The Health Ministry on Saturday informed that over 17.54 crore unutilized COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with the states and Union Territories (UTs) to be administered.

The health ministry said that 1,88,47,90,495 vaccine doses have been provided to States and UTs so far through free of cost channels and through the direct state procurement category.

With the arrival of four more Sri Lankan Tamils into the state, the Tamil Nadu government is preparing itself for more refugees hitting the shores of the state.

Chief Minister M.K. Stalin has already sent directives to various state government departments to prepare themselves for the arrival of more Sri Lankan Tamils as crisis in the island nation continues.

The Chinese mainland reported 1,334 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 infections on Friday, low compared to Thursday's 1,540 cases, the National Health Commission said on Saturday.

Of the local confirmed cases reported on Friday, 1,015 were in Shanghai, 248 in Jilin, 13 in Zhejiang, and six in Beijing, according to Xinhua News Agency.

The rest of the cases were reported in other 12 provincial-level regions.

The national capital is likely to witness heatwave conditions on Saturday, and the maximum temperature may settle around 42 degrees Celsius, according to the weather department.

The minimum temperature in Delhi this morning was recorded at 19.9 degrees Celsius, normal for this time of the season, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

Hit by semiconductor shortage, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) on Friday said its retail sales declined by 36 per cent to 79,008 units in the fourth quarter of 2021-22 fiscal as compared with same period last year.

The Tata Motors-owned luxury automaker noted that the retail sales for the three-month period continued to be constrained by the global semiconductor shortage.

The global coronavirus caseload has topped 497.2 million, while the deaths have surged to more than 6.17 million and vaccinations to over 11.08 billion, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In its latest update on Saturday morning, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed that the current global caseload and the death toll stood at 497,201,342 and 6,173,644, respectively, while the total number of vaccine doses administered has increased to 11,089,615,113.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday disbursed Rs 1,024 crores to the mothers of 10,68,150 students across the state under its flagship scheme Jagananna Vasathi Deevena which helps the students with boarding and lodging charges for 2021-22.

"By depositing the financial assistance directly into mothers' accounts, they are now demanding accountability. It gives them the right to question the college management. We placed a great deal of responsibility on the mothers to deal with college and the children's future," Reddy said while addressing the students here.

Pharmaceutical major Cadila Pharmaceuticals on Friday announced that it has developed the world's first novel three-dose vaccine against rabies.

The three-dose vaccine, named as 'ThRabis', is a recombinant nano-particle based G protein vaccine which is prepared using Virus-like Particle technology, the company said in a release, adding that the three-dose schedule is spread over only one week.

A TCS-led consortium has bagged a Rs 550 crore order from BSNL for deploying indigenously-designed 4G network, an official source said on Friday.

The TCS consortium will initially deploy 6,000 mobile towers for BSNL 4G services.

"TCS-led consortium has been given order worth Rs 550 crore to deploy 6,000 sites for 4G services," a senior BSNL official told PTI.

Shares of Adani Green Energy hit a new all-time high at Rs 2,350, on rallying 9 per cent on the BSE in Friday’s intra-day trade in an otherwise subdued market ahead of the board meeting today for considering fund raising proposal. The stock of the Adani Group company surpassed its previous high of Rs 2,325 touched in Thursday’s intra-day trade.

At 11:19 am; Adani Green traded 8 per cent higher at Rs 2,333.55, as compared to a 0.11 per cent decline in the S&P BSE Sensex. A combined around 1.2 million equity shares changed hands on the NSE and BSE.

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