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World Bank launches new Cybersecurity Multi-Donor Trust Fund

“There is widespread agreement in the international community that significantly more cybersecurity capacity building is needed to help low- and middle-income countries become more resilient against attacks and take full advantage of the development opportunities of the digital economy,” said Felix Kroll of the Cyber Foreign Policy and Cyber Security Coordination Staff of the German Federal Foreign Office.

Pandemic has IFC pumping $1.7 billion into local companies, up 51%

The impact of the pandemic coupled with the region’s vulnerability to climate change, has highlighted the need for a collaborative, resilient and climate friendly recovery that can withstand future shocks, said its new regional director for South Asia, Hector Gomez Ang.

While South Asia is one of the fastest growing regions in the world, estimates suggest that climate impacts could reduce its annual GDP by an average of 1.8 percent by 2050, rising to 8.8 percent by 2100 if the region failed to take adequate corrective measures. The region is also estimated to have an untapped climate investment potential of USD3.4 trillion by 2030, Ang said.

NPS” non-govt subscriber base crosses 30 lakh-mark; corpus to hit Rs 1 lakh cr soon: PFRDA

“As of August 14, the non-government sector, which is the corporate and all citizen model, we have seen that the total onboarding (of subscribers) has crossed three million. In this, retail is a big landmark for us.

“Three years ago, our subscriber was just about 13-13.5 lakh (March 2018) in retail and corporate,” the chairman of the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA).

No data shows need for booster vaccines presently: Dr Gagandeep Kang

According to Dr Kang, whether people will have more antibodies or be better protected with the booster dose is still not known.

“It sounds obvious that more antibodies (abs) are better but we really don’t know whether people who push up abs with additional doses will be better protected than with the level they initially made. Or that when abs wane, we need to boost to maintain above some level,” she said.

Further, she explained how people with a poor immune response should get a third dose,

Claim and counter-claim: health insurance key point of debate in pandemic

Health insurance companies received a total of 23.06 lakh claims from April 2020 till August 6, 2021, of which 13.19 lakh claims worth Rs 14,783 crore were received since April 1 this year, it said.

But why are claims being rejected? Giving the flip side of the picture, companies in the business said there are various reasons, including patients hiding pre-existing conditions or raising a claim before the waiting period of certain days after purchasing a policy.

Sources: US to recommend COVID vaccine boosters at 8 months

Federal health officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots for the vaccinated would be needed as early as this fall, reviewing case numbers in the U.S. as well as the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.

Shell will pay $111 million to end Nigerian oil-spill case

The Anglo-Dutch energy giant will pay the Ejama-Ebubu people 45.7 billion naira ($111 million) in compensation to end a legal case that began in 1991, the community’s lawyer, Lucius Nwosu, said by phone.
The origin of the Ejama-Ebubu community’s grievance against Shell dates back to a rupture in one of the company’s oil pipelines in 1970. Shell said it maintains that the environmental damage was caused by “third parties” during a civil war that was raging at the time.

Why snow, hail and wildfire are expensive for insurance industry

Martin Bertogg, head of catastrophic perils at Swiss Re, said that the industry had been challenged by what is known as “secondary perils.” That is, while the insurance industry has historically done a good job of modeling relatively rare but potentially devastating events such as earthquakes and hurricanes, it’s battling to keep up with risks posed by snow storms, hail, tornadoes and wildfires. Those used to cause relatively minor damage but are increasingly morphing into something more costly. And that is a problem for companies, since many Americans have coverage for such events.

Versius robotic surgery redefines the Indian healthcare sector

Robotics is most suitable for people who cannot afford to recuperate for a long time at home as they must make ends meet. The advantage of Versius is that it provides a three-dimensional image, which is magnified 16 times along with precision where blood loss is less, collateral damage to tissues is less, chances of infection are less, post-operative pain is very less, and recovery is faster.

Ola drives in e-scooter tagged at Rs 99,999 onwards; deliveries to commence in Oct

”Charging station roll out will follow sales rollout, so it will be sales, then charging stations but every city will have at least relevant scale as we begin,” Aggarwal said. Ola had earlier stated that it would like to have 5,000 charging stations across 300 cities and towns across India.
The executive pointed out that the company has received strong demand from about 1,000 towns and cities. ”The EV revolution is here to stay whether incumbents like it or not. Consumers have shifted in their mindsets and before we know it, people will be buying only electric,” he noted.

Extreme weather makes everything harder, except climate-risk analysis

The findings were hardly surprising to those who follow climate science closely, but the gravitas of the report, which summarizes work by thousands of academics, will shift the broader conversation on global warming for years to come.That we now acknowledge, without doubt, that rising global temperatures are causing more extreme weather underlines the importance of all the work being done to assess the financial costs of climate change. It is also a reminder that financial analysts, policymakers and economists can’t begin to capture the full scale and effect of a warming planet.

Biz activity last week higher than pre-COVID level for first time: Report

This is the first time that the activity has breached the pre-pandemic base. The index level had declined sharply in the immediate aftermath of the national lockdown in April last year and rose steadily to be very close to the pre-pandemic levels of March 2020. However, the second wave and the ensuing localised lockdowns dented it again, till it rose after the waning of the infections.