Local media in Nepal reported recently that state-owned Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is planning to fly to new destinations, including Israel. New aircraft have been ordered, and the country has despatched technical teams to many destinations to hold discussions.

For now, NAC’s top priority destination is Japan, followed by China and Saudi Arabia, according to NAC Executive Chairman Madan Kharel. “We will then focus on extending flights to Israel,” he said. NAC has sought permission to use Saudi Arabia’s airspace to fly to Israel. “If we get the permission, we will immediately start flying to Israel,” Kharel said.

NAC is also planning to fly to countries with a significant Buddhist population. This preparation is being made as the first phase of construction of Gautam Buddha International Airport is nearing completion. The new international airport is located near Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. “Lots of tourists from Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Cambodia visit Lumbini,” said Kharel.

Currently, NAC is conducting international flights with two wide-body and two narrowbody Airbus aircraft and one Boeing 757 to eight international destinations: New Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Doha and Dubai.

Israeli startup Infinity Augmented Reality, based in Ramat Gan, announced on 21 March that it has been acquired by Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba Group.

It will join Alibaba’s Israel Machine Vision Laboratory after a three-year partnership, a collaborative effort to accelerate the development of frontier technologies, including AR, computer vision and AI.

“We look forward to be joining Alibaba, a world-class, innovative global technology company. Alibaba’s expertise in turning technologies into next-generation products will be a great platform for the future technologies of computer vision, AR and AI,” said Motti Kushnir, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Infinity Augmented Reality.

Prof. Lihi Zelnik-Manor, head of Alibaba Israel Machine Vision Laboratory, said: “Alibaba is delighted to be working with InfinityAR as one team after three years of partnership. The talented team brings unique know-how in sensor fusion, computer vision and navigation technologies. We look forward to exploring these leading technologies and offering additional benefits to customers, partners and developers.”

InfinityAR’s research and development team will now be working from Alibaba’s lab in Israel, which is one of the labs rolled out by Alibaba’s DAMO Academy to explore fundamental technologies such as computer vision and navigation.