text:
According to Japanese sources, the answer is May 2021.As before, the second generation Toyota 86 will
Perodua will be introducing turbocharged engines to the Malaysian market in their future models, as highlighted
Build quality of this fully imported Proton X70 is impeccable and will come as a surprise to many.
Your car ownership experience isn’t complete without having at least one flat tyre incident.
practical as a CR-V.
Previously, we’ve explained why manufacturers continue the use of 3-cylinder engines.
they often don’t have proof of income for 3 months.
are full-LED units as well with sequential turn indicators.
Well, the Mazda 3 exudes all this in every way possible.
Customers are entitled to a low-interest rate from 1.88 percent and a 1-year warranty during this promotional
As gaudy and overdone as it may sound, the red-and-black leather upholstery inside actually works.
DC Fast Charging can be done at a maximum rate of 50kW (80% charge in 36 minutes).
Rear legroom is generous with 35 cm (equivalent to 3 tennis balls) of space when adjusted for a 175 cm
That is one of the characteristics of a 3-cylinder engine – the vibration.
The government has agreed to postpone plans to increase toll charges for 3 highways to 2022.
recap, the 2021 Subaru Levorg sits on the new Subaru Global Platform and gets a turbocharged 1.8-litre flat-four
Last week, the government announced that they have decided to postpone plans to increase toll rates on 3
launched in Malaysia earlier in January this year, the 2020 Mazda CX-30 have been outselling the Mazda CX-3
View this post on Instagram A post shared by LEG SPORT (@koki_kurasako) on Apr 22, 2020 at
Today is Friday, Sep. 3.
ranked 26th, with 26,425 units sold.Curiously, the Toyota Alphard, which costs about the same price as
”It features a Bomex front spoiler and side skirts, TRD-style hood, APR aluminum biplane rear wing
As you know, the Mazda 3 comes in two body types, a sedan and a hatchback (which distributor Bermaz Auto
Even if Malaysians are still waiting for its imminent arrival, the world, as it is commonly said, must
Now that prices are pegged as low as RM 119,000 should you consider a used W176?
Wonder if our very own X50 can look as cool as this.The interior is a major step up from the Binyue not
battery with the connectors and the atmosphere.A battery with come corrosion on the terminals is not flat
That is what we learned from the teaser video.Here comes a question: Can Tesla Model 3 Performance also
have a glimpse at their successor after a prototype was caught testing in the United States recently, as
At launch, the Haoyue is offered as a 7-seater while a 5-seater configuration will be available in the
Is AAFES the worst thing for Soldiers’ physical and financial wellbeing? Discuss.
(3) from The report states that more than half of retail-branded cards carry an APR of at least 25%, with some reaching as high as 30%. The MILITARY STAR card’s flat rate is 11.99%, nearly a 3rd of the highest-interest credit card evaluated by the report.


text:
A plastic tea bag turned out to release more than 10 billion plastic particles into the cup
Formerly tea bags were mainly made of paper, but in recent years, plastic tea bags that have a silky texture and fine mesh have been widely used. Researchers researched on plastic tea bags and found that a large amount of plastic particles were released into tea cups when extracting tea.
Plastic Teabags Release Billions of Microparticles and Nanoparticles into Tea | Environmental Science & Technology
Some tea bags may shed billions of microplastics per cup | CBC News
One day, Nathalie Tufenkji , professor of chemical engineering at McGill University , was surprised to see a plastic tea bag in the tea ordered from a coffee shop one morning. Tufenkji, who thought that “plastic plastic bags should have released fine plastic particles into the drink”, asked students to purchase large quantities of plastic tea bags.
Some plastic tea bags widely used around the world have a pyramid shape. The pyramid type has the merit that the tea leaves inside are easy to spread, so it is used not only for black tea but also for herbal tea.
First, Tufenkji et al. Cut the collected plastic tea bags and washed away the tea leaves inside and the plastic particles that might have occurred during the cutting. After that, the tea bag without tea leaves was soaked in hot water heated to 95 degrees as in the normal process of making black tea.
After a while, a sample of hot water was collected and analyzed by Tufenkji et al. With an electron microscope. A large amount of plastic particles were found in the sample. In addition, since the composition of plastic particles was the same as that of tea bags, it was confirmed that the fine plastic particles were derived from tea bags. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the plastic particles were released even when the tea bag was not cut to take out the tea leaves, and it was confirmed that the cause of the plastic particle release was not the tea bag cutting.
Then, the number of counted plastic particles in the sample extrapolation by, seems to estimate the number of plastic particles released into the cup from one plastic tea bag. As a result, it became clear that 11.6 billion microplastics were released from a single tea bag, and 3.1 billion nanoplastics were released that were finer than microplastics.
Each particle is so small that the average plastic particle per cup is only 16 micrograms, but this number is higher than that found in other bottled beverages and foods. “People literally add plastic to their drinks,” Tufenkji says.
At the time of writing, it's not clear what adverse effects the fine plastic particles have on the human body. However, as many people around the world use plastic tea bags, Tufenkji believes that the potential health risks should be investigated. When Tufenkji actually put a daphnia in water containing a lot of fine plastic particles, Daphnia `` swim crazy '', and the plastic particles may be a stress for small organisms Insist that it was suggested.
Tufenkji pointed out that the effects of plastic particles need to be further studied with other animals. Tufenkji et al., On the other hand, said they will continue to study how much plastic particles other plastic packaging will release into food and beverages.

domain: news


text:
The Roanoke-based manufacturer of custom-made orthotics, shoes and pillows has traditionally only sold its products through health care providers and in particular chiropractors.
But earlier this month the privately held company took the first step towards entering the retail world.
Foot Levelers was granted a building permit to remodel its front lobby to accommodate retail sales, according to city records.
Company spokeswoman Hilary Kelly told me that the plans are still in the early stages and she couldn’t provide details.
“We don’t even have a business license yet,” she noted.
But she said the initial thought is that they will sell products to “friends and family” of employees. She said company executives are still deciding what the final retail plans will look like and they haven’t yet worked out how people will be fit for their products.
“I can’t give specifics because the plans have not been set,” she said.


text:
Sometimes if you do something very difficult, and you do it really well, the end result is that your achievement becomes completely invisible.
I mentioned a year and a half ago that I like Twitter. That was a little bit less common a position to take back then, but in the months since, tons of people have taken to the little messaging service, so clearly this was no great insight on my part — it’s just a useful, fun service.
But of course, that popularity has not been without its problems. Twitter’s gotten a reputation for being unreliable, as a result of its rapid growth. In fact, in many ways, the Fail Whale and its related frustrations has come to define Twitter’s brand more than almost anything else.
I’m no expert at these things, but there are a lot of reasons startups fail, and the reasons almost never include the fact that thousands of users clamoring for a service. Indeed, it seems to me that most companies (whether they’re tech startups or anything else) fail because of being poorly managed. Put another way, execution is everything.
With that in mind, it’s worth pointing out how particularly well-executed Twitter’s recent acquisition of Summize has been. I don’t know any of the deals of the financial or business arrangements, except that I’m a little disappointed that Twitter isn’t maintaining a presence in New York City, instead moving all of the employees to San Francisco. That nitpick aside, the public face of this transition was extremely well executed.
Ev Williams, co-founder and the most public face of Twitter, speaks about the deal at some length in this excellent, candid interview with Techcrunch. (Which site, by the way, may rank as my “most improved” blog of 2008.)
Rumors of the Summize acquisition leaked a few weeks ago, but both companies kept discipline around communications and didn’t acknowledge or respond to the conversation. And then, when it came time to announce the deal, the sites had been fully integrated, a lengthy and personable blog post complete with a sketch of some future ideas for integration was posted, consistent branding was in place on the acquired site, and the roadmap for what was going on with employees affected by the acquisition was clearly communicated.
In all, that’s a formidable amount of coordination to happen across the country, while business deals are being worked out, and while maintaining secrecy about the fact that it’s taking place. And, all of that was done with an eye towards providing a good user experience to their shared customer base.
There are a lot of things to criticize in such deals most of the time, though it seems likely that this will be a successful acquisition, from an outsider’s point of view. But what’s striking to me is that, as quick as so many are to criticize Twitter (fairly) for technological problems, people haven’t been as eager to acknowledge a remarkable discipline and execution on the business side of the company. Frankly, all of those who’d suggested that Twitter should be sold to a larger company seem to have forgotten that almost none of the big companies suggested as acquirers have a history of consistently pulling off this kind of execution. And that’s even more true for the smaller innovative companies that they’ve acquired.


text:
The beverage wars move to coconuts
That is a tiny fraction of the country’s $100-billion-plus market for nonalcoholic beverages, but the new category has roughly doubled its revenue each year since 2005—helped by celebrity musicians, models and athletes who have endorsed the drink, even as it draws lawsuits over health claims.
Vita Coco, the No. 1-selling US coconut-water brand, says its revenue more than doubled in 2011 to nearly $100 million, most of that in the US, seven years after co-founder Michael Kirban began deliveries to New York bodegas on inline skates.
The closely held brand has been bolstered by a 2010 distribution pact with Dr Pepper Snapple Group and expects to be in about 55 000 stores nationwide by April, more than double its reach in December, by expanding into chains including Walgreens, CVS and 7-Eleven.
As a sign of faith that coconut water is more than a fad, Coca-Cola plans to exercise its option to acquire a majority stake in Zico, the No. 2 coconut-water brand in the US by sales, in the coming weeks after purchasing a minority holding in the start-up for less than $15 million in 2009. Coke won’t disclose the price, but the option was triggered after Zico hit revenue targets.
Zico’s sales grew fivefold last year, said Deryck van Rensburg, head of Coke’s new ventures unit. “We don’t know for sure if this will be the next blockbuster, but so far so good,” he said.
Mark Rampolla, Zico’s 42-year-old founder, says the fast-growing brand narrowed the gap last year with Vita Coco, which controls between a third and half of the US market, according to industry estimates. He expects a further lift from Coke, which is helping more than double Zico’s distribution this year.
PepsiCo, meanwhile, is rolling out nationwide distribution of the No. 3 brand, O.N.E., on its trucks this year after taking a majority stake in 2010 for an undisclosed sum. PepsiCo’s Naked line of juices holds the No. 4 spot for coconut-water sales.
Coconut water, the clear, slightly sweet liquid inside coconuts, is pitched as a natural rehydration tool rich in electrolytes, particularly potassium, which prevents cramping. A Vita Coco billboard campaign last year featured R&B singer Rihanna urging consumers, “Hydrate naturally from a tree, not a lab,” in a poke at sports drinks such as PepsiCo’s Gatorade and Coke’s Powerade.
Long popular in Brazil, coconut water doesn’t have fat, unlike coconut milk, which is derived from the flesh of older coconuts. With often fewer than 50 calories for an eight-ounce serving, coconut water also has a lower calorie count than most fruit drinks.
With US soda volumes shrinking for more than half a decade, Coke and PepsiCo are increasingly eager to take stakes in new categories and emerging brands before they become too large and expensive. In 2007, Coke paid $4.1 billion to acquire Glaceau, maker of Vitaminwater, after enhanced-water sales skyrocketed.
The science around coconut water is somewhat murky. A Malaysian academic study published in 2002 found fresh coconut water to be an effective rehydration tool, with “less nausea, fullness and no stomach upset” when compared with carbohydrate-electrolyte beverages or plain old water.
But US-based ConsumerLab.com reported last year that some samples it tested of Vita Coco and O.N.E. had significantly less sodium, an important electrolyte lost through sweat, than advertised on the labels or found in Gatorade.
Vita Coco said this week it agreed to pay $10 million to settle a consumer lawsuit sparked by the ConsumerLab report, which wasn’t party to the suit. Vita Coco, which didn’t admit wrongdoing, said nutritional levels can vary in an all-natural product but that it is tweaking its labeling. PepsiCo, which has an option to buy 100% of O.N.E., is involved in a similar suit over labeling but declined to comment on the ConsumerLab report…..
Wall Street Journal: Read full article
Trackback from your site.


text:
Quick Note: T-Mobile Eliminating Grandfathered Rate Plans
October 15, 2013 12:22 PM
comment(s) - last by
T-Mobile wants to get rid of the clutter
has been introducing many changes lately as part of its
, but one eyebrow-raising change taking place outside of the Un-carrier scope is the death of many grandfathered rate plans.
, T-Mobile is sending letters out to certain customers with grandfathered rate plans to let them know about the expiration of various older plans. In one such letter, a customer was told that their grandfathered plan would be terminated in November and that a new plan had already been selected for them.
Below is a scanned version of the letter from
It's not clear if all customers with grandfathered plans will receive this letter or not, but a T-Mobile spokesperson did confirm that the company plans to kill many older plans to make T-Mobile's system less complicated.
"Maintaining thousands of rate plans is the norm in the industry, but we think it creates unnecessary complexity," said a T-Mobile spokesperson. "Simple is better, which is why we’re reducing the number of older plans in our systems. We’re giving customers on these plans the opportunity to choose a plan that best meets their needs. For the vast majority, their plan will provide similar or better features at a comparable price."
If customers are unhappy with their new plans, they can cancel them by February without customary penalty.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: Bad move
10/16/2013 1:39:43 AM
Seeing as how T-Mobile's grandfathered plans are more expensive than their new "Uncarrier" plans, the only customers they'll be losing are the mouth breathers.
"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer
T-Mobile Introduces Free Roaming for Unlimited International Text, Data
October 10, 2013, 12:38 PM
Google Knocked by Analysts, But Shows Strokes of Brilliance in Q1 2014
April 18, 2014, 2:33 PM
Google Street View and reCAPTCHA Get Smarter with New Algorithm
April 17, 2014, 9:02 AM
Mt. Gox CEO Refuses to Come to the U.S. in Financial Crimes Probe
April 16, 2014, 3:50 PM
Mark Zuckerberg: Facebook Home Reception Slower than Expected, Social Graph Will Pick Up
April 16, 2014, 2:00 PM
FBI's Facial Recognition Database to Have 52 Million Criminal, Non-Criminal Photos by 2015
April 15, 2014, 2:56 PM
Microsoft's Anti-Google "Scroogled" Campaign May Have Ended
April 15, 2014, 2:44 PM
Most Popular Articles
Cities to Carpoolers: Sharing Your Car is Illegal, We Will Seize Your Cars
April 4, 2014, 9:17 PM
iPad Exploiter is Freed by Federal Appeals Court
April 11, 2014, 7:40 PM
A-10 Warthog May Live to Fight Another Day with Support from Lawmakers
April 14, 2014, 9:41 AM
Taiwan's AOU Claims to Have World's Highest-Res. OLED Smartphone Display
April 11, 2014, 1:44 PM
EFF: NSA May Have Used IRC Botnets to Exploit Heartbleed for Last Two Years
April 14, 2014, 4:43 PM
Latest Blog Posts
Facebook Aims to Provide Internet to "Every Person in the World" with Drones, Satellites
Apr 1, 2014, 10:20 AM
Retail Mobile Sites Experience Outages in Light of Simplexity's Bankruptcy
Mar 14, 2014, 8:48 AM
Tesla vs. BMW: Who Has the Safer EV?
Feb 1, 2014, 2:56 PM
Justice Leaks Details of Next HTC One Two Flagship Phone
Dec 5, 2013, 4:04 PM
Global Cyber Espionage Concerns Reveal Growing Cyber Armies
Nov 29, 2013, 11:04 AM
More Blog Posts
Copyright 2014 DailyTech LLC. -
Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information


text:
Fresh Dairy last Saturday thrilled attendees at the 7th CBA Vintage and Classic Auto Show with a Kids play area that also had an assortment of free Fresh Dairy yoghurt.
This year, the 7th CBA Vintage and Auto Show held on Saturday, 28th July 2018 was run under the theme, ‘Beauty and the Beast’, attracting exhibitors from not only Uganda but across the region including Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Monica Kulabako, Marketing Coordinator Fresh Dairy said Fresh Dairy sponsored the Kids play area at the 7th CBA Vintage and Classic Auto Show to give parents a chance to entertain their children while attending such an event that mainly showcases classic cars that appeal to adults.
"Fresh Dairy is a family brand with products that mainly appeal to children and adults as well. Entertaining children at this year’s Auto show is important to us because we were not only able to offer them healthy and nutritious dairy products, but also engaged them through face-painting, bouncing castles, engaging games and clowns among others.’
Kulabako added that it is very important for children to have a balanced diet that includes dairy products. ‘Yoghurt as one of the products we produce at Fresh Dairy is an ideal nutrition booster for children because it is a healthy and nutritious snack that is rich in Vitamin A, B, D, E, Calcium and Potassium.’
She concluded by noting that Fresh Dairy will continue to identify with such causes as part of its Health and Nutrition approach, to encourage parents and children to consume dairy products as healthy and nutritious snacks.
Latest from Super User
- Sembabule Community Gets Health Boost From Racer
- INTERVIEW: Prudential’s Mallik Discusses Effect Of Covid-19 Pandemic To Employee Mental Wellness
- Fresh Dairy Enlightens Families On Boosting Health And Nutrition
- Medical Marijuana, Labour Externalization To Play Role In Post-COVID19 Recovery
- Have A Taste Of Mongolia’s Healthy Foods At Kabira Country Club Every Friday


text:
Businesses in Coventry and Warwickshire have been urged to take advice as soon as possible to make sure they are on a sound legal and financial footing as Covid-19 support starts to be phased out.
The lifting of Coronavirus restrictions on July 19 will also see the beginning of the end for many of the support packages and legal changes designed to help companies survive.
The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce teamed up with leading regional law firm, Wright Hassall, to share insights with businesses, directors and business owners on looking forward and planning for the future.
Caroline Benfield, Wright Hassall’s insolvency and restructuring team partner, and consultant Elizabeth Taylor, spoke to around 30 companies on the Chamber Live online event, hosted by the Chamber.
Caroline said: “The evidence tells us that corporate and personal insolvencies are down over the past year.
“However, that is due to the fact that there has been so much support available to businesses and measures in place to prevent creditors from pursuing claims.
“As that support is withdrawn, all the signs point towards a very tough road ahead and just as in ordinary times, business owners and directors must do all they can to ensure the ongoing success of their business and ensure it is trading solvently.”
Firms were urged to consider a range of factors as they look ahead, including entering into conversations between landlords and tenants about any rent arrears and restructuring loans that may have been taken out during the crisis – including Government-back CBILs and Bounce Back Loans.
Companies were also warned to prepare for the end of the furlough scheme at the end of September and make a call on whether they would need to keep staffing levels the same as they were pre-pandemic.
On top of that, businesses should look at the levels of crown debt they have accrued and communicate as early as possible with HMRC to plan how to pay it off.
Caroline added: “Many businesses will be facing the unhealthy mix of depleted assets and increased liabilities so I’d urge them to take professional advice now before major issues arise.
“Communication is key. Talk to your landlords, your suppliers, your customers and HMRC. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can start to plan ahead.”
Chris Nagle, Events & Marketing Manager at the Chamber, said: “We are very grateful to Caroline and Elizabeth for delivering such an insightful presentation. There has been lots of support available to businesses during the pandemic to help them survive and it’s important that they are now able to stabilise and grow in the future.”


text:
The 2019 Forecast on Amazon Prime Shoppers
SHOPPER INSIGHTS AND BRAND INTELLIGENCE FROM THE WORLD’S LARGEST LOYALTY CLUB
LEARN ABOUT AMAZON’S HIGHEST SPENDING SEGMENTS:
Amazon’s paid Prime membership club now includes over 100 million Prime members in the U.S., with half of all U.S. households projected to have access to Prime membership by the end of 2019.
By learning more about Prime members and their shopping behaviors, brands can better hone their own strategies for selling and advertising to Amazon’s most active segment of shoppers — and emulate Amazon’s best practices to improve their own loyalty programs.


text:
Bayer sets ambitious growth and earnings aspirations
“We are optimistic about Bayer’s medium-term development and have therefore set ambitious aspirations,” Management Board Chairman Werner Baumann said at the “Meet Management” investor conference in Cologne.
In the prescription medicines business (Pharmaceuticals), Bayer aspires to achieve average annual sales growth of approximately 6 percent by the end of 2018 after adjusting for currency and portfolio effects (Fx & portfolio adj.). Sales of this division totaled EUR 15,308 million in 2015 including the Radiology business.
Bayer aims to increase the EBITDA margin before special items of Pharmaceuticals to between 32 and 34 percent in 2018 (2015: 30.1 percent).
Baumann raised the estimate of the combined peak annual sales potential of the five recently launched pharmaceutical products from previously at least EUR 7.5 billion to now more than EUR 10 billion.
Bayer now expects peak sales potential of more than EUR 5 billion (previously: approximately EUR 3.5 billion) for the anticoagulant Xarelto; the figure for the eye medicine Eylea is now more than EUR 2.5 billion (previously: at least EUR 1.5 billion).
The company anticipates peak sales potential of more than (previously: at least) EUR 1 billion for the cancer drug Xofigo and more than (previously: at least) EUR 0.5 billion for the pulmonary hypertension treatment Adempas. The peak sales potential of the cancer drug Stivarga is unchanged at at least EUR 1 billion.
In the business with self-care products (Consumer Health), Bayer aims to grow average annual sales by between 4 and 5 percent (Fx & portfolio adj.) by the end of 2018 (2015: EUR 6,076 million).
The company aspires to achieve a clean EBITDA margin of approximately 25 percent in 2018 (2015: 24.0 percent). In this attractive business, Bayer has a wide range of strong brands such as the analgesics Aspirin and Aleve, the antihistamine Claritin and the Bepanthen/Bepanthol wound and skin care products, Baumann explained.
The focus here is on key markets such as the United States, China, Brazil and Russia, the Bayer CEO said, adding that the company aims to accelerate innovation at Consumer Health.
According to Baumann, the objectives here include leveraging the growth potential offered by seeking regulatory approval for over-the-counter status for products that previously were only available with a prescription (Rx-to-OTC switches), and developing new digital health offerings for consumers. ■


text:
Newcastle Brown Ale is looking to gain a slice of the Super Bowl advertising action ... without the expense.
The Tyneside tipple, popular in America, has skipped the hassle of commissioning an ad and buying screen time at the major sporting event for their latest advertising stunt.
The quintessential Geordie drink has teamed-up with Droga5 to make ‘If We Made It’ campaign, which seeks to celebrate a non-existent ad, which would have been made – if the brand had the money to make it.
And a taster of the advertising stunt, based around the fact that they can’t afford a Super Bowl ad, has now been released. A trailer fo the advert they ‘would have made’ if they had the money was released on YouTube last week.
In it are robots, sharks and women in bikinis as the brewer makes a spoof of the adverts normally seen at the Super Bowl. Already, the clip has notched up thousands of hits on YouTube and has people talking.
Newcastle Brown Ale was first made in 1927 and is still sold in countries worldwide, claiming the title of the USA’s biggest imported ale.
For many years Brown Ale was referred to as a “bottle of dog” as husbands used to use the excuse of taking the dog for a walk when they wanted to sneak off to the pub for a cheeky pint.
It is now sold in more than 40 countries.


text:
A party dress for less than Rs 2,000, a wristwatch for Rs 145 or tea infusers for Rs 100, the prices are as enticing as the designs on international online retail websites such as Club Factory, SheIn, Romwe, Jollychic, Wish or AliExpress. These sites attract everyone, from fashionistas to bargain hunters, looking for the best deals on unique pieces.
Cross-border e-commerce, especially for apparel and accessories, can no longer be ignored. Just as Flipkart and Amazon India cater to the demands of Indian online shoppers looking for quick delivery, cross-border e-commerce platforms help customers buy from small and medium enterprises based in China and other geographies. Though these cross-border firms take three-times longer to deliver goods as compared to Indian e-commerce sites, they are able to offer products at cheaper rates due to low production costs and no payouts to middlemen.
Despite teething issues, cross-border e-commerce is set to grow in India. According to a report published by research consulting form Redseer in August, the market size of online fashion in India during the April-June 2018 quarter was estimated to be $1 billion, of which the cross-border e-commerce sector captured 5% of the market. The report also states that 30% of these orders are generated from Tier-2 cities and beyond.
As part of China’s Opening Up policy, the country has set up 35 cross-border e-commerce zones in the last three years, streamlining approvals, logistics, storage and customs clearance from these zones. This coupled with access to the internet and increased consumption behaviour in India will see these players emerging as a strong contender for Indian dollars spent on online shopping.
The top cross-border e-tailers
Led by the two-year-old entrant Club Factory, which says India is its largest market with 40 million users, cross-border e-commerce platforms account for a significant share of shipments. Though the market is still dominated by Flipkart, Amazon India and Myntra, according to industry experts, Club Factory alone does close to 80,000 orders a day in the country.
According to a recent report released by app market data provider App Annie, the huge population and high potential for economic growth in India have attracted the focus of the top five of the ten best-performing cross-border e-commerce apps—Club Factory, SheIn, Romwe and JollyChic. Apart from India, these apps also count the Middle East as a critical market for growth.
Though it tops the list in the App Annie report, AliExpress, the Alibaba-owned cross-border platform for small merchants, has been unable to dominate in India. Its major market remains the US and Southeast Asia.
In contrast, US-headquartered Wish wants to ramp up its presence in India and is currently in the process of building a team in the country. It manages between 10,000 and 20,000 orders a day.
Neither companies responded to specific queries from TechCircle on their business models and India market.
According to industry experts, the total number of shipments from China and Hong Kong to India stands at close to 1.3 lakh per day. After passing through customs clearance, the shipments are delivered within India by local logistics partners.
“Chinese manufacturers are growing their cross-border sales into the business-to-consumer space as it is more profitable. It cuts down the middlemen including distributors, wholesalers, importers and exporters who are a part of a business-to-business transaction, improving commissions and the price difference is usually 1.5 times between the goods sold,” says Shayak Mazumder, chief executive and founder at Eunimart, an India-based cross-border e-commerce services provider.
Eunimart partners with companies like Alibaba-owned branded goods seller Daraz operational in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar; Amazon’s global selling division, eBay; Etsy and others. It provides plug-and-play solutions for cross-border logistics, payments, e-commerce technology and digital cataloguing.
Mazumder adds that international cross-border platforms have been eyeing the India market, with the result that these companies have been building local teams and partners for better customer experience. But who are these users willing to wait for 15 days for their orders?
“The demographic includes both men and women in the age group of 18-35 years. We have a healthy mix of demand coming from both metros and non-metros,” says Vincent Lou, founder and CEO of Club Factory. He adds that the top-selling categories in India are apparel, accessories, jewellery and household products.
Localisation is key
Building a store for local audiences in a familiar language with ease-of-payment options are critical to running the cross-border commerce business, says Eunimart’s Mazumder.
To this effect, companies such as Club Factory, which are focused on India, have come up with multiple tweaks. It, along with SheIn, introduced cash-on-delivery earlier this year, an important mode of payment in the country. However, AliExpress continues to be a prepaid portal.
“We have drastically reduced delivery time to under 12 days, on an average. Customers can also return the products with easy return policies. They can either ship the returned goods to the warehouses or can use a reverse pick-up service to send the product back. Refund is processed at its earliest and we are continuously working with payment gateways to shorten the time,” Club Factory's Lou explained.
Tracing the delivery pipeline
Driving this demand is a variety of choices at prices which give the dominant e-commerce platforms in India like Flipkart, Amazon India and Myntra a run for their discount-dollars. Unlike them, Club Factory is a pure play marketplace which works with merchants in China. When a customer places an order on Club Factory, it is directed to the merchant who has the inventory at the best price. It is a fine balance between just-in-time and a marketplace model. The orders are collected and aggregated through freight forwarders such as Fafalux Global Pvt. Ltd, AllJoy Supply Chain and others for shipping to India.
Once the shipment reaches India, the Club Factory branch in the country, which operates as the importer on record who is responsible for the goods received from abroad, breaks them down into individual orders which are despatched through local delivery partners such as Gati, Delhivery and Ecom Express among others. According to Lou, the company has partnered with five Indian logistics players.
“For us, Club Factory is one of our top customers and others form the mid-tail segment for orders originating through cross-border e-commerce. We have been talking to multiple players in the space and they are extremely bullish about India and have their teams parked here,” says Dipanjan Banerjee, national sales head at logistics provider Ecom Express.
The last step varies across different businesses. Being an importer on record makes it easier for Club Factory to accept returns and store the goods in a warehouse, which can be resold or liquidated, as the case may be, says Lou.
A company like SheIn partners with Indian merchants that act as the importer on record. These merchants get a commission of 2-3% on each order consignment and are responsible for disputes that may arise in India. The shipments are sent out to consumers from the warehousing facility. In the case of AliExpress, where a customer buys from the merchant directly, each order is shipped separately, and free delivery through China Post can take up to 45 days.
Despite the long wait, the after-sales process of returns and refunds remains an issue to be resolved.


text:
Industry leaders have voiced their disappointment at the government’s decision to require double-vaccinated travellers returning from France to quarantine for 10 days.
The government said the move was made due to concerns over the prevalence of the beta variant of Covid-19. It comes as restrictions for double-jabbed travellers returning from amber list countries are due to be eased from Monday.
An Abta spokesperson said: “While we understand that public health must come first, this announcement will undoubtedly dent consumer confidence in overseas travel just as we are about to see many amber-listed countries opening up for UK visitors in time for the summer holidays.
“Continuing changes to travel restrictions will delay any meaningful recovery for the industry and this news is just the latest example of why a tailored package of financial support for the travel and tourism sector must be introduced.”
Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said: “These random rule changes make it almost impossible for travellers and industry to plan ahead, and can only further undermine consumer trust at the very peak of the summer season.”
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said the decision was “not backed up by the science or transparent data” and accused the government of causing confusion and uncertainty and “making it up as they go along”.
He added: “This move pulls the rug out from under our customers who have already travelled to France or who are booked to travel there and so it is them I feel for.”
Gary Lewis, chief executive of The Travel Network Group, said: “The last few government announcements are a catastrophe for the travel industry. Creating confusion and worry not of the virus but in customers’ fear of their freedom being restricted on return from travel.
“People want and need to travel. Customers are not scared of the risks. The vast majority are no longer at high risk of this disease because we are jabbed or we are young. The most vulnerable are more protected from this risk than many others we don’t protect them from.
“Yes, we must monitor new variants but they are inevitable. The government has to give us our freedom back.”
He added: “The vaccines will stay ahead of variants as they do with flu but we have to live with some risk. Most importantly we have to live.
“Scrap this traffic light system, monitor variants and ensure everyone is double jabbed. Allow our travel industry to trade.
“If not, then the need for financial support for the overseas travel sector until we have had a period of unrestricted trading is beyond critical.”
The rules mean any traveller returning from France will be required to quarantine at home for 10 days and take a test on day two and eight. They will apply to anyone transiting through France on their return.
The health secretary Sajid Javid said: “We have always been clear that we will not hesitate to take rapid action at our borders to stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect the gains made by our successful vaccination programme.
“With restrictions lifting on Monday across the country, we will do everything we can to ensure international travel is conducted as safely as possible, and protect our borders from the threat of variants.”


text:
Have you bought a preconfigured big-box type PC sometime in the last five years? If so, you might have been slightly screwed over. That's what the European Commission claims, at least. Today, the EC announced that it is investigating 13 optical drive suppliers and two major PC OEMs for antitrust violations as part of an alleged long-standing "worldwide cartel" that ran a "bid-rigging" scheme to get the best prices for the parties involved.
In bid-rigging schemes, the bidders -- and in this case, apparently the OEMs offering the contracts, as well -- conspire to rig their offers to ensure a particular company wins the contract, often at a preset rate.
The European Commission press release said bid-rigging is "one of the most serious breaches of EU antitrust rules," eligible for a fine that amounts to 10 percent of a guilty company's annual worldwide turnover -- not just a percentage of the products that sold in the EU alone.
None of the companies were called out by name. Now that the EC has issued a Statement of Objections, it can begin formally charging the alleged conspirators and gathering additional evidence of the purported crime.


text:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
YORK, PA – Downtown Inc will join Gift Horse Brewing Company at 5 p.m., Friday, September 7, for a ribbon-cutting ceremony welcoming the newest craft brewery to Downtown York.
Located at 117 N. George St., Gift Horse is in the heart of Downtown York and just a short walk from attractions such as Central Market and the Appell Center for the Performing Arts.
With Gift Horse’s arrival, Downtown York now features five different craft brewery destinations in just 26 square blocks. A sixth brewery, Old Forge Brewing Company, is on the way.
Gift Horse has already attracted crowds during a soft opening. It’s expected to be a popular stop during September’s First Friday celebrations, which coincide with the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“When the opportunity to launch Gift Horse Brewing Company arose our first and only choice was Downtown York,” said Jason Snyder, co-owner of Gift Horse. “We all have roots that are firmly planted here and we wanted to be a part of the community and its ever-evolving scene.”
Though it just opened its doors downtown, Gift Horse Brewing Company has already built a following. The brewery has won awards at several local festivals and has participated in First Fridays, poured beer at birthday parties and donated brews to local charities.
Gift Horse will be open 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday through Wednesday; 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday; and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.
Downtown Inc invites media and the public to the ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“Downtown York is quickly becoming a craft beer destination – not to mention a dining and entertainment hub – and we’re thrilled that Gift Horse will be part of that,” Downtown Inc CEO Silas Chamberlin said. “We can’t think of a better way to kick off September’s First Friday than by welcoming a new business to Downtown York.”
For more information about Gift Horse, please visit www.gifthorsebrewing.com.
Downtown Inc is THE organization working to drive, enhance and encourage investment in York’s central business district through economic development, promotions, placemaking and public safety. Downtown Inc is the trade name for a joint venture between the York Business Improvement District Authority and Main Street York, a 501(c)(3) not for profit. Visit www.DowntownYorkPa.com for more information.
Andrew Staub, Marketing & Communications Manager, Downtown Inc, email@example.com, 717.849.2331
Silas Chamberlin, Chief Executive Officer, Downtown Inc, firstname.lastname@example.org, 717.849.2331


text:
UK business is turning to the French manufacturer faster than any other brand according to Renault after it recorded a 2.2 point increase in its market share in 2010.
This gives Renault a 4.8 per cent share of the fleet market, still substantially behind leaders such as Ford and the more premium German manufacturers.
This includes Renault’s range of vans, which holds a 13.2 per cent market share in terms of sales to private and fleet customers because of the ongoing popularity of the large Trafic panel van, Renault’s Ford Transit rival.
Renault’s launch of the Renault Business brand last year has paid dividends after it was awarded Most Improved Manufacturer of the Year by Fleetworld magazine.
Renault Business was designed to improve customer service to fleet customers and introduce an ‘iCare’ package including service, maintenance and repairs.
The fleet service includes 24 business shops across the UK available to fleet customers. These shops, named Renault Pro+ are available specifically for business and fleet operators.
Sales of models such as the seven-seat Renault Grand Scenic and Megane bolstered Renault’s presence in the fleet market, helped along by the introduction of more cars eligible for Renault’s low-CO2 eco2 signature.
Darren Payne, Renault UK’s Director of Fleet and Commercial Vehicle Operations said, "These results prove that Renault Business is once again a strong and credible contender in the fleet market, thanks to a competitive model line-up and an industry-leading after-sales experience that customers can expect due to the Renault Business Promise."
Payne said he expected fleet sales to continue to improve in the run up to the launch of four new electric vehicles. These include the Kangoo electric van, the Fluence saloon, Zoe supermini and Twizy city car.


text:
ra2 studio - Fotolia
Alibaba Cloud has unveiled cheaper options for its Elastic Compute Service (ECS) and Object Storage Service (OSS), as well as a large language model to keep pace with demand for cloud services.
First available in China, Alibaba’s new ECS Universal instance, which provides the same stability as ECS while reducing costs by up to 40%, is suited for running web applications and websites, enterprise office applications and offline data analysis.
As for storage, Alibaba’s new OSS Reserved Capacity (OSS-RC) will let its customers reserve storage capacity in a specific cloud region for one year, reducing capacity cost by up to 50% from pay-as-you-go prices.
Those that do not need to store data in a specific region can also reduce their capacity cost by up to 70% using the OSS Anywhere Reserved Capacity (OSS-ARC) to store data in a region chosen by Alibaba Cloud.
To make computing resources more accessible to developers in China, Alibaba Cloud has also announced free trials of core products for up to three months, including ECS and its PolarDB databases.
Meanwhile, the Chinese cloud supplier is jumping on the generative artificial intelligence (AI) bandwagon with Tongyi Qianwen, a new language model that will be integrated across Alibaba’s various businesses to improve user experience, from enterprise communication, voice assistance and e-commerce to navigation and entertainment.
Alibaba’s language model is based on Tongyi, a proprietary pre-trained model framework that unifies various AI models, including those that can turn text into images and short videos.
With Chinese and English language capabilities, it will be first deployed on DingTalk, Alibaba’s collaboration tool, enabling users to summarise meeting notes, turn meeting conversations into text, write emails and draft business proposals through simple prompts.
The model will also be used by Alibaba’s Tmall Genie range of internet of things (IoT) and smart home devices to engage in more dynamic conversations with users. For instance, it can develop and tell stories to children, provide healthy diet recipes, offer travel tips and recommend workout music.
Alibaba Cloud said its clients can also use Tongyi Qianwen to build customised large language models to suit their needs and eliminate the need for resource-intensive pre-training. Tongyi Qianwen is now available for general enterprise customers in China for beta testing.
“Generative AI powered by large language models is ushering in an unprecedented new phase. In this latest AI era, we can create additional value for our customers and broader communities through our resilient public cloud infrastructure and proven AI capabilities,” said Zhou Jingren, chief technology officer of Alibaba Cloud.
“We are witnessing a new paradigm of AI development where cloud and AI models play an essential role. By making this paradigm more inclusive, we hope to facilitate businesses from all industries with their intelligence transformation and, ultimately, help boost their business productivity, expand their expertise and capabilities while unlocking more exciting opportunities through innovations,” he said.
Read more about cloud in APAC
- Oracle claims to be “punching above our category” in the market for cloud platform and infrastructure services, proving its partners and rivals wrong that Oracle Cloud is only good for Oracle workloads.
- Over two-thirds of organisations in Singapore use a mix of private and public clouds as well as on-premise and hosted datacentres, even as they face challenges with data management and complexity.
- Hong Kong-based multinational insurance firm AIA has moved 86% of its IT infrastructure to public cloud to drive growth, productivity and efficiency.
- South Korean hyperscaler Naver Cloud has teamed up with the Korea Tourism Organisation to improve visitor experience using its cloud capabilities.


text:
Google’s latest batch of earnings is here, closing out the fiscal year for 2020. With the new Q4 2020 report comes news of a higher than estimated earnings-per-share (EPS) and revenue, which has caused a rise in stock as the investors dive deeper into the Google rabbit hole.
Originally estimating an EPS of $15.90, Google managed to close out the fourth quarter with a total EPS of $22.30. The company’s closing revenue was also up, closing at $56.9 billion versus the original proposed $53.13 billion.
The press release detailing the earnings also noted that Google will now be reporting results for Google Services, Google Cloud and Other Bets. The company also provided details about the revenue and losses tied to each category, noting that it lost a total of $5.6 billion throughout the 2020 fiscal year, with $1.26 billion of that lost in Q4 2020 alone.
Google also shared that it plans to reconfigure how it accounts for its servers, writing in the press release that it determined that it should adjust the estimated useful life of its servers from three to four years and that the estimated useful life of its network equipment should be adjusted from three to five years. These changes will be effective at the start of fiscal year 2021.
Another noteworthy point comes with the reported ad revenue from YouTube, which continues to grow as more content is uploaded and more users watch online video content. For Q4 2020, Google is reporting a total YouTube ad revenue of $6.9 billion up from Q4 2019's earnings of $4.7 billion.
You can view the full earnings release on Alphabet’s Investor’s Relations page to take a look at all the record quarterly profits and revenues that Google is reporting today.
For more information on the latest stocks and earning reports, make sure you check out our game trader page, as well as our schedule to all video game and tech companies Q1 2021 earnings releases, where we’ve broken down when the reports will drop, where you can find them, and even what symbol the stock can be found at.


text:
If you think a diamond report guarantees that you are getting a good diamond, you need to read this. This is a report made by two TV stations recently and published in a jewelry trade magazine. It points out that your jeweler needs to be able to determine if a diamond report is accurate and if not, be able to tell and show you what the discrepancies are. I’ve seen GIA reports I do not agree with.
This also points out why there are many diamonds being sold at 60% off some price when it turns out even with a huge mark down, you are paying too much.
As a diamond professional, I never buy a diamond based on a piece of paper or sight unseen. If I don’t like how the diamond looks, I will not buy it and you can only tell how a diamond looks by seeing the diamond.
Diamond Lab Issues Land on Local Newscasts
For a long time, the industry has complained about different diamond grading labs using different standards. Now, consumers may become aware of this as well, with two ABC affiliates slamming the trade for its “dirty little secret.”
The two stories—one broadcast on a Denver station on Nov. 25, the other broadcast in San Diego on Dec. 16—were similar, with both using testimony from Denver appraiser Neil Beaty.
In the stories, Beaty showed a diamond that was graded J-I1 by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), with poor cut. But EGL International graded it H-SI2 and did not list a cut grade.
“Shoppers are not shown both certs when examples like this come about,” explained Beaty, complaining the lab business is “ a completely unregulated industry.”
“The price a jeweler could charge for that same one carat diamond was nearly doubled if they used EGL International’s report instead of the one provided by GIA,” the broadcast added.
“I’ve seen these examples…hundreds of times,” Beaty added. “The usual reason to choose a lab is because it produces the most money for a stone.”
When the Denver station queried local sales associates about the differences, they received some different responses.
“What matters is what’s prettiest to you, what sparkles the most, what you like, not what is printed on the paperwork,” one said.
Another said that when diamond grading, “The standard, the scales are the same…[t]he Diamond Council…has a standard.”
However another associate said exactly the opposite: “Not all HSI1’s or HSI2’s are going to be the same. It depends on who they are graded by.”
On the broadcast, Beaty recommended consumers look for GIA reports.
Beaty is not the only trade member to talk about this publicly. A Florida jeweler started a campaign called Diamonditis, with radio ads and local news appearances.


text:
Karl-Erivan Haub, chief executive of Tengelmann, wants to sell the grocer's 451 Kaiser's supermarkets. Markus Mosa, head of Germany's largest supermarket operator, Edeka, would like to buy them.
Not so fast, says Germany's Federal Cartel Office agency.
The Bonn-based competition watchdog expressed significant reservations about the deal in a draft decision delivered to the two companies on Tuesday.
In a letter accompanying the nearly 260-page document, the agency made clear it will forbid the takeover in its current form.
“According to investigations up to now, the plan would lead to a further concentration of already highly dense market structures, especially in Berlin, Munich and several larger cities in North Rhine-Westphalia,” explained Andreas Mundt, the agency’s president.
The deal would also increase the purchasing power of the top echelon of Germany's supermarkets, hitting their competitors, he added. Many producers of grocery items would also lose an important alternative outlet.
Edeka and Tengelmann have until February 26 to persuade the regulator to reconsider. Only wide-ranging concessions will save the deal. The Cartel Office’s final decision on the proposed deal is scheduled for March 6.
Alain Caparros has repeatedly stated in recent months that Rewe is ready to take over chain stores from Kaiser's Tengelmann.
The main sticking point is the sale of Kaiser's stores to a third party. This would have an effect on procurement becasue a further buyer would be an alternative outlet for producers.
But it is questionable whether Edeka and Tengelmann are ready to turn stores over to third parties to save the takeover.
According to information obtained by Handelsblatt, the sites in dispute consist of about three-quarters of all the Kaiser's supermarkets owned by Tengelmann. If the antitrust agency were not to reduce the number of affected stores, the whole deal would not make sense anymore.
The sale of Kaiser's, which has been losing money for 15 years, would mean the end of an almost 150-year-long run by Tengelmann as a grocer. The company also owns the Obi building supply chain and KiK, a discount clothing retailer.
Officials at Tengelmann's headquarters in Mülheim an der Ruhr in northwest Germany said the company would evaluate the regulator's draft decision. In Hamburg, Edeka said it would not make any statement.
The head of Edeka's largest rival, Rewe, has positioned himself unambiguously. Alain Caparros has repeatedly stated that Rewe is ready to take over the Kaiser's stores from Tengelmann: “We would guarantee that all employees could keep their jobs.”
But the Cartel Office said on Tuesday that in many of the affected regional markets and municipal districts, a takeover of Kaiser's by Edeka and Rewe together with their respective discount arms Netto and Penny would reduce consumer options to only two local providers.
“In order to counteract the reservations, stores would have to be transferred not to Rewe, but to a competitor — for example, Migros — that is not part of the oligopoly identified by the antitrust agency,” said Maxim Kleine, an expert in antitrust law at the Norton Rose Fulbright law firm.
Migros, the leading grocery-store chain in Switzerland, could be interested in sites in Munich near the German-Swiss border.
The pressure is enormous.
“It will hardly be possible to find solutions in a little more than a week,” Mr. Kleine said. “But there is the possibility of withdrawing the announcement of the takeover and submitting a new proposal that takes the antitrust reservations into consideration.” That would gain time.
If there is no compromise, Edeka and Tengelmann have two possibilities. One would be to seek permission for the merger from Germany's minister of economics, Sigmar Gabriel, who has the power to override decisions by the Cartel Office.
The regulator would voice an opinion during the proceedings.
Edeka and Tengelmann made it clear early on that this option would be seriously considered. At the end of 2014, Edeka’s Mr. Mosa wrote a letter to parliamentarians in the Bundestag and argued for the takeover — including a reference to the situation of 16,000 employees at Tengelmann's Kaiser's stores.
The head of Tengelmann, Mr. Haub, pointed out that in a worst-case scenario, the supermarkets would be closed.
This particularly irritates Mr. Caparros, the managing director of Rewe. He said recently that there should finally be an end to employee anxiety. He intends to use all legal possibilities to assert Rewe's interests: “If necessary, we will conduct a sit-in in front of the ministry of ecnomic affairs.”
The other possibility Edeka and Tengelmann could pursue would be to contest a prohibition of the merger in the Düsseldorf Appellate Court. But that sort of legal proceedings can take years.
“I don't think that waiting for a judicial decision is an option for Edeka and Tengelmann,” Mr. Kleine said. “Especially in view of the economic situation of the supermarkets."
Video: Edeka’s “Supergeil” commercials went viral and won several awards. Supergeil means “super awesome.”
The author is an editor in Handelsblatt's companies and markets department, specializing in the trade sector. To contact the author: [email protected]


text:
10 things in tech you need to know today
Before we dive in, we want to invite you to Insider's virtual event, "The Future of Mobility: Data Driving Innovation," presented by Arity, taking place tomorrow at noon ET. Get the details and sign up here.
Now, let's get started.
1. ICYMI: A judge ruled a massive blow against Apple's App Store business on Friday. Apple must allow app makers to monetize their apps without paying Apple, the conclusion to a months-long legal battle between "Fortnite" maker Epic Games and Apple. Here's what the ruling means for both Epic and Apple.
2. SpaceX is launching its first civilians into orbit this week. The civilian crew - a billionaire, a physician-assistant, an engineer, and a scientist - has spent the past five months training for their three-day trip. Photos show how they trained for their spaceflight.
3. Elizabeth Holmes trial: The defense wins the opening round. Writer Adam Lashinsky was at the court (need a cheat sheet? Here's everything you might have missed in the first week) and found the defense offered a more compelling argument than the prosecution, presenting a sympathetic narrative about Holmes. Here's what he saw during the opening arguments.
4. Mark Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is adding an extra layer of security. After a ProPublica investigation found that moderators are able to view some users' messages, WhatsApp will now let you encrypt your chat back-ups on Google Drive and iCloud. Here's what we know so far.
5. Salesforce said it will help relocate employees who want to leave Texas after a restrictive abortion law took effect. The cloud-computing company told staff it would assist any employees and their families who want to relocate over the state's reproductive laws. Get the full rundown here.
6. Google underpaid thousands of international workers, reports reveal. The company violated labor laws around the world by underpaying thousands of its contract workers in different countries. More on Google's underpaid "shadow workforce."
7. Facebook's new smart glasses have already raised privacy concerns. A Buzzfeed reporter took the glasses for a spin, and found it's pretty easy to secretly record bystanders - even though Facebook says that's against the rules. See Facebook's response to the privacy concerns.
8. Amazon could pay the NFL $2.5 billion to stream "Sunday Ticket" games. Reports say Amazon is seen as the frontrunner among bidders for the package, which DirecTV has owned for the past 27 years. What that could mean for the way you watch football.
9. DeepMind secretly planned to break away from parent company Google. Current and former employees said DeepMind feared Google might one day misuse its technology, and that execs worked to distance the AI firm from its owner for years. Get the inside story of DeepMind's plot to separate from Google.
10. Insider compiled a list of the most important venture capitalists in New York. We asked some of New York's biggest names in tech for their nominations, and came up with a list of the 50 most influential VCs in the city. Meet the city's top investors.
Sign up for more Insider newsletters here.
- Adani Ports Q1 profits declines to ₹1,091 crore
- Unicorns and startups should prepare for a longer funding winter, says SoftBank's Masayoshi Son
- Lok Sabha passes Energy Conservation Bill to promote non-fossil fuels
- Indian government is reportedly planning on restricting Xiaomi, Realme, Vivo and Oppo from the budget smartphone segment
- Less than 50% of children able to catch up with age-appropriate learning, claims survey


text:
COVID-19 caused a severe global economic downturn, affecting industries and job markets.
Pandemic-induced lockdowns disrupted global supply chains, impacting trade and manufacturing.
Millions lost jobs as businesses shut down or scaled back operations due to the pandemic.
Travel restrictions and safety concerns led to a sharp decline in international tourism revenue.
Governments worldwide incurred substantial debt to fund relief measures and stimulate their economies.


text:
Debt-ridden Future Way of life Fashions Ltd (FLFL) stated on Tuesday that its board had thought-about and authorised the proposed sale of sure recognized belongings of the corporate. The corporate in a regulatory submitting stated the belongings contributed to income from operations of Rs 1,386.70 crore, accounting for 64.18 per cent of whole income from operations in FY21. The Board at its assembly it additionally determined to hunt, amongst different issues, shareholder approvals by mail vote, notification of which shall be despatched to the inventory exchanges sooner or later.
“The proposed transaction could be initiated, after receiving the required approvals from lenders, debenture holders, shareholders and different contractual approvals, if any,” it stated.
The proposed transaction could be at a worth that shall be no less than equal to e book worth on the related time.
FLFL has recognized sure belongings (recognized as in-store retail infrastructure belongings) which might be positioned in non-operating shops and can’t be utilized in shops that proceed to function, based on the doc.
FLFL has Central and Model Manufacturing facility in-house retail chains, unique model retailers (EBOs) and different multi-brand retailers (MBOs) for almost a dozen attire manufacturers, together with Lee Copper, Champion, aLL, Indigo Nation, Giovani, John Miller, Scullers, Converse and Urbana in her bag.
FLFL was a part of 19 group firms working within the retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing segments, which had been speculated to be transferred to Reliance Retail as a part of a Rs 24,713 crore deal introduced in August 2020. .
The deal was canceled by Reliance Industries Ltd, run by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, in April after it didn’t safe help from the respective firms’ lenders.
After this, the retail empire led by Kishore Biyani is in deep monetary hassle.
Its flagship firm, Future Retail Ltd, is in insolvency proceedings after the Bombay court docket of the Nationwide Firm Legislation Tribunal (NCLT) admitted a petition in opposition to it.


text:
Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2013-14
For the first time Old Pulteney will enter a yacht in the Clipper 2013-14 Round the World Yacht RaceRead more
Scotland produces some of the world’s best-loved drinks and what better way to
celebrate this thriving industry than with a new festival!
In celebration of the Scottish drinks industry Ooshka Festival will take place in September on Glasgow’s Tall Ship – a symbol of the country’s proud tradition of trading and exporting across the world.
Organised by our firends at The Whisky Ambassador and new creative drinks agency, The Drink Cabinet, Ooshka Festival aims to showcase the journey, production and stories of the beers and spirits of Scotland through tastings, master-classes and interactive workshops.
Andy Gemmell, Director of The Drink Cabinet commented, “Having travelled the world as a Whisky Ambassador, I realised the passion people have for Scotland. We want to celebrate this by showcasing the amazing drinks brands we produce – from Whisky, Gin, Beer and even Rum, we want to educate people through an innovative format in an iconic location.”
The festival will be held on 12th September 2015 on Glasgow’s Tall Ship, and naturally our Maritime Malt will be taking center stage as leading whisky sponsor. Starting at 11am until 6.30pm with tickets costing just £10 we’ll sure you will agree that this is an event not to be missed!
To visit our website, you must be of an age at which the purchase and consumption of alcohol is permitted according to the legislation in your country of residence.
If there are no laws on this matter, then you must be at least 18 years old.Terms and Conditions
Alcohol abuse is dangerous to your health.


text:
Valu, MENA’s leading universal financial technology
powerhouse, announced today its partnership with noon Payments, noon.com’s online payments gateway, to offer Valu’s convenient and accessible financial solutions to customers.
By integrating Valu’s array of financial solutions into noon Payments’ full-fledged platform, which aims to simplify transactions for both local merchants and customers alongside its multiple online payment methods, the collaboration will facilitate the growth journey for enterprises of all sizes. It will also attract new segments and encourage existing merchants and customers to embrace the flexibility of Valu’s payment plans, empowering businesses to offer innovative payment solutions to their consumers.
“Valu is excited to deepen its collaboration with noon through partnering with noon Payments, a trusted partner in our journey to provide
seamless financial solutions for customers across the MENA region,” said Bassel El Tokhy, Group Chief Operating Officer of Valu. “Our long-standing relationship with noon has been defined by innovation and a shared commitment to enhancing the shopping experience. Together, we’ve enabled noon customers to access a vast array of products on their e-commerce platform, complemented by the flexibility of our customizable payment plans. With this latest partnership with noon Payments, we are reinforcing our dedication to empowering consumers with flexible payment options that enable them to make purchases they desire while managing their finances reliably. We believe we can bring even more convenience, flexibility, and financial empowerment to customers and
artners across the MENA region.”
Moustafa Maher, Country Manager of noon Payments Egypt, commented, “We are pleased to be partnering with Valu to integrate noon Payments’ cutting-edge payment solutions with its innovative financial services. This partnership aims to provide local businesses and consumers in Egypt with a seamless experience, while
upporting growth in our local economy.”
noon Payments has a simple API and a quick setup process, and it is available for businesses of all sizes.
Payment links, easy monthly installments, invoicing, subscriptions, and a detailed dashboard are among the features that help to simplify transactions and increase customer satisfaction. Merchants who accept noon payments can now reach out to more customers than ever before by providing a wider range of payment options. It’s worth noting that Noon Payments has partnered with renowned companies such as Americana Group and Emaar Properties.


text:
From Yahoo News:
Naomi Sims, a black model who opened the white-dominated fashion industry to African Americans in the 1960s, has died aged 61.
Sims - sometimes dubbed the first black supermodel - died of cancer on Saturday (local time) in Newark, New Jersey, the New York Times and thefashioninsider.com reported.
Born in racially segregated Mississippi in 1948, Sims made history in August 1967 as the first black model on the cover of Fashion Of The Times - a supplement to The New York Times.
She scored another first when she made the cover of Ladies Home Journal and went on to feature on the covers of Life Magazine and Cosmopolitan.
"Thanks to her proven personal initiatives as a true pioneer, she succeeded in creating a real place for black women in the modelling industry," said Marcellous Jones, chief editor at thefashioninsider.com.


text:
Volume sales of whole-fat dairy grew in eight of the 12 sub-categories of dairy while fat-free volumes sales declined across the board, according to IRI data.*
In the cream cheese category, for example, volume sales of fat-free varieties decreased 23.1%, middle-fat decreased by 4.7%, while whole-fat cream cheese increased by 2.7% in 2017. Whole-fat milk has also provided consistent growth for the milk category.
“However, not all dairy products are experiencing the benefits of consumers’ new interest in whole fats. Off-trend categories such as margarine and processed cheese have struggled as consumers’ interest in simpler and less processed foods continues to grow,” said John Crawford, IRI VP of client insights, dairy.
As such, fat-free processed cheese saw the largest declines in volumes sales last year, contracting 26%. Whole-fat processed cheese also declined signaling that consumers are interested in whole-fat and more naturally-positioned products.
Whole-fat butter saw a sales decline of 0.5% in 2017, however butter sales have been continuing to gain traction over the past few years with consumers increasingly opting for full-fat butter over more processed margarine/spreads (-26% in dollar sales), according to IRI.
Whole-fat dairy buyers
IRI ShopperSights data revealed that whole-fat dairy buyers tend to be married with families, with strong purchase behavior among Hispanic consumers. This is seen clearly in the whole-fat yogurt segment whose buyers tend to be married (84%) and have kids at home (61%), and more are Hispanic (31%).
Only 20% of middle-fat buyers are Hispanic, but marriage rates and kids at home are similar to whole-fat yogurt buyers. On the other hand, 34% of fat-free yogurt buyers have kids at home and only 6% of fat-free yogurt buyers are Hispanic.
“The path CPG manufacturers and retailers take to win the whole-fat market should be as unique as the consumers they serve,” Crawford said.
According to Crawford, for dairy CPG players to reach their intended audience, companies need to deliver a number of targeted and varied messages depending on the audience.
“Whether through social media, sporting events or television, each type of buyer can be targeted based on their demographics and purchase behavior. Offering relevant messaging and a variety of products to meet various consumer needs, helps CPG manufacturers and retailers can separate themselves from competition and win new audiences.”
How to target dairy shoppers
“Not surprisingly, convenience continues to be a growth driver for consumers,” Crawford said.
“We’re all finding that we’re busier than ever and looking for shortcuts everywhere and dairy is certainly poised to provide solutions to consumers who are certainly becoming increasingly time crunched.”
One way to target shoppers looking for convenience is through revamped assortment and merchandising at retail, which is expanding beyond the traditional supermarket format.
According to IRI, retailers who are playing up the dairy section in the form of more grab & go options such as pre-sliced deli ‘natural’ cheeses (+3.0% in 2017), yogurt drinks (+11.8%), and snack kits featuring dairy items, have seen significant sales growth over the past few years.
This growth is occurring outside the conventional grocery channel and across other channels who are also converting the traditional deli section into convenient grab & go sections. In fact, deli cheese (service, grab & go, and specialty) has grown 1.8% over the past three years to $2.52bn in sales last year.
“Deli (dairy, bakery, and meat items) which has often been thought of as a traditional mainstay of supermarket retail is absolutely now, due to the proliferation of convenience items, showing up in convenience stores. In fact, those items are growing much faster in mass, specialty, drug, and even c-stores than they are traditional supermarkets,” Jonna Parker, IRI principal, Fresh Center of Excellence, said.
Parker added that the perimeter of the store is now looked to by consumers as an area to provide “any time of day snacking solutions” ranging from early morning to late evening, and retailers should respond accordingly by provide "cart-stopping" displays and merchandising.
*Source: IRI, Total US, Calendar Year 2017


text:
Arrowhead launches eco-friendly bottled water, recycling campaign
LOS ANGELES – Arrowhead Brand 100% Natural Spring Water on Thursday announced the launch of the .5 L ReBorn bottle in California.
The .5L ReBorn bottle is made of 50% recycled plastic (i.e., rPET), which requires 15% less energy to produce than bottles made from all-new materials. Additionally, bottles made of rPET can be continually recycled and reused.
Arrowhead, the West Coast brand of Nestlé Waters North America’s portfolio of regional spring water brands, is working to impact recycling on a broad scale by partnering with organizations like Keep America Beautiful, to help people take individual action, and Recycling Reinvented, to advocate for extended producer responsibility legislation — with the goal of improving PET beverage bottle recycling rates to 60% by 2018.
To celebrate the November launch of the new bottle design, Arrowhead and Keep California Beautiful — a division of the Keep America Beautiful local affiliate program — will celebrate America Recycles Day on Nov. 15 by hosting a volunteer recycling and beautification event in San Francisco.
Campbell’s evolves classic tomato soup
CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup has introduced a new twist on the classic American favorite: Sun-Ripened Yellow Tomato soup.
This new soup is flavored with yellow tomatoes, parsley, cilantro and thyme, and follows last year’s introduction of Harvest Orange Tomato Soup.
Campbell has been making its iconic condensed Tomato soup for 115 years, since 1897.
Amazon.com begins selling wine online
SEATTLE — People looking for a nice red or white to go with dinner might be able to find it online.
Amazon.com announced Thursday the launch of Amazon Wine, which will feature more than 1,000 wines from wineries around the country, and offer information such as details on tasting notes, food-pairing recommendations and total case production.
"Whether it’s helping customers find a favorite varietal, shop for holiday pairings or expand their cellar with a special handcrafted bottle, we’re excited to provide the right tools and information needed to guide them to the perfect wine," Amazon Marketplace VP Peter Faricy said. "We’re thrilled for wineries around the country to share their great collections of wines with our customers through the Amazon Wine Store."
Starting Thursday, customers can ship up to six bottles for $9.99. Shipping is currently available to California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, and the company said it plans to ship to more states in the near future. Wines available range from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery 2011 Rosso & Bianco red blend Rosso, for $12, to the Hall 2009 Kathryn Hall Cabernet Sauvignon, for $110.


text:
Smartphone shipment volumes to the Middle East and Africa grew 83 percent in 2014, boosted the increased availability of cheaper models and dual-Sim devices, according to a media release issued by the IDC.
by Staff Writer @ IT News Africa
Smartphones accounted for 41.9 percent of all mobile handset shipments to the region, up from 27 percent the year before, with the overall handset market expanding 19.6 percent in volume year-on-year. Feature phone shipments fell 4.5 percent, pulled down by the availability of more affordable smartphones. Smartphones priced under USD 100 captured a 20 percent share of the MEA smartphone market, up from 5 percent in 2013. The market share of smartphones in the USD 100–200 price bracket rose 8 percentage points in the quarter, going to 33 percent in the fourth quarter to 33 percent in the third quarter. Meanwhile, smartphones priced in the higher-end USd 250–500 bracket saw their share of the overall market fall to 18 percent in Q4 from 23 percent in Q3.
Dual-Sim smartphone shipments lifted 34 percent in Q4, compared to the year before. The majority of the growth in the smartphone category was witnessed in countries that have larger populations but previously had low penetration rates. For example, smartphone shipments to Nigeria and Kenya increased 135 percent and 112 percent, respectively, year on year in 2014, while Pakistan saw growth of 105 percent. Meanwhile, the more mature GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) smartphone market expanded 31.8 percent year-on-year in 2014, with the region’s penetration rate reaching 72.6 percent.
Samsung held its number-one position in MEA, but with its smartphone share falling to 43.8 in 2014 from 51.5 percent in 2013. Huawei and Apple followed in second and third place with 8.9 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively. The same trend can be seen quarter on quarter, with Samsung’s share sliding 7.8 points from Q3 to Q4, while Huawei and Apple saw their shares increase 5.1 points and 2.7 points, respectively, over the same period.
Meanwhile, the MEA market witnessed a 58 percent increase in the shipment of iOS devices in Q4 compared to Q3. Android shipments increased by only 3.8 percent over the same period, while Blackberry OS continued its declining trend after a temporary increase in Q3.


text:
The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) for the primary time cleared a meat product grown from animal cells for human consumption, the company introduced on Wednesday.
UPSIDE Meals, an organization that makes cell-cultured rooster by harvesting cells from dwell animals and utilizing the cells to develop meat in stainless-steel tanks, will be capable of carry its merchandise to market as soon as it has been inspected by the U.S. Division of Agriculture (USDA), mentioned a launch from the FDA.
“The world is experiencing a food revolution and the (FDA) is committed to supporting innovation in the food supply,” mentioned FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf and Susan Mayne, director of the FDA’s Middle for Meals Security and Utilized Vitamin in an announcement.
The FDA mentioned in paperwork launched on Wednesday that it had reviewed knowledge from the corporate and had no additional questions concerning the firm’s conclusion that its product is protected for people to eat.
“We are thrilled at FDA’s announcement,” mentioned David Kay, UPSIDE’s director of communications, in an electronic mail. “This historic step paves the way for our path to market.”
The overview will not be technically an approval and applies solely to UPSIDE merchandise, although the company is able to work with different corporations growing cultured animal cell meals, the FDA mentioned in a launch.
USDA and FDA collectively regulate cell-cultured meat underneath a 2019 settlement between the 2 companies. USDA will oversee the processing and labeling of cell-cultured meat merchandise.
Demand for alternate options to farmed meat has grown alongside an consciousness of the excessive greenhouse fuel emissions of elevating livestock. Cultivated rooster was served to attendees at this yr’s COP27 local weather convention in Egypt.


text:
FreshInfo.com: Ecuador is to set up a national banana exporter as it looks to tackle alleged underhand tactics and “abuses” in the sector.
President Rafael Correa announced at a press conference that the government would be setting up an exportation company as the state looks to combat what Correa described as the “many abuses” being committed by banana exporters.
It is understood the state-owned company is in the process of being set up.
He accused some companies of signing “contracts during the low season, which they failed to meet, instead selling the fruit for more money during the high season”.
He also alleged some “un-registered companies” are avoiding paying export duties and promised “clear regulations” would allow the new export company to operate in a transparent fashion.
The export company will also be used to enforce Ecuador’s official price of $5.40 (£3.30) per box.


text:
You have probably heard of the common expression “you are what you eat”. While this obviously should not be taken literally, there is some truth to it. The type of foods that you consume certainly play an important role in your overall health!
There are many factors that contribute to one’s health, but one of the key indicators that reflect good health would be life expectancy. In Canada, life expectancy has been steadily increasing in the past decade. A publication from the Government of Canada indicated that Canada is a relatively healthy nation, but there are still some areas of concern to consider.
One of those concerns is that more than one in five Canadian adults are living with one or more chronic diseases. They include cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases or cancer. For some of these diseases, it can be attributed to unhealthy eating, and this is why it is important to maintain your health with a nutrition-rich diet.
Many Canadians have actually shifted their eating habits because of the COVID-19 pandemic. A report by HelloFresh found that nearly 60 percent of Canadians have changed their eating habits. In a research article conducted by Ipsos for TD, it found that 54 percent of Canadians said they are doing more cooking at home.
The pandemic has caused many Canadians to be more mindful of the food that they eat, and this is a great opportunity for some to focus on getting a better diet that would be beneficial for their lifestyles.
The Dangers of a Poor Diet
Usually, most people tend to associate healthy eating as being synonymous with good health. This is certainly true, but having a well-balanced diet that captures all the essential nutrients can also be beneficial for your mind.
Think of healthy food as being like fuel for your brain. Food that is rich in vitamins and minerals will provide better sustenance for your body, but it will also contribute to helping your mind function better. On the flip side, consuming highly-processed food or food that is high in sugar can promote inflammation for your body, as stated in an article by Harvard Medical Health.
Poor nutritional diets can also take a toll on your mental health. From the same article by Harvard, it noted that a diet that is high in refined sugars has the capacity to impair the brain which could worsen the symptoms of mood disorders like depression.
Furthermore, a report by the American Psychological Association made connections between nutrition and mental illness, where one of the reports cited in the article linked a connection between having a better diet as being a factor in combating depression.
Promoting healthy eating has been one of the main goals of the Dietitians of Canada, where one of their studies shed light on the intersection of mental health and physical health as being associated with a nutrition-rich diet.
Focus on Essential Nutrients: Proteins, Fats & Carbs
In 2019, Canada introduced a new revamped Food Guide which does not contain any food groups, but instead offers a guideline which includes advice on what Canadians should be eating, what food items to avoid and the importance of cooking at home.
You may already be familiar with a lot of nutrients because of the nutrition facts labels that are attached to food items, but do you know the exact benefits of certain nutrients?
We will explore three essential nutrients below.
Protein is essential for your body. As a matter of fact, the average person needs about seven grams of protein for every 20 pounds of body weight they have. Protein is important in your diet because it helps repair cells in your body and make new ones. It is also important for the growth and development of children and teenagers.
Fats can be good for your health, but it depends on what type of fat it is. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats can lower your disease risk. Vegetable oils such as olive and sunflower can be healthy, as well as fish which contains Omega-3 fatty acids which are important for brain development.
Carbohydrates or carbs for short, are an important part of a healthy diet. Food such as bread and pasta are rich in carbs, and it is important that carbs should not be taken in excess. Carbs provide the body with glucose, which is converted into energy to fuel bodily functions and physical activity.
How Well Street’s Food Seminars Can Help
As reported in an article by York University, it found that the average Canadian is not eating a diet that promotes optimal health, where Canadians are consuming foods that are too high in calories and sugar, and there is not enough intake of fruits and vegetables.
Having a good grasp of health and nutrition is important, and that is why Well Street offers two specialized seminars that can help you gain a better understanding to promote your well-being.
“Good Food: You Are What You Eat” is a seminar that focuses on the importance of nutritious diets. Nutrients such as proteins, fats and carbs are further explored in this seminar, and it will provide you with a well-informed overview of what type of food would be best for your body in order to achieve optimal health.
“Brain Food: Eating for Energy & Focus” is another seminar that looks at the effects certain foods can have on your body. As previously mentioned, having a healthy diet can be beneficial for your brain. This seminar will teach you how certain food items can be good for your mind, which can consequently increase your energy and focus.
This is just a couple of picks from our selection of healthy eating seminars, but each of these seminars will certainly give you an eye-opening realization as to how important your diet is in influencing your overall health.
About Well Street
At Well Street, we are founded on the principles of introducing healthy practices to the workplace, which encompasses both mental and physical health. Comprised of medical professionals who have a background in naturopathy, we aim to help organizations foster a healthy corporate environment in order to boost productivity and morale.
If you would like to learn more about how our team can help you or your company, consider contacting us to find out more. We are happy to provide you with guidelines and approaches to support the wellbeing of your team members through virtual seminars and programs.


text:
FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - According to a survey, many German mechanical engineering companies are currently rethinking their China strategy. In a survey conducted by the industry association VDMA, almost half (45 percent) of the 304 participating member companies stated this. The main reasons for this were a more difficult business situation on the ground, the intensification of geopolitical tensions and the pressure on Chinese companies to give preference to local suppliers and products, the German Engineering Federation (VDMA) announced in Frankfurt on Friday.
"We are observing a significant increase in the competitiveness of local companies due to the increased quality and technology of products, but also increased industrial policy interventions by the state," explained VDMA foreign trade expert Ulrich Ackermann. One starting point could be a diversification of sales markets and supply chains, among other things: "For many companies, this currently means a stronger focus on the US market and - in addition to China - possibly examining additional opportunities in India, for example."
However, according to the survey, 86 percent of VDMA member companies surveyed in Germany and China still have confidence in the Chinese market. According to the survey, 42 percent intend to expand their activities in the country in the near future, while 25 percent are undecided./mar/DP/mis


text:
As announced in a press release yesterday, the Apple Store today offers an Apple TV with a 160GB hard drive selling for $399, $100 more than the 40GB model. Apple says it can hold "up to 200 hours of video," but could this be a sign that 720p downloads of movies and TV shows are not far behind? Bring on the HDTV downloads, Apple!
AU: It's on sale right now here too, at $579.
Product Page [Apple Store]


text:
At market close, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) market capitalisation (m-cap) zoomed to Rs 10,01,555.42 crore on BSE.
The company in an emailed statement said: "There has been no transaction of purchase of shares".
The acquisition was pursuant to a scheme of arrangement not directly involving Reliance, the filing said without giving details.
Reliance and BP plan to split Niko's share in proportion to their existing shareholding in the block.
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) had on Monday raced past TCS to become the country's most-valued firm by market valuation.
At close of trade on Monday, RIL's m-cap stood at Rs 8,19,073.62 crore, which is Rs 7,226.43 crore more than that of TCS.
Revision in the outlook follows RIL announcing plans to sell a 20 pc stake in its oil-to-chemical division to Saudi Aramco.
RIL also entered a deal with BP to sell 49 pc stake in its fuel marketing business in India for USD 1 billion.
Rivals face heat; shares of telecom, multiplex players plunge.
The oil-to-telecom giant saw its scrip jump 9.72 per cent to close at Rs 1,275 on the BSE.


text:
Apparently Antonin Kaspara from Czech invented a low-cost smart shoe that warns about obsticles for blind people.
A infrared sensor detects light reflected back from potential obstacles and indicates this via a vibrating device in the sole of the shoe.
The "seeing" shoe could be on the market next year. The enhancing electronics cost about $20.
Full story on Ananova.
Don't Miss: iPhone 8: Everything You Need to Know
Don't Miss: Incredible Pokemon Gifts


text:
What is the future for cannabis in the UK?
The UK’s method to medicinal cannabis is additional complicated than most other nations. It is content to make and sell it to other nations but is significantly less keen to give it to its personal citizens, which for now are mainly possessing to spend for pricey private prescriptions if they want to get access. The nation has taken a tentative step toward legalisation – but only due to the fact it was forced to. For now, it has only legalised medicinal cannabis in name.
But attitudes are nevertheless moving in the correct path, albeit gradually. Prior to moving to his new part as chancellor, Sajid Javid, the then-property secretary, said the government’s position on medicinal cannabis ‘was not satisfactory’. Legalisation has featured prominently in electoral campaigns by the likes of the Liberal Democrats and the Green Celebration. And even the institutions that have so far proved a roadblock to widespread access, such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists, has stated it is prepared to reconsider its view.
Nonetheless, there are issues that progress in the UK could stagnate, specially while all the political power is getting consumed by Brexit. However, if ignited then the flame could catch rapidly. Germany was in a related position to the UK 3 years ago but has now grown into the biggest medicinal cannabis marketplace in Europe given that legalising it in 2017. Final year there had been more than 185,000 medicinal cannabis prescriptions issued in the nation to up to as lots of as 80,000 individuals. It has permitted significant North American corporations, like Aphria and Aurora, to set up shop in the nation and cultivate cannabis. Though the UK has established a huge production base, it has concentrated it amongst a handful of organizations, which means other nations could grow to be manufacturing hubs for the European marketplace rather than the UK. Germany gives each a domestic marketplace and the possible to export, whilst the UK only gives the latter. The identical is accurate for investors and financiers which, keen to tap into the momentum developing prior to it is as well late, will flee to exactly where the regulatory atmosphere is additional favourable.
The UK is at a vital stage. As a priority, it need to appear to establish a clearer framework for medicinal cannabis to operate and take a additional-balanced method amongst permitting enterprise to make cannabis and permitting individuals to access it to eliminate the ambiguity in the marketplace – not only for customers and corporations, but for investors that worry they are operating in grey location.
The chance on offer you is big. Prohibition Partners estimates the UK’s medicinal cannabis marketplace could be worth more than £7.eight billion by 2028. Plus, while there are no indicators that it is about to be created legal in the nation, estimates show a recreational marketplace could represent a larger chance with a forecasted worth of £8.five billion. That suggests the total worth of a fully-legalised cannabis marketplace in the UK could be more than £16 billion inside significantly less than ten years.