April 2021 – Page 2 – South Asia Time

Month: April 2021

Biggest online underwriting event of the year to welcome 1000+ attendees

Posted on by SAT News Desk

London— Underwriting Innovation Europe features top Chief Underwriting Officers addressing analytics, automation and cyber.

Over 1000 underwriters are expected to attend Underwriting Innovation Europe, the largest online gathering of European underwriters, which takes place from June 28-30.

 

The virtual conference runs across three days and is free for insurers to attend. Run by Intelligent Insurer, the leading digital hub for senior insurance executives, brokers and insurtechs, it features over 40 speakers from across the insurance ecosystem: personal lines, commercial lines, brokers, and new entrants. Over 80 percent of those currently signed up for the event are from insurers.

Speakers include Chief Underwriting Officers, Chief Digital Officers, Chief Distribution Officers, Chief Cyber Officers and senior underwriting experts from companies including Zurich, SCOR, Swiss Re and Munich Re.

Among those appearing are:

  • Louise Smith, Chief Digital Officer, Lloyd’s
  • Gareth Hemming, Managing Director – Personal Lines, Aviva
  • Elena Rasa, Chief Underwriting Officer, Zurich
  • Thierry Daucourt, Head of P&C Commercial Lines,AXA European Markets
  • Jerome Jean Haegeli, Group Chief Economist, Swiss Re
  • Jürgen Reinhart, Chief Underwriting Officer–Cyber, Munich Re
  • Renaud Ambite, Chief Technical and Distribution Officer, Single Risk, SCOR P&C
  • Herbert Baeten, Chief Underwriting Officer, MS Amlin

Covering the core issues impacting the underwriting function, day one of the event will focus on data and analytics—in particular, how underwriters are leveraging external data to make better decisions, while simultaneously reconfiguring internal data to overcome silos and foster a data-driven culture. Specific sessions will cover new technologies for risk assessment, and how underwriters are moving from traditional ratings to data-driven methods. Louise Smith, Chief Digital Officer, Lloyd’s, will feature in a keynote session titled COVID-19 as a Catalyst for Changes in Digitisation, Coverage and Culture.

Automation, digitisation, and customer-centricity are the key themes for day two. Senior underwriting speakers will be demonstrating how to drive efficiency and transform operations, with a special focus on using automation to triage submissions more effectively. Other topics include customer-centricity, and how underwriters can play a role in reducing friction and improving the customer experience.

On day three, the focus will shift to the evolving landscape in terms of new risks, the global economic climate and shifts in power along the value chain. Speakers will be addressing how underwriters can stay ahead through product innovation, especially for intangible risks. The final few hours of the event are dedicated to the growing cyber threat, with keynotes from C-level executives.

Sponsored by kasko2go, ABBY, RavenPack, Cytora, Hyperscience, Wenalyze and CyberCube, this event is free for insurers to attend, and the content is available on demand post-event at no extra charge.

Speaker Gareth Hemming, Managing Director – Personal Lines, Aviva, said:

“We know that the way in which we use data, analytics and ingenuity to improve the process of underwriting and claims is critical, but too often we focus on what it can do for us as an industry – I am interested in how we can use it to improve the outcomes for our customers as well improve our own performance.”

Speaker Alina Jipa, Head of Analytics, RSA, said:

“Looking forward to the Underwriting Europe Virtual event, there are some great topics being discussed and an opportunity to network with other people in similar roles, going through similar experiences and challenges. I decided to speak on the Deploy Automation to Triage Submissions More Effectively and Write More Business panel, as I believe in today’s economic climate driving efficiencies through automation is no longer a nice to have, but something we need to explore and implement more widely in insurance.”

Speaker Jerome Jean Haegeli, Group Chief Economist, Swiss Re, said:

“A lesson from COVID-19 is that supply chains go from efficiency to resilience and the re/insurance sector plays a key role in this transition. COVID-19 was a wake-up call for risk awareness. New risk pools have emerged, and the re/insurance industry needs to contribute to closing existing protection gaps.”

Helen Raff, Head of Research, Intelligent Insurer, said:

“Underwriting is undergoing massive transformation, so it’s hardly surprising that Intelligent Insurer has been able to attract so many senior underwriters to this online event. The seniority of the speakers is a real draw to attendees.”

Register for the event here: https://bit.ly/3aqPooS

‘God of Sight’ to take work beyond Nepal’s border

Posted on by SAT News Desk
By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA
The Associated Press

LUMBINI, Nepal – Just next to the Mayadevi temple where Buddha was born more than 2,600 years ago, hundreds of people lined up outside a makeshift hospital on a recent hazy day, hoping their fading eyesight could be restored.

A day later, these saffron-robed Buddhist monks, old farmers and housewives were able to see the world again because the nation’s renowned eye surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit was there with his innovative and inexpensive cataract surgery that has earned him many awards.

At the visitor center turned into temporary eye hospital in Lumbini, located 288 kilometers southwest of Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, the assembly line surgery made it possible for the nearly 400 patients to get Ruit’s surgery in just three days.

“The whole objective, aim and my passion and love is to see there remain no people with unnecessary blindness in this part of the world,” Ruit, also known as Nepal’s “God of Sight,” said. “It is important that the people do receive equitable service and not that haves receive and have nots don’t receive it. I want to make sure that everybody receives it.”

Many people in Nepal, most of them poor, have benefited from Ruit’s work where he founded the Tilganga Institute of Ophthalmology in Kathmandu and regularly visits remote villages high in the mountains and lowlands of the Himalayan nation, taking with him a team of experts and equipment bringing surgery to their villages.

Ruit has already performed some 130,000 cataract surgeries and is now aiming to expand his work, taking it to as many countries as possible through a foundation he has formed with British philanthropist Tej Kohli which targets 500,000 surgeries in the next five years.

Ruit said the idea of the Tej Kohli Ruit Foundation is to make cataract surgeries in Nepal affordable and accessible to all.

“We will scale it up globally to other parts of the world where it is needed,” he said.

Ruit began his work in 1984 when the surgery was done by removing the entire cloudy cataract and giving thick glasses. He found that most people would not wear these glasses, and chances of complication were very high. So he pioneered a simple technique where he removes the cataract without stitches through small incisions and replaces them with a low-cost artificial lens.

Ruit’s average surgery costs about $100. The surgery is free for those who can’t afford it. Patients rarely have to spend the night at the hospital.

Nepal has a limited number of hospitals and health workers, and services are out of reach of most people.

Cataracts, which form a white film that cloud the eye’s natural lens, commonly occur in older people but also sometimes affect children or young adults. The condition first causes vision to blur or become foggy because the eye is unable to focus properly. As the cataract grows and matures, it can eventually block out all light. Exposure to harsh ultraviolet radiation, especially at high altitudes as in Nepal, is a major risk factor.

At the surgery camps in Lumbini, patients and family were all praise for the doctor.

Bhola Chai, a 58-year-old office worker, who had to retire because of his fading vision, was thrilled he could finally see again.

“This surgery has changed my life,” Chai said.

Others who have already benefited from Ruit’s cataract surgery likened him to a god.

“The doctor is just not god-sent, but he is a god for me who has given me a new life,” said Satindra Nath Tripathi, a farmer who benefitted from the surgery. “My world was completely dark, but now I have new life and new sight.”

With his fading eyesight restored, Tripathi is already looking forward to working on his farm, growing rice, wheat and vegetables.

22 patients dead after oxygen tanker leak in India

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Nashik: Twenty-two people died after oxygen supply was halted for half an hour following a leak in an oxygen tanker outside a hospital in Maharashtra’s Nashik on Tuesday, reports said.

The incident took place in the Dr Zakir Hussain Hospital run by the Nashik Municipal Corporation, which is among the biggest civic bodies in the state, and one of the worst COVID-19 hotspots in the state.

Visuals from the hospital show gas leaking from the tanker and covering the area in white fumes. Fire trucks were rushed to the spot to stop the leak.

Following certain technical issues which caused a variation in the pressure of the oxygen being administered in the ward, the patients gasped for breath and succumbed on the ventilator beds, IANS reported.

Even as stunned relatives slammed the civic authorities, NMC Municipal Commissioner Kailash Jadhav ordered a probe into the incident and assured action against all found guilty of lapses.

BJP’s Leader of Opposition (Council) Pravin Darekar attacked the Maha Vikas Aghadi government and demanded lodging of cases under culpable homicide against those found responsible.

To control the outrage and uproar building up after the incident, the Nashik Police tightened security in and around the hospital premises.

Several states are facing a shortage of medical oxygen. In Maharashtra, 58,924 new COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours. ( ANI )

Bangladesh reports record 102 daily deaths from COVID-19

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Dhaka, Xinhua — Bangladesh on Sunday reported its deadliest day of COVID-19 so far, with a record 102 deaths from the coronavirus epidemic.

It was the third consecutive day for more than 100 daily deaths from COVID-19 reported in the Asian country, bringing the death toll to 10,385.

The country’s Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) also reported 3,698 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, raising its total tally to 718,950.

It came as daily COVID-19 cases decreased, with confirmed infections dropping to around 4,000 per day recently, compared to about 7,000 in each of the days before April 13, showing early signs that strict lockdown restrictions beginning April 14 have been working.

The official data showed that 19,404 samples were tested in the last 24 hours across Bangladesh.

The total number of recovered patients in the country stood at 614,936 including 6,121 new recoveries on Sunday, said the DGHS.

According to the official data, the COVID-19 fatality rate in Bangladesh is now 1.44 percent and recovery rate is 85.53 percent.

Bangladesh recorded the highest number of daily cases at 7,626 on April 7.

India reports 2,61,500 new COVID-19 cases, 1,501 deaths

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New Delhi —  India reported its highest-ever single-day spike of COVID-19 cases with over 2,61,500 new cases and more than 1,500 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry on Sunday.

In the last 24 hours, 1,501 COVID-related deaths were reported in the country taking the death toll to 1,77,150. As many as 2,61,500 new COVID-19 cases have been reported in India in the last 24 hours.

With this, the total number of cases has gone up to 1,47,88,109. The active number of cases in the country stands at 18,01,316. In the last 24 hours, 1,38,423 people recovered from the disease.

With this, the total recoveries reached 1,28,09,643.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research, 15,66,394 samples were tested on Saturday. And, as many as 26,65,38,416 samples have been tested across the country till April 17.

Meanwhile, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country stands at 12,26,22,590 till today. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved the use of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus in the country on April 12.

Now, India has three vaccines Covishield, Covaxin, and Sputnik V for its inoculation program against COVID-19. From April 2, the government started vaccinating all people above 45 years. India started its vaccination drive on January 16 with priority given to all healthcare and frontline workers in the first phase.

The second phase started on March 1 where doses were administered to people above the age of 60 and those between 45 and 59 years with specific comorbidities. (ANI)

Trade union leaders write to PM calling on him to reject ‘insulting’ report and act on race equality at work

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London — Trade union leaders have published an open letter to the Prime Minister, calling for him to take a different path to achieve race equality at work and in the labour market to that recommended in the report from the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities.

The report has been criticised by many of the people and organisations listed by the Commission as consultees, who say that their testimonies and evidence have been ignored.

The trade union movement says that it rejects the idea that defending working class interests and pushing for equality for BME workers are opposed, noting that today’s working class is multi-ethnic and multi-faith.

The letter, from 27 trade union general secretaries, states:

“Institutional and structural racism exists in the UK, in both the labour market and wider society. We do not believe that the Commission recognised its extent and impact. And we do not consider that the report’s recommendations would make a meaningful positive difference to the working lives and careers of BME workers. 

“We hoped that the report would recommend action to stamp out insecure work and make employers act to close their ethnicity pay gaps. Instead, the Commission has chosen to deny the experiences of BME workers and be complacent about the UK’s progress towards being an anti-racist society.

“Trade unions will continue to fight for decent wages, fair treatment and an end to exploitation for all working people – knowing this will disproportionately benefit BME workers. We hope ministers will reflect on the inadequacies of the report of the Commission for Racial Disparities, recognise the insult it has offered to BME workers, and pick a different path.”

UK government approves extradition of Nirav Modi

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London — United Kingdom Home Secretary Priti Patel has approved the extradition of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, a Central Bureau of Investigation official said on Friday.
Nirav Modi, wanted in India on the charges of fraud and money-laundering, was arrested in March 2019 in London and charged with money laundering and defrauding Punjab National Bank (PNB) of more than Rs 11,000 crore.
In February, a UK court had ordered his extradition to India to stand trial after dismissing arguments of his “mental health concerns,” saying they are not unusual in a man in his circumstances.
Judge Samuel Goozee, sitting at Westminster Magistrate’s Court in London, rejected each of the grounds laid out by Modi’s defence against extradition.
Modi faces multiple charges in cases being handled by the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate. ( ANI )

South Asia is fast becoming the new global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic : IFRC

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London – A global humanitarian network has warned that calamity is engulfing South Asia as COVID-19 skyrockets across several countries setting new records, with more than 200,000 people infected per day.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said South Asia is fast becoming the new global epicentre of the COVID-19 pandemic. This deadlier and more infectious new wave is overwhelming hospitals and social systems, heaping more distress on hundreds of millions of people already experiencing poverty and hardship, the Swiss-based organisation said on Friday.

On 15 April 2021 India recorded more than 200,700 cases in a day, more than double the country’s previous peak and the highest of any country in the world right now. Bangladesh is recording almost 50 per cent more deaths per day than its previous peak in June 2020. Pakistan’s daily cases are spiking, with the highest ever COVID-19 daily death rate.

Udaya Regmi, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Head of Delegation, South Asia, said, “The speed with which the virus is spreading in our region is truly frightening. Over 1.5 million people are sick with COVID-19 in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan combined and that’s 50 times how many were sick one month ago.”

“Thousands of lives are being lost, this is a tragic warning to all countries, that every effort must be maintained and we cannot afford to relax in containing this deadly Coronavirus,” said Regmi adding, “The impact on frontline workers is catastrophic. Thousands of Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers have stepped-up efforts to help the elderly and those most at risk with access to lifesaving medical care, testing and vaccinations. Millions already face extreme poverty and we’re helping with food, water and other relief.”

There is growing evidence from health authorities that more virulent COVID-19 variants are fuelling this current surge in South Asia.

Dr Abhishek Rimal, IFRC’s Asia Pacific Coordinator for Emergency Health, said, “Several countries in South Asia have already reported the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants of concern from the UK and South Africa, which are more infectious and are increasing hospitalisation, putting a massive burden on the health system.”

“As we enter the second year dealing with the pandemic it’s understandable that many people are sick of the restrictions and want to resume normal life. We must redouble our efforts to contain this disease as too many lives are at stake,” said Dr Rimal adding, “We must place every effort to resource health workers and hospitals so people who are suffering receive the healthcare they need. This is a wakeup call to the world. Vaccines must be available to everyone, everywhere, rich and poor to overcome this terrible pandemic.”

Established 102 years ago, the IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network that reaches 150 million people in 192 National Societies through the work of over 13.7 million volunteers.

As India’s COVID crisis worsens, leaders play the blame game while the poor suffer once again

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India is witnessing a sharp spike in COVID-19 cases after months of declining numbers had given the country hope it had made it through the worst of the pandemic relatively unscathed.

On March 1, India recorded just 12,286 new cases, but since early April this figure has skyrocketed to over 100,000 every day. Earlier this week, it hit a record of 168,912 cases in a day — the highest in the world.

As the health crisis escalates, the poor are once again fearing a return to lockdown and economic hardship. Migrants have started fleeing from cities to their home villages in order to avoid the pain and trauma they went through a year ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi enacted a nationwide lockdown. Many cities, including Mumbai and Delhi, have already announced nightly curfews.

For now, the Indian government has just asked the states to focus on “stringent containment and public health measures”, including testing, tracing and inoculations. Modi has also appealed to people to get vaccinated during a four-day “Tika Utsav” (special vaccination drive), which began on Sunday.

However, the situation remains grim. Even though India is one of the world’s biggest coronavirus vaccine manufacturers, some states are experiencing vaccine shortages. At the same time, experts fear a lack of social distancing and new variants of the virus are causing infections to potentially spiral out of control.

How the poor suffered during last year’s lockdown

When COVID-19 first appeared in India last year, the Modi government was quick to bring the country together.

In a speech to the nation last March, he announced a 21-day nationwide lockdown of 1.3 billion people with only four hours’ notice. All means of transportation were suspended. The rich and affluent started hoarding food and medicines, while the poor worried about their livelihoods.

A mass migration ensued as hundreds of millions of migrant workers headed from the major cities back to their home villages on foot. This was the most visible face of the humanitarian crisis. Others, however, suffered out of the public eye, such as the street vendors, waste pickers, domestic maids and shopkeepers in slums, who were all forced to stop working.

As part of a study last year, I helped conduct a series of six rounds of telephone surveys in 20 diverse slums in the city of Patna, the capital of the northeastern Bihar state from July to November.

Nearly all slum residents we spoke with — except the rare few with protected formal sector jobs — were cut off suddenly from their sources of income after the lockdown was announced. And more than 80% of slum households in Patna lost their entire primary source of income.

Economic recovery since the lockdown has also been slow. By mid-November, one-third of respondents had still not fully recovered their pre-pandemic incomes. Many had been hired back at their old jobs on a part-time basis or at a fraction of their former pay. Many jobs simply disappeared.

The poor survived by cutting back on their food, borrowing money and helping each other.

Given these struggles, there is now a sense of anxiety in these slum communities and a mistrust of the government, especially Modi. Says Ajay, 35, a street vendor who lives in the Kankarbagh slum,

The government finds it is easy to lock us down but not to provide financial and livelihood support. PM is busy campaigning for an election where thousands of people come without masks and are violating social distancing norms.

The government’s failed leadership

Undoubtedly, Modi still remains popular among most ordinary people. When he says something, India listens carefully. It worked well last year, and his appeal compelled people to wear masks and maintain social distancing, helping to flatten the curve and limit the loss of lives.

However, making public speeches will not be enough during this second wave. The prime minister needs to be seen adhering to these practices in his own daily life, but this is not happening on the ground.

In the ongoing elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, as well as the election in Bihar last year, Modi and other party leaders have addressed several rallies without paying much attention to COVID restrictions. Modi himself has addressed more than 20 rallies attended by thousands of unmasked people.

When leaders are seen addressing mass gathering without masks and social distancing, the public will not only assume everything is normal, they will lose their fear of COVID.

Modi has also insisted he would not politicise the pandemic, but he has done exactly that. In states like Maharashtra, Punjab and Chhattisgarh, which are facing a spike in cases, Modi’s party is pointing the finger at the state leaders, who come from opposing parties. The states, meanwhile, are blaming Modi’s government for failed leadership.

Another concern is the Modi government’s decision to allow a major festival, Kumbh Mela, to take place in Uttrakhand state, which is ruled by his party, the BJP. Several million people gathered at the Ganges River for an auspicious bathing day this week, flouting social distancing practices.

Uttrakhand’s chief minister said the “faith of devotees will overcome the fear of COVID-19”, at a time when infections are skyrocketing.

Who will help the poor?

As the numbers of COVID-19 cases are rising every day, the fear of a return to lockdown is ever-present, haunting the poor. Many have yet to recover from their previous debts, and COVID-19 is now threatening their livelihoods again.

Last year, several not-for-profit, grassroots organisations came forward to help the migrants and urban poor dwellers, but this is going to be more challenging this year.

Not only have their funds been depleted, but recent changes brought by the government have stopped the flow of foreign aid money to many organisations. Amnesty International announced in September it would halt its operations in India after its bank accounts had been frozen.

One NGO volunteer, Prabhakar, who works with slum dwellers in Patna, told us,

if the government is going to announce the complete lockdown like last year, many people will run out of food, as parent NGOs have stopped sponsoring the small organisations which work with the slum dwellers.

This is the time for Modi to show decisive leadership in not only controlling the surge of the virus, but also providing financial assistance to millions of urban poor and helping them reach their home villages with their dignity intact. This is what is needed to instill trust in the prime minister again.

Binod Kumar, a senior project officer in the Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, contributed to this article.

Indian gov’t has no plan for countrywide lockdown amid spike in COVID-19 cases, federal finance minister

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New Delhi, Xinhua — India’s federal finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the Indian government has no plan to impose a nationwide lockdown amid the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the Asian country.

Sitharaman said that the federal government does not want to totally arrest the economy and the second wave of COVID-19 in the country will be handled through isolation and quarantine methods at the local level.

“With the second wave, we are very clear we are not going in for a lockdown in a big way. We don’t want to totally arrest the economy. The local level isolation of patients and keeping people in quarantine are methods through which the crisis of the second wave will be handled,” she said during a virtual interaction with World Bank Group President David Malpass on Tuesday evening.

Sitharaman also shared with Malpass the measures being taken by the Indian government to contain the spread of the pandemic including the five pillared strategy of testing, tracking, treating, vaccination and COVID-19 appropriate behavior.

During the meeting, they discussed various issues including COVID-19 vaccination, economic recovery, World Bank Group lending envelope for India and India’s strategy of green, resilient and inclusive development.

India is witnessing a spike in COVID-19 cases.

The federal health ministry on Wednesday morning said that 184,372 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, a record single-day spike since the start of the pandemic, and 1,027 new deaths from the coronavirus epidemic were recorded in the past 24 hours in India.

India’s new coronavirus infections hit a record as crowds of pilgrims gathered for a religious festival

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New Delhi — India’s new coronavirus infections hit a record on Wednesday, as crowds of pilgrims gathered for a religious festival despite oxygen shortages and strict curbs in other areas.

India reported 184,372 cases in the last 24 hours, according to health ministry data, taking the total number of Covid-19 infections to 13.9 million. Deaths rose by 1,027, to a toll of 172,085.

Despite the rising number of cases, with hospitals struggling to cope with oxygen shortages, the Indian government has allowed the Hindu Kumbh Mela festival – where crowds gather to take a holy dip in the Ganges river – to proceed.

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gathered to bathe in the Ganges on Wednesday, the third key day of the weeks-long festival, in the Himalayan city Haridwar.

Sanjay Gunjyal, the inspector general of police at the festival, said around 650,000 people had bathed on Wednesday morning.

“People are being fined for not following social distancing in non-crowded ghats (bathing areas), but it is very hard to fine people in the main ghats, which are very crowded,” he said.

There was little evidence of social distancing or mask-wearing, according to  witnesses.

In response to concerns raised earlier this week that the Kumbh Mela, or pitcher festival, could turn into a “superspreader” event, the state’s chief minister, Tirath Singh Rawat, said “the faith in God will overcome the fear of the virus”.

More than a thousand cases have been reported in Haridwar district in the last two days, according to government data.

From reporting less than 10,000 cases per day earlier this year, India has been the world’s worst-hit country since April 2, with health experts blaming a widespread failure to heed curbs on movement and social interaction. ( From : Agencies and AFP )

South Asian governments must ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines

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New Delhi — Governments in South Asia must ensure that vulnerable groups are not excluded from access to COVID-19 vaccines, said Amnesty International, while calling on the international community to enable the production of vaccines at the national-level to address the severe shortfall in supply across the region.

As vaccination programmes have commenced across South Asia, groups including slum dwellers, Dalits, ethnic minorities, workers including labourers, daily wage earners, sanitation workers, garment workers and tea plantation workers, people in rural areas, prisoners, and internally displaced people have so far been denied access due to a lack of awareness and limited access to technology in most places. Meanwhile, others including refugees and migrants have been excluded entirely from government vaccine campaigns in many countries up to now.

As vaccine campaigns have been rolled out, marginalized groups across South Asia have been effectively locked out by practical barriers
Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director

With vaccines in short supply, most countries in South Asia have not inoculated more than six percent of their population with even a first dose, with efforts so far reaching middle and higher-income groups. Amnesty International is calling on governments across the world to waive provisions of the global treaty governing rights and patents on properties including medicines.

“As vaccine campaigns have been rolled out, marginalized groups across South Asia have been effectively locked out by practical barriers. South Asia’s governments must ensure fair and equitable access to vaccines for everyone irrespective of caste, socio-economic or other status, race, or nationality,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific Director.

“The lack of access to vaccine supply in most countries across the region is a real and pressing concern that needs to be urgently addressed. However, this must not provide cover to these countries to unduly limit access to vaccines, for example, by not reaching out to vulnerable groups to tell them how they can get vaccinated. Who you are and where you live should not determine access to the vaccine.” 

Barriers to access

Underprivileged communities across South Asia do not have access to smart phones and other mobile devices, which are required in most cases to register online for vaccines and where most public health information is disseminated.

In Pakistan, the registration process excludes certain groups by design – requiring National Identity Numbers that are unavailable to refugees or migrants. In early April, authorities approved foreign nationals over the age of 60 and health workers of foreign origin to receive the jab but there is a lack of clarity on the process of registration for them. With vaccine registration being done via text message or online, prisoners are also being effectively excluded without access to the internet or phones. Although the provincial government of Sindh has announced that all prisoners over the age of 50 will be vaccinated, it is not clear if other provinces will follow suit.

Due to a lack of access to government plans and information sharing mechanisms on vaccine rollouts, a misperception among rural people that COVID-19 is a concern only for urban and city dwellers persists in countries such as Bangladesh. Amnesty International is calling on national authorities to put measures in place, in collaboration with non-governmental organizations, to raise awareness among rural people about vaccine campaigns and the danger posed by COVID-19.

In Sri Lanka, limited communication around dates, venues and eligibility for vaccines is a barrier for people to access vaccinations. There is no information available about the plan for COVID-19 vaccines and immunizing the broader population in some countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, vaccination plans that have been developed by countries like Bangladesh for holistic coverage of the population are not reflected in their implementation, such as efforts to inoculate cleaning workers, unskilled wage earners and people in lower income groups. Governments must ensure that information around vaccine plans are communicated effectively to communities in languages and formats they understand to ensure equitable access.

Limited vaccine supplies

With vaccine manufacturing countries prioritizing their own populations, countries across South Asia have been scrambling to place orders to meet national demands.

International cooperation is key to contain the spread of the virus and make the vaccine universally available as quickly as possible
Yamini Mishra

The situation has left hundreds of millions across the region unable to access vaccines for the foreseeable future, including groups such as Bangladesh’s one million Rohingya refugees and Afghanistan’s four million internally displaced. In Pakistan, limited supplies have led to many health workers reporting difficulties securing their second vaccine jab, leaving them dangerously exposed as the country undergoes its third and most deadly wave.

Amnesty International is calling on governments to fulfil their human rights obligations and actively support a proposal to waive certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement, a global treaty governing intellectual property rights, which often restricts where, when and how medicines are produced. 

“International cooperation is key to contain the spread of the virus and make the vaccine universally available as quickly as possible. South Asian countries with the capacity to produce the vaccine at affordable prices must ensure equitable distribution and call on global bodies, pharmaceutical companies, and other vaccine manufacturing states to prioritize resource and technology transfer to produce vaccines locally,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International writes.

At least 80 killed in military crackdown in Myanmar

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London — More than 80 people have been killed by security forces in a crackdown on protests in Myanmar’s city of Bago, activists have said.

The Burmese military is reported to have taken away the bodies of those killed.

The exact number of deaths may never be accurately established, according to international media reports.

According to local media, soldiers used heavy weapons and had shot at anything that moved.

More than 600 people have been killed since last month’s military coup, BBC said.

The military has resorted to violence to maintain its grip on power, it added.

The latest killings in Bago are reported to have happened on Friday but took a whole day to emerge as many residents were forced to flee to nearby villages, according to BBC.

The monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said that the actual number of deaths was likely to be higher.

Meanwhile, mass protests have been taking place across Myanmar since the military seized control of the country on 1 February and declared a year-long state of emergency.

Prince Philip’s funeral to be held on April 17

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LONDON– The funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh will be held at Windsor on April 17, with no public access nor public procession beforehand, a Buckingham Palace spokesman said Saturday.

The event is to be a “ceremonial royal funeral”, rather than a state funeral, which “very much reflects the duke’s wishes”, a palace spokesman said, according to Xinhua.

A national minute’s silence will be observed as the funeral begins at 15:00 BST at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor.

Members of the public will not be allowed to attend as the proceedings have been scaled down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The funeral will be shown live on television. Given the current pandemic restriction which allows only 30 mourners to attend, the event will be reduced in scale.

At this moment, there is no confirmation yet on the rest of the guest list. “In line with government guidelines and public health measures, there will be no public processions and the duke’s funeral will take place entirely within the grounds of Windsor Castle,” the palace spokesman said, as quoted by Xinhua.

The Queen has approved the prime minister’s recommendation that there be eight days of national mourning, to end on the day of the duke’s funeral, the palace said.

During the national mourning time, union flags will remain at half-mast but the Royal Standard, which is flown when the Queen is in residence at one of the royal palaces, will be at full mast.

The Royal Family will observe two weeks of mourning and royal engagements will continue, with mourning bands worn where appropriate.

Xinhua citing Sky News reported that Prince Harry will be traveling from his home in the United States to attend, although his pregnant wife Meghan has been advised by doctors not to travel.

Earlier Saturday, gun salutes have been fired across Britain on land and at sea in memory of the duke who passed away on Friday at the age of 99.

The royal family website has asked people not to leave flowers and tributes at royal residences.

The website encourages members of the public to consider making a donation to a charity instead of leaving floral tributes.

Prince Philip was born on the Greek island of Corfu on June 10, 1921. He married Princess Elizabeth in 1947, five years before she became Queen, and was the longest-serving royal consort in British history. The couple had four children, eight grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. (ANI)

South Asia surpasses 15 million COVID-19 cases: Reuters tally

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Kathmandu — Coronavirus infections in the South Asia sub-region surpassed the grim milestone of 15 million on Saturday, a Reuters tally shows, led by India’s record daily infections and vaccine shortages.

South Asia – India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives, and Sri Lanka – accounts for 11% of global cases and almost 6% of deaths. The region accounts for 23% of the world’s population of 7.59 billion people.

India, the country with the third-highest coronavirus total, accounts for over 84% of South Asia’s cases and deaths.

Prince Philip dies: his marriage to the Queen and their part in 1,000 years of European royal dynastic history

Posted on by SAT News Desk

Jonathan Spangler, Manchester Metropolitan University

In November 1947, a dynastic union was forged between the royal houses of Greece and Great Britain. It would be one of the last of this kind of royal marriages in history – a type of union that had knitted together the continent for 1,000 years. When Philip, prince of Greece and Denmark married Elizabeth, princess of Great Britain, they reconnected two bloodlines descended from Queen Victoria. But they also renewed a kinship tie between Britain and Denmark that had been joined together numerous times, from Canute and Aelfgifu in 1015 to Edward VII and Alexandra in 1863.

For centuries, almost every European monarchy maintained diplomatic relationships with its neighbours through dynastic marriages, in a system that persisted all the way up to the 1930s, then rapidly faded away in the post-war era.

In stark contrast, before the second world war this practice was the absolute norm – particularly seen in the dense web of intermarriages between the royal families of Sweden, Denmark and Norway in the earlier decades of the 20th century.

One of the great dreams of Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert – themselves the product of close dynastic union, as first cousins – was to unite the continent of Europe through kinship relations, hoping that close cousins would be less likely to go to war with one another. This proved to be politically naive – disastrously so. The Great War that followed not long after Victoria’s death pitted the forces of “Cousin Nicky” (Tsar Nicholas of Russia) and “Cousin Georgie” (King George V of Great Britain) against those of “Cousin Willy” (Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany), close kinshipnotwithstanding. By 1914, Britain, Russia and Germany had evolved as nation states, with modern governments, beyond the control of princely dynasticism as a political or diplomatic force.

Prince Philip’s marriage to Princess Elizabeth in 1947 thus represented one of the last iterations of this Queen Victoria’s dream. It reunited two of her descendants: Elizabeth through her father’s line, and Philip through the line of his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, a great-grand-daughter of Victoria. Indeed, in the previous decade, three of Philip’s four sisters had married other descendants of Victoria.

But in 1947, times had changed, and post-war Britain was not so keen to see the heir to the throne married to a foreign royal. Particularly not onewhose sisters had married prominent German officers and whose family had an extremely fragile position on its throne in Greece, with a dynastic history full of abdications, military coups and plebiscites. Prince Philip was therefore “rebranded” before his marriage as Philip Mountbatten, lieutenant in the Royal Navy, naturalised British subject. But where did the name Mountbatten come from? And why before he changed his name was he called “Prince of Greece and Denmark”?

Community of nations

It is an important question for understanding the identity of the Duke of Edinburgh – and by extension, the identity of the British royal family and even Britain’s position within the wider European community of nations. It is all very intertwined. Philip himself said in an interview in 2014:

If anything, I’ve thought of myself as Scandinavian. Particularly, Danish. We spoke English at home … The others learned Greek. I could understand a certain amount of it. But then the (conversation) would go into French. Then it went into German, on occasion, because we had German cousins. If you couldn’t think of a word in one language, you tended to go off in another.

His experience is a perfect expression of the extraordinary cosmopolitan environment of the royal courts of Europe a century ago, when royal princes in Prussia and Russia almost always had English nannies, and adults conversed in polished French. Queen Elizabeth II is the product of this same nursery environment and also has very good French.

But why would a Greek prince consider himself Scandinavian? In the mid-19th century, when the crumbling Ottoman Empire was giving birth to newly independent states such as Bulgaria and Greece, the Great Powers of Europe determined that it was in the best interests of stability in the region to select junior members of the major royal dynasties to found new monarchies.

Greece, independent since 1832, had first been governed by a Bavarian prince, Otto, but in 1863, he was deposed, and the 17-year-old Prince William of Denmark chosen instead. Denmark’s ruling family, the House of Oldenburg, one of the oldest in Europe, was known for its liberal views, and it was hoped that a young prince from such a family would help the Greeks establish a democratic monarchy along the lines of Denmark, or its closely related ally, England.

The reign of Prince William, as King George I of Greece, was long and fairly calm. His son, Constantine I, was another matter, and after a disastrous war with Turkey (1919-1922) he was forced to abdicate. His younger brother, Prince Andrew, had fought in the war, and was sent into exile, along with his infant son, Prince Philip.

Philip was thus raised as an exile, first in Paris, then in England, where he boarded at Cheam School in Hampshire. He began a career in the British navy in 1939, served with distinction during WWII, then retired from active service once his wife became the Queen in 1952. He had been naturalised as a British subject in the summer of 1947, a few months before his wedding, and assumed a version of his mother’s name, Battenberg – itself anglicised to Mountbatten at the height of anti-German sentiment in England in 1917.

The Battenbergs were also from an ancient ruling family, the House of Hesse, territorial princes in the heart of Germany since the 13th century. Philip wasn’t alone in representing the Greek royal family in Britain: a decade before, his cousin Princess Marina had married the youngest son of George V, the Duke of Kent, and had charmed the nation with her elegance and cosmopolitan style.

Philip was firmly tied to the UK through his uncle, Earl Mountbatten, a British naval hero during the war – but, at the same time, he remained closely linked to the old continental system. One of his aunts, Mountbatten’s sister, was Queen Louise of Sweden.

Louise Mountbatten died in 1965, and Marina of Greece in 1968 and, by the 1970s, royal marriages were seen as affairs of the heart, not affairs of state – or indeed as points of reunion and reconnection for these ancient royal dynasties.

With the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh, one of the last representatives of a system that had endured for a millennium passes into history.

From : The Conversation