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Here is a masonry blog layout with no sidebarWorld Bank chief says report on pressure to alter data ‘speaks for itself’
Washington: World Bank President David Malpass said on Monday that a law firm's investigation detailing pressure from senior World Bank officials in 2017 and 2019 to boost certain country rankings in the bank's annual Doing Business report "speaks...
World Bank and Sri Lanka sign agreement to strengthen Climate Resilience
Sri Lanka is among countries most affected by extreme weather events and is expected to see a 1.2 percent annual GDP loss by 2050 due to climate change. It is estimated that close to 19 million Sri Lankans may live in areas that could become moderate or severe hotspots in terms of floods or droughts by 2050.
MS Amlin AG appoints Robert Wiest as CEO
Robert Wiest brings over 30 years of industry experience. During a career at Swiss Re spanning over two decades, most recently as Chief Operating Officer, Wiest has successfully led business units as the Head of Global Business Solutions, Head of Strategy and Operations for Asia, and Head of Western and Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Turkey.
Brit launches machine learning algorithm to enable faster claims response to catastrophe events
In this latest innovation, Brit’s Data Science team developed and overlaid a machine learning algorithm to access the ultra-high-resolution ariel images and data such that it pinpoints, color-codes, and displays properties by damage classification within days after a catastrophe event. This enables the Brit Claims team to proactively identify, triage and assign response activity even before claims are reported.
Adani calls for global unity in managing climate crisis
“In my country, more than a quarter billion households and millions of small businesses that generate jobs rely on the availability of cheaply produced electricity,” said Adani. “To switch off that power source without an economical alternative in place would put hundreds of millions of people on an accelerated path to darkness and there are several other nations in the same situation.”
India govt won’t buy Pfizer, Moderna vaccines amid local output -sources
That essentially means the globally popular vaccines, which their makers have pledged not to sell to private parties during the pandemic, will not be available for now in the world’s two most populous countries – China and India. The Indian government has also declined to meet the U.S. companies’ requests for legal protection over any side-effects from the use of their shots, which are currently made only in the United States or Europe, two of the sources said.
Amazon spends Rs 8,546 cr in legal expenses during 2018-20 to maintain presence in India
Road length rises 17 pc to 6.39 mln km, registered vehicles 41pc in 2015-19
Law on population control will be brought ‘at right time’: UP CM
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.
Expected Centre to transfer unutilised crowd sourced amount to rare diseases fund: HC
On March 23, the court had passed a slew of directions in connection with the treatment of persons with rare diseases, including a direction to notify the National Health Policy for Rare Diseases by March 31 and setting up a National Consortium for Research, Development and Therapeutics, a rare diseases committee at AIIMS and a fund for such ailments.
Gujarat, Kerala & TN top FSSAI food safety index for 2020-21
The index ranks states on five parameters of food safety: human resources and institutional data, compliance, food testing facility, training and capacity building besides consumer empowerment.
Among small states, Goa came first followed by Meghalaya and Manipur. Among union territories, Jammu and Kashmir, Andaman and Nicobar Island and Delhi secured the top three positions on the index.
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.
Investment consultants advising $10 trln in assets launch climate initiative
“The global transition to a net zero economy means asset owners have to develop their understanding of climate risks, think about changing pathways for their assets and exercise their stewardship rights,” said Luba Nikulina, global head of research at Willis Towers Watson.
“Investment consultants play a vital role in supporting asset owners on this journey and helping them increase their level of climate ambition.”
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.”
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.
French company Carmat announces first implant of its artificial heart in a woman
“This third implant in the U.S. was a landmark event not only because it allowed us to finalize the enrollment of the first cohort of patients of the EFS (early feasibility study), but very importantly because it is the first time ever that our device has helped a woman suffering from heart failure,” Carmat CEO Stephane Piat said in a statement.
India: Muslims still have the highest birth rate of any of India’s major religious groups: Pew’s report
“Every religious group in the country has seen its fertility fall, including the majority Hindu population and Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain minority groups,” it said.
According to Pew, in India and elsewhere, education is a primary factor in how many children women tend to have. Other prosperity indicators – such as life expectancy and average levels of wealth – also frequently correlate with fertility measures: Women who have better access to schooling, jobs and health care tend to have fewer children, it said.