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Delhi HC restrains Campus from selling shoe range on Puma’s copyright plaint

Campus Activewear is part of the Synergy Action Group that sells 100,000 pairs of shoes every day through more than 50,000, mostly third-party, outlets, according to Action Shoes’ website.




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Small towns purchase more sportswear via e-platforms

Sportswear makers say sales in tier II and III towns have grown exponentially in the last few years and contribute a sizable percentage of their revenue now.




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Coronavirus slams Adidas, Puma sales in China

"Our business activity in Greater China has been around 85 percent below the prior year level since Chinese New Year on January 25," Adidas said in a statement.




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Puma launches collection made from waste plastic bottles

“The Puma and First Mile programme has diverted about 40 tonnes of plastic waste from landfills and oceans, just for the products made for 2020. This roughly translates into 1,980,286 plastic bottles being reused,” said Stefan Seidel, head of corporate sustainability for Puma, in a press statement




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India is driving Puma’s global growth: CEO

Puma operates 365 owned stores in India, and over the past three years, has signed up cricketer Virat Kohli, boxer Mary Kom, footballer Sunil Chhetri and actress Sarah Ali Khan to endorse its products.




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Tie-up with Virat Kohli's One8 contributes 10% of Puma India sales

According to the company, Puma's collaboration with the Indian cricket captain saw a massive rise in sales in FY2019 with sales through One8 accounting for almost 10 per cent of its overall sales, and cementing the leadership position by a wider margin.




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Vatika leases 50K sq ft to Decathlon in Gurugram retail project

Vatika has leased this space to French firm Decathlon, which is into retailing of sports goods, at its project 'Shopper's Village INXT' in New Gurugram, Haryana.




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Puma India elevates India MD Abhishek Ganguly to General Manager- SE Asia and India

In a letter to the brand’s business partners, Bjorn Gulden, global CEO of Puma SE, announced Ganguly’s elevation in the company adding that that he will continue to work out of Puma’s India head office in Bengaluru.




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Puma ropes in actress Kareena Kapoor Khan as brand ambassador

Khan will be the face for Puma’s soon-to-be launched collection of low-intensity training apparel collection targeted at workouts such as yoga, barre, and pilates. The new line will be launched in April and retailed both online and offline.




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Adidas launches “FasterThan” campaign to celebrate women in sports

With this campaign, the brand aims to highlight the inspirational stories of real women, influencers and athletes from different age groups and fields through the medium of a film, said the company.




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Adidas apologises after backlash over refusing to pay rent amid coronavirus scare

"We would like to wholeheartedly apologise. We have paid our landlords the rent for April." Adidas, which made a net profit of nearly two billion euros ($2.2 billion) in 2019, has been hard hit by a slump in Chinese sales and store closures around the world.




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Adidas says worse to come as profits and sales plunge

Adidas said 60% of its business was currently at a standstill, with more than 70% of its stores closed worldwide and all big sporting events - including the Tokyo Olympics and Euro soccer tournament - postponed or cancelled.




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Puma sees worse second quarter but growth in 2021

Puma said it expected all markets to recover by the end of the year and for growth to return in 2021, noting that the crisis has made many people do more sports than before and has strengthened the trend towards more casual dressing.




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Muted show at Titan no cause for worry, rebound likely in H2

No large-cap company in the FMCG/ retail space is offering growth visibility as high as Titan.




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Brune & Bareskin signs Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh as brand ambassador

​​​​Voganow Fashion owned Brune & Bareskin sells leather jackets, footwear, bags and accessories for men on online platforms such as Myntra, Jabong and Snapdeal.




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Titan’s optical division forays into smart eyewear segment

​​The Bluetooth-enabled smart sunglasses by Titan’s eyewear division will allow users to listen to music with 8-hour playtime. An in-built mic will give access to Siri and Google assistant and allow hands-free calling.




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Titan Q2 profit inches up 2% YoY to Rs 320 crore, misses Street estimates

The company had posted Rs 314.38 crore profit in the year-ago period.




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Titan Company drops 10% on poor H2 guidance

Analysts have largely cut their FY20 earnings forecast for the Tata Group firm by 4-10 per cent.




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Titan medium & long-term outlook good, need to tighten belts in near term: MD

Our revenues were flat in a quarter where the industry consumption on gold was minus 32% in tonnes.




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Wildcraft India bags a deal to make rucksacks for the Indian Army

“We have bagged a multi-million dollar order from the Ministry of Defence to make rucksacks for the Indian army. It is an unchartered territory but creating an ideal rucksack for an Indian jawaan who spends maximum time outdoors in challenging terrain will be good learning. The order will be executed next year,” said Siddharth Sood, cofounder of Wildcraft India.




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Panerai CEO sees India as key market for luxury watches

While early movers like Rolex, Omega and Tag Heuer entered India in early noughties, a clutch of global luxury watches like Panerai are now placing bets on the Indian market, keeping in mind a longer investment horizon. In a bid to create a deeper connect with the Indian consumers, Panerai launched two MS Dhoni special edition watches on Wednesday.




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Lenskart FY19 loss narrows, topline jumps 56%

Total expenses for fiscal year 2019 came in at Rs 514.52 crore, up about 20% compared to the year-ago period when expenses were at Rs 429 crore.




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Muted consumer sentiment will continue for many months: CK Venkataraman, Titan

“We certainly expect FY21 to better than FY20, because we are going to work smarter and harder on many things that we need to do. But at the same time, we are prepared for a situation which is going to be very-very tough.”




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Getting good quality retail in India is a challenge: Niladri Mazumder, Seiko India

Retail in India has not developed at the same pace as the products. Getting good quality retail is a challenge. The country has limited number of malls. There is no high street.




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Smaller town push to help Titan hit 15-20% revenue growth

Jewellery remains the main business of the company, generating most of its operating profit (EBIT). It added 34 jewellery stores in the first nine months and plans to add another 16 by the end of the fiscal taking the total store count to 337.




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Titan acquihires HUG Innovations, with an aim to strengthen its smart wearables division

The watchmaker will form a development centre in Hyderabad with HUG in hardware, firmware, software and cloud technology and has appointed the company's founder Raj Neravati to head technology for wearables at Titan Company.




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Smartwatches help Titan turn around business

“Titan phased out its older models and launched Fastrack’s Reflex 2.0 in the 2018Q3. It helped the brand to get a healthy 70% sequential growth in its overall shipments in the overall wearable segment,” IDC said.




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Swiss watchmakers see exports plunge amid pandemic

Exports to Hong Kong, the sector's biggest market, plummeted 41.3 percent, while exports to France fell 48 percent, and those to South Korea were down 46.2 percent.




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Vasant Nangia is CEO of Chumbak

​Chumbak founder Vivek Prabhakar will continue as head of marketing and digital, and co-founder Shubhra Chaddha will continue to head product and design.




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Macrogroove, three-dimensional sonograms

The unpredictable resurgence of vinyl has rekindled an interest in physical sonic structures. Gilles Azzaro’s “Macrogroove” realises the idea of a three-dimensional sonogram. It is a 3D printed ‘audio coding’, which is played by a laser beam, scanning the form




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(edited by) John G. Hanhardt, Gregory Zinman, and Edith Decker-Phillips – We Are in Open Circuits: Writings by Nam June Paik

The MIT Press, ISBN-13: 978-0262039802, English, 464 pages, 2019, USA

Nam June Paik is back in the limelight, thanks to an important historical exhibition at Tate Modern (see the report in this issue). There has




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The Visit, realistic simulation of a reality that already exists

The elderly Viv notices our presence and invites us to sit in her kitchen, right there in front of her, where she can see us. Thus began the interactive video experience “The Visit“, born from the collaboration of the artist



  • News
  • new media art

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Nina Sun Eidsheim – The Race of Sound: Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music

Duke University Press, ISBN-13: 978-0822368687, English, 288 pages, 2019, USA

Eidsheim starts this book by introducing ‘the acousmatic question’ (“who’s this, who’s speaking?”) to discuss the dichotomy between a sound and its source before and




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Giacomo Verde (1956-2020)

Italian artist and teacher Giacomo Verde passed away today. Video artist and activist he has explored the use of electronic and digital video image in theatre and performances. Among the highlights in his career he collaborated with Van Gogh TV




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Sulco (Medida de Corte), aural passages

One of the roles of sound art is to transform spaces by changing how we perceive them. Miguel Carvalhais and Pedro Tudela have mastered this approach in recent years, constructing installations made in classic or adventurous places whose sound, in




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This Side of Jordan - Mandolin Orange

For Andrew Marlin, the genesis of Mandolin Orange’s 3 rd CD “This Side of Jordan” evolved from a near-tragic incident in his own life back in 2011 that occurred around the release of the duo’s 2 nd CD. (AM) “What happened was I was on this dam just down the road from where we live. It’s a popular swimming spot. It was a little early in the morning and I just got a little too close and fell over the dam. Luckily I just broke my pelvis, but it was an eye-opening experience. It could’ve gone so many ways. I think it had a huge impact on this record, opening up my eyes to mortality and how crazy just little instances like that go. I can go one way or the other so fast.” But while Andrew says that accident definitely affected the production of “This Side of Jordan,” the spiritual aspect that runs throughout the disc may have come out anyway, given the style of music that he and partner Emily Frantz partake in. “I grew up in the church. My mom, she always played for the church when I was




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Something Real - Underhill Rose

INTRO -- An Asheville Americana trio is starting to get some national attention with airplay of their second CD taking it into the Top 20 of some radio charts. The national attention comes courtesy of some humble origins that embarrassed teenagers across the country can probably identify with. George Olsen has more. Time in the car with parents can sometimes be irritating for the kids, sometimes beneficial, sometimes both. “I grew up listening to my mom singing harmony with Joni Mitchell and Bonnie Raitt and Barbara Streisand full tilt, full volume every time I was in the car for many years. At the time I was “oh, mom, stop.” Eleanor Underhill, one half of the namesakes of the Asheville trio Underhill Rose. It took a while for the Joni Mitchells and Bonnie Raitts to sink in though. Eleanor says there was a lot of Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul in her youthful listening, but it seems the more acoustic oriented choices of her parents won out, as evidenced by Underhill Rose’s new CD




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Traditional Duets - Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins

INTRO – If you like your country or acoustic music slick and highly produced, don’t buy the following CD by Raleigh’s Lynda Dawson and Greenville’s Pattie Hopkins. One guitar, one fiddle, two voices … that’s it … and the CD’s title tells you everything you need to know about the music inside. George Olsen talked with Lynda & Pattie and has this. When I receive music in the mail the first thing I might notice is the CDs title. In the case of Lynda Dawson & Pattie Hopkins CD “Traditional Duets” the first thing that popped into my head was “they certainly didn’t expend a lot of energy naming this disc.” After listening to the disc my review changed to “great music, boring name.” Boring or not, Lynda & Pattie somehow stumbled upon a perfectly descriptive title for their CD that somehow after centuries of traditional music is absolutely unique. (PH) “Traditional Duets was actually a place holder with our graphic design artist and toward the end of the project we fell in love




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Carolina Jamboree - the Red Clay Ramblers

INTRO – The Triangle’s Red Clay Ramblers have been involved in a number of artistic collaborations … with Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize nominated playwright and actor Sam Shepard for two of his films and one off-Broadway play and with the late Doug Marlette on the musical based on his comic strip Kudzu, amongst others. Another collaboration took the band away from stage and screen into a different realm, and about nine years after its debut the music is now available on CD. George Olsen talked with Bland Simpson of the Red Clay Ramblers and has this. The latest CD from the Triangle’s Red Clay Ramblers “Carolina Jamboree” plays out as somewhat of a “greatest hits” CD … the bulk of the material spans the band’s 40+ career from the early 1970s to present day. And the band has performed the entirety of the “Carolina Jamboree” CD multiple times for multiple audiences. But the likelihood that the crowd was laser-focused on the band is doubtful … given all else that was going on. “And when




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Virus impact: Offline retailers running out of handsets as distributors hoard

Industry watchers say wholesalers are holding back stocks of popular phone models in anticipation of a price rise by the month-end as production in China slows; brands as yet unaware of complaints.




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China-made phones off speed dial as supply chains disrupted amid coronavirus outbreak

“There are supply issues for several brands. There is no clarity when the situation will normalise,” said Nilesh Gupta, director at Vijay Sales, a leading electronics retailer in Mumbai and New Delhi. “If it doesn’t get corrected fast, we may move into a stock-out situation from next month.”




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Trump helped Apple begin its India retail journey: Cook

In an interview with Fox Business, Cook said: "I see India as a huge opportunity for us. For years, we could not enter there unless we entered there with a partner into retail and we did not want to do that. We wanted to maintain control of our brand and so forth".




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COVID-19 forces Apple to temporarily close retail store in Italy

Due to an 'abundance of caution' as the coronavirus threat loomed, Apple closed all retail stores, corporate offices and contact centres in Mainland China. Last week, Apple warned that coronavirus outbreak will affect its business in the January-March quarter as worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained




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Apple’s 1st own India outlet to come up at BKC

US phone-maker said to have leased 25k sq ft space at Maker Maxity mall in the Mumbai hub.




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Cellphone retailers appeals to Finance Minister requesting her not to raises taxes on mobile phones

"We strongly appeal to you to not increase GST on mobiles. The increase of 6% would directly lead to hike in prices of product, impacting consumer behaviour leading to a slowdown in demand affecting business adversely,” said the letter written by AIMRA national president Arvinder Khurana.




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Apple to close retail stores worldwide, except Greater China, until March 27

"We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27," Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on the company's website.




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GST rate hike on mobiles: Xiaomi, ICEA, CAIT, AIMRA say move will seriously harm the industry

The decision was taken in the 39th GST Council meeting chaired by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The move was made to correct the inverted duty structure. ​




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COVID-19: Offline retailers urge FM, NBFCs to allow delays in EMI payments

The industry body represents 1.50 lakh mobile retailers who may be unable to pay their monthly instalments and interest towards credit cards, vehicle loan, home loan and business loans taken by them. A similar letter highlighting the concerns of the mobile retailers was also sent to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs).




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Covid lockdown: Smartphone makers ping government for essentials tag

Industry bodies Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) and India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) have written to the government seeking concessions in the delivery of smartphones among other electronics devices and removal of restrictions on the movement of components for inland and export purposes.




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Phone retailers seek MDR and DBD fee waiver

“We would appreciate it if the Finance Ministry could approach the RBI or the respective authorities to direct NBFCs and Banks to waive off DBD (dealer by down) and MDR (merchant discount rate) charges to retailers on paper finance and on digital transactions for at least 6 months post lockdown,” All India Mobile Retailers Association said in a letter to finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.