Category:

Risk Management

NGT directs Maharashtra to deposit Rs 1 crore as interim compensation for restoration of water quality near Trimbakeshwar

The bench was hearing an application filed by Kiran Ramdas Kamble and others seeking to take action for failure of the Trimbakeshwar Municipal Council and other concerned authorities of Maharashtra in preventing discharge of Municipal waste into the river which joins Godavari in violation of the judgement of the Supreme Court, in spite of at least four orders of NGT in the last two years and also general orders in other cases.

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UN climate talks: Faint progress on money, none on pollution

World leaders made “faint signs of progress” on the financial end of fighting climate change in a special United Nations feet-to-the-fire meeting Monday, but they didn’t commit to more crucial cuts in emissions of the heat-trapping gases that cause global warming.In the meeting, vulnerable countries such as the Marshall Islands and the Maldives that are “staring down the barrel” of climate change were “pleading with the developed world to step up to the plate” to provide needed money for them to cope with warming’s impacts, said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted the meeting with Guterres.

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Facebook spent over $13 bln on safety, security since 2016

Facebook played down the negative effects on young users of its Instagram app and had a weak response to alarms raised by employees over how the platform is used in developing countries by human traffickers, the Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing a review of internal company documents. read more

“In the past, we didn’t address safety and security challenges early enough in the product development process,” the company said in a blog post. “But we have fundamentally changed that approach.”

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Biden sanctions cryptocurrency exchange over ransomware attacks

The Treasury Department accuses Suex OTC, S.R.O. of facilitating transactions involving illicit proceeds for at least eight ransomware variants, marking its first such move against a virtual currency exchange over ransomware activity.
Hackers use ransomware to take down systems that control everything from hospital billing to manufacturing. They stop only after receiving hefty payments, typically paid in cryptocurrency.

Attacks are increasing in scale, sophistication and scope, the Treasury said. In 2020 ransomware payments reached over $400 million, more than four times the level in 2019, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber, told reporters on the call.

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Need to mainstream green finance: RBI Dy governor

“As the risks and opportunities and financial impact arising from climate change vary across jurisdictions, this poses unique considerations for emerging economies like India.The challenge before us is to mainstream green finance and think of ways to incorporate the environmental impact into commercial lending decisions while simultaneously balancing the needs of credit expansion, economic growth and social development,” Rao said.

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Small cars too need adequate number of airbags to ensure safety: Gadkari

Mostly, lower middle-class people buy small economy cars and “if their car won’t have airbags and when accidents happen, then it may result in deaths. So, I appeal to all car manufacturers to provide a minimum of six airbags across all variants and segments of the vehicle,” he said.

While acknowledging that additional airbags in small cars will increase their cost by at least Rs 3,000-4,000, Gadkari also said, “in our country, poor should also get protection (in case of road accidents)”.

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Woman sues for right to freeze her eggs in Beijing

She is suing Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital at Capital Medical University, a public hospital that forbids her from freezing her eggs, citing national law. Xu’s victory could mark an important step for unmarried women in China who want to access public benefits. Unlike in the U.S., though, court judgments in China do not rely on precedence.

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 EXPLAINER: Why World Bank is under fire over set of rankings

The report is important to many companies and investors around the world: They use the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report to help decide where to invest money, open manufacturing plants or sell products.

Eager to attract investment, countries around the world, especially developing economies, have sought to improve their rankings in the World Bank’s report.Sometimes, nations would pursue substantive policy changes — by, for example, making it easier for businesses to pay taxes, obtain loans or enforce contracts.

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Tech giant Xiaomi patents earthquake monitoring mobile tech

The patent describes a system that is capable of reading/monitoring seismic activity from a mobile equipment. This technology would be used in detecting earthquakes, reports GizmoChina.

The ‘mobile device’ would transfer key data obtained to send it to an earthquake processing center.

The system would also permit the underlying processor to identify and predict earthquake events based on multiple readings, the report added.

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