Category:

Eco/Invest/Demography

Why is the European Central Bank eyeing a ‘digital euro’?

A digital, or virtual, euro would be an electronic version of euro notes and coins, it would be legal tender and guaranteed by the European Central Bank.

It would also for the first time allow individuals to have deposits directly with the ECB. This could be safer than with commercial banks, which could go bust, or than holding cash that could be stolen or lost.

And like cash, money could be stored outside of the banking system, such as in a “digital wallet”.

It would allow citizens and firms to make their daily payments “in a fast, easy and secure way,” the ECB said as it published a report on virtual money in October

read more

Novel coronavirus can last 28 days on glass, currency, Australian study finds

CSIRO researchers found that at 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees Fahrenheit) the SARS-COV-2 virus remained infectious for 28 days on smooth surfaces such as plastic banknotes and glass found on mobile phone screens. The study was published in Virology Journal.

“It really reinforces the importance of washing hands and sanitising where possible and certainly wiping down surfaces that may be in contact with the virus,” said the study’s lead researcher Shane Riddell.
By comparison, Influenza A virus has been found to survive on surfaces for 17 days.

read more

Freeport does a balancing act as world’s biggest gold mine grapples with COVID-19

“We’ve put the priority and the health of our workers and community at the top of our list,” Freeport McMoRan Chief Executive Richard Adkerson told Reuters. “From the outset, we recognized that (Grasberg) was a particularly vulnerable place due to the size of the workforce” of nearly 30,000 people.

read more

Worst is over, economic recovery faster than expected: HDFC CEO Keki Mistry

The veteran financial sector player also said that most of the job losses during COVID-19 were confined to low-income workers and the job losses for the kind of people who borrow money were not alarming.

The non-performing individual loans could be in the range of 2.5-4 per cent, which is also the extent of loans that the RBI has allowed to restructure, Mistry added.

read more

COVID-19 cases in India cross 70-lakh mark,fatality rate at 1.54 per cent

The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
The national recovery rate stands at 86.17 per cent.
The COVID-19 caseload mounted to 70,53,806 with 74,383 infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,08,334 with 918 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.
According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 8,68,77,242 samples have been tested up to October 10 with 10,78,544 samples being tested on Saturday.

read more