·       The European Medicines Agency said it has received a request from Merck to authorize its coronavirus antiviral, the first pill shown to treat COVID-19.

·       In a statement on November 23, 2021, the EU drug regulator said it had started evaluating molnupiravir, made by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and that a decision could be made within weeks on whether it might be cleared.

·       Last week, the EMA issued emergency advice saying that molnupiravir could be used to treat adults infected with the coronavirus who don’t yet need extra oxygen and are at increased risk of developing severe disease.

·       The agency said the drug should be given as soon as possible after COVID-19 has been diagnosed and within five days of symptoms starting. It is intended to be taken twice a day for five days.

·       A third of Muslims, over 20 per cent Dalits and Adivasis, and 30 per cent of the overall respondents reported being discriminated against on grounds of religion, caste or because of illness or health conditions in hospitals or by healthcare professionals, claims a report.

·       Sharing the results of its rapid survey on the challenges with the COVID-19 vaccination drive in India on Nov 23 , Oxfam India in its report noted that 43 per cent of the respondents stated that they could not get vaccinated because the vaccination centres had run out of vaccines when they visited them and 12 per cent did not get inoculated because they could not afford "the high prices" of the vaccine.

·       Nine per cent of the respondents said they had to lose a day's wages to get themselves vaccinated, according to report 'Securing Rights of Patients in India'.

·       The NGO said the survey was conducted in two parts to cover the rights of patients against "some of the provisions" of the Union ministry for health and family welfare and India's vaccination drive.

·      The survey on the patients' rights charter of the health ministry was carried out between February and April and received 3890 responses, while the survey on India's vaccine drive was conducted between August and September covering 10,955 respondents in 28 states and 5 union territories, it added.

·       Singapore Airlines and its subsidiary Scoot will gradually operate flights from Singapore to 10 Indian cities from November 29 onwards .

·       Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) had on  Nov 21  announced that  the Singapore and India have reached an agreement to resume commercial passenger flights between the two countries from November 29.

·       Air travel to Singapore is currently happening on vaccinated travel lane (VTL) and non-vaccinated travel lane.

·       VTL allows quarantine free travel to Singapore for fully vaccinated travellers.

·       Singapore Airlines in its statement said that it will launch daily direct VTL services from Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai on November 29, subject to regulatory approvals.

·       In addition, Singapore Airlines said it will operate non-VTL direct flights connecting Singapore with Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Kochi from November 30.

·       India will release 5 million barrels of crude oil from its emergency stockpile in tandem with the US, China, Japan, and other major economies to cool international oil prices, the government announced on Nov 23 .

·       This is the first time ever that India, which stores 5.33 million tonne or about 38 million barrels of crude oil in underground caverns at three locations on the east and west coast, is releasing stocks for such purposes.

·       Of this, about 5 million barrels will be released.

·       The US will release 50 million barrels of oil from its strategic petroleum reserves.

·       India's 5 million barrels almost equals to its daily oil consumption of 4.8 million barrels.

·       The stocks will be sold to refineries of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL), which are connected by pipeline to the strategic reserves.

·       The government will introduce a bill to ban private cryptocurrencies and create a framework for a central bank-backed digital money, parliament said in a shock announcement.

·       The proposed bill "seeks to prohibit all private cryptocurrencies in India", the Lok Sabha said, and comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned last week that Bitcoin presents a risk to younger generations and could "spoil our youths" if it ends up "in the wrong hands".

·       It is the latest such move by a major emerging economy, after China declared all cryptocurrency transactions illegal in September.

·       India's central bank announced in June that it is working to introduce its own digital currency by the end of the year, while warning it has "serious concerns" about private cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others.

·       The bill, to come before the new legislative session, will allow for some exceptions to promote cryptocurrency technology, according to parliament's bulletin of upcoming business, but no further details about the proposed legislation were released.

·       The second-largest private sector lender ICICI Bank has improved its market share in Exim trade transactions this fiscal and aims to grow it further as the exports from the country rise .

·       The bank's market share in the Exim trade increased to 7.5 per cent of the overall flows in the September quarter, while it was 6 per cent in FY21, the lender's executive director Vishakha Mulye  said .

·       Mulye said the country's exports are expected to gain faster traction going ahead on the back of demand and the investments happening under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme of the government, which will help the bank grow its share further.

·       She said the country's exports touched USD 370 billion in the first seven months of this fiscal till October, while imports were at USD 410 billion.

·       Investments under the PLI scheme are estimated to touch USD 520 billion in the next five years, she said, adding that many corporates served by the bank are gearing up to invest.

·       The bank also launched 'Trade Emerge', a new platform aimed at the Exim players, which can also be used by entities that are not having an account with the lender.

·       SpiceJet on Nov 23 restarted operations of its Boeing 737 MAX aircraft after a gap of around two-and-a-half years. Boeing as well as SpiceJet had faced a major setback in March 2019 when aviation regulators around the world, including India, started grounding 737 MAX aircraft following its involvement in two fatal crashes that killed 346 people.

·       SpiceJet, the only operator of the 737 MAX in the country, had signed a $22 billion deal with Boeing for up to 205 aircraft in 2017 and has 13 of these planes in its fleet at present. The airline will be deploying these aircraft on both domestic as well as international routes.

·       To build confidence among passengers, SpiceJet celebrated the return to service of the 737 MAX with a special flight from New Delhi to Gwalior on November 23 with Union Minister for Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya M Scindia, CMD SpiceJet Ajay Singh, President, Boeing India Salil Gupte and others on board. 

·       A former CIA officer has spied on top soccer officials for years while working for Qatar, the tiny Arab country hosting next year’s World Cup tournament, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.

·       Qatar sought an edge in securing hosting rights from rivals like the United States and Australia by hiring former CIA officer turned private contractor Kevin Chalker to spy on other bid teams and key soccer officials who picked the winner in 2010, the AP’s investigation found.

·       Chalker also worked for Qatar in the years that followed to keep tabs on Qatar’s critics in the soccer world, according to interviews with Chalker’s former associates as well as contracts, invoices, emails, and a review of business documents.