The Central Government has said that a total of 7,82,607 people have recovered from Coronavirus so far and with this, the recovery rate has reached 63.18 percent in the country. The Health and Family Welfare Ministry said yesterday, a record 29,557 people have recovered in the past 24 hours. This is the highest number of recoveries in one day since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

The Health Ministry said, the highest number of 45,720 new cases of COVID-19 were reported in the country within last 24 hours taking the total number of cases to 12,38,635.Presently, the total number of active Corona cases in the country is four lakh 26,167.In a single day, one thousand 129 deaths were reported taking the nationwide toll to 29,861.

However, the case fatality rate is continuously declining in the country and it has reached 2.41 percent. The government has imposed restrictions on public procurement from the countries which share a land border with India to strengthen the defense and national security.

Meanwhile, the Department of Expenditure in a detailed Order said the Government has amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to enable the imposition of restrictions on bidders from countries that share a land border with India on grounds of defense of India, or matters directly or indirectly related thereto including national security.

As per the order, any bidder from such countries sharing a land border with India will be eligible to bid in any procurement whether of goods, services including consultancy services and non-consultancy services or works including turnkey projects only if the bidder is registered with the competent authority.

The competent authority for registration will be the registration committee constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, DPIIT.

Political clearance from the External Affairs Ministry and security clearance from the Home Ministry will also be mandatory.

The order also takes into its ambit public sector banks and financial institutions, Autonomous Bodies, Central Public Sector Enterprises and Public-Private Partnership projects receiving financial support from the government or its undertakings.

The Central government has also written to State Chief Secretaries for the implementation of this Order in procurement by them and their undertakings.

The Finance Minister said the relaxation has been provided in certain limited cases, including for the procurement of medical supplies for containment of COVID-19 global pandemic till December this year.

The Ministry said the new provisions will apply to all new tenders. In respect of tenders already invited, if the first stage of evaluation of qualifications has not been completed, bidders who are not registered under the new Order will be treated as not qualified.

If this stage has been crossed, ordinarily the tenders will be canceled and the process started de novo.

The Order will also apply to other forms of public procurement. The Ministry said it does not apply to procurement by the private sector.