Japan: First snow in World Famous Resort Niseko

The world famous powder resort of Niseko has recently experienced its first major snowfalls, with over 40 cm falling in the village in the past few days.

The snowfall comes 10 days earlier than last year and has transformed the farming town to ski resort town overnight"This first fall has been amazing, Niseko changed overnight into a beautiful winter wonderland and with more than a foot of fresh snow around the village, the season is already looking fantastic," says Operations Manager for SkiJapan.com. I've been here for 6 years and this is the most significant early season snowfall I have experienced."
The village is abuzz with last minute preparations to accommodations, roads, building sites and the businesses finalising their winter staff preparations and with bookings at an all-time high, we are expecting another bumper season of Niseko's signature light, dry and deep powder snow"
The resort of Niseko Grand Hirafu is expected to open on Saturday November 23rd 2013, with night skiing dues to start on December 14th 2013.
In a resort town where over 20 metres of snow falls each year, Niseko is the 2nd snowiest resort in the world and continues to produce the most consistent daily amounts of famed powder snow. With 4 resort areas and over 30 ski lifts and over 75 runs there is terrain suited for all levels of skier or snowboarder. The village life of Niseko also provides a unique feel and upbeat energy with literally hundreds of bars, restaurants and social hangouts, you'll be sure to have fun on and off the snow.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Mitsubishi Motors cuts Japan electric car price by up to $9,100

Mitsubishi Motors Corp has slashed the price of its i-MiEV electric minicar in Japan by up to $9,100, aiming to boost sluggish sales as makers of electric vehicles face slower-than-expected acceptance of the technology.

Japan's sixth-biggest carmaker, which started selling the i-MiEV in 2009, said on Thursday it was dropping the price of its top of the range i-MiEV by around 25 percent, or 900,000 yen ($9,100), to 2.9 million yen.

With government subsidies, the model can be bought in Japan for around 2 million yen, it said.

Mitsubishi Motors also cut the price of the entry level i-MiEV by 190,000 yen to 2.5 million, which with subsidies can be bought for about 1.7 million yen.

Electric vehicles have not caught on as fast as some expected, due to concerns over their driving range, the lack of a charging infrastructure and customer resistance to paying too high a price premium over similar-sized gas-powered cars.

Source: NewsOnJapan

China's electricity consumption rose 9.5 percent year on year in October

China's electricity consumption, an indicator of economic activity, rose 9.5 percent year on year in October, official data showed on Thursday.

The growth was lower than September's 10.4-percent rise and August's 13.7-percent increase, according to data released by the National Energy Administration.

Wang Zhixuan, secretary general of the China Electricity Council (CEC), said slower electricity consumption in October is in line with market expectation of lower economic growth in the final quarter of the year.

China's gross domestic product growth accelerated to 7.8 percent in the third quarter, up from 7.5 percent in the April-June period and 7.7 percent in the first three months of the year.

Growth in the first nine months stood at 7.7 percent, above the government's full-year target of 7.5 percent and gives more room for promoting structural readjustment.

Wang said the government will make more efforts to curb excess production capacity in the fourth quarter in sectors including steel, cement, electrolytic aluminum, sheet glass and shipping, which are all big power users.

Thursday's figures also showed that total power consumption in the first 10 months rose 7.4 percent year on year to 4.38 trillion kilowatt hours (kwh).

During this period, electricity use by primary industry totaled 85.5 billion kwh, down 0.5 percent year on year. Power consumption by secondary industry reached 3.19 trillion kwh, up 6.7 percent. Consumption by tertiary industry marked the highest rate of growth of 10.6 percent, totaling 524.6 billion kwh. Urban and rural residents used 577.7 billion kwh of electricity, up 9.8 percent.

The CEC expected electricity consumption growth to fall from 10.9 percent in the July-September period to between 6.5 and 7.5 percent in the final quarter, and total power consumption growth for the whole year to be around 7 percent.

Source:  Xinhua

Obama tells Congress,No need to add new sanctions on Iran

There is no need for Congress to add new sanctions on Iran if the United States is serious about pursuing diplomatic solution to Tehran's disputed nuclear program, U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday.

"My message to Congress has been that let's see if this short- term, phase-one deal can be completed to our satisfaction," Obama said at a press conference.

Officials from Iran and the P5+1 group, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, will resume negotiations on Nov. 20 in Geneva after an initial round of talks ended last week without an agreement.

Obama urged the Congress to give an opportunity to see how serious Iran is about resolving the nuclear issue diplomatically and peacefully. "If they're not serious, we can dial those sanctions right back up," Obama said.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Wednesday that if Congress were to unilaterally move to raise sanctions, it could break faith with nuclear negotiations and break them apart.

At the press conference, Obama reiterated the goal of his administration to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons.

"It would be not only dangerous to us and our allies, but it would be destabilizing to the entire region and could trigger a nuclear arms race that would make life much more dangerous for all of us," Obama said.

Obama said the sanctions that have been put in place are effective in crippling the Iranian economy and are the reason that brought Iran back to the negotiating table.

Iran's economy dropped 5 percent last year, its currency plummeted and it had significant problems in the day-to-day economy on the ground, according to the U.S. President.

He said pursing a diplomatic path to solve Iran's nuclear issue would be his preference, because military options are always " difficult" and "have unintended consequences."

Source: Xunhua

Private investment needed to improve environment: Chinese premier

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang wants to see more private investment in energy efficiency and environmental protection.

Li made the comments during a meeting with foreign members of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development(CCICED) at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing on Thursday.

He underscored the great potential of the market, saying that the two sectors would become pillars for economic growth.

China is at a key stage of developing its economy in a sustainable and healthy way through transformation and upgrading, the premier said. The purpose of development is to serve the people's lives. Environmental protection has become an important issue, with the public demanding a better environment.

The Chinese government pays close attention to the relationship between development and environmental protection and strives to balance them, he said.

Li emphasized that the Chinese government will streamline administration and delegate power to lower levels, create a fair environment for competition, implement the policy on pollution prevention and supervision, control pollution in a transparent way and rely more on the market to fight pollution.

There is only one Earth, he said, expressing China's willingness to work with the international community to exchange ideas, strengthen cooperation in technology and make joint efforts for ecological improvement.

China welcomes and values any advice that can help the country with its environmental protection and development, the premier said.

Peter Kent, executive vice chairman of CCICED and member of the Canadian Parliament, commended China's efforts in pollution control and said the international community is willing to increase cooperation with China to achieve green development.

China: New Reform Agenda Decisive Role of the Market in Allocating Resources

The Third Plenum has ended with an array of new reform ideas. Experts say that among the highlights of the new reform agenda is a more "decisive" role for the market in allocating resources, and more balanced relations between the market and government.

"In the past, we referred to the role of the market as fundamental, now the role of the market is decisive. It shows the central government’s determination to adhere to the market economy system. The government will participate less in the economy. But it must enforce its roles in the public sector, such as public security, food and medicine safety, and environmental safety." Chen Yulu, monetary policy expert with People’s Bank of China, said.

"In the past, the government took a stronger role in the market. The government exceeded its powers in economic management and resource allocation. Now, the government will set boundaries. It will step back from areas where it had intervened. Therefore many problems in China’s economy will gradually be solved." Fan Jianping, chief economist with State Information Center, said.

Source: CCTV

Japanese-designed skyscraper opens at ground zero in N.Y.

A skyscraper designed by Japanese architect Fumihiko Maki opened on Wednesday at Ground Zero in New York, the site for the former World Trade Center complex destroyed by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

The 298-meter-tall office building, called 4WTC, is the first building that opened at the site. Tenants include New York's port authorities.

Maki, 85, is a world famous architect, known to have designed such structures as the Makuhari Messe convention center in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japanese emperor, empress to be cremated once they die

The bodies of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will be cremated once they die, a historic change from burial under the earth that has lasted for about 350 years since the early Edo period for the Emperors, Imperial Household Agency chief Noriyuki Kazaoka said Thursday.

The agency also decided to make their mausoleums smaller than those of the previous Japanese Emperors and Empresses, Kazaoka said at a press conference.The agency had considered how to change the funeral rites since April last year after the Emperor and Empress expressed their wish that cremation is preferable.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan: Scientists identified an erupting volcano as the real culprit of high levels of Tokyo Pollution

Just days after elevated levels of toxic PM2.5 particles in the air above parts of Japan were blamed on pollution from China, scientists identified an erupting volcano as the real culprit.

A study by Japan's Meteorological Research Unit determined that the most recent wave of PM2.5 reported in central parts of the country and around Tokyo were in fact due to volcanic gas carrying sulphur dioxide from Mount Sakurajima in southern Kyushu. PM2.5 are the tiny airborne particles considered most harmful to health.

The volcano, which towers above the city of Kagoshima, has been classified as active since 1955 and hundreds of minor eruptions every year have ensured that a steady stream of ash is spewed out.

 

Source:  NewsOnJapan

China's Key Fiscal Reform Matching local Governments' Spending with Income.

Fiscal and tax reform is the entry point and main thread of the overall deepening of the financial reforms.

China's third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee revealed the direction of state sector reforms and the shift in local governments' financing power, as currently, local governments' spending right and powers are not matching.

Matching loval governments' spending with their financing power is the key of China's fiscal reforms. Huang Yiping, Professor at China Center for Economic Research, said local government should give up certain spending responsibilities.

"Now the central government wants to take back some of spending responsibilities, particularly things like pension, responsibilities for police, healthcare, education and so on. I think it is a good idea for it is better for these functions to have a uniformed standard in the country," Huang said.

On the other hand, the central government should give the local governments more financing power. China's local governments still have the big problem of soft budget constraints which means they are not responsible for their borrowing.

Local governments' borrowing has been rising rapidly regarless of their balance sheet. Many assume that if they cannot pay back, the central governmet will step in.

Huang says that the current situation is very dangerous and can easily lead to fiscal and financial crisis.

"I think before we give the local authorities more responsibilities, more revenue, we need to establish independent balance sheet. So they can raise their own taxes, sell bonds. The central gov't to step back, otherwise," Huang said.

China's local government are responsible for 80% of spending while getting 40% of tax revenue according to the World Bank data. Striking a healthy balance between the local governments' spending and income is the next big step in China's fiscal reform.

Source: CCTV

Chinese video stream sites sue Baidu

A group of China's internet companies have joined forces to sue China's biggest search engine Baidu over copy right violations. They initiated an anti-pirate-video campaign in Beijing on Wednesday, in a bid to win back their dwindling share of China's video streaming market.

300 million yuan, or about 50 million U.S dollars, is the amount China's top video streaming websites are suing Baidu for. They claim Baidu has stolen and shared copy-righted videos that other companies have paid for.

Youku-tudou, Sohu and Tencent have accused the search engine of snapping up links from websites of legitimate video providers, and sharing them on Baidu's own video streaming website, for free. They believe Baidu attracts large quantities of video views, without paying a cent for copy-right, or cloud storage.

Zhang Chaoyang, CEO of SOHU, said the online video streaming industry spends as much as 200 million U.S dollars every year to buy copy rights of popular TV dramas and movies. And Baidu's action has caused unfathomable damages.

"Baidu video and Baidu Player are providing pirated streaming. We estimate that half of flow has gone to Baidu. Therefore nobody wants to buy advertisements with us. This has caused immeasurable losses in China's video streaming industry," Zhang said.

In response, Baidu's Wu Jian, supervisor of video technology, said in a phone interview that the company respects copy rights.

"We will follow the legal procedure. We can't make any comment as we are only looking after the technology part. But Baidu highly values copy right protection issues in the online video industry," Wu said.

The anti-piracy coalition has announced that they will completely block search access from Baidu Video, starting Wednesday. There will also be measures against video stealing technologies.

Source:  CCTV

Ex-pension fund exec arrested

Japanese police have arrested a former executive of a pension fund on suspicion of embezzling part of millions of dollars that have gone missing.

Police suspect Yoshinobu Sakamoto embezzled more than 640,000 dollars from the fund for construction employees in Nagano Prefecture. This is part of the roughly 24 million dollars that is unaccounted for at the fund.The former general manager disappeared 3 years ago, just before the issue came to light.
Sakamoto was on the international wanted list when he was arrested on November 1st in Bangkok for staying there illegally. He was transferred to Japan and arrested upon arrival on Thursday.

Source: NewsOnJapan

Japan economy slows dramatically

The government said Thursday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.9% in the three months that ended Sept. 30, compared to 3.8% in the previous quarter.

The slowdown in gross domestic product follows "unsustainably strong growth in the first half of the year and is therefore no cause for concern," said Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics. Weaker exports and private consumption were the main culprits, Thieliant added.

The slower expansion was still slightly better than what analysts had expected.

Japan's stock benchmark Nikkei continued to rise in morning trading, gaining 1.4%.

The Japanese economy is expected to regain momentum soon as consumer spending accelerates before a planned tax hike kicks in next April, Thieliant said.

Source: NewsOnJapan

The Abu Dhabi Science Festival 2013

The Abu Dhabi Science Festival (ADSF) returns for its third edition with new locations and a wider footprint scheduled to run from 14-23 November 2013. This year, the Festival will be held at Abu Dhabi’s Du Forum on Yas Island and the Abu Dhabi Corniche, East Plaza along with activity in Al Ain, Al Gharbia, Ras Al Khaimah, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain, giving the community a taste of what to expect from the Festival. 

In the past two years, the ADSF has attracted more than 216,000 visitors.

This year, ADSF will host even more scientific experiences building on the previous two editions. Visitors can look forward to an array of new workshops, shows and interactive exhibits. 

In addition, popular workshops will be returning with refreshed content, offering youngsters a chance to unwrap an ‘Egyptian Mummy’, experiment with ‘Blood Lab’ or go behind the scenes to analyze evidence and solve the mystery in the CSI - Crime Scene Investigation workshop.

ADSF plans to welcome 25,000 students throughout this year's event (a 25% increase in organised school tours) in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), the Festival’s education partner. More than 900 science communicators including ADSF Alumni will be recruited and trained by world-class experts from the Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF).

The 3rd edition of the Abu Dhabi Science Festival is organized by the Technology Development Committee (TDC) in partnership with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) as ‘Education Partner’, Edinburgh International Science Festival (EISF) as ‘Content Partner’, Tawazun as ‘Presenting Sponsor’, Dolphin Energy as ‘Gold Sponsor’; ADNOC, Etihad Airways, Total and Masdar as ‘Affiliate Sponsors’ with the festival produced by Flash Entertainment. 

Source: Digital Quadrant

Singapore's Action Community for Entrepreneurship

"7.Like many countries, Singapore recognises the importance of entrepreneurship and has identified entrepreneurship and innovation as key drivers of future growth. We formed the Action Community for Entrepreneurship, or ACE, in 2003 as a private-public movement to foster entrepreneurship in Singapore. 

8. For the last 10 years, ACE has worked closely with government and partners to create a more entrepreneurial Singapore by facilitating networking and learning, building a pro-enterprise environment, and building an entrepreneurial culture. 

9. ACE has always been a voice for simplicity and simplification for the government. ACE has been an advocate of mechanisms for ongoing review and streamlining of business regulations to reduce regulatory burden and compliance costs for small businesses and start-ups. The World Bank has just re-affirmed Singapore, for the 8^th year running, as the World’s easiest place to do business. In 2009, when Dmitry Medvedev, the President of Russia at that time, visited Singapore, he wanted to try our e-government services to register a new company. He ended up with a new company under his name in two minutes, and was so impressed that he asked his officials to study our online registration systems.

10. ACE also looks at nurturing the next generation of entrepreneurs. This year, ACE piloted a programme for nine secondary and tertiary schools, which were “adopted” by dynamic business starters. This programme, called ACE Schools, is a novel approach where learning takes place through direct interaction between the students and entrepreneurs. There are also numerous opportunities for these students to showcase their winning ideas and products each year. 

11. At the university level, all our three universities run their versions of incubators in addition to academic programmes on entrepreneurship. Nanyang Technological University conducts a full-time Masters programme in Entrepreneurship Studies. The Singapore Management University combines entrepreneurship studies with Information Systems at the undergraduate level. The National University of Singapore has been running an Overseas College programme to immerse their students in leading entrepreneurial hubs such as Silicon Valley and Tel Aviv.

12. After 10 years of seeding and concerted efforts, we have a much stronger entrepreneurship ecosystem today. There are some 30 incubators here which nurture promising start-ups. There is more private capital available from angel investors and venture capital firms. In addition, the government has put in place several programs to help start-ups, including funding for first-time entrepreneurs, and mentorship networks. 

13. The number of start-ups has also grown. In 2005, we had 24,000 active start-ups employing 167,000 people. At the end of 2012, this had grown to 39,000 active start-ups employing about 300,000 people. More people are becoming entrepreneurs as well – Singapore’s total early-stage entrepreneurship rate in 2012 was 11.6%, an increase from 6.6% in 2011 and 4.9% in 2006¹.

14. One example of a successful Singapore startup is Biomax Technologies, which is one of 700 technology intensive start-ups formed each year in Singapore. Biomax has a biotechnology solution that can convert any organic waste into organic, odourless and pathogen-free fertiliser within 24 hours. Therefore, drastically reducing the time and space required for waste processing, and turning waste into a valuable product. This innovation coming has helped to address the global problem of waste disposal and its associated impact on the environment such as land pollution and health and safety risks. It has also led to commercial success. With support from SPRING, our enterprise development agency², the company has grown over a short period of time to achieve multimillion dollar revenues, with customers in 10 countries spanning 5 continents. It also went on to clinch the coveted Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific Technology Innovation Award, and the OCBC Emerging Enterprise Award earlier this year".                                                                                                  
  Conclusions                                                                                                                                            15. To many individuals, entrepreneurship means empowerment, and realising their dreams. To Singapore, entrepreneurship means creativity and innovation in the society. It means adding an edge to a competitive economy. Yet, the theory and practices of entrepreneurship are always evolving in accordance with advances in technology and new inventions. By gathering top entrepreneurial minds at this Forum, we have a better chance to figure out the best ways to harness the power of entrepreneurship for a better and fairer society. 

Thank you for being here. Thank you for being in Singapore.

 by Mr Lee Yi Shyan, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry at the Opening Ceremony of the World Entrepreneurship Forum 2013

Washington's Budget Dysfunction Stop Gap Spending Bills

The Oct. 16 deal that ended the shutdown kept the government funded at levels set by last year's budget. For the Secret Service, that meant millions to protect presidential nominees—from 2012.

This is the consequence of Washington's budget dysfunction: Stopgap spending bills that keep the government running, passed by Congress in the absence of a comprehensive deal, often keep federal policies in place that no longer make sense.

The Secret Service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, isn't going to dispatch agents in suits and sunglasses to shadow Mitt Romney, the losing GOP presidential candidate. Instead, it could set the money aside, despite facing cuts to other parts of its budget, or put it to use for other purposes and deal with the consequences later.

An official at the Department of Homeland Security wouldn't comment on whether the funds will be used.

A 29-member House and Senate budget panel met Wednesday and leaders suggested they aren't close to a deal on a budget for the rest of the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, 2014. They are at odds over tax revenue, which Democrats want to increase and many Republicans oppose.

The divide worries leaders of appropriation committees. They want lawmakers to agree on a budget level by next week so they have time to complete spending bills that would keep the government running after Jan. 15, 2014, when the current short-term funding bill expires.

Appropriators and federal agency chiefs are beginning to worry that the sputtering talks will force another temporary budget extension in January as lawmakers stare down the possibility of another government shutdown. "This is a matter of some urgency," said Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.), one of the negotiators and a member of the Budget and Appropriations panels.

A continuing resolution, as short-term budget provisions are called, often give agencies funds for programs they don't want. Sometimes they can redirect the money to avoid layoffs or other cuts, especially those related to the rolling series of budget cuts known as the sequester. They also could set the funds aside while they wait for Congress to set longer-term budgets, congressional aides said.

This has created a type of budget purgatory where agency chiefs say they cannot plan strategically, especially on multiyear projects, or even make staffing decisions. These temporary spending bills "are like autopilot, and all you're doing is adjusting the altitude," Jason Furman, chairman of the White House's Council of Economic Advisers, said at a Wall Street Journal breakfast this month. "And you're not adjusting altitude in the right direction either."

Singapore's Spring Agency targets start-ups in Medical Technology and Cleantech

$30 million is being set aside by Singapore's entreprise development agency,Spring, to help the formation and growth of start-ups in emerging sectors like medical and clean technology.

This is the second tranche of funding under the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2015 (RIE 2015) plan and it will be managed by Spring seeds Capital (SSC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Spring Singapore.

$40 million was first committed in 2011 to encourage the formation and growth of start-ups in medical technology. Two accelerators, Clearbridge BSA and Singapore Medtech Accelerator, helped identify and co-invest with SSC in high-potential medical technology start-ups. As well as co-investing, the accelerators have taken a hands-on approach to help the start-ups build up their management teams, meet regulatory requirements and connect with potential customers.

The RIE plan takes into account the knowledge and capital-intensive nature of the medical technology sector, which means start-ups usually take a longer time to commercialise their research. However, with the global medical technology industry expected to reach US$300 billion in 2017, driven largely by an ageing global population and the prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes, the demand for high-quality medical technology products and services is also expected to increase.

Similarly, the global cleantech market, which is estimated to be worth at US$1 trillion a year, is expected to continue growing as environmental sustainability becomes an increasing concern for governments and corporations. It is hoped that the additional $30 million funding will help to give a boost to these sectors by encouraging the formation of more innovative start-ups and commercialising intellectual property.

Source: DigitalQuadrant

SINGAPORE CEMENTS ITS POSITION AS GLOBAL TECH HUB by Kirsten Morel

Singapore has been ranked as the 3rd most popular technology destination for professionals, cementing the country's position as one of the world's major technology hubs, according to a report compiled by recruitment firm, Hydrogen Group.

The report, entitled Global Professionals on the Move 2013 , shows that Singapore comes in behind the US (1st) and the UK (2nd) in terms of its popularity as a digital hub. The country is ranked 2nd in desirability for finance sector professionals and 4th across all sectors, making it the top-ranked Asian location, increasing its lead over rival Hong Kong, which came eighth.

The fourth annual report from Hydrogen, which surveyed over 2,000 professionals globally, shows that Singapore is a global tech hub, specialising in the very high end of the market and making the most of its strategically important position for global trade and as a gateway to Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
“With an exceptionally well-educated and highly motivated workforce, Singapore is an extremely innovative country," said Simon Walker, Hydrogen’s Managing Director for Asia. "It is producing tech entrepreneurs and engineers who are creating much of the high tech industry of the future, for example in life sciences, medical equipment and biotech. For professionals, it’s about wanting to build a career in a busy and cutting edge region.”

Hirobo unveils HX-1 unmanned electric helicopter, and promises a manned model

The Hirobo stand at the International Robotics Exhibition in Tokyo this week was full of surprises. The first was the appearance of the HX-1 unmanned electric helicopter, due to go into production before the end of the year, but an even bigger surprise was in store when you opened the brochure – details of the company's planned personal (manned) BIT electric micro helicopter.

Hiroshima-based Hirobo is a company best known for its radio-controlled scale helicopters, which sit at the high end of the marketplace. A Hirobo Eagle 3 EP won the 2013 F3C World Championships held in Poland this July, and the company has been producing scale models for 40 years.

In recent years it has been producing not just a wide range of scaled models with glow plug powerplants, but increasingly a range of electric models, and has developed a range of sophisticated control technologies which have now moved into the autonomous realm.

The company's compact IMU-05 attitude sensor is one such technology that has been developed to enable autonomous flight, and offers the company a serious competitive advantage in that area. The IMU-05 collects a wide range of information such as attitude angle, acceleration, angular rate and magnetic direction, and enables the helicopter to be remarkably stable in blustery winds – it is a key enabling technology of autonomous flight for helicopters.

Hirobo's first autonomous helicopter will be the HX-1, and the first guise in which we will see it is as a medical emergency and rescue vehicle. The HX-1 will sell for JPY 8,000,000 (approx US$80,000) complete with a spare battery set and the full medical kit.

The fully autonomous helicopter can be configured for many purposes including aerial photography, search and rescue, surveying and the transport of medical supplies, organs or blood, in order to save lives.

The HX-1 has an auto-return function for emergencies and employs coaxial counter-rotating blades and a brushless electric motor as its power source. It can fly for half an hour and has a range of around 30 miles (48 km) at its top speed of 62 mph (100 km/h).

Hirobo expects the affordability of the HX-1 to make it possible for smaller organizations (that can't afford a manned helicopter) to purchase their own transport helicopter.

Even more surprising than the sophistication of the HX-1 demonstrated in the videos being shown was the appearance in the HX-1 brochure of the BIT – an all-composite, all-electric, single-person micro helicopter.

Last year the BIT was shown for the first time at the Japan Aerospace show, but was not expected to be ready for market until 2020. It seems that time scale has been shortened considerably – we were told the BIT would be ready for market in 2016, and a lack of regulations by the United States Federal Aviation Authority would be the inhibiting factor as to the BIT's availability at market.

Source: Gizmag

Thesis student imagines self-transporting cities based on 20th century tech

Of all the questions one might like to ask Manuel Domínguez about his architecture thesis project, why he called it Very Large Structure is probably low on the list. Domínguez' concept depicts compactly planned cities atop vast mobile structures, capable of crawling to new locations as the needs or desires of the populace dictate. The idea clearly recalls Ron Herron's Walking City essay for Archigram in 1964, and though Domínguez cites that as an inspiration, he says it's just one among many. Real-world technology seems to have been the main influence.

Clearly, clearly, VLS is a highly improbable scheme. Yet Domínguez asserts that it is feasible because of its basis in established technology, though to that he candidly adds that he's "not sure if it's desirable."

Looking at the illustrations, some of those influences are easy to spot; others less so. Domínguez points out that much of it has been available since the 1960s: "open-air mining machinery, shipyard installations, logistic and management in super-ports and super vessels, big scale infrastructures and transport, space technology, [and] eco-villages..." as well as robotics. To that list he adds less tangible influences: "political anomalies, self-generated architecture and urbanism, ludic architecture and engineering..."

But Domínguez has obviously drawn from contemporary culture, and speaks of an attraction to "science fiction [...] utopical and dystopical architecture, urbanism, cinema, literature, [and] manga." Science fiction and cinema perhaps stand out most from the list, especially judging by the Death Star in the background of one of the visualizations. The giant caterpillar tracks of VLS recall vast vehicles such as NASA's crawler-transporters and Bagger 293, but also the fictional sandcrawler of the original Star Wars. Perhaps VLS borrows from 20th Century Fox almost as much as it does 20th century tech.

That this is such a bold speculative design is partly borne out of Domínguez' frustrations with the theses of architecture finals, which he describes as "an exercise of nonsense [...] because it's so directed and closed that at the end everybody does almost the same exercise." Instead, Domínguez chose a "self-concious" project, "one that could fit all the obsessions I've been accumulating since I was I child." Job done, I think.

Source: Gizmag

Spain to exit bank aid programme without additional funds

"Euro zone finance ministers agreed on Thursday to allow Spain to exit an aid programme for its banking sector in January without drawing more European funds".

"Spain last year took 41 billion euros of a 100 billion euro package of aid to rescue a number of banks that were crippled by bad loans from the collapse of a property and construction bubble and to form a so-called bad bank to dispose of property and loans whose value has plunged.

The rescue came as Spain's borrowing costs soared and the country struggled to avoid following Greece, Portugal and Ireland into a full bailout for government finances.

"The overall situation of the Spanish banking sector has significantly improved, including the access to funding markets of Spanish banks," the Eurogroup of euro zonefinance ministers said in a statement.

pain's government must still sell off three nationalised banks, and may yet have to put more money into those to make them attractive assets for investors.

Brussels will continue to monitor Spain's banking system and public finances every six months until it has paid off 75 percent of the aid.

Spain has implemented stricter banking regulations, passed reforms to make its economy more competitive and taken steps to cut the public deficit - all as conditions for the bailout.

On Wednesday, Spain's parliament created an Independent Fiscal Authority that will oversee budgets and the deficit, which was the last outstanding condition on the aid programme to be met.

Spain banks' borrowing from the European Central Bank fell in October for the 14th month in a row.

Source: Reuters

BoE's Miles urges more outside equity to curb house price volatility

"Damaging swings in house prices could be greatly reduced by creating a market for third-party equity investors and would reduce reliance on interest rates and other policy tools to try to control the market, a top Bank of England official said.

"Property markets in Britain, the United States and other countries are recovering from a sharp fall during the financial crisis. In Britain, government stimulus schemes have helped spur demand but the market is still seen by policymakers as a potentially weak link in the financial system.

BoE policymaker David Miles said allowing external investors to take an equity share in home purchases, in exchange for a slice of any future rise in the property's value, would leave homebuyers less exposed to the risk of falling prices and less willing to borrow heavily to bet on the chance of rising prices.

High leverage is at the heart of problems in the housing market, he said in a speech to be given at the Dallas Federal Reserve on Thursday.

"But more fundamentally, use of outside equity might be a way of bringing down reliance upon debt financing," Miles said, taking up an idea he floated in another speech two years ago.

Switching 20 percent of funding for house purchases away from mortgages to outside equity investors could reduce the probability of a house being worth less than the value of the loan from 10 percent to 4 percent, Miles estimated.

Extrapolating this to the U.S. housing market, the share of homeowners caught in a so-called negative equity trap could be reduced from 14.5 percent now to 10 percent, he said.

That could have meant fewer people walking away from their debt during the 2008 crisis, lower mortgage-servicing costs, fewer foreclosures and less severe losses for banks. "The Great Recession could have been less severe," Miles said.

Miles said the downside of raising interest rates to prevent a housing bubble would be the impact on a broad range of asset prices and savers. It would also have a disproportionate effect if applied when house prices were rising faster than consumer prices, given the low weighting of housing in inflation indexes".

Source: Reuters

World Bank says expanded access to banking services comes with risks

In Brazil, bank customers can access their accounts aboard a floating bank on the Amazon River. In Mexico, rural residents find banking services inside popular stores like Walmart or 7-Eleven, or at their local pharmacy.

Mobile technology and regulatory reforms have made it easier and cheaper for private and public companies around the world to offer banking services to the poor, youth, women and rural residents, and others who lacked access.

But in a new report released on Monday, the World Bank warns that while some services, like low-fee accounts, clearly benefit the poor and small firms, others - such as microcredit, microinsurance, and debt relief - can do more harm than good.

"We're very careful to make sure we're not saying that everyone should be borrowing," said Asli Demirguc-Kunt, the World Bank's director of research and co-author of the report.

But several studies in recent years have shown that microcredit, which often comes with very high interest rates, has little or no impact on the financial fates of people in nations such as Mexico, the Philippines, Morocco and India.

The World Bank said India in particular offers a cautionary tale about the overextension of credit, after reports of dozens of suicides by poor borrowers in 2010 in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.

Source: Reuters

China's fear of Genetically Modified Food

China's state media are working overtime to persuade the public that genetically modified food is safe, apparently softening up the population for a policy switch to allow the sale of such food to ensure its 1.35 billion people have enough to eat.

In the past 30 years, China's urban population has jumped to about 700 million from under 200 million, driving up demand for meat and staples such as rice that scientists say only GMO can satisfy.

Zhang Qifa, known as China's "father of GMO rice", recently criticized the Ministry of Agriculture for refusing to approve strains that have cost billions of yuan in research over the past decade.

Beijing granted safety certificates for its first genetically modified rice in 2009 but has so far refused to authorize commercial production until the public is onside.

The certificate for Zhang's pest-resistant "Bt" rice will expire next year, meaning researchers have to reapply, a process that could take years.

"Right now, China's GMO rice production has ground to a halt ... I personally think we have missed opportunities to develop," Zhang said, adding that GMO commercialization wasn't a matter for the public and should begin without delay.

Huang Dafang, a researcher with the Biotechnology Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, was unimpressed with the media campaign. "We have not seen any signs of progress, only the continuation of the debate."

Scientists have been at pains to show that GMO is already part of the food chain:China is the world's top importer of GMO soybeans, used as feed, and also imports GMO corn from the United States and elsewhere.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has forecast China's rice imports would reach a record high of 3.4 million tons in 2013/14 and researchers say China is facing a growing food gap that can only be properly addressed through the use of GMO.

But while policymakers have expressed optimism about GMO crops and scientists have long urged the government to allow new strains of GMO rice, Beijing will not move until it is sure the risks are minimal and that, crucially, the public is behind it.

The debate hasn't been entirely one-way, with influential researchers still urging caution, especially when it comes to staples like rice and wheat.

"Many have said there are no risks to GMO food but the risks may not even be discovered in three or five years but actually over three to five generations," said Jiang Changyun, research director at the Industrial Development Research Institute.

Writing in Global Times, a tabloid backed by the People's Daily, Peng Guangqian, deputy secretary-general of the National Security Policy Committee said companies such as Monsanto and Dupont were dumping GMO products on China.

Wang Xiaoyu, an official at the Heilongjiang Soybean Association, said GMO soyoil consumed in southern parts of the country was linked to high cancer rates.

However, another worry, he conceded, was that imports of cheap GMO soy had led to a fall in local production, since many planters were unable to compete.

Huang of the Biotechnology Research Institute complained that the scientific debate had been hijacked.

"GMO is a scientific matter and should not be debated at the social level. If China's Three Gorges dam and nuclear power were decided by public debate, neither would have been.

Source:  Reuters

Mexico spends $450 million to hedge oil, eyes extension.

"Mexico has completed its original oil hedging program for 2014 at a cost of $450 million, but is looking at the possibility of extending it after raising the oil revenue forecast", Finance Minister Luis Videgaray said on Thursday.

"We have covered in principle the level proposed in the budget when it was sent to the Lower House of Congress, of $81 a barrel, and we are evaluating the need and convenience of an additional hedge for the $85 level foreseen in the budget revenue plan," Videgaray told a news conference.

"Mexico's lower house of Congress voted last month to raise the oil revenue estimate in next year's budget to help close a funding gap created by cutbacks to a package of tax hikes proposed by President Enrique Pena Nieto.

Giving final approval to the revenue section of the 2014 budget, the lower house of Congress proposed raising the oil price forecast in the plan to $85 per barrel from $81.

The lower house gave final approval to next year's budget early on Thursday.

It was not immediately clear how much more it would cost to extend the hedge to $85 a barrel.

The budget, which proposes running a deficit in 2014 to lift the struggling economy, dovetails with two cornerstones of Pena Nieto's economic reform drive: the tax revamp and an overhaul of the state-run energy sector.

Congress has just approved the tax bill, and Videgaray said he was hopeful that Congress would approve the energy reform, which seeks to lure investment into the oil sector by offering profit-sharing contracts, by the end of the year.

Lawmakers have said that they are open to considering contracts that offer private companies more, such as production-sharing schemes. Videgaray said it would be up to Congress to decide whether to go beyond the original proposal.

Lawmakers are in the final phase of haggling over a political reform that the conservative National Action Party (PAN) is insisting on in exchange for backing the government energy bill - votes that Pena Nieto will need, given that he lacks a majority in Congress.

The budget for 2014 foresees additional tax revenue, as it includes a package of fiscal measures the government hopes will increase the tax take by around 2.5 percent of GDP by 2018.

The Mexican economy, Latin America's second-biggest, is undergoing its toughest year since 2009, with the central bank forecasting growth of between 0.9 and 1.4 percent in 2013.

The government plans to run a budget deficit of 1.5 percent of GDP next year. In 2014, the central bank sees the economy expanding by between 3 and 4 percent".

Source: Reuters

Living with volatility: China and India's bold monetary experiment

The bold monetary experiment that the Chinese and Indian central banks engaged in this year might one day be hailed as a success. So far, the result has been unprecedented market volatility and little else.

Both central banks targeted interbank rates to control the supply of money, aiming for a more surgical monetary tool than orthodox bank reserves or policy interest rate.

The People's Bank of China (PBOC) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) were worried that sticking with traditional policy rates or bank reserves would have had a greater impact on the overall economy and slowed growth, which they wanted to avoid.

"They shifted to a more interest-rate based system in both cases. Both central banks should be applauded for doing that," said Frederic Neumann, co-head of economic research at HSBC in Hong Kong.

Both central banks are looking to liberalise their markets, but the PBOC and RBI are adopting a similar policy strategy in very different situations and for different reasons.

China is now using its open market operations almost exclusively to try to rein in a credit binge. Apart from growth concerns, the PBOC feared that raising policy rates or reserve ratios would have added unwelcome fuel to a rally in its currency.

India had similar GDP concerns after growth slumped in recent years. But, unlike China, it urgently needed to shore up its currency, which dropped in August to a record low, and to tame steep inflation.

Economists feel it is too soon to pass judgement on these policies and they are impressed that the two giants tried to move towards market-based pricing in what has been a challenging year for emerging markets.

The experiment is an attempt by both countries to release some of their central grip on the economy and develop deeper roles for markets.

South Korea's experience in trying to liberalise its financial system and currency in the late 1990s was riddled with policy missteps, bankruptcies and crises.

Because of the policy mix, there is no fast track to stability.

Until this year, Beijing and New Delhi had countered the classic 'impossible trinity' of trying to control capital flows, interest rates and their currencies at the same time through quantitative measures: bank reserve ratios, lending quotas and regulated investments.

Despite now using more market-oriented tools, the policy mix remains tilted towards controls.

Whatever the long-term prognosis, the policies have created extreme short-term volatility and uncertainty, which can only be partly explained away as the price of trying to deepen markets.

India created a wedge between its regular policy rate and its emergency funding rate as the rupee slid 20 percent this year to a record low in August.

In China, where the PBOC's new tool is the reverse repo funding window, interbank rates spiked to record highs in June when it withheld lending for about 3 weeks and the 7-day benchmark rate trebled to 11 percent. That was followed by mini-spikes in September and last month.

The spikes reverberated through markets as far removed as Australia. China's A-share index  which allows foreign investors limited access, fell as much as 20 percent in June.

China wants to keep its economy expanding faster than 7 percent annually, while curtailing a 5-year lending binge that has led to excessive investment, manufacturing overcapacity and a surge in property prices.

By keeping markets guessing on when it will supply cash, the PBOC has spawned huge uncertainty.

The volatility might also be the result of a centrally planned economy rapidly liberalising interbank markets while other parts of the economy are still closely controlled. China lacks deep bond markets and money market funds to smooth over volatility, but it also has to deal with the impact of hot money flows on a rangebound, non-convertible currency.

"Quantitative management could arguably be the most effective monetary policy tool in China because decades of planned economy has made local governments completely insensitive to the price of money," said Wang Haoyu, economist at First Capital Securities in Shenzhen.

India's volatility has its origins in frequent and impulsive monetary policy swings.

"The volatility in interest rates is certainly negative for economic growth in both markets. It makes planning decisions much harder," said HSBC's Neumann.

Unlike China, India has relatively deep short-term funding markets and mature derivatives trade, but interbank rates have moved in a wide 9 percentage point range this year.

The two central banks may have swerved too far to embrace a new policy focus, economists say.

"Perhaps in the transition phase central banks have to use both tools, the old and the new market-based tools, concurrently and redouble efforts at creating deeper money and capital markets" said Neumann.

Source: Reuters