politicodiary

Spain is one of the worst hit European nations by the Covid-19 virus in the world  It is not just Hungary but Spain has refused immunization vaccination to curb the spread of Corona virus. Now, the Spanish health ministry has decided to set up a register of people who refuse to be vaccinated against coronavirus. They intend to then share it with other European Union nations.   While Hungary has had its reason due to the whimsical attitude of their leadership, Spain had almost 47percent people refusing to use the vaccine in November 2020. The statistics have now come down to 28percent. According to Health Minister Salvador Illa  receiving the vaccine would be a voluntary process in which citizens are called up for their doses, free of charge, by the country's national health system.   Having said that, the fact that a register is going to be used, is still a forced decision to record the names of all those who have not agreed to get themselves immunized. While Mr. Illa doe

The anti-monopoly probe will use Jack Ma as the guinea pig the Communist Party was looking for    Jack Ma might be under firing line for having spoken against Chinese government and banking practices  In a strange change of public perception, the teacher turned entrepreneur Jack Ma has suddenly become a 'villain', 'bloodsucking ghost'. The man behind the internet success called Alibaba business, is fondly called 'Daddy Ma' on the social media circuit.  But off late, his fall out with the Chinese government has costed him his reputation in the public domain as well. It seems the government has problems with his growing business empire and probably with the fact, that he might not want them to have a share of it either.  An anti-trust investigation is on the anvil. The Chinese government is trying to defame his powerhouse e-commerce company that he co-founded and over which he still holds considerable sway. Even his  fintech giant that he had spun out of Alibaba h

Corona Virus mutation is a new challenge for the world to face in 2021 The Corona Virus is mutating rapidly It is a scary time for humanity, as we face an unseen enemy. The might of it is growing as a second strain of the Corona virus is being seen mutating rapidly in the UK and South Africa.  The UK government has been giving mixed responses to the world. It is a panic situation that the New Year isnt looking a promising starting point of them right now.   Currently, roughly 30 countries have had to shut their borders to people travelling from Britain or South Africa. Both these places have reported another variant. However, those who have already travelled might be carrying the strain with them.  According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), things are well in control in the United Kingdom, despite the scare over the spread of a mutated form of the Corona virus. Currently, UK borders have been sealed to any movement in and out. The new mutated virus has a higher transmission ra

 China is looking for creative ways to create havoc in India  The China mayhem is attacking India from all corners; and borders is not the only concern. In fact, there has been a surge in cyber-attacks too. This time, it has been the e-retail space.   Earlier, China counterparts were trying to use encrypted codes embedded in their spare parts, to get into the telecommunication networks in India. This was somehow controlled when the Ministry of IT and Broadcast, capped the purchase of Chinese IT and technology related spare parts. They set a mandate that all Indian companies would have to put the spare parts through necessary vetting before they could be used. It is now confirmed that indeed, Chinese cyber hackers had attacked the accounts of Indian shoppers in the months of October and November this year. According to CyberPeace Foundation, a cybersecurity think tank, hackers from China's Guangdong and Henan provinces mounted multiple attacks on unsuspecting Indians during th

Data protection has never been as important as it is today, because of the way we depend on virtual data Photo courtesy: Council of Europe                   Companies are now investing in an overall enterprise risk management (ERM) framework . It is being observed that, there is a growing risk to data worldwide. The reason is no more simply cyber-attacks but others too. These include new threats emerging from global warming, geopolitics and changing regulatory frameworks on data protection. Do we remember how vaccine culture data was stolen through phishing mechanisms, right under the nose of the Oxford University last month? It was the job of a sophisticated hacking company that was hired by Russia governmental agencies to carry out the cyber attack.  Believe it or not but data is more valuable than money or time today.   This is the reason that industry bigwigs are seriously contemplating in data protection frameworks, as they addressed the Bengaluru chapter of Risk Masterclass, as

The Centre is not going to keep all its eggs in the same basket and have its own vaccine ready in time  While India is planning to support some poor countries with doses of Covid-19 vaccine, it is going to get an advantage of lesser-priced vaccine doses from the American biotech company Pfizer. Sources have confirmed that Pfizer is seeing the need to reduce its pricing to suit the Indian market. India was not planning to pick the dose from the US drug maker due to the high price and the fact that the vaccine is temperature sensitive, a tough proposition for a country like India that has varied temperatures throughout its length and breadth. The Covid-19 vaccine has to kept under certain temperature that supports the efficacy of the drug. The Pfizer- BioNtech developed vaccine has extreme cold chain requirement at minus 70 degree Celsius . Then there are logistic and storage challenges to be faced as well. Dr. V.K. Paul at the NITI Aayog has already stated that it is a huge challeng

Drone technology can actually help solve the problem of deforestation It would be an incredible feat of innovation if seeds could be planted in mass, in the most predictable manner. Drone technology today is making this possible. Through this, we can look at planting a thousand trees in a day. This can be done by firing seeds directly at the ground. By putting seeds in a pod that is biodegradable, the pod is then shot into the ground through a drone. Intelligent sky trackers are using digital intelligence and automation to plant seeds with both speed and accuracy. Through artificial intelligence, scientist have identified the right species that can thrive in the right environment and therefore plant them when need be. This information is then fed into the drone that then follows a path and continues to plant seeds accordingly. What the scientists are now looking for a swarm of such drones that can actually help solve the problem of famine and deforestation. UAE for example has alre

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are preparing well for the disaster that Trump is leaving them behind to deal with As the President elect gets ready for action as he takes control of the White House in January, Donald Trump is busy using the White House resources to meet his own personal agendas. HE has mocked the mask wearing compulsion and social distancing protocols innumerable times and remains shameless about it. Meanwhile Biden has all the intentions to urge his fellow American to start off simple- wear a mask for the next 100 days. As the old tradition goes, the effectiveness of any leadership is determined in the first 100 days of taking the seat of power.  He is also going to ensure that the American people can receive the vaccine in time; a point that Trump pushed in his twitters like a spoilt child complaining that he will get no credit for the vaccine after all. Trump was nowhere to be seen as Biden made a public statement on television that he is joining the previous three P

Everyone is ready for a vaccine but there is just too much misinformation creating unrest amongst the world population Photo courtesy: Euronews Not all vaccine candidates will suit every country in the same way. There are a whole lot of reasons behind why a certain country might not benefit from the research of Pfizer or Moderna after all.  The race for the vaccine was one thing; corruption and misinformation is already doing arounds across the length and breath of the  globe.  Pfizer and BioNtech are confident of the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine that they have come up with. They are now looking for authorisation in Europe for the use of emergency use of their Covid-19 vaccine  candidate. Moderna is also confident about the efficacy of their vaccine candidate. This is coming at a time when the news was doing rounds that former Vice President of Pfizer said 'the virus is over and herd immunity has done its wonder. We don't need a vaccine anymore'. According to the  forme

Allegations over violation of human rights is fast becoming an easy way for nations to get back at each other For representational purpose only (Borrowed from the Devpolicy website)  It is like an eye-for-eye and tooth-for-tooth when America passed a resolution against China’s human rights abuses in Hong Kong. Simultaneously, China has responded back by trying to defame the US for assassination of the Iranian scientist. But the US is not feeling sorry for its in-your-face kind of behavior, each and every time. There are doubts if elect President Joe Biden can actually reverse the damage done by the Trump administration. There is no denying that China is to be blamed for its atrocious autocratic stand against Hong Kong residents and then minority Chinese Muslim community aswell.   The new way to get back at each other seems to be the human rights angles. As US points a finger at China and tries to defame it further, Iran is already planning to assassinate an Iranian-Swedish research

  Trump's era of stupid leadership is over as Presidential briefing comes to Biden  The White House has finally conceded defeat- it has allowed Joe Biden to take on the role of the more promising president that Trump has ever been. According to a White House official, the elect president will now start receiving the President’s official briefing. It has been three weeks since Biden was elected as the next president of United States along with Kamala Harris on the helm as the Vice President. The man is plausibly flawed and that makes him relatable with many Americans.  The daily briefings have still not started but the coordination for them is currently underway.  The good news is that this shows that finally the era of bad leadership has left the US, as Donald Trump actually took a long time to accept his defeat to Biden. It is worth noting that Biden was pulled down throughout 2019 by Trump over allegations of trumping favour with Ukraine over gas and power contracts. Nothing was

European Union is taking pains to reconstruct a smell and fragrance experience from 16th to 20th century  Can you imagine a project spending that will preserve the historical smells of the world? The European Union is spending $3.3 million (€2.8M) on the Odeuropa project that aims at bringing back the nostalgia of the smells of various cultures alive. It is so important to learn from history; and it is a magical feeling to understand and know what some era could smell like and then appreciate how far we have come. Under the EU Horizon 2020 programme for the project, Odeuropa: Negotiating Olfactory and Sensory Experiences in Cultural Heritage Practice and Research, the European Union is engaging the Odeuropa to develop novel methods in sensory mining and olfactory heritage science to collect information about smell from multinational digital text and image collections . The team will also create an online encyclopedia mapping out European smells, along with narratives of their place i

With renewal of trade agreement with Canada, Britain has signed its second major partnership agreement in less than a month This is going to be a long-lasting friendship-Trudeau and Johnson renew trade agreement  Photo courtsey: The Star (Canada) Boris Johnson has a strategy in place;  and nothing is going to change his mind about his course of action. His latest movement is towards Canada. He is moving ahead to replace trade partner EU with the maple leaf country.  Canada has been so far, Britain's 12th biggest trade partner. With the trade agreement poised to be signed soon, Canada's position might just become stronger. Will this lead to Canada joining hands with Britain over its need for acquiring surplus Covid-19 vaccine, is something the political analysts feel is a possibility.  But Boris Johnson isn't going to extend a very long helping hand, unless it means strengthening Britain's position as a newly exited sovereignty from the European Union. The accord agreeme

Macron does not feel a change of command will make a difference to American insensitivity Photo courtesy: www.thetelegraph.co.uk The French President Emmanuel Macron has said that it would be a foolish idea to really think that post Trump’s tyranny; US can be trusted on the thought that the EU bloc can actually underwrite the European security and defend its interests. In a nutshell, it just means that his faith when it comes to American administration will take a long time to rebuild, even if it means that the world is in awe of the to-be sworn in US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. In his message to the media, he has expressed a desire that the European Union should look at self-reliance a little more seriously. That means, French President  Emmanuel Macron  feels that European Union  should make efforts to develop its technology, international finance and defense capabilities and act independent off support from other nations, especially the US. EU has some glar

The Abu Dhabi Strategic debate has nailed it completely- Biden’s coming might change the dynamics for the Middle Eastern nations’ relations with the West. It is not going to be a completely hot-cold relationship with the United States after all.   Biden is going to try to iron out the creases. The other important discussion centered on the Abraham Accord and the proper implementation of the same. There was definite consensus on dialogue between the signatories and other Middle East countries with a view to begin de-escalation of regional tensions.   However, the general thought is that both Israel and Iran will not gain too much out of this changed situation. The Biden presidency might not acknowledge the skewed peace treaty signed on the behest of Trump to favour Israel. There is reason therefore for Iran to fear about its geopolitical security, as Israel’s position now looks jittery.   Iran should have kept its line of communication clear with the Middle East, instead of

Whether Netanyahu will be able to continue to smile under to be appointed American PM Joe Biden is something one will have to wait and watch  The victory of Joe Biden over Donald Trump may be bringing a smile to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's face. But this might not mean that Netanyahu will be able to steer the Israeli boat into the homes of Palestinians after all.  The good days and favour that he has shared with Trump over Trump's four year disastrous presidency term has come to an end. Biden has a tough task at his hand- redo and also somewhere bandage many relationships that have been wounded by Trump's irresponsible governance and immature leadership. Biden comes with the great background of having served with Mr. Obama. He has therefore learned the art of negotiation and knows how to keep the masses together. In his presidency, he will probably not be seen making the mistakes Trump made. Trump was out to meet one agenda over the expense on other agendas, disbalancin

  It is more in the pandemic times that we need to make educating the girl child as a top most priority Photo courtesy: The Diplomat website The pandemic has affected different people in different ways. But everyone has been affected. But on the worst receiving end has been children of all age groups and strata of society. Children, especially the girl child is running the risk of dropping out of schools in many parts of the world.  Right to education is a fundamental right and cannot be denied to the girl child either. But the real truth is that most of the times, girls are marginalized and denied this simple right to them.  Girl child education is not given priority in many countries and the Asia Pacific is no exception to this trend. With Covid-19 making formal and physical schooling a challenge, these children do not access to virtual learning either. In most cases, there are financial limitations at play. Many of these girls comes of households where there are just too many mouths

Coming election, one can only hope the spell breaks and a Joe Biden kiss of good luck can save the sinking ship called America Photo courtsey: buzzpo.com It has not taken rocket science to understand that Mr. Donald Trump was a disastrous choice of leadership for the White House. His coming to power, makes one feel an uneducated India story has been replayed in the West. In fact, most of his vote bank comes from a background of people who are not aware of what is actually happening in the White House, but were taken in by his charisma and hard hitting words full of promises of a rosy future.  The damage that has been done to the American spirit is going to be irreversible- it has taken the badge of honour of being a super power has fallen off. It will only taken some very sound leadership to bring back the lost glory of America.  Mr. Barack Obama was revered for his sensible, and sometimes courageous decision making that had given America a balanced strong hold it needed. A country tha

With lockdown opening up, there are reasons to prepare to face an evolving virus that might have become airborne The new scare gripping people’s lives is a possibility that the Covid-19 virus can actually stay airborne and survive different climatic conditions too. In a lab in Bristol, scientists are now going through tests to ascertain this for sure. There are indications that the virus can survive in the aerosol particles that we breathe from around us. Last week started the launch of tiny droplets of live Sars-CoV-2 in the Bristol lab. These were then levitated between two electric rings to test how long the airborne virus remains infectious under different environmental conditions. There are now questions being raised over how long can the virus remain alive in conditions where air conditioning is leading to air recycling where these particles might already be suspended in the air. There is now a growing belief that besides getting transmitted through human contact, the infecte

The New Jersey Blueberries that America and the rest of the world enjoys, comes at a very heavy inhuman cost paid....    It is sad state of affairs for workers who are risking their lives to get fresh fruits to your doorstep in pandemic times.   It is for a fact that every year, each summer, thousands of temporary agricultural workers and their families arrive in New Jersey for the blueberry harvest. The state produces 40 to 50 million pounds of the fruit each year. This year has been tough on them, thanks to the Covid-19 scare, where they have risked their lives to produce the same fruit. The summer has also led to the worst heat wave. Most of these workers are not given proper protective gears to wade off the corona virus. Blueberry is big business in New Jersey and Hammonton makes for the ‘blueberry capital of the world’.   It has more than 50 blueberry farms in and around the town with a meager population.   But every year, it attracts temporary labour in large numbers. An es

What will be the co-relation between plants and global warming...... surprisingly, there is a huge one!                             A World Economic Forum report has recently revealed that switching to a plant based diet and doing away with meats could actually help reverse the effect of 16 years of carbon emissions. As of now 83 percent of the world’s agricultural land is being utilized to maintain livestock and animal husbandry.  This is not only putting pressure on land resources, it is also robbing the earth of precious water resource which is needed to maintain the animals. Growing plants for consumption surprisingly needs a mere fraction of space. Also, the shift will greatly help biodiversity too.  It is definitely going to reduce the CO2 emissions, the rise of which has threatened even the existence of icebergs and glaciers in the polar regions.  The Covid-19 led lockdown actually led to a drop of 10-30percent in the CO2 emissions.  According to the IPCC, world’s quarter of

The pandemic has shown the most harrowing picture of the state of migrant population in various parts of the world (The Uzbek migrants in Russia are now desperate to return back home. They see bleak to no hope of re-employment in Covid-19 times.   Come pandemic and the worst side of humanity has also surfaced. The most disastrous incidents highlighting human rights violation have been reported periodically. Russia is no different a story to be narrated. The conditions become worst as the weather is harsh and extremely trying for those without basic amenities or better still, scarcely provided for a large mass.  Currently, on the receiving end are Uzbek migrant workers who have not found a safe passage home. They are stranded in the Russian Samara region, and have now been forced to set up temporary camps. Border to Kazakhstan has been closed. There is no way to reach home, without the help of the Russian government. While the government is providing with basic amenities, the living