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A pro-XRP legal expert has offered his opinions on the likely results of the SEC's well-publicized lawsuit against blockchain startup Ripple as it appears to be drawing to a close.
A pro-XRP legal expert has offered his opinions on the likely results of the well reported litigation between the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and blockchain corporation Ripple, which is nearing its conclusion.
In fact, Scott Chamberlain, a former attorney, and co-founder of the permissionless Layer 2 platform Evernode XRPL, identified five potential outcomes for the lawsuit's resolution in a March 10 Twitter thread, including summary judgements, the opportunity for settlement, and further lawsuits.
The legal expert specifically stated that he didn't believe the regulator had "anything near the evidence to suggest they deliberately or carelessly offered an unregistered security" in relation to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen.
In response to Ripple's request for summary judgement on sales made abroad, Chamberlain said:
“Ripple’s sales of XRP on overseas exchanges are not within the court’s jurisdiction,” adding that “a wholly new precedent would be set to deem those domestic transactions finalized in the US.”
“Summary Judgement dismissing the part of the case that asserts XRP itself is a security – no precedent supports the digital asset itself being a security. This claim was a contrivance for the SEC not to have to prove each sale and to avoid the problem of overseas sales.”
Chamberlain further emphasised that a limited case that would investigate whether any of Ripple's sales of the XRP coin in the U.S. included an unregistered investment contract may result from this complaint.
According to the creator of Evernode XRPL, the fifth possibility is that the lawsuit is resolved, provided that precedents on the claim that XRP is a security and the court's jurisdiction over international sales are established. He justifies this by saying:
“I happen to believe the SEC underestimated that most of Ripple’s sales occurred on overseas exchanges through algorithmic trading. Once overseas and secondary market sales are excluded, there’s insufficient meat left on the bone.”
The decision of the SEC Vs Ripple lawsuit will have a significant impact on crypto regulation.
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Bugatti, the maker of exotic supercars such as the 1,200-horsepower Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse, delivered a treat for petrol-heads and gamers alike at the Frankfurt Motor Show when they unveiled a real-life version of their virtual racer from the Gran Turismo video game.
The French manufacturer, owned by Volkswagen, transformed its Bugatti Vision Gran Turismo from the virtual world into a real-life carbon-fiber model specially for the 66th International Motor Show. While the concept car is one-off, Bugatti’s director of design said it hints at what’s in store for their follow-up to the acclaimed Veyron model.
“This car is about our stylistic future, it’s a vision of things to come. It illustrates the new Bugatti form language, and it shows very clearly from all main views of the car characteristic DNA elements that you can expect on future Bugatti models,” Achim Anscheidt told Reuters.
Bugatti’s Veyron series, limited to just 450 vehicles with a starting price of over 1 million euros (1.13 million USD), have now all been sold. The luxury carmaker said their virtual racer, designed exclusively for the Playstation video game franchise Gran Turismo, is a ‘thank you’ to their fans for their support, with the car on display in Frankfurt for Bugatti enthusiasts to see in real-life.
“Vision Gran Turismo is really for us an exciting project to not just tailor our design work to a group of 450 exclusive customers, but really design something for the millions and tailor something for our fans of the brand,” said Anscheidt.
In collaboration with Polyphony Digital, creator of Gran Turismo, Bugatti’s team of designers and engineers wanted to create something that wasn’t beyond the realms of believability. Anscheidt said it was important that every detail of the virtual race car was authentic.
“We didn’t want to create just some kind of fantasy or science fiction project which is quite normal in that category. We wanted the Bugatti way to be an approach that is very technical and very elaborated, and based on our engineering values and our aerodynamic research. And on the functional elements, to portray the design elements really being driven by form follows performance,” he said.
The Vision Gran Turismo design incorporates state-of-the-art motorsport technology that could serve as the blueprint for their subsequent consumer models. This includes a drag reduction system (DRS) with an NACA air duct that contribute to the aerodynamic conditions without compromising the effectiveness of the rear spoiler.
The interior has a display on the steering wheel that shows vehicle information, while a second display on the steering column shows images from three cameras built into the body.
“When you’re sitting inside the car, yes it’s a pure performance-driven interior, but something neat that’s happening is the main display that is in front of you is a 180 degree virtual image that really is put together from the three cameras that you see put around the car. And that’s the most important aspect of racing nowadays, especially when you look at a circuit like Le Mans, you need to see what’s going on around the car, what’s going on behind you in order to avoid over-taking accidents,” said Anscheidt, adding that similar technology will increasingly be used in consumer cars to boost safety.
The virtual version of the Vision Gran Turismo is expected to be release soon for gamers to download. Meanwhile, Bugatti’s president Wolfgang Dürheimer said in a statement that their next supercar will be unveiled “in the not too distant future”.

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State public health officials issued a warning Tuesday about the potential dangers of consuming raw milk after six Northern California residents fell seriously ill.
The six residents were recently diagnosed with campylobacteriosis, a bacterial infection that can be caused by consuming contaminated raw milk, according to a news release from the department.
A recent investigation identified multiple bottles of Claravale Farm raw milk that tested positive for campylobacter, department officials said.
Symptoms of campylobacteriosis include diarrhea, abdominal cramps, and fever. Most people recover completely within about a week. In some people with compromised immune systems, it can cause a serious, life-threatening infection.
On Sunday, a statewide recall was issued for raw milk, raw nonfat milk and raw cream from Claravale Farm in San Benito County after samples tested positive for campylobacter. Officials said the illnesses were not definitively linked to the products.
Products with code dates of March 28 or earlier should be thrown away, public health officials said.
Raw milk is milk from cows, sheep, goats or other animals that has not been pasteurized to kill harmful germs. Contaminated raw milk doesn’t smell or look any different from uncontaminated raw milk.
Public health said they do not recommend drinking raw milk or raw milk products. The sale of raw milk from some dairies is legal statewide, but products must carry warning labels about possible disease-causing organisms.
Bay City News Service contributed to this report. Contact Katrina Cameron at 925-945-4782. Follow her at Twitter.com/KatCameron91.
Contact Katrina Cameron at 925-945-4782. Follow her at Twitter.com/KatCameron91.


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As OnePlus gears up for the launch of the next iteration of its flagship devices, the OnePlus 7 and the OnePlus 7 Pro on May 14, several users of older OnePlus devices have complained that the contacts they saved as Speed Dials are getting reset everyday. Apparently, this has been an issue since January. The good news is that the company has said that the bug will be fixed in the next update.
“For the past couple of days, the speed dial contacts are disappearing again and again. Every day all the contacts are getting erased in the speed dial list. Is anyone else also experiencing the same issue? Is there any reason for (sic) why this is happening? Request OnePlus team to fix the bug as it is very annoying when it happens every day,” a user said on the OnePlus forum. Another user says that his/her speed dial is automatically resetting everyday. “The message shows no speed dial contact and it reset everyday in morning. I am currently on 9.0.0 update.”
The problem is being faced by the users of the OnePlus 5 and the subsequent phones that have launched so far. While there haven’t been any answers on why this is happening, some are saying that cache could be the problem. They even advised those affected to clear the cache. However, the solution does not seem to be working for a large part of the complainants.
Recently, OnePlus released the open betas for four of its older phones, the OnePlus 5, the OnePlus 5T, the OnePlus 6 and the OnePlus 6T, bringing some display-related updates as well as quick reply support. The open betas bring these features and optimisations to all these phones. However, there is an India-only feature for the OnePlus 6/6T devices. Under File Manager, the company has added an Intelligent cleanup feature that is anticipated to clean clutter from phones.


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One of the highest flying stocks in the S&P 500 over the last decade, ranking fourth in returns among the largest companies, is that of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Sales of iPhones and iPads have driven the share price up over 3,600%. This comes in spite of a 25% drop since September 2012 which resulted from concerns over slowing growth and reduced margins.
Tenth on the same list is the stock of Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) with more than an 800% increase. The company completely disrupted the video rental industry, knocking out the concept of the traditional brick-and-mortar store and replacing it with mailings and streaming services.
Do these two companies have further upside?
Much of Apple's success, both as a company and as a stock, traces back to June 2007. That's when the company released the first-generation iPhone. Since then Apple has sold over 470 million of the devices.
Today the iPhone generates more than half of the company's revenue and probably a significant portion of its profit.
The other big driver has been the iPad, which the company released in April 2010. Around 20% of Apple's revenue now derives from this tablet device. The company has sold close to 200 million of these devices.
Both devices have also contributed toward growth in other portions of the entire Apple ecosystem by creating a hardware platform for iTunes and apps.
Netflix has guessed right and it benefits as consumers access content over the Internet instead of choosing traditional delivery via cable, which has resulted from a demographic shift and the proliferation of smartphones and tablets.
Apple might have some more room to grow, especially in emerging markets and China. However, the company probably needs another game changing product along the lines of the iPhone and iPad in order to duplicate the phenomenal success it has had in the past ten years.
Rumors say that the company has a few things up its sleeve. A smart watch, some sort of agreement with cable companies which will allow the company to profit off the TV space (or a TV device of its own), and a retail store payment platform that uses the iPhone or smart watch receive the most frequent mentions among technology analysts. Whatever Apple decides to offer it will probably have to be a blockbuster, something people didn't know that they needed or wanted. If it happens, jump on the stock.
Even without a new product Apple will still plod along its present path, enhancing products every year and returning value to shareholders in the forms of dividend increases and share buybacks. Investors could benefit even if Apple becomes a rule maker instead of a rule breaker.
Netflix's business model certainly addresses the projected demographic and growth trends, both domestically and internationally. In addition to video rentals the company is branching out into original programming as well which could be another positive.
Whether or not investors continue to flock to the stock might depend upon its valuation. With a P/E ratio approaching 200 there is always the chance that some shareholders will stay away even if revenues continue to move up at double-digit rates. However, if Netflix can boost its profits like it has over the past year it might continue on the upswing for some time to come.
Two consumer-oriented tech companies, Apple and Netflix, were among the top-ten large-company stock gainers over the last ten years.
If Apple wants to show up on the same list in 2024 the company probably needs to release another blockbuster product (or service) that rivals the success of the iPhone and iPad. Even if that does not happen investors can still prosper if Apple continues on its current course of updating its great products each year and returning lots of cash to shareholders via dividends and buybacks.
Netflix appears to be in the right position with the right product and it is a solidly run company. However, its high valuation might scare away some investors. It may not show up in the top ten list ten years from now unless its profits increase.


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Shopify’s [SHOP] share price soared throughout 2020 after its ecommerce platform saw record demand from consumers and businesses that became reliant on its services. Investors will be keen to see how the ecommerce giant has fared ahead of its fourth quarter results on 17 February.
Shopify’s share price fell to $322.29 on 16 March. The stock’s worst day of trading in 2020 was triggered by the coronavirus market sell-off. Within the space of a month, however, the stock had recovered most of its lost value and was up 54.6% for the year to date to 20 April after closing at $629.90. At the time, this was the stock’s highest close on record.
By 1 July, Shopify’s share price had recorded a 156% year-to-date climb to close at $1,016.64. Although the stock has since topped this value, its performance proved volatile for the rest of the year.
December marked the start of another rally, and Shopify’s share price finished the year up 185%. While this was 11.3% lower than its best 2020 close of $1,277.08, the stock has skyrocketed since.
Shopify’s share price set another record by climbing to an intraday high of $1,499.75 on 10 February, before closing at $1,462.42. As of 12 February, the stock was up 28.6% year to date.
How has Shopify’s share price been performing?
When Shopify released its third quarter results on 29 October, it announced earnings of $1.13 per share, more than double the Zacks Equity Research consensus estimate of $0.50 per share. Meanwhile, revenues grew 96% year-over-year to $767.4m, beating the Zacks consensus estimate by 16.9%.
The coronavirus pandemic was undoubtedly a contributing factor to Shopify’s third quarter growth, which was driven by more businesses opening virtual stores as well as an increase in online spending.
“Merchant solutions revenue grew 132% to $522.1m in the third quarter compared to the same period in 2019,” Amy Shapero, Shopify’s CFO, said on the earnings call. “This tremendous growth was driven primarily by merchants’ strong sales with GMV [gross merchandise volume] increasing 109% year-over-year to $30.9bn.”
As a cornerstone of ecommerce, Shopify is a key holding in SaaS-focused ETFs, such as the Amplify Online Retail ETF [IBUY]. Although both assets followed a similar price trend at the beginning of 2020, the Amplify Online Retail ETF’s growth lagged behind that of Shopify’s share price, and the ETF finished the year 122.6% up. However, the Amplify Online Retail ETF could be catching up with Shopify — it was up 155% over the last 52-week period (through 12 February), compared to Shopify’s 174%.
Looking ahead to its next earnings report, Shopify is expected to post earnings of $1.21 per share, according to Zacks, which would represent 181.4% year-over-year growth. Revenues, on the other hand, are expected to grow 79.5% from the year-ago period to $906.82m.
Is Shopify a buy?
To encourage wider adoption of its services, Shopify will launch its checkout system, Shop Pay, to some Facebook [FB] platforms, starting with Instagram.
As well as making it easier for consumers to make purchases by saving their card and delivery details, Shop Pay enables customers to track their orders through its app, offers payment instalment plans and promises to offset the carbon emissions associated with deliveries.
According to a report from eMarketer, social commerce — which includes purchases made on social platforms, or by clicking an ad or promotional content on social media — is expected to rise 34.8% in the US to $36.09bn in 2021.
However, Shop Pay’s brand does not stand out enough for significant short-term growth, Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe SA, told The Wall Street Journal.
“Shopify Pay has some momentum and it’s growing and it’s smart to support, but it’s unlikely to dramatically increase the pool of shoppers on Facebook that are able to pay with a digital wallet,” Goldberg said. “Consumers aren’t likely to pick what they want to buy and how they want to pay for it based on their ability to track those purchases in some third-party app.”
Meanwhile, Brian Schwartz, an analyst at Oppenheimer, believes there are reasons to be bullish on Shopify, according to Barron’s.
He noted that the company is part of a “very large and accelerating market” and that it should be a “rule of 40” company for the foreseeable future — referring to companies that can grow revenue at better than 40% with gross margins above 40%. Schwartz also noted that as the pandemic continues to drive ecommerce, Shopify’s “international opportunity is still ahead.”
Source: This content has been produced by Opto trading intelligence for Century Financial and was originally published on cmcmarkets.com/en-gb/opto


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Ford announced that they are bringing an all-electric F150 to market. That’s right folks, the all-time best selling truck is now going green; electric that is, and boy does the power train kick-butt!
The YouTube video below by The Ford Motor Company shows off the all-electric Ford F-150 prototype towing more than 1 million pounds. Ford claims that the F-150 battery-electric prototype is towing far beyond any production truck’s published capacity in a one-time short event demonstration.
Electric Ford F-150 Prototype
OK, that’s impressive, but there are a few other electric trucks coming to market, notability the long awaited Tesla Cybertruck which was recently unveiled. We’re certain Elon Musk will have some fancy stage show showcasing his truck towing capabilities or he may just launch one into space; or both!
Speaking of towing, there was a video a few years ago showcasing a Toyota Tundra towing the Endeavor space shuttle, but we think that this Ford-150 can for sure put the Tundra to shame. Don’t get us wrong, Toyota manufactures some fine vehicles, not to mention their truck line up but when it comes to torque, you can’t compete with electric motors.
All-in-all, were excited to see the leap into all electric vehicle’s in the near future and seeing what these manufacturers can cook up with their all-electric cars and trucks line up!


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At the portal’s launch in the national capital on Monday, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said it is a step towards the government’s “Digital India” plan. The portal has set a target of getting on board 50,000 traders in 100 cities by March 2016.
Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general, CAIT, said, “We did a successful pilot in Nagpur recently and we hope that in the coming time, this will be India’s biggest e-commerce portal to give small merchants new interface to meet consumers directly.”
The portal has some distinguishing features: No proxy firm can register as a seller. It is mandatory for every seller to have a physical store in order to register with e-lala.biz. A registered trader will get all payments directly in a bank account.
According to Khandelwal, sellers will decide the discount policy and e-lala will not be involved in decision-making.
The trade organisation has tied up with Mastercard and HDFC Bank to encourage maximum digital payments via debit/credit or netbanking.
Khandelwal said CAIT will not be involved in raising funds like in other marketplace business models.
On the issue of fake traders, Khandelwal told ETRetail,”Our portal will keep a watchful eye on each and every transaction, so whatever is happening about the selling of fake products will never happen here as the seller is not just a virtual seller. Even if any such instance happen the law will take its course.”
Smita Bhagat, head of branch banking and co-head of ecommerce vertical at HDFC Bank, said, “With this partnership, traders can send attractive offers to 3.5 crore consumers of HDFC directly and boost their business.”
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- Pure Politics
- RIL Stakeholders to Meet on May 2 for Fin Ops Demerger
Reliance Industries (RIL) took a step further towards spinning off its non-bank lending and financial services units, and listing the demerged businesses separately on the stock exchanges as Jio Financial Services.Sanofi Looks to Spin Off its Consumer Biz in India
“As a matter of principle and policy, we do not comment on any media speculation or on market rumours,” said a Sanofi India spokesperson.‘Ola Preparing for World without Any Subsidies’
Ola Electric founder and chief executive Bhavish Aggarwal said his company is preparing for a world without incentives and subsidies, as it aggressively pursues its growth plans and scales up investment.
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Even five years back, nearly all transactions, from paying school fees to buying medicine, were primarily cash-based. But today, even the roadside vegetable vendor has a QR code or mobile number linked to a digital payment account. Such is the great strides taken in India’s digitalization benefiting its citizens. According to a report by ACI Worldwide, India was at the top spot globally in 2020 with 25.5 billion real-time payment transactions.
From enhancing the country’s online infrastructure and making most government services digital to increasing high-speed internet access, especially in rural areas, the digital transformation program is powering inclusivity (both economic and financial) through the Digital India program.
Consider this, as on June 2021, nearly 99 percent of the Indian population hold an Aadhar card, a landmark boosting the Indian bid to push its Digital India initiative. Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identification number issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India on behalf of the Indian government. This is a good benchmark to assess the success and strides made towards the country’s digitalization since Aadhar enables access to important government digital services.
Back in 2006, the seed of Digital India was planted in the form of the National e-Governance Plan comprising 31 Mission Mode Projects related to government services in general fields, including health, agriculture, police, and commercial taxes. Digital India, the digital transformation program, is an amalgamation of initiatives brought about by multiple government ministries into a single source of truth – creating a digital India.
And as we complete six years of this ambitious program, how far we have really come is worth looking into. The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has been responsible for easing off the Digital India online work by streamlining digital payments and transactions between bank accounts of buyers and sellers. Introduced in 2016, the digitize India platform of UPI has seen a significant rise of 27.9 billion transactions in 2016 to 37.9 billion transactions in 2021. Following the ideology of digital payment, India has witnessed other digital technology initiatives such as e-KYC, DigiLocker and Electronic Signature System. Besides this, the Digital India movement also played a huge role in connecting Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile, which has also been responsible for enabling the massive vaccination drive for COVID-19. Here are some interesting stats:
- Electronic linking of 12,000 post offices of rural areas.
- Setting up of 2,74,246 km of optical fiber network in 1.15 lakh Gram Panchayats.
- Increase in common service centers for creating content on subjects like health, education, entertainment, and e-governance.
- Increase in several daily active internet users with the number of internet users in India at 622 million in 2020.
Interestingly, the number of active Internet users in India is expected to increase by 45% in the next five years and touch 900 million by 2025, according to the IAMAI-Kantar ICUBE 2020 report.
The Road Ahead: What are the possibilities now?
Since its commencement in 2015, the journey of Digital India hasn’t exactly been smooth, from concerns on data privacy to questioning the need for having an Aadhar card. Digital India’s aim was to spur growth to nine pillars: Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Program, e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology, e-Kranti – Electronic Delivery of Services, Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programs.
Today, six years on Digital India has managed to bridge the gap between Bharat and India (the population living in its villages ‘Bharat’ and those residing in urban cities ‘India’) to a certain extent. The Digital India program has made the working and data management of various departments and ministries of the Indian Government easier and quicker. The reduced amount of paperwork and more systematic arrangement of data has smoothened processes as well fast-tracked government services and reduced accompanying hassles, thereby benefiting citizens.
As India progresses in its journey to becoming a fully digital economy, one thing is certain – the government will remain at the center of its transformational efforts. But a public-private partnership can fast-track efforts and help iron out implementation setbacks that have beset some of these initiatives.
Following are some concrete steps that can further fuel the movement of digital transformation of India while furthering its aspiration to become a 5-trillion-dollar economy:
- Emphasis on gamification – According to recent market research conducted by Deloitte, the online gaming industry of India is booming up at a rapid pace. The online gaming industry of India might expand to $2.8 billion by 2022, thus showing signs of compound annual growth rate of 40 percent. By upskilling the people, gamification can be made significant for the education sector, bridging the gap between people speaking different languages.
- Making smartphones more affordable and accessible – There needs to be a focus on ways to bring down the costs of smartphones and make affordable smartphones and services accessible to people, especially those below the poverty line. This can be done by putting more emphasis on the local production of smartphones and their components.
- Implementation of 5G technology – The Digital India movement was initialized to make 4G internet connectivity accessible to the masses. However, the times have changed in the last seven years. With the world moving towards 5G internet connectivity, the next challenge is to work on its implementation. For this, mobile operators of the country need to be encouraged to roll out 5G services as soon as possible, and that too, at affordable rates.
- Creation of secure cyberspace – Almost 50,000 cases of cyber frauds were reported in India in 2020, which have acted as barriers in the speeding growth of the Digital India movement. To make sure that people trust the online services and make them believe that they are fully safe, secure cyberspace needs to be created. This can be done by creating better perimeter defense with enhanced routers and firewalls at the initial points of a sub-network and introducing stricter cyber laws with stringent punishments or penalties.
- Transformation of urban cities into smart cities – Under the Smart City initiative, the Indian government, both at the center and states, is already working on the transformation of several Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. The movement was started to make these cities more advanced and improve the standards of living with access to better technologies and facilities. The Digital India programs like Aadhar, DigiLocker and the computerization of land records have been key drivers in the data management of the Smart City Project. This systematic recording of data has helped in making various developments easier and quicker.
- More awareness in rural areas – There are still several remote villages in India, where along with the basic internet services, the lack of basic education has been a significant issue in the acceptance of the Digital India initiative. These areas need to be developed with more investments and better access to basic education, mobile phones and internet services.
The Digital India story is compelling and a beacon of optimism for the rest of the world about what a determined nation can achieve. As India gears up for Industrial Revolution 4.0, its government, bureaucracy, citizens and corporates all have a significant role to play in the next chapter of Digital India.


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Diablo Immortal has reportedly earned Blizzard more than $24 million
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Diablo Immortal has earned Blizzard more than $24 million during its first two weeks of availability.
That’s according to data from market intelligence tool Appmagic, first published by Pocket Gamer, which shows that the mobile title was downloaded over 8.5 million times during the same period.
This reportedly makes Diablo Immortal Blizzard’s second-highest earner in the mobile space, behind the mobile version of its card game Hearthstone.
The game is reportedly most popular in the US, where users accounted for 43% of all revenue, while South Korea provided 23 percent.
Diablo Immortal – release date and PC announce trailer
Japan, Germany, and Canada make up for eight per cent, six per cent, and three per cent, with the remaining 17 per cent of revenue coming from other markets.
Despite the strong revenue performance, Diablo Immortal has received a mixed reception from users. Earlier this week, the game’s Metacritic user score dropped to 0.2/10 – the lowest ever in the website’s history.
It should be noted that Metacritic user scores do not require proof that the user has even played the game before submitting a score, and that other factors, such as recent Activision Blizzard controversies, may have had an influence.
Diablo Immortal was released on June 2 on iOS and Android, and as an open beta on PC, but quickly saw a negative reception for its heavy focus on microtransactions.
This included a report published during the game’s opening weekend that calculated that it could cost players up to $110,000 to fully upgrade a character in the game.
Shortly after launch the game’s director Wyatt Cheng claimed on Twitter that the backlash to the game was “based on misinformation surrounding it”.


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Keeping up in an uncertain marketplace with evolving consumer sentiment has been challenging for most brands.
Many businesses have managed to stay agile amid the pandemic; however, the rapidly evolving marketplace poses new challenges. This uncertain marketplace created opportunities for innovations and new ideas, helping brands with continuity and stand ahead of their peers.
To better understand the impact of COVID-19, businesses are collaborating on innovative projects for customers with empathy and efficiency. A recent study by MarTech Vibe revealed deep insights into the economic slowdown in the Middle East.
The report titled “State of the Martech Survey” highlighted the top challenges that brands faced during COVID-19. As we enter the new decade, businesses are managing priorities and shifting strategies. Simply put, brands have resorted to diversification in order to stay relevant in these dynamic times amid frequent budget cuts.
With all things online, nearly 62.16% of the marketers revealed generating traffic and sales as one of the top encounters their brand faced in the past months. In fact, 51.35% of respondents indicated generating leads as “extremely challenging” and about 40.54% said it was “moderately challenging”.
Experts noted demand and lead generation could be designed by analyzing the mind-set of the target audience. It is undoubtedly a proven step-by-step process for capturing audience perceptions and preferences – and this way, they are capable of supporting brands to understand the marketplace and customer preferences.
Paul Stoddart, CMO at Epicor, explains – “The name of the game is loyalty and retention. As the pandemic taught us, it is wise for a marketer to focus on the cultivation of current accounts/relationships, rather than only focusing on new customer acquisitions…a true brand experience means people are feeling a sense of belonging to your brand, and it’s something you must prioritize and focus on.”
In this new normal, businesses have invested heavily in technology and other interactive marketing initiatives. As a result, nearly 51.35% of brands found justifying ROI for their marketing efforts were “extremely challenging”, and around 40.54 respondents indicated it as “moderately challenging”.
Consumers seek content that has a sense of trust and confidence amid sensitive times. In its essence, almost 70% of CMOs indicated understanding customer sentiment on social media as “moderate challenging” and 8% said it was “extremely challenging”. Even 62.16% of organizations found it difficult to include empathy in communication.
Thus, it is essential to understand the purpose behind marketing communication during trying times, keeping aside the profit margin. It should make sense to the customers, and they will remember if treated with empathy and care.
In this context, Paul adds, “Goodbye B2B and B2C, Hello B2i. There is no longer delineation between types of marketing. All marketing is about a brand reaching an individual person, and as we enter 2021, B2i will only be more prominent. To successfully reach an individual, marketers must strike the right balance by making their message powerful enough to resonate with the core individual person.”


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Photo credit: Martin Utrecht
3D modeler Martin Utrecht is back with his latest render, and it’s of the iPhone 7, which is reportedly already in production, with Samsung already beginning to mass produce the A9 chip that will power the mobile device. Industry sources claim that Apple may hold two press events next year, to showcase the iPhone 6S in spring, and in September, to unveil the iPhone 7. Utrecht says: “Based on an idea from tech editor Steven Tweedie from Business insider I visualized what an iPhone 6 would look like with the display pushed to the edges. One concept looks at making the display wider – by doing so the overall physical dimensions of the iPhone become smaller than that of the iPhone 6. The other concept imagines a display which goes all over the front…with a few holes in the display where the speaker and touch ID/home button go.” Click here to view the first image in today’s viral picture gallery. Continue reading for a viral video of a hypnotic Slinky master.


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Before you say "so what?" you need to know that the company is the third largest global retailer, after Walmart and France's Carrefour, and dominates overall U.K. retail sales. Also consider that the news comes on the heels of a brutal few weeks in U.K. retailing that's seen major names like music and games vendor HMV and the U.K. end of Blockbuster go into Chapter 11.
The context: the U.K.'s seemingly unending appetite for shopping in cyberspace. According to data from the U.K. communications sector regulator Ofcom, online shopping is more popular in the U.K. than in any other country in the world, with U.K. consumers now spending an average of $1,718 (£1,083) a year. (Number two: Australia at $1,335, or £842). Boston Consulting Group research also highlighted the importance of cyberspace to the country's economy, placing it first in the G20 group in terms of its contribution to national income. That same study says that if split out as a separate category, e-commerce would stand as a bigger industrial sector than education or even healthcare.
[ Security must play a major role in any e-commerce venture. See 4 Steps For Proactive Cybersecurity. ]
But what Brits love to do most, it seems, in these straightened times, is search the Web for bargains. The country's retailers saw this for themselves in the holidays, with data cruncher Experian reporting that on Boxing Day (December 26), 14 million hours were spent making more than 100 million visits to company Web pages, with online purchasing jumping 17% over the same day in 2011, a new record.
All this e-buying is great news for those brands who have become what we used to airily talk about in the dotcom era: true "bricks and clicks." For example, department store John Lewis says online sales now account for 25% of its business, with total sales up just under $1.09 billion (£685 million) in the five weeks leading up to December 25. John Lewis says online sales are growing as a factor in its business mix by more than 40% annually.
And Tesco seems to be another. The company had $1.09 billion (£65 billion) in sales for fiscal 2012 and is reputed to account for one in four pounds spent by British shoppers. It is now extending its reach into online, with this latest order processing center making it a powerful competitor even to e-commerce giants like Amazon (languishing under some local opprobrium for failing to pay local business taxes on admittedly highly profitable operations). The new Tesco site, in Crawley, West Sussex, will create yet more jobs -- some 700, such as new teams of personal shoppers, team managers, drivers and support personnel.
"This state of the art [facility] will increase our capacity in the area, enabling us to offer an excellent and convenient service to our customers," Barney Burgess, COO of the firm's grocery home shopping division, told the media Tuesday. "Dotcom is an increasingly important part of our service for customers [as] more and more customers are using their computers and smartphones to shop." (A Dutch company, Vanderlande Industries, acts as Tesco's outsourced partner for the maintenance and operations of the dotcom stores' warehouse automation technology.)
But as Tesco and John Lewis do well, a harsh Darwinian fight for survival on the rest of High St. (the U.K. version of the U.S. Main St.) seems to be proving pure bricks-and-mortar retailers just can't hack it any more in the U.K. shopping climate. HMV, for instance, despite owning prime shopping real estate and 229 stores, had to throw in the towel after its failure to build a convincing online service meant that, for many consumers, it had become a place to check out a CD or a movie, then buy it cheaper online from a competitor (including Tesco, which now has a formidable digital content operation of its own).
Some bemoan the death of High St. and gutted city centers, as many shop spaces either stand empty or become betting shops or low-cost value retail outlets instead. The collapse of HMV and 78-year-old camera chain Jessops are said to be just the beginning, with talk of 140 other companies also set to be forced out of business by their inability to deliver the lowest price in cyberspace -- not any kind of real-world experience.
If any country has taken cyber shopping to heart it's Britain. But its experience also shows what can happen to companies with the biggest profiles if they don't build convincing online stories, it seems.


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Nokia 9 is already a favorite of the rumors people are spreading, if we are to look at the recent speculations. Previously it was seen under the codename HMD Global TA-1004 on several benchmark websites, as well as in the official teaser video that was released. The most recent leak shows that the model has arrived to the FCC listing, which means that we are getting closer to its release in the US.
The fact that the phone can be found on the FCC listing translates to the fact that HMD Global is now ready to enter the US market. As such, the Nokia 9 device will be the front runner of the company. However, the most recent leak does not show much about the phone, but it is indeed a confirmation of a future arrival to the States.
Details about the Phone
The listing also reveals a couple of details about the product. As such, we can see that the device supports both GSM and WCDMA types of technologies. Besides, it is compatible with NFC and Bluetooth 4.2 LE. Phones Daily has reported that the device will come up with a 5.3-inches display and it will enable dual-SIM connectivity.
Moreover, it will run on a Snapdragon 835 CPU, as well as a 4/6 GB RAM and 64 GB internal storage configuration.
Prices and Availability
NPU has previously suggested that Nokia 9 might arrive sometime in the Q3 in 2017. The speculated prices are $699 for the US market and 749 Euros in Europe. If the previous phones (Nokia 3, Nokia 5 and Nokia 6) were mid-rangers, the new device called Nokia 9 will be a flagship model made by the company. And with all the rumors and speculations, we have to wait and see when will the developers make an official announcement about the release.


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THE BRONX - Police say they've found hidden cameras on Long Island Rail Road ticket machines as part of a debit and credit card scam.
The cameras were found at four locations, including one in Queens. MTA officials are now urging commuters to check their bank and credit card accounts for any fraudulent charges.
Bronx residents were asked if they regularly check their accounts for fraudulent charges and many said yes. One woman says she now checks regularly after she was a victim of a scam.


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Coming to Intex's Aqua Lions N1 first, you'll need to make a down payment of Rs 3,149 while purchasing the smartphone.
However, in order to get the refund of Rs 500 after 18 months, they will need to make minimum recharge of Rs 3000 within 18 months, and then again Rs 3000 worth of recharge in the next 18 months to avail the next Rs 1000 refund.
Aqua Lions N1 features a 4-inch WVGA display, 1.1GHz MediaTek processor, 1GB RAM/8GB onboard storage (up to 64GB expandable storage via microSD card), 2MP rear camera & 0.3MP front camera and 1400mAh battery.
Vodafone India, for example, has tied up with mobile handset firm Micromax to launch a 4G smartphone at an "effective price" of Rs 999.
If the Aqua Lions N1 interests you, the deal is to pay Rs. 3,149 for a handset that's priced Rs. 3,799 and a Rs. 1,500 cashback will be offered to bring the effective cost of the device down to Rs. 1,649. The phone comes with an 8GB of internal storage that can further be expanded up to 128GB with the help of a microSD card. It has a 5MP primary camera on the rear and a 2MP front shooter.
Grab the Xiaomi Mi A1 for just ₹12999 in India
However, it is the Android Oreo that it's users have been longing for and it seems that this wait is soon going to end. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its first ever Android One smartphone Mi A1 in India in September this year.
Airtel on Tuesday announced a partnership with Intex to bundle data and calling benefits with select smartphones. Whereas customers buying the Intex Aqua A4 and Aqua S3 will have to make a down payment of Rs3,499 and Rs 5,879 respectively. On the photography front, it gets a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel selfie shooter.
If the customers do not want to recharge with Rs. 169 plan, they have the flexibility of doing recharges of any denomination.
Airtel is aggressively expanding its partnership with domestic handset manufacturers to launch smartphones under 'Mera Pehla Smartphone' initiative. However, to claim the cash refund benefit, recharges worth Rs 3000 must be done within the first 18 months (to claim the first refund instalment of Rs 500) and another Rs 3000 over the next 18 months (to claim the second refund instalment of Rs 1000). All the three smartphones run Android 7.0 Nougat and comes preloaded with apps such as MyAirtel App, Airtel TV, Wynk Music. Additionally, at GoogleForIndia event, the search giant said that JioPhone will get Google Assistant very soon - with that, JioPhone will become the first ever feature phone to come with Google Assistant.
The stock hit an intraday high of Rs. 492.6 and intraday low of 479.95.


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PLAYERS in the gifts, decor and houseware (GDH) sector are encouraged to look for opportunities to expand their market share and win new clients in Southeast Asia.
Pete Delantar, CEO of Nature’s Legacy Eximport Inc. and former president of the Cebu-GDH sector, said that while Cebuano exporters have remained resilient since the 2008 global economic downturn, for many exporters in their sector the recovery has proceeded at a snail’s pace.
“There’s movement but it’s far different from what it used to be,” said Delantar, who won a Gold Prize during the 43rd International Exhibition of Inventions in Geneva, Switzerland last April.
Rather than focus all their market efforts on their usual markets like the US and Europe, Delantar urged his fellow GDH exporters to consider the 600 million individual consumers in Southeast Asia as new markets, on top of industry markets like tourism and real estate.
“There is a huge potential for GDH exporters to grow big in Asean (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), considering the ingenuity and quality of workmanship of Filipinos,” Delantar said. The country’s continued economic growth is getting global attention and interest among foreign investors, he added.
Delantar said he expected two kinds of investors who will take a look at the Philippines: market seekers and efficiency seekers.
Market seekers are those who will access new markets or opportunities for expansion, while efficiency seekers are those who will look at the country for possible relocation, among others.
“As local players, we need to position ourselves well because both types offer tremendous opportunities in terms of market reach as well as revenue and employment generation,” he said.
In a separate interview, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) 7 Director Asteria Caberte said that although the export sector has not fully recovered from the 2008 economic crisis, players in the fashion accessories, GDH and furniture sectors are slowly gaining traction in the local market.
Aside from individual buyers like the local and foreign tourists, export players are now turning to resort and hotel establishments as newfound markets. Caberte noted these sectors now participate in local trade fairs to showcase their products for local consumption.
“Exporters in the past put all their eggs in one basket with export products that are difficult to find, but now they have recognized the opportunities in the local market and are now making their products available for the tourism market,” said Caberte.
DTI and the University of the Philippines Institute for Small-Scale Industries have signed a memorandum of agreement to formulate the Strategy Road Map for Gifts, Decors and Houseware Industry for 2013-2030. This is set for completion on Aug. 15 this year.


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Who knew the divisive power of the humble tomato? A straw poll of Telegraph Travel writers, asking about their in-flight tomato juice consumption, produced these strikingly polarised answers.
“Tomatoes make me feel weird,” said one. “It is one of the few food/drink things I can't even comprehend let alone enjoy,” echoed another. “Drink of the devil,” added a third, even more adamant member of the anti-tomato brigade.
At the other end of the scale, others showed an almost perturbing passion for its juice – particularly as a cocktail ingredient. “I drink Bloody Marys on planes, trains and Sundays,” revealed one.
“Nothing strange about having a craving for Bloody Marys (even when served without Tabasco sauce) on planes,” agreed another.
“Made properly, a Bloody Mary is one of the great cocktails,” concluded another connoisseur. “Like the Martini and the Old Fashioned and the Gimlet.”
As revealing as this was about certain writers’ drinking habits, even more intriguing were the remarks of a couple of others, who said they felt the lure of the tomato – but exclusively at high altitude.
“I definitely only drink tomato juice in the air,” one commented. “I hardly ever have Bloody Marys but on the few occasions when I do, it has always been on a plane,” said another.
So, why is this interesting? Well, it lends anecdotal support to the notion that tomato juice somehow comes into its own in plane cabins. The internet has allowed previously closet fans to discover they are not alone. Various forums reveal many, many fliers with a partiality for an in-flight Bloody Mary or tomato juice.
Our Telegraph Travel survey is of course just as unscientific, but there are an increasing number of more substantial studies suggesting the juice genuinely does have more allure at 30,000 feet.
Where do you stand on tomatoes?
The German airline, Lufthansa, has long noticed strangely high levels of tomato juice consumption in the air. Last year, there was as much tomato juice as beer consumed on the German airline’s fleet (1.8million litres in case you wondered – which, to the visually inclined, would go a long way to filling an Olympic-sized swimming pool).
And, as the NBC recently pointed out, the airline commissioned a study to find out why – with interesting results. The Fraunhofer Institute, a Munich-based research organisation, devised a test to find out whether if our perceptions of tomato juice change when in the air.
Subjects took part in an elaborate test in the original fuselage of an airbus A310, where the low cabin pressure, noises and flying conditions of a flight were all recreated.
“At normal pressure, people give tomato juice a much lower rating, typically describing it as musty,” said Andrea Burdack-Freitag from the organisation. But things changed during the simulated flight, with subjects saying they found it more pleasantly fruity.
It reinforces previous research carried out by the institute, which had highlighted various olfactory shifts at altitude. When you’re on a plane, your experiences of taste are as though you have a cold, it says. Salt is perceived as 20 to 30 percent less intense, while sugar decreases in intensity by 15 to 20 percent.
(Telegraph Travel has previously covered the battering taste buds take the air. Cabin pressure and dehydration often collide, making planes particularly unappealing to food-lovers. See the article “Why does plane food taste so bad?” for more details.) But tomatoes, the theory goes, retain and even improve their flavour higher up – with that slightly acrid tomato taste at sea level becoming an advantage up high.
Is tomato flavour noise-resistant?
While the Fraunhofer tests indicate what happens to our tastebuds when airborne, the reasons why are less clear-cut. Cabin pressure and humidity could play a part, it says. But another potential answer is cited in a different article, which also made happy reading for tomato growers when it was widely reported earlier this year. It also said there may be a scientific basis for concluding Bloody Marys are the best in-flight drink and the theory behind is surprising. In the article, Airplane noise and the taste of umami, published in the online journal Flavour, the authors say background sound levels – and not cabin pressure – could be the biggest influence on our taste-buds when airborne. They put it like this: “all tastes may not be created equal when it comes to crossmodal noise-induced sensory suppression effects.”
Which, in slightly more layman terms, means flavours are likely to be affected in different ways in a noisy plane. Tomato, which is rich in umami, the so-called fifth taste (the others being sweet, sour, salty and bitter), could be relatively resistant to the white noise on an aircraft.
Umami-rich: a glass of tomato juice
A more in-depth study of foods that are umami-rich or without umami – under different conditions –is needed to know for sure, its authors say.
The study concludes “…perhaps all those travellers who order a Bloody Mary after the seatbelt sign has been turned off have figured out intuitively what scientists are only now slowly coming to recognise empirically, regarding the interaction of what we hear, and what we taste."
Different nations, different tastes?
Heston Blumenthal – who else? – was in the vanguard of those switched on to the potential of umami. Last year, British Airways announced a new umami-rich menu, inspired by the chef’s efforts to cater to passengers at 35,000ft for Channel 4’s Mission Impossible programme, to counter the bland reputation of airline food offering.
Blumenthal has also turned his hand to in-flight food
"You can't load more salt but you can definitely up the umami," Blumenthal said on the show.
BA’s current head chef, Mark Tazzioli, concurs: “We crave umami rich foods on flights, because the conditions of flying mean that our taste buds are affected at altitude.”
He also pointed out that two key ingredients of a Bloody Mary – tomato juice and Worcester sauce – are high in umami.
Several other airlines – including Lufthansa – have introduced similar menu changes. But, when it comes to taste, inevitably no one size fits all. When Telegraph Travel inquired about the popularity of tomato juice – either on its own or in Bloody Marys – elsewhere, the results were inconclusive.
Air France cited water, fruit juices, especially orange juice, and soft drinks (cola) as their most popular alcohol-free drinks, with champagne and whisky the most served alcoholic tipples. Passengers showed similar patterns on KLM, while tomato juice was at number seven on the Wow Air non-alcoholic chart (tea/ coffee was at the top), and iced tea and wine headed the list for Malaysian Airlines’s passengers.
Tomato juice was “not a particularly popular choice among passengers”, said a Garuda spokesman. It’s hard to know whether the variations are due to availability or taste – although Garuda did suggest regional differences, saying “a Bloody Mary is a popular choice on European and Australian flight sectors.”
Whatever their current rate of tomato consumption, airlines have plenty of food for thought from these recent studies, although the power of tomato juice may not extend as far as preventing DVT, as one article has suggested.
Meanwhile, we also wait for conclusive evidence to explain why many people drink tomato juice in the air. But as for the next in-flight tipple, while we do? Make mine a Bloody Mary.
More 'Travel Truths'
What causes turbulence, and is it dangerous?
British Airways pilot Steve Allright answers key questions about turbulence on an aircraft.
Win one of 40 holidays worth £800,000
Telegraph Travel Awards 2014: vote for your favourite destinations and travel companies for the chance to win one of 40 luxury breaks worth a total of £800,000. Closes on October 27, 2014.


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Gavin Struthers, who became McAfee's worldwide channel chief Tuesday, promises to change requirements for selling the security vendors' products, so resellers will have more options to earn recertification.
Struthers, formerly vice president of channel operations in the Asia-Pacific region, replaces Alex Thurber as senior vice president of worldwide channel operations. Thurber left Friday to become vice president of sales at Portland, Ore.-based Tripwire, a business security software maker.
Channel partners have complained that McAfee's recertification was too inflexible by requiring resellers to do course work in the same product category every year. Struthers says he will change that by launching this year a continuing education alternative that lets resellers take 10 courses on a variety of subjects to earn credits for recertification. Other options to earn credit would include attending McAfee forums, such as boot camps or Focus security events. "We're broadening it out and making it a richer experience for learning," Struthers said of recertification.
Another complaint of some channel partners is how selling MX Logic, McAfee's cloud-based, e-mail security service acquired in 2009, requires dealing with a separate sales force and certification program. As a result, Dallas-based reseller M&S Technologies says it doesn't sell a lot of MX Logic services, which include e-mail protection, filtering and archiving. "It's kind of tedious," M&S partner Mark Miller says of selling MX Logic.
Struthers said that would change in the first half of this year, when MX Logic programs would be folded into McAfee's core reseller program, called SecurityAlliance. "The (MX Logic) program is going to be aligned this year, as soon as the first half," he said.
One reseller issue McAfee won't address directly is the competitive advantage large resellers have over smaller players. Large companies sometimes sell at prices below cost in order to win customers likely to buy other products. The best McAfee can provide to small resellers in this battle is a 25 percent margin boost, just like with enterprise deals, on products sold to SMBs. McAfee announced the higher margins, which are available to all resellers, last year.
Struthers, a 10-year veteran of McAfee, served for three years as Asia-Pacific channel chief after spending four years as a regional director for Australia and New Zealand. Before joining McAfee, he worked on Novell's sales management team in Australia.
While praising his predecessor's effectiveness as a channel chief, Thurber said he will be different. "I'm a sales guy," he said. "I'm big on execution for results."


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Faster charging stations for electric vehicles will be strategically placed at key locations in Delaware to enable long trips in the state by next year, through a new collaborative research agreement between the University of Delaware (UD) and the Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC).
The 16-kilowatt stations will charge two to three times as quickly as more common models, and the service will be offered free-of-charge to users through at least 2014. Willett Kempton, UD professor, and his colleagues will work with public and private location owners on the initial set-up and on a long-term plan, which could include a fee in subsequent years to cover any ongoing costs. The researchers will monitor station usage and track reductions in pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.
The new stations will not be more than 50 miles apart, which is the battery range for the least expensive electric vehicle models today. The UD-DNREC project will enable trips within Delaware and nearby cities, making the entire state within an electric car’s range. The project also helps fill a regional gap for recharging capabilities between Baltimore and Philadelphia, urban areas where charging stations are more common.
With a budget of $80,000, the entire project costs less than one long-range electric vehicle. Yet the project would serve many hundreds of electric vehicles due to the driving pattern of most Americans, who make long trips only a few days a year.
Delaware is setting up charging stations in a smart way, which is surprisingly more cost-effective than each electric car buyer getting a big battery.—Prof. Kempton
In the Mid-Atlantic region electric chargers are clustered within metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia and Baltimore, but these are not well-located for en-route charging and most are incapable of fast charging.
Electric vehicle drivers in Delaware have access to only a few public charging stations. That does not pose a problem for a driver on a typical day, but longer trips require either battery recharging en route or a large and expensive long-distance battery.
The new project will take into account driver convenience as well as traffic patterns to major destinations in pinpointing locations for five or six new charging stations. Charging a battery from empty to full charge can take from 40 minutes to two hours, depending on the car model, so locations where drivers can spend time dining, shopping or enjoying the outdoors would be carefully considered. For drivers who just need a boost to go an additional 15 miles, the charge may require only 15 to 20 minutes.


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November 29, 2018
American Airlines recently sued Expedia Inc. in the Northern District Court in Texas for trademark infringement (case no. 18-cv-00850). The airline claims that Expedia’s Add-On Advantage mark could be confused with American Airlines’ AAdvantage mark, and is seeking an injunction to stop Expedia from using the mark.
Add-On Advantage is a discount program rolled out by Expedia in June 2018, which provides discounted hotel rates for travelers who purchase a flight, car rental or package through Expedia. American Airlines’ AAdvantage program is a loyalty program launched in 1981, through which members can earn miles and apply them towards flights, upgrades, car rentals, hotels etc.
American Airlines is concerned that customers will be misled and will mistakenly associate the Add-On Advantage program with American Airlines and AAdvantage, and has alleged that Expedia’s use and wide promotion of the mark is causing “irreparable harm to the goodwill and reputation of American and its trademarks.”
Author: Sheena Singh


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With the government forecasting that revenues from the tourism sector will rise about seven-fold by 2047, a new policy aims at making India a sustainable, tourist-friendly destination through various green initiatives, skill development, and engaging with the private sector.
Top sources in the government said the tourism policy forecasts that the sector’s contribution will grow to $1 trillion by 2047 and the industry needs to prepare itself to make the sector sustainable.
“From $150 million currently, the industry is set to grow several times and the policy has a plan to keep the industry sustainable through various green initiatives as well as skill development and other initiatives,” a government official added.
When contacted, Tourism Secretary Arvind Singh said these aspects will require Cabinet approval. “There are various aspects in the tourism policy that have been discussed and it would require further approvals including from the Union Cabinet,” he told The Indian Express.
As part of the green initiative, hotels will also need to bring in changes to ensure that the impact on the environment is minimal, the official added.
The hospitality industry has welcomed the focus on sustainability. “The Indian tourism and hospitality industry has certainly become more conscious of the benefits of sustainable tourism in the post-Covid era. We work tirelessly to reduce our environmental impact by employing sustainable best practices in maintenance, services, water consumption, and using environmentally friendly products aiming for zero waste,” said Kush Kapoor, CEO of Roseate Hotels and Resorts.
Another government official said the sector would require training not only for people employed in the sector but also sensitizing the tourists.
“Even today, residents at a lot of tourism destinations have started to complain about filth and nuisances that some tourists create. We would not want to reach a level where these tourism destinations start to block tourists. This would also constitute sustainability that the policy talks about,” said another government official.
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Tourism industry says that sustainability will make the industry future-ready.
“Popular destinations such as Himachal, Leh- Ladakh and Uttarakhand are also concerned about preserving their local community, cultural fabric and the local biodiversity and ecosystems. Additionally, there is increasing demand for outdoor-adventure that promotes eco-tourism such as wildlife safaris, biking, camping, monsoon treks, water rafting, etc,” said Rajeev Kale, President HolidaysMICE, Visa at Thomas Cook (India) Limited.
“The pandemic has created a new found sensitivity around sustainability and sustainable tourism has become a need of the hour. Customers are displaying increased concern towards the environment and newer trends around sustainable and regenerative travel are now emerging,” said Daniel D’Souza, president-holidays at SOTC Travel.
The policy also talks about skill development and employment generation by the sector. “The other key component of the policy is to rope in people for creation of tourism infrastructure like homestays etc. Proposal also includes getting an MSME tag for the sector that would help fetch easier access to credit,” said one of the two officials quoted above .
As COVID shut the world for tourists, Indians traveled within the country, thus, benefiting the local tourism sector. However, inbound foreign tourists continue to elude India and the government’s offer of five lakh free tourist visas were also not fully subscribed.
As part of its help to the tourism sector, India had announced to issue 500,000 free tourist visas but only 300,000 were subscribed till the end of March this year – the deadline for the scheme.
“Post-COVID, India’s inbound tourists have mainly been driven by Indians coming to visit friends and family. The visa quota was not fully subscribed due to the COVID wave,” said one of the officials quoted above.


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The city of Kyle has decided to make changes to operations and programming due to the increase in COVID-19 both statewide and countywide effective as of Friday, June 26.
Kyle City Hall will be closed to the public with most services still available via phone at 512-262-1010 and online at cityofkyle.com.
• All public meetings will hold public comment virtually. Sign up for public comment by 12 p.m. on the day of the meeting via the online form (cityofkyle.com/council/citizen-comment-sign) to participate virtually.
• Payments, applications, permits, service requests and more will be available online at the cityofkyle.com and by mail.
• The Kyle Public Library will be available for curbside service and has two computers in the foyer for emergency use by residents. Reserve items online by email.
at firstname.lastname@example.org and by phone at 512-268-7411 or text at 512-675-2442.
• The Kyle Pool and all summer camps will be closed until further notice.
• Movies on the Square and Market Days have been canceled until further notice.


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(Newswire.net — May 14, 2019) — The world has a problem, and the name of the problem is cryptocurrencies. And I am not saying this because I think cryptocurrency is a bad thing for the world in general, or because it does not have the potential to change the world for the better. I am saying this because the world has recently seen more than a few attacks on its well being through cryptocurrency. In 2018 and 2019, cryptocurrencies have become one of the prime examples of how to take the resources from innocent people who are only trying to utilize cryptocurrency to be better of. With frequent Binance hacks, the slew of scams that took place in Australia, and a number of other issues that have been bothering the world with their frequency and their severity, one cannot help but consider cryptocurrency a problem, on the rise. A problem that is not easy to solve, at least not in the shape and way that it is present in the modern world. The world is hesitating to accept cryptocurrencies as part of the new world, seeing it as either a part of the criminal world or as something that is only a fad, and nothing else. As a result, most of the regulation related to cryptocurrency is either extremely vague or inefficient, permitting the kind of relationships and actions with cryptocurrency that only harm the general populace and cryptocurrency in general.
The result is that the stigma associated with cryptocurrency is becoming heavier and darker, and the governments are further shying away from this valuable resource. But, judging by the potential of the resource, it would be wise to find a way to utilize it and to make it part of the everyday life of the world. So how do we go about it? Well, before we start posting theories, we need to learn how cryptocurrencies are misused, and how they can be prevented from doing so.
The crypto scams, hacks and problems
One of the prime examples of crypto scams that are currently presenting a big problem to the world would be easily seen if you looked at the 2018 ACCC stats regarding scams. In the year 2018 Australia lost around 4 million US dollars to crypto scams. While this might not seem like a significant amount of money, Australia, one of the countries in the world that is most accepting of cryptocurrencies, had never seen a number so large before. The increase in the number of scams was equal to almost 200% and was one of the fastest and most drastic increases in the rates of scamming in the history of Australia. Most of these scams were the result of scammers posing as Australian online casinos and allowing users to deposit with cryptocurrencies. They would, after the deposit, take their money, without giving the people who were scammed any way of getting in touch with them. As a result, Australians lost millions of dollars to cryptocurrency scams.
Beyond just scams, there are also other issues associated with cryptocurrency crimes. One of the most well-known crimes would be hacking of trading platforms, where hackers end up taking millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from the average user. Binance, the most popular cryptocurrency trading platform in the world, has encountered this issue many times before. Just in the past month and a half,
Binance was hacked two times. The resulting losses amount to more than 40 million US dollars, all of the damage being done to the users registered with the trading platform. And these types of crimes have been increasing in number over the years, seemingly causing the industry to become more and more dangerous. With the increase in frequency, one cannot help but wonder, what can be done in order to solve this issue. Is there anything at all that can be done by anyone by the companies themselves, that would allow the cryptocurrency industry to stem the seemingly dangerously fast increase in crime rates within it?
How do we solve the problem
The question seems to be bothering everyone currently. Especially those who are just wanting to enter the industry. To be more specific, the industry has recently become more attractive to large scale investors and institutional investors. These kinds of investors have become more and more active ever since the 2017 cryptocurrency boom. They have seemingly gotten closer and closer to purchasing cryptocurrencies over the past few months, but ever since their level of interest has increased, so has the crypto related crime. And as the increase happens, the large scale and institutional investors are becoming more and more uninterested in investing, since the dangers of losing capital to crimes and scams seemingly become too big. These kinds of investors are also seeing the issue of the crime as making cryptocurrencies as less attractive for retail trade. And as that happens and fewer people trade cryptocurrencies, the cryptocurrencies start losing their value, which further pushes institutional investors away from the industry.
As a result, institutional investors, in order to secure the markets, are requesting that new regulation be introduced into the industry by the governments around the world. They believe that such regulation, introduced by governments, would allow cryptocurrencies to be easier to regulate, lower the crime rates for and produce a safer, more reliable market for trade. The regulation, they believe, is not coming fast enough to the industry, so they are trying to bring the industry to the regulation by allowing the categorization of cryptocurrencies as financial assets specific to markets. And while they are getting closer to their goal with every try, it seems the regulators and the governments are doing their best to resist this categorization. Investors might feel this might not be a good idea, and feel like this is slowing their advance into the field, but this might also be a blessing for the industry in general. After all, the markets have been known to be performing as deregulated over the past few years and many fear that a change might bring the collapse of the markets as they are currently known and loved.
Is regulation reliable
The thing with regulation is that it might be highly disruptive to the markets. The reason cryptos are currently so popular for trading is that they are highly volatile. Just by being what they are, they allow traders to make a lot of money over short periods of time, just thanks to their volatility. There are many who fear, justly so, that bringing regulation to the market might cause the markets to become less volatile and less reliably volatile.This would result in the markets becoming not as rife for making money. But there is more reason to worry about market disruption by regulation than the volatility of cryptocurrencies.
Regulation might cause the cryptocurrency market to become less popular overnight. The reason for this is that the markets are already unregulated. The current lack of regulation is an attractive point for many people who trade on the market. They believe that by investing in cryptocurrency they are investing in an alternate economy, one that is not related to the general economy of the planet and thus they are independent of it. This kind of attitude makes the cryptos popular and keeps them deregulated. But the moment regulation is introduced, many people would feel like cryptocurrencies are losing their initial purpose and are thus becoming not attractive to them anymore. This could cause the loss of a large percentage of market participants overnight and even if the institutional investors enter the market, it would result in undeniable and irreversible damage to the markets. So it might be a good idea to consider
alternative ways of introducing safety to the market, that which is beyond simple regulation.


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Swiss Sika takes over major RO construction materials producer
Swiss group Sika, one of the biggest producers of chemical building materials in the world, has received the green light from Romania’s Competition Council to take over AdePlast, one of the biggest Romanian building materials producers.
AdePlast owns four industrial platforms located in Oradea, Ploiesti, Roman, and Isalnita, covering all of the country’s regions.
It reported a turnover of RON 474 million (over EUR 100 mln) in 2018, up 13% on the previous year, after it inaugurated that year a new industrial platform in Isalnița, Dolj county, upon EUR 22 mln investments.
AdePlast owns in Roman an industrial platform that includes a factory of dry adhesives and mortars with a capacity of 450,000 tonnes per year and an expanded polystyrene production line with an annual capacity of 700,000 cubic meters.
In Oradea, it has developed a production capacity of 250,000 tonnes of dry adhesives and mortars, a factory of decorative paints and plasters that produces 50,000 tonnes per year, as well as an expanded polystyrene factory that can produce 700,000 cubic meters per year.
On the industrial platform in Ploiesti there is a factory of dry adhesives and mortars with a capacity of 450,000 tonnes per year, an expanded polystyrene factory of 1.05 million cubic meters per year, a graphite polystyrene production line of 150,000 meters cubes, and a factory of paints, decorative plasters, varnishes and enamels, with a capacity of 50,000 tons per year.


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Bargain-hunting Chinese make life tough for iOS devs
App Store generates just THREE PER CENT of global revenue
Apple iOS developers in China are struggling to make a living from the platform, with App Store revenues in the region accounting for just three per cent of the global total, despite scooping 18 per cent of worldwide downloads.
A new report from Shanghai-based analyst Stenvall Skoeld (via TNW) claims that Apple and its developers in the People’s Republic may have hit a brick wall in the form of high piracy rates and the reluctance of Chinese consumers to pay for digital content.
So far iOS app developers are struggling to make money in China. One reason is that a large amount of iOS devices in China are ‘jailbroken’, allowing users to download apps for free from alternative ‘app stores’. Another challenge is the fact that Chinese users tend to be reluctant to pay for apps, resulting in low revenue per user.
Although Apple doesn’t release App Store revenue data, the analyst combined figures from analytics firm App Annie with Cupertino’s Q3 earnings report to estimate that just 3.1 per cent, or $37m (£23.7m) was made from the Chinese App Store in the last quarter.
The low contribution is a result of a revenue per download just over three cents in China, compared with revenues per download of 28 cents in the US and 19 cents globally.
This does not mean that App developers should give up on China. The Chinese iOS app market looks set for strong growth in the next couple of year. Using a back-of-the-envelope calculation we arrived at a scenario that sees the China App Store market growing by 98 per cent in 2012 and 88 per cent in 2013, with 2013 sales reaching $321m (£205m).
Apple certainly has a great opportunity in the People’s Republic.
Although it now sits fifth in the handset table, Q2 shipments were up 100 per cent from the previous year, and total smartphone shipments in the country jumped a massive 199 per cent over the year, according to Canalys.
However, persuading Chinese customers to spend money on apps may take a while yet. ®


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NAFTA back on right road
ON THE ECONOMY
Published 4:00 am, Monday, October 24, 2011
It's just one truck, but it represents the end of a 16-year-old feud between neighbors and a new beginning for our North American partnership.
On Friday, the first Mexican truck hauled cargo into the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Transportes Olympic-owned Freightliner, newly licensed by the U.S. government, left Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, with drilling equipment bound for the Dallas suburb of Garland.
Mexico, as agreed, canceled remaining retaliatory tariffs on 99 American goods imposed in 2009 when President Obama abruptly defunded a pilot trucking program years in the making - and ditched compliance with an international treaty.
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It's been a long haul back to a working partnership that will expand trade and help the three North American nations compete in the global economy.


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ELYRIA, Ohio - New federal nutritional guidelines for school cafeterias has meant the end of a favorite - and locally famous - treat in one northeast Ohio school district.
ELYRIA, Ohio — New federal nutritional guidelines for school cafeterias has meant the end of a favorite — and locally famous — treat in one northeast Ohio school district.
The federal government’s edict to provide healthier foods and cut fats and cholesterol put an end of the sale of the traditional Elyria pink cookie — a buttery sweet treat with pink icing.
The pink cookie has been a favorite for four decades. The Elyria Chronicle-Telegram reports the treat gained a cult following through the years and was once named the “Best Cafeteria Cookie” by Cleveland magazine.
Food services director Scott Teaman said the recipe could have been changed to better meet nutritional standards, but it just wouldn’t be the same.
The district will still bake the cookies for special orders.


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UK grocer Sainsbury’s is launching a new Taste the Difference Aberdeen Angus range which it claimed offers a 25% lower carbon footprint compared to industry standard, making it the largest low carbon beef range ever produced in the UK.
The Greener Cattle Initiative (GCI), a consortium investing in research mitigating enteric methane, and backed by FFAR, recently awarded a grant to develop actionable options that reduce enteric methane emissions from cattle.
Symbrosia, a Hawaiʻi-based startup that uses a seaweed-based feed additive to reduce livestock methane emissions, has started a pilot with Organic Valley, an independent cooperative of organic farmers based in La Farge, Wisconsin.
In her 2023 State of the Union address this week, EC President von der Leyen made no reference to the Sustainable Food System law nor animal welfare. With some stakeholders fearing they’ve been dropped, we asked the Commission to weigh in.
Spain will need to import some 20 million tons of cereals to satisfy demand from consumers and for the manufacture of animal feed, requiring a "major logistical” effort, according to Reuters, citing data from Spain’s environment ministry.
Feeding rumen-protected Capsicum oleoresin (CAP), a plant extract derived from chili pepper plants, during the transition period and early lactation can increase fat-corrected milk yield and improve milk fat and feed efficiency of dairy cows, finds a...
Alltech is partnering with National Dairy Farms (NDF) and Masaken Dairy Farms (MDF), two of the largest standalone dairy farms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), on carbon footprint benchmarking and methane-reducing technologies.
Bühler, following on from its recently announced tie-up with the UK's Entocycle, is now partnering with NRGene Technologies, an Israeli genomics firm, in the field of black soldier flygenetics and processing.
A new study from researchers based in universities in China and in Nottingham, UK, has discovered that a subtype of avian flu virus, endemic in poultry farms in China, is undergoing mutational changes, which could increase the risk of the disease being...
The sustainability discussion around beef has focused mainly on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Over the past year, however, nature and biodiversity have become more prominent issues in the beef supply chain, says Rabobank.
The US feed industry can exploit a slew of animal nutrition and scientific breakthroughs, but it is stymied by slow, confusing, and unpredictable regulatory review processes that deter innovators from bringing their products to the US marketplace, says...
The AIC has launched a consultation on its draft sustainability standard, pillar 1– deforestation and land conversion –with members of the trade group and industry stakeholders encouraged to respond by the October 4 deadline.


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Thanks to the release of the new Android TV 14 Beta, it is now possible to take a closer look at some of the changes coming soon to Google TV.
Looking for the latest streaming news? Then you’ve come to the right place. Whether it is the launch of a new service or new hardware, here you’ll find the information you need to make the right purchasing and subscription decision for you. This also includes being kept up to date on all the latest plan price changes that are happening in the streaming world.
For homes that can’t get enough Tennis Channel, the Sinclair-owned network now has its own online shop where you can buy clothing and gear.
YouTube has stopped offering its $100 presale discount on NFL Sunday Ticket, but it’s still possible for YouTube TV and YouTube users to save.
An advertising watchdog has issued an ad alert over YouTube TV’s Multiview not being as widely available as marketing materials might suggest.
Comcast has now provided firm confirmation that Peacock will continue to be free to select Xfinity Internet customers and Rewards members.
Following the retiring of Android 13 for TV, most devices that launched on Android TV 10 should now be eligible for an upgrade to Android 14.
Now that Google has retired Android 13 for TV, Android TV and Google TV devices will jump straight to Android 14 with their next major update.
Amazon might introduce ad-supported versions of Max and Paramount Plus Prime Video Channels, and that’s something that makes a lot of sense.
While it is not unusual for a streaming service like Prime Video to offer a ‘with ads’ plan, Amazon already owns the free Freevee service.
EDYE offers access to a catalog that’s stocked with more than 3,000 videos and especially curated by early childhood development experts.
Many people have already taken to the Play Store to highlight their disappointment in the new Max Android and Google TV apps.
A new study found that local broadcast news generates a larger audience than streaming services. In some cases, up to 10 times the audience.
The deal between DirecTV and Southwest is just the latest in a string of agreements between various airline and streaming services
While YouTube TV might be the most popular overall, it would seem that Hulu Live TV is the live TV service with the happiest subscribers.
Unlike other deals and promotions, the Paramount Plus 25% discount will continue to be applied for as long as the subscription is active.
YouTube TV has been experiencing quite a few DVR and library issues recently, and while some are now fixed, others are still being worked on.
Even though Apple does provide Apple TV users with a way to put their device to sleep, it isn’t a sleep timer in the traditional sense.
Boost is offering customers a $10 discount on a Sling TV base plan every month, resulting in a saving of $120 over the course of a full year.
tvOS 17 will bring with it a number of upgrades and improvements to the Apple TV experience, including the ability to find a lost Siri Remote.
Apple TV is set to get a new Control Center with the release of tvOS 17 that makes it easier to navigate and quicker to access settings.


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Tickets are now available for Games First in London on the 17th of January. This will be the first time the event, which has enjoyed several successful years in Helsinki, will be held in the UK. The conference is specifically for developers only, so should be a good place to network as well as take in the various talks as well as an Indie Game Fayre, which will take place after the conference.
You’ll not need to reach into your pocket to attend Game First, as tickets are free. The event takes place at the Congress Centre in Bloomsbury, London, and the day’s current line up consists of panels and talks discussing emerging trends, gaming cities and defining a genre. The full list can be found on the events listing page, where you can also grab your tickets.
With the Game Fayre, the organisers hope to be “showcasing the best of London’s Indie Games scene”, which could well include your game. Indie developers looking to showcase their games should purchase the special ‘indie developer’ ticket from the booking site. For those not showcasing, the organisers promise “drinks and snacks” while you look at some cool London-developer games. Presumably drinks and snacks will be available for those showcasing too.
You can follow the event on social media (in both Facebook and Twitter flavours) to keep abreast of, heh, developments. That one never gets old, does it?


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Former CEO of Dreams, Mike Logue, has been confirmed as the latest headline speaker at Retail Technology Show, the new flagship event for retail that brings together Europe’s most forward-thinking retailers and leading tech innovators.
Famed for turning around the fortunes of Dreams during his eight year tenure at the helm of the specialist beds retailer, Logue departed Dreams at the end of 2021, having transformed the business culminating in its £340 million sale to beddings product giant Tempur Sealy.
Logue takes to the Retail Technology Show on Day 1 (26 April) to deliver an inspirational keynote, which will cover how an omnichannel retailer can reverse its fortunes and move from administration to producing a £500m+ return for the business’ shareholders. The session will feature reflective insight, lessons and takeaways from his time at Dreams, as well as strategies for growth and the role of digital and innovation, at every level in the retail organisation, in achieving new KPIs and carving out performance in the new retail landscape.
Logue is just one of the latest retail leaders and trailblazing entrepreneurs confirmed as part of Retail Technology Show’s conference programme. He joins Dragon’s Den investor Steven Bartlett, New Look chairman and ex-Sainsbury’s CEO Mike Coupe, Jeremy Schwartz, the former-CEO of The Body Shop and Pandora, and Ella Mills, Founder of plant-based food and wellness brands, Deliciously Ella.
Matt Bradley, Event Director for the Retail Technology Show, commented:
“Mike is one of the titans of transformation in retail, and has always placed great emphasis on the value of innovation and technology in driving retail success, a vision which is central to the founding principle of the Retail Technology Show. We’re thrilled to have Mike at the show and have no doubt about the depth of insight his session will deliver to our retail visitors.”
Retail Technology Show’s conference programme sees more than 90 retail visionaries take to stage across the two-day event. The six conference tracks will cover topics spanning every aspect of retailers’ operations, showcasing best practice and the innovations needed to drive competitive advantage and change at pace and scale. The leading retailers and brands speaking on Retail Technology Show’s conference programme will join 200+ innovators exhibiting at the event, showcasing the latest cutting-edge technologies to digitally transform retailers’ businesses.
Registration to the event that brings together Europe’s leading tech innovators and most forward-thinking retailers and brands is live. To register to attend for free, visit: https://bit.ly/RTS22prreg


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Modus Games has released a new trailer for the highly anticipated JRPG Cris Tales ahead of the game’s November 17 launch physically and digitally on Switch, PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Stadia for £34.99/€39.99. Cris Tales is available to pre-order now. Narrated by the steel-willed protagonist Crisbell, the new trailer dives deep into her motivations and reveals the catalyst that sets her onto her time-altering quest to save the world from tyranny. Cris Tales will also be releasing on PS5 and Xbox Series X this holiday season.
Alongside new gameplay footage showcasing the game’s stunning environments, the trailer also reveals all-new fast-paced explosive combat scenes as players get a glimpse of two new members of Crisbell’s party, JKR-721 and Zas.
To learn more about Cris Tales, visit www.cristalesgame.com
If you enjoy games and gaming and want more NEWS from the Gaming World Click Here


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Vitamin D Appears to Cut Risk of Dying Early
By Joseph Brownstein
ABC News Medical Unit
In the newest in a line of studies showing the potential value of vitamin D, new research from Johns Hopkins University shows that not getting enough of the so-called "sunshine vitamin" may increase the risk of early death by more than a quarter.
Researchers used data from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and looked at people's vitamin D levels and then death from various causes. While the risk of death for people with low vitamin D from any single cause was only slightly elevated, the broader picture showed a 26 percent increase in death rates.
"[Low] vitamin D levels seem to confer an increased risk of dying from any cause," said Dr. Erin Michos, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, and one of the lead investigators of the study.
She said that the study showed an association between low vitamin D and death from heart disease, and said further study may reveal vitamin D to be a sign of impending heart disease.
Many doctors cite the importance of vitamin D because of the relatively high levels of deficiency among Americans. A 2005 study from Drew University and UCLA showed that more than 41 percent of men and 53 percent of women had mildly or severely deficient levels of vitamin D.
And those chronic deficiencies are why people should monitor vitamin D levels, according to O'Keefe.
"We're not designed to be moles; we're designed to be outdoor creatures," he said. "Prudent sun exposure not only feels good, it's good for vitamin D levels."


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Donald Friese is chief executive of C.R. Laurence, a glass products company that he sold in 2015 to Ireland-based building supplier Oldcastle Building Envelope for $1.3 billion. Friese still owns land underneath all C.R. Laurence facilities in Vernon, a real estate portfolio with an estimated value of $300 million. Friese, No. 51 on the Los Angeles Business Journal’s list of Wealthiest Angelenos, has an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion. He gave his C.R. Laurence employees $86 million in the days after the sale to Oldcastle closed. Friese headed to Los Angeles with $125 in his pocket and joined C.R. Laurence in 1961 as a warehouse worker. He worked his way up the ranks, ultimately becoming the owner and expanding the company’s reach globally.
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Bank invests $2.6m
15 May, 2022, 9:10 pm
The opening of a new BRED Bank branch in Lautoka City marks the beginning of a fresh phase in the development of the city; an expansion of facilities and strengthening of efforts to render financial services to the people of Lautoka both for commercial and retail customers.
President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere noted this when he officially opened the bank’s newest outlet in the Sugar City on Thursday which coincides with the bank’s 10th anniversary celebrations this year.
Ratu Wiliame said the bank’s investment of $2.6 million into this complex which houses the retail branch and corporate business clearly demonstrates its continuing commitment to the economic growth of Lautoka and country as a whole.
“It has improved the landscape of Lautoka and most importantly brings modern banking facilities with its suite of competitive products and services through various channels,” the president said.
“We are well aware that the pandemic has cruelly disrupted our way of life, our businesses and our economy and we have been forced to look beyond our challenges and difficulties for sustainability.
“Amidst all this, I am grateful that the BRED Bank group remains confident to invest and expand its operations in Fiji which essentially represents the reality of government’s ambition to foster economic and social advancement for all Fijians.”
Ratu Wiliame said BRED Bank shareholders recently doubled its capital as an added boost to its Fiji operations demonstrating their commitment and confidence in the Fijian economy.
He informed bank executives and the Lautoka business house representatives that BRED Bank, since its establishment has fostered competition in the market through competitive product pricing and raised the bar in financial services, which has benefited many Fijians.
He added the Banking Without Distance strategy implemented by BRED Bank is very unique as it offers a mix of digital and human experiences: digital, for everything that is transactional and can be carried out without
personally visiting a branch, and human, for a personalised service in a comforting, friendly environment.


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August 30, 2013 BY Brendan Dunne
The Ewing 33 Hi is back in headlines thanks to the news that Ewing Athletics will be issuing a crispy white/gum combination this Fall. You don’t have to wait till then for another chance to pick up a pair at retail though-as there’s been a surprise restock of a previous combo. The Ewing 33 Hi “Georgetown” is up for grabs now for all the Hoyas out there (Or those who are just feeling blue suede sneakers aside from any school affiliation). Continue reading to see the shoes and grab the Ewing 33 Hi “Georgetown” restock now from Ewing Athletics.


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A YORKSHIRE entrepreneur has won a £1.8m contract with a supermarket chain in the Middle East to export a new range of luxury nibbles.
Craig Benton’s preserves, crisps, biscuits and confectionery will be sold under the London Deli Company brand in supermarkets across the Middle East.
He sourced the ingredients from across Yorkshire and the products are manufactured across four sites in the region.
He now plans to set up distribution centres around the UK, starting with a warehouse on the outskirts of York later this year, which he said would create at least 30 jobs.
The London Deli Company is the trading name of export firm Luminar, which Mr Benton set up in 2011 at the age of 24
He is now in talks with companies all over the world, including Europe and India for his products and hopes to launch the brand in China and the US in the middle of this year.
“The brand has just exploded,” he told the Yorkshire Post. “It’s done far better than I expected it to do, everything’s happening at once.”
There are 15 staff employed to make the products across the four manufacturing sites and Mr Benton said two of the lines plan to take on more staff in the next two months.
Mr Benton’s first entrepreneurial venture was at school when he set up a covert tuck shop out of a musical instrument case. He said he was soon earning £100 a day in the playground.
He left school to learn his trade as a brand ambassador and buyer before setting up Luminar. He launched the London Deli Company brand, to appeal to the international market, in 2012.