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CGTN: China’s booming ice and snow industry fuels its economic growth

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BEIJING, Feb. 7, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, exemplifies the country’s thriving ice and snow economy.

During the eight-day 2025 Spring Festival holiday from January 28 to February 4, the city has seen booming snow tourism. As an ice-themed park known for its dazzling ice sculptures, Harbin Ice-Snow World attracted over 610,000 visits. In particular, more than 100,000 visits were made on February 1, setting a new record for single-day attendance.

The increasing popularity of the park is partly attributed to the city’s upcoming role as the host of the 9th Asian Winter Games, which will be held from February 7 to 14, marking China’s second major winter sports event following the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will attend the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian Winter Games and host a welcome banquet for foreign leaders in attendance.

Ice and snow economy enters ‘fast lane’

Xi has paid close attention to the development of China’s ice and snow sports and industries, urging efforts to consider ice and snow economy as a new growth point to promote the development of the whole industrial chain involving winter sports and culture, snow-and-ice equipment and tourism.

In recent years, as winter sports and tourism surged in popularity across China, the ice and snow economy has witnessed significant growth.

According to the General Administration of Sport of China, the number of people participating in various ice and snow sports such as skating, skiing, curling and ice hockey nationwide reached 57.35 million in the 2023-2024 snow season. Over 385 million winter leisure visits nationwide were recorded, marking a 38 percent increase from the previous year.

During the last snow season, Harbin alone welcomed over 87 million visitors, marking a 300 percent year-on-year increase and generating 124.8 billion yuan (about $17.4 billion) in tourism revenue – a staggering 500 percent growth.

Meanwhile, the ice and snow consumption is becoming an important growth point to expand domestic demand, transforming the “cold” resources into “hot” engine for economic development.

According to online shopping and tourism platforms, orders for ice and snow equipment surged, while searches and bookings for ice and snow tours saw rapid growth during the “Double 11” shopping festival last year.

On China’s leading e-commerce platform, Tmall, sales of categories such as down jackets, thermal wear and skiing equipment surged by over 200 percent year on year during the “Double 11” shopping festival.

Broad prospects

To harness its abundant ice and snow resources for economic development, China is intensifying efforts to expand its winter economy, encompassing sports, culture, equipment, and tourism.

According to the guidelines issued by the General Office of the State Council, the country aims to promote its ice and snow economy as a new growth point, with the goal of reaching an economic scale of 1.2 trillion yuan (about $169 billion) by 2027, and 1.5 trillion yuan by 2030.

To achieve these goals, various cities and regions are integrating winter sports and tourism into their development plans.

The Heilongjiang Province is promoting the establishment of a China-Shanghai Cooperation Organization winter sports demonstration zone, expediting the development of ice-and-snow equipment and digital industry parks.

In Beijing, the city has launched an action plan, proposing 24 specific measures in areas such as expanding the ice and snow sports and consumption, and advancing the construction of ice and snow venue facilities.

The vigorous growth of the ice and snow economy has also drawn global attention. A slew of measures, including optimizing the visa-free policy and opening new international flight routes, have attracted a number of foreign tourists to start their “China Travel” and enjoy the winter season in the country.

China’s thriving ice and snow economy has also injected new momentum into the global tourism market, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on Thursday, extending a warm invitation to friends from around the world to participate in ice and snow events, fostering friendship and cooperation.

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https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-02-06/China-s-booming-ice-and-snow-industry-fuels-its-economic-growth–1ALQPnOkxO0/p.html 

SOURCE CGTN

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BinBase Launches 2026 BIN Database Featuring 6-11 Digit Waterfall Lookup for High-Precision Payment Routing

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BinBase introduces its upgraded 2026 BIN Database, offering 3.2M+ card ranges, 29 granular data attributes, and extended 8-11 digit accuracy to eliminate false-positives and optimize routing for global fintechs.

MIAMI, July 21, 2026 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — BinBase, a provider of payment intelligence and card issuing data, has announced the official release of its updated 2026 BIN Database. Engineered for payment gateways, acquiring banks, fraud prevention platforms, and e-commerce platforms, the updated dataset solves critical routing inaccuracies caused by the industry-wide shift from legacy 6-digit BINs to extended 8-to-11-digit card ranges.

Relying solely on 6-digit BINs in 2026 means misclassifying card products and losing money on interchange fees. Our 2026 release provides the surgical precision developers need for cost-effective payment routing.

Since ISO/IEC 7812 expanded the standard Bank Identification Number (BIN) length to 8 digits, traditional 6-digit lookup tables have struggled to correctly identify modern card profiles. This leads to false positives, misidentified interchange fees, and failed transactions. BinBase addresses this challenge by introducing a multi-tiered database structure supporting up to 11-digit precision, alongside a recommended “Waterfall Lookup Algorithm.”

To ensure 100% routing and verification accuracy, the Waterfall method executes a descending search sequence: checking 11-digit BIN ranges down through 10, 9, 8, 7, and 6 digits until an exact match is resolved.

Key technical specifications of the 2026 BinBase release include:

Over 3.2 Million Card Ranges: Full global coverage including Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover, UnionPay, JCB, and regional networks.Extended Precision: Over 88% of the dataset consists of high-precision ranges (8–11 digits) to accurately isolate sub-brands, currencies, and card tiers.29 Granular Attributes: Beyond core issuer data, the database features advanced parameters including Durbin Regulation status, US Debit/ATM network routing (STAR, NYCE), Fast Funds (Visa Direct / Mastercard MoneySend indicators), commercial Level 2/Level 3 data, and digital wallet token ranges (Apple Pay / Google Pay).

“Modern payment processing requires surgical precision,” said a spokesperson for Damiko Inc. “Relying solely on 6-digit BINs in 2026 means misclassifying card products and losing money on interchange fees. Our 2026 release provides the underlying intelligence developers need to build resilient, cost-effective payment infrastructure.”

Developers and payment teams can evaluate the full 29-field database schema, review integration examples, and download a free 2026 sample dataset on the official GitHub repository.

To learn more about full commercial licensing options, instant CSV downloads, and custom API delivery, visit BinBase.

About Damiko Inc

Damiko Inc is a US-based fintech data provider specializing in card issuer analytics, payment routing data, and global BIN database solutions. Operating through its flagship product, BinBase.com, the company supplies high-precision transaction intelligence to help merchants and payment facilitators worldwide optimize approval rates and mitigate fraud.

Media Contact

Fedor Lavrikoff, BinBase, 1 +17866133333, sales@binbase.com, htttps://www.binbase.com 

View original content:https://www.prweb.com/releases/binbase-launches-2026-bin-database-featuring-6-11-digit-waterfall-lookup-for-high-precision-payment-routing-302829291.html

SOURCE BinBase

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Redington Limited and AutomationEdge Announce Strategic Partnership to Accelerate Enterprise Automation and Agentic AI Adoption

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MUMBAI, India, July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Redington, a leading technology aggregator and innovation catalyst, and AutomationEdge, a leading Agentic Process Automation platform for global enterprises, have announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the adoption of enterprise automation and Agentic AI. The collaboration brings together Redington’s extensive distribution ecosystem and partner network with AutomationEdge’s enterprise-grade Agentic Process Automation platform to enable faster, scalable, and outcome-driven digital transformation for organizations.

As a part of the partnership, AutomationEdge’s portfolio of AI Agents and automation solutions is now available through the Redington AI Exchange Marketplace, enabling partners and customers to easily discover, evaluate, and deploy enterprise-ready AI solutions. This availability significantly reduces the time required to adopt AI-driven automation and provides organizations with access to proven use cases that can deliver measurable business outcomes.

The partnership is focused on delivering solution-led automation offerings that simplify adoption for enterprises and channel partners. By combining Redington’s go-to-market reach with AutomationEdge’s 10x automation capabilities, the two organizations aim to help businesses move from fragmented automation initiatives to enterprise-wide orchestration—driving efficiency, agility, and operational excellence.

Through this collaboration, both companies will jointly promote pre-built automation and AI Agent solutions across key business functions, including banking operations, insurance processes, IT / HR operations, customer service, and finance functions. These solutions include ready-to-deploy workflows, AI Agents, demonstration environments, and implementation frameworks designed to accelerate deployment and reduce complexity.

The partnership will also include joint go-to-market initiatives such as partner enablement programs, co-branded workshops, solution showcases, and proof-of-concept (PoC) engagements. These initiatives are designed to equip Redington partners with the knowledge, tools, and support needed to successfully position, sell, and implement AI-powered automation solutions for enterprise and mid-market customers.

Sayantan Dev, Global Head, Software Solutions Group, Redington, said, “The next phase of AI adoption will be defined by execution. Through the Redington AI Exchange Marketplace, we are bringing together the technologies and ecosystem needed to help partners deliver real business outcomes at scale. AutomationEdge’s Agentic AI and automation capabilities strengthen our ability to enable customers to accelerate AI adoption with greater speed, governance, and confidence.”

Prasad Likhite, Chief Sales Officer of AutomationEdge, said, “We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Redington and accelerate the adoption of next-generation enterprise automation and Agentic AI solutions across the market. The availability of AutomationEdge AI Agents through the Redington AI Exchange Marketplace marks an important milestone in democratizing AI-led transformation, enabling enterprises to rapidly scale intelligent automation initiatives with speed, agility, and measurable business impact. At the same time, it creates significant opportunities for partners to drive innovation, unlock new revenue streams, and deliver greater value to their customers.”

The collaboration also emphasizes localized support, implementation expertise, and customer success services, ensuring that organizations can seamlessly deploy, manage, and scale automation initiatives. By leveraging Redington’s strong partner ecosystem and AutomationEdge’s deep expertise in automation and Agentic AI, the partnership is well-positioned to address the evolving needs of modern enterprises.

As organizations increasingly prioritize productivity, operational efficiency, and AI-led transformation, this partnership marks a significant step toward making enterprise automation and Agentic AI more accessible, scalable, and impactful across industries.

 About Redington

Redington Limited (NSE: REDINGTON) (BSE: 532805), a leading technology solutions provider, empowers businesses in their digital transformation journeys. Guided by its brand narrative “Unlock Next”, Redington goes beyond distribution to remove barriers, accelerate digital adoption, and unlock access, growth, trust, efficiency, and impact—helping businesses, communities, and societies embrace what’s next in technology

About AutomationEdge

AutomationEdge is a leading Agentic Process Automation platform for global enterprises. Its platform enables organizations to automate complex business processes, deploy AI Agents at scale, improve operational efficiency, and accelerate digital transformation initiatives across industries.

Media Contact:
Rahul Wandile
rahul.wandile@automationedge.com

 

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Applied Intuition Launches Dana, the Agentic Platform for Physical AI

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New platform pairs agentic AI with the tooling, data, infrastructure and domain expertise Applied Intuition has built over nearly a decade to speed the safe development of intelligent machines for the physical world.

Dana is the first agentic platform for building, testing, deploying and operating physical AI systems across industries.Built on nearly a decade of Applied Intuition’s tooling, infrastructure, workflows and engineering expertise, Dana is purpose-built for safety-critical systems operating in the physical world.Dana helps companies build physical AI applications for any industry or use case, from autonomy and software-defined vehicles to fleet operations, robotics, construction, mining and intelligent in-vehicle experiences.Dana has already reduced critical phases of vehicle development from months to days in internal and select customer deployments.

SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 22, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Applied Intuition, Inc., a leader in physical AI, today announced the launch of Dana, the first agentic platform for building, testing, deploying and operating physical AI systems across industries. Dana combines the power of agentic AI and rapid application development with nearly a decade of Applied Intuition’s tooling, infrastructure and engineering knowledge. The result is a unified system that accelerates the development of intelligent machines in the physical world.

“We believe physical AI will become one of the defining technologies of this century,” said Qasar Younis, co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition. “Our ambition is to help bring intelligence to a billion machines, and Dana is the platform we built to make that possible.”

Unlike general-purpose AI tools designed primarily for digital workflows, Dana is built for the complexities of machines operating in the physical world. Dana comes with all the platform capabilities needed to build and deploy safety-critical physical AI applications, including data, visualization and tooling, as well as the evaluation, traceability and governance these systems require. The platform was designed to work across industries and with a wide range of use cases, from software-defined vehicle development and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) to mining and construction operations, truck fleet management, robotics and intelligent in-vehicle experiences. With Dana, customers can:

Deploy Applied Intuition’s reference applications — spanning autonomy, fleet operations, and more — or build their own.Use both natural language and command-line interfaces to complete complex development tasks more intuitively and accelerate iteration cycles across teams and systems.Integrate the platform with enterprise systems and collaboration tools, like Slack and Jira, helping organizations connect fragmented engineering and operational workflows while embedding agentic capabilities across the development process.

Applied Intuition has used Dana internally since last year, building and delivering solutions on the platform for long-standing customers across automotive, trucking, mining, and agriculture. Dana’s agent-driven workflows have reduced critical phases of vehicle development timelines from months to days in some cases. Applied Intuition has offered limited, early access to select customers, including heavy-equipment manufacturer Komatsu and Isuzu Motors, who is using the platform to accelerate L4 autonomy for its fleet of commercial trucks.

“We’ve been impressed by how Dana can streamline complex engineering workflows and accelerate development,” said Yasuhiro Yazawa, Director, Isuzu Motors Limited, Japan. “Dana gives our engineering teams greater confidence to develop, track and deploy safe autonomous-vehicle capabilities at a much faster pace.”

“Applied Intuition has been a valuable technology partner as we continue advancing the digital capabilities that support the next generation of mining equipment and solutions,” said Peter Salditt, CEO, Komatsu Mining. “Dana represents another step forward, bringing intelligent, agentic capabilities into our engineering workflows to help our teams innovate faster, improve efficiency and ultimately create greater value for our customers’ operations.”

Dana is designed to help companies keep up with the fundamental shift now underway across industries. As autonomous vehicles, robots and industrial systems become more capable, manufacturers need a more integrated way to build, validate and deploy them safely. Dana gives teams a faster path from idea to production, and the confidence to put increasingly intelligent machines into the real world.

The future of AI is physical. Dana was built for it.

To learn more about Dana and Applied Intuition’s physical AI platform, visit AppliedIntuition.com.

About Applied Intuition
Applied Intuition, Inc. is powering the future of physical AI. Founded in 2017 and now valued at $15 billion, the Silicon Valley company is creating the digital infrastructure needed to bring intelligence to every moving machine on the planet. Applied Intuition services the automotive, defense, trucking, construction, mining and agriculture industries in three core areas: tools and infrastructure, operating systems, and autonomy. Eighteen of the top 20 global automakers, as well as the United States military and its allies, trust the company’s solutions to deliver physical intelligence. Applied Intuition is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, with nearly two dozen offices across the globe, including in London, Munich, Tokyo, Seoul, and the Washington, D.C. metro area. Learn more at applied.co or press@applied.co.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/applied-intuition-launches-dana-the-agentic-platform-for-physical-ai-302831516.html

SOURCE Applied Intuition, Inc.

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