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Eco/Invest/Demography

ConocoPhillips-styled Indian overseas assets seizure to collect $1.4 bn Cairn award

Cairn CEO Simon Thomson in the January 22 letter to Indian High Commissioner in London, with copies marked to Prime Minister”s Office, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the arbitration award is “final and binding” and “the Government of India has an obligation to comply with its terms.”

“As India is a signatory to the New York Convention, the award can be enforced against Indian assets in numerous jurisdictions around the world for which the necessary preparations have been put in place,” he wrote.

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Pandemic outbreak overtakes Business Interruption as top business risk in China:Allianz Risk Barometer 2021:

In response to heightened BI vulnerabilities, many companies are aiming to build more resilient operations and to de-risk their supply chains.

According to Allianz Risk Barometer respondents, improving business continuity management is the main action companies are taking (62%), followed by developing alternative or multiple suppliers (45%), investing in digital supply chains (32%) and improved supplier selection and auditing (31%).

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Global Covid-19 cases surpass 100 million, as US seeks to reset its Covid fight

The widening gap for vaccine supplies between rich and poor countries led both South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to lash out at “vaccine nationalism.”

Ramaphosa told the WEF that low- and middle-income countries were being shouldered aside by wealthier nations able to acquire “up to four times what their population needs.”

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China wanted to show off its vaccines. It’s backfiring

To be sure, the Chinese vaccines have a big appeal to many countries. More than 40 countries have expressed an interest in importing Chinese vaccines, according to China’s Foreign Ministry. Several world leaders, including President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Joko Widodo of Indonesia, have gotten a Sinovac vaccine.

But the spotty and inconsistent disclosures about the vaccines remain a problem. Sinopharm, has said a vaccine candidate made by its Beijing Institute of Biological Products arm has an efficacy rate of 79 per cent, but it did not disclose crucial details. Sinopharm didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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World on verge of defeating pandemic, says Harsh Vardhan at WHO meet

“In the present context, nowhere is safe until everywhere is safe. At the WHO, we have ensured that the low and middle-income countries have access to safe and effective Covid-19 tests, treatment and vaccine.”

Over the post-Covid world, he said, “The post-Covid world will be filled with challenges. To overcome them, WHO needs to be a trailblazer, empowered to work towards a new vision that allows it to realise its full potential and strengthen health care systems across member nations.”

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Programmes tackling extreme poverty reach nearly 92 mln people

Currently an estimated 700 million people live in extreme poverty, meaning surviving on less than US$1.90 a day. “One of the most stubborn challenges we face in development is positively transforming the lives of the extreme poor and vulnerable – a problem exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Mari Pangestu, the World Bank’s managing director for Development Policy and Partnerships, said in a statement.

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