Fight Against Covid-19

Why in News

According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), over 40 vaccines against the Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) are in various stages of development across the world.

• One of these vaccines is being developed by the Serum Institute of India (Pune, Maharashtra).
• Out of 40, only two vaccines are currently in clinical trials.
• However, a vaccine against coronavirus can be available only in the next 12-18 months at the earliest.

Development of COVID-19 Vaccines

• Clinical trials are a type of research that studies new tests and treatments and evaluates their effects on human health outcomes.
• According to the NEJM article, written by researchers affiliated to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), there is a need to speed up the vaccine development.
  
  • CEPI is an international non-governmental organisation funded by the Wellcome Trust, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the European Commission, and eight countries (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Ethiopia, Germany, Japan, Norway, and the UK).
  • Launched in 2017, its mission is to stimulate and accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and enable access to these vaccines for people during outbreaks.
• The speed is of essence for millions of people around the world. However, there is also a business side to it.
  
  • Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Zika epidemics ended before vaccine development was complete.
  • As a result, federal funding agencies reallocated funds that had been committed to vaccine development, leaving manufacturers with financial losses and setting back other vaccine-development programmes.

Indian Government’s Latest Moves

• Combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin against COVID-19 instead of HIV drugs
  
  • According to the new clinical management guidelines issued on 31^st March, 2020, a combination of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) - used for treatment of auto-immune disorders, and azithromycin - the antibiotic has been recommended for use in severe patients.
  • The earlier guidelines, dated 17^th March, 2020, which included use of Anti HIV drugs - Ritonavir and Lopinavir in high risk patients, now stand repealed.
  • Reasons:
    
    • No specific antivirals have been proven to be effective as per currently available data.
    • The azithromycin-hydroxychloroquine combination is part of an upcoming multi-country trial anchored by the World Health Organization to examine the efficacy of various drug combinations against COVID-19.
    • India has announced its decision to be part of the WHO global trials, which are also looking at these two drugs.
• Portal for Stranded Foreigners in India
  
  • The Ministry of Tourism has come up with a portal titled ‘Stranded in India’ to disseminate information regarding the services that can be availed by foreign tourists who are stuck far away from their home land.
  • The Portal has information on the Ministry of External Affairs control centres and state-based/regional tourism support infrastructure. It also lists the COVID-19 helpline numbers for tourists.
  • On 19^th March, 2020, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DCGA) had issued an advisory stating that no international commercial passenger flights will operate here from March 23 to March 29. The advisory was later extended and all international flight operations remain suspended till April 14.
    
    • The government has announced visa extensions for stranded foreigners till flight operations resume.

Covid-19 and the Orphan Drug Act

Why in News

• Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic. However, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared Covid-19 an orphan disease, or a rare disease.

Key Points

• The FDA granted Gilead Sciences orphan drug status for its antiviral drug, Remdesivir, on March 23, 2020.
  
  • Originally developed to treat Ebola, the drug is now being tested for treating COVID-19. Clinical trials are already in Phase III.
• But on March 25 Gilead announced that it had submitted a request to the FDA to remove its orphan drug designation for Remdesivir.
  
  • Earlier, Gilead had sought the orphan status to the Remdesivir drug to expedite approval of the drug. However, advocates for global access to medicines, rejected the company’s argument.
  • Gilead’s exorbitant pricing of its drug to treat hepatitis C and its drug to treat HIV also attracted attention in the past.
• In recent years, drug companies have been accused of exploiting the law to reap profits, in sales.

Orphan Drug Act, 1983

• Rare diseases became known as orphan diseases because drug companies were not interested in adopting them to develop treatments.
• In the U.S., under the Orphan Drug Act, companies are provided incentives to develop therapies, or orphan drugs, for rare diseases.
• The Act allows seven years of market exclusivity and financial incentives to innovators of these drugs. As a result, orphan drugs are often exorbitantly priced.
• Privileges under the Act may be conferred to companies for drugs to treat a disease that affect less than 200,000 people in the U.S., or for a disease that affects more than 200,000 people but for which there is no hope of recovering R & D costs.
  
  • The idea is that without these incentives, companies would find it difficult to recover their R&D costs given the small number of people suffering from the rare disease.

Issues

• Covid-19 not a Rare Disease: The Orphan Drug Act applies to a potential drug for COVID-19, which is anything but a rare disease, with 800,049 confirmed cases across the world.
• Paradox: The U.S. FDA conferred the status of an orphan drug on Remdesivir proposed to treat COVID-19 a pandemic.

Impact

• Had Gilead not sought that orphan drug status be rescinded, generic manufacturers would not have been able to market a drug to treat COVID-19 with the same active ingredient till the seven-year period of market exclusivity had ended.
• This would have given Gilead free rein on pricing and licensing which would have had disastrous consequences on the healthcare system.
• However, orphan drug status of Remdesivir would have no impact on India as Gilead Sciences holds patents in India and patents are open to challenge.
• As far as its patent rights are concerned, Indian law permits the government to issue a compulsory licence in certain circumstances of a public health crisis under Section 92 of the Patents Act.
  
  • This would allow third parties to manufacture a patented drug without permission of the patent holder.

Rare Diseases

• A rare disease is a health condition of low prevalence that affects a small number of people compared with other prevalent diseases in the general population.
  
  • There is no universally accepted definition of rare diseases and the definitions usually vary across different countries.
• Though rare diseases are of low prevalence and individually rare, collectively they affect a considerable proportion of the population.
• 80% of rare diseases are genetic in origin and hence disproportionately impact children.
• In India there are 56-72 million people affected by rare diseases.
• There is also a demand for the reformulation of National Policy for Treatment of Rare Diseases, 2017.

Source: TH

Globalisation & Covid-19

Why in News

Global leaders have reached this consensus that the pandemic Covid-19 and the crisis it has generated is a turning point in modern history.

• The crisis offers the world an opportunity to forge a new human-centric concept of globalisation.

Key Points

• The rapid worldwide spread of Covid-19 has a lot to do with the fallout of globalisation, including the travel industry, tourism and the neoliberal attack on universal health care which can be understood by the examples of South Korea, Iran and Sri Lanka.
• South Korea:
  
  • The transmission of the Covid-19 in South Korea is related to the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. This cult facilitated the transmission of the disease from Wuhan to South Korea because of frequent travel among its followers.
• Iran:
  
  • The coronavirus was introduced in Iran through globalisation-triggered international alignment and incubated through political and religious processes.
  • The economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. dominated western countries compelled Iran to develop ties with China. Which in turn, made the traders act as the carriers of the viruses.
  • The initial hub of disease transmission in Iran was Qom, a popular pilgrimage centre for Shiite Muslims from where it reached the Iranian Parliament, having strong ties with Qom.
• Sri Lanka & India:
  
  • Here the onset of the Covid-19 has a lot to do with tourism and labour migration, processes intimately connected with globalisation.
  • Both in Sri Lanka and India, the first cases were reported among foreign tourists from China and Italy respectively.
  • The tour guides became the first set of local people exposed to the disease triggering local transmissions.
  • Both Sri Lanka and Kerala in India have large portions of their labour force employed overseas.
  • Returnees from these overseas destinations have contributed to the upsurge in the Covid-19 epidemic in South Asian countries.

Challenges

• The quarantine and social distancing processes may not be totally effective in so far as the migrant workers and their families are often in between two states, experiencing difficulties at both ends.
• Both migrant workers and tourist guides already experience discrimination of various kinds because of their occupations and the risks involved and the quarantine has added to their misery.

Way Forward

• The world needs to think beyond social distancing and quarantining the affected people and places.
• Broader and deeper issues like fallout from globalisation need to be analysed and questioned.
• In the recent G20 video conference, Indian Prime Minister stressed the world leaders to look at humanitarian aspects to global challenges like pandemics, climate change and terrorism, not just economic ones.
• The world needs to redefine the definition of globalisation and make it more human-centric instead of market and profit-oriented.
• There is a need to devote special attention to the needs of less developed countries as they might not contribute to the causes but face the severity of the situation far worse.

Source: TH

Fundraising for Covid-19

Why in News

Recently, the Government has hiked Ways and Means Advance (WMA) limit with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by 60%.

• WMA limit is proposed to be revised to Rs 1.20 lakh crore and would be reviewed on a need basis (from Rs 75,000 crore last year).
• This is to compensate for the cash flow mismatch in Financial Year (FY) 21 expected from higher spending to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Key Points

• The government has announced a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana) to provide income support, free food and other facilities to the poor to help them during the 21-day national lockdown.
• The fundraising resources are not only from the market, but also from institutions such as the RBI.
• The Budget 2020-21 has pegged the Centre’s net market borrowing, including government securities, treasury bills and post office life insurance fund at Rs 5.36 lakh crore.
• Out of gross borrowings of Rs 7.8 lakh crore in FY21, the Centre has proposed to borrow Rs 4.88 lakh crore, or 62.56%, in the first half of the fiscal, as against 62.25% done in the previous fiscal.
• In FY21, the Centre also plans to issue the Debt Exchange Traded Fund comprising government securities to widen the base of investors.
  
  • This will enable retail investors, who otherwise find it difficult to buy government bonds directly, take an exposure in this risk free instrument.

Source: IE

India-China: 70 Years of Diplomatic Relations

Why in News

India and China mark the 1^st April 2020 as the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between them starting from 1950 till now.

Chronology

• 1950
  
  • India and China established diplomatic relations on 1^st April 1950.
  • India was the first non-socialist country to establish relations with the People's Republic of China and the catchphrase ‘Hindi Chini Bhai Bhai’ became famous.
• 1955
  
  • Both countries attended the Asian-African Conference in which 29 countries participated in Bandung, Indonesia and jointly advocated the Bandung Spirit of solidarity, friendship and cooperation.
  • It has led to the decolonisation of the whole of Asia and Africa and to the formation of a Non-Aligned Movement as the third Way between the Two Blocs of Superpowers.
  • The First NAM Summit Conference took place in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in September 1961.
• 1962
  
  • The border conflict led to a serious setback in bilateral relations.
• 1976
  
  • China and India restored ambassadorial relations and bilateral ties improved gradually.
• 1988
  
  • Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited China, initiating the process of normalization of bilateral relations.
  • The two sides agreed to look forward and develop bilateral relations actively in other fields while seeking a mutually acceptable solution to boundary questions.
• 1992
  
  • Indian President R. Venkataraman visited China.
  • He was the first President who visited China since the independence of the Republic of India.
• 1996
  
  • Chinese President Jiang Zemin visited India.
  • He was the first head of state from China who visited India since the establishment of bilateral ties.
  • Agreement between the Government of China and the Government of India on Confidence Building Measures in the Military Field along the Line of Actual Control in the India-China Border Areas was signed.
• 2000
  
  • Indian President K R Narayanan visited China on the occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India.
• 2008
  
  • "A Shared Vision for the 21^st Century" was agreed upon by the two governments.
• 2010
  
  • The 60^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and India.
  • In December, the two countries issued a Joint Communiqué.
• 2011
  
  • It was the ‘China-India Exchange Year’.
  • Both sides held a series of people-to-people and cultural exchange activities.
  • Both of them signed a memorandum on joint compilation for the ‘Encyclopedia of India-China Cultural Contacts’.
• 2012
  
  • It was the ‘Year of China-India Friendship and Cooperation’.
  • The head of the governments met each other on the sidelines of the 4^th BRICS Summit and the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
• 2015
  
  • The two sides met on the sidelines of the 7^th BRICS Summit in Ufa, Russia and the Leaders' Meetings on East Asia Cooperation in Malaysia.
  • China decided to open the Nathu La Pass (Sikkim) to Indian official pilgrims to Xizang.
  • India celebrated the India Tourism Year in China.
• 2018
  
  • Chinese President held an informal meeting with Indian Prime Minister in Wuhan which set up a new model of exchanges between two leaders.
  • Indian Prime Minister visited China to attend the SCO Summit in Qingdao.
  • The two leaders met again on the sidelines of the 10^th BRICS Summit and the G20 Summit in Buenos Aires.
• 2019
  
  • The second informal meeting was held in Mamallapuram, Chennai which reaffirmed the Wuhan consensus.
  • Both nations agreed to build a closer partnership for development, enhance the in-depth strategic communication, promote mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields and advance exchanges and mutual learning between the two civilizations.
  • Both sides met on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Bishkek and the 11^th BRICS Summit.
• 2020
  
  • It marks the year of the 70^th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and India.
  • It is also China-India Year of Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges, where the two sides agreed to hold 70 celebratory activities to demonstrate the historic connection between the two civilizations as well as their growing bilateral relationship.

Facts and Figures on China-India Cooperation

• Political and Diplomatic Relations
  
  • The Communist Party of China (CPC) has maintained friendly exchanges with 9 major Indian political parties including the BJP, Congress and left-wing parties for a long time.
  • 20 Inter-parliamentary friendship groups have been set up by China and India.
  • There are 50 dialogue mechanisms between China and India for exchanging views on various topics of bilateral, regional and global concern.
• Economy and Trade
  
  • Since the beginning of the 21^st century, trade between China and India has grown from less than $3 billion to nearly $100 billion, an increase of about 32 times.
    
    • In 2019, the trade volume between China and India was $92.68 billion.
  • With a combined market of over 2.7 billion people and a GDP of 20% of the world's total, China and India enjoy huge potential and broad prospects for economic and trade cooperation.
• Science and Technology
  
  • Both nations have held Joint Research workshops on Science and Technology Innovation.
  • Indian companies have set up IT corridors in China, which help promote China-India cooperation in information technology and high technology.
• Defense
  
  • ‘Hand-in-Hand’ joint anti-terrorist exercises to enhance mutual understanding and trust, exchange training experiences and jointly improve anti-terrorism capabilities.
  • China-India defense and security consultation to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the defense field.
• People-to-People Exchanges
  
  • Both nations have held meetings of China-India High-Level People-to-People and Cultural Exchanges Mechanism. The two sides have made new progress on exchanges and cooperation in the fields of art, publishing, media, film and television, museum, sports, youth, tourism, locality, traditional medicine, yoga, education and think tanks.
  • Sessions of China-India High Level Media Forum and China-India Think Tank Forum were held to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in the field of media and think tanks.
  • The two countries have established pairs of sister cities and provinces. For example, sister provinces and cities between Fujian Province and Tamil Nadu State, Quanzhou City and Chennai City.
  • The number of Indian pilgrims to Xizang Autonomous Region of China has surged from several hundreds in the 1980s to more than 20,000 in 2019.

Way Forward

• Today's achievements of India-China relations embodied the great efforts of several generations.
• Both nations need to master the four keys of:
  
  • Leading: It means to reach consensus and guide the direction of the development of bilateral relations under the guidance of leaders from both nations.
  • Transmitting: It means to transmit the leaders’ consensus to all levels and translate it into tangible cooperation and outcomes.
  • Shaping: It means to go beyond the mode of managing differences, shape bilateral relations actively and accumulate positive momentum.
  • Integrating: It means to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, promote convergence of interests and achieve common development.
• At this moment, it is particularly important to revisit the original aspiration of establishing diplomatic relations 70 years ago and carry forward the spirit of good neighborliness and friendship, unity and cooperation.

Source: TH

Chinese Trawlers in South China Sea

Why in News

The Chinese fishing fleets have been seen raiding the rich waters of the South China Sea that are internationally recognised as exclusively Indonesia’s to fish.

• The fishermen in Natuna Islands (Indonesia) are worried.

Key Points

• The Chinese steel trawlers scrape the bottom of the sea and destroy other marine life.
• Chinese trawling aslo breaches the maritime borders.
• Since China is its largest trading partner, it has been argued that the Indonesian government has not taken any steps to deal with the incursions by Chinese fishing boats.
• China’s illegal fishing near the Natuna islands carries global consequence, reminding regional governments of Beijing’s expanding claims to the South China Sea through which one-third of the world’s maritime trade flows.
• China wants to claim the resources such as oil, natural gas, and fish in the South China Sea.
• The presence of Chinese fishers also helps to embody China’s maritime claims. The nine dash line (rejected by an international tribunal) asserted by China violates the principle of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

Source: TH

Core Sector Growth at 5.5%

Why in News

• According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the eight core sector industries recorded a growth of 5.5% in February, 2020 which is highest in 11-months.

Key Points

• This spike is because of growth in refinery products, electricity, fertiliser, cement and coal production.
• However, crude oil, natural gas, and steel recorded negative growth rate in February.
• This was the fourth consecutive month when the index of eight core industries reported growth.
• The outlook may not be very bright for March 2020, as the lockdown to check the spread of Covid-19 has disrupted the production process in the country and globally.

Core Sector Industries

• The eight core sector industries include coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertiliser, steel, cement and electricity
• The eight core industries comprise 40.27% of the weight of items included in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).
• The eight Core Industries in decreasing order of their weightage: Refinery Products> Electricity> Steel> Coal> Crude Oil> Natural Gas> Cement> Fertilizers.

Industry	Weight (In percentage)
Petroleum & Refinery production	28.04
Electricity generation	19.85
Steel production	17.92
Coal production	10.33
Crude Oil production	8.98
Natural Gas production	6.88
Cement production	5.37
Fertilizers production	2.63

Source: TH

Government Cuts Interest Rates on NSC, PPF

Why in News

Recently, the Government of India slashed interest rates on small savings schemes, including National Savings Certificate and Public Provident Fund to counter the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

• The move by the government has followed the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) recent 75 bps cut in its key interest rate.
• Interest rates for small savings schemes are notified on a quarterly basis.

Key Points

• In the case of the National Savings Certificate, the government has brought down interest rates by 110 basis points (bps) to 6.8%.
• Interest rates on Public Provident Funds (PPF) for the quarter have been brought down by 80 bps to 7.1%.
• Interest rates for Kisan Vikas Patra have slashed by 70 bps to 6.9%.

Decoding the Rate Cuts

• The rate cut is in the line with RBI’s recent move to slash key interest rates.
• Government’s decision is the part of the Fiscal Policy which is a sister strategy to monetary policy (decided by the Central Bank) used in different combinations to achieve the country's economic goal.
• Small savings schemes are attractive because of higher interest rates and tax benefits, and that hurts the mobilisation of bank deposits.
• It also affects the transmission of policy rate cuts, which is why the RBI also advocated rate rationalisation on small saving.
• The move will lead the nation into a low-interest rate regime.

Source The Hindu

Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020

Why in News

Recently, the government has promulgated the 'Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020'.

Key Points

• The Ordinance brings into effect various tax compliance related measures announced on March 24, 2020 in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
• The government has extended the deadline for filing income tax, last dates for making investments in instruments such as National Savings Certificates, Public Provident Fund for claiming income tax benefits, etc.
• The last date for linking PAN with biometric ID Aadhaar has been extended by three months to June 30.
• The Ordinance has also amended the provisions of the Income-tax Act to provide the same tax treatment to the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES Fund) as available to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund (PMNRF).
  
  • The donation made to the PM-CARES Fund shall be eligible for 100% deduction under section 80G of the I-T Act.
  • The government has set up the PM-CARES Fund to deal with any kind of emergency or distress situation like posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • PMNRF was instituted in 1948 by then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, to assist displaced persons from Pakistan.
    
    • The fund is currently used primarily to tackle natural calamities like floods, cyclones and earthquakes.
    • The fund is also used to help with medical treatment like kidney transplantation, cancer treatment and acid attack.

Source: IE

TAIPA Calls for Boosting Telecom Network Capacity

Recently, Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) urged for quickly enhancing the telecom network capacity to cope with the rising data traffic amidst nation-wide lockdown.

• The data traffic has surged by 30% in the last few days as more and more companies are switching to Work-From-Home.

Key Points

• Due to the ‘work from home’ policy for both public and private employees, there has been a 30% rise in data consumption.
• Certain metropolitan cities such as Hyderabad and Bengaluru have posted 70% rise in cellular network data.
• Telecom services come under essential services and thereby are exempted from the lockdown.
• To maintain data usage and smooth functioning of telecom services 24/7 , the telecom sector needs critical, robust infrastructure.
  
  • The states need to align their policies with the Centre's Right of Way (RoW) 2016 norms.
  • With more than three years gone, only 16 States out of 36 States/UT’s have broadly aligned their policy with RoW Policy 2016.

Source The Hindu

Supreme Court Upholds Right to Discuss Covid-19

Why in News

Recently, the Central government appealed in the Supreme Court that media outlets, in the “larger interest of justice”, should only publish or telecast anything on COVID-19 after ascertaining the factual position from the government.

Key Points

• According to the government, “any deliberate or inaccurate” reporting by the media, particularly web portals, in the midst of an unprecedented situation can have a “serious and inevitable potential of causing panic in a larger section of the society”.
  
  • The government blamed “fake and misleading” messages on social media for creating widespread panic, which led to mass “barefoot” journeys of migrant workers from cities to their native villages in rural India.
  • The mass migration of the poor would defeat the preventive measures taken by the Central government to contain pandemic.
• The Supreme court took a view balancing free press and the need to avoid panic in society during an unprecedented crisis.
  
  • The Court upheld the right to free discussion about COVID-19, and directed the media to refer to and publish the official version of the developments in order to avoid inaccuracies and large-scale panic.
  • It ordered the government to start a daily bulletin on COVID-19 developments through all media avenues in the next 24 hours.

Source: TH

Quasi-subspecies of Covid-19

Why in News

• According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) a mixture of three quasi-subspecies of SARS-CoV-2 is in circulation in India.
  
  • However, scientists are yet to classify a SARS-Cov-2 variant as an Indian strain.

Key Points

• These imported variants of SARs-CoV-2 showed no differences from how they behaved in the place of origin.
  
  • India’s COVID-19 cases were mainly from people with travel history and their immediate contacts, which is to say that this virus was brought in from outside.
• The government has also constituted a Science and Technology Empowered Committee to coordinate among science agencies, scientists, industries and regulatory bodies for Covid-19 response.
• The Committee will work with the Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Institute for Science (IISC) to take speedy decisions on research and development keeping in view of the critical need to increase the testing facilities for COVID-19 disease.

Source:TH