News in Short

• Around 7% of India’s adult population may have been exposed to the coronavirus till the last fortnight of August, according to the second national sero-survey by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
• This is roughly a 10-fold jump in numbers from the first sero-survey conducted by the Council across 70 districts in 21 States that sought to estimate the likely number of infected until early May.
• Sero-surveys are conducted by drawing blood samples and checking for a specific class of antibodies called IgG that appear within two weeks of an infection.

• Biodiversity map of Mumbai city to showcase the wildlife hotspots, mangrove forests, urban green spaces and over 90 species that can be spotted in the city has been illustrated for the first time.
• This is part of a campaign Biodiversity by the Bay, initiated by the Ministry of Mumbai’s Magic, a citizen’s collective comprising Mumbaikars who wish to bring the issue of protecting biodiversity to the forefront.
• The campaign also includes an action plan on the protection of Lesser Flamingos and their habitats, given their significance to Mumbai; acknowledging Aarey as a forest and increasing the protection of Mumbai’s green cover; proposing a supportive policy for the Koli community’s livelihoods, in consultation with the community; and, protecting and growing Mumbai’s parks.

• Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Retail Ventures Limited announced that General Atlantic will invest ? 3,675 crore into RRVL, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.
• This investment values Reliance Retail at a pre-money equity value of ? 4.285 lakh crore. General Atlantic’s investment will translate into a 0.84% equity stake in RRVL on a fully diluted basis.
• This marks the second investment by General Atlantic in a subsidiary of Reliance Industries, following a ? 6,598.38 crore investment in Jio Platforms announced earlier this year.
• Reliance Retail has collected a combined ?13,050 crore in the past few weeks from private equity company Silver Lake Partners and US buyout firm KKR & Co in exchange for 1.75 percent and 1.28 percent stakes, respectively.

• A Canadian quantum computing firm D-Wave announced that it is commercialising its next-generation system Advantage, built for businesses.
• The company’s computer is already being used, via its cloud, by some corporations to build and run applications for their operations.
• The system is made of more than 5000 qubits, which is more than double the count of processing units in its earlier D-Wave's 2000Q machine.

• Kuwait's Emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, has died at the age of 91.
• His 83-year-old half-brother, Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmed, has been named by the cabinet as his successor.
• He had ruled the oil-rich Gulf Arab state since 2006 and had overseen its foreign policy for more than 50 years.
• He was dubbed the "dean of Arab diplomacy" for his efforts to restore relations with states that backed Iraq during the 1990-1991 Gulf War, when Kuwait was invaded by Iraqi forces.
• The emir also often acted as a mediator in regional disputes, including the ongoing diplomatic stand-off between Saudi Arabia, its allies, and Qatar.