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Lok Sabha election ends, India awaits verdict

May 12, 2014

New Delhi, May 12: India's most bitterly fought national election ended Monday evening, with some 60 percent of the 66 million electorate in three states voting in the 10th and last leg of a contest widely tipped to end a decade of Congress rule.POLL_ends

The Election Commission said the balloting ended in Uttar Pradesh (18 seats), West Bengal (17) and Bihar (six), marking the culmination of over five weeks of electoral process during which more than 500 million voters came out to elect a new 545-member Lok Sabha.

Most interest nationally on the final day of polling Monday was on Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh where BJP veteran Narendra Modi, who will be the new prime minister if the BJP-led NDA coalition wins, was a candidate, his might challenged by AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal and the Congress.

Barring stray clashes and allegations of voter intimidation in parts of West Bengal, Monday's voting too passed off peacefully in a tribute to the world's largest democracy.

As in the past, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said it was confident of forming the next government.

"We will cross the half-way mark of 272" (in the Lok Sabha), party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told IANS. "And there will be a government led by Narendra Modi."

Exit polls are expected within an hour, while the actual counting of the millions of votes polled across the country will take place Friday.

Monday saw a key index of the Bombay Stock Exchange closing at an all-time high, just before exit polls started pouring in, gaining over 550 points or nearly 2.5 percent intra-day.

Even as voting started, serpentine queues of men and women voters were seen at most of the 71,254 polling centres in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar as well as West Bengal.

The turnout was so heavy in Varanasi that some voters complained that they had been standing in the queue for as long as four hours.

More than 50 percent of the electorate had voted within the first six hours of polling that began at 7 a.m. Balloting continued right up to the time the polling centres closed in the evening.

In Varanasi, Aam Aadmi Party's Kejriwal, a former Delhi chief minister, claimed he was sure to defeat Modi. "The situation has changed in the last three days, and now everyone is saying Modi is losing."

Kejriwal insisted that the Varanasi battle was no more a triangular contest. "(Congress candidate) Ajai Rai does not feature anywhere. I feel it is a direct fight with Modi."

The BJP is equally confident of ensuring Modi's win by a huge margin in Varanasi, the second Lok Sabha seat from where the Gujarat chief minister is contesting besides Vadodara in his home state.

Modi Monday urged the electorate to vote in large numbers. His appeal, telecast by television news channels, triggered an immediate protest from the AAP which called it a violation of the model code of conduct.

Ajay Rai courted controversy when he walked into a polling station with the party symbol tucked on his kurta -- a violation of electoral laws.

Officials reported brisk polling in the other 17 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh too, including Azamgarh where Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is considered the front-runner.

In Bihar, almost 55 percent of the electorate had voted by 4 p.m.

Additional Chief Electoral Officer R. Lakshmanan said voting was peaceful despite fears of violence. The six constituencies where polling took place were Valmiki Nagar, West Champaran, East Champaran, Vaishali, Gopalganj and Siwan.

The highest polling of nearly 70 percent was reported till 3 p.m. from West Bengal, where the ruling Trinamool Congress is battling the Congress, the Left and a resurgent BJP in 17 Lok Sabha seats.

The opposition accused the Trinamool of unleashing violence to intimidate voters. They claimed that a number of their polling agents were driven out of booths. The Trinamool denied the allegations.

Some 20 people were injured in clashes between CPI-M and Trinamool activists in Haroa, about 40 km from Kolkata.

Uttar Pradesh accounted for most candidates in the final round (328) followed by West Bengal (188) and Bihar (90). Uttar Pradesh has 31 million voters, West Bengal 25 million and Bihar about 9 million.

The drawn out Lok Sabha contest that began April 7 was one of the most bitterly fought in India, with political discourse repeatedly degenerating into vicious personal attacks.

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News Network
April 15,2020

New Delhi, Apr 15: As the world grapples with coronavirus, researchers have found the presence of a different kind of coronavirus -- bat coronavirus (BtCoV) --in two bat species from Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, according to a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

There is no evidence or research to claim that these bat coronaviruses can cause disease in humans, said Dr Pragya D Yadav, Scientist at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune and also the first author of study.

The study has been published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research,

Twenty-five bats of Rousettus and Pteropus species from Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu were found positive for BtCoV in Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu.

"These bat coronaviruses have no relation with SARS-CoV2 responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic," Yadav said, adding that Pteropus bat species were earlier found positive for Nipah virus in 2018 and 2019 in Kerala.

"Bats are considered to be the natural reservoir for many viruses, of which some are potential human pathogens. In India, an association of Pteropus medius bats with the Nipah virus was reported in the past. It is suspected that the recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) also has its association with bats," the objective of the study titled 'Detection of coronaviruses in Pteropus and Rousettus species of bats from different states of India' stated.

"In the present scenario of changing demography and ecological manipulations, it is challenging to have checks on the encounters of bats with other animals and humans," the study stated, highlighting that the need for active and continuous surveillance remains crucial for outbreak alerts for bat-associated viral agents with epidemic potential, which would be helpful in timely interventions.

"Although CoVs in the subfamily coronavirinae do not usually produce clinical symptoms in their natural hosts (bats), accidental transmission of these viruses to humans and other animals may result in respiratory, enteric, hepatic or neurologic diseases of variable severity. It is still not understood as to why only certain CoVs can infect people," the study said.

The scientists stressed on the need of proactive surveillance of zoonotic infections in bats.

The detection and identification of such viruses from bats also recommends cross-sectional antibody surveys (human and domestic animals) in localities where the viruses have been detected.

Similarly, if the epidemiological situation demands, evidence-based surveillance should also be conducted, the study said while emphasing on the need of developing strong mechanisms for working jointly with various stakeholders such as wildlife, poultry, animal husbandry and human health departments.

"In conclusion, our study showed detection of bat CoVs in two species of Indian bats. Continuous active surveillance is required to identify the emerging novel viruses with epidemic potential," Dr Yadav said.

Elaborating on the study, Dr Yadav said throat and rectal swab samples of two bat species -- Rousettus and Pteropus -- from seven states were screened for the bat coronvirus during which the representative samples collected from Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry and Tamil Nadu tested positive while those from Karnataka, Chandigarh, Punjab, Telengana, Gujarat and Odisha came out negative.

The reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests and sequencing were used for the confirmation of the findings.

"This is an ongoing study to understand the prevalence of the Nipah virus in bats," she 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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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Thirteen firefighters were among the 14 people injured when a battery factory collapsed in northwest Delhi's Peera Garhi following an explosion due to a fire that broke out early on Thursday morning, officials said.

A fire brigade personnel still remained trapped under the debris of the building in Udyog Nagar area, an official said.

A large portion of the two-storey building collapsed following an explosion when firefighters were dousing the blaze, the official said, adding that fire department had received a call at 4.23am.

Plumes of smoke billowed out from the building as the fire brigade personnel battled to contain the blaze. An eyewitness said several explosions were heard as the blaze gutted down the building.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and civil authorities rushed to the spot to control the situation, an official said, adding that 35 fire tenders were at the spot.

The injured, including a security guard of the factory, were rushed to nearby hospitals, a police officer said.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said he was monitoring the situation.

"V sad to hear this. Am closely monitoring the situation. Fire personnel trying their best. Praying for the safety of those trapped," Kejriwal tweeted.

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