India

TikTok: YouTube launches rival to be tested in India

YouTube Shorts will limit videos to 15 seconds, and the platform will feature creator tools that are similar to Chinese-owned TikTok's.

India banned TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps in June as border tensions rose between the two countries.

At the time, India was TikTok's biggest foreign market, with an estimated 120 million users.

YouTube will also be in competition with a number of local competitors who have rushed in to fill the void after TikTok's ban in India.

     

India in shock over 86-year-old grandmother's rape

In one particularly shocking case, police in the capital, Delhi, have arrested a man in his 30s for the rape and assault of an 86-year-old grandmother.

"The woman was waiting outside her home on Monday evening for the milkman when she was approached by her attacker," Swati Maliwal, head of the Delhi Commission for Women, told the BBC.

"He told her that her regular milk delivery man wasn't coming and offered to take her to the place where she could get milk."

Fiji has new Covid-19 case from repatriation flight

The Health Ministry says the latest patient is a 64 year-old woman who arrived on a repatriation flight from India on 27 August.

Last week, the ministry announced two men who were on the same flight had tested positive to the virus.

It said more than 200 passengers were onboard that flight and they had travelled from Delhi via Fiji, landing in Christchurch late on 27 August.

New Zealand's Health Ministry also announced last week that five passengers on the same flight tested positive after arriving in Christchurch.

PUBG cuts video game ties with Tencent in India after ban

PUBG Mobile was one of 118 Chinese apps that the Indian government blacklisted over national security concerns. 

Developer PUBG Corporation said it would take on publishing responsibilities in India in a bid to have its game reinstated. 

The COVID-stricken Air India flight that brought 17 cases to NZ

On August 28, the Ministry of Health confirmed seven imported cases of COVID-19; three men in their 30s, a woman in her 60s, a woman in her 20s, and two children.  

They arrived in New Zealand on the flight in question - an Air India flight from Delhi, on August 23. 

India surpasses US for highest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases

The nation, the world's third-most infected, on Sunday reported 78,761 new cases in 24 hours, passing the number posted in the US on 17 July.

The rise comes as the government continues to lift restrictions to try to boost an economy that lost millions of jobs when the virus hit in March.

An upsurge of Covid-19 in many rural areas continues to be a major concern.

On Sunday, global infections passed the 25 million mark, with 843,000 deaths. The US remains the most affected nation, closing in on six million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University research.

Amazon launches online pharmacy in India

Amazon Pharmacy will make its debut in Bangalore and it may be trialled in other Indian cities.

The move comes as the online drugs business has been given a major boost during the coronavirus pandemic.

This year US technology giants have invested billions of dollars in the Indian economy.

The Amazon Pharmacy service offers prescription, over-the-counter and traditional Ayurveda medication as well as basic health devices.

India becomes third country to pass two million cases

The country confirmed the last million cases in just 20 days, faster than the US or Brazil which have higher numbers.

Testing has been expanded considerably in India in recent weeks but the situation varies across states.

Spurred by a low death rate, the nation continues to reopen even as new hotspots drive the surge in cases. But some states have imposed restrictions.

The recent measures include local, intermittent lockdowns, sometimes limiting activity in specific cities or districts.

10 die drinking sanitiser after Indian state shuts liquor shops

The village of Kurichedu has been placed in lockdown after a local surge in cases of coronavirus.

District police chief Siddharth Kaushal said the people who died had mixed the sanitiser with water and soft drinks.

They were alcohol-dependent, he added, and had started drinking the mixture about 10 days before they died.

"We are investigating whether the sanitiser had any other toxic content," Mr Kaushal told reporters.

He added that they had sent samples of the sanitiser away for chemical analysis.

India to hold human trial of coronavirus vaccine in July

An unspecified number of people will have the vaccine, as part of a trial by Hyderabad-based firm Bharat Biotech.

Tests in animals suggest the vaccine is safe and triggers an effective immune response.

The trials are among many across the world - there are around 120 vaccine programmes under way. Half a dozen Indian firms are developing vaccines.

This is the first India-made vaccine and developed from a strain of the virus that was isolated locally and weakened under laboratory conditions.