News in Short

• Researchers have carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine which chronic conditions put hospitalised patients at risk of dying from Covid-19.
• They explored 11 co-existing conditions that pose a risk of severe disease and death among Covid-19 patients, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, chronic kidney disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, stroke, congestive heart failure, asthma, chronic liver disease, and HIV/AIDS.
• Researchers determined that patients with diabetes and cancer are 1.5 times more likely to die. Patients with cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and congestive heart failure are twice as likely to die. While patients with chronic kidney disease are three times more likely to die.

• India has got the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities under the automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland.
• India is among the 86 countries with which Switzerland's Federal Tax Administration (FTA) has exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI this year.
• India had received the first set of details from Switzerland in September 2019 under AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information), when it involved 75 countries.

• Officials from Armenia and Azerbaijan have said they have agreed to a cease-fire in Nagorno-Karbakh starting at noon Saturday.
• The announcement follows 10 hours of talks between the diplomats in Moscow, which were sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for cease-fire.
• The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began Sept. 27 and left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
• The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since the end of a separatist war in 1994.

• Eminent Indian-origin academician Srikant Datar has been named as Dean of Harvard Business School, succeeding Nitin Nohria and becoming the second consecutive dean hailing from India to lead the prestigious 112-year-old institution.
• Datar, an alumnus of University of Bombay and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, is the Arthur Lowes Dickinson Professor of Business Administration and the senior associate dean for University Affairs at Harvard Business School (HBS).
• A chartered accountant, he went on to receive a postgraduate diploma in business management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, before completing master's degrees in statistics and economics and a Ph.D. in business from Stanford University.

• The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the World Food Programme for feeding millions of people from Yemen to North Korea.
• The World Food Programme, a United Nations body, is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation addressing hunger and promoting food security.
• Founded in 1961, the UN organisation helped 97 million people last year, distributing 15 billion rations to people in 88 countries last year.