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Health Ministry partners with Google to enhance people’s access to COVID-19 vaccine

Starting this week, for over 13,000 locations across the country, people will be able to get more helpful information about vaccine availability and appointments — powered by real-time data from the CoWIN APIs (application programming interfaces). This includes information such as availability of appointment slots at each center, vaccines and doses offered (dose 1 or dose 2), expectations for pricing (paid or free) and the link to the CoWIN website for booking.

The above information will automatically show up when users search for vaccine centres near them, or in any specific area – across Google Search, Maps and Google Assistant.

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WhatsApp fined $266 mn by Irish regulator over data transparency breaches

Under the three-year-old GDPR law, authorities have powers to fine companies as much as 4% of their annual sales. The rules put watchdogs based in a company’s chosen EU hub in charge of supervising them. But the Irish regulator, which has at least 28 privacy probes open targeting tech giants such as Apple Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google, has faced mounting criticism for taking too long to wrap up its cases.

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India aims to open finance to millions with user-data system

Regulators agreed to allow banks, pension funds, tax authorities, insurers and other finance firms to pool together customer information — once the user consents — to make transactions smoother. If the system works, firms will be able access large amounts of data within seconds to assess the creditworthiness of a small business, recommend a wealth management product for an individual, or tailor an insurance policy for a family.

The Account Aggregator system, years in the planning, was formally introduced on Thursday. It’s an ambitious approach that combines privacy protection with credit reporting.

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Uber proposes industry-wide gig worker benefits model in Canada

Uber said it advocates for benefits funds everywhere, but added that labor laws, social safety nets and different cultures meant it would pursue a different approach in every country, with Monday’s proposal tailored to Canada.

Gig companies have long been criticized for the lack of benefits and protections they offer their independent contractor workers. Many labor unions, some lawmakers and the Biden administration have said gig workers should be reclassified as employees.

The companies have also faced several lawsuits in Canada and the United States alleging worker misclassification.

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Chinese regulators seek more control over internet firms’ algorithms

Under the draft regulations, companies must disclose the basic principles, purpose and operation mechanism of its algorithm recommendation services, and must include convenient options for users to turn off the recommendation service.

Algorithms should also not be used in ways that may cause addictive behaviors in users, or induce them to spend excessively. It was not immediately clear how that would be enforced.

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Construction industry accelerating innovation, risk management: KPMG

Risk management is central to improving organisational resilience. Nearly 60 per cent of survey respondents say they want to gain a more holistic view of risks by increasing integration and visibility between enterprise risk management, portfolio risk management and project risk management. And two-thirds plan a moderate or high level of investment in risk management.
Suneel Vora, Partner for major projects advisory at KPMG in India, said the pandemic has taught important lessons to businesses implementing capital programmes and construction projects around resilience, integrated approach to risk, portfolio management, leveraging diversity and putting technology to work. KPMG’s Global Construction Survey 2021 reflects on the views of over 186 global industry leaders to provide specific answers to these aspects.

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Tesla closer to making its official debut in India

Tesla has had its vehicles certified as being roadworthy in India, a posting on the website of the nation’s ministry of road transport and highways showed.

“The tests ensure the vehicle matches the requirements of the Indian market in terms of emission and safety and road worthiness,” according to the site. A Tesla fan club earlier tweeted about the development, saying the cars were probably Model 3 and Model Y variants.

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