Category:

Non-Life

Pandemic Motors: Europeans snap up old cars to avoid public transport

The surge in interest in used cars is neither good news for struggling mass transit networks nor the environment as dirty old cars appear to be more in demand than new electric vehicles.

In the longer term, however, the shift away from public transport towards “individual mobility” in the pandemic era is expected to help carmakers, hit by a 27% slump in new vehicle sales across Europe in the first 10 months of 2020.

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Insurers winning most, but not all, Covid-19 business interruption lawsuits

The stakes are high for thousands of businesses. The outbreak has led to a surge in U.S. bankruptcies, including rental-car company Hertz Global Holdings Inc. Century 21 Stores said it couldn’t survive after its insurer denied its business-interruption claim.

But the pandemic is also squeezing insurers. In the second quarter — after the initial shutdowns — Chubb Ltd. reported $1.16 billion in Covid-19 losses. Munich Re said this month coronavirus losses keep growing. Overall, the industry could face at least $100 billion in total underwriting losses from the pandemic, Lloyd’s of London predicted in May.

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No direct correlation between health expenditure and Covid outcomes: Report

A significant part of the health care cost in India has to be borne by non-governmental entities, of which out of pocket expenses of households (including medical insurance) accounted for 2.2 per cent of the GDP and the remaining 0.4 per cent was accounted for by non-governmental organisations/ external donor/local bodies, it said, citing official data of FY17.

The share of government in the current expenditure on health in India is only 27.1 per cent and an a large share of 62.4 per cent is borne by households, it said.

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Tokyo 2020 organisers estimate Games postponement cost $1.9 billion – media

The postponement costs include payment to staff as well as the introduction of new systems for refunding tickets but do not include measures against the spread of the coronavirus, the newspaper said.

The organisers had originally estimated that the delay would cost nearly 300 billion yen but they were able to reduce that figure by simplifying some events, the report said.

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DCGI and institutional ethics committee investigating claim of adverse event in COVID vaccine trial: Officials

A 40-year-old Chennai-based business consultant, who was a volunteer for the third phase of the vaccine trial conducted by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), has sought Rs 5 crore compensation for allegedly suffering serious neurological and psychological symptoms after taking the dose
“It is evident that the intention behind the spreading of such malicious information is an oblique pecuniary motive. The Serum Institute of India, will seek damages in excess of 100 crore for the same and will defend such malicious claims,” Serum Institute said.

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WHO says would be ‘highly speculative’ to say COVID did not emerge in China

China is pushing a narrative via state media that the virus existed abroad before it was discovered in the central city of Wuhan, citing the presence of coronavirus on imported frozen food packaging and scientific papers claiming it had been circulating in Europe last year.

“I think it’s highly speculative for us to say that the disease did not emerge in China,” Mike Ryan said at a virtual briefing in Geneva after being asked if COVID-19 could have first emerged outside China.

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Apr-Sep FDI inflow climbs 15% to Rs 2.2 trillion; Mauritius was top source

Among the sectors, services sector continued to lead with the highest amount of FDI coming in. The sector which includes financial, banking, insurance, outsourcing, R&D among others, received 17 per cent of the FDI equity inflow during the period under review.

According to data from the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Mauritius and Singapore were the biggest sources of FDI for India with 29 per cent and 21 per cent contribution respectively.

The US, Netherlands and Japan followed with 7 per cent contribution each.

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