Category: Life & Style

The U.S. health officials, on June 18, opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers, and pre-schoolers- the last group to get the shots from next week.

Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for children as young as six months. The final nod came hours later from the Director of the agency, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, who said, “We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can”.

Though the vaccines are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the decision as to who gets them is determined by the CDC.

The CDC’s advisory panel said the vaccine would prevent small children from hospitalization, death, and prolonged health complications. Pfizer and Moderna are the two vaccines that got the sign-off from the FDA and the CDC. Both have different dose sizes and the number of shots.

The government is well prepared for the vaccine expansion, with millions of doses ready for distribution to physicians, hospitals, and community health clinics all over the country. Approximately 18 million kids will be eligible, but it is not known how many will ultimately get the vaccines. While Pfizer’s is for children six months to 4 years, Moderna’s is for kids six months to 5 years old.

The fourth-largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG), Petronas announced the establishment of a new clean energy solutions company- Gentari. The announcement came from Malaysia on Thursday that this will be part of a global push by the state oil firm to produce carbon-free energy.

Earlier, in 2020, Petronus said it will be stepping up investments in hydrogen and expanding its portfolio in renewable energy.

According to a statement by Gentari, this company is tasked with delivering renewable energy, hydrogen, and green mobility solutions, with the long-term goal of becoming a “full suite net-zero solutions provider”.

By 2030, Gentari aims to provide 1.2 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of hydrogen and build a renewable energy capacity of 30-40 gigawatts (GW). The company also aims to capture 10% of the electric vehicle (EV) ecosystem across key markets in the Asia Pacific, particularly in Malaysia and India.

According to Gentari’s chairman, Tengku Muhammad Taufik, who also serves as Petronas’ chief executive, Gentari will benefit from Petrona’s resources and capacity to pursue clean energy on an industrial scale.

The first clean hydrogen project developed in Malaysia and other markets will be launched in 2025.

The United States has announced a $122 million aid to three prominent Indian medical research institutions to prevent needless epidemics, early noticing of disease threats, and quick and effective response.

The three Indian health research institutions which will get the total funding of $122,475,000, over five years are the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the National Institute of Virology (NIV), and the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE).

Announced by the CDC, the fund will speed up the development of an India that is protected from infectious disease threats through ICMR institutions’ main attention on emerging and re-emerging pathogens. It will include detecting and preventing the outbreak of zoonotic disease through a ‘one health’ approach, assessing the safety monitoring systems of vaccines, making the public health workforce capable of epidemiology and outbreak reaction, and fighting antimicrobial resistance, as reported by a media release.

ICMR is the top governing body for various national-level institutes, which are centers for distinction and reference in the particular scientific area for India, such as the National Institute of Virology, National Institute of Epidemiology, and several others. According to The CDC, ICMR is unique and has the potential to conduct this work and recently has worked on most of the lab-based surveillance of infectious diseases.

India has witnessed a six-position jump from 43rd to 37th rank on the annual World Competitiveness Index composed by the Institute of Management Development. This makes it one of the sharpest rises among the Asian economies. The significant improvement in the competitiveness of the Indian economy is primarily due to gains in economic performance, the IMD said.

The 2022 World Competitiveness Ranking was released by the IMD business school in Switzerland and Singapore. The experts at IMD World Competitiveness Center evaluate and ranks 63 economies on basis of their people’s prosperity by gauging economic well-being through data and surveys.

Denmark tops the 63-nation list, displacing Switzerland from the top position, which now slipped to the second position, and Singapore climbed to the third spot from fifth, a global study revealed on Wednesday.

The fourth position is Sweden, followed by Hong Kong SAR (5th), the Netherlands (6th), Taiwan (7th), Finland (8th), Norway (9th), and the USA (10th). Meanwhile, the best performing Asian economies are Singapore (3rd), Hong Kong (5th), Taiwan (7th), and China (17th).

India faces several challenges like managing trade disturbances and energy security, maintaining high GDP growth after the pandemic, developing skill and employment generation, asset monetization, and preparing and organizing resources for infrastructure development.

Under the Bharat Gaurab scheme of Indian Railways, the IRCTC will connect two countries by way of tourist trains once the train departs on the Shri Ramayan Yatra Circuit from New Delhi on June 21. India’s Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train is a part of the government’s “Dekho Apna Desh” initiative to promote domestic tourism.

Under the “Swadesh Darshan” scheme, this train will travel along the Ramayana Circuit, which includes several places associated with the life of Lord Shri Rama. This tour itinerary will include a train trip to Ram Janaki temple in Janakpur, Nepal, for the first time in its history.

The journey will begin from the Safdarjung railway station in India that will travel nearly 8,000 kilometers between India and Nepal. Its first stop will be the birthplace of Lord Ram, Ayodhya where tourists will visit the Ram Janmbhumi temple and Hanuman temple, and Bharat Mandir at Nandigram. The trip cost is estimated to be Rs. 65,000 per person.

The IRCTC will provide a safety kit package including a face mask, hand gloves, and hand sanitizer The Union government has launched an initiative called “Dekho Apna Desh” to promote domestic tourism through the Bharat Gaurav Tourist Train.

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore have designed a new class of artificial peptides or miniproteins that can render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive. The miniproteins can bind to and obstruct the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which helps it enter and infect the human cells.

A study published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology reveals that the miniproteins can not only block the entry of the virus into our cells but also cluster virus particles together, lowering their capacity to infect.

The team discovered that protein-protein interaction is more like that of a lock and a key and it can be destroyed by miniproteins designed in the lab that acts, fight with, and stops the ‘key’ from binding to the ‘lock’ or vice versa.

These miniproteins are spiral, hairpin-shaped peptides, each having the ability to pair up with another of its class, forming what is known as a dimer. Each dimeric bundle’ give out two faces’ to link with two target molecules.

The theory proposed by the researchers stated that the two faces would tie up to two separate target proteins fastening all four in a complex and blocking the action of the target molecules.

On Tuesday, Belgian King Philippe, Queen Mathilde, and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo will visit the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of a historic visit to the central African country. The seven-day official visit is the monarch’s first since he ascended the throne in 2013.

On Wednesday the sovereign will address the Congolese parliament with Tshisekedi, then on Friday, he will address students at the University of Lubumbashi in the south of the country.

The nation was cruelly exploited by King Leopold II, the brother of Philip’s great-great-grandfather, who ruled the nation as his personal property between 1885 and 1908. Later, it became a Belgian colony and is now the DRC. The Belgian colonization of the Congo in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was one of the harshest that the European powers imposed on most of Africa.

The visit comes two years after Philippe wrote to Felix Tshisekdedi, expressing his “deep regret” for the “wounds of the past.” It was originally planned for June 2020 to mark the 60th anniversary of the DRC’s independence. However, the visit was rescheduled for 2022 due to the coronavirus outbreak. This was again postponed from March to June due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nepal started to export electricity to India through its power exchange market last week to strengthen cross-border collaboration. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) spokesperson Suresh Bhattarai confirmed selling the surplus energy to the Indian market.

In an interview, he said, “We started selling 37.7MW of electricity to Indian buyers starting from 12.15 am on Thursday”. The electricity produced from the 15MV Devighat and 24MW Trishuli power plants was sold on Thursday.

The NEA earned Rs.10 million through its sale of electricity on Thursday by keeping the average price of Rs, 6 per unit. The nation is selling electricity to India for the second year in a row through its exchange market from its same two projects in November last year.

NEA called Indian companies for a bid last month to sell its 200MW surplus energy under the long-term power purchase agreement. The sale of the surplus energy will be from June 1 to November 29. Meanwhile, India allowed 346MW sales in the open market which Nepal aims to increase in the future.

Nepal’s hydel power installations produced excess power post the monsoon season, enabling the Nepal Electricity Authority to sell the excess power.

On Friday, India’s “neighborhood first” policy was once again put into action to help Sri Lanka during its economic crisis as its High Commissioner to Colombo, Gopal Baglay, handed over 3.3 tons of essential medical supplies to the 1990 Suwaseriya Ambulance Service.

The External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, visited the Suwaseriya Headquarters in Colombo in March 2022 and was informed of the looming shortage of medical supplies faced by the Foundation. According to the High Commission, the Indian Naval Ship Gharial was specially deployed for the consignment of urgent medical needs.

Along with the Suwaseriya Foundation, INS Gharial also carried the medical supplies for Teaching Hospital, General Hospital Hambantota, Jaffna, Peradeniya, and Teaching Hospital.

Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka tweeted, “Another promise to the people of #SriLanka delivered! During his visit in March, EAM @DrJaishankar was apprised of the shortage of medicines faced by @1990SuwaSeriya. High Commissioner handed over 3.3 tons of medical supplies today to help the vital lifeline run smoothly”.

In the last two months, the Government of India has donated more than 25 tons of drugs and medical supplies worth about SLR 370 million. Additional humanitarian supplies like rice, milk powder, and kerosene were included in addition to the USD 3.5 billion in economic assistance.

India and Bangladesh flagged off a new passenger train service called the Mitali Express, via the newly renovated Haldibari-Chilahati rail link on Wednesday. This will strengthen the relations and connectivity between the two neighboring countries.

The train service that was virtually inaugurated by the prime ministers of both countries on March 27 last year, saw a virtual flag off by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav and his Bangladeshi counterpart Mohammad Nurul Islam Sujan. The train service got delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The train will run on Sunday and Wednesday from New Jalpaiguri at 11.45 am and arrive at Dhaka at 10.30 pm on the same days and depart from Dhaka at 9.50 pm on Monday and Thursday and arrive at New Jalpaiguri at 7.15 am on Tuesday and Friday, covering a distance of 595 kilometers.

The train will have three classes- AC First (Cabin) Sleeper, AC First (Cabin) seat, and AC Chair car, and the ticket will cost USD 44, USD 33, and USD 22 respectively.

Mitali Express will foster tourism in both countries and provide Bangladesh citizens access to Nepal via India by rail.

Two other trains also run between India and Bangladesh-Kolkata-Dhaka-Kolkata Maitree Express (five days a week) and Kolkata-Khulna-Kolkata Bandhan Express (twice a week).