A new global assessment of purchasing agreements for COVID-19 vaccines reveals that high-income countries, as well as a few middle-income countries have already purchased nearly 3.8 billion doses, with options for another five billion. The analysis, released by the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, shows that many of these countries will be able to vaccinate their entire populations—and some many times over—before billions of people are vaccinated in low-income countries.

While other assessments have warned of potential inequalities in vaccine access, this new analysis is the first to quantify the amount of vaccine doses that are being claimed by country-level agreements and how this could delay access to COVID-19 protection across large regions—including sub-Saharan Africa—until almost the middle of the decade.

“An ambitious effort to create a global system of vaccine equity is being undermined as a handful of countries—including those who made a commitment to equality—secure as many doses as they possibly can,” said Elina Urli Hodges, MSPH, who leads the Center’s Launch and Scale Speedometer, an initiative that identifies impediments to delivering health innovations to low-income countries. “Countries are hedging bets by making direct deals while also participating in multilateral platforms, which drives inequality and threatens to prolong a global pandemic.”

The Launch and Scale analysis revealed that while it will likely take three to four years to manufacture enough vaccines to cover the world’s population, nearly four billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates are already part of bilateral advance purchasing deals involving mainly high-income countries, vaccine developers and global vaccine manufacturers. Another five billion doses are the subject of negotiations among these same parties that have yet to be finalized. Meanwhile, the study found that only enough doses to cover 250 million people have been confirmed as purchased thus far by COVAX, a global effort involving both wealthy and poor countries that has promised equal access to COVID-19 vaccines globally, regardless of income levels.

In fact, the data reveal that several COVAX signatories, including the United Kingdom (UK), the European Union (EU) and Canada, are effectively undermining the pact by negotiating “side deals” for large vaccine shipments that will “result in a smaller piece of the pie available for equitable global allocation.”  Yet the analysis shows that not a single low-income country has made a direct agreement to purchase vaccines, suggesting that low-income countries will be limited to the COVAX pact to secure vaccines. 

  Finite global manufacturing capacity

“There are negotiations underway in which vaccine-rich countries would allocate doses purchased through advance market commitments to the COVAX effort after they have vaccinated a certain portion of their populations,” said Andrea Taylor, MSW, who led the analysis for the Launch and Scale initiative. “But there’s no requirement, and arguably little incentive to do so.”

Taylor and her colleagues conducted their assessment by reviewing available evidence from public sources through October 8, 2020, combined with interviews with global and regional vaccine experts, as well as Ministry of Health officials in select countries. The analysis looked at advance market commitments (AMCs) for COVID-19 vaccines in order to better understand their overall volume and ultimate destination.

The insights that emerged show that COVAX members Canada and the UK have already pre-purchased more than enough vaccines to cover their entire populations. The EU has secured the rights to 400 million doses for member countries, with future agreements under discussion, potentially raising that number to almost two billion. The United States (US), which is not part of COVAX, already has agreements to purchase enough doses to cover 230% of its population and could eventually control 1.8 billion doses—about a quarter of the world’s near-term supply. None of the vaccine candidates yet have regulatory approval, however, so countries are hedging bets by purchasing multiple candidates and some portion of these doses may never materialize. The UK, for example, has made AMCs with five different vaccine candidates, using four different vaccine technologies.

Among middle-income countries, the Launch and Scale data show that Brazil and India—each of which have large vaccine manufacturing infrastructure—already have secured the rights to enough vaccines to cover about half of their populations and are negotiating additional deals. It also shows that some countries, such as Peru, are using their status as the site of COVID-19 vaccine trials to secure AMCs for vaccines—though Peru is also participating in COVAX to help cover its needs.

According to the analysis, the root problem is that finite global manufacturing capacity is colliding with wealth disparities and self-interest to create a zero-sum game where low-income countries simply can’t compete.

“High-income countries are making deals with major vaccine developers who are in turn reserving the lion’s share of the world’s manufacturing capacity to meet those commitments,” Taylor said. “We’re rapidly reaching the point where soon, even countries that have the finances to shop for vaccines will find there is no manufacturing capacity available to fill their needs. Even with new investments to build or retrofit additional facilities, there is a limit to how much global vaccine manufacturing capacity can expand in the next few years.”

For example, the study reveals that a pair of vaccine candidates—one from the Oxford University/Astra-Zeneca (AZ) vaccine partnership and another from the American vaccine developer Novavax—are the subject of agreements with global manufacturers to produce 3.73 billion doses. And about 3 billion of those doses would come from the Serum Vaccine Institute of India. Meanwhile, both vaccine candidates are the subject of large pre-purchasing commitments from high- or middle-income countries. The Oxford/AZ vaccine candidate leads the pack for AMCs at more than two billion doses, though that includes between 300 and 500 million doses for COVAX. In response to this climate, COVAX has moved quickly to reserve manufacturing capacity in Spain and Korea for more than a billion doses of one or more vaccines that have yet to be selected.

There are hundreds of ways to make money. Whatever your zest of entrepreneurial streak may be, there are some sure-fire techniques to make it in the online world.  Everyone thinks of business but very few people make it big in life with their passion and hard work like Viraj Datt did in his 20’s. This young entrepreneur who is just 21 and based in Chandigarh- buzzing high in his ‘Sneakers’ business due to his passion. He supplies sneakers to the famous Bollywood celebrities like Actor Parineeti Chopra, Rapper Raftaar, singer and daughter of Aditya Birla Chairman- Ananya Birla, Rapper Divine, musician and rapper Manj Musik, musician RitViz, rapper Kr$na and many more.

His immense passion for shoes made him establish his own business, he created a page on Instagram (vj_kicks) on which he showcase his all new collection of sneakers.

At a very young age Viraj Datt developed his interest in badminton and represented Haryana & Chandigarh. He brought laurels to the state and UT by winning state championships. Later, Datt took admission in Badminton Academy in Bangalore where his love for sneakers began.

After practicing badminton daily, he along with his friends used to visit a mall nearby the academy. There Viraj found a big sneakers store and as a fashion lover, the young lad frequently started turning up there. At one point of time, he came to know about all the articles displayed in the store.

Viraj Datt said that the sneakers were very costly in that store and the starting price was Rs 10k. “I was just 15 years old at that time and as a young lad that much amount was quite high for me. However, the store manager witnessed that this boy loves sneakers. He became my friend and kept sharing about the new arrivals with me when I was in Bangalore. I gained interest and knowledge about sneakers and that was enough for me to kick start my own sneakers business. Later, I moved abroad for the training where I decided to come up with something of my own. I started selling sneakers on my Instagram page ‘VJ Kicks’, among my known and friends from where I made the profit and purchased my favorite sneakers,” Viraj Datt said.

Viraj Datt, popularly known as VJ Kicks among celebrities is successfully running his sneakers business and planning big in the coming future by expanding his sneakers venture.

The Public Affairs Index-2020 has ranked Kerala as the best-governed state. The Public Affairs Centre, which released its report in Bengaluru, has found Uttar Pradesh declared at the bottom in the category of the large states. 

In the annual report released on Friday, the city-based not-for-profit-organisation said the states were ranked based on a composite index in the context of sustainable development. The organisation is headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Kasturirangan. 

In the large state category in terms of governance, four southern states Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka took the top four ranks. Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar marked the bottom of the ranking, scoring negative points in the category, getting -1.461, -1.201 and – 1.158 points respectively. 

In the small state category, Goa ranked first with 1.745 points, followed by Meghalaya (0.797) and Himachal Pradesh (0.725). Worst performers who scored negative points are Manipur (-0.363), Delhi (-0.289) and Uttarakhand (0.277), according to the PAC report. 

Chandigarh was found to be the best governed Union Territory in the category of UTs with 1.05 PAI points followed by Puducherry (0.50), while Andaman and Nicobar (-0.30) was the worst performer. 

According to PAC, the governance performance is analysed in the context of sustainable development defined by three pillars of equity, growth and sustainability. Speaking on the occasion, Kasturirangan said: “The evidence that PAI 2020 generates and the insights that it provides must compel us to reflect on the economic and social transition that is underway in India.”

People are becoming more health-conscious amidst the Covid-19 pandemic resulting in demand for organic foods which is driving the exponential growth of organic farming. Interestingly, educated Indians from various walks of life have turned to their home farming plots and purchasing farming plots to grow healthy food. They are ensuring that organic certifications and independent studies support their vision for healthy food.

States like Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh have embraced this trend and have made organic farming mandatory leading to healthy communities. So we can observe a positive trend and a scaling of such farms in India in the coming years.

Organic food is now being hailed as one of the best choices for consumers and farmers. Organically grown food is now part of the go-green lifestyle. This happened as a result of awareness campaigns directed at the farmers by agriculture scientists and health and wellness professionals.

“The ongoing pandemic has further encouraged the need to adapt and transition to a healthier lifestyle by using organically grown products”, said Mr. Mark Garvin, CEO of Organic Solution Inc, a Nagpur-based company dedicated to helping organic farmers to source organic fertilizers agriculture. Mr.Garvin, a first-generation entrepreneur with vast experience in the field of international business and organic agriculture, has received many awards for his business acumen and service excellence.

He added that a long-neglected area of healthy soil for regeneration is also being focused on because of years of mineral depletion in soil due to the preference for chemical fertilizers. There is certainly a connection between healthy soils and high-yielding crops. An increase in a healthy yield will help farmers improve their profitability and support their families.  

Organic farming, needless to say, is extremely crucial in sustaining the environment, minimizing climate change, and access to clean water. Mr. Garvin also mentioned that preserving natural resources is a key objective and said he wanted to ensure Organic solution Inc. would continue to promote ecological farming, nutrient-rich produce, and eliminate the use of synthetic and chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Some of their products include:

Liquid humic fertilizer EDAGUM®S? is applied in plant production for increasing the productivity of various crops by 10-50% and more; increasing plant resistance to drought, bacterial and fungal diseases; plant stress coping after application of plant protection products; improving the quality of produced plant production; increasing water holding capacity of sandy soils (at an average on 30%); restoration soil fertility; and many other. 

Cropsil,  a silicon-based plant nutrient, is applied in plant production to strengthen plant cell walls and also to produce healthier plants with increased resistance to pesticides and insecticides. It also helps in increasing the yields and tolerance to high salinity. 

Crop Care Protect is an extremely effective organic non-toxic mite and pest control technology. Eco-Cert certified as an organic pesticide, Crop Care Protect is extremely effective on flying and non-flying pests and mites.

Moreover, to provide farmers with cost-effective farming solutions, one litre of their product can accommodate 2.5 acres of land which minimizes the cost of farming up to 500 Rs Acre.

 Organic Solutions Inc abides by the ideology of conserving natural resources, limiting the carbon footprint, growing and eating locally grown and prepared foods, and making the world a better place to live in. This commitment helps it deliver the best quality organic fertilizer that is safe and environment-friendly.

 With like-minded companies across the globe, Organic Solutions Inc. and its partners have successfully supplied organic fertilizers over 10,000,000 acres of farmland in various countries. eg. The Netherlands, USA, China, Russia, Canada, Spain, Sri Lanka, Argentina, and many others.

The company has partnered with a talented pool of international R&D personnel, who function intending to carry out detailed research works in new fertilizer formulations in the field of organic and biofertilizers. The team has so far developed world-class technologies in bioavailable Silicic Acid, Humic and Fulvic acid fertilizer to enhance organic agriculture inputs which are approved by various regulatory bodies in India, Russia, EU, France, USA, Canada, Jamaica, Chile, etc.

Midway Seeker revolves around manifesting oneself in understanding the spiritual, emotional and physical dimensions of the world by manoeuvring all aspects to seek the reason behind this cycle of life. Advait Ji found the midway seeker phenomenon to use yoga as a medium to attain awakening – both mental and physical nourishment.

‘A healthy mind resides in a healthy body’ -believing in this concept, Advait Ji endeavoured in providing yoga therapy which aims in integrating mind, body and spirit. In this era of technology and gadgets, we are so indulged in the materialistic things around us that we have lost sight of the spiritual things. By being a Midway Seeker, he is bringing in the alignment of the physical body with the soul which eventually helps us in taking steps towards our intellectual and emotional growth. Yoga considers the body as energy channels which if taken proper care of, would make us physically fit and would also help us to keep our mind stress-free and clear.

Yoga helps to replenish our body and soul and it also stimulates us to explore the aspect of knowledge that we have not traversed yet. When we dedicate ourselves to discovering the ultimate need for our existence, we open a plethora of opportunities that change the way we perceive everything around us. For this reason, Advait Ji uses Yoga to help people to recover from their problems and attain a balance between worldly things and divine needs.

He diagnoses physical ailments of people and combines Ayurveda, Panchkarma and therapeutic yoga to heal them. Modern science has identified this as Psychosomatic disorders and accepts that Yoga and Ayurveda is a solution to them. All he wishes for is to help people realise the importance of yoga so that they can widen their horizons of knowledge and thus, motivate them to achieve greater things in life.

Anusheel’s wish was to meet him once now for him this will always be a dream, he was deeply saddened by his passing away, who died at the age of 90 last Saturday. Anusheel became his fan through his Bond movies, beside a James Bond Star and Actor he was also a Kyokushin Karate Member and practitioner too, the same Karate style Anusheel practices, that made Anusheel more fond of him. He also listed some of his favourite Sean Connery movies, must watch according to him was Dr No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, From Russia with Love, Murder on the orient express, The Untouchables, Indiana Jones & the last crusade, The League of Extraordinary.

As we all know Anusheel is Indian National Kyokushin Karate Champion & Lifetime Member of the International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan led by Kancho Shokei Matsui, many of us in India know or not but Anusheel wished to let the Indian audiences & Kyokushin Karate practitioners in India especially know that Sosai Mas Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin Karate-The Strongest Karate, trained James Bond Star Sean Connery. Not only did Sosai Mas Oyama train Sean Connery, but he was also granted the rank of 1st Dan Black Belt (Honorary Shodan). Anyone familiar with the militaristic training requirements set by Sosai Oyama understands what a momentous accomplishment it was to train with Sosai Oyama at Honbu in Tokyo, Japan, so much so that even the Honorary title is impressive.

Few Don’t believe it Connery know and trained with Sosai Mas Oyama. He shared those pics which he gives credit to original content/post uploader on the Internet.

The gentleman next to Sean Connery receiving his Dan Certificate from Sosai Oyama is Donn Draeger trainer, accomplished Martial Artist and choreographer for the Bond Movies. Standing Sosai Oyama and James Bond how cool was that.

Anusheel extended his heartfelt gratitude “Rest in Peace Sir and Big Osu to you, your fan and admirer” to the true legend Sean Connery, who defined James Bond, he will always live through this movies and in the hearts of his millions of fans & every Kyokushin Karate practitioners around the world.

Attacking the Opposition for criticising the Centre in the wake of the Pulwama attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday urged that people should not do politics over terror attacks in the interest of the nation. “The country can never forget that some people were not saddened at the sacrifice of the security personnel during the Pulwama attack. At that time, these people were only doing politics… I request them not to do such politics in the interest of the nation,” Modi said.  

The Prime Minister paid his heartiest tribute to the Iron Man of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, on his birth anniversary. The PM visited the Statue of Unity in Gujarat’s Kevadia and inaugurated the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas parade. After the Rashtriya Ekta Diwas parade, PM Modi reiterated India’s stand on terrorism and emphasised on the significance of ‘unity’ in this day and age. PM later boarded the seaplane from Kewadia to Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad.

Rashtriya Ekta Diwas, also known as the National Unity Day, is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Sardar Patel, one of India’s greatest freedom fighters.

On Friday, the Prime Minister had inaugurated the Sardar Patel Zoological Park, popularly called the Jungle Safari, in Kevadia. The zoological park has been set up near the 182-metre-tall Statue of Unity.

The PM also inaugurated the ‘Arogya Van’, ‘Ekta Mall’ and ‘Children Nutrition Park’ in Kevadia yesterday. ‘Arogya Van’ is home to hundreds of plants and herbs that have medicinal value.

The Prime Minister Modi also paid tribute to the former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 36th death anniversary. The then Prime Minister was assassinated by her bodyguards in 1984.

“Tributes to our former PM Smt. Indira Gandhi Ji on her death anniversary,” Modi tweeted.

CM Arvind Kejriwal launched the ‘Green Delhi’ mobile app to enable people to register complaints to report increasing pollution sources and violations of anti-pollution norms.

The Delhi government launched a photo, audio, and video-based ‘Green Delhi’ app to enable citizens of Delhi to report pollution violations and local sources of pollution in the city, such as garbage burning, dust due to construction activities, industrial activities, and other local pollutants.

Delhi CM Kejriwal said, “Today, we are launching the ‘Green Delhi’ App. Our aim is to enable every citizen to participate in our ‘Yuddh, Pradushan Ke Viruddh’ campaign. No movement can happen until people take part in the movement. We are launching the ‘Green Delhi’ app that can be downloaded from the play store, it is available on android for now and will be available on other platforms soon”.

“In this app, a citizen can take a photo or shoot a video and audio of local pollutants, such as garbage burning, industrial pollution, construction dust, etc and upload them on the app to report it. “While reporting the activity, we will automatically get your location where the source of pollution was found,” said the CM. 

He further added that a complaint lodged on the App will be received by the concerned departments, which will have to resolve the complaints in a time-bound manner, as per the specified timelines for different types of complaints.

“In this app, a citizen can take a photo or shoot a video and audio of local pollutants, such as garbage burning, industrial pollution, construction dust, etc and upload them on the app to report it. “While reporting the activity, we will automatically get your location where the source of pollution was found,” said the CM. 

The monitoring of the resolution of all complaints and the number of complaints received will be done in our 24×7 Green War Room. Around 70 Green marshals have also been deployed for effective resolution of complaints registered on the app.

“Please make us aware of any difficulties that you may face in the app initially, and we will work towards resolving them. Our objective is to involve every agency and department, be it DDA, MCD, Delhi government, to strengthen our ‘Yuddh, Pradushan Ke Viruddh’,” added the CM.

Voting for the first phase of the Bihar Assembly election has begun with the electorate queuing up at polling booths. Voters are exercising their franchise in 71 constituencies out of the total 243 in the state. Of the nearly 2.15 crore electors eligible to exercise the franchise, 1.12 crore are male, 1.01 crore female and 599 are from the third gender. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Election Commission of India has issued elaborate guidelines for the three-phase elections in the state. 

Some of the major guidelines include wearing face masks, maintaining social distance inside and outside polling booths, regular sanitization of polling booths and thermal scanning of voters. The ECI has also allowed the Covid-19 patients, symptomatic and asymptomatic, who are under either institutional or home quarantine, to vote through postal ballots. 

On the campaigning trails, the issue of unemployment has hogged much limelight, with the RJD promising 10 lakh government jobs if voted into power. The BJP has also come up with the promise of four lakh government jobs. The core issues in this year’s assembly election have been health care, women empowerment and education. 

Political parties have also held rallies across the state in the run-up to the first phase of polling. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, the incumbent Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) Chief Chirag Paswan have held rallies to win over the support of the electorate.

Today, PM Modi will address three rallies in the state-Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Patna, whereas, Rahul Gandhi will address two rallies Valmikinagar and Kusheshwar Asthan constituencies.  

India’s economic expansion in recent years has been led by a new generation of entrepreneurs which includes scores of women. Along with venture capitalists, a number of mentors have been grooming women entrepreneurs to scale up their operations and adopt the best management practices.

We-pitch (Mumbai), event ideated & executed by Ritika Kothari is one such narrative on empowered women, empowering women.

A Mumbai-based architect, designer and digital media consultant, Ritika Kothari is the Creative Director at House of Ritika, a digital consulting platform that was established in 2018 to aid individuals, start-ups, and brands with their visual communication and digital marketing strategies. With a graduate degree in architecture and a post-graduate degree in Urban Planning, Ritika has a decade of design experience that includes various design and slum redevelopment projects across India. More recently, she launched ColabCloud — a digital design ecosystem, connecting with brands and designers via virtual events and webinars. With a quest to bring her passion for design and persona under one roof, Ritika continues to create inspiring content and help businesses and individuals.

The We-pitch Mumbai campaign, ideated and executed by ‘House of Ritika’, garnered a lot of praise.  It was co-powered by ‘India Circus’, a Godrej venture led by Krsnaa Mehta along with ‘Sunicon’, a Startup incubator founded by Saloni Jain. The outreach partner for the event was ‘Networking Now’- a social networking platform.

The two-day event saw live business pitches, keynote speeches, panel discussions, and workshops that drew huge participation from all over the country. The live streaming of the event was viewed by hundreds of live viewers on facebook.

The We-Pitch event was an overall success, with a 500+ viewership and a curated list of enthusiastic participants, who pitched their business stories to the Jury & live audience. The Jury was a mix of people from various backgrounds, Bharat Suri, Tanya Khanna, Sabina Bhanpurawala, Viraj Kalra, Nina Malhotra, Nidhi Kamdar, Nitya Arora, Devang Master, Krsnaa Mehta, each member an expert in their domain.

They selected three winners, who are to be individually mentored and incubated by Sunicon. The workshops by brand VRTT & Open Brackets Learning imparted valuable learning experience and inspiration to the participants.

The vision turned into reality due to the encouraging response from some amazing participants. The real success of the event was witnessed by three success stories and personal mentoring offered to select participants by the jury members. “ I remembered my early days when I saw the participants pitch their business, a little hand-holding can take us places and that has been my motivation and thought behind hosting this event”, Ritika says with a confident and happy smile.