Year: 2020

The American army stationed & serving in Afghanistan should be “home by Christmas”, said the US President Donald Trump, following an announcement last month that Washington would withdraw thousands of military personnel from the war-torn country by November.   Taking to twitter late Wednesday night, the President said, “We should have the small remaining number of our brave men and women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas.”   Last month, Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of the US Central Command, told several media outlets that American troops in Afghanistan would also be…

CM Yogi Adityanath has recently inaugurated Uttar Pradesh’s largest oxygen production plant in Modinagar, Ghaziabad, in a virtual ceremony. Medical oxygen is important in the treatment of critically ill Covid-19 patients.   According to a State Government press statement the Chief Minister said, “The state’s struggle for oxygen will now be a thing of the past. After the installation of HFNC (high-flow nasal cannula), the demand for oxygen had shot up in the Covid-19 hospitals in the state. The new facility will bridge the gap between demand and supply and…

Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan, passed away yesterday at the age of 74 due to heart failure.  He is survived by his wife and three children.   Lok Janshakti Party chief and his son Chirag Paswan broke the news on Twitter. “Papa …. Now you are not in this world but I know you are always with me wherever you are. Miss you Papa…,” he tweeted, with a throwback photo of his father hugging him.   Paswan, founder of Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) and one of the most noted Dalit leaders of…

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh said that they have busted a Television Rating Point (TRP) racket that involves Republic TV, Box Cinema, and Fakt Marathi.   The TRP is calculated on the basis of TV channel viewership in a set of households. said Singh, while addressing reporters in Mumbai, said these three channels were found manipulating TRPs and distorting the system used by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) to rate television channels.   “There are 2,000 barometers installed in Mumbai to monitor TRPs. BARC has given a confidential contract for…

Aadith Vishwanath Gourishetty, a one year and 9 months old child from Hyderabad, has secured his name in World Book of records and four other record books for his sharp memory skills. He has bagged 5 Records, namely, World Book of Records, India Book of Records, Telugu Book of Records and two more National Records for his extraordinary memory skills.   At this young age, Aadith can recognise deities, car logos, colours, all English alphabets, domestic animals, wild animals, professions, body parts, flags, fruits, home appliances, among other things.  …

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said, Britain would take back “full control of our money, our borders and our laws” on January 1 when a status-quo transition arrangement with the European Union ends (EU).   “This country has not only left the European Union but on January 1 we will take back full control of our money, our borders and our laws,” he told parliament, repeating a mantra that helped him win an election last year.

Clinical trials disrupted by COVID-19 are expected to resume at a much slower rate than originally anticipated, as more nations are re-enforcing lockdown due to a globally rising number of COVID-19 cases, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.   Priya Nair, Trials Intelligence Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The general trend shows a gradual increase in the overall percentage of trials for each trial status*, the biggest of which has been seen in trials that are ongoing and recruiting and those that are ongoing but not recruiting. Between 17 August…

With the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announcing today that it will also initiate a rolling review of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech besides just AstraZeneca’s asset;  Reynald Castañeda, Pharma Writer for the Investigative News team at GlobalData, offers his view:   “After interviewing ten experts, there is clearly a split in terms of whether AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine AZD1222 trials restarted too quickly on the heels of news reports of a trial volunteer having transverse myelitis. With regards to the other vaccine frontrunners, Pfizer and BioNTech’s trial design may have an…

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi  inaugurated RAISE 2020, a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI) today. RAISE 2020 is a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and chart a course for using AI for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment in areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility, among other sectors.   The Prime Minister praised the organizers for encouraging discussion on Artificial Intelligence. He said Technology has transformed our workplaces and has improved connectivity. He hoped the merger between  social responsibility and AI would enrich AI with…

NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said, with its data and innovation capabilities, India can become the Artificial Intelligence (AI) laboratory of the world. Kant was speaking at a press conference to unveil the upcoming global virtual summit on AI — ‘RAISE 2020’. Kant noted that AI can help transform lives. “India is developing AI-based solutions for social empowerment across spheres like healthcare, education, finance, agriculture and governance. On the strength of its data and innovation prowess, India can become the AI laboratory of the world, delivering intuitive solutions to a…