Category:

Eco/Invest/Demography

Jal Shakti Minsitry launches famework for water quality testing, monitoring

According to a 2018 assessment by the Central Ground Water Board, 52 percent of all the blocks in the country have inter alia any one of the geogenic contaminants like arsenic, chloride, fluoride, iron, nitrate, and salinity. Nearly 20 states in India have drinking water sources contaminated with arsenic, fluoride, nitrate, iron, salinity, or heavy metals.

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Social media platforms’ staff not been threatened of jail term: IT Ministry

Reacting to reports that alluded to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter employees being threatened with jail term, the Ministry said social media platforms are “obliged to follow the laws of India and the Constitution of India, just like all other businesses in India have to.”
“The government welcomes criticism and dissent. However, of late, repeated instances of abuse of social media to foment hate, discord and violence by terrorist groups from outside India and circulation of morphed images of women, revenge porn posing threat to the safety of users especially women users have become grave concerns,” it said.

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FPIs pull out Rs 7,013 cr from Indian markets so far this month

In contrast, they had pumped in Rs 23,663 crore in Indian markets in February and Rs 14,649 crore in January, on net basis.

“The flows into the equity markets have moderated significantly in the recent times, which could be largely attributed to profit booking as markets continue to be at elevated levels,” said Himanshu Srivastava, associate director – manager research, Morningstar India.

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DGCA monitoring 737 Max performance, re-certification to take time

The Boeing 737 Max aircraft was grounded worldwide in 2019 after two fatal crashes.

In India, SpiceJet is the only operator of Boeing 737 Max aircraft. It has 13 such aircraft in its fleet.

Kumar said India’s aviation safety ranking is expected to improve as the International Civil Aviation Organisation will conduct an audit of the sector in the coming months.

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US and Canada transactional risk insurance market reaches record highs

From 2015 to 2019, rates for representations and warranties (R&W) insurance steadily declined. That trend, however, halted in 2020. 2020 marks the first year that primary rates are sitting above 3% since 2017, which we attribute principally to two factors: An increase in the frequency and severity of transactional risk claims.

“Surge pricing” during the flood of deal activity in the fourth quarter. Claims concerns continue to influence insurers’ approaches to pricing, and we expect rate increases to continue in the short-to-medium term.

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Bank operations may be hit on Mon, Tue due to nationwide unions’ strike

UFBU, an umbrella body of nine unions, in a statement claimed that about 10 lakh bank employees and officers of the banks will participate in the strike.

Many public sector lenders, including State Bank of India (SBI) have informed their customers that their normal working could be affected at the branches and offices if the strike materialises.

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