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Biden’s $3.5 trillion climate change plan to eliminate fossil fuel emissions from U.S

Included in the massive legislation is a nationwide clean-electricity program that is intended to eliminate climate-damaging fossil fuel emissions from U.S. power plants by 2035 catching up to requirements already set in some states.

The proposal would spend billions to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and upgrade the power grid to make it more resilient during hurricanes and other extreme weather events that are increasing and intensifying as a result of climate change.

Investors with $4 trln assets aim to tackle Asian firms on climate change goals

The six investors include BMO Global Asset Management EMEA, Fidelity International, Dutch pension fund PGGM, Britain-based Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, Aviva Investors and Legal & General Investment Management.

Initial engagement will focus on carbon risk and coal at banks and coal-exposed power companies, the group of investors, facilitated by Singapore-based advisor Asia Research & Engagement (ARE), said in a statement.

The move comes as investors become more active in the field of environmental, social and corporate (ESG) governance, helping to shape firms’ climate commitments to better manage that risk for their clients. ESG-related steps they have taken include backing activist shareholder resolutions and voting on board members and remuneration.

McKinsey Report: Asia-Pacific digital banking accelerating, led by emerging markets

McKinsey concluded that, “To deliver on this report’s calls to action, banks need to make fundamental changes in how they operate. They also need to build the capabilities required for an AI-powered digital-first business model, including a new sales and service model, modern operations and technology, and an agile operating model. Any bank that intends to remain relevant and thrive must become an innovation leader.” 

PM Modi launches National Digital Mission to ensure health IDs for all

The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.

This will ensure ease of doing business for doctors and hospitals and healthcare service providers.

Covid caused biggest decrease in life expectancy since World War II: Study

The research team assembled an unprecedented dataset on mortality from 29 countries, spanning most of Europe, the US and Chile — countries for which official death registrations for 2020 had been published.
It took on average 5.6 years for these countries to achieve a one-year increase in life expectancy recently, while the progress was wiped out over the course of 2020 by Covid-19, they said.

The largest declines in life expectancy were observed among males in the US, who saw a decline of 2.2 years relative to 2019 levels, followed by Lithuanian males (1.7 years), they said.

FM Sitharaman to launch 3-day Global FinTech Fest on Sept 28

Senior policy makers addressing the Fest are R S Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology; Dr Krishnamurthy V Subramanian, Chief Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance,T Rabi Sankar, Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India; G Mahalingam, Whole Time Member, Securities and Exchange Board of India; Lord Mayor William Russell; City of London and Saurabh Garg, CEO, Unique Identification Authority of India.

Among the international regulatory and institutional speakers are: Tobias Adrian, Financial Counsellor and Director Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund; Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief Fintech Officer, Monetary Authority of Singapore; Dr Oliver Prill, CEO, Tide; Preeti Sinha, Executive Secretary, United Nations Capital Development Fund.

India reports 26,041 new COVID-19 cases

At least 73 percent of Odisha’s population and over 93 percent of health workers have developed antibodies against SARS-CoV2, according to a recent serosurvey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The survey was conducted in 12 of the state’s 30 districts between August 29 and September 15 by experts of ICMR’s Regional Medical Research (ICMR), Bhubaneswar with help of the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Odisha government.

ICICI Gen sees fall in claims for heart ailments

According to the claims data of ICICI Lombard General Insurance ,females are seeing a sharper decline in the trend with 63.79% as compared to men with only 62.4%, in the year 2021-22 so far, as compared to 2019-20

All cities showcase a downward trend of claims arising from heart ailments. Mumbai has the highest number of claims for cardiovascular ailments in India, followed closely by National Capital Region NCR,

UN development arm launches disaster insurance programme

The facility will also have funding from other sources, including the UNDP itself, a spokesperson said. The UNDP is aiming to help create insurance protection from socio-economic, climate and health-related disasters in more than 50 developing countries by 2025, it said.

“Insurance and risk-finance products, tools and services can secure our critical infrastructure, protect our agriculture and businesses, and preserve critical ecosystems that make life on earth possible,” said UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner.

AXA XL appoints Head of Climate to accelerate sustainability efforts

“As a signatory of the UN Principles for Sustainable Insurance, AXA XL is committed to taking a leading role in working with our clients and business partners to raise awareness of climate issues, manage risk and develop solutions to create a more sustainable society.Andy’s expertise and knowledge of our business will allow us to further advance our understanding and response to climate change by ensuring we continue to understand how the climate is evolving and how this impacts our overall strategy. Andy is charged with embedding our climate strategy across AXA XL from underwriting to claims, to risk and operations ensuring that we meet our climate leadership ambitions,” said Scott Gunter, CEO of AXA XL

Amazon to start offering insurance to UK businesses: Broker

Members of Amazon’s Business Prime program will be able to buy cover from Superscript such as contents insurance, cyber insurance and professional indemnity insurance, which a Superscript spokesperson said would be underwritten by “major UK insurers.” They will be offered a discount of 20% to current rates as a way of enticing businesses over to them.

Gulab impact: Heavy crop damages reported in Andhra Pradesh

“An ex gratia of Rs 5 lakhs to the families of the deceased and Rs 1,000 should be given to each family while returning home from relief camps,” said Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Agricultural and horticultural crops in over 1.63 lakh acres suffered damaged due to the heavy downpour in Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari and Krishna districts, Agriculture Minister K Kanna Babu said while citing preliminary estimates.

Women are more burnt out and considering quitting in US: McKinsey

In the last five years, women’s representation has increased at all levels, the report found. Women hold nearly 50% of all entry level jobs and around a quarter of C-suite roles, each up a few percentage points from 2016.
“Our concerns are the impact of pandemic burnout on women long-term, and what companies need to do in response,” said Rachel Thomas, co-founder and chief executive officer of Lean In.

1.71 cr workers from unorganised sector registered on e-Shram portal in a month: Labour Ministry

Data analysis based on the last week showed that a substantial proportion of women workers in domestic work are getting themselves registered on the portal. This is one category of occupation where women outnumber men.

Besides, women form substantial proportion of workforce in sectors like agriculture as labourers, food industries as helpers and machine operators, apparel industry as helpers and tailors and also in small scale units of tobacco/ beedi rolling and as ASHAs/ ANMs in the healthcare industry.

Therefore, it would not be wrong to assume that most vulnerable groups of women are insured under various protection schemes accruing from registration at the portal, the ministry said. Since week one, Odisha and Bihar have competed with each other to maintain the first position, it stated.

Munich Re appoints Michaela Hannemann as new Regional Head of Casualty Treaty Underwriting for Japan, India, Korea & SE Asia

“In addition to her strong casualty treaty background and her multi-market experience across emerging and mature regions, I am confident that Michaela’s passion for client focus will be a driving force in our ongoing commitment to maintaining strong and sustainable long term relationships with clients and industry partners in the region ,” said Roland Eckl, Munich Re’s Chief Executive Asia Pacific (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia).