New Delhi: Indian healthcare professionals are questioning claims by popular yoga guru and entrepreneur Baba Ramdev who said he has found an ayurvedic remedy that would help ward off coronavirus, reports Reuters.
In a promotional video made public this week, Ramdev says: “We’ve done scientific research and found Ashwagandha…doesn’t allow blending of corona protein with human protein.”
He did not provide evidence for the research, which he said had been sent to an unspecified international journal.
There are currently no vaccines or drugs approved to treat or prevent Covid-19 even as R&D goes on.
“These kinds of messages give a false sense of security. People who are not well educated, they are the ones who will get misled,” said Dr Giridhar Babu, a professor of epidemiology at the Public Health Foundation of India, urging the government to ban such promotions.
Even potentially harmless tweets about immunity risk confusing people, he added.
Multiple calls and emails seeking comment from Baba Ramdev and his Patanjali Institute went unanswered.
Ayurveda is an ancient system that includes herbal medicines, exercise and dietary guidelines practiced by millions in India.
Patanjali, one of India’s most well-known ayurvedic brands, and several other such firms have been touting their products to fight coronavirus in densely-populated India.
Local media has reported that Ramdev, a household name in India, has also called on people to use hand sanitizer and keep distance from others – recommendations broadly in line with those of global health experts.
The 3Cs: Covid, China and Climate Change dominated the 47th annual G-7 Summit in Cornwall, UK. But overall the leaders were not able to present a united stand on any major issue.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wanted the summit to showcase his brand of ‘Global Britain’, after Brexit. But there were terse exchanges between the French, EU and British leaders and officials on the issue. In effect, the summit turned out to be more Biden focused and expectations were raised high on some real agreement taking place on the 3C’s before the summit, though that was not the result ultimately.
Broadly, Biden sought to set a new tone after the unrestrained Trump years. Most G-7 leaders seemed relieved to have a return to a more predictable and traditional US administration. France’s Emmanuel Macron welcomed Biden back to the “club.” But the final Communique showed that even Biden’s expectations to ensure a consensus on many of his promises fell short.
On the issue of Covid-19, the leaders of the seven most affluent western nations seemed united, but there was a difference of opinion on the way forward. Earlier, they had shown commitment to donate 1 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses over the next year to poorer countries. But in reality the bloc fell short of its own goal — 613 million new doses pledged, instead of a billion.
Even so, the vaccine effort gave Biden some help with his China push. Biden has criticised China for a transactional brand of vaccine diplomacy, where the shots are being doled out for geopolitical advantage. Biden called on democracies to counter China and Russia by donating vaccines equally and based on need, without seeking favours in return.
On the second day of the summit, US unveiled plans to counter China through infrastructure funding for poorer nations. Promising to “collectively catalyse” hundreds of billions of infrastructure investment for low- and middle-income countries, the G7 leaders said they would offer a “values-driven, high-standard and transparent” partnership.
G-7s “Build Back Better World” (B3W) project was aimed directly at competing with China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Infrastructure (BRI) initiative.
However, several leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pushed back over worries about turning the G-7 into an anti-China group, suggesting any infrastructure programme should be framed as a more positive, pro-environment effort.
French President Emmanuel Macron also pushed back publicly, saying that the “G-7 is not a group that is hostile to China.” Macron was one leader who sought the middle ground.
China hit back at these statements dismissively saying that the days when “global decisions” were dictated by a “small group of countries are long gone”.
The final version of the communique skirted B3W, instead creating a task force to study how to spur infrastructure development abroad. It made no mention of BRI, though Biden renewed his call at a press conference, and said that, “I proposed that we have a democratic alternative to the Belt and Road initiative, to build back better.”
As Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced last month that due to surging Covid cases in India, he’d not travel to the UK, he addressed the summit virtually. He conveyed India’s commitment to “collective” solution to global health challenges, and called for “one earth, one health” approach, which aims for unity and solidarity among the states of the world to deal with the pandemic. He also emphasised the need to keep raw materials for vaccines easily accessible.
The summit’s Communique, which was issued several hours after the end of the summit, promises many things but falls short of what was expected to be achieved before the summit.
New Delhi: A glimpse into the stupendous athletics career of legendary Milkha Singh, who passed away aged 91, can be had from this mind boggling fact: his 400 metres Indian national record stood for 38 years and the 400m Asian record for 26 years. In 1960 in Rome, he came closest to winning an individual Olympic Games medal as an Indian, in 400m, eventually finishing fourth in a photo finish.
Milkha was one of the favorites to win the 400m gold in Rome. It was probably natural, too, as going into the Olympics, he is said to have won 77 out of 80 races, including the 1958 Commonwealth Games gold in 440 yards.
But one shortcoming probably cost Milkha an Olympic medal. He had a habit of looking at his opponents over his shoulder while running races, and when he did the same in Rome it was decisive, though he had led the race until 200m. Later he admitted that he had paid a heavy price for his habit.
Interestingly, Milkha broke the existing world record of 45.9 sec in Rome, and so the three who finished ahead of him. He finished fourth with a time of 45.6 seconds, as per a hand-held device, while an unofficial electronic timer at the games clocked him at 45.73 sec. This has been a point of contention, though.
Whatever the reality, Milkha emerged from Rome as the ‘Flying Sikh’. A legend was born.
Until Rome 1960, no Indian had come so close to winning an individual Olympic medal; in hockey, though, India had been a dominant force.
Milkha’s 400m Asian record of 45.63 seconds stood for 26 years, before being broken by Susumu Takona of Japan.
Milkha was born in Layalpur, in the undivided India, and now in Pakistan. His love for athletics began after he enrolled himself with the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME) of the Indian Army in Delhi.
His talent blossomed while being with the Army. Fortunately for him, his officers encouraged him, and that would have played a role in him winning the 200m and 400m races at a Services Athletics Meet in 1955.
Milkha practiced on his own while with the Army and clinched gold medals in both 200m and 400m at the 1956 National Games in Patiala, and two years later at the Cuttack Nationals, setting national records in both races.
His sporting achievements won him kudos from the Army, and the Indian government awarded him the Padma Shri in 1959. The same year, he was awarded the prestigious Helms Award.
Milkha took premature retirement from the Army and took up the post of Deputy Director of Sports with the Punjab government.
Decades later, a Bollywood film was made on Milkha Singh, starring Farhan Akhtar.
Milkha died at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research in Chandigarh, where he was being treated for Covid-related complications.
Six days before he passed away, his wife, Nirmal, had died on June 13. A former India volleyball captain, she was 85, and she too succumbed to Covid and related complications.
Milkha Singh was cremated with full state honors at the Sector 25 cremation ground in Chandigarh with a police contingent according gun salute by reversing arms and sounding the last post to the legendary athlete, who held the 400m national record for 38 years, while his Asian record in the same event remained unmatched for 26 years.
The Punjab government had earlier declared one-day state mourning and a public holiday as a mark of respect to the legendary athlete.
The legendary athlete Milkha Singh. (khelnow and DNA)
New Delhi: Calling for “global unity, leadership and solidarity”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi last Saturday emphasized the “special responsibility of democratic and transparent societies to prevent future pandemics”.
Addressing the G-7 outreach session via video conference, Modi also expressed India’s commitment to support collective endeavors to improve global health governance.
This is an oblique reference to the lack of transparency displayed by China in dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak and WHO’s poor leadership as the crisis engulfed the world.
Modi said there should be “one earth, one health” approach, which, sources said, was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Sources said India’s emphasis on keeping “open supply chains for vaccine raw materials and components to help enhance vaccine production received widespread support”.
This came days after French President Emanuel Macron supported India’s demand for lifting restrictions on export of raw materials needed to manufacture vaccines.
The session, titled ‘Building Back Stronger – Health’, focused on global recovery from the pandemic and strengthening resilience against future pandemics.
Modi sought the G-7’s support for a proposal moved by “India and South Africa at the WTO for a TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver on Covid-related technologies”. Sources said Australian PM Scott Morrison and others came out strongly in support of this.
The Prime Minister highlighted India’s “whole of society” approach to fight the pandemic, synergizing the efforts of all levels of government, industry and civil society.
He also explained India’s successful use of open source digital tools for contact tracing and vaccine management, and conveyed the country’s willingness to share its experience and expertise with other developing countries.
Modi expressed appreciation for the support extended by the G-7 and other guest countries during the recent wave of Covid infections in India.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had invited Modi to attend the outreach component of the G-7 Summit, along with Australia, South Korea and South Africa.
Addressing another G7 session on‘open societies and open economies’ onSunday, Modi said India is a natural ally for the G7 countries in defending the shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation and economic coercion. In that session, the prime minister highlighted India’s civilizational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
New Delhi: After weeks-long lockdowns, major Indian cities have reopened for business, with long queues for buses in the financial hub of Mumbai while traffic returned to the roads of New Delhi after a devastating second wave of coronavirus that killed thousands.
The graph of new infections has been going down steadily. India reported 67,208 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours Thursday, data from the health ministry showed. The country’s total case load now stands at 29.70 million, while total fatalities are at 381,903, the data showed.
“We have to save ourselves from infection but also bring the economy back on track,” Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Twitter.
He ordered half the capital’s shops to open on odd- and even-numbered days of the month respectively, in a bid to limit crowds, but allowed offices and the Delhi metro rail network to run at 50 percent of capacity.
But some curbs were retained, such as the ban on dining in restaurants and the use of theatres and gyms in a city still slowly recovering from a surge in the months of April and May that overwhelmed hospitals. These ran short of beds and medical oxygen, and people died in hospital parking lots and homes, while crematoriums and morgues struggled to cope with an incessant flow of corpses.
Maharashtra allowed businesses to run until late afternoon, staffed with half their employees, and opened gyms, salons and spas, though cinemas and malls are to stay shut. India’s richest state eased restrictions based on infection rates and hospital bed occupancy.
New Delhi: Google on Thursday announced new grants of nearly Rs 113 crore to help strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce in rural areas, as India prepares for the third Covid wave.
Google.org will support procurement and installation of approximately 80 oxygen generation plants in healthcare facilities in high-need and rural locations with new grants of approximately Rs 90 crore to GiveIndia and nearly Rs 18.5 crore to PATH non-government organization.
Google.org will also make an Rs 3.6 crore grant to NGO ARMMAN to run skilling programmes for 180,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and 40,000 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) in 15 states in the country.
The company said that it will also invest in the efforts of Apollo Medskills to help upskill 20,000 frontline health workers through specialised training in COVID-19 management and strengthen the stressed rural health workforce and rural health systems.
“We’re now broadening our COVID-19 support to help strengthen India’s healthcare infrastructure and workforce — especially in rural areas. With these new commitments, Google is proud to be supporting our partners as they build a bigger, better-equipped healthcare system,” said Sanjay Gupta, Country Head and Vice President, Google India.
The new commitments build on the Rs 135 crore ($18 million) funding that was announced by Google in April for COVID-19 response.
In addition to this, Googlers worldwide have donated and helped raise $7 million for organisations supporting high-risk and marginalised communities.
“We are thankful to Google.org for their strong commitment to ensure we save as many preventable deaths as possible, which happen due to lack of medical oxygen,” said Atul Satija, CEO, GiveIndia.
New Delhi: The Chhattisgarh Police have registered a case against Yoga guru Ramdev for allegedly spreading false information about medicines used to treat Covid-19, Raipur police superintendent Ajay Yadav said, the media reported.
Yadav said a First Information Report (FIR) has been lodged in this regard on the complaint of Indian Medical Association (IMA) Hospital Board (Chhattisgarh) chairman Rakesh Gupta, IMA’s Raipur president Vikas Agrawal, and other doctors.
In his complaint, Gupta has accused Ramdev of allegedly propagating false information about the medicines, misleading people about established and approved treatment methods when doctors and other paramedical workers are fighting Covid.
“The Chhattisgarh Police has taken the right step by registering a case against Ramdev, who is flouting all norms and international guidelines by misleading people of this country. Strict action should be taken against Ramdev for this act,” said Gupta.
Ramdev has been in the news for his comments against allopathic medicines and doctors. He later said he was “withdrawing” the controversial remarks hours after Union health minister Harsh Vardhan asked him to rescind them. In a letter addressed to Ramdev, Vardhan said the people were extremely hurt by the former’s comments against allopathic medicines and doctors.
Ramdev has drawn flak for his statement that about 10,000 doctors died despite vaccination. At least 646 doctors have died of Covid-19 during the second wave of infections and 753 during the first wave, according to IMA. IMA has pointed out no vaccines were available during the first wave and most of those who died during the second wave had not been able to take their shots.
Ramdev said his comments were taken out of context and blown out of proportion. He maintained he was merely questioning the excessive use of experimental therapy.
