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Weekly Update: March 15, 2021 - March 19, 2021

The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra.
-Jimmy Johnson
(July 16, 1943; Former American Football Coach)

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Let's start!

Did you know, that Oprah Winfrey was actually named Orpah? Orpah is mentioned in the Bible as the sister-in-law of Ruth and wife of Chillion. The name, Oprah, stuck with her as it was misspelled in her birth certificate.

In Pic: Oprah Winfrey; Image Credit: Oprah's 2020 Vision
In Pic: Oprah Winfrey; Image Credit: Oprah's 2020 Vision

Here is an additional fun fact for you: Oprah Winfrey developed an interest in Public Speaking after her grandmother taught her how to read at the age of three years.

March 15, 2021 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,13,85,339
Recovered - 1,10,07,352
Deceased - 1,58,725

:::Heather Holmes, an Associate Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of British Columbia, rejected the request of Meng Wanjhou. Meng Wanjhou is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Huawei and she is currently in a two-year battle against extradition over charges that her firm violated the US sanctions on Iran. She had requested testimony from employees of the company to be admitted as evidence in her fight against extradition to the United States of America (USA) to demonstrate that the prosecution case was manifestly unreliable. The Associate Chief Justice rejected her request saying that the request related to issues that were properly within the domain of a trial and not the extradition hearing.

In Pic: Meng Wanjhou; Image Credit: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters
In Pic: Meng Wanjhou; Image Credit: Jennifer Gauthier/Reuters

Meng Wanjhou is accused of defrauding HSBC by falsely misrepresenting the links between Huawei and its Skycom subsidiary.

:::Facebook started to add labels to posts that discuss the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine after the company was criticized by several lawmakers and researchers for allowing the spread of misinformation about the vaccine on its platforms. Chris Cox, the Chief Product Officer of Facebook, said in an interview that although the company had taken viral false claims very seriously, there was still a huge gray area of people who had concerns about the vaccine and while some called it misinformation, there are people who called it a doubt.

Image Credit: The Economic Times
Image Credit: The Economic Times

Facebook also implemented temporary measures like reducing the reach of content from users who repeatedly share content that is marked false by fact-checkers. Facebook plans to launch a tool in the United States of America to help its users to get information about where they can get vaccines from.

March 16, 2021 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,14,09,831
Recovered - 1,10,27,543
Deceased - 1,58,856

:::The European Union (EU) launched legal proceedings against Britain after London allegedly broke the protocol of its Brexit divorce agreement that covers Ireland. Maros Sefcovic, the Vice President of the EU, has asked Britain for a detailed roadmap with a timetable to fix the issue. London has been invited by the EU to enter the talks and resolve the matter by the end of March 2021. A Spokesperson from the UK Government has responded to the invitation by saying that London would respond in due course.

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

Maros Sefcovic has also said that the protocol was the only viable way to protect the Good Friday Agreement and to preserve peace & stability while avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.

:::The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) released the data that shows the market share of every UPI App for February 2021. According to the data, PhonePe has the maximum market share of 42.5% with 975.53 million transactions worth ₹1,89,517.82 crores. PhonePe is followed by Google Pay. Google Pay has a market share of 36% with 827.86 million transactions worth ₹1,74,455.33 crores. Paytm ranks third in the list with a market share of 12.6% with 290.03 million transactions worth ₹34,405,44 crores.

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

Overall, a total of 2,292.9 million transactions worth ₹4,25,062 crores were done in February 2021.

March 17, 2021 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,14,38,734
Recovered - 1,10,45,284
Deceased - 1,59,044

:::FCA India launched the 2021 Jeep Wrangler in two variants: Unlimited and Rubicon. The Unlimited variant is priced at ₹53.90 lakhs (ex-showroom) and the Rubicon variant is priced at ₹57.50 lakhs (ex-showroom). Both the variants are powered by a 2.0-liter, in-line 4-cylinder turbo-petrol engine that generates a maximum horsepower of 268 hp and a maximum torque of 400 Nm. The engine is paired to an 8-speed automatic gearbox. Some more features that are common in both the variants are a soft-leather-finish dashboard, Uconnect infotainment with smartphone compatibility, steering mounted controls, cruise control, engine start-stop button, and two-zone AC. The additional features that the company has provided in the Rubicon variant are RockTrac 4x4 technology, TruLok differentials in both the axles and Offroad+ driving mode.

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

The 2021 Jeep Wrangler will be assembled locally in the company's Ranjangaon facility in Maharashtra. The localization of this process has cut the cost by ₹10.04 lakhs.

:::The US Patent and Trademark Office granted a patent to Apple for its modular wall unit system that can easily configure a smart home or a building. The system has two core elements: Host Unit and Modular Accessory. The Host Unit can be embedded within the structure of a building. This includes a wall, ceiling, or floor. It can be integrated with the electrical infrastructure of the building via an electrical power grid, cable, or Ethernet. The Modular Accessory can be configured to be interchangeably and non-destructively coupled & decoupled with the host unit. This accessory can be the power outlet, a light switch, or a sensor device.

Image Credit: Screenshot from YouTube/Apple Explained
Image Credit: Screenshot from YouTube/Apple Explained

The main idea of the system is to help a user control all the accessories through a single host unit.

March 18, 2021 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as per Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,14,74,605
Recovered - 1,10,63,025
Deceased - 1,59,216

:::Shunwei, a Chinese investment firm founded by Xiaomi founders Lei Jun & Tuck Lye Koh, sold its entire stake of 9% that it had in Bombinate Technologies, the parent firm of Koo. The 50% of the stake sold by Shunwei has been bought by Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, Kalaari Capital, and 3one4 Capital. The other 50% of the stake sold by Shunwei has been bought by angel investors like Javagal Srinath (the former Indian cricketer), Ashish Hemrajani (the founder of BookMyShow), Sujeet Kumar (the co-founder of Udaan), Kalyan Krishnamurthy (the Chief Executive Officer of Flipkart), and Nikhil Kamat (the co-founder of Zerodha). Javagal Srinath, after buying a stake in the company, said that the fact that they were building a platform to bring the voices of Indian audiences in their language onto the internet was commendable.

Image Credit: REUTERS
Image Credit: REUTERS

Koo is now the first Indian start-up with no Chinese investor from the company since border tensions started last year.

:::Wikipedia announced the launch of Wikimedia Enterprise. Wikimedia Enterprise is a commercial product of Wikipedia that will handle the delivery of real-time information to Apple, Google, and Amazon for their AI-based services. The companies rely mostly on Wikipedia to answer the queries of their users and Wikimedia Enterprise will charge them for using its information. Wikipedia and the companies are trying to work out a revenue-sharing model too which is expected to be signed by June 2021.

Image Credit: https://voicebot.ai/
Image Credit: https://voicebot.ai/

Wikimedia Enterprise has already come under question as most of the information available on the website is credited to many volunteers who have contributed tirelessly & without getting paid. Corporate funding also makes it harder for Wikipedia to justify the donations that it receives regularly.

March 19, 2021 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,15,14,331
Recovered - 1,10,83,679
Deceased - 1,59,370

:::The shares of Easy Trip Planners Limited got listed on NSE at a premium of 13.5% for ₹212.25/-. The company expects that this will enhance its visibility & brand and provide equity to its existing shareholders.

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

Easy Trip Planners Limited operates EaseMyTrip.com. The company was founded in 2008. It now has its national offices in Noida, Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. It has its international offices in Singapore, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United Kingdom (UK).

:::The Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) in a letter to Piyush Goyal, The Minister of Commerce & Industry, said that the foreign entities like Amazon and Flipkart were hell-bent on ruthlessly destroying the Indian retail sector by violating Press Note Number 2 of the FDI Policy 2016/2018. The CAIT also said that there were many loopholes in the policy that were being exploited by the companies to do predatory pricing, offer huge discounts and give preferential treatment to some select sellers with capital dumping through their affiliate sellers at its root.

Image Credit: https://thenfapost.com/
Image Credit: https://thenfapost.com/

The CAIT has recommended two important points for the issuance of a new Press Note on the FDI Policy in e-commerce. They are as follows:

  1. A clear demarcation of the boundary between "Market Place Model" and "Inventory Based Model".
  2. Prohibition of any type of a relationship between "e-commerce marketplace entity" and "seller on its platform".
In this week's Special Section, i will talk about the importance and the reason for staying away from toxic people.

Image Credit: LOOKUPQUOTES.COM
Image Credit: LOOKUPQUOTES.COM

This is a topic that comes from my personal experience. I am at an age where i do not feel shy to admit that i was in a toxic relationship for seven years. I gave that relationship everything that i had because i was with my childhood friend. We hear stories about people who meet, get in a relationship, and break-up. It is rare that we ever hear a story where two childhood friends get into a relationship and one of them finds out that it is a toxic relationship.

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

Those seven years of my toxic relationship taught me a lesson. It taught me that someone who is completely absorbed in his/her life will never understand your problems. That person will only prioritize his/her problems. If a person has an issue then the instinct is to share it with someone you are close with. I was very close to her since the time we met and her insights about my issues would have helped me a lot to get through the lowest phase in my life.

Image Credit: https://possibilitychange.com/
Image Credit: https://possibilitychange.com/

Our relationship began after her father died from Cancer in 2008 and we broke up in the year 2015. Our relationship had affected me many times before we broke-up but the limit was crossed somewhere in the middle of 2015. I was facing an issue in my MBA college that had put my chances of receiving the MBA degree at risk. Just as i was trying to resolve it, i lost my grandfather who was struggling with Pulmonary Fibrosis for nearly two years.

The issue in my MBA college broke my confidence and my grandfather's death brought me down emotionally. A person's emotions take care of his/her body and confidence takes care of his/her achievements. I was down with both of them. She did visit my home once to offer her condolences but was that always enough. No!

A toxic relationship breaks your personality. You do not just start to hate that person, you also start to hate yourself especially when you have given everything to that relationship. It hurts whenever you remember that you were with the other person when he/she was going through a tough phase but the same was never reciprocated.

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

It is important to identify when your relationship has become toxic. The consequences of failing to do so are often very severe as it affects your psychological health. It also takes away a chance of you meeting someone who can brighten up your life and make you smile every day.

Our friendship was very special and i will always hold it close to my heart. The last year of our  relationship was a phase that we could have handled better. We were too young and too immature to handle that phase.

She celebrates her birthday on March 28. As a friend, i hope that she succeeds in her life and her family is blessed with a lot of happiness.

That is all for this week.

Do subscribe to my blog to get updates. You can connect with me on Instagram @sachdev_ankur and you may show your support to this blog on Patreon @randomwalablog.

I hope that the blog was useful and it helped you in catching up with what happened this week. 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.

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