Category: Business & Economy

** Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy inaugurates 144 PSA oxygen plants

“Besides establishing the oxygen plants, the government is providing a 30% subsidy to private hospitals with over 100-bed capacity for setting up oxygen plants,” the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh said.

Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, on January 10, virtually inaugurated 144 Pressure Swing Adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants set up at various government hospitals in the State.

On the occasion, Mr. Reddy said the government has been taking all measures to contain coronavirus ahead of the third wave and as part of it, 144 oxygen plants have been installed in government hospitals at a cost of ₹426 crore.

** Sri Lanka launches luxury train service in Jaffna with India’s assistance

India had provided AC Diesel Multiple Units under the loan facility

Sri Lanka has launched a luxury train service connecting the country’s Tamil-dominated Jaffna district to the capital city Colombo with the help of a Line of Credit offered by India, in another significant landmark in bilateral ties.

The intercity rail service with all facilities was launched on Sunday for passengers travelling from Colombo’s Mount Lavinia suburb to Jaffna’s Kankesanthurai port suburb in the north, covering a distance of approximately 386 kms.

** The Hindu Group wins five WAN-IFRA South Asia awards

Campaigns created by The Hindu Group bagged five awards at the WAN-IFRA South Asian Digital Media Awards 2021. ‘Bring Back Milk Bikis Classic’, a campaign for Britannia received gold in the ‘best in audience engagement’ category. In the same category, The Hindu Group won silver for the ‘Brain-teasing activities’ campaign for Kissan (HUL).

The Hindu Group won gold for the ‘Let’s Crack CSE’ campaign done for Indian edu-tech start-up Unacademy, and bronze for the ‘Bring Back Milk Bikis Classic’ campaign in the ‘best branded/sponsored content campaign’ category, according to a press release.

Further, ‘Freedom Sale 2021’ has won bronze for the ‘best reader revenue initiative

** Advertising industry veteran Gerson da Cunha dies aged 92

Da Cunha started his career as a journalist, then headed the ad agency Lintas before working with UNICEF

Ad man Gerson da Cunha, a multi-faceted personality, who was also very passionate about civic activism in later years, died here on Friday. He was 92.

Da Cunha, who started his career as a journalist working for the Press Trust of India after graduating in science and then jumped into advertising, was associated with a slew of platforms engaged in civic activism, including AGNI (Action for Good Governance and Networking in India).

** Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant heads out for next round of sea trials

Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant now sails to undertake complex manoeuvres to establish specific readings of how the ship performs in various conditions

The Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) Vikrant has headed out for the next set of sea trials on January 9, shortly after two high-profile visits — that of the President and the Vice-President of India within a span of about two weeks.

** Former RBI governor Urjit Patel appointed vice president of AIIB

He has been appointed vice-president of Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Urjit Patel has been appointed vice-president of the Beijing-based Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

Mr. Patel will serve a three-year term as one of the multilateral development bank’s five vice-presidents, and will take the place of former Gujarat Chief Secretary D.J. Pandian who had been, as Vice-President, leading the AIIB’s investment operations and all sovereign and non-sovereign lending in South and Southeast Asia.

** Some of the most complex cloud projects are coming out of India, Microsoft executive says

In an exclusive interview with The Hindu, Shivir Chordia, Azure Business Group Lead at Microsoft India, spoke about the growing cloud ecosystem, the pandemic’s role in driving cloud adoption across different sectors, and more.

** PM Modi lauds feat of 2 crore children getting vaccinated

Vaccination of children in the 15-18 age group began on January 3 in the country.

Lauding the feat of over two crore youngsters in the 15-18 age group getting vaccinated against COVID-19, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday called for continuing the momentum.

He tweeted, “Excellent! Well done my young friends. Let us continue this momentum. Urging everyone to follow all COVID-19 related protocols and get vaccinated, if you haven’t already.” He was reacting to Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya’s tweet regarding the feat.

* Bengaluru virologist’s test kit ‘Omisure’ for Omicron variant cuts delays

“Globally, all other test kits for Omicron are either made for gene dropout or mutation specific detection. Omisure is the first test kit combining both.”

In a major and global breakthrough towards cutting down procedural delays in genome sequencing to ascertain the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV2, Dr V Ravi, former head of the Department of Neurovirology at National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences and Head, Research & Development, Tata Medical & Diagnostic Centre, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu, and his team have developed the world’s first test kit, Omisure, that can detect the Omicron variant by combining S-gene target failure (SGTF) and S-gene mutation amplification (SGMA).

** Reliance raises $4 billion in India’s largest-ever foreign currency bonds issue

This is the largest ever foreign currency bond transaction in India, eclipsing ONGC Videsh Ltd’s $2.2 billion USD bonds issue of 2014.

Reliance Industries Ltd, the nation’s most valuable company, on Thursday said it has raised USD 4 billion (around ₹30,000 crore) in debt through the largest ever foreign currency bond issuance by an Indian entity.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate plans to use the proceeds of the three tranche issues to retire existing borrowings.