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Spanish tourism lobby Exceltur on Monday predicted that the sector would remain one of the few bright spots this year in a depressing economic environment, but expressed concern about the possible impact of the Costa Concordia cruise ship disaster which unfolded over the weekend.
At a news conference to present the prospects for the sector for this year, the incoming chairman of Exceltur, Fernando Conte, said the "unfortunate" accident off the coast of Italy was "not good" for the sector.
"We will have to wait to see the impact of the Italian cruiser accident on passenger demand over the coming months," Conte said. Barcelona is a major port of call in Mediterranean cruises, but Conte said there are other facets of the tourist industry in the city that are economically far more important.
Exceltur predicted the GDP of the tourism sector this year would grow 0.2 percent after an increase of 2.6 percent last year when the industry generated an additional 2.678 billion euros and created 17,000 jobs.
Last year's performance was boosted by the transfer of tourist from North African destinations because of the unrest there. Exceltur said this factor alone accounted for 1.6 percentage points of last year's growth in output.
Exceltur said Spain should continue to benefit from concerns about destinations in the eastern Mediterranean, albeit to a lesser extent, with domestic tourism remaining depressed because of the economic crisis as Spain is poised to fall back into recession.
The lobby said it was optimistic about the prospects for the high-spending Russian market, while demand from Scandinavian countries is expected to remain firm. The weakness of the euro against the dollar could also favor demand from North and Latin America.
About two-thirds of business people in the sector expect a slight increase in their revenues this year.


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As announced at CES 2018, Intel and AMD have unveiled the result of their partnership which sees the former’s Core i processors coupled with the latter’s Radeon RX Vega GPUs. This is in contrast to last year’s combination of Intel chips and Nvidia graphics. To bring the new duo to the market, HP will be including them in this year’s version of the Spectre x360 15.
Specifically, the new 8th-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors will ship with AMD Radeon RX Vegam M GPUs with 4GB of HMB2 VRAM. Intel says with this new graphics engine, it’ll save space within laptops for more components and even increase battery life. The company also says gaming with the new chips should be twice or thrice as fast a two- or three-year-old gaming laptop. The way graphics are handled on the new GPU has yet to be determined when its coupled with an Intel processor, but real-world testing should commence soon.
As for the Spectre x360 15, it’s nearly identical to last year’s model but with new processors and an added number pad off to the right of the keyboard. Other than that, there’s not much else new. It’ll start at $1,369.99 and will ship beginning this March.

domain: news


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UK company attracts £5m amid growing demand for fraud prevention software as more high profile data breaches hit the headlines
London, 2nd October 2014 – Semafone, a company which develops secure software for call centres taking payments over the phone, is looking to increase the size of its operations following a £4m growth capital investment from BGF (Business Growth Fund) and a further £1m from Octopus Investments and other existing shareholders.
BGF, an independent company established to help the UK’s growing businesses, is investing in Semafone to support delivery of recent large contract wins and expansion in overseas markets.
Semafone’s DTMF masking payment method is patented in the US and UK. It protects credit and debit card data during payments made over the phone and allows call centre operators and other businesses to reduce Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance costs by up to 80 percent. The technology conceals sensitive credit and debit card details as they are keyed in by the customer during a telephone transaction and sends them directly to the bank, by-passing the call centre itself. Semafone also allows the call centre agent to maintain a dialogue with the customer during the transaction process, which reduces abandonment rates and provides a better customer experience than a fully automated service.
The market for Semafone’s product has grown strongly in recent years, driven by high profile data breaches around the world that have dented consumer confidence and the reputation of major companies. The most recent large-scale attack was in September 2014 on US retailer Home Depot, resulting in the theft of 56 million customer records with an estimated “street” value of $3 billion.
Based in Guildford, Semafone employs a team of 38 and was founded by David Jackson and Charles Cooper-Driver in 2009; the board of directors is chaired by David Sear who is also group chief commercial officer at global payment specialist Skrill. The business is on a high growth trajectory, with turnover expected to be circa £5m in its financial year ending December 2014. In May 2014, Semafone became the first vendor to achieve three of the highest levels of accreditation in the payment security industry; PA-DSS, PCI Level 1 certification and being a registered Visa merchant agent.
Semafone’ s software is used by a host of blue-chip customers including Sky, Virgin Holidays, Talk Talk, Aviva Canada and Capita. In October 2013, Semafone signed a partnership contract with BT which will see it become a core part of BT’s call centre technology offering for its corporate customers.
Tim Critchley, CEO of Semafone, commented:
“We are very pleased to have BGF’s support during a pivotal period of growth. Our global collaboration with BT on the BT Secure Contact solution and our expanding customer base, which now reaches four continents, are placing unprecedented demands on the company’s resources. BGF’s investment will help us to deliver these projects successfully as we continue to fulfil our ambitious plans for expansion into the US and further afield.”
BGF investment director Alistair Brew said:
“Semafone is an incredibly exciting company with a market-leading product offering endorsed by major blue chip customers. It is on an impressive growth trajectory, driven by its innovative software and consistently high quality project delivery under Tim Critchley’s strong leadership.
“There is a clear vision for how Semafone will build on its successes to date both in the UK and overseas, and we are delighted to be co-investing alongside existing investors Octopus Investments, who have been long-term backers of the company, to help realise this plan.”
Simon Andrews, Octopus non-executive director, Semafone, said:
“This new investment should allow Tim Critchley and the team at Semafone to accelerate development to take advantage of the substantial opportunities that exist for the Semafone payment platform globally and build on its growing presence in the North American market. Octopus was the first institutional investor into Semafone and we are pleased to continue supporting the business in this investment round.”


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Swipe reveals a new brand called Elite, which will include ‘premium’ smartphones sold exclusively online
India, July 30, 2015: Elite will be an online-only brand under the umbrella brand of Swipe, which plans to bring more premium smartphones to the online customer. The company has revealed plans to launch the first smartphone of the Elite series in the month of August.
After investing a year-and-a-half on research, Swipe is now launching a truly innovative offering that is designed especially for tech-savvy online customers and the aspiring youth. More than 50% of the Indian population is in youth and majority of them have high aspirations of owning a premium lifestyle gadget like a smartphone packed with a multitude of features.
In a marked departure from its traditional sales channels, the new device from Swipe will be sold as an ‘online-only’ property and will be launched exclusively on a leading e-commerce portal soon.
A recent research on the behavior of smartphone buyers from Counterpoint Research’s Market Monitor service has revealed that close to one-fourth (22%) of the total smartphone sold in India were sold online in 2Q15. Mr. Shripal Gandhi, Founder & CEO of Swipe Technologies said “There is a growing demand for our products online and the traction has increased by almost 200% during the last year. With changing purchasing patterns of the smartphone users, Swipe’s upcoming offering through this new brand Elite will be available for sale only on e-commerce websites. The idea is to introduce a premium and superior smartphone that caters to extremely aspirational and tech savvy high-end youth segment.” Swipe is planning to launch phones under the Elite brand every two months after the first launch and it plans to spend a whopping INR 2 million on marketing and promotional activities.
The company has always attracted its users with amazing price points. The smartphones in the Elite series will be priced in the INR 5,000–INR 15,000 range. With this backdrop, it would be interesting to see the actual price of the device that promises a next level of user experience in smartphones.
The countdown has already begun for yet another magnificent offering from Swipe.


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‘It’s a Limbo’: Grad Students, Frustrated by Harvard’s Response to Bullying Complaint, Petition for Reform
Community Groups Promote Vaccine Awareness Among Cambridge Residents of Color
Students Celebrate Upcoming Harvard-Yale Game at CEB Spirit Week
Harvard Epidemiologist Michael Mina Resigns, Appointed Chief Science Officer at eMed
Harvard Likely to Loosen Campus Covid Restrictions in the Spring, Garber Says
Harvard Business School alumni have created a mobile website that seeks to streamline the often difficult task of splitting a restaurant bill.
The startup, called SplitNGo, was developed at the Harvard Innovation Lab as part of its Venture Incubation Program. Restaurants using the service provide a link to the website, on which customers can pay with credit cards directly on their smartphones.
SplitNGo eases dividing up a bill among a group without the need for complicated calculations, according to co-founder Andres Sarmiento. Once the payment is made on the website, the waiter is notified.
“With SplitNGo, you can split your bill among your friends,” Sarmiento said. “You can do it all at the same time. It just takes a few clicks.”
According to co-founder Steve Gorodetskiy, SplitNGo creates a more secure bill-paying system.
“It’s actually more risky to pay the waiter than to pay using SplitNGo,” Gorodetskiy said. “The waiter takes your credit card and disappears. You don’t know what they are doing.”
SplitNGo adopts a more European style of transaction, Gorodetskiy explained.
“In Europe, they bring the payment piece to the table,” he said. “The card never leaves your hand.”
The service will especially benefit restaurants during peak hours of the day by speeding up the flow of customers, Sarmiento said.
“When the restaurant is full and more people are coming, they’re just turning them away. So, by using SplitNGo, restaurants can turn their tables faster without damaging the experience for the customer.”
Christopher C. Muller, a professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration and advisor to the co-founders of SplitNGo, called the product a “win-win-win” for customers, restaurants, and waiters.
“Technology like this can be very impactful to the restaurant industry,” Muller said. Customers benefit from having a seamless restaurant experience, restaurants enjoy increased efficiency, and the waitstaff has more time to serve customers instead of working through the payment process, he said.
One Harvard Square restaurant, Grendel’s Den, has begun offering customers the option of using SplitNGo when paying. Placards on tables at the restaurant direct customers to use the mobile website.
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Health Canada has proposed enacting stricter regulations with regard to advertising vaping products to youth in dépanneurs and convenience stores, online and in public spaces.
Alberta opts to snuff out vaping products while review underway, while it’s yes, no or maybe for other provinces
Health Canada will start testing the emissions of cannabis vapes
More than 20% of U.S. of high school seniors vaped THC in 2019 –study
tap here to see other videos from our team.
Health minister Patty Hajdu recently raised the ire of cannabis-loving Canadians by warning them “not to consume cannabis.”
Under the proposed new rules, vape products could only be advertised at businesses and on websites accessible to adults over the age of majority, and not in any place where they could be “seen or heard by youth.” The products would also feature “new mandatory health warnings” on packaging.
“The Government of Canada is concerned by the rapid rise in youth vaping, and is taking action to address it,” Health Canada noted in a statement Thursday. “Working with other orders of governments, the medical community and other stakeholders, the government will do more to protect youth from the risks of vaping.”
Aside from health warnings, packaging would also have to be child-resistant, and limits would be placed on nicotine content “to ensure that vaping products are not toxic to children” if they are accidentally ingested.
“The latest statistics — which show that vaping has doubled among high school students — are alarming,” Hajdu said in the press release.
“We share the concerns of many parents, medical professionals and health officials. We are working with experts and all Canadians to find ways to prevent youth from vaping. The new measures announced today will help, but there is more to do. We are working on further steps to protect youth and our message remains clear: vaping comes with serious risks,” the minister added.
The proposed regulations will be published starting Dec. 21 for 30 days in the Canada Gazette.
While the new rules apply more to nicotine than cannabis vapes, they are in line with the recent societal pearl-clutching over vaping.
Once viewed as a healthier alternative to smoking, an outbreak of pulmonary illness believed to be caused by contaminated vapes hospitalized nearly 2,500 people in the U.S. this year. In Canada, there were just 14 cases reported.
Authorities suspect the culprit to be additive ingredient vitamin E acetate, which is banned in Canadian vape products.
Want to keep up to date on what’s happening in the world of cannabis? Subscribe to the Cannabis Post newsletter for weekly insights into the industry, what insiders will be talking about and content from across the Postmedia Network.


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COBB COUNTY, Ga. — You don’t have to wait until Black Friday to find good deals this year.
Many stores are offering good deals online — right now.
With all the online sales, stores like Walmart want to make sure your packages arrive on time during this holiday season that’s like no other.
“Well, we looked to get some good, early Christmas gifts and some clothes and whatever good bargains we could get,” shopper Rick Kaht said.
Black Friday shopping has become a tradition in his family. Even in the midst of a pandemic, Kaht told Channel 2′s Justin Wilfon that he wanted to do his holiday shopping the old-fashioned way.
“Well, it’s one of the few things my wife and I can do together. And it was just a nice afternoon to do it. When the rain hit, it was something to do, so we came on up,” Kaht said.
He told Wilfon that he found plenty of good deals at the Kohl’s store in east Cobb County.
Kohl’s is one of many retailers offering big discounts to lure shoppers off their computers and into stores.
“We saved anywhere from 50%, 30%,” Kaht said.
But the National Retail Federation expects more Americans to shop online this holiday season than ever before, with a predicted 20% to 30% increase over last year.
It’s a number that could strain the supply chain and already overburdened retail shipping systems.
So many stores are offering the best deals right now to give themselves more time to get the products to you.
Experts say to shop wisely.
“2020 is the year of the Smart Shopper. That doesn’t mean you’re just going online — that you’re taking a moment to be strategic about what you’re buying, what you’re paying for it, where you’re buying it from and when you want it,” said Connie Guglielmo, editor-in-chief of technology news organization CNET.
Kaht said he’ll do plenty of shopping online too while still finding time for tradition.
“I enjoy trying stuff on and just looking at stuff and just being able handle stuff and seeing people. Just had a great time today,” Kaht said.
Walmart, Kohls, Best Buy and Target are currently offering big online sales.
© 2021 Cox Media Group


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When Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Hornets host NBA All-Star Weekend in 2019, Jordan Brand will mark the occasion with a collection of Carolina-flavored Air Jordan retros.
In addition to the Air Jordan 1 High, the Air Jordan 9 is set to debut in a new UNC-like make-up. While images of the upcoming retro haven't surfaced yet, ZSneakerheadz shared the following mock-up, which indicates something similar to the original "Powder" colorway, but with an infusion of navy blue. The look, however, has not yet been confirmed.
The "All-Star" Jordan 9 Retro is expected to release in Feb. 2019, likely with the standard $190 price tag.
Air Jordan 9 Retro AS
Release Date: Feb. 2019
Color: White/Midnight Navy-University Blue
Style #: 302370-145


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It’s been 85 years since Louis Gasnier’s propaganda film “Reefer Madness” was produced, which helped to spike the public fear toward marijuana and its effects on users. And since that time, the public’s opinion on marijuana use has been mixed.
Skip ahead to 2021, and the number of different perspectives on pot is endless. While some categorize it the same way as other substances, such as alcohol and tobacco, others still feel it is the beginning of a tunnel that leads to further drug use.
Luckily, research has helped to clear marijuana’s name, and medical cannabis is even being used today to address addiction disorders. This has also led to more and more states creating legislation that allows for fully-legalized recreational marijuana.
The following locations allow for adult-use recreational marijuana:
- Alaska (2014)
- Arizona (2020)
- California (2016)
- Colorado (2012)
- Illinois (2019)
- Maine (2016)
- Massachusetss (2016)
- Michigan (2018)
- Montana (2020)
- Nevada (2016)
- New Jersey (2020)
- New Mexico (2021)
- New York (2021)
- Oregon (2014)
- South Dakota (2020)
- Vermont (2018)
- Virginia (2021)
- Washington (2012)
- Washington D.C. (2014)
Despite marijuana remaining illegal on a federal level, states have the ability to govern their own laws in regard to cannabis.
Economic Benefits of Legal Marijuana
For the states that have chosen to legalize, the positive impact on their economy has been well worth the trouble of creating legislation. Aside from the natural and immediate increase in tourist attraction and spending in their state, they are benefitting from:
- Increased tax revenue
- Job openings
- New investment opportunities
Increased Tax Revenue
Back when Colorado and Washington first started allowing for legal marijuana, they described the sales as “better than expected.” But let’s not be fooled: Anyone who’s anyone can tell you that pot will always be in high demand.
A couple of years ago, in 2019, Colorado collected over $300 million in taxes and fees on both recreational and medical marijuana sales. Total sales in the state: Over $1.7 billion.
Across the entire U.S. that year, sales reached a total of $12.2 billion and are projected to be over $30 billion by 2024.
These are some impressive numbers, especially when you consider that less than half of all states in the country allow for recreational cannabis sales. A report from New Frontier, a cannabis analytics company, says that if pot were to be federally legal, it could generate over $100 billion in aggregate federal tax revenue by the year 2025.
Think about everything that goes into creating a new industry. Hard to find a starting point, right? Instead, let’s look at this topic under a microscope.
If you live in a state that has legalized marijuana, you may have noticed that sales for the commodity didn’t begin until a while after legalization occurred. This is due to the setup it takes.
This setup creates numerous new job opportunities, from the planning and building of dispensaries to people running the store and helping educate the public once it’s up and running. The creation of a new industry in any state is going to generate more jobs, which provides more taxable income for the state to put back into the economy.
New Investment Opportunities
Over the past decade, the marijuana industry has slowly been winning over the hearts of investors on a global scale. However, for as long as pot maintains the “illegal” tag from the federal government, it will be difficult to capitalize on the industry’s growth.
Marijuana-related companies are difficult to find on public stock exchanges in the U.S. The majority of successful businesses in the field are based in Canada. However, if and when the day comes that pot becomes legal on a national level in the U.S., all companies will have the ability to list their stocks on U.S. exchanges.
Cannabis as a whole remains a good investment opportunity, and it’s an investment that will pay the highest dividends to the most patient investors.
Marijuana’s Effect on the CBD Industry
Legalized marijuana creates a ripple effect that inevitably reaches the hemp industry. This is because both hemp and marijuana are classified as cannabis, meaning that farmers who grow hemp can also begin to grow marijuana once it’s legal.
This can trend one way or the other for the hemp and CBD industry as a whole.
Recreational marijuana typically goes hand-in-hand with the allowance of high-THC CBD products. This creates a more expansive market for consumers and also creates an additional revenue stream for producers and manufacturers.
The more that cannabis is accepted as a whole, the better it will be for both the marijuana and hemp industries. THC and CBD have very opposing effects, meaning that each has a chance to build its own customer pool and will help market for each other based on association.
In certain areas of the U.S. where CBD products are not as popular, many farmers are inclined to switch to producing marijuana once it’s legalized. This leads to a dramatic decline in hemp production and CBD products.
Unfortunately, THC’s reputation has caused some misinformation throughout the CBD industry, and those who choose not to use CBD currently won’t be any more persuaded once THC products hit the market.
So far, cannabis is off to a great start in 2021. And with marijuana’s national holiday nearing (4/20), more states may decide to join New York, Virginia, and New Mexico in legalizing this year.
Until then, marijuana companies and investors are anxiously awaiting for the U.S. government to federally legalize pot and allow the country to begin benefiting from it similar to how many other countries do. For now, we will all continue to celebrate our victories on a state-by-state basis.
Thanks for reading, and stay safe out there.


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Samsung to Take Apple Patent Case to Supreme Court
Samsung wants the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal regarding on-going patent litigation with Apple. Last week, a federal U.S. court refused to hear Samsung's appeal and upheld a lower court's decision. Taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court is Samsung's last avenue of defense in order to escape paying Apple hundreds of millions of dollars in damages. The original case was decided by a jury in 2012 and awarded Apple more than $1 billion. The total amount of damages has been reduced to about $548 million, but Samsung still wants to avoid paying it. "The questions present issues of enormous importance to patent litigation and the scope of innovation, especially in high-technology industries," said Samsung in paperwork filed this week. The Supreme Court may decide to hear the case in mid 2016.
Supreme Court to Hear Apple v. Samsung Patent Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear Samsung's petition regarding its patent-based litigation with Apple.
Court Blocks Samsung's Attempt to Appeal Apple Ruling
A federal appeals court has shut down Samsung's hopes of overturning a jury verdict that found it guilty of violating Apple's patents. In 2012, a jury found Samsung had willfully violated a number of Apple patents in handsets such as the Galaxy S and S2.
Supreme Court Refusal Means Samsung Owes Apple $120M
The U.S. Supreme Court today said it will not review an appeal made by Samsung to overturn a $120 million fine owed to Apple for violating the latter's patented technology.
Samsung Wants Supreme Court to Decide Patent Case
Samsung hopes the Supreme Court will weigh in on its patent fight with Apple. The company has filed an appeal, asking the high court to review the verdicts reached in Apple's patent-related lawsuit.
Here we go again


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Mac sales surged last month, according to new data from the NPD research group (http://www.npd.com). Sales rose 19%, and the new MacBook line has sold well. Apple is also being adopted by more businesses, notes “24/7 Wall Street” (http://247wallst.com/2010/12/14/apple-and-lenovo-take-pc-growth-lead/).
Toshiba saw November sales improve 22% improvement over October and Lenovo saw a 69% gain. On the other hand, HP saw a 15% dip in sales.


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People earning the federal minimum wage of $7.25 aren’t going out to eat at restaurants because they can’t afford to do so. That’s pretty much true for those who make higher state minimum wages of nine and ten dollars an hours. These people are not taking yoga, piano, or karate lessons. They don’t belong to gyms, and they don’t take part in yoga classes. They purchase few if any new books, and buy clothes at second hand stores, like the local Goodwill. They don’t buy flowers for their mother’s on mother’s day. They’re not purchasing new computers, cameras, tables, chairs, carpets, washing machines, dryers, I-phones, cars, organic food, or houses. They’re not buying a lot of other things.
What good are these people to the economy, other than to provide rich people with cheap labor? Like the idle rich, minimum wage workers barely stimulate demand for goods and services.
What do low wages have to do to with rich people? Low wages boost profits. As a consequence of that, corporate dividends and share prices go up. People who earn less than $100,000 a year own hardly any shares of corporations. The primary beneficiaries of people working at minimum wages go primarily to the rich.
If you raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the people who benefit from this raise will be buying a lot of the things listed above and more, even a house in Detroit, Michigan, and elsewhere, as well.
And all of a sudden, not just large businesses, but small businesses thrive because demand for goods and services is stronger.
Studies over the last fifteen years show that the idea that high wages weakens employment is a myth.
There are two fundamental laws of capitalism. One is something about supply and demand, which is often rigged in favor of those who believe and act upon the golden rule; he who has the gold makes the rules. The other rule, which Henry Ford (the founder of the Ford Motor Company) believed was simple: When people have more money, businesses have more customers, and need more workers.
This explains why the current economic expansion is the worst since the Great Depression in virtually every category having to do with jobs, wages, GNP, and the things that are important to 99 percent of the US population.
Currently, 1 percent of the population has rigged the economic and political games over the last thirty-five years to the point where they have received a legislatively determined 95 percent of all income growth since 2009, the most ever on record. Worse yet, the rich steal 37 percent of all income produced in the United States nowadays, and that figure is growing, and with no end in sight. Rich parasites will soon be larger in terms of total income than their hosts, the 99 percent.
Ever wonder why the economy under President Jimmy Carter produced more jobs, raised wages, and had greater GNP growth on average than any year of the last fifteen with an economy that was ½ the size of today, and with a population that was 60 percent the size of today? The answer is simple.
Back then, the rich only stole 8 percent of the annual income produced in the United States. That means the rest of us earned 92 percent of all the income created in the USA, which meant demand for goods and services was far more plentiful then than today, job growth was greater, and wages for the 99 percent also rose. Under Carter, the economy created 225,000 jobs a month. Over the last fifteen years, 90,000 has been hailed as an outstanding achievement by President George W. Bush, as well as President Obama.
Something clearly is out of whack with the economy, and yes, most of it has to do with the massive corruption of the US government that was unleashed by the Reagan tax cuts. But if income can be massively redistributed from the 99 to the 1 percent, as it has been for the last thirty-five years, then the government can act to redistribute it back to where it belongs, and all for the good of the economy. This can partially be achieved by raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2017.
And don’t tell me corporate America doesn’t have the money. Currently, they’re sitting on 7-8 trillion dollars inside the US, while holding another 7-8 trillion outside the US, because the demand for goods and services is so low they have no reason to invest it in new plant and equipment so as to increase production, which would require workers.
You can go back 150 years and literally find the same people shouting over and over again on behalf of their rich patrons saying the same thing, “If people on the bottom get paid more, it will be bad for them, and they will lose their jobs.” That’s just a polite way of saying, “My patrons and I are rich, you’re poor, and my boss and I want to keep it that way. And besides, it’s good for Wall Street.”
The fact that corporations are sitting on trillions upon trillions of dollars because demand is slack shows the opposite is true. Every one of those trillions of dollars could be used to create jobs if only the demand was there. The years between President Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan also show the same thing.
If you pay people more, they will purchase more, and everybody will be better off, not just a few politically powerful people. Those trillions of dollars will be used to invest in the production of goods and services. Those trillions also show that US corporations are quite capable of paying their employees more, and not just the already rich CEOs.
That’s why it’s long past time to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Besides, if the minimum wage had kept up with productivity (or real inflation) over the last 56 years, the US federal minimum wage would be nearly twenty dollars an hour.


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Image credit: Dr. Florian Glöcklhofer
Lithium-ion batteries have seen widespread success in energy storage applications, but significant efforts are being put into developing the next generation of battery materials that circumvent lithium’s limitations, such as dependence on toxic heavy metals, limited resources and supply chains.
According to a team of researchers from Imperial College London, the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Seoul National University, sodium‐ion batteries are a promising high-performance, low-cost alternative, but the transition to these new batteries is not straightforward and hurdles in this area of research still need to be overcome.
“Sodium-ion batteries are far less developed than lithium-ion batteries, although sodium ions can be a cheaper and greener alternative to lithium ions because sodium is far more abundant in the earth’s crust than lithium,” said one of the study’s lead authors, Dr. Florian Glocklhofer, research associate and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Imperial College.
In a simplified battery cell, energy is generated as a result of flowing electrons, which are generated through chemical reactions that take place on the surface of the battery’s electrodes. In rechargeable batteries, electrical energy from an outside source (i.e., your charger) can reverse the chemical reaction to restore the battery’s charge.
The issue in sodium ion battery development stems from the fact that sodium ions are larger than lithium ions, which means a simple change-over using the same materials as lithium ions batteries — such as graphite anodes — is not possible. “[Their size] makes insertion of these ions into the electrode material of the battery — a process that occurs when charging the battery — more difficult,” said Glocklhofer. “It is significantly more challenging to find suitable electrode materials for sodium-ion batteries than for lithium-ion batteries.”
The team, also led by Professor Jang Wook Choi of Seoul National University, proposes a more organic approach: using macrocycles — rings of molecules that contain carbon and hydrogen atoms — as electrodes.
According to their study, which was recently published in Angewandte Chemie, to date, only a small group of aromatic organic compounds have been found to be suitable as sodium ion anode materials. And while results have been promising in terms of battery capacity, these organic materials suffer from significant degradation during charging or long-term cycling.
“So far, there have been very few studies bringing together research on the synthesis of macrocycles and on battery electrodes,” said Glocklhofer. “This is surprising as macrocyclic molecules can have excellent properties for application as battery electrode materials.”
A recent body of literature has explored the promising redox properties of conjugated macrocycles in battery applications based on their aromaticity, a feature in which cyclic, planar molecules can achieve a higher state of stability through the sharing or delocalization of electrons. According to Glocklhofer, this increases the stability of the charged macrocycles and improves the long-term performance of the battery.
“The second reason [why these macrocycles work so well in this prototype battery] is also related to their cyclic shape; no matter how densely the macrocycles are stacked, there will always be space in the center of these cyclic molecules that can be occupied by sodium ions when charging the battery,” he added.
The team showed that their molecular design afforded organic electrode materials with excellent performance under fast‐charge/discharge conditions and without capacity fading over hundreds of cycles. They also demonstrated that the redox reaction of their macrocycles occurs via a two‐electron reduction, which was shown to improve performance and charging speed.
“We are working to increase the energy capacity of our battery by improving the molecular structure of the macrocycle,” said Glocklhofer when asked about future plans. “This may allow us to triple the capacity. While our current battery already shows very good performance when charged and discharged quickly and does not lose any capacity over hundreds of charge-discharge cycles, its capacity is lower than the capacity of commercial lithium-ion batteries.
“I think our study can spark exciting new developments that can eventually bring organic battery electrodes to the market and contribute to a future green and sustainable economy.”
Reference: S. Eder, et al. ‘Switching between Local and Global Aromaticity in a Conjugated Macrocycle for High‐Performance Organic Sodium‐Ion Battery Anodes.’ Angewandte Chemie International Edition (2020). DOI: 10.1002/anie.202003386


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Have a safe and happy day off, WordPressers!
Author: Lauren Papagalos Page 5 of 26
As part of ongoing efforts to better protect websites running WordPress, this week SiteLock implemented a new feature exclusively for our WordPress customers, called SiteLock Platform Scan for WordPress. Going forward, customers using WordPress on their website will receive a scan that checks for known vulnerabilities in their WordPress plugins, themes and core install.
This weekend I took my first ever trip to Canada for WordCamp Vancouver. This one-day WordCamp took place at the downtown campus of British Columbia Institute of Technology. Among the city skyscrapers, mountain peaks could be seen soaring up in practically every direction. A beautiful city, for sure.
We sat down with Bluehost‘s Lead WordPress Developer Mike Hansen at WordCamp Orange County to talk about what it means to be a core contributor and his role at Bluehost. Mike shares some tips on how those interested in becoming WordPress contributors can get started and a little about his experience contributing.
A special thank you to Yvonne Conway-Williams for her time and participation in the interview for this article.
At a recent WordCamp, I met Yvonne Conway-Williams, a social media marketing expert and front-end web developer. She approached our sponsor booth inquiring about website security. That’s when she said; “I wish I had found SiteLock two years earlier.” Struck by the comment, I asked her what had happened. Conway-Williams shared that on January 30, 2015, she and her husband returned home from a long day to find her client’s website, a local car club, defaced. Instead of her client’s homepage, the website featured a front page promoting and recruiting for ISIS, the terrorist organization.
Darin Wilson founded Bluedge Business Solutions in 2010 after several friends and colleagues reached out to him for help with their businesses. Bluedge is a comprehensive marketing and business development firm specializing in marketing, branding and planning for companies of all sizes. Wilson stands by the Bluedge philosophy for each of his clients: create an effective three-tier marketing plan by synchronizing the client’s goals, sales plan and tactics.
Wilson’s website, bluedgebiz.com, is the face of his firm. The site provides visitors with information about the company’s services and project portfolio. Prospecting clients visit bluedgebiz.com to read and request information. It is very important to Wilson’s business that the site is available to his visitors at all times.
Smallbizapalooza.com is one of three websites founded and run by Ivana Taylor. Taylor brings a passion for small business marketing to her many pursuits, striving to share with others the tools and tips she has learned. The concept for Smallbizapalooza was to create a platform where entrepreneurs could engage with brands and experts who are committed small business success. Taylor describes her goal, “The idea was to open a space where experts could share their success strategies, answer small business questions and entrepreneurs could learn about the best books, brands, tools and strategies that could help them succeed.”
The new school semester has begun and is off to a great start. Your students are engaged, prepared and full of spirit. Ready for their first test, they log in to their online student portal to access the exam. Just as the test is about to begin, the website crashes. Panic ensues among the students, who instantly turn to twitter and email for help.
Here’s what happened: The school did not have proper website security in place and consequently was the target of a data breach that shut down its website. Higher education institutions are attractive and lucrative targets to cybercriminals. In 2015, the education sector was among the top three sectors breached, behind healthcare and retail. College campuses store a wealth of confidential student and faculty data, including medical records, financial information and intellectual property for products and prescription drugs. Some of the most common attacks cybercriminals use to breach higher education institutions are hacking, malware and DDoS attacks.
With 80 percent of the biggest law firms in the country being hacked since 2011, law firms are prime targets for data breaches. This infographic covers why cybercriminals go after law firms, what types of attacks they use and how you can protect your firm from becoming a victim.


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Want to grow in the apparel market according to the npd group, total us women’s apparel retail sales reached $1164 billion last year. Research corridor recently added new report titled plus-size women’s clothing market report - global trends, market share, industry size, growth, opportunities, and market forecast - 2018 – 2026 to its repertoire. The economic impact of the fashion industry according to a report by the california fashion new york is a hub for major fashion publications such as women. Mintel’s clothing and fashion industry reports can help you gain further insight into the clothing and fashion market trends and the report covers all. Inside the economics of your underwear 2,873 shares 1 comment the underwear industry operates much the same way as the clothing industry some companies.
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In the apparel industry three areas for business action in the apparel industry 1 about this report snapshot of women in the global apparel sector and. Need women's clothing stores in california industry data industry statistics are available in these ibisworld us market research reports click here to view. The author is a forbes full-figure women’s clothing the biannual ritual that can serve as the most dramatic expression of an industry that.
According to a new report from mintel the apparel industry is being impacted by an press review copies of the women’s clothing us 2015 report and. In need women's clothing stores of industry data industry statistics are available in these ibisworld us market research reports view it here today. Overview: the us women's clothing stores industry this report provides answers to key questions about the industry. Newest consumer behavior reports and apparel industry analysis market research reports and latest insights from fashion, apparel, footwear, and accessories industry.


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SGB, a authorities-run scheme, allows gold investments in non-bodily type. For the present series of gold bonds, the worth of 1 gram of gold has been stored at Rs three,788, according to a statement by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI is providing a discount of Rs 50 per gram on the original worth to buyers making use of on-line.
Aussie businesses share what they’re doing to fight local weather change
“In many creating and emerging international locations, the central bank is used as an extended arm of the federal government, which results in inflation, forex depreciation, and actual devaluation of financial savings. Breaking financial news, with reports on international inventory markets, private finance, companies and expertise. A German take a look at the world of enterprise from a European angle. We supply stories, business information and evaluation from the world’s most essential financial centers, the important thing markets and leading producers. Industry leaders and executives from the world’s prime 500 corporations are to satisfy in October on the first annual Qingdao Multinationals Summit.
Stay updated with CNBC Business News. – Full-fledged financial market access which includes NSE, Nifty, Sensex, BSE, Bank Nifty, BSE MID CAP, along with Commodity and Currency Markets.
The subscription of SGB Series V will end on October eleven and the settlement date for a similar is October 15. Stock information, finance alerts and extra.
Get the Economic Times advantage to track the latest Business News and Stock Market on the go and make informed choices. Download the Economic Times app and stay updated with unrivalled protection of Stock Market, Business, Finance, Sensex – BSE India, Nifty- NSE India, Personal Finance, Business News and Economy News as they occur. The Economic Times App provides access to the Live News Updates, Latest Market & Business News, India News, Stock Market, Finance, Sensex – BSE India, Nifty- NSE India information anytime and from anywhere. Epichem, a subsidiary of ASX-listed biotech, PharmAust, has been rewarded for its contribution to WA and nominated as the year’s winner of the celebrated WA Industry and Export Awards. The company was acknowledged for its contributions to the worldwide well being and biotechnology sector by offering “finish-to-end” support in drug discovery, with CEO, Dr Martine Keenan, additionally recognised with the Women in International Business Award on the identical ceremony.
The rebate pertains to PharmAust’s clinical testing and trials of its anti-cancer drug, Monepantel and should even apply to PharmAust’s activities overseas. Libra, the planned Facebook cryptocurrency, may help citizens in rising and growing countries to achieve larger monetary autonomy.… Read More


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Honda Rebel 500
Kia Sonet Kia QYI
2020 Hyundai i20
Royal Enfield Meteor 350
Skoda Yeti India
Skoda launches Yeti in India - A go-anywhere Skoda Superb
15/11/2010 - 13:47
The much awaited crossover-SUV from Skoda was officially launched in Delhi today. The launch ceremony happened at hotel Janpath, and unlike all other launches performances and flash lights are abound..
Skoda Yeti priced at 14.98 lakh (ex-showroom Maharashtra)
15/11/2010 - 06:28
IAB brings this first to you! As we speak, journalists in Delhi are bracing for the launch of the much-awaited Skoda Yeti. The car will be available in two trims. Ambient and Elegance. The Yeti..
Official - Skoda to launch Yeti in Delhi on November 15
11/11/2010 - 11:12
Skoda has issued launch invites for the much awaited Yeti to the media. The national launch of the vehicle will be held in Delhi on the 15th and deliveries should start almost immediately. The..
Video - Skoda Yeti Ad in Poland
23/09/2010 - 07:42
The Skoda Yeti is arriving in India over the next few weeks and it will have a 2.0-liter diesel engine currently being used on the Skoda Laura automatic and the Superb. This engine makes 140bhp of..
Skoda Yetival lures enthusiasts, networkers and bloggers
25/05/2010 - 08:12
Skoda India is gearing up for the launch of SUV Yeti in June-July, this year. The Yeti would compete head on with the European and Japanese mid-size sedans. Yesterday, Skoda India organized the..
Skoda Yeti - Launch scheduled for the 2010 Delhi Auto Expo?
26/06/2009 - 20:24
Sources tell us the Skoda Yeti SUV will be Skoda's next big launch in India. The Yeti will be displayed at the country's biggest occasion for car enthusiasts and manufacturers - the 2010 Delhi Auto..
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MG Motor India Adopts Wind Solar Hybrid Energy for its Gujarat Plant
New Honda BigWing Dealership Opens in Bengaluru


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Blockchain startup tZERO, introduced that it has been awarded a patent for a know-how permitting to anchor conventional trades and exchanges to public blockchains.
A blockchain integration for exchanges
The corporate introduced the event in a press launch published on Aug. 6. The patent reportedly describes an integration by the Time Ordered Merkle Epoch (TOME) methodology. The discharge’s creator explains TOME as “a base-layer know-how that makes use of digital signatures to file and confirm time-series knowledge resembling trades, executions and settlements.”
An auditable file of trades
Per the discharge, the newly patented system permits low-latency functions, together with conventional matching engines or personal blockchain ledgers, to be anchored to public blockchains. The agency states that TOME will permit it to shortly register incoming trades in a time-series, calculate hashes and creating an auditable and immutable file of these trades. The corporate additionally claims:
“This technique supplies helpful performance to exchanges and buying and selling venues required to report commerce exercise, in addition to to regulators for audit functions.”
Bringing crypto belongings to conventional exchanges
The corporate additional declared that, at the side of one other system patented by the corporate, TOME permits linkage of the settlement of tokenized blockchain-based securities on a public blockchain with legacy buying and selling methods. Crunchbase estimates tZERO’s annual income to be $8.5 million, and in line with the press launch the agency is a keiretsu firm of Medici Ventures, the blockchain subsidiary of U.S. retail large Overstock.
As Cointelegraph reported on the finish of July, two American inventors have gained a patent for a blockchain-based recording system for firearm knowledge.


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Online retailers are still struggling to make money in the current economic climate although internet sales continue to grow.
Internet garden retailer Crocus this year posted a £1.1m loss on sales of £3.3m for the year to October 2004 and expects to post a loss of £550,000 for the year to October 2005.
Managing director Mark Fane says Christmas figures had been more disappointing than expected: “We hoped to grow by 30 per cent for Christmas this year. Instead we’ve seen 20 per cent growth.”
But he remains optimistic that the firm will break even within the next year. He said: “The latest unpublished management figures show that our turnover is currently around £4.8m and we will show around a £550,000 loss in the year to October 2005. In a year’s time we should be breaking even.”
He said that his private backers retained confidence in the business, which is attracting large numbers of experienced gardeners.
Bourne Valley Garden Centre in Surrey saw sales increase to £1.9m in the year to August 2004 with profits holding at £96,000. Manager Paul Cowland believes consumers want the physical
shopping experience an outlet offers and is not surprised that internet retailers are suffering.
“We have felt slightly threatened by internet retailers but I think consumers realise it doesn’t hold long-term prospects,” he said.
Wych Cross Nurseries saw sales increase to £1.4m with profits up 42 per cent to £170,000.
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Bloody Marys have been a staple of brunch menus as long as there have been brunch menus. But a new wave of bars from New York to Hong Kong has been trying to diversify their cocktail lists by including savory drinks, Read more
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[Webinar on Demand] Sabor Webinar: Unlock Key Insights for Developing Culinary and Snack Products with Latin Flavors
Watch our Sabor in America Webinar: Unlock Key Insights for Developing Culinary…
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Skábma Snowfall Demo Available 1st-7th October
We first spoke about Skábma Snowfall at the beginning of the month and we were interested in the story that Red Stage Entertainment & PID Games had to tell about the indigenous Sámi people of Scandinavia. Today it was announced that a demo of Skábma Snowfall will be available on Steam from tomorrow until 7th October.
Skábma Snowfall stars Áilu, who finds a magical Shamanic Drum and uses it to save his infected homeland, all the while he faces puzzles and challenging platforms to find Familiar Spirits to aid his quest save his homeland. This 3D adventure is set to take us around the wilderness of the Sámi landscape, which spreads across areas of Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia.
The demo for Skábma Snowfall will be released tomorrow – 1st October as part of Steam’s Next Fest and with the unique story and culture the teams aim to spread light upon, this is one game we’re keeping an eye on. We think Skábma Snowfall is one to watch and you can wish list and download the demo from Steam by clicking here. A provisional release date of Early 2022 has been set.


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GameStop is back! It has already surged by 14% in pre-trade hours.
AMAZON: doing well, thank you
Amazon stock is at its all-time highs above $2,400.
Just in case you were cautious about the stock market re-gaining the February-March losses so rapidly, have a look at Amazon stock price.
It’s not only a V-shape recovery – the price crossed the trend resistance line, which would be there if no crisis happened. Amazon simply says “I don’t care, and by the way, thank you” to the virus. It was at $2,190 before the virus, it dropped to $1,636 during the virus, and now it is at $2,400.
There should be someone out there who bought this stock at the bottom of $1,636. Well, now, just with one share of Amazon, this smart trader would have an additional $800 in the current account just out of thin air.
First of all, IT sector of the S&P is generally doing well and probably is among the best sectors in these times. Second, virus restrictions push societies to go more online so Amazon specifically gained from that. Lastly, the company recently announced hiring 75,000 employees, which sound very confident, especially in contrast to the dull economic outlooks voiced around.
On Wednesday, Russia’s department of communications control Roskomnadzor slowed down Twitter’s speed. What does it mean for the stock?
Why do we like Tesla so much? Here is why - check the article.
The Australian economy has been on a steady recovery path, and now we have a very symbolic confirmation that S&P ASX 200 is about to cross 7000!
Jump in to know the latest market news and trade ideas for today!
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand will hold a meeting on Wednesday, April 14, at 05:00 MT.


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HARTSBURG — Scattered showers and dropping temperatures didn't stop Missouri leather-workers from showcasing their handmade creations at the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival.
On Saturday and Sunday, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 people visited the town of just around 100 residents, said Ron Skiles, a sergeant with the Boone County Sheriff's Department and this year's "pumpkin king."
This year's festival brought in 266 vendors, selling goods ranging from homemade salsas to soaps to tutus.
Tom Moyer, 60, of Trapper Tom's Trading Post, has been handcrafting leatherwear for 25 years.
"In 1987, I went to my first rendezvous, and I saw all kinds of stuff being hand made," Moyer, of St. Charles, said. "I got interested in it and decided, 'Well, I can do some of those things.'"
Moyer explained a rendezvous as the "primitive encampment of the trappers back in the 1840s." He said that's where people would buy, sell and trade. A modern day rendezvous entails meeting with others to engage in 19th century-inspired lifestyle and dress and a barter economy.
Moyer purchases his leather from a man in Kentucky, and he buys in bulk — usually about 100 pounds — which keeps the retail prices down.
"I try to get the price down, so that I make a little bit of a profit but not a killing," Moyer said.
He attends about 15 festivals each year to sell his leather goods and animal hides. At the various rendezvous Moyer visits, he often buys animal parts such as antlers or cow bones to use in making handbags and other leather products.
Moyer briefly described the process he took to make a particular black leather handbag.
"I cut my own patterns," Moyer said. "I punch my own holes ... all those holes around here ... it's all my own design. Then, I lace it all up and make it."
Marty Clardy, otherwise known as “Grumpy,” from Paris, Mo., has been in the leather-working business for almost 20 years. Clardy, of Pol-Kat Trading, has been coming to the Hartsburg Pumpkin Festival “90 percent of the time in the last five or six years.”
All of the leather Clardy uses is commercially tanned, as opposed to hand-tanned, he said.
After getting involved in the leather-working business through a friend, he then started traveling to different re-enactments across the country where he sells his leather creations.
“I used to travel from Texas to Minnesota, Wisconsin and the fur trade area,” he said. “There’s a lot of history there.”
It wasn’t until Clardy began working with leather that he developed an interest in the history that is associated with the process.
“I hated history until I started portraying living history,” he said. “It makes it a little bit more fun.”
Supervising editor is Zach Murdock.


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What Brands Can Learn from Trumpism
A few weeks ago, the New York Times carried an article that should be of deep interest to brands. Not because it dealt with Donald Trump—enough has been written about that subject—but because it showed how the Republican Party dealt with the data that was available to it. It turns out that when smart people ignore what the numbers are telling them, it opens the door to major disruption.
In writing this, I want to make it clear that I’m not talking politics or advocating for a candidate. Data errors are a bi-partisan phenomenon, and as Nate Silver has repeatedly pointed out, politics makes us particularly susceptible to them. It’s just that we see brands and even entire industries make the same mistakes.
The outline of the story is the following. Since 2006, the Republican Party has had a solid block of blue-collar voters, particularly in former manufacturing regions under economic stress. In spite of these voters’ tendency to support the party, they did not agree with large parts of its agenda, and in particular on immigration and entitlements. As time went on, the divide became deeper and deeper, until the point where a disruptive innovation, Trumpism, was at hand.
We often think that disruptive innovation requires brilliant insight into human nature and deep technical knowhow. But it also occurs whenever an industry is staring at unsettling data and chooses to ignore it. In that case, what seems like a safe business model suddenly gets blindsided by a disruptive force that paid attention to the data.
This is exactly, of course, what happened to the taxi industry before Uber and Lyft came along. No one liked taxis. Everyone in the industry knew that, but they chose to ignore the problem, so long as their profits were solid. In fact, all through the last decade, medallion prices (otherwise known as taxi licenses) in New York City actually rose until they nearly topped $1 million per cab. Then the new car-hiring services came along, and the collapse was swift. Today, medallion prices have fallen by about half, and customers have departed in droves. If the taxi industry had not been so unconcerned about its customers, it would not have had its Trump moment.
So what do we ignore in data? A few things:
Changes in competitors. Although everyone praises disruption, industries tend to dismiss upstarts until they’re eating their lunch. Today, you need to take a very wide spectrum approach to competition. The barrier to entry in most businesses has fallen dramatically, and a minor threat can quickly metastasize into an existential one.
Changes in what people want. You have to always make sure you understand your customer base. The New York Times article about Trump points out that in the Republican’s successful 2006 election, the party picked up many people disaffected with Obama. But when faced with data about their true concerns, it failed to take them into account. Whenever you do that, you make it easy for your competitors.
Anything other than the main metric. If you’re happy with your sales, but unconcerned about poor customer satisfaction, you may have a big problem. The article points out that while the GOP was aware of voter dissatisfaction, it was comfortable so long as its chosen candidates were getting votes. This is a big no-no. If you ignore the fact that your customers dislike you, you’re rolling out the red carpet for a competitor.
Contradictory evidence. Obviously, there was a lot of anger amongst Trump supporters prior to his arrival, but that seems to have been ignored. Brands have a very similar problem. A 2015 IBM study showed that while most of them believe they deliver a superior customer experience, around two thirds of their customers disagree. This bit of contradictory evidence should have a lot of us worried.
Doing something because everyone else is. Sometimes you stick with the status quo, because that’s just the way it is. Taxis fell into this trap when they ignored things like ease of access, cleanliness, and a friendly experience. After all, didn’t every company in the industry have those problems? Likewise, the Republicans felt fine pursuing policies their constituents disliked—like free trade agreements—because the Democrats had roughly the same position on them.
Whatever happens with the Trump phenomenon, and it’s increasingly looking like a nomination, it serves as a cautionary tale to complacent brands. You can have all the data in the world, but if you find a way to set aside what it’s telling you, you may be setting yourself up for a big fail. Honesty in the face of uncomfortable evidence is usually a much better idea.


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‘Follow the money’ is a common refrain in detective flicks, and if we do the same we can get a great idea of how the Australian finance marketing landscape is changing.
Each year in the Yell Finance Marketing Survey, we ask Australian financial marketers where they are spending their budget, as a barometer to help us understand their priorities and plans for the upcoming 12 months.
First, the good news. Not many budgets are decreasing.
The headline here is that, for most people, budgets aren’t increasing. Nearly 60% will have the same or less budget.
The good news is that only a small proportion (13%) of respondents have less budget next year. It’s these marketers in particular that are the ones that need to be smart with their spend – they can’t continue as they are. Instead, they need to ensure that they concentrate their efforts on the activities that are going to move the needle the most.
45% of respondents answered that they will receive the same budget as this year, and on paper this seems positive. However, with inflation and the ever- increasing number of channels, this could be seen as a decrease in real terms.
The lucky ones are the 41% of respondents whose marketing budgets will increase next year. The key question is where will they be spending their windfall?
Active channels continue to see an increase in spend
As with previous years, the key trend is for ‘active’ channels to be a core area of investment. Websites, paid and organic search, social, email marketing and digital display will all see significant increases.
CX is a new entry into the survey this year, but a huge 60% of people answering that they were increasing their investment.
On the flipside are traditional ‘passive’ channels, including TV, radio and print. A huge proportion of our respondents don’t use them and only a small proportion are increasing their spend. TV and print advertising will see a net reduction in spend, which is indicative of an ongoing decline in those channels.
Content remains the area where the highest percentage of marketers are increasing their spend. In fact, the 77% of respondents increasing their investment is the largest increase in any one area that we’ve recorded in any of our annual surveys.
Supporting that change this year, we’re seeing an increase in focus on the areas complimentary to content. Core digital channels and activities, including website, SEO, email marketing, CX and search are all part of the content ecosystem and see big increases this year.
While the increase in ‘active’, digital marketing channels has been a trend for the last couple of years, it feels that we might be heading towards a tipping point where we have moved away from advertising (‘tell’), towards demonstrating value and expertise through content and ongoing audience engagement (‘show’).


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With the rise of smartphones equipped with GPS, this might not come as much of a surprise to some, but the market for personal navigation devices is down and may never rise again. The latest evidence: TomTom’s recent profit warning in response to declining demand in North America for such devices, which stated, “we now expect this market to be down by about 30% for the year as a whole.”
The decline in Europe is predicted to not be so severe, around 10% according to TomTom. But the staggering decline in PND sales in North America could be an ominous sign for the market as a whole.
According to Patrick Connolly, senior analyst at ABI Research, “TomTom’s US loss may be Garmin’s gain, having had a relatively strong 1Q11 in this region. However, If the market as a whole is feeling this pain, then our forecast of a rapidly declining US market is looking increasingly likely. 2Q is viewed as a strong indicator for overall performance for the year in the US.”
GPS Business News believes that everything lies in Garmin’s next profit statement. If TomTom’s biggest competitor also comes in with numbers that are alarmingly low, the movement of this market to a “niche business” probably isn’t far off.
As for connected devices that provide real-time information on traffic, weather and gas prices, among other things, the future is murky. But TomTom’s the only company selling many such devices, and even then they’re having a hard time getting people to subscribe for connectivity after the free trial period runs out. For example, 30% of the devices TomTom recently sold in Europe have connectivity, but GPS Business News reports, “According to well informed sources, renewal rates of subscription for TomTom Live services on PNDs would be around 15 percent, therefore not such a great success for the Dutch PND maker.”


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Celine outlet reviews 1-800 A new era for C Smith site from Geelong property group Brile for an undisclosed amount.
Mr Stewart said designs for a new development would be shown to the City of Launceston and the Tasmanian Heritage Council on November celine mini tote bag price 21. Contractors are on site after a request from the council to make the area safer, and the work includes the stabilisation of a wall with fabricated steel, new fences and a general tidy up. "We're going celine outlet italy 4 day tours to fix a few things that are damaged but the long term plan is to fix all the existing buildings and do a really nice development there," Mr Stewart said. He said the project would not be a retail precinct or a library, but exact details were not ready to be made public. Picture: Paul Scambler "It needs rejuvenating, it's close to the city, it's celine for sale a good site obviously we've got a bucket of work celine outlet reviews 1-800 and it needs to be a sustainable development," he said. "It's important that what we do fits with the landscape and fits with the existing buildings and we think we can celine black bag price achieve an outcome." He said costs for the development could vary from $10 million to $30 million, but an exact number had yet to be decided.
The complex holds almost two centuries of Launceston's history dating back to the early 1800s, but has sat vacant for more than 20 years. The Launceston City Council has approved multiple applications for the site, including one put forward by former owners Brile to create a retail hub. .
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Besides the fundraising, the company also announced the launching of a MasterCard Platinum credit card that can be controlled from a mobile app
Among the biggest and fastest growing emerging markets, Brazil’s startup investment has lagged behind China and India, which are home to numerous dedicated venture funds of U.S. origins. This round of investment for the FinTech startup might be a sign for a change, as investments in Brazil have mainly focused on companies that mimic successful U.S. e-commerce and social-networking sites.
After Sequoia’s first venture in the German market with its investment in Berlin-based 6Wunderkinder, the American private equity firm has returned to Brazil, after earlier pulling out of the South American region. The current investment suggests that Sequoia remains open to investing in Brazil. Still, there does not appear to be any plans to reopen an office. The firm’s priorities outside of Silicon Valley continue to be focused on Israel, India and China, where they have made numerous investments and have raised multiple successful funds.
The connection between Sequoia and Nubank didn’t come about by coincidence, as David Vélez, founder and CEO of Nubank, used to work for Sequoia as a scout for investment opportunities in South America. It was this work that brought him to thinking about starting his own company in Brazil. Vélez told TechCrunch: “After spending more than two years looking at technology opportunities with Sequoia in Latin America, we got convinced that there were a ton of high quality opportunities for starting tech companies in Brazil, but not in the sectors that most tech companies/entrepreneurs were pursuing,” he says. “I decided to strike on my own because I had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, and as a venture investor I saw more interesting opportunities on the entrepreneur’s side of the table, than in the investor’s side of the table.”
Doug Leone, a key part in Sequoia’s expansion into the BRIC market – specifically in India and China, said earlier: “In Brazil, we see a youthful country, with lots of people who want to innovate and a mass market to receive that. We have seen other businesses in Brazil, and we have seen a lot of look alike models to the U.S., perhaps more than in other geographies. Some of those were interesting but nowhere near as interesting as Nubank.”
Brazil’s Payment Market
Brazil, the economic juggernaut of Latin America, has long been considered for its potential in the financial services industry. Today, getting a credit card in Brazil can take weeks, lots of paperwork, and many visits to the bank, and Nubank wants to swipe all of that away.
According to Vélez: “Financial services is Brazil’s single largest market, but five of the top ten public companies are big banks. At the same time, when you talk to any Brazilian, you realize that there is a significant amount of customer pain and frustration in this industry, particularly among the 100 million Brazilians that are under the age of 29 and want a differentiated banking experience that is friendly, simple, and transparent, and skips the significant layers of bureaucracy.”
Brazil’s credit card market continued to grow in 2014. It accounted for 291 billion Reais ( $121 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2014, a 13.5 percent increase from the same period in 2013, according to the Brazilian Association of Credit Card and Services Companies. In October of 2013, Brazil’s payment industry reached a major milestone with the passage of Law 12.865/2013. The legislation lays out a number of regulations for the sector, minimizing financial market risk, promoting operation stability and formalizing payment institutions.
Besides Nubank, a number of electronic and mobile payment solutions continue to pave the way, including Zoop and PagPop, and other prepaid account payments were initiated. Furthermore, a handful of Brazilian startups are already working on democratizing access to financial services across the country. One of the largest of these players is PagSeguro, which started out as BRpay, and changed its name soon after its acquisition by Brazilian portal UOL in 2007. PagSeguro accepts many method of payments, including ‘boletos’ – bills that users can pay at physical locations – as well as all major credit cards.
Other competitors include the online payment solutions offered by Buscapé Company, which it recently re-branded under the name Bcash to target online commerce in Brazil. The company also owns a separate entity called Pagosonline, which targets the Colombian market.
GuiaBolso, a Mint-style financial management app that has seen some viral popularity in the country, was co-founded by a former exec from Groupon Brazil and a McKinsey alum who had been working with the Brazilian banking industry.
Rocket Internet has also been making a lot of inroads into the country, including launching its Square-style payments platform, Payleven.
According to Vélez, “Nubank is not trying to be the “first” here, just the best. Our story is not about under-penetration of banking. It is about offering credit products to already banked customers that are currently completely overpaying in terms of fees and expenses, and getting a very poor experience in return. Since we don’t have to pay for expensive physical branches or other costly infrastructure, we can pass those savings to our customers in terms of no fees products, lower interest rates, and excellent customer service. Our customers also don’t want to pay for that expensive infrastructure by the way.”
New iPhone and Android app
Besides the strong need in the financial industry, there’s another advantages in Brazil for Nubank. The country’s broadband penetration is huge, and headed largely through smartphone growth. As of today, there are 90 million smartphones in use among Brazil’s population of 200 million, and the numbers are still growing in a fast pace. Furthermore, Brazilians have one of the highest engagement percentages with technology and social media of any country in the world.
In order to take advantage of this growth, Nubank offers a MasterCard Platinum credit card that users can manage through the company’s Android or iOS app.
Nubank’s new app allows you to:
- Request a credit card
- Enable the credit card
- Manage your accounts in real time
- Filter transactions by location, business name and category
- Lock and unlock your credit card
- Change your account settings
- Easy access your invoices
You can download Nubank’s new financial app for your iPhone or Android from the links below:


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Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has begun a three-month trial of facial recognition technology at one of its boarding gates. Passengers register by having their faces, passports and boarding passes scanned, and then use a separate biometric gate to board their plane. Schiphol and Dutch airline KLM say the ultimate goal is “making the boarding process as easy and quick as possible for passengers”.
- Garmin Pay expands to three new smartwatches
- Barclays files blockchain funds transfer and KYC patents
- More than half a billion Chinese consumers now use mobile payments
- Mastercard patent proposes combining blockchain with existing payments systems
- Shoppers prefer Apple Pay over Walmart Pay


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Maryland college students look to ease poverty in Zimbabwe
Bernice Jere’s Tibatane movement seeks to spur business growth in her native land.
Jere has banded together with dozens of other Salisbury students to form Tibatane (pronounced TEE-bah-TAH-nay), a nonprofit organization that is supporting and promoting business growth in Zimbabwe. Of the country’s 13.7 million citizens, 60 percent live in poverty.
“Our mission is to empower the underprivileged population in Zimbabwe to build more sustainable businesses by providing, education, resources, financing, and hands-on support,” says Jere, a senior at Salisbury. “In Shona, a language of Zimbabwe, Tibatane means ‘Together.’ Here at the university, we’re working together to provide a better life for those who need our help.”
Tibatane’s current project is a clothing line that produces casual wear, such as T-shirts, denim items and accessories incorporating imported traditional African fabric. Money raised through clothing sales will be used to create a factory that will hire and train unemployed people from poverty-stricken communities in Zimbabwe. They will be taught how to sew the clothing, initiating a chain of events that will help them become more self-sufficient.
“They will be paid fair wages and we will provide business support that will empower them to get out of poverty,” explains Jere. “We believe in the dignity of work and this project will get them started in the right direction.”
The long-range goal is to help start similar businesses in Zimbabwe.
Such an undertaking, however, is an arduous and expensive process. Initial production costs include $7,000 for a U.S. manufacturer (patternmaking, fabric, sewing, packaging and shipping), $10,000 to set up the factory in Zimbabwe and $3,000 for marketing and legal fees.
It adds up to $20,000. To raise funds, and increase awareness of the Tibatane movement, an Indiegogo campaign has been launched. To make a donation, volunteer your services or view a Tibatane video, visit the Indiegogo page.
Depending on their donation levels, backers receive T-shirts, tank tops, long-sleeve denim shirts and other clothing items. The $4,000 Africa package includes a December 2014 trip to Zimbabwe.
Jere realizes that there are limits to what Tibatane can provide but the hope is that, by creating awareness, others will support this cause.
“We are doing what we can to start a selfless worldwide movement,” she says. “We don’t have much but we do have passion to alleviate poverty in Zimbabwe and eventually the rest of the world. We’re encouraging everyone to share out story on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.”
For further information about Tibatane, visit the project website or the Indiegogo campaign site, www.indiegogo.com/projects/tibatane. Jere can be reached directly at firstname.lastname@example.org.
This is a press release. Press release distribution and press release services by EmailWire.Com: http://www.emailwire.com/us-press-release-distribution.php.


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Perhaps taking on more relevance than the race to be number one in the singles chart, there’s a lot of anticipation as far as the race to be the best-selling game before Christmas Day begins is concerned. This year, it’s likely to be between three titles, all of which being the latest installments in much-loved series yet completely different in just about every aspect.
All were released partly with Christmas in mind, no longer than three months before the shops closed late on Christmas Eve. Some of them were released to coincide with the introduction of both the Xbox One and PS4, both of which are competing for supremacy themselves in the hotly-contested console market, but which three games are competing to finish top of the tree sales-wise?
The most likely winner is Call of Duty: Ghosts. The newest installment in the long-running series was released especially for those who had a shiny new PS4 or Xbox One to play with come Christmas time and if some of the critical response is anything to go by, it’s likely to be a huge success, flying off the shelves in next to no time.
In terms of story, the latest CoD game concerns a group of Special Ops from the US who are trying to repel an invasion of the country by a new Latin American superpower who seized large parts of Central America. As for sales, Call of Duty looks set to beat its rivals with odds of 1/5 according to Ladbrokes, which speaks volumes.
Alive and kicking
Another major contender is FIFA 14, the latest in the long-running FIFA franchise. Versions for consoles old and new have been released, but two new additions allowing for human intelligence to determine a player’s ability and gameplay changes which can be affected by the on-field weather and reactions from the crowd make it more appealing than previous editions.
Grand Theft Auto V is the third contender for the number one spot. However, what counts against the game’s success in the charts is its release date – it has been out in the shops since September. Also, it was the last GTA game to be released for the Xbox 360 and PS3. Despite that, the game itself has received rave reviews and could be a great gift for anyone who somehow forgot about it.


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Savoury ingredients are slowly creeping into products where you would least expect them. Arguably, some of the most eye-catching examples recently have been the vegetable cereals from Kellogg's and German producer Kölln, but development is being taken much further than the breakfast aisle. It’s influencing chocolate, crisps and ice cream, too.
“Today’s consumers are increasingly looking for products that provide novel experiences,” according to Mintel, “and brands and manufacturers are happy to take on the challenge, hoping to create buzz on social media and to see their products go viral.”
Here are five unlikely pairings that seem to back that up.
Pesto with cocoa nibs
Hailing from Hotel Chocolat, this chocolate pesto is made with rough-chopped basil, crunchy pine nuts, Italian cheese and nutty roast cocoa nibs.
Created in the brand’s Boucan kitchen in Saint Lucia, the product is being pushed as an outstanding accompaniment to pasta, risotto, salad, blinis, crusty bread and cold meats – or eat it straight from the jar as a dip.
The brand also has a spiced cocoa nib ketchup for the BBQ and cold cuts, along with white chocolate horseradish that energises smoked salmon, mackerel, mashed potato, roast beef, cold meats and vegetable crudites.
Cocoa nibs, which provide a crunchy texture and pack in both flavour as well as antioxidants, iron and magnesium, are tipped by Mintel to become a more prolific food ingredient in future.
Crisps with strawberry and chocolate
Japan has to have some of the most inventive snack makers in the world.
One of its major snack companies, Calbee, has released thick-cut potatoes that have been seasoned with sweet and sour strawberries and topped with a mild chocolate sauce, coconut, cashew nut and roasted almond slices. We think they might have gotten inspiration from a common move at McDonald’s – dipping your chips into a sundae.
Mintel said this innovation could prompt more chocolate-flavoured snacks that bridge the sweet-salty divide.
Chocolate with smelt fish
For those looking for a wild time, Finnish company Taiga uses traditional Nordic ingredients to create chocolate bars with crazy ingredients. Some of the most adventurous combinations include dried smelt fish, dried reindeer meat and sea buckthorn.
Taiga has also thrown crunchy crickets into its latest release.
Safer bets include bars with lingonberry and bilberry, which is where product developers might start for inspiration.
Ice cream with a boost of veg
Peekaboo is out to trick children and adults alike into eating their vegetables. It has released an organic dark chocolate ice cream that includes cauliflower that you can’t see or taste.
But it doesn’t stop there. The US brand also has strawberry with carrot, mint chip with spinach, vanilla with courgette and cotton candy with beets, promising veggies in every bite.
The ice creams are targeted at those who don’t get their daily quote of greens – and they’re not the only products to take this tack.
Sweet potato, ube, red bean and corn also appear in ice creams around the world, according to Mintel, while the hidden veg aspect could be a good selling point for manufacturers.
Miso ice cream
Back in the UK, Yee Kwan has a chocolate miso ice cream that promises a taste akin to salted caramel. It’s gluten-free and made from locally sourced milk and cream.
Even Itsu has a recipe on its website to make miso ice cream, while Mintel notes that the umami ingredient pairs well with chocolate as well.
So what does Sparkie think of these savoury-sweet tie ups?
Consumer curiosity is at an all-time high and that is creating a market for the weird and wonderful. This is not without risk though. The weirdness will definitely invite a decent share of the consumer base to try it for the first time, but at that point the product needs to be outstanding or you will suffer from one-off sales. For a product to survive long term, it needs to drive repeat purchases and novelty foods don’t often do that.
To cut a very long story short, this is a trend and there is certainly money to be made, but in the same way as food made for Instagram, you will always need your next product line (or three) ready to go when the consumers get bored.


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LAST UPDATED : Oct 31, 2020, 05:46 AM IST
- Mangaluru: Bookings dry up, cruise tourism industry faces bleak season
Usually at this time of the year, there is an air of expectation around Kudla port as it gears up to receive luxury cruise ships that bring thousands of foreign tourists. However, due to the global pandemic, cruise tourism has taken a hit and stakeholders say ships are unlikely to call at Mangaluru this season.
- Covid-19: Masks can slow spread & help build immunity, says journal
In a commentary in New England Journal of Medicine, Monica Gandhi and George W Rutherford of University of California in San Francisco said face masks could work like variolation to generate immunity. and slow the spread of Covid infection.
- Malaysia, Thailand bar cruise ship with 64 Italians on board over virus fears
Malaysia and Thailand have barred a cruise ship carrying about 2,000 people, including dozens of Italians, from docking due to fears about the new coronavirus. The ship is carrying 64 Italians. Italy has been hard hit by the virus with more than 230 fatalities, the most deaths from the disease of any country outside China, where the outbreak began in December.
- Australia extends cruise ship ban to September
The ban applies to any cruise liner capable of carrying more than 100 passengers, the Australian Border Force said in a statement.It is the latest blow to the multi-billion-dollar cruise industry, which already faces lengthy bans in countries from the United States to the Seychelles.


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- Ramen noodles maker Nissin Foods plans to spend $228 million to expand its U.S. presence. The Japan-based company plans to increase its U.S. manufacturing capability by purchasing a 640,640-square-foot building in Greenville County, South Carolina.
- The facility, which is expected to be operational in August 2025, will create more than 300 new jobs. Nissin currently has two manufacturing locations: Gardena, California and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- The investment by Nissin is the latest by a food or beverage company to build, retrofit, or expand an existing facility as they look to increase efficiencies and meet future demand for their products.
As demand for ramen continues to surge, Nissin is building out its U.S. footprint in a big way.
The company has seen strong growth recently, first due to the pandemic and then the popularity of its premium and spicy offerings, such as Cup Noodles Hot & Spicy and Stir Fry flavors. Earlier this year, Nissin said it held a 40% share of the instant ramen segment in the U.S.
The company recently reported four consecutive quarters of high double-digit growth driven by its premium product innovations, with a 27% increase in sales at the end of its first quarter in 2023 compared to the same time in 2022.
“Nissin Foods has seen sustained sales growth year-over-year, especially over the last five years, driven by unprecedented demand for our products,” Michael Price, Nissin Foods’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “In addition to being a significant milestone in Nissin’s history, this investment will allow us to optimize production capabilities, grow the organization, bring jobs to the community and continue to fortify our innovation pipeline.”
The facility will produce a range of Nissin Foods' products across its brand portfolio, including Top Ramen, Cup Noodles, Hot & Spicy FIRE WOK, among others, with capacity for further expansion as needed, the company said.
The plant will contribute to the company’s broader goals of reducing its environmental footprint. It will include solar panels, EV charging stations and electric forklifts. Nissin Foods is aiming to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Earlier this year, Nissin completed a multi-million dollar investment in its Lancaster, Pennsylvania distribution center. The company said that with nearly 60% of Nissin's product production coming from the Lancaster facility, the new manufacturing investments increased output by 15%.
As many companies continue to see high demand for their products, many are spending millions of dollars to increase their production capacity to position them for the future. Among the most notable are PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, J.M. Smucker, Ferrero, Coca-Cola, Mondelēz International, Kraft Heinz and Nestlé.


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Abdul Matin, a salesman at Fardeen Traders in the capital's Islamia Market, has never experience such sluggish business in his life. Nilkhet, the largest retail stationery market area in Dhaka, is drawing a significantly low number of customers, especially students, as all educational institutions are closed for the last three months.
"I could sell writing notebooks (khata) worth Tk2,000 a day before the outbreak of the coronavirus. Now the figure has dropped to less than Tk200," said Matin, sitting inside his small shop on a sunny Sunday morning.
With schools, colleges and universities shut, and government and private offices running on a limited scale in the midst of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, people are mostly working from home online. The demand for paper has gone down sharply, putting the paper industry in limbo.
Mohammed Wazed, owner of Sheuly Book Binding, buys reams of paper from the wholesale market in Naya Bazar and produces notebooks for students. His business would supply around 3,000 notebooks to 20 stationery shops in Dhaka every day before the pandemic.
"The demand for notebooks in the market is no longer the same. Shops are not placing new orders," he said, adding that he now supplies less than 100 notebooks daily.
Before the pandemic, Wazed would buy around 50 to 100 reams of paper every day. Now he buys five to 10 reams only. A ream consists of 250 sheets of paper.
Like Wazed, many notebook binding enterprise owners have downsized their business due to the marked fall in demand.
The demand for paper in the publishing industry has also decreased. The industry is not publishing books regularly in the face of uncertainty caused by the pandemic.
Farid Ahmed, president of the Academic and Creative Publishers' Association of Bangladesh, believes the publishing industry buys less than 1,000 tonnes of paper to publish creative books all year round.
He said that less than 50 tonnes of paper have been bought by the creative publishing industry in the last one month. He believes it should have been double at least.
"We think book publishing will be delayed until the end of the pandemic. Publishers are living in growing uncertainty," said Farid.
Like the retail market, wholesale paper traders are also suffering a lot because of drop in sales and prices. Traders at the largest wholesale paper market in Naya Bazar now wait for hours to get customers.
Kamal Hossain, owner of Kagojghar in the market, has been living a miserable life for the last three months. He sells locally-produced writing and printing papers. As educational institutions are closed, the demand for writing paper has slumped.
In normal times, he sells papers worth between Tk50,000 and Tk200,000 a day. Nowadays, the amount is less than Tk2,000.
"I am just opening the shop and closing it. That is my job now," said Kamal.
His business is totally dependent on educational intuitions. He said he has a bleak future ahead unless schools and colleges reopen.
"I am now selling a ream of paper for Tk2,050. I used to sell it for Tk2,700 before the pandemic," said Kamal.
Not only Kamal, nearly 500 wholesalers in Naya Bazar are facing similar hardships now.
Bangladesh Paper Merchants Association General Secretary Abul Hossain said there is no demand for paper in the market now, and wholesalers have been incurring the biggest losses for the last three months.
He said wholesalers could sell 1,000 to 1,500 tonnes of paper daily before the outbreak of coronavirus, but they can sell less than 100 tonnes nowadays.
"I bought local papers worth Tk10 lakh four months back. I could not sell even one-tenth of that," said Abul.
Private paper mill owners are also finding it hard to handle the situation as demand for paper has dwindled. Almost all of them are selling papers at a lower price. They have also reduced production.
Mostafizur Rahman, chairman of the export and market development committee of Bangladesh Paper Mills Association and deputy managing director of Bashundhara Group told The Business Standard that 80 percent of demand for paper has declined due to Covid-19.
"In normal times, the demand for writing and printing papers was around 50,000 tonnes per month. Now that has come down to 10,000 tonnes," he said.
He said Bashundhara Group's paper mills would produce 15,000 tonnes of writing and printing papers per month before the pandemic, but now it is between 2,000 and 3,000 tonnes.
Mostafizur said that 80 out of 105 private paper mills have already been closed down, and the remaining 25 are running on a very limited scale.
"All paper mills are running on 15 to 20 percent of their production capacity. They have stockpiles of paper too," he said, adding export of writing and printing papers has gone down too.
According to Mostafizur, production of writing and printing papers has virtually come to a standstill. "The annual business of the locally-made paper amounts to Tk4,800 crore."
With decreasing demand, the price of paper has also fallen significantly. Mill owners are selling papers for whatever they can get. Before the outbreak of coronavirus, mills on average would sell a tonne of paper for Tk80,000. Now, they are negotiating the price with wholesalers.
Bangladesh Paper Importers' Association President Shafiqul Islam Vorosha said that local paper mills can produce a sufficient amount of paper to meet the local demand for writing and printing papers.
He said the monthly demand for writing and printing papers stands between 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes.
Demand for packaging paper for the readymade garment and pharmaceutical industries is between 50,000 and 60,000 tonnes per month. Nearly all packaging papers, including duplex board, Swedish board, art card and art paper, are imported.
"With diminishing demand, import of packaging paper has also come down to 20 to 30 percent in the middle of the pandemic," said Shafiqul.
"As the readymade garment industry is suffering because of the pandemic, packaging paper is mostly being imported for the pharmaceutical industry nowadays," he added.


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|Snow forecasts are only produced between the months of June and September.|
This commentary is only produced between the months of June and September.Issued Monday 13:53
12:32 EDT High global dairy prices and demand for Australian beef and lamb are expected to lead farm export earnings to record levels this financial year.