Budget 2018-19

  Australia has joined the US in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over concerns about human rights abuses in China. Australia has joined the US in announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over concerns about human rights abuses in China. This comes a few days after the Biden administration announced the decision not to send an official US delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Australian Prime Minister  Scott Morrison  said that this decision should come as “no surprise” that their diplomats and politicians would boycott the event, citing the breakdown in the ties with China, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported. “I’m doing it because it’s in Australia’s national interest,” he said. “It’s the right thing to do.” Morrison said Beijing’s own diplomatic freeze on Australia had also fed into the decision for officials to boycott the Games because Australia had been unable to raise its concerns about...

  Air pollution is estimated to cost the global economy upwards of $2.9 trillion per year due to fossil fuel emissions alone Air pollution continues to present one of the world’s biggest health hazards to people everywhere, contri­buting to about 7 million premature deaths annually. 600,000 of these deaths are children. Compounding this staggering health crisis, air pollution is estimated to cost the global economy upwards of $2.9 trillion per year due to fossil fuel emissions alone, while also contrib­uting to a range of severe environmental probl­ems. Air quality is determined by the levels of air pollut­ants PM2.5, PM10, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and carbon monoxide. In 2020, India had 46 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities, followed by China (42), Pakistan (6), Bangladesh (4), Indonesia (1), and Thailand (1), according to air quality tracker IQAir. All these cities had a PM2.5 air-quality rating of over 50. Nine out of the top 10 most polluted cities are in I...

  Xie Zhenhua, a special climate envoy for China, spoke to reporters at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. China is at a special development stage that warrants its current status as the world’s biggest emitter of climate-damaging fossil fuel pollution, the nation’s senior climate negotiator said Tuesday. Xie Zhenhua, a special climate envoy for China, spoke to reporters at the UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. As a major climate polluter and as the world’s second-biggest economy, China has been much talked about, but little seen, at the summit. Chinese President  Xi Jinping  who is not known to have left the country during the pandemic has not joined the more than 100 other world leaders at the event, addressing observers and delegates in a written message Monday instead. Xie, who played a pivotal role in negotiations that achieved the 2015 Paris climate accord, underscored China’s longstanding position that the United States and other developed nations sh...

  Rawat said history is witness to the fact that whenever a country neglects its armed forces, the external powers are quick to exploit it. The territorial ambitions of China and Pakistan require the Indian armed forces to remain alert and deployed along disputed borders and coastal areas round the year, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Bipin Rawat said on Sunday. The CDS stated this while delivering the Sardar Patel Memorial Lecture at All India Radio. “The quintessential visionary that  Sardar Patel  was, he had assertively voiced the need of an independent Tibet as a buffer state between India and China, as can be found in his correspondence with the then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru,” he said. Rawat said history is witness to the fact that whenever a country neglects its armed forces, the external powers are quick to exploit it. In the 1950s, India overlooked this important lesson of history and allowed the security apparatus to drift and the Chinese shook the c...

  NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal will have a one-on-one meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday at the G-20 summit in Italy, the government said in a statement. NEW DELHI (Reuters) –  India’s Trade Minister  Piyush Goyal will have a one-on-one meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday at the G-20 summit in Italy, the government said in a statement. Goyal will also meet other trade ministers, including those from the United States, South Korea, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada, among others, the statement said on Monday. Relations between India and China have been strained due to border related issues.

  The 13th round of military talks between India and China did not produce any resolution of the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Army said on Monday a day after the dialogue. The 13th round of military talks between India and China did not produce any resolution of the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh, the Indian Army said on Monday a day after the dialogue. It said the Indian side made “constructive suggestions” for resolving the remaining areas but the Chinese side was not agreeable to them and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals. “The meeting thus did not result in resolution of the remaining areas,” the Army said in a statement. The talks took place on the Chushul-Moldo border point on the Chinese side of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh on Sunday and they lasted for around eight-and-half hours. The Army said the Indian side pointed out that the situation along the LAC had been caused by “unilateral attempts” by the Chinese si...

  Officials have confirmed that the new outbreak is caused by the Delta strain The rise of the highly-contagious  Delta variant  is challenging even the most aggressive Covid-19 containment regimes, an ominous sign as economies look to open up and return to pre-pandemic life. An outbreak that started at an airport in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing is testing that country’s zero-tolerance measures, which are some of the most sweeping and comprehensive in the world. New infections are rising by the dozens and seeding subsequent clusters around China despite well-honed systems of mass testing and stringent quarantines. Beijing reported its first locally-transmitted infection in six months Thursday, linked to an outbreak in the southern province of Hunan among people who’d recently been to Nanjing. The variant is scaling some of the toughest virus defenses, with “Covid Zero” places —countries that had snuffed out the virus within their borders — still seeing outbreaks de...

Current half-bn users can order rides if they downloaded the app before Sunday China’s cyberspace regulator ordered app stores to remove Didi Chuxing, dealing a major blow to a ride-hailing giant that just days ago pulled off one of the largest US initial public offerings (IPOs) of the past decade. The Cyberspace Administration of China announced the ban Sunday, citing serious violations on Didi Global’s collection and usage of personal information, without elaborating. That unusually swift decision came two days after the regulator said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the company. That effectively requires the largest app stores in China, operated by the likes of Apple and smartphone makers Huawei Technologies and Xiaomi, to strike  Didi App  from their offerings. But the current half-billion or so users can continue to order up rides and other services so long as they downloaded the app before Sunday’s order. The surprise probe and rapid decision by China’s po...

  The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 24 new Covid-19 cases, all of which were imported, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Friday The Chinese mainland on Thursday reported 24 new Covid-19 cases, all of which were imported, the National Health Commission said in its daily report on Friday. Of the cases, 11 were reported in Fujian, nine in Shanghai, and one each in Henan, Hunan, Guangdong and Sichuan, Xinhua reported citing the health commission. No new suspected cases and no new deaths related to Covid-19 were reported on Thursday, the commission said.

  Sinovac has shipped some 380 million doses, but it still hasn’t published any data in an academic journal. Indonesia, one of the first nations to bet its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Sinovac Biotech Ltd., was about to announce a stunning development, one that would help vindicate a shot that’s been shrouded in controversy for months. Over in Beijing, though, the company’s chief executive officer was unaware. A study of some 128,000 Jakarta health workers released Wednesday found  Sinovac’s vaccine  — known as CoronaVac — was far more protective than clinical trials had indicated. A day earlier, it wasn’t mentioned by CEO Yin Weidong in a wide-ranging interview with Bloomberg reporters, and representatives later confirmed the company didn’t know the announcement was coming. It’s a disconnect that echoes the events of Christmas Eve 2020, when the Chinese developer that will be key to vaccinating much of the developing world had little explanation for why Brazil and Tu...

  The Biden administration has conveyed to New Delhi that it understands India’s pharmaceutical requirements and promised to give the matter a due consideration The Biden administration has conveyed to New Delhi that it understands India’s pharmaceutical requirements and promised to give the matter a due consideration, observing that the current difficulty in the export of critical raw materials needed to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines is mainly due to an Act that forces American companies to prioritise domestic consumption. President Joe Biden and his predecessor Donald Trump had invoked the war-time Defence Production Act (DPA) that leaves US companies with no option but to give priority to the production of COVID-19 vaccines and Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) for domestic production to combat the deadly pandemic in America, the worst-hit nation. Since the US has ramped up the production of  COVID-19 vaccines  mostly by Pfizer and Moderna so as to meet the goal of ...

  38-year-old Zhang Yiming, is among the world’s richest people — a distinction that lately has carried increased risks in China Just last year, the world’s most valuable startup, ByteDance Ltd., was being squeezed from all sides. The Trump administration wanted the Chinese firm, which owns the ubiquitous TikTok video-sharing platform, to get rid of assets. Beijing was cracking down on tech businesses, and India had blacklisted some of its social-media apps. For all the obstacles, ByteDance kept growing. Now its founder, 38-year-old Zhang Yiming, is among the world’s richest people — a distinction that lately has carried increased risks in China. Shares of the company trade in the private market at a valuation of more than $250 billion, people familiar with the dealings have said. At that level, Zhang, who owns about a quarter of  ByteDance , could be worth more than $60 billion, placing him alongside Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s Pony Ma, bottled-water king Zhong Shanshan and membe...

  The number is far short of the $315 billion Ant touted for what was set to be the world's largest IPO Some of Ant Group’s global investors have valued the Chinese fintech firm at over $200 billion based on its 2020 performance, said people with knowledge of the matter, offering a more sober estimate after the shelving of its IPO and forced restructuring.The number is at least a third above Ant’s valuation after its last fundraising in 2018 when it emerged as the world’s most valuable unlisted technology company, yet is far short of the $315 billion it touted for what was set to be the world’s largest IPO.Investor hopes for a massive windfall were dashed when regulatory scrutiny scuppered the $37 billion initial public offering (IPO) days ahead of Ant’s November listing.Regulator-mandated restructuring has since made some more conservative with their internal analysis.Investors’ revised estimates of Ant’s valuation, which will determine their returns, is reported here for the firs...

  Google-owned YouTube on Tuesday blocked a music video by famous Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal titled ‘Ailaan’ that was related to the farmer protests and raked in over 60 lakh views Google-owned YouTube on Tuesday blocked a music video by famous Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal titled ‘Ailaan’ that was related to the farmer protests and raked in over 60 lakh views. YouTube has placed a notification on the original video, saying “This content is not available on this country domain due to a legal complaint from the government”. A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement: “We comply with valid legal requests from authorities wherever possible, consistent with our longstanding policy and act quickly to remove identified content”. However, the fans of the singer posted the same music video on various other channels on  YouTube  which can still be accessed. According to media reports, another video by artist Himmat Sandhu titled ‘Asi vaddange’ which had 1.3 crore views has also b...

  Following a 12-day visit to China to probe the origins of Covid-19 in Wuhan, a team of World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday dismissed the theory of a ‘lab leak’ of the virus Following a 12-day visit to China to probe the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan, a team of World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday dismissed the theory of a ‘lab leak’ of the virus. According to Washington Post, Peter Ben Embarek, the Danish WHO food safety expert leading the international team, said his group will not recommend further investigation into the theory that the virus accidentally leaked from labs conducting coronavirus research. Embarek told reporters that the judgment was based on “long, frank, open discussions with researchers and management” at institutions including the  Wuhan Institute of Virology  (WIV). “They’re the best ones to dismiss the claims and provide answers to all the questions,” he said. “Our initial findings suggest that introduction through an intermediary host...

  A British media house report alleged systematic rape in so-called re-education camps United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Thursday called for a visit of High Commissioner’s for Human Rights to the Muslim-majority Chinese region of Xinjiang, after a British media house report alleging systematic rape in so-called re-education camps. Sputnik cited interviews that the UK media outlet conducted with former detainees and a guard, that Muslim Uyghur women in such camps are systematically subjected to rape, torture and sexual abuse. “Taking into account the nature of the allegations in the report and the denial by the authorities of these allegations, I think it’s more important now than ever for the proposed mission of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to go forward,” Dujarric said in a press briefing. The US Department of State has expressed its disturbance over the reports about systematic rape and sexual abuse in camps for Uyghurs and other Muslims in China’s  ...

  The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Monday gave provisional approval for people aged 16 and over to use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech Australia’s medical regulator has approved use of its first coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for inoculations to begin next month. The Therapeutic Goods Administration on Monday gave provisional approval for people aged 16 and over to use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The regulator said priority would be given to groups that include aged-care residents and workers, frontline healthcare workers, and quarantine workers. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed the development. He said Australia was among the first countries to complete a comprehensive and thorough process to formally approve a vaccine rather than just grant an emergency approval. Australia is aiming to complete inoculations by October. The nation of 26 million people has reported fewer than 30,000 virus cases and a little over 900 deaths...

  Much about the future of China’s most famous businessman remains unclear He appeared for less than a minute and said nothing about the Chinese government clampdown that had left his business empire in crisis. But for investors who’d been waiting months to catch a glimpse of Jack Ma, the entrepreneur’s participation in a live-streamed video conference on Wednesday was enough to trigger a $58 billion sigh of relief. That’s how much Alibaba Group Holding’s market value soared after a clip of Ma speaking to a group of teachers began circulating online — his first public comments since disappearing from view late last year. Much about the future of China’s most famous businessman remains unclear. Yet analysts said Wednesday’s video was a sign that worst-case scenarios — such as jail time for Ma or a government takeover of his companies –- are probably now off the table. It’s unlikely Ma would have participated in the event without at least tacit approval from Beijing; state-run media ...

  The city’s Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and his deputy Suresh Kakani, who’s in charge of the vaccination drive, spoke in separate interviews this week India’s business and financial hub Mumbai, once the country’s coronavirus hotspot, is building facilities to store 10 million doses of the vaccine as it aims to open fully from a strict lockdown. The city’s Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal and his deputy Suresh Kakani, who’s in charge of the vaccination drive, spoke in separate interviews this week before the start of a nationwide rollout on Saturday. Their responses are edited for clarity. Q. What’s the plan? Chahal:  Mumbai’s population that comes under the Municipal Corporation is about 15 million. We plan to create vaccine storage capacity of a little more than 10 million, which will be adequate as the vaccination will be done in phases. We have formed 500 teams, each having two vaccinators, two support staff and one security guard. They will initiall...

  The media and opposition figures have justifiably asked why Bharat Biotech’s candidate was approved at the same time as AstraZeneca’s, when it hasn’t even finished or published results from Stage III The Indian state faces one of the world’s most formidable challenges: rolling out a Covid-19 vaccination program for 1.3 billion people. To succeed, many things have to go right in a country that usually gets a lot wrong. The government would be wise to enlist the country’s private sector in this gargantuan effort — and soon. The vaccine rollout is already off to a shaky start. The government last week announced emergency approval for two vaccines. The first, a joint effort from AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University, is being produced by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer. The other has been developed by the Indian company Bharat Biotech International Ltd. The media and opposition figures have justifiably asked why Bharat Biotech’s candidate was ap...