Weekly Update: May 17, 2021 - 21, 2021

Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
-Albert Einstein
(March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955; Theoretical Physicist)

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Here's a Fun Fact that you may not, or may, know: The longest English word contains 189,819 letters. Its nickname is Titin which is a giant protein.

Image Credit: Quora

It is estimated that it takes around three & a half hours to say say the word.

May 17, 2021 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 2,49,65,463
Recovered - 2,11,74,076
Deceased - 2,74,390

:::The valuation of Pine Labs increased to $3 billion after it raised $285 million from public market cross-over investors. Amrish Rao, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Pine Labs, reacted to this news by saying that the company excels in enterprise merchant payments and now wants to scale new frontiers in the online space while continuing to power the credit & commerce needs of their offline merchant partners.

Image Credit: Business Insider India

The investors who participated in the funding round were Baron Capital Group, Duro Capital, Marshall Wace, Moore Strategic Ventures, Ward Ferry Management, Temasek, Lone Pine Capital, and Sunley House Capital.

:::The Commerce Ministry launched an Anti-Dumping investigation against China, Thailand, and Vietnam for the import of solar cells. The Directorate General of trade remedies issued a notice saying that prima facie evidence of dumping was found against these countries and was causing injury to the domestic industry.

Image Credit: MyGov

The investigation was launched after the Indian Solar Manufacturers' Association (ISMA) wrote an application to the ministry. A similar investigation was previously launched in July 2017 but it was called off in March 2018 on ISMA's request.

May 18, 2021 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 2,52,28,996
Recovered - 2,15,96,512
Deceased - 2,78,719

:::Volocopter unveiled VoloConnect. Volocopter is an air-taxi start-up that is based in Germany and VoloConnect is its four-seater electric vertical take-off & landing aircraft. The air-taxi can carry the passengers for a distance of 100 km at the speed of 180 km/hr.

Image Credit: Volocopter

VoloConnect is capable of travelling at the top speed of 250 km/hr. It has been developed to connect suburbs to cities.

:::A live-in couple was denied protection by the bench of Justice HS Madaan in Punjab & Haryana High Court. Justice HS Madaan called the relationship of the live-in couple morally & socially unacceptable. He dismissed the petition by saying that the couple was seeking a seal of approval on their relationship which was morally & socially not acceptable and no protection order could be passed.

Image Credit: Times of India

The couple is a 19-year young woman and a 22-year young man who have apprehended danger to their lives from the woman's family who were against their inter-caste marriage.

May 19, 2021 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 2,54,,96,330
Recovered - 2,19,86,363
Deceased - 2,83,248

:::The IT Ministry asked WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy by sending a notice. A senior IT Ministry official said that the ministry has a sovereign responsibility to protect the rights & interests of Indian citizens and the ministry will consider various legal options to resolve the matter if the company does not respond to its notice till May 25, 2021.

Image Credit: Moneycontrol

This is the second time that the IT Ministry has asked WhatsApp to withdraw its new privacy policy. The previous notice was sent in January 2021.

:::According to a report published by S&P Global Market Intelligence, India is the second-largest insurance technology market in the Asia-Pacific region. India has a minimum of 66 insurtech companies that account for 35% of $3.66 billion insurtech-focussed venture capital funding.

Image Credit: S&P Global Market Intelligence

Sampath Sharma Nariyanuri, the Fintech Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, has called India one of the fastest-growing insurance markets in the world in the report.

May 20, 2021 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 2,57,72,440
Recovered - 2,23,55,440
Deceased - 2,87,122

:::Polygon entered the list of the top twenty global cryptocurrencies. Polygon was initially started in 2017 as 'Matic Network' by Sandeep Nailwal, Anurag Arjun, & Jaynti Kanani, and it was rebranded in 2019. Polygon entered the list after its market capitalization crossed $10 billion.

In Pic: Team and Advisors of Polygon; Image Credit: Polygon | Medium

The update was reported by CoinMarketCap, a cryptocurrency tracker.

:::Manoj Sinha, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu & Kashmir, announced a relief package of ₹3 crores. The relief package contains the financial aid of ₹2,000/- for every person who is employed in the tourism sector. The financial aid will be disbursed over two months. The relief package covers 4,444 registered shikara owners, 1,370 tourist guides, 46,663 ponywalas, and 2,150 others like palki-wallahs at the shrines of Amarnath & Vaishno Devi.

Image Credit: Tour My India

The relief package does not cover travel agents, houseboat owners, hotels, and taxi operators.

May 21, 2021 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 2,60,31,991
Recovered - 2,27,12,735
Deceased - 2,91,331

:::Twitter re-launched Public Verification Programme to increase transparency, credibility, and clarity to its verification process. The program was previously paused in 2017 after users expressed their anger over a disparaging tweet published by Jason Kessler. A user must meet the below-mentioned criteria to apply for the program:

1. The user must have a notable & active profile; and,
2. The user must fall under the category of government, sports, entertainment, organizations, journalists, or activists.

If the application of a user, who meets all the criteria, is rejected then the user can re-apply after thirty days.

Image Credit: Techawk

The micro-blogging platform has also started to remove the verified badge of users who do not meet the criteria. These users can also re-apply for the badge under the program after thirty days.

:::Jimmy Choi set a Guinness World Record for most numbers of chest-to-ground burpee by performing thirty burpee in one minute. He is a forty-six year young man who is battling Parkinson's disease since the age of twenty-seven. He said in an interview that he succeeded because of his discipline and a determined mindset.

Image Credit: John O'Leary

Jimmy Choi is also the start on American Ninja Warrior, a parkour television show.

In this week's Special Section, let us try to understand what NFT is.

Image Credit: CNBC TV18

NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token. It is supported by the Ethereum blockchain. NFT is a digital asset or a digital certificate of ownership of digital artwork. Such digital assets cannot be duplicated or equated with a similar asset. The digital artwork may be downloaded by anyone but the ownership of it will be retained by the person who has bought it from the artist. The artist may, however, retain copyright and reproduction rights.

An NFT serves benefits to both: the artist and the buyer. It offers the artist a market where he/she can sell their artwork even if there is no physical market for it. The artist earns not just from the initial sale but also from a future sale that may happen. An artist would earn every time the artwork is sold in the future. The buyer, on the other hand, gets to support the artist financially. In the case of a collector, the digital artwork becomes an addition to their collection.

NFTs are sold in an NFT compatible digital wallet in markets like OpenSea, Rarible, and Nifty Gateway, to name a few.

There will be a better understanding of this topic as the trend progresses. For now, i hope that i was able to explain it simply.

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.