New Delhi, December 18 (IANS): As the wealthy nations like the US and the UK begin vaccinating their public, the road ahead for India does not look very rosy as both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines currently making headlines are yet to reach the country owing to a host of factors including scarce supply, tricky transport and an absence of proper cold chain. For over 130 crore Indians, two promising vaccines -- Astrazeneca and Oxford university developed and Serum Institute of I

New Delhi, December 18 (IANSlife) Ann Meryem Baycan, an Indian-Turkish writer formerly known as Ann D'Silva, who is set to launch the Turkish translation of the first book in her 'Sand and Sea' trilogy, 'Footprints in the Sand', feels that translations are way to build cross-cultural readership and help people have a new experience similar to that of travel, or having friends from different ethnicities. "People are the same everywhere, they want to have new

New Delhi, December 17 (IANSlife): More than 50 per cent of India's population has expressed a caution towards taking the virus vaccine, a new survey revealed. 'The GOQii Covid-19 – The Way Forward' survey was conducted with approximately 11,000 respondents to understand the openness to take the vaccine, the perception about the government measures to combat Covid-19, the possible future measures including a lockdown. It revealed that 53 per cent of the populati

New Delhi, December 16 (PTI): India dropped one spot to 131 among 189 countries in the 2020 human development index, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme. Human Development Index is the measure of a nation's health, education, and standards of living. Life expectancy of Indians at birth in 2019 was 69.7 years while Bangladesh has a life expectancy of 72.6 years and Pakistan 67.3 years, the 2020 Human Development Report said. India, Bhu

ArrayAgra, December 16 (IANS): Fifty-year-old Jai can now breathe freely and enjoy his sunset years in comfort at the Elephant Hospital on the Agra-Mathura border. Jai, the elephant, was forced to keep moving in spiked chains from villages to towns by beggars asking for alms. The Rajasthan Forest department finally decided to book the offenders and secure the release of Jai, from the offenders. A lifetime of hardships ended and a new era has begun in the life of the hapless anima

New Delhi, Decèmber 15 (IANS): "I thought India was pretty jammed with poor people and cows wandering around the streets, witch doctors and people sitting on hot coals and bathing in the Ganges, but I did not realize that anybody thought it was important," President Harry Truman had remarked to Ambassador Chester Bowles in 1951. It's been a long journey from Truman's remark to the present. India and the US, which share common values and should have been frie

New York, December 15 (IANS): Kamala Harris made history as the first Indian-American and the first woman to be elected as the Vice President of the US after the Electoral College affirmed her victory and that of Joe Biden as President in the bitterly fought election for the nation's leadership. The Electoral College officially sealed their election on Monday giving voice to the 81 million voters who cast their ballots for the Democratic party team, while President Donald Trump

New Delhi, December 13 (IANS) Recovery from Covid-19 may not be the end of the battle for people, including youngsters, who according to the public health experts are presenting cardiac symptoms post-recuperation from the deadly disease. According to the doctors, hospitals are witnessing a rise in young people reporting cardiac issues post their recovery from the infection, the most common being the palpitations and in few cases as extreme as cardiac arrest or even heart attack.

ArrayNew Delhi, December 13 (IANSlife): With a focus on the indigenous wool story and wool artisans of India,'Desi Oon', an online exhibition-sale currently ongoing, will feature vignettes of India's rich diversity of indigenous wool and woollens, created by an ecosystem of herders, hand spinners, weavers, felters and dyers. Presented by Centre for Pastoralism, which is also engaged in revitalising the indigenous wool economy and culture, the 'Desi Oon' exhibitio

New Delhi, December 12 (IANSlife): Global Dream Shaala, an initiative for providing free education to out of school children starting with Uttar Pradesh, launched earlier this week on Human Rights Day. The initiative will promote functional literacy and numeracy among masses, and was born out of an observation of underprivileged children aged 6-14 unable to read even a one-paragraph story fluently. According to educationist Dr. Sunita Gandhi, "Our primary objective with Global

ArrayEluru (Andhra Pradesh), December 11 (IANS): A 26-year-old mother of two, who suffered the mysterious illness in Andhra Pradesh's West Godavari district headquarters Eluru is shaken. Where she could shift if it was really the living conditions that caused the scourge, she asks. "We always drink municipal water. If this is what happens when we drink tap water, then where should we go? What should we drink and what should we eat?" wondered Sai Sri Hima Bindhu with IA

New Delhi, December 10 (IANS): The Modi government paid more than double to farmers as minimum support price (MSP) for paddy and wheat as compared to the UPA government. While the UPA government paid Rs 3.74 lakh crore as MSP for paddy and wheat between 2009-2014, Modi government paid Rs 8 lakh crore between 2014-2019. In addition, the Modi government bought 74 times more pulses than UPA. The UPA government bought 1.52 lakh tons while Modi government bought 112.28 lakh tons durin

By Poornima Advani IANS | December 10 The Indian capital, Delhi's air pollution, has turned from low to severe over the course of the Diwali weekend due to burning of crop stubbles in nearby states and people bursting crackers in violation of a Delhi state government ban. While the festival of lights inevitably brings the problem of smoke and ash spewed by crackers, the bigger worry is that of farm fires -- a phenomenon that has been gradually choking the national capital ev

New York, December 10 (IANS): The Seattle-headquartered Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Thursday announced that it will offer an additional $250 million to fund the research, development and equitable delivery of tools for Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines. In a statement, the Foundation called for global commitments to make Covid-related scientific innovations available in 2021 to everyone who needs them, reports Xinhua news agency. "We are confident that the w

New Delhi, December 9 (IANS): National capitals IGI Airport is gearing up to be at the frontline of Indias upcoming offensive against the Covid-19 pandemic. Accordingly, the GMR operated airport, which played a pivotal role in supply of PPEs in the past several months, is now preparing to handle the precious, temperature-controlled cargo carrying anti-Covid-19 vaccines. Expected to be flown out from pharma hubs in Pune and Hyderabad, these vaccines hold the promise to unshackle I

Nairobi, December 9 (IANS): A green pandemic recovery could cut upto 25 per cent off predicted 2030 greenhouse gas emissions and bring the world closer to meeting the two degree celsius goal of the Paris Agreement on climate change, said a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report on Wednesday. The UNEP's annual Emissions Gap Report 2020 reveals that despite a dip in the 2020 carbon dioxide emissions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the world is still heading for a temperature

Washington, December 8 (AP): President Donald Trump has declared that he has absolute power to issue a pardon to himself. Yet the law is much murkier than his confidence suggests. No president has attempted to pardon himself while in office, so if Trump tries to do so in the next six weeks, he will be venturing into legally untested territory without clear guidance from the Constitution or from judges. Legal experts are divided on an inherently ambiguous question that was left va

By Asad Mirza IANS | December 7 For once maverick Boris Johnson seems to have taken a correct step, but he faced public and his partymen's ire over the decision. To counter the Corona pandemic, different countries adopted different strategies and took different safety measures, almost everywhere these steps were supported and adhered to willingly by their citizens. However, the response of the British public and some politicians too in this regard seems to be quite different

New Delhi, December 6 (IANS): With no sign of any agreement between the government and the protesting farmers even after the fifth round of talks on Saturday, and the next meeting scheduled for December 9, farmers are sticking to their first and major point - that the three "anti-farmer" laws passed in September be repealed. However, the government says these laws are in the interest of farmers to make them richer. The Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Faci

New Delhi, December 6 (IANS): As cyber attacks surge in India especially in the digital payments and healthcare sectors, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is leaving no stone unturned in understanding and mitigating the constantly evolving threat landscape prevailing in the country. The year 2020 saw several UPI-related frauds and several banks issued advisories, alerting users about the same. Ransomware-