Tag: gkindia

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.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
13 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Opposition parties urge Modi to start free, universal vaccination.

In a joint letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 12 Opposition parties have urged the government to immediately begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country as the Covid-19 pandemic has assumed unprecedented dimensions of a human catastrophe. This is the second joint letter by the opposition parties in less than ten days to the government. In an earlier letter on May 3, the parties had asked the government to ensure uninterrupted supply of medical oxygen and free vaccinations. The signatories of the letter include Chief Ministers Mamata Banerjee, M K Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray and Hemant Soren. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, JD(S) leader H D Deve Gowda, NCP patriarch Sharad Pawar, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference leader Dr. Farooq Abdullah, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, CPI general secretary D Raja and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury are the other signatories. The parties complained that all their previous attempts to draw the government’s attention, both independently and jointly, had come to naught. Without going into all the acts of commission and omission by the Central government that have brought the country to such a tragic pass, we are of the firm opinion that the following measures must be undertaken on a war footing by your government, they said. The government should procure vaccines centrally from all available sources global and domestic. Immediately begin a free, universal mass vaccination campaign across the country. Invoke compulsory licensing to expand domestic vaccine production, they noted. The budgetary allocation of Rs 35,000 crore for vaccines should be immediately spent, the parties said. As of now, only close to Rs. 5,000 crore had been spent.

B) Covid-19 catastrophe was preventable, says independent panel of experts. 

The catastrophic scale of the Covid-19 pandemic could have been prevented but a toxic cocktail of dithering and poor coordination meant the warning signs went unheeded, independent global panel concluded on Wednesday. The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) said a series of bad decisions has allowed Covid-19 to kill at least 3.3 million people so far and devastate the global economy. Institutions failed to protect people and science-denying leaders eroded public trust in health interventions, the IPPPR said in its long-awaited final report. Early responses to the outbreak detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019 lacked urgency, with February 2020 a costly lost month as countries failed to heed the alarm, said the panel. To tackle the current pandemic, it called on the richest countries to donate a billion vaccine doses to the poorest. And the panel also called on the world’s wealthiest nations to fund new organisations dedicated to preparing for the next pandemic. The report was requested by World Health Organization (WHO) member states last May. The panel was jointly chaired by former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, a 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The report, ‘Covid-19: Make it the Last Pandemic’, argued that the global alarm system needed overhauling to prevent a similar catastrophe. Poor strategic choices, unwillingness to tackle inequalities and an uncoordinated system created a toxic cocktail which allowed the pandemic to turn into a catastrophic human crisis, the report said. The threat of a pandemic had been overlooked and countries were woefully unprepared to deal with one, the report found. The panel did not spare the WHO, saying it could have declared the situation a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) its highest level of alarm on January 22, 2020. Instead, it waited eight more days before doing so. The panel also proposed an overhaul of the WHO to give it greater control over its funding and more authority for its leadership.

C) Health Ministry claims WHO doesn’t mention any ‘Indian variant’ though it does, using the scientific name.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has not associated the term ‘Indian Variant’ with the B.1.617 variant of the coronavirus in its 32-page document, according to the Health Ministry. In fact, the word ‘Indian’ has not been used in its report on the matter, noted a release issued by the Ministry on Wednesday. It added that some reports had covered the news of classifying B.1.617 as a variant of global concern and termed the B.1.617 strain of the coronavirus as an Indian Variant. This release, however, seems to be willfully mixing up two different issues: it is certainly inappropriate to link the nomenclature of any variant with a particular nation, and it has been pointed out by many that it is not right to speak of the ‘Wuhan virus’ or the ‘U.K. variant’, etc. But that doesn’t mean that B.1.617 did not originate in India, or that it is not most widely prevalent in India, or that it is not a ‘Variant of Concern’. The Indian variant, B.1.617 and its family of related coronaviruses have been categorised as a Variant of Concern (VOC) by WHO, a classification which will now prompt greater international scrutiny of those who test positive overseas. 

D) Ivermectin still being used in India despite WHO recommendation against it.

Though it continues to be listed in India as a possible treatment option for mild Covid-19 patients under home isolation, Ivermectin, according to the World Health Organisation’s recent direction, is not recommended for general use. This orally-administered drug is included in India’s revised national Covid-19 treatment protocol for people with mild infection even though its maker has now clarified that there is no evidence of its efficacy against the viral disease. Safety and efficacy are important when using any drug for a new indication. WHO recommends against use of ‘Ivermectin’ for COVID-19 except within clinical trials, Soumya Swaminathan, WHO’s chief scientist, tweeted earlier this week. Indian physicians who continue to use this drug state that it is an approved anti-parasitic agent. It has shown, in laboratory settings, to inhibit SARS-COV2 replication. It may be effective for the management of early onset, mild Covid-19 for adult patients. In a clinical setting, it is observed that there is an early viral clearance in patients who are put on Ivermectin. There are no severe adverse effects noted in patients with non-severe Covid-19, said Vighnesh Naidu Y, consultant physician, Yashoda Hospitals, Hyderabad.

E) Justice Chandrachud tests positive for Covid-19.

Supreme Court judge Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who was leading the Bench hearing cases on Covid-19 management, has tested positive for the virus. A crucial hearing on the COVID issue is listed before a three-judge Bench of Justices Chandrachud, L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat for hearing on Thursday. Justice Chandrachud’s Bench had in the previous hearing constituted a National Task Force to scientifically study and recommend a foolproof mechanism for allocation of oxygen to States. Justice Chandrachud had made it clear to the Centre that the Supreme Court would not remain a mute spectator to a national calamity. The Covid-19 cases, which were initially being heard by a Bench led by former CJI Justice S.A. Bobde, was shifted to a Bench led by Justice Chandrachud following Justice Bobde’s retirement.

F) Gautam Navlakha denied bail again.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused bail to activist Gautam Navlakha in the Bhima Koregaon violence case. A Bench led by Justice U.U. Lalit had reserved the case for judgment on March 26. The case was listed on Wednesday. Justice K.M. Joseph pronounced the verdict, saying Navlakha’s period of house arrest cannot be counted as custody and, hence, he was not eligible for statutory bail. The Bench had heard arguments raised by senior advocate Kapil Sibal and advocates Nitya Ramakrishnan and Shadan Farasat for grant of default bail to Navlakha under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure read with Section 43(D)(2) of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Navlakha challenged the dismissal of his bail plea by the Bombay High Court on February 8. The High Court had upheld the NIA court verdict denying him bail despite the petitioner spending more than 90 days in custody.

G) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,35,63,982 with the death toll at 2,56,607. The head of the main Indian health agency responding to the coronavirus has said districts reporting a high number of infections should remain locked down for another six to eight weeks to control the spread of the rampaging disease. Balram Bhargava, head of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said in an interview that lockdown restrictions should remain in place in all districts where the rate of infection is above 10% of those tested. Currently, three-fourths of India’s 718 districts have what is known as a test-positivity rate above 10%, including major cities like New Delhi, Mumbai and the tech hub of Bengaluru. Dr. Bhargava’s comments are the first time a senior government official has outlined how long lockdowns, which already encompass large parts of country, need to continue to rein in the crisis in India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has shied away from imposing a nationwide lockdown because of the economic impact and has left it to State governments. The high positivity districts should remain (shut). If they come to 5% from 10% (positivity rate), we can open them, but that has to happen. That won’t happen in six-eight weeks, clearly, Dr. Bhargava said in an interview at the New Delhi headquarters of the ICMR, the country’s top medical research body. Referring to the capital, one of India’s hardest hit cities, where the positivity rate reached around 35% but has now fallen to about 17%, Dr. Bhargava said: If Delhi is opened tomorrow, it will be a disaster.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Taliban seizes district on outskirts of Kabul. 

The Taliban has seized a district from the Afghan government forces on the outskirts of Kabul, ahead of a three day ceasefire agreed between the warring sides, officials said. Nerkh district is around 40 kilometres from the Afghan capital in the neighbouring Wardak province, which has long been used by militants as a gateway to reach Kabul. Violence has soared since May 1 when the U.S. military began formally withdrawing its last remaining troops, as peace efforts between the Taliban and the Afghan government have stalled. Security and defence forces made a tactical retreat from the police headquarters of Nerkh district, Interior Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian said. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said the insurgents captured the area on Tuesday, adding that fighters seized the police headquarters and an army base. The Defence Ministry on Wednesday said it would launch an offensive to win back the district, home to more than 60,000 people. Commando reinforcements are on their way, said Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the Defence Ministry. Large swathes of Wardak and neighbouring Logar province have been controlled or contested years the Talban fighters. The main highway that connects Kabul to southern Kandahar province the former Taliban stronghold and the scene of intense fighting in recent weeks through the district. Taliban fighters have been enriching major urban centres, spurring speculation that the militants are waiting for the U.S. to withdraw before launching all other assaults cities.

B) India opened up too early, says U.S. President’s top medical adviser Dr Anthony Fauci.

India made the incorrect assumption that it was finished with the Covid-19 pandemic and opened up prematurely, and that’s what has left the country in such dire straits, America’s top infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told Senators. India has been severely affected by the unprecedented second wave of the coronavirus and hospitals in several States are reeling under the shortage of health workers, vaccines, oxygen, drugs and beds. The reason that India is in such dire straits now is that they had an original surge and made the incorrect assumption that they were finished with it, and what happened, they opened up prematurely and wound up having a surge right now that we’re all very well aware of is extremely devastating, Dr. Fauci told the Senate Health, Education, Labour and Pensions Committee during a hearing on Tuesday on the Covid-19 response. Dr. Fauci, who is the Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), is also the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden. Chairing the hearing, Senator Patty Murray said that the surge of Covid-19 that is devastating India is a painful reminder really that the U.S. can’t end the pandemic here until it ends it everywhere. India’s outbreak underscores the need for a robust public health infrastructure in the U.S. to respond appropriately to this pandemic and future outbreaks as well, Senator Murray said as she asked Dr. Fauci what can the U.S. learn from India’s outbreak.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
12 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) 26 Covid-19 patients die in Goa hospital in a span of few hours.

Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on May 11 said 26 Covid-19 patients died at the State-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in the early hours and sought an investigation by the High Court to find out the exact cause. He said these fatalities occurred between 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. which is a fact, but remained evasive about the cause. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who visited GMCH, said the gap between the availability of medical oxygen and its supply to Covid-19 wards in the GMCH might have caused some issues for the patients even as he stressed that there is no scarcity of oxygen supply in the State. Speaking to reporters, Rane admitted the shortfall in the supply of medical oxygen at the GMCH as of May 10. The High Court should investigate the reasons behind these deaths. The HC should also intervene and prepare a white paper on oxygen supply to the GMCH, which would help to set the things right, the Health Minister said after the CM’s visit to GMCH. Rane said the medical oxygen requirement of the facility as of May 10 was 1,200 jumbo cylinders of which only 400 were supplied. If there’s a shortfall in the supply of medical oxygen, the discussion should be held about how to bridge that gap, he said.

B) PIL against Central Vista construction another attempt to stall project: Centre to HC.

The Centre has told the Delhi High Court that the PIL seeking stay on the construction of Central Vista in New Delhi amid the raging Covid-19 pandemic was just another attempt to stall the project, which has been facing such attempts from the beginning on one pretext or another. The intentions and motive behind filing of the plea are evident from the fact that the instant project has been singled out by the petitioners despite several other agencies, including Delhi Metro, carrying out construction activities across the national capital, the Centre has alleged. The very fact that out of all these construction activities going on simultaneously for different projects by different agencies, the petitioner has chosen to be a public spirited citizen only with regard to one project only speaks volumes about his intentions and motive behind filing the present petition, the Centre’s affidavit has contended. Since the affidavit was not yet on record, a Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh listed the matter for hearing on May 12. The court also allowed the early hearing application moved by the petitioners Anya Malhotra, who works as a translator, and Sohail Hashmi, a historian and documentary film maker — who have contended that the project was not an essential activity and therefore, it can be put on hold for now during the pandemic. In the affidavit filed in the court on May 10, the Central government has said that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has permitted construction activities, during the prevailing curfew, where the labourers are residing on-site.

C) BJP focused on efforts to protect Brand Modi, set to launch campaign to promote ‘positivity’

The second wave of the pandemic has left even the well connected high and dry when it comes to accessing health care resources, a fact illuminated by the death of four BJP MLAs in Uttar Pradesh alone, as well as a a letter from Union Minister Santosh Gangwar to U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The letter talks about the lack of resources in his constituency of Bareilly, and the helplessness being expressed even within BJP circles in terms of dealing with public distress. The effect of all this not just in terms of what it means for the progress of the pandemic through the country but also for the reputation of Brand Modi seems to be very much on the minds of BJP leaders, according to sources in the party. On Tuesday, party president J. P. Nadda wrote a four-page rebuttal to Congress working president Sonia Gandhi’s speech at the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meet held the previous day. In this, Nadda accused her and her party of being duplicitous and petty and creating a false panic in the fight against Covid-19. The tone of the letter was to emphasise that the Opposition and the Chief Ministers of the Opposition-ruled States have steadily opposed prescriptions to control the pandemic and blamed Modi as it went out of hand. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya bemoaned the fact that while fatalities were being talked about, recovery rates were not being highlighted in quite the same way. The RSS, the ideological mothership of the BJP, also announced, via its COVID Response Team (CRT) the launch of a campaign entitled Hum Jeetenge (Theywill win), also called Positivity Unlimited to counter ‘negativity’ around the fight against Covid-19.

D) Bodies of 71 suspected Covid-19 victims recovered from Ganga.

Bodies of 71 suspected Covid-19 victims, which were found floating in the Ganga at Chausa in Buxar district of Bihar on Monday, were retrieved and some of them were disposed of by the district administration by Tuesday morning. Samples of some bodies have been preserved for further tests. They retrieved 71 bodies. Some of them have been disposed of, while the process for others is underway. Samples of some bodies too have been preserved for further tests, Buxar Superintendent of Police Neeraj Kumar Singh told The Hindu over phone. Post-mortem of bodies was done at the ghat itself as they were highly decomposed, he added. Ram Ashray Yadav who sells pyre wood for funeral at the Mahadeo ghat (bank) at Chausa, said, Most of the bodies were buried in a large pit dug by a JCB machine on the bank of the river. The district officials had said the bodies might have floated in from adjoining districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh such as Varanasi and Allahabad. The bodies are bloated. They seem to have been in the water for at least 5-7 days. Their origin needs to be investigated. They could be from Varanasi or Allahabad of U.P., a senior official of the district said. Videos of bloated bodies had also gone viral on social media, sparking an outrage and shock among villagers. Chausa is about 10 km downstream from neighbouring Uttar Pradesh.

E) Array of measures can be used to make vaccines and other supplies cheaper.

An array of measures, including reduction in GST rates, zero GST rate on critical raw materials, permitting GST-free imports, as well as direct cash incentives to producers, can be used by the Centre to make Covid-19 vaccines and other critical supplies cheaper, tax experts have suggested. At present, GST oods and Services Tax is levied at the rate of 5% on vaccines and 12% on Covid-19 drugs and oxygen concentrators for domestic supplies and commercial imports. For oxygen concentrators imported for personal use, the government has reduced GST rate from 28% to 12% and waived customs duties. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday launched a staunch defence of the GST levies on Covid-19 relief supplies after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi mooting an exemption from these taxes amid the pandemic’s escalating second wave. The Finance Minister had said that exemption of vaccines from GST would be counterproductive without benefiting the consumer. If the government is exploring free vaccination to all the citizens, then the consumer of such vaccine will be the government. Thus, no matter at what rate it is taxed, it may not directly impact the pocket of common man. It would be more of a revenue-sharing issue between the Centre and States, said Siddharth Surana, adviser (strategy and business transformation) at tax consultancy RSM India. Under the present policy, the Centre is providing free vaccines to those above 45 years, while States and individuals have been asked to foot the bill for the rest. Tax implications matter not just for vaccines, but also other critical drugs and equipment. A taxation expert, on condition of anonymity, said reducing the GST on final products as well as raw materials, or zero-rating supplies, would be a better option than an outright GST exemption. Saket Patawari, executive director (indirect tax) at advisory firm Nexdigm, said the government could also take measures to slash costs, including a possible special incentive scheme to refund taxes, outside the ambit of the GST law.

F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,31,92,346 with the official death toll at 2,52,251. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday that the B.1.617 variant first identified in India last year was being classified as a variant of global concern. They classify it as a variant of concern at a global level, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told a briefing. There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility. Such a classification is made only when the variant is either more infectious or more lethal than the original strain. Meanwhile, an early trend of decline in daily new Covid-19 cases and deaths has been noted in the country, the government said on May 11, indicating that the devastating second wave of the pandemic is on the wane. According to the government, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Chhattisgarh were among 18 States and Union Territories showing continued plateauing or decrease in daily new Covid-19 cases. Addressing a press conference, a senior official, however, said Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Punjab were among 16 States and Union Territories showing continued increasing trend in daily new cases. Thirteen States have more than 1 lakh active cases each and 26 States have a positivity rate of over 15%, the government said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) EU is suing AstraZeneca to get 90 million doses before July. 

The European Union is suing British Swedish pharmaceutical group AstraZeneca to force it to deliver 90 million more doses of its COVID-19 vaccine before July, a spokesman said on Tuesday. They want the court to order the company to deliver 90 million additional doses, in addition to the 30 million already delivered in the first quarter, European Commission spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker told a media conference. The Commission has launched two emergency legal actions against the company in a Belgian court, first to have the urgency of the issue recognised, and then to have a judge rule on whether the EU’s case is well-founded. After citing production problems in its EU manufacture, and refusing to divert doses from British factories listed as suppliers in the EU contract, the company offered revised deliveries.

B) School shooting in Russia kills 9 people; suspect arrested.

A gunman attacked a school Tuesday morning in the Russian city of Kazan, sending students running out of the building as smoke poured from its windows. At least nine people were killed seven eighth-grade students, a teacher and another school worker and 21 others were hospitalised, Russian officials said. Footage released by Russian media outlets showed students dressed in black and white running out of the building. Another video depicted shattered windows, billowing smoke, and sounds resembling gunshots in the background. Dozens of ambulances lined up at the school’s entrance after the attack and police fenced off access to the building. Russian media said while some students were able to escape, others were trapped inside during the ordeal. All students were eventually evacuated to nearby day care centers and collected by their families. Officials said the attacker has been arrested and police opened a criminal investigation into the shooting. Authorities immediately put additional security measures into place in all schools in Kazan, a city 700 kilometers (430 miles) east of Moscow.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
11 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Covid-19 vaccination drive is ‘different’ and ‘biggest’, claims govt in SC.

The Covid-19 vaccination drive is the biggest ever and completely different from the immunisation drives of the previous decades, the Union government said on Monday, responding to criticism that its inoculation push is crumbling. The government said that unlike the vaccination campaigns of the past, the Covid-19 immunisation drive did not have the luxury of time. In previous vaccination drives, there was time to manufacture and distribute vaccines. But Covid-19 has crash-landed on humanity. The current need for vaccination was both emergent and urgent, it said. Critics and experts, however, have said the government has many lessons to learn from the polio immunisation drive conducted decades ago. Covid 19 vaccination drive in progress in the capital on Monday. This drive to vaccinate each and every adult person in the country is completely different from other vaccinations conducted by the country in the past in more than one way. The vaccines [for Covid-19] are developed very recently throughout the world and therefore, their production has also started very recently. Another peculiar feature of this vaccination is that the vaccine requires two doses, separated by four to eight weeks, the government reasoned in a 218-page affidavit filed in the Supreme Court. The government added that vaccine production was expected to increase in the next couple of months. It said Serum Institute of India has ramped up production from five crore doses per month to 6.5 crore doses monthly. A further increase was expected in July 2021. Similarly, Bharat Biotech has hiked production from 90 lakh per month to two crore doses a month. An increase of up to 5.5 crore doses per month is expected by July 2021, it said. A three-judge Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud could not hear arguments on the affidavit due to technical glitches during the virtual hearing. The hearing has been adjourned to Thursday. In the affidavit, the Centre assured an equitable allocation of vaccines to States. It said it had determined, in consultation with the vaccine manufacturers, the State-wise pro rata population of those within the target age of 18 and 44.

B) Videos show bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims floating in Ganga.

Videos of several bodies of suspected Covid-19 victims seen floating in the Ganga at Chausa village of Buxar district in Bihar have gone viral on social media, sparking outrage and shock. Chausa is about 10 kms from the headquarters of the border district of Buxar, adjoining eastern Uttar Pradesh. The villagers first spotted several bodies floating along the bank of the river on Monday morning and informed local authorities. Nearly 30-40 dead bodies can be seen in the Ganga and there are stray dogs roaming around. Yes, most of them are likely to be those of Covid-19 victims, social activist and local lawyer Ashwini Varma told The Hindu. According to Varma, the exorbitant cost of cremation could have forced the poor to jettison bodies in the river. It nearly costs ₹30,000-40,000 to cremate a body. So the poor people prefer to push bodies into the river Ganga, he said. Stray dogs are devouring the dead bodies, which could well be of Covid-19 victims. It will spread the virus as well, he added. Local officials at the site admit unofficially that most the bodies could be of infected persons. We’re on the spot right now and nothing can be said till an inquiry is held but yes, the bodies are there, floating in the river, said a local official. The villagers of Chausa have demanded the deployment of an official at the cremation grounds to control the price of firewood so that people are not forced to throw the dead into the river.

C) Second wave of Covid-19 a direct consequence of government’s incompetence: CWC resolution.

The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic is nothing short of a grave calamity and a direct consequence of the Narendra Modi government’s indifference, insensitivity and incompetence, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) said in a resolution on Monday. The CWC, that met virtually to discuss the party’s performance in the recent Assembly polls, spent considerable time discussing the coronavirus situation. In her opening remarks, party president Sonia Gandhi said the country had paid a ‘horrendous price’ for the Modi government’s neglect and the health system had collapsed. The CWC expressed concern over the government’s vaccination strategy, insufficient supplies, ‘opaque and discriminatory’ pricing policy and mandatory online registration that would exclude people in rural areas and from poor economic background from walk-in for vaccination. It pointed out that the infection had travelled massively into rural areas that had no access to RT PCR testing, medicines, oxygen or hospitalisation and it had resulted in a large number of painful deaths. The party also charged the Prime Minister with instructing his Health Minister to reply to former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s suggestion in a ‘most undignified manner’. The CWC expresses its revulsion at the shocking expenditure priorities of the Modi government. At a time when the nation’s resources should be devoted to ensuring expansion of vaccination coverage and supply of essential medicines and oxygen, the Modi government is indulging in criminal waste of money by continuing with the personal vanity project of the Prime Minister in the national capital. This is the height of callousness and insensitivity as also an insult to the people of the country, it noted. The data on Covid-19 deaths was horribly wrong and afflicted by massive non-reporting, it stated. The solution lies in facing the challenge and stopping the casualties from Covid-19 and not in concealing the truth by burying the data on deaths and infections, it observed.

D) New Assam CM wants 10-20% re-verification of NRC.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday said the BJP-led government wants 10-20% re-verification of the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Soon after being sworn in as the State’s 15th Chief Minister, he said that his coalition government favoured 20% re-verification of the updated list of citizens in districts that share a border with Bangladesh and 10% in the remaining districts. They will go ahead with the NRC if the draft (published in August 2019) is found to be flawless during the re-verification process. But they want the Supreme Court to look into it if anomalies are detected, he said. The apex court had monitored the exercise of updating the NRC of 1951 in Assam. About 19.06 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants were excluded from the updated draft. Earlier in the day, Governor Jagdish Mukhi administered the oath of office and secretary to Dr Sarma and 13 others who were also sworn in as Cabinet Ministers.

E) Govt says all steps on for supply of Remdesivir and Tocilizumab.

The Union government informed the Supreme Court that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) have jointly undertaken the allocation of available supplies of Covid-19 drugs Remdesivir and Tocilizumab across the States and Union Territories in view of a surge in demand for them. The Centre said the Health Ministry, with the support of the DoP and Ministry of External Affairs, was making all efforts to enhance availability of Remdesivir through ramping up of production and sourcing through imports. However, there were constraints on the availability of raw materials and other essential inputs for Remdesivir. Mere addition of production capacity may not lead to the desired outcomes of enhanced supplies. It is difficult to predict the trend of the pandemic and, therefore, difficult to forecast the demand for Remdesivir with a reasonable degree of certainty. Therefore, it is communicated that the matter of sending the proposal for invocation of the provisions of Section 100 (for government use) of the Patents Act, 1970, is being processed, the government stated. The prices of Remdesivir have gone down by 25% to 50%, it noted. A total of 34.50 lakh vials were allocated for the period April 21 to May 9, against which 33.96 lakh vials were supplied till May 7, it noted. In the case of Tocilizumab, as the country was entirely dependent on imports, out of the limited stock of vials imported on April 26, 3,245 were allocated to States the next day and an additional allocation of 6,655 vials was done on April 30 to States. Another 1,200 vials have been kept for Central allocation by the Health Ministry, it pointed out. It is stated that about 6,478 vials have been supplied till May 7. Efforts are underway to procure, import more Tocilizumab, it assured. The DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) has instructed State Drugs Controllers (SDCs) to conduct a special investigation drive to prevent hoarding/black marketing of Remdesivir.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Pakistan government to set new rules to meet FATF requirements.

Pakistan, keen to exit from the grey list of the FATF, is set to introduce new rules relating to anti-money laundering cases and change the prosecution process to meet its remaining tough conditions, a media report said on Monday. Pakistan was put on the grey list by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global watchdog for money laundering and terror financing in June 2018 and the country has been struggling to come out of it. The Dawn newspaper reported that the changes being made also include the transfer of investigations and prosecution of anti-money laundering (AML) cases from police, provincial anticorruption establishments (ACEs) and other similar agencies to specialised agencies. This is part of two sets of rules, including the AML (Forfeited Properties Management) Rules 2021 and the AML (Referral) Rules 2021 under the National Policy Statement on Follow the Money approved by the federal Cabinet meeting a few days ago, the report said. These rules and related notifications for certain changes in the existing schedule of Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 (AMLA) would come into force immediately, to be followed by the appointment of administrators and special public prosecutors for implementation. Based on these measures, the FATF would conclude if Pakistan has complied with three outstanding benchmarks, out of 27, that blocked its exit from the grey list in February this year.

B) Nepal PM loses vote of confidence.

Nepal’s Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli lost a confidence vote on Monday, triggering fresh political uncertainty just as the Himalayan nation reels from the pandemic. Mr. Oli, 69, decided to seek a vote of confidence following months of feuding within his ruling communist party and coalition partners. If you want a stable Parliament you should vote for the continuity of this government, he said in his address to the legislature before the vote. New candidate But the former political prisoner was able to secure on. Nepal has been roiled by months of turmoil after Mr. Oli dissolved Parliament in December, accusing members of his Nepal Communist Party (NCP) of being uncooperative. The NCP was formed in 2018 by a merger between Mr. Oli’s Communist Party CPN UML and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) of former rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Two months later, the Supreme Court reinstated Parliament. Another ruling broke the merger and split the ruling party into two. Mr. Oli has faced fierce criticism over his handling of the pandemic as the second wave sweeps over the country, with half of people tested now returning positive.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
10 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Himanta Biswa Sarma to be Assam’s new Chief Minister.

Himanta Biswa Sarma will succeed Sarbananda Sonowal as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam, his election at the Legislature Party meeting today ending weeks of speculation. Outgoing Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal proposed his name as the BJP Legislature Party leader soon after tendering his resignation to Governor Jagdish Mukhi on Sunday. Mr. Sarma, who became the BJP’s chief poll strategist after switching over from the Congress in 2015, was later named as Mr. Sonowal’s successor. The replacement of Mr. Sonowal with Mr. Sarma is the recognition of the fact that the latter has not only put out many fires for the BJP in Assam like the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) but also his role as Health and Finance Minister in Assam, in managing the COVID-19 pandemic, The Hindu’s political editor Nistula Hebbar writes in a profile of Mr. Sarma. A Ph.D from Gauhati University, Mr. Sarma is a lawyer by training and was active in student politics as general secretary (for three terms) at Cotton College and with the All Assam Student’s Union. He joined the Congress in the 1990s and became an MLA from Jalukbari constituency defeating Asom Gana Parishad’s Bhrigu Phukan in 2001. Since then he has represented Jalukbari on behalf of the Congress till 2016 and from 2016 to the present on a BJP ticket. He became Minister in the Congress-led State governments and also rose to the position of the action man of the Tarun Gogoi government, and much of the credit for the 2011 Congress victory in the State is laid at his door. Mr. Gogoi and Mr. Sarma became at odds with each other over the former’s plans to promote his son, Lok Sabha MP Gaurav Gogoi in politics, while Mr. Sarma had earmarked the position of successor for himself. The differences became too big and the Congress’ high command was either unwilling or unable to sort it out. In either case, Mr. Sarma jumped ship and joined the BJP – despite the party’s own attack on Mr. Sarma a few months before this on the issue of a CBI inquiry against him in the Louis Berger case.

B) Mallikarjun Kharge writes to Naidu, Modi, offers 6 suggestions.

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to immediately convene an all-party meeting to collectively forge a holistic blueprint to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. In a letter to the Prime Minister, he alleged that the Union government seems to have abdicated its duties towards the people and the situation requires a collective and consensual effort. He also sent his set of six suggestions to tackle the crisis due to the pandemic and said the Prime Minister’s Office alone cannot handle it. Mr. Kharge said he is writing to convey his deep concern and a sense of anguish regarding the unprecedented crisis the nation faces. Calling for free inoculation, he said, Parliament had allocated ₹35,000 crores in the union budget to ensure free vaccines for all. Despite this, the Union government allowed private companies to set exorbitant and differential prices for vaccines and outsourced the procurement of vaccines to already stretched state governments. This will adversely impact millions of Indians. It is heartbreaking to witness millions of ordinary Indians scrambling to access basic healthcare, oxygen, medicines, ventilators, hospital beds and even crematoriums and cemeteries, he said, adding that ordinary Indians are selling their land, jewellery and expending their savings to ensure treatment for their loved ones. The leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha also called for free immunisation drive for all citizens and urged him to utilise the 35,000 crore earmarked by Parliament for this purpose.

C) Union Minister complains to U.P. CM on Covid response.

Minister of State with independent charge in the Ministry of Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar flagged concerns over the COVID-19 response in Uttar Pradesh in a letter to Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on May 8. Mr. Gangwar complained about officers not answering phone calls and patients being forced to visit multiple facilities before being admitted to a hospital. Mr. Gangwar, who is the Lok Sabha MP from Bareilly in U.P., participated in a review meeting called by the Chief Minister in Bareilly on May 8, where, sources said, the letter with suggestions and complaints was handed over. In a tweet on Sunday, Mr. Gangwar said the Chief Minister met the elected representatives and officials of Bareilly to review the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 and made suggestions to improve the healthcare provided to residents. In the letter, Mr. Gangwar said vendors were selling essential equipment needed by hospitals like ventilators for higher prices than before. He said the government should fix the prices of these machines. Mr. Gangwar wrote that it was important for COVID-19 patients to receive medical care as soon as possible, but he had come to know that when patients went to any government hospital, they were asked to first go to a district hospital and get a referral. The patients’ oxygen levels keep dropping while they had to visit multiple places before being admitted, he wrote. Terming it a cause of concern, he asked the Chief Minister to address the issue. He said those who had stored oxygen cylinders at home without needing them, and those who were selling them, should be identified. Mr. Gangwar complained that important officers involved with the COVID-19 response in Bareilly did not answer phone calls, which was leading to inconvenience to patients. The Minister suggested that all private hospitals in Bareilly should cater to COVID-19 patients.

D) Exemption from customs duties for Covid relief material.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 9 said GST exemption to domestic supplies and commercial import of COVID-19 drugs, vaccines and oxygen concentrators would make these items costlier for consumers as manufacturers would not be able to offset the taxes paid on inputs. Earlier in the day Ms. Banerjee wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to consider exempting organisations, agencies and individuals supplying equipment and drugs related to the management of the COVID-19 pandemic from customs duty and other Central taxes. A list of items for COVID relief granted exemption from IGST for imports was issued on May 3, 2021. These were given exemption from Customs Duty/health cess even earlier. Hon. CM @MamataOfficial, may notice that items in your list are covered, she said, adding Full exemption from Customs duties, including IGST, is already available to ALL COVID relief material [not confined to a list] imported by @IndianRedCross for free distribution in the country. Ms. Sitharaman said: With effect from 3 May, 2021, full exemption from all duties has been provided to Remdesivir injections, Remdesivir API, and for a chemical for the manufacture of this drug.

E) 16 AMU staff, ex-teachers die of Covid-19.

After 16 of its faculty members, other employees and retired teachers living in the vicinity of the campus died of COVID-19, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has written to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) asking for an analysis of the samples to find out what was behind the surge. In a statement on Sunday, AMU public relations officer Omar Peerzada said: In order to analyse the severity of Covid-19 and its suspected new variant that wreaked havoc in Aligarh as many faculty members, retired teachers and other employees of the university succumbed to it, the samples collected at the ICMR approved COVID-19 testing laboratory of the Department of Microbiology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU have been sent for viral genome sequencing to the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi after suspicions of a new COVID variant fuelling the surge of Coronavirus cases in Aligarh. The statement said that the samples had been sent along with a letter by AMU vice-chancellor Prof. Tariq Mansoor to ICMR director general Prof. Balram Bhargava requesting him to order the concerned department to perform the analysis. The V-C’s letter said: This is to bring into your notice that 16 AMU faculty members, a number of retired teachers and employees in other categories, who were living in the university campus and adjoining localities have succumbed to COVID-19. This is giving rise to a suspicion that a particular viral variant may be circulating in the Civil Lines area of Aligarh in which AMU and many adjoining localities are situated.

F) Trinamool requests virtual parliamentary committee hearings.

The Trinamool Congress has written to Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, urging them to let parliamentary committee meetings be held virtually to enable them to address issues of public interest amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. This is the TMC’s third letter on the issue, the party said, adding that the first letter was written in July 2020 and the second letter in August 2020. India has reported more than 3 lakh new COVID-19 cases per day for the past two weeks. In light of the prevailing circumstances, he urge your good offices to reconsider our request for conducting virtual meetings of parliamentary committees, including departmentally related standing committees, consultative committees and select committees, the letter from RS MP and the party’s national spokesperson Derek O’Brien said. He also said that the party had received a letter from the chairman’s office dated August 27, which stated that it was decided in a meeting that the matter regarding holding of virtual meetings of the Parliamentary Committees vis-à-vis existing provisions on confidentiality of the proceedings of the Committees, may be referred to the Committees on Rules in both the Houses. He further request you to share any findings/decisions that the Committees on Rules of both the Houses may have reached. He urge you again to allow the Parliamentary Committees to function virtually so that issues of public importance can be taken up timely and discussed, especially in light of the serious circumstances in the country, Mr. O’Brien said.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Amid weekend clashes, Israel vows to keep Jerusalem order.

Israel vowed on Sunday to restore order in Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinian protesters were wounded in a weekend of clashes with Israeli security forces, while the Justice Ministry put off a key court ruling on a flashpoint property dispute. Consecutive nights of violence around the revered AlAqsa mosque compound in the Old City has been the worst since 2017, fuelled by a years-long bid by Jewish settiers to take over nearby Palestinian homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would decisively and Palestinians hurling stones at Israeli security forces in Jerusalem’s Old City. Tunisia said it has called for a meeting on Monday Of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation. Some 121 Palestinians were wounded in Saturday’s overnight clashes, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israeli police said 17 of its officers were wounded. The previous night more than 220 people again mostly Palestinians, were hurt as police stormed AlAqsa, saying Palestinians had thrown rocks at officers. Four Arab countries that normalised ties with Israel over the past year the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan all condemned Israel’s actions and voiced support for the Palestinians. On Saturday, thousands of Palestinians packed mosque compound for prayers. But police set up roadblocks to limit access to the Old City and avoid violent riots effectively preventing hundreds from praying.

B) Johnson calls for U.K. talks after Scottish Nationalists win. 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Sunday invited the leaders of the U.K.’s devolved nations for crisis talks on the union after Scotland’s pro-independence party won its fourth straight parliamentary election. Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), said the poll results proved that a second independence vote for Scotland was the will of the country and that any London politician who stood in the way would be picking a fight with the democratic wishes of the Scottish people. The United Kingdom is made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, with devolved governments in the latter three. Mr. Johnson congratulated Ms. Sturgeon on her re-election, but told the leaders of the devolved governments in a letter that the U.K. was best served when we work together. The letter invited the leaders to a summit to discuss plans to recover from the coronavirus pandemic and work out how the four nations can work together to overcome shared challenges. Final results of Thursday’s local elections showed that the SNP won 64 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament. Although it fell one seat short of securing an overall majority, the Parliament still had a pro-independence majority with the help of eight members of the Scottish Greens. Ms. Sturgeon said an independence referendum was now a matter of fundamental democratic principle, and did not rule out legislation paving the way for a vote at the start of next year. Mr. Johnson has the ultimate authority whether or not to permit another referendum on Scotland gaining independence. He wrote in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph that another referendum on Scotland would be irresponsible and reckless as Britain emerges from the pandemic. He has consistently argued that the issue was settled in a 2014 referendum where 55% of Scottish voters favoured remaining part of the U.K. But proponents of another vote say the situation has changed fundamentally because of the U.K.’s Brexit divorce from the European Union.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
09 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

 

A) Supreme Court forms National Task Force for transparent oxygen allocation.

The Supreme Court has constituted a 12-member National Task Force to streamline and ensure the effective and transparent allocation of liquid medical oxygen on a scientific, rational and equitable basis to States and Union Territories fighting Covid-19. The apex court had expressed its dissatisfaction at the Centre’s earlier oxygen-for-bed formula. This rough-and-ready arrangement, as the court put it, was based on calculating the allotment of oxygen based on the number of ICU/non-ICU beds. The court, however, said the formula did not take into consideration the fact that many Covid-19 patients in dire need of oxygen do not get beds or were confined to home care. A Bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, in a 24-page order released on Saturday, said the formula should be scrapped and the problem of allocation of oxygen should be looked at afresh. A new mechanism devised more scientifically should take care of present requirement for oxygen as well as be flexible enough to accommodate unforeseen demands due to emergencies which may arise within the allocated territories. The court said setting up an expert body or task force drawn of renowned national experts with diverse experience in health institutions to function within the Central government apparatus would facilitate a public health response to the pandemic based on scientific and specialised domain knowledge. The court said the decision-makers should go beyond cobbling together ad-hoc solutions based on present problems. They have to prepare for the future. The task force’s work would provide the Centre with inputs and strategies. The Convenor of the National Task Force, who shall also be a member, will be the Cabinet Secretary to the Union Government. The Task Force is to start work immediately and have an initial life-span of six months. The court urged the Task Force to take up and determine the pressing issue of the modalities of oxygen within a week.

B) DCGI approves anti-COVID drug developed by DRDO for emergency use.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission for emergency use of anti-Covid-19 therapeutic application of the drug 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG), developed by the Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS), a lab of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), in collaboration with Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL),Hyderabad. In a release issued on Saturday, the Ministry of Defence said that as per the order, emergency use of this drug as adjunct therapy in moderate to severe Covid-19 patients is permitted. It added that being a generic molecule and analogue of glucose, it can be easily produced and made available in plenty in the country. The drug comes in powder form in sachet, which is taken orally by dissolving it in water. It accumulates in the virus-infected cells and prevents virus growth by stopping viral synthesis and energy production. Its selective accumulation in virally infected cells makes this drug unique. Clinical trial results have shown that this molecule helps in faster recovery of hospitalised patients and reduces supplemental oxygen dependence, noted the release. It further said that higher proportion of patients treated with 2-DG showed RT-PCR negative conversion in Covid-19 patients. The drug will be of immense benefit to people suffering from Covid-19, said the Ministry.

C) Positive test for Covid-19 not mandatory for admission, says Health Ministry.

Requirement of a positive test for the Covid-19 virus is not mandatory for admission to a Covid-19 health facility and no patient will be refused services on any count, the Health Ministry said on Saturday, announcing the revised national policy for admission to various categories of Covid-19 facilities. The patient-centric measure aims to ensure prompt, effective and comprehensive treatment of patients suffering from Covid-19, said the Ministry. The revised guidelines cover medications such as oxygen or essential drugs even if the patient belongs to a different city, added the release. The revised guidelines noted that no patient shall be refused admission on the ground that he/she was not able to produce a valid identity card establishing they belonged to the city where the hospital is located. Admissions to hospital must be based on need. It should be ensured that beds are not occupied by persons who do not need hospitalisation. Further, the discharge should be strictly in accordance with the revised discharge policy, added the Ministry. The Ministry has advised Chief Secretaries of States/Union Territories to issue necessary orders and circulars, incorporating the new directions within three days, which shall be enforced till replaced by an appropriate uniform policy. The Supreme Court has taken a humanitarian view of the four-lakh-plus prison population inside overcrowded jails even as the second wave of the pandemic continues its devastating run across the country. India has more than four lakh prison inmates. It is observed that some of the prisons in India are overburdened and are housing inmates beyond optimal capacity. The requirement of decongestion is a matter concerning the health and right to life of both the prison inmates and the police personnel working, the Bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana, and comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant, stressed.

D) Tamil Nadu announces two-week complete lockdown from May 10.

The Tamil Nadu government on May 8 imposed a complete lockdown (with few relaxations) for two weeks across the State between 4 a.m. on May 10 and 4 a.m on May 24 to combat the spread of Covid-19. The State government said there would be no restrictions across the State between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. shops will function during this period on May 8 and 9 to allow the public to prepare ahead of the complete lockdown. Non air-conditioned provision and grocery stores and meat stalls can remain open till 12 noon and with 50% customers. Inter-district and intra-district vehicular movement (including public transport) will remain suspended during the lockdown, except for essential travel. Travel for weddings of close relatives, funerals, job interviews and hospitals would be allowed on production of relevant documents. In a statement, Chief Minister M.K. Stalin said all shops, except provision and grocery stores and meat stalls, would remain closed.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Pakistan opposition leader stopped from flying abroad. 

Pakistan’s ailing opposition leader, who has been charged with corruption, was turned back on Saturday at the international airport in Lahore and prevented from leaving the country, his party spokesperson said. Shahbaz Sharif, head of the opposition bloc in the lower house of Parliament and the Pakistan Muslim League party, was not allowed to board a Qatar Airways flight to London, said Maryam Aurangzeb, the party spokeswoman. She said immigration officials at the airport said Mr. Sharif’s name was still on Shahbaz Sharif the black list so he could not leave. On Friday, the Lahore High Court ruled that Sharif could leave Pakistan and stay abroad for treatment till early July. The court had acted on a petition from Mr. Sharif, who pleaded that as a cancer survivor he now needed treatment outside of the court order drew criticism from Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government, which said it would explore legal options to stop Sharif from leaving. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said the government had not received any application from Sharif or his party asking that he be taken off the black list. Mr. Sharif faces corruption charges in three separate court cases. He leads his brother’s Pakistan’s Muslim League party after Nawaz Sharif, a three-time PM, was disqualified from office.

B) Scotland’s pro-independence governing party close to a majority. 

Scotland’s governing Scottish National Party was on course on Saturday to win its fourth straight parliamentary election and very close to securing a majority that would enable it to make a push for another referendum on independence from the U.K. With 60 constituencies counted, the SNP had won 51 of the 129 seats and was clearly on course to extend its dominance of Scottish politics. However, given Scotland’s electoral system, also allocates some seats by a form of proportional representation, the party may fall short of the 65 seats it would need in the Edinburgh-based Parliament to have a majority. In Wales, the concluded vote count showed the Labour Party doing better than expected in the parliamentary election as it extended its 22 years in control of the Welsh government. Ballots continue to be counted from local elections in England, which already have been particularly good for U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party. But it’s the Scottish election that could have the biggest U.K.-wide implications by fast-tracking another referendum on Scotland’s future within the U.K. Were the SNP to win a majority, its leader, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, would argue that she has a man. date to call another referendum. Speaking after winning her seat in Glasgow on Friday, Ms. Sturgeon said her immediate priority would be to deal with the pandemic and then when the time is right to offer this country the choice of a better future. Scotland has been part of the U.K. since 1707 and the issue of Scottish independence appeared settled when Scottish voters rejected secession by in a 2014 referendum. But the U.K.-wide decision in 2016 to leave the European Union ran against the wishes of most Scots 62% voted in favor of staying within the bloc while most voters in England and Wales wanted to leave. That gave the Scottish nationalist cause fresh legs.