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Global Remittances could fall $109 billion in 2020 because of COVID-19

3Aug By PriyankaNo Comments

News

Global Remittances could fall $109 billion in 2020 because of COVID-19

As per the latest report by the World Bank, due to Covid-19, the Global Remittances could fall by $109bn in 2020. The total value of remittances reached $714 billion in 2019. At least 60 low- and middle-income country's GDP depend on remittances that are the most affected now. Tajikistan and Bermuda, for example, both depend on remittances for more than 30% of GDP. Other heavily-dependent countries include Nepal and Haiti. And the countries which rely on remittances the most often have economies which are already fragile. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), this money often helps even out trade deficits and provides a key source of tax revenue particularly in terms of indirect taxes like value-added tax and sales tax. Remittances to Asia and the Pacific, which...

Online classes short term answer, need to make schools resilient: Nandan Nilekani

15Jun By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

Entrepreneurs Talk

Online classes short term answer, need to make schools resilient: Nandan Nilekani

The rapid shift to teaching and learning activities online prompted by the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic is only a "short-term response" and we need to fundamentally reimagine schools as a resilient system which can function under continuous turbulence, according to Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani. Classroom should not be the only location, teacher the only facilitator and textbook not the only medium, is the roadmap laid by Nilekani for a "resilient" school system while delivering the keynote address at a virtual conference on 'Future of Schools: Overcoming Covid-19 challenge and beyond' organsied by Ashoka University. "The rapid shift to move everything online, zoom classes, teaching through smart phones, all of this is part of a short-term response which was ne...

SoftBank CEO Son says will supply 300 million masks per month to Japan

13Apr By NitishNo Comments

News

SoftBank CEO Son says will supply 300 million masks per month to Japan

TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son said he has secured a monthly supply of 300 million face masks for Japan after reaching a deal with Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD Co Ltd, which has also started producing masks. From next month, SoftBank will supply two different kinds of mask, initially for medical staff, in cooperation with the Japanese government’s “mask team”, set up to tackle shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak, Son said on Twitter. SoftBank, which last month said it was donating 1.4 million masks to New York state, will supply the masks without taking a profit. Addressing the supply crunch is a priority for the Japanese government, which will begin delivering two washable masks to households next week a move that has been widely criticized o...

TikTok pledges USD 250 mn for COVID-19 Relief

9Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

BUSINESS

TikTok pledges USD 250 mn for COVID-19 Relief

TikTok, the short video making app will contribute $250 million to coronavirus relief efforts around the world. The Chinese-based firm said the funds would be for "front line medical workers, educators, and local communities deeply affected by the global crisis." "We are committed to playing our part in that global outpouring of mutual support and giving," TikTok president Alex Zhu said in a statement."We want to magnify all we are seeing across our community and translate it into concrete relief for those most affected by this crisis." TikTok said USD 150 million of the funds would be allocated for medical staffing, supplies, and hardship relief for health care workers through the US Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and agencies working to distribute suppl...

Trump has small financial interest hydroxychloroquine firm: NYT

7Apr By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

USA

Trump has small financial interest hydroxychloroquine firm: NYT

President Donald Trump, who has aggressively promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus patients in and has asked India to export the anti-malarial drug to the US, has a small personal financial interest in the French pharma giant Sanofi, one of the manufacturers of the drug, according to a media report. Hydroxychloroquine, an old and inexpensive drug used to treat malaria, is seen as a viable therapeutic solution by President Trump to coronavirus that has so far killed more than 10,000 Americans and infected over 3.6 lakh within weeks. On Monday, Trump warned India that the US may retaliate if it did not export hydroxychloroquine despite his personal request, saying he would be surprised if New Delhi did not relent as it has good relations with Washington. If hy...

31Mar By NitishNo Comments

CHINA

China’s Manufacturing Rebounds as Virus Controls Ease

China's manufacturing rebounded in March as authorities relaxed anti-disease controls and allowed factories to reopen, an official survey showed Tuesday, but an industry group warned the economy has yet to fully recover. The ruling Communist Party is trying to revive the world's second-largest economy after declaring victory over the coronavirus even as the United States and other governments shut down businesses. The purchasing managers' index issued by the Chinese statistics bureau and the official China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing rose to 52 from February's record low of 35.7 on a 100-point scale on which numbers above 50 show activity increasing. The federation and private sector economists cautioned the economy still faces challenges as manufacturers rebuild sup...

Zuckerberg Philanthropic Arm Pledges USD 25M to Fund Researching COVID-19 Treatments

29Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Zuckerberg Philanthropic Arm Pledges USD 25M to Fund Researching COVID-19 Treatments

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropic arm of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, has announced plans to team up with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to donate USD 25 million to a research fund exploring possible COVID-19 treatments. "I'm really proud to share that (The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is) going to be joining Gates and others to put together something they're calling the therapeutics accelerator to fight coronavirus," Chan told "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King. Chan told King that their goal is "to fund a group to screen all the drugs that we know have potential effects against coronavirus."Zuckerberg said one drug can often be used to treat multiple diseases. "You can basically take all those drugs that have already been...

Pune based Mylabs develops COVID19 Testing Kit in Record Time

24Mar By AdityaNo Comments

Story

Pune based Mylabs develops COVID19 Testing Kit in Record Time

In what may go down as an important solution in India's fight against coronavirus, Pune-based Mylabs Discovery Solutions has created an indigenous solution to test patients for COVID-19 that can halve the time taken for results. 'The molecular diagnostic company, which received statutory approvals late on Monday from authorities, can manufacture over 15,000 testing kits per day from its facility at Lonavala in Pune district and the same will be ramped up to 25,000 kits per day", co-founder Shrikant Patole told Pixr8 News. Citing the experience in South Korea, the World Health Organisation has been stressing on the importance of tests to fight the pandemic, which has so far claimed nine lives in India. Though around 500 people have been tested positive for the virus in India so fa...

Dubai Suspending All Economic Lifeline Amid Coronavirus Threat

23Mar By PriyankaNo Comments

MIDDLE EAST

Dubai Suspending All Economic Lifeline Amid Coronavirus Threat

Dubai is closing its famous malls and halting all passenger flights, capping a series of shutdowns on once-thriving sectors that serve as its economic lifeline but which have been sacrificed to curb coronavirus. A few days after barring foreigners, including those with residency permits, from entering the country, the emirate said it would close its airports to commercial flights, shut shopping centres and restrict restaurants to home deliveries. Within hours of the announcement, which will be enforced by Wednesday, the city's vast malls were already largely deserted, with corridors and concourses empty and shops devoid of customers. Boasting the most diversified economy in the Gulf, Dubai derives 94 percent of its public revenues from non-oil sources which also make up the major...

Facebook Messenger Set to Battle Against Coronavirus

23Mar By AdityaNo Comments

News

Facebook Messenger Set to Battle Against Coronavirus

Facebook began enlisting outside developers to create ways its Messenger service can help health organizations battling the novel coronavirus. The social network also invited software savants to take part in an online "hackathon" aimed at creating ways to use Messenger to ease social-distancing and deliver accurate information about the pandemic, according to Messenger vice president Stan Chudnovsky in a blog post. He unveiled a global program intended to connect government health organizations and UN agencies with developers who can create ways to use Messenger share accurate information and speed up responses to people's questions. Software makers, for example, could help agencies automate answering common questions, to allow staff to tackle more challenging tasks. Developers c...

Google building Self-check Website for Coronavirus

14Mar By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Google building Self-check Website for Coronavirus

Internet giant Alphabet is creating a website where people will be able to check whether they have symptoms of the novel coronavirus. Verily Life Sciences, once a project in a Google X lab devoted to "moonshot" projects and now its own health business unit, is testing a "tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing," Google confirmed on Twitter. "Verily is in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time," the tweet said, referring to San Francisco and surrounding communities. Trump thanked Google while declaring a state of national emergency due to the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Google is helping to develop a website "to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate test...

Paytm Employee in Gurgaon Tests Positive for Coronavirus

5Mar By Press Trust of IndiaNo Comments

News

Paytm Employee in Gurgaon Tests Positive for Coronavirus

A Paytm employee in Gurgaon has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, the company said in a statement on Wednesday, advising its employees to work from home for the next couple of days. It said the infected employee had recently returned from a vacation in Italy, one of the worst-hit countries. The leading digital payments firm has advised all its employees to work from home for the next couple of days while the Gurgaon unit gets sanitised, the statement said, adding its daily operations will not be impacted. "One of our colleagues based out of Gurgaon office who recently returned from Italy post a vacation has sadly been tested positive for Coronavirus. He is receiving appropriate treatment. As a precautionary measure, we have suggested his team members to get health tests ...