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Land Bill row: Sonia, Manmohan, leaders of 10 parties to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan today

March 17, 2015

New Delhi, Mar 17: Giving a message of larger opposition unity, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will march with leaders of at least ten parties from Parliament House to President House today and submit a memorandum against the new land bill.

The march is being coordinated by JD-U President Sharad Yadav.

Land Bill rowSources in the Opposition said that Congress is playing a key role in the protest including the finalization of the draft of the memorandum, which will be submitted to President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday evening.

Former Prime Minister and JDS chief H D Devegowda, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, Trinamool Congress leader Dinesh Trivedi, SP's Ramgopal Yadav, DMK's Kanimozhi, INLD's Dushyant Chautala and RJD's Prem Chand Gupta are expected to participate in the march.

Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad is coordinating the draft finalisation from the Congress side.

Sonia's attending the Opposition march tomorrow is significant as neither she nor Rahul Gandhi on sabbatical, was here today to lead the Congress protest against land acquisition at Jantar Mantar, which was a culmination of its padyatra from Bhatta Parsaul village that began four days back.

Manmohan Singh's attending the event is also signficant as it comes days after the Congress chief led a march from party headquarters to the former Prime Minister's residence to express solidarity after Singh was summoned in a coal scam case.

Mahila Congress held a similar march to Manmohan's residence. NSUI is tomorrow holding another such march to express solidarity with Singh.

Congress fielding Singh along with Sonia in the march is another attempt by the party to show that it is rallying strongly behind the former Prime Minister.

Attacking the BJP-led government for making changes in the Land Acquisition Act, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav said the Ordinance has substantially diluted the previous Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 Act, which are against the interests of farmers.

The Lok Sabha had passed the contoversial bill with a total of nine amendments last week but the government faces an uphill task in Rajya Sabha, where it is woefully short of a majority.

Accusing the BJP government of "high-handedness" and carrying out a "brutal latchicharge" on its party workers who took to the streets against the Land Acquisition bill, Congress today vowed to take its protest on the issue in every nook and corner of the country.

"Government cannot wish it away. It is not restricted to Congress and some Opposition parties, the protest has spread even to NDA allies. It will not remain limited to Delhi. It will spread in every nook and corner of India..

"Our strong opposition to the bill will remain in and outside Parliament... Such lathicahrge will not silence us," Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said.

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News Network
April 29,2020

New Delhi, Apr 29: India's tally of COVID-19 cases has reached 31,332, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday. With 73 more deaths reported, the number of deaths due to coronavirus in the country breached the 1,000 mark and stood at 1,007.

The tally is inclusive of 22,629 active coronavirus cases, 7,695 patients who have been cured/discharged and one patient migrated.

According to the Ministry, Maharashtra has the most number of COVID-19 cases with 9,318 cases of which, 1,388 patients have been cured/discharged while 400 patients have succumbed to the virus.

Gujarat has the second-highest number of positive cases in the country with 3744 cases including 434 patients cured/discharged and 181 deaths.

Delhi's tally stands at 3314 cases of which, 1078 patients have recovered while 54 patients have succumbed to the virus.

Madhya Pradesh has a total of 2387 positive cases including 377 patients recovered/discharged and 120 fatalities.

Meanwhile, Goa (seven cases; all seven recovered), Arunachal Pradesh (one case; now recovered), Manipur (two cases; both recovered), Tripura (two cases; both recovered) have reported no new cases of COVID-19.

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Agencies
July 2,2020

Mumbai, Jul 2: The Shiv Sena on Thursday termed the ban on 59 Chinese apps by the Indian government as a "digital strike" and asked if these apps were a threat to the national security, how did they operate for so many years.

An editorial in Sena mouthpiece 'Saamana' sought to know when did the Centre realise these apps were a threat to the national security.

By banning the Chinese apps, Prime Minister Narendra Modi protected the interests of Indian internet users and his courage has be lauded, the Marathi publication said.

India on Monday banned 59 apps with Chinese links, including TikTok, UC Browser, SHAREit and WeChat, saying they were prejudicial to sovereignty, integrity and security of the country.

"If these apps were a threat to national security, how is it that these apps were functioning without any hurdles for so many years. If the opposition says the government neglected national security,then what will the Centre's stand be?" the Shiv Sena asked.

It said questions should be raised on all the previous governments for "allowing national data to go out of the country".

China has expressed displeasure over the Indian government's decision, the Marathi daily said, adding that Chinese soldiers are "still not ready to leave the Galwan Valley (in Ladakh)".

The Sena said it took the sacrifices of 20 soldiers for the government to realise Indian data was being illegally taken out of the country.

"The government took revenge by a digital strike," it stated.

There have been complaints earlier that users' data on Chinese apps was illegally sent out of the country, and apps like TikTok were "promoting vulgarity", it said.

"Many TikTok stars had reportedly joined the BJP," the Sena claimed. "What will happen to them?" it asked.

There is a need to break China economically, but that will not happen by banning its apps. The issue is about trade and investment between the two countries, it said.

"The largest Chinese investment is in Gujarat.

Chinese company Huawei has got the contract to set up 5G network in India. This company having keys to India's digital economy is akin to the Chinese Communist Party owning the Indian economy in future," it said.

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Agencies
August 3,2020

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has given nod to the Serum Institute of India (SII) for conducting phase 2 and 3 human clinical trials of the Oxford University developed Covid-19 vaccine candidate in the country.

Government officials said that the approval for conducting phase 2 and 3 clinical trials by the SII was granted by DCGI Dr V G Somani late Sunday night after a thorough evaluation based on the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) on Covid-19.

"The firm has to submit safety data, evaluated by the Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), to the CDSCO before proceeding to phase 3 clinical trials," a senior official said.

"As per the study design, each subject will be administered two doses four weeks apart (first dose on day one and second dose on day 29) following which the safety and immunogenicity will be assessed at predefined intervals," the official said.

As a rapid regulatory response, the expert panel at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) on Friday, after a detailed deliberation and considering the data generated on the vaccine candidate in phase 1 and 2 of the Oxford University trial, had recommended granting permission for phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the potential vaccine, 'Covishield', on healthy adults in India,  the officials said.

Currently, phase 2 and 3 clinical trials of the Oxford vaccine candidate is going on in the United Kingdom, phase 3 clinical trial in Brazil and phase 1 and 2 clinical trials in South Africa.

The officials said that the SII had submitted a revised proposal on Wednesday after the SEC on July 28, following deliberation over its application, had asked it to revise its protocol for the phase 2 and 3 clinical trials besides seeking some additional information.

The panel had also recommended that the clinical trial sites which have been proposed for the study be distributed across India.

According to the revised proposal by the SII, 1,600 people aged above 18 years will participate in the trials across 17 selected sites, including AIIMS-Delhi, B J Medical College in Pune, Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences (RMRIMS) in Patna, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh, AIIMS-Jodhpur, Nehru Hospital in Gorakhpur, Andhra Medical College in Visakhapatnam and JSS Academy of Higher Education and Research in Mysore.

"According to the application, it would conduct an observer-blind, randomised controlled study to determine the safety and immunogenicity of 'Covishield' on healthy Indian adults," the official said.

The SII, which has partnered with AstraZeneca, for manufacturing the Oxford vaccine candidate for Covid-19 had submitted its first application to the DCGI on July 25 seeking permission for conducting the phase 2 and 3 trials of the potential vaccine. 

Initial results of the first two-phases of trials of the vaccine conducted in five trial sites in the UK showed that it has an acceptable safety profile and homologous boosting increased antibody response, sources had said.

To introduce the vaccine, SII, the world's largest vaccine maker by number of doses produced and sold, has signed an agreement to manufacture the potential vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute (Oxford University) in collaboration with British-Swedish pharma company AstraZeneca. 

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