From The Newsroom: Sputnik V gets nod to conduct trials in India; Jacinda Ardern wins New Zealand's general election

In your evening news brief, From The Newsroom, Russian Covid-19 vaccine gets renewed approval to conduct late-stage clinical trials in India; Jacinda Ardern wins landslide victory in New Zealand's general election; Rahul Gandhi slams Modi government over Global Hunger Index 2020 report and B S Yediyurappa says Karnataka government was effectively responding to the havoc caused by heavy rains and floods

Here are the top stories of October 17, 2020:

The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd have received renewed approval to conduct late-stage clinical trials in India of the Russian Covid-19 vaccine, the sovereign wealth fund said on Saturday.

Large-scale trials of the Sputnik V vaccine in India were first announced and then knocked back by Indian regulators, who said that the scale of Phase I and II trials conducted in Russia earlier this year was too small, requesting that they be repeated.

Following a new agreement, India will now carry out an adaptive phase II and III human clinical trial involving 1,500 participants, RDIF, which is marketing the vaccine abroad, said on Saturday.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday attacked the Narendra Modi government, saying it is busy "filling the pockets of its special friends" and that is why the country's poor are hungry.

He was reacting to the Global Hunger Index 2020 report which has ranked India 94 among 107 countries.

According to the report, only 13 countries are behind India, which include Rwanda (97), Nigeria (98), Afghanistan (99), Libya (102), Mozambique (103), Chad (107).

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a landslide victory in New Zealand's general election Saturday, leveraging success battling Covid-19 to gain an unprecedented outright majority and the chance to implement her reform agenda.

With two-thirds of the vote counted, Ardern's center-left Labour Party was on 49.2 per cent and forecast to take around 64 seats in the 120-member parliament.

No leader has achieved an absolute majority since New Zealand adopted a proportional voting system in 1996, leading to a succession of multi-party governments.

MLC Basavaraj Horatti on Saturday urged the Karnataka government to not open classes for students up to Class 7 during this academic year to ensure the safety of students in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and declare 2020-2021 zero academic year.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Horatti said classes must be conducted batch-wise for students from Class 8th to 10. Besides, students of pre-university and first-grade colleges are not kids and their immunity power would be high. So, colleges could be opened, he suggested.

The Karnataka government was effectively responding to the havoc caused by heavy rains and floods successively battering the state, with relief and rescue work on in affected areas and was confident of the revival of the economy, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa said here on Saturday.

Speaking at the inaugural of the 10-day-long Dasara festivities in the palace city of Mysuru, Yediyurappa said he has reviewed the situation with Deputy Commissioners of flood-hit districts and Revenue Minister R Ashoka was personally touring the region.