Small yet distinct

The word ‘country’ makes one think of a large land mass. However, not every country is huge. There are some countries that are really small in size. They are so tiny, that some of them can even be covered by foot! Some of these countries can fit entirely within the city of another country. The smallest country in the world, the Vatican City, for example, can fit into the city of Rome, capital of Italy. Many of these countries are only small in size. With their wealth and natural resources, they can even compete with any of the larger countries. So, here’s a showcase of some of the small, yet distinct countries.

• Vatican City

Vatican City is the world’s smallest fully independent nation state. It is also the smallest by population. Situated on the western bank of the Tiber river, the Vatican City’s 3.2 kilometre border is landlocked by Italy. The Vatican City has served as the official home of the pope of the Catholic church since 1377. However, Vatican City was not declared an independent state until the Lateran treaty of 1929 which created the independent state of Vatican City for the Catholic church. Today nearly 75% of the Vatican’s citizens are members of the clergy. Along with the centuries old buildings and gardens the Vatican maintains its own banking and telephone systems post office pharmacy newspaper and radio and television stations. Its 600 citizens include the members of the Swiss guard a security detail charged with protecting the Pope since 1506. The most significant building in Vatican City is Saint Peter’s Basilica. It is the Italian language that is used by most of those located within the state however the official documents are written in Latin.

• South Korea

Compared to the giants of Asia like India and China, South Korea is much smaller in size. Its total area is 100,032 square kilometres. South Korea has one pf the most homogeneous populations in the world which are thought to be descended from several Mongol tribes that migrated from central Asia. Tourism is a fast growing industry in South Korea.

• Portugal

Portugal is a sovereign state in Western Europe. It comprises of the continental part of Portugal on the western coast of the Iberian Peninsula and the small archipelagos of Madeira and the Azores in the Atlantic Ocean.

• Hungary

The name “Hungary” may very well come from the medieval Latin word ‘Hungaria’ which translates as “Land of Huns”. Another source states that the name is derived from the Turkish words on ‘Ogur’ meaning ‘ten arrows’ or ‘ten people’

• UAE

The United Arab Emirates is a constitutional federation of seven Emirates; Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. The federation was formally established on 2nd December, 1971. The UAE’s oil reserves are the seventh largest in the world while its natural gas reserves are the worlds seventeen largest. The Dubai police fleet includes Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a Bentley. This is to allow them to catch speeders who can outrun other cars.

• Dominican republic

The island of Hispaniola, the second largest island of the Antilles in the Caribbean contains two separate countries, the Dominican republic and Haiti. The Dominican republic is the only country in the world to have an image of the Holy Bible on its national flag.

• Panama • Georgia • Ireland • Iceland • Sri Lanka • Costa Rica • Bhutan • Switzerland • Belgium • Israel • Fiji • Qatar • Jamaica • Singapore • Maldives …to name a few others.

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Mysteries (II)

Part one was : http://eduindexnews.com/2020/09/14/bermuda-triangle-and-other-mysteries/

• Indian rope trick

India is a land of countless mysteries that have puzzled the rest of the world. Perhaps the most enduring of these mysteries is that of the ‘Indian rope trick’. In the classic version of Indian rope trick, a rope is thrown into the air where it remains rigid. A young boy then climbs the rope, only to disappear at the top. The performer quickly follows him only to disappear when he reaches the top of the vertical rope! Shortly after, pieces of the boy’s body fall from the sky and land on the ground at the bottom of the rope. A few seconds later, the performer is seen climbing down the rope with a blood stained knife in his hand. On reaching firm ground, the performer utters a magic word and the rope falls limp to the ground. He then gathers up the pieces of the boy’s body and bundles them under a sheet. Within seconds, the sheet is lifted and the boy appears completely whole and unharmed! Travellers to India have described this amazing trick for over 600 years, but there is considerable doubt as to whether the trick is fact or fantasy.

• Shroud of Turin

The shroud of Turin is reputedly the cloth in which Jesus Christ was wrapped and buried. The shroud is 4.34 meters long and it bears the image of a man with wounds similar to those suffered by Jesus Christ. The shroud is unquestionably old. Its history is known from the year 1357, when it surfaced in the tiny village of Lirey, France. Today, it is kept in a silver chest in the Cathedral of Saint John, the Baptist in Turin, Italy, where it has been since 1578.

Does the shroud really show the face of Jesus? No one really knows. Although, many scientists have expressed doubts about the accuracy of the image, millions believe it to be divine and it has been a religious relic since the middle ages.

• Loch Ness monster

As far back as the 17th century, people have reported seeing a monster in the Loch Ness in Scotland. Loch means lake in Scotland. This is the largest freshwater lake in the UK. But, rather than being known for its size, it is famous for the mysterious legend of the Loch Ness monster or Nessie.

For thousands of years, people have reported catching glimpse of a huge creature. This creature is said to have a small head, a long neck and an immense body with flippers. Some people have shared photos they claim to have taken of this huge creature. The legend is so great that even scientists have been intrigued and many have conducted experiments and come up with theories to try and explain what people could be witnessing.

One explanation is that the monster could be a prehistoric creature called plesiosaur, an animal that has been considered to be extinct. Maybe one of these creatures managed to survive in the Loch Ness Lake, who knows?

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Curiosity (animals)

• Why don’t woodpeckers get a headache?

Have you ever seen woodpeckers striking trees with its long beaks? Woodpeckers hit the trees 20 times per second. Yet they don’t get a headache or any other head injury. The reason for thus is that woodpeckers are born with a helmet for the brain, which is formed of strong, thick muscles and sponge like bones in their skull. A woodpecker’s body too is specially designed to absorb the impact of the hit.

A millisecond before a woodpecker’s bill strikes on a tree dense muscles in the neck contract. Some of the force radiates down the neck muscles and protect the skull from a huge impact. A compressible bone in the skull offers a cushion effect too.

• Why aren’t spiders caught in their own webs?

Spiders spin their webs in a circular pattern that is spotted with sticky glue. When an insect brushes against these drops – each thread can carry several dozen per millimetre – it gets stuck and the spider rushes over to inject it with venom or cocoon it in silk. The question of course is how does the spider escape its own glue tracks? The answer lies in the fact is that the web is the spider’s home and it knows its way around the glue traps. There are some threads in the web that have no glue on them and the spider is careful to move only on these threads. It is also believed that spiders use an oily coating on their legs to protect themselves from getting stuck in their own webs!

Colourless rainbow

There are some rainbows that are colourless. They are called fogbows and are formed when the sun shines through a fog. The drops of water in the fog are too small to split up light into it’s different colours, so the fogbow is white in colour.

• What do we know about left handed animals?

Most people are right handed, though about one in ten among us is left handed. Animals like chimps, hump back whales and even toads favour one hand, paw, claw or fin over the other. Chimpanzees use both hands with ease, but have a preference for the right hand. Toads also prefer their right side to perform differ functions. Polar bears on the other hand, are left handed.

Some species of parrot such as the sulphur- crested cockatoo are entirely left handed, while others, including the king parrot are mainly right handed. The majority of parrots – including the budgie, galah and rainbow lorikeet use both claws comfortably. Female cats are more inclined to be right handed while male cats favour their left paws. The same is true for dogs. Interestingly, dogs wag their tails to the right when relaxed and to the left when agitated!

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Vaccination and COVID-19

How long has it been since we went to school met our friends or had a family dinner at some restaurant? Since March 2020, we have all been advised to stay home and sanitise ourselves in order to stay safe. Sanitizers and masks have been added to our daily use products, all because of one tiny yet dangerous virus Covid-19!

The world is now waiting anxiously for a vaccine against this dreaded virus. Researchers around the world are working round the clock to develop vaccines to combat the pandemic. Currently, more than 165 vaccines against the corona virus are under process and 27 vaccines are undergoing human trials. Vaccines typically require years of research and testing before reaching the clinic. Today, scientists all over the world are racing to produce a safe and effective vaccine by next year.

• When did the efforts start

Efforts to make a successful Covid-19 vaccine began in January 2020 with the deciphering of the SARS-CoV -2 genome. The first vaccine safety trials in humans started in March but the road ahead remains uncertain. Some trials will fail and others may end without a clear result. But a few may succeed in stimulating the immune system to produce effective antibodies against the virus.

• India and vaccine against Covid-19

Like many other countries, India too is immersed in the efforts to develop successful vaccines to counter Covid-19. Thirty different Indian companies are trying to produce a vaccine to fight the infection. 7 out of these have received approval from the World Health Organization. These vaccines are in different stages of testing and clinical trials now.

COVAXIN

COVAXIN is developed by Hyderabad based Bharat Biotech International Limited in collaboration with ICMR and NIV, Pune. This is the first vaccine from India to get regulatory approval. The vaccine makes us an inactive version of a virus to spike up production of antibodies in the host body. It recently initiated Phase I and Phase II of clinical testing.

ZyCoV-D

ZyCoV-D is being developed by Zydus Cadila based in Ahmedabad. The Phase I trials of the vaccine have already begun. Extensive research was done regarding the same in collaboration with medical labs in Europe and US.

• Russia and vaccine against Covid-19

Russia is one of the countries worst affected by Covid-19. The country has been pushing extensively for a Covid-19 vaccine for quite some time now; Russia too is a part of the race to produce the world’s first Covid vaccine. It is possible that Russia would be ready with its first domestic corona virus vaccine soon. The clinical trials were conducted by the Gamaleya National Research centre of Epidemiology and microbiology. There seem to be no reports of side effects on the volunteers. All the participants showed immunity and the country is planning for the serial production of the vaccine by September. By the beginning of next year, Russia hopes to manufacture several million doses of corona virus vaccines per month.

• Oxford University’s efforts to develop a vaccine

The university of Oxford has partnered with AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish pharmaceutical company to develop an adenovirus vector vaccine to combat Covid-19. The vaccine prototype is currently in Phase III of testing. Trials of the vaccine developed by Oxford University show it can trigger an immune response. The vaccine which has so far been found to be safe and effective is expected to be made available for the masses by the end of 2020. This vaccine would also be the first such vaccine to have a large scale testing in India. The observatory data for this vaccine is expected to be available by November this year. The company has tied up with Pune based serum institute of India to mass produce the vaccine once the company gets required approvals and licensing from medical boards.

• Some methods used to make vaccines for Covid-19

Different scientists across the world try different techniques and formulas to develop vaccines. The Oxford researchers have put small sections of the corona virus genetic code into a harmless virus that infects chimpanzees. They appear to have developed a safe virus that looks enough like the corona virus to produce an immune system. Some other scientists have used pieces of raw genetic code, either DNA or RNA. When these are injected into the body it would start producing bits of viral proteins which the immune system can learn to fight. There is also work on corona virus vaccines called ‘plug and play’ vaccines. This method is new and less tested.

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Food from scratch…

• Noodles

A 4000 year old bowl of noodles unearthed in China is the earliest example ever found of one of the world’s most popular foods. Noodles have been a staple food in many parts of the world for at least 2000 years. But who inverted the noodle? This is a hotly contested topic – with the Chinese , Italian and Arabs all staking a claim.

•Ice cream

The first ice cream was probably made by chance when someone left some milk outside on a cold night and it froze!

Alexander the great enjoyed ice cream made with milk, fruit juice, honey and snow in the 4th century B.C. and the Roman emperor Nero ordered ice to ne brought from the mountains and combined it with fruit toppings. The Chinese also had a method of making ice creams and some believe that ice cream came to Europe from China.

It was Quintus Maximus, a roman general, who first wrote down a recipe for ice cream. Marco Polo brought the Chinese recipe to Venice after his visit to Peking. The king of England, Charles I is supposed to have offered his chef a handsome reward to keep his ice cream recipe a secret!

You favourite ice cream cone was invented by a pastry maker Ernest Hamwi in 1904, at the World Fair in St. Louis. He put a scoop of ice cream on his pastry when an ice cream seller in a neighbouring stall ran out of dishes- and it became an instant hit!

• Chocolate

Cocoa, from which chocolate is made is said to have originated in the Amazon atleast 4000 years ago. The origins of chocolate can be traced back to the ancient Mayan and Aztec civilization in central America, who first enjoyed ‘chocolatel’, a much prized spicy drink made from roasted cocoa beans, the Aztecs believed that the cocoa tree was a gift from their God, Quetzalcoatl. According to legend, He had been banished by the other gods for giving the tree to mankind, but he promised to return to them one day.

The Spanish, led by Hernando Cortez, invaded Mexico in the 16th century. When the Aztecs saw Cortez, they believed their god had returned and welcomed him with a golden cup of chocolate! When Cortez returned to Spain in 1528, he loaded his galleons with cocoa beans and equipment for making the chocolate drink. Soon ‘chocolate’ became a fashionable drink enjoyed by the rich in Spain.

It was in 1847 that solid chocolate, as we know of today, was made by Fry and sons of Bristol by mixing sugar with cocoa powder and cocoa butter and your favourite treat was born.

• Chewing gum

Thousands of years ago people chewed gum in it’s natural form. The most common ancient chewing gum was tree resin lumps, but people chewed various sweet grasses, leaves, grains and waxes also. The first commercial Chewing gum was made and sold in 1848 by John Bacon Curtis. He made a sticky, rubbery material from the spruce tree which could be chewed. In the 1860’s, Thomas Adams began selling chicle, a gum from the sapodilla tree of Mexico’s Yucatan desert.

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Story of the two most expensive spices

• Saffron

One pound of saffron costs you $5000. It is the most expensive spice next comes vanilla. Saffron is a complicated spice to harvest. Harvesting saffron needs a lot of hand work to pick up the flowers, separate the saffron that is the dried stigma or the female part of the flower. Saffron comes from the saffron crocus flower and each flower has 3 stigmas. The yield of saffron is very low. One pound of saffron requires 170000 flowers. These flowers bloom over a six week period from late September to early December. There is a specific time to day to harvest them. High relative humidity and sunlight can break the chemical structure in the saffron. Early morning is preferably the best time to harvest them.

90% of the world’s saffron is grown in arid fields in Iran. It is so because workers are available and for cheap. But it’s mostly like slavery. Most workers are women getting five dollars a day. Not only Iran, it’s grown in Morocco, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Afghanistan, India and even in United States. Though many Americans have never eaten saffron, the US imports large amount of saffron. Saffron has a resistance to cold weather.

Over centuries saffron has proven useful in many situations. Most commonly used in cooking. Middle east Asian countries have a lot of food containing saffron. When saffron is broken down it creates a golden dye. Which is how when used in cooking it gives a different kind of colour and taste and smell to it.

Saffron contains some chemical components which are really expensive like picrocrocin, crocin and safranal. These are the main components responsible for the taste, smell and colour.

People have tried passing turmeric, red marigold petals, and lily flower stigma as saffron. But the flavour and dye is totally different. In large quantities, saffron can be a potent happiness inducing narcotic. Research suggests it may help reduce the symptoms for Alzheimer’s, depression and PMS.

• Vanilla

From ice cream to cakes and even perfume, vanilla is the go-to flavour of the world. In recent years, the price of natural vanilla has shot up. At one point it was more expensive than silver by weight. 80% of the world’s vanilla is grown in the perfectly suited climate of the north east region of Madagascar. It’s the country’s primary export crop. In 2014, vanilla was $80 a kilo. Three years later it was $600. Today its around $500. The price rise is due in part to global demand. The trend of eating naturally means that food companies have shunned synthetic flavouring in favour of the real deal.

Price fluctuations affect producers of agricultural commodities everywhere but vanilla is particularly volatile. In just a few weeks the price can jump or plummet by over 20%. Liberalisation is one reason for such movements. The Malagasy government once regulated the vanilla industry and it’s price. But now the price is negotiated at the point of sale which makes for a freer market but a more volatile one. It’s also a tiny industry. A single cyclone can knock up the entire crop within Madagascar. It’s also a difficult and delicate crop to grow.

Vanilla is an orchid that needs to be hand pollinated. This is a really labour intensive practice. It takes roughly six months to grow it on the vine and then six months of manual post harvesting. The interesting thing about vanilla is that it needs to be taken off the vine when it is almost rotted!

The growers have to contend with another problem. Thieves are targeting vanilla crops. So Malagasy now have to sleep out in their vanilla fields. They can’t rely on those who are changed from the state to protect them or their crops. Some farmers have resorted to harvesting the beans before they’re ripe but this produces a poorer quality vanilla and ultimately pushes down the price. The combination of deteriorating quality and high prices is having an effect. The vanilla price bubble may burst. If the price continues to stay high there’s a number of scenarios that will play out. Continuation of current situation will cause an unstable market. Otherwise the corporate sectors step in, try to regulate the market in some way that may stabilise prices and also quality. Or the market may crash out.

Big buyers that provide vanilla are now working directly with farmers in a bid to gain greater control over quality. Other companies have started to look elsewhere for their natural vanilla. Indonesia, Uganda and even the Netherlands are growing the crop. For a century Madagascar has enjoyed a near monopoly on vanilla. But this industry maybe in line for radical overhaul.

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Bermuda triangle and other mysteries

•Bermuda triangle

The Bermuda triangle is a region of the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and Florida, where ships and planes have mysteriously disappeared. Vincent Gaddis, who wrote about the disappearance named the region: ‘the deadly Bermuda triangle’.

The legend of the Bermuda triangle was uncovered when E.V.W. Jones, a reporter penned an article on a strange occurrence he had stumbled across. It seemed that an unusual number of planes and ships had been disappearing in the ocean between Florida and Bermuda. Over the years more than 200 separate mysterious disappearances have been attributed to the Bermuda triangle. No trace was ever found of the crafts or their passengers. The disappearance of Flight 19, ranks at the very top of Bermuda triangle lore. In 1945, five Navy planes vanished while on a routine training mission over the Atlantic. The media really went over board putting forward theories as to what might have happened at Bermuda triangle. The theories range from attacks by sea monsters to freak killer waves and kidnappings by aliens. However, later studies reveal that most of the incidents have been inaccurately reported and many agencies have declared the number and nature of disappearances in the region is similar to any other area of the sea.

•Islands that vanished mysteriously

Have you heard of the Aurora islands? Even if you have, you are unlikely to ever see them, for they have vanished from the face of the Earth! The story begins in the 18th century when the captain if the ship sailing in the South Atlantic waters saw three small islands called the Aurora Islands after the name of the first ship. They soon became a common landmarks for the Spanish ships that routinely went to south America and then suddenly, the islands disappeared!

Since most islands are produced through volcanic activity, they can appear and disappear just as quickly over time and leave no trace for sea explorers to find. This maybe the explanation why another phantom island, Isla Grande, which lay just to the North of Aurora islands, has now vanished too. However, this explanation does not hold good for the disappearance of islands called Davis’ Land. There is even an island named the Isle of Brasil, which keeps appearing off and on near the coast of Ireland.

• Uniqueness of Stonehenge

On the misty green plains of Salisbury, in southern England, stands one of the most mystical of the megaliths- Stonehenge. The beauty of these stones take one’s breath away. The 3.96 meters high stones are unique in that unlike the other megaliths, each stone has been artificially shaped into a curve. As a result, when they were assembled, they formed the outer line of a circle, when seen from above. At the same time, each stone has a slight bulge, so that when seen from below, they appeared to be in a straight line! Amazing isn’t it?

The astonishing scale and beauty of the stones, the great care and labour in construction and the mystery that surrounds their original purpose are just some of the reasons why Stonehenge is one of the most popular sights in England. Stonehenge is a magical experience indeed.

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Graphology

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Graphology is the study of hand writing to assess the personality traits of a person. It is the evaluation of physical characteristics and patterns of a handwriting to identify personality characteristics. Graphology is also used to identify the writer and their mental state during the time of writing. The word ‘graphology’ has been derived from the Greek word grapho meaning writing and logos meaning study or discussion. Graphology has been used by European psychologists and counsellors. It says that there is a relationship between personality, conducts, intellectual level, temper and character in handwriting. Hand writing can be analysed according to pressure, size, slant, zones, layout (margins, spaces between letters, words and lines). At present there are also some AI tools and websites which can be used.

Alfred Binet conducted a study on handwriting and called graphology “the science of the future”. In 1929, Milton Bunker founded The American Grapho Analysis Society. It made two different branches in the world of American graphology – graphoanalysis and holistic graphology.

Graphologists:

The works of some graphologists are mentioned below:

Max Pulver had authored three graphology books (from 1931 to 1949) and several articles. He has worked on pressure, intelligence, and crime. He developed the theory of Symbolism of Space and founded the Schweizerische Graphologische Gesellschaft (Swiss Graphological Society) in 1950 and was its president until his death.

Camillo Baldi was an Italian philosopher who worked on a variety of subjects. His best known essay on graphology was the first detailed investigation of the discipline.

Robert Saudek was a Czech-born graphologist. He was also a writer of novels, stories, poems and plays. He had considerable influence on the content and standing of graphology worldwide and published numerous articles in many languages like The Listener, Zeitschrift für Menschenkenntnis and the Journal of Social Psychology. He founded the Professional graphology society in the Netherlands and started two academic periodicals: in Dutch and English. Many graphologists worldwide today refer to Saudek’s work without knowing the origin. He published Experimental Graphology in 1929. Saudek examined the speed in handwriting and quantified handwriting by using a microscope, caliper, pressure board, ruler, protractor and slow-motion pictures. He also dealt with graphological phenomena in terms of the experimental psychologists.

Sheila Lowe is a British-born novelist and graphologist. Her first book was published in 1999 and was a bestseller in the Complete Idiot’s Guides series. In 2007, the first edition of Poison Pen, the first of her Claudia Rose forensic mystery series came out, published by Capital Crime Press. She is at present the president of the American Handwriting Analysis Foundation.

Studies:

There has been studies in the U.S. on handwriting and sex. According to the research sex could be determined through writing at a significant level. Studies on ethnicity, race, age, nationality, sexual orientation, weight have got mixed results.

According to the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, handwriting analysis without informed consent is considered to be a privacy violation.

Controversy:

Graphology has been a controversial topic for about a century. Some suggest that empirical studies have failed to show its validity to perform personality evaluation. Although it has got support from the scientific community in the mid twentieth century, some recent researches have rejected the validity of graphology as a tool for assessing personality and job performance.

Who delivers the Amazon cardboard boxes???

Cardboard boxes that have been used for generations and thrived in the age of e-commerce continue to flourish or could the cardboard box be facing a new challenger? Cardboard boxes are a very big deal within the U.S. The United States is the Saudi Arabia of trees. Someone’s going to make the first box and that’s almost inevitably a mill generally in the Southeast United States. China certainly doesn’t have trees and India the extent they do have trees they’re not necessarily the right types of trees and shouldn’t be dedicated towards making boxes for us. The box business grew rapidly up through 1999 when the U.S. coordinated box market had its peak shipment. Starting in the early 2000s the U.S. corrugated box market faced multiple economic obstacles.

The great recession dragged on box demand and even after the recession demand continued to slow for commodity like soda and for the boxes that transport them. The move to digital devices also coincided with a drop in demand for copy paper and newsprint. But box makers found a grace in e-commerce sales and Amazon sale specifically which were growing at mostly integer rates within the recession and post-recession years. Those e-commerce sales have become a significant market for the containerboard industry. In 2018 told a U.S. e-commerce sales were estimated to be $512 billion almost 50 percent higher than in 2015. Amazon captured 48 percent of those sales. Most estimates are that e-commerce accounts for about 10 percent of the U.S. box market. Amazon accounts for close to 5 percent of U.S. box demand. By our estimates they are clearly the single largest box user in the US. International Paper with a third of the market I think does closer to 50 percent of all the amazon boxes evidently they got a bit more share than perhaps some of the smaller players.

Amazon said they deal with most of the big box makers across the U.S. according to analysts. Those manufacturers include International Paper, WestRock, Packaging Corporation of America and Georgia-Pacific. Some investors were turning to these companies as a way to invest in the e-commerce giant without having to purchase Amazon’s pricey stock. People didn’t really start talking about buying International Paper or WestRock as a secondary investment in Amazon till about the last five years. Despite the boost from e-commerce sales the box business still isn’t growing all that much. And since 2018 their stocks have mostly underperformed the S&P 500. In 2018, 69 percent of International Papers total revenue came from the box business and that sales volume has been mostly flat for the past five years. Although the big producers sold less boxes in 2018 than in 2000, industry consolidation has dramatically narrowed the fields.

The handful of big players remaining are based in Memphis, Tennessee, Atlanta, Georgia and Lake Forest, Illinois. Analysts have told CNBC that substantial industry mergers have made it easier to collectively hike prices and those price increases have helped drive revenue. There are portions of the business that are in indisputable secular decline but if you’re in the brown part of the business, making these boxes, that’s been some very welcome growth. But those extra boxes piling up on people’s doorsteps have led to a backlash from disgruntled customers who are sick of receiving golf ball sized products in supersized boxes. It used to be that you’d order a toothbrush and it would come in three giant boxes and you’d say to yourself, what is this? Well, Amazon is trying to rectify that by using fewer boxes and using other types of packaging where appropriate. With e-commerce packaging underfire Amazon decided to change the way they do shipping. In 2008, Amazon introduced the Frustration Free Packaging program. It aims to reduce the extra packaging created when retail packaged products are placed inside Amazon boxes to be shipped. Instead, products certified in the program that are roughly the size of a blender or larger need to be packaged in their own ready to ship boxes. And those boxes also need to be made of 100 percent recyclable materials. For customers that means that the packaging is easy to recycle and the box is easy to open without all the excess packaging materials.

Amazon offered vendors an incentive of a dollar per shipment to modify their packaging. And starting August 1st 2019 Amazon is charging a $1.99 penalty for each product shipped that needs to be reboxed. And basically the point of this deadline is for Amazon to get out of the business of packaging. They want their vendors to send them boxes that Amazon doesn’t have to touch or rebox. Over the last two years we have invented two different kinds of flexible mailers. One is the blue and white all plastic mailer. We’ve recently launched in the last six, eight months a paper padded mailer that’s actually fully recyclable with the paper stream. Amazon said they made about 10 million shipments using the paper padded mailer and depending on the month the plastic mailer is used about 20 to 30 percent of the time. So really when we come down to deciding if the product is of the size it can go on a mailer, it’s not likely to be damaged by going in the mailer, the mailer is always the better fitting option and frankly is easier for the customer to choose to recycle than breaking down a corrugate box. We’re driving in that direction for many different reasons. But those plastic mailers generally are not accepted in municipal recycling programs and you’ll need to bring them to a store that accepts plastic bags. The latest stats from the EPA show that corrugated boxes were recycled at a rate of 92 percent in 2015 while plastic bags, sacks and wraps were recycled at a rate of 13 percent in 2015.

When you think about what is the greatest pain point for the consumer after having it get there safely arrive on time people are concerned about receiving something that is plastic or made a poly because of the environmental concerns. Some waste management companies say plastic packaging also causes problems for the recycling systems. Plastic mailers get caught in the recycling machinery slowing down the process and raising the costs for recyclers and sometimes contaminating entire bundles. Until Scotty on the Enterprise can beam the products from the warehouse to your living room I think Amazon’s going to be good for the corrugated business. I think there’s going to be noise I think you’re going to have challenges from time to time where people say, “Should we try and the plastic pouch?”, in the long run plastic is going to be on the wrong side of history. Because Amazon is a market leader in the U.S. e-commerce sector any move away from cardboard to plastic mailers could signal a shift for the entire industry. The corrugated box could be about to undergo a major facelift. We’re seeing some major trends among consumers and what they’re expecting from e-commerce and the first one is actually this desire for increased engagement with the package. In 2015, Amazon partnered with Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment to ship orders in bright yellow delivery boxes featuring cartoon characters from the movie Minions. The boxes promoting the movie and a special Amazon U.R.L. dedicated to shopping for merchandise from the film.

The conflict of Kashmir…

On February 14th 2019, a suicide bomber attacked a convoy of Indian security forces. “We’re getting reports of multiple casualties in a roadside…” He killed at least 40 Indian soldiers here in Kashmir. “The deadliest attack the region has seen this century.” The bomber was part of an Islamic militant group based in Pakistan. “Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility for that attack.” 12 days later, India carried out airstrikes in Northwestern Pakistan. Then Pakistan shot down at least one Indian aircraft around here. “The most serious escalation in years.” Kashmir is one of the most disputed places on Earth. Over the course of 70 years, it’s been at the center of three wars fought between two massive armies. It’s heavily occupied by more than half a million Indian troops and a deadly collection of militias and terrorist groups.

Kashmir is the stage for the relentless conflict between India and Pakistan. But focusing on the two countries can obscure what’s really at stake: The voice of Kashmiris who are caught in a vicious cycle of violence. Kashmir is one of the most strategic places in the world, where 3 powerful countries collide: India, Pakistan, and China. China invaded and took this slice of Kashmir from India. And was given this one by Pakistan. India and Pakistan control these parts, but lay claim to more. This region is at the center of a brutal conflict over these disputed borders. So it’s important to start when they were being drawn. In the mid-1800s, India was a patchwork of several hundred provinces and princely states under British rule. A century later, when British India won independence, the British left and hastily decided to split the region into two. These areas would be a new Muslim-majority country, Pakistan. And this would be the mostly Hindu, but secular, India. The partition was bloody. “Communal hatred flares up within the Punjab.” “1 million people become refugees overnight.” “They flee from savagery and butchery that has never been exceeded, even in India’s stormy history.” Amid the chaos, some princely states were given the choice to join either country. In most cases, the ruling monarchs followed the will of their people. But this state, called “Jammu & Kashmir” was different. It was right along this new border and had a Muslim-majority population, but was ruled by a Hindu monarch. When asked to pick a side, the ruler chose to stay neutral Fearing that the monarch would join India, the Kashmiri population rebelled here in 1947 Armed tribesmen from Pakistan soon joined the fight.

The monarch turned to India for military help and in exchange agreed to join them, which sparked the first Indo-Pakistan war in Kashmir. “Continuing thus increased the threat to world peace and brought the dispute to the eye of the United Nations . The UN Security Council brokered a ceasefire in 1949, which established this line with Pakistan controlling this side and India this one. It also asked Pakistani tribesmen to withdraw and Indian troops to follow, so that Kashmir could hold a direct vote to decide its own future. But neither held up their end of the deal. Pakistan argued that Kashmir’s Muslim-majority population rightfully belonged with them. While India insisted that Kashmir was handed over to them by the Hindu monarch. So they doubled down and added Kashmir to their constution. Both countries continued to tighten their grip around it for many years . “Kashmir. Fighting is going on and heavy casualties in men and equipment have been inflicted on the aggressor.”

In 1965, the second India-Pakistan war broke out in Kashmir. Thousands of people were killed between the huge armies on both sides. A ceasefire ended the war, but didn’t change this line. Kashmir was kept divided and occupied. And another war broke out in 1971. This time the focus wasn’t in Kashmir — it was in East Pakistan. Here, India helped rebels fight for independence and dealt Pakistan a devastating defeat. This region became a new country, Bangladesh, and Pakistan lost its eastern half. This made Kashmir more important than ever: It became one of the most militarized places on Earth, as India and Pakistan deployed planes, tanks, artillery, and soldiers along the Line of Control. On the political front, in ’87, India reportedly rigged an election, declaring a pro-India party as the winner. Now this was a big turning point for many Kashmiris, who felt they were again denied the chance to vote. Thousands took to the streets in Indian-controlled Kashmir to protest the occupation. But India met the movement for independence with harsh resistance. Which quickly escalated to more violence.
“In January security forces opened fire on demonstrating separatists, turning a two-year old struggling movement into a full-blown popular uprising.” “More than 600 people are killed in clashes between troops and separatists.” Kashmiri militias, just like the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, started recruiting Muslim youth to fight for independence. And increasingly attacked the Indian military. Pakistan saw an opportunity in this insurgency. They helped introduce a new kind of militant group: Radical Islamic fighters who fought for a more pro-Pakistan Kashmir. By the mid ’90s, these groups dominated the insurgency. India responded with incredible military force, deploying 500,000 troops to Kashmir. And they cracked down on militants and protestors. Unarmed civilians were killed and many more were forced to flee the violence. And in ’98 the stakes were raised yet again. “Today India conducted three underground nuclear tests.” “Pakistan today successfully conducted five nuclear tests.” Kashmir became a battleground between two nuclear-armed nations and another war broke out in 1999. “More evidence of the attacks being launched on the Indian-controlled area of Kargil.” “The past two days have seen a number of the fiercest fighting thus far .” “Militant Muslim fighters have also crossed over into some parts of Indian-ruled Kashmir.” The 1999 war ended with another ceasefire, but that did not stop either country.

Over the years, Pakistan’s militant groups got bolder and launched terror attacks in Kashmir and outside of Kashmir. In 2001, members of Lashkar-e-Taiba bombed India’s parliament building in New Delhi killing 14 people. And in 2008, 10 militants from the same group killed 174 people and wounded 300 in Mumbai. Meanwhile, Indian military cracked down in Kashmir, firing bullets and pellets on unarmed protesters. Leaving hundreds wounded and blind. This is the vicious cycle of violence. The Indian Army’s crackdown drives some Kashmiris to join Pakistani-backed militant groups, who carry out violence against the Indian forces. It’s a cycle that Kashmiri civilians are stuck in the middle of. Which brings us back to 2019. The suicide bomber was 19-year old Adil Ahmed Dar from Pulwama, Kashmir. According to his parents, in 2016, Indian police officers stopped him and humiliated him by forcing his face into the ground. The same year he was shot in the leg at a protest. The next year, Dar left home with his brothers, to join Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistani-supported militia that radicalized him and trained him to be a suicide bomber. A year later, he drove explosives into an Indian military convoy. For more than 70 years India and Pakistan have driven a cycle of violence, retaliation, and exploitation in Kashmir. But beneath it all is the Kashmiri’s wish to make a choice. A wish that continues to be suppressed, again and again, by violence.

U.S. Defense Economy…

The police, obviously, they’re not in the business of of profiting from private acquisitions. We’ve seen extensive lobbying from defense industries who produce educational videos for police who were spending hundreds of millions of dollars to directly lobby Congress for defense spending, but also for these police programs. The police also have their own lobbying organizations that work toward security budgets and equipment for local law enforcement. The National Fraternal Order of Police is one of them and has lobbied in favor of federal grants that are responsible for the militarization of police. It’s really a variety of Homeland Security grants administered by the cops office, the home, the Department of Homeland Security, etc., that have allowed departments to directly purchase military grade equipment. And this has been essential to stimulating a domestic law enforcement market for military contractors. In some cases, the folks who provide the equipment actually directly assist police departments in making these grants. There’s even a Web site that is sponsored by these defense contractors and other providers of police equipment to aid departments in the production of these grant proposals. This whole industry grew significantly during the War on Drugs campaign in the 1970s.

Congress passed a law that focused on incorporating cooperation between the military and the local law enforcement, particularly related to countering drug crimes and the war on drugs. Right. That was sort of the first connection between the military and domestic law enforcement. In 1989, Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act, temporarily allowing the Department of Defense to transfer excess military equipment to federal and state agencies. The program continued until the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act expanded it to include local law enforcement and made it permanent under a new name. The 1033 program that began a massive transfer of military equipment to local police departments free of charge as long as they paid for shipping and maintenance. That 1033 program was the congressional authorization that allowed police departments to basically go online. There were catalogs of of weapons and vehicles and aircraft and watercraft and any kind of military surplus military equipment was available for the asking. And it was at no cost to law enforcement agencies.

Departments may purchase shotguns that are placed in police vehicles as a routine matter, and some departments are purchasing a variety of less lethal weaponry with their own resources. But when we see sniper equipment, armored vehicles, large amounts of body armor, this is often the result of federal spending. Since its inception, over 11,500 domestic law enforcement agencies have taken part in the ten thirty three program, receiving more than 7.4 billion dollars in military equipment. What you end up seeing is as a result of the 1033 program, local law enforcements continue to ramp up what we call special task force, like SWAT teams, gang task force, drug task force. Right. That all utilize this excess military material. In July 2014, Congressman Alan Grayson proposed that legislation to limit the transfer of certain weapons through the 1033 program. The amendment was met with immense opposition failing on a bipartisan vote of 62 to 355.
The people who voted not to change the 1033 program received 70 percent more money in campaign contributions from the defense sector than those who wanted restrictions. One of the really troubling developments about the involvement of the federal within the direct subsidy of purchases of militarized equipment is that this is often really about creating a new marketplace for defense contractors instead of really putting questions of public safety first. Besides providing free military equipment, the federal government also allows the police to purchase new equipment using their own funds. Under the 1122 program, it also gives local police departments the same discounts enjoyed by the federal government. We’ve seen instances across the country where local governing bodies, like boards of selectmen and mayors and city councilors are often unaware that tax dollars have been expended to acquire these kinds of military weapons and military vehicles. What makes both 1033 and 1122 programs so powerful is the lack of clear oversight and accountability.

The 1122 program, as an example , isn’t a grant or transfer program and thus isn’t required to be monitored by the federal . Meanwhile, the 1033 program has put lethal weapons within the hands of officers who haven’t any justifiable need for such equipment. We’ve seen instances reported of some small towns, even some college and university police departments that were acquiring military grade weapons with none demonstrable need for the utilization of these or the acquisition of these weapons. After the events in Ferguson, the Obama administration sought to tighten the 1033 program with additional requirements and restrictions after months of confrontations on America’s streets. President Obama today banned the federal government from giving some types of military equipment to local police. We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a sense like there’s an occupying force as against a force that’s a part of the community that’s protecting them and serving them. And this led to calls in Congress to eliminate 1033 and eventually measure an executive order by the Obama administration to place some limits on the type of equipment that could be used, things like bayonets and turreted armored vehicles.
The Obama administration also required police agencies to justify purchases of equipment considered potentially lethal. President Trump, however, rescinded all of those measures within two years in office. Obama administration made some efforts to increase accountability in auditing of this. But even then, the restrictions and oversight were quite limited. Under the Trump administration, there’s even less evidence of any oversight. Any sense that we know how this equipment is being used or whether or not officers are being properly trained and how to use it. In some cases, equipment transfer through these programs has simply vanished due to a lack of oversight and poor bookkeeping.

There’ve been a number of situations where there have been audits of local police departments to try to figure out what they’ve done with this equipment. And these departments have been unable to provide adequate records. We don’t know if this is a local sheriff taking home camping supplies or if this is about, you know, stuff that’s really gone missing, has been resold or has just simply been lost. Oftentimes, the militarization of the police force might be what’s distracting them from their original purpose, protecting our communities.

Why economy of India is slowing down???

India is one among the world’s fasting growing economies. It had been touted as an economic and geopolitical counterweight to China. But recently its growth fell to its slowest pace in six years. Investment has weakened, and unemployment has risen. So what’s causing the slowdown, and how can it be reversed? Since the turn of the century, India’s economy has grown at a rapid rate, helping transform the country. Between 2006 and 2016, rising incomes lifted 271 million people out of poverty, meaning the proportion of Indians still living in poverty has fallen dramatically, from around 55% to twenty-eight . Access to electricity has also improved. In 2007 just 70% of the population had access to power. By 2017, that grew to nearly 93%.

More recently, the Indian government constructed around 110 million toilets — a huge step towards better sanitation designed to prevent the practice of open defecation. It’s a signature program of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, known as Swachh Bharat, or Clean India. All this development has been supported by a booming economy, but as lately , that expansion has begun to run out of steam. In the third quarter of 2019, India’s economic output grew by 4.5% – making it the primary time the country’s growth dipped below 5% since 2013. For context, 4.5% growth remains much above that of developed economies just like the U.S., But with 12 million Indians entering the workforce per annum , economists say the country needs annual growth rates to remain above nine percent to make sure there are enough jobs. So, what’s causing this recent slowdown? Well, officialdom argue turbulence in international financial markets is guilty.

Political uncertainty and U.S.-China trade tensions mean confidence levels among investors and consumers everywhere have sunk. The United Nations has even warned that a global recession in 2020 is now a “clear and present danger”. But back to India – many economists say the country’s growth problems are literally self-inflicted. One obvious culprit is the shadow banking sector. During the 2000s, India saw an investment boom. It was fuelled by state banks dispensing a load of loans for giant infrastructure projects. But some of the companies taking advantage of these loans couldn’t keep up with the repayments. That meant the state banks weren’t getting paid back and therefore struggled to give out new loans. To keep business moving, shadow banks stepped in. These financial institutions, which operate like ordinary commercial banks but don’t follow traditional banking rules, eventually made up an estimated third of all new loans nationwide. The loans played a pivotal role for the millions of small businesses and consumers who would otherwise have no access to credit. But in 2018, shadow banking giant Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, defaulted on its debt repayments. Its collapse sent shockwaves through the economy and shook up more traditional banks that had supported the world.
It became harder for people to shop for expensive items like cars. That hurt India’s automotive industry, which is one among the country’s biggest. It employs about 35 million people and makes up about 7% of India’s GDP. Last summer, the industry suffered its worst sales performance in nearly 19 years, and reports suggest tens of thousands of workers are laid off. The agriculture and construction sectors have also been hurting, with small and medium businesses being hit the hardest. The country’s percentage has been on an overall upward trend since July 2017, rising several percentage points to 7.7%. Higher unemployment means consumers are buying less, resulting in the unfortunate cycle of slower manufacturing, production, investment and job creation.

A survey from the Reserve Bank of India found consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level in five years. But Indians still have a positive outlook for the longer term , with most consumers expecting to feel more optimistic during a year. However, if things don’t improve, debt could become another issue. Expecting better days ahead, many households have continued to spend, by taking out loans and dipping into savings. Household savings as a proportion of GDP has fallen from 23.6% to 17.2%. Meanwhile, household debt has surged to 10.9% during the same period. Critics say the govt in New Delhi has did not spot these risks and hasn’t done enough to urge the economy moving again. The Reserve Bank of India’s former governor Raghuram Rajan recently blamed the lack of significant reforms and a slowdown in investments since the global financial crisis. Even the country’s chief economic advisor recently admitted reforms are needed to form India more friendly to investors.
India has cut its corporate rate , but labor and land laws are still extremely strict. He also says the country must become pro-market, instead of just pro-business, to avoid costly government bailouts of failing sectors. But not all reforms have been good to the economy. In 2016, Prime Minister Modi tried to crack down on corruption, counterfeits and evasion by banning high value bank notes. In one night, the cash ban made 86% of all cash invalid. Three years later, many analysts say the policy disrupted the economy and did not achieve many of its original goals. In 2017, a replacement nuisance tax placed small businesses struggling and a few of them were forced to shut . In mid-2019, India’s government introduced a controversial new tax on foreign investors. Consequently, India’s stock exchange suffered its worst July performance in 17 years. Just one month later, the measure was scrapped.
The government has now refocused its efforts on international trade and investment, and thus the recent changes to the corporate rate could indeed help attract businesses and investors to India. But if the country wants to be a part of the world’s largest supply chains, it’ll need low and consistent tariff levels to encourage outsiders to take a position for the long term.

The country’s shifting export policy has harmed several of its largest industries, particularly clothing. India’s share of the worldwide apparel market has increased only slightly within the past 20 years. And though the Indian workforce is vast, both Bangladesh and Vietnam now export more. On top of that, the country’s import tariffs on the average are much above the world’s biggest economies. They’re also among the highest of the world’s emerging economies. Even U.S. President Donald Trump has called for the country to bring down its duties.

Has India’s growth actually slowed the maximum amount as we think? The government’s former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian caused a good little bit of controversy in June 2019, when he claimed the country’s official stats probably overstated GDP growth by 2.5% from 2011-2012 to 2016-2017. He says the bottom line is that India never recovered from the global financial crisis. The government denies this. But none of this has hurt Prime Minister Modi at the polls – he won by a landslide in the most recent election. So how will he keep his promise and double the dimensions of the economy by 2025? Many economists insist a well-explained economic vision would help. As would more long-term investment, better skilled workers and enhancements to infrastructure. It may not matter who or what’s responsible for India’s recent economic challenges, but bottom line – India’s economic process must recover , and fast.

Kabaddi- The new World Sports!!!

Kabaddi is played on a 13×10 meter court and is separated into two halves by a midline. The game is played between two teams made up of seven players each. The teams alternate between raiding and defending. The raider’s objective is to go to the other half of the court, tap one or more of the defenders and return safely within 30 seconds. However, the raider must start repeatedly saying “kabaddi” before he crosses the midline and can’t stop repeating this word until he crosses back over to his team’s side. If he stops saying “kabaddi” on the opponent’s side of the court, even for a split second, he is out. He picks up one point for each defender he touches, but he must also avoid being tackled to keep the points.

This is difficult as he can face between one and seven defenders at the same time. The defenders have to work together as a unit, avoid the raider’s tap and failing that, stop him from returning. Defenders get one point for a successful tackle. Any player that steps or is forced out of the court is then eliminated. UP Yoddha represents the northern state Uttar Pradesh. The team is in its second season in the Pro Kabaddi League and Rishank Devadiga is the team’s captain. So, kabaddi is all about a body contact game. It’s basically like a rugby game. You have to be strong, you have to be fit, mentally fit and also agile on the mat. In one of interview they were asked when, what’s the atmosphere like? How much pressure was there on him as captain?… He replied, Pro Kabaddi started they were told to face the camera, the audience, and everything. It was a bit nervous at the start, but then they enjoy the atmosphere, enjoy the matches.

Kabaddi as a professional sport is a relatively new thing. Until recently, it’s been seen as more of a hobby only played outside the cities. Kabaddi was looked as a rural, rustic sport. It was a sport that was not embraced by urban India, completely overlooked the sport. The settings of the sport was such that it used to be played on dusty bowls. Kabaddi on television? Completely unheard of, “Why would somebody watch it? How are they going to present it?” And that was what aggregated people to come and sample the sport. In other sports, in cricket, for example, you have to wait for a four, or a six, or when a wicket falls. That is the high point. In soccer or football, it’s a goal, similarly in hockey. In kabaddi, every 30 seconds is a high point. It has got the potential of either being a successful raid or being a successful tackle.

The idea behind the Pro Kabaddi League or PKL started back in 1994. However, it wasn’t until 2014, 20 years later, that a broadcaster, Star Sports, came on board. The Pro League, now in its fifth year has seen considerable growth in both investment and audience numbers. From 2016 to 2017, the PKL increased its viewership in India by almost 100 million. And while it’s still second to India’s premier T20 cricket competition, the Indian Premier League, domestically, the Pro Kabaddi League is more popular than the Fifa World Cup, one of the world’s most- watched sporting events. Investment in the league has also increased. In 2017, Star Sports signed the biggest sponsorship deal in India for a non-cricket sport, worth more than $40 million. As a result player salaries have also increased. Following the 2016 player auction, the highest paid player was on just under $130,000 This year it’s $210,000. For team owners and stakeholders in the sport, more investment will help attract more young players to the game. What ultimately a sport stands on is, what does it do for its players? So, what we have been able to do is to make kabaddi athletes aspirational for sports lovers in India. Player salaries have gone up and they definitely see themselves in the front line of the committee of sports persons in India. Which means that increasingly being a kabaddi athlete will become a viable career. That is at the heart of any sport. There are also signs of the sport growing outside India. At this year’s Asia Games neither the men or women’s India kabaddi teams won gold, and the men’s team didn’t even make it to the final. Something that caught the world’s attention. Of course, we are the country who lost, which is bad for a fan, but then for our game of kabaddi, it’s an ultimate manifestation of how the game is growing.

How IPL is making millions & billions of dollors in every single match!!!

Cricket it’s a sport that dates back over 400 years. And as of 2019 is officially played in 104 countries around the world. Cricket’s worldwide fan base is comprised of roughly one billion people in the Indian subcontinent alone makes up 90 percent of those fans. In India, the country adopted a brand new shorter format of the game has drastically cut down on playing time from days to hours. The Indian Premier League or the IPL has only been around for twelve years but it’s fast become one of the most popular and valuable cricket leagues on the planet. The IPL is brand value has nearly doubled in the last five years. In 2018 the league was valued at 6.3 billion dollars. It rakes in and 510 million dollars each year from its broadcasting rights deal making it to only cricket league in the world to crack the top 20 most valuable media rights deals in all of professional sports joining the ranks of the NFL the NBA and MLB.

So how did the IPL become one the most lucrative cricket leagues on the planet. In India. Cricket is huge. It’s been a staple in Indian sports since the seventeen hundreds. It’s currently the most popular sport in the country. The IPL is one of the richest sports properties in the world. And while the IPL isn’t the only cricket league in India it is the most successful league in the country. The 48 day annual tournament was created in 2007 with the help of the Board of Control for Cricket in India and Indian businessmen Lalit Modi. Even though cricket already had a few pro cricket leagues they wanted to capitalize on the commercial success of 2020. So they modeled the IPL in a similar nature to pro sports in the US.

The IPL was specifically modeled after the likes of the NFL. Which has a decentralized league. meaning that all teams are owned and operated independently. Also similar to the NFL model the IPL is its own league with its own unique structure. There is a separate T20 World Cup where India competes. But that’s different from the IPL. even though matches are all held in India. Team rosters are chock full of top international talent. In 2018, teams spent 94 million dollars to buy 169 players in an auction. up from its 40 million dollars for 66 players in 2017. But what you’ve actually got in the IPL franchises who represent a city a place an industrial heartland and you’ve got the full support of some major entrepreneurs. So rather than let’s say Delhi again. So, you’ve got your IPL franchises based around the cities. I’m not as actually have a massive impact. in terms of global cricket. To make sure the stands are filled with as many IPL fans as possible and to maximize TV viewership. Matches are typically played in the evening and on weekends.

The IPL is a huge moneymaker in India since 2014. The IPL brand valuation has doubled to six point three billion dollars. The reason the IPL has won the largest fan base is for a single sports league in the world. During its opening week of the 2013 season the IPL broke records when 371 million viewers tuned in to watch and by the last week of the tournament a total of 769 million fans watched the 2013 IPL season. The ad revenue generated for that season was over 276 million dollars according to Star India’s managing director. High ratings and ad dollars were a big part of why a major U.S. media companies had their eyes on IPL broadcasting rights. When the IPL launched in 2008. The league issued being your rights to Singapore based sports marketing agency World Sport group. They broadcast an IPO matches on India’s Sony Max TV channel. Under the terms of the 10 year contract World Sport group paid the IPL approximately 1 million dollars per match in its first year for the exclusive broadcasting rights. The overall value of that broadcasting deal was 918 million dollars when the broadcasting deal expired in 2017.

There was a global bidding war for exclusive rights for the IPL. Fox and Sony put in competing bids while Facebook also put its hat in the ring for the 2018-2022 digital rights of the IPL making a 600 million dollar offer. Those TV and digital rights eventually went to Fox the American broadcasters struck a five year 2.5 five billion dollar deal for the global media rights of the IPL. The price per match jumped from 1 million dollars to about 8.47 million dollars per game. For comparison the NFL cost per game is around 22.5 million dollars. The English Premier League is around 13.2 million dollars. The NBA is close to 2 million dollars and the MLB is just 630 thousand dollars per game. Just two years after the ink dried on the Fox IPL deal Disney completed a 71 billion dollar deal for Fox entertainment assets one of the assets that Disney now owns is hot star. The Indian video streaming company in 2019. Streaming service at a global record for the number of people tuning into a life streaming event.

There are 18.6 concurrent viewers watching the IPL final match on the hot star’s website in app. And with that kind of viewership naming rights for the IPL are also huge for the league. Since 2008 the IPO naming rights have changed hands three times from brands DLF to PepsiCo India and finally to Vivo a mobile handset manufacturer in China. Vivo first took over title sponsorship in 2015 and in 2017 Vivo signed a fresh five year deal with the IPL worth approximately 341 million dollars in 2018. The average salary of cricket players in the IPL jumped nearly 30 percent from the year before. All thanks to the massive TV deal signed with Fox in 2017. Before the deal, players across the league had an average salary of 3.9 million dollars but in 2018 the average salary was just over 5 million dollars. And unlike other major sports leagues the IPL season is so short that players have a chance to bank even more cash in the off season.

The IPL takes place in the spring starting at the end of March or early April and continuing through May. That means cricketers have the flexibility to play for other clubs around the world. Take the Mumbai Indians player Kieran Pollard. In 2017 he and more than one million dollars for two months. They play for the Mumbai Indians and IPL in that same year. Pollard had multiple revenue streams from playing for cricket leagues in Australia Bangladesh and South Africa. But just as cricket first spread across the world in the 18th century cricket’s latest form of 2020. Similarly. Taking root across the globe. There’s even a record breaking investment for 2020 league in a country where cricket is even remotely popular, the U.S. In May, 2019, USA Cricket received a 1 billion dollar investment from American cricket enterprises to develop a 2020 league in America. It’s one of the biggest deals for development of domestic cricket in the US and the launch of the league is set to take off in 2021 since the 2020 cricket format was introduced in 2003 and has taken the cricket world by storm. And it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Will Oil Price go down???

America does rely on oil in many ways. It’s about 90 percent of the energy that we use in transportation. And it’s more than a third of the overall energy that we use. In fact, it’s probably going to stay that way for a lot, a lot longer. The Energy Information Agency administration predicts that going out to 2050 is still going to over a third of the energy that we’re going to use. So how was it possible for oil to reach a negative value and what does it mean for the American economy? To understand what happened, it’s important to know how a futures contract functions. So the futures market is a way to bet on the future price of a certain commodity.

Different types of oil from all across the world are traded by barrels in their individual market places. But two futures contracts serve as the major benchmark for oil price. Brent Crude trades oil from the North Sea in northern Europe, setting the standard for international oil prices. While the West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, trades a specific grade of oil traded in Cushing, Oklahoma, that serves as a domestic benchmark for oil prices. A refinery might have a contract with a producer and say, we will pay you that Brent price or we’ll pay you the Brent price minus the transportation costs. Or you know that it’s all subject to negotiation. And those two are well known. It’s a shorthand, if you will. And a lot of times other crudes are priced off of those crudes because they’re well, known the quality is high and has a long track record. Similar to most treated commodities, oil prices rely heavily on how much of it is available on the market. In other words, supply and demand. Oil like just about anything else in the world is determined that prices are determined by a willing buyer and a willing seller. And so that means that as demand goes up, more people are buying it.

The price will typically go up, supply stays the same and vice versa. If supply suddenly increases, then then typically the price will go down if the demand stays the same. The demand is determined by how much oil is needed at any given moment due to its crucial role in the economy. High demand has often been associated with a healthy economic growth. Historically, oil demand has moved with the economy of a country. It’s been very tightly tied because almost all transportation comes from burning oil and a lot of other industrial processes use oil. So when the economy is humming along strongly, the demand goes up. And when you have a recession, the demand goes down. On the other hand, supply is usually determined by the producers who have control over its output. Historically, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, otherwise known as OPEC, has played a crucial role in determining the supply. OPEC currently has 13 member countries, including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela as founding members. However, a lot has changed in recent years as the U.S. surpassed both Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest crude oil producer since 2018. Thanks to the rise in production from American shale fields. Essentially these countries and OPEC, everyone is competing for market share.

Everyone wants to produce more for their country, but also the optionality to export it to another country and especially growth regions such as China, Asia. Being an investor or a producer in the oil industry means keeping an eye on this fine balance between supply and demand, as well as the geopolitical events that could threaten the industry. Never forget about geopolitics and the impact it can have on the oil price, because that can be that X factor of why oil may have a big premium or a big discount to fundamentals that you see supply and demand. It’s because geopolitics introduces other risk factors. A historic drop occurred on April 20th, 2020, with U.S. oil prices on WTI dropped by almost 300 percent. Trading around negative 37 dollars. What happened with oil in terms of the negative pricing in April with the futures contracts was rather unprecedented. We have seen negative prices before. For example, last year we were talking about negative natural gas prices and Waha in April 2019. But that’s more due to processing or field issues, not what is happened specifically this time with the COVID 19 and in the price war. Oil prices had been under pressure since January as China battled the spread of COVID 19.

When the pandemic finally reached the rest of the world, demand took a devastating hit. People started talking about the demand going down 2 or 3 percent instead of growing by 1 or 2 percent, as was had previously been expected. But then by the time it got to the United States and all over Western Europe, the forecasts were very different. And at the trough, we probably saw demand in April bottom out, down 30 percent. So we’ve never seen anything like this, certainly in the last 40 years since world oil markets have developed. To make matters worse, a price war erupted between Saudi Arabia and Russia in early March after OPEC and its allies failed to reach an agreement on deeper supply cuts. Oil saw its worst trading day in 20, 29 years. Yesterday, both WTI crude and Brent crude lost nearly a quarter of their value, and the S&P energy sector ended the day 50 percent off its 52 week closing high. Saudi Arabia launched a price war against other key producers. As supply remains steady while demand struck record breaking lows. The petroleum industry quickly began running out of storage space to put their oil. Cushing plays a very big role as one of the main hubs of that commercial storage. And Cushing at the time of the negative contract was around 70, 70 percent full, and what was left was perhaps already committed. So that was a huge issue because Cushing plays one of the main roles in pricing the WTI contracts. As the delivery date for WTI grew near. And investors had nowhere to put the oil. They soon began a massive sell off, prompting an unprecedented crash into the negative territory. WTI special in a way, because it’s so tightly connected to physical oil. And so if you’re holding a contract for WTI, you’re expected to take possession of oil.

What was happening was the buyers who had bought a futures contract, which meant they had responsibility to take delivery of the oil, recognized that that storage was filling up and they had no place to put the oil and they didn’t want the oil. And so they wanted to get out of the contract. Usually they can get out of the contract by getting somebody else to take the oil instead at a positive price. Cause oil’s a valuable commodity. But there was nobody who wanted to take that oil, particularly because it was located in an area that was producing way more oil than they needed. And the pipelines to move oil out of that area were completely full. The historic drop quickly sent shockwaves through the U.S. financial market. The Dow plunged by over 1,200 points over the following two days, and brokerage firms like interactive brokers reported taking 109 million dollar hit to cover its customers losses. It was kind of like what happened in 2000 where we we’re wondering if the computers could roll over. Some of the traders computers couldn’t even handle the negative. They weren’t set up for a negative. So you can imagine the disarray and the surprise, you know, that some traders faced the next morning when they looked at their margin calls or what they owed based on the severity of this drop.

However, experts point out that although the event was unexpected, there was no need to panic. It was not unforeseen. The exchange itself saw it as a possibility ahead of time. They actually discussed what to do if that were to happen, reprogram their software and so forth. And at least one major media outlet reported on it a week ahead of time before it happened. Also, some other products have gone negative in the past. Things like natural gas. So I think it’s important to put it in perspective that while this had never happened with oil before, it was just on one particular instrument. The WTI was just for one day and it was seen as at least a remote possibility ahead of time that it happened. It was very few contracts. There was very little trading at those prices and the price very quickly rebounded into positive territory.

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