As India is witnessing a surge in cases of “highly transmissible” Omicron variant, Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech has submitted the phase 3 clinical trial application to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) to get approval for the booster dose of their intranasal COVID-19 vaccine named ‘BBV154’, as per sources.

Sources told ANI that Bharat Biotech in an application has said, “We have submitted phase 3 clinical trial application to DCGI. An intranasal vaccine as a booster dose will be easier to administer in mass vaccination campaigns. Intranasal vaccines have the potential to prevent against transmission.” According to sources, the application was submitted by Bharat Biotech on December 15 for its booster dose of their intranasal COVID-19 vaccine that can be given to Covaxin and Covishield vaccinated people.

The company is hoping for early approval for the trails of the intranasal COVID-19 booster given the fast spread of the Omicron variant, denoted as B.1.1.529. Bharat Biotech is the second company to submit an application for phase 3 clinical trial for the third dose in India. Explaining the need for a booster dose, Dr Dhiren Gupta, Senior Paediatrician at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, “This may have some protective value. Many of our Indian population was infected with Delta variant.”

According to Dr Gupta, a booster dose should be prioritized for people who were not infected with the Delta variant previously and received a second dose of vaccine 6 months back and those who are high risk especially front line workers with uncontrolled comorbidities.

“When people get vaccinated, the next seven to ten days makes them more vulnerable to more serious symptoms of wild covid infections (if they acquire wild infection). Therefore during the peak of the Covid wave, it’s risky to take vaccine (more chances to get wild covid infection due to crowding at vaccine centres). In the second wave of the pandemic, people panicked during active infection and started getting themselves vaccinated. Many who got wild infection within seven days of vaccine had little more severe symptoms. Another two to 4 weeks time is the safe time to take a booster. Vaccines also take at least 2 weeks to develop its response.”

Dr D.S. Rana, Chairman of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital said, “We do not forget to follow a proven period of COVID, that is, wearing masks washing your hands and keeping social distance. We must get the vaccination and those who got only the first dose should take their second dose. At a moment when the government declares to give booster dose, then we must get the booster dose.” India has reported 161 Omicron cases so far, informed Union Home Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today.

The Rajya Sabha was on Monday passed the ‘Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ with voice vote to rectify a drafting “anomaly” created by a 2014 amendment to the parent legislation.

However, the Opposition parties did not take part in the debate and raised the issue to revoke the suspension of 12 MPs and demanded sacking of Minister of State for Home Ajay Mishra Teni over his jailed son Ashish Mishra’s involvement in Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri incident that claimed lives of eight people as a vehicle allegedly belonging to him mowed them on October 3. Speaking on the Bill, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the NDPS (Amendment) Bill, 2021 seeks amendment to the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985.

The Bill rectifies a drafting “anomaly” created by a 2014 amendment to the parent legislation. The anomaly crept in when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was amended in 2014 to allow better medical access to narcotic drugs and removing state barriers in transporting and licensing of essential narcotic drugs. The 2021 amendment contains a legislative declaration about what one section refers to. It says Section 2 clause (viiia) corresponds to clause (viiib) in Section 27, since 2014, when the provision was first brought in.

Section 27A of the NDPS Act, 1985, prescribes the punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders. In 2014, a substantial amendment was made to the NDPS Act to allow for better medical access to narcotic drugs. In Section 2(viii)a, the amendment defined “essential drugs”; under Section 9, it allowed the manufacture, possession, transport, import inter-State, export inter-State, sale, purchase, consumption and use of essential narcotic drugs.

But before the 2014 amendment, Section 2(viii) already existed and contained a catalogue of offences for which the punishment is prescribed in Section 27A. Section 27A reads: “Whoever indulges in financing, directly or indirectly, any, of the activities specified in sub-clauses (i) to (v) of clause (viiia) of section 2 or harbours any person engaged in any of the aforementioned activities, shall be punishable with rigorous imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than 10 years but which may extend to 20 years and shall also be liable to fine which shall not be less than one lakh rupees but which may extend to two lakh rupees:

“Provided that the court may, for reasons to be recorded in the judgment, impose a fine exceeding two lakh rupees.” While defining “essential drugs” in 2014, the legislation re-numbered Section 2. The catalogue of offences, originally listed under Section 2(viii)a, was now under Section 2(viii)b. In the amendment, Section 2(viii)a defined essential narcotic drugs. However, the drafters missed amending the enabling provision in Section 27A to change Section 2(viii)a to Section 2(viii)b.

Section 27A punished offences mentioned under Section 2(viiia) sub-clauses i-v. However, Section 2 (viiia) sub-clauses i-v, which were supposed to be the catalogue of offences, does not exist after the 2014 amendment. It is now Section 2(viiib).

This error in the text meant since 2014, Section 27A was inoperable.

The error was noticed by a district judge in West Agartala. In June this year, the Tripura High Court, while hearing a reference made by the district court, flagged the drafting error, urging the Centre to bring in an amendment and rectify it. In 2016, an accused had sought bail before a special judge in West Tripura in Agartala, citing this omission in drafting. The accused’s plea was that since Section 27A penalized a blank list, he could not be charged under the offence.

Rather than focusing on keeping his own house in order, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan once again tried to push the notorious Kashmir agenda during the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meet, where he called on member states to make a “unified plan” for the region.

Speaking at the 17th Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers here, Khan said the people of Palestine and Kashmir want to see a unified response from the Muslim world about their democratic and human rights. Pakistan PM said OIC must play its role to help the world understand the teachings of Islam and “our love and affection for the last Prophet Hazrat Mohammad”, according to The News International.

This comes at a time when Imran Khan is barely managing to govern his own country. On one hand, soaring inflation and price rise of commodities has riled the rank and file of the country. On other hand, the unsuccessful negotiations of the ruling PTI government with outfits like Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and Tehreek-E-Labbaik Pakistan has raised concerns about a possible spike in extremism in the country.

Sunday’s OIC-led conference was the biggest international gathering on Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in mid-August following US military drawdown from the country after two decades.

This meeting came at a time when Pakistan is rallying 57-member OIC to help Afghanistan stave off a crisis while at the same time trying to convince the Taliban led Afghanistan to soften its image abroad.

Under the garb of humanitarian agenda, experts believe that Pakistan is attempting to push the interim Afghanistan government towards international recognition despite little progress on the human rights front by the outfit.

In a meeting, that was organised to discuss the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, Imran Khan used the big stage for his own political ends.

Mentioning the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Afghanistan, the Pakistan PM said the only way to handle the terror outfit was a stable Afghanistan. He said ISIS was capable of carrying out international attacks.

Rejecting Pakistan PM’s remarks on terrorism in his country, former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on Sunday said that the landlocked country has been facing ISIS’s threat from Pakistan, according to TOLOnews.

Reacting to Khan’s remarks, the former Afghan president said these allegations are not true. ISIS from the beginning has been threatening Afghanistan from Pakistan, not the other way around, Karzai added.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s bid to raise the Kashmir issue during the OIC meet on Afghanistan suffered a setback, with the UN, US, EU and some other non-OIC states’ observers, who were also in attendance, asking the delegates to turn their focus on terrorism and unnecessary interference in the war-ravaged country. “Obviously, it was a stern message for Pakistan whose intelligence agency ISI chief had held several meetings with the Taliban and other insurgent leaders for several days ahead of the formation of government in Kabul,” sources told The Daily Guardian.

Top diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian that the US and European Union envoys along with some of the 57 members of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) who met on Sunday did not pay any attention to Imran’s utterances on Kashmir, and rather asked the attendees to focus on humanitarian issues and terrorism in Afghanistan. Observers believe that under the garb of humanitarian issues Pakistan was trying to push Kashmir and other political agendas. Under pressure from international community, Imran mentioned the presence of Islamic State (IS), saying that the terror outfit can be handled only if a stable government is in place in Afghanistan. Sources say that some members including an observer referred to former Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s remarks “saying that Afghanistan has been facing ISIS’ threat from Pakistan.” The UN, US and EU observers later met with the Taliban delegation on the sidelines of the OIC meet.

Indian diplomats see some of the points in the 31-point OIC resolution as a message to Pakistan. “The summit reaffirmed the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan and ensured that Afghanistan’s territory is not used by any extremist group or organization as a platform or safe haven. Moreover, it urged the international community to be cautious against the possibility of provocations inside and outside the country and the role of spoilers. These two points are also a message for Pakistan. Islamabad’s political, military and intelligence leaderships have been constantly trying to influence every single internal matter of Afghanistan, and the former President Karzai has revealed it on several occasions,” said a diplomat.

Sources said that even as India made an outreach to the five Central Asian countries who have deep stakes in the stability of Afghanistan, a nervous Pakistan immediately decided to rally the support of Islamic countries in favour of Afghanistan. Similarly, when NSA Ajit Doval had hosted a regional security dialogue with Central Asian NSAs and top security officials of Russia and Iran on Afghanistan in November, the very next day Islamabad also hosted special envoys from US, China and Russia to discuss the Afghan situation in what was seen as Imran Khan’s panicky reaction. Again, Pakistan’s Afghan diplomacy is in parallel when it hosted an OIC meeting with several international observers in attendance. However, Imran’s bid to rake up the Kashmir issue to embarrass India turned out to be a faux pas by him.

What will hurt Imran all the more is that the positions taken on Afghanistan, terrorism and connectivity in the joint statement which was released after India-Central Asia Dialogue supporting India’s stance on these issues. What adds insult to Imran’s injury is that all the five Central Asian nations are OIC members, but their foreign ministers chose to attend the meeting in New Delhi instead. This underlined the level of importance that the Central Asian countries give to India. India-Central Asia Dialogue was attended by five Foreign Ministers from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The meet was hosted by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday.

Bollywood actor Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on Monday joined the Enforcement Directorate investigation in the Panama Papers leak case. She reached the ED office here in the second half of the day following the agency’s notice. The agency needs to record the statement of the 48-year-old actress in the case over allegations of stashing wealth abroad under the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999. The actress had earlier submitted records on the foreign payments under investigation.

The ED had issued notices to the Bachchan family asking them to explain their foreign remittances since 2004 under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) of the Reserve Bank of India.

Sources in the agency said that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was summoned earlier too but she could not appear and sought next dates at least two times. The Panama Papers pertain to leaked documents that point towards fraud and tax evasion by many individuals and corporate entities across the world. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s name featured in the list of 500 Indians who were named in the massive leak of 11.5 million tax documents exposing their secret offshore dealings.

“The Panama Papers” case is a sprawling investigation spanning millions of documents stolen and leaked to the media in 2016, which involves allegations that the world’s rich and powerful set up offshore accounts or shell companies to avoid taxes.

Over 300 Indians were said to be part of the Panama Papers. Many Indian celebrities including Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai were named in this paper leak. All these people were accused of tax fraud. After his name surfaced in this case, Amitabh had said that he has sent money abroad only under Indian rules. He also denied having any affiliation with the companies that appeared in the Panama Papers.

Dubbed “Panama Papers”, an investigation of a stockpile of records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2016 had named several world leaders and celebrities who allegedly stashed away money abroad in offshore companies. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, married to Amitabh Bachchan’s actor son Abhishek, was alleged by the ICIJ to have links with an offshore entity in the British Virgin Islands that was created in 2005. Her family was also stated to be part of this offshore entity that had an “initial authorised capital of USD 50,000”. The company was reportedly dissolved in 2008. Abhishek Bachchan has also been examined by the ED in the past in another instance linked to the offshore leaks case, sources said.

Foreign Ministers of five Central Asian countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan—called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and emphasised the readiness of their leaderships to further strengthen relations with India. The Prime Minister emphasised the importance that India attaches to its long-standing relations with Central Asian countries, which are part of its “Extended Neighbourhood”. He also underscored the potential of enhanced economic cooperation between India and Central Asia, and the role of connectivity in that regard. The Prime Minister conveyed his felicitations to the Ministers on the 30th anniversary of their independence this year.

The Foreign Ministers of the Central Asian countries are in New Delhi to participate in the third meeting of the India-Central Asia Dialogue. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval were also present during the meeting.