Imran Qureshi
BBC World Service, Bangalore

India's IT hub Bangalore is in lockdown along with the rest of the southern state of Karnataka.

Yesterday, it registered the highest single-day spike ever seen in the state with a tally of 17,550 positive cases and was responsible for half the total number of deaths - 97 out of 180.

Tales of oxygen shortage, critical drugs and a lack of beds are rampant here as well.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Crematoriums in a number of parts of India have been operating non-stop since this deadly second wave picked up pace. Workers say they haven't had a break from performing last rites.

But the official death tolls being released do not appear to reflect this.

There is mounting evidence that India has been under-reporting the number of deaths from Covid-19, as it grapples with a second wave.

An investigation by television station NDTV, external found at least 1,150 extra deaths which were not included in Delhi's official Covid count last week. Other local reports have found similar examples of undercounting replicated around the country.

In Uttar Pradesh, a state of about 240 million people, health officials said 68 people had died on one day earlier this month across the entire state. But a Hindi newspaper ran a headline quoting officials in the capital, Lucknow, as saying they had recorded 98 Covid funerals in the city alone.

Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, told the Reuters news agency that many parts of India were in "data denial".

Every day, there are dramatic scenes outside hospitals of people desperately trying to get help for their loved ones.

Hospitals are filled to capacity but yet patients keep coming.

Local media on Wednesday reported the case of a 28-year-old man who brought his sick mother to the gates of a hospital in Delhi. But she was not admitted, and later died there.

"They killed my mother," he was quoted as saying by local news channels.

Scenes like these are playing out across the country. A few days ago, the BBC's Yogita Limaye visited some Delhi hospitals to see what the situation was like on the ground.

Vikas Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

India’s second Covid wave is unrelenting and I don’t even have to look far to know that – my WhatsApp messages have become a microcosm of what thousands of families in India are going through.

I am still searching for a bed for my GP’s best friend, and also for my friend’s husband and a neighbour.

Last night, another friend reached out, asking if I could find a plasma donor for his 32-year-old brother-in-law who was severely ill from Covid.

(Names have been changed)

He died while I was putting out frantic calls to to arrange plasma for him.

Meanwhile, two other friends have called to find out if I could urgently find them Tocilizumab, a drug used to treat critically ill Covid-19 patients in India.

One of them thankfully found it, but I am still looking for the other. And I am also searching for three hospital beds.

I have no idea what the day has store in for all of us - hopefully it goes better than yesterday.

Authorities in India are turning trains into basic medical facilities, as hospitals fill up and patients are turned away. Here's what the inside of one looks like:

Alok Putul
BBC Hindi, Raipur

Cases and deaths are rising fast in the tribal central Indian state of Chhattisgarh - currently in lockdown until 6 May.

It’s adding, on average, about 17,600 cases and 246 deaths a day - it's added more than 100,000 cases in just the last week.

This is a worrying prospect given that large parts of the state are remote tribal villages with poor health infrastructure.

Officials say that’s partly why the capital Raipur is the worst-hit city as people rush there for diagnosis and treatment.

The health minister recently said there was no shortage of oxygen but critical care beds are in short supply in the six medical colleges and 37 government-run Covid hospitals.

There are some 7,000 beds equipped with oxygen and 593 ventilators in state-run hospitals and Covid centres. But that's not enough for a state of 28 million people with a steep upward curve.

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

Image source, Sumit Kumar

Varsha Verma doesn’t remember how many trips she’s made from a hospital to the crematorium in the northern city of Lucknow this past week. The 42-year-old author has been transporting eight to 12 bodies a day for free during this deadly second wave.

Sometimes she's performing the cremations too.

“There is panic and sadness all around. People are very distraught, they are calling for mercy,” she told me.

Ms Verma started doing this after realising there was a problem when she struggled to transport the body of a childhood friend who died of Covid.

She says her family is terrified about her going near bodies of Covid patients, but that won’t stop her from providing this much needed support.

Ashraf Padanna
BBC News, Trivandrum

Hailed as a success early in the pandemic, this southern state has had its ups and downs with the pandemic.

Cases are going up again - and rapidly too - but deaths are low and are not rising as fast. It added more than 32,000 cases in 24 hours as of last night and 32 deaths.

Kerala has some of India’s best public healthcare and a surplus of oxygen - it currently has stocks of 510 metric tonnes, as against its maximum daily requirement of around 100 metric tonnes.

It's also preparing for the worst. Manufacturers are going to up daily supply to 1,000 metric tonnes. And oxygen carriers will be accorded the status of ambulances so they can move through traffic quickly.

But Kerala is running short of hospital beds fast and health officials are now advising home care.

With India's official coronavirus death toll passing 200,000, many more than that have been left bereaved.

Sachin is among them, and told the BBC it felt like "someone had ripped my heart out of my chest" when his pregnant wife died with the virus.

You can watch Sachin and others' stories in the video above.

Image source, Getty Images

The Covid surge in India may seem a million miles away from some of our readers. But the reality is what’s happening in this nation of 1.3 billion people does impact the rest of the world.

For a start, India is the world’s vaccine powerhouse, and any slowdown in production will impact global vaccination efforts too.

Then there is the chance that out-of-control infections will allow further mutation of the virus - potentially developing strains which are vaccine resistant.

For these, and humanitarian reasons, it is imperative the disease is brought under control.

Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

With a population larger than Brazil, the northern state of Uttar Pradesh is India’s most populous with 240 million people.

It’s also my home state - my ancestral village is there, and so it's where my roots lie. Just three weeks ago, my relatives back home insisted that corona was a hoax, or a disease that only ravaged big cities. But a few days back, I spoke to them again. They told me about a man who died while being taken from one hospital to another.

The state handled the first wave relatively well, but the second wave has brought an already creaking health system to its knees. Reports from Uttar Pradesh are dire and heartbreaking. With hospitals overflowing with the infected, people are dying on the streets, in ambulances and outside hospitals.

Read more about it.

I'll be bringing you more from Uttar Pradesh throughout the day.

Image source, Getty Images

Yogita Limaye
BBC South Asia correspondent

It’s hard to believe the scenes we’re witnessing in India’s capital Delhi. Oxygen supplies remain low, beds are scarce, and people are desperate to get treatment for their loved ones. Some people are putting their families in the backs of cars and autorickshaws as they set out desperately in search of help.

On the streets, ambulance sirens are a constant reminder of how Covid-19 is ripping through this city.

I was in a Delhi hospital as one nurse tried to revive a coronavirus patient.

She told me what it's like to work on the very front lines of this crisis:

Good morning - or afternoon - depending on where in the world you are.

If you're just joining us now, here are some points on the situation in India to bring you up to speed. We are running a special day of coverage on India's crisis, and what it means for the global fight against the pandemic.

• India has now recorded more than 200,000 deaths - the fourth highest death toll in the world behind the US, Brazil and Mexico and also registered its highest single day death toll
• The second wave comes after a brief respite - but recent election rallies and a massive Hindu festival which saw millions gather together likely contributed to the rise in cases

• Hospitals across major cities are struggling, running out of available bed spaces and with oxygen supplies at the brink of running out
• India will open up vaccine registrations for all adults over 18 today - though officials have warned of shortages and are not sure where the extra shots will come from
• Our correspondents across the country have been speaking to victims, friends and loved ones - many of them desperate to find some form of help - follow us as we bring you more on this throughout the day

Image source, Getty Images

Soutik Biswas
India Correspondent

Once again, my morning has been spent scrolling through WhatsApp groups awash with harrowing and desperate queries.

Yesterday, we were trying to help a woman in her early 70s who was struggling at home. Her family managed to get her a nurse and some oxygen. A doctor on consultation also put her on steroids.

This morning, her situation deteriorated, and I woke up to frantic messages like these.

(Names have been changed and this is a sample of the kind of posts on these groups)

We will be following some of the threads and themes that come up in such groups - it’s been the story of India for weeks now since this devastating second wave.

On a different group, my morning starts with a message mourning the passing away of someone’s mother: "We lost the battle to get her a bed in hospital”.

The next message is an elegy for the dead:

We have been mourning

With every pyre that burns

Our self belief is dying

Each funeral is a story of personal loss

Each day is struggle for fight against all odds

These are the front pages of some major newspapers in India.

Publications are covering issues like the delivery of international aid and the government response so far.

The fact that state elections are going ahead despite the surge in cases has also been highlighted along with the controversy surrounding the pricing of vaccines in the country.

All Indians over 18 will be eligible to sign up for jabs from today although officials are warning of shortages.

Image source, Hindustan Times

Image source, The Indian Express

Image source, Reuters

India's devastating second wave came after a brief - and promising - respite.

Cases had dropped to below 20,000 a day in January and fell further in February, even dipping below 10,000 at one point. But cases began to climb again in March as people started going out more, wearing masks less and stopped following Covid protocols altogether.

A series of huge election rallies in poll-bound states and a massive Hindu festival that drew millions together appear to have hastened the surge.

Cases and deaths rose rapidly, far surpassing the first peak in September last year.

And India's fragile healthcare system has struggled to cope, leaving beds, life-saving drugs and even oxygen in short supply.

Social media is awash with desperate calls for help to find drugs hoped to help with Covid symptoms.

And that means that prices for drugs like remdesivir and tocilizumab - both being prescribed by doctors to help with treatment - are soaring.

The BBC has found that the shortage in supply is leading to black marketing of the drugs in the capital Delhi and several other cities where infections are high.

Some agents contacted by the BBC said they still had supply - but wanted several times the official price.

The same goes for oxygen cylinders or concentrators - prices have skyrocketed amid the supply crisis.

Amitabha Bhattasali
BBC News, West Bengal

It was only a couple of weeks ago when the mood in West Bengal state was "there is no more coronavirus, why use a mask?"

That has now changed.

Cases in the state are currently surging in the wake of huge election rallies - and it's likely to be the next big hotspot.

The eastern state in is the middle of a heated state election and rallies are continuing. Some of the biggest ones, including those attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw throngs of people not wearing masks or maintaining social distancing.

Although Mr Modi has since cancelled his rallies amid mounting criticism, local politicians are yet to do so The election commission has now limited them to a maximum of 500 people.

There is also no lockdown or curfew in the state - despite a new high of 16,403 new Covid cases over the past 24 hours.

Australia joined other nations yesterday in announcing restrictions on arrivals from India.

But the two-week pause on all India flights - including repatriations - leaves 9,000 Australian nationals trapped in the country, many of whom have been trying to get home for months already.

Some cricketers – who went over last month for the Indian Premier League - are among those stranded.

One batsman, Chris Lynn, requested a chartered flight to return home which has been criticised by other Australians online.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also said cricketers will not get preferential treatment.

Suranjana Tewari
BBC News

He’s the leader of the opposition Congress party’s youth wing - but has also now become the poster boy of a social media campaign that’s helping people arrange medicine, hospital beds and oxygen.

BV Srinavas told the BBC over the phone that more than 100,000 people have contacted his teams of 1,000 “corona warriors” since India’s second wave, using the hashtag #SOSIYC, external, or “SOS Indian Youth Congress”

The team also help people identify symptoms and connect them with doctors through phone calls and the internet.

Today, he says they're focusing on sending medication to people at home - those who have not been able to get beds in hospitals.

Mr Srinavas says it’s not easy to operate in such challenging circumstances in the absence of a government plan but stresses this is "not the time for politics".

"We have to fight together collectively to take decisions and save our people.”

Image source, Supplied