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Dec. 19, 2022
We’ve seen this happen many times: A Detroit automaker indefinitely “idles” an aging assembly plant that builds a slow-selling model and has been shedding workers for decades.
Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, announced Dec. 9 it will indefinitely halt operations at its Belvidere, Illinois assembly plant on Feb. 28. The shutdown is called an idling because the automaker is not allowed to permanently close a plant under its current United Auto Workers union labor contract, which expires in September.
The Belvidere plant builds the Jeep Cherokee. Sales of the SUV have been plunging for years and were down 61% in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2021.
UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada said the union is “deeply angered” by the plant idling, which will result in the indefinite layoffs of the plant’s 1,350 employees. The factory, which opened in 1965, once employed more than 4,000 workers.
And in a potential move we’ve seen before, Reuters reported that Cherokee production might move to Stellantis’s Toluca, Mexico, plant.
Stellantis said the Belvidere idling was mainly a result of cost cutting as it invests more than $30 billion in electric vehicles over the next three years.
“Our industry has been adversely affected by a multitude of factors like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the global microchip shortage, but the most impactful challenge is the increasing cost related to the electrification of the automotive market,” the company said.
But some see a broader theme in the Belvidere plant idling. A recent Detroit News story described the shutdown as an ominous shifting of auto investment from the Midwest to the South as electric vehicles begin to supplant gasoline-powered cars and trucks.
“The Midwest was the home for manufacturing. Now it’s not,” P.S. Sriraji, director of the Urban Transportation Center at the University of Illinois Chicago told the News.
That’s an overstatement, particularly in relation to auto manufacturing. Auto investment, including electric vehicles, is still heavily concentrated in the Midwest, according to a new Chicago Federal Reserve report.
Michigan remains the top auto-producing state in the country, churning out about 19% of the nation’s cars and trucks annually.
University of Michigan economists, in their latest forecast, expect the state’s auto industry to be a bright spot in the state’s economy over the next several years. That’s in part because of the thousands of electric vehicle and other announced auto jobs expected to be created in the state.
Ford, General Motors and Stellantis have announced more than $18 billion in factory investments in Michigan since 2019.
Yes, the South is a threat to the Midwest’s historic dominance in auto manufacturing. Ford is investing $11.4 billion, the largest expenditure in the company’s history, to build a battery plant in Kentucky and a battery and electric vehicle assembly plant in Tennessee.
Foreign automakers and several new electric vehicle manufacturers are building new battery and electric vehicle assembly plants outside the Midwest.
But the Belvidere plant idling is more a reflection of sweeping challenges the industry is facing.
The Belvidere plant once turned out more than 250,000 vehicles a year. But Stellantis sold just under 31,000 Cherokees, the plant’s only product, in the first nine months of this year.
Operating assembly plants at well below their capacities was one reason Chrysler and GM ended up in bankruptcy reorganization during the Great Recession. It was a harsh lesson learned.
Now they’re making billions of dollars in profits despite pandemic-induced supply chain issues that have slashed vehicle sales.
“It’s almost like everybody got religion during the downturn,” said Glenn Stevens, executive director of industry group MICHauto.
The conversion to electric vehicles is requiring automakers to make hard decisions about future products and manufacturing locations. It’s called rationalization in industry parlance.
“These are global companies pouring billions of dollars into electric vehicles,” Stevens told me. “They need to rationalize products and capacity. That’s the big picture.”
Ford, GM and Stellantis will also negotiate new national labor contracts with the UAW next year, a process that will play a major role in where those automakers’ cars and trucks will be produced.
As it has in the past few negotiating rounds, the UAW will push to keep open existing plants and secure commitments for future investments. Much of the new spending announced by the Detroit automakers over the past decade has been required by UAW contracts.
The Belvidere assembly plant idling isn’t necessarily a death sentence. Automakers have a history of closing and then reopening plants. Among them is GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, which the automaker announced for closing in 2018 and later reopened as an electric vehicle factory.
Earlier this year, Stellantis announced it would invest $2.8 billion to convert its Brampton, Ontario plant to electric vehicle production. The plant was seen as being at risk of closing because the automaker is ending production of Dodge muscle cars built there.
“I wouldn’t be surprised that plants that look like they’re gone might not be gone,” Stevens said.
Don’t write the Midwest’s manufacturing obituary just yet.


text: Coyotes and Fox have sold at the May auction and the heavy coyotes are still selling at 100%. Prices have come back to last years prices with the number of coyotes hitting 100,000 for this auction. Non prime coyotes are still struggling as well as red fox. All of the fox in this part of the country will be in the pale category to medium. We really dont have any deep cherry red coyotes like back east has. Here is a link to the results.

domain: news


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Cera Sanitaryware has entered into a marketing agreement with ECE Banyo, the owners of Italian Luxury Sanitaryware brand ISVEA for a period of 5 years, which can be extended later, exclusively for sales, distribution and marketing of ISVEA brand in India. Products of ISVEA brand are designed by well-known Italian designers. The launch of ISVEA brand by the Company in India is expected by July, 2015.
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The Rajasthan-based snack maker will use the funds to expand its manufacturing and distribution to markets outside North India and to enter the fastest growing ready-toeat food market.
"Lighthouse Funds has signed the agreement to invest in the company. The investment will be a deferred one" said an investment banker with knowledge


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POSTED // Oct 7,2011 - The Jet Propulsion Laboratory landed two robotic vehicles on Mars in 2004. They were expected to explore the planet and send back information for 90 days. But the rover named Spirit kept working for over six years
POSTED // Sep 23,2011 - “Our job is to become more and more of what we are,” says poet Marvin Bell. “The growth of a poet seems to be related to his or her becoming less and less embarrassed about more and more.”
POSTED // Aug 12,2011 - For 34 years, a diligent Californian named Scott Weaver worked on creating a scale model of San Francisco using toothpicks. Meanwhile, Eric Miklos, of New Brunswick, Canada, was assembling a 40-foot-long chain of bottle caps.


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Epson adds to AIPP support…Flickr simplifies photo books…PMA enters tenth decade…More Sony in Olympus
Epson’s worthy addition to AIPP
Epson is introducing a ‘Signature Worthy Print Award‘ as part of its new 3-year sponsorship of The Australian Institute of Professional Photography’s (AIPP) annual State-based professional photography awards.
‘Epson continues to inspire photographers and provide ongoing support for professional photography, and to mark 10 years of our alliance with the AIPP we offered to introduce an additional award that focuses on the quality of the printed image,’ said Craig Heckenberg, Business Unit Manager at Epson Australia.
Peter Myers, executive officer, AIPP said he was very pleased Epson had continued its support for the AIPP and looked forward to working with the Epson team for the next three years.
‘Epson’s offer to add the Signature Worthy Award shows commendable commitment to the best in professional photography,’ said Mr Myers.
The new award highlights Epson’s premium range of Signature Worthy papers. Only the highest quality Epson papers receive the designation of Signature Worthy.
Flickr simplifies photo books
Flickr has introduced Flickr Photo Books to the US market with plans to roll out the service to other countries.
A hardcover, 20-page 11×8.5-inch photo book with a dust-jacket is offered at US$39.95, with extra pages just 50 cents/page. The photo book is printed on lustre paper, but their’s no indication of what technology or printing partner is being used.
Flickr already has a partnership arrangement with Snapfish for print services but this new service seems separate to that.
Flickr has resolved the issue of complexity and abandoned projects in photo book design by restricting users to one image per page, with no captioning. When designing a photo book one can crop and size the image and make a choice between full bleed and bordered images. Choose the cover colour. That’s about it. Brilliant. ‘No cramped formats, no awkward descriptions, no spoiled memories!’ – as Flickr pitches it.
Flickr offers subscribers one free terabyte of space to store photos in full resolution.
PMA entering 10th decade
The Photo Marketing Association is celebrating its 90th anniversary next year, along with the 175th anniversary of photography.
The PMA started life in 1924 as the Photofinishers Association of America in 1924 and is now a global organisation represented in more than 100 countries across a gamut of imaging-related fields.
Under the umbrella ‘PMA – The Worldwide Community of Imaging Associations’, member associations include the Association of Imaging Executives, the Digital Imaging Marketing Association, the National Association of Photo Equipment Technicians, the Professional Picture Framers Association, the Professional School Photographers Association, the Sports Photographers Association of America, and the Photo Imaging Education Association.
PMA’s Australian Division was founded in 1978 as the Australian Photographic Dealers Association, which was incorporated as a Division of the Photo Marketing Association International in 1978.
It currently has over 550 local members across the range of its separate member’s associations.
PMA will be highlighting its 90th anniversary and the 175th anniversary of photography with a number of events throughout 2014, kicking off at the PMA 2014 Conferences and 2014 PMA@CES in Las Vegas.
More Sony bits in Olympus cameras
Olympus Corp president Hiroyuki Sasa has said it will consider expanding the use of common parts of digital cameras with its top shareholder, Sony, to cut costs in the loss-making business, according to a story in the Japan Times.
Olympus currently uses Sony image sensors. The company has rationalised its digital cameras business, ceasing development of SLR cameras and cheaper compacts to focus on higher-end compacts such as the recently released Stylus 1, and its popular OM-D range of M43 mirrorless interchangeables.
It has halved production of compact models after an an operating loss of ¥23.1 billion ($244 million) in the year ending in March.
Mr Sasa said that the digital camera business ‘is unlikely to post major growth.’ Reducing losts is a major challenge and sharing sensors and other high-priced components with Sony is ‘a key issue that needs to be studied.’


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Facebook has posted its latest performance update, showing yet another increase in overall active users – though a slight decline in the US – along with a solid boost in revenue.
If the July Facebook ad boycott, in protest over its lack of action around hate speech, had any major financial impact for the company, it’s not evident here.
First off, on users – in Q3 2020, Facebook saw 1.82 billion daily active users, an increase of 35 million users in the previous period.
That represents a 12% increase YoY, but as you can see, Facebook did see a slight decline in usage in the US for the quarter.
Facebook addressed this in its summary:
“As expected, in the third quarter of 2020, we saw Facebook DAUs and MAUs in the US & Canada decline slightly from the second quarter 2020 levels, which were elevated due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the fourth quarter of 2020, we expect this trend to continue and that the number of DAUs and MAUs in the US & Canada will be flat or slightly down compared to the third quarter of 2020.”
That’s likely not a major concern, but any reduction is always worth noting.
Facebook once again saw its most significant user growth in the Asia Pacific market, with India, in particular, continuing to see more take-up. Earlier this year, Facebook took a significant step towards maximizing its opportunities in the Indian market by purchasing a stake in Indian mobile provider Jio, through which it will look to build an eCommerce platform within the Indian market, which could, eventually, make Facebook the key platform for the nation’s billion-plus of citizens.
In terms of monthly actives, Facebook inched a little closer to becoming the first 3 billion-user platform.
But as with the US and Canada slow down, Facebook’s rate of growth dipped in the quarter, which likely reflects the changing habits of users amid the lockdowns – which is largely unpredictable and will skew that data for many businesses.
Facebook also shared its ‘Family daily active people’ chart, showing all unique users across the platform’s family of apps – Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger.
That means that Facebook sees an additional 72 million users across its other apps who don’t also use Facebook every day. Ideally, we would get a specific breakdown of Instagram and WhatsApp usage, separate from these listings, but Facebook only discloses overall numbers for its group of apps.
Per month, Facebook sees 3.21 billion users across its apps.
Facebook also provided this chart, which it hasn’t posted in previous reports:
Which is interesting, because Facebook has also shared its average revenue per user stats for Facebook in isolation:
So if we know that Facebook is generating $7.89 per user, at 2.7 billion users, and $6.76 per user across all of its apps, at 3.21 billion users, we can extrapolate that Facebook generated around $3.71 billion in revenue from Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger in the period.
Bottom of Form
Given its issues in monetizing WhatsApp, and limitations on Messenger, you can assume that the vast majority of that intake has come from Instagram, which provides some perspective as to how much revenue the platform is now making on its own. Not bad for an app purchased by Facebook for $1 billion back in 2012.
Note too that Facebook’s ARPU rose in all regions in the quarter, another positive sign for the company.
On revenue overall, Facebook posted another solid result, bringing in $21.47 billion for the quarter.
It’s difficult to even fathom these numbers, really, the amount that Facebook is both used, and how much revenue it generates. Presented in these charts, it all seems quite normal, and largely in line with expectation (though the revenue result beat analyst estimates), but when you actually consider how much money, and how many people those bars represent, it’s amazing to consider the breadth of Zuckerberg’s empire.
And it only looks to be getting bigger – as noted by Facebook:
“We expect our fourth quarter 2020 year-over-year ad revenue growth rate to be higher than our reported third quarter 2020 rate, driven by continued strong advertiser demand during the holiday season. Additionally, Oculus Quest 2 orders have been strong which should benefit Other Revenue.”
VR has taken a leap in 2020, as people have sought out alternate forms of entertainment to replace social events. That’s accelerated the development of Facebook’s Oculus offerings, which is another area that the company could dominate.
It’s still a way off being a common, household option, but with more people looking to work from home, and seeking new forms of entertainment, VR could serve various purposes, and become a major element of the company’s future growth.
Facebook has, however, warned of potential impacts on its ad business, both from Apple’s changes to tracking as part of iOS 14 and the evolving discussions around data sovereignty to avoid misuse.
“There is also continuing uncertainty around the viability of transatlantic data transfers in light of recent European regulatory developments, and like other companies in our industry, we are closely monitoring the potential impact on our European operations as these developments progress.”
The impacts of each could be significant, but they’re also largely uncertain. Back in August, Facebook said that Apple’s changes to IDFA could essentially render its Audience Network useless on iOS, while it will also have a level of impact on its other ad products.
We’ll have to wait and see how that plays out, but even if it does take some hit, Facebook’s revenue performance still looks solid moving forward.
It’s another massive update for Facebook, in the midst of a pandemic, which reflects the company’s market position, and capability to weather the changing environment. It seems that whatever Facebook has lost in smaller advertisers, it’s been able to make up for with higher ad spend from others, while as noted, policy criticisms and boycotts, as a result of its decisions, have seemingly had little impact.
I mean, that wasn’t the true goal of the July #StopHateforProfit campaign, it was about sending a message in order to raise awareness.
But it does raise the question – how do you make Facebook pay attention when even a high profile boycott like that has seen such minimal impact?


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26 May 2022
Richard Burge, Chief Executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said:
“The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry is pleased that the Chancellor is finally addressing the cost of living crisis – although we question why it has taken so many weeks of warning for him to only offer help now.
What is most significant about the Chancellor’s announcement is the abject lack of help for businesses - the energy crisis has also created a devastating cost of doing business crisis. We have been calling for VAT cuts for businesses for months, which would alleviate these pressures on businesses and the benefits would also be passed on to the consumer.
The London Chamber is baffled that a government who once appeared to be pro-business, seems to have forgotten the essential role businesses play for our economy. 2022 was meant to be the year for business bounceback and a return to normality – and yet this feels reminiscent of the dark days of the pandemic.”


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United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc’s flagship Chat Banking personality, Leo, is set to change the face of e-banking across Key African markets following its launch in Cameroon, Zambia, Cote D’Ivoire, Senegal and Congo.
Already Leo which has been very active in Africa’s biggest market, Nigeria, has brought ease to the customers, as it has aided them with numerous transactions since the beginning of the year when it was officially launched in Lagos.
With this launch, customers and non-customers of the bank will be able to make use of their social media accounts to carry out numerous banking transactions from the comfort of their devices – mobile phones, laptops, tablets, palmtops and the likes.
The interesting thing to note is that Leo, while delivering lifestyle and quality banking through the Facebook Messenger chat platform, has come into these markets with some new and additional features. For instance, users can derive vital information from the chatbot as he can provide the names of global personalities around key markets. Another new feature of Leo is that when asked, he can provide the current time in any city and the weather conditions making it easy for customers and non-customers who seek to navigate between cities to do so with ease.
This, is in addition to the other key features of the artificial intelligence personality which include addressing any type of banking concerns raised by customers. They will be able to open new accounts, receive instant transaction notifications, check their balances on the go, transfer funds and airtime top up. They will also be able to confirm cheques, pay bills; apply for loans, freeze accounts, request for mini statements, amongst other things.
Customers can easily lodge their complaints through the platform and can also view complaint tickets.
It is important to note that UBA remains the first financial institution in Africa has come up with this manner of solution to simplify the way customers transact. Something that has become necessary in today’s fast-paced world with demands for quick-time transactions and response.
The Group Managing Director, UBA, Mr. Kennedy Uzoka, said that the launch of Leo is part of initiatives aimed at putting the bank’s customers first with UBA continuously developing strategies aimed at easing transactions for the bank’s numerous users, while ensuring utmost safety of their transactions.
Mr. Uzoka said, “The formulation of this product, is consistent with the bank’s customer 1st philosophy, where we are doing things not the way we like, but focusing on what the customers want, where they want it, and in the exact platform they want it.’
“At UBA, we have been working with technology giants that have the global capacity to ensure not only seamless but also effortless banking for millions of our customers across Africa. We at UBA, have collaborated with Facebook to come up with this innovation that is capable of revolutionising the way banking is done in Africa,” he said.
Uzoka who noted that Leo will in the nearest future, show up on other social platforms, added that all it takes to enjoy the services is simply to have a Facebook account.
Also speaking at the launch of Leo, the Group Head of Online Banking at UBA, Mr. Austine Abolusoro, reiterated that Leo is not just a chat machine, but an artificial intelligence personality meant to address any type of banking concerns raised by customers.
“Leo is ready and waiting to help with most transactions and to deliver any form of banking services. Leo is operating a lifestyle banking platform on facebook messenger to assist with your transactions while chatting with your friends and business partners. The security with this platform is that for every transaction, an OTP (One Time Password) is generated to the phone number that is registered on your account.”
UBA was incorporated in Nigeria as a limited liability company after taking over the assets of the British and French Bank Limited who had been operating in Nigeria since 1949. The United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc merged with Standard Trust Bank in 2005 and from a single country operation founded in 1949 in Nigeria – Africa’s largest economy – UBA has become one of the leading providers of banking and other financial services on the African continent. The Bank provides services to over 14 million customers globally, through one of the most diverse service channels in sub-Saharan Africa, with over 1,000 branches and customer touch points and robust online and mobile banking platforms.
UBA was the first Nigerian bank to make an Initial Public Offering, following its listing on the NSE in1970. It was also the first Nigerian bank to issue Global Depository Receipts. The shares of UBA are publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and the Bank has a well-diversified shareholder base, which includes foreign and local institutional investors.


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Turkey and Pakistan can pair up with Qatar too. In any case, this is a collective failure.
No one has failed.
1) The deal is nowhere near even being seriously discussed, Indian media reports claiming things are "signed" or "imminent" almost always tend to be BS...
2) As pointed out one can still buy second hand airframes and convert them, just like we do with SAAB 2000 and Erieye
3) Absolutely no point in Pakistan buying Embrarer. Pak commercial market for airliners is still tiny, also Pakistan does not have the finance or commercial infrastructure to support global airliner sales (even Chinese are finding this slow moving)
4) There are plenty, and I mean plenty of alternatives to this plane that can offer similar capability. Personally I would go for a Gulfstream that PAF/PA had experiance on


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So Adobe's Flash for Android has gone the way of the dodo, and it can no longer be downloaded from Google Play. Many users have already made sure to keep a backup of the APK handy for the odd occasion when a video is still only available in Flash form (I'm looking at you, Zero Punctuation). But what id you lose your device, or accidentally wipe your SD card, or forget how Dropbox works?
Are you the kind of obsessive-compulsive shutterbug that has to know exactly where and when you found the perfect pair of hipster glasses? Then Instagram's update is aimed right at you... for better or worse. The biggest update to version 3 of the Android app is the Photo Maps feature, which places all your photos on a selectable Google Maps overlay, assuming that you tagged their location when you took them.
It's not quite live yet, but Google would like you to know that Google Maps 6.10 is on its way to handsets by the end of the day. "What's new for me, the public transit user?" I hear you ask. Quite a bit, in fact! First off, Google has announced that it now has data on more than one million transit stops worldwide, spread throughout almost 500 cities. In an effort to make that information more usable, the Transit Lines map layer can now me narrowed down to a single method of transportation.
At the beginning of the month, the Dolphin team released a new version of their popular browser to the Play Store. It featured the normal UI and performance enhancements, but apparently that just wasn't good enough for the Dolphin crew. Today, they have released a public beta of Dolphin Browser that brings some pretty impressive numbers where HTML5 rendering speed is concerned:
A new Google Play Store v3.8.15 apk started rolling out to Android devices today, but upon running through its UI, I was unable to uncover anything different from the versions before that. Yet the apk size gained a few
pounds kilobytes, and not knowing what the 300KB of code and resources added was killing me. Not to worry, a few minutes later, I decoded both 3.7.15 and 3.8.15 and compared their contents.
And a few earlier ones:
A new Google Play Store update v3.8.15 has just started rolling out to Android devices.
TeamViewer, the company behind a widely popular collaboration/remote support software solution, has brought to market a new app specifically aimed at Samsung devices, releasing QuickSupport to Google's Play Store today.
The app is essentially a remote control app meant just for Samsung devices – it allows access to Samsung mobile devices from Mac, Linux, or Windows computers running TeamViewer's software. While TeamViewer already has an Android app, this is the first app under the TV name allowing control of a mobile device from a computer and not vice versa.
I have some news for you, guys: Pinterest isn't just for women. Contrary to what some people may believe, it's actually a service for, well, everyone. In fact, I've been using it to research desk and home office ideas for the last few weeks, and it has been a fantastic aid in my quest to find the perfect setup.
Here's how it all started: I routinely check some of my favorite office design sites - like Minimal Desks and Simple Desks (the latter of which isn't updated as often) - for new ideas on how to rearrange my home office in a more simplistic and minimal, yet practical way.
Google has released an update to its social network app on Android today that should please Hangout enthusiasts both young and old. For starters, now you can join Hangouts on Air via your mobile device (like the one we use to broadcast our weekly podcast every Thursday at 8pm EST hint hint). This is fantastic news as Hangouts on Air are among the most useful application of the already-awesome Hangouts feature.
One of the more anticipated action games this year is Darksiders II, the follow up to the 2010 sleeper hit. While THQ's mythological opus is still a little power-hungry for even the latest Android tablets, streaming specialist OnLive has decided to make it available on their remote gaming platform almost immediately after the PC release. Those who have an Onlive account can experience the game as if they had a high-end gaming rig, and it's been adapted for control with any Android device running Gingerbread or later.


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The World Health Organization team investigating the origins of the coronavirus reportedly visited a cold storage area in Wuhan Sunday morning. The team is expected to visit the Huanan seafood market Sunday afternoon, an expert from the team told the Global Times.
Peter Ben Embarek, who leads the WHO team, confirmed with the Global Times that the team will visit the Huanan market.
On Sunday morning, the WHO team reportedly visited a cold storage area in a wholesale-style market, a BBC reporter wrote on Twitter.
Although the Huanan seafood market has been sealed off, experts believe that there is still plenty to see and experience there.
“[We hope to] understand the setting, see the places where cases were linked, reconstruct the initial event there, search for records of animals, products traded there. And possibly talk to some of the merchants who were there at that time,” Embarek previously told the Global Times.
Although it is too early to reach a conclusion, the possibility that the coronavirus was passed on from cold-chain products into Wuhan, or more specifically, to the Huanan wet market, where the sale of frozen products was once prevalent, cannot be ruled out.
To research this hypothesis, Global Times reporters had previously visited Wuhan and spoke with merchants from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, where the earliest cluster infections in the country were reported, as well as prominent virologists and epidemiologists.


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Stocks fell on Wall Street on Wednesday (US time), dragged down by losses at large technology and communications companies.
As of mid-afternoon, the S&P 500 is down 0.7%, the Dow Jones is down 0.7% and the Nasdaq is down 1.8%. The Australian stock market is poised to turn lower, with futures at 6.40 am AEDT pointing to a 2-point drop at the open.
Losses from tech companies weighed on the market. Apple fell 1.3 percent and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices lost 4.2 percent. The big communications companies also fell. Google’s parent company Alphabet fell 1.2%. Facebook’s parent, Meta, fell 1 percent.
Businesses that rely on direct consumer spending have gained ground. General Motors was up 2 percent and Under Armor was up 1.8 percent.
Investors received another disappointing update on rising inflation. The Labor Department reported that prices for American consumers increased 6.2 percent in October compared to the previous year, as rising costs for food, gas, and housing left Americans grappling with the rate. the highest inflation since 1990. The rise in inflation was stronger than economists expected and follows a report Tuesday that wholesale prices rose 8.6 percent in October, matching a record annual gain.
Bitcoin hit another record high and is flirting with $ 69,000 for the first time after inflation data bolstered the argument that the cryptocurrency is a hedge against mounting cost pressures.
The largest digital asset by market value rose as much as 1.9 percent to $ 68,991 on Wednesday, beating the previous high set Monday night in New York trading. Other coins were up as well, with the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which tracks major cryptocurrencies, gaining as much as 2.4 percent to its highest level since May.
Bond yields rose significantly after the latest consumer price report. The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 1.52 percent from 1.43 percent late Tuesday.
The broader market is showing signs of cooling after weeks of solid earnings as Wall Street continues to grapple with the impact of persistent rising inflation. Investors are also trying to assess how different industries will benefit as the pandemic subsides.
“It’s a fight between growth and value and neither one is winning lately,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager at Globalt Investments. “You will have a decent market until the end of the year and at some point, you will see that people are really starting to try to position themselves for what they think 2022 could be.”
Rising inflation has been a key concern for investors as they assess the pace of the economic recovery and prepare for the Federal Reserve to begin cutting its bond purchases, which has helped keep interest rates low.
Companies are facing higher commodity prices, along with supply chain problems that threaten to hurt earnings growth. Consumers face higher prices for a wide range of products, and that has raised concerns that a possible setback in spending could slow the recovery.
The latest round of corporate earnings allayed some of those fears, as many companies managed to report strong results.
DoorDash soared 15 percent after reporting surprisingly strong third-quarter revenue and announcing that it is buying Finnish delivery service Wolt Enterprises, expanding its reach to Europe and other markets. Entertainment giant Walt Disney will report the results after the closing bell.


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Winter Wonderland Market & Beer Garden returns to Stamford
Half Full Brewery and Mill River Park Collaborative is hosting the return of Winter Wonderland Market & Beer Garden to Stamford’s Mill River Park Friday, Dec. 6, through Tuesday, Jan. 1.
An anchor of the Winter Wonderland is a pop-up Winter Beer Garden, which Mill River tapped Half Full Brewery to operate. The festive “après-skate” inspired garden will feature an enclosed bar serving Half Full beer, cider and wine and will be housed in a 6,000-square-foot tent alongside the Steven & Alexandra Cohen Skating Center in Mill River Park. In addition to the Winter Beer Garden, the tent will include a new kid zone with special visits from Santa, a holiday market and a lounge space.
“We were thrilled with how we were able to help Mill River activate the park last year. Building on this success, this year we wanted to raise the bar by making the tent and our programming an even bigger and better environment for the entire family and community to enjoy this holiday season,” said Conor Horrigan, Founder & Chief Hoptimist at Half Full Brewery. “We are grateful for the opportunity to bring the Stamford community together through unique beers, experiences and places.”
Upcoming events include a Holiday Movie Marathon on Saturday, Dec. 7, including such classics as “Elf,” “Home Alone” and “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”; a Silent Disco Party on Saturday, Dec. 14; and an Ice Bar on Saturday, Dec. 21, featuring master sculptors will build a bar and tables carved out of ice where visitors can “chill.”
In addition to the beer garden and events, the Holiday Market will include Fairfield County’s own The Two Oh Three’s customized 203 branded ski chalet.


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November 29, 2020, Sunday
According to the National Commission, a company is also a consumer in case of goods and services purchased for self-use and not ...
May 26, 2019, Sunday
They are dollar-denominated, and will be a good hedge in case of rupee depreciation
May 01, 2019, Wednesday
Since the firm did not pay registration fee on time, driving the car was construed as an illegal act
April 24, 2019, Wednesday
When a complaint falls within the framework of the Consumer Protection Act, and has been filed within the limitation period, the ...
April 21, 2019, Sunday
The risk is especially high in long-term debt instruments
April 14, 2019, Sunday
It could get pushed out unless it converts its voice-only customers to data users


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Ambitious Brazil wants to become World's top meat producer
By Frans van Hees | www.AboutBrasil.com | Week 35, August 2015
Rio de Janeiro —
Brazil thinks it needs five years to be the largest beef producer in the world. In order to become this, the South American country needs to
overtake the United States.
Australia is still a strong competitor in meat production, but that country suffers more and more from water shortage, according to Fernando Sampaio, president of the Brazilian Association of Exporters.
beef exports from Brazilhave increased sevenfold.
In addition, Europe is the main consuming market and Russia is the largest beef purchaser.
Figures show that the meat industry plays an important part in the Brazilian economy: about 7 million people are employed in the meat producing sector in Brazil.


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by: CropLife International
Consumers rely on farmers to deliver everything from fruit to nuts, but farmers need the help of the honey bee to help pollinate these food crops around the world. In order to continue delivering consumers their watermelons and blueberries in the future, farmers and researchers are working together to look for new ways to ensure the well-being of honey bees.
The 11th annual national survey of honey bee colonies was recently released and reports of seasonal honey bee losses across the United States continue to be of great concern. The Varroa mite – a parasite that attaches to the body of a honey bee or honey bee larva, weakening the bee’s immune system and spreading viruses – is thought to be a leading contributor to honey bee losses. Finding safe and sustainable solutions to control these dangerous parasitic mites is critical and scientists at Monsanto are researching a product that aims to control Varroa mite infestations, improving bee health and colony survival.
The product is fed to honey bees in a sugar syrup that can dial down gene activity through a natural process called RNA interference, which can suppress the mite’s gene, but is harmless to honey bees. The appeal of this approach is the ability to target just the Varroa mite, while reducing the application of chemical pesticides in honey bee colonies. Controlling the Varroa mite, safely and sustainably, is the goal of all of us in modern agriculture.
Field trials with the product will be conducted in 2017 throughout beekeeping areas of North America. If successful, it may take the might out of the mite.
Jerry Hayes is Honey Bee Health Lead at Monsanto Company in St. Louis, Mo.


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CEO Vikram Chopra told ET that the Gurugram-based company would form a separate entity under the Cars24 umbrella to start the financing business.
“Our platform does buying and selling of used cars, which requires financing. Therefore, we see a great business opportunity in lending,” said Chopra. “We intend to do vehicle loans as well as finance dealers to help them expand business.”
Cab aggregating company Ola has applied for an NBFC licence and plans to enter the lending business as an extension of its payment entity, ET had reported earlier this week.
Cars24 had raised Rs 340 crore last year in a funding round led by venture capital firm Sequoia India. Unlike a peerto-peer buying and selling platform, Cars24 buys used vehicles from owners and sells them to dealers, fulfilling end-to-end transaction. It earns revenue through commission from consumers, dealers and channel partners.
Chopra told ET that the company is in the best position to evaluate a vehicle since it buys vehicles only after rigorous checks and tests and has a data science team which assigns the right value to vehicles.
“This will help us in financing the car best, since unlike other lenders we have already evaluated the vehicle and can assign the correct price as well,” said Chopra.
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Reports: Fashion Week, Olympics driving people to mobiles
Smartphones are crucial for Fashionistas, especially during Fashion Week. According to a recent Millennial Media, On Device and the IAB survey most (76%) 'fashionistas' - women interested in fashion - were 'heavily engaged' with their smartphones during New York's Fashion Week. Another 14% were 'heavily engaged with tablets.
Some interesting findings from Millennial Media include:
• 67% of 'Fashionistas' are under age 35
• 62% buy in-store, 36% buy online and 26% buy via mobile device
• Fashionistas shopping via mobile tend to spend more
• 97% of Fashionistas use mobile devices while in stores
Millennial Media found that while most (68%) of Fashionistas spend more than $100 when shopping in-store more than three-quarters (79%) spend over the $100 mark when shopping via mobile. As for how they use mobile devices in-store the report finds:
• 29% are comparison prices
• 23% are researching products
• 18% are using social networks/sharing via socnets
Meanwhile a few statistics out from SOASTA show which countries are the most engaged with the 2014 Sochi Olympics. According to their data about one-third of smartphone traffic to the Olympic website originated from the US, another 23% from Canada and 18% from Russia. Most of these (30%) are accessing Olympics information from Chrome/32 browser windows.
About one-third of mobile consumers say they will use their smartphone or tablet apps to stay up-to-date with Olympic coverage.
Image via Shutterstock
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Good news for users of Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A30s smartphones in Russia: the company has released an Android 11 update for these models for our region. In both cases, not only the operating system and One UI have been updated, but also the security.
The new firmware for the Galaxy A20 is numbered A205FNPUUACUF1 and contains the June Android security updates. The firmware for the Galaxy A30s runs under the number A307FNXXU2CUF2, in addition to Android 11, it carries the One UI 3.1 interface and the May security updates. It should be noted that not all users of these smartphones will receive updates immediately, since the capabilities of the servers responsible for this process are not limitless. So it will take at least a few days to fully update the total number of Galaxy A20 and Galaxy A30s on hand.


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According to the source, one of the reasons Microsoft might be interested in AMD is to get its hands on chip design talent for its Xbox consoles, phones, and other products.
Analysts estimate that Microsoft pays around $100 for every Xbox One system-on-chip to AMD. Life-to-date sales of Xbox One are around are around 12.6 million units, which means that Microsoft has already paid AMD around $1.26 billion for Xbox One chips. The acquisition of AMD could save it around a billion per year on Xbox One chips alone. It the company develops appropriate chips for smartphones and tablets, Microsoft’s savings could be even higher.While these buyout rumors are very entertaining, there's little evidence to suggest a deal is really in the works.
It is necessary to note that Microsoft does not really need AMD. The software giant needs system-on-chips to power its Xbox game consoles, Lumia smartphones, Surface tablets and possibly other hardware devices. It does not really need server processors or high-end graphics cards. However, AMD’s management will unlikely sell a part of AMD to Microsoft since its accelerated processing units (what Microsoft needs) are based on technologies developed for server microprocessors and high-end graphics cards.


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Tupperware Mexico does not lose even to the agency contingency, the company is on the rise in the midst of the health crisis. The company is one of those that has seen an increase in its sales due to the new consumer needs.
Contrary to what you might think, after a series of dismal profits and expectations last year, Tupperware reports a huge increase in profits driven in large part by demand from people cooking in confinement.
The company announced that it achieved $ 477.2 million in sales during the third quarter of 2020, up 14 percent from last year Germany Email Lists. Earnings for the quarter increased to $ 34.4 million, up from $ 7.8 million last year.
“The pandemic has created a new norm with more people staying indoors and increased consumer concerns regarding food safety and food storage. Our ability to help meet these new consumer needs was most pronounced in our business in North America, ”said CEO Miguel Fernandez at the company’s earnings conference.
How to keep in touch with your coworkers while working remotely
In the United States and Canada, they increased 72 percent. According to him, it is the highest level of sales growth in the region in more than 20 years.
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All the result of being attentive to trends is now mobile lead reflected in earnings but they also want to give strength to the end of the year, so they launched a new Christmas collection inspired by The Nutcracker, the traditional Christmas tale for this season.
The Goodness and the moms can now stock up on the new collection, with various models of bowls, eco glasses jars and other products designed to avoid waste and to take care of the planet.


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[UPDATE] It looks like the issue has been identified and ZOS is working with Sony to implement a fix. Due to the interruption, the Jubilee Event is being extended on all platforms.
Update: We've identified the issue and are working with Sony to deploy a fix as soon as possible. It may take 24-48 hours for the realms to come back online. (1/2) https://t.co/oMjlcwTs2L— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) April 5, 2021
Original story below.
During maintenance today, ZeniMax Online Studios announced that the PlayStation MegaServer of their wildly popular MMORPG, The Elder Scrolls Online, would be facing extended downtime due to issues found specific to the platform. However, players are showing their discontent as this is the second time the PlayStation version of the MMO has had these extended downtimes in as many weeks.
Dowtimes are nothing new to MMORPGs. Server maintenance, bug fixes and more can bring servers down for prescheduled times, or even unexpectedly. Last week the PlayStation megaserver of The Elder Scrolls Online went down for an extended time period versus the other platforms, with the PS4 servers coming back online more than three hours after their Xbox counterparts after maintenance. This week it seems to be much the same picture, though the development team at ZOS is providing some additional information this time about what is causing the problem.
"Update: We wanted to provide more information about the current issue surrounding PlayStation maintenance. This morning while we were testing the build, we discovered some pretty severe hitching that was rendering the game unplayable that only impacts PlayStation builds," The Elder Scrolls Online's official Twitter account posted this morning. Since then the downtime for the PlayStation server has been extended till 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific, leaving Sony players in the lurch while the issue gets resolved.
We’ve been working with Sony to identify the root cause and get the issue resolved, and we want to get everyone back in-game as quickly as we can. We’ll let you know when we have an update on this. Thanks for your ongoing patience today. (2/2)— The Elder Scrolls Online (@TESOnline) April 5, 2021
Naturally, due to the issues last week and now this week, PS4 players haven't been too happy about the continued downtime. One forum user pointed out that the last two weeks their subscription has been rendered unusable for 20 hours this month, time they are paying to be able to play. Some Twitter users in response to the thread posted by ZOS have asked for compensation, meaning for both those players who pay the ESO Plus sub, as well as the fact that the Jubilee event is currently ongoing, meaning players are losing time to take part in the event.
Some players are also tin-foil hatting on Reddit the theory that because ZeniMax is now owned by Microsoft, this must be the explanation why this issue is happening on Sony's platform. As of the writing of this post, the megaservers have been down for about 12 hours on PlayStation.
Right now the maintenance is planned to end at 6pm Eastern/3pm Pacific, however the team could push that back as they've already done today with previous deadlines. While the team is communicating some of what is going on, some users are interested in a more detailed explanation, especially why this seems to affect PS4 users specifically right now.


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A contactless parking payment service used in Reading has suffered a data breach.
ParkMobile announced in late March that it had experienced a cybersecurity incident with someone gaining access to basic user information. More than 20 million users were affected.
In a statement updated on April 15, ParkMobile officials said the issue was caused by a vulnerability in third-party software used by the company. That vulnerability has since been eliminated.
Reading Parking Authority Executive Director Nathan Matz was not concerned about the breach.
“We are confident that ParkMobile has responded to this incident with additional security measures that will enhance the customers experience and security,” Matz said.
ParkMobile officials said that no credit card information or information on users’ parking history were accessed as part of the breach.
The information that was accessed included license plate numbers, email addresses, phone numbers and vehicle nicknames, if provided by the user. In a small percentage of cases, mailing addresses were also affected.
Encrypted passwords were accessed, ParkMobile officials said, but not the encryption keys needed to read them.
Company officials said users have been notified about the breach and urged to change their passwords. Passwords can be changed in the “settings” section of the ParkMobile app or by going to app.parkmobile.io/login?redirect=/account/settings.
ParkMobile is used in about 450 cities around the country. The app allows people to pay for parking through their smartphone or computer.


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Lannett Company Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Analysts (NYSE:LCI)
Shares of Lannett Company (NYSE:LCI) have been given an average rating of “Buy” by the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, AR Network reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $45.75.
Shares of Lannett Company (NYSE:LCI) traded up 2.53% on Friday, hitting $39.79. 194,014 shares of the company’s stock traded hands. Lannett Company has a 52 week low of $13.14 and a 52 week high of $51.659. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $37.9 and a 200-day moving average of $40.00. The company has a market cap of $1.409 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.96.
Lannett Company (NYSE:LCI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The company reported $0.64 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $80.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $79.50 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.12 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 100.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Lannett Company will post $2.60 EPS for the current fiscal year.
A number of research firms have recently commented on LCI. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Lannett Company from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. They now have a $43.00 price target on the stock. Separately, analysts at Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Lannett Company from $52.00 to $51.00 in a research note on Thursday. They now have an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, analysts at Craig Hallum downgraded shares of Lannett Company from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th.
In other Lannett Company news, major shareholder David Farber sold 5,000 shares of Lannett Company stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.30, for a total value of $206,500.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Major shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.
Lannett Company, Inc is engaged in developing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing generic versions of branded pharmaceutical products.
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- Governor, AG differ on legality of payroll without budget
- Regular RHA meeting a quiet affair
- Funnel clouds possible through evening
- Smoking bans a breath of fresh air to some, infuriating to others
- Experts break down the SCOTUS gay marriage ruling
- Senators offer insight into population loss
- SCOTUS ruling legalizes gay marriage
- RAMP receives $10,000 grant for youth services
- Obamacare victory shows failure of Scalia’s conservative revolution
- City Market: June 26
Signs Now Rockford owner receives top honors
Tim Anderson, owner of Signs Now Rockford, recently received three top awards at the 2013 Signs Now and Signs By Tomorrow Convention in Savannah, Ga., including the Network’s Highest Sales Volume Award. This top award is presented to a franchise member with the highest sales volume for a single center.
In addition to the Sales Volume Award, the signage and graphic company also received the Sales Excellence Award, which is presented to the top 10 percent in system-wide sales among all franchise members; and the Annual Sales Growth Award, which is awarded to the top five in system-wide growth percentage.
“Tim is consistently among our top performers and is a valuable asset to our company and other Signs Now centers across the country,” remarked Signs Now President Ray Palmer.
Signs Now Rockford is at 700 20th St. Their service base includes business solutions for window graphics, ADA signage, way-finding systems, dimensional letters, directional systems, architectural signage and other visual communications tools. For more about Signs Now Rockford , call (815) 398-8371 or see the company’s website at signsnowrockford.com.
From the May 29-June 4, 2013, issue


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National Conference on PM MITRA Scheme
A National Conference on PM Mega Integrated Textile Regions and Apparel Park (PM MITRA) Parks Scheme was recently held.
Who organized the conference?
Ministry of Textiles.
What are the highlights of the conference?
- Officials from 13 State Governments enumerated the contours of the 18 proposals for setting up of PM MITRA Parks in their respective states.
- Each state government showcased its strengths in the textiles sector and detailed the incentives being provided. For example, Special Chief Secretary (Industries) of Andhra Pradesh state explained the facilities being provided by the Industry Policy 2020-23 and AP Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).
- Representatives from the industry also shared their suggestions and apprehensions about the PM MITRA scheme.
What are the features of PM MITRA scheme?
- PM MITRA Parks will offer an opportunity to create an integrated textiles value chain right from spinning, weaving, processing/dyeing and printing to garment manufacturing at one location.
- The scheme is intended to generate around 1 lakh direct and 2 lakh indirect jobs per park.
- Sites for PM MITRA Parks will be selected by a Challenge Method based on objective criteria.
- Proposals of States having ready availability of contiguous and encumbrance-free land parcel of 1,000+ acres along with other textiles related facilities will be welcomed.
How will PM MITRA scheme benefit textiles sector?
- Since, PM MITRA offers the opportunity to create an Integrated Textiles Value Chain at one location, it will reduce logistics cost of Industry and ensure economies of scale.
- The parks will also attract cutting edge technology and boost local & foreign investment in the textiles sector.
- It will also help in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9: “Build resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.
What is the vision of PM MITRA scheme?
The PM MITRA scheme is inspired by the 5F vision – Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign.
Month: Current Affairs - May, 2022
Category: Government Schemes Current Affairs


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- Dec 31, 1969
- Pensacola, Florida. USA.
It happened. Even with a year headstart, the Xbox 360 has been eclipsed by the Nintendo Wii in sales. According to independant tracker Video Game Chartz, the Wii just passed the 360 this week.


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Debit card fees may have had a chance at life if banks resorted to “traditional” methods of pricing fees.
Dust is just settling from the trail left by bankers, who ran away from plans of charging debit card fees, for now. And looking back, they’re thinking to themselves, “Next time, we’ll be complex and discreet.”
Bank of America® was the bank that ruined the party for everyone else. At its massive size, the bank took the unorthodox approach of introducing a $5 debit card fee with no market test. Also, the bank picked the worst time – when Occupy Wall Street began to pick up steam – to come out with the fee.
For everyday consumers, the fee was too easy to understand, too upfront to ignore, and too transparent to miss. That’s not how you impose a new fee.
This string of mistakes led to an industry-wide obligation to pull debit card fees.
The “Right” Way
Firstly, banks should formulate a variable debit card fee pricing model. One bank that took this approach was First Tennessee Bank. Before the fiasco exploded, First Tennessee planned to charge $0.04 per PIN transaction and $0.14 per signature transaction. For the month, customers could incur a maximum of $3 in debit card fees in a month.
The fee appears small – just cents – so it’ll take a little work for customers to accurately project how much they’d end up paying per month. This tactic is notoriously known as “nickel-and-diming”.
Then, banks need to slowly introduce the fees in certain markets – not in one fell swoop. Oddly, Bank of America® was already doing this with its new line of checking accounts, which are slated to hit the entire nation in early 2012. But, it didn’t do the same with debit card fees.
It serves as an acclimation stage that eases the consumer population into accepting the fees. Proof lies in the lack of any mention of consumer protests against Bank of America®’s new checking accounts coming next year.
When fees are ready to take a permanent place in customer accounts, just send a wordy announcement filled with technical jargon.
Obviously, use snail mail – it’s too easy to forward an email to the press.
Sticking With What Works
The debit card debacle was an example of how banks deviated from the tried-and-true methods that are used to successfully hit consumers with fees.
Banks have learned their lesson – transparency kills profits. Hopefully, consumers have learned something as well.
By spotting fees in their true forms, consumers are more capable to voice their anger, especially after having banded together to fight debit card fees. It worked once, it can work again.
Follow Simon in the MyBankTracker.com Community and on Twitter: @simonzhen.


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The founder and CEO of Chinese tech firm Leshi TV has likened Apple to Adolf Hitler in a poster teasing the launch of the company’s new smartphone.
Billionaire Jia Yueting posted the image – which depicts a cartoon Hitler wearing a red armband with the Apple logo replacing the Nazi swastika – via the social network Weibo, where his page boasts over 5 million followers.
As reported by The Verge, Yueting also included text in his post that when translated into English read: “Under the arrogant regime of iOS domination that developers around the world love yet hate, we are always carefully asking, ‘is this kind of innovation okay?'”
Apple bagged 93pc of all smartphone profit, globally, in Q4 of last year. In China, however, Xiaomi has been battling Samsung in recent months for market supremacy.
Xiaomi ended 2014 with one-eighth of the entire Chinese market, growing almost 200pc to do so. Samsung, however, dropped 22.4pc to finish just behind. Lenovo (11.2pc), Huawei (9.8pc) and Coolpad (9.4pc) rounded out the top five.


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Aussie data exchange platform Data Republic has grand plans for the future which started to unfold this week when the company launched its Open Data Marketplace, a governed marketplace for organisations to list, exchange and collaborate on data exchange projects in a secure environment.
“I would say that we would be the next Atlassian, but I actually think we are going to do much bigger [things] than what Atlassian has done. I think we are doing something that’s so much bigger that nobody has ever even thought about,” Ryan Peterson, CTO of Data Republic told Which-50 between sessions at the Hadoop Summit in Melbourne this week.
Data Republic was founded in 2014 in Sydney and has designed a data exchanged platform built on top of a trusted legal framework. It’s backed by three big investors Westpac, NAB and Qantas.
The size of the opportunity for Data Republic comes down to organisations being able to understand the value of their data and being able to extract that value.
Peterson believes data valuation is the next really big thing.
“Think about a company’s valuation, say you find a company worth $1 billion, the latent asset of data sitting inside a storage unit is not valued at anything,” Peterson explains. “It might be indirectly valued as goodwill but, if you actually want to value a company and look at the data’s value you need to have enough exchanges to understand the market supply and demand metrics are around that data.”
“Now that we’ve got an actual marketplace where exchanges can happen more freely, we will get to a point where we will understand the valuation of that data and we can tell people what their information is worth.”
Take the example of Caesars Entertainment, the customer data in its loyalty program was valued at $1 billion when the casino group entered bankruptcy.
Data is a new currency and Peterson likened a data exchange to the shift from keeping money in a safe to moving it to a bank. “We think we are going to be the bank for data, where people feel comfortable and trusting putting data in and letting data flow around and turn into a monetary asset. We have to make sure it maintains the highest security and the highest trust level.”
Building a data exchange business will very likely give rise to competitors.
“It would shock me if we didn’t see more and more competitors coming creating more data marketplaces and exchanges,” Peterson said.
Getting Back To The Marketplace…
It was standing room only at the launch of Data Republic’s data marketplace this week at fintech hub Stone and Chalk.
Investors Westpac and Qantas Loyalty are among the brands that are already listing their data on Open Data Marketplace. Open government datasets, from data.gov.au, ABS and Bureau of Meteorology are also listed to allow users to quickly analyse and combine proprietary data to reveal new insights. Data Republic clips the ticket on the way through.
Consumers’ privacy is preserved with personal information encrypted and stored separately in Westpac’s Databank.
Users must apply and be authorised to get access to the marketplace and Data Republic’s technology provides organisations with complete oversight and control around who can access its data as well governing the permitted application or use of the data once exchanged.
Paul McCarney, co-founder and CEO of Data Republic, said there are significant productivity and social benefits that are already being unlocked by the open data trend.
“Whether its personalizing rewards for loyal customers, informing urban planning with up-to-date data, identifying fraudulent activity to lower premiums or just ensuring that a local retailer has enough umbrellas on a rainy day – the applications of secure, privacy compliant data exchanges are endless,” McCarney said.
“The data exists. With Data Republic’s technology, organisations and governments now have the secure infrastructure to leverage it without risking the privacy of consumers or the security of the data.”
The Social Problems We Can’t Solve (Yet)
Data Republic is developing a social good problem which once launched will have options for NGOs and research organisations to access and work with the data. The business believes making it easier for different data sets to move around will provide solutions to social problems.
“We spent quite a lot of energy looking at issues in the world and how there is a major lack of data available to help solve these issues,” Peterson said.
“We think to get people really trusting data exchanges we need to focus our energy on those social good programs first, so it becomes less about you sharing my information and more about big world problems,” Peterson said.
This article first appeared on B&T’s sister business site www.which-50.com and was written by the site’s editor Tess Bennett.
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Headquartered in Melbourne, Trade Indy is expanding off the back of strong client retention and consistent growth through existing and new business. Founded in Melbourne in 2014, the team have since expanded the business through team members in Singapore, Indonesia, Tasmania and Queensland, and are pleased to announce the full-time employment of NSW commercial director […]
Outbrain Inc. has announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 8,000,000 shares of common stock at a price to the public of US$20.00 per share. The gross proceeds to Outbrain from the offering, before deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and offering expenses, are expected to be approximately $160 million. The shares began […]
HubSpot, the customer relationship management (CRM) platform for scaling companies, has announced that as part of its World Certification Week, it is supporting the GO Foundation with its mission to empower young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people through education. As part of the support, HubSpot will donate $5 for every HubSpot Academy certification awarded […]
IntelligenceBank has today announced a strategic growth investment from Five Elms Capital. The $US37 million ($50 million) investment comes as brands and enterprises have realised that outdated technologies, disjointed data sources, and manual processes make it challenging to efficiently manage essential marketing workflows and ensure compliance across the organization. IntelligenceBank digitally transforms manual processes and […]
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SBS has launched live interpreting of the daily NSW Government COVID-19 press conference in languages other than English, to provide communities with access to the latest information and critical health messages. The national-first initiative provides real-time interpreting of the press conferences in Arabic and Vietnamese, streamed live every day on the SBS Arabic24 and SBS Vietnamese Facebook pages, SBS […]
Snowflake, the Data Cloud company, today announced it has been chosen by market-leading linking platform, Linktree, to support the company’s business intelligence and analytics activities. Linktree enables creators, brands, artists, publishers, agencies, and businesses of all sizes to curate an online ecosystem and monetise their passion, instantly guiding their audience to the destinations they care […]
Australian Pay On Demand fintech Beforepay has launched its first-ever brand campaign: ‘Your pay at your command’. “Beforepay exists to meet a gap in the market where Australians are seeking flexibility and control to access the pay they’ve earned on their terms. As pioneers of the Pay On Demand category, it’s important that we set […]
Taboola (Nasdaq: TBLA), a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web, helping people discover things they may like, announced today that it has entered into a definitive purchase agreement to acquire Connexity from Symphony Technology Group for approximately $US800 million. Connexity is one of the largest independent e-commerce media platforms in the open web, serving over 1,600 direct merchants, and 6,000 publishers.
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DUBAI’S FIRST SOCIAL DINING AWARDS CROWNS EIGHT RESTAURANT WINNERS
Public vote for 1,400 restaurants in 2015 Restaurant Buzz Awards organised by RoundMenu and FooDiva
Dubai, UAE, 18th January 2015; Eight restaurants in Dubai have been crowned the winners of the emirate’s first social dining awards, the 2015 Restaurant Buzz Awards. Organised by two UAE start-ups, social restaurant discovery tool, RoundMenu and impartial restaurant review website, FooDiva, with the support of Commercial Bank of Dubai, the awards are based around social occasions and voted by the public through social media only.
Caption: The #RestaurantBuzzAwards team revealing the winners at the Beach Canteen on Kite Beach. From left: Ali Al Sayed, the comedian and MC; Samantha Wood, founder of FooDiva; Zaid Jawad, founder of RoundMenu; and Nader Amiri, marketing manager of RoundMenu.
The public voted for 1,400 different restaurants in Dubai from top-end dining to cheap and cheerful eats, with 12,000+ users visiting the voting site over the five-week awards period.
The best buzzing restaurant winners in each category are:
· Fine, fun dining: Zuma
· Celebrate in style meal: Reflets par Pierre Gagnaire
· Love is in the air dining: Pierchic
· Serious business dining: Mint Leaf of London
· Family sharing meal: Merletto
· Casual, cheerful catch-up: Belgian Beer Café, Crowne Plaza Dubai Festival City
· Quick, healthy pit-stop: Kcal
· Hidden gems: Marta’s Kitchen
The winners were revealed at a Dubai Food Festival event at the Beach Canteen on Kite Beach last night (17th February) hosted by well-known comedian Ali Al Sayed, and with food served by Moti Roti.
“In today’s world, social proof is one of the strongest indications of sound business health. The Restaurant Buzz Awards help us go beyond just photos and reviews, adding a layer of recognition to both diners’ opinions in a transparent manner, and to the restaurants for living up to new social dining standards that customers seek out,” said Zaid Jawad, founder of RoundMenu.
“A dining experience is so subjective that whilst I have strong opinions on Dubai’s restaurant scene, it’s important to allow the public to vote for what they feel are best-in-class restaurants. Eating out is such a social activity that we themed the categories around occasions, and with voting only via social media,” said Samantha Wood, founder of FooDiva.
Visit www.restaurantbuzzawards.com for more information. Hashtag #restaurantbuzzawards.
RoundMenu (www.roundmenu.com), the social restaurant discovery start-up founded in 2010 in the UAE is present in eight destinations; Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Northern Emirates, Riyadh, Doha, Beirut, Cairo and Singapore. Its core values encompass a sense of community amongst diners, focusing on their convenience and emotions to deliver intuitive social solutions.
FooDiva (www.foodiva.net) was launched in 2011 by British-Greek-Cypriot and long-time Dubai resident Samantha Wood, a freelance food/ travel writer and communications consultant. The online resource shares impartial and intelligent restaurant reviews across the UAE, food features and events, celebrity chef interviews and culinary travel. In less than four years, FooDiva has scooped five awards, and most recently has launched dine around experiences in Dubai. Samantha herself is a regular speaker, presenter and awards judge on her favourite subjects – food, restaurants, hotels, travel and social media including a guest segment on CNN Go’s Dubai travel episode.


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Lots of new takes on relatively old concepts seemed to be a popular theme at the recent Get Geeked annual gadget roundup. Perfect example, the Podo, for when your arm is not long enough for a group selfie, stick this thing, out January for about $100, onto almost any surface and let it do the work.
“It’s basically to eliminate the selfie stick," says Anne Marie Kim of Podo Labs. "You just stick it on the wall and step back up to 30 feet, which is Bluetooth range, and take the photo, video, time-lapse or GIF."
The Electric Jukebox tries to bring a traditional jukebox-like experience to your TV. Out this holiday season for about $200, just plug it into your HDMI port, get it onto your Wi-Fi network and just like that, you have access to, developers say, 30 million tracks.
"What we’ve created is a product that you can just buy with no need for a subscription, basically the cost of the music is baked into the cost of the device," says Tim Hadley of The Electric Jukebox Company.
The PowerUp FPV is the first drone I’ve seen that’s made out of paper, and the fact that it’s made out of paper is one of two features that makes it drastically different from pretty much every other drone.
First, the paper part of it, and yes, you do fold it yourself, stick the camera/brains on top and designers say in about two minutes, you’re up and running. As far as the headset goes, it is a Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer. Just launch the PowerUp FPV, or First Person View app on your phone, put it in the headset, and then fly.
“You see the point of view of the aircraft. You control it by just pointing your head, wherever you look it’ll fly, it has an onboard computer with ten sensors, a barometer, accelerometer, everything you need," says Shai Goitein of PowerUp Toys.
The PowerUp FPV, created alongside drone veterans at Parrot, will begin preorders via a Kickstarter campaign next month for around $200. The drones are expected to launch next summer.


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Tag Archives: India Post
India Post has announced the result of National letter writing competition .Prizes were given to the winners on 2nd October 2017.Theme of the competition was Dhai Akhar Prem.
Sitapur MP has it his say as Department of Post has decided to issue a commemorative postage of Akbar’s Navaratna Raja Todar Mal later this year.BJP MP from Sitapur Rajesh Verma had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi … Continue reading
India Post has released a set of 8 stamps and a miniature sheet on the occasion of 75th Anniversary of the Quit India Movement on 9th August 2017.The President Shri Ram Nath Kovind released the stamps at the ‘At Home’ … Continue reading
How about visiting the Delhi Zoo and getting clicked in front of your favourite animal’s enclosure for a personalized postage stamp? Soon this may become a reality with the Department of Posts proposing to team up with the National Zoological … Continue reading
India Post has released a presentation pack of stamp of Dr. B.R.Ambedkar.This stamp was issued in 2015.Price of the pack is 200Rs.
India Post has recently put some new products for sale on epostoffice.These two products are fridge magnet and key rings. Both items having having images of stamps issued on Madhubala and Sachin Tendulkar .Price of each key ring and magnet … Continue reading
By M.Gulrez India Post has released a set of six picture postcards and a cancellation on the occasion of birth anniversary of Amar Shaheed Chandra Shekhar Azad at Allahabad on 22nd July 2017. The release function was organized at ‘Amar … Continue reading
India Post has recently put some new products for sale on epostoffice.These products are having images of stamps.Photo frames having images of cars 468 Rs each and having images of stamps on Buddha 520 Rs. Each.


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(Yicai Global) Jan. 4 -- Byton's Nanjing factory may sit idle till June while the troubled Chinese new energy vehicle startup is scrambling for new funding, according to news reports.
The conditions to resume production are still not met, financial news site Caijing.Com reported, citing the Nanjing-based company's internal document dated Dec. 31, 2020.
The car firm said last June that it will begin a six-month hiatus in July for strategic restructuring due to its major financing and production challenges.
Help may come from a surprising direction. Apple’s original equipment manufacturer Foxconn Technology Group is in talks with Byton, and may invest around USD200 million in the latter to kick off mass production by the first quarter of 2022, Bloomberg News reported today, citing people familiar with the matter.
But help could have come sooner. Byton has not been favored by financiers and its future is worrying amid the sector's boom, senior auto analyst Ren Wanfu told Caijing.Com.
Byton was founded in 2017 by Carsten Breitfeld, ex-vice president of engineering at BMW, and Daniel Kirchert, former general manager at Infiniti China. The startup has raised four rounds of funding worth about CNY8.4 billion (USD1.3 billion). It unveiled its first model M-Bbyte at CES in 2019.
Sport-utility vehicle M-Byte would enter mass production in mid-2020, Chief Executive Dai said in November 2019. The company was even planning to change its name and seek CNY2 billion in financing to restart production amid its troubles, according to media reports. Familiar investor China FAW Group was supposed to assist in garnering the funds.
Editor: Emmi Laine


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Music Industry Analysis
On a daily basis, Music Biz collects studies and data on business and consumer trends effecting the music industry. We compile this music industry analysis from a plethora of media outlets and data providers and filter out the noise to deliver directly to you the actionable insights your business needs to succeed.
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January 28, 2020 – GRAMMYs Spur Sales Gains for Lil Nas X, Blake Shelton, Billie Eilish, Lizzo & More
The 2020 GRAMMY Awards pushed immediate gains for the songs performed on the Jan. 26 live CBS broadcast, according to initial reports to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Collectively, sales of the tunes performed on the show grew by 266% on Jan. 26, as compared to the previous day. Combined, the performed songs (including original and popularized versions of songs covered, but not including brand new-to-market tracks) sold 45,000 downloads the day of the show, up from 12,000 the day before.... Read More
January 27, 2020 – India is Now the Second Largest Smartphone Market in the World, Surpassing the U.S.
A new report by Counterpoint Research estimates that India surpassed the United States to become the second largest smartphone market with an estimated 158 million devices shipped to the country in 2019. China is still the global leader at number one. Interestingly, India’s surge to second place is largely thanks to Chinese smartphone manufacturers. Phones manufactured by companies like Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo, and Realme made up a whopping 72 percent of devices shipped to India in 2019.... Read More
January 23, 2020 – How Music Collaborations Evolved in the Digital Era: A Decade in Review
Through music collaborations, or having featured artists on their tracks, artists are able to mix their audiences. Working with other artists also conveys activity and engagement. Audiences get to see that their artist isn’t just hidden away inside some tower, creating music alone in a studio. One need not look further than Lil Nas X’s introduction of Billy Ray Cyrus to “Old Town Road” to see the potential power a collaboration can unleash. If it seems like your favorite songs of the past few years have had an increasing amount of featured artists,... Read More
January 15, 2020 – Why Music Podcasts Are a ‘Gold Mine of Good Ideas’ For Artists and Labels Alike
As Spotify invested heavily in podcasting in 2019 — including a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company reportedly worth over $10 million — labels were also getting in on the action. In April, Universal Music Group announced a partnership with Wondery to produce original audio content based on its catalog; the following month, Sony Music Entertainment unveiled a partnership with renowned podcast producers Laura Mayer and Adam Davidson to create shows across a variety of formats and genres.... Read More
January 13, 2020 – A Majority of US Podcast Listeners Tune In Regularly
Many US podcast listeners tune in frequently, and three in 10 daily listeners have bought products based on podcast ads, according to research from CivicScience. The September 2019 survey found that nearly one-third of US podcast listeners tune in daily, and a similar figure listens weekly. But the study also found a difference in purchasing patterns between the two groups. Thirty percent of daily listeners ages 13 and older said they had purchased an item after hearing a sponsored ad for it.... Read More
January 10, 2020 – Nielsen Music/MRC Data Releases 2019 Year-End U.S. Music Report; Showcases Double-Digit Growth in Album Equivalent Audio Consumption and Vinyl Sales
Nielsen Music/MRC Data has released its 2019 year-end U.S. Music report, which shows that album-equivalent consumption — comprised of full album sales, track-equivalent album (TEA) units and streaming-equivalent album (SEA) units from on-demand audio streams — rose 11.4% in 2019. In the physical space, vinyl album sales grew to a new yearly high for the 14th consecutive year. Vinyl albums increased by 14.5% (18.84 million units) in 2019, representing 16.7% of all album sales for the year.... Read More
January 9, 2020 – BuzzAngle Music Releases 2019 Year-End U.S. Music Consumption Report
BuzzAngle Music has released its 2019 year-end report monitoring music consumption in the U.S. Below are some of the key points featured the report: For the third year in a row, total consumption growth was up double-digits (13.5%). Overall consumption growth in 2019 in total consumption was fueled by the continued growth of on-demand streams. For the first time, on-demand streams broke the 1 trillion mark in 2019 with 1,010,000,000 on-demand streams in 2019. On-demand stream consumption now represents 85% of all music consumption in the United States;... Read More
January 9, 2020 – The Smart Audio Report Winter 2019 from NPR and Edison Research
The latest survey from The Smart Audio Report, conducted after the December 2019 holidays, confirms continued growth in the smart speaker market with 60M people in the U.S., aged 18+ (24% of the population) owning at least one smart speaker device. The average smart speaker household now features 2.6 devices, up from 2.3 devices per household at the same time last year. The nationally-conducted telephone survey of 1,000+ persons 18+ also shows 54% of the U.S.... Read More
January 7, 2020 – Consumer Tech U.S. Sales to Reach Record $422 Billion in 2020; Streaming Services Spending Soars, Says CTA
Skyrocketing popularity of streaming services and wireless earbuds along with 5G connectivity and artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled devices will drive revenue growth for the U.S. consumer tech industry to a record $422 billion in retail revenues in 2020 – nearly 4% growth over last year, according to a new Consumer Technology Association (CTA)® report. “More and more consumers are embracing the faster connectivity, advanced intelligence and seemingly infinite content that technology offers today – pushing consumer technology industry revenues toward another record-setting year in 2020,” said Gary Shapiro,... Read More
January 3, 2020 – Wireless Headphone Market Surges 53% Year-Over-Year With Sales of 96.7 Million Units in Q3
The global wireless earbud, earphone and headphone market enjoyed brisk growth in Q3 2019 with a 53% uptick in sales year-over-year, according to new data from research firm Canalys. That represents sales of 96.7 million units worldwide for all wireless headphones, earphones (a.k.a. tethered wireless earbuds) and “true wireless stereo” units (a.k.a. fully wireless earbuds, a designation that includes Airpods) during the quarter. Not surprisingly, Canalys predicts 2019 will be the biggest year ever for the smart personal audio device market (a category that includes all three above-mentioned segments),... Read More


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- 2 min read
Fragile calm returns in auto stocks amid definite COVID-19 concerns
Although the rebound in activities at production facilities and showrooms helped calm the nervous auto markets, overall worries persist over sentiment revival for long-term due to coronavirus-led uncertainties.
- Over 3,500 showrooms are operational across the country now.
- Hero Moto Corp shares gained 5.70%, Mahindra & Mahindra added 4.08% and Bajaj Auto jumped 20.15%.
- The lockdown has dealt a heavy blow to the domestic automotive industry.
New Delhi: With resumption of manufacturing operations by automakers and the opening of dealerships, some fragile calm returns to auto stock markets. While the Nifty Auto index closed up 4.26 percent at 5679.7 on Monday, the growth moderated to 0.51 percent at 5708.95 on Tuesday.
Among stocks, shares of the country's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki, which resumed operations at its Manesar plant in Haryana after about 50 days of closure due to the coronavirus-led lockdown, jumped by 4.4 per cent to Rs 4,951.30 per unit on Tuesday. Other constituents, Hero Moto Corp gained 5.70 percent, Mahindra & Mahindra added 4.08 percent and Bajaj Auto jumped 20.15 percent.
Out of 25,000 dealerships, over 3,500 showrooms are operational across the country now, as per media reports. Another reason these stocks are rising is that investors feel consumers soon start showing interest in owning private vehicles rather than taking public transport which will boost the sales, particularly of two-wheelers and used cars.
According to Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research for India at William O'Neil & Co in Mumbai, the entry level car segment will also see good demand in coming days due to the social distancing norms.Safety concerns will drive the demand in the auto sector however the volumes in the Q1 will remain softMayuresh Joshi, Head, Equity Research for India, William O'Neil & Co
"Safety concerns will drive the demand in the auto sector however the sales volume will remain soft in the Q1 . It is expected that push-through will happen at the dealership from the OEMs side to build up the inventory in the second half of the year, especially during the festive period, which might get translated into decent sales numbers," Joshi said.
However he underlined that the volume growth prospects will remain subdued for a large part of the current financial year. "Although the companies have ramped up production quickly, supply chain problems are going to trouble them for a while. This coupled with decline in consumer spending massively impact the topline of the companies for at least two-three quarters," he added.
The lockdown has dealt a heavy blow to the domestic automotive industry with manufacturing mostly halted and consumers are cautious about making big-ticket purchases. According to market experts the ripple effect will be profound in the second quarter as companies will start taking some serious cost cutting measures to weather COVID-19 storm.
"Despite the opening of showrooms, buyers are hunkered down at home. For most part of the year auto companies will face an organic drop in discretionary spending," Gaurav Dua, Head — Capital Market Strategy & Investments, Sharekhan told ETAuto.
He further said there is more trouble ahead for the consumers as the majority of the smaller NBFC's are under stress. "Most of the auto sales are driven by auto loans . The kind of aggressive lending that we used to see earlier might not happen in the short term as these shadow banks themselves are facing issues in raising the liquidity. Plus, there are chances that the rates of auto loan might go up," he noted.


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CEOs of Delta, United and American Place Ad Urging Trump to Take Action on Qatar Feud
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The three US legacy carriers can’t let go of their feud with Qatar Airways.
On Tuesday, the CEOs of Delta, United and American Airlines took out a full-page advertisement in both The New York Times and The New York Post that urged President Donald Trump to take action on what they claim are unfair fifth freedom flights that Qatar Airways is operating through its stake in Air Italy.
“In the last few days, Qatar Airways has used its Italian proxy to launch routes to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and added flights to Miami – a further effort to undermine U.S. airlines,” the letter to Trump states. “Simply put, Qatar Airways represents a grave threat to American jobs and the health of the airline industry.”
The letter goes on to say that a “rule-abiding business” can’t compete with a “massively subsidized airline.” The implication here being that through Qatar’s minority 49% stake in Air Italy, it is subsidizing flights and unfairly competing with US airlines for flights from the US to Europe.
The three US airlines had long accused Qatar of unfairly receiving government subsidies to compete in the US market. That dispute ended after Qatar agreed to open its accounting books and agreed it wasn’t planning any routes from the US to destinations outside Qatar, which would be known as “fifth freedom” flights.
“We respectfully encourage your administration to hold Qatar accountable for violating its agreement with the United States and affirm that we will not tolerate these continued infractions,” the letter says, and is signed by Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta; Doug Parker, CEO of American; and Oscar Munoz, CEO of United.
The accusations the three US airline CEOs are levying would mean Qatar would be circumventing this agreement. But by the standard definition, Air Italy’s flights are not fifth freedom routes because Qatar only holds a minority stake in the carrier. The CEO of Qatar Airways, Akbar Al Baker, has long denied that these flights are fifth freedom.
“This is a lie. This is a straight, white lie,” Al Baker said in response to the accusations in March. “They cannot prove that we are putting a single passenger on Air Italy out of the Qatar Airways network.”
On Tuesday, the CEOs of JetBlue, FedEx and Atlas Air all signed a letter to the Trump Administration “to reiterate our support for Open Skies” policy, arguing that Air Italy’s flights are above board.
Featured photo of Air Italy’s first 737 MAX 8 before delivery in Seattle by Alberto Riva/TPG
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A family-owned Indian restaurant business is making a comeback amid the pandemic with the launch of a second location.
Bulbul Sethi and her husband Amar (Sunny) Sethi opened up Passage to India on the Dalhousie University campus in January 2018.
All was going well at the Dalhousie food court destination, which has become a favourite among Indian students at the university, until COVID-19 struck and forced the food court and other university facilities to close down in March, according to Bulbul Sethi.
She said the closure got the couple thinking, and they decided to take the plunge and chase their dream of opening a larger Passage to India location, where they could not only feature a tandoor oven, but also host more customers and offer an expanded menu.The family approached the Granite Springs Golf Club and then got the green light to open up shop there for the summer, while their first location remains closed until at least January. They’re hosting a grand opening at their second restaurant location, located at the golf club at 4441 Prospect Rd. in Bayside, on Saturday from 4 to 9 p.m.
“This is really exciting for me,” said Sethi.
“I always wanted a bigger place to show my talent and my passion and show that I can cook to people.”
At the new location, Sethi said there will be a “full Indian menu, à la carte.” It will feature items with an average price of $14 including homemade butter chicken, tandoori chicken, tandoori fish, naan bread and Indian street food. There will also be gluten-free and vegan-friendly options available.
With physical distancing guidelines in place, the new location will be able to host 50 people indoors and 60 people on an outdoor patio at a time. Takeout service is available as well.
Sethi said she wants customers to see up close and personal how different Indian dishes are made in their new tandoor oven, which is a traditional clay oven that she grew up using back home in India, that brings back “old memories” from her homeland and reminds her of her grandmother.
“I always wanted people who haven’t seen tandoor before to see how the naans are actually made and how tandoor can do (various) dishes,” she said.
Sethi and her husband moved to Halifax from India in 1997 and 1992 respectively. The two opened up their first restaurant in the city, Indian Buffet Palace, in 2010.
Sethi said Indian Buffet Palace was running for a few years, but due to a smaller Indian population in Halifax at the time, there was less of a demand for Indian food and a lack of professional Indian cooks to bring on board to run the restaurant.
Still, the Sethis wanted to employ their passion for cooking, which is why they launched Passage to India. When it was running on Dalhousie's campus, Sethi said they received various comments from Indian students, like "Your food is just like home," and "This is like my mom's food."
The family wants more people to try their food, which is why the new location's grand opening will feature a three-course buffet.
Sethi recommends people make reservations by phoning 902-495-0508 or messaging Passage to India on Facebook to dine at the restaurant on its grand opening day, in order to avoid line-ups.
“We want everybody to come and enjoy the homemade food,” she said.
After the grand opening, the restaurant will be open from 4 to 9 p.m. for takeout on Mondays and Tuesdays and 1 to 9 p.m. for takeout and dine-in Wednesday to Sunday.