Coronil got approval to treat cough and fever, but Patanjali sold it as ‘Covid cure’

New Delhi: Patanjali’s Coronil, which the company’s founder Baba Ramdev has touted as a cure for Covid-19, was approved for boosting immunity and treating cough and fever and not as a treatment for coronavirus, ThePrint has learnt.

The state licensing authority (SLA) of Uttarakhand, which falls under the Ministry of AYUSH, is now ready to shoot off a letter to the Haridwar-based Patanjali Ayurveda in connection with its bid to brand Coronil as a cure for Covid-19.

The company faces charges under two Acts, the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954, if proved guilty of making a false claim, the SLA told ThePrint.

“We will be sending a letter to Patanjali by the end of the day today. We haven’t approved the product for Covid-19 but only to boost immunity and treat cough, fever,” Dr Y.S. Rawat, joint director, SLA, Uttarakhand, said over a call Wednesday. 

Covid-19, which has triggered a pandemic around the world, currently has no proven cure.

“The company has to either prove how the drug could treat Covid-19 or else roll back the claim. Otherwise, we will suspend or cancel the licence given to Coronil,” he added.

Patanjali Ayurved spokesperson S.K. Tijarawala, however, told ThePrint that “everything is submitted well in order and as per the rules laid down by the government”.

How was the drug approved? 

The company applied for drug approval through an application dated 10 June. “The company had submitted the documents, as per the protocol including the formulation sheet (explaining the formula used to manufacture the drug), testing protocol (to check the efficacy of the drug) and label claim (which mentions that for what conditions the drug will be sold),” Rawat said. 

The department, he added, followed the standard procedure for drug approval, “where an expert committee considered the application and approved the drug on 12 June”.

“We had informed the company on the same day about the application clearance,” he said, adding that “the application was not complicated”.

“The drug is made of ashwagandha, giloy and tulsi. While the first ingredient is known for immunity-boosting properties, tulsi and giloy are given for treating cough and fever, respectively,” he added. 

Sections under which Patanjali could be booked 

The company could be charged under three sections of the two aforementioned Acts. According to Rawat, the firm is under the scanner for allegedly promoting the product with claims of “having magical properties” to cure Covid-19, labeling the product with misleading information, and advertising the products with misleading information. 

“The letter, which we will dispatch in sometime, charges the company for breaking the rules under Section 161 and Rule 170 of Drugs and Cosmetics Act,” he said. 

The charges, the officer said, pertained to “misleading consumers by printing wrong information on the label and… for inappropriate advertisements”. 

“The company will also be booked under Drugs and Magic Remedies Act (if proved guilty) as the company claims to ‘cure’ Covid,” he added.

The SLA will also be responding to a letter received from the Union Ministry of AYUSH Tuesday, where the latter had sought a response on the categories under which the drug was approved.

“We will send the same letter to the ministry to showcase our action against the company.”

Ahmedabad, Modi's City, Worse Record

Though Delhi and Mumbai might seem to be worst off with the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths each day, Ahmedabad with less than half the population of these metros has the highest deaths per million population in the country. It also has the highest case fatality rate (CFR) — number of deaths per 100 cases — among the nine megapolises with populations of over 5 million. 

At 115 deaths per million, Ahmedabad is much worse than Mumbai in second place with 80 deaths per million. Among the top metros, Bangalore seems to be doing the best with just one death per million. When it comes to CFR, Chennai’s 0.9 is the lowest among the nine mega cities. The data is as of Friday morning. 

The comparison here is between the nine urban agglomerations — cities and their urban outgrowths, like Greater Mumbai or Greater Kolkata — in the country that has 5 million or more people living in them. 

A low CFR is often seen as a result of extensive testing and hence detecting of a large number of positive cases. The higher the number of positive cases, the denominator, the smaller the CFR would be. Ahmedabad’s CFR of 6.9 has been explained by many as the result of inadequate testing. But the city’s deaths per million figure suggests shows there is more to the poor handling of Covid cases than just inadequate testing. 

Even in absolute numbers, Ahmedabad which has recorded 953 deaths is second only to the Mumbai with 1,698 deaths. Delhi follows Mumbai with 650 deaths. Bangalore has recorded just 14 deaths so far and the least number of cases, just 428. 

Though many cities have been trying to draw comfort from their recovery rates, epidemiologists have repeatedly pointed out that in an infection like Covid where over 90% of those infected are expected to recover, the share of those recovering can only rise steadily with the passage of time and hence recovery rates are a misleading measure for progress in the fight against the disease. 

These nine urban agglomerations contribute over 1.3 lakh cases (nearly 60% of India’s total) and 4,299 deaths, over two-thirds of the country’s total. An urban agglomeration (UA) is continuous urban habitation that surrounds a city or the continuous geographical stretch of two or more cities which in many ways function as the same city. 

Mumbai UA for instance is constituted by the Municipal Corporations of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Kalyan-Dombivali, Ulhasnagar and Mira Bhayandar. Similarly Kolkata UA spreads over the districts of Kolkata, North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah. Chennai UA has Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram while Hydarabad UA includes Hyderabad, Rangareddy and Medak. Ahmedabad UA also includes Gandhinagar. 

The 2020 population estimates for these UAs from the United Nation’s World Urbanisation Prospects was used to calculate the deaths per million. The census of India does not include Delhi’s satellite districts like Ghaziabad and Gurgaon in the Delhi UA and hence Delhi’s cases as well as population are only for Delhi state or the city of Delhi. Delhi’s 2020 population is taken from the census population projections for states. 

The above is from TOI

Migrant Workers

No money for cremation’, burial at home

A migrant woman gets emotional while boarding a bus to leave for Bihar, in Amritsar, on Sunday. (PTI)

Guddu Mandal, 30, who made a living as a ragpicker and labourer, died allegedly in his sleep in Bhagalpur city on Friday — the night after an epilepsy fit and after many days without a proper meal in the lockdown that had left him without work.

He was buried under the floor of his home, his family said, because they did not have any money to cremate him.
Guddu’s younger brothers Om Prakash and Ajay who lived nearby used to drive cycle-carts and, like him, had been without an income for the past two months.
“We should have cremated him, but we did not have even a single rupee with us. We waited for help. We begged at the doors of some rich people in the area for some money, but they abused and shooed us away. When we could not arrange for necessary objects for the last rites, we dug the floor of the house and buried him,” Neeraj, a nephew of Guddu, told reporters.

Guddu was a Hindu and adult Hindus in Bihar are cremated on a funeral pyre after a ritual bath and in new clothes.
“We all were suffering and managing to stay alive somehow. But my brother, who suffered from epilepsy, was becoming weaker every passing day due to lack of proper food. He had a fit of epilepsy on Friday. He recovered after we massaged his body. He slept in the evening and we found him dead on Saturday morning,” Ajay said.
Guddu used to earn around Rs 100 to Rs 200 daily depending on the work he got, but that stopped in the lockdown. He started begging in the area for food and would get some leftovers to see him through the day. His wife had left him years ago.
Their neighbours were as poor as them and could not help, the brothers said.
Guddu’s family blurted out to the neighbours that they had buried him, and police were alerted.
“We exhumed the body and sent it for post-mortem to see whether there was any foul play in his death. He lived in a hut near the railway line and worked as a labourer and a rag picker. He was suffering from epilepsy and also used to consume some drugs. I cannot comment on how he died, but he was buried inside the hut. They are poor people,” Ishachak station house officer (SHO) S.K. Sudhanshu told The Telegraph.

Police officials said no injury was found on the body.
Now, people in the area, social activists the ward councillors have agreed to bear the expenses to cremate Guddu and provide ration for 15 days to his family members.
Contacted, Bhagalpur district magistrate Pranav Kumar told The Telegraph that “lack of money could be a reason for not cremating the body, but the chances of it are meagre, or we can say less than one per cent because government control rooms are there, our entire administration is working, ward councilors are there, many civil society organisations are also working here. It is difficult to believe that people will not get help if they seek it.”
The district magistrate said the police investigation would throw light on what actually happened.

Migrant on Shramik Express dies hungry
By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow

Migrants arrive to board a special train to at Charbagh railway station in Lucknow on Sunday. (PTI

46-year-old migrant labourer died on a Shramik Express train on Saturday after having had nothing to eat or drink for 60 hours, a nephew who was accompanying him has alleged.
Raveesh Yadav said no food or water was served on the train — in violation of railway regulations — which he and uncle Jokhan Yadav had boarded from Mumbai to travel home to Machhlishahar in Jaunpur district, Uttar Pradesh.
He said the train had left the Lokmanya Terminal in Mumbai, where the duo worked as construction labourers, at 7pm on May 20 and reached its destination, Varanasi Cantonment station, around 7.30am on May 23.
“But my uncle, who was complaining of hunger and pain all over his body, fainted half an hour before we reached Varanasi Cantonment and died within a few minutes,” Raveesh, 25, told local reporters.

“We weren’t carrying any food or water because we had heard the railways were providing food packs and water bottles on the trains. Even the other passengers in our compartment had no food or water left with them, so nobody could help us. And there was no water in the train at all.”
Ravi Prakash Chaturvedi, additional divisional railway manager, Varanasi, denied that no food or water had been served on the train.
“The man died before the train reached Varanasi Cantonment station. The GRP took the body in custody. Family members of the dead man have said he was a heart patient and may have died because of that,” he said.
Raveesh said: “Yes, my uncle was a heart patient but he died because he was hungry for more than 60 hours.”
He said he and his uncle had bought their tickets for Rs 940 each — adding their voice to hundreds of returning migrants who have rebutted the government claim that no fare was being charged from the labourers.
“My uncle was very hungry when we boarded the train. Despite having some money in our pockets, we didn’t find any food or water to buy on our way,” Raveesh said.
“The train did not stop at any station till Katni, Madhya Pradesh, which it reached after 18 hours. Nothing was available at Katni station, where the train stood for more than three hours.”
Raveesh added: “Later, at many stations, we requested the Government Railway Police and railway officials to provide us water and food. But they ignored us and wouldn’t let us step off the train. The GRP was wielding lathis.”
A day earlier, lack of communication between railway and state authorities had compounded the misery of home-bound migrants. A Jaunpur-bound Shramik train from Mumbai had reached Kashi station in Varanasi at 1.30pm on Friday but was kept waiting more than seven hours — just 40km from its destination.
Railway sources said the Jaunpur authorities had refused to receive the train saying they had not been informed about its arrival in advance.
“We are normally informed two days in advance about such trains so that we can coordinate with the district administration and arrange buses to ferry the passengers to their villages, where they are kept in government quarantine for 14 days,” a railway official told reporters in Jaunpur on condition of anonymity.
“It was not possible for us to arrange about 20 buses for the 1,000-odd passengers within a few hours.”
Harikesh Rai, officer in charge of the GRP unit at Kashi station, said: “Later, it was decided the train would go to Mughalsarai, from where the migrants would be taken to their homes.”
The train reached Mughalsarai Junction around 9.30pm on Friday.
Chaturvedi, the ADRM Varanasi, told reporters: “There was some problem. If needed, an inquiry can be conducted.”

Modi's Gujarat model in shambles

Gujarat High Court has compared the situation in the state to the “sinking Titanic”, bringing under glare the role of the administration that has been handled with kid gloves by the Centre and its political support system that had left no stone unturned to target Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

In Bengal, the Raj Bhavan has gone out of his way to needle Mamata. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, the governor won’t even think of troubling chief minister Vijay Rupani.
Given a free hand, the Rupani administration committed such blunders like introducing artificial mechanised breathing machines as ventilators.
The high court has now struck hard. The court’s findings were unpalatable enough to make the BJP, which is aggressively exposing the deficiencies in states like Maharashtra and Bengal, look for a place to hide.

In a 143-page order, the high court described Gujarat as “one of worst affected states” in the country and pointed to “lack of PPE, shortage of ventilators, ICUs and isolating wards.…”
Describing the condition of Ahmedabad Civil Hospital as “pathetic”, Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Ilesh Vora said the hospital “is as good as a dungeon, maybe even worse than a dungeon”.
The judges said “there is no single command and control structure in Civil Hospital” and “the health minister of Gujarat does not seem to be aware of what is going on, nor appears to have ever visited the hospital”.
The withering comments have been earned in spite of reported oversight by the Prime Minister and the fact that the nodal agency to manage the Corona crisis is the Union ministry, headed by Amit Shah who is an MP from the adjacent Gandhinagar. Four Assembly segments of Shah’s constituency fall in Ahmedabad city.

While Bengal is a poor state, Modi sold the Gujarat model to establish his claim as the leader who can take India to newer heights of development.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi on Sunday publicly made the comparison between Gujarat and Bengal. He said: “Are the Prime Minister and the home minister even aware of what is happening in their home state? If so, have they ever intervened, chastised or punished the Gujarat government? Have they used similar standards, similar adjectives, similar terms of endearment (sarcastically) and similar inspection teams for Gujarat government as for the West Bengal government? Why has the Gujarat governor not adopted the same intrusive standards as his Bengal counterpart did?”
Singhvi also pointed out that the Gujarat government had submitted in an affidavit to the high court that “more number of tests will lead to 70 per cent of population testing positive for Covid, thereby leading to fear psychosis!”
Asking whether the same criteria were being applied throughout the country by refusing to ramp up testing, Singhvi said: “Is this being done to protect the image of the Prime Minister and the home minister? Is it not playing with the lives of the people?”

Singhvi said the Gujarat government admitted in court that private testing of Covid, even by authorised private institutions, had been stopped. The court blasted the government for artificially controlling infection data.
The Ahmedabad hospital, which used the fake ventilator, has recorded the highest deaths in Gujarat.
Singhvi said the Gujarat government was profiteering in crisis by selling N95 masks at Rs 65 against the procurement cost of Rs 49.61 (admitted in court), at a straight profit arbitrage of 31 per cent.
Whether this is the same Gujarat model that Modi nurtured or successor Rupani distorted, it is difficult to guess.

After UAE, missions in Doha and Muscat speak up

By Our Special Correspondent in New Delhi

This is from The Telegraph 

India’s embassies in Doha and Muscat warned social media users against getting swayed by divisive fake news, stepping in after the country’s envoy to the UAE had on Monday cautioned Indians living in the Gulf nation against making religion-specific derogatory comments.
The embassies put out tweets over the past 24 hours as fake news peddlers fished in troubled waters, seeking to fuel the “#CoronaJihad” narrative that had caught the attention of the international media across the globe, including in the Gulf.

The warnings came days after the human rights commission of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) had on Sunday voiced concern about the hashtag.

It was after this that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had broken his silence on the three-week-long sustained campaign by the Right-wing ecosystem to link the Covid-19 pandemic with a particular community, saying the virus “does not see” racial, religious or other differences before striking.

The missions in Qatar and Oman intervened as the fake posts promoting Islamophobia, and the equally fictitious accounts countering it with warnings of a blowback, gained traction and posed a possible strain in bilateral relations with countries where India has had a good standing for long.
“It is clear that fake identities are being used by forces inimical to India to create divisions within our community. Please understand the reality and do not get swayed by these malicious attempts to sow discord. Our focus right now needs to be on COVID-19,” the embassy in Qatar posted, referring to posts by a Twitter handle that had two different profiles.

The mission in Muscat stepped in after a parody account of Omani princess Mona bint Fahad Al-Said posted a tweet threatening expulsion of Indians. “In these challenging times, it is important that we stay focussed and united in our fight against COVID-19, and not get distracted by fake news on social media with malicious intentions,” the mission tweeted.
“The friendly relations between India and Oman are underpinned by our shared values of tolerance and pluralism. Let us all commit to maintaining unity and social harmony at this critical juncture. As PM @narendramodi said: We are in this together.”
Mona Fahad had later posted a message to clear the air, which Indian ambassador Munu Mahawar acknowledged.

Some of these fake posts were called out by fact-checker Alt News co-founder Mohammed Zubair. “A lot of Pakistani social media users are changing their profiles to look like Arabs (name, profile images), and tweeting out in the lines that the Arabs did since the last few days. A lot of people are falling for these fake profiles.”
Earlier, on Monday, Pavan Kapoor, India’s ambassador to the UAE, had reminded Indian nationals in the Gulf country that “discrimination is against our moral fabric and the rule of law”, after some members of the Indian diaspora were punished for their polarising social media posts that promoted Islamophobia.

Retired diplomat Navdeep Suri pointed out that hate speech emanating out of India provided fodder to those unhappy with the India-UAE friendship.
In a series of tweets, the former ambassador to the UAE said the Gulf country had strong laws against hate speech. “This applies to derogatory remarks against ALL religions.... Bilateral ties are strong and will endure. But unnecessary controversy doesn’t help.”

The interventions by the three missions are an indication of the traction the #CoronaJihad narrative has gained since the Right-wing ecosystem tried to blame the spread of the pandemic on a religious convention held by the minority community in March.
The hashtag had added to concerns fuelled by the debate on the new citizenship matrix and the Delhi riots in February, and this was articulated from the human rights platform of the OIC.

What happened to India, asks UAE princess who called out hate mongering

By Furquan Ameen in New Delhi

This is from The Telegraph 

Princess Hend Faisal Al Qassemi, a member of the United Arab Emirates royal family whose criticism of hate mongering by an Indian led others in her country to speak out, has said that the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were the role models to follow in times such as these.

“There is no winner if this turns aggressive. We have to follow the Nelson Mandela-Martin Luther-Gandhi way of doing things,” said Al Qassemi. “We don’t need another Hitler, we need a new Gandhi,” she told The Telegraph Online on Tuesday.

Al Qassemi, who was among the first to call out an Indian for posting Islamophobic tweets, said that in the Emirates hate speech was a crime and punishable offence.

On April 15, the princess used screenshots of a now de-activated account of one Saurabh Upadhyay to state that anyone who was openly racist and discriminatory in the UAE would be fined and made to leave.


Soon others followed suit. Over the past few days, several influential Arabs across UAE went about sharing hate speeches by Indian politicians and videos of the February violence in north east Delhi.


This led to a response by Prime Minister Narendra Modi followed by several ministers. On April 19, the PMO tweeted quoting Modi: “COVID-19 does not see race, religion, colour, caste, creed, language or borders before striking.”

The next day, India’s ambassador to UAE Pavan Kapoor tweeted: “Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this.”

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar described it as a secular-communal narrative being pushed deliberately while Union minority affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi declared that India was always a heaven for minorities and Muslims.
The princess, or “shaikha”, explained the reason behind her April 15 tweet that resulted in a blitzkrieg of support for her on twitter by Arab activists and intellectuals.
“I noticed an Indian making fun of my religion, my prophet, my country and it’s achievements, ridiculed it’s accomplishments and was threatening us on our land. I was shocked and I felt violated,” she said.
Al Qassemi said that many Indians went after her, claiming she was defending the Tablighi Jamaat, who were blamed for spreading the virus. "To be honest, I’ve never heard of them (Tablighi Jamaat). I wasn’t defending a political group in India. I was defending humans being killed," she said.
“What happened to India?” she said, implying that this wasn't the country she knew. "Hinduism is one of the most peaceful religions. Perhaps more than Islam, Christianity and Judaism," she added and recalled how she grew up watching Indian movies, eventually picking up a bit of Hindi too.
She said she has had Hindi-speaking classmates, colleagues, workers and managers and even has “India (Hend)” as her first name.

Crisis started by virus, spread by govt: Bajaj

By Our Special Correspondent in Mumbai

The following is from The Telegraph 

Rajiv Bajaj, the outspoken managing director of two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto, on Tuesday slammed the Narendra Modi government for enforcing an “arbitrary lockdown” to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The lockdown is a solution that is looking for a problem,” Bajaj told CNBC TV18 news channel while accusing the government of deepening the country’s economic crisis and perpetuating the misery of its citizens by endangering their livelihood.
“This crisis started with a virus; it is being propagated by the government,” the straight-talking industrialist added.
Bajaj has been a severe critic of the Modi government and its policies and had famously attacked the demonetisation exercise of 2016 which failed to meet its professed objective of shaking down black money from the deepest recesses of the economy.

“All I want is the government to work logically and sensibly. I don’t need a relief package. We don’t have a demand problem… we have a governance problem,” said Bajaj, becoming the first major industrialist to voice frustration with the Modi government’s handling of the latest crisis.
Bajaj Auto, which has plants at Chakan in Pune, Aurangabad and Pantnagar in Uttarakhand, has been battered by the lockdown, exacerbating its troubles that had stemmed from an economy whose growth rate had tumbled to less than 5 per cent in the last fiscal ended March 31.
Production at the two-wheeler maker has come to a complete halt after the lockdown and its dealerships in the so-called green zone areas have not been able to reopen even after the Centre partially relaxed the restrictions on Monday.
Bajaj believes that herd immunity — which in the case of coronavirus can be achieved only after a sufficiently large number of people recover from infection — is the way to go since the development of a vaccine is still two years away.
The Bajaj Auto boss said the authorities must allow everybody to return to work except those above 60 years if they wanted the floundering economy to recover.
The IMF had recently forecast that India’s economic growth would sink to 1.9 per cent this fiscal — its lowest level in five decades — while the global economy would tip into recession with an overall growth of minus 3 per cent.

Bajaj urged the government to scrap the rules under which a dealership or a factory can be sealed for up to three months if an employee is infected with Covid-19.
“This is a draconian move and is preposterous. We will take every precaution and you can inspect the premises every day. Do not hold this sword over the heads of the people,” he said.
“You can start an inspector raj… please subject us to checks over our practices. If there is something wrong, please close us down for two days and allow us to comply with the rules. But what is this? You are locking us completely down for three months…. Nobody will open (their plants) in the current situation,” Bajaj said.
The two-wheeler tycoon said the government’s move to relax restrictions would not achieve the objective because it was fundamentally flawed.
“We have to first be allowed to open our dealerships. No dealership is now open even in the green zones. The situation is arbitrary and erratic and dealers are afraid to open up as they just don’t know what action they will face from the police or other authorities,” he said during the interaction.
Bajaj Auto’s plant in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand had received permission to resume operations. But this provided little comfort, he said, since the supply chains had not been restored and workers were not able to reach the factory.
The company recently said its employees had volunteered to take pay cuts due to the unprecedented situation. Bajaj, who has foregone his entire salary during the period of the lockdown, said the company was working on a plan to save Rs 100-200 crore annually.
“We are tightening everything. We need to secure the ship,” he said, adding that the demand in the automobile sector would return sooner than what many believe once the lockdown ends. 

‘Beaten’ for stepping out for biscuits, UP teen dies

 'Eyewitnesses said the cops beat Rizwan with batons and rifle butts'

By Piyush Srivastava in Lucknow

This is from The Telegraph

 

A teenaged boy, Mohammad Rizwan, whom policemen allegedly beat up while he was trying to buy food, died on Saturday, becoming the first fatality from purported police high-handedness in enforcing the lockdown in Uttar Pradesh.

Rizwan’s father, Mohammed Israil, said his son had felt very hungry on Thursday night.
“Mera babu Guruwar rat ko bahut bhookh lagi thi, toh chala gaya biscuit kharidne. Police ne danda mar mar ke bahut ghayal kar diya (My son felt very hungry on Thursday night, so he stepped out to buy biscuits. The police beat him and badly injured him),” a weeping Israil told reporters outside the district government hospital on Saturday morning. “The police, not the coronavirus, killed my son,” he said.

Villagers at Chhajjapur in Ambedkar Nagar alleged the police had selectively targeted a hungry Rizwan, 19, refusing to let him buy the biscuits citing the lockdown restrictions.

There were other customers at the grocery store whom the police did not stop, claimed a villager, Munna, who said he was an uncle of Rizwan.“Eyewitnesses said the cops beat Rizwan with batons and rifle butts. Some of them later brought him home,” Munna said.He said panic buying by some people ahead of the lockdown — and lack of supplies since then — had left most other households short of food grains and, therefore, chronically underfed during the past few weeks. Among them was the family of Rizwan, he said.

The Yogi Adityanath government had announced plans to supply food grains to the poor at their doorstep. However, many across the state are saying this isn’t happening.“Most of the villagers here had had nothing to eat for more than two days as they had not hoarded food grains at their homes when the lockdown was announced from March 25,” Munna said.

“We were cooking whatever there was at our homes. Israil, a farmer, had not much to cook. So he gave Rizwan some money and asked him to bring biscuits, the only food available in the nearest shop.”
Avanish Kumar Mishra, additional superintendent of police in charge of the area, said: “We are collecting evidence with the help of CCTV cameras and will not spare any policemen, if found guilty.”
Superintendent of police Alok Priyadarshi said: “We are probing it seriously. Action will be initiated against the accused soon.” 

Delhi share wall to stall China

A February report said Chinese FDI into India stood at $6.2b

By R. Suryamurthy in New Delhi

 

This is from the Telegraph

 

The Narendra Modi government on Saturday put in place a regulatory oversight mechanism in a thinly disguised attempt to stop Chinese investors from scooping up stakes in Indian companies whose valuations may have gone through the wringer after the coronavirus outbreak.

The department for the promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) issued a press note that said that foreign investments from countries that share a border with India will require government approval from now on.
The note, which did not mention China, said the change in the policy governing foreign direct investment was designed to curb “opportunistic takeovers or acquisitions of Indian companies due to the current Covid-19 pandemic”.
India shares land borders with seven countries: Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and Afghanistan.

Similar restrictions were already in place for Bangladesh and Pakistan but had till now not applied to China and the other neighbours.
The Modi government had changed its FDI policy in 2017 when it abolished the Foreign Investment Promotion Board, raised the foreign investment limits in most sectors, and permitted most investments through the so-called automatic route.
Many analysts tried to link the sudden decision to a disclosure last week that the People’s Bank of China had raised its stake in mortgage financier HDFC Ltd to 1.01 per cent during the quarter ended March 31 — which had set alarm bells ringing in the corridors of power.
The move to subject Chinese investors to a higher level of scrutiny and a rigorous approval process could hurt FDI flows into two sectors: telecom and technology start-ups.
The bigger worry for investors will be that any change in the beneficial ownership of any Indian entity – directly or indirectly -- as a result of a “transfer of ownership of any existing or future FDI” that falls within the ambit of the new rules will “also require government approval”.
This opens the doors for government scrutiny of cross-border transactions and offshore entities to check any contrived shareholding structures involving tax haven-based entities.
Analysts said the move could see the government demanding an ultimate investor disclosure and scrutiny of all the FDI coming into the country, including those coming through the automatic route.
It normally takes about five months to clear investment proposals made through the approval route. This could widen with the change in the FDI regulations.
The move also came days after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi warned that Indian corporate groups had become easy takeover targets because of the economic slowdown and a meltdown in their valuations.
“We are living in extraordinary times and there is a heightened sense of vulnerability. Given that every country is feeling vulnerable and no one knows exactly what lies ahead, the Indian government seems to have chosen to play safe with regard to investments in India by Chinese companies,” said Saurabh Mukherjea, founder of Marcellus Investment Managers.
Start-ups face heat
The big question that hangs in the air now is whether or not this will impact Huawei’s entry into India with its 5G technology. US President Donald Trump has been pressuring India to ban Huawei’s latest technology.
Several countries in Europe including France, Germany and the UK have resisted similar pressure from Trump. India has permitted Huawei to participate in the 5G trials in India but it is still unclear whether the new FDI changes will queer the pitch for the Chinese technology company.
Technology start-ups could also face severe regulatory scrutiny. Reports suggest that 18 among India’s top 30 unicorns -– a start-up valued at over $1 billion -– have Chinese investors.
Three large Chinese investors -– the Alibaba group, Tencent Holdings and Xiaomi (Shunwei Capital) -– have big stakes in Indian start-ups.
The Alibaba group has stakes in Bigbasket, PayTM, Rapido, Snapdeal and Zomato while Tencent has investments in Byju’s, Flipkart, Hike, Ola and Swiggy. Xiaomi has a footprint in Hungama, Rapido, Sharechat and ZestMoney.
TikTok, owned by ByteDance, is already one of the most popular apps in India and has overtaken YouTube. Xiaomi handsets outsell Samsung smart phones; Huawei routers are widely used in the country.
Bytedance has plans to invest $1 billion in India. Chinese automakers including Great Wall Motor Co Ltd and MG Motor, a unit of China’s SAIC, have said they also intend to invest in the country.
A February report by research group Gateway House said Chinese foreign direct investment into India stood at $6.2 billion.
Atul Pandey, partner at Khaitan & Co, said: “The notification is not restricted to prior approval for direct investments by Chinese firms and also restricts any transfer of investments/ future FDI resulting in beneficial ownership falling with Chinese firms.
However, the mode of computation of “beneficial ownership” is still unclear. “The intention of the government is clear in wanting to evaluate Chinese investments on a case-to-case basis. However, it is important to note that this notification will have the force of law once necessary amendments are introduced to the relevant regulations under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (Fema).”
He added: “The government could seek ultimate investor disclosure in the reporting forms to identify who is the actual/ ultimate beneficiary. Market regulator Sebi has already asked for disclosure of beneficial ownership from all foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) last week.”
Several countries have already adopted similar restrictions to stop foreign investors from grabbing control of domestic entities. Australia recently said all foreign investment proposals would be assessed by a review board during the coronavirus crisis to prevent a fire sale of distressed corporate assets. Germany has taken similar measures.
Cyril Shroff, managing partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, said: “It is crucial to note that this is not going to have a chilling effect on investment, given that investments are only placed under the government route and not restricted entirely.”
Analysts said disclosure norms currently exist for investments coming from countries like Hong Kong, Singapore and Mauritius to identify the ultimate beneficiary.
The country permits foreigners to directly invest in areas including oil exploration and airports without having to seek government approvals.
However, there are 17 sectors including defence, telecom and pharmaceuticals that require government approval if a foreign investor intends to invest above a certain threshold.

Proposals involving FDI exceeding Rs 50 billion must be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs.

Trump backs protests against states

President Trump on Friday openly encouraged right-wing protests of social distancing restrictions in states with stay-at-home orders, a day after announcing guidelines for how the nation’s governors should carry out an orderly reopening of their communities on their own timetables.

In a series of all-caps tweets that started two minutes after a Fox News report on the protesters, the President declared, “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — two states whose Democratic governors have imposed strict social distancing restrictions. He also lashed out at Virginia, where the state’s Democratic governor and legislature have pushed for strict gun control measures, saying: “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
His stark departure from the more bipartisan tone of his announcement on Thursday night suggested Trump was ceding any semblance of national leadership on the pandemic, and choosing instead to divide the country by playing to his political base.
Echoed across the Internet and on cable television by conservative pundits and ultraRight conspiracy theorists, his tweets were a remarkable example of a President egging on demonstrators and helping to stoke an angry fervour that in its anti-government rhetoric was eerily reminiscent of the birth of the Tea Party movement a decade ago.

In another series of tweets on Friday, the President returned again to the kind of rank partisanship that has characterised much of his time in office, rekindling a fight with governor Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, only days after heaping praise on him. Cuomo, he said, should “spend more time ‘doing’ and less time ‘complaining’”.

The retort came after the governor said that New York could not fully re-open its economy without more widespread testing and help from the federal government.
Even before Cuomo had finished speaking during his televised daily briefing, Trump lashed out, tweeting, “We built you thousands of hospital beds that you didn’t need or use, gave large numbers of Ventilators that you should have had, and helped you with testing that you should be doing.” He said Cuomo owed the federal government a thank-you.
“First of all, if he’s sitting home watching TV, maybe he should get up and go to work, right?” Cuomo responded in real time.
“Second, let’s keep emotion and politics out of this, and personal ego if we can. Because this is about the people.”
The governor added that he had repeatedly thanked the federal government for its aid.
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to do — send a bouquet of flowers?” Cuomo asked.
In unveiling guidelines on Thursday evening at the White House that governors could use to decide when it was safe to phase out restrictions, Trump had taken a more measured tone, emphasising that “we are not opening all at once, but one careful step at a time”.
Trump’s call for liberation from social distancing rules followed protests around the country as protesters congregated in packed groups around state capitols to demand that restrictions be immediately lifted and to demonise their Democratic governors.
In Michigan, protesters waved banners in support of Trump and protested governor Gretchen Whitmer by chanting, “Lock her up”.
In St Paul, Minnesota, a group calling itself “Liberate Minnesota” rallied against stay-at-home orders in front of the home of governor Tim Walz, demanding he “end this lockdown!” In Columbus, Ohio, protesters crowded closely together as they pressed up against the doors of the state’s Capitol.
Speaking on Friday evening at the White House, the President expressed sympathy for the protesters for having to endure what he called “too tough” social distancing orders in their states, and he dismissed concerns that they could spread the virus by holding demonstrations.

TREATMENT OF COVID-19 PATIENTS BY “OFF-LABEL” HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE AND AZITHROMYCIN RAISES SERIOUS CONCERNS FOR CARDIOVASCULAR SIDE-EFFECTS: PBT FILES URGENT PIL IN SC SEEKING SAFETY CHANGES AND “INFORMED CONSENT”

Treatment guidelines issued by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFQW) have recommended “off-label” use of highly controversial and unproven combination therapy with an anti-malarial drug, Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and broad-spectrum antibiotic, Azithromycin (AZM) for seriously ill ICU-bound COVID-19 patients. Serious warnings were issued last week through an urgent joint bulletin by American Heart Association (AHA), American College of Cardiology (ACC) and Heart Rhythm Society (HRS) in USA. Similar warnings for potential irregular heartbeat (arrhythmia), heart failure and possible death were also published last week by Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Also, a massive multi-national study with more than 300,ooo patients in USA, UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands and Japan reported last week of increased “cardiac mortality” in patients receiving MCQ and AZM.

The AHA/ACC/HRS bulletin cautioned doctors using MCQ and AZM on COVID-19 patients to take six specific precautionary therapeutic measures to prevent adverse effects and potential death, especially for patients with pre-existing heart conditions. PBT appealed repeatedly to the Health Ministry to make necessary changes in the treatment guidelines for COVID-19 patients receiving MCQ and AZM and to urgently implement the precautionary measures as advised by the top international cardiac expert bodies (AHA/ACC/HRS/CMAJ) but no action was taken. Compelled to file an urgent PIL in SC today, PBT has sought for immediate implementation of the precautionary measures advised by AHA/ACC/HRS. PBT has also sought that proper “informed consent” must be taken from COVID-19 patients before “off-label” use of MCQ and AZM after explaining all the risks involved as potential adverse effects of these drug combination.

Chinese research firm attached to PLA first to start 2nd clinical trial for coronavirus vaccine

BEIJING: A Chinese research firm attached to the military has become the first organisation to enter the second clinical-trial stage in the global race to develop a vaccine for the coronavirus infection, which has claimed nearly 120,000 lives across the world so far.

China has approved three COVID-19 vaccine submissions for clinical trials, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted a Ministry of Science and Technology official as saying on Tuesday.

An adenovirus vector vaccine, developed by a research team led by Major General Chen Wei of the Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences of the People's Liberation Army, was the first to be approved to enter clinical trial.

The first phase of the clinical trial was completed at the end of March, and the second phase started on April 12.

It is the first COVID-19 vaccine in the world that has entered the second phase of clinical trial, the Xinhua report quoting the World Health Organization as saying.

On Sunday, the vaccine developed by the Institute of Biotechnology, Academy of Military Medical Sciences of China, entered Phase II of a human clinical trial with 500 volunteer participants.

The eldest volunteer is a 84-year-old Wuhan resident, Xiong Zhengxing, who completed the vaccination on Monday morning.

The vaccine is developed by genetic engineering methods and is used to prevent diseases caused by novel coronavirus infections, state-run China Daily reported on Monday.

The first phase of the vaccine clinical trial focused on its safety, while the second phase weighs more on its efficacy. Unlike the first phase, the second phase recruited more participants and introduced a placebo control group.

Volunteer recruitment for the vaccine began on Thursday. It is China's first candidate for the virus that entered clinical human testing. The Phase I trial was conducted in March.

Following the outbreak of COVID-19 in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, many other Chinese institutes are also stepping up efforts to develop vaccines for the deadly disease that has killed over 120,000 people and infected 1,929,000 across the globe.

China has stepped up the process to finalise vaccines to counter COVID-19 after Kaiser Permanente research facility in Seattle and Washington stole the march and began human trials.

On Monday, the WHO said a safe and effective vaccine would be needed to fully halt the spread of COVID-19.

"Our global connectedness means the risk of re-introduction and resurgence of COVID-19 will continue," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from Geneva, stressing that "ultimately, the development and delivery of a safe and effective vaccine will be needed to fully interrupt transmission."

There is a global race to develop the vaccine. India's Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech lab are also developing vaccines besides firms in Australia and the UK.

Currently, there are no effective drugs for the deadly disease, although several candidate drugs are in clinical trials.

Scientists say China may have a head start on the development of the vaccine as it was the first to map out the genome sequence of the novel coronavirus after it surfaced in Wuhan city in December last year.

China subsequently shared the genome sequence with the WHO, the US and other countries, setting off the race to develop the vaccine.

Biological Weapons Convention INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT

WRITTEN BY: 

• Barry R. Schneider

This is from Encyclopaedia Britannica

Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), formally Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on Their Destruction, international treaty that bans the use of biological weapons in war and prohibits all development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, or transfer of such weapons. The convention was signed in London, Moscow, and Washington, D.C., on April 10, 1972, and thereafter was opened for signing by other states. The convention went into force on March 26, 1975, following the submission of 22 national instruments of ratification (such as passage by a national assembly). By 2013, 170 states and Taiwan had signed and ratified the BWC, and 10 states had signed but not ratified it. Sixteen member states of the United Nations had neither signed nor ratified the treaty by that time.


The BWC prohibits countries that have signed the treaty from developing, producing, stockpiling, acquiring, or retaining biological agents or toxins of types and in quantities that have no justification for protective, defensive, or other peaceful purposes. The treaty also bans any equipment or means of delivery that is designed to use biological agents or toxins for hostile purposes or armed conflict. It requires signatories to destroy biological weapons, agents, and production facilities within nine months of the treaty’s entry into force.
Unfortunately, the BWC does not yet contain provisions for verification of members’ compliance, and there has been evidence of significant cheating by some parties since the treaty went into effect. For example, the Soviet Union engaged in a massive clandestine biological weapons program in direct violation of the BWC from the day it signed the treaty in 1972. The illegal program was revealed by scientists formerly involved in the program and finally confirmed by Russia’s first post-Soviet president, Boris Yeltsin, who ordered the termination of all Russian offensive biological weapons programs in 1992.
The lack of a necessarily intrusive inspection and reporting system has left the states who are parties to the treaty with no strong assurance that they can monitor and verify other members’ compliance with the terms of the BWC. Biological weapons programs can be easily concealed and need not require large numbers of personnel or large-scale physical plants. For instance, a clandestine weapons program can be hidden inside a perfectly legal vaccine-production facility or pharmaceutical plant. Weapons laboratories disguised in this way would give off few unique “signatures,” or telltale signs that illicit activity is taking place. Indeed, if “national technical means” (that is, spy satellites and other such systems) are the only methods used to verify BWC compliance and if more-traditional “human intelligence” (i.e., spies and defectors) is insufficient, a massive biological weapons program might take place in a country that has signed the BWC without any physical evidence coming to light. This lack of a verification procedure has led some critics of the BWC to argue that the best deterrent to being attacked with biological weapons is not a treaty at all but rather the recognized ability to retaliate in equal or greater measure.
Proponents of the BWC argue that the treaty provides an international norm for the world community, making it understood by all that biological weapons are illegitimate tools of statecraft or warfare. Therefore, if violations are detected, the international community can be more easily mobilized to pressure the offending regime into giving up the weapons lest it face military, economic, and diplomatic sanctions. The BWC, it is also argued, makes proliferation harder, slower, and more expensive for cheaters. Finally, it is argued that the presence of an international treaty on biological weapons may put pressure on even nonsignatory states to comply with the treaty or at least to restrict their biological weapons programs by creating an international norm against them.

Having the right connections is beneficial in the share market also

Having the right connections, especially when it is with the PM of a country helps you in the share market also. People realize that you have the right connection and they give a better discount to your company although the other company may have a reliable reputation and have a better pedigree.
Thus, although Tata Power has much better income and profit history, Adani Power is treated much better by the share market.

I mention here two companies, both dealing in power. One is Adani Power and the other is Tata Power.

I give below the December quarter figures of the two companies and the share price of both companies on 9.4.20

Adani Power : Price on 9.4.20 - 30.40
(in Cr.)	19-Dec	19-Sep	19-Jun	19-Mar
Income Statement
Revenue	425.52	16.59	31.9	30.28
Other Income	255.21	245.38	193.77	233.28
Total Income	680.73	261.97	225.67	263.56
Expenditure	-738.81	-330.23	-1,334.50	-317.26
Interest	-316.26	-304.98	-287.85	-283.85
PBDT	-58.08	-68.26	-1,108.83	-53.7
Depreciation	-8.58	-8.86	-8.93	-9.12
PBT	-66.66	-77.12	-1,117.76	-62.82
Tax	--	--	--	--
Net Profit	-66.66	-77.12	-1,117.76	-62.82
Equity	3,856.94	3,856.94	3,856.94	3,856.94
EPS	-0.69	-0.72	-3.42	-0.49
CEPS	-0.15	-0.18	-2.87	-0.14
OPM %	-13.65	-411.45	-3475.96	-177.34
NPM %	-15.67	-464.86	-3503.95	-207.46
Tata Power: Price on 9.4.20 - 36.50
(in Cr.)	19-Dec	19-Sep	19-Jun	19-Mar
Income Statement
Revenue	1,932.22	1,993.21	2,036.54	2,169.83
Other Income	1.32	121.07	374.09	99.62
Total Income	1,933.54	2,114.28	2,410.63	2,269.45
Expenditure	-1,571.30	-1,600.12	-1,725.65	-2,011.51
Interest	-378.43	-385.38	-386.96	-444.33
PBDT	362.24	514.16	684.98	257.94
Depreciation	-188.45	-162.07	-163.05	-160.57
PBT	173.79	352.09	521.93	97.37
Tax	23.61	-11.52	-23.28	32.59
Net Profit	6.94	154.61	296.51	53.86
Equity	270.5	270.5	270.5	270.5
EPS	-0.08	0.38	1.06	0.19
CEPS	0.72	1.17	1.7	0.79
OPM %	18.75	25.8	33.63	11.89
NPM %	0.36	7.76	14.56	2.48