Heena Sharma Blog

  Russia has successfully launched its first satellite to monitor the Arctic's climate and environment, the country's space corporation Roscosmos said in a statement. A Soyuz-2.1b carrier rocket with the " Arktika-M " satellite on board blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9.55 a.m. on Sunday, Roscosmos said. The Arktika-M spacecraft was delivered to the orbit at 12.14 p.m., Xinhua news agency quoted the space corporation as further saying in the statement. The creation of a satellite system in highly elliptical orbits is necessary for information collection to solve operational meteorology and hydrology problems, and monitoring the climate and environment in the Arctic region, it said. The Arktika-M will provide round-the-clock continuous monitoring of the northern territory of Russia and the seas of the Arctic Ocean, Roscosmos added. Read More

  Argentina will begin vaccinating its population against coronavirus on Tuesday, using Russia's Sputnik V vaccine . Health workers will be first in line to receive the first shot of the two-component vaccine. The vaccine will be administered across all 23 provinces and in the capital Buenos Aires. Some 300,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in the Latin American country last Thursday, a day after it authorized the emergency use of Sputnik V. Under the contract, Russia will deliver ten million doses. Carla Vizzotti, the country's secretary for health access, described the campaign on Monday as "the most important vaccination in our history." Read More

  Russia's sovereign wealth fund and Indian pharmaceutical company Hetero have agreed to produce over 100 million doses per year in India of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19 , according to a statement on the Sputnik V Twitter account on Friday. Hetero and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been backing the vaccine and marketing it globally, plan to start production of Sputnik V in India at the beginning of 2021, the statement said. Phase II-III trials are ongoing in India, the statement said. Drugmaker Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has said it expects late-stage trials to be completed by as early as March 2021. Read More

Russia's Sechenov University has successfully completed human trials of its vaccine candidate for the novel coronavirus , according to reports. Experts say that the global scientific community would now vet the efficacy of the vaccine before it can be used by countries across the world. Even if all goes well, it is still sometime away before it can be distributed globally. Russian news agency Sputnik said that Vadim Tarasov, the Director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Biotechnology, told the agency that the university has completed the trial of the vaccine developed by the Gamaleya Institute, an epidemiology research centre in Moscow. According to the report, Tarasov said the first group of volunteers would be discharged on July 15 and the second group on July 20. One group of 18 volunteers received the vaccine on June 18, while another group of 20 volunteers were given the vaccine on June 23 at the Practical Research Centre for Interventional Cardiovasol

Russia has recorded the second largest victory by a host nation in their opening match in the World Cup history after Italy won 7-1 against USA in 1934 FIFA World Cup 2018 : Russia   is a cold and unforgiving place, especially for those not used to it. The Saudi Arabians got to know that first-hand at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow with the Russians pumping in five goals, mercilessly. The high-scoring match certainly lived up to its billing, which, despite being the inaugural match of FIFA World Cup 2018, was between two teams who are least expected to go above the group stage. Trivia:   Russia   have scored 3+ goals in a World Cup game for the first time since beating Cameroon 6-1 in 1994 The 81,000-strong Luzhniki Stadium was lit up to welcome the tournament to Russia, and after half-hour long ceremony, followed by a speech by President Vladimir Putin, the ball was rolled and the match began. Watching from the stands, Russian President Vladimir   Putin shook hands with

Without updates, Telegram would not work properly with the latest version of the iPhone operating system and it was out of compliance with the new European data privacy law                                                                                                                                                                                                           Technology News : Apple   has prevented the   Telegram   messaging service from updating globally ever since   Russia   banned the service and ordered   Apple   to remove it from its online store, Telegram's chief executive and founder claimed on Thursday. Pavel Durov   said on his Twitter and   Telegram   accounts that while the application was available from Apple, Telegram   has not been able to deliver technical updates to installed versions of the product anywhere. He wrote that without updates, Telegram would not work properly with the latest version of the iPhone operating system and it wa

To zero in on the winner, UBS uses econometric tools, usually applied to assess investment opportunities Current Affairs News : With barely a month remaining for the   FIFA   World Cup to begin in Russia, a recent study by   UBS   attaches a 60 per cent likelihood that the winner will be one among Germany,   Brazil   and   Russia.   Germany, it predicts, has the highest probability – 24 per cent – to lift the winner’s trophy as compared to the other participating nations. “Simulations indicate no country has higher odds of winning the tournament than Germany, leading the table with a likelihood of 24 per cent.   Brazil   and Spain also stand a good chance of lifting the trophy, with chances of 19.8 and 16.1 per cent respectively. Host nation   Russia   will start in the Cup’s weakest group and is expected to progress to the round of 16, where it is likely to lose against Spain or Portugal,”   UBS   says. To zero in on the winner,   UBS