacity of 3,000 TBR tyres per day and 15,000 PCR tyres, respectively...Read More

Hackers demand six Bitcoins for Telangana, Andhra power portals restoration

International News

Hackers, who attacked websites of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh state power utilities, have demanded six Bitcoins (nearly Rs 20 lakh) as ransom to give description key to restore the sites, police said Friday.

T Srinivas, Director (Projects and IT) of Southern Power Distribution Company Limited (SPDCL), assuring no data breach said the website of their organisation is open and that of Northern Power Distribution Company Limited is in the process of restoration.

"They (ransomware attackers) demanded six Bitcoins. Normally the attackers leave a link for paying ransom. In this case the websites were restored to normalcy even before they sent the link. We are continuing our investigation," Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (Cyber Crimes) KCS Raghu Vir told PTI.The official further said the link which the malware leaves for ransom cannot be traced and previous history of ransomware attacks proved they originated from Central Europe and some African nations.

Srinivas said the websites and systems are managed by TCS and experts from the IT giant have flown in to restore them."Our website is open now. There is no harm to the data. Our servers are secured," he said.

A staff of the Power Distribution Company of Telangana Thursday received a mail from an unknown person and when he inadvertently clicked on it, the virus (ransomware) attack took over the entire system.Along with the Telangana systems, the computer systems of power utilities in Andhra Pradesh also came under the malware attack because they are linked to each other, police had said.

 When contacted, K Vijayanand, Chairman and Managing Director of Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh Limited, said experts from TCS were working on restoration of the site and there was no impact on the billing activities for AP utilities.

Congress has shown its true colours: BJP hits back over Pulwama allegations

Politics News:

Slamming the Congress for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the Pulwama attack, the BJP dubbed its allegations "shameful" and said they have exposed its "true colours" after it kept a "facade" of standing with security forces and the government following the terror strike.

At a party event in Andhra Pradesh, BJP president Amit Shah said it was condemnable that the Congress has "politicised" the Pulwama attack, in which 40 CRPF personnel were killed on February 14, and asserted that people have full trust in Modi's commitment of ending terrorism.

Citing media reports, the Congress claimed that Modi continued shooting for a film in the Corbett National Park for his "propaganda and publicity" and stayed put in the area till the February 14 evening despite the Pulwama attack taking place in the afternoon that day.

Congress' chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala also claimed that the prime minister continued to "have tea, samosas, at seven o'clock in a PWD guest house" that evening.

Union minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad rejected the Congress' charge as "shameful" and said Modi was there as part of an official programme related to tiger conservation.

"Was the Congress aware of the Pulwama attack? We were not aware," the BJP leader said in a jibe at the opposition party.


 The Congress attack on the Modi government would have pleased Pakistan, he said, adding that styles of what Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan and the opposition party have said may be different but their contents bore striking resemblance...Read More