March 2020

Coronavirus Outbreak: Nobel Laureate biophysicist Michael Levitt says there are signs of recovery, infection rate slowing The coronavirus outbreak has brought the entire world to a standstill as governments and health organizations prepare for the worst. But if we go by the calculations of a Nobel laureate biophysicist, the “end of the pandemic is near”. Michael Levitt, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2013, analyzed 78 nations that have reported over 50 new COVID-19 cases every day and said he has seen “signs of recovery”, Israeli daily Calcalist reported. “When discussing diseases, it frightens people a lot because they keep hearing about...

Rand Paul is First US Senator to Report Positive Test for Coronavirus Kentucky Senator Rand Paul says he has tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by coronavirus. The Republican is the first member of the Senate to report testing positive. He said in a tweet Sunday that he is feeling fine and is in quarantine. Paul, a doctor, said he has not had symptoms and was tested out of an abundance of caution due to his extensive travel and events. Paul said he was not aware of any direct contact with any infected person. Two House members, Reps. Mario...

Spain PM to Extend State of Emergency until April 11 after Coronavirus Claims 1,720 Lives Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Sunday his government would ask parliament to extend for another 15 days until April 11 a state of emergency it imposed this month to try to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. The nationwide state of emergency was first announced on March 14 and it bars people in the nation of around 46 million people from leaving home except for essential outings like buying food or seeking medical care. Sanchez said the request to extend the state of...

Anushka Shetty comments on casting couch in the Telugu film industry Mangalore-born Anushka Shetty has recently completed 15 years in the film industry. One among the few actresses in the country who can carry the entire film on their shoulders, Anushka’s trademark quality is to extract massive footfalls in the theatre without depending on a bankable male lead. Be it a period drama, suspense-thriller or a romantic comedy, the 38-year-old diva has proved her mettle time and time again with her solid acting chops and arresting screen-presence. During a promotional event of her upcoming film Nishabdham, Anushka Shetty stated that the casting couch does exist...

Randeep Hooda says he hasn’t watched Kesari, is ‘hurt’ audience didn’t see authentic version of Battle of Saragarhi Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda was supposed to work on a film based on the battle of Saragarhi but it was shelved later when Akshay Kumar announced his film, Kesari and played the braveheart in Anurag Kesari’s movie. Randeep told Mumbai Mirror in an interview, “It hurt that the audience could not see what would probably have been a more authentic version with more real emotions of the story. That apart, you learn to move on. Through the journey I learnt the principles of Sikhism and...

This economic crisis will be bigger than GFC 2008: Ross Cameron Nothing seems to be working for the markets. Cities in India are selectively going into a shutdown. Is that the only answer, just shut trading for a while hopefully? When we come back after a month, the world will be a calmer place?Unfortunately, a month is probably too optimistic. First of all, we have to be prepared that the economic crisis arising out of this pandemic will be worse than we saw during the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. The difference here obviously is that during the 2008 GFC, it...

Xiaomi India to donate lakhs of N95 masks to state govts, hospitals, says Manu Jain Xiaomi Vice President and India Managing Director Manu Kumar Jain on Monday announced the company has imported lakhs of N95 masks and protective suits to India in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic. Jain said the company is working with the government authorities to donate these healthcare products. He further said that Xiaomi will donate N95 masks to state governments in Karnataka, Punjab, Delhi, government hospitals, and state police starting this week. Xiaomi will also be donating hazmat suits to doctors across a few government hospitals like...

Mukesh Ambani’s mega plan to fight Coronavirus: Reliance Jio, Retail, Life Sciences come together to help govt Mukesh Ambani’s RIL has mega plans to fight coronavirus, with the conglomerate planning to deploy the capacity of all its arms including Reliance Retail, Jio and Reliance Foundation to help the government. While Reliance Industries Ltd. will make a donation of Rs 5 crore to Maharashtra government’s relief fund, it has also announced that it will gear up production of face masks and safety suits for the workers of the country. “RIL has deployed the combined strengths of Reliance Foundation, Reliance Retail, Jio, Reliance Life Sciences, Reliance Industries,...

I predict things are going to get worse before they get better, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says in his memo to employees Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Saturday penned down a memo to his employees wherein he highlighted the steps that his company was taking to ensure the safety of the warehouse workers and contractual staff. In a letter shared on Instagram, Bezos said that Amazon was hiring 100,000 new employees for various new roles within the company and that it was raising the wages for hourly workers who were delivering orders ‘during this period of stress and turmoil’. He also said...

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella Sends Motivational Email To Employees About COVID-19 Response Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently sent a motivational email to company employees and also published it in a LinkedIn post. In the email, Nadella shared his deepest thanks to each employee about the creative and collaborative ways that they stepped up to support the company and customers during the crisis. “At the start of the year (which in some ways feels so long ago), I wrote on LinkedIn about the purpose of a corporation, using Oxford professor Colin Mayer’s definition of ‘producing profitable solutions to problems of people and...