Balancing act of a Growth Enterprise: Ybrant Digital

Ybrant Digital, a digital marketing company, has found success by maintaining a healthy balance between organic and inorganic growth. As it grows from strength to strength, the company’s top management see it emerging as a leader as fragmented markets consolidate themselves in the future.

Where there is media, there is content creation. And this content creation requires monetization. With the digital medium, digital marketing is a critical element to growth, Ybrant Digital (Ybrant). And Ybrant’s objective is to focus on the monetization by fundamentally helping content builders find suitable advertisers and providing advertisers with an effective medium.

However, this business clarity took its time. The company began as a digital greeting cards concern in the U.S. and morphed with a change in market dynamics. There is a definite difference between having a business plan and implementing it in the face of market realities. They went from being a dot com to a services provider to advertising networks in the U.S. That team saw this move was impacting them positively and prompted a decision to climb higher in the value chain. This was a move that was more due to opportunity as opposed to facing a difficulty. And if turnovers tell a story, the move was certainly in the right direction. Ybrant Digital ended 2011 with revenues of close to 272 Cr and today, its presence has spread to over 20 countries.

 

Psychiatric disorders effective remedy: Yoga

Yoga – the 5,000-year-old Indian meditative practice – may have positive effects on major psychiatric disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and sleep problems, according to a review of over 100 studies.A systematic review of the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders by Indian origin researchers found yoga has positive effects on mild depression and sleep complaints, even in the absence of drug treatments, and improves symptoms associated with schizophrenia and ADHD. The review focusing on 16 high-quality controlled studies looked at the effects of yoga on depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, sleep complaints, eating disorders and cognition problems.However, yoga has become such a cultural phenomenon that it has become difficult for physicians and patients to differentiate legitimate claims from hype.

Researcher P Murali Doraiswamy, professor of psychiatry and medicine at Duke University Medical Center, US, explained that the emerging scientific evidence in support of yoga on psychiatric disorders is “highly promising” and showed that it may not only help to improve symptoms, but also play ancillary role in the prevention of stress-related mental illnesses.The review found evidence from biomarker studies showing that yoga influences key elements of the human body thought to play a role in mental health in similar ways to that of antidepressants and psychotherapy.One study found that the exercise affects inflammation, neurotransmitters, oxidative stress, lipids, growth factors and second messengers.While there has been an increase in the number of medications available for mental health disorders, many of which can be life saving for patients.Poor compliance and relapse as well as treatment resistance are growing problems, and medications are expensive and can leave patients with significant side effects.

 

 

 

 

Transparency in labeling food packages: Important

Different labels on food that clearly display the total number of calories and nutrients in the entire package, rather than just part of it, might help people make healthier food choices, according to a study from the US Food and Drug Administration.FDA researchers, whose results appeared in Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, found that people were best at assessing things like chips and frozen meals – and comparing the healthfulness of multiple products – when the nutrition facts were presented for the entire container’s worth of food, or for both one serving and the entire container.This does away with the need to multiply the nutrition facts listed by the number of servings per package if people want to eat it all.Amy Lando and Serena Lo from the FDA surveyed close to 9,500 US adults, showing them one of the 10 different types of food labels that presented calories and nutrients per serving, or per container, in a variety of ways.Participants were asked how healthy they thought different products were, including how much fat, for example, was in one serving. They then compared types of chips or frozen meals to determine which was healthier.Currently, manufacturers are given a lot of leeway when it comes to deciding how much a serving size is, according to study.To make products appear healthier, some companies have started increasing the number of servings listed per container, thus lowering the number of calories per serving. All of that adds to consumers’ confusion.Researchers warned that it’s still not known whether clearer nutrition facts would change what people choose to buy or eat, and it’s also unclear if and when the FDA might issue changes to labeling requirements.But having a system that lists the nutrients for one serving and an entire package – as some products do already – would help simplify things,It’s so important to make the information as transparent as you can make it for consumers.

 

 

 

FilmFare 2013

Anurag Kashyap’s gritty tale about the power struggle between three families in ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ and Anurag Basu’s narration about a speech and hearing impaired boy’s search for love in ‘Barfi’ dominated the glittering Filmfare Awards, India’s equivalent to the Oscars. Barfi won the Best Film at the awards held at Mumbai’s YRF studios. Ranbir Kapoor and Vidya Balan won the Best actors male and female awards respectively. Kahaani won five awards including best director for Sujoy Ghosh. Music director Pritam won both the Best Background Score and Best Music Director awards for Barfi’s superb score. ‘Barfi!’ had won the maximum nominations, including for best film, best actor, best actress and best director. Yash Chopra’s last directorial ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ followed close behind.

The first trophy of the night went to Manoshi Nath and Rushi Sharma for Best Costume in Shanghai. Anushka Sharma and Annu Kapoor clinched the awards for Best Actors in a Supporting Role (Female and Male) for ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ and Vicky Donor. Juhi Chaturvedi won the Best Writer for Vicky Donor.Sanjay Chouhan and Tigmanshu Dhulia won the Best Screenplay for the much applauded Paan Singh Tomar, a narration of an outlawed athlete. Anurag Kashyap, Akhilesh Jaiswal, Sachin K Ladia and Zeishan Qadri won the Filmfare award for Best Dialogue for Gangs of Wasseypur. The Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor Female and Male went to Richa Chaddha for Gangs Of Wasseypur and Irrfan for Paan Singh Tomar. Award for Best Film (Critics) went to Anurag Kashyap’s Gangs Of Wasseypur. Ayushmann Khurrana (Vicky Donor), Ileana D’cruz (Barfi), and Gauri Shinde (English Vinglish) won the best Male, Female and Director debuts respectively.The awards paid tribute to the late Yash Chopra with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award. Barfi also won the Sony Trendsetter of the Year award.

 

60 million licenses sold: Microsoft

Microsoft Corp has sold 60 million licenses and upgrades for its new Windows 8 operating system in the 10 weeks since its launch, one of the top executives of the company’s Windows unit said at the Consumer Electronics Show.The sales are in line with those of Windows 7, Microsoft’s last operating system launched in 2009, said Tami Reller, chief financial officer of the Windows division. Reller did not say how many of its new Surface tablets Microsoft had sold.

 

 

Dramatic Owaisi arrest

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi, who was arrested on the charge of not cooperating with the police in connection with the hate speech case against him, has been sent to 14-day judicial custody. Sources say Owaisi was arrested as the police officers were not convinced by the MLA’s explanation that he had gone to London for medical treatment. Owaisi was on 8th Jan’13 night taken to Nirmal in Adilabad district of Andhra Pradesh where an FIR has been registered against him for allegedly delivering a hate speech. Owaisi’s lawyer Shafiuddin Khan on Tuesday accused the police of arresting the MLA arbitrarily. He claimed that the MLA was not well and could collapse due the stress after his arrest. Akbaruddin Owaisi never wanted to evade the law, he had been cooperating. Owaisi had not eaten food since morning, he was not even given the medical report. We have not been informed by the police where Owaisi has been taken. Owaisi was not allowed to go to his house also, Owaisi had gone to London for re-evaluation and medical check-up. Two FIRs were registered suo motu at Adilabad and Nizamabad districts while a third case was registered by Osmania University police, following a court directive after Owaisi allegedly used inflammatory language against a particular community in December 2012. Owaisi has been booked under Sec 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion) and Sec 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings) of IPC. The MIM legislator has also been booked under Sec 121 (waging or attempting to wage war, or abetting waging of war, against the Government of India) of IPC. Meanwhile, Owaisi’s lawyer has filed three more petitions in the court demanding medical treatment and higher security for the MIM MLA.

 

 

Stupefying fact: Bio-Fuels cause pollution

Green schemes to fight climate change by producing more bio-fuels could actually worsen a little-known type of air pollution and cause almost 1,400 premature deaths a year in Europe by 2020.The report said trees grown to produce wood fuel – seen as a cleaner alternative to oil and coal – released a chemical into the air that, when mixed with other pollutants, could also reduce farmers’ crop yields.Growing biofuels is thought to be a good thing because it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Biofuels could also have a detrimental effect on air quality. There would be a similar impact wherever biofuels were produced in large quantities in areas suffering air pollution, including the United States and China.Poplar, willow or eucalyptus trees, all used as fast-growing sources of renewable wood fuel, emit high levels of the chemical isoprene as they grow, the study said. Isoprene forms toxic ozone when mixed with other air pollutants in sunlight.Large-scale production of biofuels in Europe would have small but significant effects on human mortality and crop yields.The report estimated that ozone from wood-based energy to meet the European Union’s 2020 goal would cause nearly 1,400 premature deaths a year, costing society USD 7.1 billion.The European plan would also would reduce the annual value of wheat and maize production by USD 1.5 billion since ozone impairs crop growth.

 

 

Ybrant digital’s 2012

An incredible year for a global leader of digital marketing industry, Ybrant Digital. Most of the year’s good news were from Facebook and our growth in this companionship throughout the year. If we see the developments of a previous year, list follows this way:

To start with, Ybrant Digital became their key company by offering privileged advertising features for FB campaigns. Sooner, ybrant  set the trend in the social sphere by becoming part of the Preferred Marketing Program Developer on Facebook, having obtained the relevant certificate under the Advertising API. Ybrant planned to buy an US firm for $175mn and however the deal falls though. Ybrant Digital then acquired some minor stake in Israel based web 3.0 in June. Then the long awaited merger with Hyderabad IT firm LGS Global completed by listing Ybrant digital in BSE. Then they planned & raised $100mn through PE to fund one of its proposed acquisitions from PE firms like GE Asia Pacific Capital, Oak Investments, Venus Capital and many more. Throughout the year Ybrant, as a leading digital marketing firm have seen many gains and some downsides also. As a whole 2012 helped Ybrant Digital gain more growth in both revenues, sales and market base.

 

A new star with 2 planets in galaxy

For the first time, scientists have observed the birth of two giant planets emitting gas as they orbit their parent star. Seen by Earth’s largest radio telescope, vast streams of gas flowing through a gap in a disc of material around a young star seem to support theories of how the planets grow.The Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile’s Atacama desert reaches farther beyond the skies than any other radio telescope. Vast streams of gas are flowing across a gap in the disc of material around a young star, The European Southern Observatory (ESO) observed.Astronomers studied the young star HD 142527, over 450 light-years from Earth, which is surrounded by a disc of gas and cosmic dust – the remains of the cloud from which the star formed.

The study result was published in the journal Nature. The dusty disc is divided into an inner and an outer part by a gap, which is thought to have been carved by newly forming gas giant planets clearing out their orbits as they circle the star.The inner disc reaches from the star out to the equivalent of the orbit of Saturn in the Solar System, while the outer disc begins about 14 times further out. The outer disc does not surround the star uniformly, instead, it has a horseshoe shape, probably caused by the gravitational effect of the orbiting giant planets.According to theory, the giant planets grow by capturing gas from the outer disc, in streams that form bridges acrossthe gap in the disc. “Astronomers have been predicting that these streams must exist, but this is the first time we have been able to see them directly.The gap in the dusty disc was already known and also discovered diffuse gas remaining in the gap, and two denser streams of gas flowing from the outer disc, across the gap, to the inner disc.The observations answer another question about the disc around HD 142527. As the central star is still forming, by capturing material from the inner disc, it would have already been devoured, if it was not somehow topped up.

 

World’s Richest persons- 2012

Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani is the 18th richest person in the world with a personal wealth of USD 24.7 billion in 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 100 wealthiest individuals.Mexican telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim remained the world’s richest person last year holding a personal fortune of more than USD 70 billion, it said. Ambani, 55, Chairman & MD of Reliance Industries, has also retained his position as the world’s richest Indian for the sixth year in a row and increased his ranking from 19th to 18th position and personal wealth from USD 21 billion to USD 24.7 billion in the world.The world’s top 100 billionaires got even richer in 2012, with their total wealth rising by around 15 per cent to USD 1.81 trillion, it said. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the founder of fashion retailer Zara, Amancio Ortega, rounded out the top three spots, with wealth estimated just over and just under USD 60 billion, respectively.Renowned investor Warren Buffett slipped to fourth place, but added around USD 5 billion to his fortune over the year despite donating a substantial amount to charity last year. IKEA founder Ingvar Kamprad saw his net worth rising 16.6 per cent to approximately USD 40 billion, putting him in fifth place on Bloomberg’s billionaire index.