New Delhi: Bharat Biotech International Pvt. Ltd on Wednesday unveiled two vaccine candidates to protect humans against the outbreak of the mosquito-borne Zika virus that may cause birth defects when pregnant women are infected.
Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech claimed it is probably the first in the world to file for a global patent for Zika vaccine candidates which it calls Zikavac.
The two candidates include an inactivated vaccine that has reached the stage of pre-clinical testing in animals, and a recombinant vaccine.
“Currently, our efforts are towards scale-up and characterization of the vaccine product. Our interest in Zika virus, an obscure virus when we started the project a year ago, was that the clinical features at an early stage of infection are indistinguishable from that of dengue and chikungunya,” said the company in a press release.
“The first thing is to be prepared for the worst,” said Krishna Ella, chairman of vaccine maker Bharat Biotech, adding the company hopes to announce the arrival of Zikavac to the world as early as possible.
Twitter is going to be more friendly to visitors without an account on desktop and mobile. Now when someone who hasn’t signed up for Twitter visits the site on a computer, they will see a grid of stories arranged by genres — news, entertainment, sports, music, government among others.
On a blog post on Tuesday, Twitter said that, “We want to make great content accessible for everyone — even if you’re not signed in”
This feature was already available to visitors of the site in US and Japan. Now, 22 other countries besides India can visit the site in its refreshed avatar. You can also search topic to pull up relevant tweets.
You can also view these streams of popular tweets on mobile. With the persistent sign up and log in option. Since, you’ll still need to do wither one of those to reply to, post or like tweets whether you’re on the desktop or mobile.
Twitter said that,“We’re passionate about bringing you the best conversations, news, and stories as they happen around the world. This is the next step towards that vision. We hope you enjoy these homepage changes and experience a better glimpse of the best of Twitter.”
: U.S. airstrikes on a remote region of Afghanistan have destroyed a radio station operated by the Islamic State group, American and Afghan officials said on Tuesday.
“Voice of the Caliphate” radio operated by Islamic State near the border with Pakistan was destroyed in U.S. two airstrikes, according to a U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity .
The Islamic State group has emerged in Afghanistan in the past year, with a military presence in districts near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The radio station was broadcasting illegally across Nangarhar, spreading the group’s extremist message, issuing threats to journalists in the provincial capital Jalalabad and attempting to recruit young men to its cause.
Afghan officials had believed that the radio station, which was set up in late 2015, was operating from mobile facilities that enabled it to move easily across the porous, mountainous border, making it difficult to track down.
The spokesman for the Nangarhar governor, Attaullah Khogyani, said the strikes had also killed 21 members of IS group, including five who were working for the radio station.
Radio is a powerful medium in Afghanistan, where most people do not have televisions, and only 10 percent of the population has access to the internet. In contrast, almost everyone has access to radio, with around 175 stations operating across the country.
@Agency report.
Bengaluru : Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani today announced setting up of a centre for research, development and innovation in aerospace technology.
Speaking at the ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’ meet here, Ambani said the proposed centre, to be set up under Reliance Defence, will generate more than 1,500 highly skilled jobs and support government’s plan for indigenous design, development and manufacturing of defence equipments.
Stating that Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft and Sixth Generation technologies are already finding applications, he said the centre, the first-ever of its kind in the private sector in India, will be a world class facility for research, development and innovation in aerospace technology.
“For India to emerge as a strong Military power, it is important that we cut down our dependencies for military hardware. It is even more important that we start developing and designing the cutting edge systems,” he said.
Ambani said the centre will also support the Government’s “plan to accord the highest priority for Indigenous Design, Development and Manufacturing (IDDM) for Defence equipment.”
@Agency report.