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Plasma therapy of cured patients’ blood can be used in fighting COVID-19: AIIMS NEW DELHI : The blood of cured coronavirus patients can be used to treat COVID-19 patients, says Delhi AIIMS director Dr Randeep Guleria. “Conversion plasma is a therapy that is being looked at as an option to treat the patients of COVID-19. If a coronavirus positive patient recovers, then he recovers by his body fighting the infection. To fight the infection, the body produces antibodies that stay in the blood,” Dr Guleria told ANI on Sunday. He said this is the reason the doctors can ask the cured...

Masayoshi Son’s $2 billion guarantee at risk as coronavirus hits star entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal’s Oyo Just nine months ago, Masayoshi Son publicly declared Ritesh Agarwal one of the star entrepreneurs backed by his SoftBank Group Corp. The Japanese billionaire boasted that Agarwal’s Oyo Hotels & Homes was poised to overtake the biggest hotel chains in the world just a few years after its founding. “It’s unimaginable,” Son said on stage at SoftBank World in Tokyo. “At 25, he’s going to be world’s biggest hotel king.” Today, Oyo is freezing operations around the world and furloughing thousands of employees as it struggles to survive the coronavirus...

Google CEO Sundar Pichai donates Rs 5 crore to Give India Google chief Sundar Pichai has donated Rs 5 crore to Give India, matching Google’s earlier donation to the non-profit organisation for the coronavirus pandemic. “Thank you @sundarpichai for matching @Googleorg’s Rs 5 crore grant to provide desperately needed cash assistance for vulnerable daily wage worker families…,” Give India said in a tweet. Previously, Google had announced an over $800 million commitment towards efforts to tackle Covid-19 pandemic that claimed thousands of lives globally. This includes $200 million investment fund for NGOs and banks to help small businesses access capital. Source: Hindustan Times

Covid-19: Kirana stores would see a resurgence, says Godrej Consumer CEO GCPL recently said that the March quarter would be impacted due to the pandemic and lockdown. How fast do you see the situation improving? We are trying to be as agile as possible and are adapting to the evolving situation. Both distribution and production have been significantly disrupted over the last couple of weeks, and our operations have been curtailed. This is not surprising given the unprecedented nature of the lockdown. The government is aware of the challenges and is working closely with the industry to get the supply chain back on track....

Stimulus needed for quick revival of economy: Maruti’s Bhargava India needs a fiscal stimulus to ride out the crisis caused by covid-19, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd chairman R.C. Bhargava said, as he joined a chorus of business leaders and economists calling for the government to announce a fiscal package to support businesses and create jobs. Bhargava said that the government should make consumer products more affordable as he hinted at tax cuts on automobiles. He said also that the Suzuki Motor Corp. unit will decide on its future investment plans (capex) after studying the demand for its cars in the...

US should prepare for an 18-month lockdown, says Neel Kashkari Neel Kashkari, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said the US should prepare of an 18-month shutdown to deal with the coronavirus outbreak that is wreaking havoc across the globe. “This could be a long, hard road that we have ahead of us until we get to either an effective therapy or a vaccine. It’s hard for me to see a V-shaped recovery under that scenario,” said the Indian origin Kashkari in an interview with CBS. He said that the US should be looking at an 18-month strategy for the economy and...

Superhero Films Give Power to Be Who You Want the World to Follow, Respect: Florence Pugh Florence Pugh, who will be making her Marvel debut with Scarlett Johansson-led Black Widow, believes superhero movies gives actors an opportunity to be a role model. The movie features Pugh in the role of Yelena Bolova, a sisterly figure to Johansson’s Black Widow aka Natasha Romanoff, and the 24-year-old actor said she was aware of the pressure which comes with franchise. “When I signed on to ‘Black Widow’, I knew that it was going to take a lot out of me. I remember thinking...

Tom Hanks Hosts Show at Home After COVID-19 Diagnosis in March Hollywood actor Tom Hanks returned to the small screen for the first time after he tested positive for the coronavirus in March. He said he and his wife are doing great. The 63-year-old served as host for the first-ever “Saturday Night Live at Home” episode, reports people.com. Hanks opened the show with a “Tiger King” reference, speaking to the camera from his Los Angeles home. “Hey all you cool cats and kittens,” he said. “It’s me, your old pal. Don’t be afraid, this shaved head was just for a...

Julian Assange seeks bail fearing coronavirus in jail WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is seeking bail on the ground that he is in danger of contracting coronavirus while in the Belmarsh prison, while his partner revealed on Sunday that he fathered two children while he was holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy. Assange, 48, who had taken refuge in the embassy to avoid an European arrest warrant, fearing eventual extradition to the US to face charges of leaking classified information, was dragged out of the embassy and arrested in April last after Ecuador revoked his political asylum status. Source: Hindustan Times

NYC mayor orders public schools shut for rest of school year; Andrew Cuomo says it’s his call New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Saturday public schools will remain closed for the rest of the school year as the city battles the novel coronavirus outbreak. “Having to tell you that we cannot bring our schools back for the remainder of this school year is painful, but I can also tell you it is the right thing to do,” he told a news conference. De Blasio had ordered public schools shut beginning March 16 to curb the spread of the disease,...