LEAD

Serum Institute of India (SII) is likely to begin clinical trials of Novavax’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate on children in July, sources at the Pune-based vaccine manufacturer said.

The recombinant nanoparticle protein-based vaccine — NVX-CoV2373 — developed by the American biotechnology firm has been branded Covovax in India. SII, which is partnering with Novavax, expects to launch Covovax in India by September.

Earlier this week, Novavax announced excellent results from its PREVENT-19 phase 3 trials at 119 sites in the United States and Mexico, reporting an overall efficacy of 90.4 per cent — on a par with Pfizer-BioNTech’s and Moderna’s mRNA shots, and better than both Oxford-AstraZeneca (Covishield) and Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine.

India stands for a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and supports freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, said defence minister Rajnath Singh at a multilateral forum being attended by his Chinese counterpart General Wei Fenghe on Wednesday.

In a virtual address at the Asean defence ministers-plus meeting, Singh said maritime security challenges were an area of concern for India. “The sea lanes of communication are critical for peace, stability, prosperity and development of the Indo-Pacific region,” he said.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Tirtha Trust issued another statement on Tuesday claiming that there was no wrongdoing in the purchase of a plot near the Ram temple in Ayodhya and the money paid to the nine sellers, including three Muslims, was far less than the circle rate in the town.

The trust also maintained that the said plot was bought to develop a four-lane road, which will be the main approach road to the Ram temple.

“The area of the land is 1.2 hectare purchased at the rate of Rs 1,423 per square feet, which is less than the actual market rate in Ayodhya,” the trust said. It further clarified that for the same land, agreements were made between different parties many times since 2011 but they never materialised.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been carrying out an exercise of reviewing and assessing the governance record of each ministry and performance of the ministers, on Monday held consultations with senior ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari.

BJP president J P Nadda was present in the meetings held at the Prime Minister’s residence.

Last week, the PM held hours-long meetings with various ministers, assessing the performance of each of their ministries. He met ministers in groups and there has been no one-on-one meetings so far, sources said.

A proposal by India and South Africa to temporarily waive patents on Covid-19 vaccines to ensure their equitable access received widespread support at the G7 summit in the UK, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Sunday.

In a virtual address at an inaugural outreach session of the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought the support of the grouping to lift patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines.

The MEA said Modi's call was supported by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, WTO Director-General Okonjo Iweala and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.