This storyoriginally appearedon The Huffington Postand is reproduced here as part of theClimate Desk Collaboration.

As climate change opens up previously inaccessible areas of the Arctic, a leading conservation group is stressing the urgent need to safeguard this fragile region from threats including oil development and shipping.

In a lengthy report presented Tuesday in Monaco, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature identifies seven exception areas in the Arctic Ocean that deserve protection and could qualify for UNESCOs World Heritage list.

The Arctic Ocean plays a crucial role in shaping global climate and hosts a diverse range of species, many of them threatened, said Carl Gustaf Lundin, director of IUCNs Global Marine and Polar Programme, in a statement.

Spanning nearly 5.5 million square miles, the Arctic Ocean is home to some of the planets most magnificent creatures, including grey whales, narwhals, polar bears and walruses. But climate change has led to soaring temperatures and rapidly melting sea ice, opening once-inaccessible areas up to fishing, shipping, energy development and even luxury cruise liners.

Activists protest the Shell Oil Company's drilling rig Polar Pioneer due to plans by Royal Dutch Shell to resume oil exploration in the Arctic. Reuters

These activities have the potential to inflict further stress on Arctic marine ecosystems already straining under the effects of climate change, Prince Albert II of Monaco writes in the reports preface. I believe we have a historic opportunity, and a profound obligation, to do what we can to educate people around the world about the need to protect ecologically important and sensitive ocean habitats in the Arctic for future generations. The need to act is urgent.

Two polar bears feed on decomposing Narwhal remains.

The IUCN report, supported by Natural Resources Defense Council and the World Wildlife Fund, highlights seven important and highly productive marine areas worthy of protection.

The Arctic Oceans beauty and bounty are unparalleled, said Mechtild Rssler, director of UNESCOs World Heritage Centre, in a statement. From the sea life superhighway of the Bering Strait to the breath-taking fjords of Scoresby Sound, this region is unlike any other on the planet.

The IUCNs warning comes roughly three months after a team of international scientists released the 2016 Arctic Report Card, which painted an equally dire picture of the rapidly changing Arctic, where sea ice has reached record lows and temperatures are warming at twice the rate of the rest of the planet.

Scientists and environmentalists have grown increasingly worried about increased opportunities for fishing and oil and gas development.

In his preface, Prince Albert II referenced the importance of the Paris climate agreement, in which nearly 200 countries committed to reduce carbon emissionsincluding the U.S. It represented a crucial step addressing global warming and its effects on the Arctic, he wrote. However, he emphasized the need to protect key habitat from human activity in an effort to make the Arctic more resilient.

In December, the Obama administration permanently blocked offshore drilling in large swaths of the Arctic, a move aimed at better protecting the planet in the face of climate change. President Donald Trump, however, has acted quickly to dismantle his predecessors climate legacy, and he appears to have given new hope to those who support oil and gas development in Arctic waters.

Trump has also vowed to withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris climate pact and dismissed climate change as bullshit and as a hoax.

The extent to which global warming has transformed this part of the planet was on full display in September, when the luxury cruise liner Crystal Serenity completed a 32-day voyage through the Northwest Passagea historically impassable sea route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Rod Downie of the World Wildlife Fund said at the time it was because the Arctic is in meltdown that this cruise can take place.

Read the full IUCN report here.

Read the original:

'Urgent' Need to Protect the Arctic's Ecosystem, Report Says - Newsweek

April 7, 2017 The University held the seventhHigh Performance Computing Saudi Arabia eventthe premier regional event in the fieldfrom March 13 to 15. The three-day conference aimed to create a space where researchers and industry representatives could meet, share ideas and experiences and discuss cooperation and collaboration. The 2017 event focused on coordinated efforts for the advancement of an HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom. The first two days of the event included keynote speeches, invited talks, lightning talks, poster presentations, a vendor exhibition and an open discussion aimed at drafting an action plan for setting up an HPC ecosystem in Saudi Arabia.

Each plenary session commenced with a keynote talk, with speakers includingSteven E. Koonin, director,NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP);Thomas Schulthess, director,Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)at Lugano; and Dr. Robert G. Voigt, a senior member of the technical staff at theKrell Institute.

Collaboration is key

In his welcome address,Dr. Jysoo Lee, director of theKAUST Supercomputing Core Laboratory,praised the people behind the computing researchthe people who help create the ecosystems, machinery and technology.

The research we have and the people we have really makes KAUST special, and the Shaheen system is what we can be proud of, Lee said. What we are trying to do is to help and serve both KAUST and the Kingdom. Since you are here in KAUST, I want you to look at the opportunities and what can be done together.

There is a science to be done here

In his opening keynote entitled Better Cities through Data Acquisition and Analysis, Koonin highlighted his work and the work of CUSP in the field of urban science and systems. He described how the center uses informatics to study the operations of urban systems, noting how HPC technology enriches the bustling cityscape that is New York City and how it can contribute to broader global issues.

We need technologies and methodologies to analyze data about citiesthere is a science to be done here. Cities have been one of the most complex things that humans have created. Cities are what matter, and by the end of the century, about three-fourths of humanity will be in cities. Koonin said.

If you want to change the energy system, technology is great, but the social factor is what you have to work on in the long run. Its not just about energy, its about everything else that happens in a city. You need to understand infrastructure, environment and people to instrument a city, he continued.

Cities are built for people by people. You cant understand a city unless you understand its people. You can try understand one dimension of a city or you can focus on just one city and try discover its various dimensions. One of the biggest challenges is fusing different data sources into usable data. If you can take all of this data and analyze it through data-driven models, you can learn many things. We need to own the data by having an intimate familiarly with it, Koonin added.

How to make HPC mainstream

Merle Giles, formerly ofThe National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA)and now CEO of Moonshot Research LCC, described how needs differ in research computing. Giles discussed how he harnessed the various methodologies from his previous workplace in his new company.

For 20 years or more, enterprise has treated HPC as a hobbywhat we do in our new company is similar to what we did in NCSA, which is serve others and help others do what they know how to do better, he said.

A valley of death exists in both the academic and industry sectors and nobody funds the middle, which is innovation. We are left to our own practices to move through this middle ground, he added. Some differences between research computing and the commercial side are also the differences between macro and micro economics. There is a big difference between high-level macroeconomics and the company level microeconomics. KAUST is an example of a clustering effect of a macroeconomic policy. The microeconomic effect is down to the level of the firm. I dont know any boardroom that talks about HPCHPC has been in the R&D basement forever.

On tackling the question of how to take HPC mainstream, Giles said, Reducing time-to-impact is essential, and HPC plays a big part in this. The key to success is being obsessed with the customer. The customer wins in this game.

We have to know what goes on in HPC and we have to know about the companies. The HPC community is where we can solve things, and it may be the only way to peek under the hood and know how it works, he concluded. Taking charge of change

Raed Al-Rabeh, manager of EXPEC Network Operations atSaudi Aramco, spoke about how there is a complex plethora of new technologies with new disciplines and modes of operations available to all developers, industry and computing researchers. He discussed how by virtue of this, a whole new plane of possibility in HPC is now attainable that was unthinkable a few years ago. Al-Rabeh also discussed the need to adjust to these changes in the HPC landscape and to adapt to avoid the risk of being left behind.

Its not about changeits about us taking charge of change and making good use of it, he said. In HPC, you have to understand the architecture and go to very low levels of understanding to get the most out of the system. You have to be a scientist with a strong background in computer engineering or an electrical engineer to get the most out of it. The HPC challenges are not that different from the IT challenges, but they go to a different level.

We need to spot opportunities to make good use of our systemsgone are the days when research was funded just for the sake of research. Research is now funded if it drives new opportunities that are close to homethe industry and the society and where we live, not some theoretical question out there in space. Innovation must happen as a regular process, and agility is critical, he added.

Our customers arent interested in becoming computer scientists or experts so they can use products. They expect the products to work. Technology requires resources and the knowledge is not very widespread. We need to spread the knowledge and bring it up-to-speed, and we need to embrace the change and be aware of it to give us the advantage, he noted.

We need alignment between business and research, with research doing what business needs. This kind of alignment fuels the research, and then products of the research are deployable and usable. Especially in the Kingdom, very few companies realize the applications of HPC, Al-Rabeh concluded.

Following on from Al-Rabeh,Sreekanth Pannalafromthe Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC)highlighted the role HPC plays in SABIC and how it aids the companys goals and productivity rates for the Kingdom.

We look towards our capabilities from a computing perspectivewe look at novel solutions from an HPC perspective to make things faster, Pannala said.

We must move forward

In his keynote talk, Schulthess reflected on the goals and baseline for exascale computing and how a capable exascale computing system requires an entire computational ecosystem behind it.

Its amazing to see so many people engaged with HPC in the Middle East. Globally, we have to figure out what we want to accomplish in particular areas. Today, the fastest supercomputers sustain 20 to 100 petaflops on HPL, and investment in software allows mathematical improvements and changes in architecture, Schulthess said. I dont know what that architecture will be in five to 10 years, but we must move forward with it.

In his presentation,Muhammad El-Rabaa, an associate professorat theDepartment of Computer EngineeringatKing Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals(KFUPM), outlined how new applications have propelled HPC to the forefront of computing.

New applications have catapulted HPC from narrow scientific applications domain to the mainstreamapplications like the cloud, pocket processing, machine learning, searches, analytics, business logic, etc. Computing platforms have continuously evolved with new platforms continuing to emerge, he said.

He also highlighted the increasing role of field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), an integrated circuit that can be configured after manufacturing. Instead of building one chip, you can now have a few chips, as it is more economical. Several hi-tech executives say that FGPAs will constitute 20 percent of data centers by 2020, he added.

A fast-moving world

Jeff Brooks, director of supercomputing product management atCray, discussed the upcoming technology shifts in the marketplace and the implications for systems design in the exascale era.

Systems with millions of cores will become commonplace. We are trying to invest more in data work, make it work better and scale it out. We want to couple analytics with simulation, Brooks said. Another thing that is coming is small, fast memoriessystems with millions of coreswill become commonplace. This is a fast-moving world, but by working together you can solve problems you couldnt do before.

Delivering scientific solutions

Jeff Nichols, acting director of the National Center for Computational Sciences and the National Leadership Computing Facility atOak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), discussed the several scientific areas that require an integrated approach and the effort in creating an exascale ecosystem that enables successful delivery of important scientific solutions across a broad range of disciplines.

We need to think about how were being connected to the data that is generated from the sensors all around us. Our Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) provides a shared infrastructure to help solve big science problems. We try to connect our data to our in-silico information from the top down.

We have to think about the type of data we are actually deploying on these systems. This is a very complicated workflow scenario we have to come up with. We have four pillars which are: application development, software technology, hardware technology, and exascale systems. The Oak Ridge leadership computing facility is on a well-defined path to exascale. Were interested in our ecosystem delivering important and critical science for the nation and the world, he said.

Patricia Damkroger,vice president of the Data Center Group atIntel, spoke on the convergence of simulation and data.

At Intel, we look at the whole ecosystem. There will be new systems and new workloads and we will need to figure out what is the underlying architecture and hardware that makes those systems work. Its a question of how can we create a common architecture for data and simulation. The world is changing, and without analytics and AI workloads, we will drown in data, she said.

Educating computational scientists

Voigt opened the final plenary session of the event with his keynote presentation entitled The Education of Computational Scientists. His talk centered on providing a historical perspective of the challenges of educating future computational scientists based on his career experiences.

One might argue that scientific computing began in the 1950s, and in 1982, computational science was recognized. Computational science takes on a discipline of its own, and there is an opportunity to learn about aspects of computational science through exploring multidisciplinary searches, Voigt said.

Computational science involves the integration of knowledge and methodologies. There is now an explosion of data and new areas of science and engineering. There are also rapidly changing computer architectures, he added.

A leading role in HPC

The third day of the conference offered eight tutorials on emerging technical topics of interest, such as advanced performance tuning and optimization offered by Allinea, Intel and Cray; the best practices of HPC procurement by RedOak; and SLURM workload management by SchedMD. The most popular were HPC 101, which offered a step-by-step guide on how to useShaheen II, andNVIDIAs tutorial on the popular topic of deep learning.

A total of 333 people attended the High Performance Computing Saudi Arabia event, making it one of the biggest conferences held at KAUST.

The conference was a great chance to observe significant HPC interests in the Kingdom. There were lots of discussions on ways to enhance the HPC ecosystem in the Kingdom, and it was clear that KAUST can play a leading role in several of them, noted Lee.

Source:David Murphy, KAUST News (link)

See the original post:

KAUST: Building an HPC Ecosystem - HPCwire (blog)

Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) has made headlines this week by passing automaker Ford (NYSE:F) in market capitalization after reporting Q1 vehicle deliveries. This accomplishment caps a sharp recovery in share price from 52-week lows in early December, with TSLA closing Tuesday up a whopping 70% from those lows.

TSLA data by YCharts

Naturally, the Q1 delivery numbers, subsequent stock gains, and passing Ford in market cap set off passionate reactions on both sides of the bull-bear debate. Bulls claimed the delivery numbers were strong and the price increase justified, while bears claimed the bulls are in a state of irrational exuberance about a company that doesn't make a dime of profit. Elon Musk also weighed in on the debate with a tweet reading "Stormy weather in Shortville". Immature? Maybe. Premature? Probably.

I set up this context because so many people seem baffled by just how valuable Tesla has become - why is a car manufacturer that trails substantially in volume, margins, and profits almost the industry's most valuable company? The answer, of course, lies in the future. Musk imagines a future where autonomous Tesla vehicles, powered by Tesla-produced lithium-ion batteries, can drive around the country and recharge at Tesla-owned Superchargers. And SolarCity presumably has a role in charging Tesla vehicles, powering Tesla Powerwall storage devices, and generally offering solar energy to consumer markets.

If it sounds like Tesla has many of the "green" frontiers of the future covered, it's because that is exactly the plan. Musk doesn't want to control a slice of the renewable energy market, he wants to be everywhere. He wants to create an ecosystem where Tesla has significant control over its supply chain and is deeply horizontally and vertically integrated.

First, I think it would be useful to establish just how wide the operating gap between Ford and Tesla is. In 2016, the former sold 2.6 million vehicles and earned $4.6 billion in profit, while Tesla sold 76,000 cars and lost $675 million. Yet we see the following:

TSLA Market Cap data by YCharts

Does this make any sense from an operating results perspective? Of course not. But it's not always about current performance. I think Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) provides a good example of how a company can go from almost no market presence to dominating the entire space in a short time period.

When Apple released its first iPhone model in 2007, it sold 4 million units, which was dwarfed by Nokia's (NYSE:NOK) 435 million and Motorola's (NYSE:MSI) 164 million. Based on current performance at that time, many investors would have written off Apple as a small market player that would be crushed in time by its larger competitors. However, what the market did not see coming was the approaching paradigm shift in cellular devices that would give us the smartphone. Nokia underestimated this shift and played the situation passively, assuming that they could continue to milk their current soon-to-be legacy products and then pivot to smartphones later on.

But it never materialized. Nokia floundered and could not compete with the iPhone considering how far ahead of the curve Apple had gotten. Soon Apple was on top of the industry and now (here's a factoid we've already probably heard many times) earns most of the profits in the smartphone market with only 20% market share. How does this relate to Tesla?

Just as Nokia thought it could easily pivot to smartphones to stay ahead of or keep pace with Apple, Ford also appears content to continue focusing on ICEs (with some electric vehicles, hybrids, and autonomous vehicle research here or there) while Tesla is plunging head-on into autonomous electric vehicles. I think it is fairly apparent who will have the advantage once autonomous and electric vehicle market share goes up for grabs.

In addition to the first-mover advantage and not being burdened down by an ICE business that will soon enter decline, Tesla has the unique advantage of having significant control over many aspects of the production of its vehicles, with more control approaching in the future. On the hardware side, Tesla manufactures the powertrains and batteries for many of its vehicles, with the Gigafactory expected to give the company an even bigger advantage over competitors in the future due to lower battery costs.

On the software side, Tesla is a Silicon Valley company at heart and has top-tier software engineering talent. The company is building its autonomous driving software in-house, which provides yet more control over the production and costs of the final product.

Tesla, and Musk specifically, is trying to establish a monopoly on the most popular markets in the renewable energy space - trying to establish a "green" ecosystem (that works almost too well!) If all goes according to plan, Tesla will have full control over the software in its vehicles, the major components of its vehicles (mainly batteries), the primary and secondary infrastructure for charging its vehicles (home charger and Supercharger respectively), the way many homes receive electricity (solar) and a way to store excess electricity (Powerwall).

It is easy to imagine how, if successful, this type of ecosystem could be worth well over $100 billion. This scheme would be a mesh of criss-crossing horizontal and vertical integrations, which would allow Tesla to keep costs under control and charge a premium if the company so desires. For any investors that have wondered why Musk has pushed ahead so aggressively and so quickly with Tesla's operations instead of waiting for profitability, it's because this ecosystem will be impossible to accomplish with a strategy that is anything but full speed ahead at all times. And so far, it appears to be working.

The Gigafactory will indeed give Tesla a cost advantage over other automakers when it is operating at full utilization, the Supercharger infrastructure is miles ahead of any other competitors, and Tesla has the pieces to make the ecosystem work if it can accomplish one thing: sell cars. Without deliveries and booming success for the Model 3, Tesla will collapse in on itself before even getting close to Musk's dream of a "green" ecosystem.

My argument has always been that the success or failure of Tesla hinges on the Model 3. If it's as innovative and popular as many seem to think it will be, then a wide-reaching "green" ecosystem could be a very likely scenario, which would be hugely beneficial for Tesla and its shareholders. But of course there are also many risks and obstacles that pose a threat to that ecosystem, some of which include:

1) Ford and other automakers convince consumers that its EVs are more desirable

2) Tesla has nagging issues with autonomous vehicle development that hinder its ability to compete

3) The Model 3 is not a blowout success. This, in my opinion, is the most dangerous threat to Tesla. Even a modest success will not be enough to bail the company out of its precarious financial situation.

4) Another company or group of companies develop a "green" ecosystem that is superior to or implemented earlier than Tesla's.

5) Lithium-ion batteries become cheap as heck and the Gigafactory becomes irrelevant to cost advantages. This would put Tesla in a very tight spot.

There are plenty more as well. But the only question investors should be asking themselves regarding Tesla is, as I've been saying for a while now, "will the Model 3 be a significant success?" If you think the answer is no, don't own this stock. Tesla's financial situation is such that it likely cannot survive without this condition. If the answer is yes, then keep an eye on developments regarding the Tesla ecosystem - that's where the real money is.

Traditional automakers with less control over their product, no ecosystem presence, and those not fully prepared for the paradigm shift from ICE to EV (and autonomous vehicles) could very well find themselves trailing Tesla in operating results as well as market cap. There's still a long way to go until we see any of these potentials materialize, but the market certainly already sees the possibilities.

If you want to stay up-to-date on my articles, you can "Follow" me by clicking "Follow" at the top of this page or by going to my author page.

Thanks for reading!

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

View post:

Tesla: Building A 'Green' Ecosystem - Seeking Alpha

wbur Commentary

April 07, 2017

By Dr. Laurie Glimcher

Dr. Laurie Glimcher, President and CEO of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told the Boston Chamber of Commerce on Friday that for cancer care, "It truly is the best of times and the worst of times." Research and treatment have been advancing rapidly, she said, but the political climate "threatens to send us backwards," if the Affordable Care Act is undermined and proposed cuts to the federal budget for biomedical research go through.

An excerpt from her remarks as prepared:

For me, personally, this has been a roller-coaster ride.

I was honored to be a member of the blue ribbon panel convened by Vice President Joe Biden to shape his Cancer Moonshoot. In December of 2016, I was present when President Obama signed into law the 21st Century Cures Act, which included $1.8 billion in new dollars over seven years for cancer research and care.

However, a few short months later, the Trump Administration released a skinny budget that cuts funding to the National Institutes of Health, which is the agency that distributes most federal support for biomedical research in the United States, by more than 18%. And it is unclear how the Moonshot dollars, intended to be additive, fit into the picture.

This more-than-decimation of the NIH budget has to be put into context. Over the last ten years, NIH funding had already dropped by more than 13% in constant dollars a source of great frustration to many physician-scientists, given the incredible potential we see before us in immunotherapy, in genome editing, in more efficient sequencing, in our ability to find insights within massive amounts of disparate data.

Now, to cut NIH funding almost 20% beyond that.... Since much of the NIH budget is devoted to ongoing grants, it is possible that the NIH may not be able to fund any new work at all in 2018.

Meanwhile, other countries particularly China and South Korea have been increasing their investments in biomedical R&D at a scorching pace, and the resulting generation of intellectual property. President Trump says its a bad thing that so many of the things we use are now made in China. Imagine how much worse it would be if they also were invented there.

As we consider moonshots, it is worth pointing out that at the height of the Space Race in the mid-1960s, the United States spent more than three times as much on R&D as a percentage of the federal budget as we do today. That spending funded discoveries that led to commercial lasers, the Internet, GPS, the cell phone, the entire biotechnology industry, and a host of medical advances, including the ones Ive been talking about.

Now, with the stroke of a pen, our innovation engine may grind to a halt.

Even setting aside the lives that could be saved, the foolishness of this is extreme, just in terms of cost-benefits. For example, caring for people with Alzheimers, and other dementias, costs the United States over $200 billion per year, much of that paid for by Medicare and Medicaid. Because of the growth and aging of our population, the bill for Alzheimers is expected to rise to more than $1.1 trillion in 2050 and we cannot even treat these patients, because we have not yet discovered an effective treatment.

If we could find a treatment that would merely delay the onset of Alzheimers by five years, we could save $220 billion within the first five years seven times the $32 billion we spent on the NIH in 2016.

Cancer prevalence also rises with aging, and cancer costs are projected to reach $158 billion a year in 2020. Again, if we can turn this into an easily manageable disease, the nation would come out way ahead.

Before I end, I want to consider what this new political climate means for us in the Greater Boston area.

With the worlds greatest ecosystem in biomedicine, we have a lot to lose. Five of the ten largest private employers here are teaching hospitals and three more are research universities. As you would expect, Greater Boston receives more NIH funding than any other city in the country. The nearly half a billion dollars in Massachusetts NIH grants likely to vanish under the Trump budget are a serious concern for our innovation-based economy.

At Dana-Farber alone, we could lose $23 million in the first year. Here is what really keeps us awake at night: the reality that declining federal support for biomedical research is discouraging the next generation of young scientific talent, who are not able to get funding for their projects.

This loss of intellectual capital is going to hurt Boston-based businesses as well. NIH-funded research centers like Dana-Farber are an essential training ground for young physician-scientists, many of whom go on to build careers at pharmaceutical or medical device companies, or who launch new companies of their own.

These early-stage businesses also rely on NIH grants in order to research and develop promising new biotechnologies and survive the valleys of death that could keep important treatments from reaching the market.

This is fuel for the vibrant life sciences startup community in Boston and Cambridge, which adds vitality to every other sector represented in this room restaurants, hotels, real estate, financial services, software, retailing.

We face another threat as well: California. There is a cautionary tale in the way that Route 128 lost its dominance to Silicon Valley in information technology in the 1980s.

Silicon Valley clearly benefitted from more powerful social networks and a more freewheeling exchange of information. And now, our friends on the West Coast are coming for our crown in biomedicine: In 2004, California voters strongly supported a ballot initiative that created the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine and provided $3 billion for stem cell research.

And the enormous wealth generated in technology means that many California universities and medical centers are awash in philanthropic support for researchincluding major health care initiatives, like one recently launched by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

In Boston, we are used to being the best. But we cannot be complacent. We need to push forward on everything from digital health care to STEM education. We need to rally all sectors of our regional economy, including both philanthropy and government, to maintain our intellectual leadership.

And we need to join forces, rather than to engage in cutthroat competition, given the degree to which we all gain strength from the biomedical cluster we have created here.

Read more:

Dana-Farber Chief: Federal Cuts Could Threaten 'World's Greatest ... - WBUR

In this column, young entrepreneurs ask questions about issues they have encountered while building their ventures, and we get them answered by seasoned entrepreneurs and investors. You too can tweet your questions to @TOIStartups

'Booking holiday packages is the next challenge for online travel'

Question by Mahendra Pyati, founder, AAO hostels, an online aggregator for hostels With large online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip and Holiday IQ in India, is there space for more such companies in the emerging travel market in India? What are your suggestions to small or emerging online travel agencies?

Answer from Karana Mohla, Executive Director at IDG Ventures

Travel was the first area of adoption and growth for the internet/digital economy in India. Over the last 10 years, online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip and Yatra blazed a trail to solve the problems of booking of flight and train tickets and making hotel deals. In doing so, they helped create user behaviour that is online-led (and now largely mobile first) where the traditional issues of price, selection and convenience were addressed.

Online penetration is higher in segments like flights (50%+) and trains (35%+) whereas hotels (7-8%) and holiday packages (5%) are far behind. The next set of online travel companies must try to address user requirements from different perspectives. To give a few examples, Tripoto via its UGC platform, discovery and AI recommendation engine is enabling a new set of digital travellers to book hotels and holiday packages recommended by a trusted online community of fellow travellers. Ixigo, with its metasearch platform, gives customers up-to-date price selection across all channels and allows for the convenience of bookings to be fulfilled on its platform, thereby solving two fundamental needs together.

With growth being driven by a different customer set - largely Tier II and Tier III cities and a younger, mobile-first user with greater spending needs -- the opportunities for online travel companies remain vast. Just FYI, wouldn't call Holiday IQ a large online travel agency (it's part of MMT). Instead, probably, include Yatra along with MakeMyTrip as a large online travel agency.

'There's no trust deficit in the startup ecosystem'

Question by Barkha Sharma, founder of Bash, an HR tech firm

Due to the lack of longevity of a few startups, there seems to be a trust deficit in the startup ecosystem in India. What would be the best response when enterprise clients raise this concern with startups like ours?

Read more from the original source:

'There's no trust deficit in the startup ecosystem' - Times of India

In terms of economic potential and growth, Africa has never been more important on the world stage.

Africa is home to the fastest growing cities, and more than half of the worlds population growth will take place on the continent over the coming decades. By 2050, cities like Lagos and Kinshasa will be global megacities, each holding well over 30 million inhabitants.

Africa is also at the start of a technological renaissance. It was recently reported by WeAreSocial that 7 of 10 of the worlds fastest growing internet populations are in Africa the beginning of a trend that will likely re-shape entire economies as new companies leapfrog established technology, ideas, and infrastructure.

That said, much of that opportunity lies in the future. As of today, internet penetration is just 29% throughout Africa, meaning that the majority of growth and network effects are still to come.

Todays infographic from GSMA shows the 300+ hubs that have emerged in the African tech startup ecosystem. Many of these plan to take advantage of the aforementioned growth potential, including the 360 million smartphone owners expected on the continent by 2025.

Investors are recognizing the potential as well. Last year, it was estimated that African startups raised a record-breaking total of $366.8 million in investment.

Heres that distribution sorted by country:

In what sectors did most of the action happen? According to a separate report by Disrupt Africa, the fintech sector received the most funding in 2016, but the agri-tech sector saw the biggest percentage growth as compared to the previous year.

Other sectors that got substantial amounts of attention include solar, health, e-commerce, entertainment, and e-learning.

Every startup ecosystem is different, and hubs in Africa are no exception.

In particular, the continent has a unique wrinkle that also presents a huge opportunity: according to the African Development Bank, about 55% of sub-Saharan Africas economic activity is informal.

The [informal economy] is a massive commercial space without such services as business enterprise software, small business banking, affordable third-party logistics or internet access. Expect VC-backed startups to attempt scalable applications for nearly every corner of Africas informal economy.

Jake Bright, World Economic Forum

Last year, Africa Internet Group became the first unicorn on the continent after receiving investments from Goldman Sachs, Rocket Internet, AXA Group, Orange, and others.

Its also certain to be just one of many born on the African Savannah.

Excerpt from:

Africa's Exploding Tech Startup Ecosystem - Visual Capitalist (blog)

In March, Donald Trump assembled a group of coal miners to serve as the backdrop to his signing of new executive orders on the environment.

These directives allow coal mining to take place on federal lands, and in general prioritize jobs and energy independence over environmental considerations.

Even though Trump hasnt formally signed the United States out of the Paris Accord on climate change he promises to make a decision next month the executive orders will, if successfully implemented, make it very difficult for the United States to meet its commitments under the agreement.

Ecosystems can be quite resilient. They can maintain or regain equilibrium in the case of disruptive events, such as the extinction of a species. It all depends on how critical that species was in the complex interdependency within the ecosystem.

Ecosystems can also adjust to the introduction of invasive species. Honeybees were reintroduced into the United States in the 17th century, and the ecosystem not only adjusted to the newcomers but became dependent on them in a positive way.

On the whole, however, invasive species are bad news, as Nature explains:

Invasive species have contributed directly to the decline of 42 percent of the threatened and endangered species in the United States. The annual cost to the United States economy is estimated at $120 billion a year, with over 100 million acres (an area roughly the size of California) suffering from invasive plant infestations.

A new theory of Easter Islands collapse, for instance, puts the blame on rats that stowed away on incoming canoes and ate through much of the islands palm trees.

Its been common to talk of Donald Trump as an outsider. Perhaps it would be more accurate to call him an invasive species. He is non-native to Washington, DC. He is a super-predator introduced into the international community. His supporters think of him as the Great Pollinator, an example of a positive invasive like the honeybee whose transactional politics will make America bloom again.

But the odds of that are next to nothing. In reality, Donald Trump is kudzu. He is out to strangle anything and everything in his path.

If the global ecosystem were in good shape, it could deal with an invasive species like Donald Trump. But the ecosystem has been compromised by any number of factors. The global economy remains addicted to fossil fuels and over-consumption more generally. Weve seen massive species die-offs. And the human population has yet to plateau.

The bottom line: Were not getting green enough, fast enough, to made a big enough difference on the seemingly inexorable increase in global temperatures. By 2016, the world desperately needed a game changer who could drain the swamp of Big Energy. Instead, it got a reverse game changer.

Trump will be a problem more for what he doesnt do than what he does do. There will be significant opportunity costs connected with his failure to continue much less improve upon Obama-era initiatives. Those who anticipate that judicial and legislative institutions will block much of what Trump wants to do might be right.

But as Jeremy Brecher writes in his critically important new book, Against Doom: A Climate Insurgency Manual, its too late for politics as usual. It will take nothing less than mass, global, nonviolent action to challenge the legitimacy of the public officials in the US and elsewhere who are perpetrating climate destruction.

That movement needs to begin here in the United States in stopping the kudzu known as Donald Trump before he spreads out of control.

This article has been excerpted from: Invasive Species: Trump vs. the Ecosystem.

Courtesy: Counterpunch.org

Link:

Trump vs the ecosystem - The News International

India and Russia on Friday signed a joint declaration to build an innovation ecosystem between the two countries.

The declaration was inked by the Science and Technology, Department of India and the ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation on the margins of a Global R&D summit 2017 in Bengaluru.

As India and Russia are natural partners of innovation, the declaration will take the relations between the people of the two countries to new heights, said Science and Technology secretary Ashutosh Sharma on the occasion.

The declaration envisages the two countries to promote innovation and technology entrepreneurship through cooperation and direct contacts between Russian and Indian clusters and business associations, techno-parks, business-incubators, high-tech firms, start-up enterprises, educational and research institutions.

We need to extend the collaborations in developing innovation capabilities for various sectors in the spirit of India-Russia partnerships, said Russian deputy minister of Economic Development Fomichev Oleg Vladislavovich in a statement.

The two countries also agreed to implement joint projects in innovation and exchange information and best practices in the innovation space.

The National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board of the S&T Department will implement the declaration from the Indian side.

The two-day summit since Thursday was organised by the S&T Department and the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Ficci).

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India, Russia to jointly build innovation ecosystem | india-news ... - Hindustan Times

When one compares cyber security today to what it was ten years ago, the two are almost unidentifiable as the same industry. The iPhone had only just launched; Facebook was still in its infancy; the Internet of Things (IoT) was still a dream. The routes a hacker could use to access a system were limited, and because of this, cyber security was built around walls. One was encouraged to block attacks with firewalls and other perimeter security that could be plugged into existing systems. There was no wider strategy, with little thought given to what would happen if those walls were breached. This created a very segmented landscape, made up of a multitude of different products, all with varying capabilities and from different suppliers.

Todays landscape is utterly different. The routes into a system are so numerous they are impossible to police effectively, with the IoT making this problem greater by the day.

Yet this same technology that is causing a headache for cyber security professionals is the exact same technology that can help drive a business forward. Consider the transformational potential of IoT. Data between previously distant departments or operations can now be collected, shared and used automatically, dramatically improving the efficiency with which those two business areas work.

The consequences for cyber security, however, are serious. Access across a large multinational corporations systems can be gained through one chink in the armour of one small department. Recent hacks have shown this time and again. The hack against Target, one of the biggest ever and responsible for the loss of details of 110 million customers,stemmed from a phishing attack on a contractor. USB sticks infected with malware are an ever-present threat; once plugged in, hackers quickly spread throughout an organisations system and begin to do serious damage. This has been proven to chilling effect in the health sector,where patient monitors have even been accessed.

To counter this, the cyber industry must work to develop a security protocol a standard that can operate effectively across all different elements of modern, large-scale computer systems; a system of systems. Such a protocol will allow for the effective identification and quantification of any security and privacy issues in any part of a business IT systems. Other industries have used similar models of ever-presenting testing and evaluation to ensure their services are as rigorous as can be. Engineering, constantly evolving since the industrial revolution, is built upon testing. From product design through to end-of-life decommissioning, the industry constantly tests the performance and capabilities of its devices.

A system of systems will allow cyber security to the same. All parts of the IT supply chain, from the service provider to the OEM; the management consultancy to the market researcher; all will be able to scrutinise their business operations from a cyber security stand point, and all to the same high level of quality.

This will align with and be underpinned by the National Cyber Security Strategy, supported by the NCSC. It aims to create an ecosystem of innovative and thriving cyber security by bringing together the best minds from government, academia and the private sector to deliver this system of systems, solving the issues presented by a divergent and complex online world. It will be the beginning of a new era of cyber security protection, based not on unrealistic goals but on our ability as a nation to mitigate and minimise risk through collaboration. It will give the UK and its population assurances that its data and systems are safe and the base from which a successful digital economy can flourish.

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The New Cyber Security Ecosystem - Information Security Buzz - ISBuzz News

K. Kopter

Singapore's Oasia Hotel Downtown is alive - and growing fast. Covered in 21 species of verdant climbers and flowers, it was designed by local architects WOHA as the first tropical high-rise. "We wanted as many species as possible to recreate an ecosystem," says WOHA co-founder Wong Mun Summ, 54. "It has flowers to attract insects and climbers for squirrels and lizards."

Patrick Bingham-Hall

Work on the 76 million building is due to be completed this spring, and Mun Summ estimates the climbers - planted in 1,793 boxes at the tower's ground corners to allow easy maintenance - will be fully mature within three years. "It will look furry, almost like an animal," he says.

Patrick Bingham-Hall

Located in Singapore's dense business district, the 190-metre-high building was designed to compensate for the area's lack of greenery. "Sustainability is important to us," Mun Summ says. It has open-sided gardens, so there is no need for mechanical ventilation in the hotel's 314 rooms and 100 office units. Most of the water for the irrigation system is harvested from rainfall.

"Singapore is a land-limited country," says Mun Summ. "As it gets denser, it is necessary to create a liveable environment." His next challenge? A building with a beach inside. WIRED hopes it has a volleyball court, too.

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Grow your own hotel: this tropical high-rise in Singapore has its own ecosystem - Wired.co.uk

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia participated in the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which concluded on Friday in the German city of Bonn, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Hani bin Mohammed Ali Tatwani, deputy president of the Saudi Wildlife Authority (SWA), represented the Kingdom at the event, which was also attended by representatives from 126 countries, the SPA noted. Tatwani said the SWA is eager to benefit from global events and scientific forums supported by the wise leadership. The Kingdoms participation in such events is designed to promote biodiversity in the Kingdom and exchange experiences at the regional and global levels, he said. He stressed that the leading role of the forum in providing scientific tools and guidance will contribute to enhance relations between the scientific community and decision makers. He said the platform will issue two scientific global assessments that will provide a database for biodiversity policies and other land ecological systems. Meanwhile, the SWA will develop tools and approaches adopted by the platform in coordination with the relevant sectors in the Kingdom in light of the Kingdoms commitment to regional and global environmental conventions, the official said. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being, and sustainable development.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia participated in the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which concluded on Friday in the German city of Bonn, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA). Hani bin Mohammed Ali Tatwani, deputy president of the Saudi Wildlife Authority (SWA), represented the Kingdom at the event, which was also attended by representatives from 126 countries, the SPA noted. Tatwani said the SWA is eager to benefit from global events and scientific forums supported by the wise leadership. The Kingdoms participation in such events is designed to promote biodiversity in the Kingdom and exchange experiences at the regional and global levels, he said. He stressed that the leading role of the forum in providing scientific tools and guidance will contribute to enhance relations between the scientific community and decision makers. He said the platform will issue two scientific global assessments that will provide a database for biodiversity policies and other land ecological systems. Meanwhile, the SWA will develop tools and approaches adopted by the platform in coordination with the relevant sectors in the Kingdom in light of the Kingdoms commitment to regional and global environmental conventions, the official said. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being, and sustainable development.

Link:

Saudi Arabia joins Bonn-based platform on biodiversity, ecosystem services - Arab News

During UploadVRsinterview with HTCs president of Vive in China Alvin Graylin last week, I asked if the company had any more plans for add-on peripherals for its VR headset like its upcoming Vive Tracker in 2017 and beyond. In response, he pointed out that there could be hundreds of accessories for the HTC Vive this year because of that Tracker.

I think the Tracker is already creating new peripherals that we dont have to design, Graylin said. He explained that the feedback hed heard from developers that have used the device so far was that it enabled them to create experiences they previously wanted to make but couldnt because they werent hardware guys.

Thats a story that could apply to a lot of Vive developers. The base kits position-tracked controllers do a great job of representing your hands in VR, but when it comes to actually picking things up youll notice the disparity between the virtual and real world. The Vive Tracker closes that gap.

Were going to enable a lot of people who arent hardware developers to make stuffwho if they just had a baseball bat now boom theyve got something like Trinity, Graylin continued. Thats the kind of stuff that will happen and theyre going to be more creative than we are because they know what they want to sell.

I would think by the middle of this yearwe could havehundreds of hardware accessories for the Vive, he added.

That sounds ambitious but I can already count four different accessories Ive tried with the Tracker, and its not even in the hands of most developers yet. At CES this year I saw it paired with TrinityVR, as well as a fire hose and a smartphone. Then at MWC last week I used three Trackers for full-body tracking, and saw a spray paint demo that will one day use the kit too.

Those ideas came from just a handful of developers, and it sounds like plenty more are coming. Around 2,300 teams applied to get a Tracker dev kit from HTC last month, and the development community will be the first to get access to the device this year before a full launch later on.

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Vive Tracker could lead to an ecosystem of 'hundreds' of accessories - VentureBeat

Android Central

IP Cameras vs. Nest, Arlo and integrated systems: Which security ecosystem should you invest in? Android Central Whether you want something simple or need a complicated whole-house system, there is a security camera that will work for you. Home surveillance cameras are more popular than ever before. Whether you want cameras as part of a larger home security ...

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IP Cameras vs. Nest, Arlo and integrated systems: Which security ecosystem should you invest in? - Android Central

In case you're unfamiliar withGuam'sinfamous 'snake problem', the island is known for hosting an invasion of venomous brown snakes that have wreaked havoc on its native animal population.

Now researchers have shown it's not just the birds and rodents that have suffered the growth of new trees could be falling by as much as 92 percent thanks to the snakes' appetites.

The tiny 544-square-kilometre (210-square-mile) island of Guam is a US territory sitting somewhat halfway between Australia and Japan, and is famous for being captured by the Japanese in World War II before being freed by American forces in 1944.

Its other item of notoriety is the fact it happens to be dripping with brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) that appeared roughly around the time of the island's liberation - most likely after hitching a ride with US military equipment from the neighbouring Papua New Guinea.

The species isn't overly dangerous to humans, though its venomous bite packs a punch on the small animals it preys upon.

Since the wildlife on Guam evolved without these kinds of scaly predators snacking on their eggs and young, the forests provided a veritable smorgasbord for the invaders, causing the population to expand to a whopping 2 million snakes, with densities of up to 5,000 individuals per square kilometre (or 13,000 per square mile).

Just to really creep out those with a serious case of ophiophobia (that's a fear of serpents), the snakes are so plentiful that the damage they've caused by shorting out electrical systems alone adds up to about $US4.5 million over the past seven years.

Yet it's the ecosystem that has suffered the most by the mid-1980s, 10 of the 12 bird species native to Guam had vanished, including a kingfisher that can't be found anywhere else on Earth.

ResearcherHaldre Rogers from from theUniversity of Coloradosays the bird song that echoes on neighbouring islands has fallen oddly quiet on Guam: "On Guam, it's silent it's an eerie feeling."

Now it seems the ravaging of the island's bird-life has had a knock-on effect on the surrounding tree population, according to new study by Rogers and his team.

The researchers placed large baskets beneath two species of tree throughout the forests on Guam and several nearby islands, keen to know how far the fruiting trees spread their seeds across the forest floor.

On Guam, fewer than 10 percent of the seeds made it beyond the immediate vicinity of their parent tree, compared with 60 percent of the seeds on the snake-free islands.

"Aside from fruit bats, which are also nearly extinct on Guam, nothing else can disperse seeds," said Rogers.

With more than two-thirds of the island's trees relying on animals to distribute and germinate their seeds, the impact of the reduction is expected to be a devastating drop of between 61 and 92 percent in new forest growth.

In recent years, the US Department of Agriculture has engaged in chemical warfare with the snakes in an $US8 million eradication program.

Their weapon of choice is a dose of paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, which is toxic to many animals including brown snakes.

Rather than convince 2 million reptiles they had a headache, the program parachuted thousands of dead mice laced with the drug into the forests, where they hung from the branches until a snake hankering for a snack slithered by.

Early research shows the snakes do take the bait, but it's early days, so no news yet on how much of an impact the past couple of years of the program has had.

Since Guam is home to a number of military bases and has a large port, the fear is that snakes could once again hitch a ride to another island and cause a similar cascade of problems.

This research was published in Nature Communications.

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Guam's Plague of Snakes Is Devastating the Whole Island Ecosystem, Even the Trees - ScienceAlert

KOCHI: When some of us go on preaching about sustainable development, three artists - Subair M, Ameen Khaleel, and T R Udayakumar - have shown a different way of portraying our way of life on Earth. Their works are on display at the Continuing Ephemera exhibition, organised by the Palette People, at Hotel Le Meridien.

The Alappuzha-based artist Subair uses photographs of streets and markets, and imprints the images of animals and birds, to create a tension between nature and the people.

In one of his works, you can see bats surround a vegetable market. It depicts the continuous felling of trees, so the bats are roaming around homeless, says Subair. Because of the use of strong pesticides in the fields, cranes have moved on to the fish markets to find their prey and fill their bellies. Cows cannot find any shrubs sprouting from the mud, in this concrete world, so they consume posters, pasted on the walls. What a pathetic situation, how cruel are we humans!

As for Ameen, he uses digital and video images in his paintings. A striking work is of a child and a dog sitting next to each other. However, in the middle, there is a cage. The title is, Who is in? Both have exhibited their works, in countries like Norway and Finland. Subair is also a writer who published two books of social criticism called Nano Kathakal. He has also proved his talent as an actor by acting in many Malayalam movies like Of The People, Bhramaram, Pakarnnattam, and Pullipulikalum Aankuttiyum. Interestingly, Subair and Ameen run Kream Korner Art Cafe at Allapuzha. It is a platform for contemporary artists, says Subair. We also organise exhibitions and various type of events.

As for the third artist, Udayakumar, he focuses on how each man is bothered only about his selfish needs. A man, painted like a tiger, lies on the ground, facing a dry vineyard. What I want to say is that he is not at all bothered about the happenings around him, says Udayakumar. He is living in his own dream world and absorbed with his self. In another work, titled Haunting Insights, the same tiger-painted men are sitting on a dilapidated boat. This too depicts the egoistic attitude of human beings, even when their boat is about to sink or their life is coming to an end, says Udayakumar.

In the work, called Chakoram Udayakumar portrays the crow pheasant, which is on the verge of extinction in the villages. He has used charcoal and acrylic paints on tea-washed papers. Udayakumar was the former Executive Committee Member of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademy. His paintings have been exhibited in 33 group shows and 10 solo shows. He has designed covers for more than two thousand books of renowned publishers. The exhibition will conclude on March 15.

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Painting the damage done to eco-system - The New Indian Express

Buffalo Business First

Mastering the Great Lakes ecosystem Buffalo Business First John Grabowski knew he wanted to work in environmental science but he couldn't get the jobs he wanted without some field experience. And he couldn't get field experience without a degree. Subscribe to get the full story. Already a subscriber? Sign in ... and more »

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Mastering the Great Lakes ecosystem - Buffalo Business First

VC-Backed Biotech Ecosystem: A Market In Healthy Equilibrium Forbes Rather than focusing on the changes in funding levels, the number of companies getting financed is a better metric of changes in ecosystem activity. The chart below captures updated data on the decade-long balance we've witnessed on the private side ...

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VC-Backed Biotech Ecosystem: A Market In Healthy Equilibrium - Forbes

Demonetisation has had a multitude of effects but what has not been much discussed is the impact on the education system, from students to institutions.

Rajiv Masand (name changed), is a worried student. His father is not able to pay his medical college fees. The reason is simple; the college is refusing to take cash, their preferred mode of payment so far. Depositing money in the bank is not an option because of the fear of the Income Tax Department, which is now using analytics to track unaccounted payments. At the same time Suresh Agnihotri (name changed) is hopeful to get a seat that was formerly reserved for "management quota" in the institution of his choice.

College authorities, on the other hand, are worried too, but not for the same reason. The unaccounted capitation fees that they were collecting in cash, are no longer a given. People are willing to pay much lower sums in cash and prefer cheque payments.

The entire private education ecosystem is in a tizzy, for cash has now become a taboo word. In a country where a fraction of people pay taxes (apart from the salaried lot, which has to compulsorily pay), the business and the political classes have borne the brunt of demonetisation.

Politicians are major stakeholders in several educational institutions, and their ecosystem thrives on cash. Donations are the preferred mode of cash recovery, keeping their political machinery well oiled. And demonetisation is pinching them significantly. The person who is going to suffer the most, though, is the middleman, who is feeling the pinch as the "paid" seatsand commissionsdry up. Earlier, he could charge a solid commission as a liaison between the institution and the candidate. As cash changed hands, he could retain a fat margin in between. No longer, as the candidates prefer to pay directly now, and lower amounts would reduce the commission in between.

The Indian private education system (especially in some pockets like medical), have been force fed cash, with each MBBS seat going for 30-50 lakh and an MD seat going for 2.0 crore. Surely they feel the pinch, as cash sources dry up and more and more payments move through the banking channels. This has impacted the ancillary services too, such as canteens that were running purely on cash. Now as the receipts comes through banking channels, payments have to go through the banking channel too, setting up a domino effect. While a few institutions have embraced cheque and online payments for all the ancillary services, others still rely on cash.

Businesspersons have not been declaring income but have been paying fat fees for education. Now, if they pay the college fees through the banking channel, the IT department is surely going to go after them as the corresponding income has to be declared, increasing the tax incidence. The leeway that they can use is to show that the income is the share of the student, which still would not be enough to manage the tax incidence.

Not only in India, foreign education has also been quite actively funded by black money and demonetisation is bound to have an impact. Systematically, the conversion cost is going up in the black market, taking up the landed costs as well.

This has a flip effect alsogood but financially challenged students have a better chance of getting seats that were reserved for the moneyed class. The so-called "management quota" will hopefully find fewer takers and leave more seats available to meritorious students. On the institutional side, once capitation fees start coming through the system, the education ecosystem will get structured in such a way that the institution would not get undue advantage.

The impact on education plans is multifaceted as the entire ecosystemthe management and the institution and the studentswill have to adjust to move with the banking channel and not be dependent on cash. While it would be wishful thinking to expect the cash channel to fade entirely, the education ecosystem has changed irrevocably, and institutions have no choice but to make changes if they are so survive.

Indians On Oscars Red Carpet

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How Demonetisation Has Forever Changed The Education Ecosystem - Huffington Post India

CARLSBAD The palm grove and non-native species of vegetation are gone from the Lake Calavera Preserve, according to city officials.

Craddock Stropes, management analyst, said the citys efforts are near completion with the project. She said March 17 is the final of the 120-day planting and observing period for native species brought back to the preserve.

We are pretty much finished now, Stropes said. They are now in the sort of maintenance period.

The city obtained a permit to clear vegetation from the Lake Calavera Dam, which also included mitigation measures allowing for the clearing of non-native trees and vegetation.

Native species such as western sycamore, western cottonwood, coast live oak, California blackberry, red willow and Mexican elderberry were planted.

Mexican fig palms and Brazilian peppertrees were injected with herbicide and an estimated 120 trees and other vegetation were removed.

In addition, a new unisex restroom near the dam has been completed and is open for visitors.

It is a big difference, Stropes said. Its quite an enhancement to the preserve.

The project hit a roadblock in June 2016 when residents questioned the city council for not giving notification to residents around the preserve and the work. As a result of the backlash, the city organized a workshop in July 2016.

Crews began work in August and now officials are keeping a close eye on the landscape to make sure no non-native vegetation returns.

Winter storms, meanwhile, have not slowed the project and in fact, Stropes said, have all but eliminated the use for a temporary irrigation system constructed to water the new plants.

Also, the lake level rose to within one inch of the spillway after last weeks storm, but has now receded about six to seven inches due to evaporation, she added.

The rain has definitely filled the lake, Stopes explained. Its been a good enhancement to the ecosystem.

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Vegetation removal 'enhancing' the ecosystem - Coast News

When the topic of encouraging more female leadership in the startup economy arises, discussions usually center on what women entrepreneurs should do differently. How they should present with greater authority, or how they should dress the part for their next investor pitch. Put frankly, how they should adopt any manner of different behaviors.

I would like to change the narrative. The solution lies as much with usas a community of peers, investors, service providers, and technologistsas it does with the entrepreneur herself. We all bear some responsibility for creating a more diverse startup community.

Regardless of gender, no one succeeds alone. Every prominent tech mogul will cite teachers, former bosses, and family members who guided them in their journey toward their recognized and honored achievements. Those of us in leadership roles within this industry need to understand and embrace the role we play for others, including women, who dare travel down the tumultuous-but-fantastic path of technology innovation.

Three tenets offer a starting point for creating a positive environment for female tech entrepreneurs:

Check Your Bias At The Door

Many women tech entrepreneurs come up with compelling ideas. But they run into significant obstacles when attempting to secure funding; especially if the business concept targets a female audience. They often hear a VC, who more often than not is male, tell them, I dont understand that demographic, so Im not a good fit for you.

Investors know only too well how to challenge assumptions in any business plan, validate opportunities, and drill down to uncover a startups secret sauce. Possessing specific end-customer experience, while always nice to have, does not disqualify them from funding a particular company. Expertise in ecommerce, software, customer service and device manufacturing all carry across multiple end markets.

To say, I dont understand that demographic may feel true. But would not understanding the 18-to-24 demographic preclude you from investing in a business like Snapchat?

The fact of the matter is that most VCs are male. So check that bias before the meeting begins. Focus on listening and asking a lot of questions about business and technology fundamentals. The answers may reveal an opportunity in a market that other investors are ignoring, and an entrepreneurial starwho just happens to be femaleworthy of funding.

Meet Us Where We Network

Entrepreneurs are coached to develop personal and professional networks of people who can help them advance their careers, raise capital, build companies, and solve various business problems. But many of the people that these entrepreneurs are trying to reach, those who have been there, done that, stop building out their networks once they achieve success. They fall back to their existing, old guard connections.

So dont take networking for granted. Developing a thriving innovation economy takes a commitment by its leaders to mentor the next generation of innovators, including women. Rather than expecting them to come to you, seek out forums where women are already coming together to support and coach each other. Some of these forums in San Diego include UC San Diegos MyStartUpXX and Athenas Technology Special Interest Groups. As a community we must also commit to holding events that seek to bring together diverse groups of individuals to brainstorm ideas, and make a commitment to creating safe spaces that emphasize listening and coaching over broadcasting opinions. In addition, it is vital that we continue to recognize and celebrate the achievements of women already pioneering their way in tech through marquee events like Athenas Annual Pinnacle Awards.

Keep The Bar High

While it is important that we take time to encourage and educate female entrepreneurs, it does not mean that we change the standards by which we evaluate innovation. Successful entrepreneurs thrive on the challenge of launching a new venture and pride themselves in overcoming myriad financial, operational and marketing obstacles. Female innovators are no different. Instead, we as collaborators, investors and advisors must work to ensure a truly level playing field exists for both men and women. We do this by putting aside assumptions about the individual and focusing on the quality of their idea. Ask the hard questions, expect informed answers and take pains to provide actionable and specific feedback whether you are assessing a pitch, participating in a workshop or engaging in mentoring. Everyone benefits when we do.

(The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of Ms. Gasser.)

Elizabeth Gasser is the vice president of corporate strategy for Qualcomm and is responsible for engaging with the companys executive team and business unit owners to drive portfolio investments consistent with strategic priorities. She is also an active board member for Athena, a San Diego-based organization that promotes professional growth for women in STEM-related industries.

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Three Ways to Bolster The Innovation Ecosystem for Women - Xconomy