Coronavirus pandemic | Cabinet clears relief from insolvency for six months

It was cleared on April 22 and has been moved as a one-time measure

Moneycontrol News

April 23, 2020 / 12:51 IST

The Union Cabinet has cleared a proposal from the Corporate Affairs Ministry to give companies relief from insolvency for the next six months via amendment to Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), 2016, sources told CNBC-TV18.

This was cleared on April 22 and has been moved as a one-time measure.

“Amendment has been proposed to give a six month window. Lenders or creditors during these six months, under the current impact due to COVID-19, cannot drag a fresh case of default for bankruptcy. The move will be announced formally later with the comprehensive economic package,” the source told the channel.

The government is awaiting presidential nod to allow the new clause – Section 10A, which will suspend Sections 7, 9 and 10 for six months or until further orders. The clause shall not be extending over a year, the source added.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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