YK MYK SUNNY LEONE REVEALS HER AWKWARD MOMENT WITH SALMAN INDIGENOUS COVID VACCINE DEMONSTRATES BENEFITS OF ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT, ASSERTS VICE PRESIDENT SCREEN & CINEMA NATION Rs. 3 KOLKATA TUESDAY, 5 JAN, 2021 PG-12, YEAR—7, ISSUE—229 (RNI NO: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) AT A GLANCE EDUCATION MINISTER TO ANNOUNCE JEE ADVANCED 2021 EXAM DATES ON JAN 7 NEW DELHI : Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal 'Nishank' will announce the eligibility criteria for admission into Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the date of Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Advanced 2021 on January 7. "My dear students, I will announce the eligibility criteria for admission in IITs and the date of JEE Advanced on January 7 at 6 pm. Stay tuned!" the minister wrote on Twitter. The Joint Entrance Exam (Main) will be conducted in four sessions in February, March, April and May starting from February 23 to 26, 2021. The next sessions of the exam will take place between March 15-18, April 2730 and May 24-28. Morning India Talks with farmers end in stalemate, next round on Jan 8 The crucial seventh round of talks between the government and 41 farmers representatives ended without any breakthrough and the next round of talks is expected on January 8, sources said. The meeting had started around 2.30 p.m. at Vigyan Bhavan in the presence of Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Consumer Affairs Minister Piyush Goyal and Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Som Parkash. Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal and other Ministry officials are also attended the meeting. Since the sixth round of talks held at the same location on December 30 ended on a positive note with the government agreeing on two points, the government will try to persuade the farmers to end their agitation by adopting a middle path or forming Sensex closes at record-high of 48,177 MUMBAI : Equity benchmark indices continued their upward journey on Monday with the Sensex testing 48,000 mark amid positive development on the vaccination front. Investor sentiment was lifted after the Drug Controller General of India approved Covid vaccines Covishield and Covaxin for emergency use in the country. Moreover, IHS Markit said the manufacturing PMI remained in the expansion zone for fifth straight month and stood at 56.4 in December. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 308 points or 0.64 per cent at 48,177 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 114 points or 0.82 per cent to 14,133. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the green zone with Nifty metal jumping by 5.3 per cent, IT by 2.7 per cent, auto by 1.6 per cent and PSU bank by 1.1 per cent. Metal stocks were stars of the day with Tata Steel gaining by 8.3 per cent to Rs 696.90 per share while Hindalco and JSW Steel up by 7 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively. IT stock, too, advanced with Tata Consultancy Services moving up by 3.9 per cent and HCL Technologies by 2.9 per cent. The others, which gained were Eicher Motors, ONGC, GAIL, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Grasim. However, Hero MotoCorp skidded by 1.6 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank by 1.2 per cent, IndusInd Bank by 0.2 per cent, Asian Paints by 0.7 per cent and Titan by 0.6 per cent. Meanwhile, Asian share markets resumed their ascent as investors pinned their hope on vaccines to eventually help revive the global economy. South Korea climbed 2 per cent to a record led by the chip and auto sectors while Chinese blue chips added 0.3 per cent. Japan's Nikkei shed early gains to fall 0.4 per cent after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga confirmed the government is considering a state of emergency for Tokyo and three surrounding prefectures. (ANI) a committee to resolve the issue. Krantikari Kisan Union President (Punjab) Darshan Pal, Bharatiya Kisan Union's Jagjeet Singh Dalewal and Balbir Singh Rajewal, Jamhuri Kishan Sabha Punjab General Secretary Kulwant Singh, and Bharatiya Kisan Union (Uttar Pradesh) President Rakesh Tikait are among the 41 farm union leaders particpating in the meeting. The agitating farmers have already announced they will take out a tractor rally towards Delhi on Republic Day, besides a series of pro- grammes in a bid to intensify their protest if their demands to withdraw the three contentious farm laws enacted in September and a written assurance on the Minimum Support Price (MSP) are not met. Modalities for the repeal of the three Central farm acts and putting the mechanisms for a remunerative MSP as recommended by the National Farmers' Commission into a legally guaranteed entitlement for all farmers and all agricultural commodities is the major agenda of the meeting. In the sixth round of talks the government agreed to the farmers demand to exclude them from the penal provisions of the 'Commission for the Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Ordinance, 2020' and changes in the draft Electricity (Amendment) Bill 2020 to protect the interests of farmers. Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh have been protesting at the borders of the national capital demanding the repeal of the three farm laws, among other issues. Route of CM's movement diverted after mob attacks convoy RAJ KUMAR RANCHI: Unhappy with the police failure in putting checks on crime against women, a mob targeted the escort vehicle of the state chief minister at Kishoreganj Chowk on Harmu Bypass Road under Kotwali police station area. The windscreen of patrolling vehicles of the convoy got damaged in the incident. Traffic police inspector Nawal Kishore Singh sustained injuries in the incident. Following the incident police personnel had to divert the route of Chief Minister Hemant Soren in the Jharkhand capital as a section of people turned up on the road to stop movement of his cavalcade when the chief minister was returning to his official residence at Kanke Road from his office at Project Bhawan in Dhurwa via Harmu Bypass Road. Convoy of the chief minister, which was expected to reach his residence at Kanke Road via Kishoreganj, Garikhana and Kishori Yadav Chowk, had to take an alternative route via Palkot House, Ranchi Lake and Nagarmal Modi Seva Sadan, exposing the failure of intelligence which failed to gather information regarding ruckus in time and take precautionary measures before the movement of the chief minister. People who had turned up on the road were angry with the recovery of a headless nude body of a girl from behind Sai University in Kuchu, about 20km from town under Ormanjhi police station area, which comes under rural area of the district capital, on Sunday and no clue of the head has yet been found in more than 24 hours after the recovery. They were of the opinion that during Hemant Soren's rule incidents of crime against women had increased. After the diversion of movement of the convoy, police in big numbers turned up to remove the crowd from the road and it took about 45 minutes for the police to remove the crowd and ensure proper movement of traffic. Women's security has always been a matter of concern in Jharkhand. On December 14, Governor Droupadi Murmu had directed the state DGP M.V.Rao to upgrade policing to provide proper safety and security to everyone, especially women and children while expressing her concern over the growing instances of rape. Before this, National Commission for Women (NCW) had also taken suo moto cognizance of the incident sending notices to Jharkhand police for time bound probe into the gory incident of rape in Dumka where the mother of five children was allegedly gang-raped by 17. The Opposition BJP has long been crying hoarse about the alleged lawlessness in the state ever since JMM-Congress-RJD government under the leadership of Hemant Soren took charge in December 2019. Various delegations of BJP in recent months had also met with the governor to cite about growing crimes against women and children in the state. EoM Finance ministry releases 10th instalment of GST compensation to states NEW DELHI : The Finance Ministry on Monday released the tenth weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states to meet the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation shortfall. The Finance Ministry said in a release that out of this amount, a sum of Rs 5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of Rs 483.40 crore has been released to the three Union Territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Puducherry) which are members of the GST Council. The remaining five states namely Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation. Now, more than 50 per cent of the estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the states and UT with Legislative Assembly, the government said. The Government of India had set up a special borrowing window in October, 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. Tomar says no solution could be found as farmers ‘adamant’ on complete rollback of agri laws NEW DELHI : After the eighth round of talks, the Centre could not reach any "solution" as the farmer unions remained "adamant" over repealing of three farm laws, Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said on Monday. "We wanted farmer unions to discuss three laws clause-wise. We could not reach any solution as farmer unions remained adamant on the repeal of the laws," Tomar told reporters here this evening at Vigyan Bhawan. However, the minister said he is "hopeful" that a conclusion will be found in the next round of talks which will be held on January 8 at 2 pm. "Looking at today's discussion, I hope that we will have a meaningful discussion during our next meeting and we will come to a conclusion," he said. Yudhvir Singh of the Bhartiya Kisan Union said that they want a complete rollback of farm laws. "The minister wanted us to discuss the law point-wise. We rejected it and said that there is no point in discussing the laws because we want a complete rollback of the laws. The government intends to take us towards amendments but we will not accept it," Singh said while addressing the reporters here after the meeting. Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Piyush Goyal and Som Parkash along with government officials and representatives of farmers also observed a two-minute silence for farmers who died during the ongoing protest. After the meeting, Rakesh Tikait, Spokesperson of Bharatiya Kisan Union said that farmers, who are protesting . I-T records Robert Vadra's statement in Benami properties case NEW DELHI : The Income Tax Department officers on Monday started recording the statement of Robert Vadra in connection with a benami properties case. An IT department source related to probe told IANS, "An I-T team is at Vadra's residence to record his statement in the Benami properties matter." Vadra is Congress President Sonia Gandhi's son-inlaw and is married to Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi. He has been unable to join the probe due to the Covid pandemic. Besides the IT department, Vadra is being investigated by the Enforcement Department under the provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) pertaining to allegations of TOTAL CASES: 10,345,118 money laundering in the pur- TOTAL DEATH: 149,721 chase of a London-based property at 12, Bryanston Square, worth 1.9 million pound. It is alleged that the TOTAL CASES: 85,614,877 said property is allegedly owned by him. He is current- TOTAL DEATH:1,853,282 ly out on an anticipatory bail. CORONA METER INDIA WORLD Sputnik V working to take AstraZeneca vax efficacy to over 90% NEW DELHI : With the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approving Serum Institute of India's 'Covishield' vaccine and Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' for emergency use, paving way for their roll-out and administration to millions, Russian Sputnik V vaccine makers have said that they are working with AstraZeneca (AZ) to take the efficacy of AZ vaccine to over 90 per cent. In a tweet, Sputnik V said: "As Indian regulator recommends for approval full-dose regimen of AstraZeneca's vaccine with efficacy of 62.1 per cent based on phase 3 clinical data. Sputnik V is working on clinical trials with AZ to increase the efficacy of AZ vaccine to over 90 per cent". AstraZeneca is currently working with the Russians on the combination of their vaccine's vector with that from Sputnik V (showing 91.4 per cent efficacy as per Phase 3 final control point recorded last month), precisely to see if that could help boost its vaccine's efficacy to over 90 per cent as well. While both vaccines use adenoviral vector technology, the AstraZeneca vaccine is based on a chimpanzee adenovirus (which is not the most popular technology among the vaccinated as recently conducted polls indicated that, given a choice, consumers prefer other technologies), the Sputnik V vaccine is based on a human adenovirus. Unlike AstraZeneca, which uses one and the same component for both inoculations, the Russian vaccine uses two different ones in two separate inoculations. Using the latter approach could prove more efficient in achieving a longer-lasting immune response. Covishield and Covaxin have to be administered in two doses and can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius. The Drugs Controller General of India has also granted permission to Cadila healthcare for phase 3 clinical trial in India. The vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities. India will produce about 300 million doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine in 2021, Head of the Russian Direct COVAXIN IS 200% SAFE, SAYS BHARAT BIOTECH CHAIRMAN HYDERABAD : Covaxin, the indigenous vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech against COVID-19 in collaboration with ICMR, is 200 per cent safe, company's Chairman and Managing Director Dr Krishna Ella has said and noted that it has shown less than 10 per cent adverse reaction in trials so far."Covaxin has shown less than 10 per cent adverse Investment Fund (RDIF), Kirill Dmitriev, said in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel last month. "In India, we have agreements with four large manufacturers. India will produce about 300 million doses or reactions, while others have 60 per cent to 70 per cent adverse reactions. I can assure our vaccine is 200 per cent safe," Dr Ella said on Monday in a press conference via video conferencing. His remarks came a day after DGCI granted permission for restricted emergency use of Covaxin. The indigenous vaccine has been developed by more of the vaccine for us next year," Russian news agency Tass quoted him as saying. In September 2020, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and RDIF entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) National Institute of Virology (NIV). Amid remarks by a few political leaders that the vaccine has been granted permission without completion of phase 3 trials, he said Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) 2019 clearly state that "if yours is a proven of the Sputnik V vaccine and the rights for distribution of the first 100 million doses in India. Dr. Reddys and RDIF announced in December that they have commenced adaptive Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials for Sputnik V vaccine in platform technology, safe platform technology, and good pre-clinical trial data is available then you can get the emergency license for the product". On remarks that Covaxin is a "back-up vaccine", he said "it is a vaccine, and not a backup" and added that "people should be responsible before making such statements." "Currently, we have 20 India for Covid-19 after receiving the necessary clearance from the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kasauli. On August 11, 2020, the Sputnik V vaccine developed by the Gamaleya National Research Institute of million doses. We are aiming to achieve 700 million doses capacity in four facilities -three in Hyderabad and one in Bengaluru. We are encountering so many problems including related to logistics," he said. "We will roll out the vaccine as early as possible. Batches have been sent to Kasauli government testing lab already," he added. Epidemiology and Microbiology was registered by the Ministry of Health of Russia and became the world's first registered vaccine against Covid-19 based on the human adenoviral vector platform.