Features

AFP From ready-to-wear knits manufactured instantly to customised dresses produced on inkjet printers, Japan’s apparel industry is turning to state-of-the-art technology in a bold bid to cut labour costs and secure its future. At manufacturing giant Shima Seiki’s factory in western Japan, garments materialise in minutes, thanks to digitally-programmed automated machines that can turn out a sample seam-free pullover in ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business A little bird, with plumage brown, beside my window flutters down…… But we, in traffic’s rush and din, Too deep engaged to let them in, with deadened heart and sense plod on Nor know our loss till they are gone. While in school, I knew the above poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar by heart. Least ...

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business Today, some plan to make her the breakfast, while others decide to take her for shopping, yet others might gift her that diamond pendent she always wanted. Whatever the gesture is, motherly love is in the air. Its Mother’s Day — an occasion of tribute to the dedication, love and discipline mothers bring to our ...

AFP Sitting on sofas with laptops balanced awkwardly on their knees as they sip from bottomless cups of tea and coffee, customers have turned an off-the-beaten-path café in Montreal into their personal workspace. And the owners couldn’t be happier. “Here, you are at home,” said Anti Café manager David Chevrier, talking up the new breed of coffee shop that charges ...

DPA Graffiti, broken windows, crumbling masonry: the former Gare Masséna railway station in south-east Paris boasts none of the French capital’s famous charm. Only the overgrown tracks near the station building and a small blue sign marked “SNCF” — the French national railway — hint at its former use by travellers and trains. The dilapidated building has become an object ...

AFP Zebra and antelope look on as clouds of white steam twist into the air at Hell’s Gate, where Kenya’s dream of providing cheap, renewable electricity is becoming a reality. Just over a third of the 45 million people who live in Kenya have electricity, and power cuts are frequent across the network, even in the capital Nairobi. But Africa’s ...

DPA A new breed of farmer is appearing in Singapore. They are using high-tech and high-yield methods to transform their work from back-breaking labour into lucrative businesses. From running indoor vertical vegetable farms that grow crops in stacked layers, to raising fitter fish that are robust against aquatic diseases, farmers here are finding ways to overcome the limitations of traditional ...