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Covid-19 vaccine: After Pfizer, Serum Institute seeks indemnity, say sources
Earlier last year, SII CEO Adar Poonawala had advocated for indemnity for all vaccine manufacturers.
“We need to have the government indemnify manufacturers, especially vaccine manufacturers, against all lawsuits… Frivolous claims come up and you see in the media something being blown out of proportion. The government needs to step in with the right messaging,” he had said.
Amid the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine crunch, US pharma giant Pfizer is seeking an indemnity bond that will exempt it from legal claims in case there are any adverse effects from the vaccine.
17 pilots of Air India, IndiGo, Vistara died of Covid in May: Sources
in a statement to PTI. Indigo has a ”robust” welfare scheme and a ”benevolent policy” so that each family of the deceased pilot would be getting Rs 5 crore, the sources mentioned.
They added that while there were barely a few pilots of IndiGo who tested positive during the first wave, almost 450 pilots of the carrier tested positive for COVID-19 during the second wave.
India brings forward target of 20 pc ethanol-blending in petrol to 2023
”The Central Government hereby directs that the oil companies shall sell ethanol-blended petrol with a percentage of ethanol up to 20 per cent as per the Bureau of Indian Standards specifications, in the whole of the States and union territories,” the Oil Ministry said in a Gazette notification.
”This Notification shall come into force with effect from the 1st April 2023”.
Covid-19 variant 1st reported in India threatens to rapidly spread in sub-region: UNHCR
“. ,“We are particularly worried about the situation in the Asia and Pacific region, which in the past two months has experienced the largest increase in the number of cases globally.The highly infectious variant of the virus which first emerged in India threatens to rapidly spread in the sub-region, including among refugee populations.Over this period, there have been some 38 million recorded Covid-19 cases and more than half a million deaths, the UNHCR spokesperson said.” United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Andrej Mahecic said
ICMR invites researchers to contribute to scientific knowledge related to Covid-19
Despite intense efforts of the global scientific community, there is scanty knowledge related to the functional aspects of the virus, its transmission dynamics, immunological response to natural infection and vaccines, it said.
” In addition, it is important to understand the drivers of vaccine hesitancy and reduced uptake, clinical spectrum of the disease and its progression. Also there is a need to formulate the clinical management protocols in line with the emerging global evidence,” the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said.
China reports first human case of H10N3 bird flu
H10N3 is a low pathogenic, or relatively less severe, strain of the virus in poultry and the risk of it spreading on a large scale was very low, the NHC added.
The man was stable and ready to be discharged from hospital. Medical observation of his close contacts had not found any other cases.
Google women in US suing over gender bias win class-action status
A San Francisco state judge certified the class action Thursday, allowing the four lead plaintiffs to represent 10,800 women over claims that Google pays men more for doing the same job. A previously disclosed analysis showed that the case seeks more than $600 million in damages. The women allege violations of California’s Equal Pay Act, one of the strongest measures of its kind nationwide.
China’s new three-child policy draws scepticism, cost questions
James Liang, a professor at Peking University’s School of Economics and founder of online travel giant Trip.com Group, last month urged China to give parents of each newborn 1 million yuan to lift a fertility rate of just 1.3 children per woman in 2020. That rate is in line with countries such as Japan and Italy and far short of the 2.1 replacement rate.
He said this week that China would need to spend about 5% of GDP, compared with “practically 0% now”, in cash, tax breaks, housing subsidies, daycare, and other incentives to get the fertility rate up to about 1.6, and expects the government soon to step up building day-care centers and kindergartens. Developed counties typically spend 1% to 4% of GDP on such support, he said.
Miners still trapped in Meghalaya coal mine, rain hampers rescue efforts
The district administration has identified five miners four from Assam and one from Tripura who were trapped at the coal pit in the remote Umpleng area of Sutnga Elaka since Sunday when a dynamite blast had led to the flooding of the coal mine.
Environmental activist Agnes Kharshiing said, people will not speak out ” as they are under pressure from the coal mafia which does not want the true extent of the tragedy to be made public”.
Covid-19 claims cost life reinsurers billions
The biggest costs for life reinsurers came from the US and to a lesser extent the UK and Canada but claims from other countries including South Africa and in Latin America added to the costs. Life reinsurers only have limited exposure to India.
BI estimates Swiss Re accounted for around 35% of claims followed by Reinsurance Group of America on 27% but the decline in deaths should mean much lower claims for the second half of the year.