Weekly Update: November 09, 2020 - November 13, 2020

You have to chase your dreams, no matter what.
The impossible just takes a little longer.
One stroke at a time, one step at a time, the impossible is easy to achieve.
-Tory Murden
(March 06, 1963; First American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean)

Let's start!

Here is a Fun Fact that you may not, or may, know: If you eat three or more large carrots everyday, then your skin can turn orange.

Image Credit: https://www.precisionnutrition.com/

This is called Carotenemia, and this happens because carrots give too much beta-carotene to the body.

November 09, 2020 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 85,53,657
Recovered - 79,17,373
Deceased - 1,26,611

:::Tata Medical and Diagnostics, the healthcare unit of Tata Group, launched its Government-Approved Covid-19 test kit. The test kit can provide final results within ninety minutes. It will be manufactured at Tata's plant in Chennai, that has a capacity to produce one million kits in a period of one month.

Image Credit: https://www.tata.com/

Girish Krishnamurthy, Chief Executive Officer of Tata Medical and Diagnostics, said that the kit will be made available to laboratories and hospitals from December 2020.

:::Dr. Vivek Murthy, an Indian-American Physician, was named as one of the three co-chairs of the Covid-19 task force. He will be responsible for guiding Joe Biden, President of the United States of America, to: shape his approach in managing the surge in reported infections; ensure that vaccines are safe, effective & distributed efficiently, equitable & free; and, protect at-risk populations. The other two co-chairs are: Dr. David Kessler and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith.

Image Credit: vivekmurthy.com

Dr. Vivek Murthy is forty-three years young and he hails from Karnataka. He has earlier served as the nineteenth Surgeon General from December 15, 2014 to April 21, 2017.

November 10, 2020 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 85,91,730
Recovered - 79,59,406
Deceased - 1,27,059

:::Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) released the retail sales data for the month of October 2020. As per the data released by FADA, sales of two-wheelers has decreased by 27%, sales of passengers vehicles like cars, SUV, vans, etc., has decreased by 9%, sales of commercial vehicles has decreased by 30% and sales of three-wheelers has decreased by 65%. FADA said in its report that the companies are forcefully flooding their dealers with heavy inventory and it will be a challenge to clear the inventory if sales are not healthy.

Image Credit: https://www.facebook.com/FADAINDIA.ORG/

While sentiments of automobile dealers are challenging, the companies have presented a contrast report. Maruti in its report showed a growth of 18%, Hyundai showed a growth of 13%, Tata Motors showed a growth of 79%, Kia showed a growth of 64% and Hero Moto showed a growth of 35%.

:::The wealth of Eric Yuan, Chief Executive Officer & Founder of Zoom, dropped by $5.1 billion after Pfizer announced that its Covid-19 vaccine has proven to be more than 90% effective in trials. He is now worth $20 billion. The shares of Zoom, too, fell by 17%. The stock of other companies like Peloton Interactive Inc., Netflix Inc. and Ocado Group also fell. On the other hand, the stock of airline companies, oil giants and hotel operators surged.

Image Credit: Kena Betancur | Getty Images

Mandeep Singh, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, reacted to the news by saying that he does not think that the trend around e-commerce, video collaboration or shift-to-cloud would change as a result of the vaccine.

November 11, 2020 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 86,36,011
Recovered - 80,13,783
Deceased - 1,27,571

:::Hyundai Motor unveiled the updated version of Kona Electric SUV. It is equipped with a 10.25-inch digital cluster, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and Hyundai LIVE Services. One of the main features of the updated version is the Bluelink App. It allows the customers to control their car with their smartphone or voice. Customers can also start-stop the charging at the push of a button on a smartphone via the Bluelink app. The new version offers two battery options: 64 kWh, that powers 204 PS & accelerates from 0 km/hr to 100 km/hr in 7.9 seconds; and, 39.2 kWh, that powers 136 PS & accelerates from 0 km/hr to 100 km/hr in 9.9 seconds. Live Parking is another major feature of the updated version that gives the real-time information on location and price of a nearby parking space. One can charge the lithium-ion polymer battery from 10% to 80% in only forty-seven minutes with a 100 kW direct current (DC) fast charger.

Image Credit: https://www.electrive.com/

It also has Rear Cross-Traffic Collission-Avoidance Assist (RCCA) and Blind-Spot Collission-Avoidance Assist (BCA), that implement brakes when necessary.

:::According to a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry Journal, one out of five Covid-19 patients have been diagnosed with mental illness within ninety days from the time they tested positive. Paul Harrison, Psychiatry professor at the University of Oxford, said that it was not at all implausible that Covid-19 might have some direct effect on one's brain & mental health; however, it remains to be positively demonstrated. David Curtis, an honorary professor at University College of London & Queen Mary University of London, said that  it was difficult to judge the importance of the findings as it happens a bit more often in people with Covid-19 who may understandably have been worried that they might become seriously unwell and who will also have to endure a period of isolation.

Image Credit: https://oscarkilo.org.uk/

Anxiety, Depression and insomnia are the common mental illnesses diagnosed in Covid-19 patients.

November 12, 2020 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported in Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 86,83,916
Recovered - 80,66,501
Deceased - 1,28,121

:::According to a data compiled by Bloomberg, aggregate net income of forty-six NSE Nifty 50 members grew by 4.8% from a year earlier in the quarter through September 2020. Materials and consumer discretionary companies posted the biggest earning surprises. Abhimanyu Sofat, head of research at IIFL Securities Ltd, said that the cost cutting by the companies, rebound in discretionary spending & a broad-based recovery was driving the markets.

Image Credit: https://www.bloomberg.com/

Analysts expect banks and IT shares to gain as the economy improves & companies continue to digitize their operations.

:::Asif Basra, an actor, was found dead in a private complex in Himachal Pradesh's Dharamshala, where he was reportedly living with his U.K based girlfriend. The preliminary investigation revealed that he was suffering from depression, and he allegedly used his dog's rope to hang himself.

Image Credit: Asif Basra/Facebook

He was fifty-three years young. He was known for his roles in movies like Kai Po Che, Jab We Met, Black Friday and Hichki.

November 13, 2020 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 87,28,795
Recovered - 81,15,580
Deceased - 1,28,668

:::Wipro decided to restructure itself by burying the current structure of seven Strategic Business Units (SBUs) and nine geographies. The company will instead have four SMUs and two Global Business Lines (GBLs). While SMUs will own P&Ls; delivery and practices will be owned by GBLs. The four SMUs will be: Americas 1; Americas 2; Europe; and, APMEA (Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa). SMUs will be lead by Rajan Kohli, Wipro Digital President. The two GBLs will be: iDEAS (integrated digital, engineering & application services); and, iCORE (cloud infrastructure, digital operations, risk & enterprise cyber security services). GBLs be lead by Nagendra Bandaru, President of Cloud & IT infrastructure services and digital operations & platforms.

Image Credit: https://www.livemint.com/

Thierry Delaporte, Chief Executive Officer of Wipro, said in a report that the current complex delivery structure with multiple delivery units will be replaced by a simple delivery model that will yield economies of scale.

:::A former employee of Facebook, Marck S Luchie, claimed that the platform interferes with what people see & what people do not see, and it profits off hate. He added that unfortunately, the hateful and divisive content often has the most shares, likes or comments, which are the metrics that Facebook uses to determine whether to show a particular content or not. He also claimed that the top managerial posts at the company are conferred to the people who have strong associations with the Government or a political party.

Image Credit: https://techcrunch.com/

He issued these statements while Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace & Harmony is conducting a probe against Facebook following the allegations that the company did not adhere to its own policy on removing the hate posts by some supporters of a political party as it feared that it would anger the political party and affect its business in India.

In this week's Special Section, i will share some lesser known facts about Ramayana.

Image Credit: http://www.panchveda.com/

Hanuman is called 'Bajrang Bali' as he covered himself with sindoor to keep Lord Rama safe.

Image Credit: https://www.news18.com/

During her childhood, Sita had broken the bow of Lord Shiva. Hence, King Janak put a condition of breaking a bow at Sita's Swayamvar.

Image Credit: https://www.newindianexpress.com/

Even though Meghnad has been discussed on several occassions, Laxman actually killed three sons of Ravana namely: Meghnad, Prahast and Atikay.

Image Credit: http://www.scrolldroll.com/

While Tulsidas has referred to Lord Rama as a god in Ram Charit Manas, Valmiki has called Lord Rama an outstanding human being in his version of Ramayana.

Image Credit: https://www.india.com/

During the last moments of Ravan, Lord Rama asked Laxman to go up to him and learn all that he had to offer as Ravan had mastered vedic teachings.

Image Credit: https://www.navhindu.com/

That is all for this week.

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I hope that the blog was useful and it helped you in catching up with what happened. If you have anything to contribute, then please feel free to comment. Do share this blog with everyone you know and help them too.

*Disclaimer: The information has been presented in this blog after reviewing various news articles. In case you find any article, or if you have any article, that states some facts differently, then share them in the comment section. Please keep the publishing date of the article in mind as it may be an update on the article which was published previously, or it may contain outdated information if it was published before the date mentioned in this blog. The blogger is not responsible for any transaction that happens between the reader and the brand.