Eight Startups for AFRL Next Academy Commercialization: By Griffiss Institute

Griffiss Institute declared the next group involved in the AFRL Commercialization Academy with the top eight startup teams. The AFRL Commercialization Academy is a curriculum of entrepreneurial education by the Griffiss Institute, funded by the Directorate of Information for the Air Force Research Laboratory. These eight startups will focus particularly on fields like health, big data analytics, information systems, and the industry of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). All these eight teams are selected from a pool of submissions from the applicants.

The teams will be "incubated and trained" as they develop their businesses around the United States.  “The spring 2020 cohort is an impassioned group of startups with many creative ideas that can positively impact Central New York and the entire country,” Dan Fayette, AFRL Commercialization Academy program manager, said.

The startups will commence their work at the Commercialization Academy this month. These startups will be continuously engaging in weekly online classes and the remaining handpicked teams will batter their tech businesses to a panel of judges for a $300,000 piece of IDEA NY prize seed funding at a June Demo Day event. After Demo Day, qualifying teams will participate in the IDEA NY accelerator program that will "encourage the development and growth of promising entrepreneurs"

Nisha Narayanan: From RJ to Business leader of the Year

Chief Operating Officer and Director, Red FM and Magic FM, Nisha Narayanan has recently been honored with the “Business Leader of the Year” award. In view of her vast experience and fascinating work in the entertainment and media industry, she received the award in the entertainment category at the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival.

The award ceremony which honors the top talent of creators, artists, and filmmakers in the movie industry, took place in the presence of Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Governor of Maharashtra as the chief guest. Starting as a radio jockey at All India Radio, Narayanan also got experienced in news anchoring and documentary filmmaking. In her career span, she has also hosted many chat shows and debates, apart from covering live events and national issues. Other awards Narayanan has won include, Impact – 50 most influential women award 2016, India’s Greatest COO – India’s greatest brands and Leaders 2017-18, The most enterprising leader of Asia 2018 – WCRC, and Don Rowland’s prize for Excellence.

Red FM today has a presence of 69 stations across the country and has successfully expanded to other business verticals as well. The reason Red FM connects well with listeners at a personal level is because of her strong belief in the power of regional language and content. She also pointed towards the success of the radio industry, despite the intense competition from the digital on-demand streaming platforms.

Indian Scientists Oppose Scheme to Study Benefits of Cow Dung, Urine and Milk

Hundreds of scientists have asked the Indian government to withdraw the call for research proposals on the uniqueness of indigenous cows and the curative properties of cow urine, dung and milk for potential cancer treatments. In an open letter from the researchers, they say that the call is ‘unscientific’ and a misdirection of public money at a time when India is already facing a financial crunch.

In their letter, scientists note that the call presumes “special physiological status to select breeds of only one species,” adding that “to begin a project with such presumptions is prima facie unscientific.” Money under the scheme could be “wasted to ‘investigate’ imaginary qualities derived from religious scriptures,” they said.

The call for proposals issued 14^th February, 2020, is a part of a funding program of the Department of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and homeopathy. The proposal invites for projects on 5 research themes including ‘cowpathy’, the use of cow derived products for medicine and health.  A major aim is the “scientific investigation of uniqueness of pure Indigenous Indian cows.”

This is not the first time that the government has promoted researches on cows or made scientific claims for unproven traditional beliefs.

Malaysia: Worst plastic polluters in Asia

In a report published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Malaysians top the list of plastic polluters in Asia. The survey covers countries such as China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam - around 60 percent of plastic debris entering the world’s oceans comes from these countries.

Interestingly, the GDP per capita in Malaysia is also the highest among the five other countries. The WWF has linked this connection by pointing out that the increase in the use of plastic is mainly due to the rapid economic growth of the country. During recent years, Malaysia has also returned almost 4,000 tons of unrecyclable plastic to the countries that had shipped it to them. Other countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia have also complained about the growing trade in unrecyclable trash. While Asia has seen incredible growth in terms of economy, and technology, it hasn’t been able to keep pace with the recycling of plastic waste. In the EU region, around 40 percent of plastic packaging waste is recycled. According to WWF, 93 percent of waste is dumped in the environment in low-income countries, while only 4 percent of waste is dumped in industrialized countries.

Malaysians are the biggest per capita users of plastic packaging, with the average Malaysian consuming 16.78kg of plastic packaging each year.

Affordability of Dream Houses

India’s real estate market has been under a ‘time correction’ since a decade. Time correction is a fancier way of saying that the prices are stagnant. After some time, this stagnation is expected to end and the real estate prices will head upwards again. There are several reasons behind the stagnation.

The major one is that prices rose way too fast and too far on the strength of investors who had more money than sense. These investors kept selling apartments to each other at higher and higher prices until finally the prices got too high for the real buyers – those who actually want to live in those houses. This stagnation is a phase when the buying capacity of the real users in catching up to these prices.

Another factor has been the tremendous distrust that buyers have for real estate developers for known reasons. As time goes on, a greater portion of potential buyers will turn into actual buyers. Real estate is unique unlike other investments in that one house is a necessity for every family and it’s only from the second house that the buyer becomes an investor with the risks and baggage it attracts. 

The problem is that buying a dream house is very different from buying a dream vacation or car.  Housing is different because of the scale of the expense behind it. The financial hole due to the dream house can cause financial damage and might take years to repair during which, the family will face many hardships.

Qatar to build 16 floating hotels for the FIFA World cup 2022

Qatar is excited to host the FIFA World cup 2022. Qatar, the country which is known for its grandeur and innovation is building 16 floating hotels. The hotels will be built in Qetaifan Island North, which is located close to Lusail International Stadium, which will host the opening as well as the final game of the FIFA World cup. It is reported that ADMARES and Sigge Architects are developing the floating hotels to serve tourists and fans that will be visiting Qatar.

Expecting a huge crowd of people, “the Qetaifan Island North, the city’s main waterfront destination is planning to provide all the needs of the masses and tourists; with projects, facilities, and entertainment activities in addition to the fan villages during the tournament, which will include the floating hotels,” states the officials.
Creating a first-ever pure floating real estate on water, ADMARES will be building innovative structures with a temporary solution for accommodation needs at this scale. The company has teamed up with the Finnish architect firm Sigge Architects to design modern floating hotels, which is unique with each building covering 72-meter-long and 16-meter-wide. Each hotel will consist of 101 guest rooms, a restaurant, a lounge, and a bar each. All of the 16 four-story hotels will offer a total of 1616 floating hotel rooms.

30 Best Companies to Watch in Asia 2020

Be the change you wish you see in the world! How easy is it to start and company and become the owner of it? It sounds great and easy, but you need the same spirit and energy forever to make your business survive, but unfortunately a large portion of them don’t survive through the first year. This can be blamed on some factors such as not recognizing your demographics,dead investments, not hiring the right talent, and heavy losses.However, there is a way to make all your future businesses future-proof, and we will discuss about it in this current edition. To survive, you need to foreground what is already out there, but you also need to outsmart your competitors and other business owners. Smart thinking gives you a competitive edge that beats large pools of investors and limitless capital. And smart thinking is not just about tapping new customer bases, tapping into new customer bases is a good business move for many entrepreneurs for obvious reasons, but it also comes at a great cost financially. In addition, it is also a very risky endeavor, and the wrong execution could drain out your funds and kill your business in the long run.Ask the experts, The Silicon Review“30 Best Companies to Watch in Asia 2020.” The companies enlisted are known for their customer centric approach, customer retention rate, openness to innovation, skilled people, financial soundness, global competitiveness, and moreover, the ability to forecast market trends.
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