Thursday, December 19

Tag: US

Sovereign Wealth Funds Pull $3.7B From Global Stock, Bond Markets In Q3
BUSINESS

Sovereign Wealth Funds Pull $3.7B From Global Stock, Bond Markets In Q3

Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) withdrew more money from global stock and bond markets in the third quarter of 2017, albeit at a slower pace with net outflows of $3.7 billion, data from research firm eVestment showed on Thursday. This was down from the second quarter’s $7.7 billion of redemptions and the first quarter’s whopping $22.7 billion, but it still marked the 13th straight quarter of withdrawals. Oil-backed sovereign funds have been under pressure since oil prices tumbled from their mid-2014 highs of $115 a barrel to below $30 a barrel in January 2016, forcing governments to dig into their coffers to fill budget gaps. Oil prices have since stabilized and currently trade around $60 a barrel. Some of the worst-hit governments have also tapped global bond markets for cash, reli...
Google Broadens Takedown Of Extremist YouTube Videos
News

Google Broadens Takedown Of Extremist YouTube Videos

Alphabet Inc’s Google in the last few months has begun removing from YouTube extremist videos that do not depict violence or preach hate, YouTube said on Monday, a major policy shift as social media companies face increasing pressure from governments. The new policy affects videos that feature people and groups that have been designated as terrorist by the U.S. or British governments but lack the gory violence or hateful speech that were already barred by YouTube. A YouTube spokesperson, who asked not be named for security reasons, confirmed the policy in response to questions. The company would not specify when the policy went into effect. As YouTube terms already barred “terrorists” from using the service, the new policy keeps out videos uploaded by others that militants likely ...
This AI System Can Predict Earthquakes
Tech

This AI System Can Predict Earthquakes

Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to successfully predict earthquakes, an advance that can help prepare for natural disasters and potentially save lives. The study, published in the journal Geophysical Review Letters, identified a hidden signal that led up to earthquakes and used this fingerprint to train a machine learning algorithm to predict future earthquakes. Researchers at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom and Boston University in the US studied the interactions between earthquakes, precursor quakes and faults, disturbances, hoping to develop a method for predicting earthquakes. Using a lab-based system that mimics real earthquakes, they used machine learning techniques to analyze the acoustic signals that came from the disturbance as ...
TCS Open Drones Research Lab in US
USA

TCS Open Drones Research Lab in US

Countrys largest IT exporter TCS today said it has opened a special facility in Ohio, US to conduct research on drone usage across industries. "Forward-thinking companies worldwide are at different stages of exploring drone technology to reimagine existing operational processes and transform the way they do business," its chief technology officer K Ananth Krishnan said. The TCS Drones Research Lab at Cincinnatis Seven Hills Park Innovation Center includes indoor labs, showcase, warehouse, and outdoor terrain footprints, a company statement said. The lab provides experimentation and co-innovation environment for customers to build solutions for specific industry problems in accelerated 30-60-90-day delivery cycles, it added. It can be noted that the unmanned aerial vehicles are ...
TCS Hired 11,500 People in Offshore Markets in FY17
News

TCS Hired 11,500 People in Offshore Markets in FY17

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) recruited over 11,500 people outside India during 2016-17, including graduates from engineering and B-schools in the US, as it ramps up local hiring in offshore markets to tackle visa-related challenges. The country's largest software services firm added 79,000 employees (gross) and 33,380 employees (net), taking its employee base to 3.87 lakh at the end of March. Hiring locals in overseas markets often pushes up operational costs for IT outsourcing companies. However, with the governments in markets like the US, Australia and New Zealand tightening their work visa norms, Indian IT companies are hiring more local talents in offshore markets to ensure compliance with rules. "Our local hiring programmes in various geographies are progressing well. ...
Amazon Pumping Nearly $1.5 bn Into US Air Freight Hub
USA

Amazon Pumping Nearly $1.5 bn Into US Air Freight Hub

Online retail colossus Amazon said it will strengthen its distribution muscle, and create US jobs, by building its first air freight hub, an investment of nearly USD 1.5 billion. A hub for the company's growing fleet of Prime Air cargo planes will be built at an airport in northern Kentucky, adding more than 2,000 workers to the approximately 10,000 people it already employs at fulfillment centers in that state. Seattle-based Amazon did not specify the amount of the investment, but the local economic development organization placed the figure at USD 1.49 billion. The spot for the hub was chosen for reasons that included being a centralised location for moving goods, according to Amazon senior vice president of worldwide operations Dave Clark. Eager to decrease its dependence on sh...
Alibaba’s Jack Ma Warns of ‘Big Trade War’ Between China, US
CHINA

Alibaba’s Jack Ma Warns of ‘Big Trade War’ Between China, US

E-commerce giant Alibaba's founder Jack Ma has warned of a "big trade war" between China and the US under the new Trump Presidency if conflicts were not dealt properly. He said China's economic outlook will be "tougher than expected" due to continued slowdown of Chinese economy and warned. "In the coming three to five years... the economic situation will be even more arduous than everyone had expected," the e-commerce billionaire said at an annual meeting of the General Association of Zhejiang Entrepreneurs. Referring to the slowdown of the Chinese economy to 6.7 percent last year, the slowest in over two decades, he said it was "only natural" that China's rapid growth over the past three decades could not continue, and that the focus should be shifted to the quality of growth such a...
China’s ZTE to Slash About 3,000 Jobs: Sources
CHINA

China’s ZTE to Slash About 3,000 Jobs: Sources

Chinese telecom equipment maker ZTE, which is facing US trade sanctions that could severely disrupt its supply chain, is slashing about 3,000 jobs, including a fifth of positions in its struggling handset business in China, company sources said. The sources said the Shenzhen-based company, one of the world's biggest telecoms gear makers, is axing about 5 percent of its 60,000 global workforce. Its global handset operations will shed 600 jobs, or 10 percent of the total, with the cuts concentrated in China, where it has been losing market share. "Cuts in the handset business in China will be beyond 20 percent," said a senior executive who has been briefed on the lay-offs, which are scheduled to be completed within the first quarter. A local manager in one of the company's overse...
US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling
CHINA, USA

US Blacklists Chinese E-commerce Giant Alibaba For Fake Product Selling

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group is back on the US government's annual list of "notorious markets" that sell pirated goods. The Office of the US Trade Representative said yesterday that Alibaba's on-line marketplace Taobao sells "high levels" of counterfeit goods and is slow to respond when companies complain about the knockoffs. USTR took Alibaba off the blacklist in 2012, but several US trade groups successfully sought to get it reinstated. "There are a lot of victims here," including US companies that lose sales to fakes and consumers who wind up with shoddy goods, said Stephen Lamar, executive vice president at the American Apparel & Footwear Association, which wanted Alibaba back on the list. Alibaba Group President Michael Evans said the company is "disappointed." ...
Mohandas Pai Warns Indian Businessmen For Not Investing in Indian Startups
Entrepreneurs Talk

Mohandas Pai Warns Indian Businessmen For Not Investing in Indian Startups

With China and the US pumping in massive foreign capital into India's digital economy, a top Indian investor and educationist has warned that the country could become a "digital colony" unless Indian businesses start investing in it. "India could become a digital colony," warned Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education, referred to possible consequences of the massive money being pumped into India's digital economy by the US and China. "There is a fight between US and China to dominate digitally. And the Indian capital where they are, buying real estate in California?" he asked. "If you miss this digital revolution, our big companies would be controlled by Chinese capital which is very dangerous," Pai warned. India, which has the world's third largest startup eco system, has ...
India’s Leading Advertiser Firm Inmobi Announced Partnership With US Based Analytical Startup Moat
BUSINESS

India’s Leading Advertiser Firm Inmobi Announced Partnership With US Based Analytical Startup Moat

InMobi, the world's largest independent mobile advertising and discovery platform, today announced a partnership with Moat to offer brand advertisers mobile video measurement and currency through both InMobi Exchange and the InMobi network. The partnership will enable advertisers to measure, among other metrics, "human and viewable" and "human, viewable, and audible" (sound, sight and motion) viewability and attention metrics across all mobile ad formats including mobile video and native advertising, as well as transact on these metrics using Moat Currency. According to Strategy Analytics, worldwide revenue from mobile video will reach $25 billion by 2021. As advertisers shift their digital ad dollars to video, ad viewability is an increasing priority for advertisers. This partnership w...