No move to give booster doses

No move to give booster doses

India currently has no plans to give booster doses as some nations have begun doing, the government's chief Covid-19 adviser said on Wednesday as the country nears the milestone of one billion vaccine injections.

Dr Vinod K. Paul said that, with the country's vaccine makers ramping up production and domestic needs diminishing, India should be able to resume being a major exporter of vaccines from next year.

Homemade Covid-19 vaccine for kids

India on Tuesday recommended emergency use of Bharat Biotech's Covid-19 shot for children below 12 years, making the vaccine maker the first in the country to get such an approval after a review of its trial data for the two to 18 age-group.

The decision comes as India shifts its focus to vaccinating children against the coronavirus, having already rolled out more than 950 million doses to adults among its population of nearly 1.4 billion.

Karnataka minister says Indian women don't want to give birth

Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar on Sunday waded into controversy by claiming that Indian women want to stay single and that "even after marriage they do not want to give birth to children and are opting for surrogacy", adding that this was "not a good development".

His comment did not go down well with women's organisations, which condemned it and stressed that women are free to decide whether to have a child or not.

Woman trampled to death by wild elephant

A woman in Assam's Golaghat district was trampled to death by a wild elephant on Sunday.

Forest department officials said Ms Jyoti Tanti, 21, was attacked while she was taking a bath in the river Dhansiri.

Akasa Air gets aviation ministry nod to fly

Akasa Air, backed by Indian billionaire Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, said on Monday it expects to start flying next year after getting initial clearance from the civil aviation ministry to launch the country's latest ultra-low cost carrier.

The approval comes at a time when India's aviation industry is reeling from the impact of Covid-19, with airlines losing billions of dollars. But the sector's long-term prospect makes the country a hot market for plane makers Boeing and Airbus.

Invesco lashes out at Zee over Sony deal

United States investment firm Invesco on Monday publicly lashed out at Indian TV giant Zee and objected to some terms of its proposed merger with Japan's Sony Group, asking shareholders of the Indian company to support a bid to revamp its management.

Invesco funds own nearly 18 per cent of Zee, and its first such public tirade ratchets up pressure on one of India's biggest TV groups just days after its founder accused Invesco of plotting a hostile takeover.

Adani to stop handling containers from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan

India's largest port operator Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone said on Monday that its terminals would no longer handle export and import of container cargo from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan from Nov 15.

The company did not give a reason for its action. The decision comes weeks after Indian officials seized nearly three tonnes of heroin originating from Afghanistan worth an estimated Rs200 billion ($3.58 billion) from two containers at Gujarat's Mundra Port, run by Adani Ports.

States hit by power outages as coal supply still tight

India's energy crisis is starting to bite with states from Uttar Pradesh to Rajasthan and Kerala hit by blackouts over the weekend.

The shortage of coal - which makes up around seven per cent of India's electricity mix - is forcing people to use generators and some industrial users to buy electricity at the power exchange.

India-China border talks stall, with both sides blaming each other

China and India on Sunday blamed each other for a lack of progress in finding ways to ease friction along their disputed border, underscoring the lingering ill-will following clashes last year.

The Chinese side "made great efforts" to calm tensions during a meeting of military officials at the Chushul-Moldo border meeting point in the Ladakh region on Sunday, Colonel Long Shaohua, spokesperson for the Western theatre of the People's Liberation Army, said.

"But India still stuck to unreasonable and unrealistic demands, which added difficulties to the negotiation."

The Indian military hit back, saying it made suggestions for resolving areas of dispute, "but the Chinese side was not agreeable and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals."

Anti-drugs officer alleges he is being spied on

A top officer of the anti-drugs agency Narcotics Control Bureau, who is investigating the case in which Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan's son has been arrested, has alleged that he is being spied on, reported NDTV.

NCB zonal director Samir Wankhede spearheaded the raid on the cruise ship off Mumbai coast earlier this month, leading to the arrest of Aryan Khan.

Sources in the agency said Mr Wankhede and senior officer Mutha Jain have met the Maharashtra police chief to complain about the monitoring.

Minister's son denied bail, two more arrested

A court in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday denied bail to Ashish Mishra, the main accused in the murder of four farmers and a journalist who were allegedly run over by a convoy of vehicles, including a jeep owned by his father and Union Minister Ajay Mishra.

Three others were killed in subsequent violence at Tikonia on Oct 3. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of UP Police have arrested two more persons - 38-year-old Ankit Das and 37-year-old Lateef alias Kala-in connection with the incident, taking the total number of arrests in the case to six.

Domestic flights to fly at full capacity

Domestic flights in India will fly at full capacity from Oct 18, India's civil aviation ministry said on Tuesday, as it lifted one of the major restrictions on the industry since the onset of the pandemic 18 months ago.

The government's move comes ahead of the Indian festive season.

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