This article was published as a part of the Data Science Blogathon. Introduction Machine Learning (ML) is reaching its own and growing recognition that ML can play a crucial role in critical applications, it includes data mining, natural language processing, image recognition. ML provides all possible keys in all these fields and more, and it set […]

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Israel Set To Decriminalize Weed As More Marijuana Businesses Join The Emerging Market

Israel has long dominated the cannabis industry in terms of breakthrough research and an emerging marketplace.

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-- March 7, 2022 -- HonestNFT (https://honestnft.xyz/), the community focused on making NFT drops fair and equitable, today announced its own NFT drop, the Vigilantes, to help support its mission as well as compensate its community of analysts and coders who are identifying NFT shortcomings and other bad actors. Both the presale price and the Dutch Auction reserve, or minimum, price for purchasing a Vigilante NFT will be 0.1 ETH.

The drop will consist of 3,777 unique masked NFTs with varying traits available for purchase with both masculine and feminine versions of the NFT “Vigilantes.” These are the only NFTs in HonestNFT's Vigilante Army collection that are available for purchase and tradable. Starting on Monday, March 7, and lasting 48 hours, the first run of 600 Vigilante NFTs will be available for minting. The remaining Vigilante NFTs will be available for purchase in the public sale starting on Wednesday, March 9, and will last until supply runs out.

“As NFTs become more popular, bad actors are tipping the scales in their favor to receive an increased chance of receiving rare NFTs, undermining hard-working creators and honest investors,” said Ricardo Rosales, CEO of Convex Labs. “We want to build a community that fights such exploits, while making NFTs more equitable, and the Vigilante NFT will help directly contribute to future activities serving HonestNFT's mission, while scaling up both the numbers in our community and the numbers of NFT campaigns we can target.”

HonestNFT's code can be used to examine NFT launches and grade them based on a metric developed by HonestNFT called HonestScore. Modeled after the Ethereum bug bounty program, the HonestNFT community of crypto technologists can earn ETH, NFTs, and other rewards for finding dishonest drops or improving the project's codebase. HonestNFT has also open-sourced its code (https://github.com/Convex-Labs) to help everyone within the NFT community identify bad actors.

HonestNFT was incubated out of Convex Labs, a crypto innovation network led by former and current leaders of the Stanford Blockchain Club with expertise in blockchain forensics, quant trading, organizational design, and venture capital. Over the last several months, in pre-launch, the project has been releasing guides, frameworks, audits, and case studies to help NFT creators and collectors better understand NFT vulnerabilities. As part of its campaign for full transparency, HonestNFT has posted and will continue to post bad actors it has identified on the Convex Labs Medium page.

To learn more, please visit the HonestNFT website, Discord, Twitter, or GitHub.

About HonestNFT

HonestNFT is the premier community for making NFT drops fair and equitable. It is the first project incubated out of Convex Labs, a crypto innovation network led by former and current leaders of the Stanford Blockchain Club with expertise in blockchain forensics, quant trading, organizational design, and venture capital. For more information, please visit https://honestnft.xyz.

About Convex Labs

Convex Labs is building a crypto network reshaping the future of innovation and work. The company is founded by former and current leaders of the Stanford Blockchain Club with expertise in Blockchain Forensics, Quant Trading, Organizational Design, and Venture Capital. The network members conduct research and generate insights that are commercialized through market-making, investing, development consulting, and incubation. At the moment, the team conducts research with focus on identifying security vulnerabilities and inefficiencies in the ever-evolving world of public blockchains. They've started there because they believe that though blockchains enable trust-less interactions, the industry has a major trust problem. They envision a future where public blockchains are robust enough to solve some of society's most important issues.

Media contact: honestNFT@transformgroup.com

Company contact: hello@convexlabs.xyz

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COLLEGE PARK, MD – March 3, 2022 – Quantum computing company IonQ (NYSE: IONQ) today published results from its new barium-based quantum computer showing its state detection fidelity. The results reflect a 13x reduction in state preparation and measurement (SPAM) errors, a metric core to producing accurate and reliable quantum computers. On a per-qubit basis, […]

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What motor sourcing says about a carmaker's electrification ethos

Incumbent automakers are grappling with a big dilemma: How fast to electrify their production capacity? And in so doing, whether to prioritize flexibility of powertrain type (given uncertain EV demand) or absolute scale? Furthermore, how do we know which such strategies the various automakers favor?

Making own electric drives demands heavier up-front investment

Automakers' decisions on 1) whether to build dedicated electric product architectures; and 2) whether to manufacture their own battery cells (or indeed assemble packs) are already quite well scrutinized. However whether they make or buy their own electric drive units (and in what ratio) is another enlightening metric. It is a particularly interesting one due to the spread of approaches among the major players.

Established electric players prefer to make their own

Electric-only players tend to see electric drive units as vital to efficiency and thus a source of competitive advantage. The units comprise a high voltage inverter, the electric motor, and its transmission components. Tesla and Lucid designed and build 100% of their own and have been vocal about the benefits they achieve from limiting energy loss in the designs. Meanwhile many incumbent carmakers have started out sourcing drive units externally from Tier 1 suppliers like Bosch. In between there are a range of approaches. Hyundai (97%) and Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi (85%) are already overwhelmingly insourced, while Ford (2%) and Honda (21%) are as of today largely outsourcing.

Tide shifting toward insourcing

We forecast a steady shift toward electric drive insourcing in the coming decade driven in part by the US OEMs. However, there will be many situations where outsourcing continues to make sense. For example, Rivian has initially fully outsourced its electric drive which helped accelerate its first product launch, while subsequently developing its own. BorgWarner's recently announced acquisition of motor supplier Santroll shows Tier 1s still see significant volume growth in this space. Carmakers may never insource electric drives completely. As mature as the internal combustion engine is, that industry is 90% insourced, while 10% of engines are externally sourced.

Automotive Monthly Newsletter and Podcast
This month's theme: India's Decarbonization Goals and the EV Conundrum

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Electric vehicles (EVs) have occupied a lot of media space of late and are widely regarded as the next big breakthrough technology in the automotive world. Although EVs are as old as motor vehicles themselves, they lost the race to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, running on liquid fuel, by the early 20th century. But with the rising threats of global warming and air pollution, EVs are back on the discussion tables of policymakers. ICE-powered conventional vehicles emit several pollutants, among which carbon dioxide (CO₂) is considered the most concerning emissions from a climate change perspective.

India is the third-largest emitter of CO₂ in the world, behind mainland China (almost four times of India) and the United States (two times of India), with its annual CO₂ emission doubling in the last decade. Although India's contribution to the cumulative global CO₂ emission, since the industrial revolution of the mid-19th century, is insignificant, its current position as an emerging economy and hence a big CO₂ emitter comes under environmentalists' lenses. Ever since the formation of the United Nations Framework Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC), India's position has been to put its socio-economic development above the resultant CO₂ emissions and refrain from putting itself in the same carbon-reduction target brackets as the developed nations. Nonetheless, India has been an active and important party in all global climate action summits and conferences, negotiating for emerging economies who came late to the 'development' party.

This stance remained consistent until 2014 when a new government came to power that had intentions of not only being a mere party in global climate action strategies but of taking a leadership position. Eventually, India ratified the Paris Agreement during the COP21 held in 2015 and pledged to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by 33- 35% by 2030 compared with 2005 levels and committed to achieving a non-fossil share of cumulative power generation of 40% by 2030. India also announced to install 2.5-3 billion tons of CO₂ equivalent carbon sink by 2030.

In 2013, under the National Electric Mobility Mission Plan (NEMMP), it was envisioned to transform the mobility landscape in India and make EVs an important part of it. As a result, a new EV promotion scheme was drafted by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). By the time it was rolled out in April 2015, it was named the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme and a new government was in power. The creation and expansion of the low-speed e-scooter segment aside, Phase 1 of FAME (April 2015 to March 2019) did not exactly produce the results as intended.

Considering India's Paris Agreement goals and COP21 commitments, the government redesigned Phase 2 of the FAME scheme—an outlay of INR10,000 crore (USD1.4 billion) over three years starting April 2019 and focusing on 2-wheelers (2W)/3-wheelers (3W)/bus segments that move about 85% of the people of India. Simultaneously, EVs were brought under the 5% bracket of GST to entice automakers into launching new EV offerings, and an additional income tax reduction clause was introduced as an additional incentive for prospective EV buyers. However, after two years of Phase II, about 2% of the total outlay for this phase got utilized. In this period, the sales figures tell a sorry tale—fewer than 10,000 electric passenger vehicles (PVs) and fewer than 300,000 electric 2Ws were sold.

In 2021, Primer Minister Narendra Modi announced at COP26 that India would achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. Road transport is expected to be a significant contributor to India's decarbonization plans. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), transportation sector is the third-largest CO₂ emitter in India, following the energy sector (i.e., electricity and heat producers) and the industry sector. Road transport, estimated to account for about 270- 290 metric tons (Mt) CO₂ emissions and 18% of India's total CO₂ emissions in 2020, is the top contributor in the transportation sector carbon emissions and emits more than the energy-intensive industries such as steel (242 Mt CO₂ in 2020) and cement (143 Mt CO₂ in 2020) production. The business-as-usual development mode is expected to result in 1.2- 1.5 Gt CO₂ emissions from the transportation sector in 2050, according to multiple research sources.

India's light-duty vehicle fleet has advanced to fuel consumption reduction from 6.9 L/100 km in 2005 to 5.7 L/100 km in 2019, contributed by higher diesel vehicle share and overall lighter vehicle weight. However, increased personal vehicle ownership and use is foreseen with the economic and pollution growth combined, and will inevitably result in more annual CO₂ emissions in the short term. The transportation sector may have to lag the overall 33- 35% decarbonization goal from 2005 levels (i.e., 115 Mt CO₂ sector level) by 2030, thus needing significant innovative technologies, strategic planning, and effective regulatory leverages to keep the sector aligned with the net-zero climate ambition. Acceleration in further vehicle efficiency improvement, fleet electrification, alternative fuels, along with mobility mode innovations will be the key solutions.

India has required fuel efficiency labeling for new vehicles since 2011 and regulated PV fuel efficiency since 2014. The current target is 4.77 L/100 km (113 g/km CO₂ equivalent) for 2022 based on the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). The FAME II scheme has been extended through 2024 to promote EV production and charging infrastructure deployment.

Overall, considering the level of visibility on the policy front, carmakers' product development strategies, oil price, and consumer evolution, we expect the share of EVs to reach about 9% by 2030 in a base case scenario. But if policy support in terms of the special tax on manufacturing and sales and direct subsidy continues, with stricter CO₂ regulations, the share of EVs could be higher ranging from 16% to as high as 21% by 2030.

Having said that, fiscal year (FY) 2021 (April 2020 to March 2021) had been a positive year as sales of electric PVs grew 110% owing to a low base; from about 2,850 units in FY 2020 to about 6,000 units in FY 2021 as reported by the Society of Electric Vehicle Manufacturers (SMEV) of India. And the electric PVs sales for the first half of the current FY 2022 have already crossed the FY 2021 annual sales. The main driver for this was the introduction of EV policies by several states of India led by Maharashtra, New Delhi, and Gujarat, which acted as an additional incentive over the FAME subsidies.

Interestingly, in the EV space, domestic carmakers have taken a lead as Tata Motors currently holds almost 60% of the market. IHS Markit's estimates show that Tata Motors will continue to maintain a leadership position even in the longer horizon. We do expect the current conventional vehicles market leaders such as Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai, and other carmakers like Mahindra and Kia to introduce serious EV products into this space in the next four to five years.

Overall, considering the level of visibility on the policy front, carmakers' product development strategies, oil price, and consumer evolution, we expect the share of EVs in Light Vehicles (LVs) up to 3.5 tons of Gross Vehicular Weight to reach about 9.3% in 2030 (as shown in the figure). Within LVs, we expect the Light Commercial Vehicles (LCV) category to achieve greater electrification of about 15% by 2030.

For the PV category, the share is expected to be about 8.3% in 2030 in a base case scenario. The B-segment SUV-bodystyle is expected to be the most popular segment for EV adoption. If policy support in terms of the special tax on manufacturing and sales and direct subsidy continues, with stricter CO₂ regulations, the share of EVs could be higher ranging from 16% to as high as 21% by 2030.

Notes:

1. The data and chart used in the article are based on the Production-based Powertrain dataset. Currently in India, almost 100% of EV production is for domestic sales and hence production can be used as a reliable proxy for sales.
2. EV in this article only represents pure Battery Electric Vehicles.

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