Archives for June 2020

PM Modi on Sunday, on his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio show, said that India had given a befitting response to China on Ladakh.

New Delhi: The Centre Sunday announced its decision to block 59 Chinese-owned mobile applications

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation at 4 PM on Tuesday, his office has tweeted. His address will come amid an ongoing stand-off between India and China at Ladakh’s Galwan valley and a surge in coronavirus cases that has shown little sign of slowing down.

PM Modi on Sunday, on his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ radio show, said that India had given a befitting response to China on Ladakh, praising the army which fought Chinese troops at the Galwan Valley earlier this month. He also spoke of the call for boycott of Chinese goods by the traders and the civil society.

“We will buy local and be vocal for local and this will help India become stronger,” he had said.

“If India knows how to maintain friendship, it can also confront someone and give an adequate response. Our brave soldiers made it clear that they will not allow anyone to taint the honour of Mother India,” he had added, referring to the clash with Chinese troops in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the line of duty.

The Centre on Monday announced its decision to block 59 Chinese-owned mobile applications including TikTok, WeChat and UC Browser.

In a statement, the government said the apps were blocked “in view of information available they are engaged in activities which is prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.

Last week, PM Modi praised the country’s efforts to fight the coronavirus. He had said that Uttar Pradesh, with a population size the same as four European countries badly hit by the coronavirus, had only a fraction of their death count.

“England, France, Italy and Spain – these countries at one time had conquered the world and were the biggest powers of the world, but if you add up the populations of all these countries it comes to 24 crore, but in India, UP alone has 24 crore. How effective UP has been can be seen from the fact that the four European nations together had 1,30,000 deaths due to COVID-19. But in UP, the number of deaths is 600. It shows that UP has been tacking the issue proactively and effectively,” he had said.

India’s tally of coronavirus cases has risen to 5,48,318, including 16,475 deaths. States like Maharashtra, Delhi and Tamil Nadu have been showing massive growth in coronavirus numbers despite efforts to break the chain of transmission.

The Centre on Monday released guidelines for Unlock2 in which it has extended the lockdown in containment zones till July 31. It has allowed some relaxations in other areas but schools and colleges, cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, bars and assembly halls or metro services will remain closed.

India, a leading manufacturer of generic medicines, is expected to play a key role in the race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, with several institutes working in parallel

New Delhi: India’s first COVID-19 vaccine candidate, was developed in association with ICMR 

A potential COVID-19 vaccine, the first to be developed in India, has been given DCGI (Drug Controller General of India) approval for Phase I and II human clinical trials that are scheduled to start across the country in July.

Developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, in association with ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research), COVAXIN is an inactivated vaccine, created from a strain of the infectious SARS-CoV-2 virus, that has shown promise in preclinical studies, demonstrating extensive safety and effective immune responses.

Drug manufacturers around the world are racing to develop a vaccine against the novel coronavirus; a novel virus is one that has never previously been identified in humans, making the task of creating a vaccine that much harder.

India, a leading manufacturer of vaccines and generic medicines, is expected to play a key role in this race, with several institutes working on different drugs.

In May the government said as many as 30 groups were working on a vaccine. A top scientific advisor to the government said efforts that normally took 15 years and cost US$300 million were being condensed into a 12-month period.

Similar efforts are being mounted across the world, with a number of different drugs in different stages of trial.

The British firm has already begun large-scale, mid-stage human trials of the drug developed by researchers at University of Oxford.

Other possible vaccines being tested include one by American firm Moderna, which is scheduled to go into Phase III clinical trials from mid-July.

China’s military has been given permission to use a vaccine candidate developed in association with CanSino Biologics. According to Reuters the drug showed some promise in early clinical trials. The Ad5-nCoV is one of the eight vaccine candidates developed by Chinese firms to move into human trials.

Early last month US-based biopharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences Inc. said a five-day course of its antiviral drug Remdesivir showed a modest benefit to patients with moderate COVID-19 symptoms.

The drug, which is administered intravenously, was the first to show improvement in condition of COVID-19 patients in formal clinical trials, according to news agency Reuters.

As pharma firms scramble to find that big breakthrough, which could mean millions in profits and millions of lives saved, experts have warned that early vaccines may come with limitations on what they can do.

The pandemic has already claimed over five lakh victims worldwide, including 16,475 in India. There are over 1.01 crore confirmed cases, including nearly 5.5 lakh in India – the fourth worst-affected country.

New Delhi: The highest single-day surge of COVID-19 cases crossed the 17,000 mark on Friday, pushing India’s tally to 4,90,401, while the death toll climbed to 15,301 with 407 new fatalities, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

Updated at 8 am, the data showed the daily COVID-19 cases increased by the highest-ever 17,296 infections.

The number of active cases stands at 1,89,463 while 2,85,636 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, according to the updated figures.

“Thus, around 58.24 per cent patients have recovered so far,” an official said. The total number of confirmed cases also include foreigners.

Of the 407 new deaths reported till Friday morning, 192 were in Maharashtra, 64 in Delhi, 45 in Tamil Nadu, 18 in Gujarat, 15 each in West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh, 12 in Andhra Pradesh, 10 in Haryana, eight in Madhya Pradesh, seven in Punjab, six in Karnataka, five in Telangana, four in Rajasthan and two in Jammu and Kashmir.

Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand have reported one COVID-19 fatality each in the last 24 hours.

New Delhi: Over 3.6 lakh Indians have returned to India from abroad after the government launched the ”Vande Bharat” evacuation mission on May 7 in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said a total number of 5,13,047 Indians have registered their request with Indian missions abroad for repatriation to India on compelling grounds.

Of the people who have registered, 3,64,209 have returned under this Mission as of today, he said. Repatriations from neighbouring countries have also been happening through land borders, he added.

“More than 84,000 Indians have returned through land border immigration checkpoints from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh,” the MEA spokesperson said.

“In the first three phases of the Vande Bharat Mission, around 875 international flights were scheduled for operation from over 50 countries across five continents. So far, more than 700 of these flights have reached India, repatriating around 1,50,000 Indians,” Srivastava said.

The remaining 175 flights under the Phase 3 are expected to reach in the coming days, he said.

These Vabde Bharat Mission (VBM) flights have been instrumental in addressing the immediate requirements of stranded Indians from many parts of the world, Srivastava said.

“We are committed to bringing back our remaining compatriots particularly in the GCC countries, Malaysia, Singapore among other places. In order to continue with our efforts, Phase IV of VBM is being firmed up with effect from July 3, 2020,” he said.

“Phase IV will particularly focus on countries where we still have a large number of Indians who have registered to return,” Srivastava said.

Apart from these, chartered flight operations which commenced on May 26, have steadily increased over the past weeks, he said.

These flights have also brought back seafarers and crews of shipping companies stranded in various places, Srivastava said.

“Till date, 1,30,061 persons have returned on these flights. Demand for these flights remains very high especially in the Gulf region. Therefore, we are moving to further streamline the process,” Srivastava said.

Noting that repatriations through naval ships have also been part of this mission, he said one such repatriation is presently underway.

INS Jalashwa reached Port of Bandar Abbas in Iran on June 24 to bring back Indian citizens and their embarkation was to commence on Thursday, Srivastava said.

Asked about Kerala government’s suggestion that COVID-19 testing of those returning on Vande Bhrat flights be done, Srivastava said after consulting Indian missions in the Gulf countries, the MEA told the state government that there are practical difficulties in this regard.

“At present only UAE has arrangements for full testing, Qatar provides for limited testing and in other countries in the region prior testing is not possible as there are issues related to cost, time and availability of testing,” he said.

New Delhi: Petrol price in the national capital on Friday crossed Rs 80 per litre mark, for the first time in more than two years, as oil companies continue to raise petrol and diesel prices in line with costs.

Oil companies hiked petrol price by 21 paise per litre and diesel by 17 paise a litre, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.

Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 80.13 per litre from Rs 79.92 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 80.19 a litre from Rs 80.02.

Rates have been increased across the country but the final retail selling price differs from state to state depending on the incidence of local sales tax or VAT.

In Mumbai, petrol is priced at Rs 86.91 per litre and diesel at Rs 78.51.

Petrol price has crossed Rs 80-mark for the first time in more than two years, while diesel rate is at an all-time high. Petrol had last crossed Rs 80 mark in September 2018.

While diesel price has been hiked for the 20th straight day, petrol price has been raised on 19 occasions in less than three weeks.

The cumulative increase since the oil companies started the cycle on June 7 now totals to Rs 8.87 for petrol and Rs 10.8 in diesel. Diesel had for the first time become costlier than petrol in Delhi on Wednesday.

However, diesel is costlier than petrol only in the national capital where the state government had raised local sales tax or VAT on the fuel sharply last month. It costs less than petrol in other cities.

On June 7, oil companies restarted revising prices in line with costs after ending an 82-day hiatus during which they adjusted steep excise duty hikes by the government against the fall in benchmark international oil rates.

New Delhi: All regular mail, express and passenger services as well as suburban trains which had been canceled till June 30 due to the coronavirus pandemic, will now remain canceled till August 12, the Railway Board said on Thursday.

Sources said the decision was taken keeping in mind the increasing number of coronavirus cases in the country.

However, all special trains — 15 pairs running on the Rajdhani routes since May 12 and 100 pairs of mail/express trains operating since June 1 — will continue, they said.

The limited special suburban services which began recently in Mumbai to ferry essential services personnel identified by the local authorities will also continue to run, officials said.

“All tickets booked for the regular timetabled trains for journey date from 01.07.20 to 12.08.20 also stand canceled. A full refund will be generated,” the Railway Board order stated.

Earlier, the Railways had canceled all trains till June 30.

A railway spokesperson said during the lockdown period booking of tickets was allowed till April 14, 2020, with an advance reservation period of 120 days.

“Some of the passengers had booked tickets for regular trains being run before lockdown for the journey up to 12 August 2020 (120 days from 14 April 2020). In order to facilitate full refunds to those passengers who had booked tickets on or prior to April 14, 2020, these bookings have been canceled, he said.

The spokesperson also said the Railways is monitoring the occupancy position of these special trains on a regular basis and whenever a decision is taken to introduce new special trains, its schedule will be notified.

Regular train services have been disrupted days ahead of the nationwide lockdown which began from March 25. The Railways has also run more than 4,000 Shramik Special trains since May 1 to ferry migrant workers back to their home states.

Other than these services, the entire passenger services had been inoperational. However, it continued to run its freight and parcel services.

A record spike in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh on Thursday triggered the biggest single-day jump of close to 17,000 infections in the country even as Maharashtra, the state worst-hit by the pandemic, decided to undertake antigen and rapid antibody tests for the disease.

According to the Union Health Ministry data, COVID-19 cases rose by the highest-ever number of 16,922 to reach 4,73,105, while the death toll climbed to 14,894 with 418 new fatalities. This was the sixth consecutive day when coronavirus cases increased by more than 14,000.

Consequently, India has added 92,573 cases since June 20, and over 2.82 lakh this month alone since June 1.