Category:

Disaster & Management

Corporate revenues drop over 25% during lockdown; normalcy may take over 1 year to return: Survey

Nearly 67 percent of top bosses, business owners and founders surveyed said that company revenues have already declined by more than 25 percent during the lockdown.

Further, all respondents believe that business will return to normal only by 2021, while 22 percent business leaders expect it to take more than a year, from when the lockdown ends.

read more

Cyclone Amphan tears into India,Bangladesh,destroys homes,whips up storm surge

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said at least 10 people had died in the state, and two districts been completely battered by one of the strongest storms to hit the region in several years.

“Area after area has been devastated. Communications are disrupted,” Banerjee said, adding that although 500,000 people had been evacuated, state authorities had not entirely anticipated the ferocity of the storm.

Another 650,000 people have been moved to safety in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal, authorities said, an operation carried out amid surging coronavirus infections.

It was too early to estimate a toll on life or damage to property.

Cyclone Amphan began moving inland with winds gusting up to 185 kph, Mrutyunjay Mohapatra, director general of the India Meteorological Department, told reporters.

read more

Total global Covid-19 cases may reach 50 million,644,000 deaths expected in next 4 weeks:AIR Worldwide

“Underreporting is driven by the fact that as much as 60-80 per cent of people infected with COVID-19 may exhibit no symptoms or only mild symptoms and, most likely, do not get tested. The cases of COVID-19 that are reported, therefore, represent at best only 20-40 per cent of the total population. Therefore, in all likelihood, underreporting is substantively higher. Testing more widely in the general population would lead to more accurate numbers of cases and deaths being reported. The projections from the Verisk COVID-19 Projection Tool account for underreporting,”Doug Fullam, director of life and health modeling, Verisk.

read more

WHO states agree to independent probe of UN agency’s coronavirus response

Countries taking part in the WHO’s annual assembly, being held virtually for the first time, adopted a resolution by consensus urging a joint response to the crisis.

The resolution, tabled by the European Union, called for an “impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation” of the international response to the pandemic, which has so far infected more than 4.8 million people and killed over 318,000.

read more

Global CO2 emissions could fall by up to 7% this year amid pandemic: research

China saw the largest drop in emissions in April, followed by the United States, Europe and India.

In the countries with the strictest lockdown restrictions, emissions from aviation plunged 75% in early April, while emissions from land transport fell by 50% and from power generation by 15%.Emissions from industry declined by around 35%, with a lack of data causing some uncertainty. Emissions from residential buildings, however, increased by 5%, the study said.

read more

Johnson & Johnson to stop selling talc-based baby powder in U.S. and Canada

J&J faces more than 16,000 lawsuits from consumers claiming its talc products, including Johnson’s Baby Powder, caused their cancer. The majority are pending before a U.S. district judge in New Jersey.

The lawsuits allege that the company’s talc products have been contaminated with asbestos, a known carcinogen. J&J said it “remains steadfastly confident in the safety of talc-based Johnson’s Baby Powder,” citing “decades of scientific studies.”In April, a New Jersey judge ruled that thousands of plaintiffs who allege that J&J’s talc products caused cancer can go forward with their claims, but face limits on what expert testimony will be allowed in trials.

read more