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Eco/Invest/Demography

Possibility of second wave of coronavirus infections in winter season cannot be ruled out: Expert panel chief V K Paul

“In India, the new coronavirus cases and number of deaths have declined in the last three weeks and the pandemic has stabilised in most of the statesHowever, there are five states (Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal) and 3-4 Union Territories (UTs), where there is still a rising trend,” Paul said.

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Women beneficiaries comprise maximum number of a/c holders under PMJDY at 55pc

The deposits in these PMJDY accounts witnessed an 8.5 per cent rise till early September of the current fiscal year to nearly Rs 1.30 lakh crore, according to the information provided by the finance ministry. The total balance under the PMJDY accounts on April 1, 2020, was Rs 119,680.86 crore, which grew by 8.5 per cent to Rs 129,811.06 crore by September 9, 2020, the government said in the Right to Information (RTI) query.

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COVID-19 prompts workers, corporates to adopt gig economy

Experts believe that gig economy provides a win-win situation for both parties and its reach is slowly expanding from less-skilled services to high-skilled jobs.

“Gig economy has been there for a long time. It’s being embraced like never before, that too in India, due to both economic conditions and COVID-19 situation,” said Kaushik Banerjee, Vice President and Business Head of Teamlease.com and Freshersworld.com.

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Air pollution hypertension among top 5 risk factors for death in India in 2019 Study

According to the study, hypertension is the third leading risk factor after air pollution, responsible for 10-20 per cent of all health loss in eight states in India, primarily in the south.

“Most of these risk factors are preventable and treatable, and tackling them will bring huge social and economic benefits,” said study lead author Christopher Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in the US.

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Hurricane Delta to cost insurers between $2bn – $3.5bn:RMS 

“The overlapping nature of Delta and Laura will create a complicated claims management and loss attribution process for the industry. Using an innovative combination of high-resolution aerial imagery and machine-learning techniques, the modeling teams at RMS assessed the competing impacts of Hurricane Laura on Hurricane Delta losses. We determined that more than half of the impacted postal codes were also impacted by Laura, representing more than 90% of loss in this event. While Delta caused higher than expected damage to many structures due to pre-existing damage from Laura, reduced overall exposure-at-risk in the overlapping region after Laura means losses attributed to Delta will end up being lower than if Laura had never happened,” said Jeff Waters, senior product manager, RMS North Atlantic Hurricane Models. 

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Driverless race steps up with Cruise allowed to drive empty in San Francisco

Cruise is the fifth company to receive the driverless permit in California. Alphabet’s Waymo was the first in late 2018 to receive it for about three dozen test vehicles with speeds of up to 65 miles per hour. This year SoftBank-backed Nuro, whose vehicle has no steering wheel or pedals, was also approved and has delivered medical supplies for temporary COVID-19 hospitals.

Chinese startup AutoX and Amazon.com Inc’s AMZN.O Zoox also got their permits in recent months. The four previous permits are for cities in Silicon Valley that are easier to navigate.Under its permit, Cruise cars can go anywhere on San Francisco streets at a maximum speed of 30 miles per hour, and can drive both day and night.

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