India rejects US solar claim at WTO, explores new defence

Agencies
January 9, 2018

Geneva, Jan 9: India hit back on Monday at Washington's latest legal assault on its solar power policies at the World Trade Organization, rejecting a US legal claim and exploring possible new protection of India's own solar industry.

Last month, the United States had triggered a new round of litigation at the WTO, arguing that India had failed to abide by a ruling that it had illegally discriminated against foreign suppliers of solar cells and modules.

In a statement published by the WTO on Monday, India said it had changed its rules to conform with the ruling and that a US claim for punitive trade sanctions was groundless.

"India underscores that the United States' request is not a valid request," the Indian statement said.

It said Washington had skipped legal steps, failed to follow the correct WTO procedure, and omitted to mention any specific level of trade sanctions that it proposed to level on India, leaving India "severely prejudiced".

India would be vindicated if the proper process was followed, it said.

"In view of the above, India strongly objects to the US request of 19 December 2017," it said.

Renewable energy has become an area of severe trade friction as major economies compete to dominate a sector that is expected to thrive as reliance on coal and oil dwindles.

India unveiled its national solar programme in 2011, seeking to ease chronic energy shortages in Asia's third-largest economy without creating pollution.

But the United States complained to the WTO in 2013, saying US solar exports to India had fallen by 90 percent. The WTO judges agreed that India had broken the trade rules by requiring solar power developers to use Indian-made cells and modules.

In a separate move that could protect its solar industry from global competitors, not only US rivals, India told the WTO last week that it was considering the case for imposing temporary emergency tariffs on solar cells, modules and panels, after a petition from the domestic industry.

So-called safeguard tariffs are permitted by the WTO if there is evidence of serious harm, or threat of serious harm, to a country's production from a sudden, unforeseen surge in imports.

India said the market share of imports had increased from 86 percent in 2014-15 to 90 percent in 2017-18, with growing losses for Indian producers and a fourfold rise in inventory levels.

That amounted to prima facie evidence of serious injury to Indian firms, India said in the WTO filing.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday met JNU Students' Union (JNUSU) President Aishe Ghosh here at Kerala House on Saturday.

This meeting comes at the backdrop masked mob violence by miscreants who entered the university campus recently and attacked the students and professors with sticks and rods.

"I thank the Kerela government for standing by us and extending solidarity. Its fight Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) shows how standing is standing for its secular ethos. Students Union takes the inspiration from this struggle," said Students' Union President in a statement after meeting Kerala CM.

She also thanked "the youth and comrades of Kerela" and quoted Pinarayi as saying, "go on we will take this fight ahead."

More than 30 students, including Ghosh, were taken to the AIIMS Trauma Centre.

The Delhi Police Crime Branch investigating the case of violence in JNU had identified and released photographs of nine suspects, including that of Aishe Ghosh.

Earlier on Monday, Kerala CM had said that the "Nazi-style attack" on the students and faculty is an appalling display of intolerance running amok.

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News Network
January 30,2020

Jan 30: The death toll rose to 170 in the new virus outbreak in China on Thursday as foreign evacuees from the worst-hit region begin returning home under close observation and world health officials expressed “great concern” that the disease is starting to spread between people outside of China.

Thursday’s figures cover the previous 24 hours and represent an increase of 38 deaths and 1,737 cases for a total of 7,711. Of the new deaths, 37 were in the epicenter of the outbreak in Hubei province and one in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

The news comes as the 195 Americans evacuated from Wuhan, the Hubei province city of 11 million where the outbreak originated, are undergoing three days of testing and monitoring at a Southern California military base to make sure they do not show signs of the virus.

A group of 210 Japanese evacuees from Wuhan landed Thursday at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on a second government chartered flight, according to the foreign ministry. Reports said nine of those aboard the flight showed signs of cough and fever. Three of the 206 Japanese who returned on Wednesday tested positive for the new coronavirus, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said during a parliamentary session. Two of them showed no symptoms of the disease.

France, New Zealand, Australia and other countries are also pulling out their citizens or making plans to do so.

The World Health Organization emergencies chief said the few cases of human-to-human spread of the virus outside China — in Japan, Germany, Canada and Vietnam — were of “great concern” and were part of the reason the U.N. health agency’s director-general was reconvening a committee of experts on Thursday to assess whether the outbreak should be declared a global emergency.

The new virus has now infected more people in China than were sickened there during the 2002-2003 SARS outbreak.

Dr. Michael Ryan spoke at a news conference in Geneva on Wednesday after returning from a trip to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and other senior government leaders. He said China was taking “extraordinary measures in the face of an extraordinary challenge” posed by the outbreak.

To date, about 99% of the cases are in China. Ryan estimated the death rate of the new virus at 2%, but said the figure was very preliminary. With fluctuating numbers of cases and deaths, scientists are only able to produce a rough estimate of the fatality rate and it’s likely many milder cases of the virus are being missed.

In comparison, the SARS virus killed about 10% of people who caught it. The new virus is from the coronavirus family, which includes those that can cause the common cold as well as more serious illnesses such as SARS and MERS.

Scientists say there are many questions to be answered about the new virus, including just how easily it spreads and how severe it is.

In a report published Wednesday, Chinese researchers suggested that person-to-person spread among close contacts occurred as early as mid-December.

“Considerable efforts” will be needed to control the spread if this ratio holds up elsewhere, researchers wrote in the report, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

More than half of the cases in which symptoms began before Jan. 1 were tied to a seafood market, but only 8% of cases after that have been, researchers found. They reported the average incubation period was five days.

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Agencies
July 7,2020

Bhopal, Jul 7: Anil Mishra, personal assistant to BJP Rajya Sabha MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, has tested positive.

He has been accompanying Scindia throughout his tours post-corona infection.

His contact trail is longer than that of Scindia. He has been in touch with Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Mishra was present during Scindia's meetings with the MLAs and the swearing in ceremony of the MP ministry on July 2.

BJP sources say there is concern over the possible list of people who will be put in isolation to check the spread of the virus.

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