Recent Conditions and Other Information on Corona Infection in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs has received information that new rules have been introduced for the workers' housing sector to control the Corona virus infection.

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Asteroid to fly by with zero chance of hitting Earth: expert

NANJING, April 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese expert warned on Thursday against panic over an asteroid heading toward Earth, saying that there is zero chance of a collision.

The asteroid coded 52768 (1998 OR2) was first spotted by NASA in 1998. With an estimated diameter of 2.5 km, if the large object were to hit Earth it might cause a global catastrophe.

Since the discovery, space agencies around the world have been keeping a close eye on it and accurately acquired its orbital data, according to Zhao Haibin, an astronomer with the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The asteroid will fly by Earth on April 29, at a speed of 8.69 km per second. It is expected to approach Earth at 6.28 million km above the surface, or about 16.4 times the distance between Earth and the Moon.

"The asteroid, therefore, has zero chance of hitting Earth when it makes a flyby this time," Zhao said.

Scientists from Zhao's observatory, based in east China's Jiangsu Province, are also paying attention to the asteroid. Since April 4, when it moved close to Earth, they have tracked it by using the Near-Earth Object Telescope and reported observation data to the Minor Planet Center, affiliated to the International Astronomical Union.

Zhao's observatory has achieved fruitful findings of minor planets and reported many asteroids making close passes with Earth since the start of this year. However, stories about the asteroid possibly hitting Earth have also appeared online recently.

"Thanks to the collision monitoring work, we are not unaware of asteroid strikes and there is no need to panic," said Zhao, adding that scientists can develop methods to defend against asteroid impacts.

The observatory's Near-Earth Object Telescope is the main piece of equipment for China to join the International Asteroid Warning Network. Having completed tens of thousands of asteroid tracking tasks, the observatory has built its own asteroid database.

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Rs 10,000 Crore 'Fund of Funds' being created for MSMEs to battle Covid downturn

New Delhi [India], Apr 17 (ANI): The government will soon approve a Rs 10,000 crore 'Fund of Funds' for mirco, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with high credit rating if they raise money from capital markets, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Friday.

"We are releasing Rs 10,000 crore 'Fund of Funds' for the good units of our SMEs, which export and have a good turnover in banks," Gadkari said while addressing participants at a webinar organised by the Young Presidents' Organisation. Approaching stock markets rather than banks will bring down borrowing costs and make MSMEs more competitive in global markets, Gadkari added.

The proposal of Rs 10,000 crore 'Fund of Funds' has been cleared by the Ministry of Finance and will be sent to the Union Cabinet for final approval, informed the minister.

He said a separate scheme is being formulated for credit ratings of MSMEs based on their annual turnover, exports and GST payments. The government wants the Fund's corpus to be utilised by MSMEs having AAA rating which implies high credit-worthiness.

Gadkari said up to 15 per cent of the amount an AAA-rated MSME raises from the capital market will be contributed by the government through the Fund as equity.

"If you are able to raise Rs 50 crore, then the government will put in 15 per cent of the amount," said the Minister of MSMEs.
These units contribute about 29 per cent of India's GDP, 49 per cent of exports and offer around 11 crore job opportunities.

The government has restructured about six lakh MSMEs.

"The deadline is being extended from March 31 to December 31 so that the number can go up to 15 lakh,," said the minister adding the definition of MSMEs is also being altered.

Gadkari assured all possible help from the government to tide over the challenges created by the lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreak.
He, however, said that the government is also facing a financial crisis.

"Some state governments do not have enough money to pay salaries to staff next month. The situation of banks is also challenging in terms of their survival," said the minister, emphasising on the need to strike an equilibrium to ensure everyone's survival. (ANI)