Hyderabad-headquartered Gland Pharma on Tuesday said it had inked a pact with Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) to supply 252 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine Sputnik V.

This is part of the Russian sovereign wealth fund’s efforts to increase manufacturing capacities in India to make for the country and to augment global supplies.

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday wrote to West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee over her suggestion to meet political parties. Reminding her of the multiple meetings that the commission has with the representatives of All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC), the EC said that her repeated innuendos were only intended to belittle the commission.

Delhi is the most polluted capital city in the world, according to a report released on Tuesday.

As per the 'World Air Quality Report, 2020', prepared by Swiss organisation IQAir, Bangladesh, China, India, and Pakistan have 49 of the 50 of the most polluted cities worldwide.

An intruder from Pakistan was shot dead by the Border Security Force on the international border in the Ramgarh area of Jammu`s Samba district.

According to top sources in BSF quoted by news agency ANI, the incident took place on Tuesday at about 3:55 pm and the intruder was found moving aggressively towards wild growth (sarkanda) while approaching the border fence from the direction of Pakistan`s village Lehri Kalan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with all chief ministers today. This meeting is crucial as it will be held amid rising COVID-19 cases across the country. The virtual interaction will reportedly take place at 12.30 pm today.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called a meeting of all chief ministers to discuss the sudden rise in coronavirus cases in several states. PM Modi's last interaction with chief ministers was in January before the vaccination roll-out.

India recorded 24,492 new COVID-19 cases, registering more than 20,000 cases for the sixth day in a row, taking the infection tally past 1.14 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

The total cases in the country rose to1,14,09,831, while the death toll increased to 1,58,856, with 131 fresh fatalities, the ministry data updated at 8 am showed.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies, on Tuesday, were in focus at the bourses, with six stocks, Infosys, Mindtree, L&T Technology Services (LTTS), Sonata Software, Coforge and Intellect Design Arena from the S&P BSE IT index hitting their respective record highs in intra-day trade on expectation of strong earnings.

At 10:04 am, the S&P BSE IT index, the top gainer among sectoral indices, was up 1.5 per cent, as compared to 0.35 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex.

Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday asserted that Indian Railways will never be privatised but said private investment should be encouraged for more efficient functioning.

Replying to a discussion on Demands for Grants for Railways, Goyal said there has been no death of any passenger due to a rail accident in two years and the railways has been putting enormous focus on passenger safety.

Infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro (L&T) on Tuesday said it has received multiple orders across its business segments in the domestic market.

The company did not provide the value of the contracts but said the orders fall under the significant category, which ranges between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 2,500 crore according to the classification of contracts.

As many as 71.01 lakh employees' provident fund (EPF) accounts were closed during April-December 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic, the government informed on Monday.

The number was 66.66 lakh in the same period last year, Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

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