The Evening Wrap: Expert panel recommends Covaxin for 2-18-year-olds

Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin (BBV152) has been recommended for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for 2-18- year-olds by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO). Covaxin is the country’s first indigenous, whole-virion, inactivated vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). If given the green signal, it will emerge as the first COVID-19 vaccine globally to be used for vaccinating children as young as 2 years. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the company said it had submitted data from clinical trials in the 2-18 age group to the CDSCO. The positive recommendations, after due review by the SEC, were submitted to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). A senior Central Government official stated that the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 in September and submitted the trial data. The trials were done on the age groups of 2-6, 6-12 and 12 -18. Experts maintained that two doses of Covaxin could be administered to children within a gap of 28 days. For adults, the government has set 4-6 weeks between the two shots. “This represents one of the first approvals worldwide for COVID-19 vaccines for the 2-18 age group,” the Bharat Biotech statement claimed. The company was awaiting further regulatory approvals from the CDSCO prior to product launch and market availability of the vaccine for children. Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, founder and director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, highlighted, “India has always been known as a vaccine and a medicine drug producer but never a medicine or a drug developer. This is the first time that a vaccine has been entirely developed and produced in India and its efficacy and safety have been proven to be high so much so that it is now being trialled in children.” The vaccine would lead to protection of children. “Currently, adults have been vaccinated, but children have been left exposed to the virus. This vaccine will bring about a positive change,” he stressed. Dr. Bipin Singh, assistant professor, School of Engineering & Technology, BML Munjal University (BMU), noted that the emergency use approval of the vaccine for children aged 2-18 years was promising. It would have been better if the vaccine was first approved for children within the age bracket of 10-18 years. The recommendations were based on a larger and diverse pool of clinical trails data and long-term evaluations, he pointed out. Dr. (Maj.) Manish Mannan, head of department, Pediatrics and Neonatology, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, speaking about the availability of the vaccine in the private sector observed that it would be a watch and wait scenario. “The DCGI has to give its final approval and then vaccination has to begin. As doctors working with children, we will be watching the data closely. I would go slow into the vaccination and will see how the data comes in on the phase four of the trial or when actually the vaccine is being given to children in various parts of the country and various centres. We have to see the response. Even though the number of children involved in the clinical trial is a small number, the results have been encouraging. As the vaccination process starts, we will see how it goes and then we will go ahead and consider using this vaccine,” he remarked. The World Health Organisation is expected to take a call on Bharat Biotech’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) application for Covaxin soon. Five militants killed in Shopian, two anti-militancy operations continue in J&K Five militants, including three affiliates of The Resistance Front (TRF) that was behind the recent civilian killings in the Valley, were killed and two multi-storey houses were damaged in multiple anti-militancy operations in south Kashmir’s Shopian on Tuesday, taking the death toll in militancy-related incidents to 12, including five soldiers, in the past 24 hours. Three militants were killed in Shopian’s Tulran area where an anti-militancy operation was launched on Monday evening. The militants were trapped inside a residential house and refused to surrender “despite repeated offers by the security forces”. “Out of three killed terrorists, one terrorist has been identified as Mukhtar Shah of Ganderbal, who shifted to Shopian after killing one street hawker, Virendra Paswan of Bihar [last week],” Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said. Two multi-storey residential houses were damaged after security forces used explosives to flush out the militants. Three cowsheds and apple boxes were also destroyed in the fire. Hours later, two more militants were killed in an encounter at Shopian’s Feripora area. “The identity of the slain militants was being ascertained. The operation is on in the area,” a police spokesman said. In the Jammu province’s Pir Panjal valley, an anti-militancy operation entered the second day on Tuesday to nab the armed militants who killed five soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer, in the Poonch-Rajouri belt. A total of 12 persons, including seven militants and five soldiers, were killed in five separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir since Monday. Jammu and Kashmir saw a spurt in anti-militancy operations days after militants killed seven civilians in multiple targeted attacks in the Valley. Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: Police arrests one more person Police in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 12 arrested one more person in connection with the Lakhimpuri Kheri violence case and produced him in a court, which sent him to 14-day judicial custody. Senior Prosecution Officer S.P. Yadav said they have sought 14-day police custody of Shekhar Bharti and the hearing in this regard will take place on October 13. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody, the officer said. With Bharti’s arrest, police so far have arrested four people. Earlier, they had arrested Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, Luvkush and Ashish Pandey in connection with the violence, in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed. S.P. Yadav said two people — Ankit Das and Latif — moved applications for surrender at the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined a large gathering of farmers from various States in Tikonia village in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 12 as part of last prayers in honour of the four farmers and a journalist, who were killed in the recent violence. Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and BKU leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Darshan Singh Pal, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, and Dharmendra Malik, besides local farm union leaders, also arrived in the village to pay tributes during the ‘antim ardas’ to the deceased, who were mowed down by speeding vehicles on October 3 during a protest. PM Modi warns against ‘selective’ interpretation of human rights’ issues Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday noted that the biggest infringement of human rights occurred when seen through a political prism, and warned against a “selective” interpretation of rights’ issues. Addressing the 28th foundation day of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) virtually, he “cautioned against the selective interpretation of human rights and using human rights to diminish the image of the country,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Modi stated that some people were interpreting human rights from their own perspective as per “their selfish interests”. Human rights were being damaged due to the tendency of some to see violation of rights in some situations and not in other, similar, situations. “This selective behaviour is equally damaging for democracy too.” Duties were as important as rights and that these two should not be discussed separately. The government had worked to ensure the dignity of the poor as that was linked closely to the concept of human rights, he pointed out. Modi too scared to call China out: Congress Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared to call out China as an “aggressor,” the Congress alleged on Tuesday as the 13th round of senior military commander talks between India and China ended in a stalemate on Sunday last. It also questioned Modi’s ‘continued’ silence in spite of fresh incursions by Chinese forces in Barahoti, Uttarakhand and upper reaches of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. At a press conference at the party headquarters, its spokesperson Pawan Khera stated that the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement released on Monday raised some elementary questions. The Ministry had maintained that the situation along the Line of Actual Control ( LAC) had been caused by “unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter the status quo and in violation of bilateral agreements”. Khera asked, “Why did PM Modi lie to the country when he said that no one transgressed in the Indian territory.” Pointing to the August 30 incident, when reportedly 100 Chinese army personnel entered five km into Indian sovereign territory near Barahoti crossing in the Tun Jun La pass in Uttarakhand and stayed on for nearly three hours, he observed that it was a clear failure by the government and its agencies in guarding India’s security and sovereignty. Chinese incursions over the past couple of years had happened in almost all sectors – from Ladakh to Uttarakhand to Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh and the Chinese have been consolidating their infrastructure along the LAC. “The implications of the Chinese incursions are extremely critical, especially when the PLA isn’t even open to discussing de-escalation in two extremely strategic and critical sectors for India, Depsang and Daulat Beg Oldi sectors.” After the 12th round of Military talks in August, it was mutually agreed that there would be a mutual troop pullback from the Gogra area. “But instead what happened? There has been a massive troop consolidation by China along the Daulat Beg Oldi Sector. The PLA has also upgraded its weapons system in the region. It has been reported that at least in one location along the Demchok sector, they have the advanced S-400 air defence missile system that poses a threat to aircraft within a 400 km vicinity,” he remarked. These sectors, he noted, had seen similar tension during the UPA years too, but then Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh was able to diffuse the situation within 21 days. “Today, almost a year and a half later too, the issue is far from resolved.” India lost out military advantage to China because of the Prime Minister’s lie to the nation. “For him national security doesn’t seem to be as important as maintaining his image, which was created on the premise of a lie. Because of this strategy of denying that PLA had taken control of parts of Indian territory, we today face unfavourable settlements across Galwan, Gogra and Hot Spring; we cheaply had to give away our gains at Pangong Tso south.” The government hadn’t even succeeded in putting PLA encroachments at Depsang during the talks, he added. Modi government responsible for current shortage of coal in country: NCP The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday alleged that the Modi government was responsible for the current shortage of coal in the country, which has caused a shortfall of the fuel supply to several power plants. Talking to reporters, the NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said many power plants are not operational due to the shortage of coal. Despite importing the fuel, the shortfall remains. This is also leading to spending the foreign exchange, he said. During the tenure of the erstwhile UPA government, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had come up with a coal policy keeping in mind the electricity requirements of the country in the future, he said. But the BJP, then in the Opposition, alleged a coal scam and the policy had to be rolled back, said Malik, a senior Minister in the Maharashtra government. Eventually, coal mines were given to some entities, but mining has not yet started there, he said, adding that despite the availability of coal, it is not being mined, the NCP leader said. “The Modi government is responsible for the shortage of coal,” he said. As per the government data, the number of non-pit head plants with less than four days of dry fuel stock (supercritical stock) increased to 70 this Sunday compared to 64 a week ago on October 3. According to the latest coal-stock data of the 135 plants with over 165 GW of installed generation capacity monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as many as 70 plants are categorised as super-critical stock or having less than four days of fuel on October 10, 2021, compared to 64 a week ago on October 3, 2021. The Central government has asked State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) to augment the coal supply to power producers to 1.55-1.6 million tonnes (MT) per day around the Durga Puja period and to further scale it to 1.7 MT per day after October 20. The Coal Ministry on Sunday assured that sufficient dry fuel is available in the country to meet the demand of electricity generating plants and stressed that any fear of disruption in the power supply is “entirely misplaced”. Officials had attributed the shortage of coal to the disruption of transport due to heavy rains in mining areas. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of reported coronavirus cases from India stood at 3,40,00,351 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,51,220. In Brief India’s industrial production rose 11.9% in August, according to official data released on Tuesday. As per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the manufacturing sector’s output surged 9.7% in August 2021. In August, the mining output climbed 23.6%, and power generation increased 16%. The IIP had contracted 7.1% in August 2020. During April-August this year, the IIP grew 28.6% against a 25% contraction in the same period last year. Industrial production has been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic since March last year when it had contracted 18.7%. Former bureaucrat Amit Khare, who last month retired as higher education secretary, has been appointed as advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for two years on contract basis, a personnel ministry order issued on Tuesday said. Khare, a 1985 batch (retired) IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, had superannuated on September 30. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Khare as advisor to the prime minister in Prime Minister's Office, in the rank and scale of secretary to government of India, on contract basis, initially for a period of two years, it said. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 12 OCTOBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Expert panel recommends Covaxin for 2-18-year-olds Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin (BBV152) has been [recommended for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for 2-18- year-olds]( by the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) of the Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO). Covaxin is the country’s first indigenous, whole-virion, inactivated vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV). If given the green signal, it will emerge as the first COVID-19 vaccine globally to be used for vaccinating children as young as 2 years. In a statement issued on Tuesday, the company said it had submitted data from clinical trials in the 2-18 age group to the CDSCO. The positive recommendations, after due review by the SEC, were submitted to the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI). A senior Central Government official stated that the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech had completed Phase-2 and Phase-3 trials of Covaxin on children below 18 in September and submitted the trial data. The trials were done on the age groups of 2-6, 6-12 and 12 -18. [Children peep inside a tent where people receive a dose of Covaxin, during a vaccination drive organised by an NGO at an under-construction flyover in New Delhi on August 31, 2021. An expert panel on October 12, 2021 recommended emergency use authorisation for Covaxin in the 2 to 18 age group.]  Experts maintained that two doses of Covaxin could be administered to children within a gap of 28 days. For adults, the government has set 4-6 weeks between the two shots. “This represents one of the first approvals worldwide for COVID-19 vaccines for the 2-18 age group,” the Bharat Biotech statement claimed. The company was awaiting further regulatory approvals from the CDSCO prior to product launch and market availability of the vaccine for children. Dr. Shuchin Bajaj, founder and director, Ujala Cygnus Group of Hospitals, highlighted, “India has always been known as a vaccine and a medicine drug producer but never a medicine or a drug developer. This is the first time that a vaccine has been entirely developed and produced in India and its efficacy and safety have been proven to be high so much so that it is now being trialled in children.” The vaccine would lead to protection of children. “Currently, adults have been vaccinated, but children have been left exposed to the virus. This vaccine will bring about a positive change,” he stressed. Dr. Bipin Singh, assistant professor, School of Engineering & Technology, BML Munjal University (BMU), noted that the emergency use approval of the vaccine for children aged 2-18 years was promising. It would have been better if the vaccine was first approved for children within the age bracket of 10-18 years. The recommendations were based on a larger and diverse pool of clinical trails data and long-term evaluations, he pointed out. Dr. (Maj.) Manish Mannan, head of department, Pediatrics and Neonatology, Paras Hospitals, Gurugram, speaking about the availability of the vaccine in the private sector observed that it would be a watch and wait scenario. “The DCGI has to give its final approval and then vaccination has to begin. As doctors working with children, we will be watching the data closely. I would go slow into the vaccination and will see how the data comes in on the phase four of the trial or when actually the vaccine is being given to children in various parts of the country and various centres. We have to see the response. Even though the number of children involved in the clinical trial is a small number, the results have been encouraging. As the vaccination process starts, we will see how it goes and then we will go ahead and consider using this vaccine,” he remarked. The World Health Organisation is expected to take a call on Bharat Biotech’s Emergency Use Listing (EUL) application for Covaxin soon. [underlineimg] Five militants killed in Shopian, two anti-militancy operations continue in J&K [Five militants, including three affiliates of The Resistance Front (TRF) that was behind the recent civilian killings in the Valley, were killed]( and two multi-storey houses were damaged in multiple anti-militancy operations in south Kashmir’s Shopian on Tuesday, taking the death toll in militancy-related incidents to 12, including five soldiers, in the past 24 hours. [Kashmiri people stand near a partially damaged house after a gunfight between militants and security forces at Tulran village of Shopian district south kashmir on October 12, 2021.]  Three militants were killed in Shopian’s Tulran area where an anti-militancy operation was launched on Monday evening. The militants were trapped inside a residential house and refused to surrender “despite repeated offers by the security forces”. “Out of three killed terrorists, one terrorist has been identified as Mukhtar Shah of Ganderbal, who shifted to Shopian after killing one street hawker, Virendra Paswan of Bihar [last week],” Inspector General of Police Vijay Kumar said. Two multi-storey residential houses were damaged after security forces used explosives to flush out the militants. Three cowsheds and apple boxes were also destroyed in the fire. Hours later, two more militants were killed in an encounter at Shopian’s Feripora area. “The identity of the slain militants was being ascertained. The operation is on in the area,” a police spokesman said.  In the Jammu province’s Pir Panjal valley, an anti-militancy operation entered the second day on Tuesday to nab the armed militants who killed five soldiers, including a Junior Commissioned Officer, in the Poonch-Rajouri belt. A total of 12 persons, including seven militants and five soldiers, were killed in five separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir since Monday. Jammu and Kashmir saw a spurt in anti-militancy operations days after militants killed seven civilians in multiple targeted attacks in the Valley. [underlineimg] Lakhimpur Kheri violence case: Police arrests one more person Police in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 12 [arrested one more person]( in connection with the Lakhimpuri Kheri violence case and produced him in a court, which sent him to 14-day judicial custody. Senior Prosecution Officer S.P. Yadav said they have sought 14-day police custody of Shekhar Bharti and the hearing in this regard will take place on October 13. He was sent to 14-day judicial custody, the officer said. With Bharti’s arrest, police so far have arrested four people. Earlier, they had arrested Union Minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra, Luvkush and Ashish Pandey in connection with the violence, in which eight people, including four farmers, were killed. S.P. Yadav said two people — Ankit Das and Latif — moved applications for surrender at the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) court. Meanwhile, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined a large gathering of farmers from various States in Tikonia village in Lakhimpur Kheri on October 12 as part of last prayers in honour of the four farmers and a journalist, who were killed in the recent violence. Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) and BKU leaders, including Rakesh Tikait, Darshan Singh Pal, Joginder Singh Ugrahan, and Dharmendra Malik, besides local farm union leaders, also arrived in the village to pay tributes during the ‘antim ardas’ to the deceased, who were mowed down by speeding vehicles on October 3 during a protest. [underlineimg] PM Modi warns against ‘selective’ interpretation of human rights’ issues Prime Minister [Narendra Modi on Tuesday noted]( that the biggest infringement of human rights occurred when seen through a political prism, and warned against a “selective” interpretation of rights’ issues. Addressing the 28th foundation day of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) virtually, he “cautioned against the selective interpretation of human rights and using human rights to diminish the image of the country,” according to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Modi stated that some people were interpreting human rights from their own perspective as per “their selfish interests”. Human rights were being damaged due to the tendency of some to see violation of rights in some situations and not in other, similar, situations. “This selective behaviour is equally damaging for democracy too.” Duties were as important as rights and that these two should not be discussed separately. The government had worked to ensure the dignity of the poor as that was linked closely to the concept of human rights, he pointed out. [underlineimg] Modi too scared to call China out: Congress Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared to call out China as an “aggressor,” [the Congress alleged]( on Tuesday as the 13th round of senior military commander talks between India and China ended in a stalemate on Sunday last. It also questioned Modi’s ‘continued’ silence in spite of fresh incursions by Chinese forces in Barahoti, Uttarakhand and upper reaches of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. At a press conference at the party headquarters, its spokesperson Pawan Khera stated that the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement released on Monday raised some elementary questions. The Ministry had maintained that the situation along the Line of Actual Control ( LAC) had been caused by “unilateral attempts of the Chinese side to alter the status quo and in violation of bilateral agreements”. Khera asked, “Why did PM Modi lie to the country when he said that no one transgressed in the Indian territory.” Pointing to the August 30 incident, when reportedly 100 Chinese army personnel entered five km into Indian sovereign territory near Barahoti crossing in the Tun Jun La pass in Uttarakhand and stayed on for nearly three hours, he observed that it was a clear failure by the government and its agencies in guarding India’s security and sovereignty. Chinese incursions over the past couple of years had happened in almost all sectors – from Ladakh to Uttarakhand to Sikkim to Arunachal Pradesh and the Chinese have been consolidating their infrastructure along the LAC. “The implications of the Chinese incursions are extremely critical, especially when the PLA isn’t even open to discussing de-escalation in two extremely strategic and critical sectors for India, Depsang and Daulat Beg Oldi sectors.” After the 12th round of Military talks in August, it was mutually agreed that there would be a mutual troop pullback from the Gogra area. “But instead what happened? There has been a massive troop consolidation by China along the Daulat Beg Oldi Sector. The PLA has also upgraded its weapons system in the region. It has been reported that at least in one location along the Demchok sector, they have the advanced S-400 air defence missile system that poses a threat to aircraft within a 400 km vicinity,” he remarked. These sectors, he noted, had seen similar tension during the UPA years too, but then Prime Minister Mr Manmohan Singh was able to diffuse the situation within 21 days. “Today, almost a year and a half later too, the issue is far from resolved.” India lost out military advantage to China because of the Prime Minister’s lie to the nation. “For him national security doesn’t seem to be as important as maintaining his image, which was created on the premise of a lie. Because of this strategy of denying that PLA had taken control of parts of Indian territory, we today face unfavourable settlements across Galwan, Gogra and Hot Spring; we cheaply had to give away our gains at Pangong Tso south.” The government hadn’t even succeeded in putting PLA encroachments at Depsang during the talks, he added. [underlineimg] Modi government responsible for current shortage of coal in country: NCP The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday [alleged that the Modi government was responsible for the current shortage of coal]( in the country, which has caused a shortfall of the fuel supply to several power plants. Talking to reporters, the NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik said many power plants are not operational due to the shortage of coal. Despite importing the fuel, the shortfall remains. This is also leading to spending the foreign exchange, he said. During the tenure of the erstwhile UPA government, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had come up with a coal policy keeping in mind the electricity requirements of the country in the future, he said. But the BJP, then in the Opposition, alleged a coal scam and the policy had to be rolled back, said Malik, a senior Minister in the Maharashtra government. Eventually, coal mines were given to some entities, but mining has not yet started there, he said, adding that despite the availability of coal, it is not being mined, the NCP leader said. “The Modi government is responsible for the shortage of coal,” he said. As per the government data, the number of non-pit head plants with less than four days of dry fuel stock (supercritical stock) increased to 70 this Sunday compared to 64 a week ago on October 3. According to the latest coal-stock data of the 135 plants with over 165 GW of installed generation capacity monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), as many as 70 plants are categorised as super-critical stock or having less than four days of fuel on October 10, 2021, compared to 64 a week ago on October 3, 2021. The Central government has asked State-owned Coal India Limited (CIL) to augment the coal supply to power producers to 1.55-1.6 million tonnes (MT) per day around the Durga Puja period and to further scale it to 1.7 MT per day after October 20. The Coal Ministry on Sunday assured that sufficient dry fuel is available in the country to meet the demand of electricity generating plants and stressed that any fear of disruption in the power supply is “entirely misplaced”. Officials had attributed the shortage of coal to the disruption of transport due to heavy rains in mining areas. [underlineimg] Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The [number of reported coronavirus cases from India]( stood at 3,40,00,351 at the time of publishing this newsletter, with the death toll at 4,51,220.  [underlineimg] In Brief India’s industrial production rose 11.9% in August, according to official data released on Tuesday. As per [the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data]( by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the manufacturing sector’s output surged 9.7% in August 2021. In August, the mining output climbed 23.6%, and power generation increased 16%. The IIP had contracted 7.1% in August 2020. During April-August this year, the IIP grew 28.6% against a 25% contraction in the same period last year. Industrial production has been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic since March last year when it had contracted 18.7%. Former bureaucrat Amit Khare, who last month retired as higher education secretary, has been [appointed as advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi]( for two years on contract basis, a personnel ministry order issued on Tuesday said. Khare, a 1985 batch (retired) IAS officer of Jharkhand cadre, had superannuated on September 30. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Khare as advisor to the prime minister in Prime Minister's Office, in the rank and scale of secretary to government of India, on contract basis, initially for a period of two years, it said. [underlineimg]  Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.  Today's Top Picks [[The current situation in Kashmir | In Focus podcast] The current situation in Kashmir | In Focus podcast]( [[Why this Wayanad farmer came out with a ‘paddy art’ depicting Buddha] Why this Wayanad farmer came out with a ‘paddy art’ depicting Buddha]( [[The unforgettable Nedumudi Venu] The unforgettable Nedumudi Venu]( [[Superman comes out as bisexual in DC’s latest comic] Superman comes out as bisexual in DC’s latest comic]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](