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Eco/Invest/Demography

Ayushman Bharat: Over 0.7 mn Covid treatments authorised from Apr’20-Jul’21

“Under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme, over 20 lakh tests and 7.25 lakh COVID-19 related treatments worth over Rs 2,800 crore were authorised from April 2020 to July 2021.The insurance scheme allows the beneficiaries to avail free testing and treatment across all empanelled — both public and private — hospitals,” an official said.

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Karnataka cabinet approves implementation of Mental Healthcare Act for covid

Under the act, a State Mental Health Authority will be set up. A committee under the chairmanship of the Director of the NIMHANS Institute will be constituted for the drafting of guidelines for the authority. The authority will also maintain a registry and publish a list of clinical psychologists, nurses, social workers and health workers in the field of mental health.

The state act is being implemented in tandem with the Central Mental Healthcare Act, 2017.

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Millets can reduce risk of developing cardiovascular disease

“Unhealthy diet is a major contributor to the rising incidence of diseases, like cardiovascular disease and diabetes. The results of this study along with our recent study that showed that the consumption of millets reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes and helped manage type 2 diabetes, highlights a critical need to look carefully at how to most appropriately bring millets back into the diets in India and ensure this reaches the majority,” National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) Director, Dr Hemalatha, said.

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Extreme heat growing health issue; killed 356,000 people in 2019: Study

“The effects extreme heat exposure can have on the body present a clear and growing global health issue,” said Ollie Jay, a professor from the University of Sydney, and a co-author of the Heat and Health report.
The findings echo another report, a two-part series called “Heat and Health” that was also published in The Lancet this week. It calls for global warming to be limited to 2.7 degrees F, in line with the Paris Climate Accords, to reduce heat-related mortality in the future. Otherwise, deaths will increase further and extreme heat will also lessen worker productivity and exacerbate other environmental challenges, such as wildfires, researchers said.

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Why snow, hail and wildfire are expensive for insurance industry

Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophic perils at Swiss Re, said that the industry had been challenged by what is known as “secondary perils.” That is, while the insurance industry has historically done a good job of modeling relatively rare but potentially devastating events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, it’s battling to keep up with risks posed by snow storms, hail, tornadoes and wildfires. Those used to cause relatively minor damage but are increasingly morphing into something more costly. And that is a problem for companies, since many Americans have coverage for such events.

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Covid-19 vaccine: India looking at USD 11 bn market opportunity

According to CARE Ratings, the majority of domestic demand is expected to be fulfilled by March 2022, when the export opportunities in the high-income markets such as Europe, North America, and developed Asian countries are likely to be completely exhausted.

However, the export opportunities in various African, Asian excluding China and Japan and some South American countries, where the pace of vaccination remains very slow would still exist, which is expected to remain greater than 1.25 billion doses, it said.

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China steps up tech scrutiny with rules over unfair competition, critical data

Specifically, the regulator stated, business operators should not use data or algorithms to hijack traffic or influence users’ choices. They may also not use technical means to illegally capture or use other business operators’ data.

Companies would also be barred from fabricating or spreading misleading information to damage the reputation of competitors and need to stop marketing practices like fake reviews and coupons or “red envelopes” – cash incentives – used to entice positive ratings.

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