Covid-19 cases in Delhi , NEET exam, PM Modi, Coronavirus vaccine

17 November 2020

• Delhi markets may shut, only 50 people in capital weddings  

  Amid an unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today announced that markets may be shut once again as a precautionary measure and only 50 people will be allowed in weddings, not 200, as per strict norms aimed at curbing further spread of the Coronavirus. 

  Kejriwal was speaking to the media here two days after he met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the issue following an unprecedented record single-day spike of 8,500 cases and overall, 51,000 cases last week. 

• Bhupesh  Baghel urges Centre to increase job opportunities in Bastar 

  Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel today met Union Home Minister Amit Shah here and urged him to 'generate more employment opportunities in the Bastar region to uproot Naxal problems'. During the meeting, the Chief Minister also discussed issues of increasing telecom facilities in the Maoist affected regions and the deployment of two more CRPF battalions in Bastar. The Home Minister assured immediate action on the same. 

• Scrap NEET for medical colleges in TN, for PG courses too says Stalin 

  Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President MK Stalin on Tuesday demanded scrapping of NEET for medical college admissions as the Centre had allowed for separate entrance tests in its 11 such institutions in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, in medical colleges in Tamil Nadu, admissions for postgraduate courses should not be made based on National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) scores, he said. 

• PM Modi to address the 3rd Annual Bloomberg New Economy Forum  

  Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver an address at the 3rd Annual Bloomberg New Economy. The Bloomberg New Economy Forum was established in 2018 by Michael Bloomberg. It seeks to build a community of leaders to engage in real conversations leading to actionable solutions about the critical challenges facing a world economy in the throes of a historic transition. The inaugural Forum was held in Singapore, and the second annual Forum was hosted in Beijing. These covered a range of topics, including global economic management, trade and investment, technology, urbanization, capital markets, climate change, and inclusion. 

• COVID-19 Updates: India records 30K Daily New Cases for the second successive day 

  India has been recording around 30,000 daily new cases for the last two consecutive days. 29,163 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The country has also seen less than 50,000 daily new cases being registered continuously for the past ten days. While this signifies the wide adoption of COVID appropriate behaviour among the population, it also assumes significance given the high number of daily cases being continuously reported in many countries in Europe and the Americas. 

• Indian experts hail 'promising' mRNA vax for COVID-19 treatment 

  With the two mRNA vaccine candidates from pharma giants Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna showing effectiveness in preventing COVID-19 in an interim analysis, health experts in India on Tuesday said that mRNA vaccine that works on previously unproven technology can be very promising in the fight against the pandemic despite the challenges. To date, no mRNA vaccine has been licensed for infectious diseases and if an mRNA vaccine is approved for coronavirus, it would be the first of its type. 

• The US remain the top choice for Indian students for higher education 

  Despite the coronavirus pandemic, around 2,00,000 Indian students chose the US as their destination to pursue higher education in the 2019-20 academic year. As per the Open Doors Report of the Institute of International Education (IIE), released on Monday, Indian students comprised nearly 20 per cent of the over one million (10 lakh) students from around the world. 

  The IIE has been conducting an annual statistical survey on international students in the US since its founding in 1919 and partnership with the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs since 1972. 

• BRICS 2020: Modi & Xi to again come face to face at BRICS summit  

  PM Narendra Modi will come face to face virtually on Tuesday for the second time this month with President Xi Jinping at the 12th BRICS summit that will be hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

  The government said in a statement that the leaders will discuss intra-Brics cooperation and key issues in the global context, including reform of the multilateral system, measures to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.