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Five persons died and nine were evacuated from a building in the Serum Institute of India’s Manjari premises here after a fire broke out at the facility on Thursday, police said. Covishield vaccine production won’t be hit due to the fire, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla said. The Manjari facility is where the Covishield vaccine used in the nationwide inoculation drive against the pandemic is made. The building where the fire broke out is part of the under-construction site of the Serum facility and is one km from…

Schools in Haryana will reopen for Classes 6 to 8 from the first week of February, state Education Minister Kanwar Pal said on Wednesday. “The COVID cases are gradually coming down and the situation has improved. Moreover, the COVID-19 vaccination drive has also begun. So, we have decided to reopen schools for Classes 6 to 8 from February first week,” the minister told reporters here. He said a decision on starting Classes 1 to 5 will be taken later. The schools will have to follow all guidelines related to face…

Bhutan and Maldives on Wednesday became the first two countries to receive COVID-19 vaccines sent by India in sync with its “neighbourhood first” policy. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar shared on Twitter photos of the consignments reaching the two countries. On Tuesday, India had said it would send COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles from Wednesday. The supplies to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius will commence after confirmation of necessary regulatory clearances. It is learnt that 1,50,000 doses of Covisheild vaccine, manufactured by the…

Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen has written to Visva-Bharati demanding that the university authorities withdraw the allegation that his family is in “illegal” possession of land in its Santiniketan campus and alleged that the accusations are a crude attempt at harassment. Sen had on Monday written the letter to Visva-Bharati Vice-Chancellor Prof Bidyut Chakraborty two days after the authorities of the central university asked the West Bengal government to measure the plot owned by him at Santiniketan as soon as possible to permanently resolve the dispute. The noted economist said…