India's Modi meets Kashmir leaders first time after ... - Rackcdn.com

24
‘Badrinath Ki Entertainment........... Business................... Astrology ................... Health....................... Sports........................ Page 12 Page 14 Page 16 Page 17 Page 20 INDEX Thought of the Week: “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr INSIDE THIS ISSUE Washington man sentenced Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employ- er of nearly $800,000. Page 4 ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh dies aged 91, Indian PM Modi leads tributes. ‘Flying Sikh’ Milkha Singh dies Page 10 Varun Sharma is all set to make his digital debut in web series Chutzpah. Page 12 New Zealand defeats India New Zealand shed their brides- maid’s tag by claiming the inau- gural World Test Championship (WTC) title. Page 20 Virat Kohli rues Varun to make digital debut India Bulletin unbiased - unedited - unbeatable news delivered directly to you Saturday, June 26, 2021 Vol. 17 No. 15 Biweekly Midwest Edition www.indiabulletinusa.com FREE By Aijaz Hussain SRINAGAR - India’s prime minister held a crucial meeting with pro-India politicians from disputed Kashmir on Thursday for the first time since New Delhi stripped the region’s semi-autono- my and jailed many of them in a crackdown. No major decision was an- nounced after the meeting and many Kashmiri leaders said they reiterated their demand that New Delhi should reverse its 2019 changes. Experts say the meeting was meant to ward off mounting criti- cism at home and abroad after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in August 2019 downgraded the region’s sta- tus, split it into two federal territo- ries - Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir - and removed inherited protec- tions on land and jobs for the local population. Since then, Indian authorities have imposed a slew of adminis- trative changes through new laws, often drafted by bureaucrats, that triggered resentment and anger as many likened the moves to the beginning of settler colonial- ism. Modi has called the changes overdue and necessary to foster economic development and fully integrate Kashmir with India. Muslim-majority Kashmir is di- vided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Mus- lim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country. Modi chaired the meeting in New Delhi attended by the Hima- layan region’s 14 political leaders, including Modi’s own party mem- bers. India’s powerful home min- ister, Amit Shah, and New Del- hi’s administrator in the region, Manoj Sinha, also attended the meeting. Among those invited were Kashmir’s former three top elected officials: Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, who was a regional coali- tion partner of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections. Despite being pro-India and seen by many in Kashmir as New Delhi’s collaborators, Shah last year labeled them a “gang” while some others called them “anti-na- tional elements.” Some senior rul- ing party leaders also dubbed them political untouchables who were rendered redundant by the 2019 decision. The three and a few other invit- ed leaders were among thousands arrested and held for months in 2019. They have criticized India’s policies in Kashmir and formed an alliance with four other parties to fight them, calling them “spitefully shortsighted and unconstitutional.” Shah said the government “stressed to strengthen the demo- cratic process” in the region. But the alliance spokesman, Yousuf Tarigami, told report- ers after the meeting that they did not get any concrete assur- ances from Modi and Shah, al- though they “heard our concerns, demands and aspirations.” The Kashmiri alliance stuck to their demands and said they told Modi during the meeting that the region’s semi-autonomous powers should be restored. “India’s unconstitutional, illegal and immoral changes in the region are not acceptable to us,” Mufti, the region’s former chief minister, told reporters after the meeting. Mufti said she told the Indian leaders that New Delhi should also talk to neighboring Pakistan and find a solution to the dispute. Several other leaders, however, steered away from demanding a restoration of the special status and said they instead stressed an early restoration of statehood, the hold- ing of an election and land and em- ployment security for people. The meeting follows the re- affirmation of a 2003 cease- fire accord between India and Pakistan in February as part of a peace deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates. Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, a public policy think tank in India, said geopolitical reasons forced “Modi’s hand for an outreach to- wards Kashmiri political leaders.” In a tweet, he said Tuesday that the UAE-brokered backchannel talks led to “certain commitments from the Modi government on Kashmir.” International pressure, par- ticularly from U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, has also been piling on the Indian govern- ment to reverse some of its recent changes. Dean Thompson, acting assis- tant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, told a congres- sional hearing early this month that although New Delhi had tak- en some steps such as the release of prisoners and the restoration of 4G internet access in the region, “there are other electoral steps we’d like to see them take and that we have encouraged them to do and will continue to do so.” India’s Modi meets Kashmir leaders India’s Modi meets Kashmir leaders first time after altering region first time after altering region India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the meeting with Jammu and Kashmir parties in New Delhi. ANYTIME. ANYWHERE. WWW.INDIABULLETINUSA.COM

Transcript of India's Modi meets Kashmir leaders first time after ... - Rackcdn.com

lsquoBadrinath Ki Dulhaniarsquo

EntertainmentBusiness AstrologyHealth Sports

Page 12Page 14 Page 16Page 17Page 20IND

EX

Thought of the Week ldquoManrsquos mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensionsrdquo - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr

INSIDE THIS ISSUEWashington man

sentenced

Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employ-er of nearly $800000 Page 4

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies

Page 10

Varun Sharma is all set to make his digital debut in web series Chutzpah Page 12

New Zealand defeats India

New Zealand shed their brides-maidrsquos tag by claiming the inau-gural World Test Championship (WTC) title Page 20

Virat Kohli rues soft ball

Varun to make digital debut

India Bulletinunbiased - unedited - unbeatable news delivered directly to you

Saturday June 26 2021 Vol 17 No 15 Biweekly Midwest Edition wwwindiabulletinusacom FREE

By Aijaz Hussain

SRINAGAR - Indiarsquos prime minister held a crucial meeting with pro-India politicians from disputed Kashmir on Thursday for the fi rst time since New Delhi stripped the regionrsquos semi-autono-my and jailed many of them in a crackdown

No major decision was an-nounced after the meeting and many Kashmiri leaders said they reiterated their demand that New Delhi should reverse its 2019 changes

Experts say the meeting was meant to ward off mounting criti-cism at home and abroad after Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos Hindu nationalist government in August 2019 downgraded the regionrsquos sta-tus split it into two federal territo-ries - Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir - and removed inherited protec-tions on land and jobs for the local population

Since then Indian authorities have imposed a slew of adminis-trative changes through new laws often drafted by bureaucrats that triggered resentment and anger as many likened the moves to the beginning of settler colonial-ism Modi has called the changes overdue and necessary to foster economic development and fully integrate Kashmir with India

Muslim-majority Kashmir is di-vided between India and Pakistan which both claim it in its entirety Rebels have been fi ghting against Indian rule since 1989 Most Mus-lim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country

Modi chaired the meeting in New Delhi attended by the Hima-layan regionrsquos 14 political leaders including Modirsquos own party mem-bers Indiarsquos powerful home min-ister Amit Shah and New Del-hirsquos administrator in the region Manoj Sinha also attended the

meetingAmong those invited were

Kashmirrsquos former three top elected offi cials Farooq Abdullah his son Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti who was a regional coali-tion partner of Modirsquos Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections

Despite being pro-India and seen by many in Kashmir as New Delhirsquos collaborators Shah last year labeled them a ldquogangrdquo while some others called them ldquoanti-na-tional elementsrdquo Some senior rul-ing party leaders also dubbed them political untouchables who were rendered redundant by the 2019 decision

The three and a few other invit-ed leaders were among thousands arrested and held for months in 2019 They have criticized Indiarsquos policies in Kashmir and formed an alliance with four other parties to fi ght them calling them ldquospitefully shortsighted and unconstitutionalrdquo

Shah said the government ldquostressed to strengthen the demo-cratic processrdquo in the region

But the alliance spokesman

Yousuf Tarigami told report-ers after the meeting that they did not get any concrete assur-ances from Modi and Shah al-though they ldquoheard our concerns demands and aspirationsrdquo

The Kashmiri alliance stuck to their demands and said they told Modi during the meeting that the regionrsquos semi-autonomous powers should be restored

ldquoIndiarsquos unconstitutional illegal and immoral changes in the region are not acceptable to usrdquo Mufti the regionrsquos former chief minister told reporters after the meeting

Mufti said she told the Indian leaders that New Delhi should also talk to neighboring Pakistan and fi nd a solution to the dispute

Several other leaders however steered away from demanding a restoration of the special status and said they instead stressed an early restoration of statehood the hold-ing of an election and land and em-ployment security for people

The meeting follows the re-affi rmation of a 2003 cease-fi re accord between India and Pakistan in February as part of

a peace deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates

Sushant Singh a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research a public policy think tank in India said geopolitical reasons forced ldquoModirsquos hand for an outreach to-wards Kashmiri political leadersrdquo In a tweet he said Tuesday that the UAE-brokered backchannel talks led to ldquocertain commitments from the Modi government on Kashmirrdquo

International pressure par-ticularly from US President Joe Bidenrsquos administration has also been piling on the Indian govern-ment to reverse some of its recent changes

Dean Thompson acting assis-tant secretary of state for South and Central Asia told a congres-sional hearing early this month that although New Delhi had tak-en some steps such as the release of prisoners and the restoration of 4G internet access in the region ldquothere are other electoral steps wersquod like to see them take and that we have encouraged them to do and will continue to do sordquo

Indiarsquos Modi meets Kashmir leaders Indiarsquos Modi meets Kashmir leaders first time after altering regionfirst time after altering region

Indiarsquos Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the meeting with Jammu and Kashmir parties in New Delhi

ANYTIME ANYWHERE

WWWINDIABULLETINUSACOM

India Bulletin

By Chris Thomasand Sethuraman R

BENGALURU - Like many other twenty-somethings in India Beverly Coutinho kept postpon-ing buying a life insurance policy until a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths made her confront her own mortality

ldquoI saw people my own age dy-ing which prompted me to get life insurance immediatelyrdquo says Coutinho a 24-year-old senior executive at a public relations agency in Mumbai

ldquoI wouldnrsquot want my family to be in situation where they have to scramble for funds if something happens to merdquo

The offi cial count puts the num-ber of deaths due to COVID-19 at 380000 the third highest after the United States and Brazil though experts say Indiarsquos numbers are grossly underestimated due to the low levels of testing for the virus and more people have probably died in India than anywhere else in the world

When a devastating second wave of the pandemic peaked in

India during April and May the numbers of people aged between 25 and 35 buying term insurance was 30 higher than in the pre-vious three months combined said PolicyBazaar Indiarsquos largest online insurance aggregator

Term insurance purchases via online insurance aggregator Insur-anceDekhorsquos website rose 70 in May compared with March

Insurers did not reveal how many plans they sold citing busi-ness confi dentiality but many said it was in the ldquohigh thousandsrdquo

ldquoThe current pandemic has led

to higher awareness around the need for fi nancial protection and the inadequacy of the current in-surance coveragerdquo Niraj Shah chief fi nancial offi cer of HDFC Life Insurance said

Shahrsquos fi rm said it had seen more demand for protection products by the under-35 age group since the pandemic fi rst struck India around 15 months ago

Industry executives say enqui-ries about insurance plans have rocketed despite the second wave of infections subsiding probably

due to strong prospects of a third wave given the slow start India made to the mammoth task of vaccinating its people

Stock market investors still ap-pear uncertain whether buying shares in life insurers is a good bet during a pandemic

Since the start of the year the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index has gained 135 while shares in HDFC Life Insurance are up just over 2 SBI Life Insurance has risen around 10 and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has climbed nearly 18

Shocked by COVID deaths young Indians rush for life insurance

People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in New Delhi India on May 4 2021

Taj Mahal reopens for tourists as India eases COVID-19 curbs

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - The Taj Ma-hal reopened to the public last Wednesday as India still reeling from a disastrous second wave of the pandemic pushes to lift restrictions in a bid to revitalise its economy

The 17th-century white mar-ble mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the north-ern city of Agra was closed in early April as India introduced

strict lockdown measures in an eff ort to contain a surge in COVID-19 infections that is still killing thousands every day

Only 650 tourists will be al-lowed inside the premises of the Taj Mahal at any time said Prabhu Singh district magistrate of Agra The monument normal-ly attracts 7 million to 8 million visitors annually or over 20000 people per day

The state of Uttar Pradesh where Agra is located re-

ported 270 new infections overnight and 56 deaths It is among Indiarsquos hardest-hit states in terms of total COVID-19 cases

Other federally protected monuments including New Del-hirsquos Red Fort and Qutub Minar were also reopened to tourists last Wednesday even as alarm bells ring in the worldrsquos second most populous country over a re-surgence of crowds in major cit-ies that threatens to fuel another spike in infections

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2 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India Bulletin 3Saturday June 26 2021

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4NATIONAL NEWS

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Priyanka Chopra

SEATTLE - A former manager of a Snoqualmie Washington medical device company was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to 14 months in prison for his scheme to defraud his employer of nearly $800000 in used equipment sales Arunku-mar Singal 42 pleaded guilty to wire fraud on January 3 2020 At the sentencing hearing US Dis-trict Judge Richard A Jones told Singal ldquoYou put everything at risk for one thing to add to your wealthhellip You stopped because you were caught by law enforce-ment but you continued to lie and deceiverdquo

According to records filed in the case in 2014 Singal was the Director of Global Product Sup-port at Spacelabs Healthcare Inc The company was established in the 1950rsquos to make medical monitoring devices to astronauts and then expanded their business to include medical monitoring

devices for hospitals and clinicsSingal was put in charge of

a new initiative to resell used equipment But instead of sell-ing the equipment to the highest bidder as he was supposed to do Singal devised a scheme to have a Texas company bid on the equip-ment at a very low price and then used a shell company Singal himself created to purchase the equipment for a ten percent in-crease in profit to the Texas com-pany Singal then turned around and sold the equipment at a much higher price to a Minnesota company

Through this fraudulent scheme Singal made a profit of more than $780000 Singal used the ill-gotten gain to pay down the mortgage on his luxury Mer-cer Island home and to buy a Tesla among other expenditures

The scheme unraveled when tech support workers doing reg-ular maintenance on Singalrsquos

company cell phone reported messages that appeared to indi-cate side deals not authorized by the company The company fired Singal and reported potential fraud to the Snoqualmie Police Department who alerted the FBI

As part of the plea deal

Singal sold the Mercer Island home and paid restitution to Spacelabs of $780163 How-ever the harm to the company went beyond the lost income on the sales of the equipment At the time Singal was stealing from the company Spacelabs was having

to tighten its spending and lay-off staffers Had it received the true value of the used equipment the financial constraints would not have been so severe

Singal is a citizen of India and will likely be deported following his prison term

Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employer

Victoriarsquos Secret says goodbye to Angels hires Priyanka Chopra Megan Rapinoe as ambassadors NEW YORK - Victoriarsquos

Secret Angels are no moreThe lingerie brand launched

a new VS Collective initiative with ambassadors including professional soccer player Me-gan Rapione and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra amid criticism over lack of diversity The seven notable women are primarily known for accomplishments not related to modeling

ldquoWe are proud to bring to-gether an unparalleled group of trailblazing partners who share a common goal to drive posi-tive changerdquo the brand said in a statement ldquoThese extraordinary partners with their unique back-grounds interests and passions will collaborate with us to cre-ate revolutionary product collec-tions compelling and inspiring content new internal associate programs and rally support for causes vital to womenrdquo

The embattled brand had also

faced backlash over unrealistic body standards for women

Victoriarsquos Secret Angels were synonymous with the brand since a rebrand in 1982 The lingerie brand previously hosted the televised Victoriarsquos Secret Fashion Show annually since 1995 but the event was can-celed in 2019 The fashion show included some of the worldrsquos

top models including Tyra Banks Adriana Lima and Gisele Bundchen

CEO Martin Waters called Angels no longer ldquocultur-ally relevantrdquo in an interview with the New York Times this week

The new ambassadors are expected to create new content around female empowerment

Megan Rapinoe

India Bulletin makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the content and assumes no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the content India Bulletin is not responsible or liable for any claims made in advertisements or classifieds Any questions or comments concerning advertisements or classifieds within this newspaper should be directed to the advertiser The views advice opinions and information in letters to the editor analysis section legal section or any other article in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of India Bulletin Inc

Disclaimer

India Bulletin (ISSN 1548-7229) is published bi-weekly by India Bulletin IncPO Box 59584

Chicago IL 60659-0584Copyright 2021 India Bulletin Inc

All rights reserved as to the entire content India Bulletin is a trademark of India Bulletin Inc

How To Contact Us

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Phone 847-674-7941

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India Bulletin encourages its readers to express their views in letters to us All letters must include the writerrsquos full name

complete address and telephone number Unsigned letters and

letters without any of the above information will not be included

in the selection process The selected letters may be edited and shortened Writerrsquos name will be withheld upon request

Letters may be published or distributed in print

electronic or other formsUnited States $52 - 26 Issues (Bi-Weekly for 1 Year)

India Bulletin 5Saturday June 26 2021

LETrsquoS GET BACK TO

FIND YOUR VACCINE AT CHIGOVCOVIDVAX

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
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  • Page 24 online

India Bulletin

By Chris Thomasand Sethuraman R

BENGALURU - Like many other twenty-somethings in India Beverly Coutinho kept postpon-ing buying a life insurance policy until a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths made her confront her own mortality

ldquoI saw people my own age dy-ing which prompted me to get life insurance immediatelyrdquo says Coutinho a 24-year-old senior executive at a public relations agency in Mumbai

ldquoI wouldnrsquot want my family to be in situation where they have to scramble for funds if something happens to merdquo

The offi cial count puts the num-ber of deaths due to COVID-19 at 380000 the third highest after the United States and Brazil though experts say Indiarsquos numbers are grossly underestimated due to the low levels of testing for the virus and more people have probably died in India than anywhere else in the world

When a devastating second wave of the pandemic peaked in

India during April and May the numbers of people aged between 25 and 35 buying term insurance was 30 higher than in the pre-vious three months combined said PolicyBazaar Indiarsquos largest online insurance aggregator

Term insurance purchases via online insurance aggregator Insur-anceDekhorsquos website rose 70 in May compared with March

Insurers did not reveal how many plans they sold citing busi-ness confi dentiality but many said it was in the ldquohigh thousandsrdquo

ldquoThe current pandemic has led

to higher awareness around the need for fi nancial protection and the inadequacy of the current in-surance coveragerdquo Niraj Shah chief fi nancial offi cer of HDFC Life Insurance said

Shahrsquos fi rm said it had seen more demand for protection products by the under-35 age group since the pandemic fi rst struck India around 15 months ago

Industry executives say enqui-ries about insurance plans have rocketed despite the second wave of infections subsiding probably

due to strong prospects of a third wave given the slow start India made to the mammoth task of vaccinating its people

Stock market investors still ap-pear uncertain whether buying shares in life insurers is a good bet during a pandemic

Since the start of the year the benchmark NSE Nifty 50 index has gained 135 while shares in HDFC Life Insurance are up just over 2 SBI Life Insurance has risen around 10 and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance has climbed nearly 18

Shocked by COVID deaths young Indians rush for life insurance

People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in New Delhi India on May 4 2021

Taj Mahal reopens for tourists as India eases COVID-19 curbs

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - The Taj Ma-hal reopened to the public last Wednesday as India still reeling from a disastrous second wave of the pandemic pushes to lift restrictions in a bid to revitalise its economy

The 17th-century white mar-ble mausoleum built by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in the north-ern city of Agra was closed in early April as India introduced

strict lockdown measures in an eff ort to contain a surge in COVID-19 infections that is still killing thousands every day

Only 650 tourists will be al-lowed inside the premises of the Taj Mahal at any time said Prabhu Singh district magistrate of Agra The monument normal-ly attracts 7 million to 8 million visitors annually or over 20000 people per day

The state of Uttar Pradesh where Agra is located re-

ported 270 new infections overnight and 56 deaths It is among Indiarsquos hardest-hit states in terms of total COVID-19 cases

Other federally protected monuments including New Del-hirsquos Red Fort and Qutub Minar were also reopened to tourists last Wednesday even as alarm bells ring in the worldrsquos second most populous country over a re-surgence of crowds in major cit-ies that threatens to fuel another spike in infections

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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4NATIONAL NEWS

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Priyanka Chopra

SEATTLE - A former manager of a Snoqualmie Washington medical device company was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to 14 months in prison for his scheme to defraud his employer of nearly $800000 in used equipment sales Arunku-mar Singal 42 pleaded guilty to wire fraud on January 3 2020 At the sentencing hearing US Dis-trict Judge Richard A Jones told Singal ldquoYou put everything at risk for one thing to add to your wealthhellip You stopped because you were caught by law enforce-ment but you continued to lie and deceiverdquo

According to records filed in the case in 2014 Singal was the Director of Global Product Sup-port at Spacelabs Healthcare Inc The company was established in the 1950rsquos to make medical monitoring devices to astronauts and then expanded their business to include medical monitoring

devices for hospitals and clinicsSingal was put in charge of

a new initiative to resell used equipment But instead of sell-ing the equipment to the highest bidder as he was supposed to do Singal devised a scheme to have a Texas company bid on the equip-ment at a very low price and then used a shell company Singal himself created to purchase the equipment for a ten percent in-crease in profit to the Texas com-pany Singal then turned around and sold the equipment at a much higher price to a Minnesota company

Through this fraudulent scheme Singal made a profit of more than $780000 Singal used the ill-gotten gain to pay down the mortgage on his luxury Mer-cer Island home and to buy a Tesla among other expenditures

The scheme unraveled when tech support workers doing reg-ular maintenance on Singalrsquos

company cell phone reported messages that appeared to indi-cate side deals not authorized by the company The company fired Singal and reported potential fraud to the Snoqualmie Police Department who alerted the FBI

As part of the plea deal

Singal sold the Mercer Island home and paid restitution to Spacelabs of $780163 How-ever the harm to the company went beyond the lost income on the sales of the equipment At the time Singal was stealing from the company Spacelabs was having

to tighten its spending and lay-off staffers Had it received the true value of the used equipment the financial constraints would not have been so severe

Singal is a citizen of India and will likely be deported following his prison term

Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employer

Victoriarsquos Secret says goodbye to Angels hires Priyanka Chopra Megan Rapinoe as ambassadors NEW YORK - Victoriarsquos

Secret Angels are no moreThe lingerie brand launched

a new VS Collective initiative with ambassadors including professional soccer player Me-gan Rapione and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra amid criticism over lack of diversity The seven notable women are primarily known for accomplishments not related to modeling

ldquoWe are proud to bring to-gether an unparalleled group of trailblazing partners who share a common goal to drive posi-tive changerdquo the brand said in a statement ldquoThese extraordinary partners with their unique back-grounds interests and passions will collaborate with us to cre-ate revolutionary product collec-tions compelling and inspiring content new internal associate programs and rally support for causes vital to womenrdquo

The embattled brand had also

faced backlash over unrealistic body standards for women

Victoriarsquos Secret Angels were synonymous with the brand since a rebrand in 1982 The lingerie brand previously hosted the televised Victoriarsquos Secret Fashion Show annually since 1995 but the event was can-celed in 2019 The fashion show included some of the worldrsquos

top models including Tyra Banks Adriana Lima and Gisele Bundchen

CEO Martin Waters called Angels no longer ldquocultur-ally relevantrdquo in an interview with the New York Times this week

The new ambassadors are expected to create new content around female empowerment

Megan Rapinoe

India Bulletin makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the content and assumes no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the content India Bulletin is not responsible or liable for any claims made in advertisements or classifieds Any questions or comments concerning advertisements or classifieds within this newspaper should be directed to the advertiser The views advice opinions and information in letters to the editor analysis section legal section or any other article in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of India Bulletin Inc

Disclaimer

India Bulletin (ISSN 1548-7229) is published bi-weekly by India Bulletin IncPO Box 59584

Chicago IL 60659-0584Copyright 2021 India Bulletin Inc

All rights reserved as to the entire content India Bulletin is a trademark of India Bulletin Inc

How To Contact Us

advertisingindiabulletinusacom feedbackindiabulletinusacom

pressreleaseindiabulletinusacom subscriptionindiabulletinusacom

Subscription ServicesSubscription orders can be mailed to us

or submitted online at wwwindiabulletinusacom

Phone 847-674-7941

Subscription Rates

E-Mail

India Bulletin encourages its readers to express their views in letters to us All letters must include the writerrsquos full name

complete address and telephone number Unsigned letters and

letters without any of the above information will not be included

in the selection process The selected letters may be edited and shortened Writerrsquos name will be withheld upon request

Letters may be published or distributed in print

electronic or other formsUnited States $52 - 26 Issues (Bi-Weekly for 1 Year)

India Bulletin 5Saturday June 26 2021

LETrsquoS GET BACK TO

FIND YOUR VACCINE AT CHIGOVCOVIDVAX

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India Bulletin

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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  • Page 24 online

India Bulletin 3Saturday June 26 2021

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4NATIONAL NEWS

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Priyanka Chopra

SEATTLE - A former manager of a Snoqualmie Washington medical device company was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to 14 months in prison for his scheme to defraud his employer of nearly $800000 in used equipment sales Arunku-mar Singal 42 pleaded guilty to wire fraud on January 3 2020 At the sentencing hearing US Dis-trict Judge Richard A Jones told Singal ldquoYou put everything at risk for one thing to add to your wealthhellip You stopped because you were caught by law enforce-ment but you continued to lie and deceiverdquo

According to records filed in the case in 2014 Singal was the Director of Global Product Sup-port at Spacelabs Healthcare Inc The company was established in the 1950rsquos to make medical monitoring devices to astronauts and then expanded their business to include medical monitoring

devices for hospitals and clinicsSingal was put in charge of

a new initiative to resell used equipment But instead of sell-ing the equipment to the highest bidder as he was supposed to do Singal devised a scheme to have a Texas company bid on the equip-ment at a very low price and then used a shell company Singal himself created to purchase the equipment for a ten percent in-crease in profit to the Texas com-pany Singal then turned around and sold the equipment at a much higher price to a Minnesota company

Through this fraudulent scheme Singal made a profit of more than $780000 Singal used the ill-gotten gain to pay down the mortgage on his luxury Mer-cer Island home and to buy a Tesla among other expenditures

The scheme unraveled when tech support workers doing reg-ular maintenance on Singalrsquos

company cell phone reported messages that appeared to indi-cate side deals not authorized by the company The company fired Singal and reported potential fraud to the Snoqualmie Police Department who alerted the FBI

As part of the plea deal

Singal sold the Mercer Island home and paid restitution to Spacelabs of $780163 How-ever the harm to the company went beyond the lost income on the sales of the equipment At the time Singal was stealing from the company Spacelabs was having

to tighten its spending and lay-off staffers Had it received the true value of the used equipment the financial constraints would not have been so severe

Singal is a citizen of India and will likely be deported following his prison term

Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employer

Victoriarsquos Secret says goodbye to Angels hires Priyanka Chopra Megan Rapinoe as ambassadors NEW YORK - Victoriarsquos

Secret Angels are no moreThe lingerie brand launched

a new VS Collective initiative with ambassadors including professional soccer player Me-gan Rapione and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra amid criticism over lack of diversity The seven notable women are primarily known for accomplishments not related to modeling

ldquoWe are proud to bring to-gether an unparalleled group of trailblazing partners who share a common goal to drive posi-tive changerdquo the brand said in a statement ldquoThese extraordinary partners with their unique back-grounds interests and passions will collaborate with us to cre-ate revolutionary product collec-tions compelling and inspiring content new internal associate programs and rally support for causes vital to womenrdquo

The embattled brand had also

faced backlash over unrealistic body standards for women

Victoriarsquos Secret Angels were synonymous with the brand since a rebrand in 1982 The lingerie brand previously hosted the televised Victoriarsquos Secret Fashion Show annually since 1995 but the event was can-celed in 2019 The fashion show included some of the worldrsquos

top models including Tyra Banks Adriana Lima and Gisele Bundchen

CEO Martin Waters called Angels no longer ldquocultur-ally relevantrdquo in an interview with the New York Times this week

The new ambassadors are expected to create new content around female empowerment

Megan Rapinoe

India Bulletin makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the content and assumes no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the content India Bulletin is not responsible or liable for any claims made in advertisements or classifieds Any questions or comments concerning advertisements or classifieds within this newspaper should be directed to the advertiser The views advice opinions and information in letters to the editor analysis section legal section or any other article in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of India Bulletin Inc

Disclaimer

India Bulletin (ISSN 1548-7229) is published bi-weekly by India Bulletin IncPO Box 59584

Chicago IL 60659-0584Copyright 2021 India Bulletin Inc

All rights reserved as to the entire content India Bulletin is a trademark of India Bulletin Inc

How To Contact Us

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Phone 847-674-7941

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E-Mail

India Bulletin encourages its readers to express their views in letters to us All letters must include the writerrsquos full name

complete address and telephone number Unsigned letters and

letters without any of the above information will not be included

in the selection process The selected letters may be edited and shortened Writerrsquos name will be withheld upon request

Letters may be published or distributed in print

electronic or other formsUnited States $52 - 26 Issues (Bi-Weekly for 1 Year)

India Bulletin 5Saturday June 26 2021

LETrsquoS GET BACK TO

FIND YOUR VACCINE AT CHIGOVCOVIDVAX

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India Bulletin

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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Manu 630-677-3635

Front desk clerk wanted for a small Chicago motel

773-842-5474 after 5 pm Gujarati and English speaking preferred

Call 708-629-5199 or

Free living accommodations Must

have legal status

Pharmacy Expert Data Entry Experience only

Experience necessary on Micromerchant (Prime RX)

Full time hourly salary $20-23hour --

location of work Newark NJEmail resume

gioprxgmailcom 973-768-8923

HELP WANTED

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Franchise Motel in Moline IL (2 hr from Chicago) needs following people (legal status must)

Motel Help

Email qismkrupagmailcomPh 630-699-2880 (After 5 pm Mon-Fri)

- Front Desk ClerkManager (EnglishBasic computer knowledge required) - House Keeper - Breakfast Attendant

Will provide housing accomodation

Contact by

Looking for Tandoori Cook in upstate New York

Call Baldev at

607-592-1162

TANDOORI COOKHELP WANTED

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Hindu Punjabi parents seek suitable match for handsome

365-6 MBAMS (Finance) nicely employed son Please

respond with bio-data amp picture

Matrimonial

Email at hindustyle99hotmailcom

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$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

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$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

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$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

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Furnished with AC refrigerator microwave

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NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

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1-309-648-0921

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and is good in Math

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Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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4NATIONAL NEWS

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Priyanka Chopra

SEATTLE - A former manager of a Snoqualmie Washington medical device company was sentenced in US District Court in Seattle to 14 months in prison for his scheme to defraud his employer of nearly $800000 in used equipment sales Arunku-mar Singal 42 pleaded guilty to wire fraud on January 3 2020 At the sentencing hearing US Dis-trict Judge Richard A Jones told Singal ldquoYou put everything at risk for one thing to add to your wealthhellip You stopped because you were caught by law enforce-ment but you continued to lie and deceiverdquo

According to records filed in the case in 2014 Singal was the Director of Global Product Sup-port at Spacelabs Healthcare Inc The company was established in the 1950rsquos to make medical monitoring devices to astronauts and then expanded their business to include medical monitoring

devices for hospitals and clinicsSingal was put in charge of

a new initiative to resell used equipment But instead of sell-ing the equipment to the highest bidder as he was supposed to do Singal devised a scheme to have a Texas company bid on the equip-ment at a very low price and then used a shell company Singal himself created to purchase the equipment for a ten percent in-crease in profit to the Texas com-pany Singal then turned around and sold the equipment at a much higher price to a Minnesota company

Through this fraudulent scheme Singal made a profit of more than $780000 Singal used the ill-gotten gain to pay down the mortgage on his luxury Mer-cer Island home and to buy a Tesla among other expenditures

The scheme unraveled when tech support workers doing reg-ular maintenance on Singalrsquos

company cell phone reported messages that appeared to indi-cate side deals not authorized by the company The company fired Singal and reported potential fraud to the Snoqualmie Police Department who alerted the FBI

As part of the plea deal

Singal sold the Mercer Island home and paid restitution to Spacelabs of $780163 How-ever the harm to the company went beyond the lost income on the sales of the equipment At the time Singal was stealing from the company Spacelabs was having

to tighten its spending and lay-off staffers Had it received the true value of the used equipment the financial constraints would not have been so severe

Singal is a citizen of India and will likely be deported following his prison term

Washington man sentenced to prison for defrauding his employer

Victoriarsquos Secret says goodbye to Angels hires Priyanka Chopra Megan Rapinoe as ambassadors NEW YORK - Victoriarsquos

Secret Angels are no moreThe lingerie brand launched

a new VS Collective initiative with ambassadors including professional soccer player Me-gan Rapione and Indian actress Priyanka Chopra amid criticism over lack of diversity The seven notable women are primarily known for accomplishments not related to modeling

ldquoWe are proud to bring to-gether an unparalleled group of trailblazing partners who share a common goal to drive posi-tive changerdquo the brand said in a statement ldquoThese extraordinary partners with their unique back-grounds interests and passions will collaborate with us to cre-ate revolutionary product collec-tions compelling and inspiring content new internal associate programs and rally support for causes vital to womenrdquo

The embattled brand had also

faced backlash over unrealistic body standards for women

Victoriarsquos Secret Angels were synonymous with the brand since a rebrand in 1982 The lingerie brand previously hosted the televised Victoriarsquos Secret Fashion Show annually since 1995 but the event was can-celed in 2019 The fashion show included some of the worldrsquos

top models including Tyra Banks Adriana Lima and Gisele Bundchen

CEO Martin Waters called Angels no longer ldquocultur-ally relevantrdquo in an interview with the New York Times this week

The new ambassadors are expected to create new content around female empowerment

Megan Rapinoe

India Bulletin makes no warranties or representations as to the accuracy of the content and assumes no liability or responsibility for any error or omission in the content India Bulletin is not responsible or liable for any claims made in advertisements or classifieds Any questions or comments concerning advertisements or classifieds within this newspaper should be directed to the advertiser The views advice opinions and information in letters to the editor analysis section legal section or any other article in this publication are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent those of India Bulletin Inc

Disclaimer

India Bulletin (ISSN 1548-7229) is published bi-weekly by India Bulletin IncPO Box 59584

Chicago IL 60659-0584Copyright 2021 India Bulletin Inc

All rights reserved as to the entire content India Bulletin is a trademark of India Bulletin Inc

How To Contact Us

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Phone 847-674-7941

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India Bulletin encourages its readers to express their views in letters to us All letters must include the writerrsquos full name

complete address and telephone number Unsigned letters and

letters without any of the above information will not be included

in the selection process The selected letters may be edited and shortened Writerrsquos name will be withheld upon request

Letters may be published or distributed in print

electronic or other formsUnited States $52 - 26 Issues (Bi-Weekly for 1 Year)

India Bulletin 5Saturday June 26 2021

LETrsquoS GET BACK TO

FIND YOUR VACCINE AT CHIGOVCOVIDVAX

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India Bulletin

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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GALAXYHEATINGANDCOOLINGGYAHOOCOM

bull

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EPA CERTIFIED

CONTACT US

court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin 5Saturday June 26 2021

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin

SAVEyour DATE

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6 Saturday June 26 2021

NATIONAL NEWS

NEW HAVEN CT - A psychia-trist who spoke during a lecture at Yale Universityrsquos School of Medicine admitted that she some-times fantasized about shooting white people which has prompt-ed backlash against her and the university

The discussion ndash titled ldquoThe Psychopathic Problem of the White Mindrdquo ndash was part of the School of Medicinersquos Child Study Centrersquos Grand Rounds The Grand Rounds is a weekly forum in which faculty staff and individ-uals affi liated with the school are given lectures concerning mental health

The Hartford Courant reported

that the psychiatrist Dr Aruna Khilanani discussed a ldquopsycho-logical dynamic that is on PTSD repeatrdquo She claims that dynamic is that people of color are forced to patiently explain racism to white people who deny that they are racist

She says that the anger people of color feel by engaging in this dynamic is then used as ldquoconfi r-mation that wersquore crazy or have emotional problemsrdquo

The comments that sparked the controversy involved Dr Khilan-anirsquos fantasy about killing white people

ldquoI had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any

white person that got in my way burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step like I did the world a favorrdquo she said

Dr Khilanani told The New York Times that her words were taken out of context and should not have been taken literally She claimed that she was trying to move beyond the ldquodry bland regurgitation of new vocabulary words with no work in the uncon-sciousrdquo she claims permeates race discourse

ldquoAnd if you want to hit the un-conscious you will have to feel real negative feelingsrdquo she said

She said the comments she made was a means of dealing with the negative feelings she was experiencing

ldquoMy speaking metaphorically about my own anger was a meth-od for people to refl ect on nega-tive feelingsrdquo Khilanani added ldquoTo normalize negative feelings Because if you donrsquot it will turn into a violent actionrdquo she said

In her lecture the doctor said trying to talk to white people about race is a ldquowaste of our breathrdquo

ldquoWe are asking a demented violent predator who thinks that they are a saint or a superhero to accept responsibilityrdquo she said ldquoIt ainrsquot going to happen They have fi ve holes in their brainrdquo

Leaders at the School of Medi-cine along with the chairwoman of the Child Study Centre re-viewed a recording of the talk and said they ldquofound the tone and con-tent antithetical to the values of the schoolrdquo

School leaders ultimately de-cided they would limit access to the video to only those who at-

tended the talk eff ectively ensur-ing only individuals in the Yale community could see it

The university also added a disclaimer to the video

ldquoYale School of Medicine ex-pects the members of our com-munity to speak respectfully to one another and to avoid the use of profanity as a matter of pro-fessionalism and acknowledg-ment of our common humanity Yale School of Medicine does not condone imagery of violence or racism against any grouprdquo the disclaimer read

Yale limits access to talk by academic who saidshe had fantasies of shooting white people

Dr Aruna Khilanani

Indiana man convicted of murder for hire plot witness tampering

NEWARK NJ - An Indiana man was convicted on all counts this month in connection with a plot to pay a purported hitman to kill his estranged wife

Narsan Lingala 57 of No-blesville Indiana was convict-ed on one count each of con-spiring to commit murder for hire and traveling interstate or using interstate facilities with intent that a murder for hire be

committed and two counts of at-tempting to tamper with a wit-ness The jury deliberated three hours before returning the guilty verdicts following an eight-day trial

Lingalarsquos conspirator San-dya Reddy pleaded guilty in April 2019 to her role in the scheme and was sentenced on Aug 10 2020 to 63 months in prison

CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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CAMDEN NJ - A Michi-gan man admitted defrauding victims of more than $5 mil-lion in connection with the sale of medical-related business opportunities

Vijay Reddy 45 of Milan Michigan pleaded guilty before

US District Judge Robert B Kugler to an information charg-ing him with one count of con-spiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud

According to documents fi led in this case and statements made in court

Man admits defrauding business opportunity buyers of more than $5 mlnFrom December 2015 through

November 2020 Reddy and his conspirators David Weinstein and Kevin Brown advertised business opportunities for sale on various websites They purported to sell ldquoblocksrdquo of contracts with medical providers who allegedly

wanted to outsource their medi-cal billing collections appeals answering credentialing or transcription functions The buy-ers would then provide the con-tracted services to the medical providers and earn a profi t The conspirators promised to deliver a specifi ed number of providers and pledged that their proprietary marketing eff orts would provide a guaranteed client base to the buyers

To induce buyers to purchase the business opportunities the conspirators created fake refer-ences purporting to be buyers who vouched for their prior busi-ness purchases from the con-

spirators In fact the references were Reddy Weinstein and their friends and family members and they used aliases and disguised phone numbers to speak with potential buyers

After agreeing to purchase the blocks of medical providers vic-tims entered contracts with com-panies represented by Weinstein or Reddy and wired down pay-ments ranging from $15000 to $240000 to accounts controlled by Weinstein or Brown The re-mainder of each purchase price was payable when the conspira-tors fulfi lled the contract by de-livering the agreed-upon number of providers

US lobby group views Indiarsquos e-commerce plan as worrying email shows

NEW DELHI - A top lobby group that is part of the US Chamber of Commerce believes Indiarsquos proposed new e-com-merce rules are a cause for con-cern and will lead to a stringent operating environment for com-panies according to an email reviewed by Reuters

India this week spooked on-line retailers like Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart by outlining plans to limit ldquofl ash salesrdquo rein-ing in a private label push and mandating them to have a system to address grievances

The Washington-headquar-tered US-India Business Coun-cil (USIBC) of which Amazon and Walmart are members de-scribed the rules as concerning in an internal email saying some provisions were in line with New

Delhirsquos stance on other big digital companies

Indiarsquos draft plan ldquoincludes several concerning policies in-cluding signifi cant limits on plat-formsrsquo ability to organise sales and handle grievancesrdquo USIBC said in an email to its members

USIBC has in the past urged India not to tighten a separate set of rules governing foreign investment in companies like Amazon and Flipkart an issue that has often soured trade rela-tions between India and United States

USIBC did not immediately re-spond to a request for comment

The new rules - open for con-sultation until July 6 - are expect-ed to have an impact across the board in an online retail market forecast to be worth $200 billion

by 2026They will also apply to Indian

fi rms like Tatarsquos BigBasket and Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart but the proposal comes after Indian retailers for years complained that market leaders Amazon and Flipkart used complex busi-ness structures to bypass Indiarsquos foreign investment law hurting small businesses

The companies deny any wrongdoing

Indiarsquos new proposed rules have raised concerns they will force Amazon and Flipkart to re-view their business structures in-dustry sources and lawyers have told Reuters

The USIBC email noted that Indiarsquos proposals ldquopreclude(e-commerce) platforms from owning vendorsrdquo

HEALTH amp SCIENCE7India Bulletin

NATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin8 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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365-6 MBAMS (Finance) nicely employed son Please

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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  • Page 24 online

HEALTH amp SCIENCE9

INTERNATIONAL NEWSIndia Bulletin

By Bhargav Acharyaand Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - India on Tuesday declared a new coro-navirus variant to be of concern and said nearly two dozen cases had been detected in three states

The variant identified locally as ldquoDelta plusrdquo was found in 16 cases in the state of Maharash-tra Federal Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan told a news conference

The ministry said Delta plus showed increased transmissibil-ity and advised states to increase testing

On Monday India vaccinated a record 86 million people as it began offering free shots to all adults but experts doubted it could maintain that pace

ldquoThis is clearly not sustain-ablerdquo Chandrakant Lahariya an expert in public policy and health systems told Reuters

ldquoWith such one-day drives

India says new COVID variant is a concernmany states have consumed most of their current vaccine stocks which will affect the vaccination in days to followrdquo

With the currently projected vaccine supply for the next few months the maximum daily achievable rate is 4 to 5 million doses Lahariya added

The effort has so far covered about 55 of the 950 million people eligible even though In-dia is the worldrsquos largest vaccine producer

A devastating second wave during April and May over-whelmed health services killing hundreds of thousands Images of funeral pyres blazing in car parks raised questions over the chaotic vaccine rollout

Since May vaccinations have averaged fewer than 3 million doses a day far less than the 10 million health officials say are crucial to protect the millions vulnerable to new surges

VACCINE DRIVE FALTERING

Particularly in the country-side where two-thirds of a pop-ulation of 14 billion lives and the healthcare system is often overstretched the drive has fal-tered experts say

Maintaining the pace will prove challenging when it comes to injecting younger people in such areas Delhi-based epide-miologist Rajib Dasgupta said

The capital is also facing diffi-culties Authorities in New Del-hi said more than 8 million resi-dents had yet to receive a first dose and inoculating all adults there would take more than a year at the current pace

India has been administering

AstraZenecarsquos vaccine made locally by the Serum Institute of India and a homegrown shot named Covaxin made by Bharat Biotech

Last week Serum Institute had said it planned to increase monthly production to around 100 million doses from July Bharat now estimates it will make 23 million doses a month

On Tuesday television chan-nel CNBC-TV18 reported that phase-3 data for Covaxin showed an efficacy of 778

India may also soon have a mass rollout of Russiarsquos Sputnik V vaccine and the government expects to import vaccines this year from major makers such as Pfizer

Although new infections in India have dropped to their low-est in more than three months experts say vaccinations should be stepped up because of the transmissibility of new variants

Over the past 24 hours India reported 42640 new infections the lowest since March 23 and 1167 deaths

Infections now stand at 2998 million with a death toll of 389302 health ministry data showed

A man receives a dose of COVISHIELD a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India at a vaccination centre in Mumbai India on May 1 2021

Saturday June 26 2021

Man with 39 wives head of lsquoworldrsquos largest familyrsquo dies in India

NEW DELHI - A 76-year-old man who had 39 wives and 94 children and was said to be the head of the worldrsquos largest fam-ily has died in north east India the chief minister of his home state said

Ziona Chana the head of a local Christian sect that allows polyga-

my died Zoramthanga the chief minister of Mizoram and who goes by one name said in a tweet

With a total of 167 members the family is the worldrsquos largest according to local media although this depends on whether you count the grandchildren of whom Ziona has 33

Winston Blackmore the head of a polygamous Mormon sect in Canada has around 150 children from 27 wives - 178 people in total

Ziona lived with his family in a vast four-story pink structure with around 100 rooms in Baktawng a remote village in Mizoram that became a tourist attraction as a result according to Zoramthanga

The sect named ldquoChanardquo was founded by Zionarsquos father in 1942 and has a membership of hundreds of families Ziona married his first wife when he was 17 and claimed he once married ten wives in a single year

They shared a dormitory near his private bedroom and locals said he liked to have seven or eight of them by his side at all times

Monsoon covers two-third of India earlier than usual to accelerate crop sowing

MUMBAI - Indiarsquos annual monsoon rains have covered two-third of the country nearly a fort-night ahead of the normal sched-ule a weather department official said adding that conditions are favourable for further advance-ment into the north-western parts this week

The early arrival of monsoon rains in central and northern India will help farmers accelerate sow-ing of summer-sown crops such as paddy rice cotton soybean and pulses and may boost crop yields too

ldquoMonsoon has already covered some parts of Punjab Usually

it enters Punjab in the last week of Junerdquo said an official at the India Meteorological Depart-ment (IMD) who declined to be named

Monsoon arrived in the south-ern state of Kerala on June 3 against the usual June 1 but has advanced quickly since

Family members of Ziona Chana (R) pose for a group photograph

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

COOKING OILS

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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  • Page 24 online

India Bulletin

By Neha Aroraand Shilpa Jamkhandikar

BENGALURU - India gave out a record 75 million vaccine doses on Monday under a federal campaign to inoculate all adults for free after weeks of criticism that a chaotic rollout had wors-ened a second wave that killed hundreds of thousands

Earlier this month Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government would buy 75 of all vaccines from drug makers and distribute them for free to

states which along with private hospitals had earlier been buying shots for people aged 18-45

Indiarsquos previous record of 45 million doses was on April 5 followed by a sharp decline with average daily inoculation falling below 3 million

Experts have said India needs to administer 10 million doses a day to achieve its aim of in-oculating 950 million adults by December So far India has fully vaccinated fewer than 5 with two doses

ldquoIf supply remains consistent

we will be on course to innocu-late most of our population by the end of the year D N Patil a senior health official in the coun-tryrsquos richest state of Maharash-tra told Reuters

Maharashtra has a population of more than 125 million

Earlier this month the gov-ernment said India could have as many as 10 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines available

per day in July and AugustGovernment adviser Vinod

Kumar Paul said on Monday that administering 10 million shots per day was not a ldquoset goalrdquo

ldquoAs the ramping up takes place speed of implementation should also ramp up and that would lead to a certain numberrdquo Paul said in an interview with CNBC-TV18 channel

ldquoThere is a demonstration by

the system of how much can be done on a given day at least this is something that should become obvious by the end of the dayrdquo

The country is using domesti-cally made doses of the Astra-Zeneca vaccine and Indian com-pany Bharat Biotechrsquos Covaxin The government is attempting to secure foreign vaccines such as Pfizerrsquos and has waived strict rules to allow quicker imports

Indiarsquos vaccinations hit record with free COVID shots

Healthcare workers carry COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus disease (CO-VID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India to inoculate villag-ers during a door-to-door vaccination and testing drive at Uttar Batora Island in Howrah district in West Bengal state India on June 21 2021

lsquoFlying Sikhrsquo Milkha Singh dies aged 91 Indian PM Modi leads tributes

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country had lost a ldquocolossal sportspersonrdquo following the death of Milkha Singh one of its most famous Olympians at the age of 91 last Friday

Sprint great Singh who was nicknamed the ldquoFlying Sikhrdquo ran at three successive Olympic Games and finished fourth in the 400 metres in Rome in 1960 when the first four home all ran faster than the previous world record

His death due to COVID-19 complications comes days after his wife former India volleyball captain Nirmal Kaur had died due to similar reasons

ldquoIn the passing away of Shri

Milkha Singh Ji we have lost a colossal sportsperson who cap-tured the nationrsquos imagination and had a special place in the hearts of countless Indiansrdquo Modi tweeted

ldquoHis inspiring personality en-deared himself to millions An-guished by his passing away

ldquoI had spoken to Shri Milkha Singh Ji just a few days ago Lit-tle did I know it would be our last conversation Several budding athletes will derive strength from his life journey My condolences to his family and many admirers all over the worldrdquo

Singh the father of former Asian Tour number one golfer Jeev Milkha Singh was a popu-lar figure throughout his life and inspired a biopic titled ldquoBhaag Milkha Bhaagrdquo (Run Milkha Run) which was released in 2013

Late Milkha Singh

10 Saturday June 26 2021

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

COOKING OILS

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BY YOUR SIDE AT HOME PICNICS CAMPING ALL YOUR FAMILY GATHERINGS

HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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Saturday June 26 2021

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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  • Page 24 online

By Uday Sampath Kumar

BENGALURU - Volunteer groups are spreading the word about getting COVID-19 shots to Indiarsquos poor and elderly and ferrying some to vaccina-tion centres in rickshaws and cabs following a surge in in-fections that killed hundreds of thousands

SEEDS an organisation that

does relief work during natural disasters has focused its ef-forts on poorer communities where it says many lack even basic information about the vaccines

ldquoWe found out that a whole lot of people above 60 werenrsquot even aware that they could vac-cinated and protect themselvesrdquo co-founder Dr Manu Gupta said

Volunteers spread word on vaccines to Indiarsquos poor after COVID-19 surgeSEEDS members are going

door-to-door in the poorer parts of Delhi and the villages of north and west India helping citizens register their details on the gov-ernmentrsquos vaccination portal and transporting some of them for free to inoculation centres

About 170000 people died in April and May when a sec-ond wave of infections ripped through densely-packed cities

and Indiarsquos rural hinterland and health experts say mass vaccina-tion is the only way to prevent further loss of life if another surge happens

A second NGO Robin Hood Army has partnered with Uber Technologies Inc to provide free rides to vaccination centres in Delhi and Mumbai

Its co-founder Neel Ghose urged the government to speed up the process by taking its vac-

cination drive to peoplersquos homesldquoFor this to be really effec-

tive it needs to be like the way we thought about polio 20 years back where we reached the doorsteps of people with vaccines and not the other way aroundrdquo

The government has said a door-to-door COVID-19 vacci-nation campaign is not possible due to the risk of contamination and wastage

Indiarsquos top court ends proceedings against Italian marines

By Suchitra Mohantyand Angelo Amante

MILAN - Indiarsquos top court said it has closed all proceedings against two Italian marines over the shooting of two fishermen off the southern Indian coast in 2012 after Rome paid $136 million in compensation

Salvatore Girone and Mas-similiano Latorre were arrest-ed in February 2012 over the shooting They said the killings were accidental as they mis-took the fishermen for pirates and fired warning shots while on duty on the Italian oil tanker

ldquoEnrica LexierdquoThe case caused friction be-

tween the two countries for yearsldquoCompensation paid by the

Italian government over and above payments already made is adequaterdquo said Justice M R Shah one of the judges hearing the case in Indiarsquos Supreme Court closing the case against the two men in India

Italy has paid 100 million In-dian rupees ($136 million) in compensation split between the families of the victims and the boatrsquos owner Shah said

European Union commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said in a tweet

the verdict is ldquoa success of Italian diplomacyrdquo

A spokesman for Italyrsquos for-eign ministry did not imme-diately respond to a request for comment on whether the men will be prosecuted in Italy

But Italian foreign minister Lu-igi Di Maio said in a tweet that all legal proceedings were now closed

ldquoThanks to those who worked on the case with perseverance thanks to our tireless diplomat-ic corpsrdquo he said ldquoThis long affair has finally come to an endrdquo

Kailash Nath 69 receives a dose of COVISHIELD vaccine a coronavirus dis-ease (COVID-19) vaccine manufactured by Serum Insitutue of India after he was helped by a volunteer from SEEDS an NGO which normally specialise providing relief after floods and other natural disasters to reach the vaccination centre in New Delhi India on June 16 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE11India Bulletin

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Saturday June 26 2021

Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

bull bull bull bull bull

ARUN MODY

GALAXYHEATINGANDCOOLINGGYAHOOCOM

bull

GALAXY HEATING AND COOLING

EPA CERTIFIED

CONTACT US

court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

STARCK REAL ESTATE

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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Bollywood BeatVarun Sharma to

make digital debut in web series Chutzpah

Blending in the world of hashtags fi lters likes share and subscribe SonyLIV brings to its audience the perfect dose of entertainment with their new original ndash Chutzpah This quirky new show is fi lled with the ultimate siyaapa and com-motion from the world of the web

Five individuals one story just connected through the in-ternet showcases the power of social media and highlights the digital infl uence on the youth of today

Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty to come together for Sajid Nadiadwalarsquos next

Producer Sajid Nadiadwala is known to bring together an interesting cast with every project With another such recent develop-ment the news is that the fi lmmaker is all set to bring Akshay Kumar and Ahan Shetty together for an upcoming project Both the actors respectively have Bachchan Pandey starring Akshay Kumar and Tadap starring Ahan Shetty on the cards with Nadiadwala The development of the project is under-way however more details are soon to be divulged on the project

A source close to the production shares ldquoThe entire team is rooting for this action power-pack of actors which has Akshay and Ahan together for the fi rst time Only Sajid Nadiadwala could make it possible and we are all truly excited for the energy the two would bring to the screens The project is yet to be announced and is at the planning stage We will have more details come out soonrdquo

Earlier this year Akshayrsquos rugged look from Bachchan Pandey was unveiled and

the actor will be teaming up with producer Sajid Nadiadwala for the tenth time in Bachchan Pandey Also Kumar had pre-

sented the fi rst poster of Ahan Shettyrsquos debut fi lm Tadap alongside Tara Sutaria beingproduced by the producer

Sushantrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani granted interim relief for his marriage

Sushant Singh Rajputrsquos former roommate Siddharth Pithani has been granted parole by the court to attend his marriage Pithani was arrested from Hyderabad on May 28 for his alleged links in the drug case related to the demise of the actor

Zonal Director of the Narcot-ics Control Bureau (NCB) Sa-

meer Wankhede who is inves-tigating the drug case said that Pithani has been given a 10-day relief for his marriage and will have to surrender on July 2 He has not been granted bail Reportedly Pithanirsquos lawyer Tareq Sayyed said that he has been granted interim relief on humanitarian grounds

Filmmaker Ayan Muke-rjirsquos highly-anticipated ambi-tious movie Brahmastra star-ring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will have its last sched-ule in Budapest The fi lm which kicked off in 2018 has faced many roadblocks Amid the pandemic the shoot was nearing its wrap when Ka-poor contracted coronavirus earlier this year followed by

Alia Bhatt The curfew in the state of Maharashtra amid the second wave COVID-19 put a halt to the shooting as well

With the restrictions being lifted and shootings resumed in the state a daily has revealed that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will shoot the last exten-sive schedule of Brahmastra in Budapest

Brahmastra starring Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt to kick off last schedule in Budapest

Karan Johar is proud to launch Yash

Johar FoundationOn Friday June 18 Karan

Johar took to social media to make the announcement ldquoThis has been a true labor of lovehellip created in memory of my incredible father and to carry forward his legacy I am proud to launch the Yash Johar Foundation which has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertain-ment industryrdquo he said in the statement

The Yash Johar Founda-tion (YJF) has been set up with the aim to improve the quality of life for people in the Indian entertainment industry and will work to-wards off ering better access to opportunities in education health amp building fi nancial stability

Bollywood TriviaWhich was Akshay Kumarrsquos

fi rst movie

Answer 2

1) Saugandh2) Aaj3) Khiladi4) Khiladi 786

When is Ranveer Singhrsquos birthday

Answer 2

1) December 122) July 6 3) March 124) October 14

UNKNOWN FACTS ABOUTBOLLYWOODCELEBRITIES

Sonakshi Sinha had to cut down her

weight from 90 kgs to 60 kgs for her role in

DabanggIt took her almost two

years to do it

Vidya Balan desires to play the legendary actor Charlie Chaplin on screen She loved Sridevi as a Charlie Chaplin in Mr India

and she wouldlove to attempt

Charlie Chaplin too

12 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

bull bull bull bull bull

ARUN MODY

GALAXYHEATINGANDCOOLINGGYAHOOCOM

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EPA CERTIFIED

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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Bollywood Beat

Unpredictability and Salman Khan go hand in hand While the superstar has been in talks for the official adaptation of Vijays hit film Master for the last 3 months there is a lat-est development that has hap-pened in his camp We hear Salman has asked the team of Master to come up with a com-pletely reworked version of the story

Salman doesnt want to do outright South remakes any more He is clear on this point For Master he has loved the character of JD and believes that it has solid potential to strike chord with the audi-ences all across He hasnt played the role of a drunkard master till date and hence is very excited to take it up However its on condition that the makers come up with a new story by just retaining the characters personality a source close to the develop-ment shared with Bollywood Hungama

The writing process is going on at the moment and produc-ers will narrate the reworked version once its locked Salman is clear - it has to be a fresh script with a lot of ad-ditional conflicts in the screen-play Meanwhile the actor has come on board director Rajku-mar Guptas biopic on the best Indian spy Ravindra Kaushik This would be the first biopic of Salman Khans career and he is all excited to get into the real and intriguing world of spies

Salman Khan not keen on remakes

anymore

Upcoming FilmsThalaivi

Kangana Ranautand Vijay Deverakonda

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui

Ayushmann Khurranaand Vani Kapoor

83Ranveer Singh

and Deepika Padukone

Radhe ShyamPrabhas

Pooja Hegde and Krishnam Raju

MaidaanAjay Devgn Priyamani

and Keerthy Suresh

Bachchan PandeyAkshay Kumar Bobby Deol

and Riteish Deshmukh

Bell BottomAkshay Kumar Vaani Kapoor Huma Qureshi and Lara Dutta

Gangubai KathiawadiAlia Bhatt Parth Samthaan

and Emraan Hashmi

BrahmastraRanbir Kapoor Alia Bhatt and

Amitabh Bachchan

MOVIE REVIEW

The man-animal conflict is in-creasing in our country with each passing year as more and more forest land is being taken over for residential and other purposes It is a burning issue but surpris-ingly very few films have dealt with this issue Newton [2017] director Amit Masurkar takes up this initiative and comes up with Sherni The intriguing trailer and Vidya Balanrsquos towering presence has generated hype for the film So does SHERNI manage to thrill and enlighten the audience Or does it fail to impress Letrsquos analyse

Sherni is the story of a tough forest officer intending to capture a tigress that has caused havoc in a region Vidya Vincent (Vidya Balan) has joined as the Divi-sional Forest Officer (DFO) in the Bijaspur Forest Division Her husband Pawan (Mukul Chadda) is away in Mumbai while she resides alone in a residence al-lotted by the Forest Department She is not happy with the promo-tions and salary hikes that she has received in the last 9 years and wants to quit But Pawan

advises against doing so as his corporate job is on shaky grounds One day Vidya learns that a tiger was spotted close to a village A few days later the tiger kills a villager leading to anger among the locals Through the camera traps the forest officers learn that itrsquos a tigress named T12 which is behind the killing of the villager The elections are around the corner and the sitting MLA G K Singh (Amar Singh Parihar) makes it a political is-sue He promises the village residents that hersquoll kill the tigress and thus provide respite to them On the other hand P K Singh (Satyakam Anand) is an ex MLA who wants to get back to power He provokes people against G K Singh Amidst this madness an-other villager is killed while she goes to collect wood in the for-est G K Singh then invites Ran-jan Rajhans aka Pintu (Sharat Saxena) a self-proclaimed con-servationist but who is actually a hunter He desires to kill T12 to fulfil his hunger for hunting

Vidya however is not in favour of killing the animal She advises the villagers to stay away from the forest Using camera traps and tracking the pug marks she hopes to find T12 tranquillize her and then release her in a nearby national park Time is running out and itrsquos important she succeeds in her endeavour before it snowballs into a huge controversy and be-fore Pintu hunts the tigress down What happens next forms the rest of the film

Aastha Tikus story is impres-sive The issue keeps coming up in the news all the time but to see a whole film dedicated to it is rare But Aastha Tikus screenplay is bland and stretched The initial portions are interesting but after a point the proceedings seem repetitive And the climax is the biggest downer Amit Masurkar and Yashasvi Mishras dialogues are simple and sharp A few one-liners are unexpectedly funny and help to keep the interest going

Bandish Projekts music is poor Bandar Baant is the only

song in the film It is relegated to the background and fits well into the narrative Benedict Tay-lor and Naren Chandavarkars background score is minimal and impactful Rakesh Haridass cin-ematography is splendid and the forest scenes especially are very well captured Devika Daves production design is straight out of life Manoshi Nath Rushi Sharma and Bhagyashree Ra-jurkars costumes are non-glam-orous in sync with the demand of the script Futureworks and The Cirqus VFX is great in the scenes of the tiger But it is unrealistic in the bear sequence Dipika Kalras editing is not up to the mark The film ought to have been shorter

On the whole Sherni rests on an interesting storyline and Vidya Balanrsquos performance But the slow and documentary-style narrative longer runtime and bewildering climax ruins the impact

BannerT Series

Abundanita Entertainment

ProducerAmit V MasurkarBhushan KumarVikram Malhotra Krishan Kumar

DirectorAmit V Masurkar

StarringVidya Balan Neeraj Kabi

Sharat Saxena Ila Arun

Vijay RaazBrijendra Kala

Music ByUtkarsh Umesh Dhotekar

Released DateJune 18 2021

Sherni

Rating

Celebrity BirthdaysJune 28thJasmin Bhasin (1990)

June 30thAvika Gor (1997)

July 1stRhea Chakraborty(1992)

July 3rdTigmanshu Dhulia (1967)

July 12thEvelyn Sharma (1986)

July 14thMadhu Sapre (1971)

July 4thToshi Sabri (1984)

July 6thRanveer Singh (1985) Shweta Tripathi (1985)

July 7thKailash Kher (1973)

July 8thSukanya (1969) Neetu Singh (1958)

13India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

ENTERTAINMENT

Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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Biz Briefs

Shares in companies con-trolled by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani fell again last Wednesday adding to their losses stemming from a media report that said accounts of three foreign investor funds that own stocks had been frozen

The companies involved had rejected the report earlier this week calling it ldquoblatantly erroneousrdquo

Adani Enterprises Ada-ni Green Energy and Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone fell as much as 33 to 47 last Wednesday while shares of Adani Total Gas Adani Transmission and Adani Power hit their lower circuit limits

However the NSDL last Tues-day clarified that the accounts of the foreign funds remained active

Google likely to soon face

antitrust claimsA group of state attorneys gen-

eral may file a lawsuit against Alphabet Incrsquos Google as early as next week accusing the search and advertising giant of violating antitrust law in running its mo-bile app store according to three sources familiar with the matter

The anticipated lawsuit follows complaints from app developers about Googlersquos management of its Play Store for Android devices according to one source The law-suit has been in the works since last year and has already been delayed but seems close again

Apple Inc and Epic are awaiting the verdict in a similar California lawsuit after a trial that ended last month

Adani Group stocks lose more

ground

HEALTH amp SCIENCEBUSINESS14 India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

By Zeba Siddiquiand Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - Indiarsquos an-titrust watchdog on Tuesday ordered an investigation into allegations that Alphabet Incrsquos Google abused its Android op-erating systemrsquos position in the countryrsquos smart television market

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) which last year began looking into a case filed by two lawyers against the US tech giant said its initial review found Google had breached certain anti-competitive laws

The CCI said that based on information available including submissions made by Google it was ldquoconvinced that a case is made out for directing an in-vestigationrdquo by the CCI director general

Google has denied wrongdo-ing In a statement on Tuesday it said the emerging smart TV sector in India was thriving in

part due to Googlersquos free licens-ing model and said Android TV competed with several well-es-tablished TV operating systems

ldquoWe are confident that our smart TV licensing practices are in compliance with all ap-plicable competition lawsrdquo a company spokesperson said

Smart TVs or WiFi-enabled TVs with apps for streaming services are increasingly popu-lar Data from Counterpoint Re-search shows 8 million smart TV sets were sold in India in 2019 with three in five based on Googlersquos Android system

Kshitiz Arya and Purushottam Anand two Indian lawyers who filed the case told Reuters they welcomed the probe saying Google had restricted the devel-opment of many virtual goods and services

The case will be Googlersquos third ongoing antitrust investi-gation in India where it faces a probe into its payments app and Android mobile operating sys-

Indiarsquos antitrust watchdog orders probe into Google in smart TVs suit

tem Reuters reported last week that an investigation into the smart TV case was likely soon

The CCI in June 2020 began looking into allegations that Google engages in anti-compet-itive practices by creating barri-ers for firms wanting to use or develop modified versions of Android for smart TVs such

as Amazon Fire TVrsquos operating system

The CCI order said Google occupied the ldquomost significantrdquo position in the relevant market of smart TVs and the initial probe had shown the US firm curbed the ability of device-makers to sell devices operating on alter-native versions of Android

Indian court calls for probe of Renault-Nissan plantrsquos social distancing

CHENNAI - An Indian court on Tuesday asked the Tamil Nadu state government to inspect a Renault-Nissan plant on July 3 to check whether social distancing norms are being followed

The Renault-Nissan workers union petitioned the Madras High court last month seeking to halt operations saying that social dis-tancing norms were being flouted and company-provided health benefits were outweighed by the risk to their lives

The call for an inspection from the Madras High Court follows a review of Ford Hyundai and Renault-Nissan plants by Tamil Nadu state officials last week

A sign is seen at the entrance to the Google retail store in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City US on June 17 2021

which said the nature of work in assembly lines posed ldquochallenges in maintaining social distancingrdquo

Nissan which owns a majority stake in the Renault-Nissan plant near the city of Chennai said it was working with stakeholders and coordinating with the union to reach an amicable resolution

ldquoWe are gradually ramping up our production capacity in both Line 1 and Line 2rdquo Nissan told Reuters

The guidelines apply to all car-makers including Ford and Hyun-dai However only the Renault-Nissan factory will be inspected as unions at other automakers have not raised objections the

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court saidThe DISH review last week

had also found that three in four workers at the plants had not been vaccinated one in seven workers had contracted the virus and 21 had died

Workers at the three plants ac-counted for more than 4 of all active cases in the two districts where the plants are located according to the report dated June 18

Still Tamil Nadu on Sunday allowed some industrial units including those of global auto-makers in and around capital city Chennai to operate at 100 ca-pacity citing a decline in cases

New cases in the state have fall-en from more than 30000 a day in May to about 7000 but still ac-count for one-ninth of all cases in India

The DISH report showed that output of the three carmakers was nearly two-thirds that of pre-lockdown levels and average at-tendance as on June 17 was about 90

Renault-Nissan sought to dis-continue the practice of deploy-ing an empty slot on the conveyor belt - a change that would help the carmaker increase produc-tion - as it was found to be in-effective in maintaining social distancing

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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HEALTH amp SCIENCE15

BUSINESSIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - New Indian e-commerce rules will raise costs for all online retailers but par-ticularly Amazon and Walmartrsquos Flipkart as they may have to re-view their business structures senior industry sources told Reuters

Indiarsquos Ministry of Consumer Aff airs outlined plans on Mon-day which include limiting ldquofl ash salesrdquo by online retailers reining in a private label push compel-ling them to appoint compliance offi cers and impose a ldquofall-back liabilityrdquo if a seller is negligent

The new rules are expected to have an impact across the board in an e-retail market India fore-casts will be worth $200 billion by 2026 with players including from Tatarsquos BigBasket Reliance Industriesrsquo JioMart and Soft-bank-backed Snapdeal to market leaders Amazon and Flipkart

The rules are the latest in a growing confrontation between US tech giants and New Delhi over a host of policy-related is-sues which are seen by some as protectionist

ldquoThe rules will have a wider impact on all forms of e-com-merce and will increase business costs Entities even beyond big players are analysing the policy and will share concerns with the governmentrdquo Arjun Sinha a partner at Indian law fi rm AP amp Partners told Reuters

The companies have until July 6 to respond to the proposals after which time they may be reviewed further or implemented

Snapdeal said it was reviewing the rules BigBasket declined to comment Reliance did not re-spond to a request for comment

One aspect of the proposed new rules which is likely to have a particular impact is one which gives the customer ldquosuggestions of alternatives to ensure a fair opportunity for domestic goodsrdquo if a retailer is showing imported goods for sale

ldquoThe concept is about promo-tion of local goods Itrsquos good for Made-in-India products but not for the platformsrdquo said Salman Waris a partner at TechLegis Advocates

Non-compliance with the rules if implemented could be

India e-commerce rules cast cloudover Amazon Walmart and local rivals

punishable with prison terms and fi nes of at least 25000 Indian ru-pees under the Indiarsquos consumer law Waris added

Mondayrsquos Indian government notifi cation detailing the rules said that they were being is-sued after complaints of ldquowide-spread cheating and unfair trade practices being observed in the e-commerce ecosystemrdquo

It did not name any companyThe rules potentially present a

bigger setback for Flipkart and Amazon as they contain clauses that say e-commerce fi rms must ensure none of their related enter-prises are listed as sellers on their shopping websites and that no affi liate entity should sell goods to an online seller operating on its platform

Amazon holds an indirect stake in two of its top sellers

Indian retailers allege that Amazon and Flipkart use their wholesale units to indirectly list products on their websites through select sellers bypassing foreign investment restrictions that prohibit direct sales

Both companies deny any wrongdoing

Amazon and Flipkart are likely to push back against the propos-als two of the industry sources said

The rules were seen by some in the industry as a government alternative to a more stringent version of its foreign investment law which restricts business ar-rangements Flipkart or Amazon can have with sellers the sources said

ldquoThe Consumer Aff airs minis-try has nothing to do with issues brought under these rulesrdquo one e-commerce executive said

Amazon said in a statement that online marketplaces promote competition and enable transpar-ency adding that it was review-ing the draft policy and it was too early to comment

Flipkart did not respond to a request for comment

A worker sorts delivery packages in a van outside an Amazon facility in Ahmedabad India on March 17 2021

16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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16

Aries (March 21 to April 20)Wise men speak because they have something to say others speak because they have to say something If you understand this intricate difference be very careful and balanced about what you speak this week

Taurus (April 21 to May 21)True power comes from knowledge Knowledge comes from understanding and this is a perfect time to get out of your lazy demeanour and increase your knowledge and understanding Advice Time to show persistence

Gemini (May 22 to June 21)People condemn what they do not understand so do not get disturbed by the hard words being spoken around you which might even get caustic at times This is a perfect time to focus on your long-term goals and avoid caustic people

Cancer (June 22 to July 22)There is a fine line between coincidence and fate and this is the week wherein you need to remove that line and take control of your destiny Itrsquos a good week for you hence make the most of it by completing long-pending items on your plate and also look for new opportunities on the professional front

Leo (July 23 to August 22)If you donrsquot value your time neither will others Stop giving away your time and talents for free and start charging for it No doubt you have been appreciated for your kindness and help by one and all but this kindness is taking up your time as well as resources

Virgo (August 23 to September 23)Your problem isnrsquot the problem Your reaction is the problem and your reactions and behaviour this week might attract un-necessary animosity Be very careful in what you speak both on the personal and professional front

Libra (September 24 to October 23)Happiness is a butterfly which when pursued is always be-yond your grasp but which if you will sit down quietly may alight upon you This is the perfect time to calm down and stop chasing things around you

Scorpio (October 24 to November 22)This week donrsquot be afraid to give up the good to go for the great Letting go is always painful but at times it is the best thing for you This is a small phase of self re-engineering wherein you will be revamping everything around you

Sagittarius (November 23 to December 21)The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do and this week you will be in a jug-gernaut of a mood to reinvent yourself Itrsquos advisable to enhance your knowledge or skills in this productive phase

Capricorn (December 22 to January 20)The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success There might be people around you who will try to look down upon your thoughts or ideas but do not let this dampen your spirits Just keep working hard and the same ideas that seem eccentric will seem genius in no time Aquarius (January 21 to February 19)When you stop chasing the wrong things you give the right things a chance to catch you This week will be an opportunity to identify the wrong and right in your life and it will be in your own interest if you prudently identify and segregate whatrsquos good for you

Pisces (February 20 to March 20)Thinking should become your capital asset no matter what ups and downs you come across in your life The fact is that your deep thoughts and emotions are your biggest asset which attract people to you

WEEKLY HOROSCOPE(July 4 - 10 2021)

INTERNATIONAL NEWSASTROLOGYIndia Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

Twitter India chief wins relief from court in police probe case-sourcesBy Aditya Kalra

NEW DELHI - An Indian court on Thursday said Twitter Incrsquos country head should face no ldquocoercive actionrdquo in a case where police summoned him for failing to stop the spread of a video that allegedly incited reli-gious discord three sources said

Last week police in northern Uttar Pradesh state sent a writ-ten summons to Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari to appear before officials and an-swer allegations that include inciting ldquohate and enmityrdquo between Hindu and Muslim communities

Maheshwari who is based in Bengaluru city in southern Karnataka state appealed to the court and sought to quash the summons sources familiar with the matter said

On Thursday ldquothe judge said no coercive action can be taken against him and he can be ex-amined via video conferencingrdquo one of the sources told Reuters

A second source said the order in effect gives Maheshwari pro-tection from any possible arrest by the police

Twitter declined to commentThe police case had been reg-

istered over a video of a few men apparently Hindu beat-ing an elderly man believed to be a Muslim and cutting his beard The police report named Twitter its local unit and seven others

IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has lashed out at Twitter for the incident saying its failure to act was ldquoperplexingrdquo

The controversy comes at a time when Indiarsquos federal gov-ernment has locked horns with Twitter over non-compliance with certain federal rules rais-ing concerns that the platform may no longer enjoy protec-tion against user-generated content

People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo in this illustration picture taken on September 27 2013

Vaccine hesitancy putsIndiarsquos gains against virus at risk

By Rajesh Kumar Singh

JAMSOTI - In Jamsoti a village tucked deep inside Indiarsquos most populous state of Uttar Pradesh the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities The deadly infection they believe does not exist in villages

So when a team of health work-ers recently approached Manju Kol to get vaccinated she locked up her house gathered her chil-dren and ran to the nearby forest

The family hid there for hours and returned only when the work-ers left in the evening

ldquoI would rather die than take the vaccinerdquo said Kol

A deadly surge of coronavirus infections that ripped through In-dia in April and May killing more than 180000 has tapered off and new cases have declined But the relief could be fleeting as a signifi-cant amount of the population is still reluctant to get the shots This has alarmed health experts who say vaccine hesitancy particularly in Indiarsquos vast hinterlands could put the countryrsquos fragile gains against COVID-19 at risk

ldquoVaccine hesitancy poses a risk to ending the pandemic in Indiardquo said retired virologist and pedia-trician Dr T Jacob John ldquoThe more the virus circulates the more it can mutate into dangerous

new variants that can undermine vaccinesrdquo

Delivering vaccines in the worldrsquos second-most populous country was always going to be challenging Even though India did relatively well at the begin-ning of its mammoth vaccina-tion drive the campaign hit a snag almost immediately due to shortages and a complicated vac-cine policy exacerbating existing inequalities

Only less than 5 of Indiarsquos people are fully immunized Ex-perts caution that by the end of the year vaccination rates must go up significantly to protect most Indi-ans from the virus that has so far already killed more than 386000 people mdash a figure considered to be a vast undercount

Starting Monday every adult in India will be eligible for a shot paid for by the federal govern-ment The new policy announced last week ends a complex system of buying and distributing vac-cines that overburdened states and led to inequities in how the shots were handed out

There is still widespread hesi-tancy fueled by misinformation and mistrust particularly in ru-ral areas where two-thirds of the countryrsquos nearly 14 billion population lives

Health workers face stiff resis-tance from people who believe

that vaccines cause impotence se-rious side effects and could even kill Some simply say they do not need the shots because theyrsquore immune to the coronavirus

Rumors about jabs disrupting the menstruation cycle and reduc-ing fertility have also contributed to fear and skewed the data in fa-vor of men In almost every Indian state more men are getting vacci-nated than women mdash and that gap is widening further every day

Quashing such rumors and conspiracy theories is a tough order for many particularly in Indiarsquos tribal-dominated districts that have recorded dispropor-tionately lower vaccine cover-age in comparison with other districts according to official data

Yogesh Kalkonde a public health doctor in Gadchiroli a tribal area in the western state of Maharashtra said his district was overrun with the belief that the vaccine is more dangerous than the virus

Some in the area have raised the untrue claim that the shots can cause infertility Kalkonde said Others simply question its effectiveness

ldquoWe have to convince people go door to door and rely on peo-ple who have taken the vaccine to spread the wordrdquo he said ldquoItrsquos an extremely slow processrdquo

AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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AstraZeneca Pfizer vaccines effective against Delta COVID-19 variants

By Ludwig Burgerand Aishwarya Nair

COVID-19 vaccines made by Astra-Zeneca and the Pfi zer-BioNTech alliance remain broadly eff ective against Delta and Kappa variants of the COVID-19

causing virus which were fi rst identifi ed in India according to a scientifi c study underpinning a continued push to deliver the shots

The study by Oxford University re-searchers published in the journal Cell investigated the ability of antibodies in

the blood from people who were vacci-nated with the two-shot regimens to neu-tralize the highly contagious Delta and Kappa variants a statement said

ldquoThere is no evidence of widespread escape suggesting that the current gener-ation of vaccines will provide protection against the B1617 lineagerdquo the paper said referring to the Delta and Kappa variants by a commonly used code

However the concentration of neutral-ising antibodies in the blood was some-what reduced which may lead to some breakthrough infections they cautioned

Last week an analysis by the Public Health England (PHE) showed that vac-cines made by Pfi zer Inc and AstraZeneca

off er high protection of more than 90 against hospitalization from the Delta variant

ldquoWe are encouraged to see the non-clinical results published from Oxford and these data alongside the recent early real-world analysis from Pub-lic Health England provide us with a positive indication that our vaccine can have signifi cant impact against the Delta variantrdquo AstraZeneca execu-tive Mene Pangalos said in a separate statement

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of the disease the World Health Organizationrsquos chief scientist said on Friday

CDC says US young adults less likely to take COVID-19 vaccine

Younger adults are seeking out COV-ID-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults and if that pace of vaccination con-tinues through August vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach lev-els achieved with older adults US Cen-ters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on Monday

The agency said more work is needed to increase vaccination rates among younger adults to reduce COVID-19 hospitaliza-tions and deaths

Of the 57 American adults who re-ceived at least one vaccine dose by May 22 coverage was highest among people 65 or older and lowest among people aged 18 to 29 according to an analysis of vac-cine rates published on Monday in the CDCrsquos Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report

The observations are based on vacci-nation data reported to the agency fromDec 14 2020 to May 22 2021

Younger Americans also are more likely to be reluctant to get vaccinated because of concerns over vaccine safety and eff ec-tiveness the agency reported separately on Monday citing data from household surveys conducted from March to May 2021

The lowest rates of vaccination were among lower income non-Hispanic Black adults aged 18ndash39 with lower levels of ed-ucation who lacked health insurance and live outside of major cities according to the report

Vaccination of Americans began in De-cember last year and early eff orts were fo-cused on specifi c high-risk groups such as healthcare workers and older adults This was later expanded to all American adults aged 18 and older beginning April 19

It found that nearly one in four adults aged 18-39 said they would probably or defi nitely not get vaccinated during the survey period

Vials labelled ldquoAstra Zeneca COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinerdquo and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo

US likely to miss July 4 COVID-19 vaccine target White House says

WASHINGTON - The United States will likely fail to meet President Joe Bidenrsquos goal to deliver at least one CO-VID-19 vaccine to 70 of adults by July 4 offi cials said on Tuesday and warned the Delta variant fi rst found in India poses the greatest threat to US eradication eff orts

They said the administration is poised to meet the target for adults 27 and older on July 4 US Independence Day but will fall short of Bidenrsquos goal for adults 18 and older

ldquoOur focus from the beginning has been continuing to redouble our eff orts among demographics and groups where we need extra assistancerdquo White House press sec-retary Jen Psaki said

White House COVID-19 senior adviser Jeff rey Zients said it would likely take a

few weeks beyond July 4 to meet Bidenrsquos target

ldquoThe country has more work to do par-ticularly with 18- to 26-year-oldsrdquo Zients told reporters

ldquoThe reality is many younger Americans have felt like COVID-19 is not something that impacts them and theyrsquove been less eager to get the shotrdquo

The Delta variant is the greatest threat to the eff ort to eradicate COVID-19 within US borders US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci said during a call with reporters

Fauci said existing vaccines were eff ec-tive against the new variant which is more transmissible than the original variant

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE17India Bulletin

HEALTH amp SCIENCE

Saturday June 26 2021

18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

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Saturday June 26 2021

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

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India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

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18HEALTH amp SCIENCE

India Bulletin Saturday June 26 2021

BENGALURU - A third wave of coronavirus infections is likely to hit India by October and although it will be better controlled than the latest out-break the pandemic will remain a public health threat for at least another year according to a Reuters poll of medical experts

The June 3-17 snap survey of 40 healthcare specialists doctors scientists virologists epidemiologists and professors from around the world showed a significant pickup in vaccina-

tions will likely provide some cover to a fresh outbreak

Of those who ventured a pre-diction over 85 of respon-dents or 21 of 24 said the next wave will hit by October includ-ing three who forecast it as early as August and 12 in September The remaining three said be-tween November and February

But over 70 of experts or 24 of 34 said any new outbreak would be better controlled com-pared with the current one which has been far more devastating -

with shortage of vaccines medi-cines oxygen and hospital beds - than the smaller first surge in infections last year

ldquoIt will be more controlled as cases will be much less because more vaccinations would have been rolled out and there would be some degree of natural immu-nity from the second-waverdquo said Dr Randeep Guleria director at All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)

So far India has only fully vac-cinated about 5 of its estimated 950 million eligible population leaving many millions vulner-able to infections and deaths

While a majority of healthcare experts predicted the vaccination drive would pick up significantly this year they cautioned against an early removal of restrictions as some states have done

When asked if children and those under 18 years would be most at risk in a potential third wave nearly two-thirds of ex-perts or 26 of 40 said yes

ldquoThe reason being they are a completely virgin population in terms of vaccination because currently there is no vaccine available for themrdquo said Dr Pradeep Banandur head of epi-demiology department at Nation-al Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS)

Experts warn the situation could become severe

ldquoIf children get infected in large numbers and we are not prepared there is nothing you can do at the last minuterdquo said Dr Devi Shetty a cardiologist at Narayana Health and an advi-sor to the Karnataka state gov-ernment on pandemic response planning

ldquoIt will be a whole different problem as the country has very very few paediatric intensive care unit beds and that is going to be a disasterrdquo

But 14 experts said children were not at risk

Earlier this week a senior health ministry official said chil-

dren were vulnerable and sus-ceptible to infections but that analysis has shown a less severe health impact

While 25 of 38 respondents said future coronavirus variants would not make existing vac-cines ineffective in response to a separate question 30 of 41 experts said the coronavirus will remain a public health threat in India for at least a year

Eleven experts said the threat would remain for under a year 15 said for under two years while 13 said over two years and two said the risks will never go away

ldquoCOVID-19 is a solvable prob-lem as obviously it was easy to get a solvable vaccine In two years India likely will develop herd immunity through vaccine and exposure of the diseaserdquo said Robert Gallo director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland and international scientific advisor Global Virus Network

India should brace for third COVID-19 wave by Oct say health experts

People shop at a crowded roadside vegetable market after authorities eased coronavirus restrictions following a drop in COVID-19 cases in Ahmedabad India on June 15 2021

FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to vaccinesThe US Food and Drug Ad-

ministration said on Wednesday it plans to move quickly to add a warning about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults to fact sheets for the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines

US Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC) advi-sory groups meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condi-tion after vaccination found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk

Moderna shares closed down 42 while Pfizer fell 14

Health regulators in several countries have been investigating whether the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna shots using new mRNA technology present a risk and if so how serious

The CDC said that patients with heart inflammation follow-ing vaccination generally recover from the symptoms and do well

The US Department of Health And Human Services joined by leading US doctors groups and public health officials put out a statement underscoring that the vaccines are safe and effective

and that the heart side effect is ldquoextremely rarerdquo

ldquoWe strongly encourage every-one age 12 and older who are eli-gible to receive the vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization to get vaccinatedrdquo it said

Doctors and hospitals have been warned by the CDC to watch for symptoms of myo-carditis or pericarditis and the FDA warning will further raise awareness

Concerns about the more high-ly transmissible Delta corona-virus variant taking hold in the United States and its impact on younger people have added to the urgency to increase vaccina-tions even as the inoculation ef-fort here has slowed considerably

The number of Americans re-ceiving their first dose of CO-VID-19 vaccine is down about 85 since peaking in mid-April and will likely fail to meet Presi-dent Joe Bidenrsquos goal to have de-livered at least one shot to 70 of adults by July 4

ldquoBased on the available data a warning statement in the fact-sheets for both healthcare pro-viders and vaccine recipients and caregivers would be warrantedrdquo FDA official Doran Fink said at the advisory committee meeting

Delta COVID-19 variant greatest threat to US pandemic response says Fauci

By Carl Orsquodonnell

The Delta variant of the novel coronavirus that was first found in India is the greatest threat to the United Statesrsquo effort to eradi-cate COVID-19 in its borders said US infectious disease ex-pert Dr Anthony Fauci during a Tuesday press call

ldquoThe transmissibility is un-questionably greaterrdquo in the Del-ta variant than the original vari-ant of COVID-19 Fauci said adding that ldquoit is associated with an increased disease severityrdquo

The Delta variant is becoming the globally dominant version of

the disease the World Health Or-ganizationrsquos chief scientist said last Friday

Fauci said that the vac-cines authorized in the United States including the PfizerBioNTech vaccine are effec-tive against the new variant of COVID-19

ldquoWe have the tools so letrsquos use them and crush the outbreakrdquo Fauci said

The United States is falling short of its goal of vaccinat-ing 70 of adults by July 4 and will likely need a few additional weeks to hit that target White House COVID-19 senior adviser

Jeffrey Zients said during the press call

Zients added that he expects 70 of adults over 27 years old will have had at least one shot by July 4

More than 150 million people in the United States or more than 45 of the population have been fully vaccinated according to federal data last updated on Monday

The Delta variant contributed to a severe outbreak of COV-ID-19 in India during April and May that overwhelmed health services in the country and killed hundreds of thousands

Let down by rich and failing the poor global vaccine scheme to be shaken up

BRUSSELS - Shunned by rich countries and failing to meet the needs of the poorest a programme co-led by the World Health Or-ganization (WHO) for fair dis-tribution of COVID-19 vaccines is planning a shake-up internal documents seen by Reuters show

The COVAX programme is far short of its target of deliver-ing 2 billion doses by the end of the year but does expect a big in-crease in supplies by early 2022 and wants to make sure that those at least reach the countries in direst need

COVAXrsquos initial lofty ambi-tions to act as a clearing house

for the worldrsquos vaccines collect-ing from the manufacturers in the most developed countries and quickly distributing to those in the most urgent need have fallen flat

So far it has distributed a mere 90 million vaccines While densely populated lower-income countries act as incubators for new and more dangerous strains of the coronavirus some of the poorest countries have vaccinated less than 1 of their populations according to estimates from Gavi a global vaccine alliance that runs the scheme with the WHO

The overhaul is meant to reduce COVAXrsquos financial risks increase

its focus on the countries most in need and reduce the participation of richer countries as both donors and recipients according to a paper prepared by Gavi

The document is expected to be adopted at a Gavi board meeting on Wednesday and Thursday

ldquoThe suggestion is subject to Board approval to focus CO-VAXrsquos procurement efforts on all SFPs (self-financing participants) that will continue to need the fa-cility in such a way that enables simplified operations and reduced financial risks based on the les-sons learned over the past yearrdquo a spokeswoman for Gavi said

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

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0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

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607-592-1162

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21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

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Call

847-674-7941 For pricing amp details

25 Years of Professional amp Trustworthy ServiceAir - Cruises - Tours

wwwnatrajtravelcomEmail infonatrajtravelcom

NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

IN SCHAUMBURG AREAASKING $150K

CALL JOSH

1-309-648-0921

FRANCHISE HAIR CUT SALON FOR SALE

Motel in Upstate New York looking for a Full Time

Front Desk Person Must be able to speak English

and is good in Math

Call 845-300-5335

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

Kiran 925-818-2182

WANTED LIVE-IN FEMALE AID

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
  • V17N15-07
  • V17N15-08
  • V17N15-09
  • V17N15-10
  • V17N15-11
  • V17N15-12
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  • V17N15-14
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  • Page 24 online

HEALTH amp SCIENCE19

HEALTH amp SCIENCEIndia BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

By Devjyot Ghoshaland Zeba Siddiqui

NEW DELHI - A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the corona-virus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak re-quired urgent attention

Federal health authorities failed to respond adequately to that warning Dr Subhash Salun-ke who has 30 years of experi-ence in public health in India Indonesia and the United States told Reuters

The variant now known as B1617 triggered a catastrophic wave of coronavirus cases in In-dia and has since spread to more than 40 other countries In May the World Health Organization (WHO) termed it a ldquovariant of concernrdquo citing its high trans-missibility

The variantrsquos first impact was

detected months earlier in the Amravati district of the west-ern state of Maharashtra where health authorities recorded a rapid increase in coronavirus in-fections in early February even

Health experts say India missed early alarm let deadly variant spread

as cases fell elsewhere in IndiaSalunke a former WHO of-

ficial advising the Maharash-tra government said he alerted some of Indiarsquos most senior health officials in early March

speaking on the telephone to Prime Minister Narendra Modirsquos main coronavirus adviser VK Paul and the head of the Nation-al Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) Sujeet Kumar Singh

Salunke told Reuters he warned both Paul and Singh that the virus was showing signs of mutating in Amravati that its transmissibility was increasing and requested federal help in sequencing more samples to es-tablish how the variant was be-having Reuters could not inde-pendently confirm what was said in those conversations

ldquoIn spite of a public health person like me giving them a sound warning they did not take heedrdquo Salunke told Reuters

In response to Reutersrsquo ques-tions Paul said he spoke with Salunke but described the con-versation as Salunke conveying information rather than issuing a warning

He rejected Salunkersquos accusa-tion that he did not take heed saying he requested that Indiarsquos National Institute of Virology (NIV) study the variant more closely and told the Maharash-tra state government to intensify its existing response to the virus

Reuters could not determine if the NIV carried out any such study The NIV directed Reutersrsquo questions to the Indian Council of Medical Research which did not respond

ldquoThe government strength-ened the sequencing and clinico-epidemiological studiesrdquo Paul told Reuters ldquoThe government intensely repeatedly from mul-tiple fora emphasized the need for containment using all the tools even more vigorously and optimising testingrdquo

NCDCrsquos Singh and Indiarsquos health ministry did not respond to questions from Reuters about Salunkersquos warning

Despite Salunkersquos flagging of the problem and a further warning in early March from a forum of scientific advisers that the new variant was taking hold in the country the federal gov-ernment allowed election ral-lies religious festivals and other mass gatherings to proceed and failed to take measures to halt the spread of the virus

Within 80 days the variant went from Amravati to dozens of countries around the world including Britain the United States and Singapore present-ing a setback to global efforts to contain the disease

It is impossible to say exactly how many infections in each country have been caused by the new variant because very few samples from positive tests have

been sequenced US authorities estimated last week that the vari-ant accounted for 6 of corona-virus infections there

In India the dramatic rise in infection numbers from April onwards - partly driven by the variant according to public health studies - overwhelmed the countryrsquos health system causing hospitals to run out of beds and oxygen and causing crematoriums and graveyards to overflow Indiarsquos health min-ister Dr Harsh Vardhan said last month that the variant was identified in about 20 of sam-ples in the country that had been sequenced

A SUDDEN RISEIn late January when Indiarsquos

daily count of coronavirus in-fections had fallen to around 12000 Modi all but declared victory at a World Economic Forum event saying the country had ldquosaved humanity from a big disaster by containing coronavi-rus effectivelyrdquo

That sense of optimism was sweeping large parts of India including Amravati where cas-es had dropped to a trickle ac-cording to local health officials The district home to 29 mil-lion people had reported only dozens of COVID-19 cases daily through much of Janu-ary according to government data

ldquoEveryone was relaxedrdquo said Shyamsunder Nikam Amra-vatirsquos civil surgeon who super-vises public health matters in the district

But case numbers started suddenly rising in late January alarming Nikam and other local officials New infections rose to around 200 a day by Feb 7 and reached 430 a day a week later as the virus tore through the dis-trictrsquos rural interior that had been largely unscathed during Indiarsquos first wave in 2020

A task force set up by the Ma-harashtra government to guide its pandemic response ordered a probe Dr Rajesh Karyakarte who was part of the investiga-tion said he analysed four posi-tive samples from the region and found they all contained a mutation called E484Q a sign that a variant was likely at play

Karyakarte told Reuters he presented the findings to the Ma-harashtra task force in a video conference on Feb 16 Reuters could not independently confirm if he did so or how the task force responded Dr Tatyarao Lahane a member of the task force did not respond to questions from Reuters

A veteran public health expert warned top Indian officials in early March that a new variant of the coronavirus was spreading quickly in a rural district in the heart of the country and that the outbreak required urgent attention

COVID-19 may cause loss of brain tissueDelta variant fuels steep infection rise in England

By Nancy Lapid

The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel corona-virus and efforts to find treat-ments and vaccines for COV-ID-19 the illness caused by the virus

COVID-19 survivors may have loss of brain tissue

Even mild cases of COVID-19 may lead to loss of brain tissue according to findings from a long-term study involving 782 volunteers As part of the ongoing UK Biobank study participants underwent brain scans before the pandemic For a before-and-after comparison researchers invited 394 COVID-19 survi-vors to come back for follow-up scans as well as 388 healthy volunteers Most of the CO-VID-19 survivors had had only mild-to-moderate symptoms or no symptoms at all while 15 had been hospitalized Among the COVID-19 survivors re-searchers saw ldquosignificantrdquo loss of gray matter in regions of the brain related to smell and taste - the left parahippocampal gy-rus left orbitofrontal cortex and left insula Some of the affected brain regions are also involved in the memory of experiences that evoke emotional reactions the researchers noted in a report posted on medRxiv last Tues-day ahead of peer review The changes were not seen in the group that had not been infected The authors said more research

is needed to determine whether COVID-19 survivors will have issues in the longer term with their ability to remember emo-tion-evoking events They also do not yet know whether the loss of gray matter is a result of the virus spreading into the brain or some other effect of the illness

Delta variant fuels steep rise in England COVID-19 preva-lence

The rapid spread of the ex-tremely contagious Delta coro-navirus variant first identified in India has driven a 50 rise in COVID-19 cases in England since May researchers at Im-perial College London said last Wednesday in their latest report from the REACT-1 prevalence survey COVID-19 prevalence ldquois increasing exponentially driven by younger ages and it appears to be doubling every 11 days Clearly that is bad newsrdquo Steven Riley lead author of the report told reporters At the be-ginning of May according to the researchersrsquo estimates around 60 of positive COVID-19 swab tests were due to the Delta vari-ant By June 7 that had climbed to around 90 Although the Delta variant has been shown to substantially reduce the ef-fectiveness of one dose of vac-cine against mild infection two doses still provide good protec-tion against severe disease ac-cording to early evidence Last Friday the World Health Orga-nization said the Delta variant is

becoming the globally dominant variant of the disease

Researchers hope to blocks cellsrsquo response to the virus

Instead of targeting the coro-navirus with experimental drugs UK researchers are trying a new approach They are target-ing infected cells to attempt to repair damage inflicted by the virus and prevent it from spread-ing To make copies of itself or replicate inside infected cells the virus activates a cellular response called the ldquounfolded protein responserdquo explained Nerea Irigoyen of the Univer-sity of Cambridge In laboratory experiments the researchers in-hibited activation of this cellu-lar response using experimental drugs As a result virus replica-tion was prevented according to a report published last Thursday in PLoS Pathogens The unfold-ed protein response in infected cells ldquomight be responsible at least to some extentrdquo for some of the complications associated with COVID-19 such as respira-tory distress and thickening and scarring of lung tissues Irigoyen said The approach must still be tested in animals and humans But the research team is hop-ing that drugs that block the unfolded-protein response will not only reduce patientsrsquo viral burden but also relieve some of the symptoms associated with the infection ldquoThis means that patients might have a better out-come and recover in less timerdquo Irigoyen said

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

Trying to Purchase Gas Stations in Chicagoland or Elsewhere

We have sellers who want to speak with you

World Kinect Energy Services provides branded and unbranded fuel supply to 2650+ gas stations With 35+ years of experience cash and scale ndash we can help you grow

Invite Us to Your NextCommittee Meeting

Visit BuyMyCstorecomor call email Dave Munger 315-569-0247 | DMungerworld-kinectcom

0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

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A middle aged live in full time nanny needed to take care of a newborn and a two year old toddler (who goes to daycare) in Springfield Illinois (about three hours drive from Chicago) Help with housekeeping and meal preparation

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Manu 630-677-3635

Front desk clerk wanted for a small Chicago motel

773-842-5474 after 5 pm Gujarati and English speaking preferred

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Free living accommodations Must

have legal status

Pharmacy Expert Data Entry Experience only

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gioprxgmailcom 973-768-8923

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with advance payment

Franchise Motel in Moline IL (2 hr from Chicago) needs following people (legal status must)

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Email qismkrupagmailcomPh 630-699-2880 (After 5 pm Mon-Fri)

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Looking for Tandoori Cook in upstate New York

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607-592-1162

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Hindu Punjabi parents seek suitable match for handsome

365-6 MBAMS (Finance) nicely employed son Please

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$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

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$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

Furnished with AC refrigerator microwave

Everything availableClose to Devon Ave in Chicago

Beautiful area

Call 918-428-9184 or 773-425-4049

Roommate Needed

We accept name change ads

Call

847-674-7941 For pricing amp details

25 Years of Professional amp Trustworthy ServiceAir - Cruises - Tours

wwwnatrajtravelcomEmail infonatrajtravelcom

NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

IN SCHAUMBURG AREAASKING $150K

CALL JOSH

1-309-648-0921

FRANCHISE HAIR CUT SALON FOR SALE

Motel in Upstate New York looking for a Full Time

Front Desk Person Must be able to speak English

and is good in Math

Call 845-300-5335

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

Kiran 925-818-2182

WANTED LIVE-IN FEMALE AID

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
  • V17N15-07
  • V17N15-08
  • V17N15-09
  • V17N15-10
  • V17N15-11
  • V17N15-12
  • V17N15-13
  • V17N15-14
  • V17N15-15
  • V17N15-16
  • V17N15-17
  • V17N15-18
  • V17N15-19
  • V17N15-20
  • V17N15-21
  • V17N15-22
  • V17N15-23
  • Page 24 online

New Zealand shed bridesmaidrsquos tag with WTC title

SOUTHAMPTON - New Zea-land shed their bridesmaidrsquos tag by claiming the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) title with an eight-wicket victory against India in a thrilling final on Wednesday

Beaten in the finals of the last two 50-overs World Cups Kane Williamsonrsquos team became test cricketrsquos first official world champions after prevailing in a match plagued by bad weather on its reserve day

ldquoCertainly itrsquos a very spe-cial feeling After a couple of close ones (in ICC finals) nice to get one under the beltrdquo Wil-liamson said at the presentation ceremony

ldquoIrsquove been part of (New Zea-land cricket) for a short while but itrsquos a very special feeling the first time in our history wersquove come away with a world titlerdquo

All three results looked pos-sible when India resumed the final day on 64-2 in their second innings with captain Virat Kohli and the dour Cheteshwar Pujara in the middle

Kyle Jamieson had been the wrecker-in-chief in Indiarsquos first innings and the towering seamer returned to haunt them again on the sixth morning

The 6rsquo 8rdquo (203m) bowler dis-missed Kohli and Pujara in his successive overs but was denied a third wicket when Tim South-ee dropped Rishabh Pant at sec-ond slip when the batsman was on five

It threatened to be a costly re-prieve as Pant counter-attacked with in a typically aggressive knock of 41

It took an inspired bowling change by Williamson to end the mayhem with Trent Boult (3-39) removing Pant and Ravichan-dran Ashwin in the same over

Southee (4-48) polished off the tail as India who had man-aged 217 in the first innings folded for 170 in the second

Chasing 139 to win from 53 overs New Zealand did not find it easy as Ashwin dismissed both openers to inject fresh excitement into the contest

More drama followed as Wil-liamson who made 52 not out was adjudged lbw to Ashwin early in his innings William-son immediately reviewed the decision and got it overturned

He got another life when Jasprit Bumrah dropped a skier

Taylor whose 47 not out in-cluded the winning boundary was dropped by Pujara in the

slips when the batsman was on 26

The final marked the culmi-nation of a two-year cycle of the WTC which was launched in 2019 to create test cricketrsquos pinnacle event

New Zealandrsquos victory was also a fitting farewell for their wicketkeeper BJ Watling who

retired after this matchIndia captain Virat Kohli

blamed his teamrsquos batting on the final morning for their defeat

ldquoThe Kiwi bowlers executed their plans to perfection and kept putting us under pres-sure and did not allow scoring opportunities

ldquoI think in the end we were

30-40 runs short of putting them under serious pressure in the last inningsrdquo

Jamieson who claimed his fifth five-wicket haul in his eighth test was adjudged player of the match

New Zealand took home the ICC test championship mace and pocketed $16 million

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson lifts the World Test Championship trophy after victory over India in Southampton

Fans ejected for New Zealand abuse at World Test final

SOUTHAMPTON - Two spectators were ejected from the ground on the fifth day of the World Test Championship (WTC) final between India and New Zealand on Tuesday af-ter shouting abuse at the New Zealanders

ldquoWe received reports of abuse

directed at the New Zealand playersrdquo a spokesman for the In-ternational Cricket Council said ldquoOur security team was able to identify the culprits and they were ejected from the groundrdquo

A report on news website stuffconz said a complaint had been made by a New Zealand follow-

er watching the match on televi-sion He said the abuse had in-cluded racist comments directed at batsman Ross Taylor whose mother comes from Samoa

Taylor 37 is the first per-son to play 100 matches in all three formats of international cricket

Trying to Purchase Gas Stations in Chicagoland or Elsewhere

We have sellers who want to speak with you

World Kinect Energy Services provides branded and unbranded fuel supply to 2650+ gas stations With 35+ years of experience cash and scale ndash we can help you grow

Invite Us to Your NextCommittee Meeting

Visit BuyMyCstorecomor call email Dave Munger 315-569-0247 | DMungerworld-kinectcom

0

5

25

75

95

100

Pareshbhai newspaper Advt

Tuesday March 24 2015 113404 AM

India celebrate lsquoonce-in-a-generationrsquo talent Verma

LONDON - India womenrsquos cricket team captain Mithali Raj described team mate Sha-fali Verma as a rare talent who can dominate all three formats of the game after the teenage openerrsquos fairytale test debut in England

Seventeen-year-old Verma scored 96 and 63 on her test debut in Bristol winning the player-of-the-match award and also becoming the first woman cricketer to hit three sixes in a test match

ldquoI think Verma is a player who comes across once in a genera-tionrdquo Raj said after India pulled off a thrilling draw last Saturday while following on

ldquoIrsquom sure from here on shersquoll go from strength to strength and will be very very important to the batting of the Indian team in all formats

ldquoShe beautifully adapted to

this format She didnrsquot go like how she would go bonkers in the T20 formatrdquo

Known for her swashbuckling batting Verma showed the other side of her game in the second innings with a restrained dis-play that largely contributed to saving India from defeat

Vermarsquos six-hitting ability has

earned her a stint with the Bir-mingham Phoenix at The Hun-dred competition in England from next month

England captain Heather Knight called Verma ldquooutstand-ingrdquo while former India opener Virender Sehwag hailed her ldquofearlessrdquo batting

Former test player WV Ra-man whose stint as India womenrsquos team coach ended last month said Verma could have a major impact on womenrsquos cricket

ldquoWe may see her doing in womenrsquos cricket what Viv Rich-ards did from the 70s to 90srdquo Raman tweeted referring to the West Indies batting great

Verma said she wanted to grow into an all-format player

ldquoI was so disappointed (to miss the century) I just want to be a good cricketer for my side thatrsquos itrdquo she said

Shafali Verma

20 India BulletinSPORTS

Saturday June 26 2021

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

A middle aged live in full time nanny needed to take care of a newborn and a two year old toddler (who goes to daycare) in Springfield Illinois (about three hours drive from Chicago) Help with housekeeping and meal preparation

Salary negotiableText or Call (619) 381-9008

NANNY WANTED

A unique combination of Indian Restaurant

and Grocery Store for sale in Lake County IL Established

business in a rich neighborhood

Call 224-513-1051 for details

Restaurant and Grocery Store for Sale

Super 8 Motel for sale in Bloomington

area Illinois

40 Rooms renovated located on I-55

halfway between Chicago and St Louis

2 BR managers ( Owner ) Apt Asking price

$1050000

Serious buyers only

Illinois Motel For Sale

Please call

Manu 630-677-3635

Front desk clerk wanted for a small Chicago motel

773-842-5474 after 5 pm Gujarati and English speaking preferred

Call 708-629-5199 or

Free living accommodations Must

have legal status

Pharmacy Expert Data Entry Experience only

Experience necessary on Micromerchant (Prime RX)

Full time hourly salary $20-23hour --

location of work Newark NJEmail resume

gioprxgmailcom 973-768-8923

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Franchise Motel in Moline IL (2 hr from Chicago) needs following people (legal status must)

Motel Help

Email qismkrupagmailcomPh 630-699-2880 (After 5 pm Mon-Fri)

- Front Desk ClerkManager (EnglishBasic computer knowledge required) - House Keeper - Breakfast Attendant

Will provide housing accomodation

Contact by

Looking for Tandoori Cook in upstate New York

Call Baldev at

607-592-1162

TANDOORI COOKHELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Hindu Punjabi parents seek suitable match for handsome

365-6 MBAMS (Finance) nicely employed son Please

respond with bio-data amp picture

Matrimonial

Email at hindustyle99hotmailcom

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

Furnished with AC refrigerator microwave

Everything availableClose to Devon Ave in Chicago

Beautiful area

Call 918-428-9184 or 773-425-4049

Roommate Needed

We accept name change ads

Call

847-674-7941 For pricing amp details

25 Years of Professional amp Trustworthy ServiceAir - Cruises - Tours

wwwnatrajtravelcomEmail infonatrajtravelcom

NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

IN SCHAUMBURG AREAASKING $150K

CALL JOSH

1-309-648-0921

FRANCHISE HAIR CUT SALON FOR SALE

Motel in Upstate New York looking for a Full Time

Front Desk Person Must be able to speak English

and is good in Math

Call 845-300-5335

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

Kiran 925-818-2182

WANTED LIVE-IN FEMALE AID

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
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  • V17N15-20
  • V17N15-21
  • V17N15-22
  • V17N15-23
  • Page 24 online

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

A middle aged live in full time nanny needed to take care of a newborn and a two year old toddler (who goes to daycare) in Springfield Illinois (about three hours drive from Chicago) Help with housekeeping and meal preparation

Salary negotiableText or Call (619) 381-9008

NANNY WANTED

A unique combination of Indian Restaurant

and Grocery Store for sale in Lake County IL Established

business in a rich neighborhood

Call 224-513-1051 for details

Restaurant and Grocery Store for Sale

Super 8 Motel for sale in Bloomington

area Illinois

40 Rooms renovated located on I-55

halfway between Chicago and St Louis

2 BR managers ( Owner ) Apt Asking price

$1050000

Serious buyers only

Illinois Motel For Sale

Please call

Manu 630-677-3635

Front desk clerk wanted for a small Chicago motel

773-842-5474 after 5 pm Gujarati and English speaking preferred

Call 708-629-5199 or

Free living accommodations Must

have legal status

Pharmacy Expert Data Entry Experience only

Experience necessary on Micromerchant (Prime RX)

Full time hourly salary $20-23hour --

location of work Newark NJEmail resume

gioprxgmailcom 973-768-8923

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Franchise Motel in Moline IL (2 hr from Chicago) needs following people (legal status must)

Motel Help

Email qismkrupagmailcomPh 630-699-2880 (After 5 pm Mon-Fri)

- Front Desk ClerkManager (EnglishBasic computer knowledge required) - House Keeper - Breakfast Attendant

Will provide housing accomodation

Contact by

Looking for Tandoori Cook in upstate New York

Call Baldev at

607-592-1162

TANDOORI COOKHELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Hindu Punjabi parents seek suitable match for handsome

365-6 MBAMS (Finance) nicely employed son Please

respond with bio-data amp picture

Matrimonial

Email at hindustyle99hotmailcom

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

21India BulletinSaturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

Furnished with AC refrigerator microwave

Everything availableClose to Devon Ave in Chicago

Beautiful area

Call 918-428-9184 or 773-425-4049

Roommate Needed

We accept name change ads

Call

847-674-7941 For pricing amp details

25 Years of Professional amp Trustworthy ServiceAir - Cruises - Tours

wwwnatrajtravelcomEmail infonatrajtravelcom

NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

IN SCHAUMBURG AREAASKING $150K

CALL JOSH

1-309-648-0921

FRANCHISE HAIR CUT SALON FOR SALE

Motel in Upstate New York looking for a Full Time

Front Desk Person Must be able to speak English

and is good in Math

Call 845-300-5335

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

Kiran 925-818-2182

WANTED LIVE-IN FEMALE AID

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
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  • V17N15-19
  • V17N15-20
  • V17N15-21
  • V17N15-22
  • V17N15-23
  • Page 24 online

offers affordable advertising ratesCall today and watch your business grow

847-674-7941

Furnished with AC refrigerator microwave

Everything availableClose to Devon Ave in Chicago

Beautiful area

Call 918-428-9184 or 773-425-4049

Roommate Needed

We accept name change ads

Call

847-674-7941 For pricing amp details

25 Years of Professional amp Trustworthy ServiceAir - Cruises - Tours

wwwnatrajtravelcomEmail infonatrajtravelcom

NATRAJ TRAVEL INC

IN SCHAUMBURG AREAASKING $150K

CALL JOSH

1-309-648-0921

FRANCHISE HAIR CUT SALON FOR SALE

Motel in Upstate New York looking for a Full Time

Front Desk Person Must be able to speak English

and is good in Math

Call 845-300-5335

HELP WANTED

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Wanted Live-In female aide for 82y old Indian lady in Pembroke Pines FL Required personal care toileting amp cleaning Optional Indian or Asian cooking light chores Very competitive salary

Kiran 925-818-2182

WANTED LIVE-IN FEMALE AID

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

Advertise in this space for only

$30per issue (4 issue minimum)

or $35 per issue(2 issue minimum)

with advance payment

India Bulletin22 Saturday June 26 2021

MARKET PLACE

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
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  • V17N15-20
  • V17N15-21
  • V17N15-22
  • V17N15-23
  • Page 24 online

India Bulletin 23Saturday June 26 2021

6810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 605176810 Route 53 Woodridge IL 60517630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000630 | 739 | 7000

wwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnetwwwdirectfloorsnet

RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL

bull CARPET bull TILE bull HARDWOOD bull CUSTOM AREA RUGS bull WINDOW TREATMENTS

bull GRANITE COUNTERTOPS amp more

ldquoWe Care What You Walk Onrdquo

Mon amp Wed 9am to 6pm I Tues amp Thurs 9am to 8pm I Fri amp Sat 9am to 5pm Come visit our new 18000 sq ft showroom

Proudly serving the community with over 30 years experience

NEWLOCATION

Thurs 9am-630pm amp Sat 9am-4pmMon-Wed Fri 9am-6pm

Sunday Closed

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
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  • V17N15-19
  • V17N15-20
  • V17N15-21
  • V17N15-22
  • V17N15-23
  • Page 24 online

India Bulletin24 Saturday June 26 2021

  • V17N15-01
  • V17N15-02
  • V17N15-03
  • V17N15-04
  • V17N15-05
  • V17N15-06
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  • Page 24 online