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Eco/Invest/Demography

Covid deaths may be double, triple the official tally: WHO

On that basis, the WHO said it estimated that 1.1 million to 1.3 million people in 53 European countries died from Covid-19 in 2020, roughly double the number recorded in official data. It also calculates that, over the same period, 1.3 million to 1.5 million people died in 35 countries in the Americas, compared with the 9,00,000 deaths officially recorded.

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Covid-19 could become like common cold in future, study suggests

The research, published in the journal Viruses, makes this likely prediction based on mathematical models that incorporate lessons learned from the current pandemic on how our body’s immunity changes over time.

“Over the next decade, the severity of Covid-19 may decrease as populations collectively develop immunity,” said Fred Adler, a professor of mathematics and biological sciences at the University of Utah in the US said.

The study suggests that changes in the disease could be driven by adaptations of our immune response rather than by changes in the virus itself.

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Will bankers embrace sensors under their desks when they return to work?

But not everyone can return at once: banks will have to extend practices like those used for small teams of traders during the pandemic. Shifting rotations of people will pass through giant buildings on different days, without clustering in the same areas on the same floors, to avoid spreading COVID-19. Some of the banks are implementing systems where employees will book “hot seats” on particular days and be monitored while they are sitting at them, sources said.

In some buildings, that could mean cameras that monitor a room’s occupancy level and even sensors that tell building management whether someone is sitting at a desk. “That feels a little personal,” one bank employee said about desk sensors.

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Supreme Court allows personal bankruptcy cases on tycoons

The federal government in 2019 introduced the law that allowed lenders to file parallel bankruptcies against defaulting firms and the individuals who guaranteed those loans.

Lenders last year filed bankruptcy cases against businessmen including Reliance Group’s Anil Ambani, Dewan Housing Finance Corp Ltd.’s Kapil Wadhawan and Bhushan Power & Steel Ltd.’s Sanjay Singal. The cases were halted on appeals filed in higher courts.

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Higher household income, lower education levels determinants of women’s labour force participation: Report

”A multivariate analysis of the odds of a woman working in 2018-19 enables determination of several critical factors that significantly affect women’s participation in the labour force. The first is that higher household incomes are negatively linked to the labour force participation of women in both urban and rural areas. As the household’s income levels increase, the likelihood of a woman being in the labour force decreases,” it said.

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Cyclone Yaas threat: Odisha alerts 14 districts, urges Navy, Coast Guard to remain vigilant

Odishas Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra, after a meeting with senior officials, said that the state administration is geared up to meet the eventuality if cyclone ‘Yaas’ has any impact on the state.

Though IMD is yet to inform about the possible path of the system, its speed and landfall location, the state has been preparing to meet the challenge beforehand, he said.

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