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Eco/Invest/Demography

Andhra CM launches ‘YSR Bima’ scheme, allocates Rs 750 crore for 2021-22

“Similarly, as promised during elections, the government had brought YSR Bima, an insurance scheme to support those families who lost their breadwinner. About 1.30 lakh families have been brought under insurance coverage. Under the scheme, an insurance amount of Rs 1 lakh will be paid if the beneficiary aged between 18 to 50 years, who is a breadwinner of the family, succumbs to natural death. A sum of Rs 5 lakh will be paid if the beneficiary in the age group of 18 to 70 years dies in an accident”, said the Chief Minister.

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European countries not supporting TRIPS waiver move to deal with COVID: Goyal

”We have tried in the WTO to promote waiver on TRIPS so that vaccines and essential medicines can be available to all in the world. “Sadly, the European countries, particularly, and many other developed countries are not supporting that move….Believe me, until all of us are vaccinated, until everybody in the world gets the benefit of modern technology, even the developed world will not be safe,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal said at a webinar of India Global Forum

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India’s medical infra well prepared to deal with third COVID wave: FM

A Rs 50,000 crore credit guarantee scheme for setting up of medical or health infrastructure by private hospitals in cities other than 8 metropolitan cities was also announced as part of measures for reviving the economy battered by a severe second wave of COVID-19.

The minister further said 45-50 lakh people per day are getting vaccinated and a total of 33 crore people have received vaccination.

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Development bank climate finance spending hit $66 bln in 2020 – report

A total $38 billion, or 58%, of the total went to low and middle income countries, the 2020 Joint Report on Multilateral Development Banks’ Climate Finance said.

Additional finance committed by other sources alongside the development banks totalled $85 billion, while direct funding from private sources was $5.9 billion.

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Insurers got 22k claims for COVID-19 deaths in FY21; no significant impact on sector financials:RBI

The claims paid ratio (provisional) stood at 98.1 per cent for individual claims and 98.6 per cent in the group category, in comparison with 96.8 per cent and 97.3 per cent, respectively, for the previous financial year, it said.

”…the pandemic did not have a significant impact on death claim settlement rates,” it said.

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Boom, bust and bewildered: Bitcoin’s year so far

Wild price swings have been a defining feature of bitcoin throughout its near 13-year life. The first half of 2021 has been no different, despite hopes that greater liquidity in markets and stronger infrastructure would dampen swings.
“What we found out in the second quarter was that actually demand for bitcoin is price sensitive,” he said. “Some institutional investors started getting out of bitcoin in April … they thought bitcoin prices were too high relative to gold.”

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Delta variant spread in US prompts reconsideration of precautions: Dr Fauci

“The Delta variant has the capability of spreading much more efficiently from person to person. It also can cause more severe disease. So there are two things about it that are troublesome,” said the top US COVID-19 expert.

Fauci further said that the good news is that COVID-19 vaccines have shown to be very effective against the strain and urged those who have yet to be vaccinated to do so.

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Number of global migrant workers rises to 169 million since 2017: ILO report

More than two-thirds of international migrant workers are concentrated in high-income countries. Of the 169 million international migrant workers, 63.8 million (37.7 per cent) are in Europe and Central Asia. Another 43.3 million (25.6 per cent) are in the Americas. Hence, collectively, Europe and Central Asia and the Americas host 63.3 per cent of all migrant workers.

The Arab States, and Asia and the Pacific each host about 24 million migrant workers, which, in total, corresponding to 28.5 per cent of all migrant workers. In Africa, there are 13.7 million migrant workers, representing 8.1 per cent of the total.

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