LEAD

Hours after BJP projected ‘metro man’ Elattuvalapil Sreedharan as its CM candidate for Kerala elections, Union minister V Muraleedharan’s statement has stoked confusion. He claimed to have “cross-checked” with party’s state chief K Surendran on the announcement, who said that “he has not made any such announcement”.

“What I wanted to tell was that through media reports I learnt that the party has made this announcement. Later, I cross-checked with the party chief who said that he has not made any such announcement,” V Muraleedharan was quoted as saying by a news agency. His clarification came in response to his earlier statement.

Sreedharan, the architect of the Delhi Metro, had formally joined the BJP on February 25 in the presence of Union Minister RK Singh at a function at Changaramkulam in Malappuram district. He had earlier said that he will work as a technocrat rather than as a politician.

Announcing phase three results of coronavirus vaccine ‘Covaxin’, Bharat Biotech on Wednesday said that the indigenous shots have demonstrated interim clinical efficacy of 81 percent.

“Today is an important milestone in vaccine discovery, for science and our fight against coronavirus. With today’s results from our Phase 3 clinical trials, we have now reported data on our Covid-19 vaccine from Phase 1, 2, and 3 trials involving around 27,000 participants.

The vaccine demonstrates high clinical efficacy trend against coronavirus but also significant immunogenicity against the rapidly emerging variants,” said Dr Krishna Ella, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Biotech.

“Covaxin demonstrated 81% interim efficacy in preventing Covid-19 in those without prior infection after the second dose,” the company statement read.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) has written to the Election Commission urging it stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi from putting his photo in digital Covid-19 vaccination certificates, calling it an “unfair advantage and undue publicity at taxpayer’s cost”.

The party is locking horns with the Modi-led BJP in the eight-phase assembly elections in West Bengal starting 27 March.

Election dates in the state were announced last week, which means that the model code of conduct for elections is currently in force.

The Centre on Monday denied any data breach in the attempt made by Chinese hackers to target the country's power grid system.

In a statement, the power ministry said, "An email was received from CERT-In on 19th November, 2020 on the threat of malware called Shadow Pad at some control centres of POSOCO. Accordingly, action has been taken to address these threats."

"NCIIPC informed through mail on Feb 12 about threat by Red Echo through malware Shadow Pad that 'Chinese state-sponsored threat Actor group known as Red Echo is targeting Indian Power sector's Regional Load Dispatch Centres along with State Load Dispatch Centres'," the ministry added.

On the first two days of his campaign in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had a lesson or two for Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the art of winning over with people in the state.

"Keep your mouth shut and open your ears if you want to win over Tamils," he said while campaigning in Tenkasi district on Sunday.

On Saturday, Rahul said the only way to deal with Tamil Nadu is with love, respect and affection. “I hope the PM would understand this. If you give a little respect, love and affection, they will reciprocate it by giving you back manifold,” he said while addressing a public meeting at Nanguneri in Tirunelveli district on Saturday evening.