Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID-19 shot via 70 clinics on Saturday, marking Russia's first mass vaccination against the disease, the city's coronavirus task force said.

The task force said the Russian-made vaccine would first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the disease.

In what seems to be a direct fall out of remarks by Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will not attend Canada headed Covid foreign ministers grouping meeting.

The meeting takes place next week, and ahead of that, Canada was told that India will not attend the meet.

Almost 100% of COVID-19 patients develop antibodies no matter the course of the disease, WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove said on Friday.

What we understand is 90 to 100% of people who are infected with the virus do develop an antibody response, whether you have mild infection or asymptomatic infection all the way to severe infection, Van Kerkhove, an expert on epidemiology, said at a virtual press briefing.

After the fourth round of talks between the Centre and representatives of 35 farmer groups, remained inconclusive on Thursday, the next round of meeting between both the parties is scheduled for December 5, Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, farmers at Singhu Border called for nationwide protests against the new farmer bills and announced a Bharat Bandh on December 8, after talks failed between the government and farmer representatives.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday took an indirect jibe at Pakistan stating that countries who fail to protect 'their sovereignity' end up like 'our neighbouring nation' who can't build roads or do trade on their own.

Countries who fail to protect their sovereignty become like our neighbouring nation...who can't build their roads on their own, nor walk on them, not even do trade on their own or stop someone from trading.., tweeted the Defence Minister.

Shares of Bharti Airtel rose 4 per cent to Rs 498 on the BSE on Friday as the company was the biggest gainer in terms of users in September with 3.8 million subscriber additions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said. The telecom services provider's stock was trading at its highest level since September 18, 2020.

According to the latest Trai data, Reliance Jio added 1.5 million users while Vodafone Idea continued losing subscribers. Vodafone Idea lost 4.6 million subscribers in the month.

In a business friendly move, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday said that the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, used for large value transactions, will be made available round-the-clock in the next few days.

In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis.

Cement prices in southern India grew by around 18% year on year, which is nearly double the prices in other regions of the country. The cement industry in the southern part of the country has exhibited strong production discipline in the face of weak volumes.

According to Motilal Oswal, prices in South India have been strong and are up 18 per cent YoY (flat QoQ), while prices in North, West and Central India are up 7 per cent, 6 per cent and 5 per cent YoY, respectively, and 3 per cent, 1 per cent and 2 per cent QoQ, respectively.

In what seems like a ray of home amid the grim COVID-19 pandemic situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said that experts believe wait for COVID-19 vaccine will not be long, it may be ready in a few weeks.

PM Modi chaired an all-party meeting with ministerial colleagues and select opposition leaders on Friday to discuss the Coronavirus pandemic situation and the potential availability of a vaccine in the near future and its distribution in India.

The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has sent a legal notice to Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, seeking an unconditional apology for her derogatory tweets against farmers and activists involved in the farmers protest against the Centre's three Farm Laws, the committee's president said on Friday.

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