When will life be normal again?

 

Millions of people are now suffering from Coronavirus in the whole world. We have been suffering since March 2020. There is no way out this year too. May be things will be almost back to normal from July 2022. Well, it depends on enough vaccination.

Covid Pandemic many countries. USA, Brazil and India are among the worst hit. In the early months, it was Spain and Italy. Russia, Argentina, Columbia, Iran, France and UK suffered a lot too. Now, Indonesia is going through a very tough time. Then we should not forget about Germany, Peru and Mexico.  

I have already mentioned the names of 15 countries above. Their economy has suffered a lot already and this will continue for the next at least 1 year. Social life has suffered a lot of damage. Schools are closed for a long time. People do not have active outdoor activities.  

Nepal Covid-19 cases are raising with over 10,000 deaths toll mark

With 3,007, new coronavirus casesin the last 24 hours Nepal’s Covid-19 reached totally 708,079 infections the nationwide. 

According to the Health Ministry, 931 people tested positive in a total of 6538 antigen test. A total of 11,870 PCR tests were performed in the past 24 hours.

Kathmandu valley reported 1,075 new infections in the past 24 hours where 766 cases were confirmed in Kathmandu, 163 in Lalitpur and 146 in Bhaktapur.    

Though, it is a regular system update, the Health Ministry did not mention the toll over the past 24 hours. However, reported that 37 Covid-19 related fatalities, which included the number of deaths managed by Nepal Army on different dates.

Report from the Health Ministry, 663,663 infected people have recovered from the virus so far, 2,012 cases of them in the last 24 hours.

Nepal’s Health Ministry has already made it clear that the Dalta and Dalta Plus variations of the virus have circulated in the country, whose infection rate is higher than other variants of SARS-CoV-2. Those new variants are more dangerous because infected people’s recovery rate is too slow.

As well as, current major concern is number of patients needs hospitalization and increasing rate has grown with times. For this new variants trend could create matters worse as many infected are failing to recover from serious condition. 

Doctors says that the country could already be in the first stage of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. In this situation, Nepal’s vaccination rate is also dismal. On Saturday’s only 4,442,622 people have received their first doses (14.8%) and 2,359,793 people have been fully vaccinated (7.86%).                 

The country’s rapid rises in new Covid-19 cases indicates that coming days’ situation will be more difficult to handle. Already, country’s intensive care units and ventilator facilities are packed and doctors and health workers are struggling to control the situation.

 

Finance Minister Justifies India’s Aversion to Trade Facilitation Agreement at WTO

India backed out from giving its consent to Trade Facilitation Agreement in what would have been a historic trade deal at World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva last week.

Simplifying worldwide customs rules to facilitate global trade is at the core of this newly proposed trade agreement which had been mutually agreed on a ‘peace clause’ in last year’s WTO meeting and was widely expected to be a ‘done deal’ this year.

India, however, did not agree on the deal, citing WTO’s inability to respond positively to the country’s call for stockpiling food.

In an interview with NDTV on Monday, Arun Jaitley, India’s Finance Minister, justified the government’s decision saying, “The fact of the matter is there have been many instances in history where India has been forced to raise its voice against the powerful nations.”

“Our farmers will be reduced to starvation and suicide. We can't be a party to that. If we did not have the (measures) this few hundred suicides that you hear of would be in lakhs (hundreds of thousands).”

John Kerry, the US secretary of State, has been critical of India’s decision over the issue and put a question mark on India’s approach to free economy.

For a deal to be struck, WTO needs an agreement among its 160 members. This new trade agreement would reportedly contribute $1 trillion to the global economy, creating 21 million jobs in the process worldwide.

Related source:
IOL

Head of Nokia India Steps Down

P Balaji, the head of Nokia India, has stepped down from his post recently. Despite the resignation, he will continue to serve the Finnish company as an advisor until October this year.

The former head of Sony Ericsson’s operations in India, P Balaji held the position at Nokia India since July 2012. His decision came less than a month following Microsoft’s acquisition of Devices and Services division of Nokia.

Speculation is rife that Balaji’s resignation from head of Nokia India post is largely down to Microsoft’s decision of curtailing Nokia’s worldwide handset business, following the US-based company’s acquisition of Nokia’s handset division.

Denying any connection between Balaji’s quit and Nokia’s acquisition by Microsoft, a spokesperson of Nokia India revealed, “After spending almost two years with Nokia and now in Microsoft Devices Group, P Balaji has decided to move on from the organisation for personal reasons.”

P Balaji has an illustrated career spanning over two decades. He worked extensively in the telecommunication sector in India before joining Nokia to look after its India operations.

He played a crucial role in dissolving Nokia’s tax row and was a major influence behind the company’s successful launch of Lumia brand in India and responsible for establishing the X family of phones.

E-commerce in India is flourishing and it is not clear how companies like Nokia want to make the best out of it.

Related source:
The Hindu Business Line

Nepal: The last Opportunity for Peace and Stability

No party has managed to win majority in the recently held Constituent Assembly election in Nepal. The Nepali Congress got 196 seats and it fell well short of obtaining 302 seats for a simple majority. So, it will be a hung parliament and political negotiation has already started. As an observer of Nepal for the last one and half decade, I can easily predict that there is little hope for peace and stability.

Indian Express wrote:

Jhalanath Khanal-led CPN (UML) won 175 seats, followed by Prachanda's UCPN-Maoist with 80 seats in the November 19 vote to elect the 601-member Constituent Assembly.

The NC has gained 91 PR seats, followed by the CPN (UML) with 84, UCPN-M with 54 and Rastriya Prajatantra Party-Nepal (RPP-N) with 24 seats.

Sadly, Nepalese people are deeply divided and there is really no hope for any unity among the political leaders. So, I don’t see any hope for peace in the country. On the other hand, this time, the people have voted against the Maoists. This indicates that people do not like extremism.