A powerful 5.9-magnitude earthquake jolted a mountainous part of Pakistan's Balochistan province early on Thursday, resulting in collapse of several houses that left at least 22 people dead and over 300 others injured, officials said.
While welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement on Saturday to celebrate January 16 as National Start-up Day, six years after the Start-up India Action Plan was launched by the government, stakeholders in the ecosystem say that more needs to be done at the policy level to unleash the next phase of growth in the sector. "The Start-up India programme's launch in 2016 was a turning point - that is when the promoter came to be known as the founder in the country and the word 'entrepreneur' entered the common lexicon. "But now we need a Start-up India 2.0 now for the next phase of growth of the ecosystem", said Siddarth Pai, managing partner of venture capital (VC) firm 3one4 Capital. Pai says that Startup India 2.0 must look at promoting Startups headquartered in tier II,III & IV cities and solving the problems of Bharat.
As India continued to record a huge number of new COVID-19 infections, hospitals in the national capital and other major cities complained of 'dangerously low' levels of oxygen that is needed for critically ill patients. The situation has been made worse by states that house oxygen manufacturing units restricting inter-state supplies.
With flowers pinned to their chests, Xi and other Chinese leaders paid a silent tribute in front of the national flag to the victims of the COVID-19, which is regarded as the worst public health disaster in China's history.
'It is perplexing to see the leader of the First World with a first rate medical infrastructure come up short on its foresight to handle the pandemic,' notes Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
'Laws have been used in a way to serve the needs of the current regime and its authoritarian ideology.'
Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava had on Monday recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for treating healthcare workers handling suspected or confirmed coronavirus cases.
Under threat from the Maoists, and jailed by the police, AAP's Soni Sori plunges into the election for all she holds dear. Aman Sethi reports
'The administration was not ready for (my) release, but I have been released because of the prayers of people.'
Experts said the strain has not propelled a surge in cases like Omicron, but advised strict adherence to COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
In an unprecedented assault on democracy in the US, thousands of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump stormed the Capitol building here and clashed with police, resulting in four deaths and interrupting a constitutional process by Congress to affirm the victory of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris in the election.
The UK's National Health Service was already lining up thousands of medics and volunteers to be ready to deliver jabs up and down the country.
According to a doctor unless the virus is cultured or gene sequencing done, it will be difficult to determine whether it is a different strain of the virus that has infected the person the second time.
The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 98,07,569 pushing the national recovery rate to 95.92 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.
The National Health Commission (NHC) said that 32 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Thursday of which 28 were domestically-transmitted and four were imported. Of the domestically-transmitted cases, 25 were reported in Beijing, two in Hebei province and one in Liaoning province, it said in its daily report.
US President Donald Trump identified New York, California and Washington as the three major coronavirus hot spots.
While some experts believe that a large part of India is still vulnerable to the virus that could trigger a third wave, others feel the country is not likely to be engulfed by another deadly wave unless a new variant emerges.
'Both India and Japan can find themselves in a win-win situation if they draw some lessons from each other's strengths,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
As its factories resumed operations after over two-month of grim battle against coronavirus, China is busy tapping into the vast business opportunities of export of key medical goods, specially ventilators and personal protection equipment (PPE), across the world, including India, where both private and government bodies are placing orders for the import of these products.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
The Centre has warned it is likely that the spread of the new variant will outpace the Delta variant where there is community transmission.
The NIH said results of two studies of blood serum from people who had received Covaxin suggest that the vaccine generates antibodies that effectively neutralise the B.1.1.7 (Alpha) and B.1.617 (Delta) variants of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in the United Kingdom and India, respectively.
"Lives of another 60 'sickest' patients at risk. Major crisis likely," he said.
Stalin, like his father M Karunanidhi did in 2004, may play the king-maker in a way -- not the king, unless the 2024 post-poll circumstances throws up a situation where he alone becomes acceptable to the rest, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The pandemic has led to the International Finance Corporation massively ramping up its impact investment in the country - its largest client nation globally - at $1.7 billion as of June, a 51 per cent rise over the past 12 months, the largest developmental lender into third world private sector said on Tuesday. This is nearly half of its investment in the whole of South Asia since the pandemic, which touched $3.8 billion as of June 2021, it said. "Our total commitment to India, which is our largest client country globally, at the end of June stood at $1.7 billion representing an increase of over 51 per cent from last year," IFC vice-president for Asia and the Pacific region Alfonso Garcia Mora said in a statement.
The fund generated a lot of interest immediately after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced its formation of the fund in the last week of March after the COVID-19 outbreak and appealed for donations, prompting several private firms, government bodies and individuals, including celebrities, to donate money.
The Congress chief and her son were given bail on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 50,000 and one surety each. Three others including Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes and Suman Dubey were also granted bail.
We need to give a booster shot to all our frontline workers first as if they fall victim to Omicron, the health system will collapse, points out Ramesh Menon.
Foreign nationals who are single parents of minor children holding Indian passports or OCI cards, students who are foreign nationals where at least one of their parents is an Indian citizen or an OCI cardholder were allowed to visit India.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
Over the last four days, the Indian arm of US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Pune-based Serum Institute of India and Hyderabad-based pharmaceutical firm Bharat Biotech have applied to the Drugs Controller General of India seeking emergency use authorisation for their COVID-19 vaccines.
The Union health ministry said West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh reported a casualty each on Monday, taking the total number of deaths to nine in the country due to COVID-19.
"You never know at which moment it can create problems for her. There is a problem with her L4 and L5 bones (vertebrae) as they got dislocated because ATS Maharashtra (investigators) threw her on the floor," Upma Thakur, Pragya Thakur's sister said.
A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan and comprising justices R S Reddy and M R Shah said that voluntary contribution can always be made to the NDRF as there is no statutory bar under the Disaster Management Act.
Only half India's population has received the first shot of Covishield and Covaxin and the government's immediate task is to first vaccinate its adult population before placing its focus on children.
Those requiring to travel to India due to compelling reasons, may seek fresh visa from nearest Indian embassy/consulate, said the advisory.
In this weekly self-help series, mental health and life coach Anu Krishna tells you how to take control of your life.
Niclosamide, a drug on the World Health Organisation's list of essential medicines, has been used to treat tapeworm infestation for more than 50 years. The oral antiviral drug was also used to treat patients during the SARS outbreak of 2003-04.
The Omicron variant carries 'concerning' mutations that may make it more transmissible and allow it to evade immunity, scientists said on Monday, stressing that the one certainty in the uncertainty of the many things unknown is this -- COVID is not a short-term crisis and vaccines are still a critical tool.
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