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Britain’s AstraZeneca said on Monday its vaccine for the novel coronavirus could be around 90% effective without any serious side effects, giving the world another important tool to halt the COVID-19 pandemic. The combined analysis from both dosing regimens resulted in an average efficacy of 70%. The vaccine developed by Oxford University was 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 when it was administered as a half dose followed by a full dose at least one month apart, according to data from the late-stage trials in Britain and Brazil. No serious safety events related to the vaccine have been confirmed and it was well tolerated across both dosing regimens, it said. “This vaccine’s efficacy and safety confirm that it will be highly effective against COVID-19 and will have an immediate impact on this public health emergency,” Pascal Soriot, Astra’s chief executive, said in a statement. The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines by volume, has partnered with

Google Tasks Mate is being tested in India, and will let users earn money by doing simple tasks on their smartphones. Task Mate will provide access to a variety of tasks, posted by businesses from around the world. These include things like clicking a picture of a restaurant, answering survey questions about personal preferences, or helping translate sentences from English to other languages. The app is currently in beta and is limited to selected testers through a referral code system. Users will be paid in local currency for the tasks that they complete. The Task Mate testing was spotted by a Reddit user, as reported by 9to5Google. While the app is available to download on Google Play, you can’t use it unless you have a referral code, which is available through invite only. There are essentially three steps to using Task Mate, as written in the app description on Google Play: find tasks nearby, complete a task to begin earning, and cash out your earnings. Tasks are categorised as Sit

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi today asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi a flurry of questions in connection to the anticipated vaccine for the COVID-19, raising issues like funding, timing, and priority of candidates. The former Congress President’s queries on Twitter came in the backdrop of a spike in fresh COVID-19 cases from several states like Delhi and Gujarat in the past few days and also the expected arrival of a vaccine in the market as announced by Oxford University as well as drug-makers like Pfizer and Moderna. His queries came a day after he criticised the central government’s mishandling of the lockdown announced in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic sweeping India since January. The Prime Minister had on Friday held a meeting to review the country”s vaccination strategy in which important issues related to the progress of COVID-19 vaccine development, regulatory approvals, and procurement were discussed, according report. He had also reviewed various issues like prioritisat

The Center For Excellence for Research on Clean Air (CERCA), which is an academic think tank at IIT Delhi. has converted a 1948 Volkswagen Beetle into an electric car. IIT Delhi only changed the engine apart from a couple of other components of the vehicle. In fact, the modifications to the vehicle are so clever that if need be, the original petrol engine can be fitted again in the vehicle. This comes after IIT Delhi helped develop flow batteries to replace diesel generators. IIT Delhi even demonstrated a working prototype of the same. “E-mobility has been the buzzword in the automobile industry and the need to adopt e-mobility is not just essential, but pressing for safeguarding the planet since the last half-century has seen adversarial changes in climatic conditions as a result of the ever-increasing pollution with vehicular emissions being one of its major contributors. It is high time to realize the damage already caused and bring a halt to this by shifting to more sustainable alt

The Delhi High Court Monday granted time to the CBI to file status report on disqualified Uttar Pradesh MLA Kuldeep Singh Sengar’s appeal challenging his conviction and 10-year imprisonment in the custodial death case of the Unnao rape victim’s father. Justice Anu Malhotra directed the agency to submit its reply within two weeks to the plea and listed the matter for further hearing on January 12. The High Court on November 6 issued notice to the CBI on Sengar’s appeal against his conviction and jail term and had also asked the agency to respond to his application seeking suspension of the sentence till pendency of the appeal. During the hearing, CBI’s counsel sought more time to file the status report saying that the investigating officer of this case is also probing the UP’s Hathras rape case due to which he could not file the reply. Advocate Kanhaiya Singhal, representing Sengar, submitted that he has a strong case for suspension of sentence and let the CBI file its reply then he wou

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has proposed a reduction in the equity dilution requirement for initial public offers (IPOs) exceeding ₹ 10,000 crore. Companies with a post-issue capital above ₹ 10,000 crore will be required to initially sell only 5 per cent to the public, as against 10 per cent mandated earlier, the market regulator said in a consultation paper issued on Friday. The consultation paper will be open for public feedback till December 7. “It has been represented that such large issuers already have investments by PE / other strategic investors who are classified as public shareholders postlisting and therefore, mandating minimum 10 per cent of post issue MCap at the time of IPO leads to unnecessary dilution of holding of the promoter/ existing shareholder and is therefore a constraining factor for listing”, Sebi said in its consultation paper. SEBI has also proposed to increase the timeline for maintaining minimum public shareholding at 95 per cent from 3 ye

The government is likely to report a current account surplus at the end of the current financial year ending in March 2021, mainly led by a fall in imports, the chief economic adviser at the ministry of finance said on Monday. India’s current account surplus rose to a record $19.8 billion in April-June as its trade deficit narrowed sharply, the Reserve Bank of India said earlier. Demand for imports has fallen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with recent economic reforms initiated by the government to boost manufacturing, Krishnamurthy Subramanian told a virtual conference organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).