12 JAMMU SUNDAY QJULY11, 2021 B A C K P A G E The ...
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HOUSTON, JULY 10: Sirisha Bandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical en- gineer, is set to become the third In- dian-origin woman to head to space when she flies as part of Virgin Galactic's first fully crewed flight test on Sunday. Bandla, who was born in Guntur dis- trict in Andhra Pradesh and brought up in Houston, Texas, will join Sir Richard Branson, the company's billionaire founder, and five others on board Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity to make a journey to the edge of space from New Mexico. "I am so incredibly honoured to be a part of the amazing crew of #Unity22, and to be a part of a company whose mission is to make space available to all," she tweeted. Bandla will be astronaut no 004 and her flight role will be Researcher Expe- rience, according to her profile on Virgin Galactic. She will become the third Indian-ori- gin woman to fly into space after Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams. "When I first heard that I was getting this opportunity, it was just. I think that that probably captured it very well, I was speechless. This is an incredible opportunity to get people from differ- ent backgrounds, different geographies and different communities into space," she said in a video posted on Virgin Galactic Twitter on July 6. Bandla, a Purdue University alumna, will be evaluating the human-tended research experience, using an experi- ment from the University of Florida that requires several handheld fixation tubes that will be activated at various points in the flight profile, a statement on the Galactic website said. Bandla started in her role as the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations at Virgin Galac- tic in January 2021, the university said in a statement. Bandla grew up in Houston, near NASA's Johnson Space Centre, and al- ways wanted to become an astronaut. But poor eyesight meant she could not meet the requirements to become a pi- lot or an astronaut, derailing her high- school plan to go the Air Force-to- NASA route, she said in the statement. "I've had fond memories of my time at Purdue,” Bandla said in 2021, “being part of a group of passionate individu- als... Purdue built a strong foundation of technical and programmatic principles we all carried into our successful ca- reers. The flight window for the next rocket-powered test flight of its Space- ShipTwo Unity opens July 11, pending weather and technical checks, Galactic said in a statement. The “Unity 22” mission will be the twenty-second flight test for VSS Unity and the company's fourth crewed spaceflight. It will also be the first to carry a full crew of two pilots and four mission specialists in the cabin, includ- ing the company's founder, Sir Bran- son, who will be testing the private as- tronaut experience, it said. "I've always been a dreamer. My mum taught me to never give up and to reach for the stars. On July 11, it's time to turn that dream into a reality aboard the next @VirginGalatic spaceflight," Branson tweeted following the an- nouncement on July 2. Building on the success of the com- pany's most recent spaceflight in May, Unity 22 will focus on cabin and cus- tomer experience objectives. Indian-origin aeronautical engineer Shirisha Bandla set to fly into space on Virgin Galactic spacecraft BENGALURU, JULY 10: Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar on Saturday allegedly slapped a man who at- tempted to put his arms around him, drawing crit- icism from the BJP and on social media. In the video that has since gone viral, Shivaku- mar can be seen getting ir- ritated by the action of the man, who tried to get close to him and pace along with him. The Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Chief, who appeared to lose cool, can then be heard telling the man, said to be a party worker: "...you should be responsi- ble....", before asking cam- eramen present there to delete the footage. The incident took place during his visit to the dis- trict headquarters town of Mandya to inquire about the health of ailing veteran leader, former Minister and MP G Made Gowda. Tweeting the video of the incident, BJP national General Secretary C T Ravi, asked Congress na- tional leader Rahul Gandhi whether he had given "li- cence for violence" to Shiv- akumar, whom he referred to as a follower of Kotwal Ramachandra, one of the underworld dons of Ben- galuru in the 1970s and 1980s. "Karnataka CONgress President @DKShivaku- mar SLAPS his party worker in full public view. If this is how the "former shishya" of Kotwal Ra- machandra treats his party worker, one can imagine what he would do with Others. Have you given DKS the "licence for vio- lence", @RahulGandhi?" he asked. Karnataka BJP, hitting out at Shivakumar for his "behaviour" and calling him "Rowdi DKShi", said he should learn how to conduct himself in public. Posting a video of an ear- lier incident where Shiv- akumar can be seen hitting a youth who was clicking selfies, as he was about to address the media, the BJP in a tweet asked him to quit public life if "underworld- like behaviour" is unavoid- able. Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar slaps man for trying to put his arms around him BAHARAMPUR (WB), JULY 10: Con- gress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday claimed that the Centre has earned Rs 4.91 crore revenue as petrol and diesel prices have been hiked 69 times since Janu- ary 1 this year. Chowdhury, also the West Bengal Congress chief, urged the TMC gov- ernment in the state to fol- low the footsteps of the Chhattisgarh administra- tion and do away with Value Added Taxes (VAT) to reduce fuel prices. “Unmindful of the suffer- ings of the people, the Narendra Modi govern- ment in Delhi has effected 69 hikes in petrol and diesel prices since January 1 and earned Rs 4.91 crore rev- enue.” “The BJP government is not showing any concern for the plight of the com- mon man. We urge the Cen- tre to roll back fuel price hike, as petrol breached the Rs 100-per-litre mark, diesel neared century and LPG rate touched Rs 850 per cylinder,” the senior Congress leader told re- porters. He said that the petrol price dipped by Rs 12 per litre after the Congress gov- ernment in Chhattisgarh did away with VAT, and urged other state adminis- trations, including that of West Bengal, to follow its lead. “We know that the TMC government in West Bengal will have to forego a rev- enue of Rs 1,300-Rs 1,400 crore yielded from VAT, but a party that has come to power with such a huge mandate shouldn’t be found wanting in undertak- ing pro-people steps,” Chowdhury said. Responding to a query, he said that the main oppo- sition party is given the post of the Parliamentary Ac- counts Committee (PAC) both in the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha. “I have been the PAC chairman three times. My name was recommended by our leader Sonia Gandhi. However, the speaker takes the final decision. Appoint- ing the PAC chairman is his/her discretion,” he said. However, Chowdhury did not directly comment on the controversy over the ap- pointment of TMC leader Mukul Roy, who recently crossed over from the BJP, as the PAC chairman of West Bengal assembly by the speaker on Friday, which had sparked a walk- out by saffron party mem- bers who are demanding his disqualification under the anti-defection law. Centre earned Rs 4.91 crore revenue as fuel prices hiked 69 times this year: Adhir NEW DELHI, JULY 10: The World Health Or- ganization (WHO) is likely to take a decision on includ- ing Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin in the emergency use list (EUL) within four to six weeks, Soumya Swami- nathan, the global health body’s chief scientist has said. Speaking at a webinar or- ganised by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on Friday, Swami- nathan said the WHO is re- viewing Covaxin as its man- ufacturer Bharat Biotech is now uploading its entire data on the health body’s portal. According to WHO guidelines, EUL is a proce- dure to streamline the process by which new or unlicensed products can be used during public health emergencies. “There is a process to be followed for EUL and pre- qualification of vaccines under which a company has to complete phase 3 trials and submit the whole data to the regulatory depart- ment of WHO which is ex- amined by an expert advi- sory group,” Swaminathan said. “The completeness of the data, which includes safety and efficacy and also the manufacturing quality, standard is provided. So, I expect that Bharat Biotech has already submitted data and in four to six weeks there will be a decision on its inclusion,” Swami- nathan added. At present, the WHO has approved vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, As- trazeneca-SK Bio/Serum Institute of India, As- traZeneca EU, Janssen, Moderna and Sinopharm for emergency use. “We currently have six vaccines approved with EUL and have recommen- dations from our Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE). We continue to look at Covaxin. Bharat Biotech has now started up- loading their data on our portal and that is the next vaccine that will be re- viewed by our experts com- mittee,” the chief scientist said. She also mentioned the WHO Research and Devel- opment Blueprint prepared in 2016, shortly after the Ebola outbreak, in which a research roadmap for dis- eases with pandemic poten- tial was laid out. “I want to mention the Research and Development (R&D) Blueprint. I think we need to think about how we can do better in the future in terms of development of not just vaccines but drugs, diagnostics and ensuring equitable access. This blue- print was developed after the Ebola outbreak and es- sentially it laid out a re- search roadmap for dis- eases which have pandemic potential,” she said. “So, when the roadmap was developed in 2016, it mentioned ‘Pathogen X’ in it which showed that we were anticipating a pan- demic, which is now COVID-19,” she added. Swaminathan also said the roadmap essentially laid out the steps in terms of developing target prod- uct profiles – like standards for vaccines, diagnostics regulatory standards, trial designs, and trial simula- tors. “This pre-thinking helped because WHO was able to bring together scien- tists, researchers, acade- mics and companies at the beginning of last year to de- velop a research roadmap for Covid,” she said. At present, there are 105 candidate vaccines in clini- cal evaluation out of which 27 are in phase three or four, she said. There are another 184 candidate vaccines in pre- clinical evaluation. Most of the vaccines are designed for a two-dose schedule, she added. The WHO chief scientist also said the Delta variant of the coronavirus is very transmissible. “Two complete doses are required for protection against the Delta variant but you can still get the in- fection and can transmit it. This is why masking and other precautions are im- portant to continue,” she said. Talking about some com- panies stressing on the need to develop a booster dose after two vaccine shots doses to protect people, Swaminathan said, at this point there is no data to in- dicate if a booster dose is re- quired. “Science is evolving. At this point we don’t have data to indicate that every- one will need a booster and is it going to be after one year or two years. But data from follow up studies of vaccinated people are very encouraging and is showing that immune responses are lasting up to 8, 10 or even 12 months,” she said. “A few studies that have looked at giving booster dose after six months have shown that it can increase the antibody levels so high that they can protect against all variants. What we know is you need a high level of antibodies, whether it’s through a booster or the first course. We need more studies and see which vac- cines will require a booster and when. It could be pos- sible that a combination of two different vaccines is ad- ministered in future but these are all being looked into through research and so we have to wait,” she said. Decision on emergency use listing of Covaxin likely in 4-6 weeks: WHO NEW DELHI, JULY 10: Leading milk supplier Mother Dairy has in- creased milk prices in Delhi-NCR and other cities by Rs 2 per litre with effect from Sunday on rising in- put cost. The milk prices were last revised in December 2019. Justifying the hike, Mother Dairy said that pro- curement cost of milk from dairy farmers has gone up by 8-10 per cent in the last one year. Other operational costs have also risen. On July 1, Amul hiked milk prices by Rs 2 per litre across all cities. Mother Dairy said it is "compelled to raise its liq- uid milk prices by Rs 2/litre in Delhi NCR with effect from July 11, 2021." Prices are also being re- vised across key markets, including east and central Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai, Nagpur and Kolkata from July 11 onwards by Rs 2/litre on the current pre- vailing MRP in respective markets, it added. Mother Dairy milk is available in over 100 cities across the country. It sells around 30 lakh litres of milk per day in Delhi-NCR, while the to- tal sale is 35 lakh litre per day. "The company has been experiencing infla- tionary pressure on the overall input costs which has increased multifold in last one year, accompanied by the distress in milk pro- duction due to the ongoing pandemic," the statement said. In the last one year, the farm prices have increased by 8-10 per cent coupled with mounting operational costs of processing, pack- aging and logistics. "The farm prices of milk alone have firmed up by about 4 per cent in the last 3-4 weeks. Despite paying higher prices towards milk procurement in the last one year, the consumer prices were kept intact. With this revision, the milk prices are undergoing a revision of 4 per cent," Mother Dairy said. The company said it has always attempted to strike the right balance between the consumers and the milk producers. "The surge in farm prices is only being partially passed on to the con- sumers, thereby securing the interests of both the stakeholders," it added. As per the revised prices, bulk vended milk (token milk) will be sold at Rs 44 per litre from Sunday as against the current price of Rs 42 per litre. Full cream milk (poly pack) will be available at Rs 57 per litre, up from Rs 55 per litre now. Prices of toned milk has been revised to Rs 47 from Rs 45 per litre, while dou- ble toned milk (Live Lite) rates have gone up to Rs 41 from Rs 39 per litre. Cow milk will cost Rs 49 from Sunday as against Rs 47 per litre now. Rates of half litre milk pouch have been increased by Re 1, which means an ef- fective hike of Rs 2 per litre. Mother Dairy milk to be costlier by Rs 2 per litre in Delhi NCR, other cities NEW DELHI, JULY 10: An extremely bright, hydrogen-deficient, fast- evolving supernova that shines with the energy bor- rowed from an exotic type of neutron star with an ul- tra-powerful magnetic field has been spotted by Indian researchers. A deep study of such an- cient spatial objects can help probe the mysteries of the early universe, the De- partment of Science and Technology (DST) said. Supernovae (SNe) are highly energetic explosions in the universe releasing an enormous amount of en- ergy. Such types of super- novae called SuperLumi- nous Supernova (SLSNe) are very rare. This is because they gen- erally originated from very massive stars (minimum mass limit is more than 25 times that of the sun), and the number distribution of such massive stars in our galaxy or in nearby galax- ies is sparse. Among them, SLSNe-I has been counted to about 150 entities spectroscopi- cally confirmed so far, the DST said. These ancient objects are among the least under- stood SNe because their underlying sources are un- clear, and their extremely high peak luminosity is un- explained, it said. The SN 2020ank, first discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility on Janu- ary 19, 2020, was studied by scientists from Aryab- hatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES) Nainital, a re- search institute under the Department of Science and Technology (DST), from February 2020 and then through the coronavirus lockdown phase of March and April, the DST said. The apparent look of the SN was very similar to other objects in the field. However, once the bright- ness was estimated, it turned out as a very blue object reflecting its brighter character, it said. The team observed it us- ing special arrangements at India's recently commis- sioned Devasthal Optical Telescope (DOT-3.6m) along with two other In- dian telescopes: Sampur- nanand Telescope-1.04m and Himalayan Chandra Telescope-2.0m, it said. They found that the outer layers of the onion struc- tured supernovae had been peeled off, and the core was shining with a borrowed energy source, it added. The study led by Amit Kumar, a PhD student working under SB Pandey, and published in the Monthly Notice of the Royal Astronomical Soci- ety, suggested a possibly powering source from an exotic type of neutron star with an ultra-powerful magnetic field (magnetar), the DST said. Deeper investigations could explore the underly- ing physical mechanisms, possible progenitors, and environments hosting such rare explosions and their possible associations with other energetic explosions like Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), the DST said. Indian researchers spot rare super-luminous supernova shining with borrowed energy source 12 JAMMU Q SUNDAY Q JULY 11, 2021 B A C K P A G E CMYK CMYK CMYK CMYK Owner/Printed/Publisher by: Sahil Mahajan and Published from 13-B/C, Gandhi Nagar Jammu Pin: 180004 and Printed from The Himalayan Mail Printing Press, Jeevan Nagar/Deeli, Jammu Editor:- Harinder Mahajan Phone: 0191-7968906, Fax: 0191-7968906, Phone Marketing: 0191 -7968906, 94191-19286, E-mail : [email protected] www.himalayanmail.com The Himalayan Mail
Transcript of 12 JAMMU SUNDAY QJULY11, 2021 B A C K P A G E The ...
HOUSTON, JULY 10: SirishaBandla, a 34-year-old aeronautical en-gineer, is set to become the third In-dian-origin woman to head to spacewhen she flies as part of Virgin Galactic'sfirst fully crewed flight test on Sunday.
Bandla, who was born in Guntur dis-trict in Andhra Pradesh and brought upin Houston, Texas, will join Sir RichardBranson, the company's billionairefounder, and five others on board VirginGalactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity tomake a journey to the edge of spacefrom New Mexico.
"I am so incredibly honoured to be apart of the amazing crew of #Unity22,and to be a part of a company whosemission is to make space available toall," she tweeted.
Bandla will be astronaut no 004 andher flight role will be Researcher Expe-rience, according to her profile on Virgin
Galactic.She will become the third Indian-ori-
gin woman to fly into space afterKalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
"When I first heard that I was gettingthis opportunity, it was just. I think thatthat probably captured it very well, Iwas speechless. This is an incredibleopportunity to get people from differ-ent backgrounds, different geographiesand different communities into space,"she said in a video posted on VirginGalactic Twitter on July 6.
Bandla, a Purdue University alumna,will be evaluating the human-tendedresearch experience, using an experi-ment from the University of Floridathat requires several handheld fixationtubes that will be activated at variouspoints in the flight profile, a statementon the Galactic website said.
Bandla started in her role as the Vice
President of Government Affairs andResearch Operations at Virgin Galac-tic in January 2021, the university saidin a statement.
Bandla grew up in Houston, nearNASA's Johnson Space Centre, and al-ways wanted to become an astronaut.But poor eyesight meant she could notmeet the requirements to become a pi-lot or an astronaut, derailing her high-school plan to go the Air Force-to-NASA route, she said in the statement.
"I've had fond memories of my time atPurdue,” Bandla said in 2021, “beingpart of a group of passionate individu-als... Purdue built a strong foundation oftechnical and programmatic principleswe all carried into our successful ca-reers.
The flight window for the nextrocket-powered test flight of its Space-ShipTwo Unity opens July 11, pending
weather and technical checks, Galacticsaid in a statement.
The “Unity 22” mission will be thetwenty-second flight test for VSS Unityand the company's fourth crewedspaceflight. It will also be the first tocarry a full crew of two pilots and fourmission specialists in the cabin, includ-ing the company's founder, Sir Bran-son, who will be testing the private as-tronaut experience, it said.
"I've always been a dreamer. Mymum taught me to never give up and toreach for the stars. On July 11, it's time toturn that dream into a reality aboardthe next @VirginGalatic spaceflight,"Branson tweeted following the an-nouncement on July 2.
Building on the success of the com-pany's most recent spaceflight in May,Unity 22 will focus on cabin and cus-tomer experience objectives.
Indian-origin aeronautical engineer Shirisha Bandla set to fly into space on Virgin Galactic spacecraft
BENGALURU, JULY10: Karnataka CongressPresident DK Shivakumaron Saturday allegedlyslapped a man who at-tempted to put his armsaround him, drawing crit-icism from the BJP and onsocial media.
In the video that hassince gone viral, Shivaku-mar can be seen getting ir-ritated by the action of theman, who tried to get closeto him and pace along withhim.
The Karnataka PradeshCongress CommitteeChief, who appeared tolose cool, can then beheard telling the man, saidto be a party worker:"...you should be responsi-ble....", before asking cam-eramen present there todelete the footage.
The incident took placeduring his visit to the dis-trict headquarters town ofMandya to inquire aboutthe health of ailing veteran
leader, former Ministerand MP G Made Gowda.
Tweeting the video of theincident, BJP nationalGeneral Secretary C TRavi, asked Congress na-tional leader Rahul Gandhiwhether he had given "li-cence for violence" to Shiv-akumar, whom he referredto as a follower of KotwalRamachandra, one of theunderworld dons of Ben-galuru in the 1970s and1980s.
"Karnataka CONgressPresident @DKShivaku-mar SLAPS his partyworker in full public view.If this is how the "formershishya" of Kotwal Ra-machandra treats his party
worker, one can imaginewhat he would do withOthers. Have you givenDKS the "licence for vio-lence", @RahulGandhi?"he asked.
Karnataka BJP, hittingout at Shivakumar for his"behaviour" and callinghim "Rowdi DKShi", saidhe should learn how toconduct himself in public.
Posting a video of an ear-lier incident where Shiv-akumar can be seen hittinga youth who was clickingselfies, as he was about toaddress the media, the BJPin a tweet asked him to quitpublic life if "underworld-like behaviour" is unavoid-able.
Karnataka Congress chief Shivakumar slapsman for trying to put his arms around him
BAHARAMPUR(WB), JULY 10: Con-gress leader in Lok SabhaAdhir Ranjan Chowdhuryon Saturday claimed thatthe Centre has earned Rs4.91 crore revenue as petroland diesel prices have beenhiked 69 times since Janu-ary 1 this year.
Chowdhury, also theWest Bengal Congresschief, urged the TMC gov-ernment in the state to fol-low the footsteps of theChhattisgarh administra-
tion and do away withValue Added Taxes (VAT)to reduce fuel prices.
“Unmindful of the suffer-ings of the people, theNarendra Modi govern-ment in Delhi has effected69 hikes in petrol and dieselprices since January 1 andearned Rs 4.91 crore rev-enue.”
“The BJP government isnot showing any concernfor the plight of the com-mon man. We urge the Cen-tre to roll back fuel pricehike, as petrol breached theRs 100-per-litre mark,diesel neared century andLPG rate touched Rs 850per cylinder,” the seniorCongress leader told re-porters.
He said that the petrol
price dipped by Rs 12 perlitre after the Congress gov-ernment in Chhattisgarhdid away with VAT, andurged other state adminis-trations, including that ofWest Bengal, to follow itslead.
“We know that the TMCgovernment in West Bengalwill have to forego a rev-enue of Rs 1,300-Rs 1,400crore yielded from VAT, buta party that has come topower with such a hugemandate shouldn’t befound wanting in undertak-ing pro-people steps,”Chowdhury said.
Responding to a query,he said that the main oppo-sition party is given the postof the Parliamentary Ac-counts Committee (PAC)
both in the Lok Sabha andthe Vidhan Sabha.
“I have been the PACchairman three times. Myname was recommendedby our leader Sonia Gandhi.However, the speaker takesthe final decision. Appoint-ing the PAC chairman ishis/her discretion,” he said.
However, Chowdhury didnot directly comment onthe controversy over the ap-pointment of TMC leaderMukul Roy, who recentlycrossed over from the BJP,as the PAC chairman ofWest Bengal assembly bythe speaker on Friday,which had sparked a walk-out by saffron party mem-bers who are demandinghis disqualification underthe anti-defection law.
Centre earned Rs 4.91 crore revenue as fuelprices hiked 69 times this year: Adhir
NEW DELHI, JULY10: The World Health Or-ganization (WHO) is likelyto take a decision on includ-ing Bharat Biotech’sCOVID-19 vaccine Covaxinin the emergency use list(EUL) within four to sixweeks, Soumya Swami-nathan, the global healthbody’s chief scientist hassaid.
Speaking at a webinar or-ganised by the Centre forScience and Environment(CSE) on Friday, Swami-nathan said the WHO is re-viewing Covaxin as its man-ufacturer Bharat Biotech isnow uploading its entiredata on the health body’sportal.
According to WHOguidelines, EUL is a proce-dure to streamline theprocess by which new orunlicensed products can beused during public healthemergencies.
“There is a process to befollowed for EUL and pre-qualification of vaccinesunder which a company hasto complete phase 3 trialsand submit the whole datato the regulatory depart-ment of WHO which is ex-amined by an expert advi-sory group,” Swaminathansaid.
“The completeness of thedata, which includes safetyand efficacy and also themanufacturing quality,standard is provided. So, Iexpect that Bharat Biotechhas already submitted dataand in four to six weeksthere will be a decision onits inclusion,” Swami-nathan added.
At present, the WHO hasapproved vaccines byPfizer/BioNTech, As-trazeneca-SK Bio/SerumInstitute of India, As-
traZeneca EU, Janssen,Moderna and Sinopharmfor emergency use.
“We currently have sixvaccines approved withEUL and have recommen-dations from our StrategicAdvisory Group of Experts(SAGE). We continue tolook at Covaxin. BharatBiotech has now started up-loading their data on ourportal and that is the nextvaccine that will be re-viewed by our experts com-mittee,” the chief scientistsaid.
She also mentioned theWHO Research and Devel-opment Blueprint preparedin 2016, shortly after theEbola outbreak, in which aresearch roadmap for dis-eases with pandemic poten-tial was laid out.
“I want to mention theResearch and Development(R&D) Blueprint. I think weneed to think about how wecan do better in the futurein terms of development ofnot just vaccines but drugs,diagnostics and ensuringequitable access. This blue-print was developed afterthe Ebola outbreak and es-sentially it laid out a re-
search roadmap for dis-eases which have pandemicpotential,” she said.
“So, when the roadmapwas developed in 2016, itmentioned ‘Pathogen X’ init which showed that wewere anticipating a pan-demic, which is nowCOVID-19,” she added.
Swaminathan also saidthe roadmap essentiallylaid out the steps in termsof developing target prod-uct profiles – like standardsfor vaccines, diagnosticsregulatory standards, trialdesigns, and trial simula-tors.
“This pre-thinkinghelped because WHO wasable to bring together scien-tists, researchers, acade-mics and companies at thebeginning of last year to de-velop a research roadmapfor Covid,” she said.
At present, there are 105candidate vaccines in clini-cal evaluation out of which27 are in phase three orfour, she said.
There are another 184candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation. Most ofthe vaccines are designedfor a two-dose schedule, she
added.The WHO chief scientist
also said the Delta variantof the coronavirus is verytransmissible.
“Two complete doses arerequired for protectionagainst the Delta variantbut you can still get the in-fection and can transmit it.This is why masking andother precautions are im-portant to continue,” shesaid.
Talking about some com-panies stressing on theneed to develop a boosterdose after two vaccine shotsdoses to protect people,Swaminathan said, at thispoint there is no data to in-dicate if a booster dose is re-quired.
“Science is evolving. Atthis point we don’t havedata to indicate that every-one will need a booster andis it going to be after oneyear or two years. But datafrom follow up studies ofvaccinated people are veryencouraging and is showingthat immune responses arelasting up to 8, 10 or even 12months,” she said.
“A few studies that havelooked at giving boosterdose after six months haveshown that it can increasethe antibody levels so highthat they can protectagainst all variants. Whatwe know is you need a highlevel of antibodies, whetherit’s through a booster or thefirst course. We need morestudies and see which vac-cines will require a boosterand when. It could be pos-sible that a combination oftwo different vaccines is ad-ministered in future butthese are all being lookedinto through research andso we have to wait,” shesaid.
Decision on emergency use listingof Covaxin likely in 4-6 weeks: WHO
NEW DELHI, JULY10: Leading milk supplierMother Dairy has in-creased milk prices inDelhi-NCR and other citiesby Rs 2 per litre with effectfrom Sunday on rising in-put cost.
The milk prices were lastrevised in December 2019.
Justifying the hike,Mother Dairy said that pro-curement cost of milk fromdairy farmers has gone upby 8-10 per cent in the lastone year. Other operationalcosts have also risen.
On July 1, Amul hikedmilk prices by Rs 2 per litreacross all cities.
Mother Dairy said it is"compelled to raise its liq-uid milk prices by Rs2/litre in Delhi NCR witheffect from July 11, 2021."
Prices are also being re-vised across key markets,including east and centralUttar Pradesh, Mumbai,Nagpur and Kolkata fromJuly 11 onwards by Rs2/litre on the current pre-vailing MRP in respective
markets, it added. MotherDairy milk is available inover 100 cities across thecountry. It sells around 30lakh litres of milk per dayin Delhi-NCR, while the to-tal sale is 35 lakh litre perday. "The company hasbeen experiencing infla-tionary pressure on theoverall input costs whichhas increased multifold inlast one year, accompaniedby the distress in milk pro-duction due to the ongoingpandemic," the statementsaid.
In the last one year, the
farm prices have increasedby 8-10 per cent coupledwith mounting operationalcosts of processing, pack-aging and logistics.
"The farm prices of milkalone have firmed up byabout 4 per cent in the last3-4 weeks. Despite payinghigher prices towards milkprocurement in the last oneyear, the consumer priceswere kept intact. With thisrevision, the milk prices areundergoing a revision of 4per cent," Mother Dairysaid.
The company said it has
always attempted to strikethe right balance betweenthe consumers and themilk producers.
"The surge in farm pricesis only being partiallypassed on to the con-sumers, thereby securingthe interests of both thestakeholders," it added.
As per the revised prices,bulk vended milk (tokenmilk) will be sold at Rs 44per litre from Sunday asagainst the current price ofRs 42 per litre.
Full cream milk (polypack) will be available at Rs57 per litre, up from Rs 55per litre now.
Prices of toned milk hasbeen revised to Rs 47 fromRs 45 per litre, while dou-ble toned milk (Live Lite)rates have gone up to Rs 41from Rs 39 per litre.
Cow milk will cost Rs 49from Sunday as against Rs47 per litre now.
Rates of half litre milkpouch have been increasedby Re 1, which means an ef-fective hike of Rs 2 per litre.
Mother Dairy milk to be costlier by Rs 2 per litre in Delhi NCR, other cities
NEW DELHI, JULY10: An extremely bright,hydrogen-deficient, fast-evolving supernova thatshines with the energy bor-rowed from an exotic typeof neutron star with an ul-tra-powerful magnetic fieldhas been spotted by Indianresearchers.
A deep study of such an-cient spatial objects canhelp probe the mysteries ofthe early universe, the De-partment of Science andTechnology (DST) said.
Supernovae (SNe) arehighly energetic explosionsin the universe releasing anenormous amount of en-ergy. Such types of super-novae called SuperLumi-nous Supernova (SLSNe)are very rare.
This is because they gen-erally originated from verymassive stars (minimummass limit is more than 25times that of the sun), andthe number distribution ofsuch massive stars in ourgalaxy or in nearby galax-ies is sparse.
Among them, SLSNe-Ihas been counted to about
150 entities spectroscopi-cally confirmed so far, theDST said.
These ancient objects areamong the least under-stood SNe because theirunderlying sources are un-clear, and their extremelyhigh peak luminosity is un-explained, it said.
The SN 2020ank, firstdiscovered by the ZwickyTransient Facility on Janu-ary 19, 2020, was studiedby scientists from Aryab-hatta Research Institute ofObservational Sciences(ARIES) Nainital, a re-search institute under the
Department of Science andTechnology (DST), fromFebruary 2020 and thenthrough the coronaviruslockdown phase of Marchand April, the DST said.
The apparent look of theSN was very similar toother objects in the field.However, once the bright-ness was estimated, itturned out as a very blueobject reflecting itsbrighter character, it said.
The team observed it us-ing special arrangements atIndia's recently commis-sioned Devasthal OpticalTelescope (DOT-3.6m)
along with two other In-dian telescopes: Sampur-nanand Telescope-1.04mand Himalayan ChandraTelescope-2.0m, it said.
They found that the outerlayers of the onion struc-tured supernovae had beenpeeled off, and the core wasshining with a borrowedenergy source, it added.
The study led by AmitKumar, a PhD studentworking under SB Pandey,and published in theMonthly Notice of theRoyal Astronomical Soci-ety, suggested a possiblypowering source from anexotic type of neutron starwith an ultra-powerfulmagnetic field (magnetar),the DST said.
Deeper investigationscould explore the underly-ing physical mechanisms,possible progenitors, andenvironments hosting suchrare explosions and theirpossible associations withother energetic explosionslike Gamma-ray bursts(GRBs) and Fast RadioBursts (FRBs), the DSTsaid.
Indian researchers spot rare super-luminous supernova shining
with borrowed energy source
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