Soumya swaminathan

A fourth dose of Pfizer or Moderna's Covid jabs provide a “substantial” boost to immunity against the virus, UK Government-funded research shows. The study of around 160 Brits aged 50-80 found the quadruple-vaccinated had up to seven times more T cells, a defensive white blood cell, and two times more antibodies 'over and above' triple-jabbed people. However, the research also revealed that people who had high levels of antibodies and T cells before they were given a fourth dose only got a small boost to immunity . In a new study published in The Lancet, the "safety, reactogenicity, and immunogenicity" of fourth-dose boosters against Covid was analysed, in particular Pfizer and Moderna . A fourth jab can provide a 'substantial boost', according to a new study ( Image: PA) In the study, which was led by researchers at the University of Southampton, 166 triple-jabbed people, aged between 51 and 78, were given a fourth dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna … [Read more...] about Fourth Covid vaccine provides ‘a substantial boost to immunity’, according to new study

The Congress on Saturday called for enacting a law guaranteeing minimum support price (MSP) for crops and said its aim is to ensure that farmers are "debt-free". Addressing a press conference on the second day of the ongoing 'Chintan Shivir' in Udaipur , senior Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also said the party would strongly oppose any move by the government to bring back the three farm laws that were repealed earlier. Mr. Hooda, who is the convener of the group deliberating on agriculture and farmers' issues at the shivir, said key issues before the committee included a law for guaranteeing MSP to farmers , climate change's effect on agriculture, "poor" implementation of the government's crop insurance scheme and institutional credit investment. There is also a proposal to demand setting up of a national farm debt relief commission to suggest ways and solve debt-related grievances of farmers through conciliation and negotiation as … [Read more...] about Congress calls for law guaranteeing MSP for crops, says want to make farmers ‘debt-free’

A series of papers presented at the national seminar on ‘Dalit households in village economies' painted a grim picture of deprivation among Dalits in rural India. These papers, based on a series of village studies since 2004, pointed to Dalits' relatively poor access to official sources of credit, their lack of command over assets and amenities, and lower levels of employment and income. Commenting on the papers, Abhijit Sen, member, Planning Commission, pointed out that the value of these village studies — conducted by the Foundation of Agrarian Studies (FAS) and other researchers — was enhanced by the fact that they were not aimed at finding out how Dalits were faring exclusively in socio-economic terms. Instead, the extent and nature of deprivation among Dalits was being demonstrated as a part of a study of agrarian relations in the country, in which caste played an important role. Drawing on data from all the village surveys conducted by the FAS, Vikas Rawal, Associate … [Read more...] about Deprivation among Dalits remains high

Fifty-year-old Dasari Ramanaiah, who grew paddy in five acres of leased land at Kovur village, was getting ready to complete the harvest of the rabi crop and get a decent return. But his hopes were dashed as the untimely rain triggered by cyclonic storm Asani had snatched away his produce. So is the case with hundreds of farmers in the mandal who have been struggling to get even the minimum support price promised by the State government, leave alone remunerative price for their produce as per the formula evolved by noted agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan. Relaxing the norms, the State government should ensure purchase of all the wet paddy left with the farmers, says M. Vengaiah, a farmer and Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangham district president, of Marripadu village. Farmers could not complete the harvest in time in several mandals in the Penna delta, including Sangam, Buchireddypalem, Kovur, Kodavaluru, Vidavalur, Dagadarthi and Allur this time for various reasons. The heavy … [Read more...] about Asani-hit paddy farmers mull crop holiday during Edagaru cropping season

Justice G.R. Swaminathan of the Madras High Court on Sunday heard an urgent case through WhatsApp video call from Nagercoil, since the hereditary trustee of the Abheeshta Varadarajaswamy temple at Papparapatti Agraharam in Pennagaram Taluk of Dharmapuri district feared his village “might earn the divine wrath” if the temple car festival was not held, as planned, on Monday. In the prologue to his order in favour of the temple, the judge wrote, “Our village will face divine wrath if the proposed Rath (temple car) festival is not held tomorrow– This fervent prayer of the writ petitioner made the court hold the sitting from Nagercoil (where the judge had been to attend a marriage ceremony) and conduct the case through WhatsApp.” While the judge heard the case from Nagercoil, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram and petitioner’s counsel V. Raghavachari argued the matter from their offices in Chennai. In the writ petition, filed through his counsel on record K. Sureshbabu, the hereditary … [Read more...] about HC judge hears an urgent temple case through WhatsApp video call on Sunday

In this second and concluding part of a one-hour interview given to N. Ram at ‘Temple Trees' in Colombo, Mahinda Rajapaksa , Sri Lanka's President, responds to questions about his ambitious initiative for a trilingual Sri Lanka, the role of the English language, the contentious 18th constitutional amendment, the jailing and conviction of General Sarath Fonseka, the status and future of 11,000 hard-core LTTE cadres and supporters, and relations with India. You have taken a special interest in language policy. You have announced a Ten Year Presidential Initiative for a Trilingual Sri Lanka and before that the initiative to promote English. This seems to have been thought out over the long term. How do you see this going? Last year was the Year of English and Information Technology. With that the people started spoken English, they started learning English. So I thought the best thing was that all Sinhalese must learn Tamil now, the Tamils must learn Sinhala, and they must all … [Read more...] about ‘Help us bring the communities together’

For the first time in the annals of the Madras High Court, a judge has conducted a case through ‘WhatsApp’, and on a Sunday. Justice G R Swaminathan took up the case while being stationed in Nagercoil, where he had gone to attend a marriage function on Sunday, following a submission of P R Srinivasan, the hereditary trustee of Shri Abheeshta Varadaraja Swamy temple, that his village will face the ‘divine wrath’ if the proposed ‘Rath’ (Car) festival was not held on Monday. “This fervent prayer of the writ petitioner made me hold an emergency sitting from Nagercoil and conduct the case through Whatsapp,” the judge said in the opening sentence of his order. It was a triangular session, with the judge hearing the case from Nagercoil, petitioner’s counsel V Raghavachari at one place and Advocate-General R Shanmugasundaram, at another place, in the city. The issue pertained to a temple in Dharmapuri district. Holding that the Inspector attached to the Hindu Religious and Charitable … [Read more...] about In a First, High Court Hears Case Through Whatsapp

Private colleges can fill up vacant seats on their own if the number of candidates sponsored by the selection committee of the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homeopathy (DIMH) was less than the permitted intake of those colleges or if some of the sponsored candidates had not joined the colleges leading to the seats going unfilled and waste, the Madras High Court has held. Justice G.R. Swaminathan passed the verdict while allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by 13 private colleges that offer courses in Indian medicine. The petitioners were aggrieved against the insistence of DIMH that only students sponsored by the selection committee should be admitted both in government as well as management quota seats and the colleges could not admit anyone on their own. While allowing their writ petitions, by way of a common order, Mr. Swaminathan pointed out that in all cases before the court, there was a shortfall in the sponsorship of candidates. It was either because the selection … [Read more...] about No illegality in private Indian medicine colleges having filled seats that would have otherwise gone waste, says Madras HC

There was a time, not all that long ago, when English speakers in the south of India routinely referred to our north as ‘Upper India’. This sense of the north’s upper-ness included, somewhere in its folds, a sense of the north having the upper hand in the affairs of the nation, of being bigger, more populous and, therefore, the more dominant of the two. Being ‘upper’ also encased within its meaning the fact of the nation’s capital, Calcutta and later Delhi, being ‘up’ there, with Simla as the nation’s summer capital ‘up above the world so high like a diamond in the sky’. The political summit The Imperial Legislative Council, with its Central Legislative Assembly as the Lower House and the Council of State as the Upper House, being located in Delhi pushed that upperness further up. Seeing persons of the eminence of Muhammad Habibullah, A. Rangaswami Iyengar, S. Srinivasa Iyengar, Omandur Ramaswami Reddiar, Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, Tanguturi Prakasam, Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, T.S. … [Read more...] about Delimitation fallout needs no political forecasting

The Reserve Bank of India’s interest rate increases may not be able to ‘meaningfully’ cool prices while sacrificing growth, as almost three-fifths of the spike in India’s retail inflation since February can be linked to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, SBI’s economic researchers wrote in a report on Monday. “In a situation of incipient demand recovery post COVID, the question will be whether growth could be a large casualty in case of large and persistent rate increases, even as inflation prints will continue to be of serious concern,” the SBI economists led by group chief economic adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh wrote. Inflation measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) hit a near eight-year high of 7.8% in April, with rural inflation hitting the highest level in 96 months at 8.4%. The RBI, in an off-cycle meeting this month, raised benchmark interest rates by 40 basis points and began unwinding pandemic-related monetary policy accommodation. “Against the continued increase in … [Read more...] about ‘Rate increases may not cool price gains driven by war’