With the Indian growth story counting heavily on its young...
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FAO warns 90 per cent of Earth’s topsoil at risk by 2050
The five key actions that FAO has called for, tasks civilians,...
Germany earmarks up to $14 bln to make buildings more energy-efficient
Over the next few years, some 12-13 billion euros per year will be...
Over 4 million youth in India lost jobs due to COVID-19 pandemic: Report
“For India, the report estimates job loss for 4.1 million youths. Construction and agriculture have witnessed the major job losses among seven key sectors,” says the ILO-ADB report, titled “Tackling the Covid-19 Youth Employment Crisis in Asia and the Pacific” and released on Tuesday.
General insurance industry in Japan to contract in 2020 due to COVID-19, says GlobalData
Sangharsan Biswas, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The Japanese economy is projected to contract by 5% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer spending in May 2020 had declined by 16% year-on-year. This translates to lower premium collections for general insurers, as businesses scale down their operations.”
The impact on Japan’s general insurance business is most visible in motor and property insurance, which together account for over 75% of the premiums. As per the data from Japan Automobile Dealers Association, new vehicle sales declined by 23% in June 2020, on a year-on-year basis.
Sweden set to become world’s first cashless society: GlobalData
Ravi Sharma, Retail Banking Analyst GlobalData’s, comments: “Contactless payments in Sweden is already growing at a faster pace, with Swedes increasingly making contactless payments in shops, restaurants and cafes. As a result of the pandemic, its usage is expected to become even more popular. The growing acceptance of contactless payments will support the adoption and use of NFC-enabled mobile wallet solutions, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.”
Malaysia detects coronavirus strain that’s ten times more infectious
The strain could mean that existing studies on vaccines may be incomplete or ineffective against the mutation, said Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Trump says he is considering pardon for leaker Edward Snowden
Some civil libertarians have praised Snowden for revealing the extraordinary scope of America’s digital espionage operations including domestic spying programs that senior U.S. officials had publicly insisted did not exist.
But such a move would horrify many in the U.S. intelligence community, some of whose most important secrets were exposed. Trump has harshly criticized past leaders of the U.S. intelligence community and FBI, and on Thursday took aim at the bureau’s current director Christopher Wray, his own appointee.
Milagrow expects 15-20-fold growth in robot sales in FY21 due to Covid-19
The company has its own assembly plant in Gurgaon. Milagrow has provided robots to hospitals like AIIMS, Medanta etc during the lockdown period.
The robotic floor cleaners identify dirt on their own, clean them and move back to their charging point on their own if their battery level goes down.
Obesity raises the risk of death from COVID-19 among men
Obesity and the coronavirus are a dangerous combination for a number of reasons.
Obesity causes restricted breathing, making it more difficult to clear pneumonia and other respiratory infections. Fat is biologically active and a source of pro-inflammatory chemicals, promoting a state of chronic inflammation in the body even before COVID-19 sets in. Obesity causes metabolic changes and abnormalities, even in the absence of diabetes.
USFDA clears simple saliva test for faster detection of COVID-19
With the FDA’s emergency use authorisation, the testing method is immediately available to other diagnostic laboratories that want to start using the new test, which can be scaled up quickly for use across the nation and, perhaps, beyond in the coming weeks, researchers said
”This is a huge step forward to make testing more accessible,” said Chantal Vogels, a Yale postdoctoral fellow, who led the laboratory development and validation along with Doug Brackney, an adjunct assistant clinical professor.
China’s CATL is developing new EV battery with no nickel, cobalt, executive says
The new battery type will be different from existing NCA, NCM and LFP batteries and will have no expensive metals like nickel or cobalt, Meng Xiangfeng, a senior executive at CATL, told an industry conference held by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Shanghai.
China campaigns against food waste risks,Xi Jinping asks citizens to clean their plates
China wasted an estimated 17-18 million tons of food annually as of 2015, according to the World Wildlife Fund, enough to feed as many as 50 million people. Some waste may stem from a culture of communal eating in which dishes are ordered and shared by an entire table, making portion control more difficult, while some including state broadcaster China Central Television have blamed the newer phenomenon of live-streaming food shows — so-called eating broadcasts.