NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is capable of handling the threats from both the Eastern and Western fronts, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said on Thursday 

The IAF Chief was asked about operational preparedness in case of a two-front war scenario, the Air Chief Marshal said that the IAF is ready for a full spectrum operation but added that any decision on surgical strike involving the IAF has to be taken by the government.

“Air Force has the capability to locate, fix and strike across the border,” Air Chief Marshal Dhanoa said on the issue of the tactical nuclear weapon of Pakistan.

On the required number of the fighter squadrons, the Air chief said, “We need to have 42 squadrons for full spectrum of war but it does not mean that we are not capable of handling the situation.

“We have a plan B which may be executed if needed,” he said while talking to journalists here ahead of the Air Force Day.

NEW DELHI:  Kanpur-based MKU Limited is all set to make Bullet Proof Jacket (BPJ) with the technology transfer from India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The Bullet Proof Jackets are manufactured for the use of Indian Army and Para-Military Forces personnel.

Chairman DRDO and Secretary Department of Defence R&D Dr. S Christopher handed over the technology at a function held in New Delhi on October 4, where documents and related license agreement between DRDO and M/S MKU Limited, Kanpur were exchanged.

The Indian Army General Staff Qualitative Requirement (GSQR) No. – 1438 BPJ technology has been developed by Defence Materials & Stores Research & Development Establishment (DMSRDE), a Kanpur based premier laboratory of DRDO.

This technology is challenging and one of the most significant matured personal protection systems developed by DRDO among the various GSQRs of Indian Army meeting NIJ III+ Standard.

Dr. Christopher in his address urged MKU to maintain a strict vigil on the quality of the Bullet Proof Jackets for the Indian Army and the Paramilitary Forces and to collaborate with DRDO to absorb the Organisation-developed technologies.

Among the dignitaries who graced the handing over ceremony were Director General, Naval System & Materials Cluster of DRDO Dr. S V Kamat; Director of DMSRDE Kanpur, Dr. N Eswara Prasad; Managing Director of M/S MKU Limited Neeraj Gupta besides various corporate directors of DRDO headquarters.

New Delhi : Government appoints Rajnish Kumar as the Chairman of India’s largest state run lender State Bank of India for a period of three years. Arundhati Bhattacharya’s term as SBI chairman ends this week. Kumar currently holds the post of Managing Director at SBI.

At present, Rajnish Kumar is one of the MD of SBI. The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) had interviewed four managing directors for the post at the end of June and had recommended a name to the government.

The new head of the bank will have to lead it through the ongoing resolution of bad loans, while ensuring that it supports growth by stepping up lending. Bad loans are seen as a systemic risk while credit growth is a key element of India’s economic revival strategy. 

Appointed in 2013 as the bank’s first woman chairman, Bhattacharya got a one-year extension in October 2016 to maintain continuity as SBI was preparing to absorb five associate banks and the Bharatiya Mahila Bank in April. That was seen as kicking off a much-anticipated wave of consolidation in the public sector banking space. 

New Delhi : Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (Department of Health Research) has been made Deputy Director General (Programmes) at the World Health Organisation (WHO). This was announced by WHO Director-General  Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus who named his senior leadership team.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan has more than 30 years of experience in clinical care, research and translating those findings into programs. She most recently served as Secretary of the Department of Health Research in India and as Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

She is a paediatrician and an expert on Tuberculosis.

Dr. Soumya Swaminathan will be Deputy Director General for Programmes (DDP) and Jane Ellison will be Deputy Director General for Corporate Operations (DDC).
 
The new team includes former ministers of health, some of the world’s leading physicians, scientists and researchers, and programmatic experts in universal health coverage, health emergencies, communicable and non-communicable diseases, climate and environmental health, and women’s, adolescents’ and children’s health. Individually and collectively, they have a wealth of experience across government, private sector, multilateral, civil society and academic organizations.
 
“The team represents 14 countries, including all WHO regions, and is more than 60% women, reflecting my deep-held belief that we need top talent, gender equity and a geographically diverse set of perspectives to fulfil our mission to keep the world safe,” said Dr Tedros.
 
Jane Ellison brings with her more than 30 years of experience in government, commerce and change management. Most recently, she was the Special Parliamentary Adviser to the UK’s Chancellor of the Exchequer. She also served as the UK’s Public Health Minister from 2014 to 2016.

NEW DELHI: Navy Chief Admiral Sunil Lamba is undertaking a three-day visit to Vietnam ‘to explore new avenues’ of defence cooperation and to further consolidate the cooperation between Indian and Vietnamese armed forces. 

During his visit from October 4 to 7, the Naval Chief will hold bilateral discussions with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Defence Minister General Ngo Xuan Lich, Chief of the General Staff Senior Lieutenant General Phan Van Giang, and Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnam People’s Navy Rear Admiral Pham Hoai Nam.

The Admiral will also be visiting the National Defence Academy of Vietnam, where he will interact with student officers and faculty members and deliver a talk on the ‘Importance of Maritime Power’, Defence Ministry said in a statement here on Tuesday.

Besides, he will visit Vietnam People’s Navy ‘Naval Region 4’, Vietnam Naval Academy and lay a wreath at the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum.  

Defence cooperation between India and Vietnam has been robust with the primary focus being maritime cooperation. 

India signed a Protocol on Defence Cooperation Agreement in 1994. The partnership was thereafter elevated to Strategic Partnership in 2007 and a MoU on Defence Cooperation between the countries was signed on November 5, 2009. 

A ‘Joint Vision Statement for 2015-20’ was signed by the respective Defence Ministers in May 2015 and the Strategic Partnership was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in September 2016, during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Vietnam.  

The Vietnam People’s Navy  participates in the ‘MILAN’ inter-Navy interactions organised at Port Blair by the Indian Navy. Warships from Indian Navy have been regularly visiting ports at Vietnam, with Indian Naval Ships Satpura and Kadmat recently making port call at Hai Phong from 23 to 27 September 2017. 

The Vietnamese Navy ship Dinh Tien Hoang, a Gepoard Class Frigate, also visited Visakhapatnam in February 2016, for participation in the ‘International Fleet Review – 2016’.

The Indian Army and Air Force also maintain robust cooperation with the Vietnamese Army and Air Force.  

On the International Day of the Older Person – 1 October – the World Health Organization (WHO) calls for a new approach to providing health services for older people.

Highlighting the role of primary care and the contribution of community health workers in keeping older people healthier for longer, the WHO has emphasized the importance of integrating services for different conditions.  
 
“By the year 2050, 1 in 5 people in the world will be aged 60 and older,” says Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “It is our goal to ensure that all older people can obtain the health services they need, whoever they are, wherever they live.”
 
Yet, even in the rich world, people may not be getting the integrated services they need.  In a survey of 11 high-income countries, up to 41% of older adults (aged  more than 65 years) reported care coordination problems in the past two years.
 
WHO’s new Guidelines on Integrated Care for Older People recommend ways community-based services can help prevent, slow or reverse declines in physical and mental capacities among older people. The guidelines also require health and social care providers to coordinate their services around the needs of older people through approaches such as comprehensive assessment and care plans. 

“Everyone at all levels of health and social care, from front-line providers through to senior leaders, has a role to play to help improve the health of older people. WHO’s new guidelines provide the evidence for primary care workers to put the comprehensive needs of older people, not just the diseases they come in to discuss, at the centre of the way they provide care,’’ says Dr John Beard, Director of the Ageing and Life Course at WHO. 

Older adults are more likely to experience chronic conditions and often multiple conditions at the same time. Yet today’s health systems generally focus on the detection and treatment of individual acute diseases. 

“If health systems are to meet the needs of older populations, they must provide ongoing care focused on the issues that matter to older people – chronic pain, and difficulties with hearing, seeing, walking or performing daily activities,” adds Dr Beard.  “This will require much better integration between care providers.” 

Some countries are already making smart investments guided by WHO’s Global Strategy on Ageing and Health.

Brazil has implemented comprehensive assessments and expanded its services for older adults;  Japan has  integrated long -term care insurance  to protect people from the costs of care; Thailand is strengthening the integration of health and social care as close as possible to where people live; while the Ministry of Health in Vietnam will build on its comprehensive health care system and the large number of elderly health care clubs to better meet the needs of older people in their communities. In Mauritius, the Ministry of Health provides universal health coverage for older adults including a network of health clubs and primary care clinics with more sophisticated services in hospitals. The United Arab Emirates are meeting the health needs of older people by creating more age-friendly cities.  In France, a new WHO Collaborating Centre called Gerontopole, located in the Toulouse University Hospital, is helping to advance research, clinical practice and training on Healthy Ageing.   

“Integrated care can help  foster inclusive economic growth, improve health and wellbeing,  and ensure older people have the opportunity to contribute to  development, instead of being left behind,” concluded Dr Beard. 

On Monday, a nine-year-old boy and a girl were killed as Pakistani troops targeted villages in the border areas along the Line of Control (LOC) in Poonch district of Jammu and Kashmir. 5 civilians were also injured. 

PTI reported that the deceased has been identified as Israr Ahmed (9) of Kerni. The injured include Reshma Bi, 55, and her son Mohammad Rafiq, 31, both residents of Kerni. Pakistani troops resorted to mortar shells and firing small and automatic weapons in the forward posts of Poonch. Indian Military retaliated very strongly and gave a befitting reply to the Pakistani troops. 

According to The Indian Express, apart from firing at forward Indian positions along the LoC, the Pakistani troops were also targeting civilian areas in Degwar, Shahpur, Kerni and Qasba. The casualties occurred as some of the shells fell in Kerni village.

On September 27, Pakistani troops had resorted to mortar shelling on civilian areas in Balakote and Manjakote sectors of Poonch and Rajouri districts, respectively, injuring two civilians including a 50-year-old woman.

The exchange of fire in the border areas forces the residents to shift to the safer places. Last month, a BSF jawan and a woman were been killed by the mortars of the Pakistani army.

Defence experts are opined that this ceasefire violation is a possible attempt to help the infiltrators to get inside the Indian territory. A week ago Indian Army Chief Bipin Rawat had said, “We will bury them (the infiltrators) 2 feet below the ground if they try to cross the borders.”

According to reports, under the new law, women can legally obtain a driving licence without asking a male guardian for permission in Saudi Arabia

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed the decision by Saudi Arabia to allow women to drive cars in the country.

In a tweet, the UN chief noted that ending the restrictions represents an “important step in the right direction.”

Also welcoming the announcement, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) “expressed hope that the move would “start the journey” to substantive equality for women and girls in the country, with more access to public spaces and life, increased participation in the job market and a life free of violence in all spheres.

“Women being able to apply for a driver’s licence in Saudi Arabia, and subsequently drive, is a long-awaited milestone in the [country], that puts them at par with their male counterparts in this one area of public life and gives them a right to a life-saving skill that they should never have been denied,” said Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, the Executive Director UN Women, in a statement today.

“The ability to move independently within their country is a vital step to the other freedoms that are their right as economic, political and social actors, and that bring benefits to all of society,” she added.

India has registered a significant decline in Infant Mortality Rate (IMR), according to the latest Sample Registration Survey (SRS) bulletin.

The IMR in the country has declined by three points–8% decline– from 37 per 1,000 live births in 2015 to 34 per 1000 live births in 2016, compared to two points decline last year.

India also recorded a major drop in birth cohort, which has for the first time, come down to below 25 million. Also, there were 90,000 fewer infant deaths in 2016 as compared to 2015. The total number of estimated infant deaths have come down from 9,30,000 (9.3 lakh) in 2015 to 8,40,000 (8.4 lakh) in 2016.

According to the SRS Bulletin, the gender gap in India for child survival is reducing steadily. The gender difference between female and male IMR has now reduced to less than10%, giving a major boost to the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ scheme of the Government.

The results signify that the strategic approach of the Ministry has started yielding dividends and the efforts of focusing on low performing States is paying off. Among the EAG States and Assam, all States except Uttarakhand have reported decline in IMR in comparison to 2015. The decline is reported as 4 points in Bihar, 3 points in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand and two points decline in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Rajasthan.

These remarkable achievements in merely one year is also the result of a countrywide efforts to increase the health service coverage through various initiatives of the Government that includes strengthening of service delivery; quality assurance; RMNCH+A; human resources, community processes; information and knowledge; drugs and diagnostics, and supply chain management, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Results from Phase 3 efficacy study of rotavirus vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India have shown the vaccine to be safe, well tolerated, and to provide significant efficacy against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis. The results of the vaccine BRV-PV (known as ROTASIIL) were published in the journal Vaccine. 

In 2013, India accounted for 22 percent of global rotavirus deaths. In terms of numbers, this was an estimated 47,100 rotavirus deaths occurred in India. 

ROTASIIL reduced severe rotavirus diarrhea by more than a third – 39.5 percent over two years.  

Significantly, the vaccine efficacy was nearly 55 percent against the most severe and potentially life-threatening cases of rotavirus diarrhea, which represent the highest risk of dehydration,  hospitalizations, and deaths. 

The results demonstrated by ROTASIIL in India appear generally comparable to the performance of RotaTeq and Rotarix in Bangladesh and in some African countries.  

Dr. Rajeev Dhere, executive director of the Serum Institute, who led the team that developed the vaccine, said: “We are delighted with these results, which indicate that ROTASIIL could save the lives of tens of thousands of children each year in India and, potentially, around the world.”    

The international nonprofit PATH partnered with Serum Institute on evaluating this vaccine in the Phase 3 efficacy study. Six study sites across India enrolled 7,500 infants in the trial. ROTASIIL is an oral vaccine administered to infants in a three-dose course at 6, 10, and 14 weeks of age, at the same time as routine vaccinations under India’s Universal Immunization Programme.  

The office of the Drugs Controller General of India, through its subject expert committee, reviewed the Phase 3 safety and efficacy results and subsequently inspected Serum Institute’s manufacturing facilities leading to licensure of ROTASIIL in January 2017.   

The Government has placed an order for 3.8 million doses of ROTASIIL to use in the Universal Immunization Programme, which serves 26 million children. Serum Institute has manufactured the vaccine doses and is awaiting instructions from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for their distribution. ROTASIIL will also be available for sale in India’s private market later this year.   

Serum Institute is pursuing World Health Organization (WHO) prequalification to make this vaccine available for global procurement. PATH and Serum Institute partnered to conduct a separate Phase 3 study in India to gather additional data required for WHO prequalification; results from that study will be submitted for publication this year.      

Médecins Sans Frontières and Epicentre are also evaluating the efficacy and safety of ROTASIIL in a separate Phase 3study in Niger. That study is still ongoing, but results from the primary analysis (one year of data) also showed the vaccine to be highly efficacious for the prevention of severe rotavirus diarrhea and to have an excellent safety profile. The efficacy of the vaccine against severe and very severe rotavirus diarrhea in the Niger study was 66.7 percent and 78.8 percent, respectively. These results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2017, a statement issued by PATH said. 

The ROTASIIL used in the Niger study was stored at less than 25°C and transported for vaccination at ambient temperature, thus bypassing the typically challenging and costly cold chain requirements that apply to most other vaccines.The ROTASIIL used in the India study was from the same lots of vaccine used in the Niger study.   at ambient temperature, thus bypassing the typically challenging and costly cold chain requirements that apply to most other vaccines.The ROTASIIL used in the India study was from the same lots of vaccine used in the Niger study.  

Rotavirus is the most common and deadly cause of severe diarrhea with dehydration in infants and young children. Every child everywhere in the world is at risk of infection. However, in places where access to urgent medical care is limited, severe diarrhea and vomiting caused by rotavirus can lead to lethal dehydration.   

Worldwide, more than half a million children under the age of five years die each year due to diarrhea. In 2013, an estimated 215,000 of these deaths were due to rotavirus, with more than90 percent occurring in developing countries. In 2013, an estimated 47,100 rotavirus deaths occurred in India, 22 percent of all rotavirus deaths that occurred globally.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund India statistics from 2011, about half of all children in India experienced an episode of rotavirus (for a total of more than 11 million episodes). 

In addition, 1 in every 31 children was hospitalized due to rotavirus (for a total of more than 872,000 hospitalizations).The first year of life is the period of highest risk for death due to rotavirus infection among children in India. 

The Global Enterics Multi-Center Study (GEMS) looked at acute diarrhea in children 0 to59 months of age. It was conducted at seven sites in Africa and Asia, including the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata, India. Results from GEMS showed that rotavirus was responsible for the highest number of cases of diarrhea at the India study site for children up to 23 months of age.   and Enteric Diseases in Kolkata, India. Results from GEMS showed that rotavirus was responsible for the highest number of cases of diarrhea at the India study site for children up to 23 months of age.  

For children ages 24 to 59 months, rotavirus remained responsible for more than 13 percent of cases of diarrhea at the India site. In January 2016, the Indian Government began a phased introduction of rotavirus vaccine into the publicly funded Universal Immunization Programme.