PLAN TO VACCINATE ALL ADULTS BY END OF THE YEAR: CENTRE TO SC

Prodded by the Supreme Court, which held its vaccine pricing policy “irrational” and raised questions of access and equity, the Centre Saturday told the court that until the end of this year, it expected to get 188 crore vaccine doses – from at least five manufacturers – which would fully inoculate the total 94-crore population above 18.

Saying that 51.6 crore doses would be “made available” by July 31, the Centre, in an affidavit filed by Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, presented a roadmap to show how it proposes to procure the balance 135 crore from August to December 31 (see chart) from five manufacturers.

The Centre submitted that the projected availability of vaccines from August to December will cover the balance 135 crore doses as per this break-up: 50 crore doses of Covishield; 40 crore doses of Covaxin; 30 crore doses of Bio E’s sub unit vaccine; 5 crore doses of Zydus Cadila DNA vaccine; and 10 crore doses of Sputnik V.

The Centre added that this “does not include other vaccines which are at various stages of development as on date within the country and may come and become available”.

Significantly, in May, the head of India’s Covid-19 task force had said that 216 crore doses would be available in India between August and December.

The latest affidavit does not include the projected availability from Novavax (20 crore), Bharat Biotech’s Nasal vaccine (10 crore), and Genova’s mRNA vaccine (6 crore).

The Centre underlined that the drugs regulator has permitted Bharat Biotech to conduct clinical trials on children between 2 years to 18 years of age for Covaxin and enrolment for this trial has begun.

It added that the vaccination drive would be ramped up if the Government were to procure vaccines from overseas including Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Moderna. To that effect, the Centre said negotiations were on at the highest political and diplomatic levels. “Since these efforts are at a very advanced stage, it is neither desirable nor possible to give comprehensive details…As and when these efforts materialise, the speed of vaccination will be further augmented and enhanced,” it said.

By roping in the private sector, the Centre argued, it is “incentivising manufacturers” to augment their production capacity and “thereby cross subsidize.”

KEY COVID NUMBERS

Current Active Cases Countrywide: 5,81,337

New Cases in last 24 hours: 49,832

Recovered in last 24 hours: 57,776

Change in no. of Active cases in last 24 hours: -9,200

No. of deaths in last 24 hours (Total Covid Deaths so far): 1,256 (3,95,780)

Daily Tests (Thursday): 22,43,444

Daily Positivity Rate (Proportion of Positives among total Tested): 2.2%

Percentage of Population Vaccinated (At Least One Dose / Two Doses): 19.9% / 4.2%

Most Affected States:

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

1          Maharashtra     1,21,251           /           9,812    /           511

2          Karnataka         1,05,226           /           4,272    /           115

3          Kerala  1,01,110           /           12,118  /           118

4          Andhra Pradesh            46,126  /           4,147    /           38

5          Tamil Nadu       44,924  /           5,415    /           148

6          Odisha 29,337  /           3,554    /           47

7          Assam  27,565  /           2,640    /           33

8          West Bengal     22,099  /           1,894    /           32

9          Telangana        15,054  /           1,028    /           9

10        Chhattisgarh     6,720    /           361       /           4

11        Manipur            5,680    /           561       /           15

12        Jammu and Kashmir     5,630    /           342       /           5

13        Meghalaya        4,668    /           505       /           3

14        Punjab  4,376    /           307       /           23

15        Mizoram           4,137    /           232       /           2

16        Gujarat 4,116    /           N.A.     /           N.A.

17        Tripura 3,765    /           291       /           3

18        Uttar Pradesh   3,197    /           164       /           62

19        Puducherry       2,775    /           228       /           2

20        Goa      2,604    /           235       /           5

21        Arunachal Pradesh        2,546    /           287       /           2

22        Uttarakhand      2,510    /           164       /           3

23        Bihar    2,249    /           190       /           2

24        Sikkim  2,170    /           130       /           2

25        Himachal Pradesh         1,885    /           184       /           6

26        Rajasthan         1,839    /           141       /           5

27        Haryana           1,804    /           121       /           17

28        Delhi    1,598    /           85        /           9

29        Nagaland          1,487    /           91        /           6

30        Jharkhand        1,113    /           98        /           3

31        Madhya Pradesh           927       /           46        /           25

32        Lakshadweep    298       /           27        /           Nil

33        Chandigarh       220       /           23        /           Nil

34        Andaman and Nicobar Islands   54        /           5          /           Nil

35        Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu      44        /           3          /           Nil

AIIMS CHIEF CALMS THE STORM: DELHI’S OXYGEN REPORT INTERIM, SO WAIT & PLAN

A day after it emerged that the sub-group constituted by the Supreme Court for the oxygen audit of Delhi was divided over its report questioning the Delhi government’s demand for liquid medical oxygen (LMO) during the peak of the second Covid-19 wave, AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria, one of the five members of the panel, said the findings are “interim” and “one should wait for the final report”.

He said that the endeavour should be to “develop micro hospital-based planning and maintain supplies equal to the demand”.

Asked about the discrepancy in the LMO demand, Dr Guleria said: “First, this is sub judice and it’s only an interim report and one should wait for the final report. Second, our calculation is based on the Government of India formula, which is being used by all states, based on oxygen consumption for ICU and non-ICU wards where all beds will not have oxygen patients. Based on that, we calculated.”

“A different formula was used by the Delhi government, which is why the discrepancy was there. And there was a presentation which looked at the actual consumption, which was also less than the demand,” he said.

His remarks came a day after the report’s findings set off a political firestorm with the BJP targeting the AAP government in Delhi which hit back.

While the final report is being fast-tracked, Dr Guleria said the focus will be on future planning.

TOMAR APPEALS TO FARMERS TO END STIR; PROTESTS HELD AT SEVERAL PLACES

As their agitation against the new agri laws completed seven months, farmers tried to march to governors’ residence in several states on Saturday even as Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar appealed to them to end their stir and offered to resume talks on the provisions of the three legislations.

Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), an umbrella body of 40 farmer unions protesting at various Delhi border points, claimed that farmers were detained in states like Haryana, Punjab, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana during the protests.

Terming Tomar’s recent statements as “perplexing and contradictory”, it asserted that farmer leaders are not seeking some “meaningless amendments” in the central farm laws which have “fundamental flaws” and urged the people “to punish the BJP.”

Security was tightened in the national capital and other cities after the SKM said that representatives of farmers will submit memoranda of their demands, addressed to the President, to governors in various states.

Hundreds of farmers from interiors of Uttar Pradesh, many of them on tractors, reached Ghazipur on Delhi’s borders to mark the completion of seven months of the protest.

Led by Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait, a group of protesters submitted a memorandum of their demands at the office of DCP Northeast Delhi after a virtual meeting with Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal.

Police used water cannon to stop agitating farmers from Punjab, coming from the Mohali side, but they succeeded in entering Chandigarh after breaking through barricades.

Meanwhile, the Delhi Police said on Saturday denied reports about the arrest of Tikait and said action will be taken against those spreading such fake news.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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IMRAN SEEKS PAK-US TIES LIKE DELHI-WASHINGTON RELATIONS

In an interview to New York Times, Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan blamed both the US and India for Islamabad’s failures on the foreign relations front without addressing Pakistan’s toxic embrace of terrorism for which it has been hauled up by the UN and the global community, even as he revealed a degree of envy at current state of US-India ties.

“Pakistan has always had a closer relationship with the US than, say, India, which (is) our neighbour. Now, after the US leaves Afghanistan, basically Pakistan would want a civilised relationship,” Khan said, singling out “even handed” ties between the US and Britain, “or actually between US and India right now”, as the one Pakistan desires.

Khan also conjectured that Pakistan would have had a good relationship with New Delhi “had there been another Indian leadership” (other than the current one) and “we would have resolved all our differences through dialogue”, even though Islamabad’s sketchy ties with India spans decades across political dispensations.

POPE FRANCIS SHOULD APOLOGISE IN CANADA FOR DEATHS OF INDIGENOUS CHILDREN: JUSTIN TURDEAU

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Friday he has urged Pope Francis to come to Canada to apologise for church-run boarding schools where hundreds of unmarked graves have been found, and he said Canadians are “horrified and ashamed” by their government's longtime policy of forcing indigenous children to attend such schools.

Indigenous leaders said this week that 600 or more remains were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899 to 1997 in the province of Saskatchewan. Last month, some 215 remains were reported at a similar school in British Columbia.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, most run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.

Indigenous leaders have called for Pope Francis to apologise — a demand echoed again Friday by Mr. Trudeau, who said the pope should visit Canada to do it.

THE REST

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EXPERTS DIFFER ON THIRD WAVE

Medical experts have warned that the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic could hit India around October this year. However, there are contrasting opinions on whether the third wave would be more severe than the previous waves of the infection.

On Saturday, Samiran Panda, head of epidemiology at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said the third wave of Covid won’t be as severe as the second wave. “More vaccination and Covid appropriate behaviour could play an important role in mitigating these waves. Study on vaccine effect on Delta plus variant of Covid is underway,” Panda was quoted as saying by ANI.

Shahid Jameel, an Indian virologist and former member of the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomic Consortia or INSACOG has previously cautioned about the new Delta+ variant, a mutation of the Delta variant, which he said could render Covid-19 vaccines ineffective. Jameel said the Delta+ variant may dodge immunity, both from vaccines and previous infections.

FAROOQ ABDULLAH SAYS ‘LEVEL OF MISTRUST’ IN J-K; OMAR DEMANDS RESTORATION OF STATEHOOD BEFORE POLLS

National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah on Saturday said there was “a level of mistrust” in Jammu and Kashmir and it was for the Centre to remove it.

Speaking to reporters upon their return from Delhi after attending an all-party meet convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Jammu and Kashmir, Farooq said he would hold discussions with his party leaders and PAGD constituents before making any further statement on the meeting.

He said the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru promised plebiscite to the people of J&K, but went back on it. He also said that before the 1996 elections, then-prime minister P V Narasimha Rao had promised autonomy from the floor of the house.

“Narasimha Raoji before elections promised us autonomy and said sky is the limit, but not independence. We said we never asked (for) independence, we have asked for autonomy. He promised us from the floor of the House. Where is that?” Farooq asked.

“There is a level of mistrust....We should wait and see what they (the Centre) do... Whether they will remove the mistrust or let it continue,” he added.

Omar Abdullah, meanwhile, told reporters it was made clear to the Centre during the PM’s meeting that the statehood should be restored to Jammu and Kashmir before holding of the Assembly elections. “(Ghulam Nabi) Azad sahib spoke on behalf of all of us that we do not accept this timeline. We do not accept delimitation, election, statehood. We want delimitation, statehood and then election. If you want to hold polls, you will have to restore statehood first,” he told reporters soon after returning from Delhi.

“ARTICLE 370 DISPUTED, 371 CAN BE A WAY OUT”

An idea floated by a former Deputy CM of Jammu and Kashmir at the all-party meeting on Thursday that certain exclusive rights can be conferred on J&K citizens by amending Article 371 may be viewed as a half-way meeting point by the Central government.

Article 371 in the Constitution provides special provisions to several states including those in the Northeast such as Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.

The suggestion by former Deputy CM Muzaffar Hussain Baig, who was earlier with the PDP, comes in the backdrop of a challenge to the abrogation of Article 370 and also admission by some parties including the National Conference that it would be naive to expect this government to return Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir.

Two days after airing his views at the Prime Minister-chaired meeting, Muzaffar Baig, one of the 14 leaders from J&K invited by the Centre for talks in Delhi, said: “Under (Article) 35A, domicile rights were given to the permanent residents of J&K. My position is that if you have the problem of the pendency of litigation relating to Article 370 in the Supreme Court, the Parliament can resort to Article 371 and by using appropriate language, confer on the people rights earlier given under Article 35A, under amended Article 371, the amendment (to be undertaken) by addition not alteration.”

AYODHYA’S DEVPT SHOULD MANIFEST COUNTRY’S FINEST TRADITIONS: MODI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday gave a big push to redevelopment of Ayodhya as a pilgrim city and one of the principal sites of Hindu faith by saying that it, being the birthplace of Lord Rama, needs to be reimagined as an attraction for the country’s youth.

Addressing a virtual meeting, the PM exhorted UP CM Yogi Adityanath and his team to suggest that development of Ayodhya, which is etched in the cultural consciousness of every Indian, should manifest the finest of the county’s traditions and the best of developmental transformations by leveraging skills of the talented youngsters.

“Ayodhya is both spiritual and sublime. The human ethos of this city must be matched by futuristic infrastructure, which is beneficial for everyone including tourists and pilgrims,” Modi said in the meeting to redevelop the city which is being developed as a major tourist destination with a new airport, convention centre and a cultural complex besides hotels to lodge tourists who are expected to flock once the construction of Ram Temple is completed.

GOVT VIE ON E-COMM FIRMS

All ecommerce companies should follow the law of the land and do not use muscle or money power to hurt Indian interests as many of these large online firms have come into India and "very" blatantly flouted the laws of the land, in more ways than one, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Saturday.

He said that many of the practices which these companies follow are against the interest of consumers and the government has recently come out with draft rules for e-commerce companies or marketplace models, which are applicable to all entities including Indian.

These rules are to protect consumer interest, he said at a webinar.

"I have had several engagements with these large companies, particularly the American ones, I can see a little bit of arrogance of their being big and their ability to finance large amounts of money in the initial stages to try and capture the Indian market or larger part of the Indian market particularly certain products to the detriment of our mom and pop stores," he added.

Goyal said that it was "very" unfair that just because they are large and have large pools of low cost capital, they should be allowed to get away with hurting domestic interests or domestic consumer interests.

When these large companies talk about providing a million jobs or giving support to maybe 100,000 Indian small manufacturers, "I think very conveniently (they) forget to also say what will be the job losses because of their influence," he said.

MUMBAI-PUNE TRAIN OFFERS UNHINDERED VIEW OF SCENIC WESTERN GHATS

After weeks of anticipation and excitement, passengers on Saturday were finally able to enjoy the picturesque view of the Western Ghats from the first-ever Vistadome coach in Pune-Mumbai Deccan Express. Videos of the journey have left many on social media excited.

Following the restoration of the Mumbai-Pune Deccan Express, “passengers can enjoy unhindered views of river, valley, waterfalls, etc. on Mumbai-Pune route,” the Central Railways said in a statement. Until now, the Vistadome coach was running only in Mumbai-Madgaon Jan Shatabdi Special train.

Vistadome is a state-of-the-art coach made by the Indian Railways, designed to provide passengers with travel comfort as well as an enhanced viewing experience of their surroundings. The features include wide window panes and glass rooftop, rotatable seats and pushback chairs, among others.

The special train includes one Vistadome coach, three AC chair cars and 10 second class seating coaches.

FIRST EVER INDIAN SWIMMER TO MAKE IT TO OLYMPICS ‘A’ STANDARD

Sajan Prakash on Saturday became the first-ever Indian swimmer to qualify for the Olympic Games by breaching the 'A' standard time, clocking 1:56:38 seconds in the men's 200m butterfly event at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome, Italy.

The Games 'A' standard was set at 1:56.48 seconds and the 27-year-old Prakash completed the run 0.10 seconds faster at the FINA-accredited Olympic qualifier.

EURO 2020: ITALY, DENMARK REACH QUARTER FINALS

A brace from Kasper Dolberg and two late goals, one each from Joakim Mæhle and Martin Braithwaite helped Denmark to a commanding 4-0 win over Gareth Bale's Wales in Amsterdam.

Italy defeated Austria 2-1 in Extra Time to advance to quarterfinals. Federico Chiesa and Matteo Pessina scored in the Extra Time to give Italy a 2-0 lead. Kalajdzic pulled one back in the 113th minute to add to the drama.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Neither despise, nor oppose, what thou dost not understand. - William Penn

OFF TRACK

A lady manager of a big reputed office noticed a new man one day and told him to come into her office.

"What is your name?" was the first thing she asked the new guy.

"John," the new guy replied.

She scowled, "Look... I don't know what kind of a namby-pamby place you worked before, but I don't call anyone by their first name. It breeds familiarity and that leads to a breakdown in authority.

I refer to my employees by their last name only ... Smith, Jones, Baker ...that's all.

I am to be referred to only as Mrs. Robertson. Now that we got that straight,   what is your last name?"

The new guy sighed, "Darling............ My name is John Darling."

"Okay John, the next thing I want to tell you is . . .."