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Cybersecurity is top business worry in ‘age of risk’: Marsh & McLennan CEO

“CEOs like to get things done and say it’s finished,” he said. “Cyber is a never-ending phenomenon. It will continue for the rest of all of our careers.”

Climate change and the culture of remote working are the other top risks cited by companies, Glaser said. Climate is less immediate than cybersecurity because it is developing slowly and its impact, through such catastrophic events as larger wildfires and more powerful hurricanes, will increase over the next five years or more.

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Tsunami-hit reactor in northeast Japan gets final approval to restart

Onagawa was the closest among Japan’s nuclear stations to the epicentre of the magnitude-9 quake in March 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed nearly 20,000 people as well as causing the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

The station was swamped by the tsunami, but survived with its cooling system intact, saving its reactors from the threat of meltdowns similar to those that occurred at Tokyo Electric Power’s Fukushima Daiichi station to the south.

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Signed, sealed, delivered: Japan to all but scrap centuries-old custom of stamping paperwork

The use of seals will be abolished for all but 83 instances such as automobile registration, the official said, affecting transactions carried out by millions of Japanese every day. The official said no specific timetable has been set for phasing out seal use.

The radical switch comes as newly installed Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga seeks to boost use of digital technology to streamline processes and spur lacklustre growth in the world’s third-biggest economy.

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Willis Towers Watson acquires Acclimatise, to strengthen climate resilience leadership

John Firth, CEO and Co-Founder of Acclimatise, said, “Climate change risk is fast becoming a central part of government, corporate and financial decision making and planning. Meeting growing client demand will require increasingly sophisticated approaches to climate risk assessment and management.”

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Insurtech Coherent secures $14mn investment from Cathay Innovation and Franklin Templeton

The new funding from Cathay Innovation and Franklin Templeton provides Coherent with the ability to invest and rapidly expand its operations and capability..Coherent will add technology and actuarial talent to its growing workforce at its current offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai and Manila plus hire new teams in Japan, USA and Thailand. The increased reach will also extend its customer portfolio which currently covers large insurers in Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, Mainland China, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, Brazil and Myanmar.

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 Crypto crime slows in 2020, but ‘DeFi’ hacks rise: CipherTrace report

Crypto crime hit $4.5 billion globally in 2019.
So far this year, losses from thefts and hacks, excluding misappropriation and fraud, grew to $468 million as of end-October, up 30% from $361 million for the whole of last year, the CipherTrace report said. About 20% of those hacks, or roughly $98 million, came from “decentralized finance” or DeFi, which are transactions on platforms that facilitate lending outside of banks.

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After easing of WFH rules, India Inc continues to innovate ahead

The pandemic has been the biggest disruptor of this century and this move by the government can be a gamechanger for the IT and BPO industry, positioning India as a global outsourcing hub leading to job creation beyond the metros.

The changes will enable companies to attract talent from anywhere, reduce costs of operations while also accelerate development and use of new human resources, marketing, sales, business development and other practices to ensure high productivity.

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GSTN infrastructure upgraded to handle up to 300,000 users concurrently

Besides, the Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) has introduced auto-populated sales return form GSTR-3B in PDF form which will be available from October 2020 tax periods onwards.

The complete PDF with auto-population of input tax credit will be available on the common portal (GSTN) from November 12, 2020, GSTN said in a statement.

GSTN said it has augmented the capacity of the gateway from 150,000 to 300,000 concurrent logged in taxpayers to handle the expected sharp surge in the indirect tax-related activities on the portal after easing of lockdown.

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