Quarantine under vande bharat mission

Explore the full 2023 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies , 540 organizations that are reshaping industries and culture. We’ve selected the firms making the biggest impact across 54 categories, including advertising , beauty , design , and more. How do four septuagenarian Swedish pop stars pull off a dazzlingly energetic 20-song set list before thousands of fans in a custom-built stadium? Easy: They get their holograms to do it. ABBA Voyage , a stunning marriage of art and technology architected by the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), has been a critical and financial success. It’s also a symbol of how the live performance industry is being transformed by technology, as digital elements are deployed to deepen fan immersion while staying true to what makes a live music experience so irreplicable. With concerts becoming increasingly visual extravaganzas, artists have access to new mediums to explore their creative … [Read more...] about The 10 most innovative companies producing live events in 2023

Axiom Space is No. 49 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. Since November 2000, the International Space Station has provided a unique microgravity platform for research in biology, medicine, materials science, and physics, as well as for observing Earth’s atmosphere and deep space. But with the station set to close by 2031, NASA has entered into commercial agreements with three companies—Blue Origin, Nanoracks, and Northrop Grumman Systems—to develop replacements, though it’s not clear they will be ready in time. Houston-based Axiom Space has a head start on all of them, with the sole contract to build a commercial module that will be attached to the ISS—and eventually detach to become its own free-floating commercial station, offering a new place for humans to live and work in space long-term. In 2022, the company took a big step toward making that a … [Read more...] about How Axiom Space took a giant leap toward building a commercial space station

3dar is No. 47 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. 3dar, which started almost 20 years ago as an animation studio led by two filmmakers and brothers, has grown its profile and expanded its scope, growing into a leading production studio in virtual and augmented reality, using the technology to engage users and tell stories. The Buenos Aires, Argentina–based company was among Meta’s biggest AR filter partners in Latin America last year—creating selfie filters and social games for Instagram and Facebook throughout the year. It also earned a Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival in September for Eggscape , an immersive, mixed-reality game that turns a player’s environment into the backdrop for VR gameplay, in which players use the Meta Quest 2’s pass-through mode to guide an anthropomorphic egg through an AR obstacle course. 3dar’s mix of real-world … [Read more...] about From video games to Bad Bunny, this Argentinian studio is breaking new ground in AR and VR

Flashfood is No. 36 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. Even as prices have soared, heightening food insecurity, the average grocery store discards up to $10,000 worth of items every day. “Food waste is such a stupid problem,” says Josh Domingues, founder and CEO of Flashfood . “We have so many people who are hungry, and so much food going to waste.” Flashfood’s mission is to divert food from landfills—where it emits methane that contributes to global warming—and onto people’s plates. The five-year-old startup created an app that lets grocers alert shoppers to food that’s nearing its expiration date (mostly meat, dairy, and produce) and offer them instant discounts—an average of 50%—to purchase those items. Shoppers buy the products in-app, before collecting them from dedicated Flashfood fridges and dry racks in-store. … [Read more...] about This app is tackling food insecurity and reducing grocery store waste

Ramp is No. 9 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. Ramp cofounder and CEO Eric Glyman may lead an enterprise software company, but he’s not the type of guy who relishes the hard sell. (Ramp’s first sales hire, he says, was focused on customer success, not deals.) Instead, he likes to let Ramp’s products, including a corporate card and spend-management platform, do the talking. “We try to show the value first and let customers come to their own views,” Glyman says. A free calculator on the company’s website, for instance, predicts the dollar amount that prospective customers can expect to save if they switch to Ramp, based on their recent financials. If last year is any indication, Ramp’s product-first, gimmick-free approach has struck a chord, especially with small-business owners. More than 13,000 businesses now use the platform, a threefold increase year … [Read more...] about This company is making expense reports way less of a hassle

Holdfast Collective is No. 4 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 . Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture. In September 2022, Patagonia, renowned for being at the forefront of environmental advocacy, sustainable production, and progressive business practices, had a new declaration: Earth would be its only shareholder. What that actually meant was that founder Yvon Chouinard and his family had given up ownership, transferring the company’s voting stock to the Patagonia Purpose Trust and the other 98% of its ownership to the Holdfast Collective , a new 501(c)(4) organization. Holdfast’s mission is to preserve wildlands and pursue other nature-based climate solutions, fund grassroots environmental organizations, and support politicians working to fight the climate crisis. Although other companies have used this organizational structure for philanthropic ventures, Patagonia is taking a different … [Read more...] about Patagonia uses capitalism to save the planet with the Holdfast Collective

BREADWINNER   Teodora Vega inside her “sari-sari” store in Pasig —photos by Gillian Villanueva Nearly 20 years ago, Veronica Garcia used to hawk sili, kamias, sampalok and other spices in a pushcart. As her husband was not earning enough as taho and binatog vendor, she decided to start selling vegetables and other goods as well. Her sister, who had her own car, helped her buy products in Divisoria, Urdaneta, Pangasinan, and other provinces. Nowadays, she is able to relax at home while her children tend to her stalls at a nearby wet market in Pasig. Her husband helps with the household chores. “I was pushing around a kariton , until I was able to rent a stall, until the stall became my own,” the 51-year-old says. Part of the reason that she was able to succeed in growing her business was the financing she was able to get from ASA Philippines Foundation. Her sister, who used to be a member of ASA, introduced her to the microfinance company. At that time, Garcia was still … [Read more...] about Empowering Pinay microentrepreneurs

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin When you think of beauty pageants, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Probably not academia, social responsibility or sustainable finance. Dr Ana Nacvalovaite, Research fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford, says otherwise. Aside from being a distinguished academic and renowned expert within her field of work, Ana is also Mrs Great Britain, and will soon be competing in the semi-finals for “Mrs Globe”. At first it may seem like a contradiction, but for Ana, the world of pageants and academia intersect in several ways. “Beauty pageants have given me a platform to promote social and environmental issues that are important to me, such as gender equality, human rights, and sustainability. It has given me a stage to speak” she tells me. “As an academic, I'm passionate about promoting social responsibility and sustainability and all aspects of society. So, my involvement in the beauty pageant has given … [Read more...] about Beauty Pageants And Academia – The Perfect Contradiction?

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Labor strikes are looming at three of the nations’s major universities, continuing the trend of increased union activism and success on American campuses that began with a prolonged strike at the University of Californ ia last November and has continued at scores of institutions ever since. Now, campus workers at the Rutgers University, the University of Michigan and the California State University system appear ready to strike over a set of demands, including increased compensation, improved benefits, and better working conditions. Rutgers University Members of two unions at Rutgers University voted recently to authorize a strike by their members. The AAUP-AFT, which represent full-time faculty, graduate student workers and postdocs, and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, which represents part-time instructors, both voted to authorize a work stoppage should ongoing contract negotiations with the university … [Read more...] about Strikes Loom at Rutgers, University Of Michigan, Cal State System

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Well, so much for trusting people to do the right thing. A research letter recently published in JAMA Network Open described how 24.0% of parents in the U.S. surveyed—that’s 63 of 263 respondents—failed to tell others when they either thought or knew that their child had Covid-19. Moreover, 21.1% (67 of 218 respondents) permitted their children to break quarantine or isolation rules. And take a wild guess as to the most commonly given reason for not doing such things to protect others around them. It’s a very freedom answer. They wanted to exercise their “personal freedom” as parents. Yeah, let that freedom answer ring in the heads of all those who may have gotten infected with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a result. Looks like the answer to the Eurythmics song “Would I Lie To You?” is “Absolutely Yes” for quite a few parents based on this survey. The online survey conducted from … [Read more...] about Study: 24% Of Parents Hid That Their Children Were Covid-19 Positive