Scientists appeal to PM to make Covid data public
April 29, 2021
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They said it is critically important to ascertain the medical needs of the country in fighting the pandemic
A section of scientists in the country, on Thursday, impressed upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the need to make public the Covid-19 data that is being gathered by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) since last year. They said a deep dive into this data by experts is critically important to ascertain the medical needs of the country in fighting the pandemic.
In an open appeal to Modi, the scientists said the community needs to have a wider access to the granular testing data that ICMR has been collating since the beginning of the pandemic. “The ICMR database is inaccessible to anyone outside of the government and perhaps also to many within the government. Most scientists – including several identified by DST (Department of Science and Technology) and NITI Aayog to develop new prediction
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Curbs on ‘sensitive’ webinar topics reversed after outcry
India’s Ministry of External Affairs has dropped its demand that public universities seek official permission for online international seminars that touch on matters relating to India’s ‘internal affairs’.
It claimed that the easing of restrictions on travel and assembly of people brought in during the coronavirus pandemic meant such curbs on online activities were “no longer applicable”.
However, the same requirement of prior permission still applies to physical meetings.
In January guidelines were circulated by the education ministry to publicly funded universities, requiring them to seek permission from the Ministry of External Affairs for any online seminar that touches on “security of state, border, Northeast states, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh or any other issues which are clearly/purely related to India’s internal matter/s”.
A new office memorandum issued by the MEA says its earlier order is no longer applicable in view of the 'easing of restrictions on travel and assembly of people by the government'.