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For pretty much as long as robots have existed, humans have wanted robot butlers: autonomous machines that do our bidding around the home. But our imagination exceeds our technological capabilities, and the closest we’ve come to building Rosie the Robot is either specialized machines like robot vacuum cleaners or voice-activated gadgets like Amazon’s Alexa.
One Japanese startup thinks it can change this by dislodging a core tenet of home robotics: instead of having software control the machines, it wants humans to do it.
Founded in 2018, Mira Robotics unveiled its Ugo robot earlier this year, promising that the robot, when it goes on sale in 2020, will be able to carry out a variety of household tasks, starting with emptying a washing machine and folding clothes.
Its creators say Ugo could clean, cook, look after pets, and more
This may sound like a simple job, but it’s incredibly challenging for robots. Getting a machine to fold a T-shirt requires not only an understanding of how soft materials deform, but also the ability to perceive visual cues and the mechanical dexterity to manipulate that object. It’s knowledge that’s intuitive for humans but a real challenge to capture in code. Even cutting-edge research labs can’t make robots that can perform this task as nimbly as humans.
But by replacing robot brains with humans, Mira says it can sidestep these problems altogether. Speaking to The Verge, Mira CEO Ken Matsui says that if all goes to plan, robots that do your laundry will be just the start. “I believe remote-controlled robots can provide a variety of help in the home environment,” says Matsui, “like cleaning rooms, cooking preparation, a watching service for elderly people, caring for pets, or for tutoring.”
Ugo looks friendly enough to watch after your pets, but it probably couldn’t clean up after them. It has a wide base, a sensor-filled “head” with light-up eyes, and a pair of robotic arms attached to a cylindrical torso, which can telescope up and down like a firefighter’s ladder. Instead of humanlike hands, it’s equipped with pair of robotic pincers; they’re nimble enough to pick up clothes but not enough to unscrew a jar.
Mira is going to start beta-testing Ugo in “actual homes and actual families” this summer, says Matsui, before launching a paid service in 2020 targeting double-income families with children. Why this demographic? “Because they don’t have the time. They’re very busy, and we want to provide for them,” says Matsui. Prices have yet to be finalized, but customers can expect to rent the robot for around $225 a month, which will include six to eight hours of housekeeping services. Users can pay extra if they want more hours.
The company says it’s developing custom virtual reality motion controllers for operators, which will work with PCs and laptops via a custom app. Mira says it wants to employ these operators directly at first, but that, in the future, this work could be outsourced.
Operating robots remotely is not a new invention by any means, but to date, it’s a method that’s been limited to certain domains. Remote-controlled machines are usually found taking on tasks that are dangerous for humans, like bomb disposal or nuclear clean-up work, or they focus on transposing our social skills, not our mechanical ability, such as with telepresence robots used in offices or hospitals.
One big reason they’re not more common is that manually dexterous robots are incredibly expensive. There are suggestions that this could change, though. Earlier this year, for example, MIT unveiled a two-armed robot named Blue that costs just $5,000 to build. (That’s orders of magnitude cheaper than similar research robots that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.)
Lower costs will make teleoperated robots more common
AI could also help. Advances in machine learning mean some basic operations, like navigating around a house, can be done autonomously. In the case of Mira Robotics, the company will also use AI to blur faces and documents in the video feed seen by its teleoperators. That wouldn’t have been feasible just a few years ago.
Other companies are starting to explore new uses for teleoperation. Autonomous delivery robots usually have remote handlers, ready to take over if the bot gets stuck. Ditto robot security guards. San Francisco startup Kindred builds robot arms for warehouses. When its software fails, like when an arm can’t grasp an object, humans step in to operate the robot using VR motion controllers. This data is then fed back into the software to improve the robot’s abilities. Mira Robotics plans to introduce a similar feedback loop in its own service.
As Matsui says: “We believe our approach — developing low-cost robots and using AI along with humans — is the way to provide this service in peoples’ homes.”
There are plenty of reasons to be skeptical of Mira’s claims, though. In demo videos, Ugo the robot is slow-moving and clearly unable to match a human’s dexterity. It’s also bulky and unable to navigate stairs or even small steps. You could argue that these limitations wouldn’t necessarily matter in the right home, but they’re not promising attributes for the robot butler of the future.
Ankur Handa, a research scientist who specializes in AI and robotics, tells The Verge that telepresence is a novel and interesting approach to solve the problem of automating domestic labor. But, he says, the technology doesn’t scale well, and it “tends to be quite slow.”
If telepresence labor does become common, it would bring with it a host of social and economic challenges. It would mean that low-paid manual laborers, a group that’s already marginalized in society, would become even more invisible and disenfranchised.
Jamie Woodcock, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, says the sales pitch from Mira is a continuation of Big Tech’s interest in on-demand cleaning and domestic work.
“Many people now have a cleaner they’ve never met coming into their house when they’re at work doing these manual tasks,” Woodcock told The Verge. “The dream of much of Silicon Valley is about invisibilizing and hiding workers behind these platforms.”
Telepresence labor could marginalize and disenfranchise manual workers
Manual labor is difficult to hide, says Woodcock, because workers need to be physically present. A rich person living in London, for example, can’t hire someone who lives in Manila, where wages and cost of living are cheaper, to do their housework. But with telepresence, that distance would disappear, and rich citizens could take advantage of cheap labor anywhere in the world.
It’s possible that this sort of telepresence domestic work could be beneficial. It could create jobs in developing countries, and, as with platforms like Uber and TaskRabbit, you can argue that workers might benefit in terms of flexibility. But as we’ve seen in reports on the gig economy more generally, this flexibility is often an illusion, with workers as committed to their jobs as salaried staff would be but without the benefits of health care or stable wages.
Woodcock is skeptical that technology like Ugo, if it ever takes off, will be a positive force for workers. “It’s unlikely that such a capital-expensive process [of building and operating robots] will be used to protect workers,” he says.
Despite these problems, it’s likely that telepresence labor will at least be given a trial run in rich countries. Many nations in the West have aging populations that need care workers to look after them, a challenge that’s often compounded by cuts to social spending and anti-immigration sentiments. Mira Robotics’ Matsui points out that in Japan, particularly, there’s a dire need for technology to fill this gap.
“Japan has a super-aged society. So maybe Japan can be a role model of living with personal robots,” he says. If Ugo is a success in its home country, Matsui wants to then export the robot to South Korea and China. In time, he says, teleoperated robots like this could become commonplace in homes around the world. “This is a new lifestyle, I think.”


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A pair of top-level executive changes unfolded at the Blue Oval this past week.
Ford Motor Credit named Brian Schaaf as chief financial officer and treasurer. Currently, Schaaf is controller of Ford Motor Com. Global Purchasing.
According to a news release, Schaaf will be responsible for Ford Credit financial planning, analysis, accounting and capital strategy.
The automaker also indicated Marion Harris, who has been CFO and treasurer of the OEM’s captive since 2015, has been named vice president of Ford Mobility Business Group.
“I am pleased to have Brian join Ford Credit as we continue our profitable growth, supporting Ford’s automotive and mobility businesses,” said Joy Falotico, Ford Credit chairman and chief executive officer.
“Brian has broad finance, treasury, auditing, international and leadership experience. He will bring a wealth of valuable experience, skills and insights to our team,” Falotico continued.
Prior to becoming Global Purchasing controller, Schaaf was Ford assistant treasurer for seven years. He also served as Ford general auditor and corporate business development director.
In addition, Schaaf held key positions, such as finance director, controller, and various financial analysis and business strategy roles, in Ford automotive operations, including in the United Kingdom.
Schaaf joined Ford in 1989 after working as a mechanical engineer.
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domain: news


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IPG opens office in Turkey, underscoring a hot laser market
The fiber laser leader's new office in Istanbul underscores the growing importance of the Western Asian region as a key industrial laser market.
Oxford, MA -- Industrial Laser Solutions has been tracking the importance of the Western Asian region, and specifically Turkey as an increasingly important laser market. ILS' next annual market review and forecast (January-February 2013 issue) will include a report on industrial laser activity in this country.
The latest supporting evidence: IPG Photonics has opened a new office in Istanbul, Turkey, to support and service the company's fiber lasers in this and nearby countries. The office will include sales, support, technical, and administrative staff.
"In a short time, we developed numerous cutting OEMs in Turkey which use our high-performance fiber lasers. Our continued success there merits a local sales and service presence," stated IPG CEO Valentin Gapontsev. Leading the operation will be Kubilay Yildirim, country manager of IPG Eurasia, who has experience in laser welding, cladding, drilling, and cutting from years working in GE's global laser applications group.
Turkey's economy expanded by more than 9% in 2010 and another 8.5% in 2011, among the fastest growing economies in the world (now ranked 16th in size) and one of the few growing at all in Europe, notes IPG, citing GDP figures. IPG CFO Tim Mammen specifically called out Turkey as a strong growth market during the company's 2Q12 results call.
(Image via Shutterstock)


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LITCHFIELD — A local couple is transforming a vacant storefront in Litchfield Commons into a coffee shop that will be known as Toast & Co.
Christine Harding and Mark Abbott, who live in Litchfield, hope to open the doors to their new venture by early April.
Workers from Abbott’s business, Pinnacle Carpentry, have been building and installing counters in preparation for the opening. The space previously occupied by Robertson’s Jewelers had been vacant for more than a year.
Abbott and Harding — coach of the girls swim team at Torrington High School, and the boys and girls swim teams at Canterbury School in New Milford — decided to pursue their goal of opening a coffee shop after seeing the location at 18 Commons Drive.
“Litchfield is our home and we want to provide the community with something that’s a little different,” Harding, the shop manager, said Friday.
The decision to open Toast & Co. also was inspired by Harding’s experience as a swim coach.
“Every day I’m telling my kids that today is going to be the day where they’ll reach their goals and fulfill a dream,” Harding said. “I realized that is something I haven’t been doing, so I thought to myself that it was time to reach for my own goal.”
Toast & Co. will be open daily and feature coffee, breakfast sandwiches, fresh bread, doughnuts, bagels, pastry and soup.
Abbott, who formerly worked at Red’s Coffee Shop in Thomaston, and Harding had been looking for a space for their own coffee shop after agreeing it was what they wanted to do.
“We drive past this place every day and one day I pulled in, took a look and liked what I saw,” Abbott said.
Realtor David Luzi of Litchfield helped Abbott and Harding gain access to the building, and before long, they had a lease.
The location is ideal, Abbott said, because it faces West Street, there is plenty of parking and students from Litchfield High School can walk there safely.
“Everyone we’ve talked to said there’s a need for a coffee shop like the one we’re planning,” Abbott said.
Contact John McKenna at firstname.lastname@example.org.


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Tag : Debenhams
Drapers Hit or Miss: London department storesSubscription
London department stores face Drapers’ secret shopper’s scrutiny
Debenhams recruits 7,000 Christmas staffSubscription
Debenhams has filled 7,000 Christmas jobs across its 165 UK stores in the run up to Christmas, to help offer better customer service during the busiest time of year.
Debenhams names new chairmanSubscription
Debenhams Group has appointed Mark Gifford, former House of Fraser chief financial officer, as its new chairman.
Debenhams eyes ex-House of Fraser CFOSubscription
Debenhams is rumoured to be about to name Mark Gifford, a former chief financial officer at House of Fraser, as its new chairman this week.
Debenhams reveals Eastbourne store closure dateSubscription
Debenhams has announced it will close the doors to its Eastbourne branch by 24 January 2020, as part of its company voluntary arrangement.
Debenhams secures new cash injectionSubscription
Department store chain Debenhams has received a £50m in financing from “certain of its existing lenders”.
Find out what’s been happening on fashion’s social scene this week.
As Debenhams relaunches its menswear own brands, trading director for menswear Andrew Lepp sat down with Drapers to discuss how changes in the design team structure have “empowered newness” and created clear brand differentiation.
Indies braced for battering by Hurricane LorenzoSubscription
Independents retailers fear they could be hit by another flood “disaster”, as heavy downpours are set to strike just days after many were forced to shut shop and salvage weather-damaged goods.
Can the department store stage a fightback? Subscription
As John Lewis merges operations with its supermarket division, Waitrose, Drapers assesses the future of the department store model.


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The New York Times and Google are teaming up once again to provide select subscribers with Google Cardboard headsets. The newspaper said Thursday it will provide 300,000 of the VR headsets to its "most loyal" digital-only subscribers, which the company determined based on the duration of their subscriptions.
This isn't the first time the Times has teamed up with Google. The two companies ran a similar promotion in November 2015, which saw one million Google Cardboard viewers sent out to home delivery subscribers. The headset is a cheap and simple way to experience virtual realty with a smartphone.
The Cardboard viewers will arrive in conjunction with the release of a stereoscopic virtual-reality film that the Times created with the Lunar and Planetary Institute and the Universities Space Research Association. The film, titled "Seeking Pluto's Frigid Heart," will bring viewers on a journey to Pluto. It is set to be released on May 19 on YouTube and in the NYT VR app for Android and iOS.


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Chipotle is the most successful company in the food industry right now.
The burrito chain’s same store sales soared by nearly 20% last quarter. Executives announced plans to keep expanding around the globe.
Chipotle is also taking market share from traditional fast food companies like McDonald’s, which just reported that sales declined 3.3% in the US.
Founder and Co-CEO Steve Ells says consumers turning away from fast food companies enabled Chipotle’s success.
“Over the last decade there has been a noticeable shift among consumers away from traditional fast food and casual dining chains, to fast casual restaurants as customers are looking for better quality food, served in a convenient format,” Ells said.
Chipotle is known as a fast-casual restaurant, meaning that it doesn’t offer full table service, but promises higher-quality food than fast food chains.


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Injection molder Technimark partners with iMFLUX and Rhinostics to produce polypropylene nasal swabs that reduce patient discomfort while improving sample concentration. Meanwhile, an MIT spinoff company is using algorithms and 3D printing to build a better swab.
May 6, 2021
5 Min Read
It’s safe to say that few people gave much thought to nasal swab design and manufacture until COVID-19 came to town. As we lined up for tests, though, suddenly everyone had an opinion about the long-stemmed scrapers. There were questions about efficacy, and discomfort was a common complaint. Oh, and there were worries that a shortage of swabs might be on the horizon. A couple of recent innovations have helped to allay those concerns.
Today, Technimark announced that it has partnered with Rhinostics and iMFLUX to produce, package, and distribute individually packaged nasal swabs to help detect and diagnose potential infections such as COVID-19. Production of the medical-grade polypropylene swabs began in April at Technimark’s headquarters in Asheboro, NC, where the swabs are injection molded and packaged in an ISO Class 8 cleanroom and sterilized prior to distribution.
Technimark specializes in precision injection molding, assembly, and full supply-chain services for the healthcare and other markets at facilities in the United States, Mexico, United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and China.
Rhinostics is a Boston-based startup founded last year with the goal of “revolutionizing sample collection” and optimizing the time and labor involved in analyzing samples in laboratories.
Swab allows for front-of-nose collection while improving sample concentration
The injection-molded polypropylene nasal swab was developed by P&G and iMFLUX, a subsidiary of P&G that offers low-constant-pressure injection molding software invented by P&G. Rhinostics has the license to bring the swab to the clinical laboratory market. The novel swab allows for easy collection from the front of the nose, reducing patient discomfort, and reportedly absorbs up to a 30-fold increase in sample concentration compared with conventional swabs.
“We are proud to partner with Technimark, iMFLUX, and P&G to bring new collection devices like the P&G nasal swab to clinical laboratory workflow,” said Rhinostics CEO Cheri Walker. “Not only does the nasal swab production help to relieve supply-chain bottlenecks, the new design and polypropylene material allow for comfortable collection and sample concentration due to dry shipment and improved release of viral particles.”
Rhinostics plans to register the P&G polypropylene nasal swab as a Class I exempt medical device and will pursue Emergency Use Authorization for home collection with RT-PCR testing, the gold standard for detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection.
3D-printed nasal swabs feature tiny woven lattices
Meanwhile, informed by almost seven years of 3D printing research at MIT’s Media Lab, Jifei Ou, PhD, developed a new type of nasal swab for COVID-19 testing. Since March 2020, he has been working with hospitals to improve the design of swabs by applying thin, hair-like structures that Ou developed while at MIT. Tiny woven lattices within the swabs allow them to absorb and release more fluid than conventional swabs, said the release on the MIT website.
Ou’s spinout company, OPT Industries, uses a continuous manufacturing approach that allows it to scale up 3D-printer production to meet demand. To date, it has supplied more than 800,000 swabs to healthcare and at-home testing organizations, helping to meet a shortage that had threatened hospitals’ testing capacity.
Prototype nasal swab produced in record time
While working toward his PhD, Ou created new ways to design and 3D print intricate microstructures, which required his team at MIT’s Media Lab to build its own 3D printer, create design software, and develop special polymers to meet durability and resolution requirements. That expertise was put to the test when Ramy Arnaout of Beth Israel's clinical microbiology laboratories broadcast a general request for help to prevent a possible shortage of nasal swabs.
The day after seeing the e-mail from Arnaout, who is also an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Ou walked into his office at Beth Israel with a prototype nasal swab his team had put together overnight. The visit was notable not only for the quick turnaround, but also for the precision with which the prototype was made, reported Zach Winn from the MIT News Office.
The 3D-printed swabs developed by Jifei Ou absorb and release more fluid than conventional swabs.
OPT’s products are designed using algorithms that attempt to optimize each fiber placement. The company’s swabs feature porous microstructures within their heads that are tuned to collect and retain fluid, then quickly release that fluid when it enters a test vial.
“When it came to the swabs, we thought, ‘Hey, that’s a great fit!’” Ou recalls. “Swabs need to be soft, flexible, the structures on the tip need to be very intricate. That’s what we do,” he told Winn.
Tests conducted at MIT and an external microbiology lab comparing OPT’s swabs with traditional cotton swabs showed that OPT’s swabs released 20 times the amount of bacteria for testing.
Company currently prints 80,000 nasal swabs per day
OPT’s additive manufacturing system can produce the company’s hair-like microstructures in a highly automated way that allows OPT to compete on price with traditional swab makers. The company currently is able to produce 80,000 swabs a day in its facility, and Ou says OPT is building newer versions of its machines that can produce products even more quickly.
The startup is also developing other medical sampling devices that use its high bacterial collection rate to test for other diseases, reported Winn. This month, OPT is moving into a new office in Medford, MA, that will bring together its lab and production teams. Ou told MIT News that the goal is to speed up the cycle from product ideation to design, prototype, optimization, and production.
“We’re trying to be like 3M in additive manufacturing,” Ou told Winn. “Everyone knows 3M because they have a lot of different products that are essential to daily life. That’s the model we’re going after. We have other medical and cosmetic products under development — the swab is just the beginning.”
About the Author(s)
Editor in chief of PlasticsToday since 2015, Norbert Sparrow has more than 30 years of editorial experience in business-to-business media. He studied journalism at the Centre Universitaire d'Etudes du Journalisme in Strasbourg, France, where he earned a master's degree.
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A controversial plan to build a Stop & Shop in Easthampton is back in court. Cernak Buick has appealed a Superior Court ruling that dismissed its suit against the supermarket giant. Stop & Shop wants to build at the site of the Tasty Top ice cream stand on Northampton Road. Owners of the car dealership across the street sued the city in 2010 saying the Planning Board violated protocol in issuing permits.
Six of the nine Ebola patients treated in the U.S. met for the first time.
More than 46 million Americans are expected to travel over the holiday weekend.
Thanksgiving celebrations date back to the first European settlements in America, but it wasn't until the 1860s that it was declared a national holiday.
The President pardoned the official Thanksgiving turkey in a tradition that is truly American.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a heart procedure after reporting discomfort following routine exercise.


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Market watchdog should get new powers to stop internet giants such as Google from strangling smaller rivals and ripping off consumers, says senior Tory MP leading review
Britain’s market watchdogs must be given ‘new tools’ to prevent Google and other internet giants doing more harm to the economy and ripping off consumers, a key Government adviser has said.
John Penrose, who is leading a Treasury review of competition laws, said that new rules are needed to prevent huge online corporations strangling rivals and ramping up prices. ‘That’s going to require some new tools,’ he added.
Mr Penrose’s comments came to light after the American government started legal action against Google in the US courts, piling pressure on British politicians and regulators to follow suit.
Britain’s market watchdogs must be given ‘new tools’ to prevent Google and other internet giants doing more harm to the economy and ripping off consumers, a key Government adviser has said
Mr Penrose, a senior Conservative MP, was last month appointed by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to review UK laws that are supposed to prevent big business becoming monopolies able to dictate prices and smother rivals.
The review is taking place as politicians and officials around the world become increasingly worried about the economic dominance of Google, Facebook and other tech titans such as Apple and Amazon.
Google receives around 90 per cent of all advertising spending by companies who want to display their products and services on internet search result pages. That brings the company revenues of around £7 billion a year in Britain alone, although Google pays UK taxes on just a fraction of its earnings.
Facebook, meanwhile, has around half of the entire market for display advertising, worth around £5 billion a year.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Britain’s markets watchdog, this year found that Google and Facebook are able to demand inflated prices for advertising, pushing costs on to suppliers that eventually lead to consumers paying more than they should for goods bought online.
The CMA has appealed to Ministers to pass new laws giving it powers to take action over the tech giants’ market dominance.
Ministers say they are still considering the watchdog’s request, and some insiders say taking on Google and Facebook is not a priority for the Government.
In attempt to push the issue up the agenda, Andrea Coscelli, the CMA chief executive, last week gave Ministers a 12-month deadline to draw up new laws for the digital economy.
In an interview with website Global Competition Review, Mr Penrose said that new powers are needed for regulators and called for an ‘update’ of competition rules for the online economy.
‘The digital economy has brought some amazing benefits, absolutely transformed our economy and society in many ways,’ he said.
‘But where it may potentially be causing harm, it may not be delivered in the same way as we are traditionally used to in the old analogue economy.
Google receives around 90 per cent of all advertising spending by companies who want to display their products and services on internet search result pages. That brings the company revenues of around £7 billion a year in Britain alone, although Google pays UK taxes on just a fraction of its earnings
‘Therefore, we’ve got to update that so that we understand what is going on, so where there is harm being caused we are alive to it, we understand it and we can stop it.
‘That’s going to require some new tools.
‘They’ve got to reflect all these changes and we’ve got to make sure that we don’t ruin all the good stuff while we fix what we hope is a small amount of detriment.’
The Trump administration last week began a major legal battle with Google in the American courts, accusing the company of using its huge financial resources to maintain an illegal monopoly over search engine advertising, by paying mobile phone companies to make Google the default search engine on devices.
Google has strongly denied any wrongdoing, saying the lawsuit by the Department of Justice is ‘deeply flawed’.
When the Brexit transition period ends in January, the CMA will take back competition powers now held by the European Commission.
Source: Read Full Article


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February may have the fewest days, but this month certainly is not short on legislative activity pertinent to the insights community, including comprehensive privacy bills, data security legislation, new taxes on the industry, liability limitation for COVID-19-related exposure, new leadership to oversee the census, and new rules for determining independent contractor status. Changes are also in the works for California A.B. 2257.
"Already struggling to navigate a few states’ privacy laws,” the expansion of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) could force businesses “to navigate a patchwork of competing, and possibly conflicting, state privacy laws,” according to a taxpayer advocacy group.
The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) released a report on the European Union's data protection strategy for the next four years, regarding the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other issues.
The Insights Association and ten other data-focused trade associations have come out in opposition to California Proposition 24, calling it "a premature and ill-timed overhaul of California’s privacy law."
August is normally quiet in Washington, DC, but in keeping with the theme of 2020, this month has been more frenetic. While we beat back new taxes on the insights industry, the Insights Association has had to tangle with the demise of the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield for data transfer, further pandemic relief, some new threats to pharma MR, the finalization of CCPA, and an attempt to rush the 2020 Census that threatens the statistical viability of most marketing research and data analytics in the U.S.
Not five years ago, the European Court of Justice struck down the Safe Harbor, the primary legal vehicle for transatlantic data transfers. Now, the court appears to have done the same to its replacement, the U.S.-EU Privacy Shield.
To “fuel… breakthrough innovations” in the fight against COVID-19, the Republican ranking member on the House Energy & Commerce Committee says that Congress needs to “build and keep consumer trust” by taking action on “a national data privacy standard.”
Warning that “the current exercise in physical distancing in which most nations are engaged has exposed important gaps in societies’ digital readiness,” the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) recently proposed a series of future stimulus actions for policymakers, including the enactment of a federal privacy law.
Marketing research and data analytics companies and departments that operate as business associates under HIPAA have a bit more leeway in handling disclosure of protected health information during the COVID-19 crisis if the data relates to public health


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|By PR Newswire||
|March 13, 2014 11:35 AM EDT||
KANSAS CITY, Mo., March 13, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- On March 19th .UNO joins dozens of other new gTLDs that have recently been made available for purchase by the general public. The introduction of these new domains marks the biggest transformation the Internet has undergone since its inception.
Of these new domains .UNO is the first dedicated to Spanish-speakers online. Imagine if whenever you see a site with a .com, you could retype it using .UNO and get the Spanish-language version of that site. By doing away with the tiny en español buttons and long URLs for Spanish sites, Spanish-speakers will finally enjoy a truly efficient online experience that was made for them. Resources and information available to the Spanish-speakers will expand significantly and businesses, consumers and individuals will be able to connect easily with the 490 million Spanish-speaking people worldwide.
Latin Americans are the fastest growing Internet population in the world (IMS) and U.S. Hispanics are the most active of any U.S. population on social media (IAB). .UNO recognizes that Latinos are quickly becoming leaders in digital consumption and that it is both logical and necessary that there exists a space for Spanish-speakers online.
At .UNO we believe that we are transforming the Internet for millions of users in a significant way. .UNO will not only unite the Spanish Internet under a single short and memorable domain, it will give authority to Latinos everywhere as valued and influential digital consumers.
On March 19th, 2014 at 15:00:00 UTC thousands of .UNO domains will be made available to the general public. By visiting www.nic.uno anyone can join major brands like McDonalds, Amazon and Apple who have registered their .UNO domains.
If it's in Español you'll find it at .UNO.
.UNO, Dot Latin, LLC
Media Contact: esther honig, .UNO, dot Latin LLC, 8168136712, [email protected]
News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: https://ireach.prnewswire.com
SOURCE .UNO, Dot Latin, LLC


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TechLogix Networx announced a strategic partnership with sales representative firm C.L. Pugh for the states of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan. The Pugh team will be responsible for TechLogix’s commercial market and collaboration technologies, including their auto-controllers, huddle room systems, education systems and fiber optics.
“I’ve known the C.L. Pugh team for years,” explains Cameron Smith, TechLogix CEO. “They manage some of the foremost brands in the industry, as well as one of the deepest customer and specifier bases. Their dedication to service, training and support make them an ideal partner for launching TechLogix in the Central-Eastern US.”
C.L. Pugh is based outside of Cleveland, Ohio, with satellite offices in Columbus and Pittsburgh.
About CL Pugh:
C.L. Pugh is recognized as one of the industry’s longest running representation firms. Their staff cover the states of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan with such leading brands as Bosch, ElectroVoice, Middle Atlantic and Symetrix. Additional information is available online at www.pugh.com.
About TechLogix Networx:
TechLogix designs, develops and manufactures technology for the custom installation and commercial audio-visual markets. They are uniquely focused on collaboration products, as well as emerging technology such as fiber optics, automated controllers and 18G digital video. Additional information is available online at www.tlnetworx.com.


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In this episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Ashley Chiaradio and Kristina Stidham discussing an article recently published on Total Retail titled, “New From NRF 2021: Retail Marketing’s Need-to-Know Trends,” authored by Udayan Bose, founder and CEO of NetElixir. The highly anticipated NRF virtual show occurred in mid-January and brought industry leaders together to reflect on one of retail’s most turbulent years to date, as the events of 2020 left companies scrambling. One of the marketing trends that Bose identifies in the article is that new-to-online shoppers are here to stay, and it's time for retailers to learn their unique behavioral patterns.
However, Bose also writes that If 2020 taught retail marketers anything, it’s that consumer behavior isn't predictable. At NRF 2021, it became even more clear that retail marketers must remain agile and prioritize the customer above all else in the year ahead. To learn about the third marketing trend identified in the article, click here.


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It was merely raining Pokemon here at Infendo yesterday, but today the sky is opening up a torrent of Pokemania that looks to take over the U.S. A dangerous flood of Pikachu, Bulbasaurs and Jigglypuffs is imminent.
To pimp this publicity for all its worth, Nintendo fired off a press release today touting some impressive pre-order numbers for the DS titles, Diamond and Pearl.
With the new games set to be released on April 22, pre-sale figures are twice as large as they were for previous releases Pokemon FireRed and Pokemon LeafGreen, which have sold 3.4 million units between them in the US since being released in 2004, according to Reuters.
Impressive. Most impressive. They should, like, make a movie about this or something. 😉


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Richmond, VA, October 30, 2011 --(PR.com
)-- With the majority of small and mid sized businesses concerned about their future, manufacturers may have the most concern of all, says IndustrialPR.net (IPR), the online B2B news site. The company said it plans to launch several programs to to help Virginia Machine Shops and Specialty Job Shops approved by AMSN at http://mfgpartners.net/category/virginia-shops/ with emphasis on tackling the jobs crisis faced by manufacturers. IndustrialPR said although it serves a wide range of manufacturing companies, its currently focusing on suppliers of custom CNC machined products, sheet metal fabrication, custom fabricating and CNC machining companies nationwide as well as in international markets.
The engineering news portal is working an online expo it plans to utilize as a platform to further market companies that produce Custom CNC Machined Products at http://mfgpartners.net/cnc-machined-parts
In addition to the trade show, IndustrialPR will also soon unveil a program to help students with metal fabrication projects with the support of American CNC Machining Companies approved by MFGpartners at
According to Shawn Mitchell, a spokesperson for the news portal, the company promotes an independent contest among machine/job shops and other custom manufacturers in effort to increase creativity, skill and unity in a fun environment. Mitchell said IPR's main focus nowadays is on helping manufacturers grow in effort to generate jobs for companies involved in machining, fabrication and other custom & contract manufacturing such as milling & turning, surface grinding, heat treating, CNC turning, sawing, welding & steel works, CNC milling, lathing and other services. Mitchell said vendors on the site are capable of working with virtually every material from carbon & stainless steel, tool steels, cast iron and aluminum, to all grades of bronze, brass, Monel®, Inconel®, Hastelloy® and many other metals and plastics.
“IndustrialPR looks forward to helping Virginia machine shops and contract manufacturers serving Richmond, Hampton, Lynchburg, Newport News, Virginia Beach, Alexandria, Roanoke, Portsmouth, Chesapeake and other cities and towns across The Old Dominion,” said Mitchell. He continued, “The jobbing shops in the IPR network are fully equipped with CNC machining centers, CNC turning machines, engine lathes, grinders, mills, saws, welders, furnaces, finishing systems and a wide array of other facilities to provide complete machining and fabricating solutions.” Mitchell went on to say as the 'Mother of States' boasting a significant manufacturing sector, Virginia plays an important role for the U.S. economy and is a major contributor to the country's international trade of goods and services.
IPR is an online engineering, technical, manufacturing & engineering news portal providing the latest stories, feeds, editorials and articles covering newly launched equipment, components, software and machinery as well as other products for manufacturers worldwide. The site unveils some of the most advanced industrial products, innovative services and technologies being introduced into the marketplace by world leading companies serving national and international customers at http://www.IndustrialPR.net
This news release was distributed by IndustrialPR.net


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|By Marketwired .||
|December 7, 2012 02:22 PM EST||
PALO ALTO, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 12/07/12 -- Jumio, Inc., the online verification and mobile payments platform company, today announced over 20 new customers that have signed on in the first half of Q4 to integrate Jumio's Netswipe® and Netverify products. These innovative startups have joined many well-established businesses such as Travelocity and Western Union in using Jumio's computer vision technology solutions. In conjunction with today's US release, Jumio also announced a new slate of European-based customers (see European companion release, Jumio Makes Online Verification and Payments Fast, Easy and Fraud-Free for Numerous New Web and Mobile Startups and Platforms Across Europe).
Jumio's Netswipe is designed to increase conversion rates in mobile app checkout pages with imbedded credit card scanning and validation, eliminating the need for laborious and error-prone key entry and enabling increased revenue, less fraud and reduced chargeback costs. Netverify provides real-time ID verification to enable customers from over 60 countries to conveniently meet KYC and ID requirements for account registrations, large purchases, establishing online community trust and safety, or other business purposes.
"Our goal is to offer the most convenient and safe credit card scanning and payment solution to our customers, and that's why we selected Jumio," said Vinny Lingham, co-founder and CEO of Gyft.com. "Jumio offers the easiest, most secure and most comprehensive solution, available today."
New customers utilizing Jumio Netverify include:
- BAM Software and Services, which develops and supports a full-featured software platform for pari-mutuel wagering and competitive games
- Eborhood, offering a safer way to trade goods and services online
- SkinPond, a cosmetic & plastic surgery coupon/raffle site
- Travel Googan, a site that provides travelers with ultimate travel deals and discounts
New customers leveraging Jumio Netswipe include:
- Gyft, a digital card platform that enables consumers to manage gift cards
- GoPago, an integrated point of sale and mobile payment application that provides merchants a total business solution
- FoodRun, online and mobile food ordering, offering a better way to order takeout
- InstaArt Studio, which offers high-quality canvas printing services
- Protean, a multi-purpose credit offering
- HaulDealer, a social e-commerce website incorporating VIP access to the top fashion and beauty gurus of YouTube along with great fashion deals
- Wallaby Financial Inc., a cloud-based smart wallet
- WorkoutInbox, offering crossfit workout tracking and member management software
Netswipe is implemented using Jumio's Mobile SDK, and integration into any mobile app takes less than 30 minutes.
"Real-time ID verification is a problem we have been trying to solve for a long time, and Jumio had the solution," said Laurent Hazout, founder of Travel Googan. "What's more, Jumio has been extremely easy and cost-effective to integrate into our service."
Jumio has also secured numerous new European-based clients that are implementing Jumio Netswipe Mobile and Jumio Netverify into their products, including Skimm, EntroPay, Allied Financial Services, GB Premium Financial Services, and others.
"We created Jumio to be an all-in-one solution for both startups and large corporations, and are seeing rapid adoption by both constituencies," said Daniel Mattes, founder and CEO of Jumio. "The ease of integration and cost of our solutions has led many of the web's leading startups to choose Jumio when looking to offer their customers more personalized, convenient and safe ways to verify their identity and make purchases online."
Jumio® Inc. offers next generation online and mobile credit card payments validation and ID verification products for retailers, financial institutions and governmental agencies. Designed to increase revenue, reduce fraud, and streamline customer experiences, Jumio utilizes patent-pending computer vision technology to validate and facilitate transactions while providing unprecedented levels of consumer convenience and data security.
Jumio's Netswipe® enables customers to scan their cards in online and mobile checkout resulting in increased revenue and reduced fraud for the merchants. Netverify supports real-time ID verification in over 60 countries to help clients meet a variety of know-your-customer requirements. The company was founded in 2010 by CEO Daniel Mattes and is backed by top tier investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures and Facebook Co-Founder, Eduardo Saverin. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California Jumio operates globally with offices in the US, Europe and Asia.
P2P RTC will impact the landscape of communications, shifting from traditional telephony style communications models to OTT (Over-The-Top) cloud assisted & PaaS (Platform as a Service) communication services. The P2P shift will impact many areas of our lives, from mobile communication, human interactive web services, RTC and telephony infrastructure, user federation, security and privacy implications, business costs, and scalability. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Robin Raymond, Chief Architect at Hookflash, will walk through the shifting landscape of traditional telephone and voice services ...
Nov. 25, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 1,278
Scott Jenson leads a project called The Physical Web within the Chrome team at Google. Project members are working to take the scalability and openness of the web and use it to talk to the exponentially exploding range of smart devices. Nearly every company today working on the IoT comes up with the same basic solution: use my server and you'll be fine. But if we really believe there will be trillions of these devices, that just can't scale. We need a system that is open a scalable and by using the URL as a basic building block, we open this up and get the same resilience that the web enjoys.
Nov. 25, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 831
The Internet of Things is tied together with a thin strand that is known as time. Coincidentally, at the core of nearly all data analytics is a timestamp. When working with time series data there are a few core principles that everyone should consider, especially across datasets where time is the common boundary. In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Jim Scott, Director of Enterprise Strategy & Architecture at MapR Technologies, discussed single-value, geo-spatial, and log time series data. By focusing on enterprise applications and the data center, he will use OpenTSDB as an example t...
Nov. 25, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 864
The Domain Name Service (DNS) is one of the most important components in networking infrastructure, enabling users and services to access applications by translating URLs (names) into IP addresses (numbers). Because every icon and URL and all embedded content on a website requires a DNS lookup loading complex sites necessitates hundreds of DNS queries. In addition, as more internet-enabled ‘Things' get connected, people will rely on DNS to name and find their fridges, toasters and toilets. According to a recent IDG Research Services Survey this rate of traffic will only grow. What's driving t...
Nov. 25, 2014 07:00 PM EST Reads: 1,067
Enthusiasm for the Internet of Things has reached an all-time high. In 2013 alone, venture capitalists spent more than $1 billion dollars investing in the IoT space. With "smart" appliances and devices, IoT covers wearable smart devices, cloud services to hardware companies. Nest, a Google company, detects temperatures inside homes and automatically adjusts it by tracking its user's habit. These technologies are quickly developing and with it come challenges such as bridging infrastructure gaps, abiding by privacy concerns and making the concept a reality. These challenges can't be addressed w...
Nov. 25, 2014 04:30 PM EST Reads: 1,149
Explosive growth in connected devices. Enormous amounts of data for collection and analysis. Critical use of data for split-second decision making and actionable information. All three are factors in making the Internet of Things a reality. Yet, any one factor would have an IT organization pondering its infrastructure strategy. How should your organization enhance its IT framework to enable an Internet of Things implementation? In his session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, James Kirkland, Chief Architect for the Internet of Things and Intelligent Systems at Red Hat, described how to revolutioniz...
Nov. 24, 2014 07:00 PM EST Reads: 1,554
Bit6 today issued a challenge to the technology community implementing Web Real Time Communication (WebRTC). To leap beyond WebRTC’s significant limitations and fully leverage its underlying value to accelerate innovation, application developers need to consider the entire communications ecosystem.
Nov. 24, 2014 12:00 PM EST Reads: 1,435
The definition of IoT is not new, in fact it’s been around for over a decade. What has changed is the public's awareness that the technology we use on a daily basis has caught up on the vision of an always on, always connected world. If you look into the details of what comprises the IoT, you’ll see that it includes everything from cloud computing, Big Data analytics, “Things,” Web communication, applications, network, storage, etc. It is essentially including everything connected online from hardware to software, or as we like to say, it’s an Internet of many different things. The difference ...
Nov. 24, 2014 11:00 AM EST Reads: 1,567
Cloud Expo 2014 TV commercials will feature @ThingsExpo, which was launched in June, 2014 at New York City's Javits Center as the largest 'Internet of Things' event in the world.
Nov. 24, 2014 09:00 AM EST Reads: 1,580
SYS-CON Events announced today that Windstream, a leading provider of advanced network and cloud communications, has been named “Silver Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 16th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 9–11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York, NY. Windstream (Nasdaq: WIN), a FORTUNE 500 and S&P 500 company, is a leading provider of advanced network communications, including cloud computing and managed services, to businesses nationwide. The company also offers broadband, phone and digital TV services to consumers primarily in rural areas.
Nov. 23, 2014 07:30 PM EST Reads: 1,772
"There is a natural synchronization between the business models, the IoT is there to support ,” explained Brendan O'Brien, Co-founder and Chief Architect of Aria Systems, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at the 15th International Cloud Expo®, held Nov 4–6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Nov. 23, 2014 12:00 PM EST Reads: 1,710
The major cloud platforms defy a simple, side-by-side analysis. Each of the major IaaS public-cloud platforms offers their own unique strengths and functionality. Options for on-site private cloud are diverse as well, and must be designed and deployed while taking existing legacy architecture and infrastructure into account. Then the reality is that most enterprises are embarking on a hybrid cloud strategy and programs. In this Power Panel at 15th Cloud Expo (http://www.CloudComputingExpo.com), moderated by Ashar Baig, Research Director, Cloud, at Gigaom Research, Nate Gordon, Director of T...
Nov. 23, 2014 07:45 AM EST Reads: 1,720
An entirely new security model is needed for the Internet of Things, or is it? Can we save some old and tested controls for this new and different environment? In his session at @ThingsExpo, New York's at the Javits Center, Davi Ottenheimer, EMC Senior Director of Trust, reviewed hands-on lessons with IoT devices and reveal a new risk balance you might not expect. Davi Ottenheimer, EMC Senior Director of Trust, has more than nineteen years' experience managing global security operations and assessments, including a decade of leading incident response and digital forensics. He is co-author of t...
Nov. 22, 2014 05:30 PM EST Reads: 1,461
ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that it is bringing a greater level of control, security and flexibility to cloud-based application development and delivery with a single-tenant version of Bluemix, IBM's platform-as-a-service. The new platform enables developers to build ap...
Nov. 22, 2014 05:30 PM EST Reads: 1,532
Technology is enabling a new approach to collecting and using data. This approach, commonly referred to as the "Internet of Things" (IoT), enables businesses to use real-time data from all sorts of things including machines, devices and sensors to make better decisions, improve customer service, and lower the risk in the creation of new revenue opportunities. In his General Session at Internet of @ThingsExpo, Dave Wagstaff, Vice President and Chief Architect at BSQUARE Corporation, discuss the real benefits to focus on, how to understand the requirements of a successful solution, the flow of ...
Nov. 21, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 1,536
The security devil is always in the details of the attack: the ones you've endured, the ones you prepare yourself to fend off, and the ones that, you fear, will catch you completely unaware and defenseless. The Internet of Things (IoT) is nothing if not an endless proliferation of details. It's the vision of a world in which continuous Internet connectivity and addressability is embedded into a growing range of human artifacts, into the natural world, and even into our smartphones, appliances, and physical persons. In the IoT vision, every new "thing" - sensor, actuator, data source, data con...
Nov. 21, 2014 08:00 PM EST Reads: 1,458
"BSQUARE is in the business of selling software solutions for smart connected devices. It's obvious that IoT has moved from being a technology to being a fundamental part of business, and in the last 18 months people have said let's figure out how to do it and let's put some focus on it, " explained Dave Wagstaff, VP & Chief Architect, at BSQUARE Corporation, in this SYS-CON.tv interview at @ThingsExpo, held Nov 4-6, 2014, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA.
Nov. 21, 2014 07:00 PM EST Reads: 1,387
Focused on this fast-growing market’s needs, Vitesse Semiconductor Corporation (Nasdaq: VTSS), a leading provider of IC solutions to advance "Ethernet Everywhere" in Carrier, Enterprise and Internet of Things (IoT) networks, introduced its IStaX™ software (VSC6815SDK), a robust protocol stack to simplify deployment and management of Industrial-IoT network applications such as Industrial Ethernet switching, surveillance, video distribution, LCD signage, intelligent sensors, and metering equipment. Leveraging technologies proven in the Carrier and Enterprise markets, IStaX is designed to work ac...
Nov. 20, 2014 09:15 PM EST Reads: 1,442
C-Labs LLC, a leading provider of remote and mobile access for the Internet of Things (IoT), announced the appointment of John Traynor to the position of chief operating officer. Previously a strategic advisor to the firm, Mr. Traynor will now oversee sales, marketing, finance, and operations. Mr. Traynor is based out of the C-Labs office in Redmond, Washington. He reports to Chris Muench, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Traynor brings valuable business leadership and technology industry expertise to C-Labs. With over 30 years' experience in the high-tech sector, John Traynor has held numerous...
Nov. 20, 2014 06:00 PM EST Reads: 1,385
The 3rd International @ThingsExpo, co-located with the 16th International Cloud Expo - to be held June 9-11, 2015, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY - announces that it is now accepting Keynote Proposals. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the most profound change in personal and enterprise IT since the creation of the Worldwide Web more than 20 years ago. All major researchers estimate there will be tens of billions devices - computers, smartphones, tablets, and sensors - connected to the Internet by 2020. This number will continue to grow at a rapid pace for the next several decades.
Nov. 20, 2014 01:00 PM EST Reads: 1,661


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Microsoft has partnered with Yes Bank and MobiKwik to start digital payments services on Microsoft Kaizala in India. Tech giant said that it has integrated the payment services of YES BANK and MobiKwik using both organisations' mobile payment infrastructure to offer payments services on its Kaizala platform. Payment integration with Microsoft Kaizala will enable users to send or receive money without having to leave the Kaizala mobile application. With Microsoft Kaizala, users will have the option to make peer to peer payments in one to one and group chat conversations via the MobiKwik wallet and via YES BANK's Unified Payment Interface (UPI) integration. The UPI payment integration on Microsoft Kaizala works with all 86 banks that are already participating in UPI.
Microsoft Kaizala is also aimed at making the Firstline workforce more productive and helping them communicate in real time. There are nearly 1.9 billion such workers worldwide, and a large portion of this workforce is based out of India. Microsoft Kaizala is designed for large group communications and work management, enables organizations to take business workflows to its Firstline workforce. “By enabling payments, we are empowering Firstline workers to participate and complete business workflows on chat with payments. With the introduction of this feature, organizations will now be able to disburse micro-payments, enable bill expense re-imbursements, and pay travel allowances on the go to its mobile workforce,” said company.
“We see an opportunity for technology to give Firstline workers more intuitive, immersive, and empowering experiences – and thereby help organizations achieve greater efficiency, enhance their customers' experience, and increase both innovation and employee satisfaction. Office 365, including Microsoft Kaizala, Microsoft Teams and Outlook, aims to connect this mobile-first and mobile-only workforce for modern collaboration and teamwork.”, said Rajesh Jha, Executive Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.
“When we launched Microsoft Kaizala for India in July 2017, we provided consumers as well as businesses with a secure chat platform to collaborate and be productive, on the go. Microsoft Kaizala is used by thousands of organizations across different industry verticals for their day-to-day workflows today and is growing. Payment transactions within the app was a key demand from our users for getting work done and we are happy to offer it today in collaboration with YES Bank and MobiKwik,”, said Rajiv Kumar, Corporate Vice President, Office Product Group, Microsoft.
“YES BANK has been a pioneer in UPI and we have emerged as a leader in the UPI ecosystem by leveraging our strategic partnerships, as well as the Bank's first-of-its-kind API Banking Solution. We are glad to collaborate with Microsoft Kaizala and bring seamless payments to businesses and users by employing our state-of-the-art UPI Platform. The addition of payments makes Microsoft Kaizala an even more compelling platform for collaboration,” said Ritesh Pai, Chief Digital Officer, YES BANK.
“The diversity of user base that can be reached out via Microsoft Kaizala is tremendous. With this association, we will be able to take peer to peer payments to users across hundreds of organizations in diverse industries, including government departments. This is in line with MobiKwik's mission of enabling billions of Indians with easy access to digital payments. The ease of using Microsoft Kaizala, even in areas with limited internet connectivity, is the biggest benefit since it will enable greater market penetration for us. We are thrilled to be chosen as the first mobile wallet provider by Microsoft Kaizala and look forward to offering our services to Kaizala users. We are confident that this association will go a long way in helping us reach out to a whole new set of users in the country”, said Bipin Preet Singh, Founder and CEO, Mobikwik.
Microsoft Kaizala was launched in July 2017 in India to provide a convergence of an instant messenger, a collaboration portal, and a productivity enhancer. Existing Office 365 customers through early adopter program can avail 12 months of free subscription of Kaizala Pro for their users. Users can be quickly onboarded on Microsoft Kaizala by using just their phone number as a unique ID. It has been optimized for 2G network to enable connectivity in remote locations.
Microsoft Kaizala is being used by over 900 organizations, including YES BANK, State Bank of India, Apollo Telemedicine, Narayana Hrudyalaya, United Phosphorous, and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), an autonomous society of the Department of Rural Development, Government of Andhra Pradesh, is leveraging Microsoft Kaizala for its frontline workforce of nearly 475,000 to share on-ground, real time information around latest welfare scheme and development projects.
Microsoft Kaizala is available as a free mobile app on Android, iOS and Windows platforms for individual users.


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Company Reports of 21.1 Billion Lodging Bookings in First Quarter
Strength in travel demand driven by an increase in international travel and a growing desire for major city destinations has resulted in record lodging bookings for Expedia Group in the first quarter.
During the company's first-quarter earnings call, Expedia Vice Chairman and CEO Peter Kern told analysts and investors the company achieved a record quarter for lodging gross bookings, free cash flow and revenue.
"Throughout the quarter, we saw strong consumer demand with acceleration in international and big city travel [along with] more of Asia reopening," he said. "The reemergence of major international cities has meant an increase to hotel demand offset in part by flattening demand in vacation rentals as travel demand mix [shifted] to shorter-stay, urban destinations over extended beach and mountain trips. Similarly, air has continued to [lean] towards international travel and away from COVID-era concentration on domestic."
Kern added that broad travel demand remains strong, and the shift in travel preferences appears to resemble a "post-pandemic environment."
Consumers are also prioritizing travel above most other categories of spend, he added.
"This has held up despite inflation and recession worries, and even more recently, bank system concerns," he said.
During the first quarter, Expedia recorded total gross bookings of 29.4 billion, which is up 20% compared to first quarter 2022. There was sequential acceleration in the year-over-year growth rate from the fourth quarter as well, said Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Julie Whalen.
"Growth was driven primarily by total lodging gross bookings, which grew 19% versus last year, and reached a record quarterly level of 21.1 billion," she said. "In our hotel business, we saw significant growth from our [business-to-business] segment, driven by strong demand in" the Europe, Middle East and Africa region and Asia-Pacific.
Whalen added that the increase in flexible work-from-home policies introduced by companies during the pandemic has led to an increased demand in urban markets and a reduction in length of stay.
"While these trends are helping our hotels business, the same trends are also putting some pressure on our VRBO [Vacation Rental by Owner] business," she said. "Yet this pressure was far outweighed by our hotels [business] strength, enabling us to maintain total lodging bookings at record levels."
Strength in air bookings, both in number of tickets sold and air ticket price for domestic and international, held strong during the quarter compared to first quarter 2022. This momentum is aiding in a recovery in international air travel that's close to 2019 levels, she said.
Through Expedia's business-to-business initiatives, Kern said he expects to reach pockets of demand that the company has yet to reach or doesn't reach well.
"That might be geographical. China, for example, where we expect a good rebound there and we have a nice book of business with partners in China. Or it might be a loyalty program in a market we're already in," he said. "That business definitely gives us ways to participate in travel economies that we are not otherwise going head to head on the [business to consumer] side."
By the Numbers
During the quarter, Expedia achieved revenue of $2.7 billion, an increase of 18% in comparison to first quarter 2022. Lodging revenue was $2 billion.
Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $185 million. Free cash flow for the quarter was $2.9 billion.
As of press time, Expedia's stock was trading at $92.86 a share, up 6% year to date. The NASDAQ Composite Index was up 1.2% for the same period.
Copyright 2023 CoStar Group. All rights reserved. From https://www.costar.com. By Dana Miller, Hotel News Now.


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TextMate 2: He's working on it
For fans of Macromates' flagship text editor, TextMate, the current version may be all they need. For the last three years, TextMate has been stuck at version 1.5 (and change). In a blog post yesterday titled "Working on It," however, developer Allan Odgaard talked about what's coming in TextMate 2.0.
TextMate 2.0, according to Odgaard, is "taking shape" amid steady progress. It's not a small update, either: Odgaard says it's a "major undertaking with a long timeline" and he doesn't want to get people's hopes up about release dates or finished features just yet.
He says most of the modules for the application are nine-tenths complete, and he uses 2.0 day-to-day. The front end, he says, needs work, and an alpha release may be ready "before too long."
For fans of Macromates' flagship text editor, TextMate, the current version may be all they need. For the last three years, TextMate has...
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As per a leading business dailies report, the finance ministry in a bid to promote government's Digital India initiative has asked banks to issue NFC or near-field communication debit and credit cards. This is aimed at expanding the usage of payment mode via cards beyond the usual merchant transactions.
The ministry in a letter addressed to chief executives of banks said that not only these contactless or NFC enabled cards are secure and convenient to go about doing transactions using digital payments but also promote and push usage of digital mode of transaction in the country.
The ministry in a circular said, "As and when cards need to be re-carded, then at that stage the new cards being issued can be NFC enabled/contactless and whenever new cards are being issued they could also be NFC enabled/contactless".
Also the ministry highlighted that these contactless or NFC-enabled cards can ease the work of customers as say in case of mass transportation such as railways, buses or metros wherein customer just by the tapping the card can get the ticket and the amount in lieu of the same will be debited from their bank accounts.
Such contactless cards are issued by banks that allow customers to tap compatible point of sale terminal as against the need of swiping a card that needs physical contact.


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President Ernest Thibault says certification will benefit not only the club but also surrounding communities, as small-scale sanction matches and eventually larger “official” dog shows under CKC rules can be held.
“There is a great spinoff from hosting dog shows in your hometown,” said Thibault.
“Typically a show will attract 200 to 300 dogs to the event. Their owners and handlers eat, drink and sleep in that same town, providing a very nice infusion of cash for restaurants, hotels and other small businesses in the area.”
In the first year, some of the members participated in the Yarmouth Christmas parade; a Meet the Dogs of the World evening at the Yarmouth Multicultural Festival and a Meet the Breeds/Doggie Expo at the Clare Acadian Festival.
The club mascot is featured in a storefront window on Main Street.
In September the club will be hosting another event in Yarmouth: a Meet the Breeds/barbeue fundraiser for future club activities.
“We hope everyone will come out to meet the club dogs. Our members have some very unique breeds to show, some most people have never seen before,” said Thibault.
Once the club is officially recognized by the CKC, it will be launching a website, but for now it can be found on Facebook by searching Nova West Kennel Club.
“We are interested in serving dog enthusiasts in Digby, Yarmouth and Shelburne, but we even have a new member who lives in Quebec,” said Thibault.
To become a member of the Nova West Kennel Club you must own a registered (pure breed) dog, fill out the membership application, have two members sponsor you and pay the annual membership fee of $20.
Applications are available at most vet offices and pet stores in the tri-counties. Members have the support and advice of knowledgeable owners and breeders from the area, discounts at some of the local pet stores and the fun of participating in club activities.
The club has just started its fall session of handling and obedience classes to prepare for upcoming shows. For more information, email [email protected].


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Even with a mask on, pets are still cute.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, face masks have become a common household item. While many people have taken to covering up whenever going out in public, it’s also becoming more common for people to cover up their pets as well.
Pet Masks, a New York City-based company, saw their sales increase by about 500% as the virus spread across the country, Southwest News Service (SWNS) reports. According to the company’s founder, Salitia Henwick, people previously bought the masks either as a novelty item or if they lived in a polluted city.
According to her, however, things have changed.
“There is confusion about coronavirus and pets because the World Health Organization just removed their advisory on pets getting coronavirus. But there are cases of dogs testing positive for coronavirus,” Henwick told SWNS. “So we will inform our customers of what legitimate news publications are saying as it happens. Until we properly understand this new virus, the best thing we can do is take good care of ourselves and our pets.”
The company sells masks in three different sizes that can be fitted to either cats or dogs. Each mask reportedly costs $25.
Making the case for pet masks, Henwick urged people not to abandon their animals during this global health crisis, and shared a word of advice about getting pets used to the PPE.
"To help pets adjust to their masks make sure you get the correct size according to our site and make sure the straps are not cutting into them. Also, on their first time, don’t leave it on for too long, so they can get used to it slowly," she explained. "We are hoping a vaccine will be found soon… until then please protect yourselves and your pets with appropriate masks.”


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Bitcoin Is Totally Different Than Libra: Calibra Head David Marcus
Helen Partz's original article for cointelegraph.com reduced by 49%
David Marcus, the head of Facebook's forthcoming cryptocurrency wallet Calibra, said that he is a fan of Bitcoin, but it is totally different than the proposed Libra stablecoin. In a Squawk Box interview on Oct. 16, Marcus stated that he has been looking at Bitcoin since 2012 and considers it to be akin to digital gold.
He said, "I'm a big fan of Bitcoin what I see as digital gold and totally different Libra." Bitcoin v.s. non-volatile and scalable cryptocurrency. While treating Bitcoin as digital gold, Marcus stressed that the Libra project is seeking to create a non-volatile and scalable cryptocurrency rather than provide services for a high-volatile asset such as Bitcoin.
"If there was a stable, low-volatility, scalable version of Bitcoin that we could use today, my life would be so much simpler. We could just focus on embedding that in the Calibra wallet." In the interview, the CNBC host, who is known for his Bitcoin maximalism, asked about Libra's backing which will supposedly consists of a basket of major fiat currencies such as the United States dollar, euro, Japanese yen, British pound and Singapore dollar.
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Summarised crypto news.


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Monthly Wholesale Trade: Sales & Inventories December 2007
February 10, 2008
Sales. December 2007 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers'sales branches and offices, were $376.6 billion, down 0.7 percent from the revised November level and up 10.6 percent from December 2006, said the U.S. Census Bureau. The November preliminary estimate was revised downward $1.1 billion or 0.3 percent. December sales of durable goods were down 2.0 percent from last month, but were up 1.6 percent from a year ago. Compared to last month, sales of electrical and electronic goods were down 4.3 percent and sales of computer and computer peripheral equipment and software were down 4.0 percent. Sales of nondurable goods were up 0.4 percent from last month and were up 19.3 percent from last year.


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Bahrain’s MVC Global - providers of one of the leading supply chain track-and-trace platforms for pharmaceuticals and medical devices - announced a strategic partnership with Cox Logistics Group
The demand for warehouses is growing exponentially in the UAE as the popularity of e-commerce and online shopping continues to increase. Despite the increase in demand, the supply for storage space in the country remains low,
Civil Defence teams of Sharjah controlled a fire which gutted two warehouses for spare parts in Industrial Area 4, without causing any injuries.
A blaze at a warehouse in India’s capital has killed 9 people and left at least 3 injured on Monday, a fire officials said. The fire broke out in the early hours of Monday at Kirari area of New Delhi and its cause was yet unknown
Sharjah Civil Defence teams doused a fire that broke out at a warehouse in the industrial area on Sunday afternoon.
No casualties were reported, an official source confirmed, however, some material losses were reported.
The operations room of the Civil Defense Department in Sharjah received a report at 12:40 pm stating that a warehouse for auto spare parts and scrap had caught fire in the Industrial Area 8.
The cold storage market in India is currently very fragmented and unorganised with facilities being largely setup on an ad-hoc basis. As of 2020, India has about 8,200 cold storage facilities,
High-intensity focus on making India a global manufacturing hub has caused warehousing clusters to expand rapidly beyond the top cities and into Tier 2 and 3 cities, according to ‘Indian Industrial & Logistics Gearing Up a Global Manufacturing Hub’,
After five months working at an Amazon warehouse in Southern California, Yesenia Barrera lost her job in the summer of 2019 after being warned about spending too much time in the bathroom.
Bolstering the UAE’s commitment to build a self-reliant food security programme, Silver Line Gate Group (SLG) is constructing a new manufacturing, warehouse


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Becoming a member of marques like Jaguar and Volvo, one other luxurious car producer is eliminating the interior combustion engine from its lineup. In a press launch yesterday, Audi says it’s going all-in on electrical autos by 2033.
However Audi’s EV transition is starting nicely earlier than that.
Beginning in 2026, each Audi automobile destined for the worldwide market shall be an electrical automobile. In different phrases, it’ll solely produce ICE-powered fashions for particular areas. Audi hopes to realize net-zero emissions by 2050 (or sooner).
However that doesn’t imply Audi is popping its again on the interior combustion engine altogether. The press launch makes it clear that Audi will proceed to spend money on ICE growth up till the 2033 phase-out deadline. “Audi’s final inner combustion engine would be the greatest we’ve ever constructed,” mentioned Audi CEO Markus Duesmann.
The announcement isn’t all that stunning. With growing strain from varied governments to lower tailpipe emissions, many car producers are accelerating their EV plans. Actually, even earlier than the announcement yesterday, Audi was launching extra new EVs than ICE fashions anyway. Along with its plug-in hybrid fashions, Audi’s new e-tron line of all-electric autos is carrying the corporate’s EV flag in the course of the transition.
Audi additionally has made strategic partnerships with power suppliers to increase renewable power capabilities and improve the variety of obtainable EV charging stations.
You may learn extra concerning the announcement in the official press launch from Audi right here.


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In April of 2016 we wrote about how flying drones and aircraft in the same airspace without a way to control and manage air traffic would eventually cause a catastrophic event since the odds of accidents or nefarious drone use would increase similar in a deadly game of Drone Roulette until disaster strikes. The odds of catastrophe increased when 2.5 million drones were sold to consumers in 2016 with 1.2 million of them given as holiday gifts. Also in 2016, companies like Amazon, DHL and UPS announced patented ways to incorporate drone delivery into their business models. Meanwhile. 6,000 manned aircraft are in flight in at any given time in U.S. airspace.
What is still missing? A way to regulate manned and unmanned air traffic!
Goldman Sachs sees a tremendous upside, forecasting that the commercial drone industry will be worth $100 Billion by the year 2020. However, it also mentions that the industry won’t reach its potential unless FAA regulations like the 400-foot altitude limit and the beyond visual line of sight restrictions currently in place are relaxed or removed.
As this post is being written, forest fires rage in California and other western states including Arizona, where a drone operator was arrested for recklessly endangering fourteen air and ground fire crews by flying a drone over the fires to take pictures. This year, manufacturers will produce nearly three million recreational drones in the U.S., with sales expected to exceed $6 Billion. Without a system in place to manage authorized drone flight, rogue drones will become a threat to air safety.
The commercial drone industry will reach its potential only when there’s a way to manage and regulate drones in the airspace so that they don’t crash into each other, crash into aircraft, fly into people or property or fly with weapons.
Finally, the need to manage and reduce the odds of disaster in Drone Roulette have been acknowledged by the FAA and the drone industry. In an effort to catch up to the demand by recreational drone operators and to enable commercial drone use, The FAA had its first Drone ID Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) meeting on June 30, 2017 to start defining how to manage drone traffic. Being able to identify and authorize drones and their operators has finally been recognized as an imperative need for air safety of manned and unmanned aircraft.
Wouldn’t it be great if there were already a complete drone traffic management system?
CSA’s Drone Aviation Response System™ for aircraft will ensure flight safety for manned and unmanned aircraft and drones. It handshakes with our Smart City Drone Response System™ and our Drone DMV™ Registry System to create Clear Space Zones for cities, towns and municipalities, giving law enforcement and first responders control over their airspaces. Working together, our hardware, software and network-agnostic products create a safe, secure environment for all aircraft to fly safely together and for law enforcement to be able to regulate and remove rogue drones from any airspace.
About the Authors
Peter and Shana Whitmarsh are co-founders of ClearSpace Aero and co-inventors CSA’s patent-pending Clear Space Solutions: Direct Aviated Response System™ and Smart City Drone Response System™, Drone DMV™, and Drone CyberSecurity. They are also principals of Whitmarsh Research Group which incubated the technologies for CSA.


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Senate Forms Privacy SubcommitteeAl Franken to Head New Panel
The new subcommittee will address:
- Oversight of laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information by the private sector, including online behavioral advertising;
- Privacy within social networking websites and other online privacy issues;
- Enforcement and implementation of commercial information privacy laws and policies;
- Use of technology by the private sector to protect privacy, enhance transparency and encourage innovation;
- Privacy standards for the collection, retention, use and dissemination of personally identifiable commercial information; and
- Privacy implications of new or emerging technologies.
Other Privacy Panel MembersSen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., will serve as the new panel's ranking member. Other Republican senators on the subcommittee will include Orrin Hatch of Utah and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Democratic senators on the new panel will be Chuck Schumer of New York, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut.
"The explosion of new technologies and activities online, including social media, has unleashed new questions about how to protect Americans' privacy in the digital age," Leahy said. "The important work of the subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law will complement the work that the full committee will continue this year."
Sen. Franken said new technologies have "put an unprecedented amount of personal information into the hands of large companies that are unknown and unaccountable to the American public. As chairman of this new subcommittee, I will try to make sure that we can reap the rewards of new technology while also protecting Americans' right to privacy."
The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold an executive business meeting on Feb. 17, when it's expected to approve subcommittees and rosters for the 112th Congress.


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Ripple is arguably the most divisive cryptocurrency. Earlier this year, the company surpassed a 200-customer milestone as financial institutions such as Transpaygo, WorldCom Finance, and Euro Exim Bank signed up for RippleNet. If Ripple was like any other cryptocurrency, enthusiasts would have celebrated this accomplishment. Except for the XRP Army, the company is not getting any love from the crypto community.
In this article, we explore the reasons why corporations love Ripple while almost everybody else hates it.
It is quite easy to understand why corporations love Ripple. By using XRP, corporations such as banks can remove the middleman out of the equation when sending cross-border payments. Without third-party involvement, costs are significantly reduced. For instance, PayPal charges around 3% for electronic payments. If you use Ripple, the average transaction fee is currently 0.0009 XRP, which is negligible considering that the price of one XRP is around $0.37.


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A swiftly redacted section of a post on Microsoft's JobsBlog may have confirmed the existence of the company's mysterious Courier tablet PC.
Despite Microsoft not having officially acknowledged the product as being reality, the company posted on its blog: "Do you already know everything about Project Natal and the Cloud? Is Blaise Aguera y Arcas' jaw-dropping TED talk on augmented-reality Bing Maps and Photosynth last month's news? Then check out some of the online chatter surrounding new releases of Window Phone 7 series handsets, Internet Explorer 9 and the upcoming Courier digital journal".
The fact that once spotted, the latter part of the post was quickly taken offline, suggests that there's still a bit of secrecy happening here. But perhaps we'll see a reveal of Courier later in the year after all. We'll keep you posted.


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High sugar diet may be linked to depression in men
A recent observational study has suggested that consuming too much sugar may lead to anxiety and depression in UK men.
The study found that compared to those who consumed less than 39.5g of sugar per day, men who consumed more than 67g of sugar per day increased their risk of developing mood disorders by more than a fifth. To quantify, 67g of sugar is the equivalent of two normal sized cans of Coca-Cola.
The participants were put into three groups based on the amount of sugar they consumed daily. After five years, it was found that men in the highest sugar consumption group (eating more than 67g of sugar per day) were 23% more likely to have developed a mental disorder such as anxiety or depression than those in the lowest sugar consumption group (eating less than 39.5g of sugar per day).
Although both men and women participated in the study, interestingly there was no link found between sugar intake and the development in mood disorders in women. Scientists also ruled out the possibility that the findings could be a result of men comforting themselves with sugary foods when unhappy.
Professor Tom Sanders, a nutrition expert at King’s College London, said: “This is an observational study not a clinical trial and its interpretation needs to be treated with caution. While the authors have tried to adjust for the effects of social factors there still is a risk of residual confounding. There is also a major problem in that sugar intake is under-reported in the overweight and obese, which the authors acknowledge.”


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The Bhutanese traditional products by artisans and farmers, gained access to international markets with the support of the European Union (EU)-Bhutan Trade Support Project.
Four years after launching the project in May 2018, it came to an end on September 19 with a display of businesses supported by the project.
The project has helped link 1,400 artisans, farmers and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in horticulture and textile handicraft sectors to 11 export markets.
The project worked with communities across the 20 Dzongkhags in the country.
“The efforts have resulted in an increase in incomes along the two value chains leading to economic growth and poverty reduction,” according to the International Trade Centre (ITC).
In line with Bhutan’s “Brand Bhutan initiative”, the project has been instrumental in strengthening the SME sector by becoming export competitive with a focus on empowering women entrepreneurs and economic and environmental sustainability.
International buyers showed great interest in Bhutanese products and placed new orders, even during the Covid-19 pandemic. Products such as honey, chilies, lemongrass oil, cardamom, ginger powder, turmeric powder, herbal tea, and mushrooms saw demand.
Under the project, 320 new designs of textile handicrafts were developed and more than 2,000 units exported to Europe, Asia, and the United States of America.
Bhutan Textiles has exported more than 2,500 products worth over Nu 10.4 million (M) to 66 clients in 14 countries-the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand, Switzerland, Netherland, Spain, Italy, Monaco, Norway, and South Korea.
Nu 2.6M worth of horticulture products were exported to Japan, Thailand, Hongkong, Singapore, France, Italy, and Malaysia.
However, horticulture consultant of ITC, Dr Subedi, said that Bhutanese organic products are yet to get the EU standard certification. “Bhutan is not taken under the geographical indication for the EU market.” He said that because of lack of certification, Bhutanese products cannot be exported in large quantities.
Dr Subedi said that Bhutan Agriculture and Food Regulatory Authority is looking forward to certifying Bhutanese organic products with the third party EU standard organic certification in Thailand.
Founder of Druk Meto or Bhutan Blossoms, Thinley Namgay, said that the business exported products worth USD 50,000 last year in the international market.
Sharing the export challenges, he said that the flight charges are costlier and delays are a problem. Thinley Namgay added that meeting the quality and standards for international market is also difficult. “Most of the farmers involved in collecting the raw materials are not trained.”
He expects to open a couple more retail stores in the international market.
Founder of Jinlab Agroproducts, Kalyan Mahat, said that the project helped the business in capacity building in writing business profiles and also sold his products via a digital platform based in Hongkong. He said that he learned to ensure an attractive packaging, documentation for the ISO certification, maintaining food hygiene, and recalling default products.
Economic affairs minister, Loknath Sharma said, “Trade is an essential part of our economy that provides opportunities for employment and economic development. The EU-Bhutan Trade Support project was timely. It assisted the government in securing new market access for Bhutanese products. The project supported the objectives of the 12th Five Year Plan.”
EU Ambassador to Bhutan and India, Ugo Astuto, said that the SMEs could be engines of sustainable economic growth and inclusive development, besides creating employment.
He added that the project contributed to unlocking the power of SMEs by supporting the national trade policy, building supply-side capacities for export and identifying economic opportunities abroad. “The growing presence of Bhutanese horticulture and handicrafts products in international markets will help in improving the country’s trade surplus and also foster economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic.”
Ugo Astuto also said that the EU would continue to work with Bhutan in diverse areas and support the country’s transition from the Least Developed Country (LDC) group.
ITC‘s Director of Division of Country Programmes, Ashish Shah said, “ITC has been a long-term partner of Bhutan, supporting economic diversification, sustainable trade, private sector development, and more on Gross National Happiness.”
Although the project came to an end, he said that ITC stands ready to work with Bhutan in support of post-Covid-19 economic recovery, LDC graduation, developing the digital economy, green trade, and climate-resilient SMEs.
The project also helped Bhutan nurture conducive policy environment for the private sector, public-private dialogue, and digital trade.
“The project’s support on Generalised System of Preferences Plus, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards and Technical Barriers to Trade has contributed to prepare for Bhutan’s LDC in 2023,” according to the ITC.
The project funded by the EU was implemented by the ITC, a United Nations agency, in collaboration with the Gross National Happiness Commission, the economic affairs ministry, agriculture ministry, and Agency for Promotion of Indigenous Crafts.


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Volvo Cars sold 131,889 cars in the first quarter of 2020, down 18.2 per cent compared with the same period last year. The company’s global sales performance was affected by the continued impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.
In March, Volvo Cars global sales reached 46,395 cars, down 31.2 per cent compared with the same period last year, led by weakening demand in Europe and the US. China meanwhile is showing signs of recovery, as showroom traffic continues to improve.
During the January to March quarter, the XC60 was the top-selling model for the company, followed by the XC40 and the XC90. SUVs accounted for 67.9 per cent of the company’s total sales in the period, up from 60.3 per cent in the first quarter last year.
Volvo Cars’ Recharge line-up of chargeable Volvo models maintained a strong sales momentum in the first quarter, comprising of 14.7 per cent of all cars sold in the period. The comparable share at the end of the same period last year stood at 7.4 per cent. Recharge is the overarching brand name for all chargeable Volvo models with a fully electric or plug-in hybrid powertrain.
China sales during the quarter reached 20,780 cars, down 30.5 per cent as compared with the same period last year, primarily due to the lower sales performance in January and February. In March, showroom traffic in the region started to pick up pace. Earlier this month Volvo Cars also reopened its four manufacturing plants in China after an extended closure period due to the spread of the Coronavirus.
US sales in the January to March period stood at 19,485 cars, down 11.7 per cent, compared with the same period last year. A majority of States in the country have now implemented stay-at-home orders which have led to a significant drop in showroom traffic in March that affected the first quarter volumes.
Volvo Cars’ sales in Europe reached 70,510 cars in the first three months of the year, down 18.5 per cent as compared with the same period last year. The sales performance was significantly impacted in March due to restricted movement in several key markets including Germany, the UK, France, Italy and Belgium among others.
A detailed break-up of regional sales is given below:
During the first three months, the XC60 was the company’s top-selling model with total sales of 36,930 cars (2019: 46,259 cars), followed by the XC40 with 34,268 cars (2019: 28,903 cars) and the XC90 with 18,327 cars (2019: 22,073 cars).


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Country Club Plaza lights are a Kansas City tradition, 84 years and counting. But in addition to the display being treasured tradition, the lights are a lot of work to put up and take down.
The Country Club Plaza, a Spanish-inspired shopping district, popular for its holiday lighting display started as a single strand of holiday lights strung over a store entrance in 1925, but now the display is knows as one of the best in the country.
Every tower, dome, window accentuated with glimmering, jewel colored lights that all must be taken down this time of year to be repaired and stored.
Matt Deardorff, an electrician with Capital Electric, took advantage of warmer weather on Tuesday to catch up on what he calls his “biggest project.”
“This is what I`d prefer every single day,” said Deardorff about the weather on Tuesday. “It (usually) gets pretty cold.”
Deardorff says the lights are three-fourths of his job.
“It`s always a daily stress worrying about dropping something all day every day,” said Deardorff.
Deardorff spends months stringing holiday lights, and then spends months taking them down.
Deardorff calims there’s a method to his madness. On Tuesday location he worked on taking the lights down off the tower above Restoration Hardware.
“We like to take all the lower bulbs down first and leave the higher ones until later in the year,” said Deardorff.
The bulbs are stored in the district, in a secret space called “the Dungeon.” It’s so secret, that Deardorff wouldn’t let FOX 4 show viewers where it is.
“It`s a secret place not much bigger than your living room probably,” said Deardorff.
Strings of lights, which are rusted and busted, are repaired, replaced then stored in the space.
“And then hang them back on the rack, ready to hang for next year,” he said.
For Deardorff, next year starts this summer. He says he started taking down the plaza lights in January, and hopes to have them all down by mid-April.


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Bamboo grove forest in Kyoto, Japan. Merchants in Kyoto’s Arashiyama neighborhood — which includes the bamboo forest, a tourist and Instagram hotspot — have created a series of posters depicting the area’s popular tourist attractions as empty. With hashtags that translate to #nopeople and #nowisthetime, it seems intended to encourage travelers to visit despite the perceived risks. vekidd / Adobe
Skift Take: This week in tourism news, destination marketing organizations find themselves in a pickle. Should they carry on with promotional campaigns amid growing fears over coronavirus? Also, Skift launches a one-on-one interview series. Founder and CEO Rafat Ali candidly talks with industry leaders on travel’s path forward as the world grapples with, and recovers from, the virus crisis.
Read the Complete Story On Skift


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Tavascan Concept, the vision of electric sportiness according to Cupra
After unveiling the Formentor Concept earlier this year, Cupra is going one step further into its vision of electrified performance with the Tavascan Concept, a vehicle designed to meet the needs of a market that is forecasted to grow by 15% a year: the all-electric coupe SUV.
Bringing together the silhouette of a four-door crossover, with the presence of an SUV and the sleekness of a sporty coupe, the Tavascan Concept is the first road Cupra to use a 100% electric powertrain.
«Besides the Formentor, which will be launched in 2020 alongside two other high-performance plug-in hybrid models, we have already proved our technological capabilities by developing the world’s first 100% electric touring car, the Cupra e-Racer. With the presentation of the all-electric Tavascan concept, we are translating this vision into the streets and proving that performance can be electrified» said Cupra Ceo Wayne Griffiths.
Tavascan will make its world debut at this year’s IAA Frankfurt International Motor Show.