Pankajakasthuri announces promising interim

Pankajakasthuri announces promising interim results for ZingiVir–H among COVID-19 patients

Pankajakasthuri Herbals India Private Limited (PKHIL) today announced promising interim clinical trial results for ZingiVir-H among patients suffering from COVID-19. Developed by Dr. J. Hareendran Nair, Founder of Pankajakasthuri Herbal Research Foundation, ZingiVir-H is a herbo-mineral drug made of a blend of seven ingredients. With the announcement, the company hopes to reiterate the tremendous potential of Ayurveda as a cost-effective and scalable solution to critical health conditions such as COVID-19.

Dr. J. Hareendran Nair, Founder and Managing Director, PKHIL, said, “Ayurveda has a long and storied tradition of helping treat a wide range of conditions, from everyday allergies to more complex ones such as autoimmune diseases. During such unprecedented times as now, where our immunity is critical to fighting a disease that has become a global pandemic, we believe that Ayurveda has the power to help develop an effective, cost-efficient and scalable treatment.”

Clinical trials of ZingiVir-H, Pankajakasthuri’s new drug, are underway among 112 patients as an adjunct therapy for the pandemic as well as among 135 additional patients as a stand-alone treatment in a double-blind study. The trials are progressing in 96 of the patients undergoing adjunct therapy. Out of these, the results of 42 patients are being published as an interim report. Among the 42 patients, 22 were treated with ZingiVir-H and 20 were treated with a placebo. It was found that all the 22 patients treated with ZingiVir-H were discharged on the fourth day after real-time Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). The remaining 20 patients in the control group who received placeboes continued to be COVID-19+ve for 5 to 11 days.

“The results so far have been very positive and the trial is continuing,” said Dr. Nair. “We are equipped to provide the tablet as a treatment for COVID-19 across India and will collaborate with government bodies to ensure effective and quick distribution once the drug is approved. After this, we would also like to extend the treatment to regulators around the world for their respective countries. It is especially important to know that the use of the drug as a prophylactic treatment means that ZingiVir-H can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and thereby prevent community transmission.”

ZingiVir-H tablets had obtained the Drugs License of the Government of Kerala and underwent cytotoxicity tests on human cells at the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology and CSIR-NIIST at Thiruvananthapuram. After the animal studies were proved to be harmless, the clinical trial registration was obtained from the Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI). Thereafter, the drug was placed in Randomized Single Blind Placebo Controlled Multi-Center Clinical Trial as per World Health Organization (WHO)'s ICH-GCP standards at various medical colleges with approvals from respective ethical committees.

ZingiVir-H's clinical trial is being conducted similar to the testing protocols in modern medicine. The results will be published after completion of the clinical trials and blood tests, including CRP, ESR, Interleukin, IgG and IgM, have proven the defensive functionality/efficacy of ZingiVir-H.

The interim clinical test results have been evaluated by a 5-member independent peer data monitoring committee (DMC). These included:

·         The Chairman of the committee, Dr. V. Raman Kutty, Eminent Epidemiologist and data science expert, Research Director, Amala Cancer Research Centre, Thrissur. He is also a Former Emeritus Professor of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology and Honorary Chairman, Health Action by People.

·         Dr. K. P. Poulose, Former Professor, Kottayam Medical College & George Washington University, USA and Chief Physician, SUT Hospitals, Thiruvananthapuram;

·         Dr. K. G. Raveendran, Retd. Medical Director, The Arya Vaidya Pharmacy, Coimbatore;

·         Dr. V. S. SUGUNAN, Former Scientist C and Group Leader, Viral Hepatitis Laboratory, Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology, Thiruvananthapuram; and

·         Dr. Asha Kamath, Associate Director, PSPH, Professor & Head, Department of Data Science, Manipal Academy of Higher Education.

Dr. Hareendran Nair also thanked the R&D head of Pankajakasthuri Dr. Shan Sashidharan and the Clinical Trial Coordinator Dr. K. P. Srinivasakumar, Head, Clinical Operations, Institute of Biology and Clinical Research, India, and others associated with it.

After the peer review from the DMC, the test results have been submitted for the approval by the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH).

VELAMMAL STUDENTS CELEBRATED

VELAMMAL STUDENTS CELEBRATED NATIONAL DOCTORS’ DAY WITH A DIFFERENCE

Students of Velammal Main School, Mogappair Campus, celebrated National Doctors’  Day on 1st July, 2020. The students aimed at honouring all the parent doctors who are serving and risking  their lives  in the fight against COVID-19.

Amid the lockdown, several students marked this special day by presenting a bouquet to the parent doctors, as a token of gratitude and honour for their remarkable  selfless service towards the fight  against  this global pandemic.

The School Management appreciates the initiative of the students.

Supporting the Underprivileged in the time of

Supporting the Underprivileged in the time of the Global Pandemic: Indus Action

Rapid response strategy developed to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities

The global pandemic due to the SARS CoV-2 virus has consumed our daily lives, creating a new normal and world order. Undoubtably, the hardest hit world-wide are the under privileged.

To achieve the first Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero poverty, 1 million people will have to lift themselves out of poverty every week across the world. While India had lifted 271 million citizens out of poverty, the fastest rate in the last decade, the Covid-19 public health crisis continues to undo this progress and is likely to push the last half billion citizens back into extreme poverty while keeping 900 million+ Indians below the poverty line.

In response to the epidemic, the Government of India has announced welfare packages, along with an economic stimulus package to absorb the shocks to the informal and small business economy. India's own Marshall Plan is estimated to have a financial incentive of Rs 5 lakh crore to ensure economic resilience of workers and small businesses. Nearly 50% of this spending is unlikely to reach the target homes due to gaps in state capacity. Migrant workers have less access to food and housing security infrastructure, as we have seen recently from migrant protests across the country. To ensure 100% realization of this safety net for the last half billion citizens, last mile delivery speed and efficacy time delivery is the need of the hour.

Indus Action (IA) has developed a rapid response strategy to mitigate the socio-economic vulnerabilities of less fortunate citizens due to the epidemic. The main focus is to ensure that citizens are able to take advantage of emergency social security in terms of cash and in-kind transfers, causing an economic setback to their livelihoods. This is being done by pro-active outbound calling to citizens by over 2000+ motivated volunteers to ensure last mile delivery of food, health and direct benefit transfers over the past two weeks. Over 1,000 daily calls are being made in states including Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Bihar, Gujarat, MP,Maharashtra, UP, Rajasthan and Delhi to a current database of over 4.5 lac disadvantaged families.

Additionally, a national helpline has been set up to address citizen grievances across 19 States.

The solution includes a growing network of 2,000+ citizen champions, creating a national dashboard to reflect progress, daily data analytics reports and fortnightly governance reports.

General Trends:

Need/ Metric	Average*	Highest	Lowest
Lack of Food	32%	Bihar - 87%	TS – 12%
Need for Medicines	13%	Kerala - 37%	GJ – 1%
Unemployment post lock-down	42%	Delhi - 59%	UP – 31%
No access to Welfare Schemes	30%	Bihar - 73%	Chhattisgarh – 8%

* Number of respondents per State varies

1.       Access to ration is limited and food being sold is overpriced

2.       People are not sure if ‘Jan Dhan’ accounts have been credited with money due

3.       Landlords have not eased rent dues

4.       Application for pension by the elderly is a challenge

5.       Distribution of ration is seeing an imbalance with some regions receiving some essentials, while some receiving just rice and salt

6.       Access to fresh vegetables and cooking oil is an issue

7.       Cab drivers working for private players cannot avail benefits applicable to cab/taxi drivers

8.       Severe lack of awareness of Welfare Schemes such as Jan Dhan Yojana, Garib Kalyan Yojana, Kissan Samman Yojana, etc. in which citizens can avail Direct Benefit Transfers

Given the fact that there has been a tremendous influx of leniency from citizens across the country in terms of cash and kindness, volunteers associated with Indus Action's rapid response strategy have worked to connect donors and receivers. Due to control / lock-down in many parts of the country, free and easy movement is not always possible, although necessary police permission is taken and deep logistics arrangements ensure that the nearest donor is connected to the receiver; Be it for food, medicine or other essential supplies.

Indus Action’s mission of moving 1 million+ families irreversibly out of poverty in India by 2030 is supported by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Ernst and Young Foundation, Cisco, Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, Uber India and Obama Foundation, among others. This mission is driven forward by a full-time team of 55 public policy professionals across 19 States.

Bank of Baroda’s Initiatives Offer Reprieve in times

Bank of Baroda’s Initiatives Offer Reprieve in times of COVID-19 Crisis

In the wake of the global pandemic and as the nation is in a lockdown, the onus falls on the various financial and lending institutions to come forward and help people tread these uncharted waters. Financial institutions should continue to play a larger role in creating a cohesive environment in this “New Normal” at a time when partnerships will be steered by new ethics, challenges and responses and in recognition of this responsibility and as a caring institution, Bank of Baroda, which is a very large and leading public sector lender, has made sure that the credit process keeps functioning.

Given the evolving situation and anticipating the customer’s requirement, the Bank has announced series of facilities and initiatives that addresses the needs of every section of society. The Bank’s branches, Business Correspondents and ATMs are working at any given point of time, with constant replenishment of cash to meet requirements for all.

The Bank’s Initiatives

While Bank of Baroda has more than 9,000 branches, it also has 18,000 plus Banking Correspondents (BC) who have extended constant support to customers across the country. The Bank has also announced an extension of financial support to the BCs towards the maintenance of hygiene and safety at BC touch points. A first-time initiative among public sector banks, the effort is meant to ensure protection by the Bank from COVID-19, towards its customers and members of the public and the business correspondents themselves. A financial support of INR 2000 has been given to each active and functional BC agent towards the maintenance of hygiene at their outlets for the purchase of sanitizers, disinfectants, masks, gloves etc. An additional INR 100 per working day is being given to every active BC agents towards transportation.

For the women beneficiaries under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) the Bank has arranged that all account holders receive an amount of INR 500 each for each of the next three months, as an ex gratia payment under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package announced by the government. The money is be credited to the individual bank account holders and an SMS is also sent to the account holders informing them on the date when they should withdraw from the nearby branch or the BC touch points.

The Bank’s Marginal Cost of Funds Based Lending Rate (MCLR) has been reduced by 15 basis points to 8.00% w.e.f. 12th April 2020.  For its retail customers, the Bank has reduced its Baroda Repo Linked Lending Rate (BRLLR) by 75 basis points with effect from March 28, 2020. The BRLLR linked to RBI Repo Rate is revised downwards in line with the reduction on Reserve Bank of India Repo Rate from 5.15% to 4.40% after the central bank slashed it by 75 basis points. The move was aimed encouraging customers to avail the credit lines that have been opened and assure that the Bank is available at all times to meet all the credit requirements most conveniently. The BRLLR for all new floating rate loans for all personal loans and retail loans of all asset classes and floating rate loans to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, is now 7.25%. For existing loans, the interest rate under the external benchmark shall be reset at monthly intervals linked to BRLLR. However, there has been no change in the mark-up /base spread or strategic premium.

In pursuance to the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) COVID 19 regulatory package announcement, the Bank has provided a moratorium of three months on payment of all instalments falling due between March 01, 2020 to May 31, 2020 for all term loans including corporate, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Agriculture, Retail such as Housing, Auto, Education and Personal. Interest shall continue to accrue on the outstanding portion of the term loans during the moratorium period. These measures are to help mitigate debt servicing on account of disruption brought about by COVID 19 and ensure continuity of business. For all the customers whose Standing Instructions for deduction of monthly instalments have been implemented, the Bank has texted the customers in case they want a refund of the instalments of March and April as well as deferment for the instalment till up to May.

Further, the Bank launched the “Baroda Personal Loan COVID 19” for its existing Retail Loan customers (Home Loan, Auto Loan & Loan against property). The objective was to tide over the liquidity mismatch to existing customers. The customer could approach their existing branches to avail this personal loan up to a maximum limit INR 5 lakhs in a hassle-free manner. This being a special personal loan, the Bank has kept a much lower interest rate linked to the Baroda Repo Linked Lending Rate (BRLLR) than its regular personal loan schemes and the customers may avail the benefits under the scheme till 30th September 2020.

Bank of Baroda announced zero charges on digital transactions for retail customers for three months to ensure the safety of its customers and to provide enhanced and uninterrupted banking experience. The ‘Stay Safe. Bank Safe’ along with the ‘Khushiyon Ka Remote Control’ initiative aimed at encouraging customers to bank digitally and equipping them to avail the Bank’s services from a remote location, without visiting the branch.

For MSME and corporate borrowers, the banking giant has rolled out the ‘Baroda COVID Emergency Credit Line (BCECL)’ to provide Emergency Credit Line like Short- Term Loan/Demand Loans. This means that the Bank has decided to make a maximum of 10% of the existing Fund Based Working Capital Limits (FBWC) subject to a maximum of INR 200 crore. This is in addition to existing Adhoc/excess/SLC/Gold Card Limit. The interest rate for corporate borrowers would be one-year MCLR of 8.00% without the standard premium and for MSMEs, the rate of interest would be at BRLLR of 7.25%.

For the agriculture segment, Bank of Baroda floated various schemes to ensure immediate financial assistance to Women Self Help Groups (SHG), to meet their domestic and agriculture needs and an Emergency Credit Line for Farmer Producer Organization (FPO/ FPC) to meet the temporary liquidity mismatch of FPO / FPCs arising out of COVID-19. Under the Additional Assurance to SHGs-COVID19 scheme, the Bank will provide support to existing SHG facilities in the form of Cash Credit/Overdraft/Term Loan/Demand Loan. The minimum loan amount is INR 30000 per SHG and maximum loan amount granted under the scheme is INR 1 lakh per SHG, repayable in 24 months. The repayment for this scheme would be on a monthly / quarterly basis and the moratorium will be for a period six months from the date of disbursement.

Bank of Baroda has also cut deposit interest rates, on Domestic Term Deposits including NRO, NRE & Non-Callable deposits of below INR 2.00 Crore w.e.f. 9" April 2020. A sum of INR 20 crore has been handed to the government on behalf of the Bank’s employees for the PM-CARES Fund for the fight against coronavirus.

Together, we shall overcome

As the world comes together in its battle against a situation unheard, unseen before, banks are required to take on the responsibility of easing the financial ecosystem and enabling credit assistance to those who need it. As the whole finance sector gears up for the ‘New Normal’, Bank of Baroda is committed to providing comprehensive financial aid through various efforts and initiatives to continue in contributing to the Indian economy.

Vivo India salutes all

Vivo India salutes all “Heroes Who Care”

ivo India, the global smartphone brand, today relased a new digital film titled “Heroes Who Care”,saluting doctors andfrontline health workers, who are relentlessly fighting the global pandemic - COVID-19. Executedby Dentsu Impact, the film aims to remind people that while we are locked in the safety of our homes and are practising social distancing, there is a section of society that has undertaken the most daunting of tasks. They are out there, fighting it out every single moment and are making sacrifices above and beyond their call of duty.

They truly are our real heroes andwe should be thankful to them for their courage,determination, selflessness, optimism, and forthcomingness in overcoming this global health crisis.In this emotionally drivendigital film, vivo India showcases the efforts and resilience of healthcare professionals, who are leaving no stone unturned to fight this global pandemic.

Doctors and nurses across India are working round the clock making sacrifices beyond their call of duty. This film is an effort to applaud the community thatistakingon this global crisis.

As a part of vivoIndia’s CSR initiative we have also donated over two lac surgical and N95 masks to support these heroes. And, we plan to donate even more in the coming times.

Sharing his thoughts on the brand film, Nipun Marya, Director Brand Strategy, vivo India, said, “Doctors and frontline medical staff are showingtremendous courage in combating the global pandemic. With this digitalfilm, we at vivo India would like to truly thank these real heroes in white, blue and green capes and salute them for fronting this battle so we can stay safe.”

Anupama Ramaswamy, National Creative Director, Dentsu Impact said, “The idea revolves around a simple truth - when the world is in danger, it looks to its heroes to save it. Heroes may exist in myths, but today, in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic, they exist in real life. They are the doctors, nurses and medical staff sacrificing everything and thinking above their safety in order to save lives. This film is an ode to their fighting spirit, and the fact that they are the ones who are giving the rest of us hope.”

Link to Digital Film