RAJANT AND EPIROC ANNOUNCE VALIDATION FOR SEMI-AUTONOMOUS AND AUTONOMOUS SURFACE DRILLING GLOBALLY

Enablement of M2M Wireless Connectivity and Mobility With Rajant Kinetic Mesh

Malvern, Pennsylvania (USA), July 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rajant Corporation, the pioneer of Kinetic Mesh® wireless networks, and Epiroc, a leading productivity and sustainability partner for the mining and infrastructure industries, announce successful validation for both semi-autonomous and autonomous drilling. As part of the validation, deployment best practices guidelines were created to support the deployment of Epiroc drills with Rajant BreadCrumbs®. Epiroc has a permanent deployment at their test facility in South Africa to demonstrate semi-autonomous and autonomous drills using Rajant BreadCrumbs.

Rajant is deployed on dozens of semi-autonomous and autonomous Epiroc drills globally, some of which include:

  • Semi-Autonomous
    • Anglo American – Sishen
    • Anglo American – Mogalakwena
    • Anglo American – Los Bronces
  • Autonomous Drills
    • Exxaro – Grootegeluk

“Improving the operational safety and productivity of mining operations is the byproduct of Rajant Kinetic Mesh. It is the only industrial wireless network enabling machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity and mobility in markets like open-pit and underground mining”, shares Geoff Smith, EVP of Sales and Marketing for Rajant. “Unlike other wireless networks that are dependent on fixed infrastructure, Rajant mobile BreadCrumbs can communicate with each other allowing machines to interconnect which adds additional layers of connectivity and redundancy while Rajant networking software InstaMesh® is self-optimizing to overcome the constant environmental changes, data loads, interference, and on-the-move requirements of modern mines.”

Adds Brian Doffing, Epiroc’s VP of Integration, “Rajant’s unique technology offering has been instrumental in allowing our joint customers to scale their autonomous solutions. This includes not only Epiroc drills but opens the door for all connected equipment at the mine site.”

About Epiroc

Epiroc is a leading productivity partner for the mining, infrastructure, and natural resources industries. With cutting-edge technology, Epiroc develops and produces innovative drill rigs, rock excavation and construction equipment, and provides world-class service, and consumables. The company was founded in Stockholm, Sweden, and has passionate people supporting and collaborating with customers in more than 150 countries. For more information, visit Epiroc.com.

 

About Rajant Corporation

Rajant Corporation is the broadband communications technology company that invented Kinetic Mesh® networking, BreadCrumb® wireless nodes, and InstaMesh® networking software. With Rajant, customers can rapidly deploy a highly adaptable and scalable network that leverages the power of real-time data to deliver on-demand, mission-critical business intelligence. A low-latency, high-throughput, and secure solution for a variety of data, voice, video, and autonomous applications, Rajant’s Kinetic Mesh networks provide industrial customers with full mobility, allowing them to take their private network applications and data anywhere. With successful deployments in more than 70 countries for customers in military, mining, ports, rail, oil & gas, petrochemical plants, municipalities, and agriculture. Rajant is headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, with additional facilities and offices in Arizona and Kentucky. For more information, visit Rajant.com or follow Rajant on LinkedIn and Twitter.

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Alice DiSanto
Rajant Corporation
914-582-8464
[email protected]

Sophi.io Welcomes Global News as Latest Customer

TORONTO, July 12, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Global News, one of Canada’s leading news organizations, has chosen Sophi.io, an AI-powered automation, optimization and prediction platform developed by The Globe and Mail, to automate their website content curation. Following their strong value of innovation, they will be using Sophi Site Automation to autonomously place digital content across their website.

Global News is extremely innovative in their approach to culture and has worked intensively with Sophi to drive culture change so much so that their editorial team sees the value of bringing AI into the newsroom and is looking forward to working with this new technology.

Sophi Site Automation analyses all of their content, from video to text, and shuffles each piece of content to place the most valuable content in the most valuable places on their digital properties in order to ensure their content helps them achieve their business goals.

Sonia Verma, Editor-in-Chief at Global News, said, “Our innovative and data-driven editorial team is looking forward to working hand in hand with Sophi to bring automation into our newsroom and drive powerful decisions that will help us better serve our audiences.”

Gabe Gonda, VP at Sophi.io, commented, “Global News, one of Canada’s preeminent news and information companies, is a phenomenal addition to our customer base. We are excited to help them marry their high level of talent with state-of-the-art ML technology that will help drive significant business results.”

About Global News

Global News offers Canadians from coast to coast a host of news and information—from breaking news in their community to deep, engaging content that puts complex world issues in perspective. Global News remains committed to serving audiences with fact-based, accurate, and comprehensive news coverage. Canadians can turn to Global News as a trusted source of information on television, radio and online including the flagship newscast Global National and daily local newscasts across the country. Global News is a Corus Entertainment network.

About Sophi.io

Sophi.io (https://www.sophi.io) was developed by The Globe and Mail to help content publishers make important strategic and tactical decisions. It is a suite of AI and ML-powered automation, optimization and prediction solutions that include Sophi Site Automation, Sophi for Paywalls and Sophi for First Party Data. Sophi also powers one-click automated laydown of template-free print publishing. Sophi is designed to improve the metrics that matter most to your business, such as subscriber retention and acquisition, engagement, recency, frequency and volume.

Contact Us

Jamie Rubenovitch
Head of Marketing, Sophi.io
The Globe and Mail
[email protected]
416-585-3355

BANGE Bank is the first bank to issue UnionPay-GIMAC co-branded cards in the CEMAC Region

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon, July 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The National Bank of Equatorial Guinea BANGE and UnionPay International jointly announced today, the first issuance of UnionPay International-GIMAC co-branded debit cards in the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC Region). This significant development will offer the public affordable international financial payment access to a world-class payment network. While BANGE Bank is the first bank to issue UnionPay-GIMAC co-branded cards, UnionPay International was the first to partner with GIMAC by offering cutting-edge digital-based payments services in the region.

The UnionPay-GIMAC co-branded cards provide a hybrid solution in which the local and regional transactions are processed by GIMAC whilst international transactions are processed by UnionPay International.

GIMAC (Groupement Interbancaire Monétique de l’Afrique Centrale), payment switch is fully UnionPay international certified to directly issue UnionPay International cards and offers digital payment solutions to members in six countries in the CEMAC region comprising Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The partnership between UnionPay International and GIMAC was initiated in 2016. Phase one of the partnership was to establish payment infrastructure and an ecosystem for the CEMAC region, including ATM, Point of Sales, Contactless and E-commerce acquiring. The phase is to embark on the issuance of co-branded UnionPay-GIMAC cards within the territory, accelerating financial inclusion of the region. The third phase comprises the rolling out of various innovative payment solutions to accelerate digital transformation and satisfy consumers’ changing needs in the region.

Mr. Valentin Mbozoo, the General Manager of GIMAC stated, “We are excited about the opportunities the UnionPay International partnership brings to the region and further payment innovations to support local financial inclusion. This partnership paves the way for local banks in the CEMAC zone to offer international cards to their customers in a cost-effective manner.”

“GIMAC is a significant partner of ours, to extend our business in the CEMAC region, the fastest-growing economic zone in Africa,” said Mr. Asad Burney, Head of UnionPay International Africa Region. “We are the first in this market to partner with GIMAC and offer cutting-edge digital-based payments in the region. UnionPay as a global payment network is looking forward to participating in developing this economy,” he added.

With over 180 million UnionPay cards issued in 75 countries and regions outside mainland China, UnionPay has expanded its global acceptance network to 180 countries and regions in recent years. At present, UnionPay cards are widely accepted in Africa across all sectors, effectively meeting the diverse purchasing needs of UnionPay cardholders visiting and living on the continent. UnionPay cards are issued in 13 African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, South Africa, eSwatini, Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius. The Nilson Report (Issue 1154) shows that UnionPay ranks first among all card schemes in card issuance and transaction volume worldwide. UnionPay International has launched various innovative payment products in Africa in response to the worldwide digital transformation and financial inclusion.

VISION IMPACT INSTITUTE JOINS ONESIGHT ESSILORLUXOTTICA FOUNDATION

Bringing Diverse Expertise With Unified Approach To Eliminate Poor Vision In A Generation

DALLAS, July 11, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — The Vision Impact Institute has announced it is joining the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation. Its current staff and assets will form the Advocacy and Global Partnerships focus area of the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation, whose ambition is to eliminate poor vision in a generation.

Vision Impact Institute logo

This combination brings together the best of both organizations. “Our commitment to creating a world where everyone can see well couldn’t be better matched,” says Kristan Gross, current Global Executive Director, Vision Impact Institute. “Including the knowledge and advocacy expertise of the Vision Impact Institute in the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation will collectively increase impact to a level we could not have achieved independently.”

“Our goal to eliminate poor vision in a generation will require a collective effort,” says Anurag Hans, Head of Mission, EssilorLuxottica and Head, OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation. “Over the years the Vision Impact Institute has proven that evidence-based advocacy and strategic partnerships are crucial to make the case for good vision and equip leaders to action in order to ensure their populations see well. We look forward to significant progress together to reach the goal that has been set before us – good vision for all.”

The Vision Impact Institute’s existing research database of 700+ research studies and reports, assets and content will continue to be available at https://onesight.essilorluxottica.com/our-work.

About the OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation

The OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation (formerly Essilor Social Impact) is a French registered charitable organization (endowment fund) reflecting the commitment and values of EssilorLuxottica to eliminate uncorrected poor vision in a generation. It was rebranded in 2022 to bring together EssilorLuxottica’s philanthropic, advocacy actions and investments including: Vision for Life, Essilor Vision Foundations in North America, India, Southeast Asia and China, Fondazione Salmoiraghi & Viganò in Italy as well as the Company’s long term global partners OneSight and the Vision Impact Institute. It is headquartered at 147 rue de Paris, 94220 Charenton-Le-Pont, France. https://onesight.essilorluxottica.com/

Contact:
Andrea Kirsten-Coleman
Global Communications Manager
andrea.kirsten@visionimpactinstitute.org

OneSight EssilorLuxottica Foundation logo

Logo – https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/832635/Vision_Impact_Institute_Logo.jpg

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North West Provincial Government welcomes apology by City Press following a misleading article

North West Provincial Government welcomes apology by City Press following a misleading article published by the newspaper

Mahikeng – The North West Provicial Government acknowledges the apology by the Sunday Newspaper – City Press following a misleading article published by the newspaper in April earlier this year.

The article indicates that the North West Provincial Government pays R17 Billion back to National Treasury because the provincial government departments have been unable to spend the money.

North West Premier, Kaobitsa Bushy Maape said the apology by City Press, is restating our resolve from the beginning that the story and how it was reported was not only misleading but factually incorrect.

“Whilst respecting the media and its critical role in society, as the provincial government we call for responsible journalism, fact checking and critical reporting that builds and not undermine the trust between government and the people.

The provincial government is once more annoucing its open door policy to all media houses to avoid such unnecessary mistakes which undermine the right of our communities to have access to correct and factual stories published by the media” said Premier Maape.

Source: Government of South Africa

Deputy Minister Thabang Makwetla visits Mpumalanga for regional engagement with Provincial Government and Military Veterans Associations, 14 Jul

Deputy Minister of Defence and Military Veteran’s Mr Thabang Makwetla, will on Thursday, 14 July 2022, visit military veterans in the Nkangala region of Mpumalanga, for a follow up meeting with the Provincial Government and Military Veterans associations.

The meeting will provide the necessary platform that is in support of the Presidential Task Team on Military Veterans, to find other lasting solutions to military veterans challenges in the region.

Deputy Minister Makwetla will be supported by the key service delivery managers within the Department of Military Veterans including the Provincial Government of Mpumalanga.

Source: Government of South Africa