New Delhi, India’s health diplomacy is yielding unexpected results with the United States now joining the United Nations in lauding New Delhi’s vaccine heft. On Friday, the newly-appointed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a conversation with External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, nailed Covid-19 vaccinations as a key dimension of ties during the Joe Biden presidency.

“Warm conversation with Secretary of State @SecBlinken. Congratulated him on his appointment. Look forward to working with him again. Agreed that we could build further on the solid foundation of our partnership. Also discussed our efforts at combating the Covid-19 pandemic,” tweeted Jaishankar.

The dialogue between the two top diplomats follows an unexpected praise about India’s global role in vaccinations by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

“I would like to say how much we count on India. I mean, India has one of the most advanced pharmaceutical industries. India

Global IT major Infosys co-founder and Chairman Nandan Nilekani on Friday said healthcare would one of the big sectors that would benefit from digital transformation.

“Besides healthcare, education, retail and logistics are other big sectors that will benefit from digital technology,” he said in the first annual lecture organised by the Public Affairs Forum of India (PAFI), through virtual platform.

Admitting that solving complexities of the country required diverse skills and experiences, Nilekani called for local strategy and partnerships on priority.

“To bring policy changes, stakeholders should have facts to demonstrate through data a positive network effect on society,” he said.

Referring to the lecture’s theme on “playing a role in policy, my experiences”, Nilekani said policy was all about how to make the country better, create more jobs and better future for the young.

“Policy is something which has positive externalities,” he pointed out.

On Aadhaar or the 12-digit

How many variants of the coronavirus are there?

There are many circulating around the world, but health experts are primarily concerned with the emergence of three.

As a virus infects people, it can mutate as it makes copies of itself. Some mutations can be harmful to a virus, causing it to die out. Others can offer an advantage and help it spread.

“Not every mutation is created equal,” said Mary Petrone, who studies infectious diseases at Yale University. “The virus is going to get lucky now and again.”

Monitoring variants is important because of the possibility that they could make vaccines and treatments less effective, or change the way they infect people.

A mutation early in the pandemic fuelled the spread of the virus around the world, but there had been no notable changes since – until recently, said Ohio State University biologist Daniel Jones.

One of the three

By Zachary Fagenson

Jan 28 (Thomson Foundation) – The World Health Organization (WHO) will on Thursday launch a plan to combat 20 diseases that affect the world’s poorest people, seeking to prevent recent progress being erased by the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare systems.

Many of the 20 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which range from leprosy to rabies, have been eradicated in the developed world, but together they affect more than 1.7 billion people in poorer countries.

Governments officially endorsed the 10-year road map for tackling NTDs in November, committing to sustain efforts that have seen at least one such disease eradicated in 42 countries over the last decade.

But the plan comes as efforts to alleviate diseases such as leprosy, elephantiasis, intestinal worms and rabies are being hampered by a worldwide pandemic pushing already strained healthcare systems to their breaking point.

“The one thing they