"With the partial exception of the Black Death in 14th century Europe, every major pandemic has been followed by an economic recession," said Robert Dingwall at the University of Nottingham Trent in England. https://t.co/QiVurmL7k4pic.twitter.com/XiWSVLdrIk
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gives Syrian regime deadline to withdraw its forces from Idlib and implement the 2018 Sochi agreement pic.twitter.com/skqm2Xd6L8
BREAKING: The U.S. and the Taliban are poised to sign a peace deal Saturday, 18 years after the Afghanistan War began in the wake the Sept. 11 attacks. https://t.co/kX34d86y3y
In making peace with the Taliban, the US is moving to end its longest-ever war and also signalling a major shift: After two decades, an era of global US military interventionism is winding down https://t.co/WKGsLxt6wTpic.twitter.com/piyV6fTEc8
Explosives are a delicate, high-tension, high-risk product of combat. The best way to prepare for, and properly dispose of, explosives is through conscientious and realistic training just like @USMC Marines do in Alaska as part of their preparation for Arctic Edge 2020. pic.twitter.com/7uK7i7UlJ1
A plan is in the works to evacuate quarantined foreign diplomats from North Korea, a source inside the country has revealed, as concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus grow.
North Korea has not confirmed a single case of the virus inside its borders, but global health experts have warned the country is highly susceptible to an outbreak given its close proximity to China and limited medical capabilities. Every other country in East Asia has confirmed numerous cases.
The German Embassy, French Cooperation Office, and Swiss Development Cooperation will close operations in the capital Pyongyang completely, said the source, who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, given the extreme sensitivity of the current situation.
WNU Editor: All diplomats in North Korea are now under some form of quarantine, and from what I understand North Korea has imposed measures that has essentially shut down the entire country. In such an environment a diplomat cannot function. It is time to go home until this outbreak ends.
North Korea has a lot of wealth--just below the surface.
Key point: South Korea estimates the value of the mineral resources of its North Korean neighbor at $2,800 billion. In comparison, the GDP of South Korea was about 1,530,75 trillion in 2017.
When looking at contemporary geopolitics, often energy and related resource questions are key in the struggle for influence amongst world powers, as energy can drive or amplify underlying tensions. Today, the attractiveness of traditional oil exploration loses ground with the emergence of new energies and technologies, often produced by "Rare Earths" and the elements they contain.
WNU editor: North Korea may have all of this mineral wealth, but it does not have the infrastructure, legal system, political stability, or business culture to pull it off.
* The US now has 60 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and it's highly likely there will be more. * The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has outlined a hypothetical scenario of what could happen in the US as the coronavirus spreads. * It predicts more cases, person-to-person spreading, and an "overwhelmed" and "overloaded healthcare system."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided information about how the novel coronavirus could affect the US.
Globally, the coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, has infected 82,000 people and killed 2,800 people, mostly in China.
On Tuesday, US health officials told the country to prepare for the coronavirus. Nancy Messonnier, the director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said in a press briefing, "It's not so much of a question of if this will happen anymore but rather more of a question of exactly when this will happen."
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If an outbreak of coronavirus hits New York, it could cause more sharp selling of stocks, but markets would likely continue to function even if the floor of the New York Stock Exchange had to close.
No case has been confirmed in the state, but dozens of people were being checked in the New York City area on Wednesday.
U.S. stock exchanges said they have contingency plans.
Here is how the markets would work if there were disruptions or panic selling of stocks.
* Coronavirus binds to human body cells similar to aggressive infectious diseases * Makes it '100 to 1,000 times' more efficient at infecting than SARS, study found * Coronavirus has already struck down 82,000 victims and killed almost 3,000
The coronavirus could be up to 1,000 times more infectious than SARS because it plagues the body in the same way as HIV and Ebola, scientists warn.
Experts initially presumed the spread of COVID-19 would follow the same trajectory as the SARS outbreak in 2002/3, because the viruses are almost identical genetically.
But they have discovered the way it binds to cells in the human body is akin to far more aggressive diseases like HIV and Ebola.
This makes it '100 to 1,000 times' more efficient at infecting people than SARS, according to researchers from Nankai University in Tianjin, northern China.
* Bahrain has announced three new coronavirus cases * Lebanon banned entry to people arriving from Iran and countries affected by the coronavirus outbreak
DUBAI: Coronavirus has been widely spreading in the Middle East during the past week with Iran recording the highest number of infections and deaths in the region.
Countries in the Middle East are currently taking extraordinary steps to prevent the growing coronavirus outbreak.
As coronavirus cases continue to soar globally, in at least one region a steady façade of optimism persists. Southeast Asia's foreign ministers have joined hands with China and declared their intention to "stay strong!"
Yet their hastily called meeting in secretive, socialist Laos last week suggests not so much resiliency as the need to shore up mutual support. Health experts are widely skeptical of the numbers reported by China's neighbors, and believe the deadly infection is spreading undetected throughout much of Southeast Asia.
With infection clusters increasingly sprouting outside the mainland, where the virus originated, many fear these pockets—rooted out or not—are sustaining the outbreak and pushing the world toward a global pandemic.
LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's first confirmed coronovirus case entered the country on a Turkish Airlines flight that traveled via Istanbul, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health told a news conference on Friday.
The man, who traveled from Milan, Italy, and landed on the evening of Feb. 24, spent the night in a hotel near the airport, and continued to his place of work in neighboring Ogun state, Commissioner Akin Abayomi said.
He was treated on the evening of Feb. 26 at his company's medical facility before health practitioners there called government biosecurity officers, who transferred him on Feb. 27 to a containment facility in Yaba, Lagos.
In week in which Covid-19 jumped fence into Europe, serious questions emerge over continent's preparedness
A Spanish football journalist. A pair of young tourists visiting Innsbruck. The parent of a pupil from a primary school in Derbyshire. A young man from Croatia. A businessman and passenger on a train between Frankfurt and Saarbrücken.
All are confirmed or suspected cases of the new coronavirus – Covid-19. What links them is that they contracted the disease while visiting northern Italy.
In a week in which the rapidly spreading global epidemic jumped the fence into Europe, serious questions have emerged over the continent's preparedness to deal with the disease, as health officials have delayed or struggled to trace initial sources of infection.
* Health officials on Friday warned lawmakers there will be a wider coronavirus outbreak and that the U.S. doesn't have enough testing resources to cope * Dr Anthony Fauci revealed the details in a closed-door briefing in the U.S. House of Representatives * Fauci is one of only four medical experts on the White House's newly formed coronavirus taskforce headed by Vice President Mike Pence * It comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced two new cases of coronavirus in the U.S., bringing the total to 62 * The new patients are American citizens repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was docked in Japan for two weeks * Health officials have been scrambling to deal with the prospect of a widening coronavirus outbreak within the United States * Trump's administration is facing mounting criticism over its response and handling of the outbreak
Health officials have warned lawmakers there will be a wider coronavirus outbreak and says the U.S. doesn't have enough testing resources to cope as the number of infected Americans jumps to 62.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, revealed in a closed-door briefing in the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday that there would be many more coronavirus cases in the U.S., according to a source.
* The World Health Organization said Friday that the threat of the coronavirus's impact and spread is now 'very high' worldwide * It's the group's highest risk level and comes as the virus spreads to more than 50 countries worldwide, sickening more than 83,000 people * So far, nearly 2,900 people have died and several countries reported their first cases this week * WHO officials said that there is a worldwide strain on protective gear and masks supplies * Strategy has shifted form containment to mitigation in some countries * Officials said that health systems around the world are 'not ready' to handle the outbreak * They stopped short of labeling coronavirus a pandemic but said if it was flu, it would be considered at pandemic levels * People anywhere with underlying conditions or who are over 65 are at risk of the virus, and might consider avoiding crowds, officials said * A Moody's Analytics report estimated that the odds of a coronavirus pandemic have now doubled to 40%
The risk of coronavirus is now 'very high' worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Friday.
Even 'quite sophisticated countries...are having quite a bit of trouble' containing its spread, said Dr Mike Ryan, who heads up the WHO's emergency response efforts said during the press briefing.
Of the world's 195 countries, at least 53 have reported cases of coronavirus, or COVID-19, which has now sickened more than 83,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 2,900 globally.
The international agency hasn't quite given up on containing the virus, but is deeply concerned by the rapid spread of infections in places like Italy, in spite of its well-developed health system.
148 FIRs registered, 630 people either arrested or detained
The death toll in the Delhi's communal violence has gone up to 42 now with four more fatalities being recorded at the city's GTB Hospital on Friday, officials said.
The situation has showed some signs of returning to normalcy and clouds of smoke cleared to reveal the extent of the damage from the worst riots in the city in over three decades.
As people gingerly stepped out for work and opened shops and other establishments in northeast Delhi, anxiety escalated outside the Guru Teg Bahadur(GTB) hospital where people waited outside the mortuary to receive the bodies of their loved ones.
Police and paramilitary personnel also maintained a strict vigil in view of Friday prayers at mosques.
After a week-long deal to reduce violence across Afghanistan, the U.S. and the Taliban are set to sign a historic agreement Saturday that would see U.S. troops start to withdraw, according to a statement issued Friday afternoon by President Donald Trump.
"Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of the Taliban, while Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan. If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home," Trump said.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that it is time for the United States to pass the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) on to Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria, and to instead focus on maintaining control of oil resources in the region.
Speaking at a press conference in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Trump said that "nobody's done more than I've done" to battle ISIS in the Middle East, "but at the same time, Russia should do it, Iran should do it, Iraq should do it, Syria should do it." He focused on the Islamic Republic in particular, saying "Iran hates ISIS and they should do it."
WNU Editor: The U.S. has tens of thousands of soldiers in the Middle East fighting against groups like ISIS (see number of US soldiers in the Middle East from the above image). These battles have been ongoing for years, and the U.S. has played a significant role in defeating them and/or containing them. But in the end it is the people in the region who must solve these conflicts. In short. The U.S. cannot stay there for ever, and maybe now is the time to rethink this commitment.
President Donald Trump has "reaffirmed" U.S. support for Turkey in a phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while urging President Bashar al-Assad's regime, Russia, and Iran to halt their offensive in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province -- the last rebel-held area in northwestern Syria -- the White House said on February 28.
The two talked after 33 Turkish soldiers were killed the previous day in an air strike by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces, triggering a deadly response by Ankara.
Trump "reaffirmed his support for Turkey's efforts to de-escalate the situation in northwest Syria and avoid a humanitarian catastrophe," the White House said, without giving specifics about the support.
NATO is condemning "indiscriminate air strikes by the Syrian regime and Russia," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, after 33 Turkish soldiers died in an attack near Idlib on Thursday. The bombing caused Turkey to request an urgent NATO security meeting that was held Friday.
The NATO meeting was held in solidarity with Turkey, which says the troops were killed in an area where Russian-backed Syrian forces are fighting anti-regime militants. Russia denies playing a role in the strike, which came after weeks of heightened violence in Idlib province.
"I call on them to stop their offensive, to respect international law and to back U.N. efforts for a peaceful solution," Stoltenberg said. "This dangerous situation must be de-escalated."
Turkey has raised the death toll from a Syrian government airstrike on its forces in northwestern Syria the previous night to 33 Turkish troops, the highest number of Turkish soldiers killed in a single day since Ankara first intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2016.
The deaths, which came in an attack late Thursday, mark a serious escalation in the direct conflict between Turkish and Russia-backed Syrian forces that has been waged since early February. The earlier reported death toll was 29 troops.
Ambassadors from NATO countries are holding emergency talks this Friday at the request of Turkey, who is a member of the alliance.
Turkey is a main backer of the Syrian opposition while Russia has been giving military support to the Syrian government offensive in Idlib that has displaced about 950,000 people and left hundreds of civilians dead.
GENEVA/BEIJING (Reuters) - The rapid spread of the coronavirus increased fears of a pandemic on Friday, with six countries reporting their first cases and the World Health Organization (WHO) raising its global spread and impact risk alert to "very high".
World shares fell again, winding up their worst week since the 2008 global financial crisis and bringing the global wipeout to $6 trillion.
Hopes that the epidemic that started in China late last year would be over in months, and that economic activity would quickly return to normal, have been shattered.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said his organization was not underestimating the risk.
According to a Feb. 27 memo obtained by POLITICO, all leave and liberty travel with the Central Command theater is banned until further notice.
The U.S. is suspending certain types of travel for military and civilian Department of Defense personnel to and within the Middle East due to concerns over the coronavirus, according to an order issued Thursday.
All leave and liberty travel with the Central Command theater is banned until further notice, according to the memo obtained by POLITICO. For example, personnel assigned to a unit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, cannot travel to the United Arab Emirates or Jeddah for the weekend.
The U.S. 7th Fleet flagship Blue Ridge arrives in Laem Chabang, Thailand, for a regularly scheduled port visit on Feb. 23. A Wednesday order from U.S. Pacific Fleet means Navy vessels like the Blue Ridge must spend at least 14 days at sea after a port visit like that so crews can be monitored for symptoms of a deadly strain of the coronavirus. (Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Aron Montano/Navy)
U.S. Pacific Fleet commander Adm. John C. "Lung" Aquilino has directed all vessels visiting nations in the 7th Fleet area of operations "to remain at sea for at least 14 days before pulling into another port in order to monitor sailors for any symptoms" of COVID-19, a new and deadly strain of the coronavirus.
Aquilino's unclassified Wednesday order is part of a larger Navy effort to control the spread of a disease that emerged in China's Wuhan City last year and now has been detected in 37 locations internationally, including cases in the United States.
The US Navy said Thursday that a Chinese military warship fired a military grade laser at US Navy P-8 surveillance aircraft last week while it was flying over the Pacific Ocean, an action that the US Navy called "unsafe and unprofessional."
The People's Republic of China "navy destroyer's actions were unsafe and unprofessional," US Pacific Fleet said in a statement Thursday.
"Weapons-grade lasers could potentially cause serious harm to aircrew and mariners, as well as ship and aircraft systems," the statement added.
Military-grade laser beams, occasionally known as "dazzlers," omit a powerful beam of light that can travel great distances and be used to illuminate aircraft cockpits, temporarily blinding pilots.
Defense officials told CNN that a formal diplomatic protests known as a démarche is expected to be issued.
SUPERMARKETS are struggling to keep up with high demands as panicked shoppers stock up on goods amid the virus infecting a British person who never left the country.
A HUMILIATING European Commission probe has been launched into how the Italian government was allowed to bung a £350 MILLION bail out to ailing airline Alitalia - just hours after Michel Barnier lectured Britain that Brussels absolutely never allowed state aid.
THE EU is to become the "sick man of the world" because of the constant risks of recession faced by key members of the eurozone as well as the "devastating" impact of Brexit, Iain Duncan Smith predicted.
BREXIT PARTY leader Nigel Farage has urged Republicans in the US to donate to Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign, in order to boost Donald Trump's reelection prospects in November.
MELANIA TRUMP was mercilessly pilloried by Twitter users, after posting a tweet in which she thanked Narendra Modi and the Indian people for their warm welcome during her trip to the country.
FALKLANDS War veteran Simon Weston believes making the remote archipelago in the South Atlantic a full member of the UK, and granting it representation in Westminster, would once and for all draw a line under Argentina's push for sovereignty over the British overseas territory.
POLICE in Venice have raided a local mosque whilst a service was in progress and warned its leader that he faces a heavy fine for ignoring Coronavirus rules.
When the employees you interact with at your bank, credit card company, mortgage lender, or other financial institution seem incapable of or unwilling to resolve your complaint, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's process may help you get a better result.
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An economist is an expert who studies the relationship between a society's resources and its production or output, using a number of indicators to predict future trends.
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Loan grading is a classification system that involves assigning a quality score to a loan based on a borrower's credit history, quality of the collateral, and the likelihood of repayment of the principal and interest.
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A pick-and-shovel play is a strategy to invest in companies that provide necessary equipment for an industry, rather than in the industry's end product.
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Recession proof is a term used to describe an asset, company, industry or other entity that is believed to be economically resistant to the effects of a recession.
As the trend of marijuana legalization continues, cannabis-related stocks continue to proliferate. But fundamentals and technicals remain weak for many of the stocks in this space.
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There are many differences between preferred and common stock. The main difference is that preferred stock usually do not give shareholders voting rights, while common stock does, usually at one vote per share owned.
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Learn how hedge fund performance quantitatively requires metrics such as absolute and relative returns, risk measurement, and benchmark performance ratios.
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A hedge fund is basically an investment partnership. It's the marriage of a fund manager and the investors, who pool their money together into the fund.
Donor-advised funds are exploding in popularity among high net worth individuals. These charitable giving vehicles have received a fair share of criticism.
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Acorns is a platform allowing members to invest spare change and use banking services for a low fee. It makes money primarily through subscription fees.
A representative payee is an individual who acts as the receiver of disability or social security payments for someone who is not capable of managing their own benefits.
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SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis is a framework used to evaluate a company's competitive position and to develop strategic planning.
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R-squared is a statistical measure that represents the proportion of the variance for a dependent variable that's explained by an independent variable.
The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) is a federal law mandating mortgage lenders to maitain records of certain key pieces of information and practices.
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An association retirement plan (ARP) is a type of "closed" multiple employer plan (MEP) that lets small businesses more easily offer a retirement plan to employees.
The Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976 requires large companies to file a report before completing a merger, acquisition or tender offer.
Early Social Security means you start taking benefits before full retirement age. The checks are bigger if you wait, but sometimes early Social Security makes sense.
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Periyar University Result 2020 Announced for UG/PG Programming seminars on 28th February 2020. Understudies who are concentrating under Periyar University can check their Periyar University Result from the official site of the University i.e, periyaruniversity.ac.in. Additionally, anybody can download the outcomes on this page, Because we have given an immediate connection to download the outcomes from the underneath table. Periyar University Provides Various Under Graduate, Post Graduate, Diploma, and different Courses, those all the Students can check their test results from this page. All understudies can even check the Periyar University Results 2020 through the online gateway just as in our recruitment.guru page.
Understudies can check all the insights about the Examination results, can check from the online gateway of the Periyar University. Look down the whole page and get the Periyar University Results 2020 here. Understudies can download and confirm the outcomes from the connection gave underneath. When they confirmed the outcomes we can foresee the Student’s individual performance. Check the article for more data on Periyar University Result 2020 updates. Students can visit our recruitment.guru website page to check the outcome. Additionally, follow the straightforward advance and check the most recent Periyar University Supplementary Exam Results 2020.
Latest Update on 12th February 2020: Periyar University has released the UG/PG November 2019 Results. Latest Periyar University UG/PG November 2019 Results:Click Here
Periyar University is situated in Salem, a city of Tamilnadu. It was built up in 1997 according to the Provisions of Periyar University act, 1997 and worked by the Govt of Tamilnadu. The college named on the acclaimed social reformer “Thanthai Periyar E.V Ramasamy”. Periyar University has a sum of 106 associated schools around the state. The college was conceded by the 12(B) and 2f status from the University Grants Commission and furthermore licensed by NAAC with B+ grade in 2007 and later it was moved up to A during the reaccreditation in May 2015. Periyar University has a quality of 1,40,000+ understudies and 141 Academic Staff and 192 Doctoral understudies. Periyar University has 24 educating and research offices in 8 schools. An aggregate of 79 scholastic projects is offered by the offices. A proposition has been submitted to the state government for endorsement to begin a History Department
Periyar University Supply/Revaluation Results
Understudies have shown up for the Periyar University Examination can check their outcomes, on the off chance that they got low evaluations, still, Students can apply for the Revaluation. The more significant level Examiner will check the outcomes and report the Revaluation Results. In any case, if any understudies will get low stamps again they can compose the test. For that, they ought to apply for the Supplementary Examination. For each semester Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the principle assessment results. Understudies can stay in contact with the official site to know more data about the Revaluation Results.
UPPSC Result 2020 @ uppsc.up.nic.in: Dear Aspirants !!! The officials of Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has conducted the written examinations for recruiting various posts. Many candidates have appeared for the Uttar Pradesh PSC Examination and waiting for their results. For the sake of the candidates, we have provided a quick link to download the UPPSC Result 2020 on this page. The Officials of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has released the UPPSC Result 2020 for various examinations. Go through the entire article to know more about the Uttar Pradesh PSC Result 2020. Aspirants can also get the Uttar Pradesh PSC Result 2020, Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 on this page.
UPPSC PCS Prelims Result 2020 Released: Dear Folks !!! Have you written the UPPSC Combined State/Subordinate Services Examination and waiting for the results? If yes, then it is the right destination to check your results. The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has organized the Combined State/ Subordinate Services Examination in December 2019successfully. A vast number of aspirants have appeared for this and they are waiting for the results. Therefore, the officials have announced the UPPSC PCS Result on 18th February 2020. For the sake of aspirants, we have provided a quick link to download the UPPSC PCS Prelims Result 2020. Also get the UPPSC Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 on this page.
UPPSC Computer Operator Result 2020 Released: Dear Candidates !!! Students who have appeared for the Uttar Pradesh PSC Computer Operator examination can get their exam results from here. Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Officials have released the UPPSC Computer Operator Result on 07thFebruary 2020. Here on this page, we have provided the direct link to download the UPPSC Computer Operator Result 2020. Candidates can get their results by clicking the link at the end of the page. Go through the entire article to know the UPPSC Cut Off Marks and Merit List 2020 here.
UPPSC Computer Operator Result 2020
Description
Details
Organization Name
Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission
Post Name
Programmer (State Agriculture Production Mandi Parishad), Programmer Grade-I Finance (Income- Expenditure) Department, Programmer Grade-2 (Statistical Agriculture and Crop Insurance), Computer Operator Grade "B" (U.P. Public Service Commission)
UPPSC Junior Engineer Result 2020 Released: The officials of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has conducted the Combined Junior Engineer Examination on 22nd & 23rd May 2016 for Junior Engineer (Civil, Mechanical, Agriculture) posts. Many candidates have written the Combined Junior Engineer Examination and now they are waiting for the results. Now, the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has released the UPPSC Junior Engineer Result on 06th February 2020. To help the candidates, we have updated a quick link to download the UPPSC Junior Engineer Result 2020. All the aspirants can also get the UPPSC Junior Engineer Result, Cut Off Marks, Merit List 2020 on this page.
UPPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer Result 2020: Dear Aspirants !!! Most of the candidates are waiting for the UPPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer Result 2020. The officials of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission has conducted the Written Examination on 9th June 2019 successfully. Many aspirants have appeared and waiting for the results. The Higher Authority of Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission is planning to release the UPPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer Result in February 2020 (Tentatively). Here on this page, we have provided the direct link to download the UPPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer Result 2020 and itwill be activated at the time of the official announcement.
UPPSC Assistant Prosecution Officer Result 2020: Click Here
UPPSC Cut Off Marks 2020 @ uppsc.up.nic.in
The UPPSC Cut Off Marks 2020 will be released once the results are declared. The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission will be releasing the UPPSC Cut Off Marks 2020 according to the categories of the candidates SC, ST, BC, OC. The Cut Off Marks plays an important role in every candidate's life. Aspirants should know the cut off marks before appearing for the examination to secure the highest marks. The officials will soon announce the UPPSC Cut Off Marks 2020 on the official website. After the result is announced on the official website, candidates can check the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission Cut Off Marks 2020 from here. The officials should consider some factors for releasing the Cut Off Marks.
Reservation category of the candidate (General, OBC, SC, ST)
The number of candidates attended the examination.
The number of vacancies available for the post.
Toughness level of the question paper.
Based on the previous year cut off marks.
Uttar Pradesh PSC Merit List 2020
In this section, candidates can get the complete details of the Uttar Pradesh PSC Merit List 2020. The Merit List contains the candidates’ names who have scored the highest marks in the examination. After the declaration of the results, the Uttar Pradesh PSC Merit List will be released on the official website. All the candidates can download the UPPSC Merit List 2020 from this page. Candidates who have shortlisted in the Uttar Pradesh PSC Examination can move for the next rounds of the selection process.
How to Download Uttar Pradesh PSC Result 2020?
Initially, visit the official website of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission @ uppsc.up.nic.in.
Now, the home page of Uttar Pradesh PSC opens on the screen.
Then, Search for the Information Bulletin on the home page.
After that, click on the Results tab.
Search for the link related to the UPPSC Result 2020 for the required posts.
And then click on the Result Link.
Finally, Check and download UPPSC Result 2020 for further references.
Name of the Organization : Odisha Mining Corporation Limited Walk in Date : 23/09/2016 Application Mode : Online Job Location : Odisha Total Vacancies : 38 Posts Name of the Post: Various Posts
VSU Results 2020 – Hello Students!! It’s time to check your Exam results. Yes, Vikrama Simhapuri University has published the results for UG (CBCS) Fifth Semester, LLB 5Y X Sem, LLB 5y III Sem, Revaluation Results B.Tech, MBA CBCS III Sem, UG CBCS I III V Sem Supply and other Courses results are available here. The University has announced the results for all the Courses like, Under Graduate, Post Graduate, Regular, Supplementary and other Students. Here we will be updating the Upcoming University Results link, it will work once the University will be announcing it officially. Also, here on this page, recruitment.guru we have updated all the recent VSU Results which have declared by the University. Students of Simhapuri University stay in touch with our webpage to get updated information regarding the results/ Admissions/ Examinations about the Vikrama Simhapuri University.
Vikrama Simhapuri University Results || VSU Results 2020
Under Graduate and Post Graduate semester examinations to audit the performance of the Students of Vikrama Simhapuri University. Course wise Vikrama Simhapuri University Degree Results are released on the Official Website. Apart from VSU degree results, the students may also check for Revaluation results along with VSU Exam Dates. Currently, the University has released the VSU MBA Results. Semester-wise UG and PG degree results can be availed from VSU's official website. On the listing page, you need to enter your Register No. post clicking on the desired course link. Here, we have provided direct links to find your results through individual links on this page. We request the Students to check all the University results from this page recruitment.guru. We advise the Students to regularly check the official website of the University to get the latest updates related to the Examination Results.
Visit the official website of Vikrama Simhapuri University i.e simhapuriuniv.ac.in
In the home page, you will find the Result tab
Then click on the appropriate results which you need to check
A new page will be open, here Students have to enter the registration number
The results page will be open, Students can download/verify the results
Take the printout of the VSU Degree Results until the official marks card is released by the VSU Board.
About Vikrama Simhapuri University
Vikrama Simhapuri University (VSU) is an open state college in the Nellore area of Andhra Pradesh, India. Simhapuri University began up in 2008 with Six Courses. Presently, the college is putting forth 17 post-graduate courses in college school. VSU is basically an undergrad and post-graduate college. With these requests, SVU PG Center in Kavali, NBKR Engineering College in Vidyanagar, 52 degree and PG schools, 12 MBA/MCA universities, V.R. Law school, 12 B.Ed universities, two oriental schools in SPSR Nellore District went under VSU. Later on, NBKR Engineering school moved its association to JNTU Anantapur.
VSU Supply/Revaluation Results
Understudies get an opportunity to apply for the revaluation, if the understudies may get low checks in the examination, they can apply for the Revaluation results. So again the leader of the Examiner will survey the appropriate response paper. After revaluation, understudies may get high stamps. In any case, on the off chance that anybody got low checks, they can apply for the Supplementary Examinations. For Revaluation/Supplementary, understudies should pay the expense. Understudies can get every one of the outcomes from this page Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results. Understudies of the Vikrama Simhapuri University can also get all Results Also. Just we are encouraging the Students to as often as possible visit this page to get the most recent updates of all VSU Results 2020.
Punjabi University Result 2020 Released: Check out Punjabi University Result New here for B.A.B.Ed. Sem-VI. what’s more, Other Courses on 28th 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.
AU Results 2020 Released: Dear Students !!! Get your Andhra University Results for UG, PG, Diploma and Other Courses Examination directed by the Andhra University. Andhra University has reported the outcomes for different UG and PG Courses on 28th February 2020. Understudies who have accomplished the Examination can download the outcomes from the official site of the University i.e, andhrauniversity.edu.in. Here, we have given an immediate connection to get the Andhra University Results 2020. It will assist the understudies in downloading the outcomes with no confusion. So stay in contact with our recruitment.guru page for future updates moreover.
Download AU Results 2020 @ andhrauniversity.edu.in
Understudies who have shown up for Andhra University Exams 2019 can check their Regular, Supplementary and Revaluation Results through Online. Everybody can check and download the outcomes from the University online gateway just as on this page. Here on this page, we used to refresh the most recent data about the Andhra University Results 2020, aside from this we will assist you with the trip with the University’s most recent updates. As of late, Andhra University has discharged the outcomes for some Courses each day. So, we prompt the understudies who are seeking after under Andhra University can assess their exhibition by getting the most recent refreshed Andhra University Results 2020 through our recruitment.guru site.
Latest Updated Andhra University Results 2020
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M.SC GEOGRAPHY FIRST SEMESTER EXAMINATION HELD IN NOVEMBER 2019.
Sri Krishnadevaraya University is a state-funded college in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh, India, established on July 25, 1981. The college is named after a supporter of learning and expressions of the human experience, Sri Krishnadevaraya, of the Vijayanagara realm of the sixteenth century. The college is a branch of the past Postgraduate Center of Sri Venkateswara University that began in 1968. In this manner, in 1976, the SVU Postgraduate Center achieved independent status. Its Vice-Chancellor for the initial two terms was M. Abel. In 1987, with a capital expenditure of Rs. 1.2 crores, Sri Krishnadevaraya Institute of Management was begun with subsidizing from the UGC.
SVU Revaluation Exam Result
Sri Krishnadevaraya University conducts ordinary just as strengthening assessment for the individuals who are concentrating under the University. Those understudies who bombed in the fundamental semester assessment has one progressively opportunity to score well. For every single semester, Students can apply for the revaluation after the declaration of the primary assessment results. The Sri Krishnadevaraya University will take up to seven days to process the test papers to report the Sri Krishnadevaraya University Revaluation Exam Results. Currently, the University of Sri Krishnadevaraya has discharged the revaluation results for UG, PG with all-locale Students. So Students can check the Revaluation results from the official site just as on this. We have connected the immediate connect to get the Supply/Revaluation Results.
OU Results 2020 Released: Dear Students !!! Welcome to our Osmania University Results Page. Competitors who are concentrating under Osmania University can get the total outcome subtleties here. We will refresh you with all the semester test results alongside the imprinted sheet. Understudies can get the OU Exam Results 2020 according to coordinate links. We propose the competitors seeking after courses in Osmania University to remain refreshed with the Official Website. So understudies who are concentrating under Osmania University can look at the most recent Updated University Results 2020 on this recruitment.guru page.
Osmania University Result 2020 has discharged for all the Under Graduate and Post Graduate Degree. The applicants who have shown up for the assessment have been hanging tight for the OU Results 2020. What’s more, here is the most recent data in regards to the University. Understudies can get the Ph.D., B.E Revaluation Results, Pharm-D, Ph.D. (Course Work), MBA and Other Courses Regular and Revaluation Results. We individuals from recruitment.guru have refreshed the Osmania University results as indicated by the outcome discharged to date. Additionally, We have likewise appended the immediate connect to download the OU Revaluation Results 2020 for your reference. Understudies can likewise check with the Osmania University Official Website @osmania.ac.in
How to Download the Osmania University Results 2020?
Check out for the Official Website of OU @osmania.ac.in
On the home page, go for the Examination Tab.
Now select the Results tab on to your left.
A new page opens up with various results.
Enter your Hall Ticket Number and click on the Submit button.
Within a few seconds, the result will appear on the screen.
Students can now take a screenshot or download the results for future reference.
About Osmania University
Osmania University set up in 1918. Osmania University is the seventh most seasoned University in the Country. It is the third most seasoned in South India. Osmania University is the first in the august territory of Hyderabad. The foundation of Osmania University symbolizes a renaissance in the Indian Educational System. It has indicated momentous flexibility all through its reality. It has green grounds of 500 hectares set in beautiful. Osmania University had a pure environment. It claims the number of structures of extraordinary building style and assortment to upgrade the excellence of the grounds. The college is an independent establishment. The college holds the lead for Higher Education of Government of Telangana and has assumed a key job in arranging, starting and actualizing different improvement programs.
Ordinary/Supplementary Results for OU
Understudies of OU ought to find good pace insights about the Revaluation Results. Once after the principle assessment is led, the University will give you one progressively possibility. On the off chance that you fizzle or score low checks in the semester test, the college will allow you another opportunity called Revaluation mode. Candidates do check with the Official Website to think about the Revaluation methodology. Understudies can get the Regular, Revaluation and Supplementary Results for the OU here. This Revaluation procedure may take half a month to process the outcomes. Through the procedure of revaluation, understudies can expand their semester test positioning or the individuals who bombed in the assessment will get an opportunity to pass. Along these lines, we encourage the contender to remain refreshed with our page to assemble more data about the OU Revaluation Results.
MUMBAI: The new Vivaad se Vishwas tax litigation settlement scheme appears to have come as a blessing for those who came under scrutiny following demonetisation, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter. They include promoters of several mining, commodities, textile and real estate companies who deposited unaccounted money or made supposedly questionable entries in the account books.Several sectors that transact in cash were left holding large sums when Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes were rendered invalid in November 2016. Several companies deposited the cash they were holding in bank accounts. Some allegedly faked entries in their financial statements to justify cash holdings and subsequently came to the attention of the tax department.In most cases, the income tax department issued notices to the companies and questioned the source of funds under Section 68 of the Income Tax Act dealing with unexplained cash credits in bank accounts or company books."Many promoters of companies that had received notices under Section 68 during the demonetisation are now looking to settle the litigation under the Vivaad se Vishwas scheme," said Girish Vanvari, the founder of tax advisory firm Transaction Square. "This would mean that they can just pay up the taxes and there could be no more questioning around the unexplained credits in their bank accounts or the entries in their books."For example, a Mumbai-based real estate company with a substantial presence in the western suburbs had about Rs 20 crore that it showed as cash on hand at the time of demonetisation. The taxman questioned the company later and found that the buyers mentioned by it were fictitious.Experts said the largest chunk of people taking advantage of the scheme are not those who had faced raids and searches but were served with notices during demonetisation.The settlement scheme was formulated as an estimated 480,000 cases have been pending in the courts and quasi-judicial forums for years and it could take a long while before the tax department sees any of the money, assuming it eventually wins. The total value of these disputes is pegged at Rs 9.32 lakh crore.The revenue department has issued notices to about 10,000 people seeking details on the source of income as it analyses data on deposits of cancelled notes. It also went after certain "entry operators" that helped several companies generate fake invoices as part of the exercise.All these companies are opting for the settlement scheme under which there will be no interest or penalties levied if all the taxes are paid up."The biggest relief for the taxpayer is that there would be no future investigation or prosecution if they had deposited unaccounted money in bank accounts," said Jeenendra Bhandari, partner, MGB and Co, a tax advisory firm."This would be a huge relief for several small companies that were holding onto cash during demonetisation and had to deposit that amount in their bank accounts. 74410091 In another case, a New Delhi-based commodities company used invoices to show that money had come in from certain customers. An investigation revealed these to be fake entries.The modus operandi of these firms was to get registered as suppliers on the books of companies. They would then issue fake invoices for supplying goods or providing services, receive payment by cheque and return the amount in cash after deducting a 2% commission.Experts said demonetisation brought several suspicious transactions under the tax department's scrutiny through cross-referencing with older data on cash deposits. The government had also used advanced big data tools for both structured and unstructured data and analysed and established relationships among different entities or people up to 16 levels deep, based on different sets of information such as addresses, phone calls, social media interactions, travel trends and income tax returns."Many companies have moved away from doing the business the old way and their cash transactions have gone down tremendously. These companies now want a clean slate for the earlier tax notices and this scheme could be a huge boon," said the head of a major tax advisory firm.
MUMBAI|NEW DELHI: Chinese expats working in India are on an extended New Year holiday back home because of the Covid-19 outbreak.About 7,000 Chinese expats in sectors such as automobiles, electronics, mobile phones and ecommerce work in cities such as Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and Jaipur. The majority had gone home for the Chinese New Year toward the end of January, a period coinciding with the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak."The epicentre of the Chinese (outbreak) may form only about 2-4% of Chinese expats, but it is fear psychosis that is putting them in trouble," said Aravind Yelery, senior fellow at HSBC Business School, Peking University. "Some of the expats who are back after being examined or quarantined at the airports may find it tough to convince neighbours on their return to India."The situation may not drastically improve in the next four to six weeks. The virus may cease to spread but worries associated with the contagion may linger. There has been a 15-20% drop in the number of Chinese expats coming to India, according to an estimate by Yelery. 74409972 Great Wall Motors (GWM) had about 20 Chinese executives in India from the end of December. While nearly half of them went back after the Auto Expo, the remaining have stayed back to set up operations in the country."The top management from China was supposed to visit during the expo," said Kaushik Ganguly, director, corporate strategy and planning, Great Wall Motors. "However, given the sentiments, they consciously took a decision to not travel for the motor show and related business meetings."Even personnel working on Indian infrastructure projects have been affected. "My business interactions with the Chinese have significantly shrunk," said Jijo KP, a Mumbai-based businessman who owns a facility at Zhejiang province in China. "Expats are finding it difficult to travel and conduct business meetings."Employers typically terminate employment contracts after a waiting period of two months in case of hard-hatted personnel. For skilled jobs, executives may have to go on unpaid vacation beyond a month.Indian companies need Chinese engineers for several industry verticals and job functions such as after-sales services, business development and market audits."Getting new investments or a business visa to India is a challenge," said New Delhi's Rishi Sahai, who provides crossborder transaction advisory services between companies in India and Chinese investors or partners. "Local employers and the government are trying to mitigate concerns through frequent announcements and palliative measures."India has suspended e-visa facilities for mainland Chinese travellers and foreigners residing there. It has also cancelled existing visas for Chinese nationals and foreigners who visited China in the past 14 days."We are watching the situation and hoping things get back to normal quickly," said Ganguly.
MUMBAI: Indian equities have shed their entire gains of 2020, caught in the global flight of capital from risk assets in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak. But financial planners are advising savers to not only stay put, but also invest more using the systematic investment plans (SIPs)."SIP investors should allocate 70% to large-caps, 20% to mid-caps and 10% in small-caps," says Vishal Dhawan, chief financial planner, Plan Ahead Wealth Managers.Dhawan believes those investors who have strayed from this allocation, should rebalance their portfolios now. Many investors who chased past returns and started SIPs post-2017, allocated as high as 70-80% to mid- and small-cap funds with the balance to large-cap funds. With the sharp fall in the markets during this week on fears of coronavirus spreading globally, many retail investors are a worried lot.As per data from Value Research, three-year average SIP returns for large-cap funds category is 5.9%, large- and mid-cap funds 4.77%, multi-cap funds 5.24%, mid-cap funds 3.96% and for small-cap funds it is -0.16%. 74410792 Some financial planners believe it is an opportune time for retail investors to top-up their SIPs."While the markets have fallen sharply, the bounce back too could be equally fast and retail investors should stay put and not read much into this. A fall in the market is an opportunity for SIP investors as they can get more units of the scheme due to the fall in price," says Vijay Kuppa, founder, Orowealth.Financial planners believe that investors doing SIPs in equity mutual funds should come in for a time frame of 7-10 years. "Investors coming in for a shorter duration should move to other products," says Dhawan. For example, if an investor has a time frame of 3 years, he could go to dynamic asset allocation funds, or equity savings funds. These schemes have a mix of debt and equity and come with lower volatility than pure equity funds.The number of investors using the SIP route to invest in equity mutual fund schemes is increasing gradually over the last three years, with many first timers too entering the fray and mapping their longterm financial goals to SIPs.AMFI data shows that the MF industry had added, on an average, 9.81 lakh SIP accounts each month during FY20, with an average SIP size of about Rs 2,800 per account. Inflows through the SIP route have been steady and investors have poured in more than Rs 8,000 crore every month for the last 14 months, despite volatile equity markets. Investors have poured in Rs 67,190 crore through SIPs in FY18, Rs 92,693 crore in FY19 and Rs 82,930 crore in the first 10 months of the current financial year.
MUMBAI: Tata Motors is winding up its auto retail business Concorde Motors as part of its strategy to move away from non-core businesses. Set up in the late 90s in partnership with Jardine Matheson's Jardine Motors, the Concorde retail business over the years has been losing money on account of high costs and low volumes.The company has registered a loss for seven consecutive years with cumulative losses crossing over Rs 366 crore. The winding-up process is in the final stages and it will be consummated before the end of this fiscal year. The company has sold almost all its outlets barring a couple of locations, which too may be executed shortly, say people in the know.Interestingly, this happens at a time when market leader Maruti Suzuki has decided to invest over Rs 1,500 crore annually on acquiring its own real estate for dealership as the high-cost structure in major cities is dissuading many entrepreneurs from entering the auto retail business or take up any new opportunities.Concorde is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors and has been a one-stop solution to provide sales, service and space parts for the Tata Motors passenger car. The company had 34 showrooms and 17 workshops with a workforce of 2,200 plus employees at end of FY19, which are on the last stage of liquidation.One of the people in the know of the matter said a corporate running a dealership has multiple challenges of governance which also spikes up the cost. "The nimbleness is missing. As against an entrepreneur taking his own calls, the decision-making for a corporate has to follow a certain structured process which adds to the cost and inefficiency. The operational performance of Concorde clearly underlines the issues company faces," added the person requesting the anonymity.74410198 Tata Motors spokesperson confirmed the development and told ET the company believes the original goals of setting up Concorde have been met and to enable and drive the next phase of growth, the company will move out of the dealership business and focus its resources on the core areas."The operations of Concorde are being seamlessly transitioned into other dealer partners in the various cities that Concorde is present in thereby building significant scale to their business while our customers will continue to enjoy uninterrupted excellent service," added the spokesperson.The revenues at Concorde grew annually 12% to Rs 1,215 crore between FY14 and FY19; however, the profits continues to remain under severe pressure. It has posted losses for the last seven fiscal years, according to data compiled from the historical Tata Motors annual report. In FY12, the company posted net profit of Rs 0.70 crore with a turnover of Rs 939 crore.In the past two fiscal years, the company has been Ebitda negative and the overhead costs were higher than gross profit of the company. Beside this, there was substantial increase in working capital requirements, leading to 16% increase in interest costs from Rs 47.38 crore to Rs 54.95 crore. The debt of Concorde stood at Rs 582 crore at end of FY19, out of which Rs 337 crore is secured and the remaining is unsecured.The cumulative losses of the company have been Rs 393 crore between FY15 and FY19, according to data compiled by ETIG from Concorde annual report of FY19.The exit from the company would mean, existing dealers can get a bigger pie of the market which was earlier being shared by the company owned outlets. This may boost dealer viability. Post closure, the revenues wont have an impact on company's financials, however the absolute losses of Concorde wont reflect on Tata Motors standalone business, and thereby it will boost the bottom-line, say people in the know.
MUMBAI: Tata Motors is winding up its auto retail business Concorde Motors as part of its strategy to move away from non-core businesses. Set up in the late 90s in partnership with Jardine Matheson's Jardine Motors, the Concorde retail business over the years has been losing money on account of high costs and low volumes.The company has registered a loss for seven consecutive years with cumulative losses crossing over Rs 366 crore. The winding-up process is in the final stages and it will be consummated before the end of this fiscal year. The company has sold almost all its outlets barring a couple of locations, which too may be executed shortly, say people in the know.Interestingly, this happens at a time when market leader Maruti Suzuki has decided to invest over Rs 1,500 crore annually on acquiring its own real estate for dealership as the high-cost structure in major cities is dissuading many entrepreneurs from entering the auto retail business or take up any new opportunities.Concorde is a fully-owned subsidiary of Tata Motors and has been a one-stop solution to provide sales, service and space parts for the Tata Motors passenger car. The company had 34 showrooms and 17 workshops with a workforce of 2,200 plus employees at end of FY19, which are on the last stage of liquidation.One of the people in the know of the matter said a corporate running a dealership has multiple challenges of governance which also spikes up the cost. "The nimbleness is missing. As against an entrepreneur taking his own calls, the decision-making for a corporate has to follow a certain structured process which adds to the cost and inefficiency. The operational performance of Concorde clearly underlines the issues company faces," added the person requesting the anonymity.74410198 Tata Motors spokesperson confirmed the development and told ET the company believes the original goals of setting up Concorde have been met and to enable and drive the next phase of growth, the company will move out of the dealership business and focus its resources on the core areas."The operations of Concorde are being seamlessly transitioned into other dealer partners in the various cities that Concorde is present in thereby building significant scale to their business while our customers will continue to enjoy uninterrupted excellent service," added the spokesperson.The revenues at Concorde grew annually 12% to Rs 1,215 crore between FY14 and FY19; however, the profits continues to remain under severe pressure. It has posted losses for the last seven fiscal years, according to data compiled from the historical Tata Motors annual report. In FY12, the company posted net profit of Rs 0.70 crore with a turnover of Rs 939 crore.In the past two fiscal years, the company has been Ebitda negative and the overhead costs were higher than gross profit of the company. Beside this, there was substantial increase in working capital requirements, leading to 16% increase in interest costs from Rs 47.38 crore to Rs 54.95 crore. The debt of Concorde stood at Rs 582 crore at end of FY19, out of which Rs 337 crore is secured and the remaining is unsecured.The cumulative losses of the company have been Rs 393 crore between FY15 and FY19, according to data compiled by ETIG from Concorde annual report of FY19.The exit from the company would mean, existing dealers can get a bigger pie of the market which was earlier being shared by the company owned outlets. This may boost dealer viability. Post closure, the revenues wont have an impact on company's financials, however the absolute losses of Concorde wont reflect on Tata Motors standalone business, and thereby it will boost the bottom-line, say people in the know.
MUMBAI: Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) plans to launch a cab aggregator for corporates called Alyte, expand its fleet of electric vehicles for taxi services, and bring all mobility businesses under a single business vertical. It will be a significant push into cab aggregator and shared mobility services segment."We are introducing a nationwide brand around our mobility service, called Alyte, this quarter," Rampraveen Swaminathan, CEO, Mahindra Logistics, told ET in an interview.Alyte, run under Mahindra Logistics; Meru Cabs, in which Mahindra group owns 55%; etaxi service Glyd; and First Choice, M&M's used car business, will be housed under the new mobility services vertical.M&M plans to roll out a mobile application for Alyte in the next month. It will work on the basis of contracts with companies — ferrying employees to and from workplaces to homes, warehouses or meetings.It will later diversify into an on-call service for corporates, allowing their employees to book a seat for airport drops, and other services. The app will work by punching in employee IDs or other account details.74410153 TOUGH ROAD AHEADAlyte will put Mahindra into direct competition with Ola — through Ola Corporate's significant presence — as well as Uber, which has entered more recently through Uber for Business. Over 10,000 companies across 22 different industries work with Ola Corporate.Uber during its IPO prospectus last year, said it got 1% of its global revenue from Uber for Business. Alyte, though, will be a business-to-business application and work through corporate tieups and not a public business-to-customer application such as Uber and Ola.While Mahindra plans to tie up with cab aggregators, it is also working on a scheme to help drivers get good deals from auto makers as well as vehicle financers. Mahindra also plans a "significant" investment in electric vehicles (EV) for Alyte, said Swaminathan. Mahindra currently has a leased fleet of 100, which it plans to increase five times by March 2021, he said, seeing as multinational companies have started to treat environmental sustainability as a priority.Uber plans to quadruple its electric vehicles fleet in India by the end of 2020, ET had reported earlier this week. Most mobility platforms, including Ola's electric arm, Bounce, Vogo, Yulu, as well as auto makers such as like Bajaj, Hero and Tata Motors are sharpening focus on electric mobility. Ola Electric is also running pilot electric mobility projects in Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Nagpur.Swaminathan said 30% of Alyte's fleet in three to four years will be electric. He did not share any more details.In December, non-executive chairman Anand Mahindra had made a reference to the new sector, called mobility services.
NEW DELHI: The sixth-day stocks rout on Dalal Street that culminated in Friday's meltdown has cast dark clouds over the much-awaited initial public offering of SBI Cards & Payment Services (SBI Card). The IPO, India's fifth largest, is set to open for subscription on Monday and runs through Thursday.Small investors in the primary market are worried if the carnage can hurt the prospects of the IPO. As much as 35 per cent of the issue size is reserved for small investors.Analysts said while the steep fall in the market is worrying for equity investors, it is unlikely to make a big difference in the primary market. In the worst-case scenario, there would be a marginal hit on IPO subscription level, which then may go on to affect listing premium.Analysts and traders in the unofficial market for unlisted shares have had bullish projections on the IPO and expect the stock to list with a decent premium.Unlisted shares of the company are already commanding Rs 350-365 premium over the IPO price range in grey market. If anything, this premium has only risen after the price band was fixed at Rs 750-755 on February 24.India's stock market has been under pressure ever since coronavirus fears hit Dalal Street for the first time on February 12. BSE benchmark Sensex has since plunged some 3,000 points, destroying some Rs 11.52 lakh crore of equity investors' wealth. "SBI Card was trading at a premium of Rs 250-280 per share in the grey market before the price band was announced. Post the announcement, the premium has surged to Rs 365 from Rs 325 per share (on the day of announcement)," said Dinesh Gupta of Unlisted Zone, a trader who deals in unlisted shares. He said the demand for the paper has remained strong.The premium for SBI Card shares has risen despite a steady fall and value erosion in the secondary market.Sandip Ginodia of Abhishek Securities that deals in shares in the unofficial market for unlisted stocks, said a Rs 5-10 change in premium makes no difference. "We have not seen any change in demand for SBI Card," he said.Astha Jain of Hem Securities, who reviews primary issues, said she has seen cycles where good IPOs have faced no trouble sailing through bad markets."It's a one-of-its-kind IPO. Investors have fancy for this issue. The worst that could come to mind is a slightly lower listing premium," she said.Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities echoed similar views, noting that the issue would run for four days instead of regular three days.Barring the horrible experience with Reliance Power, hardly any big issue has found difficulty in sailing through.The Rs 11,560 crore Reliance Power IPO, Indian second largest thus far, got subscribed 70 times between January 15 and January 18, 2008. The issue was subscribed within a few minutes of launch of the book-building process. By the end of Day 1 of the bidding process, the issue had received over 10 times subscription. The issue attracted over 5 million bids across categories.But that enthusiasm did not last. Investors, who had been overjoyed on receiving IPO allotments, were in for a rude shock when the stock had a terrible start amid adverse global market sentiment at the start of the meltdown following the US housing crisis.The stock surged 19 per cent to Rs 538 at start, but saw the expectation of a dream debut vanish into thin air within four minutes of listing as it nosedived to Rs 355 before closing the session at Rs 372 against an issue price of Rs 450. In just one day, the stock wiped out billions of rupees of investor wealth. The stock never rose from there.The Coal India issue had a stellar run. The Rs 15,100 crore IPO, India's biggest-ever, was sold between October 18 and October 21 and the issue had left marketmen making all sorts of predictions about how it might suck out liquidity from the secondary market.The issue garnered bids worth $53 billion, more than the individual GDP of 140 countries as of FY10. It was 10 times India's health budget for 2010-11, five times India's education budget and one-fourth the size of the Union Budget itself.SBI Card IPO will be India's fifth biggest. The issue win run from March 2 to March 5.
I am seeing Bank Nifty down about 800 points, 1,000 points plus on the Sensex, Dow Futures pointing to another 200-point plus cut already. What are we looking at here?I know it is looking depressing, but actually it is quite positive because what we are seeing is something which was happening in the US. The leveraged guys are getting killed here. Here also, if you look at the stocks, it is all about the Nifty stocks. They are the ones which have high FII representation. This means that they are deleveraging overseas, which is what is getting hit. If you look at Unilever or the Nestles of the world, they have not moved at all. So to that extent, Indian market and investors are holding strong because we have a very deleveraged setup compared to the global markets and that is holding us in true step today. All the stocks that are non-FII driven, by and large where domestic investors and mutual funds have large holdings, continue to do well at this point of time in context of the market. There is nothing much to grieve and worry about. It is the Nifty stocks that will be part of the global rout but our market has held firm compared to the rest of the world.Would you buy these dips given that we are not quite sure where the bottom is right now?There are two ways to look at it. One, if you are taking future positions in the market, where you need to cover up the margins, you have to be careful in an environment like this. We have been lucky so far on the virus, but if the virus hits Kolkata or Delhi or Mumbai, I do not think we have the wherewithal to do what is required for this virus and nobody knows where this will end up. We are in a territory where the future is so uncertain that we do not know if it comes into India in a big way, where will we end up in terms of the economy, which is already quite weak. So buying is a little speculative. If you have got cash on the side and if you have not invested, it could be a decent buying opportunity. You know that you cannot go very wrong with the top banks or with the top mortgage lender because ultimately, when all the dust will settle down, we will start to live again. But we need to wait it out to see where this thing is going to end up. If it comes to India, this red is nothing. What more will come is something which we do not want to even imagine.Let us talk about the overall crude oil impact. Do you think that some of these fears that are working in our favour also seem to be patchy in nature because the macro backdrop does not look too encouraging?The macro backdrop is changing because one big item of the Budget was disinvestment. One, we are not exactly sure in this kind of an equity environment, what is going to happen to the disinvestment. Two, if the trade stops, the tax collections will obviously drop. As it is, we had a bad Budget in terms of what it came out to be. On top of that, if the LIC IPO gets postponed or the BPCL or Air India disinvestment for that matter, it will be a big lynchpin. This is an issue that is bothering India. But yes, you have rightly said that oil is greatly favouring us. In terms of the price, oil has gone down quite substantially. There is a lot of tailwind on the Indian economy but it doesn't matter anymore. We are not talking about the economy. We are just purely talking about the sentiment with respect to what will happen if this virus lands up in a big way on Indian shores. We are already seeing what has happened to America, and Nifty as we are seeing is deleveraging. I am not saying that I am not buying. For instance, my team bought an airport company in the morning because airports will eventually make it and we are buying aviation stocks. It is not that we are not buying aviation stocks but a wholesale deployment of cash is something which we are worried about at this point of time. And two, the correction is not so deep. If you look at the Nestles of the world, the correction is about 4-5%; unless they go to 10-20%, they do not make sense. So in the deep correction, Indian stocks, by and large MNCs, are still quoting at PEs of above 60. Now that is a steep price to get in even at this correction.
NEW DELHI: It's been a tough few years for Samsung in the Indian handset market, where it has struggled to keep pace with or beat back competition from Chinese rivals such as Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo.The first signs of vulnerability came when Samsung lost the smartphone crown to Xiaomi in the September quarter of 2017. In July-September 2019, it was pushed to No. 3 in smartphones by another Chinese player, Vivo. In the same quarter, Samsung also lost its top position in the overall market – smartphones and feature phones – to Xiaomi, after some nine years at the top. Xiaomi though only sells smartphones. Meanwhile, Oppo and Realme are breathing down its neck.According to analysts, Samsung wasn't as nimble as its Chinese rivals and couldn't take advantage of the expansion in the online segment. They however added that Samsung can bounce back, given its investments in technology and local manufacturing, the reputation of its devices and the deep penetration of the offline phone market. It's the only major handset company to manufacture from the ground up in India."The gaps in Samsung's portfolio have provided opportunities for other smartphone brands, especially new market entrants, to strategise, spot the gaps, and leverage market opportunities," said Prabhu Ram, head of the industry intelligence group at CyberMedia Research (CMR).Faisal Kawoosa, founder and principal analyst at research firm TechArc, added that Samsung's "brand arrogance has caused it to grossly underestimate the marketing potential of the Chinese companies who have now created a niche in almost every price segment. And, of course, their exclusive channel strategy has failed them too."Other factors include brand fatigue among buyers excited by the offerings of newer brands, said market watchers."Samsung must shun its brand arrogance at a time when other competitors are winning in their brand messaging, especially on digital media," said Kawoosa. "Samsung is nowhere close to social media marketing by its Chinese counterparts."Samsung didn't respond to ET's queries.But the company isn't like others that didn't invest in technology and were vanquished by Chinese entrants, said a person familiar with Samsung's strategy, pointing out that it has so far invested nearly Rs8,500 crore just in local manufacturing in India in recent years. Noida is the company's largest manufacturing facility in the world and Samsung has one of its best R&D centres in Bengaluru, the person said.As India's smartphone market slows, analysts said Samsung needs to ramp up its strategy in three areas—price points, sales channels and marketing. They point out that the company had fended off competition from the likes of Asus, HTC and Blackberry early on."Samsung has technological leadership in foldable smartphones and holds the edge with its new premium 5G and 4G offerings," Ram said. "Lastly, it has a deep mastery of the offline market segment that is critical to fuel the next wave of smartphone growth. Samsung's Make in India moves also enable it to offer more India-specific customizations for Indian consumers and roll out new offerings swiftly."Analysts expect Samsung to regain some lost ground by taking advantage of the disruption in the Chinese supply chain because of the Covid-19 outbreak. Samsung has lined up nine new launches in early 2020 as per data from the Bureau of India Standards.Most of Samsung's competitors are diversifying in terms of products and channel strategy, said Tarun Pathak, associate director, Counterpoint Market Research. "Samsung also needs to do that, if they have to reclaim some of the lost share," he said.Samsung reoriented and strengthened its product portfolio last year, launching the M and A series of smartphones targeting value-for-money buyers. The first was aimed at online buyers and the second at the offline market."Of the new product offerings, smartphone models such as A50 and M30 did perform well for Samsung," Ram said. "While Samsung was able to build inroads into the online segment, it ceded some space for brands such as Vivo in the offline segment."In its bid to succeed online, it hasn't handled the offline channel too well, said Navkender Singh, research director at International Data Corporation (IDC). Offline contributes more than 55% to sales, he said."Online share can always be claimed back because the stakeholders are very few," he said. "But the commitment, investment and management that Samsung has built in offline retail over the past 20 years will be challenging to claim back."Samsung will look to boost its offerings in the premium segment this year at various price points, ranging from uber-premium foldable phones to premium flagship handsets. It needs to complement this with aggressive marketing, across both online and offline platforms, said Ram.Several storied brands have fallen victim to complacency, experts recalled. "Samsung's transition from the older J series to the fresh A series came really late in 2019 when all major brands were already spicing up the space with newer specs," said Pathak.The company needs to have a plan to take on the likes of Xiaomi, Vivo, Oppo and Realme, already foraying into the mid-premium space, and Apple, which rules the uber-premium market."It's all about aspiration of the brand—if they want to rule the premium and mid-premium segment" said IDC's Singh. "At the same time, they cannot ignore the below $200 space, which is still 80% of the market in India."
Bengaluru: Logistics, sales, and customer service were the top three job functions that saw maximum demand for jobs this year, according to the 'Blue Collar Jobs Digest 2020' study by OLX People, a tech-powered HR platform. The study on India's blue collar jobs industry takes a closer look at the job situation in the blue collar sector in India and how it is going to shape up in 2020. With over 1.3 million monthly active users and over 426 active clients present across 200+ cities, the conversion ratio of selections made-to-jobs posted was 33.85% in 2018, which rose to a whopping 70% in 2019. This has led to employers witnessing a 2X increase in conversion rate on the platform owing to the use of artificial intelligence and other emerging technology tools, making it easier for HR recruiters to find the right candidates. While there was a 60% growth in the number of candidate profiles registered on the platform, there has been a significant increase in women candidates, who comprise nearly a quarter of all candidates registered. The platform also provided a healthy choice of candidate profiles - on average, there were 30 applications per job posted on the platform, over 2018 and 2019.Women candidates over the past two years have shown an upward trend in taking up jobs in logistics, and are listing their profiles along with required skills to get shortlisted by corporates and startups. There was an overall increase of 18% among job posts for women in 2019 as compared to 2018."Jobs in the logistics vertical have seen the maximum growth on our platform, driven by the logistics outsourcing need of ecommerce companies, infrastructure development, boost in government policies, and advancement of technologies. This has also been a result of better payouts and facilitation of flexible hours for gig workers, " said Nilabh Kapoor, business head - India, OLX People."Industry estimates suggest that the logistics sector will create employment for at least three million people by 2022. We envision logistics to be the biggest job creator in 2020 on our platform, mirroring this trend," he said. OLX People, a Naspers group entity, was founded in 2014 and seeks to leverage India's rich human resource pool by making recruitment easy for employers and job seekers across industries, hierarchies, cities in India. Currently, it manages payroll and hiring for over 350 clients spread over 200+ locations. OLX People is a part of OLX Group , a marketplace for jobs, pre-owned cars and motorbikes, mobile phones, household items and real estate.
Well, after what I’m sure was a hectic few days for the folks planning the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the team announced today that they have officially decided to cancel the event happening this March, saying in a blog post that they hoped they would be able to reschedule an event for “later in the summer.”
In recent days, nearly all of the event’s top corporate sponsors announced that they would not be sending employees to the event due to concerns surrounding coronavirus. Microsoft, Unity, Epic, Amazon, Facebook and Sony had all bowed out of the event. GDC’s statement did not reference the virus.
The company behind GDC detailed that they will be refunding conference and expo attendees in full, though a blog post details that the group hopes to host a GDC event later in the summer, noting, “We will be working with our partners to finalize the details and will share more information about our plans in the coming weeks.”
GDC is just the latest tech conference to be shuttered in the wake of worldwide concern surrounding the outbreak of coronavirus. Yesterday, Facebook announced it would be canceling the in-person component of its F8 conference and we have already seen the cancellation of GSMA‘s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
A year ago, Lyft submitted a report to the California Department of Motor Vehicles that summed up its 2018 autonomous vehicle testing activity in a single, short paragraph.
“Lyft Inc. did not operate any vehicles in autonomous mode on California public roads during the reporting period,” the letter read. “As such, Lyft Inc. has no autonomous mode disengagements to report.”
The 2019 data tells a different story. Lyft had 19 autonomous vehicles testing on public roads in California in 2019, according to data released earlier this week by the CA DMV. Those 19 vehicles, which operated during the reporting period of December 2018 to November 2019, drove nearly 43,000 miles in autonomous mode.
The report is the latest sign that Lyft is trying to ramp up its self-driving vehicle program known as Level 5.
The CA DMV, the agency that regulates autonomous vehicle testing on public roads in the state, requires companies to submit an annual report that includes data such as total AV miles driven and number of vehicles. It also requires companies to report "disengagements," a term that describes each time a self-driving vehicle disengages out of autonomous mode either because its technology failed or a human safety driver took manual control for safety reasons.
That’s still far below established AV developers such as Cruise and Waymo, which accumulated 831,000 and 1.45 million autonomous miles, respectively. And it makes up just a tiny sliver of the total autonomous miles racked up by the 36 companies that tested on public roads in 2019.
The total number of autonomous miles driven in 2019 rose 40%, to more than 2.87 million, thanks largely to a notable uptick in public on-road testing by Baidu, Cruise, Pony.ai, Waymo and Zoox. While the number of companies with testing permits grew to 60 in 2019, the percentage of companies actually testing on public roads fell to about 58%. In 2018, about 62% of the 48 companies that held permits tested on public roads.
Other companies scaled back public testing in California. Some moved public testing outside of California, others retracted due to the high cost. Others said they were opting to place greater emphasis on simulation.
Still, the report shows Lyft is doing more than partnering with autonomous vehicle companies like Aptiv . Lyft and Aptiv launched a robotaxi pilot in January 2018 in Las Vegas. The program, which puts Aptiv vehicles on Lyft’s ride-hailing network, surpassed 100,000 rides this month. Human safety drivers are always behind the wheel and the vehicles do not drive autonomously in parking lots and hotel lobby areas.
Lyft’s Level 5 program — a nod to the SAE automated driving level that means the vehicle handles all driving in all conditions — was launched in July 2017. Today, Level 5 employs more than 400 people in the U.S., Munich and London.
Testing on public roads in California began in November 2018 with a pilot program in Palo Alto that provided rides to Lyft employees in Palo Alto. The pilot provided on-demand rides set on fixed routes, such as traveling between the Lyft office and Caltrain.
Since then, the company has expanded the scope and geography of the pilot. By late 2019, Lyft was driving four times more autonomous miles per quarter than it was six months prior.
Lyft is also testing on a dedicated closed-course track in East Palo Alto that it opened in November 2019. The company told TechCrunch it uses this facility, which can be changed to include intersections, traffic lights and merges, to test software prior to putting its vehicles on public roads.
A new startup called Notivize aims to give product teams direct access to one of their most important tools for increasing user engagement — notifications.
The company has been testing the product with select customers since last year and says it has already sent hundreds of thousands of notifications. And this week, it announced that it has raised $500,000 in seed funding led by Heroic Ventures .
Notivize co-founder Matt Bornski has worked at a number of startups, including AppLovin and Wink, and he said he has “so many stories I can tell you about the time it takes to change a notification that's deeply embedded in your stack.”
To be clear, Bornski isn’t talking about a simple marketing message that’s part of a scheduled campaign. Instead, he said that the “most valuable” notifications (e.g. the ones that users actually respond to) are usually driven by activity in an app.
For example, it might sound obvious to send an SMS message to a customer once the product they’ve purchased has shipped, but Bornski said that actually creating a notification like that would normally require an engineer to write new code.
“There's the traditional way that these things are built: The product team specs out that we need to send this email when this happens, or send this SMS or notification when this happens, then the engineering team will go in and find the part of the code where they detect that such a thing has happened,” he said. “What we really want to do is give [the product team] the toolkit, and I think we have.”
So with Notivize, non-coding members of the product and marketing team can write “if-then” rules that will trigger a notification. And this, Bornski said, also makes it easier to “A/B test and optimize your copy and your send times and your channels” to ensure that your notifications are as effective as possible.
He added that companies usually don’t build this for themselves, because when they’re first building an app, it’s “not a rational thing to invest your time and effort in when you're just testing the market or you're struggling for product market fit.” Later on, however, it can be challenging to “go in and rip out all the old stuff” — so instead, you can just take advantage of what Notivize has already built.
Bornski also emphasized that the company isn’t trying to replace services that provide the “plumbing” for notifications. Indeed, Notivize actually integrates with SendGrid and Twilio to send the notifications.
“The actual sending is not the core value [of what we do],” he said. “We’re improving the quality of what you're paying for, of what you send.”
Notivize allows customers to send up to 100 messages per month for free. After that, pricing starts at $14.99 per month.
"The steady march of low-code and no-code solutions into the product management and marketing stack continues to unlock market velocity and product innovation," said Heroic Ventures founder Michael Fertik in a statement. “Having been an early investor in several developer platforms, it is clear that Notivize has cracked the code on how to empower non-technical teams to manage critical yet complex product workflows.”
There are plenty of accelerators aiming to sway young startups to join their ranks rather than apply to Y Combinator, but Pioneer‘s sell is a bit different.
First off, they are fully remote; founders selected to participate in the program chat with advisors via video chat. Second, Pioneer is largely looking at companies that aren’t companies yet, framing themselves as more of a “startup generator” than an accelerator that aims to help entrepreneurs outside Silicon Valley zero in on exactly what kind of startup they want to build.
Earlier this month, I wrote about the accelerator, which is helmed by former YC partner Daniel Gross .
My interview with Gross had some interesting longer bouts I didn’t have space to include, so I’m including the salient bits here. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
TechCrunch: Remote work seems to have its challenges; how have you overcome some of the humps of being a remote accelerator?
Daniel Gross: My overall view is that remote can replace the majority of real-world interaction. But there’s less inertia, if that makes sense, and so I think you can build real rapport and real relationships through a group video chat on the internet, but it will require much more thinking and effort around it than if you were just meeting up in the real world.
SpaceX has won the launch contract for NASA’s 2022 mission to explore the mineral-rich asteroid known as Psyche, the space agency announced today, including launch services and other mission-related costs valued at $117 million — remarkably low for a mission of this scale.
The Psyche mission will use a Falcon Heavy rocket, which will launch from Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
Located between Mars and Jupiter, the Psyche asteroid is made of the exposed nickel-iron core of an early planet and represents a fragment of one of the earliest building blocks of our solar system.
The space agency’s Psyche mission includes two secondary payloads: The Escape and Plasma Acceleration and Dynamics Explorers, which will study the atmosphere on Mars, and the Janus mission, which will study binary asteroids.
NASA said its Launch Services Program at Kennedy Space Center in Florida will manage the SpaceX launch service and that the mission is led by Arizona State University .
"With the transition into this new mission phase, we are one big step closer to uncovering the secrets of Psyche, a giant mysterious metallic asteroid, and that means the world to us," said principal investigator Lindy Elkins-Tanton of Arizona State University in Tempe, in a statement when NASA announced that it was approving the mission.
Pasadena, Calif.’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory will be the overall manager for the mission, including system engineering, integration, testing and mission operations. The spacecraft’s propulsion chassis is a high-power solar electric rig provided by Maxar Space Solutions.
This announcement clears the way for Phases D, E, and F of the Psyche mission — the final official phases before launch.
As we wrote last year:
Phase D will begin in early 2021, and includes the final manufacturing and testing of the spacecraft along with the planned launch in early 2022.
Phase E will happen as soon as Psyche's exploratory craft hits the vacuum of space, NASA said. It'll cover the deep space operations of the mission and the collection of data for science. NASA expects Psyche will arrive at its eponymous asteroid on January 31, 2026 after buzzing Mars in 2023 (two years before Elon Musk predicted the first human astronauts would arrive).
Instruments on the Psyche craft will include a magnetometer designed to detect and measure the remnant magnetic field of the asteroid. A multi-spectral imager will be on board to provide high-resolution images to determine the composition of the asteroid (how much is metal versus how much is a silicate). The craft will also include a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer to detect, measure and map the asteroid's elemental composition, and a new laser technology that's designed for deep space communications.
The “Sent via Superhuman iOS” email signature has become one of the strangest flexes in the tech industry, but its influence is enduring, as the $30 per month invite-only email app continues to shape how a wave of personal productivity startups are building their business and product strategies.
I had a chance to chat with Superhuman CEO and founder Rahul Vohra earlier this month during an oddly busy time for him. He had just announced a dedicated $7 million angel fund with his friend Todd Goldberg (which I wrote up here) and we also noted that LinkedIn is killing off Sales Navigator, a feature driven by Rapportive, which Vohra founded and later sold in 2012. All the while, his buzzy email company is plugging along, amassing more interested users. Vohra tells me there are now more than 275,000 people on the waitlist for Superhuman.
Below is a chunk of my conversation with Vohra, which has been edited for length and clarity.
TechCrunch: When you go out to raise funding and a chunk of your theoretical user base is sitting on a waitlist, is it a little tougher to determine the total market for your product?
Rahul Vohra: That’s a good question. When we were doing our Series B, it was very easily answered because we’re one of a cohort of companies, that includes Notion and Airtable and Figma, where the addressable market — assuming you can build a product that’s good enough — is utterly enormous.
With my last company, Rapportive, there was a lot of conversation around, “oh, what’s the business model? What’s the market? How many people need this?” This almost never came up in any fundraising conversation. People were more like, “well, if this thing works, obviously the market is basically all of prosumer productivity and that is, no matter how you define it, absolutely huge.”
The FCC has officially and finally determined that the major wireless carriers in the U.S. broke the law by secretly selling subscribers’ location data for years with almost no constraints or disclosure. But its Commissioners decry the $208 million penalty proposed to be paid by these enormously rich corporations, calling it “not properly proportioned to the consumer harms suffered.”
Under the proposed fines, T-Mobile would pay $91M; AT&T, $57M; Verizon, $48M; and Sprint, $12M. (Disclosure: TechCrunch is owned by Verizon Media. This does not affect our coverage in the slightest.)
The case has stretched on for more than a year and a half after initial reports that private companies were accessing and selling real-time subscriber location data to anyone willing to pay. Such a blatant abuse of consumers’ privacy caused an immediate outcry, and carriers responded with apparent chagrin — but often failed to terminate or even evaluate these programs in a timely fashion. It turns out they were run with almost no oversight at all, with responsibility delegated to the third party companies to ensure compliance.
Meanwhile the FCC was called on to investigate the nature of these offenses, and spent more than a year doing so in near-total silence, with even its own Commissioners calling out the agency’s lack of communication on such a serious issue.
Finally, in January, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai — who, it really must be noted here, formerly worked for one of the main companies implicated, Securus — announced that the investigation had found the carriers had indeed violated federal law and would soon be punished.
Today brings the official documentation of the fines, as well as commentary from the Commission. In the documents, the carriers are described as not only doing something bad, but doing it poorly — and especially in T-Mobile’s case, continuing to do it well after they said they’d stop:
We find that T-Mobile apparently disclosed its customers' location information, without their consent, to third parties who were not authorized to receive it. In addition, even after highly publicized incidents put the Company on notice that its safeguards for protecting customer location information were inadequate, T-Mobile apparently continued to sell access to its customers' location information for the better part of a year without putting in place reasonable safeguards—leaving its customers' data at unreasonable risk of unauthorized disclosure
The general feeling seems to be that while it’s commendable to recognize this violation and propose what could be considered substantial fines, the whole thing is, as Commissioner Rosenworcel put it, “a day late and a dollar short.”
The scale of the fines, they say, has little to do with the scale of the offenses — and that’s because the investigation did not adequately investigate or attempt to investigate the scale of those offenses. As Commissioner Starks writes in a lengthy statement:
After all these months of investigation, the Commission still has no idea how many consumers' data was mishandled by each of the carriers.
We had the power—and, given the length of this investigation, the time—to compel disclosures that would help us understand the true scope of the harm done to consumers. Instead, the Notices calculate the forfeiture based on the number of contracts between the carriers and location aggregators, as well as the number of contracts between those aggregators and third-party location-based service providers. That is a poor and unnecessary proxy for the privacy harm caused by each carrier, each of which has tens of millions of customers that likely had their personal data abused.
Essentially, the FCC didn’t even look at the number or nature of actual harm — it just asked the carriers to provide the number of contracts entered into. As Starks points out, one such contract can and did sometimes represent thousands of individual privacy invasions.
We know there are many—perhaps millions—of additional victims, each with their own harms. Unfortunately, based on the investigation the FCC conducted, we don't even know how many there were, and the penalties we propose today do not reflect that impact.
And why not go after the individual companies? Securus, Starks says, “behaved outrageously.” But they’re not being fined at all. Even if the FCC lacked the authority to do so, it could have handed off the case to Justice or local authorities that could determine whether these companies violated other laws.
As Rosenworcel notes in her own statement, the fines are also extraordinarily generous even beyond this minimal method of calculating harm:
The agency proposes a $40,000 fine for the violation of our rules—but only on the first day. For every day after that, it reduces to $2,500 per violation. The FCC heavily discounts the fines the carriers potentially owe under the law and disregards the scope of the problem. On top of that, the agency gives each carrier a thirty-day pass from this calculation. This thirty day "get-out-of-jail-free" card is plucked from thin air.
Given that this investigation took place over such a long period, it’s strange that it did not seek to hear from the public or subpoena further details from the companies facilitating the violations. Meanwhile the carriers sought to declare a huge proportion of their responses to the FCC’s questions confidential, including publicly available information, and the agency didn’t question these assertions until Starks and Rosenworcel intervened.
$200M sounds like a lot, but divided among several billion-dollar communications organizations it’s peanuts, especially when you consider that these location-selling agreements may have netted far more than that in the years they were active. Only the carriers know exactly how many times their subscribers’ privacy was violated, and how much money they made from that abuse. And because the investigation has ended without the authority over these matters asking about it, we likely never will know.
The proposed fines, called a Notice of Apparent Liability, are only a tentative finding, and the carriers have 30 days to respond or ask for an extension — the latter of which is the more likely. Once they respond (perhaps challenging the amount or something else) the FCC can take as long as it wants to come up with a final fine amount. And once that is issued, there is no requirement that the fine actually be collected — and the FCC has in fact declined to collect before once the heat died down, though not with a penalty of this scale.
“While I am glad the FCC is finally proposing fines for this egregious behavior, it represents little more than the cost of doing business for these carriers,” Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) said in a statement. “Further, the Commission is still a long way from collecting these fines and holding the companies fully accountable.”
The only thing that led to this case being investigated at all was public attention, and apparently public attention is necessary to ensure the federal government follows through on its duties.
(This article has been substantially updated with new information, plus comments from Commissioner Starks and Rep. Pallone.)
An iPhone app built by controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI has been blocked by Apple, effectively banning the app from use.
Apple confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup “violated” the terms of its enterprise developer program.
The app allows its users — which the company claims it serves only law enforcement officers — to use their phone camera or upload a photo to search its database of 3 billion photos. But BuzzFeed News revealed that the company — which claims to only cater to law enforcement users — also includes many private-sector users, including Macy’s, Walmart and Wells Fargo.
Clearview AI has been at the middle of a media — and legal — storm since its public debut in The New York Times last month. The company scrapes public photos from social media sites, drawing ire from the big tech giants that claim Clearview AI misused their services. But it’s also gained attention from hackers. On Wednesday, Clearview AI confirmed a data breach in which its client list was stolen.
The public Amazon S3 page containing the iPhone app (Image: TechCrunch)
TechCrunch found Clearview AI’s iPhone app on an public Amazon S3 storage bucket on Thursday, despite a warning on the page that the app is “not to be shared with the public.”
The page asks users to “open this page on your iPhone” to install and approve the company’s enterprise certificate, allowing the app to run.
But this, according to Apple’s policies, is prohibited if the app’s users are outside of Clearview AI’s organization.
Clearview AI’s use of an enterprise certificate on an iPhone (Image: TechCrunch)
Enterprise certificates are issued by Apple to allow companies to build and approve iPhone and iPad apps designed for internal company use only. It’s common for these certificates to be used to test apps internally before they are pushed out to the App Store. Apple maintains a strict set of rules on use of enterprise certificates, and says they cannot be used by consumers. But there have been cases of abuse.
Last year, TechCrunch exclusively reported that both Facebook and Google were using their enterprise certificates for consumer-facing apps in an effort to bypass Apple’s App Store. Apple revoked the tech giants’ enterprise certificates, disabling the infracting app but also any other app that relied on the certificate, including their catering and lunch menu apps.
The app was labeled as “beta” — typically a pre-release or a test version of the app. Besides this claim, there is no evidence to suggest this app was not used by Clearview AI customers.
Clearview AI chief executive Hoan Ton-That told TechCrunch: “We are in contact with Apple and working on complying with their terms and conditions.”
A brief analysis of the app through network traffic tools and disassembly tools shows it works largely in the same way as Clearview AI’s Android app, which was discovered by Gizmodo on Thursday.
Like the Android app, a user needs a Clearview AI-approved username and password to use the app.
Chat bots were central to Facebook Messenger’s strategy three years ago. Now they’re being hidden from view in the app along with games and businesses. Facebook Messenger is now removing the Discover tab as it focuses on speed and simplicity instead of broad utility like China’s WeChat.
The changes are part of a larger Messenger redesign that reorients the People tab around Stories as Facebook continues to try to dominate the ephemeral social media format it copied from Snapchat. The People tab now defaults to a full-screen sub-tab of friends’ Stories, and requires a tap over to the Active sub tab to see which friends are online now.
The changes could push users to spend more time visually communicating with friends and consuming content than exploring chat bots for shopping, connecting with businesses and playing games. That in turn could help Facebook earn more money from Messenger as it’s now showing Stories ads.
TechCrunch was tipped off to the redesign by social media director Jeff Higgins, who provided us with extensive screenshots of the update. These show the absence of Discover tab, the switch to just Chat and People tabs and the People sub-tabs for Stories and Active. We poked around some more and noticed the Instant Games and Transportation options missing from the chat composer’s utility tray. That formerly offered quick Uber and Lyft hailing. Messenger’s M Suggestions also no longer recommend the Transportation feature.
When we asked Messenger about the changes, a spokesperson confirmed that this redesign will soon start rolling out, removing Discover and splitting the People tab. Some users already have the update, and more will likely get it this week. They noted that Facebook had announced last August that it planned to eventually axe Discover, and that the added emphasis on Stories was motivated by users’ affinity for the ephemeral social media format. They also told us that Transportation was removed in late 2017, and Instant Games’ removal from the composer is part of the migration to Facebook Gaming announced last July.
A look at the old Messenger Discover tab that’s being removed
Chat bots, businesses and games are being hidden, but not completely banished from Messenger. They’ll still be accessible if users purposefully seek them through the Messenger search bar, Pages and ads on Facebook, buttons to start conversations on businesses’ websites, and m.me URL that create QR codes which open to business accounts in Messenger. The spokesperson diplomatically claimed that businesses are still an important part of Messenger.
But without promotion via Discover, businesses will have to rely on their owned or paid marketing channels to gain traction for their chat bots. That could discourage them from building on the Messenger platform.
The rise and fall of Facebook chat bots
The update feels like the end of a four-year era for Facebook. Back in 2016, it saw artificially intelligent chat bots as a way for businesses to scalably communicate with people, deliver customer service and push e-commerce. But when it launched the chat bot platform at its F8 conference that year, it arrived half-baked.
The typing-based semantic user interfaces were confusing, the AI necessary to make chat bots seem human (or at least reliably understand their human conversation partners hadn’t evolved yet) and several of the launch partner bots like Poncho The Weather Cat were laughably useless. The public soured on the idea of chat bots, and attempts to improve them felt insufficient.
Messenger launched Discover in 2017 in hopes that free promotion and visibility might convince developers to invest in building better chatbots. Yet by early 2018, even Facebook was backpedaling, shelving its plan to build out a full-service AI personal assistant called M that you could ask to do anything. Instead, it’d merely make AI suggestions of different Messenger features to use, like Stickers or reminders based on what you typed. Then it announced last year that it would move Instant Games out of Messenger and into Facebook’s dedicated Gaming tab.
There is still an opportunity to use chat bots for gathering initial info from people with sales or customer service inquiries. Everyone hates dealing with this stuff over the phone, waiting on hold and wading through touch-tone menus. Using asynchronous messaging makes communicating with businesses much more convenient. I’d bet Facebook will still be pushing this as an enterprise use case for Messenger. But this still usually requires a human in the loop at some point, and these are better structured as reactive utilities users search for than as experience proactively promoted by a Discover tab.
A laughably bad interaction with old Messenger chat bot Poncho The Weather Cat
Now with Discover disappearing, Messenger seems to be surrendering the fight to become a WeChat-style monolithic utility. In China, WeCat serves not just as a messaging app but as a way to make payments, hail a taxi, book flights, top up your mobile data, get a loan, find housing or shop at businesses via mini programs.
But while that centralized all-in-one style fit Chinese culture, Western markets have experienced more of an unbundling with different apps emerging to handle each of these use cases. Facebook’s constant privacy scandals and increasing anti-trust scrutiny also inhibited this approach with Messenger. Users and the U.S. government weren’t ready to trust Facebook to handle so much of our daily lives. Facebook Messenger also has to jockey with competition like iMessage and Snapchat that could undercut it if it gets too bloated.
So now Messenger is going in the opposite direction. It’s becoming more WhatsApp-like — simple, speedy and centered around peer-to-peer communication. Visual communication through Stories, with replies to them delivered as messages, feels like a natural extension of this focus while conveniently offering a path to monetization. If Messenger can be the best-in-class place to chat, unencumbered by promotion of chat bots and businesses, users might stay locked into the Facebook ecosystem.
Facebook first showed off its 3D photos back in 2018, and shared the technical details behind it a month later. But unless you had one of a handful of phones with dual cameras back then (when they weren’t so common), you couldn’t make your own. Today an update brings 3D photos to those of us still rocking a single camera.
In case you don’t remember or haven’t seen one lately, the 3D photos work by analyzing a 2D picture and slicing it into a ton of layers that move separately when you tilt the phone or scroll. I’m not a big fan of 3D anything, and I don’t even use Facebook, but the simple fact is this feature is pretty cool.
The problem is it used the dual-camera feature to help the system determine distance, which informed how the picture should be sliced. That meant I, with my beautiful iPhone SE, was out of the running — along with about a billion other people who hadn’t bought into the dual-camera thing yet.
But over the last few years the computer vision team over at Facebook has been working on making it possible to do this without dual-camera input. At last they succeeded, and this blog post explains, in terms technical enough that I’m not even going to attempt to summarize them here, just how they did it.
The advances mean that many — though not all — relatively modern single-camera phones should be able to use the feature. Google’s Pixel series is now supported, and single-camera iPhones from the 7 forward. The huge diversity of Android devices makes it hard to say which will and won’t be supported — it depends on a few things not usually listed on the spec sheet — but you’ll be able to tell once your Facebook app updates and you take a picture.
Coronavirus fears prompt even more event cancellations, controversial facial recognition software is being used widely and DocuSign acquires Seal Software. Here’s your Daily Crunch for February 28, 2020.
Facebook has confirmed that it has canceled its annual F8 developers conference over growing concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. More specifically, the company says it's canceling the "in-person component” — there may still be video presentations, along with live-streamed and local events, under the F8 umbrella.
At the same time, companies, including Microsoft, are pulling out of the Game Developers Conference over similar concerns. And the Geneva Motor Show was just canceled.
After claiming that it would only sell its controversial facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies, a new report in BuzzFeed News suggests that Clearview AI is less than discerning about its client base, and has in fact shopped its technology far and wide.
Seal Software was founded in 2010, and, while it may not be a mainstream brand, its customers include the likes of PayPal, Dell, Nokia and DocuSign itself. (DocuSign previously invested in the company, too.) These businesses use Seal for its contract management tools, but also for its analytics, discovery and data extraction services.
Written as a response to recent concerns around Chinese hardware manufacturers, the bill would ban purchase of telecom equipment from embattled Chinese manufactures like Huawei and ZTE. It also includes $1 billion in funding to help smaller rural telecoms "rip and replace" existing equipment from specific manufacturers.
The Disney executive has been openly thinking about retirement and searching for a successor — a search that culminated in this week's announcement that he'd be stepping down from the CEO role immediately. But Iger's succession planning hasn't stopped him from solidifying Disney's dominance of the entertainment business, a position designed to last long after his departure. (Extra Crunch membership required.)
Published 100 years ago, R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Czech writer Karel Čapek is best remembered for bringing the word "robot" to sci-fi — and English, generally.
We’re trying out something new: As you (hopefully) know, TechCrunch hosts a number of Startup Battlefield events, and afterwards, those startups often go on to do interesting and newsworthy things. But there are so many Battlefield alumni at this point that we can’t cover every announcement. So occasionally, I’ll be rounding them up here.
This week, we’ve got news from Berlin 2019 competitor Nodle.io, which is crowdsourcing the connectivity of smart sensors by offloading the task to smartphones. And Nodle announced this week that it has acquired Internet-of-Things security company Brickchain.com.
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.
GDC’s top sponsors continue to pull out of attending the San Francisco gaming conference. Today, Amazon announced it would no longer be sending employees to the event.
In an update, the team shared that they would instead be hosting a “global online event” to share news that they had been planning to detail at the conference.
Amazon Game Tech is a “diamond partner” at the Game Developers Conference this year, a designation that signifies sponsors “who play an integral role in the success of GDC,” the conference says on its website. At this point, the only diamond partners who have not officially withdrawn are Intel, Nvidia and Google.
Facebook, Sony, Microsoft, Unity and Epic Games have all pulled out of the conference over concerns surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak. Now, Amazon joins them.
TechCrunch has reached out to the other remaining sponsors at the event.
As pointed out by @beccahallstedt, the red companies have officially pulled out.
With the next version of Windows 10, coming this spring, Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant will lose a number of consumer skills around music and connected homes, as well as some third-party skills. That’s very much in line with Microsoft’s new focus for Cortana, but it may still come as a surprise to the dozens of loyal Cortana fans.
Microsoft is also turning off Cortana support in its Microsoft Launcher on Android by the end of April and on older versions of Windows that have reached their end-of-service date, which usually comes about 36 months after the original release.
As the company explained last year, it now mostly thinks of Cortana as a service for business users. The new Cortana is all about productivity, with deep integrations into Microsoft’s suite of Office tools, for example. In this context, consumer services are only a distraction, and Microsoft is leaving that market to the likes of Amazon and Google .
Because the new Cortana experience is all about Microsoft 365, the subscription service that includes access to the Office tools, email, online storage and more, it doesn’t come as a surprise that the assistant’s new feature will give you access to data from these tools, including your calendar, Microsoft To Do notes and more.
And while some consumer features are going away, Microsoft stresses that Cortana will still be able to tell you a joke, set alarms and timers, and give you answers from Bing.
For now, all of this only applies to English-speaking users in the U.S. Outside of the U.S., most of the productivity features will launch in the future.
In a wide-ranging discussion at the Air Warfare Symposium held by the U.S. Air Force, Elon Musk touched on some old and new themes, but one highlight of the discussion was the small window into hiring and firing practices at SpaceX — arguably one of the world’s most demanding engineering companies.
The company prides itself on innovation, and, for its chief executive officer, that apparently extends to the interview process itself.
“[When we] interview people we ask for some evidence of exceptional ability that includes innovation,” says Musk. “At the interview point we select for new people who want to create new technology.”
The mercurial chief executive didn’t elaborate more fully on what proof of innovation looks like in the interview process or in an applicant’s previous work, but it’s an interesting bullet point on the company’s practices.
And the emphasis on innovation extends to the company’s incentive structure, advancement decisions and ultimately how long someone will remain at the company, Musk said.
“Incentive structure is set up that innovation is rewarded and making mistakes along the way but failure to try to innovate comes with a big penalty,” Musk said. “You will be fired.”
It’s not just a failure to innovate, according to Musk. If the employee’s “innovations aspirations are not very good, they will no longer be at the company.”
This emphasis on innovation is critical for companies and nations to remain ahead of their competition. Musk said he doesn’t necessarily worry about intellectual property theft at either Tesla or SpaceX because hopefully the companies are developing technologies that are at least three years ahead of the competition.
“The way you achieve intellectual property protection is by innovating fast enough,” says Musk. “Speed of innovation is what matters. I do say this to my teams quite a lot. Innovation per-year is what matters.”
Although a company like IBM, with a massive patent portfolio and thousands of innovations locked in its laboratory might take issue with the sentiment, Musk says his point extends not just to companies, but to competing nation-states too.
Specifically, Musk mentioned the need for innovation if the U.S. is going to compete effectively against China, a country that could have an economy twice to three-times the size of the United States in the coming years.
“The foundation of war is economics,” Musk said. “If you have half the resources of the counterparty then you better be real innovative because [otherwise] we're going to lose… The U.S. will be, militarily, second.”
End Game Interactive CEO Yang C. Liu has a refreshingly straightforward description of what he and his co-founder Luke Zbihlyj are up to: “We're just building games. And to be honest, we don’t know what we're doing.”
Despite this self-proclaimed ignorance, End Game has just raised $3 million in seed funding from an impressive group of investors: The round was led by the game-focused firm Makers Fund, with participation from Clash of Clans developer Supercell, Unity CEO David Helgason, Twitch COO Kevin Lin, Twitch VP Hubert Thieblot, Danny Epstien and Alexandre Cohen of Main Street Advisors and music executive Scooter Braun.
Liu told me that he and Zbihlyj got their start by building websites tied to existing games, such as PokéVision, a site for finding Pokémon in Pokémon GO. However, they were inspired by the success of simple, browser-based multiplayer games like Slither.io to create games of their own — first Zombs.io, then Spinz.io, then Zombs Royale.
Altogether, End Game says its titles have attracted more than 160 million players, with 1 million people playing in a single day. Zombs Royale, in particular, seems to have been a hit — the battle royale game (where a single map can pit up to 100 players against each other) was one of 2018’s most Googled games in the United States.
Liu said the team’s success convinced them to focus their efforts on game development: “Do we want to make products that people simply use, or games that people think about out when they’re going to school, or going to work, or dream about?”
Zombs Royale was supposedly built in less than four weeks, but Liu said that after its launch in early 2018, the team spent most of the year maintaining and scaling the game. Then 2019 was all about building a team and creating the next game, Fate Arena, a title in the new Auto Chess genre that’s supposed to launch on PC, mobile and other platforms soon.
Liu noted that unlike End Game’s previous work, which featured simple 2D art (“On Zombs Royale and Spinz, I did the art, and it’s terrible”), Fate Arena will feature a “3D, high-fidelity art style.”
But even as the company’s games start looking a little less primitive, the goal is still to develop and iterate quickly. Liu said he hopes to fund “many tries” at building other cross-platform, multiplayer games with this seed round.
“We pride ourselves on rapid experimentation,” he said, adding that the key is “not biting off more than we can chew. We design [our games] to scale from the beginning. We don't necessarily need to be World of Warcraft, where you need to make 100 quests as the baseline. We're focused on games with a small starting point that can scale into something much bigger.”
Supercell Developer Relations Lead Jaakko Harlas made a similar point in a statement included in the funding announcement:
Many companies are quick to point out how fast-moving they are. Then you come across a team like this and realize what being lean and moving fast really means. Yang, Luke and the team have already shown that they can ship accessible games that showcase a real flair for fun, and we look forward to supporting them in their quest for the next big hit game.
In emerging markets, up to 80% of the population may have to rely on informally-run public transport to get around. Literally, privately-run buses and cars. But journey-planning apps that work well for commuters in developed markets like New York or London do not work well in emerging markets, which is why you can’t just flip open an app like Citymapper in Lagos, Nigeria. Furthermore, mobility is a fundamental driver of social, political, and economic growth. If you cannot get around, you can't grow as a country, so it's pretty important for these emerging economies.
WhereIsMyTransport specialises in mapping these formal and informal public transport networks in emerging markets. They have mapped 34 cities in Africa and are mapping cities in India, Southeast Asia and Latin America. Its integrated mobility API includes proprietary algorithms, features and capabilities designed for complex transit networks in these emerging markets.
It's now raised a $7.5 million Series A funding round led by Liil Ventures, that also includes returning investors Global Innovation Fund and Goodwell Investments, plus new strategic investment from Google, Nedbank, and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC).
The platform now has more than 750,000 km of routes in 39 cities and the new strategic investment will drive further international expansion.
Devin de Vries, said: "We make the invisible visible, by collecting all kinds of data related to public transport and turning the data into information that can be shared with the people who need it most. In emerging markets, the mobility ecosystem is complex; informal public transport doesn't behave like formal public transport. Data and technology solutions that work well in London or San Francisco wouldn't make anything like the same impact, if any at all, in the cities where we work. Our solutions are designed specifically to overcome these contextual challenges."
Mr. Masato Yamanami, Automotive Division's CEO of Toyota Tsusho Corporation, also said that “our division's global network, that covers 146 countries, is primarily focused on new emerging countries where people rely on informal public transport. Through strategic collaboration with WhereIsMyTransport, we will establish better and more efficient mobility services that help to resolve social challenges and contribute to the overall economic development of nations, primarily emerging nations."
Finally, Alix Peterson Zwane, Chief Executive Officer of Global Innovation Fund, said: "Informal and often unreliable mass transit is a significant problem that disproportionately affects poor people. We are excited to continue to work with WhereIsMyTransport to make mass transportation in emerging cities more accessible and more efficient.”
Hello and welcome back to our regular morning look at private companies, public markets and the gray space in between.
All around, this has been a tough week. The coronavirus is spreading and worry is running high as infections mount. In economic terms, global markets were repeated declines last night (domestic results here), and the U.S. indices are off again this morning.
There’s been plenty of bad news to read, even in our private market, startup-focused world. Yesterday the impact of COVID-19 on earnings became more apparent, bringing what has, for months, been an external concern to domestic technology companies. The problems are now. The past week’s market collapse into correction territory hasn’t helped,.
But the story so far has largely been public-market focused and with good reason: You can see the public markets contract in real-time. It’s far harder to see into the shifting dynamics of the private market. Today, however, we are going to try, all the same, by digging into some preliminary venture capital data.
I realize that the last few days have been awful. So, at the end of this piece, I’ve excerpted a quote from a recent interview I held with the CEO of Smartsheet, Mark Mader, about tech cycles, downturns, and getting through tough times. It’s perhaps useful today as the downward trend appears to continue.
Let’s start with a brief reminder of how elevated stock prices remain and what that means for tech multiples, and then look at early February VC results from the U.S., China and Europe. With that, in Sanskrit: अभिमुखी करोति.
Multiples, Markets
Before we dig into the venture capital data, a reminder that, even with recent declines, we’re still in warm waters as far as tech valuations go.
It wasn’t a fad. Yolo became the country’s No. 1 app just a week after launch by letting teens ask for anonymous replies to questions they posted on Snapchat. But nine months later, Yolo is still in the top 100 iOS apps and has 10 million active users. Now it’s safeguarding the app from predators while revealing a smart new feature for spinning up anonymous group chats, powered by $8 million in fresh funding.
“What we are trying to build is a new kind of network where there’s a fluidity to identity,” Yolo co-founder Greg Henrion tells me. “We weren’t sure if Yolo was here to stay, but we’re still ranking well and there seems to be a real opportunity in anonymity starting with Snapchat Q&A.”
Yolo is the first big win for Snapchat’s Snap Kit platform that lets developers piggyback on its login, Bitmoji avatars, stickers and Stories. This lets tiny development teams build apps that hundreds of millions of people, teens in particular, can instantly sign up for in just a few taps. Another Snap Kit app for meeting new people called Hoop recently spiked to No. 2 on the charts
We haven’t seen this kind of social platform success since Zynga’s empire rose atop Facebook. Spawning more blockbusters like Yolo could ensure that a Snapchat account is a must-have utility for the next generation.
Sleepless nights atop the charts
“For two weeks we basically didn’t sleep,” Henrion recalls about the chaos he and co-founder Clément Raffenoux endured after Yolo shot to No. 1 last May. “You’re trying to stay afloat. It was very, very wild.”
The basic premise of Yolo is that you write a question like, “Who’s my celebrity look alike?”, “What do people really think of me?” or “How could I be nicer?” You’re then switched over to Snapchat, where you can post the question in your Story or messages with a link back to Yolo. There, people can anonymously leave a response; you can post that and your reply with another post on Snapchat.
Yolo co-founder and CEO Greg Henrion, in real life and Bitmoji
The result is that friends and followers feel comfortable giving you real talk. They don’t have to sugarcoat their answers. And that makes people race to open Yolo each time they get a message. Yolo has seen 26 million downloads across iOS and Android globally, with nearly 70% in the U.S, according to Sensor Tower.
Other anonymous apps like tbh (acquired by Facebook) and Sarahah (kicked off the app stores) quickly faded, and others eventually imploded due to bullying, like Secret and YikYak. Although tbh hit No. 1 in September 2017, it was out of the top 500 by November. It seems a combination of inherent virality via Snapchat, easy user acquisition via Snap Kit and sharp product design has given Yolo some staying power. It still managed 2.2 million downloads last month versus a peak of 5.5 million in its first month back in May 2019.
That June, Yolo quietly raised a $2 million seed round thanks to its sudden success. The team had been grinding since 2017 on a video reactions app called Popshow funded by a small pre-seed round from SV Angel, Shrug Capital and Product Hunt's Ryan Hoover. They’d previously built music video-making app Mindie that eventually sold to influencer collective Shots Studios. Popshow never caught on, so the team began experimenting on Snap Kit, building a more official Q&A feature for Snapchat than predecessors like Sarahah and Polly. Then, boom. Days after launch, Yolo’s usage exploded.
But to keep users interested, Yolo needed to evolve. That would require more funding for the eight-person team split between Snapchat’s home of Los Angeles and Henrion’s home of Paris.
An honest way to chat
The concept of a social app where users could shift between full anonymity and representation via avatar attracted its $8 million Series A to invest in product and engineering. The round was led by Thrive Capital, Ron Conway’s A.Capital, former TechCrunch editor Alexia Tsotsis’ Dream Machine (also in the seed round), Shrug, Day One, Goodwater, Knight VC, ex-Facebooker Bobby Goodlatte, Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and SV Angel’s Brian Pokorny.
That cash fueled the release of Yolo’s new group chat feature. You can set up a chat room, give it a name and generate an invite URL or sticker you can post on Snapchat, just like its previous question feature. Friends or friends of friends that are already in can join the group chat, represented by their Bitmoji instead of their name. Yolo suggests people join the more open “party mode” chats where their friends are active.
What makes this special is that once an hour, users can tap the Yolo Superpowers button to send a totally anonymous message to the group. More Superpowers are coming, but there’s also an anonymous “Someone has a crush on [name]” message so you can secretly profess your affection to anyone or someone else in the chat.
“The limits of Q&A is that it doesn’t generatereal conversation. It’s an ice breaker, but we also want conversations to happen,” Henrion stresses. “‘What do you think about this dress?’ The group chat is more about ‘let’s talk about the dress.'” The chats could be focused on people you actually know offline, or those you share interests with. The option to restrict group chats to either just your contacts or friends of friends “limits the amount of meeting strangers,” Henrion explains. “This is very different from the public communities like Reddit or the dating apps.”
Can “anonymous” be synonymous with “safe”?
Still, anonymous apps have consistently proven to be havens for cyberbullying and unsafe behavior. Without the accountability of having your name attached, people are free to say awful things. That can be even worse amongst teenagers who might get in trouble for being mean at school but not on an app.
Yolo first focused on messages blocking 10% of overall messages that contained offensive content. That meant blatant hate speech and trolling couldn’t spread through the app. “We’re strict on moderation. When looking at the reviews about bullying, it’s like nothing compared to any other anonymous app. I think we solved 90% of the problem.”
Now it’s working with Snapchat to safeguard the group chats feature. The goal is to ensure Yolo doesn’t actively recommend chat amongst adults to minors and vice-versa. Henrion says this update should roll out soon.
“It’s 2020 and we need to be very responsible” Henrion tells me. “Moderation and growth are the most difficult things to balance. It’s moderation first for sure. We don’t care about growth if it’s not healthy or sustainable.” The new funding also gives Yolo the luxury of pushing back monetization while it focuses on safely adding more users.
By making anonymity more private, Yolo has a chance to sidestep some of the worst elements of human behavior. Making fun of someone has less appeal if there’s no wider audience like trolls exploited in the feeds and comment reels of Secret and YikYak.
That could let the brighter side of anonymity shine through: vulnerability, honesty and deep connections that are enhanced by the absence of embarrassment. With all the change, uncertainty and anxiety that’s part of growing up, teens deserve a place where they can be open with each other and speak their minds. After all, you only live once.
Building a rocket is a big operation, even when you’re printing them from the ground up, like Relativity Space . The launch startup is graduating from its initial office, which is a bit cramped for assembling rockets, to a huge space in Long Beach, where the company will go from prototype to first flight.
We recently visited Relativity at their old headquarters, which had the scrappy (literally — there were metal scraps everywhere) industrial feel you’d expect from a large-scale hardware startup. But except for the parking lot, there didn’t seem to be anywhere to put together… you know, a rocket.
So it was no surprise when co-founder and CEO Tim Ellis said that the company was just starting the process of moving to a gigantic new open-plan warehouse-style building in Long Beach.
Relativity CEO Tim Ellis is obviously excited about the new HQ.
“It’s a big step,” Ellis told TechCrunch. “It’ll actually be the first factory we fully build out with 3D printers. This new space is actually big enough that we'll be printing the first and second stages, and the fairing at the same time. The new ceiling height is approximately 40 feet, which will allow us to build taller — about twice the height of our current facility. We're on track to start shipping parts to Stennis for testing later this year.”
In addition to the three “Stargate” printers that can print parts up to 15 feet high, they’ll have three more that can go up to 20 feet and two that can go up to 30. It’s a bit hard to imagine a single printed rocket part 30 feet tall until you’ve seen some of the pieces Relativity has already made.
Not only do the rockets take up a lot of space, but the company itself is growing.
“From two years ago to now we’ve over 20X-ed our entire footprint as a company,” Ellis pointed out. In other words, it was starting to feel a bit overpopulated in their old spot near LAX.
This the space as it is now; the image up top is a render of how it will look once active.
Assembly of the launch vehicle, called Terran 1, its Aeon engines and R&D will all take place in the new HQ. It’s nearly 120,000 square feet, and will be built as a very high-tech manufacturing operation indeed. There will be no fixed tooling, meaning the factory can be rapidly reconfigured, and will be highly automated. The company’s 3D printers aren’t like the simple ones used for rough prototyping, but enormous, carefully monitored robot arms that perform real-time analysis of the metal they are laying down.
“It’s really the first autonomous factory, and it’s not just for rockets,” Ellis said. “Once we prove out the factory with this first launch vehicle, we’re convinced this works towards our long-term plan of launching factories to Mars and building a wide range of products that you’re going to need there. It’s on the path for the long-term vision but also a way for us to be a pioneer in this new value chain for aerospace.”
“It’s going to be cool,” he added.
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Kerala HC order on student agitations: Study as vital as struggle Indeed, it was relentless protests by student bodies in 2017 that forced the Kerala government to announce a probe into the suicide of a student allegedly tortured by college authorities in a private engineering college in the state.
రాజకీయాల్లో అట్టర్ ఫ్లాప్ అయిన పవన్ కళ్యాణ్… సినిమాల్లోకి రాను రాను అంటూనే మళ్లీ రీఎంట్రీ ఇచ్చాడు. ప్రస్తుతం రెండు సినిమాలను పట్టాలెక్కించాడు. దిల్ రాజ్ తో ఒక మూవీ, క్రిష్ దర్శకత్వంలో మరో మూవీని చేస్తున్నాడు. క్రిష్ తో చేస్తున్న మూవీ వేగంగా సాగుతోంది. ఈ మూవీ కోసం భారీ సెట్లు, చాలా పెద్ద బడ్జెట్ తో సినిమా తెరకెక్కిస్తున్నారట.. ఈ సినిమాలోని అద్భుతమైన కథా కథనం దృష్ట్యా ఈ సినిమాను తెలుగులోనే కాదు.. ఇతర […]
ఉత్తారంధ్రలో పర్యటించి.. అమరావతికి అనుకూలంగా తమ వాదన వినిపించాలని అనుకున్న తెలుగుదేశం అధినేత చంద్రబాబుకు గట్టి ఎదురుదెబ్బే తగిలింది. ఆయన విశాఖకు వెళ్లడం.. అక్కడ వైఎస్ఆర్ కాంగ్రెస్, ప్రజా సంఘాల నేతలు అడ్డుకోవడం.. తర్వాత ఆందోళనలు.. చంద్రబాబు అరెస్టు, విడుదల… వంటి చర్యలను టీడీపీ నేతలు రాజకీయం చేసేందుకు విపరీతంగా ప్రయత్నాలు చేశారు. కానీ.. వారికి కంఠశోష తప్ప మిగిలింది ఏదీ లేకుండా పోయింది. ఆఖరికి ఉత్తరాంధ్రకు చెందిన నేతలు ఒకరిద్దరు తప్ప.. మిగతా ఎవరూ అండగా […]
గంటా శ్రీనివాసరావు. ఉత్తరాంధ్ర రాజకీయాల్లో ఈయన ఓ సంచలనం. ప్రతిసారి ఎన్నికల్లో స్థాన చలనం.. ఈయనకు ఓ అలవాటు. కానీ.. విజయం మాత్రం తనకే దక్కేలా రాజకీయ వ్యూహం పన్నడంలో ఆయన ఆరి తేరిన వ్యక్తి. అంతటి నాయకుడు.. తన సొంత పార్టీ అధినేత తన జిల్లాకే వస్తే.. కనీసం మాట వరసకైనా మాట్లాడలేదు. పలకరింపునకూ వెళ్లలేదు. ఏం పాపం.. అని ఆరా తీసిన నేతలకు ఓ పొంతన లేని సమాధానం వచ్చింది. తన తండ్రికి సంబంధించిన […]
టీడీపీ అధినేత, మాజీ ముఖ్యమంత్రి నారా చంద్రబాబు నాయుడు నిన్న విశాఖపట్నం విమానాశ్రయం వద్ద మీడియాతో చేసిన వ్యాఖ్యలపై పోలీసు అధికారుల సంఘం తీవ్రంగా మండిపడింది. ‘పోలీసులు గాడిదలు కాస్తున్నారా..?’ అన్న వ్యాఖ్యలపై సంఘం అధ్యక్షుడు జనకుల శ్రీనివాస్ తీవ్రంగా స్పందించారు. ఈ మేరకు ఒక ప్రకటన విడుదల చేశారు. పోలీసులు ఉన్నది ప్రజల రక్షణ కోసమేనని అన్నారు. అకస్మాత్తుగా చోటు చేసుకునే అనివార్య పరిస్థితుతను దృష్టిలో పెట్టుకునే పోలీసులు స్పందిస్తారని ఆయన పేర్కొన్నారు. ఏ సందర్భంలో […]
హైదరాబాద్ శివార్లలో దారుణ అత్యాచారం, హత్యకు గురైన వెటర్నరీ డాక్టర్ దిశ హత్య కేసు నిందితుల కుటుంబాలు దాఖలు చేసిన పిటిషన్పై ఇవాళ సుప్రీంకోర్టులో విచారణ జరిగింది. దిశ నిందితులను అన్యాయంగా ఎన్కౌంటర్లో చంపేశారని.. ఆ ఎన్కౌంటర్లో పాల్గొన్న పోలీసులపై ఎఫ్ఐఆర్ నమోదు చేయాలని వారు పిటిషన్లో కోరారు. అంతే కాకుండా ప్రతీ కుటుంబానికి 50 లక్షల రూపాయలు నష్టపరిహారంగా ఇవ్వాలని కూడా పేర్కొన్నారు. కాగా, ఈ పిటిషన్ను విచారణకు స్వీకరించలేమని ప్రధాన న్యాయమూర్తి జస్టీస్ బాబ్డే […]
నీతులు అందరు చెప్పేవారే.. కానీ ఆచరించేవారు తక్కువ మంది ఉంటారు. నిన్నటి ఢిల్లీలో జరిగిన అసెంబ్లీ ఎన్నికలే వీటిని రుజువు చేశాయి. బీజేపీ విలువలను ప్రవచించడం వరకు పరిమితమైతే ఆప్ ఆచరణలో చేసి చూపుతోంది. ఈ వ్యత్యాసమే ఆప్ పార్టీకి అన్నివిధాలా కలిసొచ్చేలా చేసింది. దీంతో వరుసగా ఆప్ హ్యట్రిక్ విజయాలు సాధించి ఢిల్లీ పీఠం దక్కించుకుంది. ఢిల్లీల్లో జరిగిన అల్లర్ల విషయంలో ఇది మరోసారి తేటతెల్లమైంది. ఆప్ తమ పార్టీ నాయకుడిపై ఆరోపణలు రాగానే సస్పెన్షన్ […]
దేశంలో పౌరసత్వ మంటలు ఆరడం లేదు. ఇక ఎన్నార్సీ , ఎన్ పీ ఆర్ పేరిట ప్రజల డేటా సేకరించాలని కేంద్రం ఆదేశాలు జారీ చేసింది. ఈ డేటాపై ముస్లిం, మైనారిటీలలో ఆందోళన వ్యక్తమవుతోంది. ఈ నేపథ్యంలోనే సీఎం కేసీఆర్ సంచలన నిర్ణయం తీసుకున్నట్టు తెలిసింది. తెలంగాణలో సామరస్యంగా ఉన్న హిందూ-ముస్లిం ఐక్యతను చెడగొట్టకుండా ఉండేందుకు.. ముస్లిం మైనార్టీల ఆందోళనలను దృష్టిలో ఉంచుకొని ప్రస్తుతానికి జాతీయ జనాభా రిజిస్టర్ (ఎన్ పీ ఆర్) అమలును నిలిపివేయాలని సంచలన […]
రివ్యూ : హిట్ రేటింగ్ : 3/5 తారాగణం : విశ్వక్ సేన్, రుహాని శర్మ, మురళి శర్మ తదితరులు సంగీతం : వివేక్ సాగర్ నిర్మాత : ప్రశాంతి త్రిపురనేని దర్శకత్వం : శైలేష్ కొలను ‘ఫలక్ నుమా దాస్’ సినిమాతో హీరోగా పరిచయమైన యువ హీరో విశ్వక్ సేన్ తాజాగా ఇప్పుడు ‘హిట్: ది ఫస్ట్ కేస్’ సినిమాతో ప్రేక్షకుల ముందుకు వచ్చాడు. క్రైమ్ థ్రిల్లర్ గా విడుదలైన ఈ సినిమాకి శైలేష్ కొలను దర్శకత్వం వహించాడు. […]
Curfew imposed in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills after clashes Tension gripped the district after a meeting on the citizenship law and inner-line permit organised by the KSU in the Shella area went wrong.
Taming a beard can be a lot of work, especially if your beard hair is curly. Straightening a curly beard is a great way to keep the hair more manageable and show off a new style! You can use a flat iron for longer beards, while silicone cream and relaxer kits can be used for any length. With the right materials and ingredients, you can have a straight, soft beard in no time.
Wash your beard with a shampoo and conditioner specifically for beards. Normal hair shampoos tend to have chemicals that are too harsh for the beard. It can cause dryness in the beard hair that will make it curlier, less manageable, and possibly cause hair breakage. [1]
Unless needed, beards should only be washed and conditioned once a week for optimal results. Over-washing the beard can cause dryness and damage to the hair.
However, you should use conditioner every day or so to moisturize and soften the beard. [2]
Blow dry and comb your beard. If you let your beard dry naturally, it will dry into tight curls. [3]. Turn on the blow dryer with a comb attachment to low heat and comb your beard in a downward motion. This will help the hair dry faster and make all of your beard hairs dry in one direction. [4]
Use the blow dryer on a lower heat setting to prevent drying out the beard hair. This will cause it to frizz and can result in brittle hair with split ends. [5]
Some blow dryers do not come with comb attachments. In this case, turn on the blow dryer to a low heat setting and hold it close to your beard with one hand. Then use a beard comb to comb the beard with your other hand.
You may also use a beard brush for this step.
Straighten your beard with a small flat iron. Make sure your beard is completely dry before using the flat iron on the hair. Keeping the flat iron at least half an inch away from your skin, position the straightener at the top of your beard and place a small portion of your beard hair between the flat iron. Move the iron down the length of your beard in one motion to straighten the hair downward. Repeat for all areas of the beard until the hair is straightened. [6]
You should not keep the flat iron in any one place longer than 5 seconds. Over-exposure to heat can burn and damage your beard hair.
Apply silicone cream while washing your beard. After using shampoo and conditioner, apply the silicone cream to your entire beard while the hair is still damp. Do not wash the cream out, just gently work it into the beard. [7]
Only use enough to cover your beard. Do not use more than needed as it will waste the cream.
If you prefer not to use the silicone cream, you can also use a beard oil. Beard oils are moisturizers and leave-in conditioners. However, beard oils only make the beard soft and do not work as straightening agents. [8] For very curly beards, using silicone cream is recommended.
Blow dry and comb your beard. When the silicone cream sets while blow drying and grooming, your beard will be straight for the rest of the day. You will need to reapply the silicone cream the next day for the same results. [9]
Use a fine-tooth comb to make sure the silicone cream gets down to the roots of the hair follicles. Using a larger-toothed comb or a brush may not give the appearance of completely straight hair as the cream may not be applied to each individual hair.
Apply beard balm to keep the beard straighter for longer. Beard balms are styling pomades that provide hold for beard styles and make beards appear fuller.[10]. After your beard is dry, apply a small amount of balm, just enough to cover your beard, to hold your straightened hair in place all day.
If your beard is able to be straightened temporarily without silicone cream, applying a beard balm directly after blow drying and combing your hair. This will hold the straightened beard in place for a few hours.
A stronger form of beard balm is beard wax, which is beard bald made with beeswax for added hold and straightening ability. [11]
Wash your beard with beard relaxing shampoo and pat it dry with a towel. Two shampoos will come in a relaxer kit, and one is a specific relaxer shampoo. This shampoo is specialty designed to prepare the hair for the relaxer cream. Pat your beard completely dry with a towel.
Do not rub your beard when drying as this may wash out the properties of the relaxer shampoo that help prepare and strengthen the hair.
Part your beard into smaller sections with a comb. This will make it easier to apply the relaxer cream to all parts of your beard first before spreading the cream across to any hairs you missed. If necessary, you can use rubber bands to hold the sections of your beard in place.
Remember that you will need to throw these rubber bands away after you're finished.
Apply the relaxer cream to each beard section with disposable gloves. The relaxer cream contains compounds specific for hair that may irritate the skin. Be very careful to apply the cream only to your beard and avoid placing any cream directly on your chin or face. [12]
If you do experience any irritation sensations after a few minutes, wash the relaxer cream out of your beard and wait before trying the cream again. Check to make sure the skin is not tender to the touch.
Beard relaxers do not harm the hair. They are made with ingredients like almond oil, shea butter, and beeswax that moisturize your hair follicles and promote healthy growth. [13]
Comb the relaxer cream through your whole beard. Use a fine-toothed comb to spread the cream throughout your beard to make sure it has been applied to the full length of the hair. Look to make sure all of your beard is covered. [14]
Look at the roots of your beard for total coverage. If you do not get the relaxer to your roots, the hair between your face and the top of your beard may still appear curly.
Wait for 30 minutes and wash out the visible relaxer with only water. The cream needs time to be soaked up by the hair and break down your curls to make them more manageable. Relaxer cream that is soaked up by the hair will not be visible to the eye but will still be actively working. After 30 minutes, wash out the visible relaxer with water to remove the access product. [15]
Do not use shampoo as it will completely wash out the relaxer before it has finished breaking down the curls. [16]
If you feel any burning sensations before the 30 minutes has passed, immediately wash the visible relaxer out of your beard.
Dry the beard with a blow dryer. Do not use a towel when doing this or you may remove the cream that is still actively working in your hair. Fully dry the beard with the blow dryer on a low heat setting. [17]
Comb the beard in a downward motion to begin the straightening.
Straighten the beard with a flat iron to work out the curls. You will need to straighten the hair while the relaxer cream is still actively working before washing the cream completely out. This will make sure the beard is completely straightened and will remain that way after washing out the relaxer. Be sure to keep the flat at least half an inch away from your skin and straighten the hair in a downward motion.[18]
Do not let the flat iron sit in one place on the beard for more than 5 seconds as it can cause damage to your hair. [19]
Wash out the remaining relaxer with beard shampoo. After you have straightened and shaped your beard with the active relaxer cream, wash your beard with shampoo to fully remove the relaxer cream. Wash your beard thoroughly to make sure all of the relaxer is out. [20]
You should repeat this process 2-3 times to be sure that the cream has been washed away.
The beard relaxer kit should come with a shampoo for this, but any beard shampoo will do.
Apply beard conditioner and wait for 30 minutes. Heat can be damaging to the hair, especially when working out curls. Fully conditioning the beard will allow the hair to pick up any moisture it lost during flat-ironing.
The relaxer kit should also include a conditioner, but you can use your own beard conditioner as long as it is not leave-in.
Rinse out the conditioner and towel try your beard. Pat your beard down with a towel until it is fully dry. Use a comb to style your beard and put some beard oil in it for extra moisture all day.
Beard relaxers permanently straighten beards, but new beard hair will still grow in curly. If you want your new hair to be straightened, you will need to relax that new growth as well. When doing so, do not reapply the relaxer to the already straightened hair as over-exposure can make that hair brittle or dry.
If you want to return to your curly beard after using a relaxer, shave or cut your current straightened hair and allow your beard to grow out again.
Travel pillows are a great accessory for taking on airplanes, trains, and buses. If you've used your travel pillow a lot, it might be getting dirty or collecting an odor. Before you clean your travel pillow, determine what material it is made out of. Most pillows, including those made from memory foam or microbeads, can be hand-washed with laundry detergent. If your pillow has a cover on it, simply take off the cover and wash it separately from the pillow itself. You can also sprinkle your pillow with baking soda and set it in the sun to freshen it.
[Edit]Washing a Memory Foam or Microbead Travel Pillow
Fill a container with lukewarm water and of detergent. Find a bucket, tub, or sink that is big enough to hold your travel pillow. Fill it up about halfway with lukewarm water, or water that is just above . Add a mild detergent and gently mix it into the water. Make sure your container is full enough that your travel pillow will be fully submerged.[1]
You should always use mild detergent when you wash memory foam so that you don't harm your pillow.
If you use your travel pillow often, you should wash it twice a year.
Hold your pillow underwater and gently squeeze it. Submerge your travel pillow fully and squeeze it in and out with your hands. Do not pull or rub at your travel pillow. Squeeze your pillow 5 to 10 times all over to fully clean it out.[2]
If there are any stains or spots on your pillow, pay special attention to them as you squeeze.
Rinse your pillow out in cool water until the water is clear. Drain the container full of soapy water and carry your pillow over to a sink or tub. Use cool water that is just below room temperature to rinse all of the detergent out of your pillow. Keep rinsing until there is no soap residue coming out of the pillow anymore, or for about 5 minutes.[3]
Leaving soap residue inside of your pillow can harm it in the long run.
Let your travel pillow dry in the sun. Set your travel pillow in a cool, dry spot where the sun can reach it. If you live in a humid climate, keep your pillow indoors. Leave it to dry until you can squeeze it without feeling any moisture, or for 1 to 2 days.[4]
Check the tag to see if your pillow is machine washable. Some travel pillows cannot be washed in a washing machine. Look at the tag to see what the manufacturer recommends. If your pillow is dry clean or hand wash only, do not put it in the washing machine.[5]
Most memory foam and microbead pillows are not machine washable.
Remove the cover if it has one. Some travel pillows have removable covers that come off with a zipper or snaps. If your pillow does, take the cover off carefully and set the pillow aside. Wash the cover separately from the pillow.[6]
Pillow covers help keep your travel pillow clean for a longer period of time.
Wash the pillow or the cover in cold water on a low spin setting. Find the low-spin or delicate setting on your washing machine. Wash your travel pillow in cold water using a mild detergent. Don't let the pillow sit for too long after the cycle is over, or it could lose its shape.[7]
Putting your pillow on a high-spin setting could also cause it to lose its shape.
You can wash other clothing items with your pillow or cover.
Dry it on low or let it sit in the sun for 1 day. If you need your travel pillow dried quickly, put it in the dryer for 1 hour on a low setting. If you don't need it dry that fast, set your pillow out in the sun to dry for at least 1 day. Squeeze your pillow to make sure it is dry on the inside, not just the outside.[8]
Some dryers have automatic moisture sensors. These won't work on travel pillows, since the sensors only pick up moisture on the outside of the pillow, not the inside.
Let the pillow sit out in the sunlight for 2 to 3 days to remove smells. If your memory foam or microbead travel pillow is starting to smell bad, let it sit out in the fresh air for 2 to 3 days until the smell goes away. Make sure the pillow won't get wet or dirty in the spot that you put it outside. Unfold the pillow all the way before you set it in the sunlight.[9]
Mild odors, like the smell of sweat, will go away when the pillow is aired out.
Sprinkle baking soda on the pillow and let it sit to get rid of smells. If your pillow is really stinky, spread a thin layer of baking soda over the entire thing. Let it sit outside in the sunlight for 2 to 3 days until the baking soda absorbs all of the odor. Brush the baking soda off of the pillow outside before you use it again.[10]
Baking soda absorbs odors, but it won't take away any stains or dirt.
Rub detergent and warm water into small stains. If your travel pillow has a few small stains on it that don't warrant an entire wash, use a washcloth with warm water and 1 drop of mild laundry detergent to gently rub at the stain until it comes out. Rinse the stain with cool water until the water runs clear to get rid of the detergent.[11]
Chicken is an appetizing, easy dish that can be paired with almost anything. Eating undercooked or raw chicken is incredibly dangerous and can make you very sick, so it's important to know when your food is safe to eat. Using a thermometer and inspecting your chicken is a sure-fire way to make sure that you are consuming safe, healthy, and delicious food.
Choose a meat thermometer. Buying the right thermometer can make your cooking process much easier. To get the most accurate reading, a digital meat thermometer is best, but an analog thermometer can also be used.[1]
Calibrate your thermometer by reading a freezing temperature. Fill a large pitcher with ice and cold tap water, and mix thoroughly until the ice is distributed evenly. Place your thermometer into the pitcher of ice/water mixture and wait 30 seconds, or until the temperature reading stays on one number. Adjust your thermometer reading until it stays at .
No matter what kind of thermometer you are using, making sure it is calibrated correctly is essential to ensure you get an accurate temperature reading.[2]
Find the thickest part of the chicken. Testing the temperature of the thickest part of the meat ensures that your entire piece of chicken is cooked, and not just the thin portions. Identify which area of the chicken has the most meat on it, usually toward the center of the piece.[3]
Insert your thermometer. Stab your thermometer into the thickest part of the chicken, making sure that the end of the thermometer stays near the middle of the piece. Wait about 30 seconds, or until your thermometer reading becomes steady.
Test the firmness of the meat to make sure it is cooked. When cooking, chicken loses moisture and will tighten up. Raw chicken feels rubbery or wobbly, while cooked chicken should feel firm and spring back from your touch.[5]
A good example of what cooked chicken should feel like can be felt by keeping your hand limp and pressing your middle finger to your thumb.
Check for white/clear juice to test whether your chicken is ready. While cooking, there is often juice that collects in the pan or dish that your chicken is cooking in. Cooked chicken juice will be a white/clear color, while uncooked chicken juice will be more pink.[6]
Checking the color of the juice to test whether meat is done is a trick that only works for chicken, and not other types of meat.
Determine if your chicken has shrunk in size to see if it is cooked. Uncooked chicken holds a lot of moisture which is expelled during the cooking process. Meat also tends to shrink while cooking, because the muscle fibers contract. Your cooked chicken piece will be slightly smaller than the piece of uncooked chicken that you started with.
Look for a white meat color to see if your chicken is cooked. Raw or undercooked chicken has a pink tone to it. By cutting open the thickest part of your chicken and looking at the color, you can identify whether your chicken needs more cook time or not. Cooked chicken will be white on the inside with no pinkish hue, and a golden brown on the outside.
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But while that centralized all-in-one style fit Chinese culture, Western markets have experienced more of an unbundling with different apps emerging to handle each of these use cases. Facebook’s constant privacy scandals and increasing anti-trust scrutiny also inhibited this approach with Messenger. Users and the U.S. government weren’t ready to trust Facebook to handle so much of our daily lives. Facebook Messenger also has to jockey with competition like iMessage and Snapchat that could undercut it if it gets too bloated.
GDC 
That June, Yolo quietly raised a $2 million seed round thanks to its sudden success. The team had been grinding since 2017 on a video reactions app called Popshow funded by a small pre-seed round from SV Angel, Shrug Capital and Product Hunt's Ryan Hoover. They’d previously built music video-making app 
That cash fueled the release of Yolo’s new group chat feature. You can set up a chat room, give it a name and generate an invite URL or sticker you can post on Snapchat, just like its previous question feature. Friends or friends of friends that are already in can join the group chat, represented by their Bitmoji instead of their name. Yolo suggests people join the more open “party mode” chats where their friends are active.
