text:
Coffee exports jump 42 pc in Jan-Apr 2010
Coffee exports from India, Asia's third biggest producer, rose by 42 per cent to 1,00,574 tonnes in the first four months of 2010 on strong global demand and domestic supplies, according to the Coffee Board of India.business Updated: May 02, 2010 10:52 IST
Coffee exports from India, Asia's third biggest producer, rose by 42 per cent to 1,00,574 tonnes in the first four months of 2010 on strong global demand and domestic supplies, according to the Coffee Board of India.
In value terms, coffee exports surged to Rs 1,025 crore during the January-April period of 2010 from Rs 763.38 crore in the same period in 2009, it said.
"Exports have increased due to a rise in demand for robusta variety of coffee and increase in the re-export of processed coffee," an Coffee Board official said.
The country had shipped only 70,843 tonnes of coffee in the same period last year as demand lowered due to global economic recession, he said.
According to the data released by the apex body for promotion and marketing of the crop, export of Arabica stood at 21,734 tonnes, while the shipment of robusta, which is stronger in caffeine content than Arabica, was about 51,173 tonnes during the January-April period of 2010.
The overseas sale of instant coffee stood at 8,670 tonnes, whereas the re-export of processed-coffee was about 18,871 tonnes in the review period.
Companies such as Tata Coffee, Nestle and NKG Jayanti Coffee Pvt Ltd shipped maximum quantity to Italy (27,970 tonnes), Russia (12,646 tonnes) and Germany (9,442 tonnes).
Coffee Exporters Association President Ramesh Rajah said, "Exports are back to normal now as compared to last year. There have been good shipments from December 2009 up to April, thanks to improved demand and higher domestic crop."
However, the big concern is whether India will be able to continue with higher shipments in the coming months with stronger rupee, he noted.
"Strengthening of rupee and hike in ocean freight rates may hit shipments adversely despite higher domestic supplies," he said.
According to the Coffee Board, total output is estimated to be higher at 2.89 lakh tonnes in the 2009-10 coffee year, against 2.62 lakh tonnes last season. The coffee year runs from October to September.
In the October-April period of the 2009-10 year, the country's coffee exports rose to 1,45,352 tonnes, against 1,06,991 tonnes in the same period last year.


text:
The majority of UK consumers (90%) do not believe increased security measures this summer following terrorist attacks will impact their holiday negatively, a new poll reveals.
However, more than one third think the UK should follow France’s lead and adopt similar measures at beaches and tourist spots.
The research shows that one third of British people planning a summer holiday this year welcome increased security measures.
This follows the announcement that some beaches in France will be patrolled by armed police and that a ban that has been imposed on taking large bags on to the beach in Cannes in the wake of last month’s Bastille Day terror attack in Nice which killed 84 people.
The study by global travel deals publisher Travelzoo also found that half of the 1,801 respondents would be prepared to pay at least 5% more for their breaks if it meant extra security, with one fifth saying they would pay as much as 10% or 15% more.
A company spokeswoman said: “Over 17 million British tourists visit France every year so it is extremely important for the country to demonstrate that everything is being done to protect tourists on beaches and in public places.
“While one quarter of those surveyed say armed police on beaches could be off-putting, over a third are in favour of these new security measures, and half are prepared to pay extra for more security on holiday.
“This is significant as, post-Brexit, holidays in Europe this summer will feel more expensive, given the drop in the value of the pound against the euro.”
She added: “Our research shows that long-time favourites Spain and France remain the top destinations for this summer, so it’s reassuring to learn that these recent changes in security are not putting British tourists off.”
Top countries respondents plan to visit this summer:

domain: news


text:
CFO Chris Winfrey said that while video still represents a big chunk of Charter’s overall revenues, less than 5% of sales come from single-play video.
AT&T and its newly named advertising and analytics business Xandr have been touting the potential for combining customer data and targeted TV ads.
After integrating its various brands under one advertising sales organization, Disney is now changing how it approaches client relationships.
Disney was likely not entirely pleased about losing Sky to Comcast, but now the company is seeing an upside.
With Disney's blessing, 21st Century Fox is selling its 39% stake in the U.K.’s Sky to Comcast, which already is buying Sky's publicly traded portion.
The delays around Apple’s original video content strategy are starting to get old and beginning to resemble Dish Network’s own tiresome wireless spectrum land…
Comcast won its fight with 21st Century Fox for Sky, but now it’s taking lumps from analysts for apparently overvaluing the European operator.
Comcast won its weekend auction against 21st Century Fox for U.K. pay TV operator Sky, which sold for an offer price of £17.28 per Sky share.
21st Century Fox and Comcast will have a busy weekend as the two engage in an auction to determine the winner of U.K. pay TV operator Sky.
AMSTERDAM—Netflix has been a growth story for years now, but these days the company’s international aspirations are outpacing its scale in the U.S.


text:
IoT or the Internet of Things is a term that most of you may have heard by now, but there is often a confusion as to what it exactly is.
In human language, it’s simply is a reference to devices that connect to the internet. Most of us associate computers and phones as devices connected to the internet, but, these days everything from your car, watch, and even clothes are or can be connected to the internet.
Increasingly, homes are being termed smart homes, as thanks to technology, you can control your lighting, the temperature of your shower, and talk to an AI bot that can play your music and even substitute as a personal assistant.
Dialog Axiata recently introduced NB-IoT to their 4G LTE Network, becoming the first to launch this technology. NB-IoT is short for NarrowBand IoT, which is an effective way of reducing power consumption, extending range in buildings, increased security and helping in the reduction of component costs, thus paving the way for a more affordable form of IoT and easier deployment in sectors such as agriculture and farming.
One of Sri Lanka’s largest IT companies WS02 released an open source server to remove certain development hurdles local startups faced when developing IoT products.
IoT startups are slowly gathering momentum thanks to the support of crowdfunding platforms like CrowdIsland, and other investors that are keen to see Sri Lankans have the opportunity to experience all new levels of connectivity in their daily lives.
Dialog Axiata has developed their own IoT solution – Smartlife, that will allow users to experience the power of a smartphone right here in Sri Lanka.
What is Connected Home?
Connected Home, a futuristic home automation solution, is one of the many revolutionary solutions introduced under Dialog Smartlife – the latest innovation in digital lifestyle and Internet of Things (IoT).
The Connected Home solution offers an array of plug and play IoT Technology products that allows users to manage a vast array of functionalities within their homes via the use of a single app called Dialog Smartlife.
The Connected Home solutions come with a home security system which includes Door Sensors, Motion Detectors and Sirens as well as temperature, and humidity sensors that remotely monitor home temperature and humidity and allow the controlling of air conditioners using Smart Plugs. All the Connected Home devices can be integrated and controlled via the Dialog Smartlife smartphone app, available on the Google Play and App Store offering versatility and adaptability.
The Connected Home devices will be available at selected Dialog Customer Care Centres in multiple ready-to-purchase kits, which can be self-installed by the customer. The ease of set-up and monitoring offered by the Connected Home solution offers customers unparalleled versatility and convenience. Product bundles for Connected Home solutions start at Rs.35,000 with the ability to customize to suit specific requirements
Benefits of Connected Home
- Remotely control your home appliances from a single app, from anywhere, anytime.
- Secure your home through door sensors, motion detectors and sirens. Activate them remotely and get alerts on your app in case of security breach.
- Saves energy by monitoring temperature and humidity at home, and helps you optimise air conditioning as needed.
- Control multiple devices with a single click on the mobile app using Scene creation.
IoT is still in its infancy in Sri Lanka, and the costs of such systems will be a hurdle in how fast it can be adapted. However, fortunately, there is support within the tech community, and interest among investors to provide the backing that local IoT startups need to launch new and innovative products similar to Dialog’s Connected Home.
For more details visit www.dialog.lk/smartlife
Cover image: medium.com


text:
Samsung has announced that it is launching free-to-play gaming zones in London and New York in partnership with Microsoft at the Microsoft Experience Centers (MEC), and you will be able to play Xbox games on the Samsung Gaming Hub.
The London gaming zone is located at the Microsoft Experience Center in Regent Street and the New York one is located at the Microsoft Experience Center on Fifth Avenue in New York.
Samsung Electronics introduced a new free-to-play “Gaming Zone” with Samsung screens in collaboration with Xbox at Microsoft Experience Centers (MEC) in London and New York.
In June of 2022, Microsoft’s Xbox joined Samsung Gaming Hub,1 the world’s first smart TV platform to include the Xbox App on Smart TVs.2 With this partnership, Samsung Gaming Hub users are now able to stream over 100 high-quality games through the Xbox App by subscribing to “Xbox Game Pass.”
To bring the experience to more gamers, Samsung Electronics has teamed up with Microsoft to introduce a dedicated space where gamers can play their favorite Xbox games on the Samsung Gaming Hub. Multiple Samsung Smart TVs and gaming monitors have been installed in the MEC to provide an exciting and unique gaming experience.
You can find out more details about the Samsung and Microsoft free-to-play gaming zones in London and New York over at Samsung’s website at the link below.
Latest Geeky Gadgets Deals
Disclosure: Some of our articles include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, Geeky Gadgets may earn an affiliate commission. Learn about our Disclosure Policy.


text:
The queen of the runway is back, for one time only. Gisele Bündchen retired from the runway last year, but she's headed back to the place she essentially called home for the Summer 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
After all, she is a Brazilian native.
Women's Wear Daily reports that Tom Brady's wife will strut her stuff during the opening ceremony of the Games at Maracanã Stadium. The moment seemed to big for her to pass up.
Gisele's one-time runway walk comes in the same country that she retired in last year. Her final catwalk gig was at the Colcci show during São Paulo Fashion Week in April 2015.
At the time, she shared a throwback on Instagram of her 14-year-old self at her first gig.
"I am grateful that at 14, I was given the opportunity to start this journey," she said. "Today after 20 years in the industry, it is a privilege to be doing my last fashion show by choice and yet still be working in other facets of the business. #firstrunway #14yearsold."
Tom also posted a tribute to his wife at the same day, sharing a photo of her final walk on Facebook.
"Congratulations Love of my Life. You inspire me every day to be a better person. I am so proud of you and everything you have accomplished on the runway," he wrote. "I have never met someone with more of a will to succeed and determination to overcome any obstacle in the way. You never cease to amaze me. Nobody loves life more than you and your beauty runs much deeper than what the eye can see. I can't wait to see what's next. I love you. #GOAT #thebestisyettocome."
Her retirement has hardly affected her pocketbook. Last September, Forbes said Gisele was the highest-paid model of the year, taking home an astounding $44 million in a one-year time frame. Coming in second: Cara Delevingne and Adriana Lima, who each pulled in $9 million, almost five times less than Gisele.


text:
Hate ads? Download Brave web browser. Fast, secure, built in ad-blocking.
On today's Pocketnow Daily, we talk about the interview with Huawei's CEO, how he is against an Apple ban in China and more.
Marshall has upgraded its Bluetooth speakers and its portable wireless Bluetooth earphones. Details and prices are already available
Active noise-cancelling headphones with up to 13 levels of reduction? Sounds sweet. It will be available from Microsoft this holiday season.
We've been waiting for an update to come for the original OTT TV device from Google and it seems that the radios will be getting a big revamp.
An iPhone and Android vulnerability has been discovered, one that is related to Bluetooth. A hacker could hijack all data transmitted via Bluetooth.
We see three new sides to the Galaxy Note 9 in an official-looking poster and also hear about a price tag coming out of Poland.
The next step up from here is 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of storage. But will it happen in places other than Asia and Benelux?
Samsung's fast-approaching Galaxy Note 9 is all but guaranteed to come to market with an all-new S Pen capable of some neat Bluetooth tricks.
All the Galaxy Note devices up to this point had digitizers that powered the S Pen's input. If actualized, how does this rumor impact usage?
The serial number, SM-G8750, comes very close to another phone that has come up in reportage tracking recently, the SM-G8850.
Turns out customers who bought their Essential Phone and stuck it with Sprint are just now getting the latest and greatest features... but at least it's all at once.
The Google security patches are in place faster than plenty of Pixel phones. Plus, Bluetooth 5 spec improvements are finally here!
Tizen 3.0 wasn't the most friendly software update for the Gear S3.in terms of battery life, so this is gonna be one step to getting that back.
Wireless earbuds have been around for a couple of years now, but they've only come from a few reputable brands. Will OnePlus disrupt this price space?
They may come out in time for the holiday season and perhaps cannibalizing sales of AirPods or any of Apple's Beats products.
Last year, the Android O Developer Preview came in on March 21. Reasonable enough to think that P could follow in that trend. There's even more features to spoil in this post.
The Moto G6, Moto G6 Plus and Moto G6 Play all have Android Oreo, Bluetoth 4.2 and 2:1 displays. Two have one chipset, one have another.
The chipmaker says that this feature is proprietary to items incorporating aptX HD codec and the Snapdragon 845 platform.
The specs are the same as before, but the names may strike closer to the Galaxy S-series' number. It'll be interesting to see the spin on this.
Setting up Google Assistant's hot phrase detection on a Bluetooth earpiece does not seem to produce the results that Pixel 2 users would like to hear.
Google is trying to grab manufacturer partners to pair up quickly with Android devices across Oreo, Nougat and Marshmallow.
The developer preview is out right now and — as Bluetooth audio accessories will be forced into the market — we will need this stat.
Google came to HTC to make the Pixel 2 and went to LG for the Pixel 2 XL. It had several other products at the fore this month, including these earbuds.


text:
The crypto company behind USDC stablecoin, Circle, announced it was acquiring Cybavo, a development firm specializing in security and custody solutions for digital assets. While the deal has not yet been closed, the agreement is final.
Neither company disclosed the price it had negotiated.
Circle intends to leverage the solutions developed by Cybavo and turn them into a new product pillar for USDC holders. At the same time, the company hopes that Cybavo’s input will help developers deliver better results by improving the underlying security and blockchain infrastructure.
Cybavo sought to present the news in terms of partnership rather than acquisition, stressing that existing services would still be supported.
“Over time, we will leverage Circle’s technologies and abundant experience to enhance existing functionalities and deliver new product offerings,” the company said in a statement, adding that they were “very optimistic about the future.”
Behind the scenes
Cybavo currently operates an infrastructure-as-a-service business model, with Vault, an institutional crypto wallet and digital asset management platform that uses enhanced security measures, as the flagship product. For retail crypto customers, Cybavo offers a wallet mobile app and an Ethereum 2.0 staking platform.
It remains unclear which of those products would become part of Circle's new pillar, and whether any would continue to be provided under the existing brand.
Cybavo's institutional customers include crypto exchanges, NFT marketplaces, and crypto wallet providers, including Taiwan-based ACE trading platform and NFT marketplace Xtingles. In total, the company claims to have onboarded over 60 crypto enterprises.
Last year, the company raised $4 million in a seed financing round led by 500 Startups, with additional support from New Economy Ventures, H&D Asset Management Company, and Taiwan Startup Stadium. Cybavo is also a member of the Singapore Fintech Association.
Circle on a roll
The move could presage Circle's plans to expand the reach of USDC as the collapse of Terra boosted the crypto community’s confidence in collateralized stablecoins.
Just days ago, crypto companies like Circle or Tether were further emboldened by the freshly released draft of the Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which seeks to promote stablecoins fully backed by cash or highly liquid assets as “faster, more secure means of payments” than the dollar.
The draft eased the concerns expressed by many as SEC Chair Gary Gensler and US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen hinted at the possibility of introducing more robust stablecoin regulations following the meltdown of Terra.
While the acquisition of Cybavo could well have begun before the mood in the crypto community shifted in favor of collateralized stablecoins like USDC, Circle has every right to feel confident.
Earlier this year, the company announced it had reached a deal with BNY Mellon, the largest custodian bank in the world, making it the primary custodian for the USDC reserves. According to Circle, all of its reserve assets are either in cash or cash equivalents.
The acquisition of Cybavo also sets the stage for Circle’s conference, Converge22, scheduled for September in San Francisco. The event is expected to bring together crypto natives, Web3 entrepreneurs and developers, as well as TradFi leaders, policymakers and NGOs.


text:
PayPal unveiled its new PayPal Here, a small business mobile payment system. First shown on Thursday, it’s a combination of a free mobile app and thumb-sized card reader, putting a PayPal cash register in the pocket of anybody who wants one.
“When PayPal does something it doesn’t start small … PayPal does things globally,” said eBay CEO John Donahoe shortly before unveiling the app, and something that’s likely to give the company an advantage over the competition. The company launched PayPal Here Thursday at select merchants in the United States, Canada, Australia and Hong Kong, with plans to be available to any merchant who is interested in the service soon.
PayPal as a whole is now available in 190 markets and supports 25 different currencies. The service has tons of room to grow, and PayPal already has the customer base in place to make that growth happen quickly.
PayPal’s triangular dongle for accepting swiped credit card transactions fits in the headphone jack of any iPhone or Android handset. Its front slides down slightly to “lock” the reader in place — a characteristic PayPal feels is an advantage over Square, its cube-shaped counterpart.
While the ability to swipe cards is certainly a standout feature, the PayPal Here app is also capable of accepting check and credit card purchases by capturing photos of the check or card in question, and the app can also be used to keep track of cash transactions.
If your business is one that bills customers, then the app also has a sleek interface for creating invoices that can be sent to customers via email and paid using a PayPal account or any credit card.
In addition to offering merchants a new option for accepting payments, PayPal also announced an updated version of its consumer mobile app Thursday. The updated app allows you to find local businesses that accept PayPal payments, check-in at a business, and then simply say “Charge My PayPal” when it comes time to pay.
Integrated with PayPal Here, merchants will be able to see a photo of you and your name in the PayPal Here app, and can charge your purchases by tapping your picture. The entire process is simple and straightforward, with the best part being that merchants are using the same app to take PayPal payments as they are cash, check, and credit card transactions — it all works together.
If you’re already familiar with Square and the Square Register, then a lot of the features of PayPal Here and the updated PayPal app are going to look pretty familiar.
We were able to spend hands-on time with both apps, and used the updated consumer app -– which you can grab for iPhone today — to make an all-important purchase for our San Francisco office at Kara’s Cupcakes. Check out the gallery below for a look, and let us know what you think about PayPal Here in the comments.
A blue triangle-shaped dongle allows you to accept swiped credit card payments using the PayPal Here app
PayPal will take on Square with a mobile payment dongle that will let business owners process credit card payments via their smartphones, according to a news report.
GigaOm claims that PayPal will announce the solution on Thursday. The report, which cites “sources we’ve talked to who are familiar with PayPal’s plans,” says the dongle will be shaped like a triangle and vie not just with Square, but with Intuit’s GoPayment and Verifone’s PAYware as well.
Reps from PayPal could not be reached for comment on the report.
Such a move is plausible in light of PayPal’s recent forays into offline payment systems. In November, the eBay-owned company announced PayPal Wallet, a card that lets consumers pay from multiple accounts, store and use gift cards, access special offers and store receipts. That product is expected to roll out some time this year. PayPal has also rolled out a program that lets shoppers use its service in more than 2,000 Home Depot stores. The company plans to enlist more than 20 retailers to that program by year’s end.
Meanwhile, Square, which is run by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, has demonstrated how fertile the market is for small business-based mobile payment solutions. The company is now processing $4 billion worth of payments and added its 1 millionth small business customer in December. In addition, Square is colonizing new areas of commerce, including New York taxis. The company also introduced an iPad app this month that aims to supplant traditional cash registers.
Facebook has inked deals with some top wireless carriers to facilitate mobile payments, the company announced Monday.
The company’s new partners include AT&T, T-Mobile USA and Verizon, among others. Under the new deal, consumers will be able to pay for their Facebook Credits via carrier billing. Speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Facebook chief technology officer Bret Taylor (pictured) said the payments experience on the web is “broken” and added, “Even with operator billing support most require a step called SMS device verification. That means if I’m in the middle of the game and want to pay 99 cents, I have to wait for an SMS to arrive,” according to Inside Facebook.
In a further annoyance, Taylor said that after the SMS arrives, the user has to verify that their device is connected to their Facebook account.
“Then I have to awkwardly memorize the code and resubmit the transactions,” he said. “If I manage to make it this far, then I can finally go back to playing the game.” Facebook reps could not be reached for further comment.
The announcement comes as Facebook is prepping for its $5 billion IPO and is said to be setting its sights on monetizing its mobile operations via advertising. It’s not clear what Facebook’s stake in mobile payments would be. According to reports, Facebook is promising the telecoms a greater share of revenues and influence that the current mobile titans — Apple and Google — offer.
Taylor also told The Telegraph that if Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook today it would be a mobile app, rather than a web-based entity.
Google, PayPal and major credit companies are all making land-grabs for the emerging mobile payments industry. Mobile carriers — used to controlling profits made from mobile phones — want to avoid being squeezed out.
Now, thanks to a startup called BOKU, there’s a mobile payment solution that could satisfy all sides.
The product, BOKU Accounts, works like a debit card issued by your mobile carrier instead of your bank. Users receive an NFC-enabled sticker they can attach to any phone — as well as a mobile-carrier-branded MasterCard.
The financial management of Boku’s product works a little differently than its earlier offering, direct carrier billing. In that product, any purchases made with mobile phone numbers show up on mobile phone bills. The system lets people who don’t have credit cards shop online.
With BOKU Accounts, however, users deposit money into a separate account with their mobile carriers. Credit card providers aren’t cut out of the process. Everybody’s happy.
“[Credit card] networks rely on banks as issuers to attract, retain and manage users,” explains BOKU SVP of Product & Marketing David Yoo. “Banks have limited access to users — well, in relative terms.”
“There are only 2 billion credit cards, according to Nilson Report. However, mobile operators have access to 6 billion users. If the right solution can be worked out, mobile operators can become one of the largest issuing partners of credit card networks in the world.”
That sounds great for credit card companies, but why would a consumer transfer money into a separate account instead of opening a credit card with a bank? BOKU’s value proposition is this: it’s a mobile payment system not tied to specific phones or terminals.
Unlike Google Wallet, which requires an NFC-enabled phone, or the PayPal wallet, which requires merchants to install a software upgrade in their terminals, BOKU works with whatever hardware each party in the transaction happens to have. If the retailer’s terminal isn’t NFC-enabled, that means the customer is just swiping a regular credit card.
What is different is that merchants can communicate with customers before and after the transaction. A BOKU-powered rewards program lets merchants target deals at people who fit specific demographics within a certain proximity. Each time they do so, they pay those customers’ mobile carriers.
Users can set their phones to be alerted when certain types of deals are pushed out. They can also set budgets and be alerted when they approach their limits. If they’re using a feature phone, they get text messages instead of push notifications.
It’s not dissimilar to the deals programs in the Google and PayPal Wallets, but it’s viable on existing hardware.
Beyond that, everyone involved in the payment should be satisfied. The carriers, and BOKU, get paid when merchants send offers; credit cards (for the time being, MasterCard only) get their usual transaction fee from the merchant. And users get something like a real-time Mint with coupons — but not yet.
Not a single carrier is currently offering Boku, though one of them in the UK is running a pilot program. Through its direct carrier billing product, the startup does, however, have relationships with more than 200 of them.
If your carrier were to offer Accounts, would you sign up? Let us know why or why not in the comments.
The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles — it delivers smart mobility services. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
If modern technology is a universal language, the world is getting schooled in innovation, especially in the public transportation sector.
The global transportation industry has become a testing ground for new payment systems, as cutting-edge technologies have been introduced to taxis, buses and trains worldwide to streamline your jaunts around town. From reserving and paying for a cab with an app to purchasing train tickets via an iPod, various countries are experimenting with new ways to reach out to travelers and make payment and transport a whole lot easier.
Israel is already making an impact on the mobile payment industry with an app called Get Taxi, which coordinates cab pickups and payments. Without making a phone call, Get Taxi — which is available for Android, BlackBerryand iPhone devices — allows consumers to get a taxi at the click of a button in less than 30 seconds, as though it were an OpenTable reservation.
Once ordered, users can watch and track the reserved taxi on a smartphone’s map as it comes to pick them up — Get Taxi estimates the time of arrival and displays motion in real time. Much like airline travel, passengers can collect miles for free rides or prizes, and payment can be streamlined by saving your credit card information in the app.
The app has been hailed by Time Out Tel Aviv as app of the year, and the host of popular show Big Brother, Israel Assi Azar, tweeted on Friday that after several failed attempts to hail a taxi, he ordered one through the app that showed up just minutes later.
“We’ve had hundreds of thousands of downloads since the app launched, and the news of the service has gone viral,” says Nimrod May, vice president of offline marketing and strategic partnerships for Get Taxi. “Since you get the driver’s contact information ahead of time, parents feel safe sending their kids in Get Taxi cabs, and passengers also feel less frustrated when waiting for it to arrive since they can see where exactly the taxi is headed from.”
Get Taxi’s innovative concept also benefits the driver, bypassing the need for a dispatcher and welcoming cash, credit cards and business accounts for payment. Drivers are also assigned pick-ups close to their last drop location, so they don’t have to waste time or gas getting to their next location. A five-inch device — which is free for drivers and resembles a GPS system — can be installed in taxis to keep track of the latest reservation requests.
“A main component of the success is that the app is simple, it allows users to get full control over something they didn’t have control over before, and that the experience is optimized and seamless,” May says. “We couldn’t be happier with the results so far.”
Founded in 2010, Get Taxi seeks to reinvent the taxi market in Europe, which is valued at about $22 billion, according to the company. In addition to having a presence in Israel, the app is also available in London. Get Taxi plans to roll out the app in Moscow in March and then has its sights set on Paris, Spain, South Africa and eventually the U.S.
To spread more global awareness, Get Taxi is launching a Guinness Book of World Records initiative called “It’s on the Meter,” which will follow a taxi as it travels three continents, 39 countries, 10 time zones and more than 31,000 miles. Right now, the taxi is in San Francisco and will be headed to New York before it takes a ferry to Europe, Russia and then Sydney, Australia.
“We have already tremendously and positively disrupted an industry that wasn’t being tapped with cutting-edge technology,” May tells Mashable. “We think in the next five years that businesses will either have to keep up with the innovation or cease to exist.”
VeriFone Payment Terminals
In addition to being an early adopter to the GetTaxi app, London is no stranger to being at the forefront of other emerging technologies. In fact, taxi drivers in London were incentivized last year with nearly $5,000 to trade in their old models for newer vehicles that are more eco-friendly and boast state-of-the-art technology, such as back-seat TV sets and mobile payment machines powered by San Jose-based VeriFone that let you swipe or tap credit cards.
VeriFone is one of the most innovative mobile payment providers currently testing the waters with new technologies worldwide. Beyond its experimentation in London, the company recently deployed validator technology on bus systems in Turkey, allowing travelers to tap a pre-paid contractless card, issued by the country’s transportation authority to make jumping on board buses easier and more efficient. VeriFone is also using GPS-tracking on buses, so people waiting at a bus stop know in real-time how soon a bus will arrive.
“The buses in Turkey are equipped with GPS tracking and are constantly reporting their location to Verifone’s system in the cloud,” says VeriFone’s senior vice president of marketing, Paul Rasori. “VeriFone then sends messaging to signage at various bus stops to inform travelers that their ride is only four minutes or so away.”
High-Tech Subway Payment
Taxis and buses aren’t the only modes of transportation getting a taste of new tech. Austrian railway WESTbahn recently rolled out new payment technology onboard its trains with the help of the Apple products and mobile technology provided by VeriFone.
“There is a general trend in mobility with companies taking advantage of consumer mobile devices, such as iPhones, iPads and iPods,” Rasori says. “Customer service representatives on WESTbahn trains carry iPods that fit into a cradle to enable easy payments. It takes the customer service windows away, and it also allows people with near field communication-enabled (NFC) mobile phones to tap their devices to make a payment.”
Wireless carrier China Telecom Beijing Limited Company is also testing a new way to pay for its bus and subway systems with its “e-Surfing Traffic Card” program. The service incorporates a radio frequency user identifier module (UIM) card that integrates with China Telecom’s 3G mobile network and Beijing’s transport cards. To pay for a ride, users just need to swipe their mobile phones at designated spots. It can also be used to pay for products at participating merchants.
“Mobile payments technology has made advancements in the past few years across the globe, and it’s only expected to grow,” Rasori says. “What’s happening overseas will eventually come to the U.S. and in some cases, it’s already started.”
Rasori notes that just five years ago, New York City taxi cabs were cash only. Now with the incorporation of credit card systems attached to TV systems, 60% of fares are now electronic, and there could be more innovation on the way.
“In the future, you will even be able to buy lottery tickets from the back seat of a taxi,” Rasori says. “The capability exists and so does consumer interest, so it’s only a matter of time before we see more innovative technology in the public transportation industry.”
Series Supported by BMW i
The Global Innovation Series is supported by BMW i, a new concept dedicated to providing mobility solutions for the urban environment. It delivers more than purpose-built electric vehicles; it delivers smart mobility services within and beyond the car. Visit bmw-i.com or follow @BMWi on Twitter.
Are you an innovative entrepreneur? Submit your pitch to BMW i Ventures, a mobility and tech venture capital company.
eBay CEO John Donahoe sat down with Mashable CEO and founder Pete Cashmore to talk about the future of ecommerce and mobile commerce at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as part of Mashable and Scribd’s Documented@Davos series.
In 2012, Donahoe expects to see even more people making mobile payments and buying things online on their mobile phones. He said that eBay’s mobile app now boasts 65 million users that did $5 billion in business in 2011. He mentioned that 2,300 cars were purchased every week on the mobile app as well.
“People are shopping in line at Starbucks, or when they’re bored at a meeting in work,” Donahoe said.
Donahoe said that eBay acquired RedLaser, a barcode scanning app that allows users to compare prices in the store with prices online. He added that the app now has the capability to cross-check prices at other stores based on your location.
“The line between e-commerce and retail is blurring rapidly. People are shopping in between retail and online,” he said.
Donahoe also added that PayPal can be used at some stores now, ahead of near field communication (NFC), which he doesn’t believe will be widely adopted until it is standardized.
Do you shop eBay or use apps like RedLaser to find good deals? Tell us in the comments.
Mashable is working with Scribd on a program called Documented@Davos, where we’ll be interviewing young leaders, technology pioneers and forward-thinking organizations to share the important issues being discussed at Davos with everyone online. You can follow along with the hashtag #DavosDocs.
T-Mobile is taking its partnership with mobile payment startup LevelUp a step further by powering phone-enabled payment terminals for its merchants.
These terminals, which come in nifty shoebox-sized kits and can be ordered on the LevelUp website, are really just phone docking stations that come with custom LG smartphones. The phone runs a version of Android that can only processes LevelUp payments. LevelUp users will pay at the new terminals by scanning a LevelUp QR code on their own phones.
Users don’t store any money within a LevelUp account. Rather, they link a credit or debit card to their accounts the same way that Starbucks links a gift card to its app. Merchants can add rewards to LevelUp that are already waiting for customers the first time that they use the app, and customers earn free credit at that merchant every time they spend money there using the app.
The startup’s 1,200 merchant locations have been using either the merchant app or another type of T-Mobile merchant solution to scan the QR codes the payment app generates. They can still use the app, but the new docking station gives LevelUp a place on the counter and some service advantages. A monitoring program, for instance, lets LevelUp know when a station is uncharged or not working so it can alert the merchant.
T-Mobile and LevelUp will charge merchants $25 per month to use a payment terminal. The fee makes sense for merchants, LevelUp CEO Seth Priebatsch says, because they’re saving money on processing fees every time a customer uses the app. LevelUp charges a flat 2% processing fee for transactions, which is favorable to most credit and debit cards. It has also dropped the $55 monthly fee it once charged in addition to the processing fee.
At the same time, LevelUp provides an instant mobile loyalty card program for businesses that, unlike Starbucks, can’t afford to build their own app.
But wait. How does LevelUp end up charging a lower transaction fee than credit cards? In the end, isn’t it just charging the cards that customers link to their accounts? Well, yes. But here’s the trick: It gets a better rate than than most merchants. Priebatsch says it’s partly a matter of removing some of the risk. Customers have no payment information stored on their phones, just a QR code. Merchants don’t acquire any payment information when they scan the code. And LevelUp doesn’t need to store any payment information in order to process it. The QR code is just a token.
“As a nerd, it makes me really happy,” he says. “It’s how secure file sharing works, but it’s never really been applied to payments.”
Being a connector between payment sources could have another advantage as well. In the future, LevelUp could link your account not to a credit card, but directly to your bank account or even, let’s say, your T-Mobile phone bill.
If you’re an entrepreneur in the retail sector, you’ve no doubt heard the following phrase that has brought many transactions to a grinding halt: “Do you take credit cards?”
If the answer is no, all the goodwill in the world won’t help you. These days, people just don’t carry that much cash around with them. That was the situation that Chip Forsythe encountered last year. Forsythe is one of the founders of Slo Down Wines, a San Francisco vintner. Forsythe started the company with two college buddies. Having no budget to speak of, he soon found the company’s primary marketing vehicle — wine shows — was quickly depleting their resources.
By Forsythe’s estimation, each show would cost around $300 or so to participate in. Then the company would distribute hundreds of dollars in wine for free. What was frustrating was that people at the shows appeared interested in buying Slo Down’s wines, but didn’t have cash. Last year, Forsythe’s younger brother told him about Square, a free device and app that let you process credit cards on your smartphone. It was a huge change.
“We went from losing money at the shows to making thousands of dollars,” he says. Fair enough, but why didn’t Forsythe just go the traditional route and get a merchant account with one of the credit card companies? “It seemed too beyond us,” he says. “We didn’t have any money.”
It’s hard to turn down free, though. Square entices vendors like Slo Down by sending its quarter-size Square reader device free. After that, the company takes a 2.75% cut of every transaction. You can also set up an account pretty quickly, says Katie Baynes, a rep for Square. “We do a credit check, but it’s not a traditional check,” she says.
Launched publicly in October 2010 by Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, Square claimed its 1 millionth vendor in December. While Baynes says the company doesn’t outline which types of companies are using Square, anecdotally at least, it seems to have found a niche among formerly low-tech trades like food trucks, farmer’s markets, dog walkers and Christmas tree vendors, as well as at PTA fundraisers.
About the only knock against the company, at least in the early days, was that it had a limit of $1,000 a week for transactions, ensuring that your business would stay small. However, that limit has now been removed.
At the moment, that doesn’t seem to be a deal-breaker for many. Merchants are happy to pay the relatively small transaction fee (for online-only transactions in which merchants manually enter credit card information, Square gets a 3.5% cut plus an additional 15 cents) and, for its part, Square gets access to lots of sales data. For instance, Square knows the average price of a cappuccino ($3.09 as of April) and the busiest sales day of the week (Saturday).
That data has helped Square rack up $168 million in funding so far. Dorsey’s pitch to investors is simple: There’s a huge market out there of vendors who, for one reason or another, don’t want to get a merchant account, but would be happy to find a way to process credit cards.
Dorsey, of course, isn’t the first one to notice this. PayPal has offered the same kind of payment option for vendors for some time and is now making the move into offline transactions with PayPal Wallet. Over the next year, PayPal hopes to roll out terminals that merchants can use to facilitate payments via a PayPal credit card, typing in a PayPal pin or eventually using an NFC tap. Of course, Google is also eyeing the same space with Google Wallet.
While those technologies are still in their infancy, though, Square is a solution that’s up and running today. That doesn’t mean, however, that Square will look the same a year or two from now. Bob Egan, VP of mobile strategy for Mobiquity, a mobile technology consultancy, says he believes that Square has impressed the major credit card firms by rounding up new customers. Egan believes that at some point, one of the credit card giants may decide to buy Square. At this point, though, they’re just watching it very closely. Says Egan: “They look at Square as a great science project.”
Mobile payment app LevelUp will launch with its first national brand partner, Villa Pizza, on New Years Eve. Members of the annual Time Square New Years Eve mob who use the app to pay at the restaurant can enjoy $10 worth of free pizza while they’re waiting for the ball to drop — regardless of which phone, bank or credit card they’re using.
To cash in on their free slices, users need to link any credit or debit card to their LevelUp accounts. When they get to the restaurant, the app generates a unique QR code at the register that can be scanned with a merchant app to pay. Up to $10 of pizza is on the house, and anything more than that will be charged to their connected accounts.
LevelUp, which was created by check-in game SCVNGR, makes mobile payments more practical by taking NFC hardware out of the equation. It can be used with an iPhone app, Android app or through a mobile website. Google Wallet, by contrast, can only be used by those who have a Citi Mastercard or Google prepaid card and an NFC-enabled phone.
A trickier problem than practicality, however, is getting people interested in using their phones to pay in the first place.
“I don’t think the payment experience is particularly broken,” SCVNGR founder Seth Priebatsch told Mashable. “You need to add something more.”
That’s where the $10 of free pizza comes in. Merchants can add rewards to LevelUp that are already waiting for customers the first time that they use the app. Customers earn free credit at that merchant every time they spend money there using the app. It functions like a loyalty card.
But is that enough to get people scanning their phones instead of their credit cards? T-Mobile is betting on it. They’ve partnered with the startup to provide merchants with scanning hardware that replaces the merchant app and makes it easier to accept LevelUp payments. Since launching in October, the startup has accumulated 100,000 users and teamed up with more than 1,000 merchants in San Francisco, New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
With more than 350 locations, Villa Pizza is their biggest partner merchant yet. If you had plans to be in Time Square on New Years Eve, would LevelUp’s $10 deal persuade you to check it out with your phone?
Starbucks customers apparently are finding buying via mobile as addictive as the company’s coffee.
Less than a year after Starbucks launched an app that allows mobile payments, it has hosted 26 million such transactions on iOS, BlackBerry and Android, according to the chain. One in four Starbucks card transactions is now executed via a Starbucks card and a portion of those are done through mobile.
The mobile-payments initiative has built momentum recently: In the nine weeks after it was released, there were 3 million transactions. But in the past nine weeks, there have been 6 million, says Adam Brotman, SVP and general manager of Starbucks. He adds that New York, Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago and San Jose, Calif., are the top cities by volume for mobile purchases.
Brotman declined to say exactly how many people had downloaded the app, except that it’s in the “millions.”
Starbucks presented the stats to emphasize its contention that 2011 was the “year of mobile” for the company. Among other recent highlights was the company’s Cup Magic augmented reality app, which has spurred 450,000 “engagement points” since its November release. An engagement point refers to a use of the app. According to Brotman, 91% of people who downloaded the app used it.
Finally, $110 million has been reloaded to customers’ Starbucks cards via mobile, Brotman says. For comparison’s sake, $2.4 billion was loaded onto Starbucks cards overall in 2011.
When asked why mobile payments seem to have caught on at Starbucks, Brotman said he thought convenience was a major factor. “It’s a faster, easier way to pay,” he said. “We not only developed the feature, but we also rolled out scanners in our locations.”


text:
A federal appeals court has ruled that Apple must face antitrust charges in a lawsuit that alleges that the company monopolized the market for iPhone apps.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday reversed a decision by a lower court and ruled that the app buyers filing the lawsuit are direct purchasers of iPhone apps from Apple, rather than from app developers, and hence have standing to sue. Apple was a distributor of iPhone apps, selling them directly to buyers through its App Store, according to the court.
The proposed class-action lawsuit started in 2011 with the complaint changing several times.
The purchasers object to the 30 percent “surcharge” that they pay to Apple. The company collects 30 percent of the revenue of third-party apps on its store, with the balance going to the developer, in a closed system in which Apple controls which apps can run on an iPhone, according to court records.


text:
Mumbai: India’s richest man and chairman of Reliance Industries Restricted (RIL) is prone to enter the $100 billion membership as soon as once more because the group firm’s inventory has surged. His present web price is $98.7 billion.
RIL’s share worth has risen by about 14 per cent within the final one month. On February 25, the share worth was Rs. 2,283.95 which elevated to Rs. 2616 March 25.
Why RIL share worth jumped?
The share worth is near its all-time excessive of Rs. 2,750. Singapore’s gross refining margin is among the causes behind the share worth soar.
Furthermore, the corporate’s telecom enterprise remained unaffected regardless of geopolitical tensions and inflation as cell telephones have develop into part of the important wants of the individuals.
Reliance Retail Ventures Restricted can be doing effectively. Not too long ago, it acquired 89 per cent stake in Purple Panda Trend Pvt Ltd.
Adani’s wealth additionally elevated
In the meantime, Gautam Adani, the founder and chairman of the Adani Group and India’s second richest particular person, can be prone to enter the $100 billion membership. At current, his web price is $ 96.2 billion.
The share costs of most of its corporations have jumped in latest instances.
The group firm can be exploring the potential of Saudi Arabia partnering with Aramco.
Up to date listing of high 5 billionaires in India
Following is the listing of high 5 billionaires in India.
|Mukesh Ambani||$98.7 B||power|
|gautam adani||$96.2 B||industrial|
|Shiv Nadri||$28.9 B||know-how|
|Cyrus Poonawalla||$24.7 B||Well being care|
|Radhakishan Damani||$19.3 B||retail|
The web price of Shiv Nadar, Cyrus Poonawalla and Radhakrishna Damani is way behind the highest two Indian billionaires.
Alternatively, Ambani and Adani are engaged in a tug of battle for the tag of ‘India’s richest particular person’.


text:
Pedestrians walk by a CVS store on November in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
CVS Health will close 22 “underperforming” drugstores early next year in addition to the 46 stores it shuttered earlier this year, the company said Wednesday in a regulatory filing.
Details of the locations of the stores weren’t immediately disclosed. The company recorded a $96 million impairment charge on its third-quarter earnings related to the 22 stores. It recorded a $135 million charge in the first quarter related to the 46 stores it closed during the second quarter.
Amid upheaval in the industry, CVS executives have said they do not expect “meaningful” store closures.
“When our leases are up for renewal … we will evaluate each and every single one of those locations to determine the best possible outcome for the overall environment from a profit improvement perspective,” CVS Pharmacy President Kevin Hourican said in a June interview.
Still, drugstores are under threat as consumers buy more pharmacy items online and new competitors sell prescription drugs online. Rival Walgreens earlier this year said it would close 200 stores.


text:
JCB in pact with Riyad Bank to expand in Saudi Arabia
JCB International has entered an acquiring partnership with Riyad Bank to enable acceptance of JCB cards at merchant terminals and ATMs throughout Saudi Arabia.
The agreement with Tokyo-based JCB gives the national Saudi Vision 2030 financial inclusion and cashless society a push as a way to increase cardholders in Islamic markets like Bangladesh, Bahrain, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
"I am delighted to announce this partnership in consideration of the Vision 2030 and the ever-closer relationship between Saudi Arabia and Japan," Yoshiki Kaneko, JCB's president and chief operating officer, said in a Monday press release. "Along with the introduction of the tourist visa program last year, which offers visas to citizens of 49 countries, a larger number of JCB cardholders is expected to visit Saudi Arabia on top of our Muslim cardholders in Asia."
JCB sees Saudi Arabia as a prime market for expanding Middle East business, Kaneko said. "I am certain this partnership will benefit both our cardholders and Riyad Bank's merchants for their convenience and in terms of the opportunity with the new payment option," he added.
JCB launched its card business in Japan in 1961 and began expanding worldwide in 1981. The brand says its acceptance network includes 34 million merchants and cash-advance locations globally.
The Japanese credit card network has focused intently the past two years on advancing its presence across borders, working with FIS to advance QR-code based digital wallet payments in Asia and with Viva Wallet to strengthen its merchant base in Europe.
This year, JCB worked with 3C Payments to establish what it was calling a post-pandemic strategy in building card acceptance at hotels, restaurants and parking garages across Europe, starting in Spain.
Riyad Bank services more than 45,000 POS terminals and more than 2,500 ATMs throughout Saudia Arabia, while operating as a major financier and syndicated loan provider in the Middle East.
The bank views the JCB partnership as one that will serve Saudi Arabia well when Japanese cardholders come to the Middle East for travel.
"This move would greatly benefit pilgrims visiting from the Far East, where our partner JCB has a strong presence, and the ever-increasing number of tourists visiting the Kingdom," Mohammed Abo Al-Naja, vice president of corporate banking at Riyad Bank, said in the release. "Furthermore, this complements our strategy and vision to bring to the market the latest and most innovative offerings while addressing the needs of our merchants and the market."


text:
“Apple announced the iOS 12.2 at ‘It’s Show Time’ event at the Steve Jobs Theater yesterday and the software update is already rolling out“
Last night, Apple took to stage at the Steve Jobs Theater to announce a number of services, including the Apple TV+, Apple News+, Apple Arcade Gaming Subscription, and the Apple Card. At the same event, the company also announced iOS 12.2 and macOS Mojave 10.14.4. The former has already started rolling out for Apple devices and 9to5Mac has pointed out an interesting discovery in the software.
According to the publication, there are several illustrations inside the iOS 12.2 and some of these reveal upcoming earphones from Apple. There have been rumours floating around that the Cupertino-based tech giant is gearing up to launch a “truly wireless” version of Beats Powerbeats. The latest iOS 12.2 seems to contain the images of the same and reveal the name to be the ‘Powerbeats Pro’. In terms of design, the Powerbeats Pro looks identical to Powerbeats3 except for the wireless charging case. The charging case looks a lot like the case of AirPods and is designed to charge the earbuds on the go. The imagery shows the Powerbeats Pro in white and black hues.
Earlier rumours have suggested that the Powerbeats Pro will be launched by the company next month, however, the exact date is not known at the moment. The reports also suggest that the new earphones will be equipped with the same upgraded H1 chip as the second-generation AirPods and have the ‘Hey Siri’ support. The user interface of iOS 12.2 also reveals that the Powerbeats Pro will be able to activate the smart assistant by voice command.
Unfortunately, nothing else is known about the upcoming earphones at the moment. Stay tuned in for more updates regarding the upcoming earphones from Apple.


text:
Today’s a happy day for the people at Nintendo. They’ve just announced that the Nintendo DS has surpassed the 50 million sales milestone! That’s right, over 50 million Nintendo DS units have found their ways into various, eager hands – now that’s a success by any measure. Wario’s certainly happy about it. Look at him up there, enjoying his share of the profits and… wait, what’s on his lip? You know what, forget that. Instead, let’s have a look at some of the celebratory announcement straight from the press release itself!
“The Nintendo DS forever changed the gaming landscape, and the fact that consumers continue to embrace the platform is a testament to its value and mass appeal,” said Scott Moffitt, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “Our hand-held story continues with the Nintendo 3DS system, which just had its second consecutive month of growth and enters its first holiday season with a monster lineup of games, including Super Mario 3D Land and Mario Kart 7.”
So there you have it. The Nintendo DS: A smashing success. The Nintendo 3DS: The next smashing success. Or at least that’s what the good people at Nintendo are working on. Congratulations on your success, Nintendo! Now we just need someone to tally up the number of Koopa Troopas collectively slain by Nintendo gamers.


text:
The online gaming industry across India is expected to be valued at Rs 150 billion in CY2024, compared to Rs 120 billion in 2022, according to the latest data by market research firm, Statista. In the last two and a half years, the online gaming industry has grown by leaps and bounds in India, with now it being considered a serious profession. Case in point, India recorded about 390 million online gamers in 2021, thereby clocking an eight percent growth from the previous year. Interestingly, about 95 million gamers reportedly paid to play last year. The total number of gamers is likely to reach over 450 million by 2023, stated the report.
With the total number of smartphone users in India expected to reach 931.3 million by end of CY22, the mobile gaming market across India is projected to account for about 50.5% of the gaming industry. The sector had a market share of around 49% in 2016. Meanwhile, the PC gaming market is also been growing thanks to the rise of AAA games and other advanced games. The value of the PC gaming market is projected to reach about $106 million in CY22, marking a significant increase from about $84 million in CY16.
In the last two and half years, all kinds of genres of online games have seen an uptick. From real money to casual gaming, fantasy gaming, Esports – all genres seem to have found their share of users as well as revenue. In the third edition of the India Gaming Summit – we try to find out the next steps ahead for the gaming industry in India – this includes creating a viable business model, taking gaming to more people including women and making it more accessible and affordable. Additionally, it will focus on helping the gaming developer community build many more news games for a broader audience.
The Summit saw names such as Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India; Vinay Thakur, MD, National Informatics Centre, Government of India; Abhishek Ravi, chief information officer, Dream Sports; Arvind Neelakantan, tech evangelist, Epic Games; Kishore Kichili, senior vice president, Games and country head, Zynga India; Mohit Sureka, founder and CEO, Spiel Studios, among others.
“If you look at NFT economy, it has lost a lot of value in the last six months,” Roby John, co-founder, SuperGaming and Tegro, said.
“With the coming of Web3.0, we are able to own things on the Internet,” Farheen Ahmad, founder and CEO, Interality, added.
“Innovation in the business process, product or marketing is key to bring down cost of customer acquisition (CAC) in the gaming industry,” Saurabh Gupta, co-founder, Tamasha, said.
“Gaming in India is seeing a lot of interest from investors in the last two years. The ability to create liquidity is much higher in the sector,” Salone Sehgal, founding general partner, Lumikai Fund, said at the India Gaming Summit, 2022.
“With gaming, brands can be sure of the attention of the consumers,” Laxmi Khanolkar, co-founder and CEO, Apar Games, stated.
“There are four billion gamers around the world. That's the most diverse group on the Internet,” Gaurav Agarwal, co-founder, Gamezop, noted.
As per Mohit Sureka, founder and CEO, Spiel Studios, brands are using games for advertising and integration. “This is going to go further,” he stated.
“For us, we saw a lot of people started converting into paying users during the pandemic,” Keerti Singh, co-founder and vice president, growth, Octathorpe Web Consultants, stated.
“Post the pandemic, people do want to play more social games,” Sharan Tulsiani, co-founder, Jetapult, said at the India Gaming Summit 2022.
“Brands in India have still not come to terms with engagement in gaming. They tend to focus on view counts instead,” Ninad Chhaya, co-founder and chief metaverse officer, GoPhygital, stated.
“There are two types of AR– mobile AR and wearable AR and there exists a huge difference between the entry points for VR and AR,” Pushpak Kypuram, co-founder and director, NextMeet, stated.
“Talent has been and continues to be an issue in the industry on the developers’ side,” Siddharth Jain, chief creative director, Playware Studios Asia, said.
“Gaming is not bad if done in moderation,” Anurag Khurana, founder and CEO, Newgen Gaming, stated.
There has to be recognistion from the Govt because infrastructure for Esports is ready, says Pranav Panpalia, founder, OpraahFx, added.
“NFT is a way for Esports player to monetise. We are on the verge where NFT will be main revenue stream for Esports player,” Yash Bhanushali, founder, Orangutan, said.
“When it comes to gaming and metaverse, it is more immersive, interactive and brings assorted tools to any gamer. People here will be accepting it faster,” Supreet Raju, co-founder, OneRare, stated at the India Gaming Summit.
“If at all you go to 28% taxation, it becomes difficult for SMEs. Furthermore, higher taxation rate brings up the underground market and player protection becomes an issue,” Gowree Gokhale, partner, Nishith Desai Associates, stated at the India Gaming Summit, 2022.
We should have a lower rate of taxation as it ensures compliance, L Badri Narayanan, executive partner, Lakshmikumaran and Sridharan, said.
“The Govt has been very keen in terms of getting views and comments regarding the regulations. We look forward to great cooperation in working towards the growth of this industry. We are serious about the fact this industry requires a soft touch regulation,” Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, stated.
“The gaming industry requires a push not only from people but also the Govt. The Govt has constituted an Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics (AVGC) promotion task force,” Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, said.
“Money is never short for coming to the table when it comes to the gaming industry. They are far beyond what they were five or ten years ago,” Biren Ghose, country head, Technicolor India, said.
“If you look at the Indian market from a user perspective, there is so much potential. There is a lot of interest that we see from businesses across telecom, technology, all of them are now taking a far more bigger interest in gaming. India is a mobile first market. This uniqueness and the ability to create content relevant to cater to that audience is key,” Sameer Barde, CEO, E-Gaming Federation, said.
“Gaming is going to be the single largest source of revenue. We need to keep our passion and make constant revision of policies that come into play so that we are more relevant year on year,” Ashish Kulkarni, founder, Punaryug Artvision, stated.
“Gaming is already bigger than box office globally. That is the potential and opportunity in India too,” Munjal Shroff, director and COO, Graphiti Multimedia, stated.
“The gaming industry is going to grow in India and opportunities will come up. Metaverse is a natural progression,” Yogvinder Singh, head, technology, Witzeal Technologies, stated.
“Games are becoming platforms for developer economy. We are seeing developer economy growing,” Arvind Neelakantan, tech evangelist, Epic Games, said.
“The gaming industry has a lot of potential. To have the skill gap demand fulfilled, we have to train people, and secondly, it is important to engage with global talents,” Abhishek Ravi, chief information officer, Dream Sports, said.
“The future of gaming is going to be virtual reality (VR),” Seemant Shankar, executive director and CTO (SportsUnity), Nazara Technologies, said.
“As the monetisation opportunities become a lot more stronger, more people have begun considering gaming as a serious career option,” Khalid Wani, senior director, sales, India, Western Digital, said.
“PC gaming did not gain popularity due to lack of enablers for the masses,” Nitin Goel, country manager, India Sub-Continent, Gameloft, said.
“Indie video games are on the rise in the U.S. 38% of the gamers in the age of 10-20 years in key video game markets have played proto-metaverse game in 2021. The average metaverse player is significantly younger than the average gamer,” Vinay Thakur, MD, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, added.
“In FY21, the revenue of the Esports industry in India was valued at around Rs 2.5 billion. The mobile gaming sector is projected to account for about 50.5% of the gaming industry by 2022,” Vinay Thakur, MD, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, highlighted.
“India has 42 crore active gamers. With the roll out of 5G, cloud enablement, increasing penetration of mobile phones in the country, the sector is expected to grow to a great extent,” Vinay Thakur, MD, National Informatics Centre, Government of India, stated.
India recorded about 390 million online gamers in 2021. As per EY’s latest report Game On!, presently, about 4% of mobile games available on the Play Store are from Indian publishers. Sanjay Sindhwani, chief executive officer, The Indian Express Online Media, said at the India Gaming Summit, 2022


text:
With a mission to define a new genre of casual, community-focused multiplayer puzzle games, Turkish mobile game studio Magic Games has raised more than $5 million in seed funding led by the Makers Fund, with participation from Fırat Ileri, Hummingbird Ventures.
Founded by former Peak Games leaders Çağrı Öztürk, Rüya Çelikcan and Mert Kasar, and joined by senior industry leaders Murat Özçelik, Anıl Sert and Orhan Tuç, Magic Games is building a new genre of casual, social-first multiplayer puzzle games.
“Our company builds around the belief that social interactions are the key to deepening and enriching our shared gameplay experience,” said Çağrı Öztürk, CEO and co-founder, Magic Games. “We believe that in-game communities can transform the way that our users play with and against each other – creating friendly camaraderie out of competition. Social features are integral to our development cycle as we work to build multiplayer games that anyone can enjoy.”
Magic Games stated that the company is currently seeking talented artists and developers to work on its first game, a new social title with a match-3 core in development.
“We were immediately drawn to Magic Games’ ambition of creating match-3 puzzle games that blend community features with multiplayer elements.” said Curtis Urbanowicz, Makers Fund lead on the deal. “Çağrı and his team have built world class games in this genre before, and we think the casual games market is going to love the fresh perspective that they’re bringing to this next chapter.”


text:
Time Warner Cable Loses 155,000 TV Customers
Supposedly mythical cord cutters not so mythical...
by Karl Bode 08:09AM Thursday Nov 04 2010 Tipped by FFH
Time Warner Cable is the latest company to release third quarter earnings
, and while profits grew thanks to price increases, the company's earnings highlights that cord cutting is certainly no myth. On the heels of Comcast reporting they lost 275,000 subscribers
, Time Warner Cable says they lost 155,000 video subscribers on the quarter, including digital -- which usually sees gains. That's compared to 64,000 losses last year at this time, when the economy was technically considered to be worse (the economy is traditionally the top reason given by cable execs for this new loss trend). On the other hand, Time Warner added 104,000 broadband customers and 34,000 digital voice customers. As for those lost TV customers, like Comcast, Time Warner Cable is apparently content to believe they're not real


text:
Older people who use the internet every day are more likely to be socially isolated than those who go online less frequently, a study has suggested.
Researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) examined data from 4,492 adults in England with an average age of 64, and found those who went online either once a week or month were less likely to be socially isolated than those who used it daily.
- UK missed ‘critical moment’ to stop coronavirus after cutting back testing
- All the changes to lockdown announced
- Why you’re less likely to catch coronavirus outside than indoors, according to experts
- Who can book a coronavirus under new UK rules – and how to get one
- Anosmia and coronavirus: Why loss of smell and taste was added to the official symptoms list
Searching for information, sending emails and shopping were the most common online activities for more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of respondents who went online every day. More frequent web users were more likely to use a smartphone, while those logging on less often were more likely to use laptops.
Interestingly, those who used the internet every day reported similar levels of social isolation, which takes into consideration a person’s relationships, the number and diversity of the people they socialise with and how frequently, as people who never went online.
Close to nine in 10 (87 per cent) of adults in Great Britain used the internet daily or almost every day in 2019. While almost all adults aged between 16 and 44 went online every day or most days (99 per cent), this fell to 61 per cent among adults aged 65 years old or over, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The study, which was conducted before the Government introduced social-distancing measures or the nationwide lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19, was published in journal Ageing and Society.
Its findings suggest that older adults who use the internet less frequently may have a better handle on balancing interactions between their real-world and online contacts, with many too busy to go online every day, lead author Stephanie Stockwell, a PhD student at the Cambridge Centre for Sport and Exercise Sciences at ARU, said.
“We were surprised that daily internet users recorded similar levels of social isolation as those who never use the internet,” she said.
“It might be that many of these people go online to combat their social isolation. Alternatively, going online more frequently might actually cause greater social isolation among some older adults as they reduce their physical contacts.”
An effective tool for reaching older people
While older people with internet access are likely to be going online much more often as a result of the social-distancing restrictions, the study’s findings indicate this is unlikely to improve levels of social isolation, she added.
Senior author Dr Lee Smith, reader in physical activity and public health at ARU, said one positive suggestion from the report is that internet advertising and targeted emails could be an effective, low-cost way of advising older internet users about physical activity or diet during the pandemic.


text:
Leadercabling has just gone live with their new fully fuctional website. Leadercabling went with the platium package with SSL certificates for extra security and a must with Googles new plans.
Quote by Leader cabling
We are proud to announce the launch of a new company Website as part of the ongoing evolution of our company’s brand. This year marks twenty one years of operations. Making it the perfect time to evaluate our company’s brand and logo to ensure it was in sync with who we are and where we are going. After careful consideration, we designed the website, with a more modern look that captures the company’s future direction.
Please Visit www.leadercabling.com.au


text:
[Photo via VCG]
The Beijing Fashion Week is scheduled to take place from September 15 to 22. Over 100 events will be staged at various tourist attractions, including Qianmen Street, Wangfujing Pedestrian Street, and Longfu Cultural Center.
The inaugural show of Beijing Fashion Week, themed "Magnificent Central Axis", will be held on September 15. It will be a collaboration between renowned designer Laurence Xu and JD Fashion.
During the upcoming week, a wide range of exciting events will be taking place at venues across the city. At the Wangfujing venue, fashion brands such as Erdos and Lancy will partner with the Wangfujing Group to host a night of fashion and aesthetics. At the Longfu Cultural Center, new seasonal collections will be unveiled, with an emphasis on innovation and intangible cultural heritage. In addition, pop-up fashion shows will be held at several historical and cultural landmarks, including the Temple of Agriculture, the Liangma River, the Grand Canal in Tongzhou, the National Speed Skating Oval (Ice Ribbon), and Yanqi Lake, infusing these iconic locations with elements of fashion.
Via the online platform, fashion brands from the Netherlands, the UK, and the US will present an interactive fashion experience to the audience through digital showrooms and exhibitions.
During this year's Beijing Fashion Week, the Week Up Exhibition, Fashion Beijing Exhibition, and Beijing Fashion Week International Photography Exhibition will be combined into a single event called the Beijing Fashion Week Expo. This marks the first time these events will be merged. The expo will take place from September 16 to 20 at the Beijing Friendship Store.
(Source: Beijing Daily)


text:
Apple has begun advising developers to opt-in to Family Sharing, a new “family-friendly” program that’s set to officially launch in September with iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite. As reported by Apple Insider, Apple has sent out an email via iTunes Connect asking developers to participate in the program: “With today’s email, Apple is urging developers to agree to the new iOS and Mac Paid Applications Agreement in iTunes Connect regarding Family Sharing. Apparently developers have the option to keep past purchases out of the program, suggesting the same option will be available to future apps as well.”
In the run up to the launch of OS X 10.10 Yosemite and iOS 8, Apple is now asking developers to make their apps available as part of Family Sharing, a new iTunes feature that allows family members to share purchased content. According to AppleInsider reader Gregg, Apple sent out emails via iTunes Connect on Wednesday outlining Family Sharing and asking developers to opt-in to the new program. Unveiled at WWDC 2014 on Monday, Family Sharing lets up to six family members who use the same credit card to share content purchased from the iTunes Store, including the iOS and Mac App Stores. As noted in today’s email, the program allows family members to share photos, a family calendar and even current their locations among devices registered under a single account. In a bid to thwart litigation, Apple also built in parental controls that allows parents to approve purchases and downloads made by their children. Parents have the ability to accept or reject purchases remotely.


text:
Hearing that the Special Vehicle Section 2, Division 2 1 had been called out to Kichijōji in Tokyo, I went to go look.
It has been announced that the animated movie K: Missing Kings to release in Japan on July 12 (Sat.) will first premiere at large-scale anime events overseas.
Figure production is about to enter a new era!
When you hear of a city deeply connected to anime, what city do you think of? Whether it be Akihabara - the otaku paradise, or Ikebukuro which has been flourishing with female otaku lately, or Nagano where one can find rare anime goods, there are many cities in Tokyo that are deeply connected to anime.
Anime songs (anison) from Japan are currently highly popular overseas, with anison singers frequently holding concerts and events. Among these anison singers, one who is picking up considerable attention is Gero.
We give you an exclusive look at the design department of one of Japan’s foremost figure makers, Kotobukiya!
Fans are increasing all over the world! But, what kind of doll is a Pullip?
“Anison is a righteous magic that crosses borders and makes people smile in an instant.” - Shoko Nakagawa
Infiltrating the offices of renowned Japanese figure manufacturer Kotobukiya!
“The current age of otaku culture is a lucky time.” - Shoko Nakagawa
A new TV commercial created to commemorate the release of Hatsune Miku: Project Diva F 2nd, a rhythm-action game that features Vocaloid Hatsune Miku, has created a huge stir.
For otaku who like anime, manga, and games, their home, in particular their bedroom, is a private space where they can showcase the full extent of their fandom through a carefully selected and arranged collection of figures, manga, games, and other otaku goods...
PVs for the opening and ending theme songs, a special screening of a PV of the upcoming live-action movie, and more!
On March 27, the award ceremony was held for the Cartoon Grand Prize, for which recommended works from 2013 are chosen from different categories by mainly bookstore employees. Winning the Grand Prize this year was Kaoru Mori’s manga The Bride’s Stories.
Let’s look at how otaku in Japan celebrate April Fools’ Day!
On March 15, 2014, representatives from Square Enix held an unprecedented event in a Los Angeles art gallery to celebrate the North American release of Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster.
The popular anime is collaborating with the first maid cafe, Cure Maid Cafe. The collaborative cafe, titled Kill la Kill Cafe, is open now until April 6 (Sun).
A “new edited version” of Season 1 will be broadcast on Noitamina in July! Psycho-Pass 2 will begin in October! And this winter, Psycho-Pass the Movie will have a countrywide roadshow release!
Here is everything about anime!
Feb. 14, 2014 07:002
The title and release date of the anime movie adaptation of Space Brothers has been announced. The movie is titled Space Brothers #0 and it will have a countrywide roadshow release on Aug. 9.
Feb. 14, 2014 01:002
On Feb. 7, Namco Bandai Games released an introduction video for two new idols named Sora Kazesawa and Maria Himesato on the official site of its Nintendo 3DS game Aikatsu! Futari no My Princess.
Feb. 13, 2014 13:009
The exhibition event Attack on Titan Survey Corps Museum, which was held in Tokyo and Ikebukuro in 2013 and ended as a huge success, is currently being held at Osaka Nanko ATC.
Feb. 13, 2014 07:006
The worldwide hit online RPG is coming to Japan and becoming an anime. On Feb. 7, NC Japan announced a domestic TV anime adaptation of Blade & Soul that will begin broadcasting in April.
Feb. 13, 2014 01:0016
Winter Wonder Festival 2014 was held on Feb. 9! The venue was colored with tons of beautiful figures!
Feb. 12, 2014 13:003
Tezuka Productions and The National Ballet of Japan are collaborating together. The collaboration came about due to this year being the 60th anniversary of Osamu Tezuka’s work Phoenix, which is considered to be Tezuka’s life work.
Feb. 12, 2014 07:002
Beginning at the Bizen Osafune Japanese Sword Museum in Okayama, the Evangelion and Japanese Swords Exhibition has traveled throughout Japan since 2012 and it’s now heading to Europe.
Feb. 12, 2014 01:182
The new TV anime Keroro will begin broadcasting on the anime specialty channel Animax at 19:00 on March 22.
Feb. 11, 2014 13:0011
The Wake Up, Girls! anime series began broadcasting on Jan. 10. To coincide with the beginning of the series, a film adaptation was released as well. What really sets this project apart though is that the rookie voice actors behind the characters are actually performing as the idol group in the real world!
Feb. 11, 2014 07:000
The release date for the newest movie in the Anpanman series has been decided on.


text: Prices for all grades of gasoline dropped during the past month in Northern and Central California and in Nevada, the California State Automobile Assn. reported. The auto club said it was the first time since August, 1986, that all gas prices have dropped in one month, but unleaded and leaded fuels were up 13 and 15 cents over December, 1986, prices at self-service stations. In a survey of more than 600 retailers, the auto club found unleaded regular self-service gasoline down 0.8 cents and selling at 98 cents a gallon. Leaded regular self-service gasoline was 92 cents, down a penny.


text:
Microsoft has been holding its Office 12 cards close to the vest. But it’s becoming increasingly apparent that there will be some new Office Server products in the company’s next-generation Office suite lineup.
Sources close to Microsoft say the company is well on its way to developing a server version of its desktop Excel spreadsheet product. And Microsoft has been hinting since 2003 that it is strongly considering adding a server version of its Visio charting/diagramming product to its family of Office System products.
The trade magazine CRN reported earlier this week that the Redmond, Wash., company also has a server version of its InfoPath electronic-forms application on the drawing board.
Office 12 is the code name for the next major version of Microsoft’s Office System client and server products. Microsoft has not released a public delivery date for Office 12, but most company watchers are expecting it to ship in the 2006-plus “Longhorn wave” time frame. Microsoft has said Office 12 won’t be tied to Longhorn, however. Office 12 products also are expected to run on older versions of Windows, most likely Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft already offers a handful of server products under its Office System umbrella. Its current Office Servers are Content Management Server, its Web-publishing product; Exchange Server, its e-mail server; Live Communications Server, its enterprise instant-messaging product; Project Server, its project-management offering; and SharePoint Portal Server, its team-collaboration product.
Microsoft corporate vice president Kurt DelBene oversees these products in his role as head of the Microsoft Office Server Group.
It’s unclear what new features and functionality might be part of an Excel Server product. But Visio product manager Jason Bunge told Microsoft Watch last year that company officials were contemplating building a Visio Server, a la Microsoft Project Server. Bunge said such a move might be accompanied by a formal repositioning of Visio, in an attempt to officially rechristen the product as more of a “corporate intelligence” tool, than a traditional charting/diagramming one.
Click here to read about alternatives to Microsoft Office that are looking at server-based applications.
Microsoft declined to discuss Office 12 in any way. When asked about plans to expand the company’s Office family, a spokeswoman issued the following statement: “Today, we’re focused on working hard with partners to deliver the great productivity enhancements in Microsoft Office 2003 and the existing products in the Microsoft Office System. At this point, it’s a little premature to speculate about what might or might not be in future versions of the Office System.”
But according to sources, it’s unlikely that Microsoft will position its new Excel Server or Visio Server products as part of a thin-client solution, obviating the need to run Excel or Visio on the desktop. Instead, sources said, Microsoft is expected to play up the benefits of running Excel or Visio on both the client and server, emphasizing the new collaboration possibilities such “smart client” scenarios would create.
Microsoft already is embarking on a similar “better together” strategy with the next generation of its Visual Studio tools products. When it delivers its Visual Studio 2005 desktop-tool suite by mid-2005, Microsoft also will debut the first server product from its developer division: Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Microsoft is emphasizing that these client and server Visual Studio SKUs are meant to be used together.
Windows and Office are still Microsoft’s biggest cash cows by far. But the teams behind both products are facing similar dilemmas: how to grow revenues in spite of near total U.S. market saturation.
The Windows team has opted to create new Windows SKUs, such as the Windows Starter Edition, Windows Media Center Edition and Windows Tablet PC Edition products. Earlier this month, Microsoft officials also said they are evaluating creating versions of Windows Embedded for specific vertical markets, starting with retail.
The Information Worker unit that oversees Microsoft Office—a product that has more than 90 percent of the Windows desktop office-suite market—is facing a similar challenge.
To read the full story on Microsoft Watch, click here.


text:
Aug 20, 2014
Marketing and Sales Agency is the Driving Force in Changing Perceptions of Marketing in the Pet Industry
Aug 02, 2013
A discount rehab product supplier in Illinois receives countless emails from customers suffering with arthritis on the benefits of Biofreeze.
Jul 04, 2013
Dogs Have Angels Too by Sarah Cavallaro receives IndieReader Discovery Award in the category of Women’s Fiction
Jun 14, 2013
A discount rehab product supplier in Illinois offers low-cost alternative therapeutic rehab products, helping customers in a struggling economy.
May 10, 2013
A discount rehab product supplier in Illinois comments on the komonews.com article, “Lower Back Pain Treatments: Non-Drug Therapies That Work”.
May 01, 2013
A discount rehab product supplier in Illinois discusses the recent trend of lower number of patients visiting physical therapy clinics and chiropractors’ offices for treatment.
Mar 20, 2013
Oak Brook, IL. 2013 – Discount Rehab Supplies located in Oak Brook, IL, comments on the dailyRX.com article, “Cream Versus Pills for Pain”.
Mar 05, 2013
PooPeePads, a leading retailer of training pads for dogs and puppies, has announced the winners of its cutest dog costume contest. The prize for first place was $300 worth of PooPeePads credit!
Feb 13, 2013
A rehab product supplier located in Illinois comments on the article “The 8 Best Physical Therapy Methods Explained”. The article describes when to use hot compresses and what injuries call for cold compresses.
Jan 15, 2013
PooPeePads, a leading retailer of training pads for dogs and puppies, has announced that it has received 100 entries in its cutest dog costume contest since the start of the contest 12/1/12. The prize for first place is $300 in PooPeePads credit!


text:
COVID-19 Information Portal
012 523 5555
July 8, 2020
Swimming upstream against consumer spending trends
On the 5th of March, South Africa confirmed its first coronavirus case and less than a month later, the country had already completed a full week
Do you like it?


text:
Congress approved legislation Friday establishing permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) with Russia and Moldova by a 365-43 vote, showing some ability to work in a bipartisan fashion.
“PNTR with Russia will increase exports and will help create economic growth and jobs here at home,” Michigan Republican Rep. David Camp said in a statement.
The legislation is a repeal of 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment that imposed trade restrictions on non-market, communist economies. Apart from establishing normal trade relations with Russia, the legislation holds Moscow accountable to World Trade Organization human rights standards.
“The strong bipartisan vote is an encouraging sign that the House can work together in balancing the important issues of trade and human rights,” Computer and Communications Industry Association president Ed Black said in a statement.
While the 112th Congress has been criticized for their inability to strike any kind of deal to address critical issues, they have passed trade bills with surprising ease. Trade agreements with Korea, Columbia and Panama all made it through Congress previously.
“Americans increasingly see that trade is an engine of growth and jobs. There’s also a growing recognition that when we stand still on trade, we fall behind,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Thomas J. Donohue said in a statement.
The tech community was particularly pleased with the passage of the bill, as Russia is one of the largest importers of communications technology in Europe, and has pledged to join the Information Technology Agreement, which will exclude tariffs on imported communications products.
“This step by the House is a huge step forward to open this critical market for the U.S. technology sector,” TechAmerica’s senior vice president of federal government affairs Kevin Richards said.
“Russia is an important part of global U.S. business strategy to create and sustain jobs at home by enhancing our long-term competitiveness abroad. Without Russian PNTR status, U.S. technology companies and workers will be left behind our global competitors in this growing and profitable market.”
The U.S. trade deficit with Russia currently exceeds $26 billion, with only $8.3 billion of U.S. exports.
“I urge the Senate to act quickly and pass this important bipartisan legislation so we do not lose out to our foreign competitors,” Camp added in his statement.
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@
Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact firstname.lastname@example.org.