Category: Business & Economy

** Sanofi, GSK get nod for Phase 3 efficacy trial of their Covid -19 vaccine candidate in India

In this partnership Sanofi provides its recombinant antigen and GSK contributes its pandemic adjuvant, both established vaccine platforms that have proven successful against influenza.

Sanofi and GSK said they have received approval for their Phase 3 clinical study in India, to assess the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity of their adjuvanted recombinant-protein COVID-19 vaccine candidate.

The global, randomised, double-blind Phase 3 study will include more than 35,000 volunteers aged 18 and older across sites in the U.S., Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

** Didi Contractor, champion of low-waste buildings, is no more

The self-taught architect, who worked for more than three decades in Kangra Valley, Himachal Pradesh, gave a contemporary edge to traditional materials such as mud, bamboo and slate.

Delia ‘Didi’ Contractor was an artist, designer and a self-taught architect. For over three decades, she worked in Kangra valley, Himachal Pradesh, promoting the need to live and build sustainably. She died on July 5 due to age-related ailments at her home in Sidhbari. She was 91.

With over 15 homes and numerous public projects, Didi’s name has been synonymous with designing low-waste buildings.

The only child of a German father and American mother, who were engaged in the influential Bauhaus movement, Didi made India her home in 1951, when she married the late Narayan Ramji Contractor. Through her husband’s friend, Maharana Bhagwant Singh Mewar, the Maharana of Udaipur, she had the opportunity to decorate the Lake Palace Hotel in 1961.

** CoWin platform made open source: PM Modi

“There is no parallel to such a pandemic in hundred years and no nation, however powerful, can solve a challenge like this in isolation,” Mr. Modi said, and added that all had to work together.

“Guided by the approach of ‘One Earth, One Health’, humanity will certainly overcome this pandemic,” he said.

** Laurus Labs gets DRDO licence to make anti-COVID drug 2DG

Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had on May 1 accorded emergency approval for use of 2DG on COVID-19 patients.

Drugmaker Laurus Labs has received licence from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) to manufacture and market 2-Deoxy-D-Glucose (2DG), an oral drug indicated as an adjunct therapy for hospitalised COVID-19 patients.

Announcing this, the company said it has already applied for emergency use authorisation for the product with the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization. The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) had on May 1 accorded emergency approval for use of 2DG on COVID-19 patients.

** Editor of Sanskrit newspaper passes away

K.V. Sampath Kumar ran the world’s only Sanskrit daily

K.V. Sampath Kumar, 64, editor of Sudharma, reckoned to be the country’s and the world’s only Sanskrit daily, passed away in Mysuru on Wednesday afternoon following cardiac arrest.

He, along with his wife Vidushi K.S. Jayalakshmi, were awarded the Padma Shri in 2020 by the government in recognition of their untiring efforts to keep the publication alive against all odds

Sampath Kumar had taken over the mantle from his father Pandit K.N. Varadaraja Iyengar who had launched Sudharma in 1970, and ensured that the publication reached its readers. He worked as a reporter, proof-reader, editor and publisher.

** Hyderabad physicist solves mathematical problem unsolved for 161 years

Hyderabad: 

A city-based mathematical physicist, Kumar Eswaran claims that he has found the solution for the Riemann Hypothesis (RH), the famous mathematical problem that has remained unsolved for about 161 years.

First posited by Bernhard Riemann in 1859, the Riemann hypothesis is one of the top ten unsolved mathematical problems by American mathematician Stephen Smale. In 2000, RH became one of the seven millennium mathematical problems from the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge and is worth up to $1 million to the person who solves it.

Eswaran is a known mathematical physicist at Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad and had placed his research titled ‘The final and exhaustive proof of the Riemann Hypothesis from first principles on the internet almost five years ago. However, editors of international journals were reluctant to put the paper through a detailed peer review.

** Krithi Karanth becomes first Asian woman to win WILD Innovators Award for her work in understanding human-animal conflict

For her efforts, Krithi was awarded the WILD Innovators Award, the first for an Asian woman on April 27, 2021.

This award is bestowed by the WILD ELEMENTS Foundation that brings together innovators, advocates and partners to identify solutions for conservation.

The foundation partners with premier science and conservation experts across the world and also with celebrities and influencers who promote interdependence.

According to the citation, Krithi was given the award for researching human dimensions in wildlife for over 20 years.

** KL University students develop e-bike with wireless charging

Students from KL Deemed to be University have developed a unique e-Bike (electric bike) with wireless charging technology. The innovative prototype was developed by a team of six third and fourth year students from the electrical and electronics engineering department of KL College of Engineering along with a few university alumni members. 

Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh

** Udupi cuisine becomes India’s weapon of choice to extend soft-power in Asia

Udupi cuisine is taking Hong Kong by storm as Asian residents in the gleaming metropolis and beyond bite into India’s spicy south Indian delicacies, which are extending India’s soft-power across the globe.