CURRENT AFFAIRS
24 May 2021
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) India to push for Covaxin recognition by WHO and EU.
India is interested in ensuring that Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin gets the endorsements from the World Health Organisation without delay. Sources informed that top diplomats of the Ministry of External Affairs are studying the matter to ensure recognition from WHO and EU for the indigenous vaccine which is one of the doses chosen by the Government of India. Ministry sources however did not confirm that Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla will meet officials of Bharat Biotech on Monday but emphasised that they are focused on ensuring clearance from WHO for Covaxin. There is certainly an interest in getting Covaxin on WHO’s Emergency Use List, said an official familiar with the matter. WHO has recognised several vaccines from the makers like Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna which enables the vaccine makers to export the doses worldwide. That apart, recipients of the vaccines are also enabled to carry out international air travel. Covaxin has been delivered to a large number of Indian citizens and is expected to be delivered to a greater number of Indian citizens in the coming days. WHO has also cleared China’s Sinopharm vaccine that China has been exporting to various countries across the world. But without the necessary WHO endorsement, the Indian vaccine’s recipients may not be considered for air travel abroad. The source also informed that a separate process to get endorsement from the European Union may take longer but that is also on the cards. The double recognition will help scientific research and collaboration between the Indian and foreign vaccine producers as well as help citizens to travel smoothly. Bharat Biotech, maker of Covaxin has signed agreements with pharmaceutical companies from Brazil and the U.S. where the vaccine will be either co-produced or exported but the absence of endorsement from WHO and other multilateral bodies is creating difficulties for the vaccine.
B) Moderna refuses to sell vaccines directly to Punjab.
Punjab government on Sunday said that COVID vaccine manufacturer Moderna has refused to send vaccines directly to the State government as according to their policy, they only deal with Government of India and not with any State government or private parties. Punjab’s nodal officer for vaccination Vikas Garg said that all vaccine manufacturers were approached for direct purchase of various COVID vaccines, including Sputnik V, Pfizer, Modern, and Johnson & Johnson, as per the directions of Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh to explore possibilities of floating a global tender for the procurement of vaccines from all possible sources to ensure early inoculation in the State. In a statement Mr. Garg said that reply was received from Moderna only in which the company refused to deal with State government. The statement added the State government was forced to stop vaccination for Phase I and Phase 2 categories in the last three days because of vaccines non-availability. All efforts would be made for procurement of vaccines to meet the acute shortage in the State, which had received fewer than 44 lakh vaccine doses so far from the Government of India, he said. As per government of India allocation for Phase III (18-44 age group), the State government has been able to buy only 4.2 lakh vaccine doses, including 66,000 received yesterday. A total of 3.65 lakh have already been used, leaving only 64,000 for use as of now, said Mr. Garg.
C) Centre wants to hold Class 12 exams with fewer subjects and reduced duration.
A broad decision has been taken that Class 12 board examinations must be held, but with fewer subjects, and a possible reduction in duration and staggered schedules, according to senior officials who attended Sunday’s online consultation of State and Central Ministers. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who chaired the meeting, has given States three more days to discuss their options before a final decision is taken, asking them to respond in writing by Tuesday. A vocal section of parents and students have been demanding that the exams be cancelled, due to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Centre recommended that examinations only be held in about 20 major subjects. It offered two options, one to hold the regular three hour examinations, or to halve the duration of the examination using a question paper with only multiple choice or short answer questions, officials said. Delhi and Maharashtra representatives wanted vaccination of students and teachers to be done before the exams are held. Maharashtra’s Education Minister also said further consultations would be held by the State Chief Minister before coming to a position. Several States wished for the option to delay their examinations by several months, if needed. Kerala and Bihar have already held their State board examinations. Chhattisgarh has announced an open book examination to start on June 1, but Central officials warned that the validity of the results may not be accepted by universities. With regard to professional entrance examinations such as NEET and JEE, the Centre is prepared to hold them as late as September, as was done last year, in order to give time for Class 12 exams to be completed, according to a senior official.
D) Opposition backs farmers’ protests on May 26.
Twelve Opposition parties on Sunday issued a statement in support of the Samyukta Kisan Morcha’s (SKM) call for a national protest on May 26 to mark six months of the farmers’ protest began. We demand the immediate repeal of the farm laws and the legal entitlement to the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of C2+50 per cent as recommended by the Swaminathan Commission. The Central government must stop being obdurate and immediately resume talks with the SKM on these lines, the statement read. The statement was signed by party leaders Sonia Gandhi (Congress), H.D. Deve Gowda (Janata Dal-Secular), Sharad Pawar (Nationalist Congress Party), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Uddhav Thackeray (Shiv Sena), M.K. Stalin (DMK), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha), Farooq Abdullah (Jammu and Kashmir National Conference), Akhilesh Yadav (Samajwadi Party), Tejaswi Yadav (Rashtriya Janata Dal), D. Raja (Communist Party of India) and Sitaram Yechury (CPI-Marxist). The leaders reiterated what they had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on May 12: Repeal farm laws to protect lakhs of our annadatas becoming victims of the pandemic so that they can continue to produce food to feed the Indian people.
E) Anxiety, depression top concerns on govt. helpline amid second wave.
Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress have been among the most common problems reported by callers to the Social Justice Ministry’s mental health helpline, with many States seeing an increase in calls during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to officials. According to the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) data, a total of 26,047 calls were received by the KIRAN helpline till April 30 from September 16, 2020. While the number of calls overall saw a decrease from March (3,617) to April (3,371), there was an increase in some States, including Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Haryana, where the number of calls more than doubled from 73 in March to 170 in April. A senior official from one of the regional centres of the helpline, who wished not to be named, said most of the callers in the past month had raised concerns regarding the second wave of the pandemic after being diagnosed with COVID-19. The official added that the increase in calls could be partially due to the helpline being promoted as a COVID-19-related mental health resource during the second wave in the region. While most callers had concerns regarding the COVID-19 situation, some also enquired about vaccination and emergency services, the official said. The helpline — 1800-599-0019 — was launched by the Social Justice Ministry on September 7, 2020 as a mental health rehabilitation service. Callers are counselled first and are connected with psychiatrists and other experts depending on the need. The majority of the callers had been men and in the age-group of 15 to 40 years, the Ministry’s report on its functioning from September 16, 2020 to January 15, 2021 had said.
F) Health Minister asks Baba Ramdev to rescind statement on allopathic medicines.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has asked yoga guru Ramdev, the face of one of India’s biggest consumer goods and alternative medicine empires, to rescind remarks in which he ostensibly said more people died of modern medical treatments during the COVID-19 crisis than the coronavirus itself. The people of the country are very hurt with your remark on allopathic medicines. I have already told about this feeling over phone. Doctors and health workers are like gods for the people of the country for whom they are fighting against the coronavirus risking their lives, Dr Vardhan said in a two-page letter written in Hindi. You have not only insulted Corona warriors, but have hurt the feelings of the people of the country. Your clarification yesterday is not enough to make up for it… I hope you will think hard on it and withdraw your statements completely, he added. Ramdev had drawn outrage and a legal notice from the Indian Medical Association (IMA), demanding a written apology for the statement that it said damaged the reputation of practitioners of allopathy and modern medicine when they are striving to save lives during the pandemic. In a video that was widely shared on social media, Ramdev was heard saying at a recent event, Lakhs of people have died because of allopathic medicines, far more than those who died because they did not get treatment or oxygen. He also purportedly called allopathy a stupid and bankrupt science.
G) India challenges international arbitration award to Cairn Energy.
India has challenged an international arbitration tribunal asking it to return $1.2 billion to UK’s Cairn Energy Plc on grounds that it had never agreed to arbitrate over a national tax dispute, the finance ministry said today. In a statement, the ministry also refuted reports that the government has purportedly asked state-owned banks to withdraw funds from foreign currency accounts abroad in anticipation of the potential seizure of such accounts. While the government appointed a judge on the three-member arbitration panel and fully participated in the proceedings against India seeking ₹ 10,247 crore in back taxes from Cairn, the ministry said the tribunal improperly exercised jurisdiction over a national tax dispute that the Republic of India never offered and/or agreed to arbitrate. India had seized and sold shares of Cairn in its erstwhile India unit, confiscated dividend due and withheld tax refunds to recover the tax demand it had levied two years after passing a law in 2012 that gave it powers to levy tax retrospectively. In December last year, Cairn won an award that held the levy of taxes using the 2012 law unfair on the company and the tribunal asked the Indian government to return $1.2 billion plus cost and interest.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) Minor face-off with Chinese troops in Galwan Valley.
There was a minor face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in the no-patrolling zone at Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh in the first week of May, a senior government official told The Hindu. However, no clash occurred and the two sides disengaged quickly. A no-patrolling zone extending to around 3 kilometre, around 1.5 km each, on either side of the clash site near the Y-junction of the Galwan Valley, was created after the June 15, 2020 incident when 20 Indian army personnel were killed in violent clashes with the Chinese. A 30-day moratorium was also applied on foot-patrolling then. It was not known if it has been extended. After the no-patrolling zones were created last year, the two sides occasionally conduct reconnaissance to see if the other side has crossed the line. The patrols are sent at different times. On the particular day, the Indian and Chinese patrols reached the area at the same time, a minor face-off happened but they returned quickly, said the official. The official added that China still has camps beyond the no-patrolling zone and there has not been any reduction in troop deployment since last year. The official explained that both sides send periodical patrols out of suspicion. It may be recalled, that prior to April-May 2020, when China amassed troops at the particular location in Galwan, claiming it to be Chinese territory, Indian troops regularly patrolled the area that is said to be within India’s perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC). Earlier, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) used to patrol and leave, but since April-May 2020 it made a permanent presence within 600-800 metres of India’s perception of the LAC. On February 11, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha that India and China have reached an agreement for disengagement in the Pangong Lake area to cease their forward deployments in a phased, coordinated and verified manner, which would substantially restore the pre-April 2020. Since April 2020, Chinese troops blocked Indian troops from reaching at least 10 patrolling points (PPs) running from Depsang plains in the north to Pangong Tso (lake) in the south in Eastern Ladakh. In all, there are more than 65 PPs from the base of Karakoram to Chumar. India and China have held 11 round of talks so far after the clashes last year. While the troops partially disengaged on the north and south banks of Pangong Tso, phased disengagement is yet to take place at the other friction areas in Eastern Ladakh Gogra, Hot Springs, Depsang and Demchok.
B) Israeli police allow Jews to visit flashpoint Jerusalem site.
Israeli police escorted more than 250 Jewish visitors on Sunday to a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem where clashes between police and Palestinian protesters helped trigger a war in Gaza, according to the Islamic authority overseeing the site. The II-day conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers came to a fragile halt on Friday, but left behind immense ruin in Gaza, including hundreds of homes in that have been completely destroyed and many more that were badly damaged, according to the UN. With tensions still high, police cleared young Palestinians out of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and barred entry to Muslims under the age of 45, according to the Islamic Waqf, which oversees the site. Muslims who entered were required to leave their IDs with police at the entrance. It said six Palestinians were detained, with four later released. Israeli police denied there was any age restriction and said they arrested five people who violated the public order. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the site was open for regular visits and that police had secured the area. The visits later ended without any further incident. Israeli police had briefly clashed with Palestinian protesters after Friday prayers in an early test for the truce, which had taken effect hours earlier. The ceasefire in Gaza has held, but violence in Jerusalem could set off another cycle of escalation. The Waqf said on Sunday was the first time Jews had been allowed to visit the site since May 4, a week before the war broke out. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam. It sits on a sprawling hilltop in Jerusalem’s Old City that is revered by Jews as their holiest site because it was the location of the biblical temples. The site has often been the scene of Israeli-Palestinian violence over the years.
