After much criticism, the Centre may be thinking of reversing its vaccine policy, which could streamline supply and give India access to more vaccines. A study on which is the safer vaccine has thrown up some relief. India, meanwhile, has slipped in the SDG ranking. And guess where wearing jeans is grounds for treason?
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
💉 Square 1: With pressure from states growing, the Centre is considering going back to the programme where it procures the vaccines. Kerala, Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Maharashtra, among others, underutilised vaccines supplied to them.
💰💉 Paisa Jab: A Noida high-rise society manages to procure vaccines from a primary health centre 120 km away. In another case, while nearly 400 shots were administered to people through drive-in Chanakya Hotel in Delhi’s embassy enclave, just 100 got it in a slum in the same area.
💉🆚💉Both are Good: More antibodies for Covishield after 2 doses, but fewer cases of infection after the Covaxin shot, finds study. The side-effects were the same, but protected beneficiaries were saved from severe disease.
📉 Good Numbers, Bad Numbers: After six months, the number of daily deaths drop to below 3,000 at 2,401, which is still highest in the world. North India sees cases falling more sharply than south India and Maharashtra and an expert say this data questions the reporting standards in north India.
🚷 Lockdown: Haryana extends till June 14
INDIA NEWS
🤳 Take Down: Just six months into 2021 and the Centre has issued 6K takedown orders to social media websites, over content. This is up from just 3,600 in 2019 and a third of those recorded last year.
📦 Centre vs State: Delhi govt’s doorstep delivery scheme runs into Centre’s wall.
If Pizza, smartphones, burgers and clothes can be home-delivered, why not ration?
Arvind Kejriwal, Delhi chief minister
😕 Bengal Drama: BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari, brother booked for “stealing” Cyclone Yaas relief material. BJP says this was TMC vendetta.
⬇️ India Slips: Ranking now 117 on attaining SDG primarily because it could not improve on the goals “ending hunger and achieve food security”, “gender equality”, and “building resilient infra and promoting sustainable industrialisation”.
🗣️ Malayalam Back: Delhi govt hospital GIPMER revoked earlier order banning Malayalam
⛈️ Monsoon Early: IMD says Monsoon is progressing fast, reached N-E India four days early.
👮 Main Man: Key accused in UP hooch tragedy in which over 20 people died arrested. The BJP expelled him from party on Sunday.
💊🦀 Cancer Treatment: Clinical trials of an indigenously developed treatment for blood cancer begins in Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.
🏫🥇 Top Schools: Kerala, Punjab, Chandigarh, A&N islands and TN share top post for best schools.
WORLD
🇵🇰 Pak Tragedy: Two trains collide in Sindh region, at least 25 dead.
🇺🇸🇷🇺 Biden’s Oath: US says it will stand by its European allies in facing Russia. This even as Biden is expected to meet Putin soon in an atmosphere vitiated by Belarus’s action against an airline and ransomware attacks allegedly by Russian hackers.
The problem with empires is that they think they are powerful enough to make some mistakes – ‘We will buy these (people), bully them, make a deal with them, give necklaces to them, threaten them with battleships’ – And this will solve all the problems. But problems accumulate. A moment comes when they cannot be solved anymore.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIA PRESIDENT (pic courtesy: Wikimedia Commons)
🙏 Hero Dies: The last of the Auschwitz liberators, David Bushman, dies at 98.
🇮🇱🇵🇸 Questionable: 23-year-old Muna el-Kurd who played a significant role in organising protests against Israel land takeover law, arrested and later released. Al Jazeera journalist detained for “assaulting police officer”.
🇰🇵 North Korea: Watching foreign films, wearing foreign jeans and even using slangs are now grounds for treason. One person recounted how they were forced to watch a man being executed for watching a South Korean film.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🏦 Banking: Several banks write off loans in March to show a leaner non-performing asset (loans that have gone bad).
💵Cash is King: Currency with public in hard cash rose to Rs 28.6 lakh crore. Economic distress, medical emergencies and general uncertainty led to this.
SPORT
🏃♀️ Run Sifan Run!: Sifan Hasan from the Netherlands sets a world record of 29 mins 6.82 secs to complete 10km run.
MONDAY EXPLAINER- G7 TAX PLAN
What Is It?: The plan has two Pillars: (1) Make companies follow tax rules in countries their goods and services are sold and not just where they are based out of, and (2) a 15% global minimum tax
What’s a Global Minimum Tax? : A country can fix whatever local corporate tax as they want. But if they find that the company was paying little tax elsewhere, they can raise the tax to this minimum level. This way, there can be no benefit for companies in shifting their profits.
Why Though?: Many companies are paying little to no tax because of an outdated taxing system. This is supposed to be a correction in the time of internet behemoths like Google, Facebook and Apple. Also, governments have lost a lot of money during the pandemic and the added money can help.
Applicable to all?: Pillar 1 companies will be those with a 10% profit margin.
Is everyone happy? Many wanted a higher tax rate, saying 15% is not enough. Ireland, with a tax rate of 12.5% has not backed the agreement. A new report says the 10% margin requirement will let Amazon off the hook, which has a profit margin of only 6.3% as it reinvests heavily and keeps profits low to gain market share.
News Of Today 