on 20-Sep-2020 (Sun)

What is BIPOC movement and how it recognises diversity and empowers

The acronym for Black Indigenous and People of Other Colour, the term gained traction on the internet when the #BlackLivesMatter movement started growing in the wake of George Floyd's death in the US in May. Young people, aware of the intersectionality of politics and culture, and unwilling to be pushed around agenda-driven impositions, brought conversations around BIPOC to the fore, to unite people of all colours and expand its ambit.

For the next thirty years, 10,000 employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will likely be tracked for most of their working lives as part of an initiative to track an array of health-vitals and genes. The over-arching aim is to be able to build a medical cohort to give long-term perspective on the malaises that affect Indians and determine if such a databank can be used to help with predicting, say, the onset of diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

In the case of infectious diseases like COVID-19, hospitals have to make sure that their patient-facing employees are safe by using Personal Protective Equipment, in particular, N95 masks. N95 masks can stop up to 95% of particles that are as small as 0.3 microns. Yet, not only are N95 masks expensive, they also cannot easily be reused immediately. A collaboration between Mumbai-based institutions, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) and Tata Memorial Hospital, has spawned a workable solution to the problem of expense and decontamination.

If the used N95 mask is left alone and exposed to air for 96 hours, it will get decontaminated. If a person had five masks to use, and used a different one each day, then by the sixth day, the mask used on day one will be decontaminated. As Prof. Pramesh explains, in TMH, they use a combination of the two approaches for best results. “To date over 6,500 N95 masks have been decontaminated using this method at our hospital. Not only has this resulted in a huge saving, the integrity and reliability of the masks are not compromised,” says Prof. Pramesh. Before using the masks, the group ascertained that the right temperature and right duration of heating eliminated the viral load, and the mask was decontaminated and its integrity intact.

The TIFR group also tests the masks beforehand to make sure that they indeed qualify to be called N95. As Prof. Pramesh explains, “This is because as the pandemic grew in impact, we needed many more masks than our usual suppliers could provide. We had to purchase them from new manufacturers and needed to check the quality.” This has two aspects – checking the filtration capacity and also the fit, and the TIFR team obliged.

Social Justice Ministry to launch mental health rehabilitation helpline Special Correspondent NEW DELHI, August 26, 2020 13:01 IST Updated: August 26, 2020 19:09 IST Special Correspondent NEW DELHI, August 26, 2020 13:01 IST Updated: August 26, 2020 19:09 IST “Kiran” helpline number, 1800-599-0019, will offer support in 13 languages.

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Photo for representation. | Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

“Kiran” helpline number, 1800-599-0019, will offer support in 13 languages.

It is just the second time a virus has been eradicated in Africa, after the elimination of smallpox four decades ago, says WHO

Health authorities on Tuesday are expected to declare the African continent free of the wild poliovirus after decades of effort, though cases of vaccine-derived polio are still sparking outbreaks of the paralyzing disease in more than a dozen countries.

The declaration would leave Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan as the only countries thought to still have the wild poliovirus, with vaccination efforts against the highly infectious, water-borne disease complicated by insecurity and attacks on health workers.

The World Health Organization says it is just the second time a virus has been eradicated in Africa, after the elimination of smallpox four decades ago.

This new declaration doesn’t mean Africa is polio-free. Cases remain of the so-called vaccine-derived polio virus, which is a rare mutated form of the weakened but live virus contained in the oral polio vaccine.

A study has found that the HbA1c levels among those newly detected with diabetes is rather high, indicating late clinical diagnosis, said A. Ramachandran, lead author of the study

A study by researchers has found that even patients who are believed to have been diagnosed as diabetic early, may develop serious complications.

When the bacteria in the armpit encounter sweat, they produce pungent products. The by-products, called thioalcohols, are responsible for the odour.

Sweat itself is virtually odourless to humans until bacteria on your skin starts breaking it down.

Body odour can be unique to every individual and can even be used to identify people. Each person’s unique body odour can be influenced by diet, gender, health, and medication.

Previous findings suggest that early humans used to emit a smell too. This smell was an important way of communication during prehistoric times.

Mann Mela, a digital and travelling mental health museum shares first-person stories of trauma, self-acceptance, recovery and growth

Through sharing people’s experiences, Mann Mela hopes to tackle common misconceptions around mental conditions, break stigma associated and encourage seeking help.

Dengue virus tests may sometimes return ‘positive’ for coronavirus, says study Jacob Koshy NEW DELHI: , August 21, 2020 22:45 IST Updated: August 22, 2020 10:37 IST Jacob Koshy NEW DELHI: , August 21, 2020 22:45 IST Updated: August 22, 2020 10:37 IST Deeper investigation may be required into finding out if there are crucial similarities in the structure of the two viruses.

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Because the viruses that causes dengue and coronaviruses belong to entirely different families, it is not expected for one to show affinity to the other. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

Deeper investigation may be required into finding out if there are crucial similarities in the structure of the two viruses.

Can dengue be sometimes mistaken for COVID-19? Two independent resear

...

“India and Brazil are highly endemic for dengue as are many parts of southeast Asia. Could that explain relatively lower per million mortality compared to Europe and the United States, where there’s little dengue? That may be worth investigating,” he added.

The main muscle involved in inspiration (air intake) is the diaphragm that sits between the chest and abdomen. “We must breathe with the diaphragm, not the chest,” says Dr Salvi, who as the founder-director of the Pulmocare Research and Education Foundation (PURE)

The Union Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry on Monday launched a 24/7 toll-free helpline to provide support to people facing anxiety, stress, depression, suicidal thoughts and other mental health concerns.

The mental health rehabilitation helpline, KIRAN, can be called from landline and mobile phones across the country at the number 1800-599-0019, the Ministry announced.

India has received an offer from Russia to conduct a trial and manufacture its “Sputnik-V” COVID-19 vaccine

“We expect the economy to rebound at a more modest pace, with nominal GDP growth rising to around 8.7% in fiscal 2020.”

Moody’s Investors Service on Tuesday said economic growth projections made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget for 2020-21 appear ambitious given the structural and cyclical challenges facing the Indian economy.

The Budget expects nominal GDP growth of 10% in the next fiscal , followed by 12.6% and 12.8% in FY22 and FY23, respectively.

According to latest data, over the past six years, India’s savings rate has been considerably declining.

An asset becomes non-performing if interest or principal payment is overdue for more than 90 days.

In a relief to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the deadline for one- time debt recast for these firms that are in default but have not been classified as non-performing.

The central bank has also asked commercial banks to link pricing of loans for the medium-sized enterprises to an external benchmark effective April 1, 2020.

Earlier, banks were directed to link the loan rate to an external benchmark for retail loans and credit extended to micro and small enterprises.

The step was taken with a view to further strengthening monetary transmission, the RBI said.

Since spiritual tourism in India accounts for 60% of the total domestic tourism, IHCL has set up hotels at key locations like Tirupati, Varanasi, Amritsar, Madurai and Rishikesh, to name a few.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) on Tuesday reported its first-ever quarterly loss after it took an impairment on the slump in oil and gas prices.

India’s top oil and gas producer reported a ₹3,098-crore loss in the January-March quarter compared with a profit of ₹4,240 crore in the same period a year back.

An impairment loss is a recognised reduction in the carrying amount of an asset that is triggered by a decline in its fair value.

“We manufacture everything here. India imported ₹71,000 crore worth power equipment including ₹21,000 crore from China,” Mr. Singh said in the State energy ministers conference chaired by him this morning in his opening remarks.

He said: “This (huge import of power equipment) is something we cannot tolerate that a country will transgress into our territory....we will not take anything from China and Pakistan.”

He further said, “We will not give permission for import from Prior Reference countries. We are affected. There could be malware or trojen horse in those (imports from China) which they can activate remotely (to cripple our power systems).”

India’s gold imports plunged 86% year-on-year in June due to record high prices, international air travel being banned and many jewellery shops remaining shut amid a nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, a government source said.

The world’s second-biggest consumer of the precious metal imported about 11 tonnes of gold in June, a steep fall from the 77.7 tonnes a year ago, the source, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

NPCI was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organisation for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India. It has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country.

It facilitates payments through a bouquet of retail payment products such as RuPay Card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), UPI, Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay.

NPCI also launched UPI 2.0 to offer more secure and comprehensive services to consumers and merchants.

IRDAI forms panel to mull surety bonds

Ola enables in-app ‘tipping’ globally

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The government plans to impose 20% basic customs duty duty on imported solar panels to boost the domestic industry, the sources said. Solar developers have been largely dependent on Chinese equipment.

Coal India Ltd. (CIL) and NLC India will jointly develop solar power assets of 3,000 MW with a likely investment of about ₹12,000 crore, sources said on Saturday.

The two state-run companies had on Friday said they would form a JV to develop 5,000 MW of solar and thermal power assets across the country.

Adani Transmission to acquire Alipurduar Transmission from Kalpataru

Indonesia imposed a 10% value-added tax on sales by technology firms including Amazon, Netflix, Spotify and Google on Tuesday, as spending patterns shift with increased remote working as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, which has hit state finances.

Amidst the clamour to ban China made goods, the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs has sent out a reminder to all e-commerce portals to ensure that the “country of origin” of the products being sold by them should be mentioned as part of mandatory declarations.

Government bans 59 apps including China-based TikTok, WeChat

“At a time when we are pushing for ‘Made in India’ products, it is equally necessary for our consumers to know exactly where the products that they are buying are coming from,” Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said at an online press conference on Thursday.

The Ministry in its reminder invoked the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. These rules make it mandatory for all manufacturers to declare the package name and address of the manufacturer, common and generic name of commodity, net quantity, month and year of manufacturing, MRP and consumer care details. In addition to these, in 2017, new provisions were added for e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart and so on, making it compulsory for them to display these information along with “declaration of country of origin or manufacture or assembly” and a clear mention of expiry date.

The Ministry in its reminder invoked the Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011. These rules make it mandatory for all manufacturers to declare the package name and address of the manufacturer, common and generic name of commodity, net quantity, month and year of manufacturing, MRP and consumer care details. In addition to these, in 2017, new provisions were added for e-commerce websites such as Amazon, Flipkart and so on, making it compulsory for them to display these information along with “declaration of country of origin or manufacture or assembly” and a clear mention of expiry date.

Also read: Centre tighten norms for e-commerce companies for sale of products

There are punitive provisions in the law. For the first offence, a penalty up to ₹25000 can be charged, for the second offence, the fine may extend to ₹50,000. Any subsequent offences can attract a jail term of one year.

Bharat Forge Ltd. (BFL), in collaboration with AI start up Blackstraw, has introduced Health Risk Monitoring System (HRMS), an AI based solution that enables companies and institutions to comply with Ministry of Home Affairs guidelines for safe reopening.

HRMS, an intelligent video analytics solution, has been developed to empower workplaces with worker safety, and is aligned with the future dependability of enterprises on technology and AI to monitor compliance of MHA policies by employees.

The solution includes thermal screening through cameras and RFID reader which alerts administrators when social distancing norms are not met or if an employee is not wearing a face mask

This is the thirteenth consecutive rate cut by the lender since July last year.

The country’s largest lender State Bank of India has also reduced its MCLR by 5-10 basis points (bps) for shorter tenors, effective Friday.

Another state-run Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has cut its MCLR by up to 25 bps across tenors.

Earlier this week, Canara Bank and Bank of Maharashtra (BoM) also reduced their MCLRs by 10 bps and 20 bps, respectively across all tenors.

“Moody’s expects the GDP of most ASEAN economies and India will contract in 2020 and gradually recover in 2021.

“The relaxation of lockdowns and resumption of economic activity will be the key factors supporting the recovery,” the report said.

FMCG sales in June at pre COVID-19 levels: Nielsen

RIL, he said, was transforming its energy business to make it net carbon-zero by 2035. “We have a 15-year vision to build Reliance as one of the world’s leading new energy and new materials company,” Mr. Ambani added.

He said the new energy business would make clean and green energy abundantly available at an affordable price to every Indian, every enterprise and every utility.

Sanitisers are disinfectants like soap, will attract 18% GST: Finance Ministry

The Goa bench of Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) had recently ruled that alcohol-based hand sanitisers will attract 18% duty under GST.

Although the Ministry of Consumer Affairs has classified hand sanitisers as an essential commodity, the GST law has a separate list of exempted goods.

Remdesivir is the only drug approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) treatment of adult and paediatric patients hospitalised with suspected or laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infection.

Covifor is the first generic brand of Remdesivir, which is meant for treatment of COVID-19 patients that are adults and children, hospitalised with severe symptoms of the disease.

“The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at (-1.81%) (provisional) for June compared to 2.02% during the corresponding month of the previous year,” the Industry Ministry said.