The Nation’s first indigenously developed DNA vaccine candidate against COVID-19, ZyCoV-D, by M/s Zydus Cadila has been approved by Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI), for conduct of the Phase III clinical trials.
The candidate has been supported by the National Biopharma Mission (NBM) under the aegis of BIRAC and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.
Zydus Cadila completed Phase-I/II clinical trials of this DNA Vaccine candidate, in India, in more than 1,000 participants and interim data indicated that the vaccine is safe and immunogenic when three doses were administered intradermally.
Based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee, which reviewed the interim data, the DCGI has accorded permission for conducting Phase-III clinical trial in 26,000 Indian participants.
Spain announced it had struck a deal with the UK to maintain free movement to and from Gibraltar – a small portion of land on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula that Britain controls but Spain claims as its own.
Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory. Under the Gibraltar constitution of 2006, Gibraltar is self-governing, with some responsibilities, such as defence and foreign relations, remaining with the British government.
In 1704, Anglo-Dutch forces captured Gibraltar from Spain during the War of the Spanish Succession. The territory was ceded to Great Britain in perpetuity under the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
It remains strategically important, with half the world's seaborne trade passing through the strait. It is also an important Tourist and cargo ship refuelling centre.
Gibraltar's territory covers 6.7 square kilometres and shares a 1.2-kilometre land border with Spain. It shares a maritime border with Morocco.
Gibraltar's terrain consists of the 426-metre-high Rock of Gibraltar made of Jurassic limestone, and the narrow coastal lowland surrounding it.
Gibraltar is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea and has “No Contact With The Atlantic Ocean”.
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The United Kingdom began 2021 by abolishing a 5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on women’s sanitary products, often referred to as the “tampon tax” and which many activists had described as sexist.
It now joins the list of countries which have already eliminated this tax, which includes India, Australia and Canada.
The measure is part of a wider UK government effort called ‘End Period Poverty’.
Scotland, which is a part of the UK, made history in November 2020 by becoming the first country in the world to make period products free of cost to those who need them.
Until December 31, the UK was a part of the EU, where period products such as sanitary napkins and tampons are classified as non-essential, and member states are required to levy a 5 per cent tax on them.
Now that the UK is out of the 27-member bloc, it is not bound by its directives, under which sanitary products had been subjected to five different VAT rates since 1973– with the lowest 5 per cent slab being applicable since 2001.
The Karnataka government has allowed all shops and commercial establishments to operate round the clock all days of the week for the next three years under provisions of the Karnataka Shops and Commercial Establishments Act (1961).
The revision of rules by the Labour Department is expected to help businesses recover from financial difficulties they faced during the coronavirus-induced lockdown which led to a decline in economic activity.
The rules permits only shops and commercial establishments employing ten or more persons to operate 24×7. The period of this extension of timings will be in force till January 2, 2024.
While the permitted time allowed for each employee to work in a week is fixed at 48 hours per week (eight hours a day), employers can ask them to work overtime.
After more than 1,400 migratory birds were found dead due to an unexplained cause in the Pong Dam area of Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh, the local administration has suspended all tourism activities in the reservoir's precincts till further orders.
Wildlife authorities have sent samples taken from the carcass of the birds for testing at the High Security Animal Disease Laboratory in Bhopal to ascertain the cause of death.
The Pong Dam is also known as the Beas Dam. It is an earth-fill embankment dam on the Beas River in Himachal Pradesh.
The lake created by the dam, Maharana Pratap Sagar, is a renowned bird sanctuary. The purpose of the dam is water storage for irrigation and hydroelectric power generation.
Indian Railways' South Western Railway zone started the train services connecting the Bengaluru City Railway Station to the Kempegowda International Airport. The train would be run only six days a week with no service on Sunday as for now.
Kempegowda International Airport halt is an Indian Railways' Train station located near Kempegowda International Airport, Bangalore (Karnataka).
The station has been built by the airport operator, Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) and on its completion was handed over to the railways.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has capped the amount of trans fatty acids (TFA) in oils and fats to 3% for 2021 and 2% by 2022 from the current permissible limit of 5% through an amendment to the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations.
The FSSAI notified the amendment on December 29, more than a year after it issued a draft on the subject for consultation with stakeholders.
The revised regulation applies to edible refined oils, vanaspati (partially hydrogenated oils), margarine, bakery shortenings and other mediums of cooking such as vegetable fat spreads and mixed fat spreads.
It was in 2011 that India first passed a regulation that set a TFA limit of 10% in oils and fats, which was further reduced to 5% in 2015.
Trans fats, or trans-fatty acids, are a form of unsaturated fat. They come in both natural and artificial forms.
Transfats are associated with an increased risk of heart attacks and death from coronary heart disease. Cardiovascular diseases, along with diabetes, are proving fatal for COVID-19 patients.
According to the World Health Organization, approximately 5.4 lakh deaths take place each year globally because of the intake of industrially produced trans fatty acids.
The WHO has also called for the global elimination of transfats by 2023.
Scientists at the CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) at Pappanamcode here in Kerala have come up with a new product, Banana Grit, developed from raw Nendran bananas.
The product resembles to ‘rava’ and broken wheat. Billed as an ideal ingredient for a healthy diet, banana grit can be used for making a wide range of dishes, according to the NIIST.
The granules can be used for making upma, or it can be mixed with banana powder for porridge, with milk or coconut milk for use as a health drink.
The concept was introduced to utilise the presence of resistant starch in bananas, which is reported to improve gut health.
Hence, the dishes prepared with banana grit and its by-product, banana powder, incline to the new focus on gut health, which the scientific community is widely discussing now to maintain health and well-being.
Changalikodan Nendran Banana or famously known as Changalikodan is a banana variety originated and cultivated in Chengazhikodu village of Thrissur District in Kerala.
Changalikodan, now are cultivated on the banks of the Bharathapuzha river. Changalikodan got Geographical indication registration from the Geographical Indications Registry, Chennai.
Generally consumed ripe, Nendran banana also finds use in typical Kerala dishes such as avial and thoran.
Five Eyes is a network of five nations collaborated to better respond to increasing threats by North Korea and China. Japan is on its way to become the 'sixth eye'.
A person close to Japan-US relations disclosed that Japan had provided intelligence to the US and the UK last year on China's forceful detainment of Muslim Uyghur minority people on condition of keeping the source confidential.
The US as well as the UK stepped up their criticism against the Chinese severe crackdown on Uyghurs in the Xinjiang autonomous region.
The "Five Eyes" (FVEY) refers to an alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
These countries are bound by the multilateral UKUSA Agreement for joint cooperation in signals intelligence, military intelligence, and human intelligence.
India and Pakistan conducted the annual practice of exchanging the list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral arrangement that prohibits them from attacking each other's atomic facilities.
The exchange was made in accordance with Article-II of the Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between Pakistan and India, signed on December 31, 1988, the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement here.
The agreement contains the provision that both countries inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities on January 1 every year.
This has been done consecutively since January 1, 1992, according to the FO.
The exchange of information comes despite the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan.
