NEWS

The central government on Sunday said India had administered more doses in August than all G7 nations combined, even as the country ranked 14th among 30 populous countries with regard to coronavirus vaccine doses per 100 people. The Centre said India administered 180 million doses last month, while Group of Seven (G7) nations – Japan, USA, France, Germany, Italy, UK and Canada – overall administered 101 million doses. In a congratulatory tweet, the Indian government tweeted, “Yet another achievement! With more than 180 million vaccine doses administered in the month of August, India leaves a mark on the Global map of leading its way in vaccinating its population on priority. #LargestVaccineDrive.” (sic)

New Delhi: The bypoll to the Bhabanipur assembly seat in West Bengal, from where Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee plans to contest, will be held on September 30, the Election Commission announced on Saturday. Polling for three "deferred adjourned" elections in two assembly seats of West Bengal and one of Odisha will also be held on September 30. Polling in these seats -- Samserganj and Jangipur in West Bengal and Pipli in Odisha -- could not be held due to various reasons, including the death of candidates during electioneering earlier this year. Counting of votes in all four seats will take place on October 3. The EC said it has kept "much stricter" norms as an abundant caution against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Bhabanipur bypoll will allow Mamata Banerjee a chance to become a member of the state legislative assembly. Banerjee had moved out of her traditional seat in Kolkata's Bhabanipur to fight in Nandigram during the Assembly polls earlier this year but lost to his former close aide Suvendu Adhikari who contested on a BJP ticket. Adhikari is now the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly. After the election results, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, the TMC MLA from Bhabanipur constituency, vacated the seat to allow Banerjee to contest from there. Banerjee had won from Bhabanipur twice since 2011.

New Delhi:  The Taliban have postponed the formation of a new government in Afghanistan for next week, their spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on Saturday, as the insurgent group struggles to give shape to a broad-based and inclusive administration acceptable to the international community. The insurgent group was expected to announce on Saturday the formation of the new government in Kabul, likely to be led by the outfit's co-founder Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar.

This is the second that the Taliban have delayed the formation of the new government in Kabul since they seized Kabul on August 15. "The announcement about the new government and Cabinet members will now be made next week," Mujahid said without giving further details.

New Delhi: The R-value which reflects how rapidly coronavirus pandemic is spreading, has sharply risen close to 1.2 over the last fortnight, mainly driven by cases in states like Kerala and Maharashtra, say researchers. The R-value calculated between August 24-29 stood at 1.17 as against 0.89 between August 14-17, according to the researchers at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai.

The rise in the R-value comes after a steady decline in cases in the first half of August in the country. Up to that date (August 30), the situation looked pretty bad. India's R-value had shot up close to 1.2. Not only is it greater than one, it is much higher than the last time there was a scare of a third wave (it was 1.03 at that time).

This is driven by several states having their R-value go over 1 in the last few days of August –most notably Kerala and Maharashtra, but also Mizoram and Jammu and Kashmir, Sitabhra Sinha, who is leading the team of researchers at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, said. The R-value of Kerala stood at 1.33, which is the highest number of active cases in the country. Similarly, the R-value of Mizoram was 1.36, Jammu and Kashmir (1.25), Maharashtra (1.06) and Andhra Pradesh (1.09). The Reproduction number or R refers to how many people an infected person infects, on average. In other words, it tells how 'efficiently' a virus is spreading.