PERSPECTIVE

🦠 On Jan 6, India reported more than 1,00,000 new cases of Covid-19, just a week after the country crossed the 10,000-mark.

REINFORCEMENT

👉 WHAT: The Supreme Court has cleared the way for admissions of doctors in teaching hospitals to resume after a four-month pause.

🏥 WHAT NEXT: Close to half a lakh new doctors, who passed the last NEET-PG exam, will work as juniors in hospitals after counselling, at a time when India is fighting a huge surge in Covid-19 cases. With this, the demands of the on-and-off-again strike of resident doctors in Delhi will also be met.

👂 CONTEXT: The SC has been hearing a petition questioning Medical Counseling Committee's (MCC) provisions for reservations in NEET-PG admissions.

📣 THE VERDICT: Today, the court upheld the MCC's 27% quota for OBCs and 10% for the economically weaker sections (EWS) for 2021-22. It also stuck to the Rs 8 lakh income cut-off for identifying those eligible for the EWS quota for the current admission cycle.

...?

👉 WHAT: The Goa cabinet has decided to give "lifetime cabinet status" to former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane.

😕 IMP: There are no norms or precedence for a person being made a permanent member of a state cabinet.

😶 WHAT DOES IT MEAN: The taxpayer will pay for Mr Rane's salaries, staff and perks equal to a cabinet minister as long as he lives. (Even if he is not an MLA or minister.)

👉 WHO: Mr Rane, 83, is a veteran Congressman. He has been in politics for half a century and has been elected MLA 11 times. Currently, he is a Congress MLA in the state cabinet.

👉 (UN)RELATED: His son, Vishwajit Rane, is the health minister in the current BJP-run Goa government.

TIPPING POINT

🇰🇿 WHAT: Kazakshtan is under a two-week state of emergency as violent protests over fuel prices, which began on Jan 2, show no sigs of abating.

⛽️ CONTEXT: Gasoline is already pretty expensive in Kazakhstan. So, many people choose to run their cars on LPG because it had a price ceiling. Recently, the government removed the cap. Result: thousands out in the streets with a longer list of grievances against the government.

❗️IT'S BAD: Protests are rare in Kazakhstan, and violent ones like these—ever rarer (because of an authoritarian government). Earlier today, the country's president said order had been restored—around the same BBC reported that fresh gunfire was heard in Almaty square.

🔥 Earlier this week, protestors set the the presidential residence and the mayor’s office on fire.

👉 Internet is down. More than 3,000 people have been arrested.

🇷🇺 Russian-led forces have arrived in the country at the president's request. He has given Kazakh forces the authorisation to shoot without warning.

A PSA

Or if you prefer memes, click here to ready five reasons why you should stop downplaying the Omicron variant because "it's mild"! 🙄