NATIONAL NEWS
A) India’s first medal at Tokyo Olympics, courtesy Mirabai Chanu
India got its first medal on the first day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the midst of a raging pandemic, bringing cheer and hope to the Indian camp when 26-year-old Mirabai Chanu lifted a total of 202kg (87kg+115kg) to better Karnam Malleswari’s bronze in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Mirabai Chanu from Manipur snagged the first silver for the country and also laid the ghosts of 2016 to rest with her medal in the world’s most prestigious arena of sports. Online, her triumph was greeted with cheer by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who tweeted, Could not have asked for a happier start to by @mirabai_chanu’s stupendous performance. Congratulations to her for winning the Silver media in weightlifting. Her success motivates every Indian. India with a 125 strong contingent, marginally larger than the 2016 Rio Olympics, will be hoping for some medals this time. The results of the first day were a mixed bag for India, when shooters Saurabh Chaudhar, Deepika Kumari and Pravin Jadhav lost out. Later, paddlers Suthirtha Mukherjee and Manika Batra advanced to the women’s singles second round, winning their respective first-round matches once again raising hopes for the country. This, after India’s hopes for a medal from the mixed doubles werere dashed to the ground when Sharath Kamal and Manika Batra lost. Mukherjee virtually clawed her way back into the fight after trailing 4-3, defeating Swede Linda Bergstrom.
B) Brazil cancels agreement with Bharat Biotech
Brazil has suspended the clinical studies of Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin, following termination of the company’s agreement with its partner Precisa Medicamentos and Envixia Pharmaceuticals LL.C, the country’s health regulator said. A federal investigation is also currently underway into the alleged irregularities in the contract inked between Brazil’s health ministry and Bharat Biotech for 20 million (2 crore) doses of Covaxin. President Jair Bolsanaro faced intense criticism for allowing the deal despite Covaxin’s failure to obtain regulatory clearance for the vaccine’s use in the country. The Brazilian government had suspended its contract with Bharat Biotech on June 29. What followed was only inevitable with Bharat Biotech’s announcement on Friday, cancelling the MoU it signed with Precisa Medicamentos and Envixia Pharmaceuticals LL.C for producing and distributing COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin for the Brazilian market. As has been reported in this newspaper, In the Coordination of Clinical Research at Anvisa (Copec/GGMED) determined this Friday (23/7) the precautionary suspension of clinical studies of the Covaxin vaccine in Brazil The suspension was carried out as a result of a statement from the Indian company Bharat Biotech Limited International, sent to Anvisa on Friday (23/7), Anvisa, the Brazilian health regulator, said on Friday. Precisa Medicamentos was Bharat Biotech’s partner in Brazil, providing assistance, guidance and support with regulatory submissions, licensure, distribution, insurance and conduct of phase III clinical trials, among others. Following the graft allegations, the Brazilian Government has stopped Covaxin’s order temporarily. On July 2, a Supreme Court judge in Brazil had opened a criminal investigation into President Jair Bolsanaro’s role in the deal. The high prices for Covaxin, despite failing to procure a regulatory clearance, brought the focus back on the deal signed between the two. Both Bolsanaro and Bharat Biotech have denied any wrongdoing. Bharat Biotech developed Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Institute of Virology, prompting the Indian Government in showcasing Covaxin as the country’s first indigenously developed vaccine against Covid-19, and also engage in Vaccine Maitri—-helping countries out who did not have the wherewithal to produce vaccines overlooking domestic concerns.
C) Trinamool sends Jawhar Sircar to Rajya Sabha
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) Party has nominated the former CEO of the Prasar Bharati Corporation Jawahar Sircar to Rajya Sabha for the seat vacated by the party’s former leader Dinesh Trivedi. Sircar, an IAS officer, had also served as the Culture Secretary when the Congress-led UPA was in power. The party in a tweet said, We are delighted to nominate Mr. @jawharsircar in the Upper House of the Parliament. Mr. Sircar spent nearly 42 years in public service & was also the former CEO of Prasar Bharati. His invaluable contribution to public service shall help us serve our country even better! Sircar has also been a critic of the BJP Government at the Centre and has never missed an opportunity to criticise the Central Government for its policy failures whether on Twitter or offline in his columns in newspapers. During his tenure as the Prasar Bharati chief, he also famously locked horns with the then Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari. Trivedi had announced his resignation in the middle of the Budget session in February. Trivedi said that he felt suffocated in the party. Reacting to his nomination, Sircar said, I was a bureaucrat. I am not a political person but I would work for the development of the people and raise the issues concerning the masses in parliament, he said. With Sircar’s nomination, the TMC will be also looking forward to having an IAS officer who not only knows the ways of Delhi’s power circle but will also, hopefully, make some meaningful interventions in the House of Elders.
D) Rain bring havoc in Maharashtra
Rains continued to lash across Maharashtra bringing mayhem and destruction in its wake. At the time of writing this newsletter, at least 152 people have lost their lives in landslides and torrential downpour and more than 60,000 people rescued. On Saturday, the national highways connecting Mumbai to Goa and Bangalore were barricaded off for traffic as water gushed on to the roads. The rains are unlikely to loosen their grip over the state with the IMD predicting more rains in the coming days. The worst affected districts are Raigad, Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg in coastal Konkan, Satara and Kolhapur in Western Maharashtra. Vijay Pande is consoled by his relatives as he cries after the body of his 7-month-old boy was recovered at the site of a landslide at Mahad in Maharashtra’s Raigad district on July 24, 2021.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Biden, Ghani question Taliban’s moves.
U.S President Joe Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani have, during a Friday phone call, concluded that the Taliban’s brutal campaign in Afghanistan after the departure of most U.S. and NATO troops is not consistent with the group’s claimed support for a negotiated peace settlement in Afghanistan. President Biden and President Ghani agreed that the Taliban’s current offensive is in direct contradiction to the movement’s claim to support a negotiated settlement of the conflict. President Biden also reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to continue supporting the Afghan security forces to defend themselves, a White House readout of the leaders’ phone call said. The two leaders deplored the loss of innocent lives via targeted killings and the displacement of civilians and the damage to infrastructure and buildings. According to the White House, Mr. Biden reaffirmed continued U.S. support and aid for the country, including for Afghan women, girls and minorities – whose status is extremely precarious given the Taliban’s history of repression of these groups. President Biden urged continued work for unity among Afghan leaders on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the values on which it is based. The two leaders discussed the importance of Afghans coming together to support their common interest in security and peace, and President Biden underscored continued U.S. diplomatic engagement in support of a durable and just political settlement, the readout said. Earlier in July, Mr. Biden had said that it was highly unlikely that there was going to be one unified government controlling the whole of Afghanistan
B) Terrorists behind Baghdad bombing held.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi announced on Saturday the arrest of members of a terror cell behind the Baghdad market bombing that killed dozens and was claimed by the Islamic State group. The attack sparked revulsion and renewed fears about the reach of IS, which lost its last territory in Iraq after a gruelling campaign that ended in late 2017, but retains sleeper cells in remote desert and mountain areas. The bombing took place on Monday at Al-Woheilat market in Sadr City, a Shiite suburb in the capital, and officially killed 30 people, excluding the direct perpetrator. We have arrested all the members of the cowardly terrorist cell that planned and perpetrated the attack, Kadhemi said on Twitter, and they will be put before a judge today. The Prime Minister did not specify the number of people arrested, but a source at the interior ministry said the suspects were anticipated to make televised confessions, a common occurence for major crimes in Iraq. Deadly attacks were common in Baghdad during the sectarian bloodletting that followed the US-led invasion of 2003, and later on as IS swept across much of the country in a lightning offensive in 2014. Iraq declared IS defeated in late 2017 after a fierce three-year campaign and attacks became relatively rare in the capital – until January this year when a twin ISclaimed suicide bombing killed 32 people in another market. The US-led coalition that supported Iraq’s campaign against IS has significantly drawn down its troop levels over the past year, citing increased capabilities of Iraqi forces.
