CURRENT AFFAIRS
14 May 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Experts point to contradiction in Indias push for IPR waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.
Public health advocates and intellectual property rights experts point to a contradiction in Indias global push for suspension of intellectual property protection with its stand in the Supreme Court that bringing Covid-19 vaccines under a statutory regime will be counter-productive at this stage. India, along with South Africa, had initiated a proposal for the temporary waiver of certain provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) to facilitate fair, affordable and universal access to Covid-19 vaccines and medicines, especially for developing countries. The October 2020 communication to the TRIPS Council of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) referred to several reports about intellectual property rights hindering or potentially hindering timely provisioning of affordable medical products to patients. The two countries had highlighted that some WTO Members had carried out urgent legal amendments to their national patent laws to expedite the process of issuing compulsory/government use licences. Internationally, there is an urgent call for global solidarity, and the unhindered global sharing of technology and know-how in order that rapid responses for the handling of COVID-19 can be put in place on a real-time basis, they stressed in October last year. The United States has recently conveyed its support for an intellectual property waiver for Covid-19 vaccines. However, experts point to an affidavit filed by the Centre in the Supreme Court on May 9, 2021, which shows the government taking a different stand in favour of protection of intellectual property rights. Any exercise of statutory powers either under the Patents Act, 1970 read with TRIPS Agreement and Doha Declaration or in any other way can only prove to be counter-productive at this stage, the Centre has said in the affidavit. The government assures that it is very actively engaging itself with global organisations at a diplomatic level to find out a solution in the best possible interest of India.
B) Overseas Citizens of India, stung by Home Ministry notification, plan to take battle to Supreme Court.
The Home Ministrys March 4 order that required professional Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) such as journalists, engineers and researchers to notify the Ministry about their activities in India has left them in the lurch. A portal that was to come up for the purpose is not operational yet. A Ministry official said it was delayed as several officials in the Ministrys foreigners division tested positive for Covid-19 in the past month. A director rank official, A. Radharani, succumbed to the virus last week. The official said the OCIs could intimate the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) through e-mail till the portal is activated. Rajanna Sreedhara, president of Association of Resident OCI and Families (AROCIF), said that they were planning to challenge the Ministrys notification in the Supreme Court as they believed it was discriminatory. On March 4, the Ministry issued a gazette notification that OCI cardholders could claim only NRI (Non-Resident Indian) quota seats in educational institutions. It specified that OCIs could only pursue the following professions doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists, advocates, architects and chartered accountants, the rest would require special permission. OCIs are of Indian origin but hold foreign passports. India does not allow dual citizenship but provides certain benefits under Section 7B(I) of the Citizenship Act, 1955 to the OCIs. So far, 37.72 lakh OCI Cards are said to have been issued. The notification said that OCIs shall be required to obtain a special permission or a special permit from the competent authority or the FRRO or the Indian mission to undertake research, missionary or Tabligh or mountaineering or journalistic activities or internship in any foreign diplomatic missions. The notification does not mention IT professionals, a large number of OCIs are engineers; so will they have to apply for employment visa? It says permission required to conduct research…this will place undue burden on scientific, pharmaceutical, medical, biotechnology and other research fields, Sreedhara said.
C) Doctors in rural Unnao resign en masse, alleging harassment by administration over Covid-19 work.
More than a dozen doctors posted in rural hospitals in the Unnao district of Uttar Pradesh collectively resigned, alleging harassment and misbehaviour by administrative officials. Sixteen doctors, posted at community health centres and primary health centres submitted their resignation letters to the chief medical officer (CMO) of the district on Wednesday. Speaking to the media, one of them said that while their teams would work on the field from noon to 4-5 p.m., isolating Covid-19 positive cases in their home, distributing medicine and carrying out sampling, the local SDM would summon them after that seeking a report of their work. The doctors would have to drive back several km to the tehsil from their place of work just to prove that they are working, said the doctor. Despite continuously working, it has been made to appear like we are not working and that due to this, the Covid-19 situation is going out of control, he said. The doctors also alleged that they were not provided sufficient drug supply from the government and often faced verbal harassment at the hands of the CMO and the CMS. If the field teams were unable to trace down patients because of submission of wrong phone numbers and addresses, they should not be held responsible for it, said the doctors.
D) India resists community transmission tag despite soaring cases.
Despite adding the highest number of cases in the world every day, India continues to label itself as a country with no community transmission (CT), opting instead for the lower, less serious classification called cluster of cases, according to the latest weekly report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on May 11. Countries such as the United States, Brazil, United Kingdom, France and a perusal of the list of over 190 countries suggest the majority have all labelled themselves as being in community transmission. Among the 10 countries with the most number of confirmed cases, only Italy and Russia do not label themselves as being in community transmission. Both countries have been on a declining trajectory for at least a month and together contribute less than 20,000 cases a day about 5% of Indias daily numbers. India, since the beginning of the pandemic has never marked itself as being in community transition. Broadly, CT is when new cases in the last 14 days cant be traced to those who have an international travel history, when cases cant be linked to specific cluster.
E) Priyanka Gandhi demands judicial probe into bodies in Ganga.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday said the situation in Uttar Pradesh is inhuman and criminal and demanded a judicial probe headed by a High Court judge into the several instances of bodies found floating in the Ganga in many parts of the State. What is happening in U.P. is inhuman and criminal. The government is busy image-building while people are suffering unimaginably. There must be an immediate judicial enquiry headed by a High Court judge into these events, tweeted Vadra, who is the Congress general secretary in-charge of U.P. The Unnao district authorities meanwhile ordered an inquiry over fresh reports of bodies being found buried on the banks of the Ganga in the Bighapur Patan tehsil area. There were also reports of bodies floating in the river in Ballia and other places of U.P. and Bihar. Bodies are floating in the Ganga in Ballia and Ghazipur. Reports are coming in of mass burials on the banks of the river in Unnao. Official numbers from cities like Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Jhansi and Kanpur appear to be grossly under-reported, the Congress leader said in another tweet.
F) Put FCRA on hold to ease relief flow, Nasscom plea to PM.
India’s IT industry body Nasscom has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to grant emergency use authorisation for all WHO-approved vaccines in view of domestic vaccine shortages, and temporarily relax stringent Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) norms to ease the flow of overseas COVID-19 relief into the country. Newscom’s missive to the PM listed three critical asks to enable industry to act faster to help the country navigate the second wave. Many countries and global companies are providing aid to India and are helping the healthcare infrastructure deal with the surge. However, the amended provisions of the FCRA Act 2020 are proving to be a deterrent, the letter to the PM said. On May 3, the government permitted imports without GST levies for pandemic relief material donated from abroad for free distribution in the country, delegating States to certify the entities that will receive such imports. However, no exemption has been granted from the FCRA norms that require domestic entities receiving foreign aid to get an approval from the Ministry of Home Affairs. Given the humanitarian crisis, we would request the government to grant a temporary waiver to the FCRA Act and the 2020 amendments. This will enable NGOs to transfer funds between FCRA-approved NGOs and non-FCRA approved NGOs, it said. The amendments flagged by Nasscom prohibit entities receiving foreign contributions from transferring those to any other person, so even entities registered under the FCRA for providing healthcare support, are unable to pass on the relief material to patients or smaller NGOs.
G) PM Modi is missing along with vaccines and oxygen, tweets Rahul Gandhi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also missing along with vaccine, oxygen and medicines, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday. In a tweet, Gandhi said, Prime Minister is also missing along with vaccine, oxygen and medicines. Among the things that remains include the Central Vista, goods and services tax (GST) on medicines, and photographs of the Prime Minister here and there, the Congress leader tweeted. Several Congress leaders also countered the government on vaccine shortage after Urban Development Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had blamed Congress leaders for raising doubts about Bharat Biotechs Covaxin being given approval without the phase three clinical trial data. Where is the Vaccine ? NDA/BJP Ministers are desperately trying to deflect attention from their Criminal mishandling of Pandemic by Goebbelinaly (sic) blaming opposition for fuelling vaccine hesitancy. FOCUS ON DOING SOME WORK FOR A CHANGE, Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari tweeted by tagging a news report about 100 vaccination centres in Delhi closing down owing to a vaccine shortage. His colleague, Shashi Tharoor, who was specifically named by Puri in a tweet, asked if the vaccine shortage in the country was because of his tweet. Let me keep it simple: 1. Is the vaccine shortage because of Congress tweets? 2. Did GOI fail to order enough vaccines because of my tweets? 3. Is differential pricing in May the result of my pointing out on Jan 3 that that Phase 3 trials of Covaxin were not complete @HardeepSPuri, asked Tharoor.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Riyadh frees Bin Laden patriarch.
Saudi Arabia has released construction magnate Bakr bin Laden, more than three years after his detention in a purge of the kingdoms elite that upended his vast business empire, sources told AFP. The former chairman of the Bin Laden Group, Saudi biggest construction company, was reunited last week with his family in the Red Sea city of Jeddah after being freed from an undisclosed detention site, two people close to his family said. Mr. Bakr, 70, a half-brother of the late Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was not reachable for Mr. Bakr and two other siblings, Saad and Saleh, were snared in a November 2017 purge that saw hundreds of royals, tycoons and Ministers locked up for months in Riyadhs Ritz-Carlton hotel, then widely dubbed a fivestar prison. The unprecedented crackdown, which rattled private investors just as the kingdom sought to lure capital to help diversify the economy, was described by the government as an anti-corruption measure.
B) Mohamed Nasheed flown to Germany for treatment.
Maldivian leader Mohamed Nasheed was on Thursday flown to Germany for treatment, a week after surviving an assassination attempt in capital Male that left him critically injured. Following the May 6 terror attack, as Maldives police described the bomb explosion, doctors in a Male hospital performed complex surgeries on the Parliamentary Speaker and former President, to remove shrapnel from his liver, lungs and abdomen. He was discharged from hospital on Thursday, and medically evacuated to Germany with high security, local media reported. In the first tweet from his account since the explosion, Mr. Nasheed said in the local Dhivehi language: A special thanks to the health sector of the Maldives. By the grace of Allah, I will stay the course to deliver good governance that you all seek. Eid Mubarak to everyone! Linking the blast to religious extremists, the police arrested three persons allegedly involved in the deliberate act of terror. The Maldivess Parliamentary Committee on National Security Services is probing the security breach that led to the attack on the former President. In a statement condemning the attempted assassination, South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR), a regional network of human rights defenders, said the incident evoked popular unresolved murders and disappearances in past linked to extremist groups, such as the murder of blogger Yameen Rasheed in 2017, and MP Afrasheem Ali in 2012, and the 2014 disappearance [subsequently declared murder] of journalist Ahmed Rilwan Abdulla. The network urged President Ibrahim Mohamed Solihs government to probe the incidents and bring perpetrators to justice. Ahmed Shaheed, United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, who formerly served as Foreign Minister of the Maldives, said it is important to carefully conceptualise the May 6 attack.
