#India has set a target of reaching $300 billion

[denimbex1986]

'...Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic, Oppenheimer is now close to kissing its $1 billion mark at the box office, outpacing his timeless masterpiece Inception and becoming the third-highest-grossing flick from the prolific director.

Oppenheimer surpasses Inception, tops third-grossing movie

Christopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer has now crossed another remarkable box office milestone with $850 million in global ticket sales. With more than six weeks in theaters, the Cillian Murphy opus has now surpassed Leonardo DiCaprio’s action sci-fi Inception to become the third most-earned movie by him. It now proudly stands behind the Batman movies, Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, both of which managed to make $1 billion. Following Interstellar reining the 4th with $ 677 million. Oppenheimer has already beaten its domestic profit of Inception by $292 million.

Oppenheimer, the director’s highest-grossing movie of all time, starring Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, lifted its prominence in overseas markets, gaining $542.7 in 59 countries, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, India, Brazil, Spain, Italy, and Saudi Arabia. Similarly, the movie alone made $310.2 million in North America after grossing over $7542.7 million during Labor Day weekend.

Being an R-rated movie that predominantly talks about intricate and complex concerns in a less flashy setting of laboratories, offices, and political meetings, it has now become the most collected movie, solely owing to the craftsmanship of cinematic wizard Nolan along with intricating performance from Cillian Murphy. Towards, moving to 50 days of release, will probably reach the $900 million mark sometime in the next week, following the successful target of $1 billion.

Oppenheimer nabs remarkable IMAX success globally

Nolan’s IMAX creation, Oppenheimer, has now earned $170 globally alone in Imax screenings. Raking in the fifth highest-grossing IMAX release in Hollywood, including $2 billion from major blockbusters like Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Endgame, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In China, Oppenheimer has collected $30.8 million alone for IMAX screens.

The Oppenheimer now stands as the third richest movie, alongside the $1 billion glow of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Following Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” with $845 million and Vin Diesel’s Fast X with $704 million, leading the fifth position.

Additionally, from the R-rated section, Oppenheimer became Universal’s first highest-grossing R-rated film with $300 million as well as the biggest R-rated film, surpassing action flick, John Wick: Chapter 4 ($187). Thus it was a huge feat from the American Prometheus to tackle all the summer smashes and secure its spot at the top.'

[labhanya]

Boost Your Business with a Facebook Advertising Agency in India

 In the digital age, Facebook has emerged as a powerful platform for businesses to connect with their target audience. With over 300 million active users in India, Facebook presents a massive opportunity for brands to advertise and grow their business. But managing Facebook ads effectively requires expertise, strategy, and the right approach. This is where a Facebook advertising agency in India can make all the difference.

In this blog, we’ll explore the benefits of working with a professional Facebook advertising agency, the services they provide, and why choosing the right partner can help you achieve better results.

Why Facebook Advertising Matters

With billions of users worldwide and a robust advertising system, Facebook allows businesses to reach a large and targeted audience. The platform offers a variety of ad formats—carousel ads, video ads, sponsored posts, and more—giving businesses multiple ways to promote products and services.

Here’s why Facebook advertising agency in India matters:

Highly Targeted Advertising: Facebook allows precise targeting based on demographics, interests, behavior, location, and more. This ensures that ads are shown to the right people, maximizing ad spend.

Cost-Effective Marketing: Facebook ads offer flexible budgeting options, allowing businesses to set daily or lifetime budgets. Whether you have a small or large advertising budget, Facebook can accommodate your needs.

Measurable Results: Facebook’s advertising platform offers comprehensive insights and analytics, helping businesses track ad performance. Metrics such as engagement, reach, conversions, and click-through rates provide valuable data that can help optimize campaigns.

Enhanced Brand Visibility: Facebook's massive user base allows businesses to enhance brand visibility, engage with customers, and build a loyal following. Effective Facebook advertising strategies can significantly boost brand awareness and engagement.

The Role of a Facebook Advertising Agency in India

Partnering with a Facebook advertising agency in India offers numerous advantages. These agencies specialize in crafting, executing, and optimizing Facebook ad campaigns to ensure the best possible results for businesses.

Here are some key roles that a Facebook advertising agency plays:

1. Ad Strategy and Planning

A successful Facebook ad campaign begins with a well-thought-out strategy. The agency will start by understanding your business goals, audience, and competitors. Based on this analysis, they will create a customized advertising plan that aligns with your objectives—whether it’s to drive traffic, generate leads, or boost sales.

2. Ad Creation and Design

Creating engaging and compelling ads is crucial for capturing your audience's attention. A Facebook advertising agency in India will help you design visually appealing ads that resonate with your target audience. From writing catchy ad copy to selecting high-quality images and videos, the agency ensures that your ads are designed to generate maximum impact.

3. Targeting and Audience Segmentation

Targeting the right audience is one of the key factors in the success of Facebook ads. The agency will use Facebook’s advanced targeting options to ensure that your ads reach the right people based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and location. Additionally, they can create custom audiences, such as retargeting past website visitors or targeting lookalike audiences who share similar characteristics to your existing customers.

4. Ad Management and Optimization

Managing Facebook ad campaigns can be time-consuming and complex. A professional agency will handle the day-to-day management of your campaigns, ensuring that your ads are performing at their best. This includes monitoring ad performance, adjusting bids, tweaking targeting, and optimizing creative to improve engagement and conversions.

5. Reporting and Analytics

A Facebook advertising agency in India provides detailed reports and insights on your ad campaigns. They will analyze key metrics such as cost-per-click (CPC), conversion rates, and return on ad spend (ROAS) to give you a clear understanding of how your ads are performing. Based on this data, the agency will make data-driven decisions to enhance future ad performance.

Benefits of Hiring a Facebook Advertising Agency in India

By working with a Facebook advertising agency, businesses can benefit from the agency’s expertise, tools, and experience. Here are some key benefits:

1. Expertise and Experience

Facebook advertising agencies employ specialists who are well-versed in the platform’s algorithms, ad formats, and trends. Their knowledge helps businesses avoid common pitfalls and ensures that campaigns are optimized for success.

2. Cost Efficiency

An experienced agency knows how to allocate budgets effectively, ensuring that your advertising spend delivers the best possible returns. With the ability to test, refine, and optimize campaigns, agencies can reduce wasteful ad spending and maximize ROI.

3. Time-Saving

Managing Facebook ads in-house requires constant attention, analysis, and updates. By outsourcing this responsibility to an agency, businesses can focus on their core operations while the agency manages all aspects of the campaign.

4. Scalability

As your business grows, a Facebook advertising agency in India can help scale your campaigns. Whether you’re looking to expand your ad budget, target new markets, or promote new products, the agency will ensure that your campaigns are adaptable and scalable.

Conclusion

In today’s competitive digital landscape, leveraging the expertise of a Facebook advertising agency in India can significantly improve the success of your Facebook ad campaigns. From crafting tailored ad strategies to managing day-to-day operations and analyzing performance, a professional agency can help you maximize the impact of your Facebook advertising efforts.

At Labhanya, we specialize in delivering data-driven and results-oriented Facebook advertising solutions for businesses across India. Our team of experts will work closely with you to develop customized ad strategies that align with your business goals. Let us help you elevate your brand and achieve measurable success with our professional Facebook advertising services.

Partner with Labhanya, your trusted Facebook advertising agency in India, and watch your business thrive online!

[foxnangelseo]

The Green Energy Sector in India Set to Attract $800 Billion Investments in the Next Decade

Introduction:

Investment in the Indian green energy sector is poised to reach staggering heights, with projections suggesting a potential influx of $800 billion over the next decade. This forecast was presented by Debasish Purohit, co-head of investment banking for Bank of America in India. The energy transition theme, which encompasses various segments such as green hydrogen, storage, and component manufacturing, is expected to draw investments from Indian corporates, foreign strategic investors, and sponsors. The nation's scale makes it an attractive destination for strategic investors aiming to achieve net-zero targets. In this blog post, we will explore the significant investment potential in India's green energy sector and the ambitions of key players in the industry.

Rising Investment Potential:

Bank of America predicts that the renewable energy sector alone will attract approximately $250 billion in investments over the next decade. Additionally, batteries are expected to draw around $250 million in investments while supporting grid infrastructure, and other segments like green hydrogen, equipment, and systems may collectively receive $300 billion in total investment. These substantial figures underscore the immense opportunities present in India's green energy landscape.

Corporate Initiatives:

India's corporate sector has wholeheartedly embraced the green energy revolution, with numerous companies announcing ambitious plans to transition into sustainable practices. Reliance Industries, for example, aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. Goldman Sachs reports that Reliance Industries has invested over $1.5 billion in solar, battery, and hydrogen capacities to offset emissions from its oil and petrochemicals business. The conglomerate has also prioritized the manufacturing of various components, such as polysilicon, wafers, cells, modules, electric vehicles, grid storage batteries, electrolyzers, and fuel cells. Similarly, other prominent conglomerates like the Adani group and the Tatas have outlined their own green energy investment plans, contributing to the sector's growth.

Bank of America's Involvement:

As a significant player in the financial sector, Bank of America has actively advised on several green energy and renewables deals, amounting to over $5 billion. Notable transactions include acting as an advisor to Actis LLP in the $1.6 billion sale of Sprng Energy to Shell and assisting TPG Rise in its $1 billion investment in Tata Motors' electric vehicle business. Over the past year, prominent conglomerates like the Tata Group, Mahindra Group, and the TVS Group have sought to raise capital for their electric vehicle businesses, further highlighting the growing interest and opportunities in the sector.

Market Dynamics and Trends:

In recent weeks, block deals and the primary IPO market have witnessed increased activity across various segments. Bank of America's involvement in advising Tencent on a block trade in Policybazaar and managing other block deals, including in Zomato Ltd, demonstrates the bank's continued presence in the market. The consumer technology segment has experienced a valuation reset, with new private raisings limited to select top-quartile companies. Although absolute valuation levels have been protected, multiples have seen a decline in consumer tech companies. Block deals in the listed space have remained steady, albeit with smaller transaction sizes, indicating sellers' inclination to partially monetize their assets while retaining the potential for future gains in a favorable market environment.

Conclusion:

India's green energy sector is on the cusp of a monumental transformation, with projections indicating the potential for $800 billion in investments over the next decade. The energy transition theme, spanning green hydrogen, storage, and component manufacturing, has attracted the attention of both domestic and foreign investors, given India's scale and potential for achieving net-zero targets. Key players in the corporate sector, including Reliance Industries, the Adani group, and the Tatas, have already announced ambitious plans to foray into green energy. Bank of America's active involvement in facilitating green energy deals highlights the financial sector's recognition of the sector's immense growth potential. With a renewed focus on sustainable practices and increasing investor interest, India is poised to become a global leader in the green energy revolution.

Also visit - Fox&Angel - Strategy consulting firm

This post was originally published on: Foxnangel

[eninrac-consulting]

Global Solar Projects Intelligence Tracker - 2030

The upcoming global solar projects offers a market size hovering b/w 450-570 USD Billion while the global solar installed capacity crossed a mark of 1000 GW in first quarter of year 2023. As of May’2023 the total solar installation across the globe hovers around 1100 GW & is anticipated to reach a capacity of approx. 2000 GW* by 2030 Asia Pacific countries are the biggest driver of such growth in solar capacities & will continue to hold a strong influence in the capacity additions as well. China commands approximately 41% of the total global solar installations, with an installed capacity above 430 GW. India has also shown a significant growth in its solar installations. The solar installed capacity of India witnessed an increase of more than 25 times over the last decade making it to reach to 68 GW from 2014 to 2023.  The active participation of India in solar energy adoption and installation showcases their commitment to renewable energy growth and sustainability in the region. Amidst the upward trajectory of solar energy capacity, several countries are emerging as frontrunners, demonstrating commendable efforts in expanding their contributions to the overall capacity growth by 2030.  The capacity expansions of few markets can be seen below:

China is set to have a significant number of upcoming solar plants (nearly 2000), with a combined capacity of  above 300 GW

The USA is expected to have about 740+ upcoming solar plants, with a total capacity of more than 110 GW

Brazil is anticipated to have 960+ upcoming solar plants with a total capacity of more than 55 GW

Australia is expected to have 170+ upcoming solar plants with a total capacity of  above 73 GW

TOC

Name of the project

Country

Exact Location

Project Capacity (MW/GW)

Type of Solar projects

Commissioning year

Project Developer**

EPC/Other Contractors**

Construction Stage(Announce/Proposed, pre-construction(pre-feasibility/feasibility), statutory clearances, under-construction etc.

Scope of Work

Key Project Contacts

Key Highlights

Nearly 979 GW+ of fresh solar capacity additions are anticipated globally till 2030

The global solar market is poised to witness an addition of 6500 + solar projects by 2030

The upcoming global solar projects offers a market size hovering b/w 450-570 USD Billion

Asia-Pacific is poised to maintain its dominant position in global solar landscape with anticipated fresh capacity additions of 500GW+

India currently has 67.8 GW of installed solar plants. To fulfill the government's target for solar plants by 2030 of 280 GW, India would need to install approximately 30.3 GW of solar plants each year

In Europe, Greece is going to be a major market for forthcoming solar development. The country anticipates to add nearly 500+ solar projects with a capacity above 40GW+

Database Difference Margin

Project Information: The database includes detailed information on each project, such as project name, location, commissioning date, production technology, and capacity.

Production Technology: Projects in the database are categorized based on the production technology used, including electrolysis, fossil fuels with carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS), and other emerging technologies.

Fuel Produced: The database categorizes projects based on the type of hydrogen-based fuel produced, including hydrogen, methanol, ammonia, methane, synthetic hydrocarbons, and other hydrogen-based fuels.

Use of Fuel: The database includes information on the use of the fuel produced, such as transportation, industry, power generation, and heating.

Status: The database includes information on the status of each project, whether it is in planning, construction, or operation.

Geographic Coverage: The database covers projects from all regions of the world, including North & South America, Europe, Asia, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East.

[dailyupdatestoday]

Importance of digital marketing for business

Digital marketing is important because it allows businesses to reach a large followership where they spend much of their time online. Digital marketing includes a range of tactics, similar to hunt machine optimization, social media marketing, dispatch marketing, and online advertising. These tactics can help businesses ameliorate their online presence, reach further implicit guests, and induce further leads and deals.

Digital marketing is also important because it allows businesses to target specific demographics and epitomize their marketing sweats. For illustration, a business can use digital marketing to target druggies grounded on their position, age, interests, and other characteristics. This can help the business reach the right people with the right communication, which can be more effective than traditional marketing styles.

Overall, digital marketing is an essential part of any ultramodern business strategy because it helps businesses connect with their guests cost-effectively and effectively.

Digital marketing is a rapidly growing field in India, with more and more businesses turning to the internet to reach and engage with their customers. In this article, we will take a closer look at the digital marketing industry in India, including its history, current state, and future trends.

The digital marketing industry in India has its roots in the early days of the internet when businesses first started using websites and email to communicate with their customers. In the years since, the industry has grown significantly, with the rise of social media, mobile devices, and other technologies driving the growth of digital marketing in India.

Today, digital marketing in India is a multi-billion dollar industry, with a wide range of companies offering a variety of services to businesses looking to reach their target audience online. These services include search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, and more.

One of the main drivers of the growth of digital marketing in India is the increasing number of internet users in the country. According to the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), there were over 500 million internet users in India as of December 2020, and this number is expected to continue to grow in the coming years. This large and growing online audience presents a significant opportunity for businesses to reach and engage with their customers through digital marketing efforts.

Another factor driving the growth of digital marketing in India is the increasing prevalence of mobile devices. With more and more people using smartphones and tablets to access the internet, businesses have had to adapt their marketing strategies to reach these mobile users. This has led to the rise of mobile marketing, which includes tactics such as SMS marketing, mobile apps, and mobile advertising.

One of the biggest trends in digital marketing in India is the growing importance of social media. With over 300 million users in the country, social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have become key channels for businesses to reach and engage with their customers. In addition to traditional social media marketing, businesses are also using social media for customer service, brand building, and influencer marketing.

Another trend in digital marketing in India is the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). These technologies are being used to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by analyzing customer data and providing insights on how to better target and personalize marketing efforts.

In conclusion, the digital marketing industry in India is a rapidly growing and evolving field, with new technologies and trends emerging all the time. As more and more businesses turn to the internet to reach and engage with their customers, the demand for digital marketing services in India is only set to increase in the coming years.

[billehrman]

The Race to the Bottom

Monetary authorities around the world are using an old playbook: lowering interest rates and the value of their currency in the hopes of stimulate growth in their region. Unfortunately, it won’t work in today's VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambigous) environment.

Our blog last week, “Global Uncertainty Trumps Lower Interest Rates” was on the mark. It may be helpful to read it again. Our thesis was that there was little or no corporate demand for money no matter what the interest rate was due to global uncertainty centered around trade. Who wants to spend in today’s uncertain environment? We blamed Trump and his administration’s actions—not monetary policy—for holding back growth here and abroad. That view has only been reinforced by the key events of last week. There were continued moves down in interest rates around the world. Global growth continues to slow with deflationary forces rising. Risks remain to the downside without trade deals.

Three major countries: India, Thailand and New Zealand, “lowered interest rates (last week) in a series of unexpected moves that shook the currency markets just two days after China allowed the renminbi to weaken” above 7 to the dollar which prompted Trump to label China a currency manipulator claiming they are ratcheting up the tensions between our two countries as well as rattling global markets. Why shouldn’t the renminbi weaken as growth in China is slowing, monetary policy is easing, and the government wants to sustain export growth? China is just using the same playbook that all countries utilize to sustain growth. Why not? And don’t forget the tensions in Hong Kong, too, hurting their currency! The key question remaining is whether the trade conflict will turn into something much larger—a currency war. If so, there are no winners. We doubt that will occur but the markets are on pins and needles worrying about one.

While we continue to believe that the U.S. is best positioned to weather the trade storm, we are growing increasingly cautious short term as we expect Trump to go to the wall raising tariffs the full 25% in the fall on all Chinese exports hoping to lower them next winter/spring prior to elections after some sort of a deal is reached. Trump recognizes that now is the time for maximum pressure on China knowing full well that the financial markets will suffer only to reverse course next year before the election if/when a deal is reached, and tariffs come down. Unfortunately, we expect that the Chinese recognize Trump’s playbook too, so they must decide whether they are better off dealing with Trump today or a Democratic president in 2021 if that occurs. Biden would take a more accommodative stance toward China than Elizabeth Warren who seems even further to the right on dealing with China than Trump. Is it better for China to deal with the devil they know or take the risk of dealing with an unknown? That’s a good question. We think that the Chinese will decide to deal with Trump in the end. And, Trump is likely to accept a deal even if not a really good one if it helps his election chances. No deal would hurt him for sure as the economy and financial markets would only continue to suffer. The bottom line is that we expect a deal over the next 6-8 months. You can easily guess what happens then to all financial markets around the world. We would use any further weakness ahead to build positions in great global companies selling at recession level valuations. We are setting up an options strategy to do just that to minimize the risk if we are wrong. Right now, we own defensive stocks with high dividend yields, super-growth companies that do not have exposure to China and many special situations.

Our current view remains that there is no place like home, but we do see risks rising globally including in the U.S.. While our market is statistically undervalued for investors with a longer time frame, we do see rising short-term risks geopolitically that could create an unusual opportunity for us to take advantage of as we look over the valley.

We do not believe that lower interest rates globally as the race to the bottom escalates will boost global growth without trade deals.

Let’s look at the most recent data points that support/detract that the U.S. economy is best positioned to weather a potential trade storm next month if the U.S. begins tariffs on an additional $300 billion of Chinese exports.

1.) The U.S. consumer along with government fiscal stimulus remains the bedrock of strength underlying our economy for the foreseeable future. Remember that consumer expenditures plus government spending make up over 85% of GNP and both remain in strong uptrends. The number of job openings (JOLT) remains over 7.1 million as of the end of June. The U.S. has created well over 2 million new jobs over the last twelve months with hourly wages rising well in excess of inflation at 3.2%. It does not hurt that the core PCE price index, which is favored by the Fed, increased by 1.6% in June, undershooting the Fed target of 2.0% for the 10th year. Wouldn’t you consider that a pretty good backdrop for continued growth in consumer spending? And then add that the Senate just signed off on the new budget resolution increasing government spending by well over $200 billion over the next two years increasing the fiscal deficit to over $1 trillion.

Now, do you understand why we expect the U.S. economy to continue to expand by 2+% over the next twelve months? But we do see risks to our forecast rising if the trade conflict escalates out of control. It could then clearly impact consumer sentiment which could dampen spending intentions as we enter the all-important Christmas season. Is Trump that foolish? We don’t think so! But we are watching the situation closely and hedging our bets.

We remain convinced that the Fed will lower rates by an additional 25 to 50 basis points before year-end as insurance against the potential negative impact of further global slowing, escalating trade conflicts and rising deflationary forces. Do we feel that the cuts will lead to accelerating domestic growth? Not really as it won't change business psychology/spending intentions one bit. We do believe that the rate cuts will push investors further out on the risk curve which should be the objective/concern of the Fed.

2.) There is no doubt in our minds that growth in China is slowing rapidly despite the recent surprise export number reported last week showing an increase of 3.3% year over year reversing a negative number reported in June. Trade patterns are being impacted by the negative trade rhetoric and we doubt that China can offset weakness on exports to the U.S. by increasing them enough to Europe and Southeast Asia. Continued weakness in imports, down 5.6% from a year ago, was more telling to us and reveals the true weakness in China. China has to worry about rising deflationary forces as evidenced by a 0.3% decline in producer prices from a year ago. It is clear that China must pump up its economy by easing monetary policy further and increasing fiscal stimulus or growth will likely slow to less than 6% before year-end and employment may fail to increase which is now a real risk. That is a formula for pressure on its currency which was evident last week as the yuan plunged past 7. The currency will continue to weaken further unless the PBOC intervenes spending a lot of its reserves which declined by over $15 billion in July alone to $3.1 trillion. Problems in Hong Kong as not helping its currency for sure.

There is no doubt that China needs a trade deal more than the U.S.. Corporations continue to shift their supply chains to other countries at an accelerating rate despite assurances from the government that they will not retaliate against foreign companies.

3.) We were surprised that Japan's second-quarter GNP rose by 1.8%. We believe that the threat of increased taxes in October has pulled forward consumer spending (approx. 50% of GNP) and may also help the third quarter results too. The 10-day holiday to celebrate the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito also boosted consumption in the quarter.  We clearly expect a sharp shortfall in spending in the fourth quarter and early next year.

We do not believe that the BOJ has must left in their arsenal to stimulate growth but at least Japan is benefitting from a stable currency. We doubt whether a trade deal between the U.S. and Japan by the end of the summer will do much improve business sentiment/spending/hiring without the U.S. and China reaching a ceasefire at a minimum.

4.) We remain very pessimistic about the prospects of the Eurozone especially with the risks of a hard Brexit rising daily. Germany, the engine of Europe, reported a 1.5% decline in industrial output in June driven by much weaker production of intermediate and capital goods than expected. It appears that Germany may report negative growth in the second quarter. What does that say about the prospects for the rest of Europe? Maybe that explains why German rates fell further into negative territory last week. Does anyone really believe that lower rates and further monetary easing by the ECB will do much for growth in the Eurozone? Nada!

By the way, growth in England has turned negative already too. And what happens if there is a hard Brexit in the fall? Lower rates by the BOE won’t do much to save England.

5.) India, the third largest country in Asia, continues to ease monetary policy aggressively to offset a weakening domestic economy but so far it has not helped one bit. Growth in India has slowed to less than 6% which is very disappointing to say the least. Inflation, here too, is running well below the government’s targets and fears of deflation are on the rise. India’s main problem is a lack of private investment as domestic demand and global growth slows.

The common thread occurring around the world is slowing growth despite significant monetary ease. There is a race to the bottom occurring globally as each nation/region is virtually doing the same thing (lowering rates plus weakening the currency) but to no avail. Have lower rates and a weakening currency helped the Eurozone and Japan? Will China benefit if they let the yuan fall in value offsetting tariffs? Think about all the debt globally that now has negative rates and/or is dollar denominated. And what about our Fed! We doubt that lower rates and even negative real rates will do much to stimulate growth at this point here.

We are convinced that there will not be any acceleration in global growth until trade deals are finalized so that business confidence to spend is rekindled. Here us Trump and Xi!

The bottom line is that we have moved defensively in the last few weeks after Trump tweeted about the additional Chinese tariffs effective September 1st. Global growth will NOT accelerate until there is an end/cessation to the trade conflict so that business can plan/spend/hire once again. And the U.S. will NOT be totally immune either although the real impact will be far less than virtually everywhere else as our Fed has lots of ammo to spend offsetting economic weakness, our consumer remains in good shape and our government is spending way more than they should too as we enter a Presidential election year.

Lower rates globally will force investors further out on the risk curve.

Paix et Prospérité has navigated pretty darn well during these turbulent times. We sold economically sensitive companies including global industrials/capital goods producers; the financials for obvious reasons; and commodity companies. We used the proceeds to buy some utilities including telecommunications; consumer non-durables; retailers, airlines, and healthcare companies. We have maintained/increased our exposure to high growth technology companies that sell at reasonable multiples and have no exposure to China, cable with content like Comcast and Disney, and finally to several special situations with high dividend yields selling at ridiculously low valuations to earnings and cash flow. Our cash positions have increased meaningfully too.

As we said earlier, we are preparing an options strategy that would quickly shift our portfolio if a trade deal is reached.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; look at your asset mix with risk controls; do independent research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman

Paix et Prospérité LLC

[sifuwonisa-blog]

Quora offers a cornucopia of information that you didn’t know you wanted, but so frequently find thanks to on-point search engine optimization. Founded in 2009 by former executives from Facebook, Quora was seen as one of the hottest companies in the post-Facebook wave of social media. It’s not really a destination platform, but thanks to its popularity on search engines, it became the sort of place where you ended up accidentally to try and satisfy a curiosity without diving deep into the dark depths of the internet.

The information on the site is crowdsourced and can be superficial — you wouldn’t cite it in your term paper — and the posters are sometimes anonymous. Quora employs moderators to try to keep forums clean and root out bad behavior.

Over time, it evolved into a more organized Yahoo Answers, a classier Reddit, an opinionated Wikipedia. It became especially popular in elite tech circles — as a precursor to their “thought leadership” on self-publishing platforms like Medium — which definitely didn’t hurt its valuation, judged by Silicon Valley investors to be $900 million five years later.

But when investors were putting that type of price tag on it, Quora was making no money. In fact, the decade-old company is still new to the whole making-money thing. The company for a long time had an internal desire to not clutter the site with advertisements, before finally relenting in 2016 and accepting its first ad placement from Uber. Ads are still relatively sparse.

��Nobody likes banner ads, ads from shady companies, or ads that are irrelevant to their needs,” the company said at the time. “However, we are optimistic that we will be able to introduce ads on Quora in a way that will fit in well and ideally make the product better.”

But the reason why investors are betting on what, at first blush, could appear to be a meaningless pile of content, is that Quora, if successful, is a powerful avenue to reach 300 million information-seeking people a month. It is especially popular in India, where over 20 percent of its visitors come from, according to Alexa data.

Quora’s advertising engine holds a lot of promise: “What’s the best car seat for my toddler?” would tell you that, well, the person on the other side of the keyboard might want to buy a car seat for a toddler. “Should I invest in bitcoin?” is a pretty targeted page, you’d think, for an advertiser like Coinbase. Particularly large advertisers on Quora are software companies, online education providers, and financial services firms.

So to some extent, Quora is more similar to a Google or an Amazon than it is to a Facebook.

Another key draw is that Quora pages, unlike an Instagram story or a Facebook event, have a longer shelf life and can offer relevant information that doesn’t grow stale with time. (That being said, sometimes your Google search can return a lot of answers from Quora’s early days.)

But unlike Facebook, Quora knows no demographic information about its nonregistered users, which makes its copious content less monetizable. And while 300 million monthly users sounds like a lot — about the same number of monthly users as Twitter, a $30 billion public company — Quora’s are not nearly as engaged, often brought to a particular individual page because of a random search or two.

The company is hoping to improve on its revenue struggles, and it recently hired its first chief revenue officer, Arnie Gullov-Singh, to turbocharge its sales program.

But despite some challenges with some investors, Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo shouldn’t be wanting for money. He himself is quite rich from his years as Facebook’s first chief technology officer, so wealthy that he in fact put $20 million of his own money into the company’s Series B round of financing.

D’Angelo today maintains pretty tight control over the company. In an unusual set-up, the only other voting member on Quora’s two-person board of directors alongside the CEO is Benchmark Capital investor Matt Cohler, who has been helping to pitch this round in Silicon Valley, according to a person familiar with the matter. Valor is not expected to hold a voting board seat.

What is Quora’s future? Its leadership in the past has said it wants to stay perpetually independent. An IPO seems not in the cards any time soon, given its revenue situation. For now, it appears to be just like so many other Silicon Valley startups: with a rich valuation but not much money. Except this one is a decade old.

Recode and Vox have joined forces to uncover and explain how our digital world is changing — and changing us. Subscribe to Recode podcasts to hear Kara Swisher and Peter Kafka lead the tough conversations the technology industry needs today.

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[your-dietician]

India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/economy/india-supercharged-its-economy-30-years-ago-covid-unraveled-it-in-months/

India Supercharged Its Economy 30 Years Ago. Covid Unraveled It in Months

(Bloomberg) — Thirty years ago, on a summer evening in late July, India liberalized its Soviet-style economy in a transformation that eventually pulled about 300 million out of poverty, fueling one of the biggest wealth creations in history.

Then came the world’s fastest coronavirus surge which left overflowing hospitals turning away the dying and crematorium smoke darkening city skies.

Years, and perhaps decades, of progress have been unwound in months, as many Indians who had clawed their way out of poverty face grim job prospects and carry heavy debt loads wracked up to get themselves and loved ones through the pandemic. The devastation has highlighted just how much poor health care and infrastructure — often neglected in the boom after liberalization — are holding back the nation and its people.

More than 200 million have gone back to earning less than minimum wage, or $5, a day, the Bangalore-based Azim Premji University calculates. The middle class, the engine of the consumer economy, shrank by 32 million in 2020, according to the Pew Research Institute. That means India will be regressing on vital fronts just as its global importance is growing.

This decade, India is expected to become the world’s most populated nation, taking that mantle from China, which for years drove global growth. But the Indian economy is grappling with big threats even as it becomes home to the kind of young, working-age population that drove lengthy booms in other nations.

“We’re talking about a decade of lost opportunities and setback,” said Arvind Subramanian, a fellow at Brown University and a former chief economic advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. “Unless there are some big reforms and fundamental changes in the way economic policy is done, you’re not going to be anywhere close to what we saw in the boom years. A lot needs to happen in order to get back to the 7%, 8% growth that we desperately need.”

Even before the pandemic, cracks had begun to emerge. Modi came to power in 2014 amid voter frustration over scandals and policy paralysis that had contributed to bad loans at banks and threatened to derail Indian growth. Yet, the economy has faced other hurdles in recent years including Modi’s 2016 cash ban, which roiled the informal sector, and a hurriedly implemented new tax system.

Story continues

Modi had pledged to turn India into a $5 trillion economy by 2025, but the pandemic is set to push that back by years. The International Monetary Fund expects India to grow 6.9% in the next fiscal year that starts in April 2022, lower than the more than 8% needed long term to reach Modi’s ambitious target and create jobs for the millions entering the work force.

Jim O’Neill, chairman of Chatham House in London — who coined the term BRICs to describe the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China while serving as a top Goldman Sachs Group Inc. economist — is these days cautious on India, largely because the government hasn’t made many of the long-term structural changes he believes are needed for it to reach its full potential.

When still at Goldman Sachs, O’Neill says he presented a paper to Modi in 2013, before he became prime minister, recommending 10 things that would allow the Indian economy to be 40 times larger by 2050. The list included making substantial improvements to areas like infrastructure, education, introducing better public-private partnerships in areas like healthcare, further liberalizing financial markets and working on environmental issues. Modi hasn’t fully pursued these ideas, O’Neill said.

“India’s got these fantastic demographics, which should have given it the potential to be rising a lot more strongly, possibly at the same kind of double digit rates China enjoyed for a long time,” O’Neill said. Yet “the Indian system seems to quite often smother itself, as we’ve seen sadly a few times during the Covid pandemic,” he said.

A government spokesperson didn’t respond to request for comment, but the Modi administration has in recent weeks acknowledged the need for longer term changes. “If we are looking at getting growth — of 8%-10% — back on a sustainable path, we have to think about not just a current revival,” Sanjeev Sanyal, the government’s principal economic adviser, said at the India Global Forum on June 30. Structural changes are needed and to that end the government is constantly opening up new sectors of the economy, he said.

Once the fastest-growing major economy, India saw its biggest ever contraction last year — shrinking more than 7% — after a stringent nationwide lockdown. Just when the economy started showing some momentum, another wave of infections hit the nation. This year, the central bank expects India to grow at 9.5%, sharply lower than the double-digit rebound many had earlier expected. That estimate is heavily boosted by the comparison with the sharp contraction of the previous year, and many economists expect it could be pared even further.

Foreign direct investment surged 19% last year, but even that remains lower as a percentage of GDP compared with countries like Singapore and Vietnam. And a big portion of the foreign investment went to billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s digital platforms.

Some experts, including former central bank head Duvvuri Subbarao, have warned of a K-shaped recovery for India, where the rich get richer and poor get poorer. “Growing inequalities are not just a moral issue,” said Subbarao. “They can erode consumption and hurt our long-term growth prospects.”

The of the two richest men in Asia – Ambani and ports magnate Gautam Adani — are Indians, and their net worth has surged as stocks rallied on the back of cheap liquidity worldwide and tax cuts for companies even as economic growth slumped. Meanwhile, overall Indian wealth — or the value of financial and real assets owned by households minus debts — fell by $594 billion, or 4.4%, in 2020, according to Credit Suisse Group AG.

Thirty years ago, India was forced to remake its economy. A mammoth trade deficit and plunging foreign exchange reserves necessitated a loan from the International Monetary Fund. On July 24, 1991, then finance minister, Manmohan Singh, announced major steps to cut tariffs and encourage trade, essentially opening up the economy to the outside world.

In the boom that followed liberalization, growth crossed 8%. Technology giants like Infosys were born and start-ups worth billions are now mushrooming in Bangalore. A new middle class emerged that watched Netflix and shopped online on Amazon. In the south, the Wistron factory won special economic benefits to assemble Apple iPhones. India became the world’s biggest supplier of generic medicines and the Serum Institute of India became the world’s biggest vaccine maker. An Indian exchange now handles the world’s highest number of derivatives contracts.

Yet there were signs that India wasn’t hitting its full potential. Average GDP growth of 6.2% over 30 years has been lower than China’s 9.2% and even lagged Vietnam’s 6.7%. For years, Indians have been living shorter lives and are now earning less on average than people in smaller nations like Bangladesh.

Vast inequities developed. Researchers have found wealthier people in urban areas and from upper castes were taller in India, a sign of development favoring groups that were already advantaged. The percentage of women joining the workforce fell from 30.3% in 1991 to about 21% in 2019, according to data from the International Labor Organization. India’s government spent less than 2% of GDP on healthcare before the pandemic.

“Had the healthcare system not been so neglected for so long, India would have been prepared to face the Covid-19 crisis,” said Jean Dreze, the Belgian-born Indian economist and a lecturer at Delhi University. “Had India built a more robust social security system, the humanitarian toll of the crisis would not have been so catastrophic.”

Unlike the old guard in 1991, Modi has turned the economy more inward, focusing on self-reliance and homegrown companies. Despite championing free trade in global forums, he’s raised tariffs on goods including electronics and medical equipment, partly reflecting global trends.

Some of those decisions came back to haunt India when citizens struggled to import life-saving products like oxygen concentrators during the pandemic. Top scientists wrote to Modi, asking him to reverse protectionist duties imposed on key items needed to study the coronavirus and its variants including the delta one, which now threatens the globe.

After pledging to contribute to global vaccine programs, the Modi government slowed exports of Covid-19 shots, derailing the inoculation program of a World Health Organization-backed initiative.

“India’s ambition of being seen as a major player on the world stage has taken a substantial hit as the pandemic has laid bare the weaknesses in the capacity and competence of its government,” said Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University.

The key question for global investors now is whether India will get old before Indians get rich. Netflix is counting on India for its next 100 million customers. Bezos is pouring billions of dollars — and even braving Indian courts — to battle India’s richest man Ambani for a slice of the only open retail market with more than a billion people.“The pandemic has set us back hugely, and we were already on a growth downswing when it happened,” said Indira Rajaraman, an economist and a former member of the Reserve Bank of India’s board. “Going forward it all depends on how cleverly we design the way we come out of these doldrums.”

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[alexais128]

While Global Smartphone Shipments Rising, Samsung Released Its MCP

Samsung Electronics on Tuesday released a new multi-chip package (MCP) memory product for use in 5G smartphones, as the South Korean tech giant is trying to better target the fast-growing handset market.

As per the report, the global smartphone market is anticipated to grow by 12% in 2021, with orders reaching 1.4 billion units. The prediction shows a significant recovery in smartphone shipments beginning in 2020 when the industry experienced a decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Manufacturers are set to release new 5G phones this year, contributing to the market’s expansion. 5G phone shipments are also expected to surpass 4G phone orders as early as 2022. The world’s largest memory chip manufacturer said that it has started a massive low-power double data rate 5 (LPDDR5) Universal Flash Storage (UFS) MCP, which integrates high-performance DRAM and NAND flash memory chips in the same compact package.

The latest MCP comes with Samsung’s LPDDR5 mobile DRAM, with a reading-writing speed of 25 GB per second, 1.5 times faster than the previous LPDDR4X. On the other hand, the display of UFS 3.1 interface-based NAND Flash has doubled to 3GB per second as compared to 2.2 solutions last year.

Chip introduced with a separate storage capacity

Samsung will offer various storage capacity options to meet the diverse needs of its customers, with DRAM ranging from 6 GB to 12 GB and NAND Flash from 128 GB to 512 GB.

Samsung, the world’s top smartphone seller, has said its LPDDR5 will help UMCP users enjoy high-quality 5G content services in stable conditions, even if they use low-level devices, The Jonathan News Agency reported. Samsung has said it has completed the qualification test of UMCP LPDDR5 with several global smartphone producers. The company expects its UMCP-equipped devices to launch in the global market from this month. However, the company has not confirmed which phone will be introduced to this chip.

Samsung’s foldable smartphone is all set to launch

Industry sources have reported that Samsung may launch its new foldable smartphone in August. According to sources, Samsung will introduce its Galaxy Z Fold 3 at the Galaxy Unpacked event to be held earlier this month before officially launching its products by the end of August. Tech critics believe the event may be held on August 3, but sources said it is expected to be further later.

According to The Jonah News Agency, the company may also introduce its Galaxy Watch 4 smartwatch and Galaxy Birds 2 wireless earbuds at the event. However, sources have said that the Galaxy S21 FE smartphone will not be introduced at the event. The smartphone will be the budget edition of the Galaxy S21 launched in January. According to sources, the product is expected to be launched in September or October as Samsung currently wants to focus on promoting its foldable devices.

Canalys predicts a 12% rise in global smartphone shipments

Canalys, a market analyst firm, predicts a 12% rise in the sales volume of smartphone shipments in 2021. When compared to the 7% drop in shipments reported in 2020, this is an increasing trend.

As per Canalys, Latin America will account for the lion’s share of growth (18%), followed by Greater China, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific.

Although the launch of the COVID-19 vaccine and a decrease in infection cases worldwide are supposed to improve and boost the global smartphone market, while component supply constraints are expected to restrict growth potential to a certain extent. Canalys also stated that, as a result of the recent increase in coronavirus cases in India, vendors rerouted some of their distribution towards other regions.

As the pandemic has changed the way we live, several smartphone manufacturers are likely to innovate in their supply chains.

“Innovations enabled by COVID-19, like unified stock and delivery to the car, are assisting retail outlets in achieving their combined omnichannel vision,” stated “ Canalys Research Manager Ben Stanton. “In addition, centralized procurement will offer the channel higher negotiating power with smartphone brands, leading other retailers to bypass allocation to build a new strong association. The current trend in the smartphone business is just as relentless and competent as the old.”

Constituents such as chipsets and memory are predicted to see price increases, prompting smartphone manufacturers to decide whether to soak up the price hike or pass it to consumers. The restrictions surrounding LTE chipsets are also going to make it hard for manufacturers trying to target the low-end market segment.

According to Canalys, 5G phone shipments will reach the 610 million mark by the end of 2021, accounting for 43 percent of worldwide shipments for the year. When compared to the 43 percent shipments of 5G phones reported in the first quarter, a 6% increase is visible.

“It’ll be driven by extensive pricing power among vendors, with most of them sacrificing certain functionalities like screen or power to cater 5G in the least expensive device possible,” Stanton projected.

He also stated, however, by the end of the year, 32% of all 5G phones sold will be priced under $300.

Canalys wasn’t the only analyst firm that has projected the advancement of the smartphone industry and the growth of 5G phones. Gartner, a Connecticut-based research firm, forecasted 11.4 percent year-over-year growth in the global smartphone market in February, which could incorporate 1.5 billion smartphones by 2021.

International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted previously this year that worldwide smartphone shipments would increase by 5.5 percent in 2021, with 5G phones accounting for 40% of total shipment volume.

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Source: Global Smartphone Shipments Rising, Samsung Released Its MCP .

[seedfinance]

The world’s big tech firms are gearing up for a massive fight with Modi’s India, IT News, ET CIO

Saritha Rai and Vlad Savov

India is becoming increasingly confident in its efforts to control online communications, challenging the practices of Twitter and Facebook and threatening to set a precedent that could go well beyond its borders.

The largest US internet companies are fighting against new intermediary rules enacted by Narendra Modi’s government in February that restrict privacy and freedom of expression. Officials have urged Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to remove hundreds of posts this year, divulge sensitive user information, and submit to a regulatory regime that allows for potential jail sentences for executives if companies fail to comply.

While government efforts to exercise more control over user data and online discourse mirror global efforts to control tech giants and their vast influence, Internet firms are particularly at stake in India because – excluded from China – it’s the only billion people market themselves to the market. In contrast to authoritarian regimes like Beijing, critics fear that measures by the world’s largest democracy could offer other governments a blueprint to invade privacy in the name of internal security.

“India has made draconian changes to its rules,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation wrote in April. They “create new opportunities for state surveillance of citizens. These rules threaten the idea of ​​a free and open Internet based on international human rights standards. “

Holding internet companies accountable for published content – and in some cases making executives personally liable – goes beyond what many countries require and is a key point of contention. Trapped in this tug of war are hundreds of millions in India whose use of the Internet is now at stake. Facebook’s WhatsApp is on trial, arguing that the new rules would bypass encryption, a key feature the company has touted in global marketing.

Modi’s government has been targeting Twitter for the past few months as it is considered the social platform of choice for politicians and celebrities. Cabinet ministers have accused the US company of defying orders and proposed removing it from its intermediary status, which should make it directly responsible for the content posted by its users. In May, Twitter tagged tweets from multiple accounts linked to Modi’s party as “compromised media”. Police investigators have since called officers and their offices, putting business in the world’s second most populous nation at risk.

“Twitter is in a no-win situation here,” said Mike Masnick, founder of tech policy blog Techdirt. “Giving in to excessive government demands not only suppresses important speeches, but opens the company to even more pressure to silence government critics in India and elsewhere.”

Representatives from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), which oversees regulation, did not respond to multiple calls and emails asking for comments. WhatsApp and Twitter representatives declined to comment beyond previous statements that they were anxious to comply with state regulations.

India has stated that it welcomes criticism and dissent and its new rules are aimed at protecting public order and preventing harmful content such as child pornography and abuse videos. The country has been grappling with an explosion of fake news on social media in recent years, much of it targeting a largely first-time internet audience unaccustomed to sifting through online falsehoods. It came into conflict with Facebook in 2018 when the government asked WhatsApp to curb the spread of news related to two dozen lynchings. Facebook’s response then was to restrict the forwarding of messages and mark them as “forwarded”.

WhatsApp has more than 530 million users in India, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube has about 450 million, and Facebook has over 410 million users, making it the largest market for all three. Twitter, a comparatively small minnow with 17.5 million users, is one of the fastest growing areas in India. But that limited reach makes it vulnerable in a nation that was ready to ban popular foreign services a year ago when it banned TikTok – which had 200 million users registered in the country – WeChat and hundreds more China-made apps after a violent clash on the controversial border between the two countries.

As in the US, however, Twitter exerts a disproportionate influence in relation to its size. It is vital to the political discussion in India, and Modi himself is an avid user and has a following of over 69 million, demonstrating its international reach. While ministers have tweeted belligerently on Twitter, no one has yet openly threatened to ban it.

Even during the conflict with China, India can still draw inspiration from its neighbor’s experiences, where the void left by foreign social platforms blocked to resisting strict censorship has created space for domestic alternatives to develop. In fact, Modi’s colleagues have been actively promoting Koo, a local microblogging rival.

“I have to imagine Modi looking at China thinking it can achieve economic prosperity while exercising a lot of authoritarian control over language and communication,” said Katie Harbath, a former Facebook director of public policy with the US the country’s officials worked together in the fall of 2013, ahead of Modi’s first election as prime minister, through earlier this year. “So the big question is where will India go?”

An open letter signed by 14 nonprofits urged the government to suspend implementation of India’s new IT rules that went into effect last month.

Much of the current resentment stems from the government’s drive to control discussions since November over peasant protests, which have centered on proposals to tax farm inputs and remove minimum price support. The government forced Twitter to block some popular figures expressing support for the protesters – such as Punjabi singer JazzyB, whose account has 1.2 million followers but is inaccessible within India – although the company does not have all of its Has implemented demands.

US and EU lawmakers should pay more attention to the South Asian country, Harbath said. Like Masnick, she sees few good opportunities for private companies to oppose laws from above, and it would be up to the international community to steer India back onto a more liberal path.

The US has embraced India as a counterweight to China in recent years and has strengthened defense cooperation as part of the four-nation quad group, which also includes the other democracies of Japan and Australia. For its part, Modi’s government has sought to attract companies looking to diversify their supply chains away from China – which gives it an incentive to maintain good relationships with the Biden government and the American business community at large.

Relationships with American social platforms were much warmer and more cooperative in the early years of the Modi administration. In 2015, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg invited Modi to a town hall event at the company’s headquarters. The two men hugged and smiled at the cameras. But, Harbath said, whenever the government’s popularity has waned since then – following measures like the sudden currency demonetization in 2016 – it has become more aggressive to steer public narrative.

Most recently, Modi’s government was targeted on Twitter by critics who say it botched efforts to fight Covid-19. In response, she has tried to block recent criticism on Twitter, which shows anger and disappointment with the Indian leader.

“Silicon Valley’s social media platforms have a huge base in India and the confrontation is who controls these users,” said Tarun Pathak from Delhi, research director at Counterpoint. “In the next three to five years, around 300 million new users equal to the US population will go online in India, shifting the balance of power for these companies eastward.”

Twitter appointed an interim compliance officer two weeks ago, long after its colleagues assigned permanent representatives, and that person is due to leave the position. A company spokesman did not want to confirm or comment on the reasons.

Meanwhile, Kenner told ET that Twitter had given the government “in writing” details of its newly appointed interim chief compliance officer. Previously, she had contracted a lawyer to act as a complaint and node officer.

On Friday, the head of MEITY, Ravi Shankar Prasad, temporarily blocked his Twitter account because of a complaint about alleged copyright infringement, according to the company. When the frequent Twitter antagonist regained access, he wrote that his “actions indicate that they are not the harbinger of the freedom of expression they claim to be, only interested in pursuing their own ends.” Twitter declined to comment, but cited its original statement that Prasad’s account was temporarily suspended for copyright infringement.

Twitter was recently quoted by Uttar Pradesh police along with journalists and opposition party leaders for hosting a video provoking communal discord, according to local reports. Delhi police also said they are investigating another complaint against Twitter’s Indian chief Manish Maheshwari related to this video allegedly alleging that majority Hindus are attacking a minority Muslim man. The company has since removed the offensive clip and has left no comment other than its statement of compliance with local laws. The government of Uttar Pradesh has petitioned the Supreme Court of India to have Maheshwari lifted from arrest by a lower court.

Without pressure on India to reclaim its online power – as the Washington Post editors called this month – companies like Twitter must carefully weigh their decisions to avoid being ousted by a huge market while upholding their principles, said Harbath.

It is a delicate dance that is becoming more and more common around the world. Countries as far away as Australia, Poland and Nigeria are cracking down on social platforms, claiming they have undue power to determine what is acceptable and meddling in domestic affairs. Nigeria banned Twitter this month and Germany’s hate speech rules will require platforms to remove illegal content quickly or face penalties.

“It’s complicated. A decision by these companies in India will not apply to India alone,” said Prateek Waghre of Bangalore, a research analyst with the Takshashila Institution who studies digital platform governance serve the rest of the world. “

IT and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was in the thick of it as the new social media guidelines became a focal point for a showdown between the government and Twitter and WhatsApp on privacy and free speech issues.

source https://seedfinance.net/2021/07/05/the-worlds-big-tech-firms-are-gearing-up-for-a-massive-fight-with-modis-india-it-news-et-cio/

[orbemnews]

L Brands Plans to Spin Off Victoria’s Secret Exclusive: L Brands will spin off Victoria’s Secret L Brands has decided to spin off Victoria’s Secret rather than sell it, DealBook is first to report. The company said last year it was considering separating Victoria’s Secret from the rest of its business, and we previously reported that it was testing private equity’s interest. Ultimately, sources say, L Brands has decided to split itself into two independent, publicly listed companies: Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. The deal is expected to close in August. Bids didn’t match what Victoria’s Secret expects to get in a spinoff. DealBook hears that L Brands received several bids north of $3 billion. It turned them down, because it expects to be valued somewhere between $5 billion and $7 billion in a spinoff to L Brands shareholders. Analysts at Citi and JPMorgan recently valued Victoria’s Secret as a stand-alone company at $5 billion. The pandemic torpedoed a sale last year for much less. That agreement, announced in February 2020 with the investment firm Sycamore Partners, valued Victoria’s Secret at $1.1 billion. Apart from a pandemic that was about to upend the retail industry, Victoria’s Secret was dealing with a series of challenges: a brand that had fallen out of touch, accusations of misogyny and sexual harassment in the workplace and revelations about the ties between Les Wexner, the company’s founder and former chairman, and Jeffrey Epstein. (Wexner stepped down as C.E.O. last year and said in March that he and his wife are not running for re-election on the company’s board.) As the pandemic shuttered stores and battered sales, Sycamore sued L Brands to get out of the deal, and L Brands countersued to enforce it, heralding a spate of similar battles between buyers and sellers. Eventually, in May 2020, the sides agreed to call off the deal. A lot has changed since then. Six months ago, L Brands tapped Martin Waters, who headed its international division, to be C.E.O. of Victoria’s Secret, and he will continue to lead the company after the spinoff. The retailer has overhauled its brand, de-emphasizing the overtly sexy image and products that customers saw as exclusionary. It has become “less focused on a specific demographic target and more focused on being broadly inclusive of all women of all shapes and sizes and colors and ethnicities and genders and areas of interest,” Waters said on a recent earnings call. The company also closed more than 200 stores and focused on improving profitability, which rose sharply at the end of last year, surpassing its prepandemic results. The pandemic has spawned some retail winners. Victoria’s Secret, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michaels and others were able to accelerate digital transformations that may have otherwise taken years. Direct sales at Victoria’s Secret in North America rose to 44 percent of the total last year, from 25 percent the year before. It’s unclear whether pandemic shopping trends will stick, and “it would be reasonable to expect some reversion,” Stuart Burgdoerfer, the L Brands C.F.O., said at a March event. “But I also think that people have very much enjoyed some of the benefits that were forced on us or triggered through the pandemic.” HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING Markets wobble amid inflation fears. U.S. stock futures are down, as are European and Asian stock indexes, following data showing that U.S. consumers expect a bump in inflation and that factory-gate prices in China rose more than expected last month. April’s Consumer Price Index data is set to be released today, and is expected to show a sharp rise from a pandemic-depressed level last year. China’s birthrate slows again. The country’s population is growing at its slowest pace in decades, posing grave social and economic risks to the world’s second-largest economy. While the U.S. also reported a drastic slowdown in population expansion, China “is growing old without first having grown rich,” The Times’s Sui-Lee Wee writes. President Biden defends federal unemployment benefits. He rejected claims that $300-a-week supplemental payments are deterring unemployed Americans from seeking work, but he ordered the Labor Department to help reinstate work search requirements. Separately, Chipotle said it was raising wages, to an average of $15 an hour, to attract workers. The Colonial Pipeline is expected to “substantially” reopen within days. The pipeline, which supplies nearly half of the East Coast’s fuel, is expected to restore most services by the weekend after a ransomware attack. U.S. authorities formally blamed a hacker group and pledged to “disrupt and prosecute” the perpetrators. More children may soon be vaccinated. The F.D.A. yesterday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in the U.S., potentially helping reopen schools and other parts of the economy more quickly. But while cases are declining worldwide, they are surging in countries that lack vaccines. And the W.H.O. labeled a virus variant spreading fast in India as “of concern.” Does Amazon need more money? Amazon sold $18.5 billion worth of bonds yesterday, joining other corporate giants taking advantage of ultralow interest rates to raise money because … well, why not? The e-commerce titan sold some of its debt at a record-low interest rate for a corporate issuer — barely above what the U.S. government pays. About $1 billion worth of two-year bonds has a yield just 0.1 percent above the equivalent in Treasuries. That’s a huge vote of confidence in Amazon, which has emerged as a huge winner during the pandemic. The company also set a record for yields on a 20-year bond, besting Alphabet. Over all, investors placed $50 billion worth of orders, underscoring enthusiasm for debt that yields next to nothing. Today in Business Updated  May 10, 2021, 5:52 p.m. ET It raised another $1 billion in the form of a sustainability bond, which is meant to finance investments in environmentally minded projects like zero-carbon infrastructure and cleaner transportation. Amazon is the latest company to sell bonds aimed at E.S.G. investors, a market that reached $270 billion last year and could double this year. To be sure, the bulk of the offering will finance typical corporate maneuvers like share buybacks, acquisitions and capital expenditures, according to the bond prospectus. It will add to the nearly $34 billion in cash that Amazon had on hand at the end of March — as will profits that are growing at extraordinary rates for a company of its size. Macy’s has proposed building a commercial office tower on top of its flagship Herald Square store in New York City, part of a broader development plan the retailer says would improve the area. It plans to spend $235 million on redeveloping subway stations and creating a “car-free pedestrian-friendly urban space.” The proposal is a bold bet by the beleaguered retailer that shoppers and workers will flood back there after the pandemic. How to collect a trillion dollars Today, the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Taxation will hold a hearing on offshore tax evasion. “The tax gap is a massive problem, especially the part driven by ultrarich individuals and corporations stashing income overseas,” Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, the subcommittee chair, told DealBook. That gap “could be as much as a trillion dollars,” he said. “That’s trillion with a ‘T.’” This money would help fund President Biden’s spending plans, which also run into the trillions. It’s difficult to quantify just how much money goes uncollected each year, officials say. Corporate tax collections in the U.S. are “at historic lows and well below what other countries collect,” according to a recent Treasury report. U.S. multinational companies can be taxed at a 50 percent discount compared with their domestic peers, an incentive to shift profits abroad. “Bermuda, a country of merely 64,000 people, shows 10 percent of all reported U.S. multinational foreign profit,” the report explained. “The Biden administration is serious about stopping tax cheats and so are we,” Whitehouse said. The hearing, which features I.R.S. and Treasury officials, will discuss legislation to end corporate tax breaks that incentivize profit shifting, a proposed $80 billion investment in I.R.S. enforcement, a new approach to international tax diplomacy and proposed changes to the tax code. THE SPEED READ Deals The investment firm TPG named Jon Winkelried as its sole C.E.O.; Jim Coulter, who previously shared the role, will become executive chairman and lead the firm’s E.S.G.-focused funds. (Bloomberg) Vice Media is closing in on a deal to merge with a SPAC at a $3 billion valuation, which would leave existing investors in control. (WSJ) Elliott Management has reportedly taken a stake in Duke Energy and plans to push for a change in strategy, after the utility rejected a takeover bid by NextEra Energy. (WSJ) Politics and policy In Wall-Streeters-seeking-political-office news: Glenn Youngkin, the former Carlyle Group co-C.E.O., won the Republican nomination for Virginia governor; and Alex Lasry, the son of the hedge fund mogul Marc Lasry, is running for the U.S. Senate in Wisconsin as a Democrat. (NYT, WaPo) Big semiconductor makers and their customers have formed a new group to push for billions in federal funding to promote chip manufacturing in the U.S. (NYT) Tech Forty-four state attorneys general warned Facebook against plans to introduce a version of Instagram for children. (NYT) The Pentagon reportedly may scrap its JEDI cloud-computing program, the subject of a lawsuit by Amazon and criticism from lawmakers. (WSJ) Veteran traders are bringing old Wall Street tricks to crypto market-making. (Bloomberg) Best of the rest NBC said it won’t air next year’s Golden Globes ceremony, the biggest blow yet to the awards show as its organizers face criticism over a lack of diversity. (NYT) An American court rejected an Australian company’s bid to scrap Ugg as a U.S. trademark. In Australia, it’s a catchall term for sheepskin boots with fleece linings. (NYT) “How the Zoom era has ruined conversation” (WaPo) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #brands #plans #secret #spin #Victorias

[wisepowderposts]

India's COVID vaccination programme reaches 2.3 million in 12 days

India has vaccinated 2.3 million frontline healthcare workers since starting its COVID-19 inoculation programme less than two weeks ago.To get more news about WikiFX, you can visit wikifx official website.

　　Indian prime minister Narendra Modi on Thursday at Davos said the “the worlds largest coronavirus vaccine programme” had gone smoothly during the first 12 days of operations. India is targeting 300 million vaccinations by August, focusing on the most vulnerable groups.

　　“Today, by sending COVID vaccines to various countries, and setting up infrastructure related to vaccination, India is saving the lives of other countries also,” Modi said.

　　India was one of the hardest hit nations in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The country of 1.3 billion people has suffered over 10 million cases and 150,000 deaths. Everybody QUIZ TIME! The right answer will be released on Friday. Those who answer correctly 5 times in a row will be given a gift worth up to 200 Rs!

　　Question: Among the gold brokers “FXCM, XM, IC Markets , FXTM, Tickmill”, none of them are registered in Cyprus. Is it True or false？Send your answer to us! Email: waihuitianyan@gmail.com

　　You can always use WikiFX APP to help you improve your chances of correct answers!

[pmsocialmedia]

ByteDance valuation under huge pressure as TikTok sale nears

As it reached an estimated valuation of $100 billion this year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance solidified its status as the most valuable startup in private markets. Its success outside China has also become a source of envy and inspiration among its local peers.

Now, the company’s price tag is under tremendous pressure as it’s set to shed its prized asset TikTok, several investors told TechCrunch.

ByteDance last year generated 120 billion yuan ($17.2 billion) in revenue, said an investor with knowledge of the matter. Around 67% was derived from ads sold on its domestic apps Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese version, and popular news aggregator Toutiao. Live streaming targeted at users of Douyin and another app in the family made up about 17%. Nascent businesses including games, e-commerce and TikTok accounted for 20 billion yuan, or roughly another 17%.

The company projected its 2020 revenue at 200 billion yuan ($28.7 billion), with TikTok and other emerging businesses contributing 30 billion yuan, or 15%, according to the investor. Previous reports by Reuters and Bloomberg cited similar revenue figures.

Although TikTok continues to account for only a fraction of ByteDance’s income, the addressable market is enormous. “It went from having a potential overseas market of 6 billion users to just China, where Douyin and Toutiao are reaching saturation,” the investor said.

Moreover, TikTok has only begun to monetize its enormous user base. The app experienced exponential growth and surpassed 2 billion downloads this year as COVID-19 lockdowns kept people indoors, but it’s unclear how much eyeball time it will retain when social life returns to normal. The app already lost its largest market (India), which accounted for about one-third of its user base, according to the investor, though app spending in the country is relatively low.

ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.

What’s left

Back home, the eight-year-old company faces a crammed market. Tencent-backed Kuaishou claimed that 300 million people used its short-video platform daily at the beginning of this year, while Douyin said it reached 400 million DAU around the same time. Toutiao is coping with challengers from various fronts, from microblogging veteran Weibo to WeChat’s in-app news feature.

Like all other tech giants, ByteDance keeps a pipeline of projects alongside its cash cows. It’s known for its ability to churn out new products, thanks to an organizational structure that divides the firm by functions, primarily technology (development), user growth and monetization, earning it the nickname of an “app factory.”

The company’s more high-profile gestures are in mobile games, a lucrative internet business where it competes head-on with Tencent; education, which could allow it to ride the wave of online education in China; and enterprise software, represented by its work collaboration platform, Lark.

So far, none of these new efforts are remotely close to the success of TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao in user acquisition and monetization. It remains to be seen how the poster child for Chinese apps’ globalization strives to hold onto its domination. One thing is for sure: ByteDance’s founder and CEO Zhang Yiming will not let his company shrink from its global ambitions even as it stumbles overseas.

via Social – TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3ksh14m

[un-enfant-immature]

ByteDance valuation under huge pressure as TikTok sale nears

As it reached an estimated valuation of $100 billion this year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance solidified its status as the most valuable startup in private markets. Its success outside China has also become a source of envy and inspiration among its local peers.

Now, the company’s price tag is under tremendous pressure as it’s set to shed its priced asset TikTok, several investors told TechCrunch.

ByteDance last year generated 120 billion yuan ($17.2 billion) in revenue, said an investor with knowledge of the matter. Around 67% was derived from ads sold on its domestic apps Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese version, and popular news aggregator Toutiao. Livestreaming targeted at users of Douyin and another app in the family made up about 17%. Nascent businesses including games, e-commerce and TikTok accounted for 20 billion yuan or roughly another 17%.

The company projected its 2020 revenue at 200 billion yuan ($28.7 billion), with TikTok and other emerging businesses contributing 30 billion yuan or 15%, according to the investor. Previous reports by Reuters and Bloomberg cited similar revenue figures.

Although TikTok continues to account for only a fraction of ByteDance’s income, the addressable market is enormous. “It went from having a potential overseas market of 6 billion users to just China, where Douyin and Toutiao are reaching saturation,” the investor said.

Moreover, TikTok has only begun to monetize its enormous user base. The app experienced exponential growth and surpassed 2 billion downloads this year as COVID-19 lockdowns kept people indoors, but it’s unclear how much eyeball time it will retain when social life returns to normal. The app already lost its largest market India, which accounted for about one-third of its user base according to the investor, though app spending in the country is relatively low.

ByteDance did not respond to a request for comment.

What’s left

Back home, the eight-year-old company faces a crammed market. Tencent-backed Kuaishou claimed that 300 million people used its short video platform daily at the beginning this year, while Douyin said it reached 400 million DAU around the same time. Toutiao is coping with challengers from various fronts, from microblogging veteran Weibo to WeChat’s in-app news feature.

Like all other tech giants, ByteDance keeps a pipeline of projects alongside its cash cows. It’s known for its ability to churn out new products, thanks to an organizational structure that divides the firm by functions, primarily technology (development), user growth and monetization, earning it the nickname of an ‘app factory.’

The company’s more high-profile gestures are in mobile games, a lucrative internet business where it competes head-on with Tencent; education, which could allow it to ride the wave of online education in China; and enterprise software, represented by its work collaboration platform Lark.

So far, none of these new efforts are remotely close to the success of TikTok, Douyin and Toutiao in user acquisition and monetization. It remains to be seen how the poster child for Chinese apps’ globalization strives to hold onto its domination. One thing is for sure: ByteDance’s founder and CEO Zhang Yiming will not let his company shrink from its global ambitions even as it stumbles overseas.

[orbemnews]

For Planet Earth, No Tourism is a Curse and a Blessing For the planet, the year without tourists was a curse and a blessing. With flights canceled, cruise ships mothballed and vacations largely scrapped, carbon emissions plummeted. Wildlife that usually kept a low profile amid a crush of tourists in vacation hot spots suddenly emerged. And a lack of cruise ships in places like Alaska meant that humpback whales could hear each other’s calls without the din of engines. That’s the good news. On the flip side, the disappearance of travelers wreaked its own strange havoc, not only on those who make their living in the tourism industry, but on wildlife itself, especially in developing countries. Many governments pay for conservation and enforcement through fees associated with tourism. As that revenue dried up, budgets were cut, resulting in increased poaching and illegal fishing in some areas. Illicit logging rose too, presenting a double-whammy for the environment. Because trees absorb and store carbon, cutting them down not only hurt wildlife habitats, but contributed to climate change. “We have seen many financial hits to the protection of nature,” said Joe Walston, executive vice president of global conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “But even where that hasn’t happened, in a lot of places people haven’t been able to get into the field to do their jobs because of Covid.” From the rise in rhino poaching in Botswana to the waning of noise pollution in Alaska, the lack of tourism has had a profound effect around the world. The question moving forward is which impacts will remain, and which will vanish, in the recovery. A change in the air While the pandemic’s impact on wildlife has varied widely from continent to continent, and country to country, its effect on air quality was felt more broadly. In the United States, greenhouse gas emissions last year fell more than 10 percent, as state and local governments imposed lockdowns and people stayed home, according to a report in January by the Rhodium Group, a research and consulting firm. The most dramatic results came from the transportation sector, which posted a 14.7 percent decrease. It’s impossible to tease out how much of that drop is from lost tourism versus business travel. And there is every expectation that as the pandemic loosens its grip, tourism will resume — likely with a vengeance. Still, the pandemic helped push American emissions below 1990 levels for the first time. Globally, carbon dioxide emissions fell 7 percent, or 2.6 billion metric tons, according to new data from international climate researchers. In terms of output, that is about double the annual emissions of Japan. “It’s a lot and it’s a little,” said Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “Historically, it’s a lot. It’s the largest single reduction percent-wise over the last 100 years. But when you think about the 7 percent in the context of what we need to do to mitigate climate change, it’s a little.” In late 2019, the United Nations Environment Program cautioned that global greenhouse gases would need to drop 7.6 percent every year between 2020 and 2030. That would keep the world on its trajectory of meeting the temperature goals set under the Paris Agreement, the 2016 accord signed by nearly 200 nations. “The 7 percent drop last year is on par with what we would need to do year after year,” Dr. Smerdon said. “Of course we wouldn’t want to do it the same way. A global pandemic and locking ourselves in our apartments is not the way to go about this.” Interestingly, the drop in other types of air pollution during the pandemic muddied the climate picture. Industrial aerosols, made up of soot, sulfates, nitrates and mineral dust, reflect sunlight back into space, thus cooling the planet. While their reduction was good for respiratory health, it had the effect of offsetting some of the climate benefits of cascading carbon emissions. For the climate activist Bill McKibben, one of the first to sound the alarm about global warming in his 1989 book, “The End of Nature,” the pandemic underscored that the climate crisis won’t be averted one plane ride or gallon of gas at a time. “We’ve come through this pandemic year when our lives changed more than any of us imagined they ever would,” Mr. McKibben said during a Zoom webinar hosted in February by the nonprofit Green Mountain Club of Vermont. “Everybody stopped flying; everybody stopped commuting,” he added. “Everybody just stayed at home. And emissions did go down, but they didn’t go down that much, maybe 10 percent with that incredible shift in our lifestyles. It means that most of the damage is located in the guts of our systems and we need to reach in and rip out the coal and gas and oil and stick in the efficiency, conservation and sun and wind.” Wildlife regroups Just as the impact of the pandemic on air quality is peppered with caveats, so too is its influence on wildlife. Animals slithered, crawled and stomped out of hiding across the globe, sometimes in farcical fashion. Last spring, a herd of Great Orme Kashmiri goats was spotted ambling through empty streets in Llandudno, a coastal town in northern Wales. And hundreds of monkeys — normally fed by tourists — were involved in a disturbing brawl outside of Bangkok, apparently fighting over food scraps. In meaningful ways, however, the pandemic revealed that wildlife will regroup if given the chance. In Thailand, where tourism plummeted after authorities banned international flights, leatherback turtles laid their eggs on the usually mobbed Phuket Beach. It was the first time nests were seen there in years, as the endangered sea turtles, the largest in the world, prefer to nest in seclusion. Similarly, in Koh Samui, Thailand’s second largest island, hawksbill turtles took over beaches that in 2018 hosted nearly three million tourists. The hatchlings were documented emerging from their nests and furiously moving their flippers toward the sea. For Petch Manopawitr, a marine conservation manager of the Wildlife Conservation Society Thailand, the sightings were proof that natural landscapes can recover quickly. “Both Ko Samui and Phuket have been overrun with tourists for so many years,” he said in a phone interview. “Many people had written off the turtles and thought they would not return. After Covid, there is talk about sustainability and how it needs to be embedded in tourism, and not just a niche market but all kinds of tourism.” Updated  March 6, 2021, 6:57 p.m. ET In addition to the sea turtles, elephants, leaf monkeys and dugongs (related to manatees) all made cameos in unlikely places in Thailand. “Dugongs are more visible because there is less boat traffic,” Mr. Manopawitr said. “The area that we were surprised to see dugongs was the eastern province of Bangkok. We didn’t know dugongs still existed there.” He and other conservationists believe that countries in the cross hairs of international tourism need to mitigate the myriad effects on the natural world, from plastic pollution to trampled parks. That message apparently reached the top levels of the Thai government. In September, the nation’s natural resources and environment minister, Varawut Silpa-archa, said he planned to shutter national parks in stages each year, from two to four months. The idea, he told Bloomberg News, is to set the stage so that “nature can rehabilitate itself.” An increase in poaching In other parts of Asia and across Africa, the disappearance of tourists has had nearly the opposite result. With safari tours scuttled and enforcement budgets decimated, poachers have plied their nefarious trade with impunity. At the same time, hungry villagers have streamed into protected areas to hunt and fish. There were reports of increased poaching of leopards and tigers in India, an uptick in the smuggling of falcons in Pakistan, and a surge in trafficking of rhino horns in South Africa and Botswana. Jim Sano, the World Wildlife Fund’s vice president for travel, tourism and conservation, said that in sub-Saharan Africa, the presence of tourists was a powerful deterrent. “It’s not only the game guards,” he said. “It’s the travelers wandering around with the guides that are omnipresent in these game areas. If the guides see poachers with automatic weapons, they report it.” In the Republic of Congo, the Wildlife Conservation Society has noticed an increase in trapping and hunting in and around protected areas. Emma J. Stokes, regional director of the Central Africa program for the organization, said that in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, monkeys and forest antelopes were being targeted for bushmeat. “It’s more expensive and difficult to get food during the pandemic and there is a lot of wildlife up there,” she said by phone. “We obviously want to deter people from hunting in the park, but we also have to understand what’s driving that because it’s more complex.” The Society and the Congolese government jointly manage the park, which spans 1,544 square miles of lowland rainforest — larger than Rhode Island. Because of the virus, the government imposed a national lockdown, halting public transportation. But the organization was able to arrange rides to markets since the park is considered an essential service. “We have also kept all 300 of our park staff employed,” she added. Largely absent: the whir of propellers, the hum of engines While animals around the world were subject to rifles and snares during the pandemic, one thing was missing: noise. The whir of helicopters diminished as some air tours were suspended. And cruise ships from the Adriatic Sea to the Gulf of Mexico were largely absent. That meant marine mammals and fish had a break from the rumble of engines and propellers. So did research scientists. Michelle Fournet is a marine ecologist who uses hydrophones (essentially aquatic microphones) to listen in on whales. Although the total number of cruise ships (a few hundred) pales in comparison to the total number of cargo ships (tens of thousands), Dr. Fournet says they have an outsize role in creating underwater racket. That is especially true in Alaska, a magnet for tourists in search of natural splendor. “Cargo ships are trying to make the most efficient run from point A to point B and they are going across open ocean where any animal they encounter, they encounter for a matter of hours,” she said. “But when you think about the concentration of cruise ships along coastal areas, especially in southeast Alaska, you basically have five months of near-constant vessel noise. We have a population of whales listening to them all the time.” Man-made noise during the pandemic dissipated in the waters near the capital of Juneau, as well as in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. Dr. Fournet, a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University, observed a threefold decrease in ambient noise in Glacier Bay between 2019 and 2020. “That’s a really big drop in noise,” she said, “and all of that is associated with the cessation of these cruise ships.” Covid-19 opened a window onto whale sounds in Juneau as well. Last July, Dr. Fournet, who also directs the Sound Science Research Collective, a marine conservation nonprofit, had her team lower a hydrophone in the North Pass, a popular whale-watching destination. “In previous years,” she said, “you wouldn’t have been able to hear anything — just boats. This year we heard whales producing feeding calls, whales producing contact calls. We heard sound types that I have never heard before.” Farther south in Puget Sound, near Seattle, whale-watching tours were down 75 percent last year. Tour operators like Jeff Friedman, owner of Maya’s Legacy Whale Watching, insist that their presence on the water benefits whales since the captains make recreational boaters aware of whale activity and radio them to slow down. Whale-watching companies also donate to conservation groups and report sightings to researchers. “During the pandemic, there was a huge increase in the number of recreational boats out there,” said Mr. Friedman, who is also president of the Pacific Whale Watch Association. “It was similar to R.V.s. People decided to buy an R.V. or a boat. The majority of the time, boaters are not aware that the whales are present unless we let them know.” Two years ago, in a move to protect Puget Sound’s tiny population of Southern Resident killer whales, which number just 75, Washington’s Gov. Jay Inslee signed a law reducing boat speeds to 7 knots within a half nautical mile of the whales and increasing a buffer zone around them, among other things. Many cheered the protections. But environmental activists like Catherine W. Kilduff, a senior attorney in the oceans program at the Center for Biological Diversity, believe they did not go far enough. She wants the respite from noise that whales enjoyed during the pandemic to continue. “The best tourism is whale-watching from shore,” she said. Looking Ahead Debates like this are likely to continue as the world emerges from the pandemic and leisure travel resumes. Already, conservationists and business leaders are sharing their visions for a more sustainable future. Ed Bastian, Delta Air Lines’ chief executive, last year laid out a plan to become carbon neutral by spending $1 billion over 10 years on an assortment of strategies. Only 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions are traced to aviation, but a 2019 study suggested that could triple by midcentury. In the meantime, climate change activists are calling on the flying public to use their carbon budgets judiciously. Tom L. Green, a senior climate policy adviser with the David Suzuki Foundation, an environmental organization in Canada, said tourists might consider booking a flight only once every few years, saving their carbon footprint (and money) for a special journey. “Instead of taking many short trips, we could occasionally go away for a month or more and really get to know a place,” he said. For Mr. Walston of the Wildlife Conservation Society, tourists would be wise to put more effort into booking their next resort or cruise, looking at the operator’s commitment to sustainability. “My hope is not that we stop traveling to some of these wonderful places, because they will continue to inspire us to conserve nature globally,” he said. “But I would encourage anyone to do their homework. Spend as much time choosing a tour group or guide as a restaurant. The important thing is to build back the kind of tourism that supports nature.” Lisa W. Foderaro is a former reporter for The New York Times whose work has also appeared in National Geographic and Audubon Magazine. Source link Orbem News #Blessing #Curse #Earth #planet #Tourism

[asyrealtyco]

India Future City 2050

November 23, 2018 at 08:24AM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQx62OAH6JAIndia Future City 2050 Indias Future City Biggest MEGAPROJECTS in 2017 . Indias Biggest Mega City Project in 2017 . India Mega City Project in 2017 . Mega Projects of India in 2017. Upcoming mega project of India . Indian government Mega project . Future mega cities of India . Indian will soon cement its place as one of the world’s biggest construction powerhouses. The Global Construction 2030 report predicts that India will become the third largest construction market, behind the USA and China, by 2021. With a market valuation in excess of $126 billion (2013 estimates), and $1 trillion infrastructure spending pledged by the government from 2012 to 2017, construction is big business in South Asia. Here are five mega-projects that embody India’s burgeoning building ambition to look out for in 2018. Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) The Indian government is firmly focussed on promoting India as a financial power in a number of industries. Finance is one of these. To grow India’s financial industry, with a view to becoming a regional and global hub, the GIFT mega project was conceived. At a planned cost of $20 billion, the city will cover a construction area of 8.5 million square metres. 200 skyscrapers, some upwards of 80 metres tall, will dot the area, rivalling other financial districts in scope. For comparison, Tokyo’s Shinjuku district covers 1.6 million square metres, whereas London’s Docklands sits on 1.1 million square metres of land. Ambitious? Perhaps, but the third phase of construction is set to kick off in 2018 demonstrating India’s commitment to this major project. World One Tower At a sky-piercing 117 stories, and over 440 metres in height, World One in Mumbai will be the world’s tallest purely residential structure. $290 million has been invested in the skyscraper so far and the tower is expected to be completed in late 2018. World One is a project that demonstrates the growing demand for luxury residences in India. Globe-trotting mega-rich are the target clientele. The complex will feature swimming pools, gyms, a health club and even a cricket pitch complete with pavilion. World famous fashion icon Giorgio Armani was hired to design the interiors, which promise “generously sized reception rooms, luxurious bedroom suites and beautifully appointed bathrooms.” To give you a taste of WorldOne’s target market, unit prices start at $2.1 million. Navi Mumbai International Aiport (NMIA) NMIA is one of the biggest greenfield airport projects in the world. The airport is expected to handle 10 million passengers annually in its first year of operation, currently slated as 2019, with a total capacity of 60 million per year by 2030. «Pre-development works for the NMIA will begin soon. Things are progressing as per our expectations and work orders for them will be issued by mid-February,» said V Radha, joint managing director of City and Industrial Development Corporation (Cidco), the organisation behind development, in January 2018. These works include diverting the nearby Ulwe River, flattening hills, levelling ground and clearing green patches. NAMI will cover 11.6 square kilometres once built, with two parallel runways and a terminal building situated in between them. 2007 saw the beginning of the NAMI scheme, but it appears that 2018 will be the year that spade is finally put to soil and construction begins in earnest. Lokhandwala Minerva Another super-structure set to become a huge presence in the Mumbai skyline will be the Lokhandwala Minerva. Built on former slum land, acquired using various schemes including providing free land and rehabilitation for those moved, the complex stretches over 82 storeys to reach over 300 metres in height. Lokhandwala Minerva is already situated in an area known for its luxury developments, and is located close to the Mahalakshmi racecourse. Luxury is certainly the watchword for this tower. Similar to World One, Lokhandwala Minerva also boasts designer interiors, fully equipped gyms and even a golf simulator. Construction is expected to finish in 2018, with occupants who have purchased their apartments set to move in by December. Delhi-Mumbai Trade Corridor (DMIC) The Delhi-Mumbai Trade Corridor is a superb demonstration of India’s ambitious infrastructure goals. A project epic in scope, the DMIC is a 1,483 km railway track worked into nine “Mega Industrial Zones”. The main aim of the $90 billion scheme is to create a quick, reliable trade route linking the north of India to the south. With the DMIC’s completion, it will take just 14 hours. Airports, roads, ports and a power plant are also being built under the auspices of the DMIC.

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