Category:

Disaster & Management

China-backed AIIB approves $750 million loan to India for COVID-19 response

Cofinanced with the Asian Development Bank, the budgetary support will go toward bolstering economic aid for businesses, including for the informal sector, expanding social safety nets for the needy, and strengthening the country’s health care systems. 

“Many of the world’s low and middle-income countries are still in the early stages of the health crisis but are already feeling the impacts of the pandemic. This poses an enormous risk for millions across India who have only recently emerged from poverty,” said AIIB Vice President, Investment Operations, D.J. Pandian.

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India and 12 other nations lead UN initiative to Counter COVID-19 misinformation

The 13 nations co-authored the cross-regional statement, which said that in times of the COVID-19 health crisis, the spread of the infodemic’ can be as dangerous to human health and security as the pandemic itself. Among other negative consequences, COVID-19 has created conditions that enable the spread of disinformation, fake news and doctored videos to foment violence and divide communities.

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New India provides Rs 50 lakh Covid-19 covers to 22.12 lakh healthcare workers,settles 6 claims

However, the insurance cover despite being a well-publicised scheme, awareness of the same appearsto be little amongst some of State Nodal Agencies as a substantial number of some 75 claims, lodged till date are outside the purview of the policy on account of either the deceased not being a health worker or the deceased having died of other than corona related ailments, said Atul Sahay CMD, NIA..

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Disaster Financing:Nagaland,Swiss Re&Tata AIG strike India’s first-ever parametric deal,to kick in against excess rainfall

In addition to protecting the State treasury’s balance sheet, the transaction will enable Nagaland to build fiscal resilience against natural disasters.The parametric structure is designed to cover the entire state of Nagaland through six distinct zones, with a stepped payout feature to ensure funds are allocated where losses occur and in proportion to the amount of recorded rainfall, to mirror its impact. It based on a geospatially gridded dataset whose precipitation levels are derived from satellite observations .

G Satish Raju, Swiss Re said, “This is Swiss Re’s first disaster risk financing arrangement in India. Nagaland is a first mover and this transaction marks a positive step towards strengthening India’s resilience to natural disasters. With tropical cyclones Amphan and NIsarga hitting the eastern and Western coats of India in early 2020, the transaction serves as a timely model for other states looking to similar innovative re/insurance solutions that help protect their significant natural catastrophe exposures.” 

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Beijing imposes curbs as coronavirus returns to Chinese capital

China has completed genome sequencing for the coronavirus found in the samples collected in the latest outbreak and arrived at a preliminary conclusion, state media reported on Monday, citing Gao Fu, director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Gao did not elaborate, however.

Efforts to trace the origins of the virus are still underway, Gao added.

An epidemiologist with the Beijing government said on Sunday a DNA sequencing of the virus showed the Xinfadi outbreak could have come from Europe.

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Criticism mounts as New Delhi hospital beds run out amid COVID-19 surge

Less than a month ago, Kejriwal said the city’s hospitals were well equipped to fight the virus as the lockdown had given authorities enough time to prepare. “Delhi will win, corona will lose,” he said.While Delhi had around 10,000 novel coronavirus cases at that time, the number had jumped to 41,000 on Monday. India’s total numbers stood at 332,424, with Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai fueling the rise in infections.

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