Heena Sharma Blog

  UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is saddened by the loss of life in a fire at the Serum Institute of India facility in Pune and hopes that the incident is fully investigated, his spokesperson has said. Five men died after a fire broke out in a five-storeyed under-construction building in the Serum Institute of India's Manjari premises in Pune on Thursday, police said. The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccines used in the nationwide inoculation drive against the pandemic are made. The building where fire broke out is one km from the Covishield vaccine manufacturing unit. We, obviously, are saddened by the loss of life and send our condolences to the families impacted, and we hope the fire is fully investigated, Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said at the daily press briefing on Thursday. Read More

  Nearly a quarter of the world's population may not have access to a Covid-19 vaccine until at least 2022, according to a study published in The BMJ on Wednesday which warns that vaccines will be as challenging to deliver as they were to develop. Another study in the same journal estimates that 3.7 billion adults worldwide are willing to have a Covid-19 vaccine, highlighting the importance of designing fair and equitable strategies to ensure that supply can meet demand, especially in low and middle income countries. These findings together suggest that the operational challenges of the global Covid-19 vaccination programme will be at least as difficult as the scientific challenges associated with their development. In the first study, researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US analysed pre-orders for COVID-19 vaccines ahead of their regulatory approval that had been publicly announced by countries around the world. Read More  

  Actor Sonu Sood who is often dubbed as the " messiah of migrants " for his philanthropic work during coronavirus induced lockdown, has been conferred with the prestigious SDG Special Humanitarian Action Award by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The 'Dabangg' actor has received the award for selflessly extending a helping hand and sending lakhs of migrants, stranded students across geographies abroad, back to their homes. Besides that, he has also been providing free education and medical facilities to young children and has been creating free employment opportunities to the needy in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The award was presented to the actor at a virtual ceremony on Monday evening. Expressing his happiness over the honour, the actor said he fully supports the UNDP in its endevaours. Read More  

With a daily increase of 10,996 in total cases, India’s tally has risen from 286,579 to 297,535, an increase of 3.8 per cent, listing India as the fourth-most-affected nation by number of coronavirus cases . Death toll has reached 8,498 with 396 new fatalities, the most ever in a day. The number of active cases across India has increased by 4,394, compared with 3,816 on Thursday. States that have reported the biggest 24-hour jump in active cases are Maharashtra (1,894), Delhi (1,290), Tamil Nadu (480), Haryana (305), and West Bengal (221). Read More

The total number of Covid-19 cases in India stands at 81,970, out of which 27,920 have been cured and 2,649 have died due to the infectious disease, leaving behind 51,401 active cases so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The country now is just a whisker from overtaking China — from where the virus originated. In view of the surge in daily new cases in Maharashtra, the state government is likely to extend lockdown in major coronavirus hotspots, including Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Malegaon and Solapur, till May 31, according to media reports. Read More

As India reported 14 more cases of coronavirus infection on Tuesday and the situation in Europe worsened, the government suspended all the visas and e-visas granted on or before March 11 to French, German, and Spanish nationals in a bid to contain the spread of the deadly virus in the country. This after the government earlier suspended visas and e-visas to citizens of China, Italy, Iran, Japan, and South Korea. The number of coronavirus cases in India jumped to 61 after fresh cases were reported from Kerala (eight), Karnataka (three), and Maharashtra (three). In Bengaluru, Dell — a US-headquartered computer technology company — advised its employees to work from home in India after one of its techies with travel history to Texas, along with his wife and daughter, was tested positive. “We can confirm two employees of Dell India were tested for the COVID-19 virus following their return home from the United States – including a visit to our headquarters in Round Rock, Texas. O...

As China again blocked a UN resolution to designate JeM chief a global terrorist, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Thursday hit out at Prime Minster Narendra Modi, saying he was weak and scared of Chinese President Xi Jinping . The Congress chief attacked the prime minister and said he had not spoken on China blocking the resolution in the UN Security Council. The party accused the BJP of letting Masood off the hook again and also questioned Modi what was the use of "swinging" with Xi. "Weak Modi is scared of Xi. Not a word comes out of his mouth when China acts against India. NoMo's China diplomacy: 1. Swing with Xi in Gujarat. 2. Hug Xi in Delhi. 3. Bow to Xi in China," Gandhi said on Twitter. India's bid to designate the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's chief as a global terrorist suffered a setback with China on Wednesday putting a technical hold on a proposal to ban him following the Pulwama terror attack . The proposal ...

Death of children below the age of five continues to steadily reduce in India, declining from nearly 22 per cent in 2012 to 18 per cent in 2017, which is now for the first time below the one million mark, the UN said in a new report. "The under-five mortality rate of India at 39 per 1000 now equals that of the world, highlighting the much faster decline by India in the last five years as compared to the global decline. (Under-five mortality of India: 39 per 1,000 and global also is 39 per 1,000)," it said. According to the report, the gender gap in child survival has reduced almost four-fold in the last five years, with under-five mortality of girl child now being 2.5 per cent higher, compared to nearly 10 per cent in 2012. Read Complete Article  

The report underscored the public health benefits of decriminalising sex work Health News : India saw a major reduction in the number of new HIV infections, AIDS-related deaths and people living with HIV from 2010 to 2017 on the back of sustained and focussed efforts, according to a UN report which warned that the epidemic was growing in Pakistan. The Joint UN Agency on AIDS (UNAIDS) report titled 'Miles to go closing gaps, breaking barriers, righting injustices' said Asia and the Pacific regions have made strong inroads with its HIV response. Sustained and focused efforts to reach key populations have led to major reductions in HIV infections in Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam between 2010 and 2017. The report, however, warned that the global new HIV infections were not declining fast enough. It also noted that the epidemics were expanding in Pakistan and the Philippines. In India, new HIV infections dropped from 120,000 in 2010 to 88,...

In the report released today, the UN talked about alleged human rights violations in both "Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir" Current Affairs News : India   today rejected a UN report alleging   human rights violations in   Kashmir   as "fallacious, tendentious and motivated". In a strong reaction, the   Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said the report is "overtly prejudiced" and seeks to build a "false narrative". It violated the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity, it said. In the report released today, the UN talked about alleged   human rights   violations in both "Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir" and sought an international inquiry into these abuses. Also read: UN report accuses India, Pakistan of Kashmir rights violations, seeks probe "India   rejects the report. It is fallacious, tendentious and motivated. We question the intent ...