CURRENT AFFAIRS
18 October 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Draw on experience of holding massive elections to plan speedy delivery of vaccine, says PM.
Emphasizing that every step in the logistics, delivery and administration of Covid-19 vaccine must be put in place rigorously, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that this must include advance planning of cold storage chains, distribution network, monitoring mechanisms, and thorough assessment and preparation of ancillary equipment such as vials and syringes, said a release issued by the Central government on 17 October. The PM has reviewed the pandemic situation and the preparedness of vaccine delivery, distribution and administration at a meeting attended by Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and officials. At the meeting, he stressed that in view of the geographical spread and diversity of the country, speedy access to the vaccine is critical. The PM further directed that India should draw on the experience of successful conduct of elections and disaster management.
B) Mumbai court orders probe into complaint against Kangana, sister.
A magistrate’s court in Mumbai has asked the police to investigate a complaint against Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut and her sister Rangoli Chandel for allegedly trying to create tension between communities through their tweets. Bandra metropolitan magistrate Jaydeo Y. Ghule passed the order on Friday after casting director Sahil Ashrafali Sayyed lodged the complaint seeking registration of an FIR under IPC sections 153A (promoting enmity), 295A (malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings), 124A (sedition) against the actor and her sister, his lawyer Ravish Zamindar said. In his complaint, Sayyed said that Ms. Ranaut’s tweets are creating divisions between Hindu Artistes and Muslim Artistes. She is maliciously bringing religion in almost all her tweets. He also said that she has gone to such an extent that she has also blamed Jamaatis for spreading coronavirus etc. thereby trying to create hatred and communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims deliberately as she is well aware that she is a well known actress and has a big fan base so her tweets will be seen and will reach out to many people.
C) 76% of rural Indians can’t afford a nutritious diet: Study.
3 out of 4 rural Indians cannot afford a nutritious diet, according to a paper recently published in the journal Food Policy. Even if they spent their entire income on food, almost 2 out of three of them would not have the money to pay for the cheapest possible diet that meets the requirements set by the government’s premier nutrition body, it says. The paper, titled affordability of nutritious diets in rural India is authored by International Food Policy Research Institute economist Kalyani Raghunathan and others, and uses the latest available food price and wage information from the National Sample Survey’s 2011 dataset. According to the study, even if they spent all their income on food, 63.3% of the rural population, or more than 52 crore Indians, would not be able to afford a nutritious meal. If they set aside just a third of their income for non-food expenses, 76% of rural Indians would not be able to afford it. This does not even account for the meals of non-earning members of a household, such as children or older adults. These numbers are somewhat speculative, but they do reveal the scale of the dietary affordability problem in rural India: nutritious diets are too expensive, and incomes far too low. The National Institute for Nutrition’s guidelines for a nutritionally adequate diet call for adult women to eat 330 gm of cereals and 75 gm of pulses a day, along with 300 gm of dairy, 100 gm of fruit, and 300 gm of vegetables, which should include at least 100 gm of dark green leafy vegetables.
D) Dr. Reddy’s, RDIF get DCGI nod for Sputnik V clinical trial.
Pharma major Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Russia’s sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) have received approval from the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to conduct an adaptive phase 2/3 human clinical trial for Sputnik V vaccine in the country. This will be a multi-centre and randomized controlled study, which will include safety and immunogenicity study. Developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, Russia, Sputnik V vaccine is the world’s first registered vaccine against Covid-19 and is based on the human adenoviral vectors platform. The vaccine was registered by Russia’s Health Ministry in August. The DCGI approval is a significant development that allows us to commence the clinical trial in India, Dr. Reddy’s Co-chairman and Managing Director G V Prasad said. RDIF CEO Kirill Dmitriev said that they are pleased to collaborate with the Indian regulators and in addition to Indian clinical trial data, they will provide safety and immunogenicity study from the Russian phase 3 clinical trial. This data will further strengthen the clinical development of Sputnik V vaccine in India.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Jacinda Ardern wins landslide re-election in New Zealand vote.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s centre-left Labour Party has won a landslide victory in New Zealand’s general election on 17 October as voters rewarded her for a decisive response to Covid-19. The mandate means that Ardern, 40, could form the first single-party government in decades, and face the challenge of delivering on the progressive transformation she promised but failed to deliver in her first term, where Labour shared power with a nationalist party. New Zealand has shown the Labour Party its greatest support in almost 50 years. Labour had 49.0% of the votes, far ahead of National at 27%, the Electoral Commission said, with 77% of ballots counted in an election that was largely a referendum on Ardern’s aggressive handling of Covid-19. This is a historic shift, said the political commentator Bryce Edwards of Victoria University in Wellington, describing the vote as one of the biggest swings in New Zealand’s electoral history in 80 years.
B) U.K., EU set to discuss ‘structure’ of Brexit talks.
European and British negotiators will be in touch Monday to discuss the structure of post-Brexit trade talks, despite London’s threat on 17 October to walk away unless there was a major shift in Brussels’ approach. An EU spokesman tweeted that chief negotiator Michel Barnier held video talks with his British counterpart David Frost on 17 October after the results of European Summit provoked an angry response in London. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there was no point in holding any more talks without a dramatic softening of the EU’s position, bringing a step closer the possibility that the planned divorce at the end of the year will end acrimoniously. Mr. Johnson said that the summit outcome had ruled out a comprehensive, Canada-style free trade agreement between the EU and Britain.
C) Trump appeals to GOP base as polls slide.
President Donald Trump fought on 17 October to recover from sinking election polls by campaigning with a hardline pitch to America’s right wing, claiming at rallies in Florida and Georgia that his Democratic opponent Joe Biden would deliver communism and a flood of criminal immigrants. While Mr. Trump put on a brave face, the fact that he was fighting for the 2 southern States he won four years ago illustrated how much ground he has to make up against Mr. Biden in the 18 days left until the election. With his polls sliding and U.S. COVID-19 infections spiking, Mr. Trump is focusing entirely on his core Republican base, in hopes that highly energised supporters will turn out in huge numbers. In Ocala, Florida, the coronavirus was an afterthought. Instead, Mr. Trump tossed the large, loudly cheering crowd red meat on immigration, race, and his conspiracy theory that Mr. Biden is steeped in corruption. Spicing his stump speech with lurid exaggerations, Mr. Trump claimed that the Biden family is a criminal enterprise. He said Democrats have nothing but disdain for your values and want to turn America into a communist country, a reprise of his successful 2016 message tapping into white, working-class resentment.
