Several Opposition leaders, including former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday attacked the government over a media report claiming that a key Adani group investor is also co-owner with the conglomerate in a defence firm.
The coronavirus variant B.1.617 first identified in India last year has been classified as a "variant of global concern", with some preliminary studies showing that it spreads more easily, a senior WHO official had said on Monday.
Stressing on the need to protect both lives and livelihoods, he said public health action in India and across the world must be continually guided by evidence from four key questions -- how transmissible is the variant, severity of the disease it causes, how well vaccines and prior SARS-CoV-2 infection protect and how common people perceive risk and follow control measures.
Business conglomerate Adani Group's chairman Gautam Adani is now the world's second-richest person after overtaking Louis Vuitton's Bernard Arnault, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List. At the time of writing this report, Gautam Adani's net worth was $153.9 billion, compared to Arnault's net worth of $153.7 billion. Adani is now just behind business magnate Elon Musk, according to Forbes' data.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping shook hands on Tuesday at a side event at the G20 Summit in Bali, a gesture drawing some attention because of the strained relations between the two countries over a border clash two years back.
Breakthrough infections of coronavirus cases comprise a very high proportion of the Delta variant, the INSACOG, a genome sequencing government consortium of laboratories, has said.
A gradual approach to privatise public sector banks (PSBs) is more ideal than taking a big-bang approach, a study by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) staff has concluded. It has backed the government's idea to privatise two PSBs initially. Such a gradual approach would ensure that large-scale privatisation does not create a void in fulfilling important social objectives of financial inclusion and monetary transmission, the study has argued.
The success of recent IPOs and the stability in the secondary market are propelling many firms and investment bankers to remove their IPO plans.
More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries and there had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak.
'Since the Covid virus has a tendency to mutate, we can continue to expect new variants of the virus to emerge and keep circulating and recirculating in the communities.'
In his fresh directive, Xi said that more targeted patriotic health campaigns should be conducted as the country's COVID-19 epidemic prevention and control faces new situations and new tasks.
Evidence indicates that restoration of functioning of the education system as it was in pre-Covid times, as early as possible appears prudent in the current Indian context, they said.
In the absence of sufficient testing, it is rather impossible to determine the true level of infection spread in the community, Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja said in her letter dated January 5.
A third wave of COVID-19 -- if it occurs -- is unlikely to be as severe as the second wave given the extent of spread of coronavirus infections that has already taken place in the country, according to a study.
In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stressed on monitoring and reporting of district-wise influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting the early rising trend of cases.
CreditSights has dialed back on its language on debt levels at richest Indian Gautam Adani's group but has maintained that the group's leverage is elevated. In a new note published after discussions with the group's management, CreditSights, a Fitch group firm, said it "has discovered calculation errors" in its recent debt report on two Adani Group companies but these did not change its investment recommendations. On August 23, CreditSights stated that the Adani group was "deeply over-leveraged" and may "in the worst-case scenario" spiral into a debt trap and possibly a default.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's embattled conglomerate said its balance sheet is "very healthy" and is laser focused on continuing business momentum, as it looked to reassure investors to keep faith in the conglomerate despite a share rout triggered by a damning report by a US short-seller. Group CFO Jugeshinder (Robbie) Singh in an earnings call said the group is confident of its internal controls, compliance and corporate governance. Separately, it released a compendium of group companies to highlight that it has adequate cash reserves and has ability to refinance debt.
As of July 13, at least 111 countries, territories and areas have reported detection of the Delta variant, and this is expected to continue to increase, becoming the dominant variant globally in the coming months.
The move came soon after Belgium confirmed a case of the B.1.1.529 variant in someone who had travelled back from Egypt earlier this month, with the European Union (EU) member states agreeing to a snap travel ban on seven African nations.
Housing sales are likely to be hit, especially in affordable and mid-income categories, following the RBI's decision to hike repo rate, according to real estate developers and consultants. However, the impact of RBI's decision to raise the benchmark lending rate by 50 basis points to 5.40 per cent is expected to be for a short term, they added. This is the third consecutive rate hike after a 40 basis points and 50 basis points increase in May and June, respectively.
A Supreme Court-constituted panel has asked the Union environment ministry to amend or withdraw the guidelines related to setting up zoos and safaris within tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries to discourage the use of wildlife habitats for tourism activities which are non-site specific.
People must also avoid mass gatherings, and new year celebrations need to be at low intensity, the government said.
India has so far reported nine cases of monkeypox, including one death.
India's equity markets are on a roller-coaster ride, after delivering spectacular returns for two consecutive years - in 2020 and 2021. The benchmark National Stock Exchange's (NSE's) Nifty50 is down 1.5 per cent in the first nine months of the current calendar year 2022 (CY22) as foreign portfolio investors sold Indian stocks due to rising bond yields in the US and across global markets, including India. The sell-off in the Indian equity markets has, however, not been broad-based and largely limited to sectors facing earnings headwinds from rising interest rates, lower commodity and energy prices, and likely economic recession in advanced economies.
Open order books in February breach 700,000; wait period for some models exceed a year.
As two more bodies were recovered from the accident site on Tuesday, the total number of confirmed dead has climbed to 71, Nepal Army spokesperson Narayan Siwal said.
Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Sunday said the health department will examine the reasons behind the death of the man.
As the Omicron strain spreads across the globe and questions on vaccine inequity dominate discussions, scientists are still scrambling to learn more about emerging variants of the deadly virus that has claimed millions of lives and crippled economies.
In a bid to pitch India as an uplinking hub, the government on Tuesday announced relaxation in guidelines for compliance for television channels and also made a 30-minute daily public interest broadcast mandatory, mainly for entertainment channels.
'An individual who maybe has had two vaccines, or has had two vaccines, and a booster, is going to be pretty well protected.'
The Meridian feels comfortable and upright with the quality of gadgetry, interiors and plastics expected from an international brand car. However, it lacks the overall premium-ness that may come with a top-end Japanese car or even a mid-range German car, says Pavan Lall.
Though Covid cases are rising in Delhi and its satellite towns, the focus should be on hospital admissions that have remained the same or changed just marginally, say several scientists, underscoring that the uptick is not an indication of a fourth wave in the country at this point.
The meeting comes amid rising global concerns over a new strain of the coronavirus which the World Health Organisation has named 'Omicron' and classified as a highly transmissible virus of concern.
On Monday, another accused Meeran Haider also applied to the restoration of inmate daily phone call facilities.
Villagers say that the wooden temple chariot, with parts being iron based fitment, was decorated with colourful lights especially on the top, and it came into contact with the overhead electricity line.
The Hyderabad-based firm completed clinical trials of the nasal vaccine with about 4,000 volunteers and there is no side effect or adverse reaction reported so far, company sources had said.
Mr Adani has a fight on his hands. It is not a fight to the death, asserts T N Ninan.
The UK's health authorities have confirmed that a new and "most significant" variant of COVID-19 is officially under investigation in the country as the government on Friday added six countries to its travel ban red list from southern Africa, where B.1.1.529 strain was first identified.
The court noted the submissions made by the ED's counsel, who said that Joshi played a vital role in laundering of the proceeds of crime.
Booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines are the easiest barrier that must be created immediately against Omicron, according to eminent virologist Dr T Jacob John, who noted that it may not seed the third wave of the pandemic, but breakthrough infections may be common due to the new variant.
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