Year: 2020

India’s export of 90 tonnes of medical equipment to Serbia despite concerns over the lack of proper protective gear for healthcare professionals in India itself has sparked a row. However, the shipment has not jeopardised the medical community’s requirements to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, as reports pointed out. Reported by scroll.   Sterile gloves are not part of the personal protection equipment used to treat coronavirus patients. According to the United Nations Development Programme, Serbia procured nearly 90 tonnes of “medical protective equipment” from India. “The transportation of valuable supplies purchased by the…

Zoom Video Communications provides a cloud-based communications platform that concentrates on making the video conferencing experience better, including features like online collaborative meetings, voice and chat capabilities, and collaborative file sharing. Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) recently announced it would tap Oracle’s (NYSE:ORCL) cloud infrastructure platform to support its video conferencing service. Zoom’s service previously ran on its own data centers, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Azure. Zoom will continue to use AWS and Azure after adding Oracle to the mix. Zoom’s daily meeting participants surged from 10…

Recent results have shown that high-dose chloroquine has potential safety concerns resulting in QTc prolongation, a heart rhythm disorder that serves as a surrogate indicator for increased risk of drug-associated torsades de pointes (TdP). GlobalData believes that the preliminary data from this Phase II study indicates that high-dose chloroquine should not be used further for COVID-19 patients due to the QTc prolongation, as this can cause sudden death due to erratic heartbeats.   Arafa Salam, PhD, Infectious Diseases Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Initial results from China indicated the drug offered shorter…

The Ministry of Home Affairs in its advisory said company heads will be held responsible to ensure 100% coverage among employees in all private sector and public sector organisations.   This was after the government’s move to mandate downloads of its Covid-19 contact tracing app Aarogya Setu by way of strict enforcement through criminal penalties has sent alarm bells ringing among digital rights activists and technology lawyers.   Legal and privacy experts claim the app and the government’s mandate violate the Supreme Court’s Privacy judgement of 2017 and India’s Information…

The fast-paced adoption of digital technologies is emerging as a key element of remodeling healthcare delivery and scaling up systems. While the risk-averse culture, legacy systems, regulation and compliance challenges are hindering the uptake of emerging technologies in healthcare services, COVID-19 may be the trigger that will accelerate digitalization in the sector, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.   Urte Jakimaviciute, MSc, Senior Director of Market Research, GlobalData, commented: “Even though emerging technologies such as telemedicine have existed for decades, most healthcare systems heavily rely on in-person interactions…

A prolonged lockdown may possibly push millions of Indians into the “margins of subsistence”, former RBI Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said , while expecting a ”V” curved recovery once the COVID-19 crisis ends and the turnaround in India to be faster than some economies.   He was participating in a webinar on “History repeats – but differently- Lessons for the post Corona World,” organised by the Manthan Foundation here, in which former Deputy Governor of RBI Usha Thorat took part.   “Because most analysts believe that this year India will actually…

COVID-19 brings various threat and opportunities for the start-up eco-system ,which is directly impacts the Indian economy. Even as the number of COVID-19 cases in India and around the world touch new heights every day, the countries remain under lockdown waiting for a vaccine for the deadly virus. Stock markets have continued to crash globally, and businesses are running on limited resources and supplies amid widespread fear and panic. Almost every sector is dealing with the burden of the crisis, with tech giants cancelling major plans and suspending operations in…

  The novel coronavirus will be around for at least 18 to 24 months under any circumstances, a new US report has said, projecting that it will only start to fizzle out when roughly two-thirds of the population is infected and “herd immunity” sets in. The report comes even as President Trump on Thursday made known his intention to seek reparations of up to $1 trillion from Beijing, alleging that he has a “high degree of confidence” the novel coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. The twin developments…

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said, Aarogya Setu mobile application is outsourced to a private operator, raising serious data security and privacy concerns.   This statement raises concerns from various parts of the country and the privacy experts are hurriedly going from the disclaimer and privacy policy in the app.   Technology can help keep us safe, but fear must not be used to track citizens without their consent, Rahul said.   The mobile application helps users identify whether they are at risk of the COVID-19 infection.   It also provides…