Bharat Biotech and ICMR to develop COVID-19 vaccine

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May 10, 2020

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Hyderabad-based, Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL), have come together for developing a COVID-19 vaccine, the ICMR announced on Saturday.

For research purposes, the virus strain has been transferred from National Institute of Virology in Pune to BBIL.

This is the third initiative announced by BBIL towards finding a vaccine for COVID-19.

Earlier on April 20, the Department of Biotechnology offered funding support to develop a vaccine using inactive rabies vector. The company also was working on a one-drop COVID-19 nasal vaccine called ‘CoroFlu’ that was built on a flu vaccine called ‘backbone’ which had been considered safe for humans. To develop ‘CoroFlu’, BBIL had been a part of an international collaboration of virologists at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and Flugen, a vaccine manufacturing company.

Muslims in Haryana Embrace Hinduism

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The Commune

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May 10, 2020

Around 250 Muslims belonging to approximately 40 families in Bidhmira village of Hisar District, turned to Hinduism and decided to follow Hindu customs, reported the Times of India.

On Friday, the last rites of 80-year old Phooli Devi was conducted based on Hindu traditions. Phooli Devi had died a natural death and the Muslim families of the village decided that since they lead a Hindu way of life, it is time that they declare themselves as Hindus and do the cremation as per Hindu rituals.

Satbir, the son of Phooli Devi noted that they belonged to the Doom caste. He said that he had heard of his ancestors embracing Islam under pressure during the times of Aurangzeb. He added that the entire village celebrates Hindu festivals and only the last rites were conducted according to Muslim traditions.

He said that there was no pressure on them to reconvert back to Hinduism from anyone. Majid, a youth of the village said that earlier, the people of his community were not educated and didn’t know about things. “Now many people are educated and they have convinced everyone to do this.” Times of India had quoted. He further added that they decided to convert for the future of their children.

Quoting Harfool Khan Bhatti, state president of Muslim Welfare Organization, TOI reported that while Mr. Khan knew about another incident that happened in Danoda Kalan village, he was unaware of this one. He had told that the 35 members of 6 Muslim families converted on April 18 to avail the benefits of reservation.

Tesla asked to keep its manufacturing plant closed

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

Elon Musk’s Tesla has been issued an order to keep its manufacturing facility in Fremont shut due to the high number of cases reported in California and San Francisco. Fremont lies near the San Francisco bay area, where more than 9500 cases have been reported along with the fact that the deaths have crossed 342.

The order came as a result of their CEO informing staff about operating in limited capacity from Friday.

While talking about this to the press, Alameda County, under whose jurisdiction the factory falls, said that although they welcome Tesla’s reopening as a proactive measure, considering the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus in that area, they are being advised against doing so in order to protect their employees and the community.

This comes at a time where Tesla had already shut down its operations in Shanghai following the outbreak.

This isn’t the first time that Mr Musk has gotten into trouble because of his tweets. A recent tweet about how “Tesla’s stock price was too high”, caused it to drop to nearly 12% in half an hour. However, it recovered later.

Sedition case filed against Seeman

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

The Coimbatore Police on Saturday filed a sedition case on Seeman for his provocative and seditious statements made during the CAA protest that was held in the city in February.

Seeman was addressing a gathering of Muslims on February 22 in the Coimbatore-Athupalam area. Subsequently, a case has been filed against him after 75 days at the Kuniyamuttur police station. The case has been filed on charges of sedition and for creating hostility between two groups that falls under section 124 (a) and section 153 (a) respectively.

Soviet victory celebrations in Russia to be scaled down due to global pandemic

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

RUSSIA-POLITICS-PUTIN-HISTORY — Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by the Kremlin wall to mark the Defender of the Fatherland Day in Moscow on February 23, 2016. The Defender of the Fatherland Day, celebrated in Russia on February 23, honours the nation's army and is a nationwide holiday. / AFP / NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA (Photo credit should read NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP/Getty Images)

Russian government has decided to cut down on celebrations marking 75 years of the Soviet Union’s victory in Work War II, thanks to the coronavirus outbreak. With the rapid increase in COVID-19 cases, President Vladimir Putin has postponed the Victory Day celebrations, which is a huge event including a parade at the Red Square showcasing Moscow’s military ammunition, indefinitely.

With the country’s economy slipping and his approval rating being at an all-time low, President Putin had taken the decision to postpone the event. This comes as an after-effect of the fact that as of Friday, Russia had reported 187,859 coronavirus cases and 1,723 deaths.

While talking about this issue, Putin had said that while the Victory Day celebration was sacred to Russia, a social event of that scale was too dangerous in the face of the pandemic.

Instead, President Putin will place flowers at the Eternal Flame war memorial outside the walls of Kremlin and address the country. Although the country continues to be under lockdown, fly-pasts by the Russian Air Force with a full array of jets and helicopters will be carried out throughout the country as well as in Syria, where they have a military base. All other celebrations have been moved to online platforms.

Popular Tamil news channel deletes Twitter poll after results go against DMK

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

A twitter poll conducted by a Tamil News channel, asking the opinion of people about the DMK’s move to protests against the opening of TASMAC, was deleted by the news outlet’s handle after its results turned out against the DMK.

The poll titled “DMK and allies’ move to protest against the opening of TASMAC” had four options: 1) to do politics, 2) concern over people, 3) fear of corona spread, 4) to warn the government, saw the first option (to do politics) getting the maximum percentage of votes (49%). The option ‘concern over people’ got 19% of the votes while the last option ‘to warn the government’ got the least (9%).

The total number of votes the poll attracted was 4619.

The tweet with the URL has now been deleted.

https://twitter.com/news7tamil/status/1258373414106001408https://kathir.news/social-media/-7—13195

CM Palaniswami writes to PM Modi opposing proposed changes to Electricity Act

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi opposing the Centre’s proposed amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003. In his letter, the CM mentioned that the proposed changes in the Act, interferes with the state’s power over the subject. He stated that certain provisions in the proposed bill are inimical to the state government and the public at large. He also added that the provision of direct payment of subsidy to domestic consumers and farmers can cause problems.

Earlier, Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister P. Thangamani said that the state government would oppose the draft Electricity Bill that has been sent to all the states for comments. Mr. Thangamani said that the bill has various provisions that include privatisation of electricity distribution through sub-distribution licenses and franchisees, creation of a new Electricity Contract Enforcement Authority to hear the dispute between an electricity generator and licensee and direct payment of subsidy to domestic consumers and farmers among others. He said that the new authority would interfere with the jurisdiction of State Electricity Regulatory Commission. He added that steps would be taken to protect the interests of domestic consumers and farmers who would be impacted by the bill.

India sends another consignment of essential medicines to Sri Lanka

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

Government of India, as part of its humanitarian and outreach efforts in its neighbourhood to combat COVID-19 sent a consignment of essential medicines weighing 12.5 tonnes on Friday to Sri Lanka.

This is the fourth such consignment sent to the country.

Gopal Baglay, the High Commissioner designate of India to Sri Lanka travelled on the same flight and will take charge as per the health protocol, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.

On arrival, Mr. Baglay extended his greetings to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa over telephone.

Mr. Baglay is the successor to Ambassador Taranjit Singh who was posted to Washington earlier this year.

Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage can now be completed in a week

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday inaugurated a new route to Kailash-Mansarovar that passes through the Lipulekh Passes in Uttarakhand, very close to the Line of Actual Control.

The road starting from Ghatiabagarh, ends at Lipulekh pass, the gateway to Kailash-Mansarovar.

The opening of this road is set to reduce the pilgrimage time to a week. The new road makes this route the shortest and the least expensive way to reach Mount Kailash.

The 80-km stretch connects the sacred abode and the Lipulekh pass at a height of 17,000 feet. Kailash-Mansarovar located in the Tibetan Autonomous Region is just 90 kms away from Lipulekh pass.

“With the completion of this crucial road link, the decades old dreams and aspirations of the local people and pilgrims have been fulfilled,” the Defence Minister said.

He said that local trade and economy will also get a boost with the operationalization of the road.

The road is also strategically crucial for mobilisation and easy movement of troops.

While in the other routes to Kailash, the a majority of travel is through China, this stretch ensures that the most of the travel is through India.

Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari had earlier said that the road will be completed by April 2020. Since the portion between Lakhanpur and Bundi posed challenges, the completion of the project took time.

The construction of the road began in 2008 and was supposed to be completed in 2013.

Pending board exams will be held from July 1 to 15, HRD Minister says

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The Commune

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May 9, 2020

Union Minister of Human Resources Development on Friday said that the pending examinations of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for class 10 and class 12 would be held from July 1 to 15.

A detailed examination schedule would be released later.

For class 12, the pending papers include geography, business studies, bio-technology, computer science (old), computer science (new), Hindi (core), Hindi (elective), home science, information practice (old), information practice (new), information technology, and sociology.

There are no pending exams for class 10 students across most parts of the country.

There are 17 additional papers for students belonging to north-east Delhi as their exams were postponed due to the violence in February. 6 papers for class 10 students and 11 papers for class 12 remain pending for students of this region.

The Commune

Bharat Biotech and ICMR to develop COVID-19 vaccine

Muslims in Haryana Embrace Hinduism

Tesla asked to keep its manufacturing plant closed

Sedition case filed against Seeman

Soviet victory celebrations in Russia to be scaled down due to global pandemic

Popular Tamil news channel deletes Twitter poll after results go against DMK

CM Palaniswami writes to PM Modi opposing proposed changes to Electricity Act

India sends another consignment of essential medicines to Sri Lanka

Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrimage can now be completed in a week

Pending board exams will be held from July 1 to 15, HRD Minister says

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