Weekly Update: July 19, 2021 - July 23, 2021

I don't dream at night.
I dream all day; i dream for a living.
Steven Spielberg
(American Film Director; December 18, 1946)

Let's start!

Here's a Fun Fact that you may not, or may, know: According to Guinness World Records, the oldest living land animal is known to be a tortoise who goes by the name Jonathan.

Image Credit: Guinness World Records

As per the latest update, Jonathan was born in 1832 and turned 187 years in 2019.

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July 19, 2021 (Monday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 3,11,44,229
Recovered - 3,03,08,456
Deceased - 4,14,108

:::Indian Sellers Collective (ISC), an advocacy group of Micro & Small e-commerce sellers, wrote an open letter to Narayan Murthy, the Founder of Infosys. In the open letter, ISC has asked Narayan Murthy to end his partnership with Amazon in Cloudtail. Cloudtail is a joint venture of Amazon India and Catamaran Ventures, Narayan Murthy's family office. Cloudtail has been alleged several times by ISC for indulging in the practice of deep discounting and predatory pricing to capture the Indian retail market.

Image Credit: The Financial Express

After writing the open letter, an official spokesperson of ISC said that Narayan Murthy sacrificed the interests & livelihood of millions of small traders in India and left them at the mercy of Amazon just to earn a fixed fee or returns from the platform.

:::Shiv Nadar was appointed as the Chairman Emeritus & Strategic Advisor to the Board of HCL Technologies. He had recently stepped down from the position of Chief Strategy Officer & Managing Director. Shiv Nadar is one of the founders of HCL Technologies.

In Pic: Shiv Nadar; Image Credit: PTI

C. Vijayakumar has been appointed as the Managing Director for five years. His five-year term has started on July 20, 2021. C. Vijayakumar was previously the President & Chief Executive Officer of the company.

July 20, 2021 (Tuesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 3,11,44,229
Recovered - 3,03,08,456
Deceased - 4,14,108

:::The students of the seventh semester of VVP Engineering College developed a hybrid bike. The hybrid bike developed by the students can run on petrol and electricity. It uses four separate batteries that take up to six hours to charge completely. Once charged, the bike can run continuously for forty kilometers. For the convenience of the rider, students have plugged in two buttons that enable them to switch from petrol to electricity and vice-versa.

Image Credit: ANI

The students have developed the hybrid bike by innovating an existing petrol bike.

:::A statement was issued by Pankaj Chaudhary, the Minister of State for Finance, informing that Infosys had acknowledged the technical issues in incometax.gov.in, the new income tax portal. The technical issues that were acknowledged are slow speed and unavailability of certain functionalities.

Image Credit: Business Standard

Infosys acknowledged these technical issues after more than seven hundred emails with ninety unique issues were sent to the company by the Indian Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, tax professionals, and taxpayers.

July 21, 2021 (Wednesday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 3,12,16,337
Recovered - 3,03,90,687
Deceased - 4,18,480

:::Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) purchased a 21% stake in Just Dial for over ₹1,332 crores. The stake was purchased at the rate of ₹1,020/- per scrip after it was offloaded by Venkatachalam Sthanu, a Promoter of Just Dial.

Image Credit: FoneArena

The stake was purchased through an open market transaction.

:::According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the United States of America (USA) had the lowest life expectancy since the second world war. The life expectancy fell by 1.5 years and touched the mark of 77.3 years, as compared to 78.8 years in 2019.

Image Credit: PlanetWare

The COVID-19 pandemic has been quoted as the primary reason for the fall in life expectancy. The pandemic killed over six lakh people in the USA.

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July 22, 2021 (Thursday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India as reported on Aarogya Setu App were as follows:
Confirmed - 3,12,57,720
Recovered - 3,04,29,339
Deceased - 4,18,987

:::Aizaz Khan, the captain of Hong Kong's men's cricket team, got arrested by police for his alleged involvement in an insurance scam worth ₹2.8 crores. He had reportedly claimed to have been injured in a traffic accident. He was later found playing cricket matches.

In Pic: Aizaz Khan; Image Credit: Punjab Kesari

The entire incident was reported by the South China Morning Post.

:::According to a study by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the lifetime emissions for battery electric vehicles in India were 34% lower as compared to that of gasoline cars. The percentages for Europe, the United States of America, and China were 69%, 68&, and 45%, respectively.

Image Credit: International Council on Clean Transportation

The study also revealed that the life-cycle emissions gap between electronic vehicles and petrol vehicles would increase substantially if the electricity production process continues to decarbonize.

July 23, 2021 (Friday)
:::The number of Corona Cases across India were as follows:
Confirmed - 3,12,93,062
Recovered - 3,04,68,079
Deceased - 4,19,470

:::According to a survey conducted by Public ki Awaaz, 68% of respondents believe that the performance of India would be better in the Olympics 2021. 74% of respondents said that the Olympics arouses a feeling of patriotism among them. 72% of respondents agreed that the Olympics inspires the younger generation to pursue sports, while 70% said that there were not enough policies for the promotion of sports & fitness in India.

Image Credit: Getty Images

Respondents who were interested in watching Archery, Wrestling, Badminton, Boxing, and other sports were 22.74%, 21.98%, 13.55%, 8%, and 33.71%, respectively.

:::Uttarakhand's drug licensing authority approved Patanjali's Coronil tablet. However, the tablet has been approved with a suggestion that it should only be prescribed as a supportive measure in the management of COVID-19.

Image Credit: Patanjali Ayurved

The tablet was approved after receiving the advice from  the Interdisciplinary Technical Review Committee, a review committee that was set up by the AYUSH Ministry.

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That is all for this week.

Do share this blog with everyone you know. 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 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.