A top disease control expert in the country has stated that the COVID-19 pandemic is on the verge of turning endemic in India, pointing out that a third wave of infections won’t come alone only because of a new variant.

In an interview to a leading TV news channel, Sujeet Singh, Director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said, This pandemic has defied most of our predictions but in the next six months, we will approach endemic status.

India is considering resuming exports of Covid-19 vaccines soon, mainly to Africa, as it has partly immunised a majority of its adults and supplies have surged, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

India, the world's biggest maker of vaccines overall, stopped vaccine exports in April to focus on inoculating its own population as infections exploded. The government wants to vaccinate all of its 944 million adults by December and has so far given at least one dose to 61% of them.

The Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission for the conducting of the Phase III bridging trials of Sputnik Light on the Indian population. The Sputnik Light is a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine of the Russian vaccine Sputnik.

The nod comes after a recent study published in the medical journal The Lancet said that Sputnik Light showed 78.6 to 83.7 per cent efficacy against Covid-19, significantly higher than most two-shot vaccines.

A total of 736 Afghans were recorded for new registration from August 1 to September 11, the UNHCR said here, adding that it is scaling up its capacity to meet increasing requests for registration and assistance of Afghans in India.

The UN refugee agency said it is in constant dialogue with the government on matters pertaining to Afghan nationals, including issuance and extensions of visa, assistance, and solutions.

Daily new cases of coronavirus in India continued to remained below 30,000 with the country recording 27,176 fresh COVID-19 cases, while 284 new fatalities were recorded, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

With the fresh cases, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 3,33,16,755, while the death toll has climbed to 4,43,497, according to the data updated at 8 am.

Hospitality major OYO has expanded its Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP) pool by 41 per cent with the addition of another 20 crore shares.

The company has added 20 crore shares of the face value of Re 1 to the existing ESOP pool taking it to a total of 63 crore shares, according to a filing with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Leading sportswear giant - adidas unveiled its first flagship store in India. Located in the heart of the national capital - Connaught Place, 'The Home of Possibilities' store is a blend of multiple digital touch points, sustainability zone and embodies the future of retail experience for consumers.

Spread in 5,900 sq ft of retail area across 4 floors, the store's concept is brought to life inspired from the brand's 'OWN THE GAME' strategy that focuses on 3 important aspects which are Experience, Sustainability, and Credibility.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel is set to join an elite group of companies having market captialisation (market-cap) of Rs 4 trillion after the stock price of the company continued its upward movement on back of a slew positive news. The stock hit a fresh record high of Rs 719.60, up 4 per cent on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday.

At 11 am; Bharti Airtel was trading 2.8 per cent higher at Rs 713.50, with a market cap of Rs 3.94 trillion. The market price of the company is mere 1.2 per cent shy of the Rs 4 trillion mark.

Shares of Ami Organics were up 20 per cent at Rs 1,121 on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday after the specialty chemicals company made a strong market debut on Tuesday. With today’s rally, the stock has now gained a solid 84 per cent against in just two trading sessions from its issue price of Rs 610 per share.

Ami Organics is focused towards manufacturing of advanced pharma intermediates (PI) for regulated/generic APIs and New Chemical Entities (NCE) and key starting material for agrochemical and fine chemicals.

Shares of state-owned oil exploration & production companies Oil Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Oil India rallied 5 per cent each on the bourses on higher crude oil prices.

ONGC was up 5 per cent at Rs 130 in the intra-day trade, surpassing its previous high of Rs 128.45 touched on 15 June, 2021. Oil India, meanwhile, hit a fresh 52-week high at Rs 208.80, and has gained 5 per cent on the BSE. In comparison, the S&P BSE Sensex was up mere 0.20 per cent at 58,364 points at 09:49 am.

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