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Anjali Malhotra, Chief Customer, Marketing and Digital Officer, Aviva India pens down her thought on how the current situation has inspired the BFSI industry to quickly adapt to digital means for sales, service, and redressal at a large scale.
India is a country that remains grossly under-insured, but since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, people are realizing the significance of insurance and how it keeps one prepared for any uncertainties in life. During the lockdown, people have also become accustomed to digital means of interacting and there has been a surge of 72 percent in the time spent on browsing the net. As internet penetration is increasing in India so is the digital penetration of insurance.
A PwC survey on technology adoption stated 67 percent of consumers leveraged the online platform to do their research before buying an insurance policy. This trend shows that online platforms have already become an influencer in the consumer’s decision making journey.
Consumers’ expectations for digital insurance have increased significantly since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and a digital transformation of the industry is the need of the hour. With the emphasis being on contactless dealings, companies are redefining their strategies for digital engagement and digitized delivery of the insurance product. Digital transformation is also impacting everything from customers, employees, and partners to products, services, and processes.
The challenges are real, and the industry is focusing on Problem Solving Digitally Across Multiple Disciplines.
It is indispensable to address issues like managing customer trust, escalating demands of privacy, monitoring customer perceptions, understanding where, when, and how to engage each customer in real-time to meet their evolving needs, leveraging data-driven insights to differentiate brand offerings. Companies must identify these problems and put technology to work in order to focus on them.
Developing a roadmap for seamlessly transitioning to new solutions with minimal disruptions to customers, partners, and employees is a key step here.
Over the next few months, insurers will need to take a closer look at their two key stakeholders — digital employees and digital customers.Insurers need to enhance the use of their websites, self- service portals with simpler, user-friendly, and easy-to-navigate interfaces. There is a need to make interactions even more personalized through one-on-one interactions through telephonic-advice, use of video & bots, conferencing solutions – informing customers, imparting product knowledge, answering customer queries, and so on.
Processes such as fraud detection, risk assessment, claims collection, and policy renewals may drive the next level of digitization. New-age solutions such as Cloud Telephony, AI-Powered Chat & Audio bots, Interactive Voice Response, etc. are being adopted to offer digital experiences to the customers. Insurers will also need to ramp up their call center operations to keep pace with the rising volumes of customer requests. By all means, the investment is worth making, since it takes the customer experience to a new level and helps in cost optimization.
In line with this, Aviva Mobile Sales Tool is an enhanced informative interface for the sales personnel to interact with customers and transparently share information. Important activities that are critical in the decision making for the customers, such as needs analysis of the customer, the right fitness plan for them, key benefits of a plan, illustrations of premium and the payment process are all available on this tool. It also offers our customers a hassle-free buying experience, without any physical documentation. Digitization is also crucial for greater collaboration for internal operations. Technology provides employees with ways to connect over video calls, share and collaborate documents, and much more. This also enables them to be more effective in a world where customers expect to interact and conduct business online.
Omnichannel is set to usher in a new era
It has become increasingly important for brands to understand each customer and create experiences that are relevant to them, irrespective of the medium. This new approach is important because, in the post-COVID-19 world, consumers will remember bands for their empathy, how they created happy memories and were ‘there’ to support them. Brands are using social media to engage with customers to build trust and brand awareness.
There is an increase in the frequency of messaging and social media posts by marketers. Social media campaigns to raise awareness, live Insta Sessions, engagement posts, Q&A, Twitter live chats, video bytes, and customer testimonials is the new playbook. Many have launched activities or campaigns to help the needy. Brands are using social media for training sessions, interaction with various celebrities to connect with the customers. This has actually led to an increase in engagement rate for the brands and has also strengthened their social media presence among consumers.
The massive shift to digital interactions and transactions will also come with its own challenges in terms of cyber-risk. Hence, the requirement for greater adherence to security protocols and the stringent use of cybersecurity technologies.
Predictive risk management technologies will be extremely critical to nip such threats in the bud.
Covid-19 is a tipping point that is resulting in more aggressive digital transformation plans for the insurance industry. They will need to be more transparent in their coverage and communication and reinforce trust in the idea of truly hassle-free financial protection.
This article piece is authored by Anjali Malhotra, Chief Customer, Marketing and Digital Officer, Aviva India


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Surfachem are pleased to be exhibiting at this year’s CHEMUK exhibition 2022.
The event will bring together 350+ specialist exhibitors and 100+ expert speakers split between two major shows:
CHEMUK 2022 sees an expansion of the exhibits space and speaker programme coverage, relating to the UK Chemical Industry Supply Chain covering products, services & equipment in the areas of:
Visit our team of experts at Stand K48 to learn more about innovative ingredient portfolio and latest concepts.
We look forward to seeing you there.
Friday, 11 March 2022

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OREM, Utah (ABC4 News) – As COVID-19 cases in Utah are seeing a resurgence, the financial hardships caused from the pandemic continue to uptick.
To ease the burden on families trying to during these trying times, Thursday, July 16, Ken Garff Nissan of Orem employees bought new shoes from Famous Footwear for more than 45 foster children in the Orem area.
“We recognize some small businesses may have to lay off employees or close, but if we can help with specific local items, we hope that helps everyone” said Tom Dinkelman, General Manager of Ken Garff GMC Riverdale.
Dinkleman adds, that the Ken Garff automotive group was built on the strength of community service.
“It was freakin’ great! The kids were so grateful and had huge smiles as the put on their new Vans/Converse/Nikes. BYU gave us some little swag items–flags, cups and stickers. And we bought shoes for 45+ kids” said one Ken Garff employee.
Ken Garff employees believe in the ‘Treat People Right’ motto. Employees throughout the company are purchasing goods and services from local businesses to give to local community members in ways that will make a difference.
Tom Dinkleman said “Our employees feel the best way to make it through summer during this pandemic is by giving to deserving people in the community with goods and services purchased from local small businesses,” he said. “It is extremely rewarding to help lighten the load of our neighbors and hard-working community members as we work through this pandemic together.”


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SilverNeedle Hospitality has launched a new brand, combining a selection of its independent boutique hotels.
The SilverNeedle Collection, as the new brand will be known, will initially comprise three Southeast Asian hotels, but this portfolio is expected to grow to 15 by 2016.
Announcing the new brand at the ITB Asia travel trade show in Singapore, SilverNeedle’s CEO Iqbal Jumabhoy said the SilverNeedle Collection was launched in response to the needs of independent hotel owners.
“We identified a gap in the market for non-branded boutique hotels that require marketing, distribution and management services,” Jumabhoy told a press conference. “Services can be tailored to the owner’s needs.”
In addition to the services mentioned by Jumabhoy, the SilverNeedle Collection will also offer its properties a range of support options, including pre-opening assistance, technical and IT support, finance and human resource management.
The brand will launch with three properties: the 137 Pillars House in Chiang Mai, the Kiridara resort in Luang Prabang and the Riva Surya in Bangkok. While details of future openings were not revealed, Jumabhoy did say that SilverNeedle is currently in “detailed discussions for one hotel, and early discussions for another”. All future additions to the collection are expected to be in Southeast Asia.
The move into boutique hotels is interesting for SilverNeedle, as the company commonly focuses its efforts on the corporate travel market. But while at least two of the initial destinations in the SilverNeedle Collection – Chiang Mai and Luang Prabang – are not major business travel hubs, the company said the brand still fitted with its corporate ethos.
According to Chris Stafford, who will be heading up the SilverNeedle Collection, the company is aiming to expand into a mix of urban and leisure destinations, not only focusing on business travel per-se, but also catering for the “leisure needs of business travellers”.
The most important issue however, according to Jumabhoy, is identifying the correct partners and properties. “We want to find owners who create authentic destination experiences,” he said.


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Gulfstream expanded its safety management system (SMS) to include the sales and marketing department, making the company one of the first business jet manufacturers to implement an SMS for a non-manufacturing or service organization. “Having a standard and consistent approach to managing risks helps us enhance what we’re already doing: delivering and servicing the safest possible aircraft for our customers,” said Gulfstream senior vice president of worldwide sales and marketing Scott Neal.
Columbus, Ohio-based Spirit Aeronautics announced Jody Jaraczewski has joined the company as the director of sales and marketing. Jaraczewski brings more than 14 years of sales experience and an understanding of how to drive revenue within sales while providing exceptional customer service, according to Spirit. In his new role, Jaraczewski will be responsible for creating and implementing sales strategies designed to help the company achieve its aviation service objectives worldwide.
The rarefied deepwater oil and gas market has spawned new players and big deals in the helicopter operating leasing market, but to date these transactions have largely been confined to medium and large helicopters. What will be the impact of leasing on the industry as a whole, especially for smaller operators with light helicopters in the non-oil-and-gas segments, and will it ever become as predominant as it is for airlines, where approximately one-third of the fleet is leased?
A new president, restructured sales and field service teams, operations expansion in Asia and Brazil and a new logo and mobile app unveiled here at NBAA 2013 indicate just some of the dynamic changes undertaken in the past few months by turbine engine overhauler Dallas Airmotive (Booth No. N3505), a BBA Aviation company.
RBR Maintenance has hired Chris Lesniak as manager of outside parts sales. Lesniak has more than 30 years of experience, including director of sales and marketing, account manager and parts manager for Arnoni Aviation and Avant Aerospace.
To cut costs and improve efficiency, the FAA is moving to end its direct-to-public retail sales of aeronautical charts and related paper products. Last week the agency stopped accepting or renewing chart subscriptions. While individual charts will be available through the agency’s website through September, on October 1 it will stop selling individual charts.
Nextant Aerospace appointed FortAero Baltic Business Aviation Alliance as the exclusive sales agent for the Nextant 400XTi in Russia and the CIS. The company has placed an initial order for two 400XTis worth $11.4 million. FortAero, which has offices in Tallinn and Moscow, has more than 16 years of experience with the Russian and CIS business aviation market and will play a “key role” in defining Nextant’s sales, marketing and customer service strategy in the region. To date, Nextant has delivered 28 of its 400XTs to customers around the world.
Jets, the MRO owned by the 328 Group, promoted Edward Benyon to sales and commercial manager for its Bournemouth and new London Biggin Hill facilities. He will lead a team of four responsible for building strong relationships with customers and developing future growth strategies and sales opportunities. He will report directly to managing director Alan Barnes, who recently joined Jets from Inflite at London Stansted.
Moline, Ill.-based Elliott Aviation has promoted Greg Sahr to president from vice president of sales, marketing and business development. In his new role, Sahr will focus on strengthening the company’s brand, enhancing the customer experience, increasing efficiencies, solidifying industry partnerships and developing new business opportunities. Sahr started as an avionics installer at ElectroSonics and progressed through several sales leadership positions at ElectroSonics’ successor companies.
Business jet remanufacturer Nextant Aerospace bolstered its global sales team as it prepares to announce its next remanufactured model. Jay Heublein has been promoted to executive vice president of global sales and marketing. The Cleveland-based company also hired Peter Walker as vice president of sales for Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia-Pacific, and Richard “Butch” Lang as U.S. regional sales director. Nextant recently delivered its 26th 400XT and has a more than $175 million backlog for these remanufactured Beechjets.
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Boskovich Farms grows organic program
Boskovich Farms Inc., Oxnard, Calif., has increased its volume of organic produce as it begins its second year of organic production in Holtville, Calif., said Peter Oill, organic sales manager.
The company now has up to 30 organic items, he said, and hopes eventually to have organic versions of its entire product mix to offer a one-stop shop.
The firm plans to add more acreage for the spring and summer.
Boskovich Farms’ newest organic items include celery, carrots, kales, parsley, green onions, cilantro, chards and spinach.
The company also has come out with its own B/Organic label for celery hearts. More volume and additional items will be available under that label in the future, Oill said.
Earl’s Organic creates sustainability post
Earl’s Organic Produce, San Francisco, has added a position, office and sustainability coordinator, which has been filled by Katherine Vining, previously the company’s office administrator.
The position was created to help make the company more energy efficient, said Susan Simitz, marketing manager.
“We’re looking at things we can do to be more sustainable and save energy,” she said.
Earthbound Farm announces changes
Will Daniels, most recently senior vice president of operations and organic integrity for Earthbound Farm, San Juan Bautista, Calif., has been promoted to chief food integrity officer, said Samantha Cabaluna, vice president of communications and marketing.
The company also has hired Santiago Pacheco, formerly with Ready Pac Foods Inc., Irwindale, Calif., as senior vice president of operations.
On Jan. 6, Denver-based The WhiteWave Foods Co., which recently purchased Earthbound Farm, announced in a news release that chief executive officer Charles Sweat was being replaced by Kevin Yost.
Sweat will serve in an advisory role during the leadership transition, according to the news release.
Earthbound Farm’s newest organic products are its three PowerMeal bowls, Cabaluna said.
“These are all organic, ready-to-eat salad bowls that are a great way to kick off healthy eating in the new year.”
Global Organics adds bagged product line
Global Organics, Sarasota, Fla., has launched a private-label bagged program under the Noah’s Organic Garden label, said Kevin Weaver, newly named director of sales and new business development.
The line consists of 3-pound bags of sweet potatoes, russet potatoes, red potatoes, fruit medley (apples, oranges and pears), bunched red beets, mixed onions (red, yellow and white) and rainbow carrots.


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In 2023, when global trade contracted by 2 trillion dollars, Türkiye's exports continued to increase.
2023 export data was announced in Ankara at a meeting attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In 2023, when the 100th anniversary of the Republic is celebrated, the automotive sector made the biggest contribution to exports reaching 255.8 billion dollars. While the automotive sector became the export champion with 35 billion dollars, chemicals and chemical products ranked second with 30.5 billion dollars and apparel ranked third with 19.2 billion dollars.
Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of TİM: We started the second century of our country with the goal of making Türkiye one of the top 10 countries in exports. The target of exporting 375 billion dollars of goods and 200 billion dollars of services for 2028 will be our first serious test. We created our road map by scrutinising the targets at our Delegates Workshop.
Despite the $2 trillion contraction in global trade, the upward trend in Türkiye's exports continued in 2023. In 2023, when the 100th anniversary of the Republic was celebrated, Türkiye renewed its record in exports with 255.8 billion dollars.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the export data for 2023 in Ankara at a meeting attended by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, Minister of Labour and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan, Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır and Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu.
Mustafa Gültepe, Chairman of Türkiye Exporters Assembly (TİM), underlined in his speech at the meeting that 2023 was a difficult year for exporters. Reminding that global trade contracted by 2 trillion dollars last year, Gültepe continued as follows:
“In a period of declining demand, our labour-intensive sectors had difficulty in keeping prices due to high costs. Earthquakes, regional wars and conflicts also had a negative impact on our trade. In order to compensate for our losses, we turned to alternative markets. We organised the highest number of trade delegations in our history. We organised 72 buying missions. We organised 150 trade delegations. We travelled 1.5 million kilometres in total. In other words, we circumnavigated the world 40 times. With all these efforts, we closed 2023 at a profit. We increased our share in global exports from 1.02 per cent to 1.06 per cent. In 2023, we added 18 thousand more companies to our export family. We reached 120 thousand in the total number of exporter companies. We reached the highest export value in 10 sectors. We exceeded the export limit of 1 billion dollars in 23 sectors. The three countries we exported the most were Germany, the USA and Iraq respectively. While increasing our exports to 113 countries, we broke export records in 66 countries. We increased the number of countries we exported over $ 1 billion to 50. Our unit export value was 1.57 dollars.”
TÜRKİYE'S EXPORTS GREW 7 TIMES IN THE LAST 20 YEARS
Mustafa Gültepe underlined that Türkiye has made significant progress in exports as in every field in the 100-year history of the Republic. Emphasising that exports have grown 7 times in the last 20 years, Gültepe continued as follows:
“This is a great achievement, but Türkiye's potential is much higher. Therefore, our country deserves more. As exporters, we owe it to ourselves to give our country the best it deserves. With this awareness, we started the second century with the goal of taking Türkiye among the top 10 countries in exports.
The 375 billion dollars of goods exports and 200 billion dollars of services exports targets foreseen for 2028 in the 12th Development Plan will be our first serious test. We have scrutinised these targets at our Delegates Workshop. We have created our road map in line with the opinions and suggestions of all 27 sectors.”
WE DEMAND THAT THE MINIMUM WAGE SUPPORT BE INCREASED TO 1,400 LIRAS
Mustafa Gültepe emphasised that they have to invest more and increase value-added production in order to reach big targets in exports. Reminding that the way to added value is through technology, R&D, innovation, design, sustainable production and branding, Gültepe continued as follows:
“In order to prepare such an infrastructure, access to financing on favourable terms is of great importance. We took an important step in 2023 for the solution of financing needs. We brought Türk Ticaret Bankası, Türkiye's first private bank with national capital, to our exporters. Hopefully, Türk Ticaret Bankası will be the second address of our exporters from now on. We had difficulties in access to finance in the first half of last year. The problem was largely solved in the second half. We signed a protocol with 11 public and private banks for financing with favourable conditions. In accordance with the protocol, around 5 thousand companies used 1.7 billion dollars of credit. I would like to thank The Banks Association of Türkiye in your presence. We are working together on a similar cooperation on the financing of green transformation. Changing conditions in global trade create new needs. For example, 2023 was a year in which the competitiveness of our labour-intensive sectors weakened. We believe that our President will support these sectors, which also make a great contribution to employment, to become competitive again. In this context, we demand that the minimum wage support of 700 liras be increased to 1,400 liras. We clearly see the positive contribution of state supports to our exports. Each 1 per cent increase in loans means that more than 300 new companies start exporting. Therefore, increasing the support and expanding Eximbank resources are of great importance.”
Stating that there is no goal that exporters cannot achieve as long as the state's support continues, Gültepe added that he believes that they will complete 2024 with a new record.


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NBI INDUSTRIAL FINANCE COMPANY LTD Q1 RESULTS
Shriram City Union Q1 profit rises 10% to Rs 260 crore
Consolidated income during the June quarter of 2019-20 rose to Rs 1,572.88 crore.
JSW Steel Q1 profit more than halves on lower sales
Consolidated total revenue of the company dipped 3.45 per cent YoY to Rs 19,812 crore.
Bajaj Finserv posts 2% rise in Q1 profit at Rs 845 crore
Bajaj Finserv is the holding company for the various financial services businesses u...
Tata Motors Q1 loss doubles to Rs 3,680 crore as JLR woes continue
JLR reported a pre-tax loss of 395 million pounds compared with 264 million pounds loss YoY.
Bharti Infratel Q1 profit jumps 39% YoY
The consolidated revenue, however, increased by only 1 per cent to Rs 3,712 crore.
India Inc reports lower revenue, profit growth in Q1: Care Ratings
The findings are based on an analysis of 2,976 companies which have reported their quarterly numbers by domestic rating agency Care Ratings.
5 star stocks that could lead the bull charge
ITC is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the corporate tax cut, according to analysts.
RIL stock could rally up to 20% post strong Q1 results: Brokerages
Following the June quarter results, brokerages turned neutral to bullish on RIL stock.
There is need to support export-oriented industries to boost growth: Finance Secretary
If you join the dots, there is a much a cleaner credit system in place and better corporate governance standards, says Kumar.
Cyient Q1 profit up 10% at Rs 91 crore
Revenue increased marginally to Rs 1,089 crore in April-June quarter as against Rs 1,080 crore in the year-ago period.
WNS Q1 net revenue rises 8% to $211.6 million; firm raises guidance
The company said revenue less repair payments is expected to be between $855 million and $895 million.
Dr Reddy’s Lab shares up post Q1 results; should you invest?
Global brokerage firm CLSA maintained ‘Buy’ on DRL with a target price of Rs 3,330.
Market Movers: What changed for D-Street while you were sleeping
The NSE barometer has fallen below its five-day exponential moving average and analysts said the reclaiming of 11,946 level will be initial step to recovery.
ICICI Bank swings to profit in Q1
Net NPA ratio decreased from 4.19% in June 2018 to 1.77% in June 2019.
Dr Reddy’s Labs down ahead of Q1 results, here’s what to expect
Kotak Institutional Equities believes that the pharma company may report 49.70 per cent year-on-year rise in reported profit after tax for the quarter under review.
Copyright © 2019 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service


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The gaming world in the united states has very few large- or medium-capitalization companies that specialize in video games. Waves of consolidation (Maxis, Broderbund) or bankruptcy (3DO, Acclaim) has swept out many of the historic publicly traded videogame companies as capitalism’s creative destruction did not spare gamers. Much of the US-based gaming market capitalization is effectively part of Microsoft. But with only 1.9 of Microsoft’s 12.9 billion in revenues coming from the Entertainment and Devices division in the last reported quarter, and an even smaller percentage of operating profit (312 million of 4.48 billion) it is arguable after many earlier years of losses whether this was a worthwhile extension of shareholder capital. Other sections of the videogame industry are submerged into entertainment conglomerates. There, alas, they are financially black sheep. Even occasional large hits such as Beatles Rock Band compete against intellectual property siblings, “are negative for margins” and Viacom hopes to break-even on it based on the holiday results. The division-level picture is worse — Disney Interactive is “still in the investment phase”: losing $295 million last quarter. When the combined results of Disney and Microsoft’s gaming divisions are more or less a wash, there’s a problem in the maturation of the industry. The occasional frenzy whipped up by bankers that there is about to be a wave of consolidations by the entertainment conglomerates of the game distributors shrivels under the glare of these green eye shades.
Publicly traded gaming boils down to five major US entities: ActivisionBlizzard, Electronic Arts, Take-Two, THQ, and GameStop. At the close of trading January 11, these five firms had 24.4 billion in market capitalization. This was already well in the shadow of Japanese gaming firms (Nintendo at nearly 60 billion dwarfs them alone, before one counts Sega, NamcoBandai, Capcom and others.)
Today with EA pre-announcing disappointing holiday results, on the same day as Shanda Games appears to have acquired Mochi Media, the shift in gaming power East is ever more apparent. The US model of packaged goods distribution as the driver of power within the gaming industry is being rapidly eclipsed by the online-centric Chinese universe. This is occuring much in the same way as rapidly developing foreign countries immediately skipped the stage of widespread copper-to-the-home development in favor of high speed internet and mobile computing.
The same aggregate market value computation is a little more difficult to arrive at for China: should the best performer in the Hang Seng index in 2009 (Tencent) be counted whose primary revenue driver is not yet gaming? Does one count Shanda and Sohu after the spinoff of Shanda Games and Sina? Neverthless, on the close the same day and without Tencent, adding NetEase, Giant, Perfect World, Sohu, Shanda, Changyou, Shanda and SINA together is roughly 17 billion. Their profit margins collectively put the American firms to shame. The excitement at GDC China is palpable.
With any reasonable re-valuation of the Yuan the Chinese gaming companies numbers however constituted would quickly surpass the American counterparts. But with current trends we may not have to wait for that — at current trajectories NetEase, a company few gamers would even pretend to have heard of two years ago may soon have a higher market capitalization than Electronic Arts should the latter experience a big enough drop. NetEase in part achieved this by winning World of Warcraft distribution rights in China; however that 2.5 billion dollar bump is a lesson in itself. The Chinese consumer rights to the WoW property are more valuable than all but two standalone American gaming companies!
Niall Ferguson wrote in the Financial Times December 29th the last decade was one “The World Tilted East.” He has started to posit the possibility that in the course of world history western ascendancy of the last five hundred years may not be normative, but an irregular blip. As with finance so too with gaming. The Chinese consumer is on the rise – domestic consumption may rise .4 trillion to 2.25 trillion this year, and as the income is increasingly matures over the decade to be spent on consumer entertainment the multiplying effects on the gaming industry will only accelerate.
The rub on Chinese games currently loudly echos the critique of Japanese consumer goods in the post-war period. Poor Quality. One can’t imagine a conference call in China where the virtues of the company are extolled by citing Metacritic scores. But profit covers a multitude of sins; something that is hard for many American companies to remember. As the Japanese electronics industry matured and surged in profitability, so too did the quality and it sought foreign markets — leaving unprofitable domestic firms whimpering, then extinct (quick: name the American TV manufacturers.)
This is the future of gaming and its good for us. No need to call Lou Dobbs or Ross Perot here — there will be a cultural blood transfusion from the rising power the gaming industry sorely needs, not just cheaply outsourced art. The industry doesn’t need to face the solemn fugues of the TV industry, but the industry that gave Silicon Valley its name. Without the Japanese chip challenge in the 80s would Intel have evolved to being the great global company it is today, would there have been the intrepid entrepreneurial culture of those companies neighbors? While threatening to the incumbents change will challenge the sequelitis that afflicts so many American “franchises.” Through this competition the game industry will be forced to grow as standalone companies with new ideas (look to Zynga’s oft teased IPO to add to the US market cap) to compete and we all will benefit.
It will be an exciting decade to play.


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Curls are back in fashion after years of straight bobs, followed by Shredded Wheat distressed tresses. But don't look for the frizzy Roseanne Roseannadanna-type kinky crescendos on those women seeking the new looks. Heads with that style are stuck in an '80s time warp, says Patrick Paul Mc Lynn, a stylist at the Michael Joseph Furie salon in Sherman Oaks.
"It's not just that perms are back in fashion, there is a whole new approach to that look," he says. He's given twice as many perms in the same time period this year as last year.
Perhaps the most telling difference between the new and old perms is that the curl direction is now less organized, resulting in a more natural look. In other words, the perm rods are placed in varied directions so it looks like nature rather than man did the job. "I'm trying to bring back classic hair with curl, after all those razor cuts so many Valley women have been asking for," Mc Lynn says. The shredded, sharp-edged looks are moving out, making room for more feminine looks. With his own clientele, Mc Lynn is touting a new spin on the Dorothy Hamill wavy look, grown out to the chin. Mc Lynn's perms start at $100.
Permanent-wave solutions touting ammonia-free and peroxide-free formulas mean even women with color-treated hair can have their curls and their platinum tresses without reducing their strands to damaged clumps of seaweed. The gentler formulas also feature more fragrant aromas. One such formula by the Minneapolis-based Aveda company infuses Turkish rose, French lavender and Chinese eucalyptus into its new Purescriptions Permanent Waving Systems, rendering the stinky perm tres optional.
SO VERY . . . STILETTO: Ditch the Birkenstocks and make room for spring's sexy, strappy numbers. Skinny spike heels as well as boxier, tall, rectangular shapes are showing up on trendy feet.
"Ugly shoes are finally out," says Bari Levine, manager of David's Shoes in Encino. Customers are embracing the stiletto heel because it's sexy, but the look is still very fashion forward, meaning it may take a while before high heels appear in such mass-merchandise stores as Sears and Target. Chunkier heels are still very much the norm in the new season's shoe collection, Levine says.
At Jack's Shoes in Simi Valley, employee Amy Kimmel agrees that the higher heels are going to be the rage for spring.
"There is more interest in them this season than there was last, now that the waif and grunge looks are out. This season, fashion is more glamorous and feminine, so shoes are naturally following those cues," she says.
DRESS-DOWN DAYS: What will the well-dressed San Fernando Valley male be wearing this spring? At Rick Pallack in Sherman Oaks, the renowned retailer cites the resurgence of the single-breasted, three-button suit jacket, the popularity of linen as a summer fashion fabric and an overall relaxing of corporate dress codes.
"Now that IBM has done it, you will see a lot of other, smaller, companies following suit," Pallack says.
One of the biggest indicators that corporate attire is loosening its proverbial tie: More men are wearing dress-shirt alternatives under their suits and sport coats, Pallack notes. Linen T-shirts, banded-collar sport shirts, polo-style sport shirts and Henley shirts are just a a few of the fashion-forward man's alternatives to staid cotton dress shirts. Another item trendy men might want to think about adding to their wardrobes--the leather dress shoe with side-buckle detailing. "We are seeing a lot of interest in that style of shoe right now," Pallack says. But will they be too groovy for the average Joe? Pallack isn't sure, but concedes, "there are still men who just want the traditional wing-tip shoes."
As far as spring fashion colors are concerned, Pallack says fashionable customers are experimenting with baby-blue separates and are considering brown, a color that has not enjoyed the current level of popularity since the Reagan Administration.


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Yesterday, the folks at D23 revealed more information about the upcoming event, Destination D23, at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
The weekend long production, which will be held Nov. 19-21, will include a number of presentations and experiences, including an update on Disney park projects and a 50th anniversary exhibit.
Disney CEO Chapek will kick off the magical festivities with a welcome presentation, while Disney Parks chairman Josh D’Amaro will share updates about upcoming Disney projects during a Parks, Experiences and Products presentation called “What’s New and What’s Next.” That’s always exciting to hear!
The event will also feature a special exhibit from the Walt Disney Archives called “50 Years of Bringing Home the Magic,” which will cover decades of Disney World merchandise—from figurines to pins and plushes.
In addition, there also will be performances from Michael James Scott (Genie in Disney on Broadway’s “Aladdin”) and Disney acapella group DCappella.
Other presentations include “Musical Memories of Walt Disney World,” a journey through Disney World melodies with Walt Disney Imagineering; as well as “Weird Disney World,” a look at some of the resort’s “wildest and wackiest” moments.
More presenters and presentations are expected to be announced soon, so stay tuned for more updates! Tickets for Destination D23 will go on sale July 29 for D23 Gold Members.
I’m super excited for this magical event! Are you planning to attend? More information can be found at www.d23.com!


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SACRAMENTO -- The Sacramento Police Department is searching for multiple suspects tied to three convenience store robberies.
On Nov. 24 around 1:20 a.m., several suspects, including a suspect armed with a gun, robbed a convenience store on La Riviera Drive near Howe Avenue. They stole merchandise then were able to run from the store.
The next night around 11:45, multiple suspects went into the same store, where they threatened employees and stole items before fleeing.
Less than a week later on Nov. 30, the police department reports several suspects robbed the 7-Eleven on Florin Perkins Road. One of the suspects was armed.
If you can identify any of the suspects captured by the stores' surveillance cameras, as seen below, call the police department at 916-808-5471.


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A reported Galaxy S21 FE leak hints Samsung's next value-for-money phone will sport a familiar but more conventional design.
The 94-year-old monarch has also described the final moments of her 73-year marriage as “a miracle”.
Following weeks of despair, Ludwig almost tasted freedom after his subathon timer hit the one second mark before it increased again.
This Vida mask has five layers of protection, and it's even recyclable.
This may come as a bit of a shocker, but technically speaking, not all water on Earth is made up of H2O molecules.
CD Projekt is no longer being lumped into the anti-competition lawsuits against Valve, and has been removed from the allegations.
The publisher of Death Stranding just revealed that the game's PC version made big profit in 2020, bringing in an impressive £20 million.
Asus announced the release of a highly-budget value handset at their digital event. The ROG Phone 5 series is now available, and it features 18GB of...
Nokia parent company HMD Global plans to bring its own 5G wireless network to the UK in late April 2021. Nokia- Legacy Phone maker Nokia is...
The NASA It has chosen the advanced concept of the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) radio telescope in a lunar crater for further research and development,


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Alumax Bath Enclosures has announced the addition of a complete line of glass
coating products that will be marketed under the ShowerBright by Alumax brand
The company says the program is three-fold, and includes a consumer kit, professional
restoration kit and factory-applied version that offers a limited lifetime warranty.
According to the company, the products help remove tough, etched-in hard-water
stains and mineral deposits from shower doors, windows, skylights, tile, porcelain,
chrome, stainless steel fixtures and non-painted surfaces. It also restricts soap


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CAIRO––Voting concluded on Monday in the first round of Egypt’s parliamentary elections, amid government concerns over low turnout in a vote that is expected to strengthen the political clout of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.
A low turnout would undermine Mr. Sisi’s claim over popular enthusiasm for his vision, which has touted the parliamentary vote as the final step in a “road map to democracy” he laid out as he announced the military coup that ousted Egypt’s first freely elected president in 2013.
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Gallo Speaks: Rare Address by Winery CEO
San Joaquin Winegrowers hear from normally reclusive Joseph Gallo
Hearing president and CEO Joseph E. Gallo would alone have justified attendance at the annual meeting of the San Joaquin Valley Winegrowers Association on Nov. 17 and 18.
In his keynote speech, Joe Gallo talked about his company and its history. It owns eight wineries, has 60 brands and is the largest exporter of California wine.
Gallo, son of legendary marketer Ernest Gallo, noted that his grandfather on his mother’s side was a Franzia who invested in land, while his Gallo grandfather lost his money in the Depression. Not surprisingly, the younger Gallos paid heed. They’ve acquired a lot of property.
Founding brothers Ernest and Julio started in business by selling grapes to home winemakers in Chicago during Prohibition, which was legal. After Prohibition, it was logical to start making wine, which they did with $4,000 and a four-page pamphlet from the University of California about how to make wine.
Their goal was to change a beer- and spirit-drinking country into a nation of wine-drinkers. Gallo said his father believed that the only way to grow the wine business was to make better wine. He listed the varieties that helped people learn to like wines, including white Zinfandel and today’s newly popular Moscatos and red blends. “Once people start drinking wine, most continue,” he said.
Gallo enumerated how Ernest’s hopes had been fulfilled as wine became more universal:
• Today’s youths grow up in wine-drinking families.
• Their lifestyle media celebrates wine.
• Wine is widely available in restaurants.
• Growers are growing better grapes, and wineries are making better wine.
He also suggested, inspired by Argentina’s success, that Malbec could be the next big thing in wine.
Gallo then described his company’s facilities in the San Joaquin Valley:
• Modesto for bottling and shipping only, with 90 million gallons storage
• Livingston for production, with 160 million gallons storage
• Fresno for production, with 110 million gallons storage.
He said that Livingston will have crushed 460,000 tons of grapes this year and Fresno 535,000 tons. He added that 300,000 tons of bulk wine was imported into the U.S. last year. Gallo said, "Those tons should be grown in California” and went on to detail his plans for avoiding importing bulk wine in the future.
Gallo admonished the growers that they need to get higher yields with better quality. He compared grapes to nuts: Almonds grew from 900 million pounds in 2005 to 1.5 billion pounds last year, with 70% exported; walnuts—also 70% exported—grew from 350 million pounds to 580 million pounds, while pistachios grew from 170 million pounds to 310 million pounds with 63% exported. “By contrast, only 16% of wine is exported,” he said.
Finally, he said that Gallo has 90,000 acres under long-term contracts. And he made the assembled growers very happy by announcing that he’s looking for 10,000 more acres for long-term contracts.
Land, legislation and shared burdens
Gallo’s keynote followed discussions of land prices and trends by appraiser Tony Correia of Correia-Xavier; a review of legislation that could affect growers by John Aguirre, the president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG); a harvest review by Nat DiBuduo of the marketing co-op Allied Grape Growers; and a discussion of how things look from a banker’s perspective from Rob McMillan of Silicon Valley Bank.
A common theme among almost all speakers was a shift from promoting “San Joaquin Valley” as a source to promoting “California wine.” The area (including Lodi, which brands and markets itself independently from the San Joaquin Valley) produces two-thirds of the state’s wine. As DiBuduo put it: “We are California wine.”
DiBuduo, in fact, was bullish this year due to light crops and firming prices after a string of past years’ frustrations with low prices and oversupply. “I feel loved,” he joked.
In his talk, Correia noted that San Joaquin Valley growers have been switching to premium varieties at the expense of generic grapes like Rubired and French Colombard, and they’ve also replaced grapevines with more profitable nut orchards—notably almonds, walnuts and pistachios. “(Grape) acreage has declined since 2001.”
Correia added that land prices have remained fairly strong even though residential values have plummeted. He said the price for land around Fresno has increased in recent years to about $ 10,000 per acre.
CAWG’s Aguirre noted that the biggest issue confronting growers is the same one facing everyone—budget deficits. Water and labor problems also confound grapegrowers. In addition, CAWG is trying to get the TTB to outlaw imported grapes from wines labeled “American.”
Along with many other comments and observations, banker McMillan observed that in spite of all the talk about Millennials and their love of wine, it’s older folks who are buying wine. “The young people don’t have jobs,” he noted.
The association also honored members Paul Dismukes and Luther Khachigian with lifetime achievement awards.


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As CEO of the Victorian Transport Association I am often asked in public forums: “How do we get trucks off our roads?” We also often see the public messaging stating that the new ‘tunnel’ will get thousands of trucks off our roads.
In the contrarian world we live in, and within which public debate seems increasingly black or white, it is acceptable in many circles to advocate for absolute views about issues without a thought or consideration for what the alternative might look like.
In this magical utopian world, our streets are absent from the very vehicles that keep our economy humming along, and that stock grocery store shelves, and keep our construction and building sites equipped with supplies, our factories stocked with raw materials, and our cars filled with petrol or diesel. The goods that people demand, that are essential to businesses and maintain our standard of living just don’t ‘appear’.
The scale and enormity of the freight task is lost in the narrowly focussed, ‘not in my backyard’ mentality of not knowing how goods move through our communities.
But let’s consider the impact if such draconian bans were to occur, against the backdrop of the slippery slope many inner-city councils and local governments are putting us on, through increasingly restrictive conditions on heavy vehicle movements in our cities and towns.
For one, congestion would be worse, with the increased reliance by businesses and consumers on smaller vehicles making many more journeys and offsetting any benefit of having no or fewer trucks on our roads.
Streets would be gridlocked with vans and lightweight delivery vehicles that experience the same demand for goods, but with the additional pressure of more frequent deliveries required to keep shelves stocked and construction sites busy.
And as for parking, well you can forget about that. In the face of fewer loading zones in our cities thanks to new infrastructure and dedicated lanes for bicycles on most of our city streets, all these delivery vans will be fighting for what little street parking remains, with an influx of motorcycles and delivery scooters dangerously littering footpaths.
The safety consequences are equally stark with road accidents likely to increase thanks to additional congestion and more vehicles occupying the roads, with the added heightened risks to pedestrians having to navigate trolleys and pallet jacks carrying goods to shops from delivery vans parked blocks away.
The benefit of less noise and fuel emissions from supporters of no or fewer heavy vehicles is just as mythical, with the explosion in numbers of delivery vans and motorbikes needed to meet consumer demand more than negating any ‘benefit’ brought about by less trucks.
These examples may well be extreme but does serve to demonstrate the worst-case scenario of reducing or removing heavy vehicles from the supply chain.
We can take comfort that level heads are prevailing in the upper echelons of state and federal governments, who recognise the vital work transport workers do in keeping supply chains functional, together with how essential heavy vehicles are in delivering the growing freight task.
Regrettably, the same cannot be said for a growing number of local government authorities around Australia, whose transport plans seem to be predicated on reducing or eliminating trucks from roads and thoroughfares, and taxing transport operators for doing their jobs.
The City of Melbourne has reduced the number of loading zones in the CBD over the past 12 months in order to provide fixed infrastructure and new dedicated lanes for bicycles, forcing delivery trucks to park many blocks away and walking trolleys through the pedestrians. Greater traffic congestion is a by-product of reducing loading zones, with operators remaining in town for longer with nowhere to park.
This is exactly the kind of slippery slope we must avoid, and actively discourage transport policy makers from setting us on – often encouraged by fringe groups and their ‘ban trucks at all costs’ mentality.
Supply chains must flow and decision makers must understand the size and scale of the freight task that keeps the millions of people supplied with the goods they need every day determines the nature of the vehicle size on our roads.
The industry is improving with low emission vehicles, enormous investments in technology, superior safety systems and a call for more driver training.
The industry needs clearways not curfews. The industry needs better road management through dedicated routes and varied access permissions. The industry needs a far greater maturity shown by those advocating to get heavy vehicles off our streets.
The VTA continues to advocate for the legitimate rights of operators to use the road network, and to articulate the vitality of trucks and heavy vehicles in our supply chain.


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Back in September, Amazon announced a bunch of features coming to the Alexa app and devices powered by the smart assistant. One of those features included support for group calling. Today, the company announced that group calling is now rolling out to supported Echo devices, along with a bunch of other calling features for users in the United States, especially during the holiday season.
Users can now create groups of up to seven people that include friends or family members and name the group via the Alexa app. They can then initiate a group voice or video call from Echo devices just by saying “Alexa, call my family” or Alexa, call my [group name]” command. The feature allows any of the group members to initiate a call and not just the creator of the group. There is no information on any duration limits for group calls.
The e-commerce giant also announced today that it is rolling out support for Zoom and Amazon Chime conference calls on Echo Show 8 devices, as promised earlier this year. Users will be able to join video meetings on Zoom or Chime via Alexa using simple voice commands like “Alexa, join my Zoom/Amazon Chime meeting”.
Other enhancements coming to Alexa include a Call Captioning feature on Echo Show devices that generates caption in Drop In or one-to-one calls. This feature is useful for users with accessibility needs – such as those that are hard of hearing. Captions will begin rolling out today and currently supports U.S. English.
Lastly, the firm is also bringing Alexa Group Calling for kids through the Amazon Kids app on Fire tablets and Fire Kids Edition tablets. Children will be able to initiate or receive calls from contacts approved by parents on Echo devices or from the Alexa app on mobiles. The feature, however, needs to be enabled through the Parents Dashboard on Fire tablets.
The addition of group calling is a nifty one, especially during the holiday period. While the feature rivals the likes of Zoom, that offering too will remove its 40-minute call limits for free users on specific days during the holidays, which can be leveraged by Alexa users thanks to the support for the service.


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Year-to-date sales up 6.2 percent year-over-year.
Day: July 22, 2014
Total sales for 2014 up 3.8 percent over 2013.
Year-to-date sales up 81.3 percent year-over-year.
Industrial sales for the second quarter were up 24.9 percent over 2Q2013.
Three current trends in the distribution industry focus on strategy and being data-informed.


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The leader of the United Auto Workers responsible for negotiations with General Motors took aim at the automaker’s Mexican production during a speech at the UAW Special Convention on Collective Bargaining in Detroit.
Terry Dittes, UAW vice president in charge of union’s GM Department, said in a report to the 900 delegates that roughly one third of the vehicles GM sells in the U.S. now come from Mexico and that will be a major issue in the UAW’s upcoming contract talks with the automakers.
“Don’t kid yourself there are more plants that may be in jeopardy as time goes on,” Dittes warned the delegates. “This is not a good will speech.
“General Motors just announced that they made $10.8 billion in the United States. General Motors sells more vehicles in the United States than Ford or FCA. General Motors currently has 17.5% market share, higher than Ford and FCA,” Dittes said.
(UAW raising strike pay ahead of Big Three negotiations. Click Here for the story.)
“General Motors’ UAW employment is about 48,000 members. Over 7,000 of them are in skilled trades and more than 4,000 are temporary employees. General Motors makes the most profits. They sell the most the most cars, trucks and crossovers. They’ve been at the top of heap for many years.
The converse is that Ford and Fiat Chrysler have fewer UAW members, Dittes noted. General Motors, which sell the most cars in the U.S. does not build the most cars in the U.S.; that honor belongs to the Ford Motor Co. GM does in fact build one third of its vehicles in Mexico for the sole purpose of sending them to the United States for sale, Dittes pointed out.
(Click Here for details about UAW suing General Motors over plant closures.)
“Brothers and sisters you can see what we’re up against when we open negotiations when this coming but I can tell you we’re ready for the fights and I know you’re ready for the fight and I know our membership is ready for the fight,” Dittes told the delegates. “It’s time for us to stand. It’s time for us to take what belongs to us and stand up for what we have,” he said.
Dittes added the UAW faces a whole new set of issues during bargaining such as the use of temporaries and two-tier wages and erosion of skilled trades not to mention product as well as GM’s decision to shut plants In Lordstown, Ohio, Baltimore as well as in Detroit and Warren, Michigan, staffed by UAW members.
(To see more about the UAW’s efforts to reverse GM’s decision to close plants, Click Here.)
“We’re not quitting on that,” he said. “It’s time to stand up.”


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With the purchase of Main Street Hub, GoDaddy (NYSE: GDDY) will enlarge its skilled products and services for making improvements to the virtual presence of small companies.
GoDaddy Acquiring Main Street Hub
This acquire addresses the significance of optimizing social media advertising and marketing as marketers and companies build up the sources they make investments on-line. GoDaddy has been creating a concerted effort to in particular make stronger small companies with different acquisitions and in-house answers to simplify the virtual ecosystem.
Social media advertising and marketing can get sophisticated and dear, particularly for small trade homeowners. The carrier Main Street Hub supplies does the heavy lifting, so trade homeowners can have interaction with their consumers.
Simply put, Main Street Hub manages the engagement of your consumers for the most well liked social networks. The corporate does this through the usage of a proprietary era to organize the process at the networks along side branding professionals, photographers, writers, designers and entrepreneurs. The finish purpose is to lend a hand small companies construct more potent relationships with current consumers and obtain new ones.
Matt Stuart, co-CEO and co-founder of Main Street Hub, mentioned in a press unencumber, “We complement each other strategically, culturally and across our products and services. We now have the scale and resources to help millions of more business owners realize the value of having an optimized social media presence — our team can’t wait to get started.”
GoDaddy has 17 million small trade consumers with an internet presence, which makes the addition of Main Street Hub an excellent have compatibility with the website online construction and search engine optimization managing products and services it gives. The corporate paid $125 million in money for the purchase in addition to possible long term earnouts of up to $50 million.
Lauren Antonoff, Senior Vice President of Presence and Commerce, at GoDaddy, added, “…Even with the right tools, customers struggle to find the time or know-how to effectively manage their social media presence. Joining forces with Main Street Hub better enables us to help our customers reach their goals while saving them time and offering peace of mind.”
As a part of the deal, GoDaddy will deal with Main Street Hub’s workplaces in Austin, Texas. The co-CEOs and co-founders Matt Stuart and Andrew Allison will take management positions in GoDaddy’s Presence and Commerce trade unit.
The acquisition will give small companies the facility to acquire complete virtual answers beneath one corporate. Those answers now come with website online construction, internet hosting, search engine optimization control, communications and now social media advertising and marketing.
Photo by means of Shutterstock


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The market euphoria surrounding Vulcan Energy’s utopian plan to produce lithium in Germany at zero cost and with zero carbon emissions reminds Joe Lowry of another investment craze that came out of western Europe.
“I view Vulcan as a modern day ‘tulip bulb’ investment. Great marketing, low on substance,” he says, likening the ASX-listed company to the famous investment bubble that burst in the Dutch flower market in the 1600s.
Vulcan shares rose by more than 4400 per cent in the year to January on the back of plans to enter the lithium market in 2024 as the world’s lowest-cost producer by extracting and harvesting both lithium and geothermal power from hot, salty groundwater in the Rhine Valley.
The notion that Vulcan’s geothermal power would entirely offset the cost and the carbon footprint of the lithium extraction has struck a chord with investors at a time when surging electric vehicle sales are breathing life back into the battery minerals sector.
“Vulcan is unlikely to ever produce commercially and even if they do they will most likely be at the high end of the cost curve,” Lowry says, contradicting the pitch that helped Vulcan raise $120 million this month.
A three-decade veteran of the lithium industry and founder of consultancy Global Lithium, Lowry has first-hand experience of how difficult it can be to profitably extract lithium from geothermal brines.
In 2013 and 2014 he worked for Simbol Materials, the US company whose failure to profitably extract lithium from the geothermal brines of California’s Salton Sea now serves as a cautionary tale for a new wave of investors.
Some big names are surfing that wave; mining magnate Gina Rinehart has famously backed Vulcan, and Warren Buffett is also trialling lithium extraction at the geothermal power stations his company Berkshire Hathaway owns at Salton Sea.
Even Bill Gates has exposure to the fashionable but unproven concept, having pumped money into a new purification technology that is being deployed at another Salton Sea geothermal lithium project.
Like its contemporaries in California, Vulcan’s geothermal lithium plan is built on the notion that two revenue streams can come out of the one hole.
Vulcan believes about 80 per cent of revenue from the project’s $1.24 billion first phase will come from selling lithium; a forecast built on assumptions lithium hydroxide will be fetching $US14,925 per tonne by the time production begins in 2024.
That price assumption is higher than the circa $10,125 per tonne lithium hydroxide was fetching in early February, but conservative in the context of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence’s forecast for prices to test $US17,435 per tonne in 2024.
If the lessons of the past decade at Salton Sea are any guide, Vulcan’s biggest challenge will not be commodity prices, but the technical work required to separate the lithium from the other minerals in the brines.
“Extraction from geothermal brines is a complex process as geothermal brines contain a host of several minerals. The key is to commercialise extraction technology which can competitively produce battery-grade lithium chemicals,” George Miller, a lithium analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence, says.
“There are several interesting new extraction technologies under development but it is yet to be seen how many of these will compare to the economics of today’s brine and spodumene production.
”Whilst theoretical operating costs may also be low, initial sunk costs in constructing a lithium production facility are high and, once complete, the process of refining final product quality to industry standard can create significant delays and cost overruns for producers, making the overall task very technically challenging, and one that typically requires intensive investment.”
Vulcan will use an existing technology to extract lithium chloride from the groundwater and then use electrolysis to convert the lithium chloride into battery grade lithium hydroxide.
But some very important details will remain a mystery until Vulcan actually gets into production, including the lithium content of the groundwater and the rate at which the groundwater will flow to surface.
“In deep geothermal brine projects, the first well drilled is also the first production well,” Vulcan said in the small print of an ASX disclosure earlier this month.
“The pre-feasibility study contains assumptions around brine flow rates and lithium grades which, while based on reasonable assumptions from the experience of the Vulcan team and its consultants in the Upper Rhine Valley, will need to be verified when production well drilling occurs before the plant sizing can be finalised.”
Taxpayer funds have gushed from Washington DC and the Californian capital of Sacramento toward Salton Sea since Simbol failed in 2015, in the hope a lithium industry can be symbiotically established within the region’s existing geothermal power industry.
Success has been elusive, but several players are determined to change that in the next three years.
Private US company EnergySource owns the Salton Sea geothermal power station, where Simbol tried to extract lithium, and has continued working on the idea.
EnergySource declared in late 2019 that new filtration technology had successfully extracted lithium in trials, and fundraising efforts are underway for a full-scale plant that would start commercial lithium production in 2023.
Private Australian company Controlled Thermal Resources also hopes to have a geothermal lithium project running at Salton Sea by 2023, while Berkshire Hathaway is focused on delivery by 2025.
Lowry hopes his pessimistic view of Vulcan’s prospects is proven wrong. But he doesn’t expect geothermal brines to become a big part of the lithium industry any time soon.
“At some point in the future I believe that lithium chemicals will be produced from geothermal brines. However, I am not sure any of the new aspirants have cracked the code or are even ahead of Simbol,” he says.
Manufacturers such as Volkswagon say the supply chains for their electric vehicles will be carbon neutral in future and Vulcan managing director Francis Wedin takes that as a sign the carbon footprint of lithium production will matter more in future.
Europe and China are the world’s most advanced electric vehicle markets, and Wedin believes Vulcan’s German location will appeal to European manufacturers, given most of the world’s lithium comes from South America and Australia.
“It is really the right place at the right time for this company,” Wedin says.
“It is easy to get a resources project up and running when you don’t have to worry about the carbon footprint. Now those issues are coming into the spotlight, these projects will be much more in focus.”
Vulcan’s economic model does not assume that carbon-free lithium will receive a price premium over the Australian hard rock lithium that is dug up by diesel-powered machines.
But with the London Metals Exchange considering new price brackets for “low carbon” commodities, Miller says consumers may be willing to pay a premium for carbon-free lithium one day.
“This has yet to develop into a specific price premium but this may be something consumers apply a premium on in the future,” he says.
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Months before its technology became the centerpiece of Samsung’s new mobile payment system, LoopPay, a small Massachusetts subsidiary of the South Korean electronics giant, was the target of a sophisticated attack by a group of government-affiliated Chinese hackers.
As early as March, the hackers — alternatively known as the Codoso Group or Sunshock Group by those who track them — had breached the computer network of LoopPay, a start-up in Burlington, Mass., that was acquired by Samsung in February for more than $250 million, according to several people briefed on the still-unfolding investigation, as well as Samsung and LoopPay executives.
LoopPay executives said the Codoso hackers appeared to have been after the company’s technology, known as magnetic secure transmission, or MST, which is a key part of the Samsung Pay mobile payment wallet that made its public debut in the United States last week.
Like similar mobile payment systems from Apple and Google, Samsung Pay allows consumers to pay for goods using their Samsung smartphones with so-called near-field communications technology, which uses a wireless signal to send payment information from a phone to newer cash registers. But LoopPay’s MST technology has an advantage: It also works with older payment systems by emulating a commonly used magnetic stripe card.
The attackers are believed to have broken into LoopPay’s corporate network, but not the production system that helps manage payments, said Will Graylin, LoopPay’s chief executive and co-general manager of Samsung Pay. Mr. Graylin said that security experts were still looking through LoopPay’s systems, but that there had been no indication that the hackers infiltrated Samsung’s systems or that consumer data had been exposed.


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Home sales drop in San Antonio, but prices rise
Home sales saw a fourth straight month of declines in the San Antonio area, dropping 15% in July, compared to the same time period last year.
The San Antonio Board of Realtors reports countywide homes sales were down nearly 17% in July compared to 2021. High prices and increased mortgage rates and inflation have all been cited as factors in the decline of home sales locally and nationally.
While home sales are dropping, home sellers are apparently not panicked yet. SABOR reports the San Antonio area saw an increase of 12 and 15% in average and median home prices, respectively, from the same time last year. According to the Multiple Listing Service Report, which reports all areas contained within the MLS, the average price of a home was $389,486 and the median price was $341,600 in July 2022.
The average number of days a home stayed on the market increased to 27 days. The price per square foot also saw an increase of 35%, now at $186.
“Though the average and median price of a home continues to rise, this is the fourth month in a row we are seeing a decrease in home sales,” said Tracie Hasslocher, SABOR's 2022 Chairman of the Board. “3,333 homes were sold in July, a decrease of 15% from July 2021. To close the month, there were 5,114 new listings and 9,068 active listings, both an increase from last year. However, there was a 12% decrease in pending sales.”
The San Antonio-New Braunfels MSA report shows July 2022 closed with 3,341 sales, 5,160 new listings, 8,686 active listings, and 2,809 pending sales. The average price for a home in the area increased 13.5 percent to $395,092. The median price also increased 14.6 percent to $338,000 About 99.6% of homes sold for their listing prices and were on the market for an average of 27 days, according to a news release from SABOR.
Home sales in Bexar County also saw a decrease of 16.8% in July 2022 with 2,325 homes sold. The price per square foot increased to $177. The average home price for the area increased 13.6 percent to $368,139 and the median price increased 14.3 percent to $320,000.
Other major counties in the state also saw increases in average and median prices. Travis County reported a median price of $646,325, Harris Co. $335, and Dallas Co. at $377,575.
Across the state, there were 30,847 homes sold, a decrease of 15.4 percent from July 2021. Average home prices increased by 10 percent and median prices by 12.7 percent.
Texas homes stayed on the market for an average of 26 days, with 2.5 months of inventory and 99.1 percent selling for their list price. The state closed the month with 48,934 new listings, 78,675 active listings, and 29,736 pending sales, SABOR reported.


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NEW YORK -- Bodywear makers hope to add some extra muscle to their business in 1995 with several key ideas.
Creating exclusive designs for major stores.
Developing brand names for mass market.
Building retail partnerships through technology.
Introducing more color.
Going into specialty stretch items such as padded, push-up sports bras.
Danskin will be moving into the mass market next year with a new program of active bodywear, a line combining stretch bodywear with active pieces, such as pull-on pants, said Howard Cooley, chief executive officer of Danskin Inc.
"We have a well-established business in department and specialty stores, and mass is a very significant area for growth," said Cooley.
The new line will carry a licensed name, Cooley said, but he withheld details. However, he indicated, the program should contribute to the 10 percent gain he's projecting for Danskin's activewear and bodywear businesses for the first half of 1995.
Jacques Moret is another company with new lines contributing additional volume. The firm expects its Spa 812 line introduced this fall to generate first-year volume of $3 million. A new licensed line, Nautilus, to be introduced at retail this summer, is expected to do $3 million in its first year, according to Joey Harary, president.
Plus-size bodywear is proving a growth area as well, Harary said. The category posted a 50 percent gain this year and another increase is expected in 1995.
Looking to develop partnerships with major retailers, Jacques Moret will offer exclusive designs to major retailers. In the past, the company did this only on a very limited basis -- only to one or two retailers, he said.
Harary said the company had improved its replenishment system by storing more inventory in its warehouse and by linking more retailers through EDI. Under the new system, Jacques Moret boasts a one-week turnaround time for reorders, as opposed to a 30-day or 60-day waiting period in the past.
Harary is also excited about the export possibilities under GATT. "We source globally as it is, but GATT will only increase our market size," Harary said. "We'll do business with the rest of the world a lot easier."Color has been the big news at Gilda Marx Industries, Los Angeles. "We took a major step by showing more color this spring, especially chemical brights, and this has been the best booking season for us in the past six seasons," said Gilda Marx, chairwoman.
Bookings in bodywear are ahead by 15 percent over a year ago, and activewear bookings are up 45 percent, she said.
As Marx explains it, consumers are now more in tune with color, glamour and "the variety of different bodywear and activewear looks for different women."
In January, Marx said she would introduce a group of bodywear in a blend of CoolMax and Lycra spandex, under the Gilda Marx label.
She noted the Flexatard label of bodywear, which was repositioned as a mass brand earlier this year, was performing well.
"Bookings in our private label division, which includes Flexatard, are up between 20 percent and 25 percent," Marx added.
Norm Zwail, president of Weekend Exercise Co., San Diego, said, "In general, our bookings for spring are up 10 percent. We sold a huge amount of coverups. In units, sales of coverups were up 25 percent."
Zwail noted that items such as a padded, push-up sports bra, called the Power Lifter Bra, has been a "tremendous hit."
"We had to increase production six-fold," said Zwail, noting that several additional padded, push-up styles in different fabrics and in textured treatments will be added early next year.
“What he has done at Vuitton is really exceptional,” said @gameofthrones’ actress Gwendoline Christie on @mrkimjones’ final show for @louisvuitton. “He has rebooted luxury in terms of making it commercial, viable and contemporary. And most importantly artistic. He has never compromised his artistic vision for the sake of commodity.” (📷: @zefashioninsider)
After seeing a demand for men’s wear from its customers, British contemporary women’s wear label @ariesarise has added a men’s wear component and will launch a unisex collection with @mrporterlive. The 20-piece collection includes jackets, denim, logo T-shirts and more with deconstructed ‘90s vibes. Set to launch on January 18, you can shop the pieces on Aries’ website and on mrporter.com. #wwdfashion
“And so spending so much time with a character who thinks like that, inevitability you try and analyze yourself and go back and think about your own demons and dark chapters that you had in your life,” says @thedanielbruhl of his role in TNT’s “The Alienist.” The show, set in the Gilded Age of New York, also stars Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans. Head to WWD.com to read about how 39-year-old Brühl prepared for the role and why he thinks the show is so relevant to today #wwdeye ( 📷: @Eriktanner)
Now that Celine Dion’s collection has topped $10 million in sales, the pop superstar, fashion icon and newly-minted industry player is eyeing growth in Asia. Read the full report by @tiffanyap, link in bio. #wwdnews #celinedion
“My personal philosophy to beauty is paying attention to oneself. I love to be outdoors, lots of fresh air, trying to take care of yourself as best you can. I always notice that comes through,” says Felicity Jones, the global face of @shiseido-owned @cledepeaubeauteus, which launches today. Head to WWD.com to read more about the actress’ love for beauty and how she prepared for her new role in “The Basis of Sex,” playing the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg. #wwdbeauty (📷: @dandoperalski)
Among the familiar faces at @off____white’s show was a surprise figure: Japanese artist @takashipom, pictured here on Wednesday morning. Other show-goers included @jerrylorenzo, who spoke about his upcoming project: a @nike collaboration for back to school, with designs inspired by his childhood on the West Coast. Sitting in the front row were Future, Don Crawley, @miguel and more. See the rest of the photos on WWD.com #wwdeye (📷: Stephane Feugere)
According to @laurentsai, former “Terrace House: Aloha State” cast member, she didn’t know she was auditioning for the Japanese version of “Real World.” “I was telling a couple of my friends and someone’s like, ‘That sounds a lot like Terrace House.’ I was like, ’No it can’t be.’” Turns out, it was. But Tsai isn’t just a reality star — she’s an illustrator who has worked with Starbucks Japan and most recently, she’s dipping her toes into the fashion world. Head to WWD.com to read about her time on the show, modeling and her art. #wwdeye (📷: @danieldorsa)
More changes are coming to New York Fashion Week: Beginning with the spring 2019 collection, @alexanderwangny will move his New York show to June from September, adopting a biannual schedule with collections shown in June and December. Additionally, the @cfda is planning for an official summer/winter fashion season taking place as soon as June and December 2018. Read more about the upcoming changes on WWD.com. #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @slovekinpics)


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First virus hits mobile phones
SOFTWARE security experts have discovered the first-ever computer virus to infect a mobile phone. The worm targets only Symbian operating systems running Bluetooth personal wireless networking software. It mainly affects Nokia Series 60 phones.
It is sent as a .SIS file in a similar way to transferring business card information between devices.
If the worm, called Cabir, gets through, it writes 'caribe' across the screen and is activated each time the phone is turned on. It searches for other phones to infect.
While it does not cause harm in itself, it can significantly reduce the life of the phone's battery due to constant scanning for other Bluetooth devices.
The virus could be propagated between phones users, although it is limited by Bluetooth's capabilities.
'Bluetooth has a range of seven to 10 metres, so anywhere within that you are vulnerable,' said Tim Hartman, senior technical director for Asia-Pacific at security software provider Symantec.
'You could be sitting in a bus and, if someone a couple of seats away is infected, their phone will contact yours and transfer the virus.'
Both a Symbian spokesman and Nokia's head of technology marketing, Antti Vasara, said the worm was easily stopped, the spread was not automatic and it had not got into 'the wild'.
Vasara said: 'It is a technology demonstration. It does not exploit a security flaw or gap.' By the end of April, Nokia had sold 10m Series 60 phones.
There are 12m Symbian-based Bluetooth enabled mobiles in circulation globally, a number that could double this year.
Cabir attacks parts of Nokia's Series 60 development platform, also used by other smart-phone makers including Siemens, Samsung, Sendo and Panasonic.
A spokesman for London-listed Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR), one of the world's largest producers of Bluetooth technology, said it was still assessing the significance of the appearance of the virus.
Experts have been warning for months that the number of mobile phone viruses are set to multiply.
Anti-virus firms warn that rival virus writers may use Cabir as a starting point for their own mobile phone worms.
Bad timing for victims
THE emergence of the first-ever mobile phone virus could not have come at a worse time for Nokia, whose handsets are most likely to be affected, or for Psion, the joint developer of the Symbian system which it attacks.
Nokia is this week unveiling new models which it hopes will reverse loss of market share to rivals such as Motorola.
While this decline in fortunes was largely a self-inflicted wound, brought about by Nokia misreading the popularity of 'clamshell' phones, the perceptions that it is vulnerable to virus attack will be harder to combat.
The news could also threaten, or at least delay, Nokia's deal to acquire Psion's stake in the Symbian system.
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BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei – Southeast Asia’s efforts to create a single market by 2015 are in their hardest phase owing to protectionist reflexes on sensitive sectors, Philippine President Benigno Aquino said.
Despite the challenges, however, leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are working hard to meet the target, Aquino told reporters on Wednesday night, April 24, in Brunei where he is attending ASEAN’s annual summit.
“They have finished with the easy parts but the accomplishments will not be as fast as in discussing the hard parts. When you reach that point, there can be some protectionist measures taken by each economy,” Aquino said.
“But since we are focused on reaching the target, everyone who believes that one community is beneficial to everybody concerned will really try hard (to reach the goal).”
ASEAN, a region of 600 million people in 10 countries, wants to establish a common market and manufacturing base so that it can better compete as a group with giant neighbours such as China and India in terms of trade and investments.
ASEAN attracted 7.6 percent of the world’s foreign direct investment in 2011, up from 4.3 percent in 2006, Jaspal Bindra, Standard Chartered’s chief executive for Asia, wrote in a column in the Borneo Bulletin on Thursday.
Philippine Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo said ASEAN had already achieved up about three quarters of its targets relating to its single-market goal since beginning the process in 2007.
But he also emphasised there were many challenges, including a framework to open up the services sector such as banking, insurance, telecommunications and retail within ASEAN.
Another challenge is harmonising customs procedures and putting them online so that businesses can see them real-time, Domingo told a media briefing held with Aquino.
On trade in goods, agriculture is also among the most difficult sectors to fully liberalise, Domingo said.
“If their agriculture sector is large, they will protect it because there are a lot of farmers (affected),” he said.
Analysts have said that ASEAN has achieved much in cutting tariff barriers to trade in goods, but still has a lot to do before the end-of-2015 target in opening up the services sector by removing non-tariff hurdles.
“ASEAN is fully aware of that and they’re now trying to do an inventory of those non-tariff barriers so that we can eliminate them one by one,” Domingo said. – Rappler.com


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|Bid||0.0000 x 0|
|Ask||0.0000 x 0|
|Day's Range||0.1100 - 0.1100|
|52 Week Range||0.0700 - 0.4099|
|Beta (5Y Monthly)||4.65|
|PE Ratio (TTM)||N/A|
|Forward Dividend & Yield||N/A (N/A)|
|1y Target Est||N/A|
CHICAGO, IL / ACCESSWIRE / October 8, 2019 / iConsumer Corp. ("RWRDP") (RWRDP), the only company to offer publicly traded stock as a reward for online shopping, announced today it appointed Kevin Harrington, an original Shark on ABC's hit show Shark Tank, to its Board of Advisors following his investment in the company. "iConsumer is ideally situated to grow from a public startup into a massive business," said Harrington.
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 30, 2019 / iConsumer Corp. (RWRDP) where tens of thousands of ordinary consumers are rewarded publicly-traded equity - RWRDP, simply for shopping at their favorite retailers, today announced that it will be presenting at the 9th annual LD Micro Invitational on Thursday, June 5 at 8:00 AM PST / 11:00 AM EST. Co-founder and CEO Robert Grosshandler will be presenting and meeting with investors. In keeping with SEC Chairman Jay Clayton's call for more retail investor involvement with early-stage companies, iConsumer makes every customer a shareholder when they earn rewards by shopping at over 2,000 great online retailers.
EVANSTON, IL / ACCESSWIRE / May 1, 2019 / iConsumer Corp. (OTCQB: RWRDP) ("iConsumer" or the "Company"), the first stock-based online reward shopping platform, announced today that its Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Robert Grosshandler will present at the ThinkEquity Conference, presented by ThinkEquity, a division of Fordham Financial Management, Inc., on Thursday, May 2, 2019 at 4:30 pm ET at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. The ThinkEquity Conference brings together companies in the technology, healthcare, finance, and energy industries with institutional and accredited investors. ThinkEquity is a division of Fordham Financial Management, Inc.


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As if yesterday wasn't sad enough, shoe brand Crocs managed to make the death of David Bowie even worse by tweeting a lame tribute.
The brand superimposed a lightening bolt over one of their classic (read: ugly) white shoes but deleted the tweet after an hour due to widespread mockery.
"Your magic will be missed, but your inspiration lives on forever. #DavidBowie," Crocs wrote. Twitter being twitter, they still ain't letting it rest.
"Comfortable and stylish, I simply can't get enough of those wonderful Crocs" — David Bowie to 'Rolling Stone' in 1987— Josiah Hughes (@josiahhughes) January 11, 2016
when i see a dude in @crocs, my first thought is "david bowie fan"— lieutenant winslow (@lt_winslow) January 11, 2016
bowie loved crocs, that was touching— Mike Meech (@meechone) January 11, 2016


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BIMCO said that the United States recently announced the imposition of tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, which may trigger a potential trade war that will damage the global shipping industry.
Although the impact of the US imposed steel and aluminum tariffs (disclosed on March 1 and planned to enter into force on March 23, 2018) is still unclear, the current major trade moves against China may also come from the United States.butt welding pipe fitting
Since the import barriers for steel and aluminum are set by the United States, trading partners such as the EU, Japan, and China may set import barriers for political retribution against US agricultural products.
Peter Sand, chief shipping analyst at BIMCO, said: "All trade restrictions are in principle not good for the shipping industry."
“Economy opening is better in terms of trade because people can allocate resources optimally. The result of the trade war is higher prices, lower quality, and fewer varieties, which apply to all products and commodities.”
According to the US President Trump's collection tariff plan, the United States will impose a 25% tariff on steel imports and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports.butt welding elbow
The atmosphere of international trade is full of threats and revenge. The major trading partners of the United States, the European Union and China, are likely to fight back and draw a line for the U.S. government.
The World Trade Organization stated that since 2009, the implementation of trade restrictions among global trading partners has become more common.
The African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA) proved to be the newest one of its kind. The leaders of 44 African countries reached one of the world's largest free trade agreements on March 21st to eliminate trade barriers and allow free movement of goods and services among member countries. forging flange
"Overall, we are pushing for more trade restrictions. Some are more eye-catching than others. This is a worrying trend that limits global shipping demand."
Sand concluded: "For the shipping industry, what is even worse is the short-sighted political stance. If a large-scale trade war breaks out, it may have a lasting impact on shipping and other global industries."


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Longstanding Midwestern customers of bulk butter previously sourced from organic butter manufacturers in Wisconsin and Iowa have also been told that bulk organic butter will not be available for the foreseeable future. Some potential replacement organic butter manufacturers have been preliminarily located in the Mid-Atlantic Region, but quoted shipping costs on top of quoted pricing are giving pause.
The Dairy Market News Organic Dairy Retail Overview reported no ads for organic butter were found during this period’s retail survey. During 2014, organic butter ads have appeared in only three of the seven periods of the year. Last year, nearly nine times more organic butter ads had appeared so far at this point of the year, than during 2014. Retailers have reduced investments in advertising organic butter.
Many organic dairy producers in Wisconsin and Iowa are near the end of stored feed. Some report having saved the best quality feed through winter and are now replacing the poorer quality feed with better feed, which is helping production. Few have yet moved cows into pastures to begin to start counting days toward the minimum 120-day grazing requirement. Noticeable increases in milk production are expected soon when large numbers of organic cows can begin to pasture graze.
In the Northwest it is a mixed pasture situation. Relatively few Washington and Oregon organic producers are using pastures yet. Rain and wet conditions continue to slow increasing pasture use.
A number of organic producers from the Northwest have traveled to Wisconsin this week for the annual meeting of a national organic farmer cooperative. Many of them made the trip with the goal of personally advocating for an increased organic pay price in the Northwest, which is typically in the range of $4.00 below what organic producers in the Midwest and East receive.


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Digital TV News: Mobile500 Alliance
Sinclair commits to Mobile DTV in nine additional U.S. markets
Apr 2, 2013 – Sinclair Broadcast (Nasdaq: SBGI) has announced that it will begin broadcasting mobile-capable signals over 10 stations in nine markets over the next six months. Currently, Sinclair, in partnership with Cunningham Broadcasting, provides mobile DTV on two stations in Columbus, Ohio.
News categories: Sinclair, Digital TV, Mobile, USA
Mobile500 Alliance Launches Mobile Digital TV in Seattle and Minneapolis
Jan 3, 2013 – The Mobile500 Alliance with Fisher Communications (NASDAQ: FSCI) and Hubbard Broadcasting has announced the soft consumer launch of its mobile digital television service, called MyDTV, in the Seattle and Minneapolis markets.
News categories: Mobile500 Alliance, Fisher Communications, Hubbard Broadcasting, Apps, CES2022, Mobile, Smartphone, Tablet
Mobile500 Alliance Demonstrates First Complete Mobile Digital TV Consumer Product
Apr 16, 2012 – At the 2012 NAB Show, the Mobile500 Alliance detailed its business model and enhanced features for Mobile DTV, including new interactive advertising and an improved user experience that features social media integration with Twitter.
News categories: Mobile500 Alliance, Advertising, Conditional Access, Mobile, NABShow, Smartphone, Social TV, Tablet, USA
Broadcasters Gear Up for 2012 Commercial Mobile DTV
Apr 13, 2012 – Devices based on the ATSC Mobile DTV Standard are coming to NAB 2012 on a variety of different platforms, including receivers for the car, portable TVs, iPad accessories, and other mobile products designed to bring Mobile DTV to viewers wherever they go.
News categories: Content Distribution, Mobile, NABShow, Semiconductor
Mobile500 Alliance to Demonstrate Second Generation Mobile DTV Application at NAB Show
Apr 10, 2012 – The Mobile500 Alliance has announced that it will demonstrate its second generation Mobile Digital Television application at the 2012 NAB Show. Enhancements include social media integration, closed captioning, interstitials and interactive banners.
News categories: Mobile500 Alliance, Advertising, Apps, Middleware, Mobile, NABShow, Smartphone, Tablet, USA
Mobile500 Alliance Demonstrates End-to-End Solution for Monetizing Mobile DTV at CES®
Jan 9, 2012 – The Mobile500 Alliance has unveiled an end-to-end solution that will enable its member broadcasters to build new revenue streams through Mobile DTV. The solution is to be made available to member companies after beta launch and evaluation in Seattle.
News categories: Mobile500 Alliance, CES2022, Content Distribution, Middleware, Mobile, Semiconductor, USA
U.S. Mobile Digital TV Expands to 120 Stations
Jan 6, 2012 – The Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) has announced that a wide array of device manufacturers, service operators and technology companies will feature at the Mobile DTV TechZone during next week's consumer electronics show in Las Vegas.
News categories: Open Mobile Video Coalition, CES2022, Mobile, USA
Mobile Digital Television on Track to Reach Two-Thirds of U.S. Households by Early Next Year
Aug 4, 2011 – Mobile Digital Television is on track to reach two-thirds of U.S. households by early 2012. In addition, the Open Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) announced that its Mobile DTV Trust Authority, managed by Neustar, is now operational.
News categories: Open Mobile Video Coalition, Conditional Access, Content Protection, Mobile, USA
New Mobile Digital TV Technologies, Innovative Demos Show Bright Future for America's TV Broadcasters
Apr 11, 2011 – During the 2011 NAB Show, broadcast industry executives will get their first glimpse at the latest Mobile DTV products now reaching retail stores as well as pioneering demonstrations of the flexible broadcast standard's future capabilities.
News categories: Open Mobile Video Coalition, Advanced Television Systems Committee, Mobile, NABShow, USA
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If you are planning to buy car, add some more pennies to you fund: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has announced in Budget 2016 the government will levy Infrastructure tax on all four-wheelers, including even small cars.
Jaitley, in his Budget speech, said the government would levy 1 percent additional infrastructure cess on small petrol and CNG cars. The tax will be 2.5 percent on diesel cars and 4 percent on SUVs and other luxury cars. The new tax will essentially increase the price of vehicles in the coming months.
In addition to the infrastructure tax, there will be 1 percent service charge on purchase of luxury cars that cost over Rs 10 lakh. Jaitley also said a 4 percent additional levy would be imposed on high-capacity passenger vehicles and SUVs.
The relief for the industry came in the form of allocation of Rs 97,000 crore on infrastructure for roads and highways. Exuding optimism, Renault India CEO and MD Sumit Sawhney tweeted: "Allocation of Rs 97,000 crores for Roads and Highways for FY 17 is a big boost. (sic)"
One of the major manufacturers that will be hugely impacted by the decision is utility vehicle specialist Mahindra & Mahindra. "In summary, despite our disappointment on the tax on cars, I see no reason for the mayhem in the market, (sic)" tweeted, Anand Mahindra, Chairman and MD of Mahindra Group.
"The new cess on diesel, small cars is unexpected," said RC Bhargava, Chairman, Maruti Suzuki in an interview with ET Now.
PricewaterhouseCoopers Partner Abdul Majeed told International Business Times India, India: "The immediate impact of Budget 2016 in the automobile industry is a hike in price, which is inevitable. However, the government has reduced the burden of the common man by imposing 1 percent service charge on cars priced only above Rs 10 lakh. The Budget primarily focuses on rural economy growth, hence allocation for the automobile sector is lower. This is slightly disappointing for the industry."
The increase in levy has come at a time when there has been a lot of discussion on increasing levels of pollution in the country by the vehicles. It is noteworthy that the finance minister did not say anything on electric and hybrid vehicles. Incentives for scrapping of old vehicles and reduction of excise duty for large cars and SUVs were the other popular demands from the industry that got no consideration.