The great pandemic: A quick update
- India added 122,964 new cases and 2,743 deaths on Monday. Our test positivity rate—percentage of tests that turn up positive—is 9%, down from 12.7% last week.
- Speaking of deaths: This clip of a family using an earthmover to transport a relative who died of Covid is going viral. The Hindu has a report.
- WHO is renaming all the variants so no one nation will be demonised as the country of origin. The Indian variant is now Delta, while UK is Alpha, South Africa is Beta, and Brazil is Gamma. So now they all sound like American sororities?
- A professor in Britain claims that the nation is already in the early stages of a third wave—which ought to be a warning bell for those of us waiting for the second wave to end.
- The government claims it will vaccinate everyone by the end of the year, but it is very unlikely. Not that’s news to any of us.
- But what should worry us: the shifting definition of what “being vaccinated” means. In a report based on government “sources,” NDTV reports: “There is a view that a single shot is enough protection from the virus. Vaccines like Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik Light, which are based on a similar principle as Astrazeneca, are single dose, sources point out, so Covishield should work as one too.” Point to note: A single shot of Covishield offers only 33% protection against the Indian Delta variant.
- A good related read: Karan Thapar in Hindustan Times lays out why the above data on Covishield’s efficacy should concern all of us.
The economy is not doing well
Our GDP contracted by 7.3% over the past fiscal year—but was redeemed by a modestly healthy last quarter where it grew by 1.6%. Point to note: This is “India’s worst GDP contraction in Independent India and the first in more than 40 years.” Experts expect the first quarter to be a bloodbath due to the second wave, but are optimistic that the overall numbers for this fiscal year will recover by March 2022—though it will still be less than 10%. Indian Express places the latest number in context of a longer trend toward slowing growth—and explains why it isn’t an outlier. Mint reports on sliding business confidence numbers.
China has a three-child policy
First, Beijing loosened its strict one-child only rule and encouraged citizens to have two kids. The reason: Its population is getting old, and therefore its pool of available workers is shrinking—all of which threatens its labour-intensive strategy for economic growth. But the two-child policy didn’t work:
“To [the Chinese], such measures do little to assuage their anxiety over the rising cost of education and of supporting aging parents, made worse by the lack of day care and the pervasive culture of long work hours.”
Now, the government has taken one step further and will allow married couples to have three children—and offer improved maternity leave and workplace protections. But the popular response has been luke-warm—with many online comments saying, “We don’t even have time to date anyone, how could we have time to have children?” FYI: only 12 million babies were born in 2020—the lowest number since 1961. Meanwhile, over 300 million people in China will be aged 60 or above by 2025. New York Times has the story. Quartz reports on the online reaction.
The big bureaucracy fight in Bengal
Here’s how this incredibly petty battle over an IAS officer unfolded:
- PM Modi convened a meeting to discuss the devastation caused by Cyclone Yaas on Friday.
- Mamata skipped the meeting along with then Bengal’s Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay.
- This appears to have really upset the union government—which promptly sent a letter to Bandyopadhyay asking him to report to the Centre, and serve out his three-month extension there.
- Mamata flatly refused to let him go, saying she needed him by her side during this critical time due to the pandemic.
- Bandhopadhyay has now retired from the IAS, and has been promptly appointed chief advisor to Mamata.
- The Union government—unwilling to let this one go—has responded by issuing a show-cause notice, saying “suitable action is being contemplated by the Centre for defying” the original order.
- Mamata also held a press conference and launched this fiery tirade in perfectly broken Hindi:
A burning ship in Sri Lanka
A container ship parked nine miles off the coast of Colombo is on fire. It is carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid, sodium hydroxide and other dangerous chemicals as well as 28 containers of raw materials used to make plastic bags—and it has triggered an environmental disaster:
“‘With the available information so far, this can be described as the worst disaster in my lifetime,’ said Dharshani Lahandapura, the chair of the Marine Environment Protection Authority. The MEPA said the chemicals had leaked into the sea and contaminated the water, probably causing ecological damage to coral reefs, lagoons and mangroves that could take decades to repair.”
Thousands of navy personnel have been deployed for a cleanup operation. The Guardian has the details, and you can watch its disturbing video report below.
Women are suing Google
Four women in San Francisco have sued Google for paying women less than men—seeking more than $600 million in damages. The court awarded their lawsuit ‘class action status’—which means the outcome will now apply to all 10,800 women employees of Google. What they claim:
“The women… said in a July court filing that the company paid female employees approximately $16,794 less per year than ‘the similarly-situated man… Google paid women less base salary, smaller bonuses, and less stock than men in the same job code and location,’ they said.”
In related news: Google is putting an end to unlimited free storage for your photos. Indian Express explains what this means for you.
Delhi court raps Twitter
The High Court has told Twitter that it has no option but to comply with the new digital media rules put in place by the government—and has given it three weeks to get in line. This was in response to a petition that claimed the company does not have a grievance officer—which is now mandatory for all social media platforms. (Indian Express)
In other Delhi High Court-related news: It has dismissed a petition seeking an immediate halt to the Central Vista project—as it puts hundreds of workers at the risk of Covid. The Court ruled the objection is irrelevant as "the labourers are staying at the site"—and fined the petitioners Rs 1 lakh, calling their plea “motivated.” (Indian Express)
In other Twitter-related news: The company’s blue tick verification program has stalled within over a week of its relaunch. The reason: “We’re rolling in verification requests. So we gotta hit pause on accepting any more for now while we review the ones that have been submitted. We’ll reopen requests soon! (we pinky swear)”
Also looking foolish: Amazon which has introduced a ZenBooth aka ‘Mindful Practice Room’ to help overworked staff “recharge and reenergize.” The company put out a video of this “coffin-size box”—but then promptly deleted it after being heckled. Gizmodo has the story, and the deleted video is below:
Smoking is at an all time high
Despite all the social shaming, ever higher taxes and strict no-smoking laws, there are now 1.1 billion smokers in the world—an all-time high according to a new Lancet study. Ten countries make up two-thirds of the world’s smoking population: China, India, Indonesia, USA, Russia, Bangladesh, Japan, Turkey, Vietnam and the Philippines. And every third smoker in the world (341 million) lives in China. The Guardian has more on this study.
Three animal things
One: Manatees in Florida are dying in unusually large numbers. There were 749 deaths this year as of May 21—compared to 637 in all of 2020. The big reason: pollution is triggering a big explosion of harmful algae:
“The blooms blanket the surface of the water and shade out the seagrasses underwater that rely on the sun to survive, killing the grasses. The seagrasses that survive the malevolent blooms are then overgrazed by manatees whose sources of food have shrunk, so the plants can't quickly regrow and continue to feed the manatees… And when seagrasses die, gone is the manatee's favorite food source.”
FYI, there are only 7,500 manatees left in the wild. (CNN)
Two: NASA is planning to blast Glow-in-the-dark baby squid and microscopic tardigrades into space—to see how they do in extreme conditions. If you didn’t know: “Tardigrades are tiny, just 0.04 inches (1 millimeter) long, and get their popular nickname from their tubby, bear-like appearance when viewed through a microscope.” And these near-indestructible creatures can survive being dried out, frozen or boiled. LiveScience explains why NASA is conducting this experiment. FYI: We only included this item so we can share a video of these adorable ‘moss piglets’ lol:
Three: We totally heart this story of Julieta—the last free blue-and-yellow macaw in Brazil—who has fallen in love with her Romeu. But her true love is being reared in captivity at Rio De Janeiro’s BioParque, Julieta is too old to mate (though not love). So never can the twain meet. But every day at 7:30 am, she sweeps close to the aviary, “opening her small curved beak to pluck the seeds he passes through the fence from beneath.” Vice has more on this lovely story. Associated Press has a lovely photo gallery of the lovebirds. Below is Julieta ‘grooming’ her bae across a mesh fence: