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Eco/Invest/Demography

Niti Aayog submits names of PSU banks to be privatised to Core Group of Secretaries on Disinvestment

Industry sources say the likely names are Mumbai based Central Bank and Pune based Bank of Maharashtra. 
Following the clearance from the Core Group of Secretaries, headed by the Cabinet Secretary, the finalised names will go to Alternative Mechanism (AM) for its approval and eventually to the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister for the final nod.

Changes on the regulatory side to facilitate privatisation would start after the Cabinet approval.

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India’s biggest torn between BlackRock and funding coal

State Bank of India hasn’t decided whether to help finance the Carmichael mine for Adani Enterprises Ltd, whose main shareholder is Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, following mounting pressure from climate activists and investors, Bloomberg reported in April.

Funding for global energy is at a tipping point. Green bonds and loans from the global banking sector so far this year exceeded the value of fossil financing for the first time since the clinching of the Paris Agreement at the very end of 2015.

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Summit secures additional $2.4 bln for COVID shots for poor countries

The funds will allow COVAX to secure 1.8 billion fully subsidised doses for delivery to lower-income countries in 2021 and early 2022, enough to protect 30% of adults in those nations, GAVI said in a statement.

“We have taken a big step towards ‘one world protected’,” said Jose Manuel Barroso, GAVI chairman. The fresh funds brought total COVAX financing to $9.6 billion, he added.

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1 Indian firm paying average Rs 55 lakh after ransom attack

The average ransom payment in India was $76,619 (over Rs 55 lakh). However, paying up often doesn’t pay off as Indian organizations that paid the ransom got back, on average, 75 per cent of their data and only 4 per cent got all their data back, according to ‘The State of Ransomware 2021’ report by global cybersecurity leader Sophos.

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Risk of COVID-19 surge threatens Africa’s health facilities

Only around two per cent of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, compared with the 24 per cent global figure.
In the last two weeks, the continent has recorded a 20 per cent increase in coronavirus infections, compared to the previous fortnight.

“The pandemic is trending upwards in 14 countries and in the past week alone (and) eight countries witnessed an abrupt rise of over 30 per cent in cases,” WHO said in a statement.

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