Left, Right & Centre

Drugmaker Pfizer Inc. has signed a deal with an UN-backed group to allow other manufacturers to make its experimental COVID-19 pill, a move that could make the treatment available to more than half of the world's population. In a statement issued Tuesday, Pfizer said it would grant a license for the antiviral pill to the Geneva-based Medicines Patent Pool, which would let generic drug companies produce the pill for use in 95 countries, making up about 53% of the world's population.

The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) in Gujarat has imposed a ban on the sale of non-vegetarian food items at stalls alongside public roads. On the show tonight, we ask whether the ban on meat sale near schools and religious places is due to intolerance or civic issues?

"What this gives us is something where if you get infected, this is something that can potentially keep you out of hospital. Unlike very expensive monoclonal antibodies, we now have a potential of having two drugs that have proven effectiveness in keeping people out of hospital," said top virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang, Christian Mexican College, Vellore, To NDTV.

"The activity which has caused pollution is stubble burning, yesterday''s report gave a figure of 35-40% pollution in Delhi due to stubble burning. I don't know how can (SG) say that less than 10% is attributable to stubble burning. This kind of statement is actually perjury, due to this, real remedies for stubble burning not being carried out," says senior Supreme Court advocate Vikas Singh who argued for the petitioner in the Delhi pollution case in court today.

It's the season when the air quality over large parts of North India is so unhealthy that the life span of people, according to various studies, is being compromised. Despite repeated alarms and discussions each year, no concrete steps seem to be in place. Today, the Supreme Court said that emergency steps are required immediately. While Delhi has taken some measures for immediate relief, what really is the way forward? Top debate on Left, Right and Centre.

A crucial meeting took place today between members of the standing committee on Finance and key stakeholders in the cryptocurrency industry. Sources told NDTV that the security of investors' money was the main concern. Cryptofinance may be the way forward, but is enough being done to regulate its operations in India?

Delhi's air quality on Sunday improved marginally. To tackle increasing air pollution levels in the national capital, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday announced a "pollution lockdown" under which the schools would remain physically closed for a week from Monday.

Two women journalists were detained in Assam after a case was filed on a complaint by a supporter of the right-wing group Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Sammriddhi Sakunia and Swarna Jha said they were covering the recent violence in Tripura. The journalists have been accused of "promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion" and "being a part of criminal conspiracy".

Manipur-based terrorist groups People's Liberation Army and Manipur Naga People's Front have claimed responsibility for an ambush in which an Assam Rifles Colonel, his wife and eight-year-old son, and four soldiers were killed near the border with Myanmar in Manipur. Does this fresh eruption of violence in the border state signal a new security threat in the north-east? Top discussion on Left, Right and Centre this weekend.

The Centre responds to NDTV's query about the controversy over the construction of a Chinese village inside Indian territory in Arunachal Pradesh. The External Affairs Ministry says India will never accept illegal Chinese construction on our land and that message was loud and clear.

In Chennai, several areas remained water logged for the fifth day. While the red alert has now been lifted, why does the city go through this every time rainfall is more than average, what should be done to prevent such situations in the future?

"We should see this case in the context of the last seven years, social media has been used to generate hysteria. Online bullying has been allowed to flourish with impunity," says actor Swara Bhasker on online hate and trolling after a techie educated at IIT was arrested in connection with allegedly tweeting rape threats to Virat Kohli's daughter.

After much drama, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Rahul Gandhi visit Lakhimpur Kheri to meet the families of those who were killed in the violence on Sunday. There have been no arrests in the case. Senior Congress leader Sachin Pilot, who was detained in Moradabad enroute to Lakhimpur Kheri, spoke to NDTV from police detention.

Huge allegations have been levelled by the NCP in Mumbai that the drug arrests in Mumbai including that of the son of Shah Rukh Khan were part of a conspiracy involving the Narcotics Control Bureau and the BJP. Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik pointed to a video of Manish Bhanushali, a BJP politician, who appeared to be taking in Arbaaz Merchant, one of the accused in the case, into the Narcotics Control Bureau. Another picture, which went viral on social media showed a man who is not in the NCB posing with Aryan Khan. It turns out that man is some sort of a private detective. How were two private individuals allowed to be a part of this investigation in the first place?

Former Supreme Court judge Justice (retired) Madan Lokur, slamming the detention of political leaders in Uttar Pradesh, said "Priyanka Gandhi is being kept illegally". Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said she was "illegally" arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Sitapur on Monday when she was on her way to Lakhimpur where eight people, including four farmers, were killed on Sunday.