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India's Tata Group founder world's 'biggest giver in 100 years'
India's very own Jamsetji Tata, the founder of the iconic salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, has topped the list of the world's most generous individuals of the last century.
With donations worth $102.4 billion in his lifetime, Tata pipped Microsoft founder Bill Gates and American business magnate Warren Buffet to emerge as the globe's biggest givers of the last century in the list of the world's top-50 philanthropists prepared by leading research platform Hurun Report and grant-making organisation EdelGive Foundation.
Read The World's 10 Self-made Youngest Billionaires in 2021
Gates and his now-estranged wife Melinda have donated $74.6 billion, Buffet $37.4 billion, legendary hedge fund manager George Soros $34.8 billion and American financier John D Rockefeller $26.8 billion in the last century, as per the list.
“Whilst American and European philanthropists may have dominated the thinking of philanthropy over the last century, Jamsetji Tata, founder of India's Tata Group, is the world's biggest philanthropist," Rupert Hoogewerf, the chairman and chief researcher at Hurun, said in a statement.
Widely regarded as the 'Father of the Indian Industry', Tata's ambitious endeavours and vision not only shaped the exceptional business conglomerate but also helped India earn her place in the league of industrialised nations. He had made his fortune trading cotton, tea, copper, brass and even opium.
Read BGMEA donates Tk5 crore to PM's fund for Covid-hit poor families
"Setting aside two-thirds of ownership to trusts engaged in doing good in various areas, including education and healthcare, has helped Tatas achieve the top spot in giving," said Hoogewerf, adding that Tata's giving started in 1892 itself.
Tata, who was born in 1839 into a Parsi family in a city in the western state of Gujarat (then part of British India), started his early career as a merchant, but he went on to change the business landscape of the country through his many ventures -- Tata Steel company being the notable among them. A globe-trekker, Tata was always fascinated by new inventions.
Read Bangladesh to get $ 940 mln ADB loans for procuring Covid vaccine
Companies give vaccines to workers, boosting Japan’s rollout
Thousands of Japanese companies began distributing COVID-19 vaccines to workers and their families Monday in an employer-led drive reaching more than 13 million people that aims to rev up the nation’s slow vaccine rollout.
Yuka Daimaru, among the Suntory workers getting the shot on a sprawling office floor, was visibly relieved after spending more than a year worrying about the coronavirus.
“I was nervous, but it didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would,” she said. “Now I don’t have to worry as much on commuter trains or at meetings.”
Read: China's comical picture 'The Last G-7' raps Japan's Fukushima water
The Tokyo-based beverage maker plans to inoculate 51,500 people, including part-time workers and employees’ families, with the Moderna vaccine.
About 3,500 companies have signed up for the free vaccines, and that number is growing. The companies must present a plan to inoculate at least 1,000 people per site. But they decide whom to include, such as families, affiliate companies and suppliers.
Universities are also eligible. Smaller companies can apply through organizations, such as the local merchant association, so ideally no one falls through the cracks, according to the health ministry.
Among those taking part are major automaker Toyota Motor Corp., planning to vaccinate 80,000 people at its plants and offices.
Read:Japan’s vaccine push ahead of Olympics looks to be too late
Fast Retailing, behind the Uniqlo clothing chain, is inoculating 18,500 people, including part-timers and cleaning and cafeteria staff, starting July 1.
Online retailer Rakuten said it’s vaccinating 60,000 workers and their families.
Company applications for the vaccines are accepted through February 2022.
Japan is relying totally on imported vaccines for a campaign that started in February with medical professionals. Only about 6% of Japanese are fully vaccinated. Japan has had more than 14,000 deaths from COVID-19.
Local governments and Japan’s self-defense forces are also leading the vaccination campaign, but the employer-led efforts are helping accelerate the pace.
Read:Japan opens mass vaccination centers 2 months before Games
Daisuke Sen, a human resources senior general manager at Suntory Holdings, said the vaccinations at his company will be completed by the end of August.
The first day for the vaccinations came after weeks of work, especially scrambling to find doctors and nurses to carry out the shots, he said.
“Getting here means so much for me,” he said.
Vaccine hesitancy puts India’s gains against virus at risk
In Jamsoti, a village tucked deep inside India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities. The deadly infection, they believe, does not exist in villages.
So when a team of health workers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated, she locked up her house, gathered her children and ran to the nearby forest.
The family hid there for hours and returned only when the workers left in the evening.
“I would rather die than take the vaccine,” said Kol.
Read:Virus surge claims brightest minds at Indian universities
A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through India in April and May, killing more than 180,000, has tapered off and new cases have declined. But the relief could be fleeting as a significant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots. This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy, particularly in India’s vast hinterlands, could put the country’s fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk.
“Vaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in India,” said retired virologist and pediatrician Dr. T. Jacob John. “The more the virus circulates, the more it can mutate into dangerous new variants that can undermine vaccines.”
Delivering vaccines in the world’s second-most populous country was always going to be challenging. Even though India did relatively well at the beginning of its mammoth vaccination drive, the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vaccine policy, exacerbating existing inequalities.
Only less than 5% of India’s people are fully immunized. Experts caution that by the end of the year, vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indians from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386,000 people — a figure considered to be a vast undercount.
Starting Monday, every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal government. The new policy, announced last week, ends a complex system of buying and distributing vaccines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out.
There is still widespread hesitancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust, particularly in rural areas where two-thirds of the country’s nearly 1.4 billion population lives.
Health workers face stiff resistance from people who believe that vaccines cause impotence, serious side effects and could even kill. Some simply say they do not need the shots because they’re immune to the coronavirus.
Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reducing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in favor of men. In almost every Indian state, more men are getting vaccinated than women — and that gap is widening further every day.
Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many, particularly in India’s tribal-dominated districts that have recorded disproportionately lower vaccine coverage in comparison with other districts, according to official data.
Yogesh Kalkonde, a public health doctor in Gadchiroli, a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra, said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus.
Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility, Kalkonde said. Others simply question its effectiveness.
Read: How India is changing vaccine plan amid shortages
“We have to convince people, go door to door, and rely on people who have taken the vaccine to spread the word,” he said. “It’s an extremely slow process.”
There is some pushback. State governments have mounted aggressive awareness campaigns through posters and radio announcements to allay some of the anxiety and confusion. Some local administrations have started giving rides to vaccination centers, especially from remote villages. Volunteers are conducting door-to-door surveys and even small rallies to encourage people to get the jab.
For months, Vibha Singh, a government-appointed nurse, has gone door-to-door in the villages of Uttar Pradesh.
“People tell us to leave or they would beat us,” said Singh. “Sometimes they also throw stones and bricks at us.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other leaders have routinely spoken about the need to shun vaccine hesitancy, but health experts say more needs to be done.
“We need to explain it clearly to people, ideally through local trusted networks,” said K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public Health Foundation of India. He said state governments should bolster local self-help groups, village councils and ask local religious leaders to step in.
“It requires a conversation, not just top-down messaging,” he said.
Dr. Vinod K. Paul, head of the country’s COVID-19 task force, acknowledged the immediate need to address the problem but said public participation to dispel rumors and misinformation was important.
“It is the responsibility not only of the government but also the society as a whole to create such an environment in which an unfounded hesitancy is addressed,” said Paul.
Virologists and public health experts say eradicating doubts about the vaccine in rural India and inoculating people quickly should be of paramount importance since the majority of Indians live in the hinterlands. Already, urban dwellers are getting the shots much faster.
“If they are protected, much of India will be protected,” Reddy said of rural areas. “Their vulnerability to a sweeping pandemic is much, much more. So vaccinating them quickly must be a priority.”
Read:To launch J&J Covid shot in India, Biological E begins talks with govt lab to test vaccine
Not everyone is convinced.
When a team of health workers last week attempted to vaccinate Panna Lal, a resident of Sikanderpur village in Uttar Pradesh, they were met with an absolute refusal.
Lal even discouraged the rest of his family from getting the jab.
“The vaccine will not protect me,” the 56-year-old told the workers. “God has sent me here safely, and he will continue to protect me.”
US sending Taiwan 2.5 million vaccine doses, tripling pledge
The U.S. is sending 2.5 million doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, tripling an earlier pledge in a donation with both public health and geopolitical meaning.
The shipment was due to arrive by plane later Sunday, the de facto U.S. embassy said. “The donation reflects our commitment to Taiwan as a trusted friend, and a member of the international family of democracies,” the American Institute in Taiwan wrote on its Facebook page.
Read:Senators say US donating vaccines to Taiwan amid China row
Taiwan, which had been relatively unscathed by the virus, has been caught off-guard by a surge in new cases since May and is now scrambling to get COVID-19 vaccines. It has ordered 5.05 million doses directly from Moderna but so far received only 390,000, including a second shipment that arrived Friday.
The U.S. donation also signals its support for Taiwan in the face of growing pressure from China, which claims the self-governing island off its east coast as its territory. The U.S. does not have formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan under what is known as the one-China policy, but is legally bound by its own laws to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself.
The U.S. promised 750,000 vaccine doses for Taiwan earlier this month, sending Sen. Tammy Duckworth and two of her Senate colleagues to the island aboard a military transport plane to make the announcement. Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen said the U.S. had decided to increase the donation through efforts on both sides over the past two weeks.
Read: China may buckle down to reunify Taiwan after crackdown on Hong Kong
In a Facebook post, Tsai joined the U.S. in drawing attention to their shared democratic systems. China, which has been ruled single handedly by the Communist Party since 1949, says Taiwan must eventually come under its control and reserves the right to use force if necessary.
“Whether it is for regional peace and stability or the virus that is a common human adversary, we will continue to uphold common ideas and work together,” Tsai wrote in Chinese.
She has accused China of blocking Taiwan from getting the Pfizer vaccine through BioNTech, the German co-developer. Chinese officials have repeatedly denied the charge, and say China is willing to provide vaccines to Taiwan. Taiwanese law, however, bans the import of Chinese-made medicine.
Read:Taiwan struggles with testing backlog amid largest outbreak
The U.S. donation follows Japan’s shipment of 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in early June. Taiwan has ordered 10 million doses from AstraZeneca but has yet to receive most of them.
Afghanistan running out of oxygen as COVID surge worsens
Afghanistan’s is racing to ramp up supplies of oxygen as a deadly third surge of COVID-19 worsens, a senior health official told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday.
The government is installing oxygen supply plants in 10 provinces where up to 65% of those tested in some areas are COVID positive, health ministry spokesman Ghulam Dastigir Nazari said.
By WHO recommendations, anything higher than 5% shows officials aren’t testing widely enough, allowing the virus to spread unchecked. Afghanistan carries out barely 4,000 tests a day and often much less.
Read: NATO leaders bid symbolic adieu to Afghanistan at summit
Afghanistan’s 24-hour infection count has also continued its upward climb from 1,500 at the end of May when the health ministry was already calling the surge “a crisis,” to more than 2,300 this week. Since the pandemic outbreak, Afghanistan is reporting 101,906 positive cases and 4,122 deaths. But those figures are likely a massive undercount, registering only deaths in hospitals — not the far greater numbers who die at home.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan received 900 oxygen cylinders from Iran on Saturday, part of 3,800 cylinders Tehran promised to deliver to Kabul last week. The shipment was delayed by Iran’s presidential elections, said Nazari.
Afghanistan has even run out of empty cylinders, receiving a delivery of 1,000 last week from Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile hospitals are rationing their oxygen supplies. Afghans desperate for oxygen are banging on the doors of the few oxygen suppliers in the Afghan capital, begging for their empty cylinders to be filled for COVID infected loved ones at home.
Abdul Wasi, whose wife has been sick for nearly 10 days, has been waiting four days for one 45-liter cylinder to be filled at the Najb Siddiqi oxygen plant in east Kabul. Scores of mostly men were banging on the 10-foot steel gate of the oxygen plant. Some rolled their empty oxygen cylinders up against the gate, while others waved small slips of paper carrying the number of their cylinder inside the plant, waiting to be filled.
Wasi said there were no hospital beds for his wife, whose oxygen level hovers around 70-80%. They are rationing her, he said giving her small amounts of oxygen when it drops to around 45 -50%.
“How can I do anything else? I have been waiting four days for my cylinder to be filled,” he said. The oxygen plant refills cylinders for 400 Afghanis (roughly $5), while in the market it costs 4,000 Afghanis (roughly $50).
For the country’s poor — over half of Afghanistan 36 million people according to World Bank figures — the situation has become desperate.
Wasi said on Friday as he waited outside the oxygen plant that a patient on a stretcher was carried to the door while the family begged for oxygen. The patient died.
“Right there,” he said pointing to the gate. “I saw them carrying the patient. They were crying and begging and then he died.”
Read:Afghan Hazaras being killed at school, play, even at birth
Barat Ali had arrived at the plant at 6 a.m. Saturday. It was his third day waiting for his cylinder to be filled.
“The poor people in this country have nothing. I have been standing in the sun for eight hours,” he said clutching his small piece of paper that contained his cylinder number. The government “has eaten all the (international) donations.”
Necephor Mghendi, who is the Afghanistan delegation head for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the AP in an interview in Kabul that the groups are working to get an oxygen generation plant into the country. The Afghan Red Crescent runs a 50-bed hospital devoted to COVID patients and uses roughly 250 cylinders a day, but in recent days it has been receiving barely half that many.
The needs are critical he said, offering as an example one patient currently at the Red Crescent hospital who needs one 45-litre cylinder every 15 minutes to stay alive, he said.
“The situation is very concerning,” he said.
Inside the Najib Siddiqi oxygen plant dozens of cylinders were being filled, but owner Najib Siddiqi said he can’t keep up. He supplies hospitals but has cut output to them by half, with the other half going to the crowds banging on his gates. He even fills smaller cylinders for free, but he has only the capacity to fill 450-500 cylinders a day.
“It’s not enough. They are outside like this all day,” he said.
Read:Amid brutal case surge, Afghanistan hit by a vaccine delay
Sakhi Ahmad Payman, chairman of the Afghanistan Chamber of Industries and Mines, who was inside the plant having made a tour of the oxygen plants in the city, said all nine facilities in Kabul were overwhelmed. Countrywide he said Afghanistan has 30 oxygen producing plants, and all are unable to keep up with demand.
Payman blasted the government.
“They knew we were in the middle of a crisis and didn’t do anything until it was too late,” he said.
Indian court orders probe into post-poll violence in Bengal
A higher court in Kolkata has slammed Mamata Banerjee's government for its alleged failure to prevent post-poll violence in West Bengal and ordered the National Human Rights Commission to probe all such complaints in the eastern state.
A five-judge bench of the High Court in Kolkata, led by acting chief justice Rajesh Bindal, gave the order on Friday, while disposing of a bunch of petitions alleging post-poll violence in Bengal.
In its order, the bench directed the Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission to immediately form a special committee to examine all complaints of alleged human rights violations in post-poll violence in West Bengal and submit a report on the same to the court.
The court also asked the state government to provide all logistical support to the committee "wherever and whenever they wish to visit any place". "Any obstruction will be viewed seriously, which may entail action under the Contempt of Courts Act, besides others."
On the government's alleged failure in controlling post-poll violence in Bengal, the court observed: "It is the duty of the state to maintain law and order in the state and inspire confidence in the residents of the state."
UNB had earlier reported about as many as 16 deaths in post-poll violence in Bengal, which prompted the Indian Home Ministry to seek a report from the state administration.
In fact, on May 6, a day after she was sworn in as the chief minister of Bengal for the third time, Mamata announced a compensation of Rs two lakh each for the families of 16 people killed in post-poll violence in the state.
"At least 16 persons -- mostly from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Trinamool -- died in post-poll violence. We will pay a compensation of Rs two lakh to their family members," she had said.
Appealing for calm, Mamata had also asked her supporters not to indulge in any violence. "Bengal is a peace-loving place. During the elections, there has been some heat and dust and calm. The BJP did a lot of torture. But I appeal to all for calm."
Bucking anti-incumbency, Mamata scripted history on May 2 by single-handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election, staving off a massive challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP but also decimated the Left Front.
Though her party swept back to power with a resounding majority of 213 seats in the 292-member assembly, the 66-year-old lost her own seat in Nandigram to her former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari by a thin margin of around 2,000 votes.
Bengal witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule.
Virus surge claims brightest minds at Indian universities
Sajad Hassan sat at his professor’s hospital bedside for three nights, doing most of the talking as his friend and mentor breathed through an oxygen mask and struggled with a suspected COVID-19 infection.
Both were confident the 48-year-old academic would be heading home soon, until a coronavirus test came back positive and physicians ordered him moved to the isolation ward — known by many at the university hospital as the “dark room” because so few who entered came out alive.
“I could visibly see fear in his eyes,” Hassan recalled.
Two days later Dr. Jibraeil was dead, one of nearly 50 professors and non-teaching staff at AMU, one of India’s top universities, who fell victim to the coronavirus as it ripped through through the country in April and May. AMU’s tragedy was repeated across India as schools suffered similar blows to their faculty, and the loss of their knowledge — and in many cases friendship and guidance — has been devastating to the academic community.
READ: How India is changing vaccine plan amid shortages
“The virus took away our brightest minds,” said Shafey Kidwai, spokesman for AMU, or Aligarh Muslim University.
One of the oldest universities in India, AMU has produced generations of politicians, jurists and scholars. The university has been the seat of modern education for many Muslims in the Indian subcontinent and an intellectual cradle for the community. It was primarily founded to educate India’s Muslims, who now make up about 14% of the country’s population.
Over the last two months, local newspapers and the university’s Facebook page were filled with the obituaries of its professors — all lost to the pandemic.
The zoologist “touched the lives of a generation of his students.” The physician was “an exceptional clinician, teacher and human being, who mentored many generations.” The psychologist was a “vibrant presence ” and was “known for conducting high-quality research.”
And Jibraeil, an assistant professor of history who went by only one name, was a “dedicated teacher, who loved his work and cared deeply about students.”
At the height of the surge, Kidwai recalled seeing colleagues carried off in ambulances to the hospital; some returning later to be buried in the over century-old campus graveyard.
“It was deeply harrowing,” he said.
There is no official count of how many professors have died during the pandemic, but many top Indian universities have reported situations similar to that at AMU. Delhi University, in India’s capital, and affiliated colleges lost 35 teachers. In Jamia Millia Islamia, another university in the capital, four professors and 15 staff members fell to the virus.
The pandemic has been equally devastating for government schoolteachers in some areas. More than 1,600 died in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s 28 states, where many are thought to have become infected after being forced to staff polling stations, over their objections, for an election held during the surge.
The academics were just a small part of the ghastly scenes that played out across India in April and May as its health system collapsed under a sudden, severe spike in cases that caught the government unprepared.
Some died in ambulances. Those who made it to hospitals were often left gasping for breath amid dramatic shortages of oxygen and ventilators. Crematoriums burned bodies day and night, at times in pyres outside their overwhelmed facilities.
More than 180,000 died in those two months, nearly half the 383,490 confirmed fatalities in India since the beginning of the pandemic.
As the surge has waned in recent weeks, AMU authorities and students have begun assessing the ledger of loss.
They say the deaths of educators have left a void and their grief has been exacerbated by pandemic-induced isolation, with memorials postponed indefinitely or held virtually.
“We want to celebrate the lives of those we lost, but the entire university is empty,” said AMU’s Kidwai. “Without that, I feel, students will feel a lingering sense of loss.”
With universities still closed, the situation has left many students with grappling with uncertainty.
The same day Jibraeil died, AMU doctoral student Shah Mehvish learned her thesis supervisor, 63-year-old Sajid Ali Khan, had also died after being infected.
The 28-year-old, one of Khan’s six Ph.D. students in her fourth year researching clinical psychology, said she cried and felt numb when she learned of his death. “His loss has left a void in my heart which is hard to fill,” she said.
Now, weeks later, she is contemplating the challenge in completing her research without Khan’s tutelage, which has left her “feeling anxious.”
“The cooperative relationship between teacher and researcher takes a lot of time and effort,” she said. “I don’t know how long it would take to familiarize myself with a new guide.”
For Hassan, also working toward his Ph.D., Jibraeil was more than just his former history professor.
The two had developed a close friendship since first meeting some five years ago when Hassan was an undergraduate and Jibraeil was his teacher. Over the years, the professor had gone out of his way to help Hassan, lending him books, guiding him in his research into modern Indian history, and even helped him out with a financial loan.
READ: To launch J&J Covid shot in India, Biological E begins talks with govt lab to test vaccine
In ordinary times, the burial of a popular professor like Jibraeil would have brought hundreds to the graveyard just on the university’s campus.
But due to the pandemic lockdown, people were forbidden from such a gathering, including Jibraeil’s wife, Falak Naaz, and his two young children.
Following mandatory Muslim funeral prayers attended by several dozen friends and colleagues, all were ushered out of the cemetery before the burial.
Desperate to pay his last regards, Hassan volunteered to assist in the burial, helping to lower Jibraeil’s body into his grave.
“I owed it to him,” Hassan said.
Alone at the cemetery on a hot summer evening, with only the Muslim cleric who gave last rites and the three medics who had accompanied the body from the hospital morgue, Hassan said his final farewells.
“I’ve never seen such a silent and lonely burial,” Hassan said.
How India is changing vaccine plan amid shortages
Starting Monday, every adult in India will be eligible for a free vaccine paid for by the federal government.
The new policy, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week, ends a complex system introduced just last month of buying and distributing vaccines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out.
India is a key supplier of vaccines around the world, and its missteps at home have led it to stop exports of shots, leaving millions of people around the world waiting unprotected. Only about 3.5% of Indians are fully vaccinated and while supporters hope the policy change will make vaccine distribution more equitable, poor planning means shortages will continue.
Here’s a look at the changes to India’s vaccine policy and what they mean.
THE EARLIER POLICY
India has vast experience in running large immunization programs, and each year it distributes 300 million shots to infants and mothers for free. For these programs, the federal government is in charge of buying the vaccines and then works with the states to figure out how best to distribute them.
But the scale of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign is unprecedented. And a massive surge in March pushed India’s health system to the breaking point. As hundreds of thousands of people became infected each day and hospitals overflowed with patients gasping for air, the states complained they weren’t getting enough shots from the federal government and clamored for more control over how the vaccines were distributed.
Also read: To launch J&J Covid shot in India, Biological E begins talks with govt lab to test vaccine
So, starting in May, the federal government agreed to buy just half of all vaccines produced for use in India and continued to give them out for free to health care and frontline workers and those over 45. The other half became available for states and private hospitals to buy directly. These vaccines were destined for people between 18 and 45; they were free if obtained from the states, but cost money if obtained privately.
WHY IT DIDN’T WORK
The states had never bought vaccines before and a limited supply meant they were competing with one another as well as with private hospitals. They were forced to pay higher prices than the federal government could have negotiated, said Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya, a health policy expert.
“That essentially makes it inefficient,” he said.
Private hospitals passed that cost on to people, and amid shortages at government centers, people had to either pay for a vaccine, or not get a shot.
The change in policy also expanded eligibility to all adults. Expanding the criteria despite shortages meant shots weren’t always going to the groups the federal government initially said it would prioritize: those with essential jobs and the elderly. Since May, more people younger than 45 have received their first shot than those older than 60. More than 74 million people over 60 remain unvaccinated.
Modi said these decisions were taken to satisfy the states’ demands, but the fractured response may have cost lives, said Dr. Vineeta Bal, who studies immune systems at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune city.
Also read: After Black & White: First case of Green Fungus reported in India
WHAT HAS CHANGED NOW?
The federal government has now decided to buy a larger portion of vaccines — but it’s still not returning fully to its original policy. It will buy 75% of all vaccines made for use in India and likely renegotiate prices. These shots will be given to states and will continue to be distributed for free. Private hospitals can buy the remaining 25% at prices that have been capped and can charge for them.
States will receive vaccines based on their populations, disease burdens and how many people have been vaccinated. They will be penalized for wasting doses.
But supply remains a challenge. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said: “Where will the vaccines come from is a big question.”
India has placed orders for vaccines still in development, but for the moment it will continue to rely on existing, overstretched suppliers like the Serum Institute of India.
To launch J&J Covid shot in India, Biological E begins talks with govt lab to test vaccine
In a move to launch the US pharma giant Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine in India, pharma company Biological E has begun discussions with the country’s apex vaccine testing laboratory, the Central Drugs Laboratory.
Last week, the officials of Hyderabad-based Biological E — the company contracted by J&J to mass manufacture its one-shot vaccine — met officials at CDL in Himachal Pradesh’s Kasauli to explain the standard testing procedures for the American vaccine.
“The officials from Biological E, last week, began their discussions with CDL. While they have explained to the laboratory officials the methods they use for quality testing, the CDL officers, in turn, have asked the company to supply the specific list of reagents used for testing,” said a senior government official privy to the development.
Read:After Black & White: First case of Green Fungus reported in India
“CDL generally asks for demonstrations from the manufacturers to conduct the quality tests. Company officials wanted to understand the expectations from CDL so they could start preparations,” the official added.
Biological E told the Reuters in February that it was looking to contract-manufacture about 600 million doses of the J&J vaccine annually.
In April, J&J told ThePrint that it is in discussions with the Government of India with the objective of starting a bridging clinical study. However, now, according to new rules, it is not mandatory for the vaccine approved by the US drug regulator to conduct bridging trials in India.
ThePrint sent an email seeking a response from Biological E and J&J, but did not receive one till the time of publishing this report.
Read: India’s Taj Mahal reopens as new infections slow
CDL told Biological E it can perform tests
In the meeting, according to the official quoted above, representatives from Biological E wanted to know what type of tests will be conducted on their vaccines and using which techniques.
“For instance: In J&J’s vaccine, the potency testing procedure is quite different from the other Covid-19 vaccines that are currently being tested,” the officer said.
“CDL can probably modify the procedure used for testing rotavirus vaccines as both the platforms are quite similar. J&J’s testing may require lysate sensitivity testing too, which has altogether a different technique,” he added.
“The apex laboratory has communicated to the company that it can perform these tests but they may need to supply some reagents.”
Read: 'Project O2 for India' initiated to meet rising oxygen demand
CDL generally develops its own technique of testing the vaccines by combining the procedures adopted by the manufacturer and innovating their procedures over time to save cost, time and ensure accurate results.
“The lab will use the company’s procedure, their own procedure, compare results using both methods and find one final method that saves time, ensures quality and is cost effective,” the officer explained.
This article was first published on ThePrint.in
India cranking up border infrastructure to narrow gap with China
From construction of roads, tunnels and bridges to early opening of mountain passes despite formidable terrain and weather challenges, India has worked on a war-footing over the last year to ensure swifter mobility of its troops and weapon systems in forward areas amidst the continuing military confrontation with China in eastern Ladakh.
India is still quite behind China in terms of border infrastructure but “all-out efforts are being made to narrow the gap”, even as 50,000 to 60,000 troops continue to remain forward deployed along the frontier, say officers.
Read: Ex-India skipper Md Azharuddin sacked as regional cricket body chief
Towards enhancing border connectivity, defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday e-inaugurated 12 roads built by Border Roads Organization (BRO), which includes a 20-km Kimin-Potin double lane one and nine others in Arunachal Pradesh as well as one each in Ladakh and J&K. “India seeks peace but knows how to respond befittingly if anyone shows us an aggressive attitude,” he said, at the event in Lakhimpur district of Assam.
The two-day Army commanders’ conference, chaired by General M M Naravane, also kicked off in Delhi on Thursday to discuss the operational situation along the borders with China and Pakistan.
China has so far declined to complete the stalled disengagement process at Hot Springs, Gogra and Demchok in eastern Ladakh, let alone stop blocking Indian patrols in the strategically-located Depsang Plains. It has also upgraded infrastructure along the Line of Actual Control in terms of roads, troop accommodations, helipads and surface-to-air missiles positions, as was earlier reported by TOI.
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India, too, has cranked up its efforts. Overall, BRO has completed 1,200-km of “road formation works” and 2,850-km of “surfacing works” over the last one year. “Of the 1,200-km figure, just 162-km is in Rajasthan. The rest is distributed all along the northern border from J&K to Arunachal,” an official told TOI.
There is also much-needed progress in the slow pace of construction of the 73 “strategically-important roads”, totaling 4,643-km along the China front, which were first approved way back in 1999.
Of the 61 roads (totaling 3,323-km) roads with BRO, around 45 have been fully completed, while “connectivity” has been achieved on 59. “Seven of the last nine roads that will be left this year will be completed by March 2022, and the other two by March 2023,” said another official.
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Similarly, BRO has “completed” 74 permanent bridges and 33 bailey bridges over the last one year. “Some forward locations, like Yangtse in Arunachal, have also been connected,” he added.
As for mountain passes in the higher reaches of Himalayas, several of them ranging from Zoji La, Lachung La and Shinkun La to Baralacha La and Nakee La have been opened much ahead of time this year. “The early opening of these passes has led to crores being saved on air sustenance efforts,” said the official.
This article was first published on The Times of India