CMYK Rs. 3 KOLKATA WEDNESDAY, 11 MAY, 2022 PG-12, YEAR—8, ISSUE—346 (RNI NO.: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) Morning India Asani threat continues as Bengal expects heavy rainfall 23 flights cancelled in Andhra's Visakhapatnam, 10 in Chennai MI News Service, Visakhapatnam: Severe cyclonic The women folk take cover from rain while travelling in a mini-truck on a rainy afternoon in Kolkata, on Tuesday. Pic: PRABIR BHATTACHARYA Mamata urges on language proficiency to fight communal forces and job prospect MI News Service, Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has emphatically urged young generation to study different languages to understand world literature and society in holistic term. While indirectly pointing finger at Samgh Pariwar, she also referred to the fact that each and every students should understand their root well so that no one can misguide them for their own good. “There are forces within our society which are very disturbing and they exist only for ulterior motive” she added. She also urged the young generation to take up multilingual training in English, Russian, Chinese, Urdu languages etc to understand world society. She also mentioned that multilingual proficiency will be also of huge benefit in terms of getting jobs. On the other hand, after a Covidinduced gap of long two years the state government is mulling 'Krishak Ratna' awards. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will hand over the same to five farmers as a token from a government program at West Mid- napore on May 17. About 342 farmers would be benefitted by this as they will receive the same in their block. Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, the state Agriculture minister quite categorically mentioned, "We were compelled to stop this award in the last two years due to the pandemic. Now, the Chief Minister has directed to make necessary arrangements for commencement of the awards. The prizes are given to the best performing farmer from every block in the state.” Babul taking oath today at last MI News Service, Kolkata: After an end of a long standing fiasco between the state government and the Governor Jagdeep Dhankar, ultimately Babul Supriyo is taking oath today. Babul has repeatedly expressed his profound displeasure over the delay in the oath-taking. According to Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee,” The onus was on the Governor to decide on oath taking matters because as per protocol and constitutional binding it is the Governor who will have the last word regarding this matter” But earlier Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, Books, Drama and Music announced MI News Service, Kolkata: Washington: Pulitzer Prize 2022 winners in Journalism, Books, Drama and Music were announced at 3 pm (Eastern Time) on Monday. The winner's list included The Washington Post, including Indians Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, Amit Dave, and the late Danish Siddiqui of Reuters in Journalism. Journalists from Ukraine were recognized with a 2022 Pulitzer Prize special citation, while jurors of journalism's top honours also recognized coverage of the January 6th attacks on the Capitol, the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Surfside condominium collapse in Florida. Reuters photographer Danish Siddiqui was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer along with Adnan Abidi, Sanna Irshad Mattoo, and Amit Dave for their images of Covid's toll on India. Siddiqui was killed last year while covering a clash between Afghan special forces and Taliban insurgents. Full list of winners in journalism and descriptions of their awards are as follows: In Public Service, The Washington Post for its ❑ Continue PG 3 Sri Lanka's fleeing ex-PM, family take refuge at naval base MI News Service, Colombo: In the wake of the wide- spread violence in Sri Lanka that left five people dead, former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family on Tuesday took refuge at a naval base in Trincomalee after leaving Colombo under heavy security. Rajapaksa, his wife Shiranthi, and their youngest son Rohitha and his family, left the Prime Minister's official residence, Temple Trees, early Tuesday morning on board an Air Force helicopter and have now taken refuge at the heavily guarded naval base, an informed military source said. Reports have also revealed that Rajapaksa's second son, Yositha, who was also the former Prime Minister's Secretary, and his family had left the country on Monday. ❑ Continue PG 3 CMYK the Governor surprised many by giving this duty to Asim Banerjee, the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, which according to many constitutional experts was outlandish inappropriate as well. Hence, the confusion and ambiguity prevailed for a long time. This delay ultimately provoked an uncalled for twitter feud between Babul Supriyo and the Governor. But better late than never as Governor ultimately decided on the matter and fixed today, i.e May 11 for the propitious oath taking ceremony of Babul Supriyo. storm 'Asani' in the Bay of Bengal has hit flight operations with several airlines canceling flights in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam and Tamil Nadu's Chennai on Tuesday. The Met Department has predicted light to moderate rainfall across parts of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha with the probability of the severe cyclonic storm 'Asani' recurring. Visakhapatnam International Airport director Srinivas said that IndiGo has cancelled 23 flights, both arrivals, and departures, citing bad weather. The santoor is silent now; Pt. Shivkumar Sharma no more MI News Service, New Delhi: "These past two years have been brutal to the Indian classical music fraternity. We have lost several major pillars, and now, Pt. Shivkumar Sharma. His passing on is an end of an era," Salil Bhat, Veena player tells after the demise of Pandit Shivkumar Sharma wh passed away after a cardiac arrest at the age of 84 in Mumbai on Tuesday, May 10. Adding that the maestro's death has not only impacted those personally close to him but left the whole Indian classical music fraternity shocked, Bhat adds, "His contribution to the santoor and making it immensely popular is unparalleled. Anyone who listened to him seldom remained untouched." ❑ Continue PG 3 Control room at Lal Bazar. "Four Air Asia flights also stand cancelled due to bad weather at Vizag for the day," he added. At the Chennai airport, 10 flights including those from Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Jaipur and Mumbai have been cancelled. As per the Chennai Airport Authority, information regarding cancellation was conveyed to the passengers yesterday. Duty Officer at the Cyclone Warning Centre of Visakhapatnam, Kumar said that severe cyclonic storm Asani is over the west-central region and the adjoining southwest region of Bay of Bengal. ❑ Continue PG 3 CEPI partners with Bharat Biotech, to develop 'variant-proof' COVID-19 vaccine MI News service, Oslo: The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) on Tuesday announced the latest award under its USD 200 m programme to advance the development of vaccines that provide broad protection against SARS-Cov-2 variants and other beta coronaviruses. CEPI will provide funding of up to USD19.3 million to support the development of a 'variant-proof' SARS-CoV-2 vaccine candidate to an international multidisciplinary consortium comprising Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL), India, the University of Sydney, Australia and ExcellGene SA, Switzerland. CEPI's funding will support the consortium as it seeks to establish preclinical and clinical proof of concept for an adjuvanted subunit vaccine designed to provide broad protection against all known SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, as well as future variants of the virus which have not yet emerged. CEPI will fund the researchers to conduct activities including immunogen design, preclinical studies, manufacturing process development and a Phase 1 clinical trial. In this new vaccine design, modified trimeric spike immunogens will be produced in a robust and scalable process with high purity and yield at low cost, based on a biomanufacturing approach that has provided significant quantities of protein therapeutics to the world. This strategy could also be used to enable rapid development of broadly protective vaccines against other beta coronaviruses, as well as vaccines against Disease X--unknown pathogens with pandemic potential that emerge in the future. Enabling equitable access CEPI is committed to the principle of equitable access to the vaccines it funds. Under the terms of the funding agreement, the consortium partners have committed to achieving equitable access to the outputs of this project, in line with CEPI's Equitable Access Policy. CEO of CEPI, Dr Richard Hatchett said, that as repeated waves of COVID-19 infection remind us, we will be living alongside the virus for many years to come. The threat of a new variant emerging that might evade the protection of our current vaccines is real. "Investing in R&D for variant-proof SARS-CoV-2 vaccines is a global health security imperative. Our partnership with Bharat Biotech, University of Sydney and ExcellGene will advance the development Continue PG 3 of a ❑