Archives for 2020

The head constable was dismissed from service following the incident. Surender told police that Deepak Gehlawat, the victim, was recording video while they were drinking.

NEW DELHI: A day after a Delhi Police head constable was arrested in connection with a murder case, police found that the accused fired at the victim as he was video-recording the policemen while they were drinking in uniform, officials said on Thursday.

Surender (47), posted at Shahbad Dairy police station, was arrested after he fired two shots at a 28-year-old man with his service pistol on Thursday morning, following a quarrel between them, officials said.

The head constable was dismissed from service following the incident. Surender told police that Deepak Gehlawat, the victim, was recording video while they were drinking.

He objected to being filmed in uniform and asked Gehlawat to stop recording. However, when Gehlawat continued recording the video, a quarrel broke out between them during which Surender fired bullets at him, a senior police officer said.

At the time of the incident, the accused and the victim were drunk, police said. Police said the accused did not submit his service pistol after completing his duty.

The incident took place near a hotel in Budh Vihar area on Thursday morning, when Surender was on his way home after working in night shift.

The head constable was coming back in a car along with Gehlawat, a gym owner in southwest Delhi’s Dwarka Mor.

Gehlawat suffered injuries on his left forearm and upper chest. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brought dead, police said.

The service pistol used to kill Gehlawat has been seized, they said.

The suicide of the taluk doctor at Nanjangud is only the tip of the iceberg. Stress and exhaustion have affected government healthcare workers physically and mentally.

BENGALURU: The suicide of the taluk doctor at Nanjangud is only the tip of the iceberg. Stress and exhaustion have affected government healthcare workers physically and mentally. They say they have been overworked for the past six months, in several cases without a day’s leave.

A 55-year-old woman doctor on Covid duty at a government hospital in Bengaluru said, “We haven’t had a single day off since March. I feel tired and suffer migraines often. We are ready to work but if there were more staff, we could have taken a weekly off. Doctors work extra shifts to help colleagues take off for religious festivals.

Nurses don’t even have this option and need to report each day.” Medicos feel the administration, comprising IAS and KAS officers, is not listening to the woes of the medical community. Each PHC (Primary Health Centre) has targets to meet in terms of Covid tests done per day. However, there are several practical factors that higher-ups don’t account for.

“We have to wear and remove PPE kits, enter the patient’s mobile number to generate an OTP through which the SRF ID gets assigned for the swab taken.We have to take down details of patient’s name, risk status, if they are from containment zones and other details, all this takes time,” said a PHC doctor from Bengaluru, on condition of anonymity.

Doctors have to visit containment zones, test pregnant, symptomatic and other high-risk contacts, quarantine people, send positive patients into home isolation, Covid Care Centres (CCC) or hospitals. Non-Covid patients frequent PHCs for services such as urine tests and blood tests as well, which have to be attended to.

“We get calls even at midnight to shift patients by ambulance in case of emergency, and sudden deaths too. We need rest so we can maintain our own health,” the doctor added. The rule that doctors have to be quarantined for 5 days after 10 days of Covid duty, is not followed due to excess workload. 

“I haven’t got a day’s holiday since March. I tested positive, after which my pregnant wife was also infected. We are not corona warriors but are human beings. When we reach targets, we are not appreciated and if we don’t meet them, we are reprimanded,” said Dr Vinay Manjunath who works at a PHC in Chikkaballapur, while also a CCC. Bagalkot DHO Dr Ananth Desai said health staff are under severe pressure due to testing targets. “We can perform better if the government doesn’t pressure us with targets,” Dr Desai said.

It is set to enter phase 3 trial next week involving 40,000 volunteers, it was also announced on Thursday. 

NEW DELHI:  The Russian government, days after announcing that it was going to start mass vaccination of the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine, is in talks with four Indian vaccine makers for its mass production, which may start as early as october.

Though the Indian government has, so far, been silent on any collaboration with Russia on the vaccine, top authorities in Russia at a press briefing on Thursday announced the proposed tie-ups, which was confirmed by Indian officials.

On August 11, the vaccine named ‘Sputnik V’, endorsed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been approved by Russia even as scientists worldwide have expressed scepticism on its safety and efficacy as it has not completed human trials yet, and no data from its early stage trials have been released, so far.

The vaccine has been developed by Gamaleya Research Institute and the Russian defence ministry and has been created using inanimate particles developed based on adenovirus, a class of virus that causes the common cold in primates including humans.

It is set to enter phase 3 trial next week involving 40,000 volunteers, it was also announced on Thursday. 
Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a government body, which is financing the production of Sputnik V, said at the press briefing that “currently, we are working with 4 partners in India, we believe that they are capable of production of the Gamaleya Institute vaccine.”

Russia said while it could produce 500 million doses of the vaccine, it’s looking to churn out 1 billion doses manufactured as many other countries have also shown interest in getting it.

RFID, on its website, has also said it sees “strong global interest in the vaccine and plans to conduct Phase 3 clinical trials in different countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Brazil, India and Philippines, and start mass production in other countries in partnership with local sovereign wealth funds, including India, South Korea and Brazil, as well as, in Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Cuba.”

Government officials in India confirmed that Russia has been in talks with the Ministry of External Affairs and some vaccine manufacturers, including Bharat Biotech, for mass production of the vaccine in the country. 

The announcement comes at a time when the online pharma sector in the country is seeing a rush of investments from homegrown, overseas funds and is also witnessing mergers and acquisitions. 

BENGALURU: Mukesh Ambani’s  Reliance Industries Limited will now take on Amazon in the online pharmacy space by acquiring Chennai-based startup NetMeds. 

The 100% acquisition of NetMeds is being done by the retail arm Reliance Retail Venture Limited (RRVL), which will also pick up a 60 percent majority equity stake in the parent company Vitalic Health Limited for Rs 620 crore, RIL said in a statement. This translates into a valuation of over Rs 1,000 crore for the company. 

The announcement comes at a time when the online pharma sector in the country is seeing a rush of investments from homegrown, overseas funds and is also witnessing mergers and acquisitions. 

The country’s largest e-tailer Amazon last week announced that it has launched its e-pharmacy vertical and will be selling prescription medicines in Bengaluru along with the non-prescriptional and conventional Ayurvedic/unani drugs. 

Rival Flipkart is also reportedly in talks with various stakeholders in the health tech space to venture into the segment. 

For Reliance, the acquisition of NetMeds will strengthen its e-commerce capabilities especially after the launch of JioMart, which is now delivering across 200 cities in the country and will soon expand to the other pincodes. 

“This investment is aligned with our commitment to provide digital access for everyone in India. The addition of Netmeds enhances Reliance Retail’s ability to provide good quality and affordable healthcare products and services, and also broadens its digital commerce proposition to include most daily essential needs of consumers. We are impressed by Netmeds’ journey to build a nationwide digital franchise in such a short time and are confident of accelerating it with our investment and partnership,” Isha Ambani, Director, RRVL said in a statement.

NetMeds’ parent entity Vitalic was founded in 2015 with its various subsidiaries Tresara Health Private Limited, Netmeds Market Place Limited and Dadha Pharma Distribution Pvt Limited. The major promoters of Vitalic Pradeep Dadha and family ventured into the online pharma business after being involved in the wholesale, retail and manufacturing pharma sector in South India for over a century. 

“It is indeed a proud moment for Netmeds to join the Reliance family and to work together with them to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible to every Indian. With the combined strength of the group’s digital, retail and tech platforms, we will strive to create more value for everyone in the ecosystem, while providing a superior Omni Channel experience to consumers,” Dadha said in a statement.

With a fleet of over 18,000 buses and nearly one lakh workforce, MSRTC is one of the biggest state road transport corporations in the county.

MUMBAI: Inter-district bus services of the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) resumed on Thursday morning after a gap of almost five months, officials said.

The Maharashtra government on Wednesday permitted the state-owned undertaking to re-start inter-district bus operations, which were stopped in March after the enforcement of lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.

On Thursday, the first bus from Mumbai Central depot, where the MSRTC headquarters is located, left around 8.30 am for Chiplun in Ratnagiri district with six passengers boarding at the starting point, a transport corporation official said.

More passengers were expected at Dadar and other stops, he said.

Bus services from various depots in Mumbai and other parts of state are planned later in the day on some selected medium and long-distance routes, sources in the MSRTC said.

While allowing the inter-district MSRTC bus services to resume, the state government did away with the condition of e-pass, which was earlier compulsory for passengers in view of the lockdown.

The MSRTC said it will be mandatory for passengers to maintain COVID-19 prevention protocols, like wearing masks and adhering to the social distancing guidelines.

Earlier, the transport corporation resumed inter-district services from May 22 and also ran special buses to ferry migrants to the state borders.

It was also operating special services for passengers in the Konkan belt ahead of the Ganesh festival, which will begin on Saturday.

With a fleet of over 18,000 buses and nearly one lakh workforce, MSRTC is one of the biggest state road transport corporations in the county.

The crucial indicator from these states also signals that the epidemic is far from being over in spite of the very high incidence of the infectious disease already.

NEW DELHI:  Considerably high Covid-19 testing positivity rates (TPR) in Maharashtra, Telangana and Delhi have raised concerns that the disease is silently spreading through the population at a much more alarming rate than acknowledged by the governments, and these states are yet to reach optimal testing rates to contain the contagion. 

The crucial indicator from these states also signals that the epidemic is far from being over in spite of the very high incidence of the infectious disease already. According to the government figures, the seven-day average TPR for Telangana — at 19 per cent — is the highest in the country. It means that 19 of every 100 people being tested for the infection have been found positive over the past week.

This rate is 18.2 for Maharashtra and 16.1 for Delhi — the two other states that have seen a very high disease burden. This indicator for all other states, on the other hand, is well below 10 per cent, while the country’s overall TPR is less than 9.

Epidemiologist Dr Jammi N Rao, who has worked with the ICMR-Hyderabad in the past, said: “The reasons could be either there are a greater number of cases in the community so that, all other things being equal, more tests are correctly identifying the greater number of cases or more of the tests are now being done on people with obvious symptoms of Covid-19.” 

Sources said that the proposal for travel bubble for business, official and medical travel was discussed along with the Rohingya issues.

NEW DELHI:  Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla on Tuesday reached Dhaka for a two-day visit to Bangladesh which is aimed at enhancing ties with the neighbouring country. The foreign secretary is likely to meet Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to deliver a ‘special message’ from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is Shringla’s second visit to Bangladesh within five months. He had last visited Bangladesh in March.

According to local media reports, Hasina is likely to meet Shringla at her official residence after which the foreign secretary will hold talks with his Bangladeshi counterpart Masud Bin Momen and Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.

The visit is being seen as New Delhi’s attempt to check  Dhaka’s growing proximity to Beijing in the aftermath of the June 15 violent face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. India, as a retaliatory measure, had banned 59 Chinese apps citing security concerns. Later, China had responded by exempting import duty on around 100 Bangladeshi products.

The trip is also being perceived as a reconciliatory measure after reports of a tiff between the Bangladesh government and the Indian High Commissioner and the alleged questions over the ‘quality’ of the 10 Indian locomotives given to Bangladesh. Recently, India had described its relationship with Bangladesh as “exceptionally close”.