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Need of 3rd booster dose based more upon conjecture than data: Experts

Pfizer and Moderna recently announced that people who have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccines will probably need a booster shot this year and might need an annual shot thereafter.

Earlier this month, an expert panel of the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI)had permitted Bharat Biotech to give a third dose of its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin to a few volunteers in its clinical trials.

Fears of vaccine exclusion as India uses digital ID, facial recognition

But a requirement to register for appointments on a mobile app using Aadhaar is excluding millions of people who do not have an Aadhaar ID, said Anushka Jain, an associate counsel at the Internet Freedom Foundation in Delhi.

Using facial recognition at vaccine centres risks further marginalising vulnerable people who may be misidentified and refused the vaccine, and raises fears the controversial technology could become the norm at all centres, she added.

Customer privacy, data protection non-negotiable: RBI deputy governor

“We must generate trust amongst the customers that their data is safe and secure in all their financial relationships with regulated entities and for that – innovation and regulation should go hand-in-hand,” he said while speaking at a webinar on Open Banking organised by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in association with the Embassy of India in Brazil on April 14. RBI posted the speech on Friday.

How the Kremlin provides a safe harbor for ransomware

On Thursday, as the U.S. slapped sanctions on Russia for malign activities including state-backed hacking, the Treasury Department said Russian intelligence has enabled ransomware attacks by cultivating and co-opting criminal hackers and giving them safe harbor. With ransomware damages now well into the tens of billions of dollars, former British intelligence cyber chief Marcus Willett recently deemed the scourge “arguably more strategically damaging than state cyber-spying.”

Finmin widens scope of ECLGS, includes healthcare sector

“In recognition of the continuing adverse impact of COVID-19 pandemic on certain service sectors, the government has now extended the scope of ECLGS through introduction of ECLGS 3.0 to cover business enterprises in Hospitality, Travel & Tourism, Leisure & Sporting sectors which had, as on February 29, 2020, total credit outstanding not exceeding Rs 500 crore and overdues, if any, were for 60 days or less, on that date,” the statement issued last month had said.

India has a double mutant Coronavirus variant. Should we be worried?

The new variant, which has a so-called double mutation, is thought to be fueling India’s deadlier new wave of infections that has made it the world’s second worst-hit country, surpassing Brazil, and has already begun to overwhelm its hospitals and crematoriums. The Asian nation has reported more than 14 million Covid cases so far and more than 174,300 fatalities.

City of London Brexit hit worse than expected, says study

Some 7,400 jobs have moved from Britain or been created at new hubs in the EU, the study said. Bankers have told Reuters that some staff moves have been delayed due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.

The total of 440 relocations is higher than anticipated and well above the 269 in New Financial’s 2019 survey. New Financial believes the real number is well over 500.

White House blames Russian spy agency SVR for SolarWinds hack: statement

While some national security experts say the SolarWinds hacking operation could be viewed as a traditional espionage activity that is not uncommon between government hackers, the Treasury Department in its statement said the “scope and scale of this compromise combined with Russia’s history of carrying out reckless and disruptive cyber operations makes it a national security concern.”

The British want to clean up outer space

John Auburn, Astroscale’s managing director and group chief commercial officer in the UK, says that not only could this make space safer, but it could also reinvigorate his country’s space sector. “What the UK industry is pushing now is a complete end-to-end debris removal mission,” he says. “This would be the ultimate post-Brexit space mission.”

ICICI Lombard’s net profit rises 23 % to Rs 346 crore in Q4 FY 21,combined ratio at 101.8 %

Among the business segments, motor, marine and health portfolio saw an underwriting loss in Q4 Fy 2020-21. The insurer had a munderwriting losses stood at Rs 207.97 crore, marine underwriting loss at Rs 10.18 crore, health (retail) underwriting loss was at Rs 8.77 crore and health (corporate) underwriting loss at Rs 23.4 crore.

It has paid claims of over Rs 100 crore on account of natural catastrophe in Fy 2020-21, mainly for Cyclone Amphan that had triggered a total insurable losses of over Rs 1500 crore.