Judge nothing, you will be happy.
Forgive everything, you will be happier.
Love everything, you will be happiest.
-Sri Chinmoy
(August 27, 1931 - October 11, 2007; Indian spiritual leader)
Let's start!
Here is a Fun Fact that you may not, or may, know: Ophiocordyceps, the tropical fungus, infects the central nervous system of ants by staying in their bodies for nine days during which it gains a complete control over their movements.
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| Image Credit: Katja Schulz / Flickr |
After gaining a complete control of the movements of an ant, the fungus forces the ant to climb a tree, make a sudden violent movement and fall into the cool-moist soil where the fungus thrives. It then waits until solar noon to force the ant to bite a leaf and kill itself.
November 30, 2020 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 94,31,961
Recovered - 88,47,600
Deceased - 1,37,139
:::The Walt Disney Company announced that it plans to lay off additional four thousand workers of its theme park division in California and Florida due to Covid-19 pandemic. The company will also put thirty seven thousand employees on an unpaid leave of absence (furlough). Disney, in its announcement, also said that it may make more cuts in spending such as reducing film & television content investments and additional furloughs & lay-offs.
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| Image Credit: Disney |
It had earlier said that it will terminate thirty-two thousand employees in the first half of fiscal year 2021, that began last month.
:::Health Ministry of Vietnam ordered provinces and state agencies to tighten the screening process after it reported its first locally transmitted Corona case in eighty-nine days. This came to light after a thirty-two year young man, related to a flight attendant returning from Japan, got infected and tested positive for Covid-19. Health Ministry also ordered the closure of places where the man had visited: language learning centres, cafes and karaoke bars.
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| Image Credit: VGP |
Nguyen Thanh Long, Health Minister of Vietnam, said that the Covid-19 situation remains complicated as the disease has returned in many parts of the world during winter.
December 01, 2020 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 94,62,809
Recovered - 88,89,585
Deceased - 1,37,621
:::Ministry of Finance said in an official release that Goods & Services Tax (GST) collections for November 2020 were 1.4% higher as compared to the collection for November 2019. GST collections for November 2020 stood at a total of ₹1,04,963 crore consisting of ₹19,189 crore towards Central Goods & Services Tax (CGST), ₹25,540 crore towards State Goods & Services Tax (SGST), ₹51,992 crore towards Integrated Goods & Services Tax (IGST) and ₹8,242 crore towards cess. Ministry of Finance added that the revenues from import of goods and domestic transactions were 4.9% and 0.5% respectively higher as compared to the revenues for November 2019.
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| Image Credit: https://www.businesstoday.in/ |
Total number of GSTR-3B returns files, too, rose from eighty lakh in October 2020 to eighty-two lakh in November 2020.
:::Bata, Switzerland headquartered footwear manufacturer & retailer, appointed Sandeep Kataria, an India, as their Global Chief Executive Officer (CEO). He was earlier the CEO of Bata India since 2017. Bata issued a statement saying that under his leadership, Bata India doubled its profits driven by double digit topline growth and sponsored some of the most ingenious campaigns including 'Surprisingly Bata', that revamped Bata's image as a more vibrant & contemporary brand targeted at younger consumers. Sandeep Kataria responded to the news by saying that he is confident of the company's future prospects despite the pandemic that is current going on.
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| Image Credit: https://www.indianretailer.com/ |
Sandeep Kataria is forty-nine years young and he will take over the role from Alexis Nasard who served as Bata's global CEO for almost five years. Sandeep has previously worked with Unilever, Yum Brands and Vodafone in India & Europe.
December 02, 2020 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 94,99,413
Recovered - 89,32,647
Deceased - 1,38,122
:::India Industry Officials said that China has started to import Indian rice for the first time in last thirty years. This is because India offered the rice at a sharply discounted price as compared to the traditional suppliers of China. China's traditional suppliers: Thailand; Vietnam; Myanmar; and, Pakistan, quoted $30 per tonne more as compared to the Indian price. The traditional suppliers of China cited 'limited surplus supplies for export' as a reason to quote a higher price.
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| Image Credit: https://www.dnaindia.com/ |
B V Krishna Rao, President of the Rice Exporters Association, said that China may buy more quantity next year after it sees the quality of Indian crop. Beijing, on the other hand, avoided to purchase Indian rice this year citing issues related to quality.
:::Salesforce, a CRM powerhouse, agreed to acquire Slack, a workplace communication app, for $27.7 billion to be its new interface for Customer 360 platform. Stewart Butterfield, Chief Executive Officer of Slack, said that this deal is the most strategic combination in software history. Marc Benioff, co-founder & Chief Executive Officer of Salesforce, also issued a statement saying that it is a match made in heaven as it will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital work-from-anywhere world.
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| Image Credit: https://sevaa.com/ |
The deal is expected to close in the year 2022.
December 03, 2020 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 95,34,964
Recovered - 89,73,373
Deceased - 1,38,648
:::IBM wrote a blog post to warn about hackers targeting companies that are critical to the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. According to the blog post, hackers have turned their attention to understand the complex logistical work that is involved in inoculating world's population against corona virus. Hackers are sending emails in the name of a Haier Biomedical executive to gather information about different aspects of the cold chain. Claire Zaboeva, an analyst at IBM, said that there is no shortage of potential suspects.
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| Image Credit: https://gadgets.ndtv.com/ |
Haier Biomedical is a Chinese cold chain provider that specializes in vaccine transport and biological sample storage.
:::Reserve Bank of India (RBI) ordered HDFC Bank to temporarily suspend its digital launches & sourcing of new credit card to the customers. RBI asked HDFC to examine the lapses in its internet banking services over the past two years and to fix accountability. The order, however, will not impact existing credit cards, digital banking channels or existing operations.
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| Image Credit: https://www.afternoonvoice.com/ |
HDFC, in its regulatory filing, said that it has taken several measures in the last two years to fortify its IT systems and it will continue to work swiftly to close out the balance & to engage with the Regulator in this regard.
December 04, 2020 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 95,71,559
Recovered - 90,16,289
Deceased - 1,39,188
:::Facebook said in a blog post that it will remove all the posts that contain false claims about Covid-19 vaccine. The false claims include wrong information about safety, efficacy, ingredients, or side effects of the vaccine. Facebook also said that the criteria of posts it considers eligible for removal will change based on the guidance from public health authorities as they learn more about it.
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| Image Credit: https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ |
Facebook has already banned advertisements that were discouraging people from getting vaccinations that could end the pandemic.
:::Kate Rubins, an astronaut & a flight engineer at NASA, harvested the first ever radish crop in Advanced Plant Habitat (APH) - a growth chamber for plant research that is onboard the International Space Station. It will now be compared to the radishes grown at Kennedy Space Center that is located in Florida.
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| Image Credit: https://www.nasa.gov/ |
The harvest was a part of NASA's plant experiment, called Plant Habitat - 02 (PH-02). The experiment seeks to understand how plants grow in microgravity conditions.
In this week's Special Section, i will talk about "Samvedna", a charity organization, founded by Ankita Sharma, that works tirelessly in Surat and Vadodara.
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| Image Credit: Samvedna | Facebook |
Samvedna is a charity organization that is filled with hard working volunteers, who put in all their efforts to work for the development of the society by fulfilling the necessary needs of the underprivileged section.
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| Image Credit: Samvedna | Facebook |
The organization takes various initiatives. One of their recent initiatives was the distribution of snacks. The volunteers distributed milk, samosa, jalebi and biscuits in different areas of Surat on the occasion of Guru Nanak Jayanti and Dev Diwali.
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| Image Credit: Samvedna | Facebook |
Their current ongoing campaign is titled, "Secret Santa". The campaign is strengthened by the ideology of donating blankets to the people from an underprivileged background & conditions, who struggle with the cold temperature every day and every night while we sit in our home blessed with a lot of comfort.
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| Image Credit: Samvedna | Facebook |
You may click here to visit their website.
That is all for this week.
Do follow my blog to get the updates. You can connect with me on Instagram @sachdev_ankur.
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
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*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
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