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Madras High Court orders for TASMAC shops closure as TN crosses 6,000 Covid-19 positive cases

The High Court passed the interim order on Friday as a result of the blatant violation of the conditions that the court had prescribed under which liquor shops could function. These conditions included adhering to social distancing norms while also deploying additional staff to manage the crowd.




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Delhi: Liquor hunt shifts online, site crashes

Thousands of people standing outside the vends across the city said they had been trying to access the website since Thursday but decided come out and queue up for their turn when the online link didn't open. Delhi government officials confirmed the website crashed due to heavy rush and the glitch was being fixed.




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Assam hikes liquor prices by 25 per cent

Assam cabinet held its meeting on Friday through video conferencing. Assam Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the 25 per cent hike will add Rs 1000 crore to the government's kitty.




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Delhi govt issues 4.75 lakh e-tokens to buy liquor

Under the e-token system, customers are given specific time for purchasing alcohol so that there is no violation of social distancing norms by people queuing up outside liquor stores.




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New China tariffs a 'job killer,' US footwear industry tells Trump

The five per cent increases, which will take the tariffs to 15-25 per cent, and are due to roll out in stages through December and target some popular items, such as laptops, mobile phones and some shoes.




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After demonetisation, GST, floods hit Agra's footwear industry hard

Sharing the reasons for the slowdown in the shoe industry, shoe manufacturer Pradeep Kumar said: "The main cause is the flood that most part of the country is facing. Due to sluggish sales, we are also short of funds."




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Bata to add 500 more stores in next 5 years on franchise model

Bata has already identified 180 such markets in smaller cities pan-India.




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This footwear maker's stock surged over 1,600% in a decade

On a yearly basis, the Kolkata-based company's share price, which stood at Rs 1127.35, as of January 1, 2019, has gained around 55.32 per cent.




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Nike says virus to have 'material impact' on China operations

"Similar to others in the marketplace, approximately half of Nike-owned stores have been temporarily closed," while it is "experiencing lower than planned retail traffic in stores that do remain open."




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Adidas closes China stores over virus outbreak

The outbreak that has infected over 24,000 people and killed nearly 500 in mainland China has forced many stores and factories to close and airlines to cancel flights.




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Women's fashion brand W enters footwear category

"The newly launched footwear range is available in 90 stores. We plan to further expand and make it accessible at more stores in the coming seasons," said Somdeb Basu, head of foot apparel and accessories at W.




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Adidas shifts German, US smart factories to Asia

The production of high-tech running shoes at its so-called speedfactories in Germany's Ansbach and in the US city of Atlanta "will be discontinued by April 2020 at the latest", Adidas said in a statement.




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Delhi HC restrains Campus from selling shoe range on Puma’s copyright plaint

Campus Activewear is part of the Synergy Action Group that sells 100,000 pairs of shoes every day through more than 50,000, mostly third-party, outlets, according to Action Shoes’ website.




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Coronavirus slams Adidas, Puma sales in China

"Our business activity in Greater China has been around 85 percent below the prior year level since Chinese New Year on January 25," Adidas said in a statement.




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Puma India elevates India MD Abhishek Ganguly to General Manager- SE Asia and India

In a letter to the brand’s business partners, Bjorn Gulden, global CEO of Puma SE, announced Ganguly’s elevation in the company adding that that he will continue to work out of Puma’s India head office in Bengaluru.




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Adidas warns of big coronavirus hit to China sales

China accounted for 20% of Adidas sales in 2018. It sells its products from about 12,000 stores in China, most franchises plus fewer than 500 of its own stores. Almost a fifth of its shoes and apparel are produced in the country.




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Titan’s festive quarter sales hit by protests in various parts of the country

“Sales in all divisions in the second half of December were also impacted to some extent due to forced store closures due to the protests in the North East and in many other parts of the country,” the company said in a stock exchange filing on Saturday.




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Smaller town push to help Titan hit 15-20% revenue growth

Jewellery remains the main business of the company, generating most of its operating profit (EBIT). It added 34 jewellery stores in the first nine months and plans to add another 16 by the end of the fiscal taking the total store count to 337.




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Titan acquihires HUG Innovations, with an aim to strengthen its smart wearables division

The watchmaker will form a development centre in Hyderabad with HUG in hardware, firmware, software and cloud technology and has appointed the company's founder Raj Neravati to head technology for wearables at Titan Company.




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(edited by) John G. Hanhardt, Gregory Zinman, and Edith Decker-Phillips – We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik

The MIT Press, ISBN-13: 978-0262039802, English, 464 pages, 2019, USA

Nam June Paik is back in the limelight, thanks to an important historical exhibition at Tate Modern (see the report in this issue). There has




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This Side of Jordan - Mandolin Orange

For Andrew Marlin, the genesis of Mandolin Orange’s 3 rd CD “This Side of Jordan” evolved from a near-tragic incident in his own life back in 2011 that occurred around the release of the duo’s 2 nd CD. (AM) “What happened was I was on this dam just down the road from where we live. It’s a popular swimming spot. It was a little early in the morning and I just got a little too close and fell over the dam. Luckily I just broke my pelvis, but it was an eye-opening experience. It could’ve gone so many ways. I think it had a huge impact on this record, opening up my eyes to mortality and how crazy just little instances like that go. I can go one way or the other so fast.” But while Andrew says that accident definitely affected the production of “This Side of Jordan,” the spiritual aspect that runs throughout the disc may have come out anyway, given the style of music that he and partner Emily Frantz partake in. “I grew up in the church. My mom, she always played for the church when I was




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Something Real - Underhill Rose

INTRO -- An Asheville Americana trio is starting to get some national attention with airplay of their second CD taking it into the Top 20 of some radio charts. The national attention comes courtesy of some humble origins that embarrassed teenagers across the country can probably identify with. George Olsen has more. Time in the car with parents can sometimes be irritating for the kids, sometimes beneficial, sometimes both. “I grew up listening to my mom singing harmony with Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt and Barbara Streisand full tilt, full volume every time I was in the car for many years. At the time I was “oh, mom, stop.” Eleanor Underhill, one half of the namesakes of the Asheville trio Underhill Rose. It took a while for the Joni Mitchells and Bonnie Raitts to sink in though. Eleanor says there was a lot of Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul in her youthful listening, but it seems the more acoustic oriented choices of her parents won out, as evidenced by Underhill Rose’s new CD




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China-made phones off speed dial as supply chains disrupted amid coronavirus outbreak

“There are supply issues for several brands. There is no clarity when the situation will normalise,” said Nilesh Gupta, director at Vijay Sales, a leading electronics retailer in Mumbai and New Delhi. “If it doesn’t get corrected fast, we may move into a stock-out situation from next month.”




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Coronavirus : Apple reopens 90 per cent of retail stores in China

Apple reopened 38 Apple stores which were temporarily closed after the epidemic, state-run China Daily reported. Only four stores remain closed.




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Apple reopens all 42 retails stores in China

The tech giant closed all retail stores in the country from February 1 based on the advice from leading health experts. It aimed to reopen stores on February 9 but that date ended up being extended. The closure of Apple's retail stores in China, along with supply issues, has affected iPhone sales in the country.




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Apple to close retail stores worldwide, except Greater China, until March 27

"We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on the company's website.




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GST rate hike on mobiles: Xiaomi, ICEA, CAIT, AIMRA say move will seriously harm the industry

The decision was taken in the 39th GST Council meeting chaired by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The move was made to correct the inverted duty structure. ​




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Microsoft to launch Xbox One in India through Amazon this week

Xbox will be available for Rs39,990, while the model with Kinect, an interface that allows the use of gestures to play games, will cost Rs45,990.




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This new feature could make 'Super Smash Bros' the game of the year

There's no better game to play with friends than "Super Smash Bros." And it's about to get even better.




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One of the biggest video game franchises might come to the iPhone

Pokemon is the most successful and lucrative video game franchise in the world, second only to Mario.




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Rovio Entertainment,owner of the Angry Birds franchise, aims to become default app on India smartphones

Rovio’s India head also said that the company wants to have its own retail store where it can sell Angry Birds merchandise such as shirts and stuffed toys.




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NVIDIA to expand gaming footprint in India, add 100 gaming cafes this year

There are nearly 100 such gaming cafes currently and less than 1000 non-exclusive cafes, said Vamsi Krishna, Head of Consumer Marketing, South Asia, NVIDIA.




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German brand Lamy partners Dilip Doshi

Lamy products will be imported from Germany and will be sold at price-tag starting Rs 900 onwards.




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Stores play hide and seek with Ivanka’s products

Bed Bath & Beyond used to sell Ivanka Trump’s diaper bags in various prints on its vast online store. Suddenly, in March, the listings disappeared.




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Eyeing Rs 2k cr in revenue, Kurl-on says partnership with IKEA will prove beneficial

"Some part of Kurl-on's business did get cannibalized with the opening of IKEA's first store in Hyderabad, but it is not a cause of worry," Sudhakar Pai, Chairman and MD, Kurl-on says.




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Price hike by Chinese suppliers hits Indian companies

India imports 45% of completely built units of consumer durables from China and it also imports nearly 70% of the components for television, and other consumer durable products. The price increase by suppliers at a time when demand is drastically down has hit the sector hard, said the presentation by Ficci to the government.




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Durables, electronic items to feature high on shoppers' list post lockdown: Croma

Products such as laptops, smartphones and printers have become crucial for those working from home, while household appliances like washing machines, ACs, TVs and vacuum cleaners are now more important than ever for households.




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Samsung Electronics expects Q2 profit fall as virus hits sales of smartphones, TVs

"Sales and profits of set products business, including smartphones and TVs, are expected to decline significantly as COVID-19 affects demand and leads to store and plant closures globally," Samsung said in a statement.




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White goods retailers in state seek nod to restart operations

Major retail chains including Viveks, Shahs, Girias, Vasanth and Co are among the signatories of the letter, which fears job losses might start impacting one lakh of families, besides a steep drop in direct and indirect tax revenues to the state.




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Cardboard box makers shut shop due to lack of regulation, input cost hike

About a fourth of the corrugated box makers in the country are in danger of shutting down over the next few months as they are unable to pass on cost pressures to their clients.




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Ballarpur Industries in talks to sell Malaysian arm to China's Nine Dragons

India’s largest maker of writing & printing paper has been in talks with Nine Dragons for some time now. Discussions are likely to lead to a binding agreement soon, sources said.




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Meet Ryan: A 7-year old boy who is the highest-paid YouTube star of 2018

The boy topped Forbes' list of "Highest-Paid YouTube Stars 2018" with an impressive earning of USD 22 million.




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AR educational toymaker PlayShifu lands $7M funding led by Chiratae, Inventus & Bharat Innovation Fund

The startup plans to use the funds raised to focus on building unique phygital interactions, new product developments and expand its retail presence from 15 countries to more than 30 countries




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World's top toymaker joins companies leaving China's factories

The world’s largest publicly traded toymaker, which has licenses for popular franchises such as “Frozen” and the “Avengers,” said US goods produced in China could drop to about 50% by the end of 2020, from just under two-thirds currently.




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Children, parents won’t let toy sales slow down

Pestering by children and parental guilt has helped the toy industry grow to $1.5 billion in the past few years.




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200% import duty hike to hit toy business in India: Importers

The Centre, in the Union budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, has proposed raising the import duty on toys from 20 per cent to 60 per cent from the next fiscal, saying that the step would support the MSMEs and promote local manufacturing.




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Toys association seeks rollback of customs duty hike

Imports account for almost 85 per cent of the total toys' demand in the country and only the remaining 15 per cent of the sale is met by the domestic manufacturers, according to the industry.




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Small towns go online to quench thirst for luxury

Most consumers tend to go bargain hunting online. For a large part of 2019, luxury mall managers reported that sales were lacklustre. Luxury goods websites, however, managed to buck the trend because of 20-50% lower costs on their sites. But at the moment, watch companies do not seem to be finding too many takers in tier-2 and 3 towns.




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Prada picks Bengaluru-based BigThinx for its fashion tech accelerator programme

BigThinx’s neural networks create a personalised 3D virtual avatar from 2D images for fashion brands and their customers.




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Top French fashion brands start making free masks

Dior, which is also owned by LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods group, has been making masks since the end of last month for hospital staff.