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India Inc resorted to salary cuts in Q1, will be drag on economic recovery: Report

The “weak” wage growth will prove to be a drag on the overall economic recovery in the medium term as it will affect household consumption, the report by India Ratings and Research said.

An environment of pandemic-led uncertainty and elevated inflation could impact the level of spending and hence the overall demand. Resuscitating wages will be critical for a revival of the overall economy and Capex cycle, which has been languishing even before the COVID-19 outbreak, it said., it said.

Nine in 10 India Employees Feel Prepared to Work Remotely for the Long-Term

However, employees shared concerns about not having access to the right technologies and the blurring of boundaries between work and personal lives in a long-term remote work arrangement. 

The research also found that the most in-demand technology resources that employees want are productivity equipment or tools, remote access to internal company resources and cloud technology.

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44% rural Indians willing to pay for COVID-19 vaccine; 51% consider coronavirus ‘Chinese conspiracy’: Survey

The survey, conducted by Gaon Connection among 6,040 rural respondents across 60 districts in 16 states and one union territory, found that 36 per cent said they would not want to pay for it. The remaining 20 per cent said they are yet to decide on paying for the vaccine.

Of those who were willing to pay, two-third said they can pay up to Rs 500 for two doses of the vaccine, whenever it is available.

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Drugmakers rush to test whether vaccines stop coronavirus variant

The mutation known as the B.1.1.7 lineage may be up to 70% more infectious and more of a concern for children. It has sown chaos in Britain, prompting a wave of travel bans that are disrupting trade with Europe and threatening to further isolate the island country.
Moderna expects immunity from its vaccine to protect against the variant and is performing more tests in coming weeks to confirm, the company said in a statement to CNN.

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Sensex crashes by 1,407 points as European markets open weaker

The NSE Nifty 50 index ended 3.14% lower at 13,328.40, wiping out six straight sessions of gains up to Friday. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 3% to 45,553.96.

European shares opened lower at 0800 GMT as investors worried about the economic impact of a new coronavirus strain which has seen several European countries shut their borders to the UK.

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3 times increase in number of people using online consultations in India:Report

Visits to secondary care specialists like neurosurgeon, somnologist, cardiologist, and oncologist grew dramatically● 3x increase in the number of people using online consultations

○ 26% of the consultations were with GPs, followed by Dermatology (20%) and Gynecology (16%) and others like Gastroenterology, ENT, and Pediatrics stood at 7% each

○ The fastest-growing health concerns included ophthalmology, ENT, orthopedics, pediatrics, and gastroenterology ○ Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai saw an average of 16x growth in queries for ENT specialization. Non-metros saw the highest growth of 7x in online consultations, as compared to the same period in the previous year

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Indian Pharma majors rush to buy covers for developing Covid-19 solutions

The policy provides cover for legal liability arising out of lack of care or negligence resulting in injury or death of the subject participating in the trial,
 ’Raheja QBE General insurance, has issued 119 `Clinical Trial Liability Insurance’, policies including 53 covers exclusively for developing Covid 19 remedies from April till November 2020.
“Clinical trial premium is more expensive than other liability products. We have taken reinsurance support for this policy;; said Atul Sahay, CMD, New India Assurance..
, ICICI Lombard General Insurance is now getting ready to provide transit cover for transporting Covid -19 vaccine in India, said Sanjay Datta, Chief – Underwriting, Claims, Reinsurance and Actuarial.

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COVID-19: India reports 24,337 new cases

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 96,06,111, pushing the national recovery rate to 95.53 per cent, while the COVID-19 case fatality rate stands at 1.45 per cent, according to the data.

The COVID-19 active caseload remained below 4 lakh for the 15th consecutive day.

There are 3,03,639 active coronavirus cases in the country which comprise 3.02 per cent of the total caseload, the data stated.

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Asia monitoring new UK strain, no flights cancelled yet

The new strain in Britain comes as cases have surged recently in several Asian countries that successfully contained the pandemic earlier this year. The spikes in cases have prompted localised lockdowns in some countries and more aggressive testing.
Much is unknown about the strain, but experts said current vaccines should still be effective against it. No Asian country has reported the new strain.

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