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Around 100,000 England fans are expected to travel in June to watch the games in Group B against Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, and Sweden. But it is thought that only 30,000 of them will have secured tickets.
The FA has been scrutinising internet-based ticket companies and identified a dozen which, it says, may be breaking the law by offering to supply tickets at many times over the face value. They have asked the police and Fifa, football's global governing body, to investigate and see what can be done to stop them.
Andrin Cooper, an FA spokesman, said: 'Our customer services and security departments have been monitoring the internet for unauthorised websites selling what purport to be World Cup tickets for England's matches. We have passed details of about a dozen websites to Fifa and the police.
'We condemn this illegal exploitation and will do everything we can to combat it. It's important to protect fans against unscrupulous operators. Sadly, there are a number of people who always seek to exploit the incredible loyalty and dedication of English football fans.'
The FA declined to name any of the online firms involved. Websites offering to sell tickets at the moment include the Online Ticket Shop, which is based in the United States but has an outlet in Britain. It is charging between £495 and £750 per seat for England's three games, even though the original prices were only £24-£68.
Some outfits claim to merely provide a marketplace for buyers and sellers, but that is also illegal. One of those, My Ticket Market, which is based in Marylebone in London, tells fans that: 'Purchasing your England football tickets could not be safer and easier. Once your England World Cup 2006 ticket purchase is confirmed and your credit card is approved, your England tickets are 100 per cent guaranteed.'
Kevin Miles, international co-ordinator of the Football Supporters' Federation, said: 'It's outrageous if the enthusiasm of the genuine England fan for the World Cup is being exploited. Sadly, some supporters will feel driven to these places to pay these extortionate prices, that they can barely afford, simply to follow their team.'
The government plans to introduce measures to combat touts and has pledged to produce an 'action plan'.


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NEW DELHI : Opening up cross-border trade opportunities for local Indian MSMEs, e-commerce major Flipkart has partnered with Nepal’s leading e-commerce player Sastodeal. As part of the tie-up, Sastodeal will host over 5,000 product verticals from Flipkart Marketplace such as baby care & kids, women’s ethnic wear and sports & fitness, among others.
Jagjeet Harode, Head of Marketplace, Flipkart, said, the partnership will not just open doors for a wider market reach for Indian sellers but also allow them to boost their business significantly.
Sastodeal CEO Amun Thapa said customers in Nepal increasingly look forward to products with best in class features and quality. “We are ensuring that customers get access to these products readily and hoping that together, this partnership can modernize the consumer landscape in Nepal significantly, especially in the current times,” he said.
Flipkart marketplace and private brand products are now available on Sastodeal. In the first phase, the partnership will see over 5000 products listed on Sastodeal.
In addition, Flipkart Private Brands- MarQ and SmartBuy will also be listed on the Sastodeal platform, with a focus on categories such as electronics, home appliances/home decor, and furnishings.
“Given our understanding of what consumers need and focus on quality products; it was a natural step for us to expand this expertise and take our brands to markets beyond India. The preference of consumers in a country like Nepal is very similar to India,” said Dev Iyer, Vice President – Private Brands, Flipkart.
Flipkart currently has 2,00,000 sellers across India, with more than 50% of them coming from smaller cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Meerut, Surat, Kanpur, Agra, Coimbatore, and Ahmedabad, among others.

domain: news


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BRUSSELS, Italy (Reuters) — Italy is in no hurry to bring the European Union’s free trade agreement with Canada to a parliamentary vote, its farm minister has said, suggesting its opposition to the deal may be easing.
Ministers of the eurosceptic 5-Star/League government have said Italy would not ratify the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, threatening the EU’s first major trade deal since an EU-South Korean accord launched in 2011.
However, Agriculture Minister Gian Marco Centinaio told reporters in Brussels: “Nobody is in a hurry to bring CETA to the chamber.”
CETA took effect provisionally in September 2017 with the reduction or removal of tariffs on 98 percent of products but needs to be ratified by all 28 EU countries. Just one failure to ratify could bring the whole deal down.
According to the EU statistics office Eurostat, Italian exports to Canada have increased by 2.1 percent year-on-year in the eight months since CETA provisionally entered into force and its food and animal exports by 11.9 percent.
The government has said it will take a hard line on defending Italian speciality foods.
Under CETA, Canada has recognised more than 40 Italian protected designation of origin and protected geographical indication labels out of more than 200.
Centinaio said he wanted to check whether those not covered were exclusively local products that were unlikely to be exported to Canada. If that was not the case, Italy could push to add more.


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CHANEL opens up the opportunity where Paris and Dallas can meet in fashion. An invitation was sketched by Karl Lagerfeld that reads: ‘Coco Chanel back in Dallas’, the fashion show took place on 10th December at Dallas Fair Park.
This event is to celebrate the strong connection between French designer and the United States, as Gabrielle Chanel once stated: ‘I admire and love America, it’s where I made my Fortune’. And now 56 years later, Karl Lagerfeld retrace the steps of Coco by introducing the Paris-Dallas Métiers d’ art 2013 collection, inspired by the traditional cowboy culture.
Traditional cars were included in the drive-in, where the movie ‘The Returned’ was also premiered. The runway was tuned into a cowboy stadium and flags of America and France were hanging on the roof, creating a spectacular sphere.
Classic bags stitched with fringes and Chanel canned clutches in brown-rust and blue paint are just a few bags that you will find the collection. Minaudiere clutches are glued with used and vintage coins, taking you back to the Dallas-Cowboy era. As final, a large duffle bag is going to be released, enriched on the front with a petite clutch bag.
And don’t forget to like our Facebook page to get informed about the latest Chanel bag releases.


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Taking inspiration from Los Angeles’s Venice Beach, Nike Basketball has crafted a bold Stadium Grey/University Gold-Night Stadium edition of Kobe Bryant‘s signature Kobe 8 System. One of the more eye-catching editions of the Black Mamba’s latest signature low-top, the kicks see a combination of blue, yellow, red, and grey across their Engineered Mesh upper while a duo of Lunarlon and Phylon handle the plush cushioning. Finished with an icy rubber outsole, the “Venice Beach” take on the Kobe 8 System is set to hit Nike Basketball retailers across the globe this Saturday, May 25 for $140 USD.
- All Sections
HYPEBEAST 100: The innovators from all realms of creativity in the spotlight.
Explore and be inspired by the latest women's fashion news and trends.


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Chicken wing prices could keep rising - and pizzas might also get more expensive thanks to rising ingredient costs, a restaurant owner said
- Prices of restaurant meals from
pizzato chicken wings could soon get more expensive.
- A New Jersey pizzeria owner said ingredients now cost more, and that he may have to raise prices.
- "You could see some
restaurantsseeing a 10% increase in their foodcosts," an analyst said.
Pizza joints may soon have to raise their prices to cope with soaring ingredient costs, a New Jersey restaurant owner said.
It's "inevitable" that the higher cost of ingredients will be passed onto the consumer, Anthony D'Aniello, owner of Manville Pizza in Manville, New Jersey, told Insider.
"The end consumer, if there's a victim, is the real victim here," he said.
D'Aniello said that his supplier, who distributes across the US, had told him to expect "everything" to get more expensive - including flour.
"If flour gets increased, that's the biggest effect on my business because I own a pizzeria," D'Aniello said.
"You could see some restaurants seeing a 10% increase in their food costs," Kevin Burke, managing director and member of the consumer team at Citizens Capital Markets, part of Citizens Bank, told Insider. He said that produce, dairy, and protein had already become more expensive.
Some restaurants are passing the higher costs of labor and ingredients onto customers by "carefully" increasing menu prices, Burke said. Chipotle has already raised its prices by around 4%.
It follows a New York restaurant owner telling Fox Business that the prices of both chicken wings and fryer oil had more than doubled, while a New Hampshire restaurant said the cost of St. Louis Ribs were up 50%.
D'Aniello said that he had raised his restaurant's price for 10 chicken wings from $10.95 to $16.95.
He absorbed the costs himself at first, but "it's inevitable that it goes to the consumer, which I feel horrible about because I'm not making any more money, I'm not giving them any better of a product," he said.
D'Aniello said that his customers had been understanding of the price hikes so far, but warned that "there's only so high you could put a wing before the consumer will stop buying it and that'll eventually set the market price."
"The insignificant wing will be the canary in the coal mine for the industry," he said. "It'll set the precedent of how high they can go or where are they going to be."
Restaurants are hiking up wages to attract more staff. Around two-third of small restaurants say they're struggling to find staff, and half of restaurant owners are paying workers more now as a result.
Burke said that restaurants have other ways to offset higher prices, too. These include becoming more efficient and cutting costs, selling a higher volume of food, and slashing portion sizes.
But portion changes aren't as likely, Burke said, because it's impossible for some food types - burgers, for example, are based on standard patty sizes.
- No crypto ban in India — SEBI will reportedly be pulled in to regulate the sector
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- Maruti cars to cost you more from January next year
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- 44 key areas, a national framework, and a multi-institutional approach — Here's what you need to know about India's new National Blockchain Strategy


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The Hollywood Reporter has rebranded its 5-year-old style vertical, Pret-a-Reporter, to Hollywood Reporter Style, in a relaunch sponsored by high-end jewelry company Tiffany & Co.
The new style vertical will expand to include more lifestyle coverage, including real estate, travel, events, fine dining, home design and automobiles.
The coverage online will now look more like theStyle section in THR's weekly print magazine.
Style and fashion news director Booth Moore will oversee a weekly THR Style newsletter, with a podcast expected to launch early next year.
“Our readers obsess over cars and restaurants as much as they do their next films, so I couldn’t be more excited to deliver these stories with Booth’s definitive voice at the helm,” stated Matthew Belloni, editorial director, The Hollywood Reporter.
With the tagline “How Hollywood Lives,” Hollywood Reporter Style will build on the publisher’s access to talent, fashion influencers, wardrobe designers and studio executives.
Just a few weeks ago, New York Post Digital Network dedicated a new vertical to celebrity fashion and beauty coverage, called Page Six Style, to focus on Hollywood trends.
In September, THR Style debuted “Hollywood Style Clinic With Andrew Weitz,” a video series that takes viewers behind the scenes as Weitz dresses executives and stars for major events.
“Rambling Reporter,” a column with news, gossip, event coverage and interviews, will also live on THR Style.
Tiffany & Co. is promoting its Atlas 24mm collection on The Hollywood Reporter site.
Parent company The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group claims its brands reach more than 40 million monthly users.


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Why textile machinery prices could rise
Improving consumer confidence levels, pick up in discretionary spending and opening up of economies are assisting Indian textile companies to tide over the COVID 19 pandemic with continued rise in demand.
Improving consumer confidence levels,
pick up in discretionary spending and
opening up of economies are assisting Indian
textile companies to tide over the COVID 19
pandemic with continued rise in demand.
According to ICRA, the recovery in the
domestic textile sector, that picked up pace in
Q3 FY2021, is likely to continue in the
upcoming quarters. The rating agency
expects the textile sector performance to
recover to pre-Covid levels in FY2022 as
demand continues to normalise in domestic
and export markets.
Performance of exports was much better
than domestic market as economies of key
buying regions opened up faster, facilitating
better performance for spinning and apparel segments, which have greater
reliance on export markets. Though with a lag, domestic textile sales also
picked up pace supported by pent up demand, pick-up in online sale activity
and reduced consumer skepticism to step out and shop, said ICRA report.
The recovery in demand of textile products is likely to trickle down the entire
value chain. For example, MMF production increased by higher single digits on
YoY basis during October 2020.
Rising demand for textile products has had a rub-off effect on allied
industries like textile machinery. After negligible business in the first 2 quarters
of 2020-21, textile machinery makers have started getting orders. With their
capacity utilisation close to 100 per cent, textile machinery makers expect to
achieve up to 80-90 per cent of their annual turnover as compared to previous
year in the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, said the Textile Machinery
Manufacturersâ€™ Association of India (TMMA).
While increasing demand has brought cheers on the face of machine makers,
rising raw material prices (especially steel) could play a spoilsport. The order
bookings which were closed at prices during April-June 2020 quarter are
supposed to be fulfilled by Q3 or Q4 of the current fiscal. At the time of booking,
TMMA claims, the steel prices were 15-40 per cent lesser than the current rates
and the increased raw material cost is severely impacting the basic cost of the
machines to be supplied.
The cause of cost rise are restrictions imposed on the imports of steel & other
products, and domestic steel producers dictating the prices (in the absence of
competition from imports). These challenges are only putting more hurdles for
domestic machinery manufacturers to produce their machines at competitive
rates and qualities in comparison to their global counterparts.
Adding to the woes is the rising fuel cost, which is up by 20-25 percent in
January 2021 compared to April 2020. As a result, the prices of other
commodities, transportation, material handling and manufacturing have also
risen. If the raw material prices remain at the current high level (or escalate
further), companies will have no option but to increase their textile machinery
prices by at least 15-20 per cent with in the current fiscal year. This could have
detrimental effects on the industryâ€™s growth.
See the live launch of the Indian Textile Journalâ€™s first ever annual issue
releasing on 17th February, 2021 alongwith a webinar discussing â€˜Can India
become a Global Textile hub?â€™ and another session on MMF and Technical
Textiles with an array of eminent speakers followed by release of the listing of
INDIAâ€™S TOP TEXTILE COMPANIES. Donâ€™t miss it.Register NOW.


text:
Netflix Inc. said it expects to add a much smaller number of subscribers this quarter than it did a year ago as it adjusts to growing competition and lasting disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, sending the video streamer’s shares down sharply.
The company on Thursday forecast an increase of 2.5 million subscribers in the current quarter, compared with four million a year earlier. It also slightly missed its subscriber estimate for the fourth quarter, adding 8.3 million subscribers instead of the projected 8.5 million.
Netflix Inc dashed hopes for a quick rebound after forecasting weak first-quarter subscriber growth on Thursday, sending shares sinking nearly 20% and wiping away most of its remaining pandemic-fueled gains from 2020.
The world’s largest streaming service projected it would add 2.5 million customers from January through March, less than half of the 5.9 million analysts had forecast, according to
Netflix tempered its growth expectations, citing the late arrival of anticipated content, such as the second season of “Bridgerton” and the Ryan Reynolds time-travel movie “The Adam Project.”
Shares of Netflix plummeted nearly 20% to $408.13 in after-hours trading. Competitor Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), which has staked its future on building a strong streaming business, saw its shares sink 4%. Streaming device Roku Inc (ROKU.O) fell 5%.
In a letter to shareholders, Netflix said it believed the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardships in several parts of the world like Latin America may have kept subscriber growth from rebounding to levels seen before the pandemic.
COVID “created a lot of bumpiness” that made it hard to project subscriber numbers, “but all the fundamentals of the business are pretty solid,” Co-Chief Executive Ted Sarandos said in a post-earnings video interview.
The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $1.33, crushing analyst consensus estimates of 82 cents. Revenue hit $7.71 billion, in line with estimates.
OnMyWay Is The #1 Distracted Driving Mobile App In The Nation!
OnMyWay, based in Charleston, SC, The Only Mobile App That Pays its Users Not to Text and Drive.
The #1 cause of death among young adults ages 16-27 is Car Accidents, with the majority related to Distracted Driving.
OnMyWay’s mission is to reverse this epidemic through positive rewards. Users get paid for every mile they do not text and drive and can refer their friends to get compensated for them as well.
The money earned can then be used for Cash Cards, Gift Cards, Travel Deals and Much, Much More….
The company also makes it a point to let users know that OnMyWay does NOT sell users data and only tracks them for purposes of providing a better experience while using the app.
The OnMyWay app is free to download and is currently available on both the App Store for iPhones and Google Play for Android @ OnMyWay; Drive Safe, Get Paid.
Download App Now – https://r.onmyway.com
Sponsors and advertisers can contact the company directly through their website @ www.onmyway.com.


text: It may sound far fetched but toys based on games could be the start of a new trend in gaming. This new approach which allows AnJon Inc to "license" characters from Digital Leisure's Dragon's Lair franchise and make toys based on some of the more popular characters. These so-called "action figures" (which appear to be smaller and harder versions of dolls) will start appearing in the second quarter of 2002 to coincide with the launch of 12066.html" >Dragon's Lair 3D. The success of these "action figures" could lead other companies to take note. Gamers could soon see small, hard dolls based off of any number of franchises including Diablo, Final Fantasy and Flight Sim 2002.


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Telecel reports 2m subscribers
TELECOMS| July 9, 2012, 4:49 p.m.
Telecel Zimbabwe reports that it now has two million active subscribers, an increase of half-a-million since the end of December 2011.
Telecel Zimbabwe chief commercial officer Ashraf Elguindy highlighted compelling new offers helping drive subscriber growth, including the introduction of data bundles and the reduction in the cost of these bundles to as little as USD2,50 for 55 megabytes, USD22,50 for 550 megabytes, USD42,50 for 1,250 megabytes and USD75 for three gigabytes.
This was not only the best value offered by any mobile network but was probably the lowest data service rates offered anywhere in Zimbabwe, he said.
He also referred to Telecel’s introduction of Tele-Tunes, a service that allows subscribers to substitute a tune or song of their choice for the ringing tone that callers hear when they phone them. Telecel was the first local company to introduce this service that has proved popular elsewhere.
“The last two years or so have been an exciting period for Telecel. We have led the way within the mobile telecommunications sector in reducing costs and making mobile communications affordable for everyone.
“The number of subscribers we have has soared to its present level of two million and continues to grow. The quality of our voice communications is, we believe, the best in the country,” he said.
MORE TELECOMS NEWS
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How NCC will tackle service quality: Prof DanbattaThe Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof Umar Danbatta, says the Commission will take steps to address issues of such as multiple taxation, vandalism and others to ensure that the quality of service (QoS) headache becomes a thing of the past in the country. Read More
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FEATURED STORYAlcatel-Lucent VP calls for collaboration to achieve Data Revolution in Africa
The Vice president of Alcatel-Lucent Africa, Daniel Jaeger, has reiterated the need for African stakeholders to work together to address challenges in the way of ICT development in Africa.
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COMPANY NEWSMTN SA expands its FTTH network to the Western Cape
MTN South Africa has expanded its fibre to the home (FTTH) footprint to the Western Cape, and trenching has already commenced in the picturesque suburbs of Fresnaye ...


text:
Cambridge University has put out a study on cryptocurrency that provides information on exchanges, wallets and mining.
Bitcoin Industry News
An industry is the production of goods and related services within an economy. The Bitcoin industry includes Bitcoin itself and such products as Bitcoin exchanges, Bitcoin wallets, Bitcoin industry news and some others. Bitcoin industry analysis is one of the major topics of most fintech and technology media. Studies of the Bitcoin industry’s information on exchanges, wallets and mining are conducted by leading universities. The Bitcoin industry’s value is also part of numerous studies, mostly conducted with government support in order to establish the monetary risks provided by the new market. The Bitcoin industry is the predecessor and also part of cryptocurrency industry, with most products of which being Bitcoin-related or somehow connected to it. The Bitcoin industry’s worth is hard to estimate, but the total market capitalization of all issued Bitcoins is currently estimated to be more than $100 billion.
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text:
Carpenters picket with no sign of talks
Updated 10:00 pm, Thursday, June 26, 2003
Union carpenters walked picket lines for a second morning yesterday, and negotiators offered no sign when they would return to the bargaining table.
On Wednesday, carpenters in Seattle, Ellensburg, Wenatchee and throughout Western and Central Washington struck, demanding a better health care offer from their employers.
But neither side appeared to budge yesterday.
A central dispute is over how to fund health care for retired carpenters. The union wants employers to contribute to the retiree medical care fund. Contractors maintain the fund has enough money, and that a soft economy isn't the time to contribute more.
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The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters also wants employers to contribute more money to the health care fund dedicated to working carpenters. If employers don't offer more money, the health care plan would have to be reduced, according to union spokesman Ole Olsen.
Associated General Contractors, the negotiating arm for employers, maintains its offer would cover the total cost of its employee health care insurance.
Both carpenters and contractors stand to lose in the fight. Carpenters walked off their jobs during the peak building season, when jobs are most plentiful.
Contractors risk the headaches and potential delays that occur when they lose a key segment of their work crews.
Meanwhile, contractors managed to keep some sites running, even without carpenters.


text:
Chip maker Intel is spending $50 million to license graphics technology from ZiiLABS, a subsidiary of Creative. The company will also acquire some assets of the UK subsidiary ZiiLABS Limited.
The deal allows Intel to license some of Creative’s graphics processor technology which can be used or adapted for upcoming Intel products.
While the official statement is a bit unclear on what the transfer of engineering resources from the UK branch will mean for Creative moving forward, it basically gives Intel access to the the team that developed the ZMS series of ARM-based processors for phones, tablets, and other devices.
Creative isn’t exiting the chip business though, and will continue to own the StemCell Media processor tech and patents and will continue to design products featuring ZMS processors.
ZiiLABS chips have demonstrated impressive CPU and graphics performance for low power processors, but they haven’t exactly been a huge hit in the crowded mobile processor marketplace.
I doubt this week’s announcement means we’ll see Intel start cranking out ARM-based chips anytime soon. The company is pretty invested in its line of Atom processors for tablets, phones, and other mobile devices. But the deal could lead to improved graphics in upcoming low power chips from Intel.


text:
Arjen Balfoort announced the release of SolydXK 201306.
The official announcement says:
The new SolydXK ISO’s include the latest updates from June’s Update Pack.
Some changes were made:
- Thanks to some forum users these applications are now localized to Spanish, Catalán, German and Dutch;
- Device Driver Manager (DDM);
- Debian Plymouth Manager;
- LightDM Manager;
- Software Manager;
- Welcome Screen;
- Steam Installer was removed;
- Blueman was removed from SolydX;
- Java was upgraded to the latest version;
- The .NET implementation for Linux, Mono, was removed from SolydK. Very few people use it, and it’s automatically installed if a package you need relies on it.


text:
Is this Dell's first cellphone? That is at least what one man and his blurry camera seem to think.
After what seems like years of 'will they? won't they?' speculation, this pic has appeared on the Chinese site PDAFans and is at the least a vaguely Pre-looking device baring a Dell logo. It is rumored to be released by the end of the year and assuming this is real it looks like it will be running Android. [PDAFans via engadget]


text:
It's official: The Little Ripon Bookshop has been named one of the best in the country!
It's confirmed what so many of us already knew -Â a prestigious industry shortlist has named The Little Ripon Bookshop as one of the best in the country.
Owners Gill and Simon Edwards said they feel overwhelmed to have been listed alongside only four other bookshops in the north of England for The British Book Awards' independent bookshop of the year category.
The Edwards have worked hard to increase the number of in-store events and make the place even more of a community hub.
Gill said: "We are absolutely delighted to be on the list, it's wonderful. The feedback we've had from customers has been amazing - when we put the news out on Facebook and Instagram, so many people said they'd voted and left comments to show their support. It's been overwhelming."
Only last week, Gill and Simon did a talk for Ripon Civic Society about what it's like to trade Ripon at the moment as an independent bookshop. For them, the everyday joy of running the business is getting to know their customers and watching books bring people together.
Gill said: "It's definitely the variety of customers you get in, you feel like you are getting involved in their lives in some way.
"We have mums coming in who are pregnant, then they come in with their children, then they start coming to storytime, then you see them starting school. You see people growing up.
"Customers confirm your belief in human nature, people are so nice."
Gill said an important part of running any independent business is making the customer experience as personal as possible.
She said: "It's about building those relationships, getting to know your customers, and enjoying being a part of the community. We don't take our customers for granted, we put a lot of work into giving them a nice experience when they come in."
To vote for The Little Ripon Bookshop, visit: https://www.thebookseller.com/tell-us-about-your-favourite-independent-bookshop


text:
Shenzhen Goodix Technology has reached a definitive agreement with NXP Semiconductors under which it will acquire all assets of NXP's voice and audio solutions (VAS) business, according to the China-based fabless chipmaker. The transaction includes employees based in Europe and Asia, and relevant intellectual properties.
NXP's VAS business offers premium voice and audio solutions for leading smartphone manufacturers worldwide, with its portfolio including software and hardware solutions for mobile devices and various IoT applications, Goodix noted.
As part of the transaction, Goodix continued, the company will acquire certain voice and audio IPs, as well as an industry leading engineering team. This will extend Goodix's product portfolio in the mobile market and strengthen its strategic deployment in the IoT field, it said.
"The acquisition represents a strategic move in Goodix's growth plan," said company CEO David Zhang. "The transaction will enhance our existing mobile and IoT product lines, significantly strengthen our R&D capabilities in audio applications such as hearables, allowing us to offer our customers a more comprehensive portfolio and accelerate Goodix's strategic development via innovation."


text:
As China Looms, the U.S. Ponders Ways Not to Destroy Bitcoin | Wired Enterprise
Geege Schuman stashed this in Bitcoin
The U.S. government believes that some scary people are using bitcoin. But here’s another scary prospect: If the government goes overboard with a hard-line approach on bitcoin and other emerging digital currencies, it may merely push them overseas, where they will surely flourish outside of its control.
The government is also careful to distinguish between the various types of digital currency. Bitcoins were the default currency of the Silk Road — the online drug-and-mayhem marketplace that federal agents shut down last month — and this is partly what sparked today’s hearings. But bitcoin itself has not been the preferred currency of cyber criminals, according to law enforcement’s top digital currency investigator, the Secret Service’s Edward W. Lowery III.
i am not sure if the article is out yet, but there is someone writing about how Silk Road lowered crime in America. ring a bell Geege?
Silk Road is a peaceful place because it lives online. That alone makes it harder physically to hurt people. Indeed, thanks to technology, Silk Road solved most of the problems that lead to violence, which are a natural consequence of black markets. It’s difficult to rob anyone on Silk Road. You can’t easily commit fraud or reduce the quality of a product. Buyers can’t easily get ripped off, either, as sellers don’t get paid until product arrives. Quality issues are solved by the eBay-like ratings system. And the site replaced the deadly turf wars endemic to meatspace black markets with a mechanism by which sellers compete to deliver the best quality product more quickly and at the lowest price. As Harvard University economics professor Jeff Miron put it to The Daily Beast, Silk Road is “a Consumer Reports for drugs.”
Carnegie Mellon economics professor Nicolas Christin described it thus:
Silk Road doesn’t really sell drugs. It sells insurance and financial products. It doesn’t really matter whether you’re selling T-shirts or cocaine. The business model is to commoditize security.
The most violent thing ever to happen on Silk Road was a cyber attack that put it offline for a week.
So what do we learn from this?
1. Reducing black markets reduces crime.
2. Online black markets are less violent.
3. If the marketplace is transparent, it forces people to be more fair.
More news today, re the senate hearings, re bitcoin:
"I was expecting a good positive response from the law enforcement community ," Murck said. "It was just very heartening to hear it spoken aloud and acknowledged that there are really positive legitimate uses for the currency and that they have the tools in place to interdict illicit activity and keep the bad actors out of the system."
Just yesterday, Andy Greenberg at Forbes reported on the newest - and possibly scariest - use of Bitcoins: crowdfunding murder. "The Assassination Market" as it is known allows user to anonymously pledge money in the form of Bitcoins as a bounty towards the killing of major political actors and has a system in place so that the would-be killer can prove himself and receive the reward.
"When I say that Bitcoin is an experimental system right now, criminals are experimenting too," Murck said of the market. "I think what they'll find as they do very provocative things like that they might be in for a rude surprise down the road, because it seems like law enforcement has the ability to catch up to them."
This was the overwhelming theme of the hearing. All the witnesses understood the potential for virtual currencies such as Bitcoins to attract criminals, but all had confidence that law enforcement had the ability and tools to prevent that from happening.
Crowdfunding murder is fascinating and horrifying. Would make a good movie.


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An update Thursday to Apple's iOS 5 has failed to fix the battery-drain problem afflicting the new iPhone 4S, many owners of the smartphone are complaining on a company support thread.
Almost immediately after the iPhone 4S was released in mid-October, owners began posting messages to an Apple support thread expressing alarm and dismay over how fast their iPhone 4S batteries were draining, even when the device was idle.
Apple, in its typical way, publicly ignored the complaints and growing press coverage for two weeks before acknowledging the problem, blaming it on some bugs in iOS 5, and promising to issue a fix "in a few weeks."
Well, a lot of iPhone 4S owners have downloaded the iOS 5 update to their devices, and many of them report that the fix didn't fix anything.
"Lost 15% in 45 mins and I didn't even use the phone. What happened? This update is no help. In facts, it drains te battery even quicker. Help me Apple! Please. You can even monitor my phone if that helps to solve the problem. Seriously! Help!"
"New update is no help at all.
I opened the safari and lost 2 % just by opening the safari browser...This really *****"
"Is there any way to revert to the previous version. I'm bleeding like a stuck pig.""Looking forward to hearing anything positive. These jokers just put this out to calm the restless? It's gonna get ugly if this thing doesn't pan out."
That last comment, to me, raises an interesting question. As I wrote recently:
Consumers generally cut Apple a lot more slack than Microsoft when it comes to product snafus. In part that's because of each company's respective track records and reputations. The general belief -- and this is backed up by numerous surveys -- is that Apple puts out better products.
But I'd argue that the Apple cult also was fueled by a reverence for and innate trust in co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. To many devoted Apple fans, Jobs was someone who was sincerely interested in product quality and customer satisfaction. Even when Jobs acted like a jerk -- as he did last year when consumers complained about reception problems in the iPhone -- some fanboys would rush to his defense, attributing his petulance and stubbornness to Steve's passion.
Indeed, based on the prolonged emotional reaction to Jobs's death on Oct. 5, not to mention the near-fetishizing of Walter Isaacson's biography of the Apple co-founder, it's clear that Jobs was an icon/hero/visionary/god to much of the Apple faithful.
Well, now the icon is gone, and you have to wonder whether some of Apple's magic aura went with him. Once run by an eccentric, driven and chronically difficult genius, Apple now is headed by an "operations" guy. Even if it continues to produce popular products, the company in the post-Jobs era may be seen as just that -- a company.
But if problems such as the iPhone 4S battery drain persist...well, without Jobs's calming influence over the faithful, it may be a matter of time before things are "gonna get ugly."


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Most airlines offer some kind of inflight shopping although depending on the route and the airline, these products may or may not be duty free. You can usually expect to be able to purchase fragrances, cosmetics, etc from the comfort of your seat. Here’s what information we currently have on China Southern duty free shopping. Be sure to check back on this page frequently as we are constantly updating the information on the website.
About China Southern
|China Southern Airlines
|00 86 400 869 5539
China Southern Airlines (IATA: CZ, ICAO: CSN) is a passenger airline from China.
Founded in 1988, China Southern Airlines (CZ) is the fifth largest airline in the world when measured by the number of passengers carried. It operates from hubs at Guangzhou Baiyun Airport (CAN) and Beijing Capital Airport (PEK). A member of the SkyTeam alliance, China Southern flies to about 190 destinations, the majority of which are domestic. Internationally, it serves about 65 destinations in 35 countries in Asia, Oceania, the Middle East, Europe and North America. In additional to its SkyTeam partner airlines, China Southern also has codeshare agreements with eight other carriers. Its fleet of 509 aircraft feature various configurations depending on the type of plane and route. The airline offers First Class, Business Class, Premium Economy Class and Economy Class seating.
China Southern offers on board duty free shopping – check out this page for more information.
China Southern Airlines operate passenger services out of the following airports
Latest articles about China Southern Airlines Airport
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Qatar Airways has entered into an agreement to purchase an amount of 378,188,000 shares of Cathay Pacific Airways, being approximately 9.61 per cent of the total issued share capital. Completion of the transaction is expected to take place later today in Hong Kong. Qatar Airways group chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “Qatar Airways is […]
Travellers are set to benefit from a new agreement between Qantas and Alibaba Group’s online travel service platform, Fliggy, which will allow customers to book the airline’s flights directly on the site. Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans and Fliggy vice president Jerry Hu have signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a strategic relationship, […]
China Southern Airlines has appointed award-winning agency Rooster PR as its first ever UK public relations agency following successful digital and social media campaigns which saw seasonal bookings double. In its new, extended PR remit, Rooster will promote the airline’s four-star service and lower transfer times to destinations across China, south-east Asia, and Australia & […]
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When a Bulletstorm demo was recently
Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski has noticed too. A 14 January twitter post from the man reads “BULLETSTORM DEMO COMING TO 360/PS3 JANUARY 25th. In other news, PC gamers are grumpy about this.” It’s a cute way to suggest PC fans are taking this a bit too seriously – but they do have cause to be a little miffed.
Back in Epic’s Mark Rein claimed that Bulletstorm would be a title that would “firmly” re-establish the company on the platform. “I think that’s a myth that we’ve abandoned the PC, it’s just not true,” he said. A missing demo certainly wouldn’t constitute the PC being ‘abandoned,’ but it does suggest that the platform is being treated as something of an afterthought.
It’s also worth remembering that Epic Megagames (along with id Software) pioneered the ‘shareware’ approach to software sales in the 1990s. This, essentially, was an early ‘try before you buy’ system and played a major role in catapulting the developers’ games to widespread success.
Bulletstorm may well turn out to be great on the PC. Or it may be just another in a long line of sloppy console ports. The point is, it would be nice if players could find out for themselves with a demo before having to shell out money on the game.
Epic has yet to either confirm or deny that the PC will be receiving a demo at a later date.
Founder and Editor of PC Invasion. Veteran PC gamer of over 22 years.


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Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made an emotional plea for gun reform before his team’s NBA playoff game against the Dallas Mavericks.
Speaking at a pregame press conference in Dallas on Tuesday, Mr. Kerr refused to discuss basketball, instead offering his thoughts on the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 19 students and two adults dead.
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Google’s New Algo Sics Uncle Guido on Your Business
Don’t mess with Google or its users, especially if what you did makes The New York Times news. On November 26, NYTimes.com published a story that highlighted how a bad business could still rank high in Google because a ton of bad reviews elevated the company in a search. But upon further review by Byrne Hobart at Search Engine Land, bad reviews weren’t the culprit at all. Nonetheless, Google quickly took action to create an algorithm that sends Uncle Guido to bust your kneecaps if you make Google look bad are bad to your customers.
OK, OK, so maybe Google did do it for altruistic reasons, I don’t know for sure. In fact, Google’s official blog post on the topic says being bad to your customers is bad for business, inferring actual business practices, not spam, is the issue. Google says addressing “extremely poor user experience” is the target of this new algorithm.
But if the actual culprit of the high rankings for the eyeglass company exposed in The Times was a combination of spammy practices, not bad reviews, why didn’t Google say that?
Maybe the spammy site slipped through the cracks and Google didn’t want to admit it; maybe Google didn’t want to draw attention to the spammy practices the business was conducting; maybe Google decided to be the hero and address The Times’ perspective on the story. In any case, Google worked to fix the problem with its do-no-evil motto as fuel.
The New Algorithm: Dictating How Business is Run?
As usual, Google is fuzzy about the details of its algorithm. Google did give us some clues in its blog on how it addressed the problem of bad business, but not what it considered bad business. Let’s look at some of the things Google said it did not do to fix the problem:
- Block the offenders.
- Use sentiment analysis to identify negative remarks and turn those into negative votes.
- Expose user reviews alongside results (although still on the table, Google says).
And now let’s see what Google said it did do to fix the problem:
Instead, in the last few days we developed an algorithmic solution which detects the merchant from the Times article along with hundreds of other merchants that, in our opinion, provide an extremely poor user experience. The algorithm we incorporated into our search rankings represents an initial solution to this issue, and Google users are now getting a better experience as a result.
Ouch. That led me to wonder if Google’s new algorithm only targeted e-commerce or if it somehow affected local brick-and-mortar businesses. With the reviews that are now viewable alongside local businesses in a SERP via the Google Place Search rollout, will Google now be working harder to clarify the overall rating of the business based on user reviews?
And if so, I wonder what implications the following statement from Google could have on both e-commerce and brick-and mortar business:
We can say with reasonable confidence that being bad to customers is bad for business on Google. And we will continue to work hard towards a better search.
Does this mean that you not only have to please Google with your business practices online, but also offline? I could be off the mark with this one, but if so, seems like it might be crossing the line, just a little. How can algorithms truly assess a business entire worth?
It’s no surprise that Google would dive further into a social-based algorithm. Recently, Bruce has been talking about the idea of social replacing links as the “authority.” We’re beginning to see how much social influence is having on the SERPS (see Bruce talk about this in the video below). In another article today by Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land, he gives insight into an interview he conducted with Google and Bing on what social signals count for ranking.
In typical Google fashion, there are still a lot of questions marks with this new development. The story is sure to unfold in the days to come; in the meantime, what are your predictions? [Before you comment, Michael Gray, yes, this fix seems a little … unevenly applied, so far. –Susan]
8 Replies to “Google’s New Algo Sics Uncle Guido on Your Business”
I agree with your points on the whole, but not with the tone which is kind of anti-Google. These businesses are trying to please Google since they ought to get a benefit from it: traffic. Else why would anyone care.
I think, Google is right in its concealed attitude towards the solution to the problem. This is to ensure that people may not start gaming the system which is anyways so open to flaws. Google too, is relying on third party data for these reviews and it cannot let its secret sauce spill in public.
Hi Ashish, thank you for reading and for your comment! In case you’re not familiar with my writing style, I can sometimes be terse — but I also like to call it like I see it!
Your comment about businesses trying to please Google — are you referring to the same businesses that are trying to spam Google?
I do agree that Google probably took a quieter, more indirect approach to address this problem for several reasons, one of which you mentioned.
Look forward to hearing from you again.
It’s a great move by Google. That bad publicity moron deserves everything he gets!
Nice piece here Jessica…I especially liked the short vid of Bruce discussing some of these points — and wondered more about how we handle same!
Good blog here today….I learned something which is always good, eh!
Hi, Jim! Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. Let us know what questions you have and we’ll try to help.
This is very much true that being bad to customers is bad for your business and its good that Google is taking action against it.


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BEIJING: Chinese consumers will have more access to Malaysian products with the launch of a commodities festival here.
Following this, over 30 categories of goods can be found on the racks of the 7Fresh supermarket chain.
The items are mainly food and beverages, including cookies, chocolate, coffee, snacks, cooking paste and sauces.
There are also cleaning products, skincare and daily necessities to be offered to shoppers.
Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (Matrade) trade commissioner Razida Hanim Abdul Razak said the Malaysia Commodities Festival, which began yesterday, would last for a week.
“It is a part of Matrade’s efforts to explore potential new markets,” she added.
7Fresh, which has 37 outlets throughout China, is a subsidiary of JD.com – one of the two biggest e-commerce platforms in the country.
Razida said China is a lucrative market, especially for food products, with growing demand for imported items by its middle income class.
“These consumers have high purchasing power and are increasingly exposed to international trends.
“Imported food is often considered safer due to concerns with ingredients, safety and sanitary issues,” she said.
Razida also said improvements in storage services and logistic coverage, particularly in the second- and third-tier cities, as well as small towns had provided a new access to the vast market of consumers in the inland areas.
China continues to be Malaysia’s largest trading partner for the 12th consecutive year while Malaysia is China’s ninth largest trading partner globally.
The bilateral trade between the two nations hit US$131.16bil (RM544.84bil) last year, an increase of 5.7% compared to 2019.
Last year, China imported a total of US$3bil (RM12.46bil) in food, refined palm oil and beverages from Malaysia.
As at Aug 31 this year, the figure reached US$1.85bil (RM7.68bil) and the most sought after food items were bird’s nest, seafood, fruits, nuts and cereal-based products.


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This year’s show will feature the biggest sports lineup to-date and a new Gaming Activation Area.
BLE is the largest licensing event in Europe. Organized by UBM, and sponsored by the International Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association, this year’s show will take place Oct. 10-12 at the Olympia in London.
Visitors to this year’s show will be able to take part in the new Gaming Activation Area, which will serve as an interactive space for video game demos and competitions, as well as highlight the potential of gaming at retail, from concept to store.
Sony Interactive Europe, SEGA, Capcom, Activision Blizzard, King and The Pokémon Company are among the global gaming companies that have signed on to exhibit this October.
BLE will also feature an expanded Brands & Lifestyle Theatre Programme, which will include more sessions every day, as well as interactive performances and demonstrations each morning and a revamped Product Showcase.
“We are so excited to be rolling out these new initiatives for visitors to BLE in October,” says Anna Knight, brand director, BLE. “Gaming is a huge untapped market–one we know our visitors will really benefit from discovering. And this year’s educational program is our most comprehensive yet–unmissable for both buyers and manufacturers whether new to, or already familiar with, the power of licensing in business.”
Last year’s BLE was the biggest in the show’s history with more than 280 exhibitors and 7,578 visitors from 76 countries. For 2017, 194 exhibitors have already signed on, including Twentieth Century Fox, BBC Worldwide Consumer Products, CPLG, Endemol Shine U.K., Emoji Company, Hasbro, ITV Studios Global Entertainment, Mattel, NBCUniversal, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, The Pokémon Company, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe, Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Turner Broadcasting, Ty and Victoria and Albert Museum.
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Looking at it from a partner perspective, three words are sufficient to sum up the potential of the Indian digitally disrupted media & entertainment industry: opportunity, opportunity, opportunity
By Amit Singh
The Indian media and entertainment (M&E) industry is a sunrise sector for the economy and is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues. The industry has been largely driven by increasing digitization and higher internet usage over the last decade.
The sector grew 11 percent to $20 billion in FY2016, according to a report by FICCI and Ernst & Young (EY). It is expected to touch $35 billion by FY2021.
The M&E sector is further driven by various government initiatives such as digitizing the cable distribution segment to attract greater institutional funding, increasing FDI limit from 74 percent to 100 percent in cable and DTH satellite platforms, and granting industry status to the film industry for easy access to institutional finance.
As per another study, over FY2016-21, the radio will likely grow at a CAGR of 16.1 percent, while digital advertising will grow at 30.8 percent. The largest segment, India’s television industry, is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14.7 percent, while print media is expected to grow at a CAGR of 7.3 percent.
Ashish Pherwani, Partner, Advisory, Media and Entertainment, EY shares, “The Indian M&E sector is at a digital crossroads today. Every segment of the industry, including print, TV, radio, film, experiential marketing, and OTT, is being impacted by digitization and is showing growth, consolidation, and innovation. It presents an excellent opportunity for companies looking at establishing and expanding their presence in the country, and making the most of the India digital growth story.”
In fact, the next 5 years will see digital technologies increase their influence across the industry leading to a sea change in consumer behavior across all segments.
Digital disrupts M&E
Digital transformation has already disrupted the M&E sector, and consumers are driving the change. And while more than ever before, people are willing to pay for digital content, their expectations are high. Just having good content is no longer enough: It has to be personalized, accessible anywhere and anytime – while being fully integrated into other digital experiences.
Music segment was the first segment to be disrupted by digital revolution in the M&E sector, with consumers moving toward streaming and multiple consumption models.
“Cheap 4G handsets and falling data prices led to a surge in data consumption on mobile devices in 2017, resulting in high user acquisitions for digital media and entertainment startups including video-streaming platforms and music-streaming apps. In fact, OTT (over-the-top) players like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and Hotstar will only get bigger,” says Jehil Thakkar, Partner, Deloitte India.
Moreover, analysts and entrepreneurs attribute the spurt in users across digital platforms to the entry of Reliance Jio, which disrupted the telecom industry with cheaper access to high-speed data and forced other telecom companies to follow suit with similar offers.
“In addition, the rise of Hulu and Netflix has left many to cut the cord with traditional cable companies. Instead, users are going online to find just the content they want, be it YouTube videos, or original series on Netflix, Hulu, and even Amazon—and cable companies are replacing traditional offerings with smaller bundles and specialty packages,” says Ankit Garg, COO, Powerupcloud Technologies.
Further, with the increasing popularity of HD and UHD content, television organizations are investing heavily in state-of-the-art production facilities. Moreover, the digitization of content, the spread of the Internet, and mobile device proliferation for accessing content are necessitating robust IT infrastructure.
Adds Neel Shah, Director, Insight Business Machine, “Almost all channels have already gone HD, which requires content companies to upgrade their infrastructure. The need for high-performance computing and storage has also increased due to the increasing proliferation of live TV apps. This has led to channels overhauling their core networks from 10G to 40G, and many players have even upgraded to 100G.”
Cloud works wonders
Cloud is helping startups as well as established M&E players manage industry disruptions. It is enabling them to reinvent their business models, fuelling massive improvements in the delivery of high-quality digital content, and providing ample resources to collect, store and process big data to help segment and target the market better.
In fact, M&E companies that were early adopters of cloud computing are also the ones with major viewership and market share presently. Netflix, for instance, was 100 percent on the cloud in early 2012 and is among the largest customers of AWS. 20th Century Fox is another example: the media giant partnered with HP to make its supply chain cloud-enabled and migrated traditional IT infrastructure and computing to cloud platforms.
According to Frost & Sullivan, cloud solutions are offering an attractive solution to manage the explosion of digital media and consumer devices, as well as the spurt in video consumption.
“In the M&E sector, the user load is highly unpredictable. It may increase 50-100 times when a big story breaks online. To tackle these cases, the cloud offers a cost-effective and convenient solution, since it does not require any upfront investment and can be paid for according to usage or through a monthly/yearly subscription,” states Pronam Chatterjee, Founder and CEO, Blue Pi Consulting. “The constant pressure to decrease IT budgets and invest resources in generating high-quality, creative content instead is driving media companies to adopt cloud solutions.”
The company has prominent media companies like ABP News as customers. BluePi has made ABP News server-less over the last three years and has seen the cost of operations going down with increasing viewership. “When we moved ABP to AWS, the primary reasons were reliability and agility. The robustness of the solution has enabled to shrink the time required to make changes in the site design and framework,” adds Chatterjee.
Further, the cloud is enabling M&E sector incumbents to compete with agile OTT competitors. “The cloud solutions enable them with the ability to collect, store and conduct analytics on vast amounts of data, generating insights to drive personalization, service development, customer experience and one-to-one relationships. In fact, integration of Microsoft Kaizala with Azure offers an excellent example to drive operational excellence and viewer engagement powered by the cloud,” explains Garg of Powerupcloud.
Although North America is presently the biggest market for M&E solutions on the cloud, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to open up the most opportunities for solution providers over the next five years, as per Frost & Sullivan. According to the analyst firm, the cloud market for M&E sector will grow nearly nine-fold by 2020.
AI to be the next big thing
With videos, images, and audio playing a big role in the Internet space, market experts see a significant impact from artificial intelligence (AI)/ machine learning (ML) technologies.
AI is helping creators to match content more effectively with audiences. Algorithms based on neural networks learn and classify a user’s preferences—from movies streamed on Netflix, music listened to on Saavn or products purchased on Amazon. Providers can then recommend content tailored to a specific user.
AI aids production itself by performing tasks that are too difficult for humans. In advertising, it is being used to contextualize social-media conversations to understand how consumers feel about products and to detect fraudulent ad impressions. “Services such as Amper or Jukedeck compose music with AI, enabling small-scale creators to use high-quality music for their podcasts, videos, and games at low cost. Automated mastering software such as Landr provides near-studio-quality processing and rendering for between $50 and $300 a year,” says Pawan Khurana, CEO, QuantM Net Technologies.
In addition, AI that generates text is used by few publishers to expand the range of offerings. The Associated Press has used AI to free up around 20 percent of reporters’ time while increasing output tenfold. The Washington Post developed its own tool, Heliograf, to cover sports and political news. In its first year, it generated about 70 articles a month, mostly stories it would not have dedicated staff.
In India, however, AI in M&E sector is at a nascent stage with only a few of the large enterprises running pilot projects. “While most of the M&E organizations are leveraging BI and analytics to capture market intelligence, the next stage of transformation will definitely include AI technologies in a big way,” shares Khurana of QuantM.
DAM gets smart
Digital asset management (DAM) systems ideally help organizations track material in their archives and locate content throughout a facility. In recent times, as the magnitude of media files have increased and there was a need for sophisticated archiving, broadcasters demanded applications that enabled management, authoring, and editing, deep indexing, meta tagging, retrieving, annotation and display, and repurposing of digital media assets. All this has resulted in an increasing demand for smart DAM solutions.
“In addition, over the last few years, India has reaffirmed its position as an efficient and high-quality outsourcing destination which led to corresponding growth for the animation, VFX and post-production business. This has, in turn, increased the necessity of an efficient DAM solution,” says Manish Tandon, MD, Questa Software.
In fact, solution providers are offering innovative solutions to streamline asset management with analytics, scalable website and push notification capabilities. The Gurugram-based cloud solutions provider, BluePi Consulting, has developed an innovative solution, PiStats, which incorporates DAM with the analytics engine. “The analytics engine on top of the DAM solution enables to capture and analyze demographic and behavioral data of the users. This enables us to present the content in a personalized manner as per the historical analysis of the user behavior and preferences,” explains Chatterjee of BluePi.
Further, AWS recently announced a new class of apps that exhibit human-like intelligence, including Amazon Rekognition Video, a deep learning powered video analysis service that tracks people, detects activities, and recognizes objects, celebrities, and inappropriate content.
The media and entertainment industry generates a huge volume of videos that are stored in different digital asset management solutions. Amazon Rekognition Video tags and marks the video by scene, by actors, by location, even facial expressions, and so on.
Additionally, online business management in M&E is a big opportunity as media houses and online entertainment companies have a large focus on the customer experience to drive traffic to their websites and generate revenue through online ads and paid content.
Notes Khurana of QuantM, “Companies like Book My Show and PVR Cinemas spend heavily on their online business and DAM; purchases include server, storage, payment gateway, SEO as well as BI tools. An online business set-up project may cost about Rs 55-70 lakh.”
Security becomes a priority
M&E sector has been on the receiving end of a slew of cyber attacks, which has resulted in the theft of proprietary information, including some upcoming programs. Recently, unreleased episodes of HBO’s most premium property, Game of Thrones, were leaked online.
A recent report found that 28 percent of media organizations admit to having experienced a cyber attack of some type or another.
Hence, media houses are taking the information security seriously, which has translated into a great opportunity for security solution providers for solutions including DLP and information rights management (IRM).
“Publishing houses and channels are serious about availability solutions to keep their websites up and running. In-house they are using DLP and IRM solutions to restrict access to confidential information,” explains Vishal Bindra, CEO, ACPL Systems.
He added that ethics and professionalism at the lower ranks is a concern. “This seems to be more of a people problem rather than a technology problem. In a lot of leaks, cyber threats exploit insiders. They give in because of greed, or do not follow the process, or are targeted for their access,” he said. “In the majority of cases, employees were the weak link.”
Industry size: $20 billion
Growth prospects: To reach $35 billion by FY2021
Industry data: 7000+ media companies
IT spend: 0.5-1.2 percent of annual revenue
Opportunities: BI and analytics, mobility solutions, app development, digital asset management, high-performance computing, storage, networking, archival, backup and retrieval, post production applications, information security, video conferencing, web solutions


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LG Chem will be the sole supplier of batteries for Apple’s iPhone 9
With production underway early next year, Korean company LG Chem has recently been reported as becoming the exclusive supplier of the batteries which will be utilised within Apple’s iPhone 9, set for release in 2018.
The result of the news has seen LG shares to rise by 3.7%
To ensure it will deliver, LG has therefore invested over $100 billion of Korean won to build the facilities needed to enable the ability for mass production, at which the deal will boost the company’s revenue significantly.
The new batteries will be L-shaped, giving Apple the ability to not compromise on the size of the phones, nor the battery life, whilst packing them with the latest technological features.
The move also highlights Apple’s intention to develop new and existing partnerships. The company previous received parts from Murata Manufacturing, amongst others.
The move is unusual, considering that Apple normally utilises multiple suppliers for its products, in order to safeguard its manufacturing operations and deliver of its products.


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>> The bottom continues to drop out from under the nation's biggest department store. Macy's announcing late Wednesday that 10,000 jobs are on the chopping block. Even though the number one US department store has been praised for its efforts to sperse sales by investing in e-commerce and mobile shopping that still wasn't enough to make up for the loss of actual in-store traffic during the crucial holiday shopping season.
And it expects that trend to get only worse as Amazon.com takes a bigger share of consumer dollars. The success of discount retailers like TJ Maxx and Marshalls also significantly dimming Macy's future. So Macy's is expanding the number of planned store closes to nearly 100, with the bulk of that coming early this year.
And it's not just store employees losing their jobs, Macy's is slimming down back room operations as well hoping that a smaller Macy's will be able to stay alive in a drastically changing retail world. Macy's stock tumbling 10% on the news, dragging other department store shares lower as well.


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Jasper, a global Internet of Things (IoT) platform leader, announced today it has partnered with Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and the world’s No. 1 CRM company, to enable enterprises to lower the cost, reduce time-to-market and enable global scale for their IoT deployments.
Jasper’s IoT Platform, which integrates with Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform, will empower enterprises to leverage IoT to transform from product businesses to service businesses, enabling them to provide greater value to customers while introducing new revenue streams.
“The growth of IoT worldwide has left many enterprises struggling to figure out how to successfully roll out IoT services on a global scale,” said Jahangir Mohammed, CEO of Jasper.
“The combination of Jasper’s and Salesforce’s two powerful cloud-based solutions will merge real-time data from both platforms and provide enterprises with a singular view of their IoT services – and the impact those services have on their customers – worldwide.”
“Jasper is the global standard when it comes to IoT platforms, and this alliance provides our customers with a solution for deploying and managing IoT services,” said Andy Baer, SVP Global Communications and Media Industry Group at Salesforce. “This also provides Salesforce customers the ability to quickly and cost-effectively scale their IoT services worldwide through Jasper’s global mobile operator partners.”
The combination of Jasper’s IoT Platform and Salesforce’s Customer Success Platform will provide enterprises worldwide with the following advantages:
- Faster Time-to-Market – Through deep integration, Salesforce customers will be able to launch, manage and monetize IoT services with Jasper’s platform, resulting in faster time to market.
- Automated Business Processes – This partnership combines the IoT Big Data found across both the Salesforce and Jasper platforms, enabling enterprises to leverage real-time insights to automate key business processes. Enterprises benefit from more informed sales and marketing strategies based on actionable product and customer data.
- Simplified Transition from Product to Service Businesses – Jasper’s IoT platform enables Salesforce customers to easily transform from companies that sell static products to companies that offer dynamic services. By becoming an IoT service business, enterprises can increase value for their customers while uncovering new, recurring sources of revenue.
The Jasper solution, integrated with the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, is available immediately for all customers globally.


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Marking the culmination of a shared marketing agreement between Cape Town and New York City, Enver Duminy, CEO of Cape Town Tourism and Alderman James Vos, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Opportunities and Asset Management, including Tourism, visited Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) to oversee a campaign installation promoting a partnership between Cape Town and New York City.
The co-marketing agreement between the two global tourism giants is spearheaded by their respective destination marketing organisations, Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company. The agreement has seen the organisations pool their resources to market each other. In New York, Cape Town’s many attractions have appeared on bus shelters and kiosks across New York’s five boroughs, introducing US locals to what the Mother City has to offer.
Similarly, Cape Town Tourism has highlighted the Big Apple to Capetonians and visitors to Cape Town audiences through its mobile Information Centres, branding on 20 MyCiti busses, various billboards in the Cape Town CBD, and extensive branding at the International Arrivals area at CTIA.
The partnership received an extra boost by the recent announcement of a direct flight between Cape Town and New York that will begin later this year.
“When we began discussions about this partnership three years ago, our objective was to increase the demand for travel between our cities with the ultimate goal of a direct flight between Cape Town and New York City. We would like to acknowledge and thank Alderman Vos and Deon Cloete for their support in getting New York branding on MyCiti Buses, billboards and at Cape Town International Airport, as part of the media exchange program,” Duminy said.
“In addition to marketing Cape Town as a tourism destination to the millions of New Yorkers and the millions more who visit the Big Apple, the partnership between Cape Town Tourism & NYC Company has been integral to providing much-welcomed access to the North American market. The route will assist in attracting foreign direct investment into Cape Town. What cannot be downplayed is that this will be a catalyst for economic growth in the city,” Vos added. “We are gearing up for an additional 24 000 inbound passengers expected from the new direct route from New York, and this will grow travellers from the United States by 20%. United Air will service the new non-stop route between Cape Town and North America. During First year impact alone is estimated to create 900 jobs. Which will also contribute to an R421 million boost in tourism spend by 2021.”
During the visit, Deon Cloete, Cape Town International Airport’s General Manager, also briefed Vos and Duminy on the progress of the R7-billion upgrades being made to CTIA. Part of that upgrade includes developing the airport to take on new direct international flights connecting Africa to the world. Once completed, the new CTIA runway will have the capacity to handle 45 flights per hour.
“We are committed to delivering a quality service and ensuring that the passenger experience at the airport is always hassle-free. We recognise that we are a part of an award-winning value chain within the city and that we play a very serious role as a key touch point in Cape Town,” Cloete said.
Shaving four hours off current travel times, the first direct flight from New York is scheduled to arrive in Cape Town on 16 December, with three flights planned weekly over the tourism high season in Cape Town.
“The launch of this route by United Airlines is proof of the importance of this partnership between Cape Town Tourism and NYC & Company. Later this month we will be hosting a delegation from New York as we extend the partnership for another two years. With the aims of the initial partnership achieved, we look forward to announcing what we look to achieve during the next phase of this partnership,” Duminy said.


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Radisson Hotel Group has announced significant expansion plans for Australasia, with a newly expanded brand portfolio
Panarams Hotel Tashkent, a member of Radisson Individuals, has opened in the capital of Uzbekistan, marking the brand’s debut in Central Asia.
Radisson Hotel Group accelerates its development targets in Turkey to reach over 50 hotels by the end of 2023
In 2022, the Group plans to grow its presence in the country with 10 additional hotels and to introduce two new brands, Radisson Individuals and Radisson RED, to the Turkish market.
The five new hotel signings in Q1 2022 span the continent from Ethiopia and Senegal to Tunisia and Ghana and stretch across the Group’s brand portfolio from the fast-growing upscale Radisson brand to the Group’s newest conversion brand, Radisson Individuals.
Radisson Individuals debuts in Egypt with the opening of Marina Resort Port Ghalib, a member of Radisson Individuals
This brings the Group’s portfolio in Egypt to 8 hotels in operation and under development and the first Radisson Individuals in Africa.
Eight hotels have already opened their doors as Radisson Individuals in Colombia and Panama and there are advanced negotiations to sign additional properties in the Caribbean and Latin America with Faranda Hotels.


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So you love mango chow!
Well, the “world’s first Chowfest” will be held this summer in a city where mangoes does not grow but are eaten in large quantities.
That city is Toronto where crates of the fruit are imported from the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia to meet the demand of immigrant communities.
Trinidad-born Roodney Clarke, one of the organizers of what he calls ” the world’s first Chowfest, ” say the annual event started a few years ago “at backyard barbecues” and then moved to a Brampton bar in 2016 for the first official Chow competition.
For the uninitiated, mango chow is a kind of fruit salad.
As Clarke noted, food in general can be referred to as chow but for natives of Trinidad and Tobago, chow has a special meaning “when referring to mango.”
According to the Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad and Tobago, this type of chow is “pomsitay[golden apple] or green mango prepared with pepper, salt, lime juice or vinegar and usually eaten as a snack or accompaniment to a meal.”
Asked about his claim of having the “world’s first Chowfest,”Clarke said that so far it (the claim) has gone unchallenged.
“Unless some other group can prove that our claim is incorrect, we will continue to call our event ” the world’s first Chowfest.”
This year the third annual Chowfest will be held at Eclectic Lounge, 2 Steinway Blvd. in Etobicoke on August 25.
A trophy will be presented to the adjudged winner of the best prepared chow.


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After a nine-month pilot with several housing providers, Allpay has launched a new pay-as-you-go mobile service, Allpay Mobile, so that tenants can save towards their rent by topping up via their mobile phones.
The payment specialist teamed up with ET Telecomm for the scheme, which offers tenants call rates below major UK operators’ rates and a 10 per cent loyalty bonus towards their rent account for every top-up. This means that if a user tops up £10, they get the full £10 worth of phone credit and a further £1 off their rent account. Furthermore, all members of a household can have their 10 per cent loyalty bonus added to the same rent account.
In order to encourage take-up, tenants can keep their existing handsets and numbers and simply sign up online once their housing provider or local authority has signed up for the scheme. They can then top up in cash on the high street or by phone or online, and manage their account themselves.
Tony Killeen, managing director, Allpay, said, “Through Allpay Mobile, tenants can boost their rent accounts without changing their behaviour, meaning they have less money to find for their rent and their landlord has less rent to collect.
“The scheme is very complementary to the services Allpay already provides. Not only do we now provide the widest range of ways for tenants to pay their bills, but a way for them to save towards them too.”


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Apple announced a range of streaming, news & gaming subscription services at a San Francisco event on March 25. Despite significant hype for the event from Apple, fewer than expected details were revealed, even for the U.S. market.
Here is a summary of the new services and what we can expect to see in Australia:
A subscription service including, "exclusive Original Shows, Movies and Documentaries". Apple is boasting new, exclusive content from, "Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, J.J. Abrams, Jason Momoa, M. Night Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu and more".
No pricing or release date details were revealed for Australia other than it will be available, "later in the year".
Apple TV Channels
Third-party streaming services will be able to be subscribed to and watched within Apple's TV app. Making the TV app a hub for services, rather than having to jump between apps.
Apple TV Channels will be within the TV app on iOS & Apple TV devices, and third-party televisions, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
Channels will be available from May in "over 100 countries", which presumably includes Australia. Specific channels & pricing for Australia was not released.
A subscription service for news & magazines. Up to 300 publications included, notably Vogue, National Geographic Magazine, People, ELLE, The Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times. Apple showed off the detailed design of the new service, which can be previewed here (Apple U.S.).
No Australian publications were revealed and the service won't be available in Australia until, "later in the year".
No Australian pricing revealed, but the service is $9.99/month in the U.S. (approx. AU$15.50 inc GST). A single subscription can be shared with up to six family members through Family Sharing.
A subscription service for gaming. Over 100 "new and exclusive" games will be accessible on iOS, tvOS & macOS devices.
Apple Arcade will exist within the existing App Store and, "will launch in (Australian) spring 2019 in more than 150 countries from a new tab on the App Store across iOS, macOS and tvOS."
No pricing was detailed but an Apple statement said, the games will " (be) all-you-can-play, have no ads, ad tracking or additional purchases, and respect user privacy".
Before you get too interested, the Apple Card is not coming to Australia.
Apple Card is an Apple-branded credit card backed by Goldman Sachs and MasterCard. Available from May, only in the U.S. More details on 9to5Mac.
Several of the services will be available starting in May for the U.S. market. Hopefully we will potentially discover further details for Australia as they launch in the U.S., but this is purely speculation.
Otherwise, the next time we can expect significant news updates from Apple will be their Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) starting June 4 (AEST time).


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IPV provides venture capital and business support for early stage telecommunications, information technology, and electronic commerce companies with the potentials to generate rapid growth revenue, profitability, and shareholder value. (delete previous sentence)We invest in companies who can cause an inflection point in demand- who can introduce new, high value-added products and services, upset the status quo, and capture market leadership.
In The News
July 26, 2017
Innovation Delaware Company to Watch: Prelude Therapeutics from a textbook or a lesson plan. “Discovery is an art,” Vaddi says. “It’s not something that’s taught.” As Vaddi’s latest business venture, Prelude Therapeutics, finds its way forward, he hopes to be …
February 22, 2017
The Delaware Small Business Development Center has prevented about 600 former DuPont workers from leaving Delaware to pursue jobs in other states, said J. Michael Bowman, the organization’s director. Bowman made the remarks Tuesday afternoon at a hearing before the …


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The countdown is officially over… it’s time to celebrate National Eyewear Day! All over social media today the hashtag #NationalEyewearDay will be used by eyecare professionals and eyewear enthusiasts alike – join in on the fun by posting pics of yourself in your favorite pair of frames!
How to participate: Celebrate National Eyewear Day with us by sharing a photo on social media of you in your favorite frame and let us know how they make you feel! Some examples: My frames make me feel… Beautiful. Sophisticated. Unique. Fun. Like a star! We want to see your goofy selfies on Instagram and your big smiles on Facebook – so join Zyloware today, June 6th, for a day of frame pride and share the fun with friends and family!
Use these hashtags: #NationalEyewearDay #Spectacular #EyewearSelfies #FramePride #ZylowareEyewear #WeAreZyloware
ENTER TO WIN AN AMAZON ECHO DOT!
Enter to win an Amazon Echo Dot on Zyloware’s Facebook Page and be sure to stay tuned for more exciting promotions announced all day long on Zyloware’s social media outlets!
Check out the We Are Zyloware team!
HISTORY: National Eyewear Day was submitted by Zyloware Eyewear in 2015 and approved by the Registrar at National Day Calendar. The campaign was created with the purpose of celebrating the importance of proper eye care as well as honoring the founding father of Zyloware on his birthday, Jospeh Shyer. Each year on June 6th, Zyloware promotes new tips, tools and philanthropic initiatives to bring awareness to the fore front. Zyloware Eyewear was founded in 1923 by Joseph Shyer. Zyloware Eyewear has been family-owned and operated for 94 years and prides itself on quality, service and customer satisfaction.


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Seven short months after announcing it earned more than $100 million in a profitable 2009, Hulu announced today that it plans to more than double that number in 2010. Speaking at the NewTeeVee conference in San Francisco, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar revealed that his company will bring in an estimated $240 million this year from its 30 million-strong user base.
Kilar also revealed some other impressive numbers for the surging streaming video site:
- 260 million content streams
- 800 million ad streams
- 235 content partners
- 352 ad clients
How much bigger will Hulu get over the coming months, Insiders? Especially if it cuts the price of its Hulu Plus premium service, as it is rumored to be considering?


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Pakistan’s exports to the seven regional countries showed an increase of 16.97 percent during the twelve months of the financial year (2021-22), against the corresponding period a year ago.
The country’s exports to seven regional countries comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives recorded a small amount of $4591.998 million, making 14.15 percent of Pakistan’s total exports of $32450.087 million during July-June (2021-22), according to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP).
As per the data, China tops the list of countries with regard to Pakistan’s exports to its neighboring countries, leaving behind other nations like Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Pakistan’s exports to China recorded a growth of 36.08 percent to $2781.480 million against $2043.887 million a year ago while exports to Bangladesh also rose by 41.28 percent to $870.604 million from $616.702 million.
However, the country’s export to Afghanistan declined by 43.81 percent to $552.518 million during the time under review from $983.314 million while exports to India also showed a decrease of 44.47 percent to $1.292 million from $2.327.
Likewise, exports to Sri Lanka increased by 38.72 percent to $373.412 million against $269.168 million last year while exports to Nepal also showed an increase of 26.20 percent to $5.775 million from $4.576 million. Besides, Pakistan’s exports to the Maldives also surged by 14.29 percent to $6.917 million from $6.052 million, the SBP data revealed.
In contrast, the imports from seven regional countries were registered at $17813.680 million during the period under review against $13830.768 million during last year, an increase of 28.79 percent.
The imports from China during July-June 2021-22 were reported at $17296.838 million compared to the $13301.183 million in July-June 2020-21, an increase of 30.03 percent during the period. Among the other countries, imports from India remained at $187.663 million compared to the imports of $187.785 million, showing a decrease of 0.06 percent, whereas imports from Afghanistan also showed a decreasing trend of 17.84 percent from $179.228 million to $147.249 million.
The SBP further revealed that imports from Sri Lanka saw a 3.96 percent decrease from $85.102 million to $81.728 million while Pakistani imports from Bangladesh were noted at $97.500 million against $76.134 million during last year.
Similarly, the imports from Nepal showed an increase of 12.62 percent from $1.244 million to $1.3001 million, it said.


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Can a mid-range Android handset possibly be the fastest smartphone in existence? Yes, apparently, but there's a catch. Introduced back in February during MWC, the Huawei Ascend P2 is marketed as the fastest LTE phone money can buy, with its support for 150Mbps peak download speeds. That is not the first thing that comes to mind when one picks up ... Читать дальше
Обзор. Phone Arena, автор: Nick T.


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It's been a good year for moms, apparently: Canadians plan to spend more on gifts for Mother's Day this year than they did last year, according to a poll conducted for the Bank of Montreal.
Canadians will spend an average of $107, compared to a mere $84 last year, the BMO-Pollara poll found.
While not considered a leading economic indicator, the large jump in Mother's Day spending intentions will come as good news to florists, greeting card manufacturers and the Keg restaurant chain.
According to the poll, 68 per cent of respondents are planning to give their mom a gift this year. That is down from 73 per cent in last year's BMO Mother's Day survey, a difference that could be accounted for by the poll's margin of error, should your mother ask.
As well this year, 47 per cent of Canadians plan to buy their mom a card, 45 per cent will throw in flowers, and 38 per cent will take her out to a restaurant once she gets home from work and gets the kids in bed.
The most generous children are in Alberta ($120) and Ontario ($122), in terms of average dollars spent. Typically, men are planning to spend more than women on their mothers ($119 versus $96), a disparity that can be traced to that time your idiot younger brother got to stay out all night at age 16 after you had to wait until you were 18.
The BMO Mother's Day Survey was conducted by Pollara. Survey results cited are from online interviews with a random sample of 1,000 Canadians 18 years of age and over, conducted between April 25 and April 29, 2013. As a guideline, a probability sample of this size would yield results accurate to plus/minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Data has been weighted by region, gender, and age, based on the most recent Census figures, so that it is representative of all adult Canadians.


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Even as Indians are doing great business, senior fellows at Harvard – Mark R Kramer and Michael E Portar – feel there is still something amiss, something which companies here and world over are failing to recognize that can ultimately prove to become a major threat to their so-called sustainable business models.
“It’s the need for Creating Shared Value (CSV),” Mark Kramer said at ‘Shared Value Summit 2015’ in Gurgaon’s Leela hotel on Friday. CSV is an approach that takes into account social problems which intersect with businesses and makes it a major part of the core business strategy of a company. This becomes increasingly important for countries like India by virtue of the fact that society here is ridden by several social issues like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment etc which need to be addressed.
“You cannot have a successful business in a failing society. We are very used to thinking business as being the enemy, as something that takes away from the society but for them to succeed, society must also succeed. Companies can play a big role in this regard as they have tremendous tools to solve social problems like knowledge, technology, technical know-how, access to global markets, training and skill-set,” he says, adding this is the way forward to see a growing and evolving India.
In 2011 Harvard Review article “Creating Shared Value”, Porter and Kramer defined their understanding of the new approach as finding the synergy or overlap between a successful business and a successful society. The article points at 3 different ways of doing it: reconceive products or markets, redefine productivity in value chain or strengthen clusters.
He says, for the CSV model to become a part of corporate hygiene anywhere needs major mindset change where “we embrace a problem solving approach that goes beyond thinking what we can do in our company alone to also what we can do for society that we operate in.” Note this – societies that we operate in. This means there is no universal CSV formula. Shared value concept changes from region to region, country to country and so on. It depends on the industries that are strongest, on social issues that are unique in a particular region, the culture there and the role of government.
“We are finding around the world that shared value is being initiated so that local businesses can learn from each other on how to create this model around the specific opportunities and issues that are unique to their region,” says Kramer.
Also, he adds, that the entire point of this approach is defeated if it is merely included as a peripheral agenda like the CSR. It’s important to understand that CSV does not replace CSR or Philanthropy, but can be in addition to them, such that businesses can find new opportunities for competitive advantage by beginning to think about these social issues as part of their overall corporate strategy.
With several global companies like Nestle and Novartis adopting the CSV approach, Kramer points at reasons why this concept is extremely important for India. “It is because the country is an area of tremendous innovation where companies are increasingly finding business models that are more inclusive, and so for them to understand the relevance of bringing low income population to their ambit and serving their needs to curb social issues is key to the success of India’s future.”
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Fiat will be introducing the Jeep brand this year in India beginning with the Grand Cherokee 2015 model. But to enhance its Indian manufacturing capabilities, Fiat Chrysler will be manufacturing the Renegade and another SUV in India.
Tata Motors is working towards adding two new SUVs to its current range of SUVs, the Q501 and Q502. One of them will be powered by the 1.5-litre Fiat engine, which will be shared with Jeep's Renegade. Both these SUVs won't just be sold in India, but will also be exported to other markets to bring down the cost and achieve numbers for the plant.
Jeep has already registered the Renegade brand name in India and it has begun talks with vendors too. Each of the brands is targeting to manufacture about 50,000 annual units for their new SUV. Fiat will be introducing another smaller SUV too under the Jeep brand, and this will be a B-segment SUV, which will compete with the Ford Ecosport.
The Renegade will be powered by a 1.5-litre multijet engine, which is the new engine Fiat is working on. As diesel engines up to 1.5-litre capacity available the excise benefit, Fiat is tweaking its existing 1.6-litre multijet for Indian market, reducing its capacity by 100cc.
All the four new SUVs from both the brands will make their first appearance in 2017 and the second SUV from each should be made available in 2018. This year, Tata Motors has already introduced the Bolt. The other launches include the Safari Storme facelift and one of the Kite models (mostly the sedan) should be made available around the festive season.
Source : MotorOctane