Eco/Invest/Demography

Requesting the government to provide confirmation on four critical points — exemption from price restriction, indemnification, bridging trial waiver and basic customs duty exemption,

Cipla has said such an assurance will help make this significant financial commitment of more than USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,250 crore) advance to Moderna for its booster vaccine in India, sources privy to the development said.

Can people vaccinated against COVID-19 still spread the coronavirus?

May 31, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Facts, Health, Life, Non-Life, Pandemic

COVID-19 poses a particular challenge because people with asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections can spread the disease and insufficient contact tracing and testing mean those without symptoms are rarely detected.

Some scientists estimate that the number of asymptomatic COVID-19 infections in the overall population could be 3 to 20 times higher than the number of confirmed cases.

Global chip supply shortages could take couple of years to address: Intel CEO

May 31, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Facts, Technology

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger noted that the work and study-from-home trends during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to a ”cycle of explosive growth in semiconductors” that has placed huge strain on global supply chains around the world

Vaccine inequality, wily variants: Covid’s deadliest phase may be here soon

May 30, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Facts, Health, Non-Life, Pandemic

In countries with widespread vaccination, like the United States and Britain, we can expect that Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths will continue to decline or stay low, especially because lab tests and real world experience show that vaccines appear to defend recipients well against the severe effects of both variants.

For much of the rest of the world, though, this even more transmissible new variant could be catastrophic.

COVID impact: Digital recruitment process to continue, say experts

May 30, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Facts, Health, Pandemic

There was a rush towards new-age technology-aided recruitment/HR tools in 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic and new-age recruitment tools will continue to be leveraged extensively and increasingly in the future too.

“Corporates want to have data-based and analysis-driven inputs to make recruitment decisions and they employ various modern tools to ensure candidates cultural and job role fitment,” said Siddhartha Gupta, CEO, Mercer – Mettl.

‘They hit you hard’: How DarkSide became powerhouse of ransomware attacks

May 30, 2021 | Articles, Eco/Invest/Demography, Non-Life

Where once criminals had to play psychological games to trick people into handing over bank passwords and have the technical know-how to siphon money out of secure personal accounts, now virtually anyone can obtain ransomware off the shelf and load it into a compromised computer system using tricks picked up from YouTube tutorials or with the help of groups like DarkSide.

“Any doofus can be a cybercriminal now,” said Sergei A. Pavlovich, a former hacker who served 10 years in prison in his native Belarus for cybercrimes. “The intellectual barrier to entry has gotten extremely low.”

Nuclear flash cards: US secrets exposed on learning apps

May 30, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, International News, Risk Management, Technology

“By simply searching online for terms publicly known to be associated with nuclear weapons, Bellingcat was able to discover cards used by military personnel serving at all six European military bases reported to store nuclear devices,” wrote Foeke Postma, the author of the Bellingcat article.

Team to check crop insurance irregularities: Maha minister

May 30, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Indian News

Addressing a press meet, minister of state for revenue Sattar said the Maharashtra and Central governments had paid Rs 5,800 crore as crop insurance premium last year, while these firms had dispersed just Rs 1,000 crore as claim to farmers.” ”The role of tehsildars and agriculture department officials must be checked in this matter. Those involved should be subjected to narco tests,” he asserted.

Paytm board grants in-principle approval for around Rs 22,000 crore IPO

May 30, 2021 | Eco/Invest/Demography, Indian News, Technology

It is likely to be one of the largest IPOs in India if the company is able to achieve the target as per its plan. Paytm shareholders include Alibaba’s Ant Group (29.71 per cent), Softbank Vision Fund (19.63 per cent), Saif Partners (18.56 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma (14.67 per cent). AGH Holding, T Rowe Price and Discovery Capital, Berkshire Hathaway hold less than 10 per cent stake in the company.