News in Short

• Aurobindo Pharma and Novartis have called off their nearly $1 billion deal pertaining to U.S. generic oral solids and dermatology businesses of Sandoz.
• This decision was taken as approval from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for the transaction was not obtained within anticipated timelines.
• Novartis had agreed to sell selected portions of its Sandoz U.S. portfolio, specifically the Sandoz U.S. dermatology business and generic U.S. oral solids portfolio, to Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc., for $900 million in cash plus $100 million of potential earn-outs.

• The National Commission for Women (NCW) has raised concerns about the increase in the number of cases of domestic violence and abuse during the lockdown period in the country in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
• According to the NCW data, during the lockdown period, there have been 69 cases of domestic violence, 77 cases under right to live with dignity, 15 cases of harassment of married women in the home, two dowry deaths, 13 cases of rape/attempt to rape.
• The states with the highest number of complaints include Uttar Pradesh with 90, Delhi with 37, Bihar with 18, Madhya Pradesh with 11 and Maharashtra with 18. In the pre-lockdown period, Uttar Pradesh had 36 cases in the same number of days, Delhi had 16, Bihar had 8, Madhya Pradesh had 4 and Maharashtra five.

• The World Bank has approved $1 billion fund to help India prevent, detect, and respond to the covid-19 outbreak and strengthen its public health preparedness. This is the largest ever health sector support from the multilateral lending institution to India.
• The fund will be managed by the National Health Mission (NHM), National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and will cover all states and union territories (UTs).
• The fund will be utilised for procurement of testing kits, setting up of new isolation wards--including turning hospital beds into intensive care unit beds--infection prevention and control, and purchase of personal protective equipment, ventilators, and medicines, particularly for district hospitals and designated infectious disease hospitals.

• The Union government has issued a notification defining “domiciles” in the new Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir for protecting jobs in the Group D category and entry-level non-gazetted posts for the domiciles.
• The reservation for domiciles would not apply to Group A and Group B posts, and like other UTs, recruitment would be done by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
• The order defines a domicile as year who has resided for a period of 15 years in the UT of J&K or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in Class 10th /12th examination in an educational institution located in the UT of J&K or who is registered as a migrant by the Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner (Migrants).

• Tony Lewis, one of the men behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method used in weather-affected limited-overs matches, has died aged 78.
• Tony, alongside fellow mathematician Frank Duckworth, devised the Duckworth-Lewis method which was introduced in 1997 and adopted officially by the ICC (International Cricket Council) in 1999.
• Renamed the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern Method in 2014, the mathematical formula continues to be used in rain reduced limited overs cricket games across the globe.