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Earnix highlights the potential of synthetic data in specialty insurance
The increasing demand for data in specialty insurance has prompted...
India to get rating support if it uses RBI dividend to reduce deficit: S&P
"The additional dividends from the RBI are around 0.35 per cent of...
COVID-19 immunity lasts at least 8 months hope for longevity of vaccinations Study
While earlier studies have shown that antibodies against the coronavirus wane after the first few months of infection, raising concerns that people may lose immunity quickly, the new research, published in the journal Science Immunology, puts these concerns to rest.
The scientists believe the findings give hope to the efficacy of any vaccine against the virus, and also explains why there have been very few examples of genuine reinfection across the millions of those who have tested positive for the virus globally.
Google told its scientists to ‘strike a positive tone’ in AI research: report
Studying Google services for biases is among the “sensitive topics” under the company’s new policy, according to an internal webpage. Among dozens of other “sensitive topics” listed were the oil industry, China, Iran, Israel, COVID-19, home security, insurance, location data, religion, self-driving vehicles, telecoms and systems that recommend or personalize web content.
Advances in technology and the growing complexity of our external environment are increasingly leading to situations where seemingly inoffensive projects raise ethical, reputational, regulatory or legal issues,” one of the pages for research staff stated.
Give vaccine emergency use authorisation after trials on sufficient sample size: Parliamentary Panel
The Centre last Tuesday said the applications — by Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute of India and Pfizer — filed with the Drugs Controller General of India are being examined by the Covid-19 subject expert committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO)
Industry bodies to press for holding back new wage definition in meeting with govt on Dec 24
The source also said that lobbyists want the government to hold back the new definition and fear that this would result in major cut in take-home salaries and also put additional burden on employers.
The industry bodies want that the implementation should be put on hold till the economy rebounds again and buoyancy returns.
India’s vaccination drive will be the largest in the world: Fitch
With a population of 1.3 billion (and 94 million over 65-year-olds), the domestic vaccination drive will be the largest in the world, said Fitch.
The country has a good track record of such drives with masses of the population regularly gaining inoculation for various diseases such as polio and cholera. India’s vaccine rollout will begin in Q1 2021 with frontline healthcare workers and individuals over the age of 50 years gaining priority.
Emergency no 112 to be available for disaster relief in 2 yrs;alert protocol in 4 yrs: NDMA official
”The MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) is working on public safety… it is 112 single number emergency response system. It is being implemented for police, fire emergency, women and child protection and the next evolution is for disaster on which we are working. This will be rolled in two year or so,” NDMA Advisor, Operations and Communications, Brig Ajay Gangwar said
he said the government is also working on priority call routing which will give precedence to officials and agencies that will be first point of response for relief and rescue operations during any disaster like earthquake, cyclone or floods. Gangwar said NDMA has done a pilot project for common alert protocol which sends out automated alerts to people and it will implemented across country in four years.
New, more contagious coronavirus strain in UK does not appear to be deadlier: Vivek Murthy
“This news from the UK appears to be about a new strain of the virus that’s more transmissible, more contagious than the virus we’ve seen prior to this,” he said.
“While it seems to be more transmissible, we do not have evidence yet that this is a more deadly virus to an individual who acquires it,” Murthy told NBC News on Sunday.
US population growth smallest in at least 120 years
Population growth in the U.S. already was stagnant over the past several years due to immigration restrictions and a dip in fertility, but coronavirus-related deaths exacerbated that lethargic-growth trend, said William Frey, a senior fellow at The Brooking Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
“I think it’s a first glimpse of where we may be heading as far as low population growth,” Frey said. “It’s telling you that this is having an impact on population.”
The U.S. population grew by 0.35% from July 2019 to July 2020, an increase of 1.1 million people in a nation whose estimated population in July was more than 329 million residents, according to Census Bureau estimates.
Hacked networks will need to be burned ‘down to the ground’
It’s not clear exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets, blueprints for advanced weaponry, COVID-19 vaccine-related research and information for dossiers on key government and industry leaders.
“We have a serious problem. We don’t know what networks they are in, how deep they are, what access they have, what tools they left,” said Bruce Schneier, a prominent security expert and Harvard fellow.
Drugmakers rush to test whether vaccines stop coronavirus variant
The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage may be up to 70% more infectious and more of a concern for children. It has sown chaos in Britain, prompting a wave of travel bans that are disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country.
Moderna expects immunity from its vaccine to protect against the variant and is performing more tests in coming weeks to confirm, the company said in a statement to CNN.