Johnson opts for slow end to lockdown
Emily Ashton and Alex Morales, Bloomberg
Feb. 22, 2021
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A social-distancing floor marker sits in a classroom at All Saints Catholic College in Manchester, England, on Sept. 1, 2020.Bloomberg photo by Anthony Devlin
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared the end of the pandemic is in sight for England as he set out his aim to ease lockdown rules in a series of stages over the next four months.
Johnson detailed a four-step plan that will reopen schools from March 8, outdoor hospitality from mid-April and sports stadiums by mid-May. From June 21 all remaining businesses, such as nightclubs, will resume operations and rules on social contact will be scrapped.
Electronics goods face biggest tariff hikes in India’s Atmanirbhar push
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India’s latest budget, tabled in Parliament on 1 February, came with a fresh set of tariff hikes. Coming after months of the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ push, the hikes inevitably lent steam to India’s increasingly protectionist image. A sectoral analysis shows that the electronics goods sector, which depends heavily on China, continued to be among the biggest targets of India’s tariffs this year.
Effective 2 February, the government raised duties on about 1,250 of the 10,400-odd items on India’s customs list. These items made up $75.8 billion worth of imports in 2019-20, a Mint analysis shows. The extent is lower than the 2020 budget, when nearly 1,600 items saw raised duties, but it was not enough to change the look-inwards perception India is fast developing in global trade.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund, is increasingly playing a bigger role in the economy and intends to invest around $40 billion each year in the local economy
I am now on Koo , Railway Minister Piyush Goyal pushes for Made-in-India app
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Koo won the Aatmanirbhar App Challenge organised by the Indian government
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had, in one of his Mann Ki Baat monthly radio talks, encouraged Indians to use Koo
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Koo, Made-in-India app, is seen as an alternative to US microblogging site Twitter. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal also joined the desi app. Taking to Twitter, he said, I am now on Koo.
Railway Minister seems excited about it, Connect with me on this Indian micro-blogging platform for real-time, exciting and exclusive updates.
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Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson and Novavax report positive trial results
A coronavirus vaccine developed by the US firm Novavax has been shown to be 89 per cent effective in preventing covid-19 in clinical trials. The trials included participants in the UK and South Africa, and found the vaccine to be 86 per cent effective against the UK variant of the virus, but only 60 per cent effective against the variant in South Africa. Novavax said it will immediately begin development on a vaccine specifically targeted to the South African variant.
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Janssen, a subsidiary of US firm Johnson & Johnson, announced that its covid-19 vaccine showed 66 per cent efficacy in an international trial. These results are based on a single dose of the vaccine, which makes it easier to administer than the two-shot vaccines that have already been approved. The company has said it will sell its vaccine on a not-for-profit basis.