作者： bharat.cn

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Saturday expressed hope that if all goes well, India will get a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year. Speaking to an India Today TV reporter, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “The world is working towards discovering a vaccine. There are 26 vaccine candidates around the world that are in the clinical trials phase. Apart from this, there are 139 candidates that are being developed on different levels and in pre-clinical trials.”

“The vaccine candidates in India have made a little more progress than them. There are around half a dozen in total. Three of them have reached the first, second and third phases respectively,” the Health Minister said.

Dr Harsh Vardhan added, “As we are analysing their progress, we are fully confident that their trials will be completed within this year itself and their results will come out in front of the whole nation and the world. And I have complete faith that we will be successful too.”

“As soon as an effective vaccine is available for the country, we will start its manufacturing in India and make it available to the public,” he further said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Health Minister also said that India has the “best” Covid-19 recovery rate of about 75 per cent, which is improving every day, and the “lowest” mortality rate of 1.87 per cent in the world.

He said India began formulating its strategy against coronavirus from January 8 as soon as the world came to know about the outbreak of the disease.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said “many intelligent people, scientists and naysayers” had estimated that India, with a population of about 135 crore, will see 300 million Covid-19 cases and about 5-6 million people will die by July-August, and the country’s healthcare system was “incapable” to combat the disease.

“However, I am happy to say that in the eighth month of the battle, India has the best recovery rate of 75 per cent and against an estimate of 300 million affected we have not even reached 3 million cases.”

“In fact, 2.2 million patients have recovered and gone home and another seven lakh are going to be cured very soon,” he said.

Pakistan on Saturday admitted that Dawood Ibrahim, one of India’s most-wanted men, lives within its territory – in Karachi, in a building called the ‘White House’.

Dawood Ibrahim, who heads a vast and multifaceted illegal business, had emerged as India’s most-wanted terrorist after the 1993 Mumbai blasts. For years, Pakistan has been denying that it was sheltering him. This was despite repeated statements and evidence that India provided from time-to-time about his presence in Pakistan.

The revelation about Dawood Ibrahim’s presence was made on Saturday when Pakistan placed his name on the list of designated terrorists operating within its territory. The list was submitted before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a global money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog.

Pakistan has claimed that it has directed placing travel restrictions on Dawood Ibrahim, besides putting an arms embargo and freezing his funds.

In 2003, the US declared Dawood Ibrahim as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.

India has repeatedly asked the Government of Pakistan to hand over Ibrahim to India so that he can be prosecuted for the crimes committed by him. It is reported that Ibrahim is based in the southern port city of Karachi.

India’s silver imports are likely to fall by more than 40 per cent from a year ago to the lowest level in eight years, with investors booking profit by selling stocks after local prices rallied to a record high this month, leading importers said.

Lower imports by the world’s biggest silver consumer could weigh on global prices that have risen more than 50 per cent so far in 2020.

“Investors, who bought silver at higher levels, got an opportunity to exit after a long time. For some, even after a decade,” said Chirag Thakkar, CEO of Amrapali Group Gujarat, a leading silver importer.

Their selling will reduce import requirement for 2020 to 3,000 tonnes, the lowest since 2012, he said.

India imported 5,598 tonnes of silver in 2019, according to data compiled by Refinitiv GFMS. The country fulfills most of its silver requirement through imports.

Investors are sceptical whether silver will hold recent gains, said Prithviraj Kothari, managing director of RiddiSiddhi Bullions.

“There is rush from sellers but very few buyers are there. Sellers are forced to accept hefty discount,” he said.

Local silver futures were trading around 66,800 rupees per kg on Thursday afternoon after hitting a record high of 77,949 rupees earlier this month.

But in the spot market silver was offered at discount of more than Rs 5,000 per kg due to weak demand, Thakkar said.

India’s silver imports in the first seven months of the year nearly halved from a year ago to 1,900 tonnes and it is unlikely to rise again unless prices correct sharply, said a Mumbai based dealer with a bullion importing bank.