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Eco/Invest/Demography

AIIB launches Sustainable Development Bond framework

Under the framework, annual reporting on the Bank’s overall portfolio level and project level environmental and social benefits will be made available on the AIIB official website.

“Under its mission of Financing Infrastructure for Tomorrow, AIIB will continue to scale up its sustainable and inclusive investments to meet clients’ needs for low-carbon and climate-resilient infrastructure,”said Domenico Nardelli,treasurer,AIIB

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Governments need to be ‘insurers of last resort’ to protect businesses from pandemic risks: Report

Jad Ariss, Managing Director, The Geneva Association, said: “It is a tragedy that businesses, particularly SMEs, have suffered so much financial loss during the pandemic as a result of the lockdowns, which were beyond their control. The public sector had to step in with multi-trillion dollar emergency relief measures. Governments and insurers must work together on how to close the massive protection gap exposed by COVID-19, with governments as the leading players.”

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Notified new policy on rare diseases, approved budget of Rs 25 crore for treatment: Centre to HC

Regarding funding of the treatment to be provided to the children suffering from rare diseases, the ministry said that funds allocated for the purpose in the financial year 2020-21 were unutilised and lapsed.

However, Rs 4.10 crore under the rare disease component of the umbrella scheme of Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) for 2020-21 has been remitted to AIIMS, the ministry said and added that the budget estimate for 2021-22 for treating rare diseases was Rs 25 crore and this amount can be enhanced based on its utilisation.

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‘Please help!’ India’s Covid-19 tragedy spills onto social media

The collapse of the country’s decrepit public health system is evident in the gut-wrenching photos on social media of multiple Covid patients sharing a single hospital bed, a line of ambulances outside a hospital in Mumbai, and people dying as they wait for oxygen. Government helplines are broken. Thousands of social media forwards plead for the antiviral drug Remdesivir, and many more seek donor plasma.

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Covid vaccine-makers largely protected on side effects

While some governments will pay compensation due to sufferers, others assume it is the responsibility of the companies even after drug agencies back the vaccines.
In the US, the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act authorises the health secretary “to limit legal liability for losses relating to the administration of medical countermeasures such as diagnostics, treatments, and vaccines”.

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Cyclone Amphan of 2020 resulted in USD 14 bn economic losses in India UN report

The report also noted that India had one of its two wettest monsoon seasons since 1994, with nationally-averaged rainfall for June to September 9 per cent above the long-term average. Heavy rain, flooding and landslides also affected the surrounding countries.

More than 2 000 deaths were reported during the monsoon season in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Myanmar, including 145 deaths associated with flash flooding in Afghanistan in late August and 166 deaths associated with a landslide at a mine in Myanmar in early July following heavy rain.

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