Weekly Update: April 12, 2021 - April 16, 2021

Optimism is a happiness magnet.
If you stay positive then good things and good people will be drawn to you.
-Mary Lou Retton
(January 24, 1968; American Gymnast)

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Let's Start!

Here is a Fun Fact that you may not, or may, know: The device used by a doctor to measure blood pressure is called sphygmomanometer. It is also known as blood pressure monitor or blood pressure gauge.

Image Credit: https://www.news-medical.net/

The instrument reads both systolic pressure and diastolic pressure.

April 12, 2021 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,35,27,717
Recovered - 1,21,56,529
Deceased - 1,70,179

:::A Bengaluru-based co-working company, WeWork India, raised around ₹200 crores as a mix of debt and equity from its investors with a focus to provide a wide range of flexible offerings to meet the evolving needs of its members. Karan Virwani, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of WeWork India, said that the company would utilize the new capital raised to continue their upwards momentum and to explore the true potential of flexible work spaces in the Indian market.

Image Credit: WeWork

WeWork has five million square feet of space in thirty five locations across NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad. It sold over ten thousand desks during January-March 2021. Globally, the company has spaces in 828 locations across 149 cities and thirty eight countries.

:::Nykaa Fashion, the multi-brand fashion e-commerce platform, acquired Pipa Bella, an online jewellery brand. Pipa Bella will now extend the functionality as a consumer brand under Nykaa Fashion. A spokesperson from Nykaa Fashion said that the company aimed to capture and expand into the jewellery segment with this acquisition.

Image Credit: https://yourstory.com/

Nykaa Fashion was founded by Falguni Nayar in 2012. Some of the top brands listed on the platform are Alaya, AND, Ritu Kumar, Label, Masaba, and Global Desi.

April 13, 2021 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,36,89,453
Recovered - 1,22,53,697
Deceased - 1,71,058

:::Corrado Cappiello, a Rome judge, ordered the arrest of Gianluigi Torzi, an Italian businessman living in London. Gianluigi Torzi, a prime suspect in the Vatican's two-year investigation, is accused of extorting around fifteen million euros from the Holy See to turn over the ownership of a luxury London building in which Vatican's Secretariat of State holds the majority of shares. Corrado Cappiello said that there was an absolute concrete risk of Torzi committing more crimes if he was not taken into custody. The evidence discovered by investigators showed that he engaged in a true economic strategy that was aimed to defraud tax authorities.

In Pic: Gianluigi Torzi; Image Credit: https://www.complicitclergy.com/

The investigators discovered the evidence of false billing, tax evasion, and money laundering by seizing his cell phone, emails, and WhatsApp messages.

:::Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Commerce & Industry, inaugurated e-SANTA. e-SANTA is an e-commerce platform for aqua farmers. After registering on the platform, an aqua farmer can sell his/her produce directly to the customer at the click of a button. This is expected to raise income, lifestyle, self-reliance, quality levels, traceability, and provide new options to aqua farmers.

Image Credit: https://vajiramias.com/

The Central Government of India has currently launched e-SANTA in Hindi, English, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali, & Odiya, and plans to make it available in more languages soon.

April 14, 2021 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,38,73,825
Recovered - 1,23,36,036
Deceased - 1,72,085

:::The Oberoi Group tied up with Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) to evaluate opportunities for saving energy and lowering emissions to reduce carbon footprints of Oberoi Hotels. Through this collaboration, EESL will provide technical support and extend its procurement advantage through its partners across the energy sector. This includes lighting, electric motors, AC, and ventilation system to name a few.

In Pic: Vikram Oberoi (left) and Saurabh Kumar (right); Image Credit: The Economic Times

Vikram Oberoi, the Managing Director (MD) & the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Oberoi Group, said that the partnership with EESL further strengthens the group's commitment towards the planet and their vision to provide a sustainable luxury experience to guests.

:::Apple announced the date and time of Spring Loaded, its virtual event. The event will be organized on April 20, 2021, at 10:30 pm. Apple is expected to launch the new models of iPad Pro which will have an advanced Mini LED screen. It will be powered by Apple's A14X Bionic processor.

Image Credit: AppleInsider

Another product that Apple may launch in Spring Loaded is AirTags, a Bluetooth tracker.

April 15, 2021 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,40,74,564
Recovered - 1,24,29,564
Deceased - 1,73,123

:::According to a report published by Worldline India, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) was the preferred payment mode among customers in 2020 in terms of volume. It had a market share of 41% in the person-to-merchant category. UPI is followed by Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) with a market share of 26%. In terms of the value of transactions, the market share was dominated by card payments. Deepak Chandnani, the Managing Director of Worldline South Asia & Middle East, said that both, the new and the old payment channels, catered to market needs, ensured long-term growth in terms of onboarding new merchants & customers in the payment ecosystem, and increased the number of digital transactions.

Image Credit: Worldline India

According to the report, 94.7 crores of cards were in circulation as of December 2020 out of which 94% were debit cards and 6% were credit cards.

:::According to a survey conducted by Genius Consultants, a staffing company, 59% of the companies have an intention to give a 5-10% salary hike to their employees in 2021.  Around 21% of companies said that there would be no increment in the salary of their employees this year. In terms of recruitment, 43% of companies said that they have an opening for new recruitment, and 11% of companies said that there would be no fresh recruitment in 2021. The survey also revealed that 33% of companies found no change in the productivity of their employees during the work-from-home period while 37% of companies observed a fluctuation in the productivity of their employees.

Image Credit: Genius Consultant

The online survey was conducted from February 2021 to March 2021 and twelve hundred companies participated in the online survey. These companies were from various sectors like banking & finance, construction & engineering, education, FMCG, and hospitality, to name a few.

April 16, 2021 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases were as follows:
Confirmed - 1,42,91,917
Recovered - 1,25,47,866
Deceased - 1,74,308

:::More fuel ships were approved by the Yemen Government to dock at Yemen's Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The port is held by the Houthi Group which has insisted on the full lifting of the blockade. The Information Minister of Yemen said that the Government would approve the clearance of more ships but it did not give any number as to how many ships would be approved.

Image Credit: Reuters

While many ships were waiting for six months to dock their ships, as of March 23, 2021 coalition warships had been holding up fourteen fuel tankers even though they had secured the clearance of the United Nations.

:::The French Parliament adopted legislation that characterizes sex with a child under the age of fifteen as rape. Earlier, sex with a child under the age of fifteen years was illegal but it could only be characterized as rape if there was proof that the child was forced - violence, constraint, or surprise - to have sex. Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Justice Minister, called this a historic law for the children & the society and said that now no adult aggressor would be able to claim the consent of a minor who is younger than fifteen years.

Image Credit: Reuters

The new legislation has made the crime punishable by up to twenty years in jail.

In this week's Special Section, let's review some important figures related to Tika Utsav released by the Government of India on the official website of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Image Credit: https://pledge.mygov.in/

The Tika Utsav was observed for four days from April 11, 2021, to April 14, 2021, to vaccinate maximum citizens who were eligible for vaccination - above forty-five years of age.

The average number of doses administered on a normal day is 16 lakhs. This number went up during the Tika Utsav.  The number of doses administered on April 11, April 12, April 13, and April 14 were 29,33,418; 40,04,521; 26,46,528; and 33,13,848 respectively.

The number of operational Workplace Vaccination Centres (CVCs) during the Tika Utsav was also more than the average number of 45,000 on any other day. A total of 63,800; 71,000; 67,893; and 69,974 CVCs were operational on April 11, April 12, April 13, and April 14, respectively.

Image Credit: sudarsansand | Twitter

The states to administer maximum doses of vaccine during the Tika Utsav were Maharashtra (1,11,19,017), Rajasthan (1,02,15,471), and Uttar Pradesh (1,00,17,650).

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 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.