Morning Current Affairs: 9 December 2021

‘National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (Amendment) Bill, 2021’ to be moved in Rajya Sabha today

The Central Government will move a bill on pharma institutes, research in Rajya Sabha today for consideration and passing. The bill was passed by Lok Sabha on December 6, 2021. The bill on the pharma institutes seeks to give special status to 6 more institutes of pharmaceutical education and research.

Cremation of Chief Defence Staff Bipin Rawat, his wife to be held on December 9 at Delhi Cantt

The cremation of CDS General Bipin Rawat and his wife will be on December 9, 2021, in Delhi Cantonment. Their mortal remains are expected to arrive in New Delhi today. General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other armed forces personnel died after a military helicopter crash in Tamil Nadu on December 8.

To tackle Omicron, WHO calls to speed up vaccination programme

The World Health Organisation has asked countries around the world to speed up their COVID-19 vaccination programmes to tackle the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19. The Director-General of WHO also said that the new variant’s spread suggests that it will have a major impact on the COVID pandemic.

Executive Director of Serum Institute of India Dr Suresh Jadhav passes away

The Executive Director of Serum Institute of India (SII) Dr. Suresh Jadhav passed away at the age of 72 after a long illness. Dr. Jadhav was known to be instrumental in the development of the Covishield vaccine on COVID-19. The Chief Scientist of WHO Dr. Soumya Swaminathan expressed her condolences via Twitter on the demise of Dr Jadhav.

United States passes bill to ban imports from China’s Xinjiang

The United States passed a bill by a vote of 428 to 1 to ban imports from the Xinjiang region of China. The ban on imports has been announced as they are made with forced labour. The bill has come days after the United States announced a diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 over the human rights abuses in Xinjiang, China.

After US, Australia, UK, Canada announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Winter Olympics

Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia have also announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 over concerns about human rights exploitation in China. The announcement from the nations has come days after the US announced the diplomatic ban.