Latest news with #DownToEarth
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Erratic weather is hurting Indian firms in the biggest consumer market
India experienced extreme weather events on 88% of days in 2024 in one or more parts of the country, according to a database maintained by Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth. Indian companies, already facing a demand slump, are now grappling with unpredictable weather patterns. Unseasonal rains and cooler summers have impacted sales for major players in sectors like air conditioning and beverages, forcing production cuts and inventory adjustments. Businesses are increasingly turning to advanced weather forecasting to mitigate risks and adapt to the growing challenges posed by climate change. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Some of India's largest companies, already hit by a demand slump, are facing a new threat in wooing the country's 1.4 billion consumers: unpredictable weather.A cooler-than-usual summer this year — followed by the earliest onset of rain since 2009 — has hurt companies selling everything from talcum powder to air conditioners. Blue Star Ltd. , one of the largest AC sellers in the country, had to cut production by as much as 25% between April and June, as it saw fewer buyers. It also delayed imports of compressors, a key input, and extended credit to some dealerships saddled with unsold inventories. Rivals Havells Ltd. and Tata-owned Voltas Ltd. also flagged a sales slowdown.'It's like a wedding was to happen, but the wedding has now been canceled,' said B Thiagarajan, managing director at Blue Star, adding that it was a 'painful' time.A four-fold jump in frequency, unpredictability and intensity of extreme weather events in India over the past four decades has made planning and preparedness more demanding for companies. From Hindustan Unilever Ltd. to food delivery app Zomato-owner Eternal Ltd. to engineering giant Larsen & Tourbro Ltd., it's affecting everything from sales to labor and supply chain management in the world's biggest consumer situation as one of the most affected nations by climate change provides a glimpse of what's in store for other major economies as environmental change accelerates. As record-breaking temperatures, rains and other extreme weather occur worldwide, companies are likely to be left scrambling to predict and plan for the earnings calls over the last six months, top management and equity analysts discussed 'delayed summer' and 'delayed winter' the most in five years, according to transcripts analyzed by Bloomberg News.'This quarter is slightly challenging as far as the summer portfolio is concerned,' Mohan Goenka, vice chairman of Emami Ltd., whose products include talc powder, told investors on an earnings call last month. The company will try to make up for the setback through its other segments, he added. Varun Beverages Ltd. , which bottles Pepsi in India, had said in April that it was ramping up production for the summer, expecting higher demand. Instead, unseasonal rains likely hurt performance at the beverage maker, according to analysts at brokerage also flagged weaker demand at Dabur Ltd. , which sells fruit juices, and Tata Consumer Products Ltd. , which sells cold summer demand, 'once missed, is difficult to recover,' analysts at Nuvama, led by Abneesh Roy, said in a note to incidence of heat waves, for example, was among factors causing a shortage of labor at Larsen, even as it split shifts between early morning and late afternoon. Eternal, which operates Zomato and Blinkit, said it faces a seasonal shortage of delivery workers in the Unilever, which sells skincare brands including Ponds and Vaseline, said it saw muted performance in the December quarter partly due to a delayed experienced extreme weather events on 88% of days in 2024 in one or more parts of the country, according to a database maintained by Centre for Science and Environment and Down To Earth. Between 1993 and 2022, the South Asian nation lost about $180 billion to severe heat and rains, the Climate Risk Index 2025 report forecasting in India has been plagued by outdated technology and modeling systems that make it difficult to get accurate bridge this gap, the country launched a new weather model last month to improve its forecasting by doubling the level of detail previously possible. Intended to improve farming and flood management, the model could also help companies as they seek better and more granular data.'Businesses, while they were aware of the financial impact of weather, simply did not have enough reliable data that could be potentially put to use,' said Samuel John, co-founder and CEO of forecasting firm have changed in the half-decade since Covid, and weather forecasting has gone mainstream, John of the farm sector, companies from industries such as consumption, quick commerce, logistics, and construction are increasingly approaching Skymet Weather Services Pvt., its chief executive officer Yogesh Patil said. These newer clients, who seek structured, calendar-linked forecasting dashboards, now make up about half of the Reliance Industries Ltd. unit's has also set up over 750 of its own weather stations across 60 cities to collect detailed companies navigate the new normal of erratic weather, planning and diversification are Star's management is confident of recovering a large portion of the lost sales through the rest of the year, by working with more corporate clients where demand largely remains stable. But climate mitigation is becoming an important subject to Thiagarajan, who has worked in air conditioning for four decades.'Predictability is dropping year after year,' he said. 'You can only be prepared for the worst.'
Yahoo
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Christina Capatides
Christina Capatides is the senior vice president of Social Media and Trending Content for CBS News and Stations. In this role, she oversees social discovery, social production and social TV for the network. Her work in trending content involves the discovery, assignment and production of hundreds of articles and videos per month on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, CBS News 24/7 and She also oversees the social media strategy for CBS News, "CBS Evening News," "CBS Mornings," "Face The Nation," "CBS Sunday Morning," "48 Hours," "CBS Saturday Morning" and The Uplift accounts across social media platforms; reenvisioning broadcast journalism for younger and more diverse audiences. She also oversees the social strategy for CBS News' 14 owned and operated stations: Baltimore, Bay Area, Boston, Chicago, Colorado, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Sacramento and Texas. Under her tenure as head of social media, CBS News' following on Facebook, X, Instagram, and TikTok nearly tripled, increasing by 27 million followers. On TikTok, where CBS News and its numerous show brands have accumulated 10 million followers, over 70% of the network's followers are under 44. Capatides launched CBS News' two major social-first video franchises, "The Uplift" and "Down To Earth," growing them into successful award-winning brands. CBS News' good news brand "The Uplift," having generated many billions of views across social platforms, is now a weekly streaming show that brings viewers heartwarming stories of the best of humanity. "The Uplift" has won multiple awards for digital journalism, including a Shorty Award for Best Use of Facebook, a Telly Award for Online: Viral, and the Cynopsis Award for Viral Video of the Year. "Down To Earth," which showcased cutting-edge longer form reporting from CBS News' foreign correspondents in the form of social-first documentaries, won the 2020 Webby Award for Best Social Video, News & Politics. In 2022, Capatides won the Webby Award for Best Social Video, News & Politics again. This time, for the YouTube documentary, "Black Lives Matter Around The World: The Global Impact of George Floyd". Most recently, the CBS News Planet Instagram page – a social hub for CBS News and Stations' climate content – won an Anthem Award for Sustainability, Environment & Climate. Prior to her current role, Capatides served as a senior producer on CBS Reports documentaries and CBS News streaming specials. Her documentary, "Gender: The Space Between," won a 2018 Telly Award for Social Issues and was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding TV Journalism - Newsmagazine. Capatides joined CBS News in 2015. Previously, she worked for "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Good Morning America," producing and editing daily news packages on the White House, Congress and the Department of Justice, out of ABC News' Washington, D.C. Bureau. Capatides holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and an M.A. from New York University. Did the conclave pick a front-runner to be new pope? World awaits new pope after conclave's vote Trump touts UK trade deal, but U.S. companies fear they won't survive China tariffs
The Independent
03-04-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Two-year-old girl dies from bird flu after eating raw chicken
A two-year-old girl in southern India died from bird flu after eating raw chicken, the first fatality linked to the H5N1 strain since 2021. The toddler, from Palnadu district in Andhra Pradesh state, died on 15 March after developing fever, breathing difficulties and diarrhoea. Authorities said the child contracted the virus after consuming raw chicken. It was not clear if she had been deliberately fed the meat or accidentally eaten it. She was initially admitted to a local health centre but taken to a city hospital on 4 March after her condition deteriorated. A sample test for avian influenza of H5N1 strain at the hospital returned positive, and the patient eventually died despite receiving appropriate medical treatment, the hospital said in a statement. Damodar Naidu, director of animal husbandry in Andhra Pradesh, said the child was admitted to hospital two-three days after consuming the raw chicken, according to Down To Earth. Following the death, he said authorities conducted physical surveillance of all poultry farms in the region, but found no signs of bird flu among poultry. 'There were isolated outbreaks in February but effective control measures were implemented promptly,' Mr Naidu said. 'No traces of the virus were found in the surveyed areas.' However, he urged the public to consume only properly cooked chicken and eggs. 'Poultry should be cooked to at least 70C. Eggs should be boiled and not eaten raw,' he said. No one in the girl's family tested positive for the flu. The federal health ministry deployed an outbreak response team to Andhra Pradesh to assist in the case. Bird flu is caused by a virus that infects birds and sometimes foxes, otters and seals. It rarely infects humans, but a major strain known as H5N1 has caused global health concern. Only five cases of H5N1 and H9N2 strains have been detected in India over the past five years, the Andhra government reported in a statement. An 11-year-old in the northern Haryana state died in the last confirmed human fatality from H5N1 in 2021. The boy died after developing multiorgan dysfunction. According to the WHO, the first human outbreak of the virus took place in 1997 in Hong Kong. There have been a little more than 900 known cases globally since 2003 with nearly 50 per cent proving fatal. in an area where the disease had been confirmed in captive birds. Last year, the strain spread rapidly in dairy cow herds in the US and the US Centres for Disease Control described it as an "ongoing multi-state outbreak".
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- General
- Yahoo
‘I felt ashamed to set up a Crowdfund to pay for my wife's funeral'
Jack Taft sat down to write the GoFundMe page to crowdfund for his wife's funeral feeling a lot of things. The all-consuming panic of loss; disbelief, despair. But simmering at the surface? Shame. 'I am wrapped up in shame that I have to put up a page like this,' he typed. It was a week after his wife Amara's death. The 44-year-old died last November following a 30-month battle with cancer which had spread to her brain. Taft, 33, father to their two grieving little girls, Chloe, six, and Nina, five, had been harbouring this feeling since visiting a funeral director three days beforehand. It was a visit in which he learnt just how much it would cost to arrange the funeral, and specifically, the burial Amara had said she wanted. 'Wanted' only because she felt it was important her daughters have a place to visit her. Taft takes his mind back to the funeral parlour with difficulty. 'It was quite overwhelming,' he recalls, hesitantly. 'And then at the end of the meeting the funeral director shares the cost, and you have a breakdown, and it becomes very clear that for a cremation, for their services, it's around £3,000, and then you have this whole other section which is the cost of a burial, which is another £3,000 pounds. It was more like £6,000.' Taft did not have it. His voice thickens with emotion. 'I had sacrificed everything to be a good husband during the time she was ill, and the sense of shame and failure you feel as a husband to not be able to afford to bury your wife is quite overwhelming.' He repeats those final two words often. His £6,000 bill is not unusual. The last 14 years have seen above-inflation rises in funeral costs, according to Down To Earth, a helpline run by Quaker Social Action which last year saw a 40 per cent increase in struggling callers. The latest Cost Of Dying annual report by SunLife claims funeral costs have soared 134 per cent since its first study 21 years ago. It found the average cost of a simple attended funeral rose from £4,141 in 2023 to £4,285 last year, while overall costs of dying – funeral, professional fees, wake – rose from £9,658 to £9,797. While burial costs are generally higher than cremation, dependent on the area you live in, direct cremation costs have also outstripped inflation. The average cost is now £1,597. The knock-on effect has been a rise in mourners, like Taft, resorting to crowdfunding. Last year, SunLife found one in 16 of those who had significant financial difficulty paying for a funeral tried it – double 2023's numbers. No walk of life is immune. A fundraising page was recently launched on CrowdfunderUK for the funeral of comedian Tony Slattery, 65, who died on Jan 14 of a heart attack. An aim of £8,000 was set but it has now raised over £24,000. Once a razor-sharp wit on Channel 4 show Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Slattery's mental health issues diminished his earnings, leaving his partner Mark Michael Hutchinson struggling. The page explains: 'Because Tony was only just getting back to work, and because his passing was so unexpected, there wasn't a Plan B in place. If you could give just a little towards a funeral for Tony, it would be a huge weight off Mark's shoulders at this miserable time.' The lifting of that weight is what many now seek. Last year, JustGiving saw a 10 per cent rise in donations given for funeral costs compared to 2023. GoFundMe sees 'thousands' of memorial fundraisers each year. In 2024, it saw a 25 per cent rise in donations from 2022. Taft never envisaged finding himself there. He runs an online equestrian business but was not yet drawing a full salary when Amara became ill and had to quit her work as a call operator. The couple claimed benefits, including a carer's allowance for Taft, who eventually had little time to work, but the costs of Amara's illness exacerbated their situation and they crept into debt. Taft went home from the funeral directors' and cried. 'It's hard to comprehend all the costs a funeral director incurs,' he muses. 'I appreciated what they did, but I don't know… I thought, 'am I being ripped off?' I compared it to another funeral director, and they were about the same.' In 2020 the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) made it a legal requirement for funeral directors to be transparent about pricing, but nothing regulates fees. It found funeral director fees will average £2,484, and as they are unregulated, that can climb. Declan Maguire, the president of the National Society Of Allied And Independent Funeral Directors (SAIF) reiterates that 'transparency'. But he adds that the organisation believes SunLife's findings may be 'misleading' because of the changeable definitions within the industry used for different types of funeral. He claims therefore that the true average funeral cost could be lower. He argues there is a difference between SunLife's definition of a 'simple attended funeral', and what the CMA defines as an 'attended funeral' – a type funeral directors are required to offer. The former could include extra price items, such as a limousine and pallbearers, which are not included in the latter. The standard of coffin included within both types can also vary. Maguire says: 'There has never been greater price transparency in funerals and it's very easy for consumers to shop around online before committing to a particular provider. The chances are the cost will be a lot less in your local area.' However, even within CMA's definition of an attended funeral, staggeringly high funeral directors' fees have been found – at the top end in London, up to £4,075; £4,184 in Bournemouth; and £3,395 in Birmingham. That is without the costs of cremation or burial added. Maguire advises seeking support from SAIF funeral directors, urging: 'Be upfront about your budget. They are caring professionals and will do everything they can to assist with a service that meets your needs.' Lindesay Mace, the co-manager of Down To Earth, the only UK-wide service for people struggling with funeral costs, maintains the crucial bottom line is regulation. 'Anyone can set up as a funeral director and charge whatever they want,' she explains. 'The percentage of people paying in instalments has increased,' she adds. 'It can be helpful, but people may also be charged for missed payments.' The mental strain is huge. 'Funeral debt can really prevent people being able to grieve,' she describes. Crematoriums, many run privately, and which have faced hefty energy cost hikes, also face no price cap. Burial costs, often driven by lack of space, are wildly diverse – £6,000 plus is not uncommon in London. Only those in receipt of certain benefits may be eligible for government support. In England and Wales this is a Social Fund Funeral Expenses Payment, which varies in amount – the average payout in 2020-21 was £1,838. Mace explains the payment is 'too low' and not aimed at covering the whole funeral cost 'which is idiotic when the people claiming it are already claiming benefits'. She says payment is often too slow and that applications are too complex. Taft admits he crumbled at 'the sheer length of the form'. Mace adds: 'It's really complicated, over 20 pages long. We are calling on the Government to make its eligibility criteria simpler.' A public health funeral must be provided by local authorities when next of kin are 'unable or unwilling' to make funeral arrangements, but Mace explains a 'postcode lottery effectively exists about what they look like'. She says: 'The content, whether people can attend, even if people can get the ashes back. We are calling for statutory minimum standards.' Taft set a crowdfunding target of £4,500, which was raised in seven hours. Donations spiralled to £9,420. Amara's funeral on Dec 17 cost £6,136 with Taft opting for 'a basic coffin' and a 30-minute service, speaking himself rather than using a celebrant and cutting out cars. He organised a simple wake. A headstone will now cost an additional £1,500. Andy Langford, the clinical director for the bereavement charity Cruse, is categoric about funerals' importance for closure and grieving. 'It's enormous,' he says. 'It can cut down on the long-term impact of grief on people's physical and mental health.' Taft agrees crowdfunding 'probably saved my mental health'. His gratitude is mirrored by other families in the process. Jane Hines, 56, from Kettering, Northants, has an active GoFundMe page for her daughter Leonie French, 29, mum to 10-month-old son Royal, who died on Jan 9 after illness. They have raised over £3,000 so far but are yet to reach a position where they are able to get quotations. Hines had felt 'helpless'. She says: 'The costs are phenomenal, even just a basic funeral. It's such a big weight lifted.' Charlotte Keith, 43, from Islington, London, is grieving her brother Daniel, 39, a scaffolder, who went missing and was found dead on Jan 15. Daniel's best friend Sarah Noonan, 40, launched a GoFundMe page which has so far raised over £2,000. An initial quote from funeral directors is £2,540 for a basic cremation service. Additional costs up it to £4,395 with a £3,000 deposit required. Like Hines, Keith is still in shock; she's devastated. Financial worries are beyond them. Sobbing, she says: 'I don't really want to beg people, but I want to be able to give him a good send off because his life was worth it.' Taft now takes comfort from visiting Amara's grave with their daughters. 'We take flowers and talk about Mummy. I can tell they're very comforted,' he says. 'They talk to her like she's still alive.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
