TERMS OF UNLOCK: POSITIVITY BELOW 5%, 70% OF VULNERABLE GROUPS VACCINATED

Positivity rate of less than 5 per cent for a week, vaccination of 70 per cent of the vulnerable population, and community ownership of Covid-appropriate behaviour and care — the Centre on Tuesday laid down key un-lockdown criteria for districts to ward off a possible third wave.

On Tuesday, Dr Balram Bhargava, ICMR Director General and a member of India’s Covid-19 task force, underlined that while “gradual lifting [of restrictions] will not witness a massive surge”, districts have to “ensure that vaccination has to be prioritised…”

Bhargava’s statement comes in the backdrop of 344 districts — nearly half of India’s 718 districts — now reporting seven-day positivity of less than 5 per cent. That’s an improvement from the week ending May 7, when only 92 districts reported a positivity rate of under 5 per cent.

On Tuesday, the head of India’s Covid-19 task force, Dr V K Paul, said India will stick to the two-dose schedule for Covishield and Covaxin, and clarified that mixing of vaccines is not part of the country’s vaccine strategy. “I want to make it clear that Covishield and Covaxin schedule in India is a two-dose schedule, there is absolutely no change. There should be no doubts about it. We have to compulsorily take two doses,” Paul said.

He also said that by July or early August, there will be enough COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate one crore people a day.

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 17,89,470

New Cases in last 24 hours: 1,33,188

Recovered in last 24 hours: 2,31,488

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -1,01,505

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 3,205 (3,35,114)

Daily Tests (Monday): 19,25,374

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 6.6%

Most Affected States:

(S. No. / State / No. of Active Cases / New Cases in last 24 Hrs / Deaths in Last 24 Hrs)

1          Karnataka         2,98,299           /           14,304  /           464

2          Tamil Nadu       2,96,131           /           26,513  /           490

3          Maharashtra     2,30,681           /           14,123  /           854

4          Kerala  2,02,773           /           19,760  /           194

5          Andhra Pradesh            1,46,737           /           11,303  /           104

6          Odisha 78,861  /           8,735    /           37

7          West Bengal     78,613  /           9,424    /           137

8          Assam  51,333  /           4,682    /           51

9          Rajasthan         37,477  /           1,002    /           65

10        Punjab  33,444  /           2,149    /           99

11        Jammu and Kashmir     33,276  /           1,895    /           32

12        Telangana        33,254  /           2,493    /           15

13        Chhattisgarh     33,127  /           1,886    /           29

14        Uttar Pradesh   32,465  /           1,221    /           175

15        Gujarat 29,015  /           1,561    /           22

16        Uttarakhand      27,216  /           981       /           45

17        Madhya Pradesh           20,303  /           1,078    /           45

18        Haryana           16,280  /           1,233    /           80

19        Bihar    14,250  /           1,174    /           59

20        Himachal Pradesh         12,408  /           921       /           38

21        Goa      11,867  /           903       /           22

22        Puducherry       10,709  /           979       /           14

23        Delhi    10,178  /           623       /           62

24        Manipur            8,942    /           798       /           18

25        Jharkhand        8,058    /           609       /           9

26        Meghalaya        6,606    /           467       /           14

27        Tripura 6,584    /           841       /           6

28        Nagaland          4,738    /           174       /           9

29        Sikkim  3,992    /           309       /           4

30        Arunachal Pradesh        3,772    /           370       /           1

31        Mizoram           3,010    /           312       /           2

32        Lakshadweep    1,567    /           89        /           NIL

33        Chandigarh       1,481    /           108       /           5

INDIA CHAIRS BRICS ONLINE MEET

In a major move, influential five-nation grouping BRICS on Tuesday supported a proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines as it held extensive deliberations on effectively combating the coronavirus crisis, describing it as the most serious global challenges in recent history.

In his opening remarks, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) strives for a just, inclusive and equitable multipolar international system that recognises the sovereign equality of all states and respects their territorial integrity.

The virtual meeting, hosted by India in its capacity as BRICS chair, was attended by Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, minister of international relations of South Africa Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor and Brazilian foreign minister Carlos Alberto Franco.

Jaishankar's comments highlighting the need for respecting territorial integrity came against the backdrop of the border standoff between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

A joint statement said the foreign ministers of the grouping also resolved to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, including the cross-border movement of terrorists and vowed to step up joint efforts in building support for an India-backed Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT).

PRINT MONEY IF NEEDED, INCREASE SPENDING: CHIDAMBARAM TO GOVT

A day after government estimates showed that India’s GDP contracted by 7.3 per cent in 2020-21, senior Congress leader and former Finance minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday said the government must wake up and not lose yet another year, admit its errors of commission and omission, reverse its policies, and heed the advice of economists.

He asked the government to print money if needed and increase spending.

Arguing that 2020-21 has been the “darkest year of the economy” in four decades, he said the current state of the economy is largely due to the impact of the pandemic, but it has been compounded by the “ineptitude and incompetent” economic management of the BJP-led NDA government.

“Good advice by distinguished economists and renowned institutions has been rebuffed. Worldwide experience has been ignored. Suggestions on fiscal expansion and cash transfers have been turned down. Hollow packages like Atma Nirbhar have fallen flat,” he said at an AICC press conference.

On printing money, Chidambaram said, “We have the space and the sovereign right to print money. If at any point the government feels that too much is being printed, it can always stop printing money. But at the moment, I think printing money is clearly advised.”

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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GREECE, GERMANY KICK OFF EU VACCINATION TRAVEL CERTIFICATES

Greece, Germany and five other European Union nations introduced a vaccination certificate system for travelers on Tuesday, weeks ahead of the July 1 rollout of the program across the 27-nation bloc.

The other countries starting early were Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Croatia and Poland, according to the European Commission.

Greece, which depends heavily on tourism, has been pressing for the commonly-recognized certificate that uses a QR code with advanced security features. The certificates are being issued to people who are fully vaccinated as well as those have already contracted the virus and developed antibodies and others who have had a PCR test within the last 72 hours.

The documents will have both digital and paper forms. They'll be free of charge, distributed in the national language plus English and be valid in all the bloc's countries.

"EU citizens are looking forward to travelling again, and they want to do so safely. Having an EU certificate is a crucial step on the way," EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said.

Greece's digital governance minister, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, said easier travel will open up within the EU as nations adopt the new verification standard.

THE REST

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CBSE, CISCE CLASS XII BOARD EXAMS ALSO CANCELLED

The central government on Tuesday (June 1) decided to cancel the CBSE Class 12 board exams amid the continuing COVID-19 pandemic across the country.

Soon after, the CISCE board also announced the cancellation of Class 12 board exams.

The announcements came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting on the subject. He said the health and safety of students are of utmost importance, and there would be no compromise on this aspect. Anxiety among students, parents and teachers must be put to an end, and students should not be forced to appear for exams in such a stressful situation, a government statement quoted the prime minister as saying.

Last year too, CBSE had to cancel the Class 10 and 12 board exams that were scheduled from July 1 to July 15, 2020. The board came up with a system to assess the students based on scores of the previous three examinations.

Following the footsteps of CBSE, CISCE had also cancelled the ICSE 10th Board Exams 2020 and ISC 12th Board Exams 2020.

This year, various state boards also had to cancel or postpone board exams for Class 10 and 12.

DCGI RELAXES NORMS FOR CLEARING FOREIGN VACCINES

India’s apex drug regulator Tuesday waived the requirement for foreign companies to conduct post-launch bridging trials and test the quality and stability of their Covid-19 vaccines here if they have approvals from specific countries or health bodies. The move, which would make it easier for companies to bring their vaccines to India, follows similar demands raised by, among others, Pfizer and Cipla during negotiations to supply imported vaccines to the country.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr V G Somani however added that a previous requirement that a safety outcomes assessment be conducted on the first 100 beneficiaries for seven days before the vaccine is rolled out for larger immunisation still holds.

Companies are also being exempted from the requirement that “every batch” of their vaccine be tested by the Central Drugs Laboratory (CDL) in Kasauli, provided “the vaccine batch/lot has been certified and released by the National Control Laboratory of the country of origin”.

DELHI HC PUSHES FOR PRIORITY IN JABS, DRUGS TO YOUNG

Emphasising that the country needs to invest in the future, the Delhi High Court Tuesday said that the Centre’s policy did not prioritise youth in the Covid vaccination drive. It said that younger patients may also have to be prioritised in distribution of the drug to treat mucormycosis or black fungus.

The division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh directed the Government to come out with a policy on the distribution of the drug, Liposomal Amphotericin-B, for treatment of black fungus.

“The administration of the drug to patients who have better chances of survival may have to be prioritised. Similarly, patients who are younger and who hold promise for our nation in the future, may have to be prioritised in comparison with the older generation which has lived its life and on whom others will not be as dependent,” it said.

“While observing so, we are not for a moment discounting the emotional, psychological support that the older generation provides to the families particularly Indian families who are so closely bonded. However, in times like these, difficult choices have to be made and should be made by the State,” it said.

The bench said the Centre was “sidetracking” the younger generation and instead vaccinating those in the age group of 60-90 when the second wave has shown that younger people have suffered badly.

“…even this policy of vaccinating only above 45 first and now saying 18-45 when there is actually no vaccine available. Why did you have to then disclose or announce when you did not have. Did you not know you don’t have? Why did you have to make this kind of a wrong declaration,” observed Justice Sanghi.

The court said that so many young lives are being lost and the 80-year-olds are not going to carry the country forward. “They have lived their lives. We are not suggesting that we don’t care for him but if we are in this kind of crisis where we have to choose between the two, then we have to choose the younger people,” it said.

DU SAYS ADMISSION WILL BE BASED ON ‘MERIT’, ENTRANCE EXAM IS NOT AN OPTION YET

With the Centre on Tuesday announcing the cancellation of the Class 12 CBSE Board examinations and at least some state governments expected to follow suit, the focus now shifts to undergraduate admissions, with the big question being: how will universities, which have traditionally based their admissions on Class 12 exam results, take in students this year?

While announcing the cancellation, the Union Government said the Class 12 results would be compiled as per “a well-defined objective criteria”.

Delhi University (DU), one of the largest universities in the country, said it would follow this “merit” criterion for admission. Rajeev Gupta, Chairperson-Admissions, DU, said, “Whatever formula CBSE adopts, ultimately, they will declare results. We will declare cut-offs based on it.”

‘VICTIM TRIED, NOT TEJPAL’: GOA GOVERNMENT SEEKS RAPE CASE RETRIAL

The Goa Government has, in its appeal before the Bombay High Court against journalist Tarun Tejpal's acquittal in a rape case, said it was a fit case for retrial, citing the trial court's lack of understanding of a victim's post-trauma behaviour and censuring of her character.

The appeal, filed before the HC's Goa Bench, was amended this week to bring on record the judgement and to include further grounds against the acquittal.

The government said the trial court “considered the evidence given by defence witnesses as gospel truth, but at the same time discredited without any finding the evidence given by the victim and the prosecution witnesses”. The finding of the trial court on how a woman, who has been a victim of sexual assault, normally behaves is "unsustainable in law and is coloured by prejudice and patriarchy", it said.

It also claimed the trial court completely ignored the most telling piece of evidence in the case (the apology e-mail) "which established the guilt of the accused beyond a shadow of doubt".

On May 21, Sessions Judge Kshama Joshi acquitted Tejpal in the case where he was accused of sexually assaulting his then woman colleague in a lift of a five-star hotel in Goa in November 2013 when they were attending an event.

PAYTM SHARES SOAR OVER 80% IN GREY MARKET ON HOPES OF A KILLING IN IPO

Shares of digital payments company Paytm have soared more than 80 per cent in the grey market, said people who deal in shares of unlisted companies. The gain is on optimism that the stock price will be valued at least 40 per cent higher than the current levels when the company goes public later this year, they said.

“The stock has run up from Rs 12,500 per share a month ago to Rs 22,000. Traders are hoping that the stock will be valued at Rs 35,000 per share in the IPO.

The Ant Group-backed company has obtained an in-principle approval from its board to raise around Rs 22,000 crore through an IPO. The maiden offering is expected to hit the market before the end of the calendar year.

If the IPO goes through, it will be the biggest-ever maiden offering in the country. According to reports, Paytm is looking at valuations in excess of Rs 2 trillion in its IPO.

Market players said the current grey market price is pegging the valuations at around Rs 1.5 trillion.

PAK TO TURN HOMES OF DILIP KUMAR AND RAJ KAPOOR INTO MUSEUMS

Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government on Tuesday approved the purchase of the ancestral homes of legendary Bollywood actors Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor for converting them into museums. Peshawar district commissioner Captain (retd) Khalid Mehmud rejected the objections of the owners of both the houses and announced the award and transferred the ownership of both the houses to the archaeological department.

The KP government had fixed the price for purchase of Kapoor’s 6.25-marla and Kumar’s four-marla houses for Rs 1.50 crore and Rs 80 lakh, respectively, with plans to convert them into museums. Marla, a traditional unit of area used in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is considered equal to 272.25 square feet or 25.2929 square metres.

INSIDER TRADE: SEBI CHARGES INFY EXECS

Markets regulator Sebi has banned from the stock market two senior executives - Pranshu Bhutra, senior corporate counsel, and Venkata Subramaniam V V, senior principal (corporate accounting group) - at software services major Infosys, for allegedly helping six entities trade with insider information. Sebi has also banned those six outside entities and asked all the entities to together disgorge nearly Rs 3.1-crore illegal trading profits.

Sebi said that although the outside entities had traded in several stocks through the year, their trading activities were concentrated in Infosys only during the weeks adjacent/ close to when the company announced its financial results. This was observed for the quarters ended December 2019, March, June and September 2020, the order by the Sebi’s whole-time member Madhabi Puri Buch noted. The bank accounts of all the six outside entities have been impounded.

Sebi noted that in July 2020 the regulator’s internal surveillance system gave an alert about possible insider trading in the company’s stocks, following which it started an investigation.

NAOMI OSAKA WITHDRAWS FROM FRENCH OPEN

Naomi Osaka, the world number two, announced that she is withdrawing from the French Open, and will spend an unspecified amount of time away from court.

Days before the event, on Thursday, she posted a message on social media claiming that she will boycott the mandatory post-match press conferences, citing mental health as her reason. Grand Slam rules however dictate that a player skipping the press conferences could be fined up to USD 20,000, and repeated infractions could even result in a default.

Osaka has copped criticism and praise for her stance, and was fined USD 15,000 for skipping the conference after her first-round win on Sunday. On Monday however, she took to social media to announce that she’s withdrawing from the French Open.

INDICATORS

Sensex 51,935 (-2), Nifty 15,575 (-8), Trading Value NSE (Rs.crores) 64176.36

Nasdaq 13,736 (-12) Dow 34,575 (+46), S&P 4,202(-2)

US$-Rs. 72.68 GBP-Rs. 103.12, Euro-Rs. 88.86, UAE Dhm-Rs.19.78, Can$-Rs. 60.31, Aus$- Rs. 56.33

GBP 0.70 /US$, Euro 0.81 /US$, Jap.Yen 109.48 /US$, Aus$ 1.28 /US$, Sing 1.32 /US$, Bang Taka 83.25 /US$, Can$ 1.20 /US$, Mal Ring 4.12 /US$,

Pak Re 153.98 /US$, Phil Peso 47.68 /US$, Russian Rouble 73.42 /US$, NZ$ 1.37 /US$, Thai Baht 31.13 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 27.30 /US$

Bitcoin - USD 36,057

Dollar Index 89.89 Brent Crude 70.76  BDI 2,568

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,900 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,790 / 4,690, Silver (Rs. Per KG) 72,600

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Prices are important not because money is considered paramount but because prices are a fast and effective conveyor of information through a vast society in which fragmented knowledge must be coordinated. - Thomas Sowell

OFF TRACK

Little Johnny and his family lived in the country, and as a result seldom had guests. He was eager to help his mother after his father appeared with two dinner guests from the office.

When the dinner was nearly over, Little Johnny went to the kitchen and proudly carried in the first piece of apple pie, giving it to his father who passed it to a guest. Little Johnny came in with a second piece of pie and gave it to his father, who again gave it to a guest.

This was too much for Johnny, who said, "It's no use, Dad. The pieces are all the same size."