India Coronavirus Dispatch: Investors shelve start-up plans this year

Wealthy nations won't waive IPR rules for Covid drugs, Why Covid spikes in some places, study says reinfection unlikely for six months at least-news on how the country is coping with the pandemic

Investors shelve start-up plans  this year

The number of start-ups founded this year more than halved across sectors in a sharp reminder of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on India’s potential entrepreneurs. The sweeping uncertainties of 2020 made would-be entrepreneurs apprehensive about starting their ventures as both demand and funding remained unpredictable, according to analysts and investors.

Only 27 start-ups were founded in agritech this year, compared with 97 in 2019. Similarly, there were only 93 technology start-ups—well below the 332 last year. Likewise, 170 retail start-ups were founded in 2020 compared with 498 in 2019. Read more here

Do we really know why Covid-19 spikes in some places?

There is a wide variation in the spread of Covid-19 between states. Areas with higher population density are expected to have more cases, but varying testing rates could be affecting case detection. While the elderly and those with comorbidities are more likely to progress to severe disease and fatality, analysis of national health data shows that there are exceptions among states. Higher testing is expected to lead to more cases, but some states buck this trend, even as evidence suggests some undercounting. Moreover, increasing use of the rapid antigen test, which is known to return false negatives in up to 50% of cases, further complicates case detection and reported numbers. Read more here
 

Wealthy countries block Covid-19 drugs rights waiver at WTO

Wealthy nations on Friday reiterated their opposition to a proposal to waive intellectual property rules for Covid–19 drugs, three trade sources said, despite pressure to make an exception to improve access to drugs for poorer countries.

Supporters of the waiver say existing intellectual property (IP) rules create barriers on access to affordable medicines and vaccines and they want restrictions to be eased, as they were during the AIDS epidemic. Read more here

ALSO READ: World Coronavirus Dispatch: The stay-at-home economy is here to stay

How long will the Indian economy take to recover from the Covid hit?

No other major economy was as badly affected by Covid-19 as India’s. In the April-June quarter, the Indian gross domestic product shrank by 23.9% – the worst contraction ever in the country’s history. The economy also shrank in the following quarter as India entered its first economic recession since the British left in 1947.

To counter this economic doom and gloom, the Modi government has pushed the idea that the Indian economy will rebound very rapidly. It will be a “V-shaped recovery”, according to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Does this mean that the Covid-19 contraction was only a blip and things will get back to the pre-pandemic path soon? That is unlikely. Read more here

An Expert Explains: Where are we in the Covid-19 vaccine hunt?

The last two weeks have seen a string of encouraging results from coronavirus vaccine trials. What do these findings mean, what questions remain, and what does India need for a mass vaccination exercise? One of India’s leading medical scientists, Dr Gagandeep Kang addresses these questions here. Read on..

Covid-19 reinfection unlikely for at least six months
 

People who’ve had Covid–19 are highly unlikely to contract it again for at least six months after their first infection, according to a British study of healthcare workers on the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

The findings should offer some reassurance for the more than 51 million people worldwide who have been infected with the pandemic disease, researchers at the University of Oxford said. Read more here