kannur l friday l november 20, 2020 l `7.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION Oxford Study confirms covid shot’s response in elderly The results of Oxford’s Phase-2 trial, published in the Lancet, show the vaccine is better tolerated in people above 56 years Findings Good news for India ‘Vaccine causes few side effects’ The Oxford University on Thursday confirmed that the Covid vaccine it is developing with AstraZeneca produced strong immune responses in older people, who are at highest risk. The Oxford shot is the best bet for India as it is being manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute and does not need the cold chain facility for storing unlike Pfizer’s vaccine candidate ■ ■ ■ The study involved 560 adults, 240 of them over 70 years It showed that the vaccine provokes a response in T-cells that target the virus within 14 days of the first dose and a protective antibody response within 28 days of the booster dose The Lancet report says the vaccine causes few side effects | P12 Phase-3 Results of the Oxford vaccine are likely to be released by Christmas CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Big-time retooling of development models China to ride on domestic demand India to use tech solutions to grow J aya nta R o y C h o w d h u r y @ New Delhi B i s m a h M a l i k @ Bengaluru Starting next year, China will rely more on domestic consumption to drive future growth for its $14.34-trillion economy which has used , an export-led model to accelerate its way out of poverty in the past four decades. “From next year on, China will embark on new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country We will foster a new develop. ment paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and international circulations reinforcing each other,” Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday told a meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation chief executives. The ratio of foreign trade to GDP has already dropped from 67% in 2006 to less than 32% in 2019, according to Chinese government data. In comparison, India’s foreign trade as a percentage of GDP stood at 40% in 2019. Last month, a conclave of the ruling Communist Party of China had adopted Xi’s formulations for the country’s 14th five-year plan, which will see China adopt a development model where domestic and foreign markets can boost each other, with the domestic market as the mainstay . The new development model comes amid a trade war with the US and a global pandemic, both of which impacted China’s status as the world’s factory with many transnational firms rethinking global supply chains and countries adopting a more protectionist stance to save businesses and jobs at home. Analysts feel China can afford to depend on its domestic demand to boost markets as its per-capita income has rapidly risen to $10,261, nearly five times that of India’s, with a sophisticated economy which was now exporting its surplus capital to set up a Belt and Road Initiative to connect markets across the globe to Beijing. However, this will not be a disruptive change as China had started relying more on domestic demand since the 2008 financial crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India’s regulatory framework is being simplified to promote innovation in the technology sector and the government is actively engaging with key stakeholders for this. “You must be aware of the recent decisions taken by the government to ease compliance burden for the tech industry We are actively . engaging with the stakeholders in the IT industry to chalk out a future policy framework for liberalising the sector and removing the compliance burden,” Modi said while inaugurating the 23rd edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 virtually . He was referring to the recent announcement by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) on removing ITeS/BPO firms from the OSP (Other Service Providers) compliance burden. Hailing MEITY’s recent approval to IT firms allowing their employees to work from their homes or anywhere in India, Modi said the policy decisions are aimed at liberalising the burgeoning tech industry . “India is currently at a sweet spot. Our tech solutions have the potential to go global and, thanks to technology our schemes have gone , beyond files and changed the lives of people on a large scale,” the Prime Minister added. While admitting that the Covid-19 pandemic had caused disruptions in the economy Modi , said that it is not the end of the road and has proven to be a silver lining for the tech industry due to large-scale adoption of digital technology . “We have been able to help millions of poor people in this country including farmers and , other marginalised sections, with the click of a mouse and cater to their needs within a short period of time. The IT industry showed resilience during the pandemic. Our fintech industry performed well and millions of transactions were carried out digitally due to people’s trust in technology Modi said.P5,10 ,” Through technology we have enhanced human dignity. Millions of farmers receive monetary support in one click. At the peak of Covid lockdown it was technology that ensured India’s poor received proper and quick assistance. The scale of this relief has few parallels Narendra Modi Prime Minister The new development paradigm is a strategic decision we have made based on the current stage and conditions of development in China and with full consideration given to globalisation and changes in the external environment Xi Jinping President, China Hafiz sentenced to 10 more years in 2 terror cases Bihar min forced to quit hours after swearing in E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi R a j e s h K u m a r T h a k u r @ Patna Mumbai terror attack mastermind and Jamat-ud-Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed was on Thursday sentenced to over 10 years in prison by a Pakistan court in connection with two terror financing cases. Saeed, who is in the Kot Lakhpoat jail since February, was earlier sentenced to 11 years in jail in two other cases of terror financing. All sentences, including the previous ones, shall run concurrently the court said. , “The Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) of Lahore on Thursday sentenced four leaders of Jamat-ud-Dawa, including its chief Hafiz Saeed, in two more cases,” a court official was quoted as saying. While Saeed’s two associates — Yahya Mujahid and Zafar Iqbal — have been sentenced to 10.5 years each, his brother-in-law Abdul Rehman Makki was sentenced to six months imprisonment. Barely hours after taking charge, Bihar’s newly minted education minister Dr Mewalal Chaudhary was forced to resign on Thursday after corruption charges swirling around him threatened to take the shine off Nitish Kumar’s fourth consecutive term as chief minister. Nitish, who is learnt to have directed the minister to quit, reallotted education as additional charge to Ashok K Chaudhary, who already holds the portfolios of building construction, social welfares, science and tech and minority welfare. Dr Chaudhary is an accused in a corruption case related to irregularities in the appoint- ment of assistant professors in the Bihar Agriculture University when he was its Vice Chancellor. He, however, tried to brazen it out, saying “no chargesheet has been filed yet,” but couldn’t make the stink go away . After retiring in 2015, he managed to get the JD(U)’s Tarapur ticket and won the seat the same year. in 2017, a corruption case was lodged against him at Bhagalpur’s Sabour police station based on a directive from the then governorcum-chancellor, who went by the findings of inquiry panel that examined his appointment of 166 candidates. The JD(U) then expelled him but he managed to somehow creep into the party about two years later. dateline mararikulam What’s in a name? King Kong has the answer B IJU E PAU L @ Alappuzha A poster seeking votes for UDF candidate King Kong | Express 1.68L nominations filed As per the figures made available on Thursday, 1.68 lakh candidates have filed nominations for the ensuing local body polls in state. POLITICAL parties have been using ‘dummies’ to fell rival candidates by tricking voters once they are inside the polling booth. But this UDF candidate who tries his luck from Mararikulam north panchayat should be the last one to worry about the age-old trick, thanks to his name King Kong. When his father named his boy King Kong in 1963, he did it just out of fascination for the Hollywood movie by the same name. He would not have thought in his wildest dreams that it would help his son seal an identity and win popularity during an election campaign 57 years later. King Kong is thanking his dad for that. “The famous Hollywood horror movie King Kong was running at a cinema in Kanichukulangara and my father felt thrilled watching it. Thus he named me King Kong. It has given me popularity . When I introduce myself to voters, I know that they will never forget my name. It’s an advantage,” said King Kong, who is contesting from ward 4 at Poklassery in Mararikulam. Though he is entering the fray for the first time, King Kong has been an active worker of the Congress and is its man● More on P5 dalam vice-president.  Swapna’s audio clip kicks up a new furore E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram/Kochi It’s clear that the accused were put under pressure to give statements against the CM CPM statement   We didn’t pressurise anyone An ED official THE gold smuggling case is back in focus after an audio clip of key accused Swapna Suresh was leaked to the media, triggering yet another round of political slugfest. In the clip, Swapna is heard saying that the investigation officers offered to make her an approver in the case if she gave a statement that she and former principal secretary M Sivasankar, during their UAE trip last year, had held some ‘financial negotiation talks” for Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. Swapna reportedly confirmed the authenticity of the clip to South Zone Prisons DIG Ajayakumar, but told him that she could not remember the exact time and occasion of the conversation. Sivasankar, another accused in the case, too had alleged that the Enforcement  Directorate (ED) arrested him for not naming its political targets. Swapna, however, said the talk occurred sometime when she was under the custody of SC restores PIL on farm laws E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi Matter of jurisdiction Can Parliament enact a law on a subject that belongs to state list, is the constitutional question raised by the public interest litigation The Supreme Court on Thursday restored a dismissed public interest litigation (PIL), which challenged the constitutional validity of the Centre’s three farm sector reform laws on the grounds that Parliament did not have powers to legislate on agriculture, as it is a state subject. A bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde had last month issued notice to the Centre on a batch of petitions against the farm laws. However, it had dismissed the PIL filed by lawyer M L Sharma against the same laws and asked him to approach the high court instead. At a brief hearing, the bench said, “We will restore and keep your matter for admission after two weeks.” Sharma pointed out that he could not argue it on the day it was dismissed. “If I could not appear before the court and argue myself, then it amounts to non-appearance,” he reasoned. “The point on which we had dismissed it was that there was no cause of action,” the bench said. Sharma, in his PIL, has said that these laws ran counter to Article 246 of the Constitution as agriculture falls in the state list instead of the Union List. investigation officers and not in the Attakulangara jail,  where she is currently lodged. It was a casual talk with someone she told the D I G, wh o re c o rd e d h e r statement. The prisons department sought a police probe into the audio clip, but it will be initiated only after receiving legal advice, it is learnt. Prisons DGP Rishi Raj Singh said the police cyber cell would check the genuineness of the clip. The ED has begun an investi● More on P4 gation.  express read Cinema halls may not reopen until Vishu Kochi: Movie buffs may have to wait till March-end to watch a Malayalam film in theatres, as most owners plan to open their theatres by Vishu with biggies such as Mohanlal’s Marakkar and Mammootty’s One. P5 Vigilance seeks to quiz Ebrahim Kunju Kochi: The Vigilance has sought the custody of IUML leader Ebrahim Kunju, accused in flyover corruption case, to quiz him on unaccounted money deposition into accounts of party mouthpiece Chandrika.P4