A steady decline in new COVID-19 cases has been recorded in India for the last 20 days, with 24 states witnessing a dip in active cases since the last week, the Union health ministry said.
At $37 per dose, the Pfizer vaccine is much more expensive compared to $3 per dose for the Covishield.
A declassified report by the United States intelligence released stated that Russia and Iran undertook campaigns to influence the 2020 Presidential election, but intelligence agencies found no evidence that foreign actors tried to alter votes or other technical aspects of the voting process.
Based on this price, state governments, private hospitals, industrial establishments, etc would be able to procure vaccine doses from the manufacturers.
The decade of 1950s is marked with some of the major scientific innovations. Here are few of them that are still relevant today.
'At the current time, we should be vaccinating all those who are potentially going to get more severe illness, before we start vaccinating very young individuals.'
The approval comes a day after Sinopharm said its vaccine showed 79.34 per cent efficacy and a 99.52 per cent antibody-positive conversion rate in the interim results of the Phase III clinical trials.
Rather than worry about what picture of India is being painted in the foreign media, the focus must be on marshalling all our energies to provide relief and solace to our deeply wounded and dispirited citizens, says former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'Prevention plus vaccination is what is going to take us into better territory by September or October.'
The Union government's role and the prices announced by the vaccine makers raises far too many disquieting questions, observes Prosenjit Datta.
The vaccination rate needs to go up by three to four times, assert Ajay Shah and Amrita Agarwal.
The president also said one of his daughters has been given a shot of the COVID-19 vaccination. "One of my daughters got vaccinated. In fact, she took part in an experiment. After the first vaccination, she had a [body] temperature of 38 degrees [Celcius, 100 degrees Fahrenheit], the next day slightly higher than 37 [degrees], that's all," he said.
The government plans to immunise 30 million people in the first phase, starting February, and by July, the target is to vaccinate 250 million people, reports Sohini Das.
About 5,000 students from China, included for the first time in the The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development educational test, PISA, stunned the world by coming first across 65 countries in all three tested categories -- science (ahead of Finland), reading (beating Korea) and math (outperforming Singapore).
'When there is so much anxiety, the Government of India should assure people on the vaccine issue and help the states demanding more supply that they will be provided the required quantities.' 'Any Centre-state conflict at this point of time is counter-productive and enhances people's anxieties that should be avoided.'
The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to place on record all relevant documents and file notings reflecting its thinking culminating in the COVID-19 vaccination policy, and the purchase history till date of all jabs including Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V.
The ministry further stated that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the anti-coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection with COVID-19 as this will help in developing a strong immune response against the disease.
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.
Russia has been grappling with sanctions slapped by the US and its allies over Moscow's invasion of Crimea.
The first Gaganyaan flight scheduled for 2022 will carry three astronauts, who will be picked from among the test pilots in the armed forces.
'Between its natural immunity with Delta, in so many populations, and then getting on top of the vaccination (situation), I do not think India is going to have another bad wave.'
'Vaccination is very important for an economy to start functioning properly.'
Khan said Pakistan was open for "any kind of mediation" and seeks peace with all its neighbours, especially with India.
Snooping is one of the oldest peccadilloes of man, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
At 8 million a month, times two doses, it will take us 17 years to administer the vaccine to our 800 million adults. The rollout must speed up twenty times, asserts Naushad Forbes.
'We can't rule out the fact that the virus might have changed in such a way that it's actually causing more harm to young people.'
Results from early-phase non-randomised vaccine trials in a total of 76 people show that two formulations of the vaccine have a good safety profile detected over 42 days, and induce antibody responses in all participants within 21 days.
Students who have received admission to foreign universities are struggling with unexpected delays, additional living costs and scarcity of vaccine supplies.
US-India defence cooperation must not adversely affect the India-Russia interface, which has its own strategic meaning and content, asserts Vice Admiral Premvir Das (retd).
India's foremost grand strategist shaped policy from the outside, seeking to enhance India's power without seeking any for himself, says Sanjaya Baru
Indian Council of Medical Research Director General Balram Bhargava said the purpose of the COVID vaccine drive would be to break the chain of viral transmission.
'The vaccine policy should be such that all people should get the vaccine free.'
President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia could stake a claim to host future summer Olympics games, but had not yet lodged a formal bid to do so, Russian news agencies reported.
The decision to disengage the forces, locked in a bitter standoff for the last six weeks in eastern Ladakh, was taken at a nearly 11-hour-long meeting between senior Indian and Chinese commanders in Moldo on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) on Monday.
Scientists around the world, including in India, suggest it hasn't been tested properly given the time constraint and there may not be enough evidence to prove its efficacy.
In the test, a space rocket boosted a hypersonic glide vehicle, one capable of carrying a nuclear device, which circled the globe before impacting.
Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab in a televised address to the county warned that those who were responsible for the devastating catastrophe will be held accountable and not go unpunished.
'Russia is the only country that can act as facilitator for any eventual Chinese-Indian rapprochement,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A photo symbolising "love and compassion" of an 85-year-old Brazilian woman getting her first embrace in five months from a nurse through a transparent "hug curtain" has been named the World Press Photo of the Year. This year, according to organisers, 74,470 images were submitted for judging, made by 4,315 photographers from 130 different countries. World Press Photo has been kind enough to allow to share some of this year's winning photos here with you.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
