#Budget 2021 India

[adastra-sf]

Climate change-driven heatwaves threaten millions

Extreme record-breaking heat leads to severe crises across the world.

Already in 2024, from Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria in the West; to Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and the Philippines in the East; large regions of Asia are experiencing temperatures well above 40°C (104°F) for days on end.

The heatwave has been particularly difficult for people living in refugee camps and informal housing, as well as for unhoused people and outdoor workers.

Using the Heat Index Calculator, at that temperature and a relative humidity of 50%, residents see a heat index of 55°C (131°F) - a temperature level humans cannot long survive:

In February, the southern coastal zone of West Africa also experienced abnormal early-season heat. A combination of high temperatures and humid air resulted in average heat index values of about 50°C (122°F) - the danger level, associated with a high risk of heat cramps and heat exhaustion.

Locally, temperatures entered the extreme danger level associated with high risk of heat stroke, with values up to 60°C (140°F):

Even here at Ad Astra's HQ in Kansas, last summer we saw several days with high temperatures of 102°F (39°C) at 57% humidity, resulting in a heat index of 133°F (56°C):

Of course, the major difference in survivability in Kansas versus some of the places suffering extreme heat right now is that air-conditioning abounds here. Those who live somewhere that faces extreme heat but can escape it indoors are a lot more likely to survive, but a person who lives somewhere without such life-saving gear faces not just discomfort, but heat stroke and even death.

This includes unhoused and poor people here in the wealthier parts of the world, who often do not have access to indoor refuge from the heat.

About 15% of US residents live below the poverty line. Many low-wage earners work outside in construction or landscaping, exposed to the ravages of heat. Many do not own an air conditioner, and those who do might need to budget their body's recovery from heat against cost to purchase and run cooling equipment. Because heat stress is cumulative, when they go to work the next day, they’re more likely to suffer from heat illness.

Bad as that is, for those living on the street, heatwaves are merciless killers. Around the country, heat contributes to some 1,500 deaths annually, and advocates estimate about half of those people are homeless. In general, unhoused people are 200 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than sheltered individuals.

For example, in 2022, a record 425 people died from heat in the greater Phoenix metro area. Of the 320 deaths for which the victim’s living situation is known, more than half (178) were homeless. In 2023, Texans experienced the hottest summer since 2011, with an average temperature of 85.3°F (30°C) degrees between June and the end of August. Some cities in Texas experienced more than 40 days of 100°F (38°C) or higher weather. This extreme heat led to 334 heat-related deaths, the highest number in Texas history and twice as many as in 2011.

The Pacific Northwest of Canada and the USA suffered an extreme heat event in June, 2021, during which 619 people died. Many locations broke all-time temperature records by more than 5°C, with a new record-high temperature of 49.6°C (121°F). This is a region ill-suited to such weather, and despite having relatively high wealth compared to much of the world, many homes and businesses there do not have air-conditioning due to a history of much lower temperatures.

Heatwaves are arguably the deadliest type of extreme weather event because of their wide impact. While heatwave death tolls are often underreported, hundreds of deaths from the February heatwave were reported in the affected countries, including Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

Extreme heat also has a powerful impact on agriculture, causing crop damage and reduced yields. It also impacts education, with holidays having to be extended and schools closing, affecting millions of students - in Delhi, India, schools shut early this week for summer when temperatures soared to 47°C (117°F) at dangerous humidity levels:

At 70°C (157°F !), humans simply cannot function and face imminent death, especially when humidity is high. This is the notion of "heat index," a derivative of "wet-bulb temperature."

Though now mostly calculated using heat and humidity readings, wet-bulb temperature was originally measured by putting a wet cloth over a thermometer and exposing it to the air.

This allowed it to measure how quickly the water evaporated off the cloth, representing sweat evaporating off skin.

The theorized human survival limit has long been 35°C (95°F) wet-bulb temperature, based on 35°C dry heat at 100% humidity - or 46°C (115°F) at 50% humidity. To test this limit, researchers at Pennsylvania State University measured the core temperatures of young, healthy people inside a heat chamber.

They found that participants reached their "critical environmental limit" - when their body could not stop the core temperature from continuing to rise – at 30.6°C wet bulb temperature, well below what was previously theorized. That web-bulb temperature parallels a 47°C (117°F) heat index.

​The team estimates that it takes between 5-7 hours before such conditions reach "really, really dangerous core temperatures."

On March 5, 2024, Hong Kong saw temperatures of 27°C (80°F) with 100% humidity, which results in a heat index of 32.2°C (90°F) - seemingly not so bad until considering it's higher than the critical wet-bulb temperature. Also, if you watch the video, imagine the long-term effects of water accumulating in residences, such as dangerous mold.

We are witnessing the effects of climate change right now, all around the world, and rising temperatures are just the most-obvious (what we used to call "global warming"). Many, many other side-effects of climate change are beginning to plague us or headed our way soon, and will affect us all.

Unfortunately, those most affected - and those being hit the hardest right now - are people most vulnerable to heatwaves. With climate crises increasing in both intensity and frequency, and poverty at dangerous levels, we face a rapidly rising, worldwide crisis.

We must recognize the climate crisis as an international emergency and treat it as such. So much time, creative energy, resources, and life is wasted in war and the pursuit of profit or power - consider how much good could come from re-allocating those resources to ensuring a future for Earthlings, instead.

(Expect to see a "Science into Fiction" workshop on climate change coming soon - SF writers have a particular responsibility to address such important topics of change and global consequence.)

[mariacallous]

As Russia ramps up its second offensive, a debate has erupted over whether Moscow or Kyiv will have the upper hand in 2023. While important, such discourse also misses a larger point related to the conflict’s longer-term consequences. In the long run, the true loser of the war is already clear; Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine will be remembered as a historic folly that left Russia economically, demographically, and geopolitically worse off.

Start with the lynchpin of Russia’s economy: energy. In contrast to Europe’s (very real) dependence on Russia for fossil fuels, Russia’s economic dependence on Europe has largely gone unremarked upon. As late as 2021, for example, Russia exported 32 percent of its coal, 49 percent of its oil, and a staggering 74 percent of its gas to OECD Europe alone. Add in Japan, South Korea, and non-OECD European countries that have joined Western sanctions against Russia, and the figure is even higher. A trickle of Russian energy continues to flow into Europe, but as the European Union makes good on its commitment to phase out Russian oil and gas, Moscow may soon find itself shut out of its most lucrative export market.

In a petrostate like Russia that derives 45 percent of its federal budget from fossil fuels, the impact of this market isolation is hard to overstate. Oil and coal exports are fungible, and Moscow has indeed been able to redirect them to countries such as India and China (albeit at discounted rates, higher costs, and lower profits). Gas, however, is much harder to reroute because of the infrastructure needed to transport it. With its $400 billion gas pipeline to China, Russia has managed some progress on this front, but it will take years to match current capacity to the EU. In any case, China’s leverage as a single buyer makes it a poor substitute for Europe, where Russia can bid countries against one another.

This market isolation, however, would be survivable were it not for the gravest unintended consequence of Russia’s war—an accelerated transition toward decarbonization. It took a gross violation of international law, but Putin managed to convince Western leaders to finally treat independence from fossil fuels as a national security issue and not just an environmental one.

This is best seen in Europe’s turbocharged transition toward renewable energy, where permitting processes that used to take years are being pushed up. A few months after the invasion, for example, Germany jump-started construction on what will soon be Europe’s largest solar plant. Around the same time, Britain accelerated progress on Hornsea 3, slated to become the world’s largest offshore wind farm upon completion. The results already speak for themselves; for the first time ever last year, wind and solar combined for a higher share of electrical generation in Europe than oil and gas. And this says nothing of other decarbonization efforts such as subsidies for heat pumps in the EU, incentives for clean energy in the United States, and higher electric vehicle uptake everywhere.

The cumulative effect for Russia could not be worse. Sooner or later, lower demand for fossil fuels will dramatically and permanently lower the price for oil and gas—an existential threat to Russia’s economy. When increased U.S. shale production depressed oil prices in 2014, for example, Russia experienced a financial crisis. Lower global demand for fossil fuels will play out over a longer timeline, but the result for Russia will be much graver. With its invasion, Russia hastened the arrival of an energy transition that promises to unravel its economy.

Beyond a smaller and less efficient economy, Putin’s war in Ukraine will also leave Russia with a smaller and less dynamic population. Russia’s demographic problems are well-documented, and Putin had intended to start reversing the country’s long-running population decline in 2022. In a morbid twist, the year is likelier to mark the start of its irrevocable fall. The confluence of COVID and an inverted demographic pyramid already made Russia’s demographic outlook dire. The addition of war has made it catastrophic.

To understand why, it’s important to understand the demographic scar left by the 1990s. In the chaos that followed the Soviet Union’s dissolution, Russia’s birthrate plunged to 1.2 children per woman, far below the 2.1 needed for a population to remain stable. The effects can still be seen today; while there are 12 million Russians aged 30-34 (born just before the breakup of the Soviet Union), there are just 7 million aged 20-24 (born during the chaos that followed it). That deficit meant Russia’s population was already poised to fall, simply because a smaller number of people would be able to have children in the first place.

Russia’s invasion has made this bad demographic hand cataclysmic. At least 120,000 Russian soldiers have died so far—many in their 20s and from the same small generation Russia can scarcely afford to lose. Many more have emigrated, if they can, or simply fled to other countries to try to wait out the war; exact numbers are hard to calculate, but the 32,000 Russians who have immigrated to Israel alone suggest the total number approaches a million.

Disastrously, the planning horizons of Russian families have been upended; it is projected that fewer than 1.2 million Russian babies may be born next year, , which would leave Russia with its lowest birthrate since 2000. A spike in violent crime, a rise in alcohol consumption, and other factors that collude against a family’s decision to have children may depress the birthrate further still. Ironically, over the last decade Putin managed to slow (if not reverse) Russia’s population decline through lavish payoffs for new mothers. Increased military spending and the debt needed to finance it will make such generous natalist policies harder.

The invasion has left Russia even worse off geopolitically. Unlike hard numbers and demographic data, such lost influence is hard to measure. But it can be seen everywhere, from public opinion polls across the West to United Nations votes that the Kremlin has lost by margins as high as 141 to 5. It can also be seen in Russia’s own backyard; while an emboldened NATO could soon include Sweden and Finland, Russia’s own Collective Security Treaty Organization is tearing at the seams as traditional allies such as Kazakhstan and Armenia realize the Kremlin’s impotence and look to China for security.

Perhaps most important of all, Russia has reinvigorated the cause of liberal democracy. In the year after its invasion, French President Emmanuel Macron won a rare second term in France, the far-right AfD lost ground in three successive elections in Germany, and “Make America Great Again” Republicans paid an electoral penalty in the U.S. midterms. (The far right did sweep into power in both Sweden and Italy, but such wins have so far failed to dent Western unity and appear more motivated by immigration.) And this says nothing of the wave of democratic consolidation playing out across Eastern Europe, where voters have thrown out illiberal populists in Slovenia and Czechia in the last year alone. It is impossible to attribute any of these outcomes to just one factor (U.S. Democrats also got a boost from the overturn of Roe v. Wade and election denialism, for example), but Russia’s invasion—and the clear choice between liberalism and autocracy it presented—no doubt helped.

Nowhere, however, has Russia’s invasion backfired more than in Ukraine. Contrary to Putin’s historical revisionism, Ukraine has long had a national identity distinct from Russia’s. But it’s also long been fractured along linguistic lines, with many of its elites intent on maintaining close relations with the Kremlin and even the public unsure about greater alignment with the West.

No longer. Ninety-one percent of Ukrainians now favor joining NATO, a figure unthinkable just a decade ago. Eighty-five percent of Ukrainians consider themselves Ukrainian above all else, a marker of civic identity that has grown by double digits since Russia’s invasion. Far from protecting the Russian language in Ukraine, Putin appears to have hastened its demise as native Russian speakers (Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky included) switch to Ukrainian en masse. Putin launched his invasion to bring Ukraine back into Moscow’s orbit. He has instead anchored its future in the West.

Of course, one can argue that, however much the war has cost Russia, it has cost Ukraine exponentially more. This is true. Ukraine’s economy shrank by more than 30 percent last year, while Russia’s economy contracted by just about 3 percent. And this says nothing of the human toll Ukraine has suffered. But, like Brexit, Western sanctions on Russia will play out as a slow burn, not an immediate collapse. And while Russia enters a protracted period of economic and demographic decline, once peace comes, Ukraine will have the combined industrial capacity of the EU, United States, and United Kingdom to support it as the West’s newest institutional member—precisely the outcome Putin hoped to avoid. Russia may yet make new territorial gains in the Donbas. But in the long run, such gains are immaterial—Russia has already lost.

[ryanreynoldsfangirl]

Ryan Reynolds' Career

Today's hot topic is.... guess who? Ryan Reynolds! (his career but who cares.)

The charming, affable, and boyishly handsome Reynolds has made his way through everyone's hearts. His captivating personality and his witty humor never fails to amaze the crowd, be it teenagers or people old enough to be his grandmother.

HIS DEBUT ROLE IN THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY

At the young age of 15, Ryan made his debut as Billy Simpson in the Canadian teen soap opera, Hillside, in 1991. The show lasted till 1993. Along with that, his journey in Hollywood began from the movie Ordinary Magic in 1993. He played the 15-year-old Ganesh who was born and brought up in India. Hinduism and Mahatma Gandhi's teachings highly influenced his character in this movie.

(WE KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING. EVEN WE'RE LOSING OUR SANITY OVER THIS!!!!!)

(Look at our lil' floatie-floatie boy <3333)

Anywaaaaay.

Reynolds had a few supporting parts in films and TV shows. Because he no longer wanted to play an adolescent, he declined the role of Xander in Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003). (Terrible fate, we know.) Instead, he was cast in the ABC comedy Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place as medical student Berg (1998–2001).

His role in the comedy The In-Laws marked his entry into the world of high-budget entertainment. He had an appearance in The X-Files episode titled Syzygy. He also made an appearance as the letter 'A' in the A-Team, in the 4225th episode of the popular kids show Sesame Street.

(THIS IS OUR LITTLE ANGRY A-BOY.)

Now the more exciting part,

HIS MOVIES!

When it comes to effortless charisma and wry wit, it's hard to top Canadian charmer Reynolds. But even though the Vancouver-born actor is mostly unchallenged in those categories, it took a while for him to take off as a bonafide movie star. After a decade of hit-or-miss comedies, Reynolds eventually hit the bullseye with 2016's Deadpool, marking the perfect use of his naughty humor and comic delivery.

(Our top G Ryan as Deadpool *rock 'n' roll*)

Deadpool is regarded as one of the best superhero movies of all time and quickly became the highest earning R-Rated film ever, only beaten by Joker in 2019.

A few of his most adorable films include 'Definitely, Maybe' (2008), The Proposal (2009), The Change-Up (2011), and Just Friends (2005).

He's got many spectacular action movies under his belt. A few of them include, The Hitman's Bodyguard (2017) with top-rated co-star Samuel L. Jackson, 6 Underground (2019), Free Guy (2021), Red Notice (2021), and The Adam Project (2022).

Let's not forget his role as Harvey Kinkle (with the bad hair, ew, but he's cute so we'll take it.) in the movie Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1996).

And then there are a few movies which weren't very well received by his audience. These include R.I.P.D. (2013), Amityville Horror (2005), Green Lantern (2011), and Turbo (2013).

Moving on....

AWARDS HE'S RECEIVED OVER THE YEARS.

Our gorgeous superstar Ryan has received many notable awards as his career progressed. The first ever award he received was in 2003, it was the 'Young Hollywood Award for Next Generation - Male'. Then came an award for his role in Green Lantern - 'People's Choice Award for Favorite Superhero' in 2012, even though this movie was met with conflicting reviews, Reynolds managed to win different hearts by doing what he always does. Turn his charm on. (We AREN'T complaining at all.) A huge number of awards followed his movie Deadpool, which was a major box office hit. One for Best Entertainer in a Comedy Movie, and another for Entertainer of The Year.

Here's Ryan accepting the People's Icon Award at the People's Choice Awards 2022. (Look at his adorable smile, we all love him here at Ganesh Lovers' Community.)

Reynolds' has had a total of 60 nominations and 21 wins in his Hollywood career, which is actually quite a lot.

HIS PERSONAL LIFE

Childhood

Reynolds was raised in a Vancouver Irish Catholic home as the youngest of four boys. His parents were police officers and his mother worked in retail. Two of his brothers work in law enforcement, while a third is a member of the RCMP. From 1940 until 1944, his grandfather Chester Reynolds served as a legislator for Stettler, Alberta, as a member of the Social Credit Party.

Love Life

He was engaged to singer-songwriter Alanis Morissette from June 2004 to February 2007, when they called off their engagement.

Ryan with Alanis.

Shortly after, Reynolds started dating actress Scarlett Johansson, with whom he married on September 27, 2008, at a resort in Clayoquot Sound, close to Ucluelet, British Columbia. In December 2010, they divorced and filed for separation.

Ryan with Scarlett.

He started dating Blake Lively, his Green Lantern co-star, in 2011, and the two got married on September 9, 2012.

Ryan with Blake.

Children

Ryan and Blake have three daughters together: James (born in 2014), Inez (born in 2016), and Betty (born in 2020). Betty’s name was publicly revealed by a close friend, Taylor Swift in her song of the same name from the album Folklore.

Them with their three kids. (Our mini Ryan's and Blake's <3)

Personal Achievements

In 2008 and 2009, People magazine ranked Reynolds as one of the sexiest men alive. He was named the magazine's sexiest man alive in 2010.

He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2011, but the event was postponed since he couldn't make it. (Kinda depressing, TBH.) The day of his official induction was October 18, 2014.

But in December of 2016, Reynolds was honored with a star of his on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

(They're the cutest, seriously.)

Let's move on to....

HIS CHARITY AND ADVOCACY WORK

(This is kind of lengthy, bear with us.)

He's a humble and down-to-earth man, at least from what we've heard, and with the help of his super incredible wifey Blake, they make the power duo and set foot on Earth to save a few souls here and there. Here are a few of their contributions:

A half-million dollars were given to the Canadian nonprofit Water First Education & Training Inc. in March 2022 by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. 

In Vancouver, Canada, Reynolds also appeared in campaign videos sporting his recognizable "ugly" red-and-green sweater. By January 2021, according to the charity, $640,000 had been raised as a result of his fundraising efforts.

In March 2021, Reynolds and Lively gave $250,000 to a Canadian organization that mentored Indigenous youngsters, Influence Mentoring. 

Reynolds and his wife had also matched donations made to Covenant House Vancouver and Toronto up to a total of $250,000 in a remarkable gesture of generosity to help youngsters who are homeless, victims of trafficking, or in danger, back when COVID-19 had first struck.

Reynolds joined The Michael J. Fox Foundation in 2008 when he participated in Team Fox's New York City Marathon run. Reynolds ran the marathon in his father's memory, finishing in under four hours and raising more than $100,000 for Parkinson research.

And lastly,

HIS ALCOHOL COMPANY AVIATION GIN

As we see his posts on social media promoting his gin company:

Let's give you a brief history on the company and his role in it.

The goal of Aviation Gin was to develop a democratic gin blend with juniper in the background. It was formed in 2006 out of Portland, Oregon. a gin that is suitable for every cocktail. For the next ten years, it would remain mostly unknown.

Fast forward to 2018, when gin use was growing more rapidly than that of any other type of alcohol. This led to substantial changes in the sector, such as Reynolds buying a stake in the Aviation American Gin.  Reynolds is the creative director for the marketing campaign, and it is spectacularly successful (Aviation Gin is now the fastest-growing gin brand in America). How could it not? Reynold is a comic genius who conveys important messages about the quality of gin in the funniest, most approachable ways conceivable. Here's one of his advertisements for the company:

Hilarious! Are we right?!

Ah, sadly we have to end this splendid deep dive into our favorite floatie-boy Ryan Reynold's life here, but! We're not signing off without blessing your eyes with a few photos of his ;)

Your welcome.

Anyway, signing off, it's the dream team, Ganesh Lovers (get it?).

Adios till our next blog!

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2022

Another pretty decent year for pop music ; a very slow one, with a lot of trash, but the good stuff was so good making a top 10 took me ages, unlike 2021 where it was way easier. Outside of the top 100, some incredible stuff dropped this year too, so yeah - even if the charts don't always reflect it, music as a whole is currently very interesting to follow.

Disclaimers / Rules:

I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these lists. There’s songs that charted in my country way higher than they did in the US, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

No song that I already put on a previous list is elligible.

No old hit song that is re-charting due to a holiday or a trend is elligible either.

Of course there will probably be stuff in French somewhere on this post. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible.

I have sound-to-color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

So. Uh. Again, again. How was your 2022??

Still didn't catch covid but I did catch a very nasty cold a month ago. Still drawing and writing a lot, and also spending more and more time customising my clothes with dumb patches and embroidered messages and stuff.

I went to a LOT of concerts this year, and they were all fantastic for completely different reasons! I'm so glad I finally have the budget to do this without feeling guilty or cutting down some more vital stuff. So yeah. I went to see My Chemical Romance, The Soft Moon, Sigur Ros, Placebo and Enter Shikari. Before that the last concert I had attended was VNV Nation all the way back in 2019!

Speaking of which, let’s start with the good or interesting albums that came out in 2022 or in late 2021, and this is going to be pretty long.

Albums

I have to mention that I tried to get into Ghost this year. It's definitely not for me apart from a couple of songs, but also, Impera was pretty bad. Probably wasn't a good idea to start listening to these guys in their current era.

I also have to mention that I've been thoroughly disappointed by Mainstream Sellout, because I'm one of those weirdos who actually liked Tickets to my Downfall by Machine Gun Kelly. But yeah, the guy became self-aware, and that's the worst thing that could possibly happen. Awful. Emo Girl is unintentionally funny, though.

Not sure this counts as an "album" since it's an EP, and a five minutes-long one at that, but Snake Eyes by 100 Gecs made me even more excited for their new album in 2023.

Electric Callboy's Tekkno is dumb and funny in all the right ways and I'm glad they got so much positive attention out of it. That's trolling with actual effort and passion put into it and it's kind of a lost art form at this point. The music videos are amazing too.

Rakshak by Bloodywood is exactly the kind of thing Nu Metal needed to move forward and I love the fact that energy came from India, of all places. A lot of fresh ideas, generally interesting topics and politics ; I'm sold. This is great. More, please.

Muna by uh Muna didn't leave much of an impression on me at first but I kept thinking about it and I eventually came back to it to relisten to it several times later in the year. I'm not sure what it means. Probably something good, though. Maybe it will be one of my faves of the year in retrospect..? Also it's very gay, which never hurts.

I'm somewhat conflicted about Being Funny in a Foreign Language by The 1975. Objectively, it's probably their best album ; it's straightforward, it's very well produced, it has a couple of bangers. Subjectively, I'm not even sure I'd place it above Notes on a Conditional Form, which if you recall was a GIGANTIC MESS, just because the highs of this mess were stratospheric compared to the ones the new album has. Still really good, but I miss the chaos.

Death's Dynamic Shroud's Dark Life has SO MANY different ideas going in so many different directions it's kind of a miracle that the album stays so coherent. The colors and the textures are sometimes so complex and layered that just listening to them to try to pick them apart becomes a stim to me. Beautiful.

I only found this album last month but Dimensional Bleed by Holy Fawn is one of the best post rock things I've ever heard since Sigur Ros stopped releasing new music

Exister by The Soft Moon comes so close to being my album of the year. SO close. Among all the musicians trying to become the new Trent Reznor, this guy's the only credible candidate for me, just because he's not afraid to try really weird shit. When I saw him live in October, the last thing he played had a castanets solo over huge electronic beats. And it went hard as hell! I sincerely hope his future stuff will be even better. I'm sold.

But uh. Guys. I'm sorry.

I'm so predictable. Never Let Me Go, Placebo's comeback album, is my favorite album of the year. Of course, when one of my favorite bands ever decided to release new music after nearly ten years of nothing, I was thrilled, but also worried it would disappoint me. The first singles were amazing, but what if? What if the rest of the album wasn't as good? And yet, by the time it was over, I was trying to determine if it was my third or fourth fave album in their discography. Even now, I'd only put Meds and Sleeping With Ghosts above this one. It's distinctly them, but full of new and interesting ideas. I'm beyond happy things turned out so well.

Unelligible Songs

There's a TON of them! Because that year was very good! This is kind of a non-hits rec list of sorts, but you know the drill.

Should I start with some Gecs? I feel like I should start with some Gecs. So here's Doritos and Fritos, Hey Big Man and Torture Me. You're welcome.

While we're at it, if you've never watched any of the recent Electric Callboy music videos, your day is about to get slightly better. I suggest Pump It and Spaceman. Also both are actually good songs on top of being funny.

I might have trashtalked Ghost's new album earlier but Spillways is like Poison 2.0. That's a compliment by the way

I've not always enjoyed what these guys made post-Hot Fuss, but Boy by the Killers should definitely have been a hit.

What I Want by Muna also has this "should have been a huge hit" aura. I'm feeling every line of this chorus in my bones. Best song about delayed adolescence for queer people

Are we making a list of songs that should have been hits? Let me add Metric with What feels like eternity, then

However, American Teenager by Ethel Cain might still have a slight chance of becoming a hit song in the future. I want to believe

Hey do you want some cringe. Cause here's Slaughterhouse by Motionless In White oops

JEZEBEEEEEEEEEEL IF YOU'RE THE HUNTER THEN I'M THE PREYYYYYY

At this point I'm pretty sure I've listened to Precious Hearts by The Birthday Massacre for about six hours over the course of 2022 but since I'm an old idiot who only listens to music through .mp3 files and doesn't use spotify I have no way to check

My very first contact with Bloodywood was Dana Dan, and what a first impression that was. Turn the subtitles on, by the way.

Go_A dropped an absolute banger called Kalyna at the very start of the Ukraine war and it might just be their best track so far.

I am legally obligated to mention The Foundations of Decay by My Chemical Romance. Is it their best song? Hell no. Is it mixed like shit? Yes. Is it way to long? Absolutely. Do I enjoy it? Immensely. Also it had no music video and no promotion. What a power move

Nurture by Porter Robinson, which I mentioned last year as one of my favorite albums in a year full of incredible ones, was still one of my most listened-to albums of 2022, so it feels right to mention a song he released outside of any album this year (Everything Goes On).

Avantasia is back, with a..... an album I didn't like very much, oops, but damn, The Moonflower Society is one of their best songs ever. Long live ridiculous over-the-top power metal with super-serious poetry as lyrics.

Born Yesterday by Quadeca sounds like Sigur Ros trying to make a radio-friendly song, and it sounds absolutely immaculate. Also it's about someone who killed himself just before his birthday and his ghosts deeply regrets that decision

This is not the end by Gareth Emery might be standard EDM, but it's also genuinely comforting to hear these lyrics

I need to put a break here otherwise Tumblr won't let me post this thing. Are you still there? Ok good.

El Alma Que Te Trajo (Safety Trance ft. Arca). Send tweet

It's kind of funny that emo came back a couple of years ago through 8-o-8's and sad rappers with face tattoos. It's even funnier that I genuinely enjoyed some of their stuff. It's even-even funnier that some of them are straight-up doing pop punk stuff now. All of this to say that I love Girl Next Door by Lil Lotus

If you've followed anything in the metal scene this year you already know that Lorna Shore absolutely killed it in 2022. Hell yeah let's put some melodies in deathcore, I'm all for it. Anyway Sun//Eater is great

I should probably recommend some cool music that cool people like before I humiliate myself further by recommending more edgy shit, so this is the perfect time to say that Judgment Bolt, Neon Memories and Messe de E-102 are now permanently etched somewhere in my brain. Seriously please listen to Darklife by Death's Dynamic Shroud if you have the slightest, smallest interest in electronic music I beg you

Ok back to the cringe. Speaking of neons, here's Neon Grave by Dayseeker. I've never liked a song by these guys before so this was a bit of a surprise for me

Also I've listened to it again and again but I still want to cry every time I hear This is what you wanted by Placebo. Not sure why it's my absolute favorite track on an album full of fantastic tracks. Not sure what it says about me. Not sure I want to know

I think I mentioned an Enter Shikari concert. Not sure I can call myself a fan yet, but I spent an ungodly amount of hours listening to their old and new stuff in 2022. Turns out one of my favorite songs they ever made is one of the newest ones, The Void Stares Back. This is exactly the kind of surreal and borderline apocalyptic lyrics I need in my life. I even bought a t-shirt saying "I'm the child with the telescope eyes" at that concert oops

Oh Caroline is one of the best songs The 1975 ever made and, like all my fave songs from that band, it's deeply awkward and embarrassing. It's a guy begging his ex to come back and it gets humiliating. Perfection. Thank you

Just when you thought this list couldn't get worse I'm about to confess I love The Boy in the Black Dress by Yungblud. Can't get the image of a teenager trying to remove his nail polish with his teeth after a teacher told him he looked girly out of my head now. God I love narrative songs so much

We've reached the terminal velocity of musical cringe so here's sTraNgeRs by Bring Me The Horizon because OF FUCKING COURSE I love sTraNgeRs by Bring Me The Horizon. You must be new here. WE'RE DYING TO LIVE AND WE'RE LIVING TO DIIIIIIIIIIE

Also I'm not going to recommend too many the Soft Moon songs but Become the Lies is now a classic for me only six months after it came out, and I've been obsessed with Him (ft Fish Narc, who kills it as the evil twin of the narrator) to the point of making fanart of the mental amv I have for it. Might even upload it after finishing this post, I'm not sure.

Honorable Mentions

Tití me preguntó (Bad Bunny) - I swear I had this song playing in my brain for days and I'm not even sure I like it.

Jour meilleur (Orelsan) - I'm usually not the biggest fan of the guy, but this one is really nice.

As it was (Harry Styles) - Perfectly serviceable little pop tune.

Where are you now (Lost Frequencies) - A great earworm.

Enemy (Imagine Dragons) - Listen. It's bad. But I can't get over the fact that an overly-hated band made a song where the chorus literally screams "EVERYBODY WANTS TO BE MY ENEMYYYY", it's so much fun to sing along with it

Shivers (Ed Sheeran) - Do I really like Ed Sheeran now. Is this my life. Is this what growing old feels like

Belly Dancer (Imanbek & BYOR) - I'm going to the gym now and this is on their playlist. It's completely brainless but it had a serious chance to end on my actual top ten at some point. I physically can't listen to it without at the very least tapping my foot on the floor.

One Right Now (Post Malone & The Weeknd) - This WAS on my list at some point but I ended up cutting it. Nobody seems to like this song, and I love it for all the wrong reasons. Namely, the fact that a duet between two male singers talking about someone cheating on them sounds like they cheated on each other. And I think that's unintentional comedy gold.

Bad habit (Steve Lacy) - The very last cut I had to make. It's a wonderful song, and I simply adore its vibe, but I tend to lose some interest after 2:20 for some reason. No idea why.

Pretty sure there's nobody still reading this post. Which might be good because there's one deeply humiliating pick on this top ten. Let's do this

THE ACTUAL TOP TEN LIST

10 - Santé (Stromae)

US: Not on the list / FR: #90

I still can't believe this idiot climbed his way out of depression and burnout just to tell every emergency worker to join a union. What a king. Legends only

Also I seriously considered putting it at the top of this list in very early 2022 if the year turned out to be mediocre. I never expected it to be placed so low in the end. That's a good thing, by the way

9 - Break my soul (Beyoncé)

US: #38 / FR: Not on the list

So uh. As far as I know there's still no music video for this one, which is kind of a power move in this day and age, not gonna lie. But yeah. You know me. Can't resist a eurodance diva. And Beyoncé as a eurodance diva is all I ever wanted and more. What the hell happened this year, music-wise, seriously

8 - J'la connais, pt. 1 (Emkal)

US: Not on the list / FR: #89

Okay, the autotune is a bit grating. Doesn't matter.

Look, I usually dislike this kind of songs and singers always talking about girls cheating on them and stuff. But no, this dude right there is singing about people telling him his girlfriend is going to cheat on him, and he basically tells them he trusts her more than them ("Cette fille, j'la connais, eh, mais toi, tu es qui ? On se connaît ?" ("I know that girl, eh - but you? who are you again?"). Very refreshing. Well played, sir.

7 - Thunder (Gabry Ponte)

US: Not on the list / FR: #59

BEHOLD. THERE IS NOW A GOOD SONG CALLED "THUNDER" ON THE CHARTS. AND IT'S COMPLETELY BRAINLESS.

So uh, this one also plays at the gym. It's just some very basic and very commercial EDM. For some reason, it kinda sounds like a pirate song to me, the kind of thing you'd drink to on an adventure or something like that. There's not a lot that can be said about it. The colors are especially trippy, though.

Does it look like I'm stalling for time? Uh, maybe I am.

Oh god, here comes the really embarrassing part.

6 - Bad habits (Ed Sheeran ft Bring Me The Horizon)

US: #13 / FR: #53

So uh. This was in my honorable mentions last year:

And it was slowly exiting the charts when this new version dropped all of a sudden in mid-February, with way more guitars and bombast, and of course Oli Sykes screaming his head out at the end. And it climbed up the charts all over again.

And since I'm a major sucker with no taste, of course I loved it.

Doesn't make up for the fact the lyrics are still very vague and Ed Sheeran is still Ed Sheeran, but clearly that wasn't enough to keep this version of the song off my list. It's enough to make me question my choices, though. Steve Lacy should probably be there instead.

Eh. Too late now.

5 - Numb Little Bug (Em Behold)

US: #32 / FR: Not on the list

I initially put this one higher ; I'm not tired of it or anything, it's just that I don't listen to it as often as some things above it. And it got popular through TikTok, too - I'd ask if the kids are okay, but we all know the answer to that question, I think. I can't get over how brutal these lyrics are for what's essentially a cute pop song. And yeah, that's a huge mood. Do you ever get a little bit tired of life? Yes! Quite often actually! Glad we're all on the same page, at least. It's somewhat comforting.

Imagine how bleak and scary that song would be if it was more serious and less upbeat, though.

Oh. Oh shit.

4 - L'Enfer (Stromae)

US: Not on the list / FR: #46

Guess we don't have to imagine. Guess it already exists. Guess it's on the French year-end chart. And it's absolutely terrifying.

Look, I'm glad Stromae is back. I'm glad he feels better. But uh- yeah. This track is genuinely hard to listen to. I'm pretty sure it's objectively better than the three songs I placed above it, but yeah.

J'ai parfois eu des pensées suicidaires, et j'en suis peu fier (I've had suicidal thoughts at times and I'm not proud of it) On croit parfois que c'est la seule manière de les faire taire (Sometimes you think that's the only way to shut them up) Ces pensées qui me font vivre un enfer (These thoughts that make my life hell)

Yeah.

3 - About Damn Time (Lizzo)

US: #12 / FR: Not on the list

I had a hard time deciding where to rank this song between #3 and #2. Maybe I should say it's a tie. It changes day to day with my mood, really.

But yeah, thank you Lizzo for being a combo breaker in this short series of songs about addiction and depression and death! This one is impossible to resist. You hear it and you just have to move or tap your feet and smile. And-

I'm way too fine to be this stressed, yeah Oh, I'm not the girl I was or used to be, uh Bitch, I might be better

Favorite lyrics of the year? I don't know. Maybe. Amazing, in any case. Thank you for this gift, madam.

2 - That's What I Want (Lil Nas X)

US: #14 / FR: Not on the list

Aaaaaaaaand back to the sadness. Well, not really. The song itself is pretty upbeat. In any case, you've probably seen that one coming from a mile away because of my 2021 Unelligible Songs list:

And yeah! It's elligible at last! I'm so, so happy. And I want Lil Nas X to find love and be happy too. Montero was gay as hell, Industry Baby was a victory lap, but this one? This one is the guy bearing his soul and you can feel it even through the impeccable production and pop sensibilities. Cry your heart out to this upbeat tune, my friend, it's gonna be okay. And we love you.

1 - Meet Me At Our Spot (The Anxiety)

US: #74 / FR: Not on the list

I think I've listened to this one more than any other song this year and yet I'm still not entirely sure why I love it so much, especially considering it took literal months to grow on me. I can't even describe its vibe. Is it melancholy? No, it's too happy. Is it happy then? No, it's too tired. But it has energy, too. Is it romantic? Not really. What is it?

One thing's for sure, whichever vibe it is, I got lost in it for hours, to the point of creating entire scenes set to it in my mind. Which led to drawings. Which led to me inventing characters completely disconnected from the song and writing a story where the initial scene I visualised is only a small one in the grand scheme of things.

There's magic in this song's vibe, and I've been on a quest to transcribe it, and I will probably fail. In the meantime, thank you for meeting me at this spot. It's been a wild ride. See you next year!

[fahadventure]

My TEFL Journey In a nutshell

Alhamdulillah, by the grace of Almighty, in the 2nd last year (2021), I have passed the 198 hours Level 5 TEFL certification course (168 guided hours + Teaching English online 30 hours) from The TEFL Academy. For those, who might want to know, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) involves teaching English abroad or online where English is not the primary language. TEFL educators can work for international and global schools, foreign companies, international organizations and associations, and internationally recognized universities, just to name a few. You can read more about my adventures in  Fahadventure.

I have been thinking about doing this since 2018, just after my Graduation from the Institute of Business Administration, Dhaka University (IBA, DU), Bangladesh, but could not really focus much as I got involved in corporate culture, after joining an event management company, namely Asiatic Experiential Marketing Limited. Later on, in May,2019, I joined a locally reputed bank, BRAC Bank where I continued to work for two and a half years. In the meantime, the overall lockdown phases during 2020 and 2021 finally came as a blessing among all those office workloads, few trips and some personal hassles which motivated me once again to work from home and pursue my dreams. This certificate is just like a passport to travel the world while I'll start working on attaining the visa i.e jobs abroad once it reopens. For now, I am exploring the online possibilities to start with. Check out the vacancies for better exploration.

Just after leaving the job of my previous organization, BRAC Bank, I got the opportunity to join a global platform within few months, named as "Native Camp" where my everyday work nowadays involves teaching and talking people online, mostly from China, Japan & Taiwan and I can't even explain how happy I am right now to have those sessions and exchange our thoughts with fun while doing so. I am also an avid learner and traveler with interest in knowing cultures and norms from all around the globe. I have worked for a very short time in this period with Lingua Roma, a global teaching company where I had to work with South Africans, Russians, French, Kenyans etc. Apart from that, while traveling in various parts of India and Thailand, I resided in the local hostels and houses to mingle with mixed races and know more about them. You can have a look at my teaching profile.

Being a TEFL tutor is a great way to build transferable skills, like communication, creativity, adaptability, critical thinking, problem solving, and leadership etc. It's been a tiring journey with lots of obstacles since I didn't know who to connect with for suggestions; specially anyone from my country. So, I had to look for international blogs, knock random people and gain idea on this. I would humbly request to expand my knowledge if anyone wants to know & explore this beautiful world together. I'll be writing other detailed posts about my journey and other tefl course online, tefl jobs in the coming days. For now, you can look the official website if it fits your budget. Please keep me in your prayers so that I can smoothly advance towards my dream journey, not just by sitting at a corner of the office. Thank you all. Soooo excited! 🤩

Read the full article again and know more about my adventures in  Fahadventure.

[strangemusictriumph]

Small Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) Market - Forecast (2022 - 2027)

The market for Small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) is estimated to be $24.1 billion by 2026 and is analyzed to grow at a CAGR of 16.38% during the forecast period 2021-2026. APAC is growing at the highest CAGR of 19.08% in the forecast period owing to the rapid rise in investment for the defense, commercial and law enforcement bodies in the Asia Pacific region, which are mostly dominated by the countries such as China, India, Australia and South Korea. These countries are allotting a considerable budget for their defence & law enforcement grooming purposes. Besides, growing incidences of interpersonal stand-offs, border surveillance, asymmetric warfare, terrorist activities, preparation for the forthcoming combats, along with higher economic development and enhancement in the manufacturing industries, construction sector, and others are enhancing the market growth in the forecast period. South America is analyzed to grow at significant CAGR of 18.17% in the forecast period owing to the procurement of small UAS for ISR applications with synthetic aperture radar especially in countries like Brazil due to increasing defence budgets. Further in South America, small UAS and micro air vehicles are increasingly being adopted for industrial purposes, like surveying, mapping, mining, agriculture, and construction in the region. North America has dominated the market growth with 33% in 2020, owing to rising investment in the defense & homeland security budgets, especially in the United States, and higher development in the information technology & microelectronics industry is expected to fuel regional market growth substantially.

Report Coverage

The report: “Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Industry Outlook– Forecast (2021-2026)”, by IndustryARC covers an in-depth analysis of the following segments of the Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market

By Type: Multi-Rotor, Fixed-Wing, Single-Rotor Helicopter, Fixed Wing Hybrid VTOL

By Size: Very Small UAS, Small UAS

By Range: Very Close Range, Close Range, Short Range, Mid Range, Long Range

By Endurance: Low Endurance-Low Altitude, Average Endurance-Low Altitude, Average Endurance-Average Altitude, High Endurance-High Altitude

By Energy Source: Traditional Fuel, Battery Cell, Fuel Cell, PVs and Others

By Level of Autonomy: Autonomous, Automatic

By Application: Recreation, Education, Industrial, Filmmaking, First Responder Services, Government Agencies, GIS, Oil and Gas, Agriculture, Others

By Geography: North America (U.S, Canada, Mexico), Europe (Germany, UK, France, Italy, Spain, Russia and Others), APAC (China, Japan India, Australia and Others), and RoW (Middle East and Africa, South America)

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Key Takeaways

Adding up to this the significant rise in the investments and contracts from defence sector of various countries is boosting the small-UAS market during the forecast period.

In January 2021, the French Defense Procurement Agency DGA chose Parrot SA, to supply its micro drones, ANAFI USA for three corps of the French Army.

In FY 2019 budget, the Department of Defense had requested around $9.39 billion fund for unmanned systems and associated technologies. This includes funding for the procurement of 3,447 new air, ground, and sea drones.

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Segment Analysis – By Size

Very Small Unmanned aerial system is projected to reach US$ 12,787 million by 2026 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR 16.26% during 2021-2026. Very small unmanned aerial system consists of nano and macro UAS. Nano unmanned aerial systems are upto 250 gm and macro UAS are generally from 250 gm to 2 kg. This small size unmanned aerial system is hugely adopted for recreational purpose. There has been a high adoption of very small UAS owing to the rising demand for nano and macro-UAVs in precision agriculture offering strong potential to improve the efficiency of water, nutrient, and disease management. Such a wide range of applications of nano and macro UAS in agriculture sector is augmenting the market. Technological advancements in unmanned aerial system such as sensor miniaturization, flight precision, autonomy and cloud-based image processing are boosting the adoption of very small UAS in agriculture sector. Increasing penetration of nano and macro UAS in construction site for measuring real-time work progress or in mining sector to provide volumetric data on excavations has contributed to the growth of the market.

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Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Segment Analysis - By End Users

Among all the applications, the Recreational applications held a significant amount of market share in 2020 as they have a market share of $1.3 billion in  2020, growing at a CAGR of 18.37% during the period 2021-2026. The market is growing due to its wide adoption of monitoring and surveying of remote locations in the region. Moreover, commercial or recreational drones are also being used for monitoring disaster-affected areas, providing aid to the victims, and for search & rescue missions. The commercial small unmanned aerial system (UAS) market continues to grow globally and was accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic response. Autonomy and artificial intelligence (AI) are, and will remain, the main drivers promoting commercial UAS adoption and associated market growth because autonomous flight reduces the need for expensive manpower whereas AI-driven data collection and processing reduces the time it takes to produce results that directly impact decision-making.

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Segment Analysis - By Geography

Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Market in North America region held significant market share of 36.6% in 2020. The adoption of sUASs in military applications, commercial applications and others are also witnessing the growth of sUASs in North America. Furthermore, many organizations like AirMap, Drone Map, Teal, Drone Seed, Cape and Others have also funded different technologies related to Small Unmanned Aerial Systems thereby driving the growth of the market. In addition, the presence of countries like Canada, Mexico in North American region most of the drones used are commercial ones owing to recreational purposes. In 2019, the government has announced to spend $738 billion in Defense sector by 2020 for various operations including modernization of equipment's. Moreover, the Defense spending in the country is rapidly increasing due to increased threats from other countries. In the year 2018 Mexico had a defense budget of around $ 6,568 million in 2018, a 13.6% increase from 2017 and it is expected to increase in the forecast period. These factors have driven the growth of the market in this region.

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Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Drivers

Rise in application of small UAS by Armed forces and Other government agencies

The market for Small Unmanned Aerial Systems is likely to benefit enormously from the rising safety concerns of Armed forces and different agencies around various parts of the globe. The rise in the application of small UAVs by different Government agencies has been promoting the growth of Small Unmanned Aerial Systems in the global market. Increasing safety concerns of armed forces and government agencies, such as to conduct reconnaissance missions and track illegal activities without risking their lives has been a major driving factor for the growth of small UAS in global market. For instance, applications of autonomous small UAS for surveillance in army bases, border regions and places of gatherings provide visual data of any sort of threats instantly to the operators. Moreover, the application of small UAS for surveillance in base camps, military convoys to safeguard army personnel has been a major driving factor for its growth. On April 2021, Exyn Technologies, a leading manufacturer of aerial robotics launched their new ExynAero, an autonomous small UAS which is considered to be the highest level of aerial autonomy especially designed for high-risk environments.

Growing Applications in Logistics Sector

Growing applications of small UAS for Logistic applications due to the current Covid-19 pandemic, the Logistic sector of global level has been facing a severe decline in their growth. Several governments imposed strict lockdowns to safeguard their economies and reduce the spread of the virus by reducing human contact. To overcome this severe damage, many countries across the globe have opted for Logistic operations using small UAS. For instance, in March 2020, Zipeline International set up small UAS delivery facility and distribution center across South Africa and Ghana. They have been delivering various medical products, live-saving drugs and other healthcare requirements in quick time without human interaction. The application of small UAS is expected to increase over the near future. This is expected to drive the market for small UAS in global level. Moreover, in India, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gave approvals to brands like Dunzo, Spicejet, Zomato, and Swiggy to go ahead with BVLOS deliveries. These developments will bring major boost in forecast period for small UAS Market.

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Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Challenges:

Breach of Privacy

There has been several instance of  breach of privacy in Europe with the application of small UAVs. The small size, ability to fly through low altitude and hard to detect makes small UAVs perfect for spying on people.  This has also led to the ban of small UAVs across many countries in Europe. This is a key constraint for market growth for small UAVs in the region. Further, some countries have made it mandatory to have license to own any UAVs. Thus, this is for many consumers who were looking to purchase UAVs for leisure photography or as a entertainment device are now reluctant to go through the process of applying for license for purchasing small UAVs. In Jan 2021, EU announced its final set of rules for small unmanned aircrafts. The remote identification of UAVs has been levied to identify any UAV flying in the air. This is a key constrain in the market growth in small UAVs in Europe

Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market Landscape

Product launches, acquisitions, Partnerships and R&D activities are key strategies adopted by players in the Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market. Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Market top 10 companies include DJI, Aerovironment,Inc., Parrot Drones SAS, Precision AWK, Airbus SAS, Boeing, Lockheed Martin Corporation, General Atomics, Textron, Inc, Thales Group  among others

Acquisitions/Product Launches

On October 2020, Parrot entered into a strategic partnership with Colorado Drone Chargers, the global leader in field ready, high speed small UAS charging systems. The partnership aimed to design a revolutionary charging system for the ANAFI USA batteries, allowing professionals to simultaneously charge four Parrot ANAFI USA 3400mAh flight batteries in the field and in less time than a standard charging system.

In 2020, UMS Skeldar launched V-150 UAV. The V-150 UAV is lightweighted with a takeoff weight of maximum 150kg. This UAV used signals intelligence equipment and infrared camera.

 For more Aerospace and Defense Market reports, please click here

[industrynewsupdates]

Future of Coating Equipment Market: Trends and Predictions

The global coating equipment market was valued at USD 16.62 billion in 2021 and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.3% from 2022 to 2030. This growth is primarily driven by the increasing demand for coatings in various sectors, including aerospace, automotive, and construction. Coatings play a critical role in enhancing the durability, appearance, and performance of products across these industries. Despite a significant downturn in demand during the pandemic—caused by lockdowns and global restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19—the industry is poised for recovery as governments ease restrictions and economic activities resume. Once the global economy stabilizes, the demand for coatings is expected to rebound.

A significant factor contributing to the market’s growth is the rising global demand for electric vehicles (EVs). Coatings are essential for EVs to protect against rust and corrosion, ensuring that the vehicles' surfaces remain intact and visually appealing. Moreover, the growing interest in coated electronic devices used in electric cars, including batteries, motors, and interior components, further strengthens the demand for coating solutions. As the automotive industry moves toward sustainability and electrification, coating technologies become increasingly important in meeting the functional and aesthetic demands of modern vehicles.

Governments worldwide are supporting the transition to electric-powered vehicles through a variety of subsidies and incentives, such as tax breaks for electric car buyers, funding for the installation of charging stations, and budget allocations for advanced battery development. These initiatives, combined with the growing focus on environmental sustainability and reducing carbon footprints, are expected to significantly boost the demand for coating equipment over the forecast period.

Gather more insights about the market drivers, restrains and growth of the Coating Equipment market

Regional Insights

Asia Pacific 

The Asia Pacific region led the global coating equipment market in 2021, capturing 45.3% of the market share. Several key factors contribute to this dominance, including robust industrial development, a growing construction sector, and an expanding automotive industry. The region's high population growth further increases demand for diverse products that require coating applications, such as automobiles, industrial machinery, and consumer goods. Additionally, the demand for coatings with better efficiency, driven by the need for more durable, sustainable, and high-performance products, is expected to fuel the market’s growth over the forecast period.

Governments in the Asia Pacific are heavily investing in infrastructure development, which further boosts the need for coatings in construction projects, including residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. This trend is anticipated to create strong demand for coating solutions, particularly in fast-developing economies such as China, India, and Southeast Asia.

Europe 

In Europe, the coating equipment market is expected to see significant growth, primarily driven by efficiency improvements in existing buildings and renovations. As older buildings are retrofitted with more energy-efficient solutions, there is an increasing need for advanced coatings that improve durability, energy efficiency, and aesthetics. The region's emphasis on sustainability and green building standards plays a key role in this trend.

Additionally, the planning of public-private partnership (PPP) projects across Europe, including road construction, hospital development, schools, and airports, is expected to further drive the demand for coatings. These infrastructure projects often require coatings for protection, aesthetics, and to meet environmental regulations. This growing focus on both infrastructure expansion and energy-efficient renovations is poised to stimulate demand for coating technologies throughout the forecast period.

North America

In North America, the United States held the largest share of the market, accounting for 57.5% of the coating equipment industry in 2021. The U.S. market is driven by substantial government investments aimed at increasing industrial employment and stimulating manufacturing growth. These investments, particularly in advanced manufacturing and infrastructure projects, create a favorable environment for the adoption of coating equipment.

Moreover, the automotive sector in North America is experiencing a surge in demand for coating solutions due to the growing production of electric vehicles (EVs). Coatings are essential in the automotive industry, especially for vehicles like electric cars, which require special coatings for enhanced performance, durability, and appearance. The presence of major automotive manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford, and Tesla, as well as key automotive OEMs in the region, continues to drive demand for advanced coating technologies. Additionally, government incentives for electric vehicle production are expected to accelerate the demand for coating equipment tailored for these vehicles.

 Browse through Grand View Research's Paints, Coatings & Printing Inks Industry Research Reports.

• The global hydrophobic coating market was valued at USD 2.06 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5% from 2024 to 2030.

• The global nanocoatings market size was valued at USD 12.86 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.4% from 2024 to 2030.

Key Companies & Market Share Insights

The coating equipment market is highly competitive, with several prominent players dominating the industry. These companies are focused on advancing technological capabilities and developing innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of consumers. Leading market players are investing in automated systems, advanced coating equipment, and various specialized components like hand sprays and trolleys to cater to diverse application requirements. Additionally, mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships are key strategies for companies looking to enhance their technical expertise and expand their product offerings

Key Coating Equipment Companies

Some prominent players in the global coating equipment market include:

• Nordson Corporation

• Gema Switzerland GmbH

• J. Wagner GmbH

• ANEST IWATA Corporation

• Carlise Companies Inc

• IHI Ionbond AG

• Statfield

• SAMES KREMLIN

• The Eastwood Company

• Graco Inc

• RED LINE INDUSTRIES LIMITED

• Pittsburgh Spray

• Reliant Finishing Systems

• ANEST IWATA USA, Inc.

• IHI HAUZE B.V.

Order a free sample PDF of the Coating Equipment Market Intelligence Study, published by Grand View Research.

[hopefulkidshark]

Shyam Singha Roy

2021 ‧ Thriller/Romance ‧ 2h 37m

Shyam Singha Roy is a 2021 Indian Telugu-language period romantic drama film directed by Rahul Sankrityan. Partly set in the backdrop of Kolkata in the ...

A director accused of plagiarism finds a transcendental connection to his past life when he digs deeper into his subconscious mind.

Release date: December 24, 2021 (India)

Director: Rahul Sankrityan

Music composed by: Mickey J Meyer

Budget: 500 million INR

Screenplay: Rahul Sankrityan, Satyadev Janga

Box office: est. ₹80 crore

Starring

Nani

Sai Pallavi

Krithi Shetty

Shyam Singha Roy - Wikipedia

SAI PALLAVI in Shyam Singha Roy (2021) dir. Rahul Sankrityan

[swirlingdisobedience]

Multi-disciplinary Site-Specific references

Advertisement:

Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea has created the installation called the "Megh Santoor" at the Vijayawada Railway station. The huge Santoor, which is 150 ft wide, has been designed such that with every rain shower, the water interacts with the santoor strings recreated on the billboard to present a rendition of the Raag Megh Malhar, the raag of the rains, -a tipical Indian classical music piece. Legends say that this raga has the power to bring out rains in the area where it is sung.

Taj Mahal Tea from Brookebond is a well known brand of Tea in India. 

Nike - Advertisement for a London-specific campaign.

Saint Laurent - Desert Runway women's summer collection 2021.

There were no spectators at Saint Laurent’s presentation of its 2021 Women’s Summer collection, only drone footage of models walking on the crest of a tall sand dune in the middle of a honey-colored desert.

Alexander McQueen - Glass dome runway women's spring/summer collection 2022

"Chilean architect Smiljan Radic built a cloud-like dome for luxury fashion house Alexander McQueen's Spring/Summer show. The luxury fashion house invited guests to a large-scale transparent dome on a rooftop in East London, debuting their 2022 Spring/Summer collection.

The ever-changing London skies inspire this year's collection and how turbulent weather in the UK can be. Alexander McQueen's creative director Sarah Burton explains, "I am interested in immersing myself in the environment in which we live and work, in London, and in the elements as we experience them each day." To continue this theme of weather, temperament, and unpredictability, architect Smiljan Radic designed a large-scale, cloud-like dome to house the show. The transparent structure speaks to the outside climate and directly incorporates it into the experience." (from:

https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/alexander-mcqueen-1)

HIGHLINE New York.

The High Line is both a nonprofit organization and a public park on the West Side of Manhattan. Through our work with communities on and off the High Line, we’re devoted to reimagining the role public spaces have in creating connected, healthy neighborhoods and cities.

Built on a historic, elevated rail line, the High Line was always intended to be more than a park. You can walk through gardens, view art, experience a performance, savor delicious food, or connect with friends and neighbors-all while enjoying a unique perspective of New York City.

Nearly 100% of our annual budget comes through donations from people like you, who help us operate, maintain, and program the park.

The High Line is owned by the City of New York and we operate under a license agreement with NYC Parks.

History

Believe it or not, the High Line was once destined for demolition. Luckily, the community rallied together to repurpose it instead, creating the park you see today, for everyone to enjoy. It has since become a global inspiration for cities to transform unused industrial zones into dynamic public spaces.

https://www.thehighline.org/history/

1999

In the decades of disuse, many people were calling the High Line an ugly eyesore (Mayor Giuliani signed a demolition order, one of his last acts in office). But few of these critics saw what had secretly taken over the structure: a thriving garden of wild plants. Inspired by the beauty of this hidden landscape, Joshua David and Robert Hammond founded Friends of the High Line, a non-profit conservancy, to advocate for its preservation and reuse as a public space. Friends of the High Line remains the sole group responsible for maintenance and operation of the High Line (and is funded by supporters just like you).

Trampoline House - Documenta 15 underpass.

Trampoline House’s contribution to documenta fifteen, Castle in Kassel, hints at the physical and metaphorical representation of territorial power and the exercise of ownership. Physically, the “castle” is a territory marked by a circle of chalk on the floor. Inside the circle, there is a public program of performances, debates, and screening of artworks that puts into perspective the Danish asylum system and attitudes towards refugees and migrants. The participants of a theater workshop with asylum-seekers, rejected asylum-seekers, and refugee youth write and perform sketches about life in the Danish asylum system. A creative writing workshop facilitated by Jean Claude Mangomba examines the criminalization of asylum seekers and a retracing of the rights lost in an unjust and discriminatory system.

Castle in Kassel is not merely site-specific. With its walls easily erased, the castle presents its own antidote to a discriminatory system, tied together through live streaming and documentation to convey Trampoline House’s vital role.

Located in the underpass at Platz der Deutschen Einheit, The Walls Have Ears is a hidden sound installation by Sudanese Artist Khalid Albaih from Trampoline House that consists of hidden speakers placed in random locations along the tunnel telling stories of asylum seekers in Denmark.

Trampoline House was formed in 2010 by a group of artists, curators, refugee rights advocates, and asylum seekers as an antidote to Denmark’s asylum, refugee, and immigration policies.

Balenciaga chips wallet:

$1,800 chip bag wallet. 

Balenciaga: Runway shows

Hito Steryl MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE

The video installation MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: BELANCIEGE presented at Trafó Gallery reveals similar ’invasions’ of history and emphasizes their cyclical nature by turning towards the processes of economic and political realignment that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall, and by featuring examples that target our hyper-contemporary world armed with trend analysis, data mining, political advertising and audience targeting. The video installation is co-created by Giorgi Gago Gagoshidze, Hito Steyerl and Miloš Trakilović and is based on their lecture in 2019 at n.b.k. - Neuer Berliner Kunstverein. Almost 30 years to the day after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the lecture reflects on post-1989 transformations and political rearrangements in the former Soviet territories, sheds light on the interconnections between culture and populism, and examines in a broader context the mechanisms of oligarchic-capitalist culture that emerged during the 'privatisation' of the former Eastern bloc. The luxury fashion brand Balenciaga acts as a starting point for the artists’ reflections on politics, culture and populism, and reveals connections between trends, social media and political processes, such as the success of alt-right movements, the manipulation of the US presidential elections that enabled Donald Trump's victory, or the rise of populist and neoliberal politics in the countries of the former Eastern bloc.

Posters "Picó" Cartagena, Colombia.

En medio del calor tropical, y el mar caribe existe un fenómeno musical, en el cual gira toda una cultura: Los pick ups. Estos no se promocionan con afiches impresos ni con litografías, sino con afiches artesanales; diseños hechos a mano por los artistas de Bazurto. Se han convertido en un símbolo de patrimonio cultural del Caribe.

El mercado de Bazurto en Cartagena, es el templo en donde reside el alma de la champeta. Allí, en pleno corazón, encontramos al maestro de los Carteles Picoteros: José Corredor Rodelo alias “El Runner”.

Pocas veces se tiene la oportunidad de ver personificada la tan conocida manera de trabajar de las hormigas. Día tras día, el Mercado de Bazurto en Cartagena alberga a un artista de la gráfica popular y sus discípulos, vivo ejemplo de trabajo arduo, disciplinado, organizado y en equipo.

El “Runner”, desde las épocas de colegio cuando, su maestro de idiomas decidió apodarlo de ese modo, hoy con 50 años de edad y sin ninguna agencia publicitaria tiene a su cargo la mayor Empresa (informal) de carteles populares de la Heróica.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 10.14 (after 1950)

1952 – Korean War: The Battle of Triangle Hill is the biggest and bloodiest battle of 1952. 1956 – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, leader of India's Untouchable caste, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers (see Neo-Buddhism). 1957 – The 23rd Canadian Parliament becomes the only one to be personally opened by the Queen of Canada. 1957 – At least 81 people are killed in the most devastating flood in the history of the Spanish city of Valencia. 1962 – The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when an American reconnaissance aircraft takes photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles being installed in Cuba. 1964 – Martin Luther King Jr. receives the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolence. 1964 – The Soviet Presidium and the Communist Party Central Committee each vote to accept Nikita Khrushchev's "voluntary" request to retire from his offices. 1966 – The city of Montreal begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid transit system. 1966 – The Dutch Cals cabinet fell after Norbert Schmelzer, the leader of the government party, filed a successful motion against the budget, in what later became known as the Night of Schmelzer. 1968 – Apollo program: The first live television broadcast by American astronauts in orbit is performed by the Apollo 7 crew. 1968 – The 6.5 Mw  Meckering earthquake shakes the southwest portion of Western Australia with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), causing $2.2 million in damage and leaving 20–28 people injured. 1968 – Jim Hines becomes the first man ever to break the so-called "ten-second barrier" in the 100-meter sprint with a time of 9.95 seconds. 1973 – In the Thammasat student uprising, over 100,000 people protest in Thailand against the military government. Seventy-seven are killed and 857 are injured by soldiers. 1975 – An RAF Avro Vulcan bomber explodes and crashes over Żabbar, Malta after an aborted landing, killing five crew members and one person on the ground. 1979 – The first National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights draws approximately 100,000 people. 1980 – The 6th Congress of the Workers' Party ended, having anointed North Korean President Kim Il Sung's son Kim Jong Il as his successor. 1981 – Vice President Hosni Mubarak is elected as the President of Egypt, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat. 1982 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan proclaims a War on Drugs. 1991 – Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 1994 – Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords and the framing of future Palestinian self government. 1998 – Eric Rudolph is charged with six bombings, including the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, Georgia. 2003 – The Steve Bartman Incident takes place at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Illinois. 2004 – MK Airlines Flight 1602 crashes during takeoff from Halifax Stanfield International Airport, killing all seven people on board. 2004 – Pinnacle Airlines Flight 3701 crashes in Jefferson City, Missouri. The two pilots (the aircraft's only occupants) are killed. 2012 – Felix Baumgartner successfully jumps to Earth from a balloon in the stratosphere. 2014 – A snowstorm and avalanche in the Nepalese Himalayas triggered by the remnants of Cyclone Hudhud kills 43 people. 2014 – The Serbia vs. Albania UEFA qualifying match is canceled after 42 minutes due to several incidents on and off the pitch. Albania is eventually awarded a win. 2015 – A suicide bomb attack in Pakistan kills at least seven people and injures 13 others. 2017 – A massive truck bombing in Somalia kills 358 people and injures more than 400 others. 2021 – About 10,000 American employees of John Deere go on strike.

[mariacallous]

The concept of “American exceptionalism” has a long history. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines American exceptionalism as the “idea that the United States of America is a unique and even morally superior country for historical, ideological, or religious reasons.” What if American exceptionalism has a different meaning when compared with other industrialized countries? What if, beyond the dominant positive narrative, there lies a negative one?

In 2015, the global community adopted the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with the watchwords “leave no one behind.” It is a framework that recognizes development happens everywhere—not just in the Global South or in “developing” countries. Yet experts, policymakers, and the media still stubbornly categorize countries as “developed” or “developing.” The United States, of course, is part of this “developed” category. Why not? The U.S. economy is the largest in the world and “larger than the combined economies of Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, India, France, and Italy.” The military is the most powerful in the world with the biggest defense budget. The U.S. is home to more top-ranked universities than any other country.

Those narratives, labels, and categories, however, mask the plethora of socioeconomic inequities in the U.S. stripped bare by the pandemic. The people Michael Harrington labeled over 60 years ago as “the socially invisible“ have become more visible since 2020. When numerous other issues are assessed, including poverty in America, as Matthew Desmond reminds us, the inequities not only stack up but the picture that emerges is exceptional only in deeply distressing ways, with development extremely uneven and poverty rates unmoved for decades. On many levels, notwithstanding the size of the economy, the strength of the military, or excellence in higher education, the U.S. has many characteristics more in common with those the World Bank labels as “less developed.”

American exceptionalism in context

Midway to 2030, it is time to not only retire the label of the U.S. as developed but to deploy disaggregated data by race, gender, and where possible, locality—city-level data—and align with SDG targets and indicators to forge more just and healthy communities. In fact, when we have such data, the findings make clear why the SDGs apply to the U.S. and not just the Global South. If that does not happen, numerous communities and millions of Americans will continue to be left behind well beyond 2030.

What follows is not a systematic examination of all the inequities plaguing the U.S. Instead, I offer a few examples suggestive of the larger phenomenon where the U.S. is not meeting the basic needs of millions: reduced life expectancy, spikes in maternal mortality, persistent food insecurity, and poverty levels—none of which resemble peer nations.

These are not new findings, but they have gotten worse in recent years. In 1990, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study looking at the “survival analysis show[ing] that black men in Harlem were less likely to reach the age of 65 than men in Bangladesh.” Fast forward several decades, and shifting to Washington D.C., disaggregated data on the life expectancy of Black men before and during COVID-19 still compared negatively with men in Bangladesh. In 2021, the life expectancy of men in Bangladesh was 73.6 years. For that same year, estimated life expectancy for Black men in the nation’s capital was 65.2. More broadly, the dire declines in life expectancy across several demographics in the U.S.—particularly “the young, the poor, and the vulnerable”—is startling as John Burn-Murdoch reports in the Financial Times.

With regard to maternal mortality, the U.S. has ranked last among industrialized countries for many years. What happens when we pull forward data on Black Americans? The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports a sharp rise in 2021 when Black women experienced 69.9 maternal deaths per 100,000. That rate is just below the 70 deaths per 100,000 that the WHO has set worldwide for the SDG target to reduce maternal mortality. Compare the aggregated maternal mortality rate for the U.S. in 2021: The number is 31 per 100,000 (a 40 percent spike from previous years). In comparison, the average maternal death rates in the UK and in Western Europe were 4, in Eastern Europe 12, and in Central Asia 24 per 100,000 for 2021, according to the Gates Foundation. No wonder some argue that the U.S. is the most dangerous place in the “developed world” to give birth.

In the capital of the world’s richest country, in the fiscal year 2022, 22 percent of its residents relied on the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) to address food insecurity. That’s nearly twice the percentage of Americans in the U.S. that were on SNAP. Most strikingly, nearly a quarter of children (23.9 percent) in Washington D.C., according to the same source, lived below the poverty line. That’s less than but near the number of children in poverty in the poorest state in the U.S., Mississippi at 27.7 percent. Those are exceptional numbers for the richest country on earth.  

More examples of how Americans’ basic needs are not being met could have included the millions who lack access to clean drinking water or sanitation. Tracking these needs and relating them to the SDGs, and then translating percentages into the numbers of people affected would illuminate who is being left behind, a methodology that McArthur and Rasmussen developed to assess the SDGs in Canada. Were such disaggregated data delivered in real time—fixing the current data gaps and lags—they could help drive changes in policies and funds and the conditions of communities.

Not meeting the basic needs of millions of Americans is, alas, not the only way the U.S. is exceptional. Consider that Myanmar, Haiti, South Sudan, Yemen, and the U.S. are the only countries in the world to never have delivered or committed to deliver at least one Voluntary National Review—the way in which the world measures and communicates about the SDGs. When it comes to the rights of the child, the U.S. is the only country in the world not to have ratified the relevant U.N. Convention. (A decade ago, Somalia was the only other country on the list but signed on in 2015.) The U.S. is in the minority to not have signed the Rome Statute and joined the International Criminal Court despite policies advancing human rights around the world. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world, while the vast majority of the nearly 1 percent of the U.S. population incarcerated are Black, Latino, or Indigenous. The next four countries on the list? Rwanda, Turkmenistan, El Salvador, and Cuba. The era of American double standards—leading Summits for Democracy while appearing on such lists—needs to come to an end.

How to change

Is it problematic to focus on such negative examples of American exceptionalism? Does it feed the “what aboutism” practiced for decades by Soviet and Russian leaders? Does it diminish the misery experienced in other parts of the world where vastly more people’s basic needs are not met?  Do these examples eclipse the leap made in just one generation in my own family—from a shtetl in Eastern Europe to Yale University and the United Nations?

Ignoring, or worse, not even gathering disaggregated data, only reinforces the sorrow and the violence inherent in the inequities experienced by many communities across the country. When we talk about the U.S. as a “developed” country while focusing on the needs of the “developing” world, in effect, millions of Americans are left out of the picture, while directing our gaze to the more “exotic” poor, a point detailed by Anand Giridharadas.

Fortunately, there are ways to tackle these problems. From the first day in office, the Biden administration set in motion numerous policies to address domestic inequities. Some of the policies Congress and the White House enacted in 2021 had swift but short-lived impact: The expanded Child Tax Credit temporarily “lifted 2.9 million children out of poverty” or cut the child poverty rate nearly in half. These policies made sense morally but also strategically; meeting people’s basic needs at home helps leverage the U.S. work around the world to advance democracy and human rights.  The administration has, however, not yet embraced the 2030 Agenda as have all its peers and many others including China. By not committing to the SDGs, the administration is obscuring the development framework that the Obama-Biden administration helped shape and risks continuing to leave some Americans behind at the same time it cedes ground to China internationally. Advancing sustainable development at home and abroad impacts our ability to compete in the world and remain a global leader.  It is time for the U.S. to become exceptional in a way that finally leaves no one behind—here and everywhere.

[varun0096]

Your Guide to Choosing Health Insurance with Comprehensive Maternity Benefits

Choosing health insurance with comprehensive maternity benefits is a vital step for families planning to expand. With India's fertility rate at approximately 2.0 children per woman, as reported by the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-2021), understanding maternity coverage is essential for financial and emotional preparedness. The average cost of childbirth in India can range from ₹30,000 to ₹2,50,000, depending on the type of delivery and healthcare facility. This article will guide you through key considerations when selecting a health insurance policy that offers robust maternity benefits.

Why Maternity Coverage Matters

Rising Healthcare Costs Childbirth can be financially burdensome, especially in urban areas where private healthcare facilities charge higher fees. With the increasing cost of prenatal and postnatal care, maternity insurance serves as a safety net, reducing out-of-pocket expenses.

Coverage for Complications Approximately 15% to 20% of pregnancies may face complications, according to various studies. Having comprehensive maternity coverage can protect families from unexpected medical expenses during this critical time.

Key Features to Look For

Comprehensive Coverage Ensure the policy covers a range of services, including:

Prenatal consultations

Delivery expenses (normal and cesarean)

Postnatal care

Newborn care (vaccinations, pediatric consultations)

Waiting Period Most plans impose a waiting period of 9 to 12 months before maternity benefits become active. Choose a plan that aligns with your family planning timeline to avoid gaps in coverage.

Sum Insured Evaluate the sum insured offered by the policy. The sum should be adequate to cover both normal and cesarean deliveries, along with potential complications. It's wise to select a plan that provides a higher sum insured to account for rising healthcare costs.

Network Hospitals Check the network of hospitals associated with the insurer. A wide network allows access to quality healthcare facilities, ensuring you receive the best care during pregnancy and childbirth.

Additional Benefits Look for plans that offer extra features such as:

Coverage for fertility treatments

Maternity leave benefits

Discounts on prenatal classes or baby products

Financial Considerations

Premiums and Affordability Compare premiums across different policies while considering the benefits provided. Ensure that the premiums fit within your budget without compromising necessary coverage.

Exclusions and Limitations Read the policy document carefully to identify any exclusions, such as pre-existing conditions or specific complications. Being aware of these exclusions can help avoid surprises when filing claims.

Claim Settlement Ratio Investigate the claim settlement ratio of the insurance provider. A higher ratio indicates reliability in settling claims, which is particularly important during pregnancy.

Assessing Your Needs

Family Planning Timeline: Assess when you plan to start a family and choose a policy with a suitable waiting period.

Health History: Consider any hereditary health issues that could affect your pregnancy and ensure your chosen plan covers them.

Financial Situation: Analyze your current financial situation and future expenses to determine how much coverage is necessary.

Conclusion

Choosing health insurance with comprehensive maternity benefits is crucial for families planning for a child. By understanding the essential features and evaluating different plans, families can secure adequate coverage that alleviates financial stress during pregnancy and childbirth. Investing in the right maternity health insurance not only provides financial protection but also ensures a healthier start for both mother and baby.

For more detailed insights on health insurance options, visit healthinsuranceinfo.in.

[rupalic]

Driving Efficiency with Specialty Enzymes: A Look at Technological Advancements

Specialty enzymes are specific proteins designed to catalyse biochemical reactions for specialized applications in various industries. These enzymes are tailored to meet the unique requirements of different industrial processes, enhancing efficiency, specificity, and performance. The global specialty enzymes market size is estimated to be valued at USD 6.1 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 9.2 billion by 2029, recording a CAGR of 8.5%.

Key Applications of Specialty Enzymes:

Food and Beverage Industry:

Baking: Enzymes like amylases and proteases improve dough handling and bread quality.

Dairy: Lactases break down lactose, aiding in the production of lactose-free products.

Brewing: Proteases and beta-glucanases improve filtration and clarity in beer production.

Pharmaceuticals:

Therapeutic Enzymes: Used to treat diseases such as enzyme replacement therapies for lysosomal storage disorders.

Diagnostic Enzymes: Enzymes like glucose oxidase are used in biosensors for blood glucose monitoring.

Biofuels:

Cellulases and Hemicellulases: Break down plant biomass into fermentable sugars for ethanol production.

Lipases: Enhance biodiesel production by breaking down fats and oils.

Textile Industry:

Amylases: Remove starch-based sizing agents from fabrics.

Cellulases: Provide a soft finish to fabrics and improve color brightness.

Agriculture:

Phytases: Improve the bioavailability of phosphorus in animal feed, enhancing nutrition.

Proteases: Enhance the digestibility of feed proteins for better animal growth.

Enzymes sourced from animals hold a significant specialty enzymes market share

Animal-derived enzymes are often preferred for their high specificity and efficiency in catalyzing biochemical reactions, which is essential in various specialized processes. Pancreatic enzymes, such as trypsin and chymotrypsin, are extensively used in drug formulation and the production of biologics. These enzymes facilitate the precise cleavage of peptide bonds, crucial for developing and manufacturing therapeutic proteins and peptides. Their specificity and activity levels make them indispensable in pharmaceutical applications, significantly contributing to their market share.

Moreover, animal-derived enzymes are essential in clinical diagnostics. For example, rennet, obtained from the stomachs of calves, is used in the coagulation process for cheese production, highlighting their importance in the food industry. In clinical settings, enzymes like lactase, derived from animal sources, are used in diagnostic kits to test for lactose intolerance, demonstrating their versatility and utility in both food processing and medical diagnostics.

A notable example of the significance of animal-sourced enzymes is the use of thrombin, derived from bovine sources, in surgical procedures. Thrombin is crucial for promoting blood clotting and is used in topical hemostatic agents to control bleeding during surgeries. The high efficacy and reliability of thrombin in medical applications underscore the importance of animal-derived enzymes in the specialty enzymes market.

Factors Driving the Specialty Enzymes Market Growth

Public funding and incentives for biotechnological research are critical drivers of growth and innovation in the specialty enzymes market. The EU’s Horizon Europe program, with a budget of USD 103.6 billion for 2021-2027, is focused on research and innovation, including biotechnology. This program supports projects aimed at developing advanced biotechnological processes and products. In the United States, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) allocated over USD 42.0 billion for biomedical research in 2022, with part of this funding directed towards biotechnology research, including the development of novel enzymes for medical and industrial applications.

In India, the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) plays a significant role in fostering innovation and growth within the specialty enzymes market. Established by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government of India, BIRAC actively supports biotech startups and research institutions through various funding schemes. One of the key initiatives is the Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) scheme, which provides early-stage funding to startups and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas in biotechnology. In July 2020, BIRAC allocated Rs. 50 crores (approximately USD 6.7 million) under the BIG scheme to support around 100 startups and entrepreneurs in the biotechnology sector. This funding aims to catalyze innovation, encourage entrepreneurship, and accelerate the development of novel enzyme-based solutions for various applications in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. By providing financial support and fostering a conducive ecosystem for research and development, initiatives like BIRAC’s BIG scheme contribute significantly to the growth and competitiveness of the enzyme market in India.

Top Specialty Enzymes Companies

BRAIN Biotech AG (Germany)

Novozymes A/S (Denmark)

Codexis, Inc. (US)

Sanofi (France)

Merck KGaA (Germany)

Dyadic International Inc (US)

Advanced Enzyme Technologies (India)

Amano Enzyme Inc (Japan)

F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd (Switzerland)

New England Biolabs (US)

BBI Solutions (UK)

North America region to dominate the specialty enzymes industry during the forecast period.

North America holds the highest market share in the specialty enzymes market due to several key factors. The region is home to a robust pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, characterized by significant investments in research and development. This investment landscape fosters innovation, leading to the development of advanced enzyme-based solutions. For instance, companies like Codexis, Inc. (US), are at the forefront of enzyme engineering, continuously developing new enzymes for pharmaceutical and industrial applications.

Moreover, the presence of well-established healthcare infrastructure and a high demand for diagnostic tools contribute to the market’s growth. Specialty enzymes are crucial in various diagnostic applications, including ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) tests, which are widely used in medical diagnostics. The increasing prevalence of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes in North America drives the demand for these advanced diagnostic tools, further propelling the specialty enzymes industry.

[amrutatbrc1]

Referral Management Market 2024-2033 : Demand, Trend, Segmentation, Forecast, Overview And Top Companies 

The referral management global market report 2024 from The Business Research Company provides comprehensive market statistics, including global market size, regional shares, competitor market share, detailed segments, trends, and opportunities. This report offers an in-depth analysis of current and future industry scenarios, delivering a complete perspective for thriving in the industrial automation software market.

Referral Management Market, 2024 report by The Business Research Company offers comprehensive insights into the current state of the market and highlights future growth opportunities.

Market Size - The referral management market size has grown rapidly in recent years. It will grow from $4.03 billion in 2023 to $4.78 billion in 2024 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.7%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to growth in healthcare services and patient referrals, demand for coordinated care and specialist access, expansion of electronic health records and data sharing, development of referral management software, regulatory standards for patient data privacy..

The referral management market size is expected to see rapid growth in the next few years. It will grow to $9.14 billion in 2028 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.6%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to customized referral management solutions for specific healthcare organizations, integration of ai and predictive analytics in referrals, sustainable and eco-friendly referral management practices, expansion in digital health and remote monitoring, adoption of referral management in population health.. Major trends in the forecast period include regulatory compliance in patient data security and referral processes, smart and automated referral management solutions, personalized referral pathways for specific patient needs, transparency in referral networks and patient outcomes, integration of ai for real-time referral optimization..

Order your report now for swift delivery @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/report/referral-management-global-market-report

The Business Research Company's reports encompass a wide range of information, including:

1. Market Size (Historic and Forecast): Analysis of the market's historical performance and projections for future growth.

2. Drivers: Examination of the key factors propelling market growth.

3. Trends: Identification of emerging trends and patterns shaping the market landscape.

4. Key Segments: Breakdown of the market into its primary segments and their respective performance.

5. Focus Regions and Geographies: Insight into the most critical regions and geographical areas influencing the market.

6. Macro Economic Factors: Assessment of broader economic elements impacting the market.

Market Drivers - Government initiatives to incorporate IT solutions in healthcare systems are expected to propel the growth of the referral management market. Government initiatives refer to initiatives taken by the government. It is an important act or statement that is intended to solve public problems. Information technology is important in the healthcare industry and helps to assist in the delivery of more accurate, actionable, and accessible information related to patients' health. For instance, in 2021, according to Health care news, an India-based healthcare newspaper, the Indian government launched its latest digital health project named Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission. With this mission, the Indian government plans to digitalize health infrastructure in India. In addition, in 2021, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare allocated $11.5 billion in the union budget for the development of this project. Therefore, the government initiatives to incorporate IT solutions in healthcare systems are driving the growth of the referral management market.

 The referral management market covered in this report is segmented –

1) By Type: Self-Referral, Professional-Referral, Third Party-Referral 2) By Component: Software, Services 3) By Delivery Mode: Web-Based Delivery Mode, Cloud-Based Delivery Mode, On-Premise Delivery Mode 4) By End User: Provider, Payer, Other End Users

Get an inside scoop of the referral management market, Request now for Sample Report @ https://www.thebusinessresearchcompany.com/sample.aspx?id=6851&type=smp

Regional Insights - North America was the largest region in the referral management market in 2023. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the referral management market share during the forecast period. The regions covered in the referral management market report include Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East and Africa.

Key Companies - Major companies operating in the referral management market include Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc., CarePort Health Inc., The Advisory Board Company, eHealth Technologies Inc., Kyruus Inc., Arcadia Data Inc., Dental Care Links LLC, McKesson Corporation, ReferralMD Inc., Keet Health Inc., Change Healthcare Holdings Inc., Conifer Health Solutions LLC, Fibroblast Inc., L3Harris Technologies Inc., athenahealth Inc., Cerner Corporation, Eceptionist Inc., InSync Healthcare Solutions LLC, AristaMD Inc., HealthLinkNow Inc., Healthgrades Operating Company Inc., HealthTap Inc., Healthwise Inc., Healthcare Resource Services LLC, Innovaccer Inc., InteliChart Inc., Luma Health Inc., Medici Technologies Inc., Medtronic plc, MyHealthDirect Inc., NextGen Healthcare Inc., Nudge Inc., PatientPop Inc., Phynd Technologies Inc., Qventus Inc., Radix Health Inc., Relatient Inc., SaaS Healthcare Inc., Salesforce.com Inc., SCI Solutions Inc., SimpleVisit Inc., Solutionreach Inc., Stericycle Inc., Teladoc Health Inc., TigerConnect Inc., Updox LLC, VSee Lab Inc., WellSky Corporation, Zocdoc Inc.

Table of Contents 1. Executive Summary 2. Referral Management Market Report Structure 3. Referral Management Market Trends And Strategies 4. Referral Management Market – Macro Economic Scenario 5. Referral Management Market Size And Growth ….. 27. Referral Management Market Competitor Landscape And Company Profiles 28. Key Mergers And Acquisitions 29. Future Outlook and Potential Analysis 30. Appendix

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[amrutmnm]

Top Factors Fueling Growth in the Global Missile Defense System Market

The Global Missile Defense System Market has witnessed significant advancements, driven by escalating geopolitical tensions and technological innovations. As nations invest heavily in military defense to safeguard borders and maintain a strategic advantage, the demand for advanced missile defense systems continues to surge.

According to market projections, the industry is poised for steady growth, with the market size expected to rise from USD 23.82 billion in 2021 to USD 28.96 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 3.9%.

In this comprehensive blog, we will delve into the key factors fueling this growth, the impact of COVID-19, emerging trends, opportunities, challenges, and the role of leading market players.

You Can Download Our PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=16924979

Market Drivers

1. Rising Defense Budgets and Programs

One of the primary drivers of the Missile Defense System Market is the consistent increase in defense budgets across the globe. Governments are allocating significant funds to develop and enhance missile defense capabilities in response to growing threats from hostile nations. The US Department of Defense (DoD) alone requested USD 247.3 billion for procurement and research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) funding in 2020. This substantial allocation highlights the strategic importance of missile defense systems in safeguarding national security.

Countries such as India, China, and Saudi Arabia are also investing heavily in defense programs to counter missile threats. The US Missile Defense Agency reports an increase of over 1,200 additional ballistic missiles globally over the past five years. These rising threats have necessitated the development of advanced defense technologies, propelling market growth.

2. Increasing Investments in Early Warning Systems

Early warning systems for detecting potential air and missile attacks have become critical for national defense strategies. Countries are increasingly relying on these systems to detect, track, and intercept enemy missiles. For instance, Northrop Grumman Corporation secured a contract with the Polish government to develop battle management systems aimed at enhancing their missile defense capabilities.

The demand for intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and hypersonic missiles has grown, requiring sophisticated early warning and tracking systems. Investments in these technologies are expected to further drive market growth over the forecast period.

COVID-19 Impact on the Missile Defense System Market

The global defense industry faced several challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the missile defense sector experiencing its share of setbacks. While the industry was not severely affected, economic disruptions and reduced defense expenditure in 2020 resulted in delays to key programs and research and development initiatives.

Supply chain disruptions led to delays in the production and testing of missile defense technologies. The postponement of several contracts and projects hindered the progress of various defense programs, particularly in countries with limited financial resources. Despite these setbacks, the industry is expected to recover as defense budgets stabilize post-pandemic, with renewed focus on critical defense technologies.

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Key Market Trends

1. Emergence of Hypersonic Missiles

The development of hypersonic missiles represents one of the most significant trends in the missile defense system market. Capable of reaching speeds exceeding Mach 5, these missiles pose a significant threat to existing missile defense shields. Countries such as India, Russia, and China are developing hypersonic missile systems that are challenging to intercept using traditional defense technologies.

To address this threat, nations are investing in next-generation missile defense systems that can intercept hypersonic missiles. The hypersonic missile segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of 7.78% from 2021 to 2026, driven by continuous R&D in missile technologies.

2. Technological Advancements in Defense Systems

Technological advancements are revolutionizing missile defense systems. Governments are prioritizing the development of high-speed missiles and stealth technology. Countries like the US, Russia, and Israel are leading efforts in the development of high-tech missile interceptors and electronic warfare systems.

For example, Boeing’s Huntsville operations were awarded a contract modification in 2020 to enhance missile defense capabilities that protect the US from long-range ballistic missile attacks. Additionally, the BrahMos missile jointly developed by India and Russia is among the most advanced missile systems in the world, emphasizing the importance of cutting-edge defense technologies in maintaining a strategic advantage.

Challenges Facing the Missile Defense System Market

1. High Cost of Missile Defense Systems

One of the major challenges facing the missile defense system market is the high cost of developing and maintaining these systems. The complexity of the technology and the resources required to develop interceptors, early warning systems, and missile launchers contribute to significant expenses. For instance, the US Army spent over USD 23 billion on the development of the Safeguard Anti-ballistic Missile (ABM) system, but it was shut down due to its exorbitant operating costs.

Despite the strategic importance of missile defense systems, the high cost of development often delays programs or forces governments to reconsider budget allocations. As a result, companies operating in the sector must balance cost efficiency with technological advancements to remain competitive.

2. Limited Interception Capabilities

Current missile defense systems primarily focus on intercepting missiles in the mid-course or terminal stages of their trajectory. However, there is growing recognition of the need for "boost-phase" interception, where missiles are intercepted at the start of their launch, a phase where they are slowest.

The development of boost-phase intercept systems has been controversial due to the technical and financial challenges associated with deploying interceptors in space or utilizing advanced technologies like drones and lasers. Despite these challenges, research in this area is ongoing, and advancements could significantly enhance global missile defense capabilities in the future.

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Opportunities for Growth

1. Development of New-Generation Missile Defense Systems

The rapid development of new-generation missile systems with nuclear capabilities and advanced stealth technology presents an opportunity for growth in the missile defense market. Governments are heavily investing in multi-domain missile defense systems, including ground-based, air-based, and space-based defense technologies.

For instance, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin are developing integrated missile defense systems that can track and intercept threats across multiple domains. These innovations are expected to drive significant market growth over the next decade as nations seek to protect critical infrastructure and military assets from advanced missile threats.

2. Rising Demand for Integrated Defense Solutions

With the increasing complexity of missile threats, countries are prioritizing integrated missile defense solutions that combine various defense technologies, including surveillance, radar systems, and early warning systems. This integration provides a more comprehensive approach to missile defense and allows for real-time decision-making in combat situations.

Countries like Poland, Saudi Arabia, and Japan are actively investing in integrated missile defense systems, creating lucrative opportunities for companies specializing in multi-domain integration technologies.

Regional Insights

North America Leads the Market

The North American missile defense system market is projected to hold the largest market share from 2021 to 2026, driven by significant defense investments in the US. Leading defense companies such as Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon Technologies are based in the US, contributing to the region's dominance in the global market.

In addition to the US, countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including India and China, are emerging as key players due to rising defense budgets and growing threats from neighboring countries. These regions are expected to witness substantial growth in the missile defense system market over the forecast period.

Key Market Players

The Missile Defense System Market is dominated by globally recognized players, including:

Northrop Grumman Corporation (US)

Lockheed Martin (US)

Boeing (US)

Raytheon Technologies (US)

General Dynamics Corporation (US)

These companies are at the forefront of technological innovation and are actively investing in R&D to develop next-generation missile defense systems that meet the evolving needs of national defense.

The global missile defense system market is poised for steady growth, driven by increasing defense budgets, technological advancements, and rising geopolitical tensions. Despite challenges such as high costs and limited interception capabilities, opportunities for growth remain robust. Key players are well-positioned to capitalize on these trends by developing integrated defense solutions that meet the demands of modern warfare.

As nations continue to prioritize defense, the missile defense system market is set to remain a critical component of global security strategies, providing innovative solutions to counter emerging threats.

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Best Surrogacy Centre in Mumbai: Your Path to Parenthood

Surrogacy has become a viable option for many couples and individuals who face challenges in conceiving naturally. With advancements in reproductive technologies, surrogacy provides a solution for those struggling with infertility, same-sex couples, and single parents desiring to start a family. Mumbai, a leading city in medical innovations, is home to some of the best surrogacy centers in India, offering world-class treatments and care.

If you are searching for the best surrogacy centre in Mumbai, this article will guide you through the key aspects to consider when choosing a clinic and why Mumbai has become a top destination for surrogacy.

What to Expect from the Best Surrogacy Centre in Mumbai?

Choosing the right surrogacy center is crucial for a smooth and successful journey to parenthood. The best surrogacy centers in Mumbai provide comprehensive care from the initial consultation to the delivery of the child. Here are some factors to consider when selecting the best surrogacy centre in Mumbai:

Experienced Medical Team: The expertise of fertility specialists, embryologists, and gynecologists plays a significant role in the success of surrogacy. The top surrogacy centers in Mumbai are staffed with highly qualified professionals who specialize in reproductive medicine and surrogacy treatments.

Advanced Technology: The success of surrogacy heavily depends on cutting-edge technology and modern techniques such as In Vitro Fertilization (IVF), Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), and Preimplantation Genetic Testing (PGT). The best centers are equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories to ensure the best outcomes.

Legal Support and Guidance: Surrogacy laws in India are complex, and it’s essential to be fully aware of the legal implications. The best surrogacy centres in Mumbai offer legal assistance and ensure that all procedures comply with the Surrogacy Regulation Act of 2021, protecting both intended parents and the surrogate.

Supportive Environment: Surrogacy is an emotionally charged process, and intended parents often need psychological and emotional support. The top centers ensure that counseling services are available to assist both intended parents and surrogates throughout the journey.

Affordable Packages: Cost is an important consideration, especially since surrogacy can be a significant financial commitment. Mumbai’s leading surrogacy centers offer a range of packages that are transparent and tailored to meet the needs and budgets of intended parents.

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Why Choose Mumbai for Surrogacy?

Mumbai has rapidly grown as a hub for fertility treatments and surrogacy due to its medical expertise, advanced technology, and professional support. Here are some reasons why the best surrogacy centres in Mumbai are highly recommended:

High Success Rates: Mumbai is home to some of the most successful surrogacy programs in India, with a high success rate for both domestic and international couples. The use of advanced techniques and the availability of skilled professionals contribute to the success of surrogacy in the city.

Diverse Pool of Surrogates: The best surrogacy centres in Mumbai maintain a database of healthy, pre-screened surrogates. These surrogates undergo thorough medical and psychological assessments to ensure that they are capable of carrying a pregnancy to term.

World-Class Facilities: Mumbai’s surrogacy centers are equipped with the latest technology and offer services comparable to international standards. This ensures that intended parents receive the highest level of care and success.

Legal Compliance: Surrogacy in India is governed by stringent laws, and the best centres in Mumbai adhere to these regulations to provide a secure and transparent process for intended parents and surrogates.

Conclusion

If you are considering surrogacy as a means to build your family, finding the best surrogacy centre in Mumbai is the first step towards realizing your dream. With experienced professionals, state-of-the-art technology, and comprehensive legal support, Mumbai offers some of the best options for surrogacy in India. The journey to parenthood can be overwhelming, but the right surrogacy center will guide and support you every step of the way.

For more information on surrogacy treatments and personalized care, reach out to Select IVF.

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