Tuesday, March 19

Tag: US

Amazon to Increase Minimum Wages of US Employees to $15
USA

Amazon to Increase Minimum Wages of US Employees to $15

Amazon has announced that the company is reportedly raising the minimum wage for all its United States employees to $15 which will be effective from next month. The raise is applicable for part-time workers and those hired through temporary agencies. The company mentioned that it would also persuade Washington to raise the federal minimum wage which has been around $7.25 for almost a decade. The rise in the wages will apply to more than 250,000 Amazon employees, including those at the grocery chain Whole Foods. Also, it will apply to more than 100,000 seasonal employees that the company plans to appoint for the holiday season. However, the change in wages will not apply to contract workers. “We listened to our critics, thought hard about what we wanted to do, and decided we want to ...
Michigan Startup May Mobility Expands to a Third US City
USA

Michigan Startup May Mobility Expands to a Third US City

Michigan startup May Mobility which is an autonomous shuttle company has announced its plans to another US city that is Columbus, Ohio. The company has plans to add another route in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It’s an extensive and rapid boost for a company that was established less than two years ago. The startup has built low-speed autonomous shuttles that are designed to run along a specific route in business districts or corporate and college campuses. May Mobility stated that it will bring in four of its six-seat electric shuttles to Grand Rapids. The one-year pilot will begin in March 2019. "We're excited our first [autonomous] pilot is for moving multiple people. This is a step to show that Grand Rapids is ready for" autonomous vehicles, Naramore said. "When new technology come...
SparkLabs to Launch a Cybersecurity and Blockchain Program in the US
USA

SparkLabs to Launch a Cybersecurity and Blockchain Program in the US

Investment firm SparkLabs has announced that the company will be launching a cybersecurity and blockchain program in the US that’ll be located in Washington, D.C. from next year. The program will be led by former Startup Grind COO Brian Park and Mike Bott, who is ex-managing director of The Brandery accelerator. The program has been named as “SparkLabs Cybersecurity + Blockchain” and will kick off with an inaugural batch of companies in March next year. “We want to foster and grow a robust ecosystem in both cybersecurity and distributed ledger technologies.  We believe these two verticals are synergetic by nature, but we will seek innovations beyond the overlap,” Park said in a statement. “It’s so early within this space that we are only seeing the Friendsters and MySpaces of the ...
Instagram to Launch a New Feature to Prevent Substance Abuse
Tech

Instagram to Launch a New Feature to Prevent Substance Abuse

Photo and video sharing social platform Instagram that is owned by Facebook is launching a new "prompt feature" that would pop-up if the users try to find substance abuse related recovery and treatment services. This would even happen if they try to purchase drugs illegally on the platform using certain hashtags such as "opioid". It has been reported by the company that the users make use of hashtags to find addiction support and communities as well as illegal drugs. This is an attempt to encourage people who are indulging in or fighting against addiction of drugs. The prompt comes with three options to choose from -- "get support", "see posts anyway", and "cancel". With this move, the company is introducing a new pop-up feature which aims at solving the platform's drug issues, even ...
Homegrown Amul Dairy Eyeing to Acquire a Manufacturing Plant in the US
ACQUISITION

Homegrown Amul Dairy Eyeing to Acquire a Manufacturing Plant in the US

India’s largest dairy firm Amul Dairy has been a dominant player in the country in this sector. The company is now moving forward to have its presence in the United States. The Amul Dairy which is originally known as Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL)  is on the advanced stages to launch its own dairy in the US. This move will mark as the first one in terms of any plant outside India started by a home-grown co-operative dairy company. According to the sources, Amul Dairy is eyeing to acquire a dairy plant in Wisconsin – the mid-western state of the US – to start its own operations. Wisconsin is among the top producers of cheese in the US, accounting for almost 27 % of total cheese production. “We are looking at options to expand our US operations so th...
PUBG Gaming Mobile App Crosses 3 Million Downloads in the US
USA

PUBG Gaming Mobile App Crosses 3 Million Downloads in the US

The mobile gaming era has been emerging with a great pace all across the globe. One of the most popular games these days that is PlayerUnknown's Battleground (PUBG) mobile that was launched by Tencent in March this year for Android and iOS users is touching heights of success. The mobile game has crossed the number of three million players in the United States. According to the reports, the majority of the PUBG mobile game downloads have come from the Android users. It was last month that the company announced that PUBG Mobile has achieved 100 million downloads on Android and iOS platforms both. The data reveals that the game reached a peak of 3.1 million US players, with 1.7 million from Android, that accounts for the majority of the downloads. Also, the data shows that over 30 perc...
A US-based PE Firm to Acquire a 21 Percent Stake in RR Kabel
ACQUISITION

A US-based PE Firm to Acquire a 21 Percent Stake in RR Kabel

TPG Capital, a private equity firm announced that it has acquired a considerable minority stake in wires and low-voltage cables manufacturer RR Kabel Ltd. However, the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed yet. The PE firm is expected to acquire a 21 percent stake in RR Kabel Ltd and Ram Ratna Electricals Ltd, both part of the diversified Ram Ratna Group. “Within the building materials segment, we have witnessed a growing consumer preference for established and organised brands like RR Kabel,” said Puneet Bhatia, co-managing partner at TPG Capital Asia. “This, combined with India’s strong housing market, positions the company well for significant growth.” This acquisition might be a plus point for the company as TPG would help it to expand its product offerings and inc...
Blood-Testing Company Theranos is Shutting Down
USA

Blood-Testing Company Theranos is Shutting Down

Health technology company Theranos based in California that was once known as a high flying blood-testing start-up accused of cheating and betraying its investors is reportedly shutting down. It is being stated that the company was not able to sell itself and is now looking to pay unsecured creditors its remaining cash of about $5 million in the coming months. A major portion of the employees already had their last day. Theranos tries to sell itself, but, unfortunately, nobody was willing to acquire a company that has been disgraced and lost its investors nearly $1 billion. This move has come three months after the company’s founder and CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, along with former chief operating officer Ramesh Balwani were charged with criminal fraud. They were accused of misleading ...
Google Assistant Can Now Speak Two Languages at a Time
Tech

Google Assistant Can Now Speak Two Languages at a Time

With the voice commands and voice assistants taking up a major role in the technology race, the Google’s assistant is adapting the ability to speak with you in two languages without having to switch accounts. With this new modification, Google Home and Android smartphone owners will be able to speak in any two of the following languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Japanese. The Google Assistant will then reply in the language of the query it's answering. Compared to us mortals that have to undergo processes such as Effortless English accent training in order to learn new languages, Google's voice assistants just know languages automatically. It was in February that the company stated that it is working on this feature, but since then there were no updates about it ...
Baidu Partners With US Chipmaker to Bolster Project Apollo
CHINA

Baidu Partners With US Chipmaker to Bolster Project Apollo

Amercian data conversion and signal processing company Analog Devices (ADI) has entered into a collaboration memorandum of understanding (MOU) with China’s biggest technology company Baidu, for the purpose of improving and developing the Chinese company’s autonomous driving technologies. The partnership was taken forward on Tuesday and it is expected to bolster the autonomous driving solutions for Project Apollo, Baidu’s autonomous driving system platform, including sensor fusion, algorithms and ecosystem partners. The US and the Chinese company will together share resources and set up sensing and navigation applications such as RADAR and LIDAR for Project Apollo, and also and digital signal processing (DSP) products. “ADI offers groundbreaking advantages in autonomous driving, cabin e...
Market Capitalization of 100 Global Companies Rises To $20 Trillion
News

Market Capitalization of 100 Global Companies Rises To $20 Trillion

The total market capitalization of the top 100 global companies has risen up by 15 percent since last year to $20 trillion. The US stood at the leading position with 54 companies on the list. In terms of the absolute rise in market capitalization, the best and the strongest performer was Amazon gaining $278 billion or 66 percent in the value compared to the previous year. The companies that come after the e-commerce giant are the two Chinese companies - Tencent, up by $224 billion or 82 percent, and Alibaba, up by $ 201 billion or 75 percent. The next three highest performers in absolute terms are all from the US including Microsoft, Alphabet and Apple. According to the reports, the total capitalization of the top 100 global companies has grown on an annualized basis, since the gl...