Maharashtra Industries Minister Subhash Desai said that 40000 hectare land has been reserved in various MIDCs across state for foreign investors and added that “Maha Permits” will be provided for big-ticket industrial projects, covering all kinds of permissions that are needed to set up a plant. He also informed that 65000 industries have been granted permission to resume operations in state, of which 35000 industries have already started production activities with over 9 lakh employees reporting for work.

The Industries Minister said many companies were backing out from China (after coronavirus outbreak) and the state was are closely watching the developments. The Mega permits will be granted after the companies submit concrete proposals while the period for obtaining other subsequent permissions will be increased and they can be obtained after the unit starts. The Industries Ministry has also formed a Task Force comprising senior officers who are already in talks with their counterparts in America, Japan, Taiwan, Germany and England.

Meanwhile, the Rural Development Minister Hasan Mushrif has informed that the government has decided to temporarily stay holding of gram sabhas or meetings in villages till further orders in view of the COVID-19 crisis. The mandatory gram sabhas scheduled to be held this month across villages will not be held now. The buses of Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) ferried nearly 73,000 migrant labourers in the last five days, upto the respective state borders. Transport Minister Anil Parab appealed that migrant labourers should travel by MSRTC buses, avoiding risky modes of travel.

Other news updates, Uttar Pradesh government has decided to give 50 percent subsidy on PPE kits to those nursing homes and registered hospitals who will provide treatment to the patients on the rates decided under Ayushman Bharat scheme. Government will also extend the registration for 6 months of those hospitals who are registered under Ayushman Bharat. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that the fight against covid-19 can be easily won with the help of private doctors. Meanwhile Corona virus has now spread to all 75 districts of state, though the number of cases and mortality rates remain low.

"All 75 districts in state are now corona infected as one positive case was found in Chandauli district. It was the only district left where no case were found till date. Now there are 1744 active cases in 69 districts. Total 4 deaths were reported from state due to Covid in last 24 hours taking the toll to 86. One resident of Ayodhya district died on board in Shramik special train at unnao district and after during postmortem in KGMU lucknow it was found that he was corona positive. Following the incident the whole staff involved on postmortem has been quarantined and Postmortem house is now closed for sanitization work.

Meanwhile Officials in Kanpur, Agra and Meerut districts have been asked to enforce Lock down strictly since number of COVID-19 patients are still high in these districts.

In Meerut, administration has decided complete lockdown in the district in view of containment of spread of corona virus and only medicine shops and milk booths will be open for the public.