#UPDATE Relieved passengers begin leaving a coronavirus-wracked cruise ship in Japan after testing negative for the disease that has now claimed more than 2,000 lives in China https://t.co/IhpTT2yLSjpic.twitter.com/xs1J43iZGZ
Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he's considering quitting over President Trump's tweets about Justice Department cases, an administration official says. https://t.co/S1oS5xY7ru
U.S. Marines raise the American flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, 1945. This month marks the 75th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Iwo Jima, which saw some of the bloodiest fighting of World War Two take place on a small Japanese island 745 miles south of Tokyo. U.S. Marine Corps/Private Bob Campbell/via REUTERS
MOSCOW, February 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed an executive order to release Vladislav Surkov from the position of his aide, the Kremlin's press service said.
"To relieve Vladislav Surkov from the position of the aide to the Russian president," the order reads.
The order also notes that it is effective on the day of signing.
Surkov was appointed Putin's aide in September 2013. He headed the Russian Presidential Directorate for Social and Economic Cooperation with the Commonwealth of Independent States Member Countries, the Republic of Abkhazia, and the Republic of South Ossetia. Following the coup d'etat in Ukraine in winter 2014, he was also put in charge of the Ukrainian policy and issues of the Donbass settlement. He took part in preparations for Normandy Four meetings and was engaging in contacts with the US Department of State representatives on the Ukrainian crisis issues.
WNU Editor: This is big news. Known as the Kremlin's Grey Cardinal, he has been with Putin since the beginning. His departure, like that of former Prime Minister Medvedev last month, is a signal to me that big changes are underway in the Kremlin. What are those changes? IMHO it all revolves around President Putin positioning himself to stay in power, and removing those who he feels will be an obstacle to him.
More News On Russian President Putin Firing Long Term Aide Vladislav Surkov
Key point: AIP works well and is arguably more stealthy than nuclear power. If America wants more affordable submarines, it should look into building AIP boats.
Over the past decade, air-independent propulsion (AIP) for submarines has spread rapidly around the world. The technology, which allows conventionally powered submarines to operate without access to outside air, has the potential the shift the balance away from the big nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) that have dominated undersea warfare since the 1950s, and back towards small conventional boats. In global terms, this might again make submarines the great strategic equalizer; small, cheap weapons that can destroy the expensive warships of the world's most powerful navies. Does this mean that the United States should invest in these kinds of boats? Probably not.
WNU Editor: The US Navy wants subs that can travel quickly and go anywhere around the world. So they will stick with nuclear subs. But many there is some room for a few diesel subs. IMHO it is an idea that should be explored more deeply.
Since its inception at the turn of the 20th century, the submarine has been the ace asymmetrical weapon. It has allowed smaller navies to stand up to the most powerful, and the powerful ones stay on top. Today, arguably, they are the most potent weapon platform on the planet. (Aircraft carrier fans may disagree!) And almost every navy in Asia wants them.
When we talk about submarine arms races in Asia, the big players are China, Australia, Japan and India. And the list goes on: Pakistan, South Korea and Singapore all have high-tech submarine capabilities. But there is another less discussed submarine revolution taking place. Virtually all the smaller navies in the region are also building up submarine capabilities. This is the part of an undeclared arms race which is changing the shape of the submarine threat worldwide.
Loss of revered Quds Force commander and his aides has derailed country's momentum in region.
In the early hours of 3 January, Iraq's prime minister, Adel Abdul Mahdi, frantically phoned his advisers. "Something big has happened," he said, summoning them to a meeting in his office. "You need to come now."
Like their boss, the advisers had heard the boom of the explosions that crunched into the airport road just after 1am, and their phones had been ringing incessantly. Each call had brought the unthinkable closer to shocking reality: Qassem Suleimani, the revered commander of Iran's Quds Force and the most powerful man in Iraq, had been killed, and so had nearly all of his closest aides. Throughout 17 years of post-Saddam Hussein bedlam across the Middle East, there had been little to rival this moment.
ISIS has 20,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria, double the number it had when it started capturing territory across the region in 2014, a Kurdish leader has warned (file image)
* Trump has proclaimed 'victory' over ISIS, wants to withdraw from Middle East * But Kurdish leader Masrour Barzani warns the group is rallying for a comeback * Terrorists have 20,000 fighters, he claims, double the number they had when they began capturing territory in Syria and Iraq in 2014 * Terror group is also thought to have a war chest of $300m to wage attacks with
ISIS has double the number of soldiers it had when it began capturing territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 and is poised for a comeback, a Kurdish leader has warned.
Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, issued the stark warning amid moves by President Trump to withdraw US troops from the region after years of fighting.
While ISIS has lost all of its territory and much of its leadership, Barzani believes the terror group still has 20,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria and is trying to recruit more.
As Recep Erdogan sends Turkish troops and Syrian rebel fighters into Libya, it has become clear that the Syrian forces Turkey-backed were never meant to fight for Assad but instead do Turkey's bidding.
As the Syrian military backed by the Russian air force takes another strategic town in Idlib, thereby inching closer towards the Turkish border, the endgame for Turkey in Syria has begun. The Syrian government has also taken the key highway that links Damascus to Aleppo and secured Aleppo from the incoming Turkish backed rebel artillery. Diplomatically the first acknowledged meeting between the Turkish and Syrian intelligence chiefs in Moscow just over a week ago heralded the final act in Erdogan's quest to knock over President Bashar al-Assad. Not only has he failed in dislodging Assad, but he has also failed to convince the Russians to see the Turkish perspective.
BEIJING/GENEVA (Reuters) - New coronavirus cases in the Chinese province at the epicenter of the outbreak fell for a second straight day, but deaths rose after the World Health Organization had cautioned there was not yet enough data to know if the epidemic had slowed.
Hubei reported 1,693 new cases as of Tuesday, down from 1,807 the previous day and the lowest number in the province since Feb. 11. But deaths rose by 132, up from 93 the previous day. The latest figures bring the total number of cases in China to over 74,000 with about 2,000 deaths.
The head of a leading hospital in China's central city of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated, died of the disease, becoming one of the most prominent victims since the novel virus first appeared at the end of last year.
UN holds peace talks with rival military officers in Geneva, who refuse to meet in the same room.
A Turkish cargo ship said to be carrying weapons was shelled while docked at Tripoli port in Libya on Tuesday as the UN held talks with military leaders of the country's rival factions in Switzerland.
The forces of eastern commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar claimed responsibility for the attack and said the boat was destroyed.
Field Marshal Haftar's Libyan National Army launched an offensive last April on the capital, where the UN-backed Government of National Accord is based and defended by militias.
While the airport in Tripoli has often been a target, it is rare for the seaport to come under attack.
Brussels (AFP) - EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to a naval operation to enforce an arms embargo on war-torn Libya, overcoming objections from countries who feared it may encourage new migrant flows.
The mission will be authorised to intervene to stop arms shipments, EU diplomatic chief Josep Borrell said, insisting the vessels would not be "having a promenade" in the Mediterranean.
The EU hopes to have the operation, focused on the eastern part of the Libyan coast, up and running by the end of March, Borrell said, though many details -- including the rules of engagement for naval units -- are yet to be worked out.
The conflict in the oil-rich but turbulent North African state was on the agenda for EU ministers meeting in Brussels, but Borrell had played down hopes of an agreement over objections from Austria and Hungary.
Incumbent gained just over 50% of September votes but Abdullah's team reject results
Five months after Afghans went to the polls to choose a new president, election authorities have declared the incumbent, Ashraf Ghani, the winner, but his main opponent has rejected the result and said he will form his own "inclusive government".
After a heavily contested poll, Ghani officially scraped just over 50% of votes, averting a second round run-off. But hours after the election results were announced, rival Abdullah Abdullah declared himself the victor.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree on Tuesday evening prohibiting Chinese citizens from entering Russia for tourism, work and for private purposes. The new rules are effective from Thursday.
The decision is the strongest measure yet taken to prevent the entry and spread of the new coronavirus in Russia. Previously, Russian Railways suspended all passenger traffic to and from China, and flights have been heavily restricted. In addition, border crossings in the Far East have been closed.
* Chinese health officials carried out the biggest ever study on the coronavirus * Results showed SARS-CoV-2 virus posed the greatest threat to older patients * It is also dangerous for those with underlying conditions, such as heart disease * More than 73,000 cases have been recorded, with up to 99% of them in China
The deadly coronavirus rapidly sweeping the world kills up to 15 per cent of patients over the age of 80, scientists have revealed.
Chinese health officials carried out the biggest ever study on the never-before-seen strain of the virus, using data from 72,000 cases.
Results showed the SARS-CoV-2 virus posed the greatest threat to older patients and those with underlying conditions, such as cancer and heart disease.
Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention researchers also found 80.9 per cent of infections are mild. Less than five per cent are critical.
A separate group of virologists studying the coronavirus have also claimed it is up to 20 times more infectious than its deadlier sister SARS.
More than 73,000 cases have been recorded worldwide, with 99 per cent in China. Almost 1,900 patients have already died.
A growing number of countries around the world are evacuating or planning to evacuate diplomatic staff and citizens from parts of China and a cruise ship in Japan hit by the new coronavirus.
Following are some countries' evacuation plans, and how they aim to manage the health risk from those who are returning.
* Ninety-nine per cent of cases of the SARS-CoV-2 infection have been in China * Most of the cases recorded in China have been in the deserted Hubei province * The Diamond Princess cruise has the largest cluster of cases outside of China
Almost 1,900 people have now died from the killer coronavirus rapidly sweeping the world.
And more than 73,000 patients have been struck down with the deadly SARS-CoV-2 infection, including nearly 1,000 outside of China.
Ninety-nine per cent of cases have been in China, where tens of millions of residents are in lockdown to contain the escalating crisis.
The Diamond Princess cruise, docked off the coast of Japan, has the largest cluster of cases outside of China, with 542 passengers infected.
BEIJING/GENEVA (Reuters) - China reported its fewest new coronavirus infections since January on Tuesday and its lowest daily death toll for a week, but the World Health Organization said data suggesting the epidemic had slowed should still be viewed with caution.
The head of a leading hospital in China's central city of Wuhan, epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, died of the disease on Tuesday, becoming one of the most prominent victims since the disease first appeared at the end of last year.
Illustrating the economic impact of the outbreak, European shares dropped on Tuesday after Apple Inc issued a revenue warning due to the disruption the disease is causing to global supply chains.
New data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has shown a roughly 4% increase in military spending for 2019, the single largest rate of growth seen in the past 10 years.
The increase is being driven in large part by the two largest military spenders in the world, the United States and China. Both nations increased their respective spending by 6.6%. The US alone increased spending $53.4 billion, which is itself almost as much as other major nations, like Britain, spend on their entire national defense budget.
USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) raises the American flag on it's mast as the ship get underway, Feb. 3, 2020 - file photo. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Zack Guth)
Navy weapons developers say the service's emerging Ford-class carriers are engineered for the purpose of enabling a much higher volume of high-speed, overwhelming air attacks in rapid succession, as compared to today's Nimitz-class carriers … all due to new technologies and the design configuration of the platforms.
The Ford carriers, now on the cusp of entering operational service, are built with larger deck space to enable a higher sortie rate for attack missions. In addition, there are other technologies built into the Ford-class that create the opportunity to quickly rearm and refuel fighters, rapidly sending them back into the air for further attack missions, Capt. Ron Rutan, CVN 78 (USS Ford) Program Manager, said in January at the 32nd annual Surface Navy Association symposium, Arlington, Va.
VIDEO: 🇺🇬 Soldiers tackle a #locust infestation which has reached Uganda after devastating food supplies in Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) saying the situation is the worst in 25 years #locustspic.twitter.com/UEOnOG4vxd
Michael Bloomberg hit 19% nationally in a new poll—the fourth eligible poll showing him at 10% or above. He placed second, behind Sen. Bernie Sanders. https://t.co/zENG7mf3ce
The Department of the Navy is preparing to announce a crash program to find "at least $40B in real line-of-accounting savings" over the next six weeks. This lighting-fast cost-cutting initiative, called a "Stem-to-Stern Capability Strategic Review", will begin on February 18 and end on Tuesday, March 31.
The projected $40 billion in cuts will meet a budget savings target in the Navy's Fiscal Year 2022-2026 "Future Years Defense Program" and support a required June Program Objective Memorandum (POM) submission to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
While nothing is exempt from review, the Navy intends to primarily look for savings in eight areas: 1) Duplication of Information Technology systems and infrastructure; 2) Consolidation/Elimination of headquarters, commands and organizations; 3) Streamlined naval logistics; 4) Enabling capabilities that can be outsourced; 5) Enabling capabilities that can be consolidated to support an integrated naval force; 6) Reductions in Global Force Management offerings; 7) Significant reductions in service support contracts; and 8) Organization structure and manning constructs.
WNU Editor: Looking for where to cut is one thing. Having the political will to follow through is another. At the moment I do not see any political will in Washington to follow through on any cuts, starting from the White House.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) on Thursday said that he has written a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) to voice concerns over the state's public pension fund chief and his connections with China.
The Indiana congressman is calling out the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), the largest state pension fund in the U.S., for allegedly investing in numerous select blacklisted Chinese companies that manufacture military products.
The California-based fund invested $3.1 billion into 172 different Chinese companies, Banks said in an appearance on Fox Business Network. He said that some of the companies invested in have been blacklisted by the U.S. government.
Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) speaks after the senate voted on a resolution ending U.S. military support for the war in Yemen on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., December 13, 2018. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts
Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut and other Democratic senators had a secret meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during the Munich Security Conference last week, according to a source briefed by the French delegation to the conference. Murphy's office did not respond to repeated requests for comment by press time.
Such a meeting would mean Murphy had done the type of secret coordination with foreign leaders to potentially undermine the U.S. government that he accused Trump officials of doing as they prepared for Trump's administration. In February 2017, Murphy demanded investigations of National Security Advisor Mike Flynn because he had a phone call with his counterpart-to-be in Russia.
BRITAIN's navy is over-stretched and underfunded - and Boris Johnson's decision to press ahead with HS2 while imposing budget cuts on the nation's armed services is a "outrage" which will "accelerate the pace of a decline", a defence expert has said.
WITH Ireland's political machinery effectively gridlocked, and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar opposed to signing up for a coalition government involving Mary Lou McDonald's Sinn Fein, another general election may be looming, a former diplomat has warned.
AN AUSTRALIAN former Prime Minister has revealed that the "highest levels" of the Malaysian government believed that the MH370 disaster was a murder-suicide in a shocking twist.
Mezzanine financing combines debt and equity financing, starting out as debt and allowing the lender to convert to equity if the loan is not paid on time or in full.
Tied selling is the illegal practice of a company providing a product or service on the condition that a customer purchases some other product or service.
De novo judicial review describes a review of a trial court's decision by a court of appeals and is used in questions of how the law was applied or interpreted.
A Canadian income trust is an investment fund that holds income-producing assets and distributes payments to unitholders, or shareholders, on a regular periodic basis.
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While tax implications for owning or selling ETFs are straightforward, not everyone understands the tax implications of owning or selling physical bullion.
Identify the types of questions often asked in treasurer job interviewers, and learn how to deliver strong responses that separate you from the competition.
A conventional mortgage is any type of home buyer's loan not offered or secured by a government entity but instead is available through a private lender.
Sector rotation is the movement of money in the stock market from one industry to another as investors anticipate the next stage of the economic cycle.
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Back-to-back letters of credit consist of two LOCs used in conjunction to help sellers finance the purchase of equipment or services from a subcontractor.
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Form 8283-V: Payment Voucher for Filing Fee Under Section 170(f)(13) is a tax form completed by taxpayers claiming a charitable contribution exceeding $10,000 of an easement on the exterior of a building.
Read about Vanguard exchange traded funds (ETFs) and how there is no minimum U.S. dollar investment for them. Learn about how investors can purchase a minimum of one share.
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Certificates of deposit (CDs) and bonds are both fixed-income securities that are generally held until maturity. Learn how these investments are different.
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You suddenly need money for an unexpected expense. Many of us have faced this scenario. But what are the most effective and responsible ways to get it?
MGU Results 2020 Released by Mahatma Gandhi University for BHM Degree 5th and 8th Sem and different seminars on 18th February 2020. Understudies who had finished the semester test can look at for the immediate connections from the beneath the area of this page. Students can get the Mahatma Gandhi University UG/PG Semester Exam Results here. We will give direct connections underneath will take you to the official site of the college with no perplexity. Subsequently, Check other data of MGU Kerala Results 2020 in the beneath segments of this page. Likewise, visit the official site i.e, mgu.ac.in to think about confirmations and course subtleties.
Understudies of Mahatma Gandhi University here is incredible news for all. Get Updated Regular, Supplementary, Revaluation results for the Mahatma Gandhi University. As the school offers a wide scope of courses like UG/PG/Ph.D. and different courses individuals from all over Kerala are contemplating. Contenders can survey their show through underneath joined associations. Ensure you get down the full segment. Additionally, locate the most recent updates about MG University Results 2020 included with MGU Revaluation Results.
Latest Updated MGU Results 2020-21
Examination Name
Result Link
Eighth Semester BHM Degree Examination June 2019 (Regular /Supplementary)
Mahatma Gandhi University was built upon 2 Oct 1983 in Kerala State. The school has 100 related colleges in excess of 5 zones in central Kerala. It is otherwise called MG University. MGU is outstanding amongst the other 50 Universities in India. It is just the college from south India. It has 299 scholastic endeavors, for example, Bachelor’s, Masters, Doctoral degrees in the fields of Pure and Applied Sciences, Arts, Technology, Paramedical Studies, Nursing, Management, Engineering, Gandhian. However, International Relations, Politics, Physics, Nano Science, Disability Studies, Rehabilitation Sciences, Special Education, Psychology, Journalism, Environmental Sciences, Business Studies, Commerce, Economics, Pedagogical Studies, Hotel, and Hospitality Management, Catering Science, etc.
Normal/Supplementary Results for MGU
Understudies of MGU ought to find good pace insights about the Revaluation Results. Once after the principle assessment is directed, the University will give you one progressively possibility. In the event that you fall flat or score low stamps in the semester test, the college will allow you another opportunity called Revaluation mode. Applicants do check with the Official Website to consider the Revaluation framework. Here you can get the Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results for the MGU. This Revaluation strategy may take a large portion of a month to process the results. The test paper will be surveyed eventually for the people who have applied for the Revaluation procedure. So, we encourage the contender to remain refreshed with our page or with the Mahatma Gandhi Official Website to accumulate progressively point by point data about the MGU Revaluation Results.
Durg University Result 2020 Released @ durguniversity.ac.in: M.A. Hindi 3rd Sem, BBA 5th Sem and other Results on 18th February 2020. Hello Folks!! Here we have good news for you. Durg University has announced the Results for various Courses. All the Students who have appeared for the Examination can get results by Annual/Semester vice. Students can get the results from the official website of the University. Therefore, we have provided a direct link from the below table to get the Durg University Result 2020. However, Students can download the Results at the University online web portal.
Durg University Results 2020 @ durguniversity.ac.in
The Durg University UG/PG Results are released on the official website. We update this Durg University Result 2020 page with the latest Result that is released on the official website by the official DUD board. So to know more about the DUD degree Result and other Result candidates must bookmark this page. It announced by annual and Semester wise for all Courses. Students who have appeared for the Examinations can check through this page recruitment.guru. Additionally, students may also get the detailed information regarding the Admit Card, Syllabus, Time Table and others. Here applicants can download the Hemchand Yadav University M.Sc. Maths, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry, M.Com Result 2020 on this recruitment.guru webpage.
Latest Updated Durg University Exam Result 2020
Name of the Exam
Announcement Date
Result Link
M.A. Hindi 3rd Sem., Dec.-2019 & BBA 5th Sem., Dec.- 2019
(M.A. Hindi 3rd Sem. Dec.-2019) (BBA 1st, 3rd & 5th Sem. Dec.-2019) (B.Ed. & M.Ed. 1st Sem. Dec.-2019) (LLB 1st & 5th Sem. Dec.-2019) (M.A. English 2nd Sem. ATKT Jan.-2020)
The Government of Chhattisgarh, practicing its forces and bringing Chhattisgarh ACT, The Chhattisgarh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, 2015, dated 24th of April, 2015, an Act further revising the Chhattisgarh Vishwavidyalaya Adhiniyam, 1973, has set up Hemchand Yadav Vishwavidyalaya, Durg. The Hemchand Yadav Vishwavidyalaya has appeared after the division of the current Pt. Ravishankar Shukla Vishwavidyalaya, Raipur and the locale of the Vishwavidyalaya include 116 associated universities in the areas of Durg, Bemetara, Balod, Rajnandgaon, and Kabirdham.
Durg University Supply/Revaluation Result
Understudies are sitting tight for the Results in the event that they scored well they will prompt one year from now. Be that as it may, in the event that they won’t get more stamps they can apply for the revaluation Results. At the point when they applied for the Examination, the more raised level Examiner will check the paper again. They can get the revaluation Result inside the time. Likewise, on the off chance that they despite everything get bomb marks, they can apply for the beneficial examination. For every single semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the principle assessment Results. Durg University will take seven days to process the test papers to declare the Durg University Revaluation Result. Do remain refreshed with this page to think about the Revaluation Results.
Tripura Agriculture Department Recruitment 2020: Government of Tripura – Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has released its new job notification for 38 Subject Matter Specialist, Assistant, Farm Manager & other Posts. Interested candidates are requested to read all the details given and proceed to submit the application. Candidates, if eligible, can start applying from 15th February 2020. The last date to apply for the Jobs in Tripura Agriculture Department is 06th March 2020. Candidates can get all the details in the section below. Apply now to be a part of Tripura Agriculture Department Careers.
Tripura Agriculture Department Recruitment 2020
If you wish to know more about Tripura Agriculture Department you can click on the website link below. The notification and application form link has been given for candidates to want to apply for Tripura Agriculture Department Vacancy. Selected candidates will be placed in Tripura. Read all the details given below to determine eligibility. Also, refer to the official notification for more details before applying. It is advised that the candidates apply in advance to avoid the last-minute rush.
Tripura Agriculture Department Jobs 2020 – Overview
Name of the Organization
Government of Tripura – Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare
Eligibility Criteria for Tripura Agriculture Department Recruitment 2020
Read all the details given below to check if you are eligible for Tripura Agriculture Department Vacancy. If eligible, you can proceed to apply for Tripura Agriculture Department Jobs.
Educational Qualification:
The education qualifications for Tripura Agriculture Department Recruitment are as given below.
Name of the Discipline/ Field
Academic Qualification
Subject Matter Specialist
Candidate must possess a Master’s Degree or equivalent in the concerned Discipline
Farm Manager
Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture or other branches of science relevant to Agriculture or equivalent qualification from a recognized university’
Programme Assistant (Lab Technician)
Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture or other branches of science relevant to Agriculture or equivalent qualification from a recognized university
Programme Assistant (Computer)
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science/Computer Application or equivalent qualification from a recognized University
Assistant
Master in Business Management/ PG Diploma in Business Management M.A, M.Com
Skilled Supporting Staff – Gr. I
Matriculation pass qualification from a recognized Board
Age Limit for Department of Agriculture Tripura Recruitment 2020:
Pay Band – I Rs. 5200 – 20200 + Grade Pay of Rs. 1800/-
Application Fee Details:
Candidates can refer to the official notification for more information.
Selection Process:
Written Examination
Skill Test
How to apply for Tripura Agriculture Department Notification 2020?
Download the Tripura Agriculture Department notification in the below section
Read all the details and apply if you are eligible
If eligible, download the application form
Start filling all the details asked for
Make sure you attach documents in the prescribed format
Pay the application fee as applicable
Finally, send the duly filled application form with relevant documents to the concerned postal address. Also Application envelope superscripted as ” APPLICATION FOR THE POST OF ——————————– UNDER KVK“.
Postal Address
Director, Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Krish Bhawan P.O. Agartala, Dist West Tripura – 799001.
Important Dates for Tripura Agriculture Department Job Vacancy 2020
Starting Date to Apply Online
15th February 2020
Last Date to Apply Online
15th March 2020
Important Links for Tripura Agriculture Department Recruitment 2020
Solapur University Result 2020 Released: Hello Students !!! It’s time to check the results, Yes Solapur University has declared the result for various Courses on 17th February 2020. Students who have attended the Examination can check the result from the official website of the University i.e su.digitaluniversity.ac. Aspirants can check the Solapur University Result 2020 for all the students who are studying under the Solapur University. The University offers various Courses like, Under Graduate, Post Graduate, Regular/ Supplementary and other Courses. All the Students can check the Solapur University Result from this site. Also, we have provided a direct link to get the result from the below table.
The University of Solapur has successfully conducted the examination of B.A, B.Sc, B.Com, B.Tech, BBA, BCA, M.A, M.Sc, and Other Examinations 2019. Also, Students may find all the information related to the Examination from this site and official website. Once the University has declared the Results, we will update on our webpage. Students can find the results using the Name, Roll Number, Date of Birth or Year of the Course. All the students can get furthermore information related to the Solapur University Result 2020 on our recruitment.guru webpage.
Latest Updated Solapur University Results 2020
Name of the Exam
Result Declared Date
Apply for Photocopy/ Verification up to (for students)
Visit the official website of Solapur University i.e su.digitaluniversity.ac
On the home page, you will find the Examination tab and click on the results.
In the result page, you have to give the Roll number and Year of the Course.
Click on the result link for which course you want to check.
The results will appear on the screen.
Take the printout of the Solapur University Result for future reference.
About Solapur University
Solapur University was developed on the principal August 2004 and was started on 03rd August 2004 by the Governor of Maharashtra. The course of action of the school at Solapur was a long time back loved the needs of the people of this region. Earlier, to the course of action of University, Solapur had a P.G. Point of convergence of Shivaji University for over two decades. P.G. considers had three postgraduate science divisions and 7 postgraduate courses drove in the P.G. workplaces. With this sound establishment, Solapur University has been developed to oblige the prerequisites of in excess of 60,000 understudies to arrange. In less than three educational years, Solapur University has the delight of various separation. All Students and staff have completed their academic obligation. It is an achievement to communicate that Solapur University has successfully driven its appraisals and besides the results have been declared in record time.
Solapur University Supply/Revaluation Results
Understudies are keeping things under control for the results if they scored well they will provoke one year from now. Regardless, in case they won’t get more checks, they can apply for the revaluation results. At the point when they applied for the Examination, the more noteworthy level Examiner will check the paper again. In like manner, in case they regardless of everything get bomb marks, they can apply for the worth evaluation. For each and every semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the presentation of the essential evaluation results. Solapur University will take perhaps over seven days to process the test papers to announce the Solapur University Revaluation Result. Do stay revived with the University to consider the Revaluation Exam Results.
Delhi High Court Result 2020Released: Dear Candidates !!! The officials of the High Court of Delhi has conducted the written examinations for recruiting various posts. Many candidates have appeared for the Delhi HC Examination and waiting for the results. So, in order to help the candidates, we have provided a quick link to download the Delhi High Court Result 2020 on this page. Now, The High Court of Delhi officials has released the Delhi High Court Result 2020 for various examinations. Candidates can go through the entire page to know more detailed information about the Delhi HC Result 2020.
Delhi High Court Senior Judicial Assistant Result 2020 Released: Dear Candidates !!! Have you written the Delhi High Court Departmental Examination and waiting for the results? If yes, then it is the perfect destination to check your Delhi High Court Sr Judicial Assistant Result 2020. The Officials of High Court of Delhi has organized the examination on 08th & 09th September 2019successfully. A vast number of aspirants have appeared for this exam and are waiting for the results. Therefore, the officials have announced the Delhi High Court Senior Judicial Assistant Result on 18th February 2020. For the sake of aspirants, we have provided a quick link to download the Delhi High Court Senior Judicial Assistant Result 2020. Also get the Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 at end of this page.
Delhi High Court Senior Judicial Assistant Result 2020
Delhi High Court Senior Judicial Assistant Result 2020:Click Here
Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020 Released: A huge number of aspirants attended the Delhi High Court Judicial Service Examination held on 02nd February 2020. And all the eligible candidates were searching for the Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020. Here, we are there to help those candidates who are waiting for Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020. Moreover, the Delhi High Court has declared the Judicial Service Result on 13th February 2020. Therefore, we have given a direct link to check the Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020. So, by just clicking the link aspirants can download the Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020, Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020.
Delhi High Court Judicial Service Prelims Result 2020:Click Here Delhi High Court Judicial Service Result 2020:Click Here
Delhi High Court Chauffeur Result 2020Released: Dear Candidates !!! Are you eagerly waiting for Delhi High Court Chauffeur Result 2020? Let's check it on this page. The Delhi High Court officials have released the Result for Chauffeur post on 06th February 2020. However, the candidates who appeared for the Delhi High Court Chauffeur Examination can check their Results here. Here, we provide you a direct link to check your Delhi High Court Chauffeur Result 2020. Furthermore, candidates can check the Delhi High Court Chauffeur Cut Off Marks and Merit list 2020 on this page.
22.12.2019, 26.12.2019 to 31.12.2019, 01.01.2020 to 05.01.2020, 11.01.2020, 12.01.2020, 18.01.2020 & 19.01.2020
Result Date
06th February 2020
Selection Procedures
Exam and Skill Test, Interview
Job Location
Delhi
Official Website
delhihighcourt.nic.in
Delhi High Court Chauffeur Skill Test Result 2020:Click Here Delhi High Court Chauffeur Result 2020:Click Here
Delhi High Court Final Result 2020 Released: Dear Candidates !!! The Delhi High Court officials had declared the Delhi High Court SPA Result 2020 on 23rd January 2020. Further, the officials had released the results for Senior Personal Assistant, Senior Judicial Translator, and Judicial Translator posts. All the exam participants can also check the Delhi High Court Final Result 2020 either from the official portal as well as from this page itself. At the end of the page, we had also given the direct link to check and also download the Delhi High Court Final Result 2020. Hence, we had given detailed information about the Delhi HC Final Result 2020, Cut Off Marks, Merit List2020 in the below section.
Delhi High Court SPA Result 2020 – Overview
Description
Details
Organization Name
High Court of Delhi
Post Name
Senior Personal Assitant, Senior Judicial Translator, Judicial Translator
Above all the details will give information such as the Organization name, Post name, number of vacancies, the category of the Results, Exam Date, the Result Release Date, Selection Process, the job location, and the Official site to check the Delhi HC Results. Therefore, the selection process consists of Written Test and Interview. Candidates who got shortlisted in the Written Examination will be eligible to go for further selection rounds. All the exam participants can gather detailed information about Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020 and also Merit List 2020 from the below sections.
Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020
The officials of the High Court of Delhi had decided the Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020. So that it will be easy to shortlist the candidates and pick up the candidate for the respective post. Many of the candidates had applied and are eagerly waiting to check the Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020. For the sake of the candidates, we have given the details of Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020. Most importantly, Delhi High Court Cut Off Marks 2020 depends on a few factors. They are,
Candidate's Category
No of Qualifiers
Level of the Question paper.
Availability of Vacancies
And the number of candidates attended the exam
Delhi High Court Merit List 2020
In this section, candidates can get the complete details of Delhi High Court Merit List 2020. The Delhi High Court Merit List 2020 contains the list of candidates who scored the highest marks in the written examination. All the candidates have to check the details present on the Delhi High Court Merit List 2020. Delhi High Court Merit List 2020 will be released by the officials of the High Court of Delhi. If you have any quires about the Delhi HC Merit List 2020 visit the official site.
How to Download the High Court of Delhi Result 2020?
Visit the official site of Delhi High Court @ delhihighcourt.nic.in.
On the Latest Announcements, find the High Court of Delhi Result 2020 link.
And click on that link in a new page and enter the details.
After that, click on the Submit button.
Now, the Delhi HC Result 2020 will appear on the screen.
Download it and take a print out for further use.
Direct Links to Download Delhi High Court Result 2020
MPSC AMVI Admit Card 2020 – The Commission is going to release the admit card for the post of Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector Posts (AMVI). Hence, the MPSC AMVI Prelims Exam will be held on 15th March 2020. Therefore, the MPSC Admit Card will be available from the 01st Week of March 2020.
MPSC Prelims Hall Ticket 2020 OUT – Maharashtra Public Service Commission has recently released the hall ticket for the post of Civil Judge (Jr Division & Judicial Magistrate) on 18th February 2020. Thus, the MPSC Civil Judge exam is going to be held on 01st March 2020. Therefore, aspirants who are going to take down the exam are suggested to download the MPSC Civil Judge Prelims Hall Ticket Here.
MPSC Civil Judge Prelims Hall Ticket 2020 – Overview
MPSC Admit Card 2019 – Maharashtra Public Service Commission has declared the exam date to be held on 22nd December 2019. Hence, the admit card will be released in the month of December 2019. Thus, Download the admit card from the below table. The MPSC Livestock Development Admit Card direct link will be available after the board releases it.
MPSC Livestock Development Hall Ticket 2019 – Overview
MPSC Livestock Development Admit Card 2019 – Download Here (On December 2019)
MPSC Mains Admit Card 2019 – Maharashtra Public Service Commission will issue the admit card for the post of Engineering Services in the Last Week of October 2019. Thus, the aspirants who are interested to take down the examination can download the hall ticket from the below section. Download the MPSC Admit Card through the direct link given below.
MPSC Admit Card 2019 – Overview
Description
Details
Name of the Board
Maharashtra Public Service Commission
Name of the Exam
Assistant Executive Engineer, Sub-Divisional Water Conservation Officers, Water Conservation Officers, Assistant Engineer
Maharashtra Public Service Commission is ready to issue the MPSC Hall Ticket for the examination at www.mpsc.gov.in. In the examination, the Invigilator will check to the Admit Card before entering into the Exam Hall. And Likewise, the details in the hall ticket should match the details in the Original ID Proof. So, Candidates are advised to enter the details perfectly as in the ID proof. The MPSC Hall Ticket has the following Contents,
Full Name of the Candidate.
Name of the Applicant's Father.
Gender (Male/ Female).
Registration Number
Candidate's Date of Birth
Exam Centre, Code, and Venue.
Duration of the Examination.
Hall Ticket/ Roll Number.
Name of the Test.
Important Guidelines for the Exam.
Signature of the Commission Councillor.
Space for Invigilator's Signature.
Reporting Time to the Exam Cell.
Photograph of the Applicant.
Space for Candidate's Signature.
Download MPSC Hall Ticket 2020
Maharashtra Public Service Commission has created a way to download the Admit Card from the Official Website. Download it after completing all the process which has to be done. In case of any clarifications compare with the Application Form you have submitted before. The Board will not allow you to make corrections if there are any corrections after downloading it. Meanwhile, no requests will not be encouraged by any individuals. So, be conscious while downloading the MPSC Admit Card. Carryover the documents to the examination centre in the below section.
Aadhar Card
MPSC Admit Card
College ID
Ration Card
Driving License
PAN Card
Voter ID
Any Valid ID Proof Issued By Gazetted Officer
Bank Passbook
Passport
How to Download MPSC Hall Ticket 2020
Click on to the Direct Link of MPSC Hall Ticket
Enter your Registration number or Roll Number.
After that Enter the password.
Now the Admit Card will appear on the screen.
Fill all the valid particulars in that.
Finally, Click on the Download Option.
Download the Admit Card and take a print out of it.
Punjabi University Result 2020 Released: Check out Punjabi University Result New here for B.Sc. B.Ed. Part-I. what’s more, Other Courses on 18th February 2020. Understudies can get Punjabi University Results 2020 with an immediate connection. What’s more, now, PBI UNI has announced the Punjabi University Results 2020 for different Courses under Punjabi University. As of late Punjabi University has distributed the aftereffects of Diploma, UG, PG and different Courses results are accessible here. We have given an immediate connection to the Students to download the Punjabi University Patiala Result 2020 from the underneath table. Stay in contact with our page to get the most recent PU Results 2020.
The Punjabi University discharged the much-anticipated Www Punjabi University Results Ac In on the web. In this way, look at the पंजाबी यूनिवर्सिटी रिजल्ट्स २०१९ for Under Graduate and Post Graduate Regular, Supplementary and Revaluation results. Additionally, Students can get the Punjabi University Semester Wise Exam Result here. Along these lines, check the whole article to download the Punjabi University Results 2020 from here. We have given direct connections to discover your outcomes through the connections gave here. Additionally, download the outcomes for Arts, Science, Engineering, Medical, the Management Courses basically by following the means given beneath. Indeed, you can get the outcomes for different Universities in our recruitment.guru site page.
Punjabi University is a state college situated in Patiala, Punjab, India. Punjabi University inquires about science, building, and innovation, humanities, sociologies, performing expressions and sports. It was built upon 30 April 1962 and is just the second college on the planet to be named after a language. The foundation has in excess of 70 instructing and research offices, covering disciplines in Humanities, Science, Arts, Computer Science, and Business Management. To get a doctorate certificate from the college one should breeze through the Punjabi language test directed by the college two times every year. Understudies who study Punjabi as a subject until the tenth standard need not breeze through the assessment to qualify.
Punjabi University Reappear Result 2020-21
Understudies are sitting tight for the PBI Uni Left Result on the off chance that they scored well they will prompt one year from now. However, in the event that they won’t get more checks, they can apply for the Revaluation Results. When they applied for Revaluation, the more significant level Examiner will check the paper once more. Here you can get Reevaluation Results. Likewise, on the off chance that they despite everything get bomb marks, they can apply for the strengthening assessment. Understudies can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the fundamental assessment results. Notwithstanding, the PBI UNI will take up to seven days to process the test papers to report the Punjabi University Revaluation Results. Stay refreshed with Our Page to think about the Punjabi University Revaluation Result 2020.
Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020: Apply for 45 Assistant Encroachment Inspector before 27th February 2020!! The PMC notification has been released to recruit 45 candidates. The post available is Assistant Encroachment Inspector. Interested candidates are welcomed to submit their application forms from today. The last date to submit the forms for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment is 27th February 2020. Selected candidates will be placed in Pune, Maharashtra. All candidates looking for government jobs in Pune can make use of this opportunity now. Interested candidates read all the details and then proceed to apply.
Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020-21
Before submitting the Pune Municipal Corporation application form, candidates must make sure they are eligible for the posts. For this, we have provided the required details below. Aspirants can read these details and also refer to the official notification for more details. Once the applicant has ensured that he or she is eligible, they can then proceed to apply. To apply for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment, candidates will have to download the application form, fill it and send it to the address given. It is recommended that the candidates send the application form at the earliest to make sure it reaches the officials on time.
Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020 – Apply for 187 Various Posts @ pmc.gov.in!! Candidates waiting for government jobs in Pune, the wait is over. The Municipal Corporation of Pune has released its notification to recruit 187 candidates. The posts available are Group Organization, Office Assistant, Sanitation Volunteer & Others. Interested candidates are welcome to send their application forms before 18th February 2020. Candidates can check eligibility details below and start applying for PMC Recruitment 2020.
Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020-21
Candidates who fulfil the eligibility criteria of PMC Notification can apply for the PMC Jobs in India. Aspirants willing to get placed in Pune go through this page for PMC Jobs Details. All the details regarding eligibility, age limit, pay scale, application fee, application procedure, etc has been given below. PMC application form and notification link have also been given for candidates who want to apply for Pune Municipal Corporation Jobs.
Overview of Pune Municipal Corporation Jobs 2020
Name of the Organization
Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC)
Number of Vacancies
187
Name of Post
Group Organization, Office Assistant, Sanitation Volunteer & Others
Starting date of application
Started
Closing date of application
18th February 2020
Job Category
Maharashtra Government Jobs
Job Location
Pune
Application process
Offline Procedure
Official Website
www.pmc.gov.in
Details of Pune Municipal Corporation Vacancy 2020-21:
The details of the vacancy as given in the Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020 is as below
Name of the Post
Number of Posts
Counsellor
19
Group Organization
90
Office Assistant
20
Business Group Chief Guide
01
Resource Person
04
Centre Coordinator
10
Service Center Chief Coordinator
06
Service Center Coordinator
14
Computer Resource Person
02
Sanitation Volunteer
21
Total
187
For category wise details, refer to the official notification.
Eligibility Criteria for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020
Candidates interested in Pune Municipal Corporation Jobs can check their eligibility with the details below to apply online.
Academic Qualification:
Refer to the official notification for education qualification details
Read the official notification for more details on Pune Municipal Corporation Careers.
Age Limit:
For age limit as given in the Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020, refer to the official notification
Selection Process:
Written Test
Interview
Document Verification
Pay Scale for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020:
Refer to the official website for details on the pay scale for Pune Municipal Corporation Jobs
Pune Municipal Corporation Application Fee:
Candidates may read the official notification to get more details on Pune Municipal Corporation application fees
How to apply for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020?
Open the notification using the link below
Read all the details carefully
If eligible, download the application form
Fill the form completely and make sure there are no errors
Submit the application form before the last date
Postal Address:
SM Joshi Hall, 582 Rasta Pet, Tihak Ayurved Collegeshejaari, Pune – 411011 Maharashtra
Important Links for Pune Municipal Corporation Recruitment 2020-21:
82 – Diploma Engineer Trainee, Jr. Assistant & Other
About PMC:
The Pune Municipal Corporation the second largest city of Maharashtra. It is in charge of the civic needs and infrastructure of the metropolis, which is spread over an area of 331.26 sq. km. and has 3.4 million residents. Established on 15 February 1950, the executive power of the PMC is vested in the Municipal Commissioner, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer appointed by the Government of Maharashtra. The city comes under the Pune City taluka of Pune District, Maharashtra
The general body of the PMC comprises of 162 straightforwardly chose councillors, prevalently known as “corporators”, headed by a mayor. Mukta Tilak (BJP) was chosen as the city hall leader and Navanth Kamble (RPI (An)) as the appointee city hall leader by the recently chosen general body in March 2017. Tilak is the primary individual from the BJP to hold the position. Following Kamble’s destruction while in office, Siddharth Dhende of the RPI (A) was chosen as the representative civic chairman in June 2017. The land for Pune Municipal Corporation was given by Bhausaheb Shirole who was second Mayor of Pune city and later turned into an MLC.
KSRTC Jobs 2020 Notification released!! Apply Online for 3745 Driver and Driver cum Conductor Vacancies. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation which is abbreviated as KSRTC is now inviting candidates to Apply online for 3745 Driver and Driver cum Conductor Vacancies through KSRTC Recruitment 2020 Notification. Candidates who wish to be a part of Karnataka Government Jobs can apply online for these KSRTC Driver Jobs from 24th February 2020. The last date to apply for KSRTC Jobs is 20th March 2020.Please take a quick look at the below sections to know more about eligibility criteria, salary, Examination fee, KSRTC Exam Date and others related to KSRTC Karnataka. Additionally, visit www.ksrtc.in to know more details about the KSRTC jobs.
NEKRTC Jobs 2020 Notification released!! Apply Online for 1619 Driver and Driver cum Administrator Vacancies. North East Karnataka Road Transport Corporation which is abbreviated as NEKRTC is now inviting candidates to Apply online for 1619 Driver and Driver cum Administrator Vacancies through NEKRTC Recruitment 2020 Notification. Candidates who wish to be a part of Karnataka Government Jobs can apply online for these NEKRTC Driver Jobs from 6th January 2020. The last date to apply for NEKRTC KSRTC Jobs is 5th February 2020.Please take a quick look at the below sections to know more about eligibility criteria, salary, Examination fee, NEKRTC Exam Date and others related to NEKRTC Karnataka. Additionally, visit www.nekrtc.org to know more details about the NEKRTC Recruitment 2020-21 Notification.
KSRTC Jobs 2019-20 Notification released!! Walk-in for 926 Technical Assistant, Security Guard Vacancies. Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation which is abbreviated as KSRTC is now inviting candidates to walk-in for 926 Technical Assistant & Security Guard posts through KSRTC Recruitment 2019 Notification. Candidates who wish to be a part of Karnataka Government Jobs can walk-in for these KSRTC Technical Assistant Jobs on 2nd February 2020.Please take a quick look at the below sections to know more about eligibility criteria, salary, Examination fee, KSRTC Exam Date and others related to KSRTC Karnataka. Additionally, visit www.ksrtc.in (or) to know more details about KSRTC Recruitment 2019-20 Notification.
The Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is a state-owned road transportation company in the state of Karnataka in India. KSRTC has the largest fleet of Volvo buses among state-owned transport companies. It is purely Government-owned Transport Corporation. It is wholly owned by the Government of Karnataka. In August 1997, KSRTC was divided to form Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC). KSRTC services cover 92% of villages in Karnataka.[7] KSRTC operates with a total fleet of 17368 buses (KSRTC-8348, NEKRTC-4300, NWKRTC-4720). It transports, on an average, 74.57 lakh passengers per day.
Why recruitment.guru for KSRTC Recruitment 2020?
KSRTC Jobs 2019 allows all graduate through KSRTC Vacancy. The selection process, job role, requirement, and other criteria may differ according to the job role. This is where recruitment.guru appears into the display. As we provide and keep updating you guys with the latest job vacancy on our page. We are here to help aspirants save their time as candidates need not switch over all the pages to get collect information for a particular post. We are here to provide regular updates about the vacancy, age limit, selection process and much more regarding KSRTC Jobs 2020. So guys stay connected on our page to get information about the latest job openings at KSRTC Jobs 2020.
PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020 Released: Dear Students !!! Candidates who have appeared for the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak examination conducted by the Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited can get their results on this page. The higher authority of the Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited has conducted the written examination on 25th January 2020 for filling 881 Vidyut Sahayak posts. Also, the officials have declared the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result on 18th February 2020. Candidates can go through the entire article to know the complete details about the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020.
PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020 @ pgvcl.com
Aspirants who are eagerly waiting for the PGVCL Junior Assistant Result 2020 can access their results on this page. Now, the officials of the Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited has announced the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result on 18th February 2020. Based on the results, candidates are qualified for the further selection process. So all the exam participants can keep in touch with our recruitment.guru webpage to get the day to day latest updates about the PGVCL Junior Assistant Result 2020. Candidates can know more information about the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 on this webpage.
Above all the given details in the table will give the information about the PGVCL Junior Assistant Result 2020. The above-given table gives information like Organization name, Post name, the number of posts, the Exam Date, the Result date, job location and also the official website of the board. Moreover, candidates can get the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020 by clicking a direct link given at the end of this page. And also get the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut off Marks, Merit List 2020 here.
PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut Off Marks 2020
All the candidates can get complete details about the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut Off Marks 2020 on this page. Candidates must stay clear with the application details to check the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut Off Marks 2020. By knowing the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Cut Off Marks 2020 candidates can know how many of the candidates got selected for the post of Vidyut Sahayak (Junior Assistant). So aspirants can move on with the details like Name of the applicant, Roll Number after downloading the Selection List. Besides, the Vidyut Sahayak (Junior Assistant) Cut Off Marks depends on the
Candidate's category (SC, ST, OC, Others)
The toughness of the question paper
The number of vacancies
PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Merit List 2020
Mostly the aspirants are eagerly checking for the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Merit List 2020. The PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Merit List 2020 will be given to the aspirants according to the maximum marks gained by the aspirants. The PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Merit List contains the candidates who have scored the highest marks in the written examination. So keep in touch with our webpage to download the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Merit List 2020 depending on the applicant's information. Candidates who have shortlisted in the written examination can move for the next rounds of the selection process.
How to Download PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020?
Go to the official website of Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited @ pgvcl.com.
The Paschim Gujarat Vij Company Limited home page appears on the screen.
Scroll down the page to find the What’s New section.
Candidates can see the What's New section with new updates links.
Now, search for the PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020.
After that, click on the PDF link which is available on the main page.
Finally, download the result and take a soft copy for future reference.
Direct Links to Download PGVCL Vidyut Sahayak Result 2020
NEW DELHI: The government is unlikely to invoke Vodafone Idea's bank guarantees for now, even as the officials of the telecom and finance ministries met Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba to discuss ways to ensure that the sector retains three private players, officials said."First round of meetings happened on Tuesday… Government could consider postponing or staggering other payments due to it, in order to give some flexibility to telcos to cough up money towards AGR (adjusted gross revenue) dues," said an official. "These are just very initial discussions."The official said invoking bank guarantees would be the precursor to termination of telecom licences.Focus on Avoiding Defaults by TelcosAnd the government would take such a step only 'with utmost care', the official added. "Right now, all efforts are in the direction of finding a way out...The government is trying to find ways to ensure no telco defaults on payments." 74200734 He said that the government can't give any tax offset to Vodafone Idea against the AGR dues. This is because the finance ministry holds the view that such offsets can only be given against taxes. Vodafone Idea had requested that an input tax credit of Rs 7,000 crore, which is yet to be refunded, could be adjusted against its AGR dues.Earlier in the day, Vodafone Idea chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla and managing director Ravinder Takkar met Department of Telecommunications (DoT) secretary Anshu Prakash, and discussed the telco's dire situation and ramifications for the industry.The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Vodafone Idea's appeal to direct the DoT not to invoke its bank guarantees for recovering AGR-related dues. The telco's lawyer Mukul Rohatgi had warned that if the bank guarantees were encashed, the company would have to shut down.Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 3.1% lower at Rs 547.75, while those of Vodafone Idea plunged 11.4% to Rs 3.03, on the BSE on Tuesday.The government has again called on the cabinet secretary to chalk out steps to try and ensure no telco shuts down, given the fact that a Vodafone Idea collapse will have wide implications across sectors, jobs, the wider economy and global perception of India.Gauba had late last year led a panel of secretaries which suggested a two-year moratorium on spectrum payments to give relief to the telecom sector. The proposal was accepted by the Cabinet and gave an over Rs42,000-crore cash flow relief to Bharti Airtel (Rs11,746 crore), Reliance Jio (Rs6,670 crore) and Vodafone Idea (Rs23,920 crore).'Scenario Building'Officials said Tuesday's discussions revolved around "scenario building" in the wake of the top court's order on February 14, which slammed the telcos for non-payment by the January 23 deadline, and the DoT for not collecting the dues. The court threatened telcos with contempt of court unless payments were made by the next hearing, which is slated for March 17.While the government has publicly backed a three-private player market, it finds itself in a bind with the apex court's position backing full payment by the telcos. Senior officials say the government is wary of being caught in the crosshairs of the judiciary or a political slugfest if it takes executive action to provide any relief on the AGR dues. Hence, it is looking for workarounds.Bharti Airtel on Monday paid Rs 10,000 crore to the government and said it would pay the balance dues as per its self estimates before March 17. Vodafone Idea paid Rs 2,500 crore on Monday and said it will pay another Rs 1,000 crore by Friday. While the government has estimated Vodafone Idea's AGR dues at Rs 57,000 crore, the telco's own estimates peg the amount at around Rs 23,000 crore.The company's current financial position makes it difficult for it to pay even the lower Rs 23,000 crore amount unless the government provides some relief.Analysts said that a Vodafone Idea collapse could have far-reaching negative impacts on not just the telecom and related sectors, but on banking as well, with ripple effects on the overall economy, due to debt default, lakhs of job losses and some 300 million subscribers being forced to port out."Ironically, the government, despite winning the suit, could see the biggest impact through deferred spectrum debt default of Rs 90,000 crore," Motilal Oswal said in a report.It added that the default could increase India's fiscal deficit by about 40 basis points. It would also hurt India's "perception in the global markets…."Later Tuesday, India Ratings downgraded its rating on ?3,500 crore convertible bonds issued by Vodafone before its merger with Idea Cellular, on account of "severe stress on the company's near-term liquidity post the Supreme Court's ruling on 14 February 2020, which directed the telecom companies (telcos) to pay the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) related liabilities to the government of India by 17 March 2020," Vodafone Idea said in a statement to stock exchanges.
By Shawn Donnan and Jordan FabianPresident Donald Trump cast doubts over the likelihood of an anticipated trade deal with India on Tuesday, just days before a scheduled visit to the South Asian power."Well, we can have a trade deal with India, but I'm really saving the big deal for later on," Trump told reporters as he left the White House for a trip to California.Trump last year kicked India out of a program for developing countries that gave some Indian exports tariff-free access to the U.S. market. Officials from both sides since then have been trying to hammer out a modest agreement, which would open up India to American exports of agricultural products and medical devices in return for a restoration of India's preferential status.People familiar with the negotiations say they had been making progress until recent days, building expectations of an announcement during Trump's Feb. 24-25 visit. But Robert Lighthizer, the U.S. trade representative, canceled a planned visit to the country last week as the talks appeared to stall -- as they had ahead of a visit to the U.S. last year by Narendra Modi, India' prime minister.Trump appeared to confirm that on Tuesday when he told reporters that he still wanted to do "a very big trade deal with India," but added "I don't know if it will be done before the election.""We're not treated very well by India, but I happen to like Prime Minister Modi a lot," he added.The negotiations have centered on U.S. demands for greater access to the Indian market sought by American makers of stents and other medical devices as well as dairy farmers -- two constituencies that were behind the push that led to Trump's decision last year to suspend India's privileges under the Generalized System of Preferences program for developing countries.Alfalfa HayIndia has offered greater market access for American farm products ranging from alfalfa hay to pecans and dried distillers grains. It also has offered to lower the duties on large engine Harley-Davidson Inc. motorcycles, a complaint frequently cited by Trump. In return it has been seeking a restoration of its GSP privileges.But people familiar with the discussions said that the talks had also been complicated by new tariffs introduced by both sides. India announced higher tariffs on medical devices and a range of other products in its Feb. 1 budget, angering the U.S. side. Meanwhile, a move by the Trump administration last month to extend tariffs on steel and aluminum to downstream products annoyed Indian officials.The limited scope of the deal that was taking shape was annoying some in the U.S. business community because big concerns of theirs were not included in the potential agreement, including growing Indian restrictions on the flow of data, according to three people familiar with the plans.A small deal may still come together in the coming days and could serve as a foundation for a more consequential long-term agreement. There are also likely to be consequences, however, if that doesn't happen.Trump's TripIndian media last week quoted Alice Wells, the top U.S. diplomat focused on South Asia, as saying a failure to reach what she described as a "tiny phase one trade deal" with India ahead of Trump's visit would be a "big setback."Alyssa Ayres, who served as deputy assistant secretary of state for South Asia during the Obama administration and is now at the Council on Foreign Relations, said a failure to announce anything on trade during next week's visit by the U.S. president would be an embarrassment for both Trump and Modi.It also, however, would be emblematic of the consequences of Trump's tariff-driven trade policy, she said.Successive U.S. administrations have struggled to get India to remove trade barriers. Trump's tariffs on steel and other Indian exports have changed that conversation, however.The U.S. for years pushed India to open up its economy and would invoke its own openness as an example. But Trump's tariffs provoked India to respond in kind, Ayres said, and undermined the push for greater reforms in an India with volatile domestic politics and a history of politically-driven protectionism."India is a huge market that we were trying to nudge in another direction, and we are not even nudging anymore,'" Ayres said.Nisha Biswal, president of the U.S.-India Business Council, said the fact that the U.S. and India were even having substantive discussions on trade should be seen as encouraging. "When trade becomes consequential, it becomes contentious. And the fact that trade is contentious is not a problem, it is a reflection that both sides see each other as a priority," she said.Biswal also warned, though, that the clock was ticking for the Trump administration's efforts to get India to make meaningful concessions. "My fear is we lose the leverage that we have if we don't get something done," she said.
KOLKATA: Prices of televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators and some smartphone models are set to go up later this month as manufacturers grapple with a shortage of components and finished products imported from Covid-19-hit China.Senior industry executives said companies are cutting down on discounts and promotional offers, which will raise prices 3-5%. For some items such as televisions it could be 7-10%, since the international price of the main component — the TV panel — has already risen 15-20% due to shortages.Apple issued a revised investor guidance late on Monday saying iPhone supplies worldwide will be temporarily constrained, since the company's manufacturing partners in China are ramping up production slower than expected.Manufacturing Hubs ImpactedTwo industry executives said Apple distributors in India have indicated to key trade partners that shortages are already being felt and unlikely to be resolved in the next 30 days. Apple's India production of the iPhone XR and 7 models are not enough to meet local demand, with around 70-75% of the inventory required for the country having to be imported, the executives said. 74200787 The chief of an Apple exclusive retailer said this could eliminate discounts on iPhones sold through ecommerce platforms and stores in the next few days, even though the maximum retail price (MRP) will remain unchanged. "It's due to demand-supply situation," he said. Apple India did not respond to queries.Japanese AC maker Daikin has already informed retailers that the company will be increasing prices 3-5% from February by reducing the sales support amount that's passed on as a discount.Daikin India's MD KJ Jawa said this is due to exchange rate changes, the recent increase in duties on compressors and supplies taking a hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak, not just in China but also in Thailand and Malaysia."Price hike of 3-5% is inevitable. All consignments from China are delayed," said Godrej Appliances business head Kamal Nandi, who's also president of the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) lobby group. When supplies are constrained, discounts and offers are bound to evaporate, he said.In smartphones, a leading retailer said some brands have indicated that discounts and promotions will be squeezed, leading to a price increase on a few models till supplies normalise.The outbreak of the disease has paralysed manufacturing hubs such as Hubei and Shenzhen in China, forcing factories that churn out components and finished products for the global market to sharply curtail output.Industry executives said travel restrictions continue in China, preventing workers from rejoining factories after the prolonged Chinese New Year holiday, with plants in the country operating at 30-60% capacity. Almost three weeks of production has been hit, they said.Some brands said they are seeking deliveries by airfreight rather than by ship to tide over shortages, which will further increase costs and add to the final product price.Industry executives said television prices will go up in March. "We have also stopped all discounts due to the low stock," said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of Super Plastronics, which sells Kodak and Thomson TVs.Great Eastern Retail director Pulkit Baid said, "There are supply side constraints this summer," he said.While Xiaomi last week increased the price of one smartphone model by Rs 500, some brands said they are trying to absorb the impact. Xiaomi said the extended shutdown in China is having an impact on its supply chain and component supplies. The immediate impact is that component prices have risen, making devices costlier.Vivo India will try and absorb the higher costs, said Nipun Marya, director, brand strategy. It has done so in the past amid pressures such as higher duties, inflation and policy changes, he said.Realme said it has no plans to hike prices. Oppo India said it expects production in China will return to normal within the next two weeks. LG and Samsung did not respond to queries.
BEIJING: New virus cases in China continued to fall Wednesday, with 1,749 new infections and 136 new deaths announced after China's leader said disease prevention and control was at ``a critical time.''Japan also confirmed more infections of the new coronavirus on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, bringing the total to 542 people among the 3,700 crew and passengers initially on board. The infections have led to heavy criticism of the decision to quarantine passengers on the vessel. The quarantine ends later Wednesday.The updated figures on the COVID-19 illness for mainland China bring the total for cases to 74,185 and deaths to 2,004. New cases have fallen to under 2,000 daily for the past two days.Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke about the efforts to control the outbreak in a phone call with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson described in state media.Separately, the U.N. secretary general told The Associated Press that the virus outbreak ``is not out of control but it is a very dangerous situation.'' Antonio Guterres said in an interview in Lahore, Pakistan, that ``the risks are enormous and we need to be prepared worldwide for that.''China has locked down several cities in central Hubei province where the outbreak hit hardest, halting nearly all transportation and movement except for the quarantine efforts, medical care and delivery of food and basic necessities.China also may postpone its biggest political meeting of the year, the annual congress due to start in March, to avoid having people travel to Beijing while the virus is still spreading. One of the automotive industry's biggest events, China's biannual auto show, was postponed, and many sports and entertainment events have been delayed or canceled.Many countries set up border screenings and airlines canceled flights to and from China to prevent further spread of the disease, which has been detected in around two dozen countries and caused almost 1,000 confirmed cases outside mainland China. Five deaths have been reported outside the mainland, in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines and France.The largest number of cases outside China is the 542 on the Diamond Princess at a port near Tokyo.The U.S. evacuated more than 300 American passengers, who are now under quarantine in the U.S. On Tuesday, the U.S. government said the more than 100 American passengers who stayed on the ship or were hospitalized in Japan would have to wait for another two weeks before they could return to the U.S.
BENGALURU: US retail giant Walmart on Tuesday reported that ecommerce contributed 12% to its international sales during the quarter ended January 31, led by Flipkart and online grocery delivery in several markets.In its fourth quarter earnings report, the company said that international sales had grown by 2.3% to $33 billion, despite a disruption in Chile that negatively affected operating income by $110 million. "We remain excited about the opportunity we have there (in India). The way Flipkart and PhonePe are scaling is impressive," Doug McMillon, CEO of Walmart, said in his post-earnings presentation to investors and analysts.The company added that Flipkart now had over one billion visitors a month, with monthly active customers growing by 45% in the last one year and transactions per customer increasing by 30% in the same period. Judith McKenna, CEO of Walmart international, told investors, "Flipkart is continuing to grow as Indian customers become more and more comfortable with ecommerce and the access and affordability that it has provided." 74201051 Apart from Flipkart leading international ecommerce sales for Walmart, the company said that the unit had reported record sales during its BigBillionDays sale event last year, without breaking out any specific numbers. However, on a fullyear basis, the Bentonville, Arkansas based company, reported a reduction in free cash flow on account of including a full year of Flipkart's operations, among other factors. Walmart reported that free cash flow was down to $14.5 billion in the year that ended Jan 31, 2020, compared to $17.4 billion in the previous reporting period.
KOLKATA: Prices of televisions, air-conditioners, refrigerators and some smartphone models are set to go up later this month as manufacturers grapple with a shortage of components and finished products imported from Covid-19-hit China.Senior industry executives said companies are cutting down on discounts and promotional offers, which will raise prices 3-5%. For some items such as televisions it could be 7-10%, since the international price of the main component — the TV panel — has already risen 15-20% due to shortages.Apple issued a revised investor guidance late on Monday saying iPhone supplies worldwide will be temporarily constrained, since the company's manufacturing partners in China are ramping up production slower than expected.Manufacturing Hubs ImpactedTwo industry executives said Apple distributors in India have indicated to key trade partners that shortages are already being felt and unlikely to be resolved in the next 30 days. Apple's India production of the iPhone XR and 7 models are not enough to meet local demand, with around 70-75% of the inventory required for the country having to be imported, the executives said. 74200787 The chief of an Apple exclusive retailer said this could eliminate discounts on iPhones sold through ecommerce platforms and stores in the next few days, even though the maximum retail price (MRP) will remain unchanged. "It's due to demand-supply situation," he said. Apple India did not respond to queries.Japanese AC maker Daikin has already informed retailers that the company will be increasing prices 3-5% from February by reducing the sales support amount that's passed on as a discount.Daikin India's MD KJ Jawa said this is due to exchange rate changes, the recent increase in duties on compressors and supplies taking a hit due to the Covid-19 outbreak, not just in China but also in Thailand and Malaysia."Price hike of 3-5% is inevitable. All consignments from China are delayed," said Godrej Appliances business head Kamal Nandi, who's also president of the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association (CEAMA) lobby group. When supplies are constrained, discounts and offers are bound to evaporate, he said.In smartphones, a leading retailer said some brands have indicated that discounts and promotions will be squeezed, leading to a price increase on a few models till supplies normalise.The outbreak of the disease has paralysed manufacturing hubs such as Hubei and Shenzhen in China, forcing factories that churn out components and finished products for the global market to sharply curtail output.Industry executives said travel restrictions continue in China, preventing workers from rejoining factories after the prolonged Chinese New Year holiday, with plants in the country operating at 30-60% capacity. Almost three weeks of production has been hit, they said.Some brands said they are seeking deliveries by airfreight rather than by ship to tide over shortages, which will further increase costs and add to the final product price.Industry executives said television prices will go up in March. "We have also stopped all discounts due to the low stock," said Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO of Super Plastronics, which sells Kodak and Thomson TVs.Great Eastern Retail director Pulkit Baid said, "There are supply side constraints this summer," he said.While Xiaomi last week increased the price of one smartphone model by Rs 500, some brands said they are trying to absorb the impact. Xiaomi said the extended shutdown in China is having an impact on its supply chain and component supplies. The immediate impact is that component prices have risen, making devices costlier.Vivo India will try and absorb the higher costs, said Nipun Marya, director, brand strategy. It has done so in the past amid pressures such as higher duties, inflation and policy changes, he said.Realme said it has no plans to hike prices. Oppo India said it expects production in China will return to normal within the next two weeks. LG and Samsung did not respond to queries.
The put call ratio (PCR) on Nifty active month options declined to 1.02 Tuesday from 1.12 a day earlier as put buyers booked profits. Simultaneously, traders stepped up sales of Nifty calls, indicating that the market bias remains negative within a tight range for the current month despite the index having received strong support at technical level of 11,930.The level of 11,930 was the 50 per cent retracement from the low of 11,614.5 on February 2 to the high of 12,246.7 on February 14. The level acted as a support for the index, which recovered from the day's low of 11,908 to 11,992.5, down 53 points.This would offer some solace to the bulls, but NSE data show that FIIs net shorted a cumulative 99,006 contracts of index futures – Nifty and Bank Nifty – on Tuesday, up from 96,320 contracts a day earlier. They also stepped up cumulative purchases of index puts to 2.16 lakh contracts from 1.96 lakh contracts. In the past two out of three sessions, FIIs net sold shares in cash, which adds to the bearishness.A break below 12,000 could see the index test 11,816 while the cap is at 12,200. 74200872 "The signals are mixed, but there's slightly more likelihood of downside because of uncertainty over coronavirus and the telecom AGR issue, options expiry data indicate," said Rohit Srivastava, founder, IndiaCharts.Other derivatives analysts feel the turnaround from the 50 per cent retracement level indicates that the Nifty could post an immediate bounce before a correction resumes."There is a probability of the Nifty rising Wednesday considering the smart turnaround from the 50 per cent Fibonacci retracement of 11,930," said Rajesh Palviya, derivative head, Axis Securities. "There was long unwinding in index puts and as the market is trading at the lower end of the range there is hope of a bounce."Nifty options expiring on February 27 indicate maximum resistance for the index at 12,200 and strong support at 12,000, followed by 11,800. Currently, the Nifty is poised at the lower end of the range.Option sellers earlier this month sold a straddle – Nifty call and put – at 12,000 strike. The current pricing of the straddle indicates a range of 11,816- 12,184. This means if the market breaks below 12,000 it could slip to 11,816, while resistance kicks in around 12,200.
Oil prices made a sizeable gains last week, posting their best weekly rise for 2020, as easing numbers of new coronavirus cases provided support. China reported its lowest daily number of new cases since late January, which lifted hopes that the fuel demand could recover in parallel with the Chinese economy. Still, international experts remained cautious over when the virus might peak. Opec cut its forecast for global growth in oil demand this year because of the outbreak by 230,000 bpd. IEA, meanwhile, sees a slowdown, cutting first-quarter demand by an expected 435,000 barrels per day and pushing projected growth for the year to the lowest since 2011. From the point of view of the producers, before the Covid-19 crisis the market was expected to move towards balance in the second half of 2020 due to a combination of production cuts implemented at the start of the year, stronger demand and a tailing off of non-Opec supply growth. Now, the risk posed by the virus has prompted the Opec+ countries to consider an additional cut to oil production of 0.6 mbpd as an emergency measure on top of the 1.7 mbpd already pledged. However, their efforts have so far been blocked by Russia and without Moscow's cooperation a price-supportive agreement remains a non-starter. Given that Opec's credibility hinges on Moscow these days, any lack of consensus will weaken market confidence further. The rally in crude futures halted, however, after EIA released weekly US inventories report, which showed a larger-than-expected crude stocks build of 7.5 mbpd last week to 442.5 million barrels. The US fuel stocks data were more bullish, however, which limited the negative impact on prices. US gasoline stocks fell by 0.1 mbpd, while distillate stocks decreased by 2 mbpd. While that might make airplanes cheaper to fill up, lower number of passengers and fewer flights in its wake would again drive consumption lower. Make no mistake, even if the global implications are sidestepped, and only China's possible standalone loss of 3 million bpd or thereabout is countenanced, the global oil market has not seen a demand destruction event of this magnitude moving this quickly. The coronavirus is a major global public health emergency. Its impact is still unfolding globally. There is already a major slowdown in oil consumption and the wider economy in China. While the SARS epidemic of 2003 is widely used as a reference point for analysis of Covid-19, China has changed enormously since then. Today, it is central to global supply chains and there has been an enormous increase in travel to and from the country, thus heightening the risk of the virus spreading. In 2003, China's oil demand was 5.7 mb/d and by 2019 it had more than doubled to 13.7 mb/d (14% of global demand). Moreover, last year China accounted for more than three-quarters of global oil demand growth. At present, at least three Asian oil refiners will take delivery of less Saudi Arabian crude than planned in March as the virus dented demand for fuel and created a glut of alternative supplies. Chinese refiners have reduced the amount of crude they're turning into fuels by about 15 per cent, and may deepen those cuts in the coming weeks. State-owned and private processors have pared back refining by at least 2 mbpd as of last week. As these refiners cut back their runs in a big way, naturally they will have a reduced need for crude oil, and suppliers in Brazil, Russia, and Angola are having to adjust to stay at the top of the pile as the Asian refiners look to take less crude as reported suppliers are now slashing prices for certain grades of crude oil. ConclusionThe Coronavirus epidemic has reached a critical juncture. Steps taken by China over the next few days will decide the fate of the virus and whether it spreads internationally to become a pandemic. The demand destruction has come at a time when the oil market is already on a rocky turf. Oil prices can experience a relief rally this week, as efforts taken by China by providing stimulus and reopening of factories can help bring prices to move higher for a while. But overall, the outlook looks worrisome and not constructive, with expectations that the market will return to surplus over H12020. Wall Street's optimism is premature. Global oil demand growth is still languishing, and the market will be closely watching what Russia does next.
India will have over 907 million internet users by 2023, accounting for 64% of the population, according to Cisco's Annual Internet Report. The report says devices and connections are growing faster (7% CAGR) than the population (1% CAGR) in India, boosting the growth in the average number of devices and connections per household and per capita. There would be 2.1 billion networked devices by 2023 and M2M (machine to machine) modules would account for 25% (524.3 million) of all networked devices, according to the report. 74201084 74201098 74201110
As the Indian economy tries to recover from a slump, a survey conducted across more than a thousand companies spanning over 20 industries has found that two out of five companies are likely to offer double-digit salary hikes in 2020.Aon plc, a leading global professional services firm, today, released the 24th edition of its annual Salary Increase Survey in India.While e-commerce and professional service firms are expected to give a 10 per cent pay hike each in 2020, the transport and logistics sector, at 7.6 per cent, ranks the lowest in projected salary hike for 2020. 74200605 The auto sector, which has been worst hit by the ongoing slump, has reported the biggest drop in average pay hike from 10.1% in 2018 to 8.3% for 2020."Despite economic challenges in 2019, organizations in India are taking a positive view. Pay increases in India continue to be the highest in the region. A big reason for India's higher salary increase, as compared to other growing economies, is the high inflation rate and the war for key talent and niche skills," Tzeitel Fernandes, Partner, Rewards Solutions at Aon, commented. 74200607 According to the survey findings, the average pay hike given by companies in 2020 will be 9.1 per cent, 20 basis points or 0.2 per cent down from 2019 reflecting the weakness in the economy.Navneet Rattan, Director, Organization, Performance and Rewards, Aon India, said, "We see a reduction in the differences between pay increases across industries, with 85% of the organizations projecting between 7%-11% - a sign of maturing business ecosystems. However, the premium for high performance and new age skills continues to rise."THE BAD NEWS At an average 9.1%, hikes in 2020 will be the lowest in a decadeTHE GOOD NEWS 4 in 10 Indian firms may dole out doubledigit increments92% of employers have positive business outlook for coming yearTHE REASONS Low GDP growthPoor business sentiment 74200608 THE LUCKY ONES Pharma, professional services, ecomm/early-stage firms likely to beat the average and offer double-digit hikesEmployees in hitech/IT sector, ITeS, FMCG and chemicals also likely to get better increments (close to 10%)THE NOT-SO-LUCKY Transportation/logistics firms likely to offer lowest increments (7.6%)Hospitality firms/restaurants, real estate, automotive and telecom firms come next (8.2-8.5% hikes) 74200611
Steaming crab legs is a classic way to prepare them, but grilling the legs gives them a great smoky flavor. Instead of preparing a large steam pot, toss crab legs on a hot grill. Since they're already cooked, you simply need to cook the legs until they're hot throughout. If you'd like to add a garlic butter flavor, baste the legs with a simple sauce and heat them in a smoker. Serve the grilled or smoked legs with lemon and plenty of butter.
Thaw the crab for 2 hours or overnight. If you know you'll be grilling the next day, transfer of frozen crab legs to the refrigerator to thaw. For a faster thawing method, put the crab legs in a sealed bag in the sink and cover the bag with cold water. Change the water every 30 minutes until the crab legs have thawed.[5]
It may take 1 to 2 hours before the crab legs defrost in the cold water.
Avoid thawing the crab legs in hot water, as this could cause bacteria to grow.
Heat a gas or charcoal grill to high heat. Turn the burner to high if you're using a gas grill. If you're using a charcoal grill, fill a chimney full of briquettes and light them. Once the briquettes are hot and ashy, dump them in the center of the grill grate.[6]
To determine if the grill is hot enough, hold the palm of your hand over the grate. The grill is ready if you can't hold your hand over the coals for more than 3 seconds.
Arrange the crab legs on the hot grill. Place the thawed crab legs directly over the hot coals. If you're using a gas grill, simply place them on the preheated grill. Ensure that the crab legs are in a single layer. It's fine if the legs are touching or slightly overlapping.[7]
If you want to grill more than of crab legs, you may need to grill them in batches.
Grill the crab legs for 4 to 8 minutes. Put the lid on the grill and leave the crab to cook. Use long-handled tongs to turn the legs every 2 minutes so they heat evenly. Individual legs will finish cooking after about 4 minutes. If you're cooking legs that are still attached to the bodies, they'll need closer to 8 minutes.[8]
The shells should become charred once they've finished grilling.
Keep in mind that the crab legs have already been cooked so you're just warming them up. Avoid overcooking them or they'll dry out.
Remove the crab and serve it immediately. Because the crab will keep cooking even once you take it off of the grill, avoid cooking it for more than 8 minutes. Place the grilled crab legs on a serving platter and set it out with lemon wedges and clarified butter.[9]
To store leftover grilled crab, wrap the legs in foil or put them in an airtight container. Refrigerate them for up to 3 to 5 days.
Stir together ingredients for a classic cocktail sauce. Put the ketchup, horseradish, hot sauce, lemon juice, and ground pepper into a bowl. Stir the sauce until the mixture is combined. Then cover and refrigerate the cocktail sauce for 1 hour before you serve it with the crab.
Consider using sriracha, tobasco, or cholula hot sauce.
Heat a garlic butter dipping sauce. Place the butter and garlic cloves in a small saucepan. Turn the burner to medium-low and heat the butter for 3 to 5 minutes so the butter solids sink to the bottom of the pan. Strain the garlic out of the sauce and serve the clarified butter immediately.
Keep an eye on the butter as it heats so the solids don't begin to burn.
Blend an avocado wasabi dipping sauce. Scoop half of a ripe avocado into a blender and add the wasabi, a pinch of salt, and the mayonnaise. Put the lid on the blender and pulse the ingredients until they're creamy and smooth. Serve the sauce with the crab.
If you don't have a blender, you can use a food processor.
Mix a quick Ponzu sauce. For an Asian inspired dipping sauce, put the soy sauce, bonito flakes, lemon juice, lime juice, mirin, rice vinegar, and piece of kombu into a saucepan. Turn the burner to high so the ingredients come to a boil. Turn off the burner and leave the sauce for 30 minutes. Pour the sauce through a fine mesh strainer and finish cooling the sauce before you serve it with the crab.
Heat the smoker to . If you're using a gas or electric smoker, turn it on and place a handful of wood chips to the smoker box in the smoker. If you're using a charcoal grill, scatter hot briquettes and wood chips along the sides of the grill. Then place a disposable aluminum pan full of water in the center.[10]
The water will create steam as the grill heats.
Arrange the crab legs in a roasting pan. Get out a disposable aluminum pan and place the thawed crab legs in it. If the crab legs are longer than the pan, use a heavy knife to cut the legs at the joints.[11]
To thaw crab legs that are frozen, put them in the refrigerator the night before you plan to grill or put them in a bag and cover them with cold water for a few hours.
You can also try twisting the joints to make the legs shorter.
Pour butter, lemon, seasoning, and garlic over the legs. Mix 1 cup (226 g) of melted butter, of lemon juice, (8 g) of cajun or Old Bay seasoning, and 2 cloves of minced garlic in a small bowl. Pour the mixture over the legs in the roasting pan.[12]
Turn the legs over once so both sides are covered with the mixture.
Put the crab legs in the smoker and heat them for 20 to 30 minutes. Place the pan of crab legs directly into the hot smoker. Close the smoker and leave the crab legs to heat up. Open the smoker 1 to 2 times as the crab legs smoke and baste the legs with the butter mixture.[13]
To test the crab, remove 1 leg and crack it open. The meat should be completely hot throughout.
Serve the smoked crab legs. Carefully lift the roasting pan full of crab legs out of the smoker. Let your guests help themselves to the crab legs or lift the legs out of the roasting pan and transfer them to a serving platter. Spoon the sauce into a serving bowl and set it alongside the crab legs.[14]
Refrigerate leftover crab legs in an airtight container for up to 3 to 5 days. Keep in mind that the garlic butter flavor will intensify as the crab legs are stored.
If you're using live crabs, submerge them in hot water for about 1 minute to stun them. Then tear off the top shell and remove the gills, lungs, and innards. Then you can toss the crabs on the grill. Add 2 minutes to the grilling time so the crab meat cooks completely.
Prevention is the best defense against a cold, but sometimes, despite your best efforts, you still get sick. That is because the cold virus can live up to 18 hours on unwashed surfaces while it looks for a host. The cold enters through your mouth, nose, or eyes and is thus commonly spread through talking, coughing, and sneezing. While you might not be able to completely cure your cold, there are some things you can do to alleviate your symptoms and speed up your recovery, including washing your hands as frequently as possible.
Gargle with salt water if you have a sore throat. Gargling with salt water can help reduce inflammation in your throat and flush out mucus. To gargle salt water, stir of salt into a glass of warm water and gargle some of it for 30 seconds. Then, spit it out, making an effort to swallow as little as possible.
Repeat this throughout the day whenever your throat is hurting.[1]
Take a hot shower to help with nasal congestion. Feeling stuffy and congested can make a cold feel a lot worse. To get rid of that stuffy feeling, hop in the shower and stay in there for longer than usual so some steam has time to build up. The steam from the shower should help temporarily alleviate your congestion.
Use a saline nasal spray if you're still feeling stuffy. Saline nasal sprays are saltwater sprays that you flush your nose with to decongest it. Use the saline nasal spray to prevent mucus from building up and clogging your nose. It will also provide an instant feeling of relief.[2]
Keep using the nasal spray every day until you feel better.
Turn on a humidifier to keep the air around you moist. Moisture in the air can help loosen the mucus in your nose and throat so you don't feel as congested. Put a humidifier in your bedroom so the air is moist while you sleep, and keep one in other rooms you'll be spending a lot of time in.[3]
Be sure to change the humidifier filter frequently, as unclean filters can lead to additional breathing and lung problems. Look at your specific humidifier's instruction manual to get an idea of how often the filter should be changed.
Drink 8 glasses of water every day to stay hydrated. Dehydration can make a cold even worse, so it's important that you drink 8 glasses of water every day. Drinking more fluids will also help loosen mucus in your nose and throat so you feel less congested.[4]
Don't drink alcohol, coffee, or caffeinated soda or you could become more dehydrated.
Eat 4-5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day to help your immune system. If you're not getting the nutrients your body needs to be healthy, you'll have a harder time fighting off a cold. Eating more fruits and vegetables is an easy way to get the nutrients your immune system needs to function.[5]
Try eating a salad with a couple servings of fruit every day.
Some studies suggest that garlic and citrus fruits can shorten the length of a cold and make it less severe.[6]
Get at least 8 hours of sleep every night. Your body is hard at work fighting off infection when you're asleep, so it's important that you rest as much as possible so it can fight your cold. Try to go to sleep earlier than usual and take a nap during the day if you can. The more rest you get, the better your chances will be of a speedy recovery.[7]
Take off school or work if possible. Getting lots of rest and drinking plenty of fluids can be tough if you're at school or work all day. If you're able to, stay home so you can focus on recovering so your cold doesn't get worse.[8]
If you decide to take the day off from work, reach out to your boss over the phone or by email as soon as possible. Let them know you're too sick to come in and apologize for the inconvenience.
If your boss seems hesitant about letting you take the day off, ask if you can work from home for the day instead.
Take acetaminophen or an NSAID if you have a sore throat, headache, or fever. Acetaminophen and NSAIDs are both pain relievers that can help relieve the symptoms of your cold. Follow the dosage instructions on the packaging and don't take more than the 24 hour dosage limit.[9]
While acetaminophen and NSAIDs won't stop your cold, they can make it more manageable while you focus on recovering.
Common NSAIDs you can take are ibuprofen, aspirin, and naproxen.
Both DayQuil and NyQuil contain acetaminophen.
Try an antihistamine or decongestant to help with coughing and congestion. Over-the-counter antihistamines and decongestants can help clear up your throat and nose and alleviate your coughing. Always read the packaging for usage instructions and avoid mixing multiple medications or you could overdose.[10]
Never give antihistamines or decongestants to children under 5.
Exercise caution before taking over-the-counter cold medicine if you have high blood pressure, glaucoma, or kidney issues. Always read the labels first, and consult your doctor before starting any new medicine.
Give vitamin C or echinacea supplements a try to shorten your cold. While the evidence is unclear, some studies suggest that vitamin C and echinacea can help lessen the severity of a cold. Since these supplements aren't harmful, you may want to give them a try and see if they help stop or shorten your cold.[11]
Powdered vitamin C supplements like Emergen-C may also help shorten the duration of your cold.
Read about potential interactions and side effects as printed on the label of the supplement before you start taking it. If you have any pre-exisiting medical conditions, talk to your doctor before starting a new vitamin or herbal treatment.
Hummingbirds are beautiful animals, and many amateur photographers spend weeks trying to get a good photo of one. However, the birds fly very fast and rarely stay still long enough to be photographed, making it difficult to get a good image. If you're trying to get a non-blurry, well-focused shot of a hummingbird, the first thing you need to do is to create a setting where you can successfully photograph the hummingbirds. With a few camera adjustments and setup tips, you'll be well on your way to taking a hummingbird photo that's worth framing.
Set up a hummingbird feeder near your home. Hummingbirds are drawn to the brightly-colored feeders and sweet liquid inside, so if you hang one near your home in the warm summer months, you'll soon have a handful of birds coming by to eat every day. Position the feeder in a location where you can see it easily (e.g., in front of a kitchen window) so you'll know when the birds are coming by to eat. Then, grab your camera![1]
If you happen to have more than 1 feeder already in place, take 1 down. You should only have 1 feeder hanging, so that all of the birds congregate in a single location.
Sit or stand near the feeder so the birds acclimate to your presence. Hummingbirds are skittish and easily frightened off by humans walking around. In order to let the birds get used to you being nearby, sit or stand between away from the feeder. Photographing hummingbirds takes patience. Plan to sit still (though not completely motionless) for at least 15–30 minutes before the birds are comfortable enough to start feeding.[2]
If it's a sunny day and you don't have other plans, you could even take a lawn chair out to the hummingbird feeder! You may need to spend several hours around the feeder anyway, waiting for the birds to arrive and taking various photos before you get a great one.
Remove the feeder's perches and tape shut all but 1 of the holes. Since you most likely want to photograph the hummingbirds in flight, take off the feeder's perches so the birds will have to hover while they're feeding. Then, tear off 3 or 4 strips of scotch tape and use them to cover the feeder's holes, leaving only 1 open. This will ensure that the birds all feed at the exact same location, making it easier to set up your camera to take high-quality photos.
With the perches removed and most of the holes blocked, you know where the bird will be and it will be much easier to position your shot.
Set up your tripod about away from the feeder. This is a great distance from which to shoot hummingbirds. Being a little farther than from the birds will allow you to compose the shots as you like. The distance will also let you focus on the bird without the background of the photograph overwhelming the subject.[3]
If your particular setup doesn't allow you to situate the tripod this far from the feeder, don't worry. You can always zoom out more with your lens if you're closer, or crop out blank space around the bird if you're too far away.
Use a telephoto lens if you're shooting from farther away. If you had to set up your tripod much farther than from the hummingbird feeder, you'll need to use a lens with a zoom capacity. Otherwise, if your tripod happens to be positioned closer to the feeder, using a regular 35 mm lens will be fine. If your camera doesn't already have a good-quality lens, you can purchase one at a photography store.[4]
Telephoto lenses also have another perk: in letting you shoot from farther away, they lower the likelihood that you'll spook the birds when you start snapping pictures.
More experienced photographers may even choose to use a wide-angle or fisheye lens and position the tripod only about away from the birds. Since this would put you extremely close to the birds, you'd need to trigger the camera shutter remotely.
Set up 3–4 flashes around the birdfeeder to light the hummingbirds. Flashes are small electric bulbs that will provide a burst of light when you click the camera's shutter button. Position your flashes so they're only away from the birdfeeder, and set them to low power. You only want each flash to be at about 1/16 of its full strength so that the flashes don't over-expose the birds' colorful bodies. Depending on the height of your birdfeeder, you may need to set up the flashes on their own small tripods. Lighting the scene with flashes will ensure that you have consistently good lighting regardless of the time of day you're shooting at.[5]
In most cases, if you're shooting during the daylight hours, hummingbirds shouldn't be scared off by flashes.
This step is technically optional. If you prefer to work without flashes, or if you're shooting in an area with bright, indirect sunlight, you may not need a flash at all.
Choose an ISO around 400 or 800 to get crisp, detailed photos. If you're using a digital SLR, simply adjust the ISO setting on your camera to 400 or 800. 400 is a relatively slow film speed, so make sure you're shooting in bright sunlight or else the pictures may come out underexposed.[6]
If you're shooting with film, you can purchase rolls of 400 or 800 ISO film at a photography outlet store.
If you're shooting with a slow film speed in low-light conditions, you'll need to shoot with a flash to avoid taking dark photos.
Turn on your lens's autofocus feature for quicker focus. Nearly all SLR digital and film cameras have an autofocus feature that continually focuses the lens on whatever object is in the center of the viewfinder. Hummingbirds will be flying much too fast for you to try to manually focus your lens on them, and using the autofocus will let you focus on timing and composing the shot.[7]
If you're using a cheaper non-SLR camera, you can typically engage the autofocus feature by pressing the shutter button halfway down.
Set your shutter speed to at least 1/800 of a second. In order to freeze the lightning-quick wings of a hummingbird mid-flap, you'll need to use a very fast shutter speed. If you use too slow of a speed, you'll notice that the birds' wings are blurry and hard to see. In some cases, to avoid blurry wings on a fast-flying hummingbird, you'll need to use a shutter speed of at least 1/2500 of a second to freeze the birds in motion.[8]
Depending on the aesthetic of the photo you're trying to take, you may actually want the bird's wings to look blurry. In this case, use a slightly slower shutter speed to capture the wings' motion.
Try a handful of different shutter speeds to see what works best. You could shoot 50 pictures at 1 shutter speed, then adjust it and shoot 50 more.
Use a wide aperture around f/4 to adequately expose the photographs. Since you're using such a short shutter speed, you'll need to use a wide-open aperture setting to ensure that enough light gets into the camera. Manually set the aperture to f/1.4, f/4, or f/5 to prevent the shots from being dim and poorly lit. [9]
Using a fast shutter speed and a wide aperture means that you'll have a low depth of field, so the scenery behind the hummingbird will likely be out of focus.
On some SLC cameras, the aperture is referred to as the f-stop. These terms mean the same thing.
Snap 200–300 photos to ensure that you get a good one. The majority of the shots you take will, unfortunately, not be great. The bird will be out of focus or poorly exposed, the shot will be poorly composed, or the lighting will be off. To avoid ending the photo session empty-handed, take hundreds of photos of the birds. This will dramatically improve your chances of having 1 or 2 great photos you can be proud of. If you have a digital SLR camera, you could also try engaging the function that lets you take 3-5 photos in rapid succession.[10]
You could also try shooting a video of a hummingbird feeding and then select the best still video frame.
If you're shooting with a digital camera, just make sure that you've cleared off enough memory on the device that you can fit hundreds of new photos.
If you're shooting with film, be prepared to burn through 6–8 rolls.
Hummingbirds only live in the western hemisphere. While Central America—and especially Costa Rica—is especially rich in hummingbirds, you can spot them throughout North and South America as well.[11]
If you're concerned about jiggling the camera when you push down the shutter button, you could invest in a remote shutter button. These allow you to stand away from the camera and trigger the shutter remotely, without pushing on the physical button.
You might also try taking your tripod and camera to a nearby botanical garden and setting yourself up near a particularly bright flower display. However, since individual flowers each hold relatively little nectar, the birds won't hover in 1 place for long.
We all know the cloud infrastructure market is extremely lucrative; analyst firm Canalys reports that the sector reached $30.2 billion in revenue for Q4 2019.
Cloud numbers are hard to parse because companies often lump cloud revenue into a single bucket regardless of whether it’s generated by infrastructure or software. What’s interesting about Canalys’s numbers is that it attempts to measure the pure infrastructure results themselves without other cloud incomes mixed in:
As an example, Microsoft reported $12.5 billion in total combined cloud revenue for the quarter, but Canalys estimates that just $5.3 billion comes from infrastructure (Azure). Amazon has the purest number with $9.8 billion of a reported $9.95 billion attributed to its infrastructure business. This helps you understand why in spite of the fact that Microsoft reported bigger overall cloud earnings numbers and a higher growth rate, Amazon still has just less than double Microsoft’s market share in terms of IaaS spend.
That’s not to say Microsoft didn’t still have a good quarter — it garnered 17.6% of revenue for the period. That’s up from 14.5% in the same quarter a year ago. What’s more, Amazon lost a bit of ground, according to Canalys, dropping from 33.4% in Q4 2018 to 32.4% in the most recent quarter.
Part of the reason for that is because Microsoft is growing at close to twice the rate as Amazon — 62.3% versus Amazon’s 33.2%.
Meanwhile, number-three vendor Google came in at $1.8 billion for pure infrastructure revenue, good for 6% of the market, up from 4.9% a year ago on growth rate 67.6%. Google reported $2.61 billion in overall cloud revenue, but that included software. Despite the smaller results, it was a good quarter for the Mountain View-based company.
Alphabet today announced that it is calling it quits on its efforts to build and monetize its Makani wind energy kites. Makani, which was founded in 2006, came into Google/Alphabet seven years ago as a Google X project. Last year, the company spun it out of X and made it a standalone Alphabet unit. Now, Makani’s time at Alphabet as an “Other Bet” is at an end. The company is still hoping to work with Shell, one of its earliest partners, to see how the technology can be used in another way, though.
“After considering many factors, I believe that the road to commercial viability is a much longer and riskier road than we'd hoped and that it no longer makes sense for Makani to be an Alphabet company,” says Astro Teller, captain of Moonshots at X and xhairman of the Makani board, in a statement. Teller, it’s worth noting, does not oversee Alphabet’s Other Bets.
“While it's tempting to say that all climate-related ideas deserve investment, remaining clear-eyed and directing resources to the opportunities where we think we can have the greatest impact isn't just good business; it's essential when it comes to a problem as urgent as the climate crisis,” Teller added.
While at X/Alphabet, the team managed to get a 20kW demonstration project off the ground and expanded this to a unit capable of producing up to 600kW. Still, though, Alphabet clearly didn’t see a path forward to turning Makani into a viable (and profitable) project in the long run.
“Creating an entirely new kind of wind energy technology means facing business challenges as well as engineering challenges,” writes Fort Felker, who became the lead for Makani at X in 2015. “Despite strong technical progress, the road to commercialization is longer and riskier than hoped, so from today Makani's time at Alphabet is coming to an end.”
Back in the day, when it first acquired Makani, Google probably wouldn’t have worried all that much about whether this project made good business sense. Those freewheeling times at Google are behind us, though, and, at this point, there is an expectation that even these forward-looking Other Bets have to become standalone businesses in the long run.
Meal kit company Blue Apron has long been on the struggle bus — whether it’s been its lackluster debut on the public market, employee lawsuits or layoffs. So, it should come as no surprise that the company is considering selling itself in order to maximize value for shareholders.
In addition to a potential sale, Blue Apron is exploring a merger, raising capital through either the public or private markets, selling off assets or some combination of the above.
"We continue to believe that we have the right strategy to drive our resumption of growth as we work to launch additional new capabilities and test new product offerings," Blue Apron CEO Linda Findley Kozlowski said in a press release. “Our strategic alternatives process, together with our cost optimization initiatives, is intended to best position the company for the future, including to support our growth strategy. These efforts reflect the commitment of the Board, management and myself to doing what's in the best interest of the business, Blue Apron's shareholders and other stakeholders.”
In Q4 2019, Blue Apron reported a net revenue decrease of 33% year-over-year, to $94.3 million. For the full fiscal year of 2019, revenues decreased 32%, to $454.9 million from $667.6 million the year prior. Blue Apron attributes this to a decline in customers.
Is “Twitter Stories” on the way? Or will we just get tools to send prettier tweets? Well now Twitter has the talent for both as it’s just acquired Chroma Labs. Co-founded by Instagram Boomerang inventor John Barnett, Chroma Labs’ Chroma Stories app let you fill in stylish layout templates and frames for posting collages and more to Instagram Stories, Snapchat, and more.
Rather than keeping Chroma Stories around, Twitter will be splitting the Chroma Labs squad up to work on its product, design and engineering teams. The Chroma Stories iPhone app won’t be shut down, but it won’t get more updates and will only work until there’s some breaking change to iOS.
“When we founded Chroma Labs in 2018, we set out to build a company to inspire creativity and help people tell their visual stories. During the past year, we've enabled creators and businesses around the world to create millions of stories with the Chroma Stories app” the Chroma Labs team writes on its site. “We're proud of this work, and look forward to continuing our mission at a larger scale – with one of the most important services in the world.”
We’ve reached out to Twitter for more details on the deal and any price paid. [Update: Twitter confirms this is an acquisition, not just and acquihire of the team as it first appeared, though Chroma Stories is shutting down. It refused to disclose the terms of the acquisition, but said all seven employees of Chroma Labs are coming aboard. The team will be working on the Conversations division at Twitter, and the deal is meant to boost its talent, leadership, and expertise for serving public discussions.
Founded in late 2018, Chroma Labs had raised a seed round in early 2019 and counted Sweet Capital, Index Ventures, and Combine VC as investors. Barnett’s fellow co-founders include CTO Alex Li, who was an engineering manager on Facebook Photos and Instagram Stories; and Joshua Harris was a product design manager on the Oculus Rift and Facebook’s augmented reality filters.
With Chroma Stories, you could choose between retro filters, holiday themed frames, and snazzy collage templates to make your Storie look special amidst the millions posted each day. Sensor Tower estimates Chroma Stories had 37,000 downloads to date. That tepid reception despite the app’s quality might explain why the team is joining Twitter.
By snatching up some of the smartest talent in visual storytelling, Twitter could give its text-focused app some spice. It’s one of the few social apps without a Stories product already, and its creative tools are quite limited. Better ways to lay out photos in tweets could make Twitter more beautiful and less exhausting to sift through. That might make it more appealing to teens and help it boost its user count, which now lags behind Snapchat.
Twitter has become the world’s public record for words. The Chroma Labs talent might make it the real-time gallery for art and design as well.
[Update 3:05pm Pacific: Twitter confirms that this is a full acquisition of the Chroma Labs company, not just an acquisition as we originally printed.]
Full disclosure one: I've hosted a lot of independent podcasts, with varying degrees of success.
Full disclosure two: This story is being hosted on a site owned by a corporate media giant. There's even some chance that, by the time it's published, the decision will be made to host it behind a paywall. The fact is, I've worked for a lot of big media companies throughout my professional career. It's honestly the one way I've been able to make a consistent living as a professional writer living in New York City.
Independence is precisely what drew me to podcasting in the first place. Years of scraping together a living in editorial, I'd felt far removed from what drew me to writing and interviewing. Struggling in the industry involves a lot of writing things for other people, and those things you do write that you genuinely care about are, at best, heavily edited and often truncated (I'm old enough to remember when column space was still a thing).
I became nostalgic for my college days (as one days) as manager of KZSC, Santa Cruz's legendary public radio station. I would spend hours hosting shows on weekends and come in late at night to spin records after our daily broadcasting obligations were done.
Toward the end of my time at the station (and college, generally), a fellow host and I were offered the opportunity to intern at a local radio station. A music director gave us a tour of an office space that housed several local stations, segmented into what looked like conference rooms, where hosts would spend a few hours prerecording spots for the week. A conversation around how the station determined its playlists left me with a similar sense of existential dread.
The situation was enough to end my career in radio before it started. Between publishing and radio, I guess I've always had a bit of a thing for dying mediums. But this was a bridge too far. I have a very vivid memory of standing in the station's parking lot and remarking to my friend, "I guess that's it for our careers in radio." He nodded and we were on our way.
But podcasting felt hopeful. Like blogging before it, it presented a rare opportunity to embrace a medium in its relative infancy. That brief, hopeful period before the corporate interests utterly decimated the landscape as they inevitably do. I reached out to friend and former KZSC colleague, Jesse Thorn, who'd built his own mini-podcasting empire in the years since college.
I visit his home in Los Angeles, a room of which he'd turned into a podcasting studio (it has since moved to an official Maximum Fun office overlooking MacArthur Park near downtown Los Angeles). He'd also assisted in helping set up a veteran comedian named Marc Maron flirt with the world of podcasting — not sure if that guy's show ever got off the ground.
My own ambitions — at least from a technological standpoint — were more grounded. When I started my most recent podcast, RiYL, five-plus years ago, I was working as a freelancer. I needed something mobile that I could could take to interview subjects wherever they were. The equipment has been refined somewhat, over the years, but the gear still fits into a laptop sleeve for maximum portability. Spoiler alert: Next week's interview with New Pornographers frontman Carl Newman was quite literally recorded in a bathroom.
That broad spectrum of experience levels was precisely what made podcasting so appealing to so many. It felt like the promise of the internet fulfilled. You knew it would be hard — some combination of talent and timing and luck — but you could convince yourself that, if the stars aligned correctly, your shoestring show could make it to the top of the charts.
The unfiltered nature of it all was also immensely appealing to someone who grew up obsessed with self-produced punk and self-published zines. Those were always the names I wanted to get on my show and record for posterity. And every interview could be as long or as short as was warranted. Every medium inherits some parameters from its predecessors, but it truly breaks away when it grows beyond that. For that reason, I made a point producing a show made up exclusively of five-minute episodes and another that routinely passed the hour-long mark.
The medium is the message, and all that good stuff.
Late last year, I wrote a piece for TechCrunch titled "2019: the year podcasting broke." It was, as I explained, a somewhat tongue-in-cheek homage to the documentary "1991: The Year Punk Broke," which chronicled the mainstreaming of a once explicitly pop-cultural phenomenon. The early ’90s notions of co-opting punk seems fairly quaint in hindsight.
Similarly, 2019 feels like the tip of the spear for corporate investment in podcasting. Spotify's planned spending of between $400 million and $500 million is jaw-dropping, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to other mediums. Corporations are going to go big on podcasting, easily one of the most intimate mediums with one of the most highly engaged audiences. Listening to a bunch of strangers talk about history or music or sports for an hour-plus gets into your brain in ways it's hard to explain.
With corporate involvement in podcasting come things like exclusives — company-produced programs that only exist on specific paid services (yes, I'm fully aware that I'm writing this on a site that recently launched a premium content tier, but we all need to monetize in the way we see fit). But the truth is the same with podcasters as it is with creatives in virtually ever medium: The people making the thing generally want as many people to engage with it as possible.
But the lure of a living wage is a powerful one. And making a living doing what you love almost invariably involves compromise at some level. I, for one, know that I'm incredibly lucky to have survived for as long as I have as a professional writer, living in one of the world's most expensive cities. And yes, it's a career that has included plenty of compromises — some I feel better about than others.
I also have plenty of friends who haven't been so lucky — artists, writers, cartoonists and musicians who make wonderful art that I love that they simply can't survive on. Welcome to capitalism, friends. It's a real mixed bag.
The answer is the same as ever, though. If you like a thing, support it. And thankfully, doing as such is easier than ever. Whether it's a network with a public radio-style fund drive like Maximum Fun or a Patreon-backed program like The Best Show. Support could mean buying a boxed mattress using their special coupon code at checkout or, for those fellow artists, just rating and reviewing or telling a friend.
I do believe the spike in podcast popularity will be good for its myriad providers in many ways. The rising tide and all of that good stuff. But I do worry that many of its most unique independent voices will get bulldozed as big companies rush to construct skyscrapers. It's our job as listeners, fans and podcasters to make sure those voices aren't drowned out.
Local authorities in India-controlled Kashmir have opened a case against hundreds of people who used virtual private networks (VPNs) to circumvent a social media ban in the disputed Himalayan region in a move that has been denounced by human rights and privacy activists.
Tahir Ashraf, who heads the police cyber division in Srinagar, said on Tuesday that the authority had identified and was probing hundreds of suspected users who he alleged misused social media to promote "unlawful activities and secessionist ideology."
On Monday, the police said they had also seized "a lot of incriminating material" under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), the nation's principal counter-terrorism law. Those found guilty could be jailed up to seven years.
“Taking a serious note of misuse of social media, there have been continuous reports of misuse of social media sites by the miscreants to propagate the secessionist ideology and to promote unlawful activities,” the region’s police said in a statement.
The move comes weeks after the Indian government restored access to several hundred websites, including some shopping websites such as Amazon India and Flipkart and select news outlets. Facebook, Twitter and other social media services remain blocked, and mobile data speeds remain capped at 2G speeds.
One analysis found that 126 of 301 websites that had been unblocked were only usable to “some degree.” To bypass the censorship on social media and access news websites, many in the disputed region, home to more than 7 million people, began using VPN services.
"The Government of India has almost total control over what information is coming out of the region," said Avinash Kumar, executive director of human rights campaign group Amnesty International India.
"While the Government has a duty and responsibility to maintain law and order in the state, filing cases under counter-terrorism laws such as UAPA over vague and generic allegations and blocking social media sites – is not the solution. The Indian government needs to put humanity first and let the people of Kashmir speak," he urged the government.
Mishi Choudhary, executive director of New Delhi-based Software Law and Freedom Centre, said that the authority did not need to chase people who are using VPNs, and should restore internet access like any other democratic society.
"Any alleged rumors can be addressed by putting out accurate and more information through the same social media platforms. Content-based restrictions on speech can only be allowed within the restrictions established by the Constitution and not in an ad hoc manner," she said.
First, it was an understandably nervous ZTE. As a Chinese company, it was undoubtedly going to receive extra scrutiny — never mind that ZTE's Shenzhen headquarters are a two-hour flight from Wuhan. Soon enough, South Korea's LG backed out, followed by Nvidia and Ericsson.
By the weekend, as deaths from the coronavirus rose to more than 800 (surpassing SARS in the process), event organizers GSMA put strict guidelines in place for approximately 100,000 expected attendees:
No travelers from the Hubei province would be permitted access.
Attendees were required to prove that they were outside China for 14 days prior to the event (passport stamp, health certificate).
Temperature screening was to be implemented.
Attendees needed to self-certify they had not been in contact with anyone infected.
Ultimately, it was too late. Soon enough, Amazon was out and the list ballooned to dozens of companies, including AT&T, Intel, Nokia, Sony and Vodafone. Each offered a similar boilerplate response, noting the cost-benefit analysis for sending staff to a large international show amid concerns of a global epidemic.
PCMag's Sascha Segan wrote a piece worth reading on "snowballing hysteria" around a trade show killed in a country that only had two reported cases at the time of cancellation. It's a valid point, though speaking purely pragmatically, I can understand why companies felt obligated to back out.
If you want to give them the benefit of the doubt, there are some valid concerns about sending employees into the petri dish of colds and flus that is basically every trade show, coupled with the novelty of a new and still not completely understood virus. It can be difficult to balance concerns for employee safety with the need to resist panicking over media reports that tend to overemphasize threats.
Over the past four years, TechCrunch has brought together some of the biggest names in robotics — founders, CEOs, VCs and researchers — for TC Sessions: Robotics + AI. The show has provided a unique opportunity to explore the future and present of robotics, AI and the automation technologies that will define our professional and personal lives.
While the panels have been curated and hosted by our editorial staff, we’ve also long been interested in providing show-goers an opportunity to engage with guests. For this reason, we introduced the Q&A stage, where some of the biggest names can more directly engage with attendees.
This year, we’ve got top names from SoftBank, Samsung, Sony’s Innovation Fund, Qualcomm, Nvidia and more joining us on the stage to answer questions. Here’s the full agenda of this year’s Q&A stage:
11:30 – 12:00 Russell Book signing Stuart Russell
12:15 – 1:00 Corporate VC, Partnering and Acquisitions Carlos Kocher (Qualcomm) /> Kass Dawson (SoftBank) Gen Tsuchikawa (Sony Innovation Fund)
3:15 – 4:00 Building Robotics Platforms Steven Macenski (Samsung) Claire Delaunay (Nvidia)
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Patreon, a platform for creators to earn monetary support from fans, is busting out the checkbook. The startup isn’t playing VC quite yet with newly launched Patreon Capital, but they are hocking non-equity cash advances (loans!) for Patreon customers in need of some extra cash for big creative rollouts. Patreon has already made about a dozen of these micro-loans to creators, Hot Pod reports.
Patreon, which has raised $165 million, seems unlikely to massively overhaul its fee structure for its existing user base given the pushback, so its best option forward appears to be leveraging its customer network to sell auxiliary services. A lending arm makes a lot of sense.
For ambitious creators, it’s one more service to entice them to building out their subscriber network through Patreon. For Patreon, it could also be a way to hold onto successful creators that might be tempted to venture out on their own. Plenty of creator efforts aren’t ever going to be capable of delivering venture-sized returns, but these small entities can repay a loan — the issue is obviously landing one.
Patreon has access to data on up-and-comers that it likely feels is too good not to make use of. While betting on influencers likely isn’t worth the headaches for YouTube or Facebook, it’s easy to see why this might be an interesting proposition for startups that can support customers on their platform while also landing returns.
Terms appear to be structured around boosting revenue split fees for Patreon earn-outs, though we don’t know exactly what kind of returns Patreon is aiming to earn from these cash advances.
Patreon provided the team with a cash advance of around $75,000 to cover the production budget for the series, with the expectation for Multitude to pay back a slightly greater sum from Next Stop's Patreon earnings over the next two years. (Neither party disclosed the exact figure that Multitude needed to funnel back.) As a matter of risk mitigation, the Patreon revenues of another Multitude show, Join the Party, will be taken as collateral if Next Stop isn't able to generate enough return to fully pay Patreon back after the two year period.
A new startup called Arize AI is building what it calls a real-time analytics platform for “observability” in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The company is led by CEO Jason Lopatecki, who has also served as chief strategy officer and chief innovation officer at TubeMogul, the video ad company acquired by Adobe. TubeMogul’s co-founder and former CEO Brett Wilson is an investor and board member.
While Arize AI is only coming out of stealth today, it has already raised $4 million in funding led by Foundation Capital, with participation from Wilson and Trinity Ventures.
And it has already made an acquisition: a Y Combinator -backed startup called Monitor ML. The entire Monitor ML team is joining Arize, and its CEO Aparna Dhinakaran (who previously built machine learning infrastructure at Uber) is becoming Arize’s co-founder and chief product officer.
Lopatecki and Dhinakaran said that even when they were leading two separate startups, they were trying to solve similar problems — problems that they both saw at big companies.
“Businesses are deploying these complex models that are hard to understand, they're not easy to troubleshoot or debug,” Lopatecki said. So if an AI or ML model isn’t delivering the desired results, “The state of the art today is: You file a ticket, the data scientist comes back with a complicated answer, everyone's scratching their head, everyone hopes the problem's gone away. As you push more and more models into the organization, that’s just not good enough.”
Similarly Dhinakaran said that at Uber, she saw her team spend a lot of time “answering the question, ‘Hey, is the model performing well?’ And diving into that model performance was really a tough problem.”
To solve it, she said, “The first phase is: How can we make it easier to get these real-time analytics and insights about your model straight to the people who are monitoring it in production, the data scientist or the product manager or engineering team?”
Lopatecki added that Arize AI is providing more than just “a metric that says it's good or bad,” but rather a wide range of information that can help teams see how a model is performing — and if there are issues, whether those issues are with the data or with the model itself.
Besides giving companies a better handle on how their AI and ML models are doing, Lopatecki said this will also allow customers to make better use of their data scientists: “[You don’t want] the smallest, most expensive team troubleshooting and trying to explain whether it was a correct prediction or not … You want insights surfaced up [to other teams], so your head researcher is doing research, not explaining that research to the rest of the team.”
He compared Arize AI’s tools to Google Analytics, but added, “I don’t want to say it's an executive dashboard, that's not the right positioning of the platform. It’s an engineering product, similar to Splunk — it’s really for engineers, not the execs.”
Lopatecki also acknowledged that it can be tough to make sense of the AI and ML landscape right now (“I’m technical, I did EECS at Berkeley, I understand ML extremely well, but even I can be confused by some of the companies in this space”). He argued that while most other companies are trying to tackle the entire AI pipeline, “We’re really focusing on production.”
Dell Technologies announced today that it was selling legacy security firm RSA for $2.075 billion to a consortium of investors led by Symphony Technology Group. Other investors include Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board and AlpInvest Partners.
RSA came to Dell when it bought EMC for $67 billion in 2015. EMC bought the company in 2006 for a similar price it was sold for today, $2.1 billion. The deal includes several pieces, including the RSA security conference held each year in San Francisco.
As for products, the consortium gets RSA Archer, RSA NetWitness Platform, RSA SecurID, RSA Fraud and Risk Intelligence — in addition to the conference. At the time of the EMC acquisition, in a letter to customers, Michael Dell actually called out RSA as one of the companies he looked forward to welcoming to the Dell family after the deal was completed:
I am excited to work with the EMC, VMware, Pivotal, VCE, Virtustream and RSA teams, and I am personally committed to the success of our new company, our partners and above all, to you, our customers.
Times change however, and perhaps Dell decided it was simply time to get some cash and jettison the veteran security company to go a bit more modern, as RSA’s approach no longer aligned with Dell’s company-wide security strategy.
“The strategies of RSA and Dell Technologies have evolved to address different business needs with different go-to-market models. The sale of RSA gives us greater flexibility to focus on integrated innovation across Dell Technologies, while allowing RSA to focus on its strategy of providing risk, security and fraud teams with the ability to holistically manage digital risk,” Dell Technology’s chief operating officer and vice chairman Jeff Clarke, wrote in a blog post announcing the deal.
Meanwhile, RSA president Rohit Ghai tried to put a happy spin on the outcome, framing it as the next step in the company’s long and storied history. “The one constant in every episode of our existence has been our focus on the success of our customers and our ability to endure through market disruption by innovating on behalf of our customers,” he wrote in a blog post on the RSA company website.
The deal is subject to the normal kinds of regulatory approval before it is finalized.
Back in 2018, OurPath emerged as a startup in the U.K. tackling the problem of diabetes. The company helped customers fight the disease, and raised a $3 million round of funding by combining advice from health experts with tracking technology via a smartphone app to help people build healthy habits and lose weight.
Now rebranded as Second Nature, it has raised a fresh $10 million in Series A funding.
New investors include Uniqa Ventures, the venture capital fund of Uniqa, a European insurance group, and the founders of mySugr, the digital diabetes management platform, which was acquired by health giant Roche .
The round also secured the backing of existing investors including Connect and Speedinvest, two European seed funds, and Bethnal Green Ventures, the early-stage Impact investor, as well as angels including Taavet Hinrikus, founder of TransferWise.
This new injection takes the total investment in the company to $13 million.
Competitors to the company include Weight Watchers and Noom, which provides a similar program and has raised $114.7 million.
Second Nature claims to have a different, more intensive and personalized approach to create habit change. The startup claims 10,000 of its participants revealed an average weight loss of 5.9kg at the 12-week mark. Separate peer-reviewed scientific data published by the company showed that much of this weight-loss is sustained at the six-month and 12-month mark.
Under its former guise as OurPath, the startup was the first “lifestyle change program” to be commissioned by the NHS for diabetes management.
Second Nature was founded in 2015 by Chris Edson and Mike Gibbs, former healthcare strategy consultants, who designed the program to provide people with personalized support in order to make lifestyle changes.
Participants receive a set of “smart” scales and an activity tracker that links with the app, allowing them to track their weight loss progress and daily step count. They are placed in a peer support group of 15 people starting simultaneously. Each group is coached by a qualified dietitian or nutritionist, who provides participants with daily 1:1 advice, support and motivation via the app. Throughout the 12-week program, people have access to healthy recipes and daily articles covering topics like meal planning, how to sleep better and overcoming emotional eating.
Gibbs said: "Our goal at Second Nature is to solve obesity. We need to rise above the confusing health misinformation to provide clarity about what's really important: changing habits. Our new brand and investment will help us realize that."
Philip Edmondson-Jones, investment manager at Beringea, who led the investment and joins the board of directors of Second Nature, said: "Healthcare systems are struggling to cope with spiraling rates of obesity and associated illnesses, which are projected to cost the global economy $1.2 trillion annually by 2025. Second Nature's pioneering approach to lifestyle change empowers people to address these conditions."
Support for standalone streaming has come to Pandora’s Apple Watch app. The company today announced the official launch of its new standalone app for Apple Watch that lets you listen to music and podcasts on the go, even without your iPhone. The launch makes Pandora the first major third-party — meaning, first besides Apple Music — to offer a standalone app for Apple Watch.
To be clear, Pandora is not the first non-Apple music service to offer an Apple Watch app. Spotify notably debuted its own Watch app in 2018. Others, including SoundCloud, Napster, Deezer and more, also have Apple Watch experiences.
However, Spotify’s app still needs to be tethered to the iPhone in order to work. This has been a sore subject with a core group of Spotify’s customers — particularly those who want to enjoy music on their Apple Watch while exercising, for example, when carrying around an iPhone is more cumbersome. In some cases, these users have even defected to Apple Music, calling Spotify’s watch app a mere “remote control,” as it still hasn’t even implemented offline support.
Pandora’s new app, on the other hand, lets users leave their phone behind as it supports both streaming and offline downloads.
The app notably takes advantage of the new streaming APIs Apple introduced last year at its annual developer conference. With watchOS 6, app developers can now create independent audio consumption experiences that no longer need to lean on the iPhone.
For Pandora, this change means users can go directly to the App Store on the Apple Watch to download the watch app to log in and start streaming. Even without an iPhone, users can play, pause and skip songs; pick up where they left off on podcasts; thumbs-up their favorite music; adjust the volume; and more.
Pandora Premium subscribers also can search and play specific songs, artists and albums on-demand, right from their wrist.
Meanwhile, offline listening is available to Pandora Plus or Premium paying subscribers, which lets you save tracks for offline play. This is helpful if you’re in an area where you have a poor connection or none at all, like on an airplane or underground train, for instance.
The new Pandora Apple Watch app will roll out to all users who already had the older version installed, as well as to those who updated to the latest version of Pandora’s iPhone app.
Because the app relies on Apple’s new streaming APIs to offer standalone streaming, it requires watchOS 6 to work. This version of Apple Watch software is available to Apple Watch Series 1 and higher users, but only those on Apple Watch Series 3 and higher will have access to standalone streaming, per Apple’s requirements. In addition, both streaming music and downloading require an internet connection, either Wi-Fi or cellular.
News of Pandora’s updated Watch app actually broke last week. But after a number of newsreports announced its arrival, the company clarified it was only then rolled out to a small group (1%) of users at that time. Earlier this year, Pandora also rolled out a redesign of its Watch app that included offline playback.
As of today, the updated Apple Watch app should be available to all in the U.S.
Toronto-based telecommunications startup Kepler Communications surprised many recently when it revealed plans to establish its own satellite assembly and base the operation in its own hometown instead of contracting the work to an existing manufacturer.
It might seem a perplexing and unnecessarily costly choice at first, but I spoke to Kepler CEO and co-founder Mina Mitry about what his startup stands to gain by being based in Canada while the small-satellite industry heats up in the U.S.
“We’ve been running a global survey of available supply chain for this particular type of small satellite for the past two years or so and conducting some pretty extensive experiments, like buying parts, seeing where they end up, etc.,” Mitry told me. “The output of that global survey is really that the supply chain is immature, that it doesn’t exist in a way that’s robust enough to meet our price, performance and timeline expectations. Historically, the type of business that is now delivering on small satellites has been built on selling one-off government contracts or a small component of the satellite, and now they’re transitioning upmarket to try and sell complete satellites and try to do that at scale, which is a totally different problem that they haven’t yet addressed.”
After figuring this out through multiple years of investigation and inquiry, Mitry says it eventually resulted in the realization that meeting the startup’s goals of getting its 440 satellites in orbit in a timely manner would be best served by building them in-house. That’s not unlike the conclusion reached by Elon Musk and SpaceX for many of the components used in developing their own launch vehicles.
“We started to evaluate what countries and where and how that would all get done,” Mitry said. “It ended up that Toronto would make a lot of sense because of the surrounding technical talents we get from the key universities in the area, and then above and beyond that, we’re not doing a whole lot of manual labor in this process. Most of that is outsourced labor to a variety of different locations where they’re building circuit boards, or they’re building like metal machine parts, etc. And then in-house, we’re doing mostly assembly integration and testing, and a lot of that kind of stuff gets automated. So there was no material overhead costs that gets incurred because we’re in Toronto as opposed to any other location.”
“I don’t feel good about that. That sucks,” Chrys Bader-Wechseler reflects when asked about the bullying that went down on the anonymous app Secret he co-founded in 2013. After $35 million raised, 15 million users and a spectacular flame out two years later, the startup was dead. “Since I left Secret I feel alive and aligned with my values and my purpose again.”
But there was one bright side to Secret letting you post without a name or consequences. People opened up, got vulnerable and felt less alone when comments revealed they weren’t the only person dealing with a certain struggle. What Bader learned from watching Secret’s users “do this in the dark” was the realization that “actually, we need to learn to do this in the light, to have that same kind of dialogue, but do it openly with each other.”
So began the journey to Bader’s new startup Ikaria that’s exclusively revealing itself to the world today on TechCrunch. It’s a different kind of chat app, named after the Greek island where a close-knit community helps extend people’s lifespans. The six-person Santa Monica team is funded by a $1.5 million seed round led by Initialized Capital and Fuel Capital. People can sign up for early beta access here.
During a long interview about the startup, Bader and his co-founder Sean Dadashi were cagey about exactly how Ikaria works, as it’s still in development. Amidst all the philosophical context about the app’s intention, I was able to pull out a few details about what the product will actually look like.
“Basically, since 2004, technology has created this monumental shift in the human social experience. We’re more connected than ever technically but all the studies show we’re lonelier than ever,” Bader explains. “It’s like eating McDonald’s to get healthy. It’s not the right source of nutrition for our social well-being because true connection requires a level of vulnerability, presence, self-disclosure and reciprocity that you don’t really get on these platforms.”
Ikaria isn’t another feed. It’s a safe space where you can chat with close friends and family, or people going through similar life challenges. Members of these group chats will optionally go through guided experiences that help them reflect on and discuss what’s going on in their hearts and minds. This could become a whole new media format where outside creators or mental health professionals could produce and contribute their own guided experiences.
“Part of the reason we’re announcing this is that . . . it’s a call to action to involve all these practitioners and people who are doing these types of things and giving them a platform to allow them to facilitate these kind of group bonding experiences through a platform where they can extend their practices into the digital world,” Bader tells me. What Calm and Headspace did for making meditation more mainstream and accessible, Ikaria wants to do for mental health through online togetherness.
Ikaria already has a sizable closed beta going, which the startup plans to continue until it finds product fit, and it hopes to know its official release timeline by the end of the year. “We’re not going to launch this until we know 40% of people would be disappointed if they couldn’t use it.”
Rather than monetizing by exploiting people’s attention, Ikaria plans to develop a “customer relationship” with users, which could mean subscription access or in-app payments for buying content. Perhaps one user could act as the sponsor and purchase an experience for their whole group chat. Until then, it’s got its seed funding from Initialized, Fuel Capital, F7 Ventures, Ryan Hoover’s Weekend Fund, Backend Capital, Day One Ventures, Shrug, Todd Goldberg and Superhuman’s Rahul Vohra.
“The hope is that eventually this would be an app you use instead of iMessage, to increase your sense of presence,” Bader explains, revealing its grand ambitions. Why would we need to replace our core chat apps? Well for one thing, they don’t understand who really matters to you. If an app understood who your mom is, it could give her messages special prevalence or remind you to contact her.
Bader met Dadashi through an offline men’s group for discussing life, love and everything in the wake of Secret’s collapse and a rough romantic breakup. After just a few weeks of these meetups, they say they felt closer to each other than to most of their friends. Only later did Bader, a designer by trade, discover that Dadashi was a coder who’d been CTO of electronics company MHD Enterprises before starting a travel and lifestyle startup for mental wellness, called Somatic Studios. They tried working together on an app for sharing quotes from your friends but scrapped it.
Together, the pair went on to research the rapid rise of other vulnerability-focused meetup organizations like the one where they met, including Evryman, ManKind Project, Quilt, Authentic Relating, Circling, and T-Groups. Though they knew that to have a chance at impact at scale, they’d need to build a mobile app familiar enough to get people over the hurdle of starting a mindfulness practice. They laid out a few principles to build by: a focus on relationships instead of Likes and followers, conscious design that won’t exploit people’s attention or weaknesses, no ads, and keeping all data private and in control of the user.
There are other startups hoping to address the sad state of mental health from different angles. Talkspace offers a mobile connection to licensed therapists, though it can be pricey at $65 to $99 per week. 7 Cups and TalkLife makes peer-to-peer counseling from volunteers free, though these aren’t professionals. There are also plenty of journaling products, gratitude practice apps and wellness podcasts out there. But Ikaria’s approach, combining mental health content with group chats of people you trust, feels unique.
Having known Bader since the Secret days, it’s obvious that working with Dadashi has made him happier and more centered. Ikaria is an app he can wake up feeling good about each day. “You know, I don’t like to speak ill of David [Byttow, Secret’s CEO who sources say was verbally abusive to employees], but that relationship was very, very toxic and taxing for me. And this time around with Sean, as I’m sure you can tell, is the polar opposite.”
If Ikaria can help people develop the open and honest relationships with friends or peers like building it has done for Bader and Dadashi, it could be a beacon amidst a sea of time unwell spent.
This year marks our first-ever TC Sessions: Space event, and what better way to kick things off than with the head of NASA: Administrator Jim Bridenstine will join us onstage on June 25 in LA. NASA has been more open than ever before to working with startups and entrepreneurs, and we’ll hear directly from the administrator why that’s the case, and what kind of opportunities might be open to founders in the future.
Administrator Bridenstine took over leading the U.S. science and space agency in 2018, and has been leading the charge for many of the organization’s most ambitious goals ever since. Whether working with SpaceX and Boeing on returning astronaut launch capabilities to American soil on American vehicles through the commercial crew program, or preparing the way for a human return to the surface of the Moon through NASA’s Artemis program, he’s encouraged the agency to seek new and innovative partnerships with industry in order to reach further than ever before.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
NASA is working with startups for innovative and exciting initiatives like the Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, through which some young companies will begin sending privately designed and built lunar landers to the Moon’s surface to support and prepare for the return of the next American man, and the arrival of the first American woman, to the lunar surface in 2024. And the agency has more recently put out a call to industry for input on both human-rated and robotic rovers to support its Moon and Mars goals, so we’ll hear from Administrator Bridenstine more about the public-private partnerships that are involved in both endeavors.
TC Sessions: Space 2020 is shaping up to be an unparalleled opportunity for startups and young companies in the space industry to meet and learn from the best and brightest in the field, including Administrator Bridenstine, Space Command’s General John W. Raymond, investors like Bessemer Venture Partners VP Tess Hatch and many more. We’ll cover topics ranging from launch services, to orbital operations, to ground station networks and beyond, focusing on where the opportunities in space lie, what kinds of innovative solutions are being brought to bear to unlock them and what still needs founder focus and investment.
You can get Early-Bird tickets right now, and save $150 before prices go up on May 22 — and you can even get a fifth person free if you bring a group of four from your company. Special discounts for current members of the government/military/nonprofit and student tickets are also available directly on the website. And if you are an early-stage space startup looking to get exposure to decision makers, you can even exhibit for the day for just $2,000.
This event will also feature a space startup pitch-off featuring five early-stage founders selected by TechCrunch editors. Applications open today; apply here.
Is your company interested in partnering at TC Sessions: Space 2020? Click here to talk with us about available opportunities.
Apple says the coronavirus outbreak will hurt its manufacturing and sales, Jeff Bezos makes a big commitment to fighting climate change and SpaceX launches more Starlink satellites. Here’s your Daily Crunch for February 18, 2020.
In a letter to investors, Apple said that it "do[es] not expect to meet the revenue guidance we provided for the March quarter" due to impacts stemming from the coronavirus that has shuttered large parts of China, and is reverberating through the global economy.
As China's return to work has proved halting, and the coronavirus itself more intractable than some anticipated, the company's change in guidance is almost unsurprising — but that hasn’t stopped Apple’s stock price from falling this morning.
Jeff Bezos announced on Instagram that he's creating a $10 billion fund to combat climate change. He said the Bezos Earth Fund will finance "scientists, activists, NGOs — any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world."
SpaceX has launched a batch of 60 Starlink satellites into orbit, marking its fifth overall launch of a group of 60 of the small spacecraft, and its third this year alone. This launch brings the total Starlink constellation to 300 satellites in orbit, extending SpaceX's lead as the largest commercial satellite operator in the world.
Oddly, Redbox Free Live TV isn’t live at all — at least, not in the way that you’d get with a TV streaming service like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV. Instead, it offers a curated set of ad-supported movies and TV shows, similar to The Roku Channel, IMDb TV or TiVo Plus.
The co-founders of video startup Trash take a deep dive into the TikTok ecosystem, particularly its extensive content moderation. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
The London-headquartered VC firm's previous fund closed at $765 million, so this is an increase over three years ago. However, the remit remains largely the same. Atomico says it plans to double down on its strategy of backing "mission-driven" European founders at Series A, but with the ability to invest in what it calls "breakout" companies at the Series B and C stage.
At its most basic level, it's like Drybar — with a menu of styles — but for women of color. On the tech side, Naza's software functions as a booking and payments platform, which also learns the styles of each customer and then makes product recommendations.
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
Jaguar Land Rover has introduced a new concept vehicle that cuts a very different figure relative to its usual fare: It’s a four-wheeled electric urban mobility concept called “Project Vector” that looks more like a low-floored airport shuttle train car than a traditional car.
This is a look that has increasingly become popular among automakers designing for a future in which shared electric autonomous mobility plays a big role: Cruise, for instance, debuted a very similar-looking long rectangle of a vehicle in January, with the crucial difference that its vehicle is a production model instead of just a concept.
Externally, JLR’s Vector concept looks very similar, with a front and back end that could easily pass for one another, as well as sliding doors that open from the middle to allow the maximum amount of space for entry and exit. The floor is low to the ground to similarly accommodate easy onboarding and disembarkation, and that same floor houses the battery and drivetrain that make the vehicle go.
Unlike Cruise’s strictly driverless design, however, the Jaguar vehicle features front-facing seats and a steering wheel for human control, though the interior is also “configurable” to eventually allow autonomous use, and to also offer flexibility for accommodating goods delivery as well as passenger transportation.
Jaguar Land Rover’s concept isn’t just the kind to get your noodle churning, either: The company says that it aims to work together with the Coventry City Council and the West Midlands Combined Authority to actually deploy a pilot mobility service using the Vector starting as early as “late 2021,” which it says will act as a “living laboratory for future mobility on the streets of Coventry.”
Most people probably don’t love the idea of hearing their streets will be made into a laboratory, but on the other hand, pioneering shared electric transportation that more closely resembles public transit than traditional ride-hailing is likely a good thing.
Video editing startup InVideo has new funding and a new product.
The San Francisco-headquartered company bills itself as the easiest way for anyone to create professional-quality videos, using a drag-and-drop interface along with a library of templates and stock photos and videos. The resulting videos can then be optimized for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms.
InVideo’s new assistant does even more to help with the process. As demonstrated for me by co-founder and CEO Sanket Shah, as you create a video, it automatically makes suggestions for how the video could be improved — he compared it to Grammarly, but for video.
Shah said the assistant currently focuses on two areas, both text-related. First, it’s making sure that all the text on the screen is readable — so that, for example, you don’t have light-colored text on a light background. Second, it’s making sure the text is “comprehensible” — so that there’s not too much text on the screen, or it’s not flashing by too quickly.
“We all think that design is very creative, but there’s a lot of science in it as well,” he said.
Shah told me InVideo’s founders first worked together on a startup aiming to create 10-minute video summaries of nonfiction books. That’s when they discovered “video creation is a very painful process, it’s just not scalable.” So they launched the current startup hoping to solve this problem.
The company says it now has 100,000 customers — including AT&T, Sony Music, Reuters, CNN and CNBC — in 150 countries.
It might seem surprising for a large media company to need to use a tool like this, but Shah explained, “The users who use us [at those large companies] today are not video editors. If you want to constantly create videos about the U.S. elections, it’s not a video editor who’s doing it, it’s very likely a news producer” with limited or nonexistent editing experience.
Pricing for the editor starts at $10 per month, though there’s also a free version if you don’t mind watermarks.
InVideo is also announcing that it has raised an additional $2.5 million in funding from Sequoia Capital India's Surge, along with angel investors Anand Chandrasekaran and Gokul Rajaram. It has now raised a total of $3.2 million.
“InVideo has truly captured the imagination of our users with their super user-friendly online video editor and great customer support,” said Ayman Al-Abdullah, CEO and president of software deals website AppSumo, in a statement. "In fact, it has gone on to become the most sold product in AppSumo history.”
In early December, Spotify launched its annual personalized Wrapped playlist with its users’ most-streamed sounds of 2019. That has become a bit of a tradition and isn’t necessarily anything new, but for 2019, it also gave users a look back at how they used Spotify over the last decade. Because this was quite a large job, Spotify gave us a bit of a look under the covers of how it generated these lists for its ever-growing number of free and paid subscribers.
It’s no secret that Spotify is a big Google Cloud Platform user. Back in 2016, the music streaming service publicly said that it was going to move to Google Cloud, after all, and in 2018, it disclosed that it would spend at least $450 million on its Google Cloud infrastructure in the following three years.
It was also back in 2018, for that year’s Wrapped, that Spotify ran the largest Google Cloud Dataflow job ever run on the platform, a service the company started experimenting with a few years earlier. “Back in 2015, we built and open-sourced a big data processing Scala API for Apache Beam and Google Cloud Dataflow called Scio,” Spotify’s VP of Engineering Tyson Singer told me. “We chose Dataflow over Dataproc because it scales with less operational overhead and Dataflow fit with our expected needs for streaming processing. Now we have a great open-source toolset designed and optimized for Dataflow, which in addition to being used by most internal teams, is also used outside of Spotify.”
For Wrapped 2019, which includes the annual and decadal lists, Spotify ran a job that was five times larger than in 2018 — but it did so at three-quarters of the cost. Singer attributes this to his team’s familiarity with the platform. “With this type of global scale, complexity is a natural consequence. By working closely with Google Cloud's engineering teams and specialists and drawing learnings from previous years, we were able to run one of the most sophisticated Dataflow jobs ever written.”
Still, even with this expertise, the team couldn’t just iterate on the full data set as it figured out how to best analyze the data and use it to tell the most interesting stories to its users. “Our jobs to process this would be large and complex; we needed to decouple the complexity and processing in order to not overwhelm Google Cloud Dataflow,” Singer said. “This meant that we had to get more creative when it came to going from idea, to data analysis, to producing unique stories per user, and we would have to scale this in time and at or below cost. If we weren't careful, we risked being wasteful with resources and slowing down downstream teams.”
To handle this workload, Spotify not only split its internal teams into three groups (data processing, client-facing and design, and backend systems), but also split the data processing jobs into smaller pieces. That marked a very different approach for the team. “Last year Spotify had one huge job that used a specific feature within Dataflow called “Shuffle.” The idea here was that having a lot of data, we needed to sort through it, in order to understand who did what. While this is quite powerful, it can be costly if you have large amounts of data.”
This year, the company’s engineers minimized the use of Shuffle by using Google Cloud’s Bigtable as an intermediate storage layer. “Bigtable was used as a remediation tool between Dataflow jobs in order for them to process and store more data in a parallel way, rather than the need to always regroup the data,” said Singer. “By breaking down our Dataflow jobs into smaller components — and reusing core functionality — we were able to speed up our jobs and make them more resilient.”
Singer attributes at least a part of the cost savings to this technique of using Bigtable, but he also noted that the team decomposed the problem into data collection, aggregation and data transformation jobs, which it then split into multiple separate jobs. “This way, we were not only able to process more data in parallel, but be more selective about which jobs to rerun, keeping our costs down.”
Many of the techniques the engineers on Singer’s teams developed are currently in use across Spotify. “The great thing about how Wrapped works is that we are able to build out more tools to understand a user, while building a great product for them,” he said. “Our specialized techniques and expertise of Scio, Dataflow and big data processing, in general, is widely used to power Spotify's portfolio of products.”
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