dailyO
Variety

DailyOh! PM offers CoWin to the world, to what Jeff Bezos plans to do now

Advertisement
Rajeshwari Ganesan
Rajeshwari GanesanJul 05, 2021 | 18:51

DailyOh! PM offers CoWin to the world, to what Jeff Bezos plans to do now

Addressing the CoWin Global Conclave today, PM Modi announced that CoWin platform is being made an open-source that will be available to any and all countries.

India will now provide CoWin — the vaccine registration platform — as a digital public good to other nations to conduct their own Covid vaccination drives.

Advertisement

This comes from Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he addressed the CoWin Global Conclave this afternoon.

“Technology is integral to our fight against Covid-19. Luckily, the software is one area in which there are no resource constraints. That is why we made our Covid tracing and tracking app open source as soon as it was technically feasible,” he said.

main_pm_global-cowin_070521052339.jpg
Prime Minister Modi offered CoWin platform as a digital public good to the world at the CoWin Global Conclave today.

Meanwhile, India today reported 39,796 new Covid-19 cases with 723 fatalities in the last 24 hours — the lowest daily death toll in three months. However, it is not yet time to throw caution to the winds, as the SBI Research report has predicted the third wave to hit India next month, in August 2021.

But Covid or no Covid, nothing seems to deter the farmers, agitating for many months now, protesting the three farm laws. Farmers’ union body, the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), has announced that farmers will protest outside Parliament every day during the monsoon session, against the farm laws. The monsoon session of the Parliament will be held from July 19 to August 13.

Advertisement

main_farmers-protest_070521052402.jpg
File photo of farmers' protest at Delhi borders. (PTI)

While the monsoon session seems to be in sight, the only respite from the blazing Indian summer will only come in the form of monsoon showers. The mercury has been soaring, but the IMD has good news. The Southwest Monsoon is expected to revive in the next few days.

With all the talk around monsoon, the question is what is monsoon? Our Word Of The Day is defined by the dictionary as “a seasonal prevailing wind in the region of South and Southeast Asia, blowing from the south-west between May and September and bringing rain (the wet monsoon ), or from the north-east between October and April (the dry monsoon).” The word comes from the Portuguese word monção, that itself traces its roots to the Arabic word mawsim, that translates to "season".

main_monsoon_reuters_070521052431.jpg
Monsoon is eagerly awaited as the blazing summer scorches the country. (Photo: Reuters)

Tribal rights activist Stan Swamy passed away today. The 84-year-old Jesuit priest was accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoists links case, which, the police claim, triggered violence near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial in Maharashtra on January 1, 2018.

Advertisement

There is no permanent friend or foe in politics, they say. Neither is there a permanent loyalty to a party for some politicians. Take for instance the defector MLAs in Karnataka, who left the Congress in 2019, in search of greener pastures (read: BJP). Of the 17 MLAs who defected, 14 were Congress legislators. Most of them are currently ministers in CM Yediyurappa’s Cabinet.

Now, there has been a war of words between Congress leaders in the state over closing the doors on the defectors. According to former CM Siddaramaiah, those who “left the Congress for the BJP would not be taken back even if a flood occurs or the earth collapses.”

main_siddaramaiah_sh_070521052543.jpg
War of words between KPCC chief DK Shivakumar and former Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah over closing the doors on Congress defectors. (Photo: PTI)

While the Karnataka leaders decide whether or not the ‘Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram’ should be allowed to re-join, the party seriously has to examine the reasons for defection. It is not just about Karnataka. According to a report by the National Election Watch and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on MPs and MLAs who changed parties and re-contested polls held in the last five years, Congress had the greatest number of MLAs who defected to join another party.

Between 2016 and 2020, out of 405 re-contesting MLAs across the states who switched political parties, 170 MLAs (or 42 per cent) were from Congress. What puts this in perspective is the number of MLAs who defected from the BJP. Standing at a distant second, 18 MLAs defecting (4.4 per cent of 405) defected from the saffron party in the same duration.

From Karnataka, now to Amazon. And we don’t mean the rainforests here, but one of the most diversified companies on the planet. Jeff Bezos will be stepping down from his role as the CEO of Amazon, a role that he was in for the past 27 years, making way for Andy Jassy to take over the position.

main_jeff-bezos_070521052602.jpg
Jeff Bezos's first vacation post-retirement will be a trip to space. (Photo: Blue Origin)

Now, Bezos is not likely to miss the everyday office grind, as his first travel post-retirement would be a trip to space with his brother Mark. Scheduled for July 20, Bezos will be on the first flight aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard space capsule, likely becoming the first billionaire to travel to space.

And once he is back, he plans to focus on his other initiatives like the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin and his other passions.

While you may not be able to take a vacation like Bezos to space, we suggest you don’t take a vacation out of your house for a while, like these covidiots who thronged Manali, Shimla, Kufri, Mussoorie and other hill stations in Himachal Pradesh to get respite from the scorching heat in North India.

main_manali_070521052848.jpg
Social media is replete with photos of heavily crowded streets in Manali and netizens lost no time in roasting the tourists.

While taking a vacation and travelling might off the charts for some more time, nothing stops you from taking a break to watch a movie.

Pavan Kirpalani's Bhoot Police will be releasing on Disney+Hotstar, as announced by the makers today. The announcement came with the first-look poster of Saif Ali Khan's character, Vibhooti.

Not into movies or waiting? We suggest you pick up a book. Today we recommend you The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah.

We say bye on that note. See you tomorrow.

Now get the all-new DailyOh in your mailbox. Click here to subscribe.

Last updated: July 05, 2021 | 18:51
IN THIS STORY
Please log in
I agree with DailyO's privacy policy