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Attention-to-detail skills have become an even more prominent part of a job description for a merchant acquirer or independent sales organization dealing with the most recent demands of a complex payments industry.
It seems the list of tasks screaming for attention has grown dramatically in the past couple of years.
First, the Internal Revenue Service established requirements for reporting merchant credit card sales and merchant classification codes for the 2011 tax year, and acquirers must supply an accurate tax identification number for each business in their database.
The major card brands also expect intensive monitoring of online merchants for potentially fraudulent and other illegal product sales. By carefully scrutinizing their merchants' websites, acquirers possibly could avoid fines from the card brands when merchants sell illegal goods or a Federal Trade Commission hearing prompted by a disgruntled consumer sold a replica of an advertised item believed to be authentic.
Moreover, the card brands want third-party vendors such as website hosts or online shopping cart providers registered in their databases as being PCI-compliant. ISOs must identify and register those vendors to make it more difficult for cyber attacks that could put the card data of hundreds of customers from different businesses in jeopardy.
No wonder security experts and other consultants say they are working with many frustrated and concerned ISOs and acquirers.
Indeed, clients are "jumping through hoops and going nuts" because of all of the new due diligence, says the acquiring consultant Paul Martaus of Martaus & Associates of Mountain Home, Ark.
"ISOs are stuck in the middle of this very convoluted industry," Martaus says. "I've heard it said that this is the most complex simple business on earth."
The IRS requirements make it seem as though the agency believes billions in unreported taxes stem from credit card transactions, Martaus says.
"If I were a retailer and someone said 'Next year the IRS wants to take your credit card volume and calculate it for tax purposes,' I'd probably stop taking credit card payments," Martaus says.
The IRS now requires banks and merchant service providers to report the annual gross credit and debit card payments they process for their merchants. Acquirers would not have to report to the IRS if a merchant does not exceed 200 transactions or $20,000 in payments annually.
The agency announced in October that it would not penalize acquirers working in "good faith" to comply if the IRS finds mistakes in documents related to tax identification numbers or in the placement of transaction amounts under the appropriate merchant classification codes. However, tax experts say that does not mean acquirers get a free pass on the regulations this year.
There is "a lot of anxiety" in the industry regarding the IRS regulations, says Brian Riley, senior research director and analyst with TowerGroup. ISOs view the 1099-K form submission deadline in January as a difficult task, he says. As part of the new code, acquirers must submit the form annually to report their merchant transaction data.
Acquirers and ISOs will work hard to determine the best way to handle all of the new tasks, but some will seek loopholes around the transaction thresholds, Riley says.
"I could see an ISO possibly changing a processor every quarter so as to stay at $19,999 or lower," Riley says.
Gathering accurate tax identification numbers for each business creates headaches for acquirers because some merchants have different ones for different aspects of their business, especially when a U.S. company is operating in foreign markets, he says.
As if facing the task of meeting new IRS rules is not enough to keep acquirers busy, they also face hearings with the FTC or fines from the card brands if an ISO they work with is unaware how their online merchants are conducting business.
"The whole Internet space is incredibly scary, with organized crime seeking the brightest technology professors and students to hack into credit card databases," Martaus says.
ISOs and acquirers who specialize in working with online merchants are aware of fraud tendencies and know whom to trust, he says.
"It's the dabblers [with online merchants as clients] who get in trouble and don't know what they are doing," Martaus says.
Robert Caldwell, founding partner of G2 Web Services, a Bellevue, Wash., merchant compliance monitoring and e-commerce risk management provider, talked in a panel discussion at an Oct. 27 Electronic Transactions Association compliance day event in Chicago of a new portal-based reporting system to help acquirers expose fraudulent merchants.
The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition, a Washington nonprofit organization, helped the major card brands establish the system for acquirers to report intellectual property rights violations and to attempt to stop "rogue websites" from selling counterfeit goods online, Caldwell said in an interview.
After confirming the data, the coalition would pass the information on to the card brand, which would identify the merchant and website and direct the acquirer to take action, Caldwell says.
"This doesn't establish new rules per se, but it is a better process," Caldwell says.
The process does not alleviate the acquirer from having to monitor an online merchant's website, but it provides "clear support" for the acquirer when going to the merchant to terminate its business, he says.


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Email marketing software provider Campaign Monitor has today unveiled CM Commerce, a new product offering built from the popular ecommerce platform, Conversio.
This new product offering is designed for retail businesses interested in accelerating their growth through the use of advanced email marketing, including customers such as Cafe Joe and Pastreez.
CM Commerce helps these companies overcome the specific ecommerce challenges faced in their growth process by giving them the ability to easily create professional, automated email campaigns that streamline engagement throughout the customer lifecycle, increase conversions and build trustworthy brands.
“Conversio is one of the most highly rated and highly reviewed applications in the Shopify store,” said CM Group CEO Wellford Dillard.
“Bringing them into the CM Group portfolio as CM Commerce is another step towards our strategy of having an ideal solution for every marketer and organisation.
“With this acquisition, we now have an offering for ecommerce businesses at each stage of their growth journey, beginning with CM Commerce and continuing with Sailthru as they expand their business and increase in sophistication.”
With CM Commerce’s deep integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce and Big Commerce, small business owners can easily integrate their storefronts with the platform to begin utilising features such as abandoned cart emails, post-purchase surveys, and product reviews.
Additionally, the platform guides users through every step in campaign development with pre-built workflows for a wide range of email marketing tactics from simple to advanced. CM Commerce also offers users the ability to track key ecommerce metrics like conversion performance, list growth, and average order value.
“Small business owners, especially those who rely on ecommerce to drive sales, are often boot-strapping their businesses. They typically don’t have access to expert marketing resources. CM Commerce is here to change that,” said CM Group chief product officer Cody Bender.
“We set out to make it as easy as possible for ecommerce businesses to get started with email marketing. Between the turnkey integrations we offer with the most popular ecommerce platforms and a library of ecommerce-focused pre-built campaigns, businesses can start sending email campaigns almost immediately.”
“CM Commerce has been a game-changer for a small company like our where our marketing team is just two people. With the pre-built workflows and email automation, CM Commerce allows me to focus on running our business – without needing to worry about our email because it runs itself,” said Café Joe USA CEO Aron Schoenfeld.
“Once we connected our Shopify account and activated the CM Commerce tools, our overall conversion rate shot up by 60 per cent. We’ve seen a $58 return on investment for every dollar spent.”
The product joins Campaign Monitor within CM Group.
Leading Australian market research data brand, RDA Research, provides actionable consumer intelligence to help businesses inform decision making and growth strategies. RDA Research wanted to make its unique consumer data available for addressable digital targeting and required a data onboarding partner to help activate their data in an online environment.
Storytelling agency Enthral has appointed Channel 7 reporter and sports presenter Sean Sowerby as its new senior PR and content manager in Melbourne. Sowerby (pictured) started his award-winning career at 3AW before spending more than 15 years in television. Enthral founder and manager director, Cameron Smith, spoke of the significance of Sowerby joining the agency. […]
This week Nova’s Fitzy & Wippa are celebrating 10 years of their iconic radio show and plenty of famous faces have weighed in on the feat! For Fitzy & Wippa’s 10-year anniversary show they were joined by a bunch of special friends who shared their messages and favourite memories over the last decade. The guys […]
Ever since Google first announced it would be getting rid of third-party cookies on Chrome, digital advertising businesses have been actively sharing their plans for life after cookies. And now programmatic advertising company Blis might have come up with the most creative way to get the message across, in a new video which sees company […]
Integrated Melbourne agency Icon has taken top honours in the 2021 SABRE Awards, winning the coveted Australasian Consultancy of the Year for 2021 along with a host of category and craft awards. Icon led a large field of Australian agencies with a total of three major and seven minor awards, including gold in the cause-related […]
Former agency executives Tim O’Neill and Tim Fouhy have launched the auto technology startup Summon. Australia’s first full e-commerce service for prestige cars. O’Neill and Fouhy both founded Reactive, a digital agency, which was bought by Accenture in 2016. Following the deal, O’Neill and Fouhy ended up leading the company’s digital marketing arm, Accenture Interactive before […]

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Google today released a brand new iOS app which allows owners of its Chromecast media streaming dongle to manage their $35 gadget from their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad devices. Available now on the App Store, the free Chromecast app lets you set up a Chromecast device to work with your Wi-Fi network and manage your Chromecast settings such as changing your device name, Wi-Fi password and so forth….
Chromecast, for those not in the know, is a $35 USB dongle which connects to an HDMI output device (a separate USB power source is required) allowing you to stream online video on your television set. Supported content sources includes YouTube, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music and Chrome browser, with more coming by way of future updates.
According to GigaOM, both Vimeo and Redbox Instant will soon be making their way to the streaming stick. Additionally, HBO confirmed to the publication that its discussing with Google about offering support for Chromecast in the near future.
Wow, lots of interest in Chromecast and Plex. Yes, we’ve ordered a few of them 🙂
— plex (@plexapp) July 24, 2013
Unfortunately, Google has spoiled the fun by killing the best thing about the Chromecast – the third-party ability to stream your own video.
Specifically, an update Google recently pushed has blocked an application by Android developer Koushik Dutta who reverse-engineered the device to allow folks to stream any video file type from either a browsers or their Android smartphone.


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Samsung Gear S3 Smartwatch Is Set For January Launch in India
At IFA 2016, Samsung has unveiled its new series of Gear S3 smartwatches into the market. The smartwatch was launched in two variants i.e., Frontier and Classic. Now the latest update is that the South Korean company is planning to introduce its new series of smartwatches in India and it said to announce the official launch in January.
For now, the exact date of launch of the Samsung Gear S3 smartwatches has not been mentioned, but as per the reports from Sammobile company, it is said that the launch will take place in January. As per the reports, both the variants of the smartwatches will be launched in India but did not say anything about the price tags.
Samsung Gear S3 smartwatch will be launched in January
The Frontier model of Gear S3 comes with rugged outdoor look whilst the Classic variant of the smartwatch comes with more refined appearance. Nevertheless, both watches flaunt large faces and seem to attract male consumers in big scale.
Surprisingly, the Frontier model of Gear S3 comes with a cellular radio chip that allows the smartwatch to connect to high-speed 4G mobile networks which mean that there is no need to tether your watch to the smartphone in order to connect to the internet or make calls.
This is a brand new feature that is being introduced by Samsung for its smartwatches. There is no such feature used until now in any other devices. The current generation of Apple’s smart watches is Apple watch series 2.
The Samsung Gear S3 smartwatches sport an always-on display, dust and water resistance, GPS, and a built-in speaker. The watches are further capable of making payments in the countries where Samsung Pay is available. Samsung will announce the exact date of launch of its smartwatch soon.


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UPS, the world's largest package delivery company and a leading global provider of specialized transportation and logistics services, has reported a Q1 net profit of $906 million. This is down 12.2% from $1.03 billion last year.
The company also said Q2 earnings will, at best, be flat in the face of an "anemic" economy. "US economic activity deteriorated more rapidly than expected during the [first] quarter," chairman and CEO, Scott Davis, said.
Revenue was up 6.5%, to $12.68 billion, while expenses grew 6%, to $11.18 billion. Operating income was at $1.49 billion, up 9.9% over $1.35 billion last year.
International package revenue was up 15.7%, to $2.76 billion, while US domestic next-day air revenue was down 0.9%, to $1.64 billion.
According to CFO, Kurt Kuehn, not only were there "no signs" of economic improvement in this quarter, but also that "most forecasters are projecting that current anemic conditions will prevail for the remainder of the year."
He struck a positive note, however, by saying that "long-term fundamentals" for UPS and express cargo shipping were "very favorable."


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The AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 has finally gone up for pre-order on the carrier’s official portal. Individuals who are eagerly waiting to get their hands on this offering may also land up with a neat deal of sorts.
As it appears, the Window Phone 7-powered handset will come drenched in color options of cyan and black. Those looking to shell out cash on a white variant may have to wait until the expected date of availability for this particular version is arriving on April 22, for reminder’s sake. As dug up by Engadget, the Lumia 900 is apparently free after a $100 online rebate, but only for new AT&T subscribers. The post also points out that the device wears a $50 tag with a two-year contract when purchased through the Walmart website. Other good news comes with regards to the availability date that reveals the smartphone should land in stores on or before April 6.
The 4G LTE-enabled smartphone flaunts a 5.03 x 2.7 x 0.45-inch form factor and tips the scales at 5.6 ounces. It employs an AMOLED ClearBlack glass touchscreen spanning 4.3 inches diagonally on the front, along with an 8MP camera that features AF, dual LED flash and Carl Zeiss optics, strapped onto the rear panel. This device also dons a front facing 1MP snapper for video calling. While the onboard memory reads out to be 16GB, users can also hoard their content online through the SkyDrive cloud storage service.
The AT&T Nokia Lumia 900 price is stamped at $100 with a two-year contract for folks who already hold a subscription with the carrier. As mentioned earlier, the handset has now hit pre-order status.


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Despite more studios with console pedigree testing the mobile waters, as time passes seeing developers with a certain reputation make the move to iOS and F2P is still a bit of a shock. Storied studio Ninja Theory of Enslaved and Devil May Cry fame is one such, announcing that they’re working on an F2P brawler called Fightback available for Android.
“Mobile and tablet gaming is a phenomenon that we just couldn’t ignore as a studio and we’re very proud to be working with one of the industry’s heavy-weights on bringing Fightback to market,” Ninja Theory’s Dominic Matthews explained. “Ninja Theory has always strived for the highest production values and that absolutely remains the case in this exciting new space.”
Source ChillingoFiled Under: Gaming News


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Is the iPhone 5c selling as well as Apple might have hoped? After the first weekend of online preorders, the company's online store still has ample stock of the contract models which show Sept. 20, while the unlocked models vary depending upon color and capacity, with some variations slipping to a Sept. 25 ship date. And then there's Apple's complete silence, which is making investors nervous once again...
While Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile US have all started appealing to frequent smartphone buyers with early upgrade policies, Sprint has instead clung to its claims of being "truly unlimited" — until now, that is.
This week's hottest news story — duh — was the iPhone 5s and 5c, so our weekly wrap up of the hottest news is pretty much all iPhone all the way. So if you just got out of jail or you are waking from a coma or somehow or other you weren't near anything that broadcast what we call "news," then this one is for you. And if you like reliving Apple's latest and greatest unveiling, this one is also for you.
When the news broke earlier this week that we could start ordering the iPhone 5c online as of 12:01 a.m. PST this morning, it seemed only natural to assume that'd we'd be able to do the same for the iPhone 5s next Friday. Today in a mass e-mail, Apple confirmed that those suspicions were correct. The big difference, of course, is that you might as well just trying walking into the Apple Store if you want one on September 20.
It may be an unlucky day according to the calendar, but those waiting anxiously to get their hands on one of the new iPhone 5c smartphones can now at least virtually slap down their credit card and preorder one now.
T-Mobile's apparently taking its new relationship with Apple quite seriously, as reported by MacRumors. Today the wireless carrier announced its plans for the upcoming iPhone 5c and the iPhone 5s, with the former available for no down payment and the latter available with a down payment of $99.
With the unveiling of the iPhone 5s and 5c, our real deals today are focused on cases that will work with the flagship product that Cupertino loves so much. Some of these are for your 5s (get a new phone, get a new case is our motto) while there are actually some 5c cases already ready on the market. So have these babies at the ready when your new handset gets to your hot little hands. And finally get yourself some orange for your iPhone 5c. It's the missing color!
Anyone who's ever tracked an online iPhone order has probably seen their device ship from Shenzhen, China and make its way around the globe — but have you ever wondered how Apple manages millions of them at once?
It remains to be seen how the new iPhone 5c will fare with consumers, but analysts and Wall Street investors appear to be joining a chorus of journalists who have already given a thumbs down to the handset, strictly because it's not as low-priced as they'd imagined it might have been. If that's not a head scratcher, we don't know what is, but we can only imagine come next Friday, Sept. 20 there's going to be an awful lot of folks walking out of retail stores with an iPhone 5c in their hands...
Following yesterday's announcements of the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c, Apple updated its YouTube page with product videos that show the products in action for the first time. (Well, at least without the stain of rumors surrounding them.) Be sure to check them out, as they're a nice visual complement to the articles we wrote during the announcement.


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Tag - Globalive
Canadian wireless carrier Globalive, which is better known by its subsidiary brand Wind Mobile, is reportedly in talks to acquire competing carrier Mobilicity. An unnamed person familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg that Globalive is attempting to build its presence in the Canadian market to compete with dominant carriers Bell, Rogers and Telus.
Russian cellphone provider VimpelCom on Thursday announced plans to acquire Canadian cell carrier Wind Mobile. The $6 billion deal would likely conclude in the first half of 2011 and result in the fifth-largest provider in the world, with 173 million subscribers. Egypt-based Orascom is owned by VimpelCom and also has a significant share in Wind.
The Federal Court in Canada on Friday rejected a government exemption that allowed Wind Mobile to run. A judge ruled that the Conservative government violated the Telecommunications Act's rules on foreign ownership by allowing Globalive, which owns Wind, to run the cell carrier with more than a 20 percent share stake owned by a foreign company. Globalive has 45 days to either appeal the verdict or reduce its foreign owner's share.
The Canadian government today cleared Globalive to run what should be the country's fourth national carrier. After initially letting the CRTC reject Globalive's WIND service due to concerns about foreign ownership, Industry Minister Tony Clement now says the results have been overturned as it's been decided that the foreign investment in the company doesn't constitute "in fact" control that would violate Canadian ownership laws. The decision takes effect immediately and clears WIND to run as soon as it's ready.
Cable provider Quebecor today said it would roll out an HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) 3G network across Canada and establish itself as only the second carrier using the technology in the country. The company plans to have the first elements of its network in use within the next 12 to 18 months and plans to finish its efforts within four years.
The Canadian auction for the 2GHz wireless spectrum has ended and confirmed the creation of a new carrier for the country, Industry Canada announced on Monday. The end of bidding will see Globalive, which operates Yak Mobile in Canada but is primarily supported by foreign investments, pay $442 million for a license that gives it licenses to cover all of the country's provinces with services except for Quebec, where it lost out to competing firms such as cable and media powerhouse Quebecor.
Now AAPL Stock: 99.86 ( -0.49 )
Atari, Sigfox partner for IoT development
Atari and Internet of Things pioneer Sigfox today announced a global partnership to develop a line of new connected devices based on Atari's brand. The collaboration will cover a wide range of new Atari products, with launch products covering "categories such as home, pets, lifestyle and safety" according to the pair. Development of the new product line will begin this year. http://bit.ly/1WvklfB
Samsung still not recommending Windows 10
Nearly a year after release, Samsung support is recommending that owners of its PCs not upgrade to Windows 10. In an email exchange with UK Samsung technical support and an individual in need of help getting Wi-Fi to work, the support representative wrote that "honestly speaking, we don't suggest installation of Windows 10 to any Samsung laptop or PC and we are still coordinating with Microsoft regarding to this matter" and "the Drivers that we have on our website are not yet compatible to the latest version of Windows." Samsung will update users when there are no more compatibility issues with Samsung hardware and Windows 10. Microsoft has no meaningful comment on the matter. http://bit.ly/1PgrJcx
T-Mobile offers 'tourist' plan
A new plan from T-Mobile is launching on June 12, and will offer visitors to the US a flat-rate $30 plan that offers a free US SIM, 2GB of high-speed data, and 1,000 minutes of calls good for a three-week period. The plan will work with any unlocked GSM-compatible smartphone, and is advertised as "unlimited" data (but speed will slow down after the first 2GB). The plan does not automatically renew, but can be manually renewed for those staying longer. It also comes with unlimited international texting to some 40 countries, but does not offer any international talk minutes at all. http://t-mo.co/1TI1Pe9
First hardware RAID 10Gbps USB 3.1 controllers
Marvell today announced the Marvell 88RC13xx family of high-performance RAID storage controllers with a full set of features that include eight 6Gbps SATA ports, four lanes of PCI Express 3.0, and a 10Gbps USB 3.1 device port with Type-C connector support. The move paves the way for high-performance USB-C UASP hardware RAID multi-drive arrays, utilizing the full bandwidth of USB 3.1. http://bit.ly/1P0JBmb
Tama debuts adapters for Lightning-only iPhone
Predicting an iPhone without a standard 3.5mm headphone, a Chinese accessory maker has released three Lightning-to-headphone-adapters ready should Apple pull the trigger on what would be a controversial decision. The three adapters, picked up by Macotakara, includes two models that simultaneously support charging an iPhone over microUSB while the user also continues to listen to music. Rumors have suggested that Apple will eventually drop the 3.5mm jack on one of its next-generation iPhones, although it is not clear whether it will be in the 'iPhone 7,' due this year, or a future model. In the interim, the Tama Electric Lightning-to-headphone adapters offer little particular utility. http://bit.ly/1P0sYXM
French Google tax raid evaluation could take years
The data retrieved from the Paris raid on Google's headquarters by French police could take months or even years to analyze, according to a prosecutor assigned to the case. Authorities seized dozens of files and related data that recorded Google's financial transactions in the country with a view to lodging a claim for unpaid taxes by the Internet search giant. Although Google has denied any wrongdoing, it must complete all of its sales contracts in Ireland, where it is incorporated. If French authorities sifting through the documents seized in the raids discover that any of its French sales transactions were completed locally, it could be subject to further action, including fines. http://reut.rs/1P0n8G2
Trade-up program expands in Europe
Smartphone users in France, Italy, and Spain will have until at least August of this year to trade in old iPhone, Windows Phone, or Android models at Apple Stores, and put the reward towards a new iPhone -- thanks to an expansion of Apple's trade-in program into those countries. The money given for the trade-in must be applied towards a new iPhone on a two-year payment plane, and traders must qualify under a credit check as part of the program. Interested customers can apply for the trade-in at their nearest Apple Store. http://bit.ly/1qPsldD


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Textile park in Odisha to be functional in 2024, says Indian Oil Corporation
The Government is working towards supporting the migrant workers who have returned due to the havoc caused by the pandemic, he added. According to him, the essential prerequisites are readily available in the state and new avenues are being created in the textile sector based on the skill of the locals.
Coal India arm NCL initiates various CSR programmes in Singrauli, MP
The pro-people programmes have been launched as part of 'Azadi Ka Amrit ...
Govt forms panel for road map to quadruple handloom exports in 3 years
The committee has been set up amid textiles minister Piyush Goyal sett...
Piyush Goyal calls for increasing handloom exports to Rs 10,000 cr in three years
"Let us today all resolve collectively on this day that we will go for a Rs 10,000 crore target for exports of handloom products and a target to increase our production to Rs 1.25 lakh crore in the next three years," he said at the National Handloom Day celebrations.
Reducing tax burden, digitisation can help India's handloom industry in a post-Covid scenario
The textile industry which had slowed down considerably in the initial stages of the lockdown has started showing signs of recovery.
Covid-19 led to deviation in FY21 BE, expenditure for handloom: Govt to Parliament
“There was also a fall in the number of viable proposals like marketing expos, subsidized yarn supply, etc., from the state governments and yarn supply beneficiaries,” he said in a written reply, adding that the Budget Estimates, Revised Estimates and actual expenditure for handlooms for FY21 are Rs 475 crore, Rs 336 crore and Rs 315.95 crore, respectively.
Amazon launches 'Spotlight North East' storefront
Customers will be able to discover unique products from the region such as Chakshesang Shawls from Nagaland, Muga Silk from Assam, different types of weaves like the Moirang Phee from Manipur, varieties of teas and spices like the Mizo Chilli, amongst others, it added.
Cabinet approves Handicrafts and Handlooms Export Corporation closure, employees can opt for VRS
“The corporation has been continuously incurring losses since financial year 2015-16 and not earning sufficient income to meet its running expenses. There is little scope for its revival, necessitating closure of the company,” the government said in a release.
PM Narendra Modi inaugurates 'Ekta Mall', visits J&K, north-east stalls
The mall, developed on the theme of Unity in Handicraft & Handloom Diversity, is spread across 35,000 square feet near the 182-metre tall Statue of Unity at Kevadiya in Gujarat's Narmada district.
Handicrafts, handloom boards wound up as no contribution to policy making: Smriti Irani
Irani said the government has registered 1,590 products under ‘India Handloom Brand’ that promotes the production of niche handloom products with high quality, authentic traditional designs with zero defect and zero effect on the environment.
India to organize world's largest virtual fair for textiles
“India is planning a Textile India Fair. We are organizing the largest virtual fair in the globe with 4,000-5,000 sellers and 25,000-30,000 buyers across the globe,” Capoor said at GLOBIZ- Global Textile & Home Furnishing Expo event organised by Ficci, adding that the government is looking for an Indian platform for the fair.
Flipkart inks pact with Assam govt to promote handloom, handicraft sectors
Flipkart Samarth programme has been playing a significant role in building capabilities within the rural and the underserved society of the country.
Social enterprises looking at innovative ways to revive handloom sector post-lockdown
The fear of the unknown is the lived reality of the handloom industry in India. Handloom is the second largest employment provider in the country, after agriculture. According to the 2019-20 National Census of Handloom Weavers, there are 31.44 lakh households engaged in weaving and allied activities, out of which 87% are in rural areas.
Disbanding the boards: After handloom, powerloom board scrapped by government
As per the gazette notification the decisions are cited to be in line — as was said in the case of the handicrafts and handloom boards — with the Centre’s “minimum government, maximum governance” principle. It is stated that the step reflects a vision for a “leaner government machinery and for systematic rationalisation of government bodies”.
Walmart-owned Flipkart supports 6 lakh artisans in India through Samarth programme
The Samarth programme was launched last year, wherein the e-commerce major had partnered with five non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to help artisans use the online marketplace to sell their products.
India needs to reposition handloom sector and look at larger consumption market: Smriti Irani
The Minister reiterated the need for youngsters to retain the craft through use of available design technology so as to reduce the challenge that the weaving community has in terms of current feeling of limited opportunities amongst youngsters, and the need for sustaining the handloom sector.
Flipkart signs MoU with Karnataka govt to Promote local art, craft and handlooms
Both the Government of Karnataka and the Flipkart Group will focus on creating avenues to increase business and trade inclusion opportunities for these underserved segments of the society, thereby adding further thrust to Made in India efforts.
Maharashtra State Handlooms Corporation signs MoU with Amazon India to launch handloom brand online
Amazon India said that the MoU will have an impact on the work of over 600 weavers from 17 villages of Maharashtra.
Education, exposure is key for handloom revival say experts
Textile revival is also helping empower weavers to make a sustainable livelihood.


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Experts have dismissed a tobacco industry report linking a small increase in cigarette sales to the introduction of plain packaging laws.
Anti-smoking advocates said it was too early to tell what the impact of the tough new laws had been, saying the industry's figures were a ''typical distortion of unsubstantiated data''.
The comments were in reaction to a front page story in The Australian on Friday that said tobacco sales increased by 59 million cigarettes in the first full year after the laws came into effect.
According to data analysis firm InfoView, which was commissioned by British American Tobacco, the 0.3 per cent bucked a four-year decline in cigarette sales prior to stricter packaging laws being introduced.
Critics said the industry had a long history of releasing misleading data, had refused to release the full report and that it was too early to gauge the policy's impact.
Australian Council on Smoking and Health president Mike Daube said the research was ''shonky and appalling'', and seemed to assume that the impact of plain packaging laws would be seen overnight. ''The information provided in this report runs contrary to other information coming from the tobacco industry and from official government reports, showing a decline in cigarette sales,'' he said.
Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics shows consumption has been on a downward trend over the past decade, with spending in the March 2014 quarter hitting record lows. British American Tobacco spokesman Scott McIntyre said he could not release the report because it was ''very commercially sensitive''.


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Airbnb says it is going to be blocking and cancelling all reservations within the Washington, DC space in the course of the week of Democratic President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The choice, introduced on Wednesday, was in response to varied native, state and federal officers asking individuals to not journey to Washington, DC. It got here two days after it stated it was reviewing reservations within the space forward of the inauguration and stated it’ll bar any company related to hate teams or violent exercise.
The San Francisco-based dwelling sharing firm stated that company whose reservations had been cancelled will likely be refunded in full. It can reimburse hosts — at Airbnb’s expense — the cash they’d have earned from these cancelled reservations. It additionally stated that reservations at HotelTonight, a service owned by Airbnb that handles last-minute offers at top-rated resorts, will even be cancelled.
Airbnb declined to say what number of reservations had been cancelled. However over Presidents’ Day weekend, the location lists greater than 300 leases within the Washington, DC space.


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Taiwanese horror game Devotion seems to have been removed from Steam after it drew the ire of Chinese language avid gamers by together with a meme that mocked Chinese language President Xi Jinping. The meme angered avid gamers sufficient that they left hundreds of thumbs-down critiques on Steam for Devotion, forcing the developer to apologize, as noticed earlier by Polygon.
Twitch’s hottest psychological horror recreation Devotion takes gamers via an deserted 1980s residence advanced in Taiwan the place they’ve to determine what occurred to the non secular household that after lived there. It’s the second horror recreation from the Taiwanese studio Pink Candle Video games, which additionally produced Detention. One sudden Easter egg on the partitions, although: a poster of a cursed talisman that claims “Xi Jinping Winnie-the-Pooh moron.”
As of two:20PM ET, Devotion’s Steam web page gave the impression to be down, though the Steam web page for the sport’s soundtrack (and a “deluxe” bundle that now solely contains that soundtrack) remained up. It doesn’t seem like a glitch: according to SteamDB, which tracks adjustments on the Steam storefront, the sport was certainly eliminated. We’ve reached out to Valve and Pink Candle Video games to see why the sport has been pulled. It additionally seems that Pink Candle Video games has removed all its YouTube videos of the sport.
Chinese language web customers have been suggesting the president bears a robust likeness to Winnie the Pooh in tongue-in-cheek memes for years, however their efforts have largely been censored. The memes even crossed over to Reddit this month, as customers protested Chinese language conglomerate Tencent’s funding in Reddit by filling up the positioning’s entrance web page with Winnie the Pooh memes and images of the Tiananmen Sq. bloodbath.
So it’s clear that making enjoyable of Xi Jinping via memes is truthful play to many Chinese language web customers. However many critiques on Steam stated that the actual motive why the Easter egg ended up being so antagonizing was as a result of it felt just like the builders of Pink Candle Video games had been hiding political beliefs inside a product and baiting Chinese language customers into shopping for it. Principally, the sport was tricking mainlanders into supporting Taiwanese independence from China and the hidden politics ruined all of the enjoyable.
Ever since 1949, when China grew to become communist and the Kuomintang Nationalist Celebration, which misplaced the civil battle, fled to Taiwan, the query of whether or not Taiwan is a rustic or a province of China has been a topic of big controversy. The variety of international locations that acknowledge Taiwanese independence has slimmed down over the years, beneath stress from Beijing. Some in Taiwan nonetheless maintain views that it ought to stay its personal nation, training democracy.
The offending poster blends in with the opposite wall decorations, in order that solely an observant gamer would even choose up on it. However it was nonetheless sufficient to carry the sport’s general ranking on Steam all the way down to be principally damaging. Thoughts you, it’s not clear if these reviewing Devotion are precise gamers from China or simply paid internet commentators.
One Chinese language person wrote in a Steam evaluate: “The sport builders actually disappoint me after they dare to secretly embrace such a delicate bomb whereas promoting their merchandise to Chinese language gamers who, on the very starting, know nothing about these message till they’re revealed as late as yesterday.”
Pink Candle Video games apologized on Steam on Saturday, saying that the workforce had used web slang as placeholders whereas engaged on the sport, however forgot to delete all of them. It stated it had changed the poster earlier on February 21st in a brand new patch after it was found. “We’re deeply sorry for the difficulty it precipitated to everybody, and that we sincerely ask for the forgiveness of our gamers,” Pink Candle Video games wrote.
One person who self-identified as Taiwanese on Steam stated that despite the fact that Pink Candle Video games issued a patch to take away the offensive poster, Chinese language gamers have downloaded a pirated model of Devotion that couldn’t be patched and nonetheless continued to offend Chinese language customers. It’s not clear how Pink Candle Video games would repair a pirated model, although.
In a later assertion printed right now, Pink Candle Video games continued: “It’s not Pink Candle’s imaginative and prescient to secretly challenge in depth ideology, neither is it to assault any individual in the actual world. Even when the delicate artwork aspect was wrongfully positioned earlier than, we kindly ask you to not over interpret different recreation materials.” It famous that its official Weibo account had been shut down and it was interesting to Weibo to reinstate it.
The controversy might have penalties for Valve’s plans to launch a neighborhood model of Steam in China, partnering with Shanghai-based online game developer Good World to assist it transition higher with native legal guidelines. However Chinese language avid gamers aren’t exactly excited for a localized model to launch — the worldwide model of Steam remains to be accessible to them now, they usually’re afraid the native model would change it with a way more restricted number of video games.


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The New Zealand government is one of the parties involved in the TransPacificPartnership Agreement (TPPA or TPP for short). The TPP is no simple “free trade agreement.” It goes further than tariffs and quotas.
According to the Fair Deal Coalition “the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will reach beyond the border, into New Zealand’s own policy-making and regulatory processes. [And] could stop future governments from making their own decisions on important issues including how long copyright lasts and how Internet Service Providers do business”.
The American Motion Picture Association once tried to ban the personal VCR based on copyright principles, the VCR then became on of the largest ways for the consumer to purchase TV shows and movies for in home viewing.
Hollywood has already approached New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs to stop Kiwis accessing online content.
Radio NZ reported in July of this year that the Motion Pictures Distributors Association wanted access to the Internal Affairs child pornography filter, so they could block access to copyrighted material.
Should a US organisation with commercial interests control your ability to access websites when you are in New Zealand governed by New Zealand laws?
About 25 years ago the world wide web was invented by Timothy Berners-Lee. Last month in an interview with the Washinton Post, Berners-Lee said that US system is now in danger from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who stand to amass too much power over what was intentionally built as a decentralised network – one where no single actor could dictate outcomes to everyone else.
The TPP would indeed limit the open internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and fundamental rights if a number of proposed copyright provisions were agreed to. The TPP should lower trade barriers, not raise them.
New Zealand would be obliged under its free trade agreements with the United States, Singapore and Korea to provide a legal incentive to ISPs to cooperate with rights holders to prevent infringement on their systems and networks – based on their laws, not our own. New Zealander’s right to operate as a sovereign nation is at risk. Policies that won’t even address the root causes of internet piracy. Polices that would remove competition on the internet.
In contract, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) policy recommendations suggest that access to the internet should be promoted as fundamental to participating in 21st century society. So how can the New Zealand government fundamentally agree to lose control of our ability to provide access to online services from a fair trade agreement and say it’s in our best interests?
When you consider that last generation media monopolies have spent years ranting against piracy, while ignoring customer feedback, there has been very little done to reduce online piracy.
Rather than declaring war on frustrated customers, perhaps it would be best to focus on the problems which have driven New Zealander’s to take their business elsewhere?
Termination of internet access to a household or business would cut off occupants from education, employment, health services, government information, and social engagement.
If you dive deeper, the current issues and risks are greater as New Zealand could become subject to decisions such as a recent court decision involving Verizon vs the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in relation tonet neutrality.
Put simply, net neutrality refers to the basic principle that all data should be treated equally. That means no preferential treatment to specific kinds of content, certain users, individual companies or modes of communication.
This means big telecom companies can give an advantage to big internet companies who are willing to make deals with broadband providers, this quite obviously presents small companies with the disadvantage of operating on a slower network, lowering competition and removing consumer choice.
There’s a difference between regulating providers of broadband and the services that run on top of it, said Berners-Lee. Strong net neutrality rules would help preserve that line dividing the two and limit the incentive of ISPs to meddle in the market for services.
Netflix has said that “net neutrality must be defended and strengthened,” calling out giants telecommunications providers for bad behaviour. We can only wonder what impact the TPP will have on media censorship in New Zealand. There is no point simply blocking sites that promote online illegal downloading when they can change their address in minutes.
The internet has no readily available gate that we can put a lock on to keep people from downloading illegal content because there are many alternative ways for infringers to access their favourite movies and TV shows online. Over 2.5 million if you run a Google search.
The fact remains piracy isn’t a new problem, but could you say that the current solutions and proposed solution from the sector is not working?
Content rights holders have been fighting a losing battle for years. The file sharing industry is now global, very sophisticated and mainstream. Pirating techniques have evolved, simplified and diversified over the last decade, and many options and alternative distribution models have been constructed.
The content industry has not kept up.
In New Zeland only a very few cases have ever been heard by the Copyright Tribunal, and ISP’s foot huge bills to cover the costs to compliance systems.
Under the TPP, traditional providers will begin to relentlessly lobby the New Zealand government to create restrictive policies and heavy-handed solutions, none of which take consumers interests into account or addressing the reasons why New Zealander’s illegally download movies and TV shows.
Under the TPP, the government instead seems determined to be seen as defending, at all costs, the business model of the Hollywood movie houses.
Why not, instead of threatening consumer rights – make an investment that changes quarterly forecast earnings and create a solution people demand?
Double Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey challenged TV channels to give “control” to their audiences or risk losing them at his address at the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival.
“Netflix was the only network that believed in the new model of creating content….. The audience wants the control, they want the freedom. Through this new form of distribution we have learnt the lesson the music industry didn’t learn. Give people want they want, when they want it, in the form they want it in and at a reasonable price and they’ll more likely pay for it than steal it. Well, some will still steal it but I think we can take a bite out of piracy”
Obviously New Zelanders want the access to new content. The demand is there and consumers want to be treated with respect, not hampered by delays or excess charges.
Consumers who want access to content immediately are willing to pay for it. A government that forces costly policies onto consumers and ISPs, policies that won’t even address the root causes of internet piracy, is not the answer.
Chorus built a high speed network that provides unprecedented access to information never seen before in New Zealand. Our super highway is ready, and many, if not most people prefer to do the right thing. They want good service at a reasonable price. They want to pay for the very desirable content.
If the TPP lets governments & broadcasters lump people who are streaming overseas content into the same group as BitTorrent users, we prevent consumer choice.
Consumers will be stopped from bypassing geo-blocking, an artificial restraint on trade. Trade covered, ironically, by something called a ‘Free Trade Agreement’.
So start treating your customers as customers, not the enemy, and you might find things improve. Address the reasons why people infringe copyright in the first place rather than continually apply a band-aid to a broken bone.
The New Zealand sector is ready and willing to provide a legal framework within which rights holders, ISPs and consumer representatives can develop flexible, fair and workable approaches to reducing online copyright infringement.
Don’t ban parallel imports. Allow fair and genuine uses of copyright works in a rapidly evolving digital environment. The TPP should lower trade barriers, not raise them, and as a country we need to seriously consider removing oursleves from the TPP negotiations before it’s too late.
Matthew Jackson is Commercial Director of Bypass Network Services Limited and co-founder of Global Mode


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Trends in BPO: Now & the Future
The Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) market will witness a 9% decline in value this year due to disruptions caused by COVID-19 related restrictions and the challenges faced by service providers in moving their operations to work-from-home environments, says GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
GlobalData forecasts BPO services market size in India to drop from US$8.6bn in 2019 to US$7.9bn by the end of 2020 with most enterprises engaged in third-party service providers to manage their key business processes like telemarketing, customer support, and data processing suffering widespread disruptions in their operations due to COVID-19.
Even though the market of BPO will see a sharp decline, the industry of BPO was seen as a lifeline for the country. Over time, the main characters which drove the BPO industry were the agents. For these individuals, nothing much has changed. their basic educational qualification requirements remained the same: diploma or high school, with fluent english speaking ability. Some of the other skills included good computer skills and multi-tasking ability. Other skills and specifications included: technical expertise in computers, responding calmly in emergencies and ability to maintain customer confidentiality.
The millennial generation, born between 1980 and 2000 now entering employment in vast numbers, will shape the world of work for years to come. Attracting the best of these millennial workers is critical to the future of your business. Their career aspirations, attitudes about work, and knowledge of new technologies will define the culture of the 21st century workplace.
Millennials are a digital generation that feels at home on the Internet. Technology, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops, have revolutionized the way they connect and interact with one another and the rest of the world. 85% of Millennials access the Internet from their phones. Moreover, Millennials spend a lot of their free time on their smartphone, and they expect to have access to their work-related tasks from their mobile devised as well.
Millennials are the generation that buys from and works for businesses that have a purpose at their core, and they want their core values to be aligned with their company's core values. Millennials tend to be uncomfortable with rigid corporate structures and turned off by information silos. They expect rapid progression, a varied and interesting career and constant feedback. In other words, millennials want a management style and corporate culture that is markedly different from anything that has gone before – one that meets their needs.
India is a young country; nearly 65% of its population is younger than 35. It has an opportunity to drive economic growth on the back of its rising working-age population (those aged 15-64). This population has boasted a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2% since 2000, a situation often referred to as India’s demographic dividend. The nation is expected to add almost 10-12m people to its workforce every year over the next two decades, with the working-age population crossing the 1bn mark by 2030.
Millennials care about their paycheck — but it’s been shown that they care equally (or more) about their values. This means that if you want to win this generation over to your organisation, you’ll first need to tap into their motivations and build a company culture that embraces their ideals. This culture change requires buy-in from leadership at every level of the organisation. It can be a daunting prospect, but if done right, Millennials will reward your company with loyalty. Data from Great Place to Work® shows that Millennials are 25 times more likely to plan a long-term future at their workplace when expectations of an excellent company culture are met.
Rise of the Emerging Middle Class
When people change their purchase behaviour, the result is often nonlinear shifts in demand. The aggregate demand may look linear, but at an individual level, there are usually demand spikes that are difficult to explain. For instance, a consumer who typically travels using low-cost options may inexplicably buy an expensive TV with many fancy features or demand high-end facilities from his or her educational institution. Such consumers’ numbers are growing rapidly in India. And they could ultimately become one of the largest voices for change in the nation, owing to their aggregate economic power and their informed, discerning nature. The growth of a young population that’s enjoying rising incomes is creating a large emerging middle class in India. According to PwC estimates, this cohort could be nearly 600m strong in 2021. Meanwhile, the Indian population overall will likely move up the income curve, as the lower-middle class dwindles from 460m to 290m, and the emerging-middle, middle, and upper-middle classes increase in size. (See Figure 1.3.) By 2021, India’s emerging and middle-class segments combined will comprise nearly 900m people — and will open up new opportunities for businesses. Recent research by India’s Centre for Policy Research has outlined how the nation’s emerging and middle classes count among the most privatised in the world— meaning that members of these groups are increasingly procuring services like security, education, healthcare, and utilities from private players, creating new opportunities for businesses. This segment is also growing more tech-savvy as well as discerning when it comes to purchase choices. To win in this market, companies will need to craft new value propositions and then deliver them through innovative business models. Companies based in India and abroad have launched new offerings to serve this domestic market, and global media have thoroughly documented these innovations. But businesses cannot rely only on existing solutions and innovations to help Indians surmount the challenges that they and their country will face in the future, such as an increasing demand for inclusive growth. Achieving desired results using traditional approaches will take too long. Instead, nonlinear approaches are needed, and they form the focus of this paper.


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Inside a glass-fronted four-storied building in the heart of Gurugram, 150 engineers are continuously tracking a fleet of 2,500 trucks as they criss-cross the country, travelling thousands of kilometres every day.
Since it launched in 2014, Rivigo has built its business by solving complex logistics problems in a country with a huge infrastructure deficit. The company has devised a relay model, wherein a driver works by handing over the truck to another driver at designated pit-stops. The driver then drives the vehicle back to where he came from. This has helped Rivigo bring down the travel time required to move goods significantly.
Now, Gazal Kalra, the company’s co-founder, wants to take it to the next level. The idea is to “the take on toughest problems in the (logistics) sector using data,” Kalra said in an interview. For this, the company is adding 40 engineers who specialise in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to its team.
About eight kilometres away, at the other end of Gurugram, online budget-hotel chain OYO is trying to use similar technology but for solving vastly different problems. It wants to infuse AI into its systems to ease the guest experience across its network of 75,000 rooms.
Indian companies are still at a nascent stage when it comes to adapting to AI, and only around 300 startups are using the technology. By 2035, Accenture estimates that AI can add over $950 billion to India’s economy.
And analysts rightfully point out that these are very early days. “Startups in India are still looking at solving some very basic and primitive challenges using data and AI,” said Sanchit Vir Gogia, founder at advisory firm Greyhound Research.
But these two early-stage firms provide a glimpse of what the future might look like.
Rivigo has over 70 pit stops across India, which have helped bring down the delivery time for its shipments by up to 50%.
The challenge for Rivigo is how to retain its business model and improve efficiency as it plans to double its fleet to 5,000 trucks over the next year. Kalra’s plan, therefore, is to deeply understand all the data the company has collected over the last three years and use it to optimise resources and improve productivity.
“For each consignment, we have captured some 2,000 data points,” said 32-year-old Kalra, a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi (IIT-Delhi). Each Rivigo truck is rigged with sensors that track fuel usage and monitor the vehicles’ location and coolant levels. “And now multiply that by millions of shipments which gives me so much data to start predicting,” she added.
Amongst the things that Kalra wants is to predict demand, the reliability of the company’s shipments, pricing, and routing, besides managing fuel costs, improving routing, and optimising inventory management.
For instance, if a customer is to use Rivigo for transporting fragile shipments, the company wants to allocate its most reliable handler in the warehouse and then deploy its more reliable driver to manage such shipments. All this to ensure that there is zero breakage and the fastest delivery.
Big data will give Kalra an insight into predicting demand and pricing for its trucks. Rivigo not only has a fleet of over 2,000 trucks running, it also runs an app for small businesses—an Uber for trucks—connecting third-party truck owners. But deploying these trucks needs advance planning in order to ensure its fleet is used to its fullest capacity.
Now armed with data, the company can predetermine demand for its trucks depending on, say, agricultural seasons or festivals. “I can predict sitting here which client will give an order on which date and I can have my capacity planned accordingly,” Kalra said.
Rivigo is also using data to study how best different goods can be best clubbed in a single shipment. This study of “loading patterns” will help it place goods in the most efficient manner in a truck. For instance, a truck can then carry multiple goods, including fragile ones, without causing any damage, and ensuring maximum products can be transported together.
Another important component of Rivigo’s business is fuel costs. For this, it has a designated team of engineers that closely tracks trucks on the move—monitoring their mileage, assessing the exact time at which they need to refuel, and even tracking how different drivers drive a particular vehicle. This, according to Kalra, can help with better allocation of vehicles on certain routes, and even prevent fuel pilferage.
To make all this happen, the company is building a dedicated AI team of 40, which will also include Vibhanshu Abhishek, professor of artificial intelligence at Carnegie Melon University. Abhishek, a graduate of IIT-Kanpur and Wharton, will begin his work as an advisor in the summer of 2018.
Rivigo is making a big bet on AI, but there is a realisation that this is just the beginning. “We are really picking up every cost we have and seeing what data we have to improve it with the help of algorithms,” Kalra added. “Because, simply put, what you can measure is what you can control.”
Booking made easy
In 2013, OYO launched as a hotel aggregator with a single property. Today, the Softbank-backed company offers 75,000 rooms on its platform across 200 Indian cities.
Last year, the Gurugram–headquartered company pivoted to a franchise model. This means that OYO will no longer only aggregate the hotels on its platform but also operate some of them. And the company now plans to add approximately 10,000 rooms to its platform every month.
This change in the model, and the consequential jump in volumes, means it needs to control its properties much more closely than it has in the past. And this is where technology will help it manage operations better.
OYO already relies on a bunch of in-house apps for both its platform users, as well as its business and sales staff. ORBIS helps its business managers sign on new properties to its network, and Krypton aids its network of 300 cluster managers manage properties, check quality-issues, and address consumer queries.
But Anil Goel, the company’s chief technology officer, has ideas for the future that might look right out of the Jetsons TV show. Imagine walking into your next hotel and not having to check-in, or having robots or drones monitor remotely if your room is clean.
The company is in early stages of experimenting with image-recognition technology that can have multiple use cases.
For instance, explains Goel, the company can have cameras at the hotel that can do an image analysis to identify if there are potential sources of issues such as cleanliness and security. OYO can potentially even use image recognition for check-ins. “Our future vision is that guest should never have to go to the front desk; they should be able to just walk into their room.”
All guests in Indian hotels, in accordance with government laws, are currently mandated to check-in on physical registers. But OYO is piloting a program with several state governments that will replace a physical register with a digital one.
That apart, OYO has been tracking and studying user data for some years now. This helps it customise bookings, go through user preferences, and offer rooms to match what customers actually like. For example, the company can keep a tab on the preferred breakfast timings for its customers and serve them accordingly on each booking. Similarly, user preferences for room types, such as those with a window or a balcony, are offered during every booking.
To make all this happen, OYO will grow its technology team to 400, up from the current 250, by the end of the year.
Armed with the country’s top tech talent and deep pockets, Rivigo and OYO are betting that big data will show them the way forward. Because, in India’s increasingly crowded startup ecosystem, the usual tricks and tools will only get you that far.


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Insight Bureau: Following the announcement of Digital Currency in the Union Budget 2022 by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday removed some curtains from the topic. Digital rupee, proposed in the union budget, could be exchanged for cash and will open new opportunities in the fintech sector, he said.
PM Modi said that the digital currency will boost the digital economy in the year to come, adding that the RBI-backed CBDC will be controlled and monitored by the central bank and will be a digital avatar of India’s fiat currency.
Addressing the ‘Atmanirbha Arthavyavastha’ (self-reliant economy) symposium organised by the BJP, he said the central bank digital currency or the digital rupee will make online payments more secure and risk-free and boost the digital economy in the years to come.
“The digital rupee will be the digital form of our physical rupee and will be regulated by the RBI. This will be such a system that will enable the exchange of physical currency with digital currency,” Modi said.
The PM also threw more light that the RBI’s digital currency will be a legal tender, being a revamped version of the physical currency. Modi said people could convert digital currency to physical currency and vice-versa with ease, which will strengthen India’s digital economy and ecosystem.


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A computer virus that targets the popular file-sharing program Winny isn´t the most destructive bug or even the most widespread. But it´s the most talked about in Japan as it generates headline after headline, month after month.
The malware, called Antinny, finds random files on Winny users´ PCs and makes them available on the file-sharing network. So far, the data leaked have been varied and plentiful: passwords for restricted areas at airports, police investigations, customer information, sales reports, staff lists.
The constantly updated virus seems to have spared no one airlines, local police forces, mobile phone companies, the National Defence Agency. Even an antivirus software manufacturer has suffered.Read Full Story


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O2 reports falling revenues due to compensation for service outage but avoids customer exodus
Mobile phone firm O2 said an embarrassing service outage would cost ‘tens of millions’ as it reported falling revenues despite winning thousands of new customers.
Turnover fell 5.7 per cent in the first half to £2.2billion as mobile operators engaged in fierce price wars to woo smartphone users.
The fall came despite a 2 per cent increase in the company’s customer base to 23.3million.
Service outage: O2 said it was likely to take a hit during the third quarter from a service blackout that left customers incommunicado
Boss Ronan Dunne warned that O2, owned by Spain’s Telefonica, was likely to take a hit during the third quarter from a service blackout that left customers incommunicado.
But he said the firm had fixed the problem with software supplied by Finnish firm Ericsson and said it had avoided a mass exodus, pointing to the firm’s ‘best in class’ rate of people switching to other operators.
Separately, TalkTalk unveiled its plan to keep customers by offering them the YouView on-demand TV service for free to those who buy its telephone, broadband and line rental package.
It also named Sony chairman Sir Howard Stringer as a new board member.
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Minneapolis – Scott W. Hardy, president of PLR Holdings (Polaroid), has added the responsibility of CEO to his role with the company.
As Polaroid’s president and CEO, Hardy will be responsible for the company’s strategic direction moving forward.
“As president and CEO of Polaroid, Scott now assumes the very special responsibility as steward of this iconic American brand. We didn’t buy Polaroid simply to take a walk down memory lane. Polaroid has always stood for innovation and cutting-edge products,” said Bobby Sager, Polaroid chairman. “With Scott’s long tenure at Polaroid, he is uniquely qualified to reach back into our proud history and re-imagine Polaroid for the 21st century. As president, Scott has overseen the tremendous resurgence of the Polaroid brand over the past few years and we greatly look forward to his visionary leadership as our CEO.”
As the president of Polaroid since 2009, Hardy has been responsible for leading Polaroid’s transformation into a world-class brand licensing and marketing company. In his new position, he will “lead the company into a new era,” the company said.
Prior to joining Polaroid in 2004, Hardy held various leadership positions at Dell — most recently leading product marketing for the multibillion dollar displays line of business, which included CRT and LCD monitors, DLP projectors, and LCD and plasma televisions.
Previously, Hardy worked in product marketing at Intel.
Hardy holds an MBA from the Marriott School at Brigham Young University and a Bachelor of Arts in Mandarin Chinese from BYU.


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Starting Monday, Apple is growing the subscription costs for its common providers Apple Music and Apple TV+, in addition to the worth for Apple One, the subscription that bundles as much as six Apple providers.
Apple Music will value about $1 extra monthly for people (growing to $10.99) and about $2 extra for households (bringing it to $16.99), as 9to5Mac studies. In the meantime, the price of Apple TV+ is rising by $2 to $6.99, and Apple One will value about $three extra monthly (growing to $22.95 for a household plan).
The change to Apple Music is because of a rise in licensing prices, Apple mentioned in an announcement offered to ZDNET, including that “in flip, artists and songwriters will earn extra for the streaming of their music.”
Additionally: Desire a new Apple Watch? We in contrast the 5 finest fashions obtainable
In the meantime, Apple TV+ was launched three years in the past at a low worth “as a result of we began with only a few exhibits and films,” Apple mentioned. Now, it calls the service “house to an intensive number of award-winning and broadly acclaimed collection, function movies, documentaries, and youngsters and household leisure from the world’s most inventive storytellers.”
Whereas Apple is usually recognized for its line-up of merchandise like iPhones and Macs, its Providers division is an more and more helpful a part of the enterprise. In Apple’s Q3, Providers income rose to $19.6 billion, a June quarter file and a 12% improve yr over yr.
The corporate additionally hit June quarter income data in every main Providers class, together with all-time income data for Music, Cloud Providers, Apple Care, and Fee Providers. Apple reported having greater than 860 million paid subscriptions throughout the providers on its platform, which is up greater than 160 million over the last 12 months.
This text was initially revealed by zdnet.com. Learn the unique article right here.
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Kmart down to last 3 stores
Kmart — once a retail giant with well over 2,000 U.S. stores — will be down to just three after its store in Avenel, New Jersey, closes on April 16, AP reports.
Why it matters: The retail world now is dominated by Walmart, Target and Amazon.
The big picture: Kmarts will continue to operate in Westwood, N.J., Bridgehampton, on New York's Long Island, and in Miami.
- Kmart's decline has been steady: The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2002, per AP, becoming the largest retailer to do so.


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VESTAVIA HILLS, Alabama -- Vestavia Hills residents seeking to pick up their belongings from the recently closed Fashion Cleaners will have until Friday afternoon to do so.
According to the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce, the dry cleaner's owner agreed to open the doors to the business, located at 1457 Montgomery Highway, every day this week from 4-6 p.m. in order to allow customers to retrieve their belongings--which had been locked inside since the business closed several weeks ago--through Friday.
The store's owner told CBS 42 earlier this week that he is dealing with family issues and intends to close the store for good.
Customers had been left in the dark since the store's closing, unsure of when and if they would ever get their belongings back.
According to Fox 6, several customers, including Frank Carnaggio who had been coming to Fashion Cleaners for several years, said their clothes had been locked inside.
According to Carnaggio, the last time he went in to the store a few weeks ago, something seemed off.
He was asked to pay in advance--which he said has never happened before.
He paid as asked, but when we came back to pick up his dry cleaning, he found the shop closed.
"We don't care about the money, just give us our clothing back," Carnaggio told Fox.
From 4-6 p.m. tomorrow, customers will have a final chance to do so.
For the entire CBS 42 story, click here.
For the entire Fox 6 story, click here.
For all news Vestavia Hills, click here.


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Plaintiff state filed an antitrust action against several major technology companies for
illegally fixing prices for liquid crystal display (“LCD”) screens used in computers, televisions, and cell phones. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages suffered from 1996 to 2006 by the state and other public purchasers – local governments, schools, hospitals, and colleges, among others – that purchased computers and other goods containing the price-fixed screens. The suit seeks damages, restitution, and civil penalties.
The lawsuit, filed in State Supreme Court in New York County, alleges that companies in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and their U.S. counterparts, engineered a cartel that dominated the $70 billion market for LCD screens for approximately a decade. The cartel ensured that LCD prices were set by detailed and explicit secret agreements among the competitors. Specifically, the lawsuit cites evidence that 1) Top-level executives, including CEOs, attended secret meetings on a regular monthly or quarterly basis to agree on minimum prices, price targets and increases, and prices to be charged to specific computer manufacturers; 2) Companies exchanged production information and agreed to certain output levels; and 3) In order to cover up the conspiracy, companies coordinated their messages to their customers and manipulated media announcements in order to give the false impression that their agreed upon price hikes were due to supply and demand conditions.
Consolidated with other litigation in an MDL in the Northern District of California. See Missouri v. AU Optronics.


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Tesla And Bitcoin: What’s Going On? — Alexander Powell Cheltenham
In January this year, Tesla invested a whopping $1.5 billion bitcoin. Tesla is currently embarking on a nonconventional move to diversify its investments. The news of the investment became public when the public filing was made.
Tesla & Bitcoin
The CEO and founder of Tesla made his support for bitcoin public even before the public disclosed the investment. Elon Musk has been promoting cryptocurrency in recent weeks. This is new because Elon Musk tweeted about the risk of holding cryptocurrency in the past years, calling it an equivalent to fiat money.
However, his thoughts seem to have changed over the years. Regardless, several questions are surrounding the reason why Tesla made this move and what it means. In this post, we will be discussing and breaking down this move by Tesla.
Reasons Why Tesla Invested In Bitcoin
One of the main reasons why Tesla decided to invest in Bitcoin is its desire to diversify its investments. In its most recent annual report, Tesla announced that the company created a policy where it is allowed to move flexibly and diversify its image through investments. The official Tesla board authorized the policy.
This policy is aimed at maximizing returns on Tesla’s money. This new policy also allows Tesla to invest in various forms of digital assets. It is also worth noting that this new policy announces that Tesla has become an investment vehicle.
Regardless, this does not explain why the company chose bitcoin. The digital currency market is not one of the most sought after industries by investors because there are many concerns about its dependability and volatility.
It is also worth noting that any bank or government does not guarantee Bitcoin. It works so that investors can mine the digital currency by devoting computer power to authenticating other bitcoin transactions. Investors can also sell or buy this digital currency using real money.
What Does This Acquisition Mean?
Tesla expects to see a fluctuation in the value of its digital assets following this move. However, the company still expects to benefit from this acquisition.
In the public filing that announced this acquisition, Tesla disclosed that it would soon begin accepting bitcoin as a payment mode for all its products. According to analysts, this indicates that every company should be looking into how to accept digital currencies as part of their business scheme.
The fact that Tesla, one of the most prominent organizations globally, is doing this indicates that things are changing. By announcing this move, Tesla has encouraged more companies to take the route. By doing so, Tesla has increased the chances of bitcoin’s prices rising even further.
It is worth noting that immediately after this announcement became public, bitcoin’s price moved rapidly higher. This increase is a benefit for Tesla, which will be getting their money’s worth sooner than expected. Digital currency has hit an all-time high as a result of the acquisition.
This has generated a lot of discussion and debate about what this could mean for the digital currency industry. Some analysts commented that Bitcoin is rapidly moving to the mainstream following multiple investments by mainstream organizations like it is the case with Tesla, “one of the best car manufacturers in the world,” according to Alexander Powell, a car enthusiast based in the UK.
Following the 1.5 million dollar acquisition by Tesla, Bitcoin is bracing for significant inflation in prices. This means that Tesla is also looking to benefit financially.


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For the three months to the end of March, Unilever saw sales fall 2% to €12.5bn (£9.94bn) as ‘unfavourable currency movements’ – in particular, a weaker Euro – hit overall sales by 7.1%. In comparison, the FMCG giant saw sales increase 12.3% to €12.8bn (£10.2bn) for Q1 2015.
It was emerging markets that created headline growth, with sales growing 8.3%. In comparison, sales in developed markets grew by just 0.3%.
Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman said the FMCG giant was “maintaining momentum despite a tougher external environment.”
Defending zero-based marketing
Speaking on an investor results call this morning (14 April), Unilever’s chief financial officer Graeme Pitkethly defended its recent adoption of the controversial zero-based budgeting, in which marketing teams justify spending on all new brand activity rather than budgets being based on the previous year’s spend.
Pitkethly said the zero-based budgeting approach had been welcomed by the business as it was highly “data driven” and all about “eliminating waste”.
He told investors: “It will give us greater visibility to what is being spent and by whom. We have found business leaders for 18 company segments, who will then agree savings with budget holders.
“We’ll start with our 22 largest markets, then move on with next 60 countries after July for the remainder of the year. This is not for the short term, but looks into the next five to 10 years of growth.”
Adopting a ‘functional model’
During the call, Unilver also announced wider organisational changes. It said it is adopting a new “functional model” internally in a bid to keep up with technological changes, make the organisation more agile and become more consumer-centric. While Pitkethly was vague about how exactly it will be implemented, he said the new model together with its zero based budgeting will provide Unilever with €1bn in savings by 2018.
He added it is still in the “design phase” of the new model but that it plans to implement it globally in the second half of this year.
“The world is changing rapidly and more global in many ways. Yet consumers are identifying with local cultures and there are more local competitors. So we’re now taking the next steps to evolve our organisation,” he explained.
“While we’ll keep our eight clusters of countries, the new model will make us faster, more consumer centric and will help us speed up the adoption of new ideas and technologies.”
Graeme Pitkethly, chief financial officer, Unilever
The new functional model will introduce clearer accountability and faster decision-making but at a lower cost, according to Pitkethly. It will “run parallel” to the zero-based budgeting strategy.


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By STACY MILLBERG - For the Star Beacon
ROCK CREEK —
It takes about 50 gallons of sap to make just one gallon of maple syrup.
With any luck, it won’t be long before trees around the village are producing a lot more than that. The maple syrup process got underway Saturday morning as a number of maple trees were tapped around town.
Depending on the weather, the buckets hung on the maples Saturday should be full by Monday or Tuesday, said Nate Bissell, owner of Bissell Tree Farm in Rock Creek.
Bissell is the one behind the recent effort to begin producing syrup from trees in the village. His family has been producing maple syrup in Ashtabula County for more than 100 years.
A number of property owners around town gave consent to have small holes drilled into their trees to collect sap. Once the trees
are tapped, the sap begins draining immediately in most cases.
“It depends on the weather,” said Fred Shelatz, of Bissell Tree Farm. “The idea is warm days and cold nights.”
Shelatz said if the weather is just above freezing at night and it warms up to around 40 degrees during the day, the sap will really run.
Once the buckets are full, the sap will be collected and brought back to Bissell’s facility on Higley Road. The sap is run through a reverse osmosis machine (RO) which takes 80 percent of the water out. Bissell said using the RO machine saves time, fire wood and labor as the sap doesn’t need to be boiled as much.
After the sap is run through the RO it is run through an evaporator.
“That’s where the sugar gets caramelized,” he said. “That’s where the brownish color comes from.”
It is then run through a filter press that forces the syrup through a filter so it comes out crystal clear and without sediments, Bissell said.
“It basically goes from tree to bucket to tank to the sugar house,” he said. “Then it goes through the RO and the evaporator. We grade it and test it and filter it.”
The syrup is then put into stainless steel drums where it is stored until orders come in, Bissell said.
“When orders come in we heat it up and package it up to sell,” he said. “We try to do as much as we can.”
Bissell said on a good day a bucket will fill up in a day.
“There is nothing better than the site of a full bucket,” he said.
Bissell said the sap runs to the roots when it is cold and as it warms up it runs up the tree and then out the small hole drilled into the tree and into the buckets.
Bissell said they were hoping to drive around the village and tap as much as possible.
The sap collected around town will be purchased as a fundraiser for the Rock Creek Area Chamber of Commerce.
Saturday’s efforts are just the beginning of the opportunities that lie ahead for the village. Bissell, who recently purchased some property in the village, eventually plans to open a retail store to sell his maple products.
“Our business has grown to the point we need a retail location,” he said.
Bissell also sits on the board of the Ohio Maple Association, which sponsors a statewide Maple Madness tour every year which stops at his maple farm. Once things are underway in Rock Creek, the tour will come through the village, bringing more business to the area.
In addition, the village is planning to host a maple festival beginning next year. Plans for the festival are in the very early stages, but village is looking at the first weekend in October as a tentative date. Coordinators will be forming a committee in the coming weeks to begin planning the event.


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Following the great success of world slots phenomenon Link King and Link Me throughout casinos in Europe, the well-known Barrière Group was not hesitant to include Zitro’s most popular games to more of their casino venues in France. This exciting duo adored by players over the globe, have proven to be a sure bet thanks to their outstanding game features and well-rounded gaming experience.
Link King, which was previously triumphing among players at the casinos of Enghien, Deauville, Cap d’Agde, Toulouse and Blotzheim, is now succeeding at the casinos of Lille, Biarritz, and Ribeauvillé. Following the first outstanding performance of Link King, the casinos of Toulouse and Blotzheim have also added Zitro’s Link Me as an innovative proposal to their gaming offering.
Both multigames, presented on the cutting-edge Fusion cabinet, include 4 game titles with 2 Jackpot Progressives, 2 Level Bonus and the popular Bonus Link game feature. Thanks to the stunning visuals and unique surround system, these proven-performer games offer an exciting, and truly immersive player-experience on the casino floors of this distinguished group.
Fabrice Gerzé, Director of Operations at Barrière Group commented, “Our casinos have always stood out for being at the forefront of technology and innovation, providing engaging entertainment to players. We are thrilled to keep adding Zitro’s products to our game portfolio, as we know how successful they have been with our valued casino clientele in the past. Our partnership with Zitro has grown meaningfully in the recent years, as a result of the commitment and shared vision of becoming a gaming reference for casino operators and overall, the gaming industry. I also want to take this opportunity to thank the whole team at Zitro and SFM Caps Internationale, specially to Patrice Scatamaccia and Thierry Bugelli”.
Nadège Teyssedre, Sales Director of Zitro for EMEA added, “We are tremendously proud of our recent installations throughout the different casinos of Barrière Group. For us, this is a further step in our mission to expand across Europe. Link King and Link Me are both games that have an outstanding performance in many venues across the globe, and we are confident that the casinos of this leading group are no exception. The whole team at Zitro is grateful to Barrière Group for giving us the opportunity to showcase the quality and performance of our products in their prestigious casinos, and we look forward to continuing our successful partnership”.


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Jio point stores were launched in 2017 to extend the retail reach to Tier 2 and 3 towns
The initiative is set to start from April 2019
Jio users can order via kiosks with the help of store executives
Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Retail is reportedly planning to use more than 5, 100 Jio point stores located in 5,000 cities and towns as delivery and collection points for its ecommerce venture. With this initiative, the company is looking to expand its direct reach to 95% of India’s population.
According to people close to the development, Reliance Retail, — the conglomerate’s offline retail unit — will now set up ecommerce kiosks at Jio point stores. This will allow potential buyers to place orders online with the help of the store executives. The initiative is expected to begin in April 2019.
This is similar to the government’s eMitra kiosks established in cities of Rajasthan to help the citizens pay their bills digitally.
The Jio point stores were launched in 2017 with an aim to expand the company’s retail services to rural areas including Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.
The company will also manage the sale of grocery items such as sugar, pulses, soaps and biscuits along with apparel and shoes from the Jio Point stores. These products will be delivered at customer’s doorsteps through the existing Jio distribution network.
Hybrid Retail In India
Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) had forayed into the ecommerce segment in July when it announced its plans to operate on the online-offline hybrid model.
This hybrid model is also used by Kishore Biyani’s Future Retail. In 2017, the company had announced the launch of its Retail 3.0 business model called “Tathaastu”, which operated on a combined system of digital and brick and mortar stores.
Biyani, who believes that the online model cannot survive in India without offline support, aims to make the company Asia’s largest integrated consumer retailer by 2047 with a revenue of $1 Tn (INR 71.76 Lakh Cr) using this hybrid model.
The online-offline hybrid model has been increasingly gaining popularity. In September, fashion retailer V-Mart Retail had also announced its plans to adapt the hybrid model with new stores and a warehouse.
A similar kind of model was adapted by telecommunications company Airtel back in 2016 when it went live with its Airtel Payments Bank. The company allowed its users to avail its digital banking services through its retail stores which would act as the Airtel banking points. Under this, the users could open bank accounts or avail some other basic bank services through these retail stores.
[The development was reported by ET]


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Formerly Ubiquitous German Tourists Dropping In Number
As Greece’s sputtering economy continues to roil markets around the world, hoteliers, tour operators and even independent restaurateurs in the country’s tourism hot-spots are feeling the pressure. Though the country continues to receive an influx of sun-seeking northern European and North American visitors, by all accounts numbers are down, with the industry hit hard by a dropoff in the number of once-ubiquitous German tourists. According to the Guardian, ferries have carried 15 percent fewer passengers this year and 25 percent fewer vehicles than the same period in 2011, with the Athenian newspaper Kathimerini warning that the country may end up selling off ships if traffic doesn’t significantly improve by next month. This is, naturally, cause for serious concern, as tourism — unlike manual industries like agriculture — had previously been seen as a source of sustainable growth in an otherwise troubled Greek economy.
For many European tourists, one factor keeping them away is rising prices on what used to be considered a “cheap” getaway. Via the Guardian:
Nobody we met wanted to return to the drachma. “It would set us back 60 years,” said the shopkeeper who talked about the Germans. But a consequence of sticking with the euro, for the tourist as well as the hirer of chief engineers, is that Greece is expensive. Two Greek salads, two lamb kebabs and two stuffed tomatoes with chips, two glasses of wine and two beers, and what are we looking at? At least €60 in even an ordinary place. The “cheap holiday” that Greece used to promise northern Europe has gone the same way as cheap Greek seamen or cheap Greek olive pickers; in Kefalonia, to keep down the cost of agricultural labour, they sometimes come from Pakistan.
With prices rising, one hopeful spot for Greece’s tourism industry is coming in the form of the emerging Indian and Chinese outbound tourist — many of whom are just now taking their first vacations abroad. Notoriously free-spending and increasingly adventurous, China’s international traveler is of particular interest to Greek resorts and hoteliers. According to figures released last week by China’s Ministry of Public Security, 38.6 million mainland Chinese citizens ventured outside the country’s borders in the first half of this year, a nearly 20 percent rise over the same period last year, putting the country’s tourists on track to take around 80 million overseas trips over the course of 2012. At the moment, per capita spending by outbound Chinese travelers remains among the highest in the world, with each spending around US$1,000 per trip (over less than $900 per trip in 2009) and amounting to nearly $100 billion annually.
So will this tourism boom benefit Greece? Or will Chinese tourists mostly stick to the usual “shopping circuit” in places like Paris or New York? As of 2010, only around 10,000 Chinese tourists visited Greece — compared to France’s 550,000 — but as a result of an extended marketing push, the country’s reputation among China’s more adventurous travelers has risen gradually over the years. Currently, the Greek National Tourism Organization operates two tourism offices in China, one in Shanghai and one in Beijing, and we can only expect the GNTO to intensify its outreach efforts as Greece looks to fill in the gaps from fewer German or Italian tourists with those from China or India.
But the problem with depending too much on Chinese tourists to pick up the slack for other regular visitor nationalities is that they simply haven’t flocked to destinations like Greece in significant enough numbers or spent enough there to warrant over-the-top optimism. Traditionally, Chinese tourists in Greece have packed onto tour buses, seen the country’s ancient sites, taken photos, and headed home. Compare that to places like Paris, where growing numbers of independent (as compared to group) travelers have spent heavily on five-star accommodations, luxury shopping, and even châteaux in Bordeaux.
Even if the number of Chinese tourists visiting Greece rises significantly, their lower per capita, per-trip spend there (duty-free shops aside) means the country’s tourism industry will struggle to make up for the higher spending previously seen among German or British guests. While a certain percentage of individual Chinese visitors in Greece will splash out on luxury digs, with some even buying vacation homes, and numbers will undoubtedly continue to grow, it’s far too early to expect an influx of Chinese outbound tourists to rush in, spend lavishly, and “save” the industry at this point.


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On June 2, the Nagoya Port Authority announced plans to remove the last remaining structures from the former Italian Village. Demolition is expected to cost 330 million.
The Italian Village shopping mall opened in Nagoya’s port side area in 2005, the same year that Turin was announced as one of Nagoya’s sister cities. The 31,000 sqm site included a reproduction of a Venice canal complete with authentic gondolas imported from Italy, a replica of the San Marco Square, a replica of the Statue of David, and a replica of the Bocca della Verita. Many of the 80 specialty stores featured Italian goods and groceries.
The mall was developed under a private finance initiative between the Nagoya Port Authority and Cest la vie Holdings Corporation. In its first year of operations, it had over 4.2 million visitors. By 2008, this number had halved and the operators filed for bankruptcy.
In February 2008, Cest la vie failed to make a 100 million Yen payment for the construction of hot spring facilities in the Village, and a provisional seizure order was placed on 17 of the buildings in the complex. In April, it was discovered that Cest la vie owed approximately 100 million Yen in property taxes to Nagoya City. In May, the company filed for bankruptcy with debts estimated at 17 billion Yen.
Construction applications were falsified to show steel-frame construction plans, when 14 of the retail shops were later constructed out of wood. Wooden-frame structures have been banned in this zone since the area was damaged by Typhoon Vera in 1959.
There were plans to redevelop the site but suitable developers have not been found. A large portion of the buildings have been left sitting vacant for the past seven years and have fallen into disrepair.
Source: Nippon News Network, June 2, 2015.