Our World

Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins with Hillary Clinton: Credit Wikimedia Commons  As the Omicron triggers new healthcare threat around the world, in the United States, recently obtained emails through a Freedom of Information Act request—made by the American Institute for Economic Research in the fall of 2020—revealed what is believed to be concerning exchange between Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Francis Collins, MD, former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ‘Great Barrington Declaration’, an open letter, was issued in October 2020 and signed by thousands of scientists, including a Nobel Prize winner. It contends that Covid-19 policy should prioritise the protection of the aged and vulnerable while reopening society and schools to the general public. In an email, dated 8 October 2020, Collins wrote addressing Fauci and others that the ‘Great Barrington Declaration’ from the “three fringe epide

  Indian Army: Credit Wikimedia Commons   The Indian Army has launched a messaging app called Army Secure IndiGeneous Messaging Application or ASIGMA. The Ministry of Defence said in a statement that the web-based application was built wholly in-house by the officials from the Corps of Signals of the Army. As reported, this newly launched application will be used on the Army's internal network to replace the Army Wide Area Network (AWAN) messaging application, which has been in use for the previous 15 years. The application has been deployed on Army-owned hardware and is designed to provide long-term support and future improvements. According to the statement, the customised messaging application fits all future user requirements and provides an improved user experience. It contains a number of modern features, such as multi-level security, message prioritisation and tracking, a dynamic global address book, and a variety of configurations to match the Army's needs. This future-

Floating City: Credid OCEANIX By 2025, the world's first floating city, which will be constructed off the coast of South Korea, is expected to be finished. What makes it more interesting is the fact that the city, simply a cluster of hexagonal platforms resting on top of the water, is claimed to be capable of surviving natural disasters such as floods, tsunamis, and Category 5 hurricanes. The floating settlement, which will be created off the coast of Busan at an estimated cost of $200 million and backed by the United Nations, will be a "flood-proof infrastructure" made up of multiple man-made islands. The floating city will be self-sufficient in terms of food, energy, and water, thanks to a collaboration between the project's designer, OCEANIX, and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat). It will generate electricity using solar panels on the roofs of buildings and transport residents in futuristic boat pods. Organic farming in aeroponic and aquaponic systems,

  The global impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, cybersecurity, technology and climate change were at the forefront of discussions during the historic meeting in Washington, involving leaders of the Quad countries— which includes India, Australia, Japan and the United States. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and his counterparts Scott Morrison from Australia and Yoshihide Suga from Japan have gathered in Washington for the Quad summit at the White House, at the invitation of President Joe Biden. The Quad leaders have proposed bold efforts to strengthen the bonds and enhance practical cooperation on issues faced by all four countries in this 21st century. The leaders vowed to ensure a “free and open” Indo-Pacific, in the backdrop of China's increased military manoeuvring in the region. They also agreed that the strategically important region must be "inclusive and resilient". According to PIB, a senior “Quad infrastructure coordination group” will meet

  Some of the biggest names in the auto industry have already had to modify their car production targets due to the global chip shortage and many are making plans to cope with the situation as the semiconductor crisis threatens to worsen in the coming months. But according to a report, one of the top automotive manufacturing companies in India, Tata Motors is more concerned about something else than the chip issue. The company, which is India’s third-largest carmaker, is more worried about the rising cost of raw materials. As reported by Bloomberg Quint, PB Balaji, who is the chief financial officer at Tata Motors Group, said: “It [raw material cost] is becoming very, very painful. Prices right now are moving so fast that we are not able to process it.” According to Balaji, vehicle costs have increased by 14 per cent in the last year across all categories due to engine upgrades to meet lower emission standards (BS-VI or Bharat Stage VI), while another 6-7 per cent increase in price

  Image Courtesy: @ChinaMissionVie/ Twitter China's Baihetan hydropower facility—claimed to be the largest hydropower station under constructionin the world—on Yangtze river's upstream branch began generating electricity for the first time on 28 June. According to the state media, after a three-day trial, the project’s first two 1-gigawatt (GW) turbines will begin functioning and when completed in July 2022, it will have 16 such units, making the plant’s total generation capacity second only to the Three Gorges Dam in Hubei province. Baihetan dam, located on the border between the southwestern provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan, was built by the China Three Gorges Corporation. It is part of a series of dams on the Jinsha River, which is the Yangtze's upstream branch. Despite the fact that the corporation claimed it was one of China's largest and most difficult engineering projects, with a dam height of 289 metres (948 feet), construction took only four years. As per the

  Only three countries have sent humans into space as of now—the United States, Russia and China. But now, a fourth one is on the way. It is India’s space exploration agency, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).   Even though the list of leading countries with the highest government expenditure on space programs doesn’t include India, ISRO has achieved incredible success over the years. From hauling elements of the first rocket on a bicycle to discovering water on the Moon, the Indian space agency has come a long way. Now, it expects that achieving future goals can begin with Gaganyaan (sky-vehicle), which is ISRO’s first crewed mission programme. But Gaganyaan’s timeline is still unclear because of the Covid-19 pandemic.   ISRO’s first four would-be space travellers recently spent almost a year in Russia getting acquainted with old Soyuz capsules and replicating spaceflight conditions in centrifuges and pressure chambers. They have now returned to India, where they w

  The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States, Dr Anthony Fauci is facing new attacks from Chinese state media after he suggested that there should be more investigations into the Covid-19 origin. Fauci, who is the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, on 11 May told PolitiFact's managing editor Katie Sanders at a fact-checking event that he is "not convinced" that the SARS-CoV-2 virus developed naturally. The top American expert said: "I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened." "Certainly, the people who investigated it say it likely was the emergence from an animal reservoir that then infected individuals, but it could have been something else, and we need to find that out,” he explained and added that this is the reason why he is in the favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of t

The world’s biggest retailer Walmart has decided to set up vaccination clinics for over 200,000 of its workers and their families in India.   The company is not procuring Covid-19 vaccines but will cover the cost of inoculations for its associates and households.   The decision is taken at a time when India is witnessing a massive surge in Covid-19 cases during the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.   Even though the American multinational retail corporation has no stores in India, it controls two of the most important online companies in the country –Flipkart and PhonePe.   Walmart said on 29 April in a statement that it will donate over 3,000 oxygen concentrators and 500 oxygen cylinders for delivering oxygen therapy to patients at home or in hospitals.   Additionally, the company will also donate 20 oxygen-generating plants, as well as 20 cryogenic containers for oxygen storage and transportation.   Even as part of the United States-India Business Council relief efforts, Walma

  While responding to a Tweet from the Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on the need for the healthcare staff, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra suggested ideas to work on the solutions. The Indian billionaire businessman said that a nationwide mobile medical force can be launched to counter the shortage of healthcare workers faced by several states in India during this pandemic. Anand Mahindra’s response to Thackeray’s Tweet comes at a time when India is noticing a massive spike in Coronavirus cases. The cases in the country had been falling since September last year but the current surge in infection numbers raised a serious concern. Staff Shortage Amid The Pandemic “I have already directed for infrastructure to be added wherever necessary. We can increase the beds, ventilators, oxygen supply and medicine supply. But what about doctors, nurses and medical staff?” wrote Maharashtra CM. In response to the Tweet, Anand Mahindra said on 3 April: “This is a valid

  In the United States, the researchers at Stanford University have detected a new form of the Coronavirus, whose emergence in India is coinciding with the surge in the country's COVID-19 cases. According to Stanford’s Clinical Virology Laboratory, which has developed tests to find out the existence of viruses already spreading around the world, as of now one confirmed case and seven presumed COVID-19 cases of the Indian variant were found in the San Francisco Bay Area. As reported, the concerning cases in the United States involve Stanford patients. Dr Ben Pinsky, medical director of the laboratory told The Mercury News that the recent finding has demonstrated the “rapid spread” of this Coronavirus variant. But needless to say, this discovery of the variant along with the growing number of other versions of the virus, comes as no shock to the experts as the viruses travel beyond the borders with the carriers. The researchers found the mutations by scanning viral genetic