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Pandemic

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Forecasters who predicted India’s coronavirus peak see new wave coming

The country may see a worsening of its outbreak as soon as this month, with the next wave peaking in the best-case scenario with less than 100,000 infections a day, or nearly 150,000 in the worst scenario, according to estimates by researchers led by Mathukumalli Vidyasagar and Manindra Agrawal at Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad and Kanpur respectively.

States with high Covid rates, such as Kerala and Maharashtra, could “skew the picture,” Vidyasagar told Bloomberg in an email.

IMF official warns coronavirus will weigh on some economies for years

The Fund has provided some $90 billion in total financing to 79 countries, including 20 in Latin America, since the start of the health crisis, an IMF spokeswoman said.

It is continuing to work with member countries on how to contain the pandemic and mitigate its economic impact, First Deputy Managing Director Geoffrey Okamoto told an online event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Okamoto told that Fund officials were in talks with the Group of 20 major economies about extending a temporary halt in official bilateral debt service payments by low-income countries under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), and how to kickstart private sector participation.

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ni-msme and IRM India sign MoU to strengthen risk-readiness of MSME sector

The programme will jointly develop policy roadmap to secure Indian MSME sector against future risks

Hersh Shah, CEO, India Affiliate of Institute of Risk Management, UK, said, “In the coming months, we aim to develop a blueprint that will help India’s 6.33 crore MSMEs apply globally-recognised enterprise risk management frameworks and practices, to navigate successfully through the current crisis, as well as safeguard themselves against future uncertain events beyond just financial risks.

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1/3rd of UK’s medium-sized businesses likely to purchase cyber insurance since COVID-19 outbreak:GlobalData

“Fraudsters have capitalized on employees working from home – with phishing scams, in particular, on the rise – preying on fears surrounding the pandemic such as using COVID-19-based hooks in phishing emails. Employees who are out of the office and away from colleagues are more at risk as they are less able to check the validity.”

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India needs to invest ₹3K-5K crore to give all Indians Covid vaccine: Zydus Cadila chairman

The requirement of the vaccine doses is going to be very high. Given the fact almost all vaccines are going to work at least two doses, if we look at India’s population and decide to immunise 50 per cent of the population, we would require over 130 crore doses and that’s not the capacity anybody has.

Even if people have the capacity to produce, it cannot happen in one day. It can only happen over a long period,
said Zydus Cadila Chairman Pankaj R Patel.
Another challenge we would have is “how long the immunity will last with this vaccine? If the vaccine is going to give a long-term immunity, it will be wonderful, but if it provides short-term immunity then we will have to keep on immunising people again and again,” he added.

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