CURRENT AFFAIRS
17 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Centre admits COVID spread to rural areas, issues SOPs.

COVID’s ingress is now being seen in peri-urban, rural and tribal areas as well, the Health Ministry admitted on Sunday, weeks after a rising number of cases have been reported from rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Gujarat among other States. The Ministry in its document SOP on COVID-19 Containment and Management in Peri-urban, Rural and Tribal areas said there is a need to enable communities, strengthen primary level healthcare infrastructure at all levels to intensify COVID-19 response in these new areas, while continuing to provide other essential health services. The Ministry said with the larger spread of COVID-19 cases, it is important to ensure that these areas are equipped and oriented to manage COVID-19 cases. In every village, active surveillance should be done for influenza-like illness/ severe acute respiratory infections(ILI/SARI) periodically by health workers, noted the Ministry in its latest SOP. The Ministry said that depending upon the intensity of surge and number of cases, as far as feasible, contact tracing should be done as per Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme’s (IDSP’s) guidelines for contact tracing of COVID-19 cases in community settings amid reports of several bodies of suspected COVID-19 victims having been found abandoned and floating in the Ganga. The Ministry has also directed that staff should be trained in performing Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) and that provision for RAT kits should be made at all public health facilities including sub-centres (SCs)/ Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) and Primary Health Centres (PHCs). These patients should also be counselled to isolate themselves till test results are available. Those asymptomatic but having history of high-risk exposure to COVID patients (exposure of more than 15 mins without a mask within 6 feet distance) should be advised quarantine and tested as per ICMR protocol, notes the Ministry. The document further notes that on discharge, patients should be counselled for post-COVID management at home and leaflets regarding danger signs (e.g. breathlessness, chest pain, recurrence of fever, low oxygen saturation, etc.), precautions and various respiratory exercises. Patients with other co-morbidities should also be followed up and primary assessment of other co-morbidity (e.g. measuring blood pressure, blood glucose level) should be arranged and any modification treatment, if necessary, should be decided by a primary health centre medical officer, says the document. The Ministry has advocated for use of telemedicine services for providing post-COVID follow-up care.

B) Second batch of Sputnik V arrives.

India on Sunday received the second consignment of Sputnik V, the Russian vaccine that recently joined the country’s arsenal against COVID-19. Second batch of Sputnik V arrives in Hyderabad, India!, the vaccine developers tweeted. Russia’s Ambassador to India Nikolay Kudashev said in a tweet: given the recent launch of the Russian vaccine in the Indian vaccination campaign, this second delivery has become very timely. Describing Sputnik V as a Russian-Indian vaccine, he told news agency ANI we expect that its production in India will be gradually increased up to 850 million doses per year. There are plans to introduce single-dose vaccine soon in India-Sputnik Lite. Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, the marketing partner of Sputnik V in India, tweeted that the consignment that arrived today in Hyderabad contains 60,000 doses of the second dose component of the #SputnikV vaccine. Samples from the consignment will be sent for release to the Central Drugs Laboratory. The first consignment consisting of 1.5 lakh doses that arrived in Hyderabad on May 1 was cleared for use on May 13 by the Central Drugs Laboratory in Kasauli. Samples drawn from all consignments would be sent to the central facility in Himachal Pradesh and the vaccine used on getting clearance. Dr. Reddy’s CEO-API and Services Deepak Sapra said this at a media briefing on May 14, following the soft launch of the vaccine by the company as part of a limited pilot. The first dose was administered in Hyderabad. The maximum retail price of the vaccine is ₹995, including a 5% GST. The company said this was the rate at which it would be supplying the vaccine to the government and private sector.

C) DRDO developed drug to be distributed in Delhi.

An anti-coronavirus drug developed by Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be launched tomorrow, with Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh distributing around 10,000 doses to some hospitals in Delhi. The drug, called 2-deoxy-D-glucose or 2-DG, was developed by a DRDO lab in collaboration with Hyderabad-based pharma giant, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), the country’s top drug regulator, has approved the medicine for emergency use. The drug had shown promising results in its phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials. It was also found to be effective in cutting short the hospital stays of patients and reducing supplemental oxygen dependence.

D) Already booked appointments for Covishielf second dose will remain valid.

The Union health ministry on Sunday clarified that already booked online appointments for second dose of Covishield vaccine will remain valid and the same will not be cancelled on Co-WIN platform. It, however, said requisite changes have now been done in the Co-WIN digital portal, as a result of which further online or on-site appointments will not be possible if the period after first dose date for a beneficiary is less than 84 days. The Centre had on May 13 extended the gap between the first and second doses of Covishield vaccine to 12-16 weeks based on the recommendations by the COVID Working Group chaired by N.K. Arora. The Government of India has communicated this change to states and UTs. The Co-WIN digital portal has also been reconfigured to reflect this extension of interval for two doses of Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) to 12-16 weeks, the Ministry said. However, there have been reports in a section of the media suggesting that people who had pre-booked their appointments for the second dose in less than 84 days on Co-WIN are being turned back from vaccination centres without getting the second dose of Covishield, it said. Additionally, already booked online appointments for second dose of Covishield will remain valid and are not being cancelled by Co-WIN. Further, the beneficiaries are advised to reschedule their appointments for a later date beyond the 84th day from the date of first dose of vaccination, the Ministry added.

E) ‘Entire globe is a unit’ government says while justifying vaccines export.

The entire globe is a unit during a pandemic. This is how the government justified in the Supreme Court its decision to export vaccines amidst a surging second wave of Covid-19. A page in the Ministry of External Affairs’ website shows that between January and April 2021, India exported 663.698 lakh Made in India Covid-19 vaccine supplies to over 90 countries and UN health workers and peacekeepers. Once an epidemic takes (the) form of a pandemic, its management has to be done keeping the entire globe as (a) unit, a March 11 affidavit of the Health Ministry informed the apex court. The document sheds further light into the much criticised-move to export COVID-19 vaccines. In fact, according to the affidavit, the government reasoned it was not possible to take a country or States-specific approach. The government envisaged vaccine export as part of a global action to vaccination. The Centre reasoned that it was necessary to protect the high-risk population in other countries to break the chain of transmission and minimise chances of import of COVID-19 cases to India. India is not immune to the pandemic till the world at large has contained the disease, the Centre argued. It said the export was limited and done giving highest priority to domestic needs. But this is not all. The government, in the affidavit, gives another dimension to why it exported vaccines and opted for staggered immunisation. It said both were done to avoid disproportionality between the production of COVID-19 vaccines and the country’s available health infrastructure and manpower. Simultaneous vaccination without priority classification would have led to commotion, the Centre told the Supreme Court. The affidavit highlights the need for adequate manpower and sufficient infrastructure to cope with the immunisation drive. The document indicates that the available health infrastructure and manpower may not match up. To illustrate, having received one crore vaccine doses for a particular State or city, the vaccine drive would need sufficient number of medical staff who can administer the vaccines and infrastructure like hospitals, primary health centres, etc. It is needless to mention that manufacturing of vaccine would not be proportionate to the available manpower and infrastructure facilities in the country, the government justified.

F) Rahul Gandhi tweets ‘offending’ poster, dares Delhi Police to ‘Arrest me too’

Challenging the arrests of 24 persons by the Delhi police for posters that surfaced across the city questioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to donate vaccines to neighbouring countries, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi posted the ‘offending’ poster on his Twitter account daring the police to arrest him. All the posters uniformly pose the question: Modiji humare bachon ka vaccine videsh kyon bhej diya? (Why did you send vaccines meant for our children abroad?). Mr Gandhi said, Arrest me too. Nearly six crore doses of vaccines have been sent out to various countries. So far, a little over four crore persons have got both doses in India and 14 crore people have got a single dose as per the latest numbers on the centralised vaccination website CoWin. The persons were arrested under a rarely used law of Prevention of Defacement of Property Act and most of them have been released on bail. Celebrate, India is a free country. There is freedom of speech, except, when you ask a question of the Honourable Prime Minister, senior Congress leader and former Home Minister P. Chidambaram wrote on Twitter. He said the poster asks a simple question and before PM Modi could answer the Delhi police had answered with arrest. Congress Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh pasted the poster next to his nameplate at his official residence opposite the Lodhi Garden. He said this smacks of a lawless state gone amuck.

G) Plea in SC to use PM-Cares fund for vaccines, oxygen plants.

A plea was filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to utilise the PM-CARES fund for immediate procurement of vaccines and establishment of oxygen plants, generators and their installation in 738 district hospitals across the country. The petition, filed by advocate Viplav Sharma, said the government needs to loosen its PM-CARES purse strings and use the money to help common people urgently access medical care and oxygen. These government hospitals are easily accessible at no cost to common people of every district in the country who are desperately seeking medical oxygen as basic life-saving support, the petition said. The petition also asked for a stay on an April 24 notification of the Centre granting exemption on import duty of medical equipment relating to oxygen generation owing to its acute and rising demand. The petition said the exemption has been wrongfully capped for only three months. People may need this equipment for more than that period. Three months’ cap on the exemption period is too short a period from the standpoint of logistics involved in importing this highly sophisticated medical equipment in India by over 300 hospitals, it said. The plea asked the court to issue directions to States and Union Territories to ensure that private and charitable hospitals have actually procured, installed and commissioned medical plants or equipment with essential backup for medical oxygen for COVID-19 patients. The petition said States and UTs should ensure the setting up of electric and other kinds of crematoriums in cities and improve the existing ones. It also sought the preparation of a ‘National Plan’ in consultation with Chief Secretaries and States.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Kurz expects to be charged but cleared in perjury case.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz expects to be charged but eventually cleared in an investigation into whether he gave false testimony to a parliamentary commission, he said on Sunday, ruling out the idea of resigning if indicted. The investigation by anticorruption prosecutors, made public, last week poses a stiff political challenge for the conservative Mr. Kurz, 34, who governs in coalition with the Greens. Mr. Kurz has painted himself as the victim of opposition parties trying to trap him into saying something that could be construed as perjury before the commission, which is looking into possible corruption under his previous coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) which collapsed in 2019. After every word of mine on 58 pages (of testimony) is put on the scale, I certainly expect a criminal complaint, that’s right, he told the Krone newspaper in an interview, adding he had not yet been questioned by prosecutors. But he said he was confident he would be exonerated in the case, which centres on whether he answered truthfully when asked about appointments to state holding company OBAG. He have spoken to numerous lawyers and several university professors. The tenor was always the same: no one can imagine that there will be a conviction here, he told the paper. In a separate interview with the Oesterreich newspaper, he rejected the idea of stepping down if indicted.

B) As U.K. prepares to reopen, B.l.617.2 strain sparks worry.

As England, Scotland and Wales prepares to unlock parts of their economy on Monday, the future roadmap for reopening has been put in doubt over the more transmissible B.1.617.2 strain, or the Indian strain. According to government data, the case numbers of the Indian variant have risen from 520 to 1,313 this week. However, Heath Secretary Matt Hancock expressed confidence that existing vaccines are effective against the new variant. Mr. Hancock said the government had a high degree of confidence that vaccines would stand up to the BI.617.2 variant, following new early data from Oxford University. That means that we can stay on course with our strategy of using the vaccine to deal with the pandemic, he said. The British government has come under criticism from opposition politicians over its decision to put Pakistan and Bangladesh on its red list before India. Mr. Hancock rebuffed the suggestion the decision was influenced by a planned trip by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in April to assist in post-Brexit trade talks. They take these decisions based on the evidence, he said over the visit which was eventually scrapped because of surging COVID-19 cases in India. Indoor hospitality and indoor entertainment such as cinemas, museums and sports venues are to open their doors in most parts of the U.K. for the first time in months on Monday. People and families will also be able to meet with some restrictions in private houses under the new measures. Mr. Hancock said the reopening could go ahead because of the country’s successful vaccination campaign and close monitoring of cases. However, he sounded a note of caution over plans to completely lift restrictions on June 21. We’re in a race between the vaccination programme. And the virus, and this new variant has given the virus some extra legs in that race, but we have a high degree of confidence that the vaccine will overcome, he said. The government’s former chief scientific Adviser said the U.K. now found itself in a perilous movement.  Britain is one of the countries the worst hit with over 127,000 deaths.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
16 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Delhi Police arrests 15 people, lodges 17 FIRs over posters critical of Modi’s handling of vaccination drive.

Delhi Police has registered 17 FIRs and arrested 15 people for allegedly pasting posters critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the vaccination drive against Covid-19, officials said on Saturday, PTI reported. The posters reading ‘Modiji humare bachon ki vaccine videsh kyu bhej diya (PM why did you send vaccines of our children to foreign countries?) were pasted in several parts of the city, they said. On Thursday, police received information about the posters, following which senior officers of the districts were alerted. And based on further complaints, as many as 17 FIRs were registered under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant sections including section 3 of the Prevention of Defacement of Property Act across various districts of the Delhi Police, the officials said. A senior police officer said, More FIRs are likely to be registered if further complaints are received in this regard. As of now, investigation is underway to ascertain as to on whose behalf these posters were being put up at various places across the city and accordingly further action will be taken in the matter. Delhi Police comes under the purview of the Central government, and reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

B) Plea in SC seeks CBSE, ICSE Class 12 exams cancellation.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to direct the authorities to cancel the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) exams for Class 12 students. The petition asked both the boards to instead conceive an objective methodology to declare the Class 12 results within a specific time-frame. Issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to cancel the examination of Class 12 and devise an objective methodology to declare the result within a specific time-frame, advocate Mamta Sharma, who filed the petition, urged. He said the CBSE and ICSE notifications deferring the exams to an unspecified date should be quashed. Students cannot be made to suffer uncertainty in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis posed by the Covid-19 pandemic. There should not be any uncertainty regarding exams crucial to the future academic study of Class 12 students, the plea stated. Last year, the apex court asked the boards to determine and declare Class 12 exam results on the basis of their earlier grading. The petitioner said the same methodology could be used this year too. Both the boards cannot remain mute spectators and opt to wait and watch for the pandemic wave to ebb. Delay would put the future of the students in peril. The boards had cancelled the Class 10 exams. The same should be done for Class 12 students. As far as the innocent students of Class12 are concerned, a step-motherly, arbitrary, inhuman direction have been issued to postpone their final examination for an unspecified duration instead of following the directions propounded and accepted by them last year, the petition said.

C) Govt must explain massive under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths in Gujarat, says Congress.

The Congress on Saturday raised the issue of under-reporting of Covid-19 deaths in some states, especially in Gujarat, and demanded an explanation from both the central and the state governments. Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Shaktisinh Gohil in a joint press conference pointed out that the deaths in Gujarat this year were more than double the number in 2020 and said that the substantial increase can only be attributed to a pandemic. The two Congress leaders cited a news report which showed that Gujarat had issued about 1,23,000 death certificates between March 1 and May 10, as against about 58,000 certificates issued during the same period last year, and said they got these verified after collecting data from 33 districts of the state. The Congress leaders said the sum of the number of the death certificates collected nearly tallies with the numbers published and that comes to 1,23,873 in 2021 against 58,068 last year. However, during the period March 1 to May 10, the government of Gujarat has officially admitted to only 4,218 Covid-related deaths. Chidambaram said the difference between the increase in the number of death certificates (65,805) and the official Covid-related deaths (4,218) must be explained. It cannot be explained as natural annual increase’ or due to other causes, he noted. They have a strong suspicion that the bulk of the increased number of deaths is due to COVID and the state government is suppressing the true number of Covid-related deaths. They have a strong suspicion that the Government of India, in conjunction with some state governments, is suppressing the true numbers of new infections and Covid-related deaths. If our suspicions are true, this is a grave misdeed apart from being a national shame and a national tragedy, he said.

D) Government’s ‘disastrous’ vaccination policy’ will ensure third wave, says Rahul.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday called for a national vaccine strategy and claimed that the government’s disastrous inoculation policy will ensure a devastating third wave in the country. He also accused the Prime Minister of making mother Ganga cry after bodies of suspected coronavirus victims were found floating in the river. The Government of India’s (GOI’s) disastrous vaccine strategy will ensure a devastating third wave. It can’t be repeated enough. India needs a proper vaccine strategy, he said on Twitter. Tagging media reports which had documented that over 2,000 bodies were found in a 1,140 km area along the Ganga, he said, One who used to say ‘Ganga’ has called him has made Mother Ganga cry. Gandhi and the Congress have been attacking the prime minister and his government over its vaccine strategy and handling of the pandemic.

E) Cyclone Tauktae has intensified, moving towards Gujarat: IMD.

Cyclonic storm Tauktae has intensified and is heading towards the coast of Gujarat and the Union Territory of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli, though it could bring gusty winds and showers to Mumbai, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Saturday. The cyclonic storm is very likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm by late Saturday night, the IMD said, adding it was very likely to move north-northwestwards and cross Gujarat coast between Porbandar and Naliya around May 18. As it would bring very heavy rainfall in that region, cities like Mumbai would not be affected much, the IMD added. There will be strong winds and heavy rainfall at isolated places on May 17 over north Konkan, including Mumbai, the met department said.

F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,45,77,613 with the death toll at 2,68,139. Bodies of the deceased are buried in the sand near the banks of the Ganga allegedly due to shortage of wood for cremation during the second wave of coronavirus at Shringverpur Ghat in Prayagraj on May 15, 2021. The West Bengal government on Saturday announced a complete lockdown from Sunday till May 30 in order to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the State. We are taking some strict measures to contain the pandemic, starting Sunday 6 am till 6 pm of May 30, Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said. During this period, all government and private offices, shopping complexes, malls, bars, sports complexes, pubs and beauty parlours will remain closed, he said. Movement of private vehicles, taxis, buses, metro rail, suburban trains will also be disallowed during the 15- day lockdown period. Meanwhile, in Tamil Nadu, the vaccination programme for people aged between 18 and 45 will start in two or three days. The State’s Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma. Subramanian on Saturday said that Tamil Nadu had already paid ₹46 crore for 15 lakh doses of vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, of which five lakh doses have arrived. The drive to vaccinate people in the18-45 age group will soon start in one of the locations in Chennai in two to three days, said the Minister after holding a review meeting in Coimbatore along with Food Minister R. Sakkarapani and Forests Minister K. Ramachandran.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

A) Israeli air strikes destroy Gaza building that housed media outlets, kills several Palestinian children.

An Israeli airstrike destroyed a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed offices of The Associated Press and other media outlets on Friday, the latest step by the military to silence reporting from the territory amid its battle with the militant group Hamas. The strike came nearly an hour after the military ordered people to evacuate the building, which also housed Al-Jazeera, other offices, and residential apartments. The strike brought the entire 12-storey building down, collapsing with a gigantic cloud of dust. There was no immediate explanation for why it was attacked. A fireball and smoke billow up into the air during an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City, in Gaza Strip on May 15, 2021. The strike came hours after another Israeli air raid on a densely populated refugee camp in Gaza City killed at least 10 Palestinians from an extended family, mostly children, in the deadliest single strike of the current conflict. The latest outburst of violence began in Jerusalem and has spread across the region, with Jewish-Arab clashes and rioting in mixed cities of Israel. There were also widespread Palestinian protests Friday in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli forces shot and killed 11 people. The spiralling violence has raised fears of a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising at a time when there have been no peace talks in years. Palestinians on Saturday were marking Nakba (Catastrophe) Day, when they commemorate the estimated 700,000 people who were expelled from or fled their homes in what was now Israel during the 1948 war surrounding its creation. That raised the possibility of even more unrest. U.S. diplomat Hady Amr arrived Friday as part of Washington’s efforts to de-escalate the conflict, and the U.N. Security Council was set to meet Sunday. But Israel turned down an Egyptian proposal for a one-year truce that Hamas rulers had accepted, an Egyptian official said Friday, to discuss the negotiations. Since Monday night, Hamas has fired hundreds of rockets into Israel, which has pounded the Gaza Strip with strikes. In Gaza, at least 139 people have been killed, including 39 children and 22 women; in Israel, eight people have been killed, including the death Saturday of a man killed by a rocket that hit in Ramat Gan, a suburb of Tel Aviv. The strike on the building housing media offices came in the afternoon, after the building’s owner received a call from the Israeli military warning that it would be hit. AP’s staff and others in the building evacuated immediately. Al-Jazeera, the news network funded by Qatar’s government, broadcast the airstrikes live as the building collapsed.

B) Cairn Energy sues Air India in U.S. court to enforce $1.2 billion arbitration award.

Cairn Energy has sued flagship carrier Air India to enforce a $1.2 billion arbitration award that it won in a tax dispute against the country, according to a U.S. District Court filing reviewed by Reuters. The move ratchets up pressure on the Union government to pay the sum of $1.2 billion plus interest and costs that the British firm Cairn was awarded by an arbitration tribunal in December. The body ruled India breached an investment treaty with Britain and said New Delhi was liable to pay. Cairn filed the lawsuit on May 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeking to make Air India liable for the judgment that was awarded to Cairn. The lawsuit argued that the carrier, as a state-owned company, is legally indistinct from the state itself. The nominal distinction between India and Air India is illusory and serves only to aid India in improperly shielding its assets from creditors like [Cairn], the filing said. Air India and the Union government did not immediately respond to requests seeking comment. In February, Cairn filed a separate case in a U.S. court to recognise and confirm the arbitration award, including payments due since 2014 and interest compounded semi-annually. Responding to queries about the case filed in a U.S. Court, a company spokesperson said, Cairn is taking the necessary legal steps to protect shareholders’ interests in the absence of a resolution to the arbitral award. Cairn remains open to continuing constructive dialogue with the Government of India to arrive at a satisfactory outcome to this long-running issue.

CURRENT AFFAIRS
15 May 2021

NATIONAL NEWS:

A) Petition in Supreme Court asks for vaccine clinical trial data to be made public.

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court to make public the segregated data of clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines administered under the Emergency Use Authorisation granted by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). Former member of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation Dr. Jacob Puliyel, represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, asked the court to direct the government, its bodies and the vaccine manufacturers – the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to transparently reveal clinical trial and vaccination data, including the recording and reporting of adverse events. Further, the petition urged the court to direct the government to not issue any coercive mandates for use of these inadequately tested vaccines. Bhushan argued that courts should reiterate that vaccine mandates are repugnant to the right of humans to autonomy and right to self-determine what may be injected into their bodies. The respondents (Centre, its agencies like DCGI and ICMR and vaccine manufacturers) have maintained opacity about the clinical trial data of the two vaccines administered through emergency authorisation in India. Non-disclosure of this important data violates the basic ethics of clinical research that requires results of clinical research studies to be published and brought to the knowledge of the medical community, participants to the research, and the general population, the petition said. Dr. Puliyel, also represented by advocate Cheryl d’Souza, said the lack of transparency raised concerns over the efficacy and safety of the two vaccines. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has released a strong statement advocating for public disclosure of all clinical trial results. According to the statement, when data is not released it means that doctors, patients and medical regulators cannot make informed decisions about which treatments are best, the petition stated. The petition said transparency in publishing clinical trial data by the Central Drugs Standard Controls Organisation (CDSCO) that granted final approval for the vaccines by various manufactures to enter the immunisation chain flowed from Section 4 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, which required the government to make proactive disclosures of its records through the internet and other means of communications to the general public.

B) Vice President, Lok Sabha Speaker say no to virtual meetings of Parliamentary panels.

The parliamentary panels cannot meet virtually till the necessary rules are amended by both Houses of Parliament, the Rajya Sabha secretariat said in reply to a letter written by Leader of the Opposition Mallikarjun Kharge on Friday. The standing committees of Parliament, which are non-partisan platforms to analyse the functioning of the government, have not met even once since the onset of the second wave of the pandemic. More than a year after the demands were first raised by the panels’ chairpersons, the necessary changes in the rules have not been amended since their physical meetings were held for a few months when it was believed that Covid-19 was on the wane. Last week, in a letter to Rajya Sabha Chairman Venkaiah Naidu, Kharge said that Parliament could not be a mute spectator to the suffering of the people. He urged Naidu to allow online meetings of the panels. Naidu and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla last year held a series of meetings where it was argued that the confidentiality clause dictated that only physical meetings of the panels can be held, keeping the proceedings and deliberations secret. It was decided that the issue be referred to the committee on Rules in both the Houses. As physical meetings of the committees were being held regularly, following the guidelines strictly, the matter rested there and the situation had not arisen for considering the matter by the Rules Committees in both the Houses, the letter stated. The Rajya Sabha secretariat assured Kharge that the meetings of the committees would be considered shortly once the situation improves for better. It was informed that the issue of confidentiality can be resolved during the session as any amendment to the rules can be approved by the respective Houses only after the matter is considered by the Rules Committee. Senior Congress leader and chairman of the committee on Home Affairs Anand Sharma who, on Tuesday, wrote to Naidu making the same demand, said: In a democracy, accountability can neither be delayed nor evaded. His colleague and chairman of the panel on Science and Technology Jairam Ramesh wrote on Twitter that nowhere in the world had Parliament run away from its duties like in India. In spite of repeated requests for almost a year, virtual meetings of Standing Committees have been inexplicably disallowed. The PM has all his meetings virtually, but 30 odd MPs cannot, he said.

C) Congress slams Centre as Delhi Police question Youth Congress chief over Covid-19 relief work.

The Congress on Friday asked if providing oxygen cylinders and life-saving drugs to Covid-19 patients is a crime under the Narendra Modi government. This follows the questioning of the Indian Youth Congress (IYC) chief B V Srinivas by the crime branch of the Delhi Police. Today every person has to decide if providing oxygen, helping people to get life-saving drugs like Remdesivir, arranging beds or providing food to ambulance drivers is a crime. It seems to be a crime according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. Today, Modi ji and [Home Minister] Amit Shah Ji sent Delhi Police to the office of the IYC office to question Srinivas ji. Can there be a more despicable act than this? Is it a sin committed by the Youth Congress and the Congress to provide help that the Modi government has been unable to do? he stated. The government should be ashamed of itself, he said. He asserted that the Youth Congress would continue to provide oxygen and other life-saving drugs to needy patients. They [Delhi Police officials] wanted to know the details of how are we helping people. We answered all their questions, Srinivas said. Using hash tag #IStandWithIYC to express solidarity, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi tweeted, The one who saves is always greater than the one who destroys. While former Union Minister Jairam Ramesh tweeted to call the Delhi Police’s move as atrocious, party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too reacted on Twitter when former Rajya Sabha member Shahid Siddiqui said that a police official had also come to his place to find out how Vadra mananged to help him with Remdesivir injections for his wife. If helping someone in need is now a crime, I will commit it again and again. To my mind it’s a far greater crime to silently watch and do nothing while people die desperately searching for medicine and gasping for air, Vadra said, lending her support to the IYC. At an online press conference, All India Congress Committee in charge of Delhi Shaktisinh Gohil said Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee chief Anil Chaudhary and former MLA Mukesh Sharma also received notice for such questioning. A Delhi Police official claimed that the questioning followed a direction from the Delhi High Court on a writ petition filed by Dr. Deepak Singh about politicians involved in illegal distribution of Covid-19 medicines, etc. 

D) Sputnik V to be priced at ₹995.40 per dose.

Sputnik V has now joined India’s immunisation programme against Covid-19, with the first dose of the Russian vaccine being administered in Hyderabad today. The maximum retail price of the imported vaccine is ₹995.40 per dose. As part of a limited pilot, the soft launch of the vaccine has commenced and the first dose was administered in Hyderabad on May 14, said Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, the marketing partner in India for the vaccine of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). It follows the imported doses of Sputnik V that arrived in the country on May 1, receiving regulatory clearance from the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli, on May 13. Further consignments of Sputnik V are expected over the upcoming months. Subsequently, supply of the vaccine will commence from Indian manufacturing partners.

E) Many districts in Kerala on rain alert.

District administrations in Kerala have scrambled to deal with a potential rainfall-related emergency, with the turbulent weather conditions over the Arabian Sea expected to trigger torrential rains over the next few days. Five Kerala districts Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Ernakulam were on red alert today (Friday), given the likelihood of extremely heavy rainfall, according to a corrected weather update issued by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) at 1 p.m. In a 10 a.m. update, the weather agency had downgraded the red alerts that were sounded in three districts on Friday to orange alerts. As per the latest update, Kottayam, Idukki, Thrissur, Palakkad , Malappuram, Kozhikode and Wayanad are on orange alert today (Friday) and Kannur and Kasaragod on yellow alert.

F) Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments.

The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 2,41,00,326 with the death toll at 2,62,951. Lockdown restrictions in Tamil Nadu are set to become more stringent from tomorrow. Provision and grocery stores and shops selling meat would be allowed to function only from 6 am to 10 am across Tamil Nadu from Saturday. Tea shops will be closed. These shops were earlier allowed to remain open from 6 am to 12 noon. E-registration would be made mandatory from May 17 for inter-district and intra-district movement even for essential purposes, weddings or funerals of close relatives and also for travelling for medical treatment and for elderly care, a Government release said on Friday evening. Shops on pavements, which were earlier allowed to sell vegetables, flowers and fruits till 12 noon, would not be allowed any more. In neighbouring Kerala, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday extended the state-wide lockdown till May 23. Vijayan said the government is taking steps to mitigate the ill-effects of the lockdown, chiefly loss of livelihood. He announced free food kits for the population and immediate distribution of social welfare pensions. The government would support Anganwadi teachers and Kudumbashree units, he added.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS 

A) Oli reappointed Nepal PM. 

K.P. Sharma Oli, heading a minority government, was sworn in as Nepal’s Prime Minister on Friday, four days after the embattled leader lost a crucial vote of confidence in Parliament. The 69-year-old Chairman of the Communist Party of MarxistLeninist) was reappointed as Prime Minister by President Bidya Devi Bhandari in his capacity as leader of the largest political party in Nepal’s House of Representatives. Mr. Oli will head a minority government as he does not enjoy a majority in Parliament after losing the vote of confidence on Monday. He was reappointed to the post on Thursday night as the Opposition parties failed to secure majority seats in Parliament. Mr. Oli will now have to take a vote of confidence at the House within 30 days, failing which, an attempt to form a government under Article 76 (5) of the Constitution would be initiated by the President. The Ministers of Mr. Oli’s Cabinet were also sworn in during the ceremony. All the Ministers from the old Cabinet have been included in the new Cabinet. Pradeep Gyawali has been reappointed as Foreign Minister while Ram Bahadur Thapa and Bishnu Poudyal were appointed as Ministers for Home and Finance.

B) Kabul mosque bombing kills 12 devotees. 

A bomb ripped through a mosque in northern Kabul during Friday prayers, killing 12 worshippers, and wounding 15, Afghan police. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, the latest in a surge in violence as U.S. and NATO troops have begun their final withdrawal from the country, after 20 years of According to Afghan police spokesman, Ferdaws Faramarz, the bomb exploded as prayers had begun. The mosque’s Imam, Mofti Noman, was among the dead, the spokesman said and ad, ded that the initial police investigation suggests the Imam may have been the target. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied any insurgent connection to the mosque attack, condemning it and accusing Afghanistan’s intelligence agency of being behind the explosion. Both the Taliban and government routinely blame each other for attacks. The attackers are rarely identified, and the public is seldom informed of the results of investigations into the many attacks in the capital. One worshipper, Muhibullah Sahebzada, said he had just stepped into the building when the explosion went off. Stunned, he heard the sound of screams, including those of children. as smoke filled the mosque. The explosion comes on the second day of a three-day ceasefire announced by the Taliban for Id-ul-Fitr, follows the fasting month of Ramzan. The Afghan government has said it would abide by a truce. So far, many of the attacks in Kabul have been claimed by the Islamic State group’s lcxal affiliate, though the Taliban and government routinely trade blame.