Asia
Bengal's ruling party makes Mamata's nephew second-in-command
Indian state of West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Saturday elevated Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek to the party's second-highest post, putting an end to speculation over the future role of her heir apparent.
Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee was made the General Secretary at the regional party's first organisational meet since it swept back to power in the last month's assembly elections in the state. This was announced by the Trinamool Congress in a statement to the media.
The 33-year-old youth leader joined politics as a member of the Trinamool Congress in 2011 after the party decimated the Left Front, a coalition of Communist parties, that ruled Bengal for 34 years. This year, Abhishek was instrumental in hiring poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
Also read: India: Mamata inducts 43 Ministers into her Cabinet
Last month, Mamata scripted history by single handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election. She not only defied anti-incumbency and staved off a huge challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.
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.
"This is Bangla's win... this is Bengal's win... this is your win. This win has saved Bengal, it has saved the culture and tradition of Bengal," she said, addressing a press meet on the counting day.
Also read: Game over: How an injured Mamata won against a fully fit saffron squad
Mamata had, however, made it clear in that presser only that she would challenge the result in a court of law. "How come the Election Commission reversed the results in Nandigram after formally announcing it? We will move court."
The BJP though has made major gains in Bengal, winning some 77 seats. In 2016, the party had just three legislators in the state. However, the Left Front has failed to grab a single seat this time. The Left Front ruled Bengal for 34 years -- from 1977 to 2011.
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.
NKorean leader calls for meeting to review battered economy
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has presided over a meeting of his ruling party in his first public appearance in about a month, and called for a larger political conference to discuss efforts to salvage a decaying economy.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday that Kim expressed appreciation that a lot of works were being sped up thanks to the “ideological enthusiasm and fighting spirit of self-reliance” demonstrated by the party and his people.
But he also said there was a need to correct “deflective matters” and called for a plenary meeting of the Workers’ Party’s Central Committee to review overall state affairs for the first half of 2021. The party announced that the plenary meeting was set for early June.
Kim’s appearance at Friday’s Politburo meeting was the first time he showed himself in public since May 6, when he held a photo session with families of North Korean soldiers.
North Korea’s battered economy has deteriorated further amid pandemic border closures, which significantly reduced trade with China, its major ally and economic lifeline.
READ: NKorea cuts diplomat ties with Malaysia over US extradition
The Workers’ Party last held a plenary meeting of Central Committee members in February, when Kim ripped into state economic agencies for their “passive and self-protecting tendencies” in setting their annual goals.
While Kim said Friday that North Korea was continuing to face challenges brought by “unfavorable subjective and objective conditions and environment,” the KCNA report did not mention any comments he made toward the United States or South Korea.
North Korea has so far ignored the allies’ calls to resume nuclear negotiations that have stalled since the collapse of the second summit between Kim and former President Donald Trump in February 2019. The Americans then rejected North Koreans’ demands for lifting sanctions in exchange for a piecemeal deal toward partially surrendering their nuclear capabilities.
Following a meeting last month in Washington, President Joe Biden and South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a joint statement that Washington would take a “calibrated and practical approach that is open to and will explore diplomacy” with Pyongyang.
But North Korea has questioned the sincerity of the proposals and claimed that Biden’s agreement to end Washington’s decades-long range restrictions that capped South Korea’s missile development, which was announced after his meeting with Moon, demonstrated continuing U.S. hostility toward the North.
U.S. officials have suggested Biden would adopt a middle ground policy between his predecessors — Trump’s direct dealings with Kim and Barack Obama’s “strategic patience.” But some experts say Washington won’t likely provide the North with meaningful sanctions relief unless it takes concrete denuclearization steps first. Kim has vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent political speeches, while saying that the fate of bilateral relations depends on whether Washington discards what he perceives as hostile policies.
During a rare ruling party congress in January, Kim urged his people to be resilient in the struggle for economic self-reliance. He called for reasserting greater state control over the economy, boosting agricultural production and prioritizing the development of chemicals and metal industries.
READ: UN experts want to blacklist 14 ships over NKorea sanctions
Experts say such sectors are crucial to North Korean hopes to revitalize industrial production that has been decimated by sanctions and halted imports of factory materials amid the pandemic.
Serum gets govt nod to produce Sputnik vaccine in India
The Indian government on Friday gave permission to Serum Institute to produce Russian Covid-19 jab Sputnik V in the country, a development that could also help end vaccine shortage in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The permission from India's drugs controller came two days after the country's leading vaccine maker sought its nod to manufacture the Russian Covid jab here.
"We have got preliminary approval for Sputnik V. But actual manufacturing will take several months. In the meantime, our focus remains Covishield," a spokesperson for Serum Institute told the local media.
Also read: Sputnik V production starts in India; 100 million doses to be produced annually
Serum's Covishield is being widely used in both India and Bangladesh's mega inoculation drives. Bangladesh has inked a deal with Serum to buy 30 million doses of Covishield, but a recent surge in Covid cases in India has now made the delivery of the remaining doses uncertain.
"However, if Serum manages to plug the gap in vaccine shortage in India, it will also be able to resume supply of the Covid jabs to Bangladesh. In that case, there will be no impediment from any official channel," government sources told UNB.
On Thursday, Serum said that it sought permission from India's drugs controller to produce Sputnik V in this country as well as indemnity against legal proceedings linked to the use of its vaccines here.
Also read: Sputnik V's Limited Rollout Begins In Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam Tomorrow
"SII put up an application to the Drugs Controller General of India on Wednesday, seeking permission to manufacture Sputnik V in India," a company official had said.
Another company official had told the media that all vaccine companies in India should get indemnity protection against liabilities "if foreign companies are granted the same".
Serum's demand came in wake of media reports that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government could grant legal protection to foreign Covid vaccine makers Pfizer and Moderna.
Also read: Russian Vaccine Sputnik V: Things we should know to fight COVID-19
In a recent interview with a British daily, Serum's chief executive officer Adar Poonawalla had said that the company would increase the vaccine production capacity from the existing 2.5 billion to 3 billion doses a year within six months.
India is currently witnessing a ferocious second wave of Covid-19. At the same time, an acute shortage of Covid vaccines has seriously hampered the country's mass inoculation drive.
Prime Minister Modi rolled out the world's largest Covid vaccination drive in India on January 16. Covishield and local company Bharat Biotech's Covaxin are currently being given to citizens.
India’s recoveries exceed new cases
India reported another 132,364 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, a declining trend with recoveries exceeding new cases this week, and prompting several state governments to ease some of the restrictions.
The latest update from the Health Ministry on Friday raised the nation’s total to more than 28.6 million, the second-highest in the world after the United States. The ministry said 2,713 more people died in the past 24 hours, driving the overall toll to 340,702. These numbers are certain undercounts.
The ministry also said India’s recovery rate has neared 93.80% after 207,071 people recovered Thursday, exceeding the number of newly infected.
Also read: India's COVID-19 tally rises to 28,441,986
Cases have also sharply dropped in New Delhi. On Friday, it recorded 487 new infections, the lowest in more than two months. There are less than 9.000 active cases in the capital now.
The decline in daily confirmed infections has prompted state governments, like New Delhi and Maharashtra, to announce measures to exit lockdowns.
The western state of Maharashtra, home to financial hub Mumbai, is planning to lift most restrictions across half of its districts this month, officials said. New Delhi has already reopened manufacturing and construction activity.
Much of the country is still under some form of a shutdown, with many industries and businesses unable to resume work. Schools and most businesses remain closed.
Also read: US unveils strategy for global vaccine sharing with Bangladesh, India on list
Pressure is mounting on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to speed up vaccinations. India has administered just over 220 million jabs so far and less than 5% of the country has been fully vaccinated.
Hong Kong vigil organizer arrested on Tiananmen anniversary
A member of the committee that organizes Hong Kong’s annual candlelight vigil for the victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown was arrested early Friday on the 32nd anniversary.
The arrest and a ban on the vigil for a second year comes as Beijing attempts to crush pro-democracy activism in Hong Kong, which has been the last place on Chinese soil where the June 4, 1989, event was publicly commemorated.
Read: China may buckle down to reunify Taiwan after crackdown on Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China said its vice chair, Chow Hang Tung, was arrested by police Friday morning. It is not clear why Chow was arrested, and police have yet to comment on the matter.
The alliance organized the vigil and ran the June 4 Museum dedicated to remembering Tiananmen. The museum was closed this week.
After police warned that marking the anniversary in the vigil’s usual Victoria Park venue may be illegal, Chow has continued her activism, urging people to commemorate the event privately by lighting a candle wherever they are.
Read: Hong Kong democracy leaders given jail terms amid crackdown
Last year, thousands went to Victoria Park to light candles and sing songs in remembrance despite the ban. Police later charged more than 20 activists including Chow for their participation in the unauthorized assembly.
Two other key members of the Hong Kong Alliance — Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho — are behind bars for their participation in separate unauthorized assemblies in 2019, during a period when Hong Kong saw massive anti-government protests.
Chow said in an earlier interview with The Associated Press that she was expecting to be imprisoned at some point for her activism.
Read: Hong Kong democracy leaders given jail terms amid crackdown
“I’m already being persecuted for participating and inciting last year’s candlelight vigil,” she said.
“If I continue my activism in pushing for democracy in Hong Kong and China, surely they will come after me at some point, so it’s sort of expected.”
India's Reliance developing a tapeworm drug to treat Covid
India's richest man Mukesh Ambani-owned oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries is working to develop a new anti-Covid formulation -- a tapeworm drug -- as the country grapples with a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
Reliance has disclosed the information about the drug 'Niclosamide' as a possible cure for coronavirus in its annual report for the financial year 2020-21, filed with markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
India has recorded over 28 million cases to date -- second only to the US -- and is now the epicentre of the global pandemic. The country has also recorded more than 300,000 deaths, the third-highest fatality count in the world, behind the US and Brazil.
Though Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world's largest Covid vaccination drive on January 16, the country is currently facing an acute shortage of jabs.
Serum Institute-produced Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield and local company Bharat Biotech's Covaxin are currently being given to citizens. Covishield is also being used in Bangladesh's mega inoculation drives.
Moreover, in view of the ongoing pandemic, Reliance has decided to pay full salaries for five years to the families of employees who succumbed to Covid-19, and put in place a liberal leave policy for the serving staff affected by coronavirus.
In a statement, the conglomerate has said that under the 'Reliance Family Support and Welfare Scheme', it would fully fund tuition fees, hostel accommodation and books of all the children of the deceased employees, up to graduation.
Reliance has also promised 100 percent payment of premium for hospitalisation coverage for the spouse, parents and children of those employees."Further, all colleagues affected by Covid-19 personally or within their family can avail the special Covid-19 leave for the full duration of their recovery, both physically and emotionally," according to the statement signed by Mukesh and his wife Nita.
The second richest person in Asia and the 14th richest in the world, Mukesh's current net worth is around USD 78 billion. His Reliance Group is now India's most valuable company by market capitalisation.
UNB had earlier reported about Mukesh's rumoured plans to hand over three core business areas of Reliance Industries to his three children -- Akash, Isha and Anant -- and also about his aggressive fundraising spree to make his conglomerate debt-free amid the pandemic.
The fundraising spree was aimed at reducing Reliance's dependence on the flagship oil sector to diversify into telecom and e-commerce. Last year, Reliance raised USD 15.2 billion by selling stakes in its telecom unit Jio and another USD 7 billion through rights issue.
The digital news outlet had also reported about Reliance's plans to take its telecom arm Jio public in the 2021-22 fiscal, riding on the increased digital adoption across the world, in the wake of Covid. India's internet users are likely to grow to 850 million by 2022.
India's COVID-19 tally rises to 28,441,986
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 28,441,986 on Thursday with 134,154 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, said the federal health ministry.
Besides, 2,887 deaths were reported since Wednesday morning, taking the death toll to 337,989.
Read:7 die in gas cylinder blast in India
There are still 1,713,413 active cases in the country, with a decrease of 80,232 in the past 24 hours. The number of daily active cases has been on the decline over the past few days, after a continuous surge since mid-April.
A total of 26,390,584 people has been cured and discharged from hospitals across the country, showed the latest data from the federal health ministry.
Read: India to start trials on safety, efficacy of mixing Covid vaccine doses
India kicked off a nationwide vaccination drive in January, and so far over 221 million vaccination doses have been administered across the country, and 2,426,265 doses were given on Wednesday alone.
Presently the third phase of vaccination is going on, covering all people aged 18 years and above. However, an acute shortage of vaccines is being seen across the country.
Read: India's COVID-19 tally reaches 28,175,044 with 127,510 new cases
Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up testing capacities, as 353,782,648 tests were conducted till Wednesday, out of which 2,159,873 tests were conducted on Wednesday alone, said the latest data issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday.
Three types of vaccines are being administered in India, including Covishield, Covaxin and Russia-made vaccine Sputnik-V.
Slow to start, China mobilizes to vaccinate at headlong pace
In the span of just five days last month, China gave out 100 million shots of its COVID-19 vaccines.
After a slow start, China is now doing what virtually no other country in the world can: harnessing the power and all-encompassing reach of its one-party system and a maturing domestic vaccine industry to administer shots at a staggering pace. The rollout is far from perfect, including uneven distribution, but Chinese public health leaders now say they’re hoping to inoculate 80% of the population of 1.4 billion by the end of the year.
As of Tuesday, China had given out more than 680 million doses — with nearly half of those in May alone. China’s total is roughly a third of the 1.9 billion shots distributed globally, according to Our World in Data, an online research site.
Read: China reports human case of H10N3 bird flu, a possible first
The call to get vaccinated comes from every corner of society. Companies offer shots to their employees, schools urge their students and staffers, and local government workers check on their residents.
That pressure underscores both the system’s strength, which makes it possible to even consider vaccinating more than a billion people this year, but also the risks to civil liberties — a concern the world over but one that is particularly acute in China, where there are few protections.
“The Communist Party has people all the way down to every village, every neighborhood,” said Ray Yip, former country director for the Gates Foundation in China and a public health expert. “That’s the draconian part of the system, but it also gives very powerful mobilization.”
China is now averaging about 19 million shots per day, according to Our World in Data’s rolling seven-day average. That would mean a dose for everyone in Italy about every three days. The United States, with about one-quarter of China’s population, reached around 3.4 million shots per day in April when its drive was at full tilt.
It’s still unclear how many people in China are fully vaccinated — which can mean anywhere from one to three doses of the vaccines in use — as the government does not publicly release that data.
Zhong Nanshan, the head of a group of experts attached to the National Health Commission and a prominent government doctor, said on Sunday that 40% of the population has received at least one dose, and the aim was to get that percentage fully vaccinated by the end of the month.
In Beijing, the capital, 87% of the population has received at least one dose. Getting a shot is as easy as walking into one of hundreds of vaccination points found all across the city. Vaccination buses are parked in high foot-traffic areas, including in the city center and at malls.
Read: China easing birth limits further to cope with aging society
But Beijing’s abundance is not shared with the rest of the country, and local media reports and complaints on social media show the difficulty of getting an appointment elsewhere.
“I started lining up that day at 9 in the morning, until 6 p.m., only then did I get the shot. It was exhausting,” Zhou Hongxia, a resident of Lanzhou, in northwestern Gansu province, explained recently. “When I left, there were still people waiting.”
Zhou’s husband hasn’t been so lucky and has yet to get a shot. When they call the local hotlines, they are told simply to wait.
Central government officials on Monday said they’re working to ensure supply is more evenly distributed.
Before the campaign ramped up in recent weeks, many people were not in a rush to get vaccinated as China has kept the virus, which first flared in the country, at bay in the past year with strict border controls and mandatory quarantines. It has faced small clusters of infections from time to time, and is currently managing one in the southern city of Guangzhou.
Although there are distribution issues, it is unlikely that Chinese manufacturers will have problems with scale, according to analysts and those who have worked in the industry.
Sinovac and Sinopharm, which make the majority of the vaccines being distributed in China, have both aggressively ramped up production, building brand new factories and repurposing existing ones for COVID-19. Sinovac’s vaccine and one of the two Sinpharm makes have received an emergency authorization for use from the World Health Organization, but the companies, particularly Sinopharm, have faced criticism for their lack of transparency in sharing their data.
“What place in the world can compare with China on construction? How long did it take our temporary hospitals to be built?” asked Li Mengyuan, who leads pharmaceutical research at Western Securities, a financial firm. China built field hospitals at the beginning of the pandemic in just days.
Read: China, Philippines swap protests over Manila-occupied island
Sinovac has said it has doubled its production capacity to 2 billion doses a year, while Sinopharm has said it can make up to 3 billion doses a year. But Sinopharm has not disclosed recent numbers of how many doses it actually has made, and a spokesman for the company did not respond to a request for comment. Sinovac has produced 540 million doses this year as of late May, the company said on Friday.
Government support has been crucial for vaccine developers every step of the way — as it has in other countries — but, as with everything, the scope and scale in China is different.
Yang Xiaoming, chairman of Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group, recounted to state media recently how the company initially needed to borrow lab space from a government research center while it was working on a vaccine.
“We sent our samples over, there was no need to discuss money, we just did it,” he said.
Chinese vaccine companies also largely do not rely on imported products in the manufacturing process. That’s an enormous benefit at a time when many countries are scrambling for the same materials and means China can likely avoid what happened to the Serum Institute of India, whose production was hobbled because of dependence on imports from the U.S. for certain ingredients.
But as the availability of the vaccine increases so, too, can the pressure to take it.
In Beijing, one researcher at a university said the school’s Communist Party cell calls him once a month to ask him if he has gotten vaccinated yet, and offers to help him make an appointment.
Read:China may buckle down to reunify Taiwan after crackdown on Hong Kong
He has so far declined to get a shot because he would prefer the Pfizer vaccine, saying he trusts its data. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of concerns he could face repercussions at his job at a government university for publicly questioning the Chinese vaccines.
China has not yet approved Pfizer for use, and the researcher is not sure how long he can hold out — although the government has, for now, cautioned against making vaccines mandatory outright.
“They don’t have to say it is mandatory,” Yip, the public health expert, said. “They’re not going to announce that it’s required to have the vaccine, but they can put pressure on you.”
Close to committing $1 billion to Moderna for Covid-19 booster shot: Cipla
Seeking fast-track approvals to bring Moderna’s single-dose Covid-19 booster vaccine in India expeditiously, Cipla has requested the government for indemnification and exemptions from price capping, bridging trials and basic customs duty, while stating that it is close to committing over ₹1 billion as advance to the US major, sources said on Monday, reports Hindustan Times.
Commending the government for its efforts to increase the vaccine availability in the country for achieving effective protection against Covid-19, the Indian pharma giant has said its discussions with Moderna on the Covid-19 booster vaccine are nearing finalisation and for that, they are seeking the “partnership and support of the government to make this programme successful”.
Requesting the government to provide confirmation on four critical points --- exemption from price restriction, indemnification, bridging trial waiver and basic customs duty exemption, Cipla has said such an assurance will help make this significant financial commitment of more than USD 1 billion (over ₹7,250 crore) advance to Moderna for its booster vaccine in India, sources privy to the development said.
Cipla’s latest communication to the government, dated May 29, follows a high-level meeting held recently during which it was discussed that Moderna has proposed to launch a single-dose vaccine for the Indian market, for which, they were in discussion with Cipla and other Indian companies.
It was also discussed in that meeting that orders for supply of the vaccine in 2022 may be placed with Moderna expeditiously and that Cipla has evinced interest to procure 50 million doses from Moderna for 2022. It was also suggested that Cipla may be asked to submit their specific requests to the government on their request for a “confirmation from the Government of India in respect of stability in regulatory requirements/policy regime” and a decision on that can be taken thereafter expeditiously.
Taking the matter forward, Cipla has now written to the government, “It is imperative Cipla brings Moderna booster vaccines to India urgently, having immediately made available the largest portfolio of Covid-19 drugs amongst Indian pharmaceutical companies, including the state-of-the-art antibody cocktail of Casirivimab and Imdevimab.”
Stating that Moderna’s vaccine has been rated at the highest efficacy with least side effects, Cipla has told the government that it needs assurance to include Moderna booster vaccine under the Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy, announced in April and made effective from May 1.
India to start trials on safety, efficacy of mixing Covid vaccine doses
India will soon start trials to test the safety, immunogenicity and efficacy after mixing doses of different brands of Covid-19 vaccines, reported The Tiimes of India on Tuesday.
The trials will currently include Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik-V, which currently have emergency use authorisation in the country, going forward the trials may also include jabs that are in the pipeline, senior officials said.
Some studies in the UK and Spain have shown mixing of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to be safe and immunogenic. However, officials in India maintain that though the concept is scientifically feasible, it cannot be allowed without adequate evidence and therefore, a study has to be conducted.
Also read: India's COVID-19 tally reaches 28,175,044 with 127,510 new cases
The Indian Council of Medical Research, along with the Chennai-based National Institute of Epidemiology, has launched a nationwide study to determine vaccine effectiveness in preventing severe Covid-19 infection. The study will be carried out at 11 sites across 10 cities. A senior scientist with the
“It is scientifically possible and it is a good thing, especially in a country like ours, such a thing (mixing of doses) will really help boost the vaccination programme. But it is currently not allowed under the vaccination protocol and there is no question of allowing it to happen without adequate evidence generated through trials. Therefore, we have decided to have studies to test the same,” a senior official said.
The decision has also been endorsed by the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI). The study — expected to start soon and likely to take about two months — will be conducted by the government in collaboration with vaccine manufacturers.
Also readIndia fought first wave of Covid-19 courageously, will be victorious in second round: PM Modi:
Jabs for all by December, says govt as Supreme Court quizzes it on vaccine policy
The Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court that it expects the country's entire population above 18 years to be vaccinated against Covid-19 by the end of the year, but the court remained sceptical of the claim citing impediments in the form of dual pricing and allocation of vaccines at different
Jabs for all by December, says govt as Supreme Court quizzes it on vaccine policy
Apart from testing the safety and feasibility of mixing doses of different vaccines, the study will also evaluate whether mixing of doses of different vaccines help boost immune response to the virus.