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Eco/Invest/Demography

Munich Re aims for a profit of €2.8bn in 2021

 “We expect to generate a profit of clearly above 1bn € this year. The pandemic has naturally had a considerable impact on our result. But the burdens arising from COVID-19 are financially manageable for Our business is clearly on track. Thanks to our strong balance sheet, we are in a very good position to exploit current market opportunities. In the coming year, we plan – despite anticipated further COVID‑19 losses – to meet the profit target of €2.8bn as envisaged prior to the pandemic,”said Christoph Jurecka,,CFO, Munich Re ,

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Hyundai, Kia Motors agree to $210 million auto safety civil penalty in US

Kia agreed to create a new U.S. safety office headed by a chief safety officer and each automaker will retain an independent, third-party auditor who will directly report to NHTSA and will conduct a comprehensive review of the company’s safety practices. Hyundai’s consent order will last three years, while Kia’s is for two years, but both can be extended by one year.

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Mirae Asset wins U.S. lawsuit against China’s Anbang on scrapped $5.8 bln hotel deal

The case in Delaware, where many companies are registered, could set a precedent for deals that have seen valuations drop since the COVID-19 pandemic, as buyers no longer want to buy assets under the terms of agreements reached before.

A consortium led by Mirae agreed last year to buy the hotels from Anbang, which had been selling some of its overseas assets after the Chinese government took control of the troubled insurer in 2018.

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COVID-19 caseload in India rises to 94.62 lakh

The total number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 88,89,585, pushing the national recovery rate to 93.94 per cent. The COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent.

The active COVID-19 caseload remained below five lakh for the 21th consecutive day. There are 4,35,603 active cases in the country which comprised 4.60 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

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People proving to be weakest link for apps tracking COVID-19 exposure

The problem starts with downloads. Stefano Tessaro calls it the “chicken-and-egg” issue:

The system works only if a lot of people buy into it, but people will buy into it only if they know it works.

“Accuracy of the system ends up increasing trust, but it is trust that increases adoptions, which in turn increases accuracy,” Tessaro, a computer scientist at the University of Washington who was involved in creating that state’s forthcoming contact-tracing app, said in a lecture last month.

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