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Eco/Invest/Demography

Insurance startup Clearcover raises $200 million from Eldridge, others at $1 billion valuation

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced the importance of physical networks of agents in insurance and helped “insurtech” providers like Clearcover, which uses artificial intelligence and big data to reduce costs and better target customers.

Global investment in the sector jumped 12% to $7.1 billion for 2020, a record high, according to Willis Towers Watson.

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India’s new coronavirus cases hit record; Mumbai prepares for lockdown

In the western state of Gujurat, a Reuters witness saw a long queue of ambulances waiting outside Ahmedabad Civil Hospital on Wednesday, with some patients being treated there while they waited.A hospital source, who declined to be named as he is not authorised to speak publicly, said a lot of private hospitals were short of oxygen and were sending their patients to the public hospital.

Chhattisgarh state – one of several hinterland regions struggling with a surge in cases – set up a temporary 370-bed hospital in an indoor stadium.

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Global warming making Indian monsoon seasons stronger, more chaotic: Study

”We have found robust evidence for an exponential dependence: For every degree Celsius of warming, monsoon rainfalls will likely increase by about 5 percent,” said study lead author Anja Katzenberger from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany.

”Hereby we were also able to confirm previous studies but find that global warming is increasing monsoon rainfall in India even more than previously thought. It is dominating monsoon dynamics in the 21st century,” Katzenberger said.

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Delhi crematoriums, graveyards struggle to manage resources as COVID-19 kills 409 in just 13 days

”Since last week, on an average 10-15 bodies of COVID victims are being buried daily here. Yesterday, 18 burials were performed.” Suman Gupta, the general secretary of Badi Panchayat Vaishya Beese Agarwal organisation that manages the city’s main crematorium at the Nigambodh Ghat, has an equally sobering number to share.

”Usually, around 50-60 cremations are performed here daily. The number has gone up to over 80 now,” he says.

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Cybersecurity needs multi-faceted solution, role of tech cos crucial: Microsoft

”It (cybersecurity) is an extraordinarily important issue…I think the recent spate of cybersecurity attacks underscored that even more clearly. I think the solution has to be mult-ifaceted…(as a tech company) we have to ask ourselves how can we change our practices, how can we make our software and our services more secure and what more can we do to help customers around the world,” he said during Raisina Dialogue.

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New global compact aims to drive down diabetes deaths, boost insulin access

“The number of people with diabetes has quadrupled in the last 40 years.  It is the only major noncommunicable disease for which the risk of dying early is going up, rather than down. And a high proportion of people who are severely ill in hospital with COVID-19 have diabetes.” 

More than 420 million people worldwide live with diabetes, a group of chronic diseases characterized by elevated blood sugar, which can cause damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and nerves.  

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Malware attacks on mobile devices in India jumped in Oct 2020-Mar 2021 period: Report

”Cyber criminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit our growing reliance on mobiles. Enterprises need to adopt mobile security solutions which seamlessly protect devices from today’s advanced cyber threats, and users should be careful to use only apps from official app stores to minimise their risk,” Neatsun Ziv, VP Threat Prevention at Check Point Software, said.

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