India's festival season, which climaxes in October and November with the popular Hindu celebrations of Dussehra and Diwali, poses additional challenges, as officials try to dampen the usual large public celebrations and cross-country travel. Typically the festival season brings a big increase in consumer spending, and the more sombre atmosphere this year will further dampen an economy that contracted by almost a quarter in the three months to June - the worst figure on record. The government in the western state of Gujarat said it will not hold an event to mark the nine-day Navratri festival due to begin on Oct. 17. Health ministry data on Monday showed there were 82,170 new infections in the last 24 hours. The daily death toll was 1,039, bringing the total number of victims to 95,542, the ministry said.

Source: bd News24 September 28, 2020 10:18 UTC