Bharti Group has got a majority stake in a UK-based space firm that aims at increasing internet connectivity by creating a network of satellites. This puts it in competition with Elon Musk whose Starlink project is slated to begin providing coverage from August. The Supreme Court has involved itself in Covid-19 management now – ordering compensation and how deaths ought to be classified. And heat in Canada is killing people. Too many people.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
💉Covaxin Cancelled: Brazil has suspended the $324 mn deal for Covaxin after allegations of irregularities. A former health department official said he was pressured to sign the ḍeal that made a dose 1000% more expensive. Bharat Biotech says it followed every step of the regulatory process.
🇮🇳💉🇪🇺 India Flex: Govt has asked EU members to accept Covishield and Covaxin else India will require people from the bloc to undergo mandatory quarantine.
“If a person has died after he was found Covid positive and he has died within two to three months, either in the hospital or outside the hospital or at home, the death certificate or official document must be issued to the family members of the deceased who died due to Covid-19 stating the cause of death as ‘Died due to Covid-19.”
Supreme Court of India
💉 Backing: In a boost to Covaxin, the US National Institute of Virology has said the vaccine generates antibodies against the virus Alpha and Delta variants.
💉💉 Only CoWIN: Private hospitals can no longer buy vaccines directly from the maker but only through placing orders on the CoWIN portal, which will then require to be approved by govt.
💉💉👶🏻 Not Yet: SII have been denied permission to conduct trials of Covovax, a US-based company’s vaccine, in children yet saying that the vaccine is yet to be approved in any country. The only vaccines being tested in children in India are Covaxin and Zydus’s DNA vaccine.
INDIA NEWS
❤️🇮🇳 Survey: Most Indians do not support interfaith marriage, finds Pew Research. This was 80% among Muslims and 65% among Hindus. 64% Hindus felt it was important to be Hindu to be Indian.
“In a democratic society, we have to ask ourselves…big tech is there, it’s very visibly in my life. You have a big presence [but] where is the responsibility which comes with it? They have huge power, where is the accountability?”
S Jaishankar, minister for external affairs
🚫 Content Blocked: As required by the country’s new IT rules, Google has published its transparency report in which it said it had removed 60,000 pieces of content in April of which 98% were copyright violations. It had received nearly 28K complaints, 92% of which were copyright violations and only 1% were defamatory.
✋ Congress Feud: Punjab politician Navjot Singh Sidhu met with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. While some say he has been offered a prominent role, this may not be as high as the Punjab state Congress presidency as Amarinder Singh is opposed.
👀 🇵🇰 Eye on Pak: A top Army official suspected that the drones that were used to carry out attacks on an Indian military base on June 27 perhaps had contributions from a “state actor”.
“It has always been well recognised that the mere right to change the ruler, once every few years, by itself need not be a guarantee against tyranny.”
N V Ramana, Chief Justice of India
👏 New Biggest: Maharashtra has a new biggest city – Pune. The city achieved this after extending its boundaries to include 23 villages. It is now the seventh biggest in the country.
WORLD NEWS
🇺🇸🇦🇫 What a Mess: The US is likely to pull out from Afghanistan “in days”, much earlier than its schedule of September 11. This even as Taliban continues to make gains in the country.
🇨🇦☠️ More Graves: Remains of nearly 200 people found close to another former residential school in Canada. July 1 is supposed to be Canada Day and there have been calls to cancel it.
🦟 70-year Fight: China is now free of the parasitic disease, says WHO. The problem was once so dire that Mao Zedong set up a secret military project called Project 523 to end it, which led to discovery of artemisinin, which is at core of anti-malarial drugs.
✊ Statue Out: The US House of Representatives has voted to remove statues of white supremacists and Confederate leaders who advocated for the continuation of slavery from the Capitol.
Charles Aycock, North Carolina Governor 
John Calhoun, Vice-President 
James Clarke, Arkansas Senator
🏳️🌈 Anti-inclusion: The EU is planning to act against Poland that had introduced “LGBT-Free” zones.
🇲🇲 Free, Finally: Myanmar has been releasing people jailed for raising their voice against the military coup in February. Around 720 of the 2,300 people jailed were released on Wednesday.
🇨🇳 Happy Birthday!: The Communist Party of China celebrates 100 years on Thursday.
🇵🇰 World Bank Helps: Pakistan gets $800 million loan to invest in clean energy and human capital development.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🏦 World Bank Helps: India gets $500 million support for programmes for informal workers. The total support for social protection programmes is now at $1.65 billion.
🛰️ Looking to Space: Bharti Global, of which Airtel is a part, has invested $500mn in UK-based space startup OneWeb. It will now hold a 39% stake in the company. OneWeb looks to putting many satellites in low earth orbit to provide broadband connection.
🌐 Rural Internet: India will invite global bids to provide broadband connection to all villages.
🏭 Output better: India’s core sectors – steel, coal, cement, electricity, fertilizers, crude oil, refinery products, natural gas – grew 16.8% compared to last year, although this isn’t saying much since last year was bad.
🍳 Oil Control: To reduce the cost of edible oil, the govt has reduced the import duties for refined palm oil.
🛠️ Right to Repair: UK law comes into force on Thursday that will legally oblige companies to make spare parts available. Lifespan of products likely to be extended by another 10 years along with higher energy standards. Manufacturers say this will make products more expensive.
🛍️ Moving Online: Fashion major GAP is planning to move all its operations in the UK and Ireland online as more people now prefer shopping over the internet.
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE & TECH
🥵 Heat wave: Intense heat that took the temperature to upto 49 deg C in Canada has resulted in 130 deaths since Friday. Although difficult to attribute it to climate change, it is in line with predictions.
😔 A Bird’s Death: Conservationists say that the chances of the harpy eagle, one of the world’s largest, surviving the Amazon deforestation has reduced to zero.
🚗🔁🛩️: Slovakian company Klein Vision has tested a prototype flying car that runs on petrol. The car converts into an airplane into a little over 2 minutes.
⚡ Coal Power: Even as reports come in of renewable energy getting cheaper than new coal plants, India is among the five Asian countries planning to build more than 600 such plants, which is almost 80% of the world’s new ones. Renewable energy is expected to outcompete coal in India by ‘24.
“I know that solar power is gaining ground in India and is and excellent example to the rest of the world.”
Prince Charles of England
🤑 Sold!: Tim Berners-Lee’s source code for the world wide web has been sold as an non-fungible token (NFT) for $5.4mn.
NEWS OF YESTERDAY
The first Tour de France began on this day in 1903.
News Of Today 