Category:

Policy

EU launches health crisis body to prepare for future pandemic

The new health emergency preparedness and response authority (HERA) will assess potential health threats, promote research, ensure the availability of critical production and help build stockpiles.

If a new health crisis struck, it would activate emergency funding and help coordinate monitoring, procurement and purchase of medical equipment or treatments.

The authority is partly designed to avoid a repeat of the ad hoc measures taken by individual EU countries at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, some of them inefficient, others coming at the expense of other EU members.

read more

Cabinet clears auto PLI scheme for EVs, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

This PLI scheme for automotive sector along with the already launched PLI scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (Rs 18,100 crore) and Faster Adaption of Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (Rs 10,000 crore) will enable India to leapfrog from traditional fossil fuel-based automobile transportation system to environmentally cleaner, sustainable, advanced and more efficient Electric Vehicles (EV) based system.

read more

South Korean politician tops presidential polls with talk of universal basic income

As governor of Gyeonggi province,Lee Jae-myung, advocated for universal basic income and instituted cash payments to all 24-year-old people for a year. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, all province residents also received regular payments
“Keeping people from disasters and infectious diseases by providing public medical service is one of the government’s most fundamental duties, and my political career began from there,” Lee told Reuters in December.

read more

Nicaragua gov’t squeezes doctors, talk of ‘health terrorism’

As international health organizations warn of increasing infections in Nicaragua and independent Nicaraguan doctors call for a voluntary quarantine to slow the spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus, the government has made clear that comments out of step with its line are unacceptable as President Daniel Ortega seeks a fourth consecutive term.

read more

Madras HC quashes order increasing speed limit to 120 kmph on highways

The present bench observed that though there was a better engine technology and improved road infrastructure, there was no improvement in compliance of the road safety rules by the motorists.
From the report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the number of deaths taking place on roads would prove that more accidents were occurring due to over speeding.

When over speeding was a major cause for road accidents, it is not known as to how the improvement in road infrastructure and engine technology would reduce accidents. In fact, better engine technology would always be a reason for uncontrolled speed and thereby, cause more accidents, the bench said.

read more

Immunized but banned: EU says not all Covid vaccines equal

Although AstraZeneca vaccine produced in Europe has been authorized by the continent’s drug regulatory agency, the same shot manufactured in India hasn’t been given the green light. EU regulators said AstraZeneca hasn’t completed the necessary paperwork on the Indian factory, including details on its production practices and quality control standards.

read more