The Indian Weekender, Friday 18 September 2020

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14 INDIA Friday, September 18, 2020 The Indian Weekender India: Coronavirus cases Confirmed: 5,118,253 Deaths: 83,230 Recovered: 4,025,079 NEWS in BRIEF India wins three elections to key UN bodies India has scored a hat-trick of election wins at the United Nations ahead of the General Assembly’s 75th session, which will be held virtually due to Covid-19 pandemic. India beat China to win a four-year term on the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women (CWS), a prestigious wing of the world body’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). India also won a seat each, through endorsements, to two other ECOSOC bodies — the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD). Terms will begin 2021 when India will also start its two-year stint on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member. “India wins seat in prestigious #ECOSOC body!” T S Tirumurti, India’s permanent representative to the UN, announced in a tweet on Monday. “India elected Member of Commission on Status of Women #CSW. It’s a ringing endorsement of our commitment to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in all our endeavours.” 100-year-old Assam woman beats Covid-19 A 100-year-old woman has been discharged from a hospital here after recovering from Covid-19, officials said. Health officials said that Mai Handique, a boarder of a Guwahati-based old-age home, had undergone treatment for coronavirus for the past few weeks at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) here. Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said in a tweet: "Steely resolve of 100-yearold Mai Handique is monumental. With brilliant support from doctors at MMCH, she defeated coronavirus, giving us a lesson in having right will power. "As she gets back to Mother's Old Age Home, Hatigaon, Guwahati, I join my team in wishing her the best." Coronavirus cases have gone up to 1,46,575 in Assam, including 1,16,900 recoveries and 492 deaths. Assam's recovery and fatality rates are now 79.80 per cent and 0.34 per cent, respectively. The total number of samples tested in the state so far is 27,82,807. According to the health officials, 930 recovered patients have so far donated plasma in five medical colleges of the state. India slams OIC, Turkey, Pakistan over Kashmir in Geneva India on Tuesday slammed Turkey and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, while shaming Pakistan for funding cross-border terrorism and ethnic cleansing of its minorities. In response to the statements made by Pakistan, Turkey and the OIC at the Council, Indian representative Pawan Badhe, First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, rejected their comments on India's internal matters, specifically Jammu and Kashmir, which was reorganised last year and bifurcated into two Union Territories. In an unprecedented takedown of the OIC, Turkey and Pakistan, Badhe said, "The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. The OIC has no locus standi to comment on internal affairs of India. The OIC has allowed itself to be misused by Pakistan to subvert its own agenda. It's for the members of the OIC to decide if it is in their interest to allow Pakistan to do so." He also advised Turkey to refrain from commenting on the internal affairs of India. Using strong words against Islamabad, Badhe said it has become a habit for Pakistan to malign India with false and fabricated narratives for its self-serving malicious purposes. Small satellites to populate skies: Saraswat Niti Aayog member VK Saraswat said on Tuesday that the launch of small satellites will be a dominant factor in the global space sector, as around 7,000 satellites are expected to be up in the skies by 2027. He said that market researchers predict remarkable growth in the launch of smallsat. Over the last five years, 190 such satellites have been launched globally. In order to bag a share in the small satellites (smallsat) launch market, ISRO is developing a small rocket with a capacity to carry satellites weighing 500-700 kg to low earth orbit (LEO). According to him, low-cost launch of smallsats to LEO will be the focus of global satellite communications. Saraswat was speaking at the International Space Conference and Exhibition 'Ushering the New Era in Indian Space Sector' organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Antrix Corporation Limited, and supported by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). India’s Covid-19 tally crosses 5 million-mark as cases continue to surge The number of coronavirus infections in India crossed the 5 million mark with 91,136 new cases reported, as infections continued to rise at an alarming rate in the nation with the worst-ever recorded case rate. India’s tally of total cases stands at 5,017,914, behind only the United States, which at 6.76 million confirmed infections, is the worst-hit nation in the world. Also, 1,284 new deaths were reported on Tuesday, taking the nationwide death toll to 82,091. A total of 3,937,066 people who have been infected have so far recovered, according to the media. At 998,757, the number of active cases in the country was a little below the million mark till late Tuesday night. India now accounts for nearly onesixth of all Covid-19 cases recorded worldwide since the outbreak originated in China nine months ago. The country also has the worstever daily infection rate recorded anywhere in the world. The seven-day average of daily cases in India stands at 93,334, much India said on Wednesday it had joined the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCOC), a grouping on maritime matters aimed at countering piracy, as an observer as part of efforts aimed at enhancing maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. The move to join the grouping followed a high-level virtual meeting held on August 26, the external affairs ministry said. The development comes at a time when India is shoring up its position in the Indian Ocean and nearby waters as part of its overall Indo-Pacific policy. India has signed reciprocal military logistics support agreements with Australia and Japan this year to increase interoperability with the navies of those countries. The DCOC, which aims to repress piracy and armed robbery against ships in the western Indian higher than the peak in the US — where the number touched 69,373 for the week ending June 25, according to worldometers.info. Unlike the US, India’s trajectory has shown no indication of a peak so far and has also been growing steady. The seven-day average has increased 50.7% in the last 30 days — it was 61,933 on August 17. In terms of deaths, though, India has fared much better. The case fatality rate (CFR) — the proportion of infected people who have died from the disease — is 1.64%, which is not only better India joins Indian Ocean grouping against piracy as observer Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, was adopted on January 29, 2009, by the representatives of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Maldives, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Yemen. Comoros, Egypt, Eritrea, Jordan, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates signed on later, taking the total countries in the grouping to 20. The 18 member states are located in areas adjoining the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Africa and include island nations in the than the global average of 3.16%, but has also been improving steadily. The CFR in the US is 2.95%, and in Brazil it is 3.04%. The rapid increase in daily cases has meant that active cases in India have been seeing a near steady increase. Active cases — which is calculated by subtracting the number of deaths and recoveries from the total caseload — is a key metric because it reflects the toll on a region’s health care facilities. In the past 30 days, active cases have increased from 672,269 to 998,757— a rise of nearly 50%. Indian Ocean. Besides India, the other observers in the grouping are Japan, Norway, the UK and the US. “As an observer at [DCOC], India looks forward to working together with... member states towards coordinating and contributing to enhanced maritime security in the Indian Ocean Region,” the external affairs ministry said. Under the code of conduct, the member states cooperate in countering piracy and armed robbery on the high seas and promoting the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions. Significant areas of glaciers in Hindu-Kush Himalayan region retreating at alarming rate: Study Recent data shows that significant areas of glaciers in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region are retreating at an alarming rate, according to `Retreating Glaciers and Water Flows in the Himalayas: Implications for Governance,” a study published recently by the Observer Research Foundation. The Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region is one of the most vibrant, distinct and intricate mountain systems in the world. An estimated 210 million people live within these mountain systems, and some 1.3 billion people who live downstream of the HKH rely on freshwater obtained directly or indirectly from rivers and tributaries of the region. Dr Anjal Prakash, research director and adjunct associate professor of Bharti Institute of Public Policy at the Indian School of Business, who has authored the study, told The Indian Express that the study tries to understand the impact of glacial retreat on the region’s water regime, especially the river basins and groundwater the Himalayan region supports.
The Indian Weekender Friday, September 18, 2020 WORLD 15 Australia’s COVID-19 epicentre reports no deaths from the virus for first time in 2 months Australia’s second-most populous state Victoria, the country’s COVID-19 epicentre, on Tuesday reported zero deaths from the virus in the past 24 hours, a milestone not recorded for two months. Victoria state said 42 people have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, a small increase from the figure posted one day earlier and well below the peak of more than 700 infections detected in August. Victoria last recorded no COVID-19 deaths on July 13. The result will buoy optimism that a stringent lockdown of nearly 5 million people for nearly seven weeks has curtailed the spread of COVID-19. Melbourne, Australia’s second most populated city, is on an extended hard lockdown until Sept. 28. But with the steady fall in cases, some restrictions were relaxed from Monday, allowing people to leave their homes for longer periods for exercise and authorities shortened a night curfew. Victoria, home to one-quarter of Australia’s 26 million population, now accounts for about 75% of the country’s more than 26,700 coronavirus cases and 90% of its 816 deaths. Queensland state reported one new case on Tuesday, a returned traveller from overseas and in quarantine. New South Wales state, Australia’s most populous, will report its case numbers later in the day. The virus has been effectively eliminated in all other states and territories. With dwindling numbers of COVID-19, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison has turned to reviving an ailing national economy, unveiling a series of policies to lower the price of gas to fuel a manufacturing recovery. “We continue to do better than almost every other developed country in the world when it comes to protecting lives and livelihoods,” Morrison said in a speech in Newcastle, 161 km (100 miles) north of Sydney. “If we are shut, we are not living alongside the virus, the virus is actually keeping us from living.” Boeing's 'culture of concealment' to blame for 737 crashes Two fatal crashes of Boeing 737 Max aircraft were partly due to the planemaker’s unwillingness to share technical details, a congressional investigation has found. It blames a “culture of concealment” at Boeing, but says the regulatory system was also “fundamentally flawed”. Boeing said it had “learned many hard lessons” from the accidents. But families of the victims accused the company and the regulator of continuing to hide information. The US report is highly critical of both Boeing and the regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). “Boeing failed in its design and development of the Max, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft,” the 18-month investigation concluded. The Boeing 737 Max has been grounded since March 2019 after two crashes, in Indonesia and Ethiopia, caused the deaths of 346 people. The nearly 250-page report found a series of failures in the plane’s design, combined with "Boeing failed in its design and development of the Max, and the FAA failed in its oversight of Boeing and its certification of the aircraft." “regulatory capture”, an overly close relationship between Boeing and the federal regulator, which compromised the process of gaining safety certification. “[The crashes] were the horrific culmination of a series of faulty technical assumptions by Boeing’s engineers, a lack of transparency on the part of Boeing’s management, and grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.” But the US aviation regulator, the FAA, comes off almost as badly. US representatives find it guilty of “inherent conflicts of interest” and “grossly insufficient oversight”. More seriously, they say the regulator was, in effect, in Russia’s sovereign wealth fund has agreed to supply 100 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik-V, to Indian drug company Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, the fund said, as Moscow speeds up plans to distribute its shot abroad. The deal comes after the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) reached agreements with Indian manufacturers to produce 300 million doses of the vaccine in India, which is a major consumer of Russian oil and arms. Dr Reddy’s, one of India’s top pharmaceutical companies, will carry out Phase III clinical trials of the vaccine in India, pending regulatory approval, RDIF said in a statement. Deliveries to India could begin in late 2020, it said, adding this was subject to the completion of trials and the vaccine’s registration by regulatory authorities in India. Boeing’s pocket and that the FAA’s management “overruled” its own technical and safety experts “at the behest of Boeing”. Boeing admits “mistakes were made” and it now wants to focus on getting the 737-Max back in the air, saying the “revised design” of the aircraft has been “thoroughly scrutinised”. Regulators in Europe and the US are relatively close to recertifying the 737-Max. But this is one of the biggest safety scandals facing a private company in modern times. And other investigations are outstanding, including a giant lawsuit from the relatives of those killed in the second crash in Ethiopia. Russia was the first country to license a novel coronavirus vaccine before large-scale Phase III trials were complete, stirring concern among scientists and doctors about the safety and efficacy of the shot. The Phase I and II results had shown World: Coronavirus cases Confirmed: 30,037,107 Deaths: 945,097 Recovered: 21,804,247 NEWS in BRIEF Potential sign of alien life detected on inhospitable Venus Scientists said they have detected in the harshly acidic clouds of Venus a gas called phosphine that indicates microbes may inhabit Earth’s inhospitable neighbor, a tantalizing sign of potential life beyond Earth. The researchers did not discover actual life forms, but noted that on Earth phosphine is produced by bacteria thriving in oxygen-starved environments. The international scientific team first spotted the phosphine using the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii and confirmed it using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope in Chile. “I was very surprised – stunned, in fact,” said astronomer Jane Greaves of Cardiff University in Wales, lead author of the research published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The existence of extraterrestrial life long has been one of the paramount questions of science. Scientists have used probes and telescopes to seek “biosignatures” – indirect signs of life – on other planets and moons in our solar system and beyond. Yoshihide Suga elected Japan's new prime minister succeeding Shinzo Abe Japan's parliament has elected Yoshihide Suga as the country's new prime minister, following the resignation of Shinzo Abe. After winning the leadership of the governing party earlier this week, Wednesday's vote confirms the former Chief Cabinet Secretary's new position. A close ally of Abe, the new prime minister is expected to continue his predecessor's policies. Shinzo Abe announced his resignation last month citing ill health. Earlier on Wednesday, Abe held his final cabinet meeting and told reporters he was proud of his achievements during his nearly eight years in power. California wildfire threatens Mount Wilson Observatory and communications hub Firefighters waged an all-out ground and air campaign on Tuesday to save the famed Mount Wilson Observatory and an adjacent hub of communications towers from a wildfire roaring through rugged peaks overlooking the foothill suburbs north of Los Angeles. Flames from the blaze, dubbed the Bobcat Fire, crept to within just 500 feet (152 meters) of the evacuated observatory grounds during the day, said David Dantic, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The fire has scorched some 41,000 acres of the San Gabriel Mountains since erupting on Sept. 6, belching smoke and ash over much of the greater Los Angeles area for over a week and forcing evacuations of several communities at the foot of the mountains. The blaze was one of dozens of wildfires that broke out during the Labor Day holiday weekend, stoked by a late-summer heat wave that baked much of the U.S. West Coast. Russia to sell 100m doses of COVID-19 vaccine to India promise, G V Prasad, co-chairman of Dr Reddy’s, was cited in the RDIF statement as saying. “Sputnik V vaccine could provide a credible option in our fight against COVID-19 in India,” he said. There was no detail about the price of the vaccine but RDIF has said previously it was not aiming at making a profit, just covering costs. The agreement comes as India’s coronavirus cases surged past 5 million on Wednesday, piling pressure on hospitals grappling with unreliable supplies of oxygen that they need to treat tens of thousands of critical patients. India is only the second country in the world to cross the grim milestone and said this week it is considering granting an emergency authorisation for a vaccine, particularly for the elderly and people in high-risk workplaces.
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Page 12 and 13: Editorial Harnessing strategic ties
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Page 18 and 19: 18 SPORTS Friday, September 18, 202

The Indian Weekender, Friday 18 September 2020

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