Budget 2018-19

  National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that the coronavirus vaccine rollout hasn’t gone as he expected adding that it has been ‘disappointing’ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci on Thursday said that the coronavirus vaccine rollout hasn’t gone as he expected adding that it has been ‘disappointing’. “We would have liked to have seen it run smoothly and have 20 million doses into people today by the end of 2020, which was the projection,” Fauci said during an appearance on “Today”, as quoted by The Hill and added, “Obviously, it didn’t happen, and that’s disappointing.” The outgoing US President  Donald Trump ‘s administration had touted a goal of getting 20 million people the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year but it was reported that the actual number will fall far short of that mark. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID data tracker stated ...

  The World Health Organization says it has cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use The World Health Organization says it has cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, meaning poorer countries may soon get access to the shot already available in Europe and North America. Every country that has a drug regulatory agency will have to issue its own approval for any COVID-19 vaccine, but countries with weak systems usually rely on WHO to vet the shots. The global body said late Thursday that the decision to issue its first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine “opens the door for countries to expedite their own regulatory approval processes to import and administer the vaccine.” The UN health agency said its review found the  Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine , which has already received clearance in the United States, Britain, the European Union and a dozen other countries, “met the must-have criteria for safety and efficacy set o...

  Companies plan to hire more, expect staff to return to offices in new year With a tumultuous year behind them, chief executive officers (CEOs) in India are eyeing the 2021 Budget to help kick-start the next wave of the investment cycle, which was hit by the pandemic. Backed by several steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) including the debt moratorium scheme, the CEOs are expecting the economy to show growth next fiscal year if India succeeds in its vaccination drive. A survey of 33 CEOs across India in December shows that almost 73 per cent of the respondents plan to invest more in the new year even because they expect their employees to return to work as the country rolls out vaccination in January. The Budget will be the key as CEOs are expecting the government to dole out more incentives. “The government was prompt in listening to industry after the outbreak of the pandemic, and its multi-billion-dollar economic package will be helpful in long-term...

  Ford took a $799 million impairment charge in 2019 in anticipation of the asset transfer to Mahindra to account for what it called fair value less cost to sell Ford Motor Co. is reversing plans to cede most of its Indian operations to Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., deciding to pull out of a proposed joint venture and continue its standalone business in the country. The companies agreed to terminate the venture after reassessing in part due to the global coronavirus pandemic, they said Thursday. The decision ends a deal reached more than a year ago under which Ford was expected to fold its local operations, including two factories, into a JV that would be majority-controlled by Mahindra, a leading Indian manufacturer of sport utility vehicles. The future of Ford’s business in India is unclear as it has struggled for more than two decades to grow in the world’s fourth-largest  auto market . “The company is actively evaluating its businesses around the world, including in India,...

  Aftershocks jolted central Croatia on Wednesday, a day after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed at least seven people, injured dozens and left several towns and villages in ruins. Aftershocks jolted central Croatia on Wednesday, a day after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed at least seven people, injured dozens and left several towns and villages in ruins. The strongest, 4.7-magnitude tremor was recorded near the heavily damaged town of Petrinja, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of the capital, Zagreb. Many people had spent the night in tents, their cars or military barracks. Neven Pavkovic, a resident, said the aftershocks kept him awake: “It was a rough night, I slept maybe half an hour. In the hard-hit village of Majske Poljane, where five people died, a little boy could be seen sleeping in a van on the chilly morning. Sobbing villagers said they received blankets, food and other aid but dont know what they will do next. Rain that fell overnight turned the dust from the ...

  Move will cost govt Rs 4,573 cr, is a step forward in broader plan to achieve 20 per cent blending with petrol by 2030 To meet the ambitious target of 20 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by 2030 from less than 10 per cent currently, the Union Cabinet today extended the soft loan scheme for capacity expansion to distilleries that use crops other than sugarcane as their feedstock that includes rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, barley, corn and sugar beet. So far, the soft loan scheme for capacity expansion was available for integrated and standalone distilleries that produced ethanol only from sugarcane. “The total cost to exchequer due to this extension will be around Rs 4,573 crore,” Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan told reporters after the meeting of the cabinet. Under the soft loan scheme, Central government gives a subvention of 6 per cent if the rate of interest is 12 per cent or more and if the rate of interest is less than 12 per cent, then it gives a subvention upto 5...

  Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the farmers do not trust the prime minister due to his “long history of asatyagraha” Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said the farmers do not trust the prime minister due to his “long history of asatyagraha”. “15 lakh in every bank account & 2 crore jobs every year, Give me 50 days time, else… We will win the war against Corona in 21 days. Neither has anyone intruded into our territory nor took over any post; Farmers don’t trust Modi ji due to his long history of ‘asatyagraha’,” Gandhi tweeted. Previously, Gandhi had slammed the government by saying that “India is now an imaginary democracy”. Earlier he had also met with President Ram Nath Kovind along with other party members to discuss the demands made by  farmers  Protest . It has been more than a month that farmers are protesting against the new farm laws brought by ...

  ‘Continued challenges’ faced by people in the coronavirus pandemic prompts tax department to extend deadlines. The deadline for individuals to file income tax returns has been extended by 10 days to January 10, 2021 due to “continued challenges” people face due to the coronavirus. The new deadline for filing GST annual return is February 28. The last date for declaration under Vivad Se Vishwas Scheme has been extended to December 31, 2020. The new date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for taxpayers (including their partners) who have to get their accounts audited is January 31. The date for furnishing of Income Tax Returns for the taxpayers who are required to furnish report in respect of international/specified domestic transactions was extended to January 31, 2021. The date for furnishing of  Income Tax Returns  for other taxpayers was extended to December 31, 2020. “In view of the continued challenges faced by taxpayers in meeting statutory compliances due to out...

  The Anglo-Indian women, who returned from the UK to Delhi and later reached Andhra Pradesh by a special train after escaping from an isolation centre in Delhi, have been tested positive for new strain The Anglo-Indian women, who returned from the United Kingdom to Delhi and later reached Andhra Pradesh by a special train after escaping from an isolation centre in Delhi, have been tested positive for UK strain of Coronavirus, said Katamneni Bhaskar, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Department, Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday. Bhaskar added that there is no evidence of the spread of UK ‘strain’ in Andhra Pradesh. “There is no spread of UK strain in Andhra Pradesh from her (Anglo-India  COVID positive  woman who belonged to Rajahmundry). Her son who travelled with her tested negative. The commissioner appealed to the public that there is no need to panic and don’t believe in rumours as the situation is being continuously monitored by the government,” he stated. As per o...

  A two-year-old girl who recently returned to Meerut with her parents from the UK has been found to be infected with the new Covid-19 strain. A two-year-old girl who recently returned to Meerut with her parents from the UK has been found to be infected with the new Covid-19 strain. This is the first such case in Uttar Pradesh of the new variant of Covid 19 virus which is said to be 70 per cent more transmissible than its previous form. The parents of the two-year-old, however, have been found to be infected with the old Covid-19 variant, the health officials in Meerut said. The child is in an isolation ward with her parents at Meerut’s Subharti Medical College. “A girl, who recently returned from the UK, has tested positive for the new Covid-19 strain in Meerut as per the reports received on Tuesday evening. Her parents have tested positive for Covid-19 too, but it is not the new strain. She has been kept in isolation,” said Meerut’s Chief Medical Officer Akhilesh Mohan. Four memb...

  The effort underscores how India’s electricity sector continues to struggle with debt and overcapacity after a massive build-out of plants to power a surge in economic activity India’s capital city is seeking to shed its onerous contracts with fossil fuel power plants to reduce costs and free up funds for clean energy. Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd., which retails electricity to customers in New Delhi, is in talks with Delhi’s provincial government and the federal power ministry to get some of its contracted thermal power re-allocated to other states, Chief Executive Officer Ganesh Srinivasan said in a phone interview. It also plans to oppose any life time-extension plans for aging plants it has contracted to buy electricity from, he said. The effort underscores how India’s electricity sector continues to struggle with debt and overcapacity after a massive build-out of plants to power a surge in economic activity that never fully materialized. The pandemic has accentuated the...

  Curbs imposed by the finance ministry on more than 80 government departments and ministries earlier in the year to preserve cash were relaxed this quarter India is set to swing from being a cautious spender in 2020 to opening the fiscal floodgates as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to pull Asia’s third-biggest economy bank from the worst of the pandemic. Curbs imposed by the finance ministry on more than 80 government departments and ministries earlier in the year to preserve cash were relaxed this quarter. In addition, this year’s budget will be increased from its current 30 trillion rupees ($407 billion) when new spending plans are announced Feb. 1, according to people familiar with discussions, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public and subject to change. The developments will give a boost to much-needed spending to help weather the hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Government expenditures have barely hit the half way mark seven months into the fisc...

  Farmers demonstrating against the Centre’s new agri laws on Monday performed yoga on the Delhi-Noida Link Road at the Chilla border where they have been camping for 28 days now Farmers demonstrating against the Centre’s new agri laws on Monday performed yoga on the Delhi-Noida Link Road at the Chilla border where they have been camping for 28 days now. The road remained closed for Noida to Delhi movement but was open for commuters travelling from Delhi to Noida, according to a police official. At the Dalit Prerna Sthal, farmers belonging to BKU (Lok Shakti) and hailing from various districts of western Uttar Pradesh continued their agitation and submitted a memorandum of their demands addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Gautam Buddh Nagar district administration. “The memorandum has been submitted to Additional District Magistrate Diwakar Singh and mentions the demands of our farmers’ union including the withdrawal of the three new farm laws, legislation on minimum s...

  Eight elderly workers at a German care home were mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, local authorities said Eight elderly workers at a German care home were mistakenly injected with five times the recommended dose of the Pfizer/Biontech vaccine, local authorities said Monday. The incident happened on Sunday in the northeastern city of Stralsund in the Vorpommern-Ruegen district. District chief Stefan Kerth said in a statement that he regretted the mishap. “I deeply regret the incident. This single event is the result of an individual mistake. I hope that all those affected will not develop serious side-effects,” he said. Those injected with the drug were aged between 66 and 82. They were sent home as soon as the mistake came to light. Four developed flu-like symptoms and were hospitalized for observation. The district authority pointed out that the vaccine’s German developer, Biontech, had used higher doses during the first pha...

  New Delhi’s airport — Indira Gandhi International — will be a main handling point and has facilities to store 2.7 million vials of vaccine at 2-to-8 degrees Celsius Distributing vaccines around India will pose plenty of logistical headaches given the size of the country, its vast population and number of coronavirus cases, now at more than 10 million. For its part, India’s busiest airport is “completely ready” to handle Covid-19 vaccines, according to Delhi International Airport Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, but there could be issues elsewhere considering more remote areas may not be equipped with sufficient equipment and containers. “One of the key challenges will be the availability of cold chain across India,” he said. New Delhi’s airport — Indira Gandhi International — will be a main handling point and has facilities to store 2.7 million vials of vaccine at 2-to-8 degrees Celsius, as well as cooling chambers that can keep temperatures as low as minus 20 ...

  33,000 passengers who arrived from the UK to India between November 25 to December 23 are being tracked and tested Six passengers who returned from the United Kingdom have tested positive for new variant of Covid-19 strain, the union health ministry said today. Last week, the ministry had ordered tracking and testing of over 33,000 persons who arrived from the UK between November 25 to December 23 as a part of its preventive strategy to contain the virus. About 114 returnees were found Covid-19 positve and their samples were sent to laboratories for genome sequencing. “All these persons ( with new variant of Covid-19) have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities by respective state governments. Their close contacts have also been put under quarantine. Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on,” the ministry said. “The situation is under careful wa...

  The pandemic found three of the world’s most prominent democracies shockingly underprepared, governed by leaders as incompetent as they were deluded The year 2020 was, by any measure, rich in awakenings and reckonings. None were as earth-shaking as those forced upon the United States, Britain and India. The pandemic found three of the world’s most prominent democracies shockingly underprepared, governed by leaders as incompetent as they were deluded and encumbered with states that had steadily rendered themselves incapable of performing their most basic duty: protecting human lives. In each case, stridently advanced claims — whether to be a new superpower (India), to become one again (Britain) or to provide moral leadership to the world (U.S.) — were broken on the wheel of an unforgiving virus. The socio-economic challenges before these countries suddenly seem immense, greater even than those faced after the calamity of two world wars. The conventional formulas for national uplif...

  Pandemic has taken a double hit on K-beauty. Social distancing and remote work have lessened demand for makeup and led to store closures Three years ago, Suh Kyung-bae was the second-richest person in South Korea. Today he’s barely Top 10, a stark reversal in a K-beauty boom known for minting billionaires, not breaking them. Suh’s $3.6 billion fortune — down from roughly $8 billion in 2017 — is largely comprised of shares in his family’s cosmetics conglomerate, Amorepacific Group, which have fallen more than 40% from a mid-January high. The parent of brands like Innisfree, Laniege and Sulwhasoo, Amorepacific was struggling even before Covid-19, and the pandemic has ushered in a slew of lifestyle changes that have made cosmetics less central to women’s daily routines. That’s brought a halt to the wealth created by the rapid rise in popularity of Korean beauty products and the deal-making frenzy that followed. From 2010 to 2014, foreign companies spent at least $215 million to acqu...

  Asserts that the move to ask companies above a threshold to pay one per cent of GST liability in cash targets fake invoicing The Finance ministry today defended the recent move of asking companies above a threshold to pay at least one per cent tax liability through cash under the goods and services tax system, on the grounds that it will impact only risky or fly-by-night operators. Earlier a section of traders cried foul over the new rule, sayin it would apply to just 40,000-45,000 taxpayers, representing 0.37 per cent of the total GST base. Last week, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) had inserted a rule under the Central  GST Ac t that businesses with monthly turnover of over Rs 50 lakh will have to mandatorily pay at least one per cent of their GST liability in cash. The rule will become effective on January 1. Reacting to the rule, trader body CAIT wrote to finance minister  Nirmala Sitharaman  to defer its implementation. Finance ministry ...

  President Donald Trump has signed a $900 billion pandemic relief package that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals President Donald Trump has signed a USD 900 billion pandemic relief package that will deliver long-sought cash to businesses and individuals. It also averts a government shutdown. Trump announced the signing in a statement on Sunday night. The massive bill includes USD 1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as money for cash-starved transit systems and an increase in food stamp benefits. Democrats are promising more aid to come once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, but Republicans are signalling a wait-and-see approach.

  Rahul Gandhi to lead Congress MPs’ protest march against farm laws “Rahul Gandhi along with Opposition leaders met President and submitted the memorandum to resolve farmers’ issue. But there was no action from the President and the government. Rahul Gandhi will lead a demonstration tomorrow at 10:45 am from Vijay Chowk to Rashtrapati Bhavan with Congress MPs,” Congress MP K Suresh told ANI on Wednesday. After that, he and other senior leaders will meet the President of India and submit a memorandum containing 2 crore signatures for his intervention to resolve the farmers’ agitation, he added. Farmers are protesting at the borders of Delhi since November 26 against the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020. The Central government on Sunday invited farmer leaders for a fresh round of talks amid a...

  Shots are rolling out from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., focused at first on hundreds of thousands of health-care workers around the country The U.S. now leads the world in Covid-19 vaccine shots administered, with more than 1.12 million doses given in the first 10 days of its campaign, according to state-by-state data compiled by Bloomberg. Three states have now vaccinated more than 1% of their populations: North Dakota, West Virginia, and Alaska. California leads in total vaccinations at 128,000 shots. The numbers fall short of a U.S. goal to administer 20 million shots in 2020, U.S. officials acknowledged Wednesday. That amount will be disbursed to states by the end of the month, but not in time to be administered. Shots are rolling out from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., focused at first on hundreds of thousands of health-care workers around the country who have been battling the virus on the front lines in hospitals. The vaccines require two shots weeks apart to deliver the h...

  While cities from New York to London to Melbourne went into shutdown, the entirety of Taiwan stayed open for business I was at Hong Kong international airport the morning the U.S. reported its first case of the virus out of Wuhan, China. News had already been circulating about this deadly new illness in Taiwan, my point of departure, and I spent that layover rushing around looking for the provisions needed to minimize the risk on my flight to New York. Masks were out of stock but I eventually found a small bottle of sanitizer with a cartoon Shiba Inu dog on the label, an irony I’d later appreciate. At the airline lounge, staff were dismissive of my suggestion that hand sanitizer be made available at the counter to all passengers. I knew that would change. By the time I landed at JFK airport, Chinese authorities had shut down Wuhan in an admission that this virus was serious and spreading. Yet that move was far too late. Three days earlier Taiwan had already set up its Central Epi...

  Chinese vaccine developers have been slow compared with their western peers in releasing efficacy data on their shots A Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech Ltd. was found to be more than 50% effective in a Brazilian clinical trial, though researchers delayed releasing more information at the request of the company. A 50% efficacy rate is a minimum standard set by U.S. regulators for emergency authorization of Covid vaccines. Messenger RNA vaccines from Moderna Inc. and Pfizer Inc. have produced far better results, reducing symptomatic Covid cases by well over 90% in giant trials. Chinese vaccine developers have been slow compared with their western peers in releasing efficacy data on their shots. As millions of healthy people count on transparency in trials before taking a shot, the lack of more specific results from Sinovac’s trial risks eroding confidence in vaccines from China. Hong Kong on Wednesday said residents will be allowed to choos...

  The United States has added Syria’s Central Bank, seven Syrians including a high-ranking official and nine Syrian entities to its Specially Designated and Nationals and Blocked Persons List The United States has added Syria’s Central Bank, seven Syrians including a high-ranking official and nine Syrian entities to its Specially Designated and Nationals and Blocked Persons List (SDN List), the Treasury Department announced in a press release on Tuesday. “The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned a high-ranking official in the Syrian government; her husband, a member of the Syrian People’s Assembly; and their business entities,” the release said. “In total, OFAC added two individuals, nine business entities, and the Central Bank of Syria to the SDN List, pursuant to Syria sanctions authorities.” The Treasury Department explained that the latest sanctions target senior Syrian official Lina Mohammed Nazir al-Kinayeh, who serves in the Offi...

The investment required to serve Asia’s third-biggest population spread across 6,000 inhabited islands – out of a total of at least 17,000 isles and atolls – is already large “It’s time for us to work from home, learn from home, worship at home,” Indonesia’s president announced in the early days of the pandemic in March. What Joko Widodo couldn’t have known back then was how social distancing would bring rivals in the country’s competitive telecommunications industry closer together. Credit for consolidation must go where it’s due: to the sprawling geography of the world’s largest archipelago. The investment required to serve Asia’s third-biggest population spread across 6,000 inhabited islands — out of a total of at least 17,000 isles and atolls — is already large. But with 197 million Internet users spending more time at home guzzling data, it’s pointless and wasteful for five mobile operators to seek to duplicate expensive infrastructure in a nation stretching from the Pacific Ocean...

  Zafaryab Jilani, has said the proposed mosque at Dhannipur in Ayodhya, the blueprint of which was launched three days back, was against the Waqf Act and also against Shariat Zafaryab Jilani, the executive member of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) and convenor of the Babri Masjid Action Committee (BMAC), has said the proposed mosque at Dhannipur in Ayodhya, the blueprint of which was launched three days back, was against the Waqf Act and also against Shariat. Jilani, while talking to reporters, said the proposed mosque violates the Waqf Act because mosques or land of mosques cannot be bartered. It also violates Sharia law because the Waqf Act is based on Shariat, he added. He said that at a meeting of the All India Muslim Personal Law Board’s executive committee held on October 13, the issue was raised by AIMIM MP  Asaduddin Owaisi.  S.Q.R. Ilyas, executive member, AIMPLB, said, “All members were of the view that exchange of mosque land is not permissibl...

  This could be the first country to give the regulatory green light for the British drugmaker’s vaccine as the British medicine regulator continues to examine data from the trials India is likely to approve Oxford/AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use by next week after its local manufacturer submitted additional data sought by authorities, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday. This could be the first country to give the regulatory green light for the British drugmaker’s vaccine as the British medicine regulator continues to examine data from the trials. India, the world’s biggest vaccine-making country, wants to start inoculating its citizens next month and is also considering emergency use authorisation applications for vaccines made by Pfizer Inc and local company Bharat Biotech. Getting  Corona vaccines  to the world’s second-most populous country with one of the highest infection rates will also be a big step in the battle a...