28th february 2021
Shorts:
News at a glance
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Vaccine and Life
-Devansh Mishra
Will these vaccines turn out to be effective?
Source: NDTV, Al-Jazeera
Over the past year, we have seen miracles and atrocities alike. A global pandemic took us totally off guard, and it has been a race against time to develop a vaccination against the coronavirus.
Companies like Pfizer and Moderna have manufactured vaccines with an efficacy(essentially effectiveness) as high as 95%. The government of the US has approved both these vaccines for public use, authorised for anyone above the age of 16 and 18 respectively. In recent days, the multinational corp. J&J too has caught up with these giants, developing a vaccine that was 66% protective against the coronavirus after one dose. It has been the third one issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, after Pfizer’s and Moderna’s.
Closer to home, the government of India approved a ceiling of ₹250 for private hospitals to charge consumers of the Indian vaccine, Covaxin. This comes at the back of accomplishing their mission to vaccinate a large majority of our population over the age of 60, as they have also approved people in the bracket of 45-59 to receive the vaccines. A list of over 10,000 private hospitals have been shortlisted to participate under the Ayushman Bharat PMJAY campaign, which is a campaign launched by the government in light of the pandemic.
With vaccines being developed in record time in the past few months, people have begun to question the safety of the various vaccines available in the market. Contemplating over the ‘best’ one to take, citizens around the world are waiting and wasting their time when they can just go and get a shot to keep themselves safe. However improbable this may sound, vaccines deemed to be useful and protective by a country’s drug agency will definitely be safe. So waiting around won’t do anyone any good. Just go ahead and take a shot. This isn’t only about keeping you safe, but everyone around you too.
Source: Wall Street Journal, The Hindu, Statnews
A saddening victory
-Devansh Mishra
Grit, passion, determination, and two years of this hard work and strength boils down to the last match. In the much-awaited encounter between the English and their previous Indian colony, and thus far it has outperformed those expectations. After losing the first test in Chennai, critics had the players of the home team under a lens, waiting for such an occasion to pounce, but the Indian test cohort has defied those speculations and come out on top in the following two tests. They are now at the cusp of being a finalist in the World Test Championship (WTC), while England is out of the reckoning.
The humiliating 227-run defeat in Chennai was the moment in the limelight for all the critics around the country. Rumours of the Indian skipper Virat Kohli stepping down from captaincy were doing the rounds, as his failure was juxtaposed with stand-in skipper Rahane’s exploits Down Under. People expected a boatload of changes to be made to the playing IX before the second test. But that’s exactly it, right? The Indian team has had a mountain of success over the past few years, sitting atop the pile in all three formats of the game, that a singular loss like this sends shockwaves through the country. However, an odd failure was not going to sidetrack them. They went into the next two tests with a largely unchanged side and just were the better team on those days.
Now that they have gained an unassailable lead in the series, both the Indian team and its nation’s people have returned to normalcy. But when they were quick enough to jump on the skipper to blame for their defeat, has anyone credited him after the victories?
People in the spotlight
Source: Outlook India
In-Depth:
What's happening?
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centre opposes gay marriage, cites "tradition"
-Grace Treesa
On thursday, the twenty-fifth of february, the centre stated its opposition to pleas seeking recognition of same-sex marriage, with one of their main citations being “the indian family system”.
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The effort towards legalisation, therefore is a common struggle among those in the LGBTQIA+ community all over the world. Coming back to India, the struggle only “officially” started in october/November, when two men, who got legally married in the US wanted to make it official here too. They
Source: Good Morning America
cited their proposal under the Foreign Marriages Act (FMA), but the court officer refused to finalize the necessary documents. This was only one of the three subsequent petitions filed, making it a common issue. Their case was originally supposed to be heard on the 8th of January, but got postponed to the 25th of this month.
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The Centre’s response now says that same-sex marriage cannot be declared as a fundamental right, citing a paragraph from the Navjet Johar judgment which recognizes that same-sex couples are in a union of some sort, but they cannot legalise it in any form.
This also means that they cannot avail any of the benefits that the government gives to heterosexual couples in a married union. These are pretty important, as they include adoption, joint owning of property, a spouse visa, a home loan, applying for residency in another country; all the things you might want to do in your adult life.
The Centre will hear the case again on the 20th of April, but drastic change isn’t expected.
Looking over the pros and cons once again, as the SC should be doing right about now -
The pros are benefits heterosexual couples see as necessities. Same-sex couples shouldn’t be denied the rights and benefits heterosexual couples are getting. It creates a divide in citizens.The ban serves nothing more than to deprive consenting individuals of dignity, and expresses that they are unworthy of one of the most fundamental functions of our current society. Legalizing marriage gives people a psychological and a physical sense of security.
Alright, you heard all of that. Now to the cons as promised. I’ll tell you the same thing the Centre’s been saying. We can’t have gay marriage, because of tradition. And since society has progressed so much after sticking to the old rules and ideals, and not bringing in new developments for the better, shouldn’t we stick to it?
The answer to that is left to be seen as the days pass, and we wait with the hope that equality and fundamental rights don’t take a hit just because some people fear change.
Sources: The Quint, Indian Express
Thoughts:
awards
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Two Sides of an Award
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-Ishana Modi
I won
I did not
All this applause is for me
I feel so invisible and unseen
I have been awarded; it feels great
Why oh why, I ask the cruel hands of fate
My ears are ringing with the sound of claps
To my ears they sound more like slaps
I feel so giddy, I don’t know what to say
A part of me wants to take the winner far, far away
My vision tunnels, I can only see this award
I deserve nothing. Take me now, Lord
But has warped to form a sinister scale
To establish whether you’ve succeeded or failed
I feel a rush of gratitude, it isn’t my sole victory
But built on the backs of those who have preceded me
I list out names and thank them all
My name is one that she calls
I look once again at the crowd from the stage
I clap and feel my jealousy melt away
The award symbolizes all I’ve done.
And how far I have got.
Source: PinClipArt, Freepik
I shake my head; I shouldn’t take this to extremes
Life is not as bleak as it seems
Awards are an acknowledgement
Of work done and time spent
Nothing more, nothing less
They are not worth this worry and stress
Not the finish line, but a milestone
Meant to bring together, not keep alone
An entire community
It should create unity
Image Sources: Pintrest, Healthcare IT News, Freepik, PinClipArt