30 groups in India trying to develop coronavirus vaccines
Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, Dr K Vijay Raghavan has said around 30 groups in the country from big industry to individual academics, are trying to develop vaccines to fight COVID-19. Briefing media in New Delhi, he said, of them around 20 groups are keeping a good pace. He said, the efforts to develop the vaccine are being made in three ways- indigenously, in collaboration with other companies and by working with the leading companies. He added that AICTE and CSIR have embarked on a drug discovery hackathon which is a high-end hackathon where students are trained with information on how to do computational drug discovery. He also said, five important things need to be kept in mind for the prevention of COVID-19 before vaccine arrives
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman launches facility for instant allotment of PAN through Aadhaar
India Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman today formally launched the facility for instant allotment of PAN on near to real time basis. This facility is now available for those PAN applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number registered with Aadhaar. The allotment process is paperless and an electronic PAN, e-PAN is issued to the applicants free of cost. The beta version of the facility of instant PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC was started on 12th of Feb on the e-filing website of Income Tax Department. Since then onwards, over 6 lakh 77 thousand instant PANs have been allotted with a turnaround time of about 10 minutes, till 25th of May.
COVID-19 recovery rate reaches to 42.75 percent in India
The recovery rate of people affected with COVID-19 has improved further and it haw now reached 42.75 per cent. Health Ministry in a statement said that so far, a total of 67 thousand 691 people have been cured and in the last 24 hours, 3,266 people have recovered from the infection.
Lok Sabha Speaker nominates Dr Jitendra Singh, others as Delimitation Commission Members
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla has nominated the Associate Members of Delimitation Commission for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir along with Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur under Article 5 of the Delimitation Act, 2002. The members nominated in J&K are MoS PMO, Dr Jitendra Singh and Members of Parliament, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Mohammad Akbar Lone, Hasnain Masoodi and Jugal Kishore Sharma. The commission will delimit the constituencies of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019. According to section 60 of Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall be increased from 107 to 114.
Uttar Pradesh govt to develop 800 km roads as Herbal roads
Uttar Pradesh government will develop 800 km roads as Herbal roads in the state. These herbal roads will have medicinal and herbal trees along with the land on their both sides. Deputy Chief Minister and PWD minister of the state Keshav Prasad Maurya told AIR News that these herbal roads will have trees like like Peepal, Neem, Sehjan along with other herb varieties like Brahmi, Ashvagandha and Jatrofa. These 800 kilometer roads will be along national and state highways passing through state and the herbal garden along with them will keep air-borne, bacterial and other diseases at bay. PWD Department will also make arrangement for rain water recharging system on these herbal roads.
SBI reduces interest rates on fixed deposits by 40 bps
The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has reduced interest rates on retail term deposits by up to 40 basis points (bps) across all tenors. This is the second reduction in fixed deposits interest rates by the lender in May. It had reduced its deposit rates on May 12.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen re-elected for second term
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen who has been inaugurated for a second term, called for stability in relations with China even as Beijing claims it as its own territory. She said that Taipei will not accept Beijing’s political terms that would downgrade Taiwan and undermine the cross-strait status quo. 63-year-old President Tsai won the elections late last year with thumping majority and is from the Democratic Progressive Party which is fiercely against China’s claim on the nation.
IIT Madras develops magnesium alloy to replace steel, aluminium in cars
A team of researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), along with the University of North Texas and US Army Research Laboratory, have developed a magnesium alloy with significantly improved properties, that can replace steel and aluminium in automotive and aerospace components to make vehicles more fuel efficient. This Magnesium alloy is lightweight, which helps lower the carbon footprint of vehicles. Lightweight vehicles need lesser fuel to run and are therefore more fuel-efficient.
Source: Air News / Business Standard
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