New Delhi, Dec 10: RBI Governor Urjit Patel, who had a run in with the government over autonomy of the central bank, Monday resigned from his post.
In a brief statement, Patel said he has decided to step down with immediate effect.
He, however, did not specify the reason for the decision.
Patel was appointed the 24th Governor of the RBI on September, 2016 for a three-year term.
Mumbai, Mar 28: Industrialist Ratan Tata on Saturday announced that Tata Trusts has committed Rs 500 crore for the medical supplies and equipments which will help combat the coronavirus outbreak.
"The COVID-19 crisis is one of the toughest challenges we will face as a race. The Tata Trusts and the Tata group companies have in the past risen to the needs of the nation. At this moment, the need of the hour is greater than any other time," said Ratan Tata, in an official release.
"Tata is committing Rs 500 crore for: personal protective equipment for the medical personnel on the frontlines; respiratory systems for treating increasing cases; testing kits to increase per capita testing; setting up modular treatment facilities for infected patients and knowledge management and training of health workers and the general public," Tata added.
Tata Chairman also expressed his deep gratitude for the members of all the organizations who are fighting coronavirus at the frontline, puting their life at risk.
"The Tata Trusts, Tata Sons and the Tata group companies are joined by committed local and global partners as well as the government to fight this crisis on a united public health collaboration platform which will strive to reach out to sections that are underprivileged and deprived," he added.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), there are 873 confirmed cases of coronavirus cases in the country and 19 fatalities have been reported.
New Delhi, May 10: India's COVID-19 count crossed 60 thousand on Sunday, with Maharashtra being the worst-affected due to the infection so far, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The number of total confirmed cases in the country rose to 62,939, including 19,358 patients who have been cured and discharged or migrated, according to the Ministry.
The total number of active cases in the country, therefore, stands at 41,472.
The number of deaths in the country due to the infection reached 2,109 on Sunday.
While Maharashtra, with 20,228 cases is the worst-affected state, it is followed by Gujarat with 7,796 and the national capital, Delhi, with 6,542 cases. Tamil Nadu, is marginally behind Delhi with 6,535 cases.
London/Milan, Jun 2: World Health Organization experts and a range of other scientists said on Monday there was no evidence to support an assertion by a high profile Italian doctor that the coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic has been losing potency.
Professor Alberto Zangrillo, head of intensive care at Italy's San Raffaele Hospital in Lombardy, which bore the brunt of Italy's COVID-19 epidemic, on Sunday told state television that the new coronavirus "clinically no longer exists".
But WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove, as well as several other experts on viruses and infectious diseases, said Zangrillo's comments were not supported by scientific evidence.
There is no data to show the new coronavirus is changing significantly, either in its form of transmission or in the severity of the disease it causes, they said.
"In terms of transmissibility, that has not changed, in terms of severity, that has not changed," Van Kerkhove told reporters.
It is not unusual for viruses to mutate and adapt as they spread, and the debate on Monday highlights how scientists are monitoring and tracking the new virus. The COVID-19 pandemic has so far killed more than 370,000 people and infected more than 6 million.
Martin Hibberd, a professor of emerging infectious disease at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said major studies looking at genetic changes in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 did not support the idea that it was becoming less potent, or weakening in any way.
"With data from more than 35,000 whole virus genomes, there is currently no evidence that there is any significant difference relating to severity," he said in an emailed comment.
Zangrillo, well known in Italy as the personal doctor of former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, said his comments were backed up by a study conducted by a fellow scientist, Massimo Clementi, which Zangrillo said would be published next week.
Zangrillo told Reuters: "We have never said that the virus has changed, we said that the interaction between the virus and the host has definitely changed."
He said this could be due either to different characteristics of the virus, which he said they had not yet identified, or different characteristics in those infected.
The study by Clementi, who is director of the microbiology and virology laboratory of San Raffaele, compared virus samples from COVID-19 patients at the Milan-based hospital in March with samples from patients with the disease in May.
"The result was unambiguous: an extremely significant difference between the viral load of patients admitted in March compared to" those admitted last month, Zangrillo said.
Oscar MacLean, an expert at the University of Glasgow's Centre for Virus Research, said suggestions that the virus was weakening were "not supported by anything in the scientific literature and also seem fairly implausible on genetic grounds."
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