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Facebook has introduced Shops, a tool to help small businesses set up free online store-fronts. The social media company said it would help the small businesses survive the COVID-19 pandemic and thrive in a retail space, which is going through a digital makeover. Any seller can list their business on the online platform and connect with customers. They can customise the look and feel of their Shop with a cover image and showcase their brand on this new tool, Facebook said. “I am hopeful that it is going to play some role in helping small businesses get through this period…

Google Maps has received several updates over the last two months. It appears that the app is now getting a new real-time location sharing interface on both Android and iOS devices. The interface update is also available to Google Maps users in India. It appears that the new location sharing UI was rolled out via a server-side update. It is important to note that the new update does not include new features, but overall changes the look and feel of the location-sharing interface. In the new interface, Google has made visual changes to the sharing window as well as added…

A doctor from the Kashmir valley, who went to meet her sister-in-law in Canada's Toronto city and stuck due to COVID-19 outbreak, has thanked the Indian government for arranging repatriation flight as this will help her to serve people back home during the pandemic.Dr Farah said in an interview at the airport just before taking a flight to India, "I came here to visit my sister-in-law. I am a doctor myself and I had stuck here. I find so useless to be stranded here while my colleagues (doctors) out there (in Jammu and Kashmir) are fighting a war against COVID-19.…

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is chairing a Group of Ministers (GoM) meeting in Delhi to discuss execution of the government's Rs 20 lakh crore relief package for the coronavirus-hit Indian economy. Sources have told NDTV aid to MSMEs (micro, medium and small enterprises) will be the focus, with draft details of schemes and guidelines from various ministries set to be finalised today.Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Commerce and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal are among those attending the meeting.Last week Ms Sitharaman said 45 lakh MSMEs (those with turnovers up to Rs 100 crore till October 31) would…

Ten fresh teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) are being rushed to West Bengal in order to speed up the relief and rescue operations post cyclone "Amphan", officials said on Saturday.They said the additional teams of the federal contingency force were sent after a written request was received by the Union Home Ministry from West Bengal's Principal Secretary Disaster Management and Civil Defence seeking deployment of additional teams in the state."Ten additional teams have been mobilised and are being rushed at the earliest from NDRF locations outside West Bengal. Teams are likely to reach Kolkata by late night…

A day after the RBI projected economic contraction in 2020-21, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said future fiscal policy actions to stimulate the economy will depend on how COVID-19 pandemic pans out.The government has already announced a Rs 20.97 lakh crore economic package, which includes Reserve Bank's Rs 8.01 lakh crore worth of liquidity measures till May 17.Ms Sitharaman said making a "realistic assessment" of economic growth would be difficult at this point of time as there is no clarity on when the pandemic would retreat.

West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar, known for a stormy relationship with the state government, on Saturday praised Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's decision to call on the army for help in restoring essential infrastructure and services devastated by Cyclone Amphan."A good move @MamataOfficial to seek support and assistance of Army. These are trying time and appeal to people to keep calm. Authorities must restore connectivity, electricity and other services at the earliest," he wrote on Twitter.Mr Dhankar has been less combative since large parts of the state were devastated by Amphan, one of the worst storms to have formed over the…

The page (@6ftlove), created by New York-based urban planner, Sabah Usmani, is a reminder that though we are staying six feet apart physically, we are all still connected emotionally. “6ftlove is both a design project and a global solidarity movement to fight the spread of COVID-19,” says Sabah. The team invites people to send in their experiences of isolation, submitted in any language. Almost every day, they profile an individual’s story, with an illustration and a quote of how they are navigating the outbreak and dealing with physical distancing. “We are gathering stories spanning a diversity of experiences, backgrounds, and…