CURRENT AFFAIRS
13 April 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Expert panel recommends approving Sputnik V vaccine for emergency use in India.
Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V has been recommended for emergency use authorisation in India following a meeting of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Monday. If approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Sputnik-V would be the third vaccine to be made available in India after Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. This vaccine was likely to be cleared for public use within 7-10 days. The recommendation comes amid the recent record surge of fresh COVID-19 cases the highest since the beginning of the pandemic last year. Sputnik V, developed by Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, claims to be one of the three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%. The vaccine’s efficacy is confirmed at 91.6% based on the analysis of data on 19,866 volunteers, who received both the first and second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine or placebo at the final control point of 78 confirmed Covid-19 cases, noted the information released on the vaccine’s official website. It adds that the vaccine supplies for the global market will be produced by Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) international partners in India, Brazil, China, South Korea and other countries. While Dr. Reddy’s will market the vaccine in India, RDIF has tied up with other Indian companies Hetero Biopharma, Gland Pharma, Stelis Biopharma and Virchow Biotech to produce 850 million doses of Sputnik V in the country every year. RDIF jointly with partners and manufacturers is ramping up the production of Sputnik V. The cost of one dose of the vaccine for international markets is less than $10 (Sputnik V is a two-dose vaccine). The (freeze-dried form) of the vaccine can be stored at a temperature of +2 to +8 degrees Celsius, which allows for easy distribution worldwide, including hard-to-reach regions, noted the website.
B) Massive crowds at Kumbh as India records world’s highest tally of daily new infections.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindu devotees flocked on Monday to take a holy bath in the Ganges river, even as the nation racked up the world’s highest tally of new daily coronavirus infections, Reuters reported. With 168,912 new cases, India accounts for one in six of all new infections globally. But today, in Haridwar, nearly a million devotees thronged the banks of the Ganges to participate in the Kumbh Mela’. By mid-morning a million people had taken a dip in the river in what has all the signs of a super-spreader event. Monday’s new infections carried India past Brazil for a tally of 13.53 million, data compiled by Reuters shows, ranking it the second-most infected country after the United States, with 31.2 million. While several states have brought back partial restrictions to break the chain of transmission, thousands of people also attended political rallies today, including two events in West Bengal where Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave campaign speeches.
C) Sitalkuchi deaths: Impose ban on Bengal BJP president, Mamata tells EC; poll body bans her instead.
A war of words over the Sitalkuchi firing continued to rage on Monday. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee assured the voters that she would not spare those responsible for the firing and urged the Election Commission to ban State BJP president Dilip Ghosh. The poll body, however, has banned Banerjee from campaigning for 24 hours, citing highly insinuating and provocative remarks laden with serious potential of the breakdown of law and order as reason for the ban order. Ghosh had on Sunday warned of more Siltakuchi-like incidents if the bad boys of Trinamool Congress do not abide by the law. State BJP president is saying Central forces should open fire. Do they have anything in their heads? Those who speak about opening fire should be banned, the Chief Minister said at a public meeting on Monday. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee also played a recording of Ghosh’s speech at a rally in north Bengal and said several BJP leaders had made statements that the forces should shoot to kill. Five persons had died in two separate incidents of firing at Sitalkuchi on April 10 when polling was underway in the Assembly constituency. At a public meeting during the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi blamed Banerjee for the violence which led to mothers losing their sons in Cooch Behar. The entire thing was planned by Home Minister Amit Shah and the Prime Minister was aware of the situation, Banerjee retorted. Former State BJP president Rahul Sinha, who is contesting polls from Habra in north 24 Parganas, said there was no big issue if eight instead of four people were killed and those killed were terrorists trying to disrupt the polling process.
D) Suo motu PIL on Covid-19 ‘health emergency’ in Gujarat: HC slams State govt.
The Gujarat High Court came down heavily on the State government during the hearing on a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) petition on the worsening Covid-19 situation and asked it to file a detailed affidavit by April 15 on the measures the authorities were taking to control the pandemic. During an online hearing, the Bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath expressed displeasure with certain policies of the State government regarding the tackling of the pandemic amid an increase in cases and deaths and told Advocate General Kamal Trivedi that corrections were required. They are in the third phase. It is so steep and galloping that the government never envisioned it. If you apply for a test, you will get a report after several days. It takes around seven days to get the RT-PCR report, Chief Justice Vikram Nath remarked. In fact, the Chief Justice himself had initiated the fresh suo motu petition on Sunday evening after terming the Covid-19 situation as a health emergency in the State. He constituted a Bench headed by him and listed the matter for urgent hearing on Monday morning. The Bench held that the situation was grim as per the media reports. The court was particularly concerned about the shortage of Remdesivir injections and long queues of kin of patients outside the hospitals to procure injection vials. The Chief Justice asked the Advocate General to ensure that the data of the injection stock was placed before the court before the next hearing on April 15. The Advocate General, during his submission, briefed the court about the steps taken by the government while suggesting that the media reports were overhyping the situation on the ground. After his lengthy submissions seeking to paint a picture of normalcy in the State, the Bench observed, after hearing them, they are mesmerised and feel that they have unnecessarily taken cognisance, but the situation is quite grim.
E) Rafale deal: SC says it will consider listing writ petition after two weeks.
The Supreme Court on Monday said it will consider listing after two weeks a writ petition filed by advocate Manohar Lal Sharma seeking registration of an FIR and an investigation under the Officials Secrets Act into a French media report that France’s anti-corruption agency, Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA), had found that aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation had paid €1 one million to an Indian company in connection with the 2016 Rafale deal. Sharma mentioned the petition, without explicitly referring to the details, before a Bench led by Chief Justice Sharad A. Bobde. The petition has made Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the first respondent, followed by Sushen Mohan Gupta, Defsys Solutions Private Limited, Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited, the Centre and the CBI in that order. The petition urged the apex court to order the registration of an FIR under various offences including cheating, criminal breach of trust, Sections under the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Official Secrets Act. It urged the court to issue appropriate writ direction for cancelling/quashing agreement of September 23, 2016 for the purchase of 36 Rafale jet fighters from Dassault France for being hit by fraud, corruption and offence under the Official Secrets Act and to recover entire advanced money with penalty and to blacklist Dassault. Sharma said the first four respondents should be prosecuted.
F) CBI asks former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to join probe.
The CBI has asked former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh to join the preliminary enquiry on Wednesday in connection with the corruption allegations, said an agency official on Monday. The statement of Assistant Commissioner of Police Sanjay Patil of the Mumbai police was again recorded on Monday, the official said. On Sunday, the agency had examined two personal assistants of Deshmukh, as their names had come up during the probe. The CBI has already recorded the statements of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh, suspended assistant police inspector Sachin Vaze, and a DCP of the Mumbai police, following the Bombay High Court’s directive to conduct the preliminary enquiry.
G) SC dismisses plea to scrap 26 verses from Quran, says it is ‘absolutely frivolous’
The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a writ petition filed by former chief of Uttar Pradesh Shia Central Waqf Board Waseem Rizwi to scrap 26 verses from the Quran, saying they promoted terror. A Bench led by Justice Rohinton Nariman declared the writ petition as absolutely frivolous. The court imposed ₹50,000 as costs on Rizwi. He has to pay the amount to the legal aid services authorities. Do you really want to argue the petition, Justice Nariman asked the lawyer. The latter sought two minutes to present his case. He went on to argue how these verses were used to instill the sparks of Islamic terrorism in children held in captivity in madrasas.
H) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,35,97,831 with the death toll at 1,71,972. With Covid-19 cases on the rise across the country, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has barred airlines from serving in-flight meals for flights shorter than two hours. The order, which comes into effect from April 15, also requires airlines to ensure that passengers seated on adjacent seats are served food in a staggered manner. The passengers would be informed of the above practices for strict compliance before the start of the catering services by way of passenger announcements, the order stated. The Delhi government on Monday declared 14 private hospitals in the city as full COVID-19 hospitals and directed them not to admit any non-COVID patients till further orders. Nineteen private hospitals have been directed to reserve at least 80% of their ICU beds for coronavirus-related treatment. Eighty-two private hospitals have been asked to set aside at least 60% of their ICU beds for Covid-19patients, according to the order issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) ‘Britain opens official probe into ex-PM’s lobbying efforts’
Britain has launched an official independent probe into former Prime Minister David Cameron’s efforts to lobby Ministers on behalf of financer Lex Greensill, The Sun newspaper and the BBC reported. The probe is likely to be independent and carried out on behalf of the Cabinet Office, the BBC said. While Mr. Cameron was British Prime Minister from 2010 to 2016, the Australian banker Greensill was brought in to work with the government to improve efficiency. After leaving office, Mr. Cameron in turn became an adviser to Greensill’s now-insolvent finance firm. The Financial Times and Sunday Times newspapers have reported that Mr. Cameron contacted Ministers directly to lobby on behalf of Greensill Capital, including sending texts to Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and arranging a private drink between Greensill and Health Secretary Matt Hancock. In his first comments on the row on Sunday. Mr. Cameron said that in his representations to government he was breaking no codes of conduct and no government rules.
B) Iran blames Israel for nuclear plant outage, pledges revenge.
Iran blamed Israel on Monday for a sabotage attack on its underground Natanz nuclear facility that damaged its centrifuges and vowed it would take revenge. Israel has not claimed responsibility for the attack. It rarely does for operations carried out by its secret military units or its Mossad intelligence agency. However, Israeli media widely reported that the country had orchestrated a devastating cyber attack that caused a blackout at the nuclear facility. While the extent of the damage at Natanz remains unclear, a former Iranian official said the assault set off a fire while a spokesman mentioned a possible minor explosion. The attack also further strains relations the U.S. which under president Joe Biden is now negotiating in Vienna to re-enter the nuclear accord, and Israel. whose prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to Stop the deal at all costs. His policy as Prime Minister of Israel clear. He will never allow Iran to obtain the nuclear capability to carry out its genocidal goal of eliminating Israel, Mr. Netanyahu said.
