CURRENT AFFAIRS
31 December 2020
NATIONAL NEWS:
A) Union Ministers meet farmer groups to break deadlock over agri laws.
The government and farm unions reached some common ground on December 30 to resolve protesting farmers’ concerns over rise in power tariff and penalties for stubble burning, but the two sides remained deadlocked over the main contentious issues of the repeal of three farm laws and a legal guarantee for MSP. After nearly five hours of the sixth round of negotiations between three Union Ministers and a 41-member representative group of thousands farmers protesting on Delhi borders, Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said at least 50% resolution has been reached with mutual agreement on two out of four items on the agenda and discussions would continue on the remaining two on January 4. Discussions on the three farm laws and MSP are continuing and will continue in the next round of talks on January 4, Mr. Tomar told reporters after the meeting. He said talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and the two sides reached an agreement on two issues one relating to the proposed electricity law and the other about an ordinance on penal provisions for stubble burning.
B) Farmers don’t trust PM Modi, says Rahul Gandhi.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that farmers do not trust Prime Minister Narendra Modi due to his long history of ‘asatyagraha’ and shared an online survey asking people why the PM was not repealing the farm laws. 15 lakh in every bank account and 2 crore jobs every year’, ‘Give me 50 days time, else, they will win war against corona in 21 days’, ‘Neither has anyone intruded into their territory nor took over any post’. Farmers don’t trust Modi ji due to his long history of ‘asatyagraha’, he tweeted. The former Congress president also shared an online survey with the statement, Mr. Modi is refusing to repeal the anti-farmer laws because he is and gave four options: “anti-farmer”, “run by crony capitalists”, “arrogant” and “all of the above”. At the time of publishing this newsletter, the survey had garnered 74,000 votes, with 69.6% picking all of the above. Gandhi is currently abroad visiting an ailing relative and also meeting his maternal grandmother. The Congress has been demanding a repeal of the three farm laws.
C) BJP inducts Shaheen Bagh shooter, expels him soon after.
In a dramatic turn of events, Kapil Gujjar, who fired shots in the air in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh in February amidst the nationwide anti-Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) protests, joined the BJP on Wednesday at the party’s Ghaziabad office. But hours later his membership was revoked. Sanjeev Sharma, district president of the BJP, told that he didn’t have information about Gujjar’s past. He came with supporters to join the party. They didn’t know about his criminal antecedents. As soon as they realised, they cancelled his membership, said Sharma, who could be seen draping Gujjar with a saffron stole in photographs. In the videos of February 1, Gujjar could be heard saying, in our country, only Hindus will prevail, none else. He fired two-three shots in the air before being nabbed by the police. He was released on bail. After joining the party, Gujjar told reporters that the BJP was working to strengthen Hindutva and that’s why he had joined the party. Interestingly, when the videos emerged in February, the BJP had said his family had links with the Aam Aadmi Party.
D) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.
The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 1,02,61,399 with the death toll at 1,48,721. A total of 20 persons have been found with the mutant variant of the SARS- CoV-2 virus reported in the United Kingdom, the Health Ministry confirmed on Wednesday. In all, 107 samples were tested in 10 labs. Meanwhile, the suspension on flights to and from the U.K. has been extended till Jan 7, 2021, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri said on Twitter. Thereafter strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly, he added. The ban on scheduled international flights, which came into effect in March and was supposed to end on December 31, has been extended till January 31, 2021. However, limited international flights under the ‘travel bubble’ arrangement will continue.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
A) In positive news for India, U.K. approves Oxford vaccine for ‘emergency use’
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency supply in the United Kingdom, with the first doses being released on Wednesday, the company said in a statement. The ‘emergency use authorisation (EUA)’ is for the active immunisation of individuals 18 years or older, and recommends two doses with an interval of between four and 12 weeks. This regimen was shown in clinical trials to be safe and effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 14 days after the second dose, the statement noted. The authorisation in the U.K. is significant for India, as the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has tied up with AstraZeneca to deploy the vaccine in India. India’s drug regulators, on December 9, asked the SII to furnish more evidence of the vaccine’s efficacy after the company applied for a EUA in India. A EUA allows an organisation to launch a vaccine without putting it through the full range of tests that a new untested vaccine must usually go through. A scientist connected to the approval process of new vaccines told The Hindu that the committee is expected to deliberate on the SII’s application on Wednesday and review the data on the basis of which the EUA was granted in the U.K. A nod from the regulators in the U.K. or the U.S. works very favourably for the SII, the scientist said. Were Indian regulators to approve, at least 50 million doses of the vaccine would be available to Indians and would go some way to aid the nearly 300 million priority individuals healthcare workers, police personnel, those with co-morbid disease conditions who are expected to be inoculated in the first half of the 2021. Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the ‘Oxford vaccine’ doesn’t require sub-zero refrigeration and is reportedly more suitable for distribution in India. AstraZeneca aims to supply millions of doses in the first quarter as part of an agreement with the government to supply up to 100 million doses in total.
B) U.S. nurse contracts Covid-19 more than a week after taking Pfizer vaccine.
A nurse in California tested positive for Covid-19 more than a week after receiving Pfizer Inc’s vaccine, Reuters reported, citing a story by an ABC News affiliate. A medical expert has opined that the body needed more time to build up protection using the vaccine. Matthew W., 45, a nurse at two different local hospitals, had said in a Facebook post on December 18 that he had received the Pfizer vaccine, and his arm was sore for a day but there were no other side-effects. But six days later, on Christmas Eve, he became sick after working a shift in the Covid-19 unit. He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue. He went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for Covid-19 the day after Christmas, the ABC affiliate’s report said. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist, said that this scenario was not unexpected. They know from the vaccine clinical trials that it’s going to take about 10 to 14 days for them to start developing protection from the vaccine, Ramers said. That first dose gives them somewhere around 50%, and they need that second dose to get up to 95%, Ramers added.
