title: QR code

text: This signature validates the integrity of the data and the trustworthiness of the sender. This provides non-repudiation, confirming the identity of the sender, and that it has not been tampered with during transmission.


title: QR code

text: By embedding the URL and all the variables required to perform shopping cart type e-commerce, bill payment and peer to peer payments, coupled with a digital certificate eliminates the possibility of spoofing, tampering, and man in the middle attacks.


title: QR code

text: Frame QR is a QR code with a "canvas area" that can be flexibly used. In the center of this code is the canvas area, where graphics, letters, and more can be flexibly arranged, making it possible to lay out the code without losing the design of illustrations, photos, etc.


title: QR code

text: Researchers have proposed a new High Capacity Colored 2-Dimensional (HCC2D) Code, which builds upon a QR code basis for preserving the QR robustness to distortions and uses colors for increasing data density (as of 2014 it is still in prototyping phase). The HCC2D code specification is described in details in Querini "et al." (2014), while techniques for color classification of HCC2D code cells are described in detail in Querini and Italiano (2014), which is an extended version of Querini and Italiano (2013).


title: QR code

text: Introducing colors into QR codes requires addressing additional issues. In particular, during QR code reading only the brightness information is taken into account, while HCC2D codes have to cope with chromatic distortions during the decoding phase. In order to ensure adaptation to chromatic distortions which arise in each scanned code, HCC2D codes make use of an additional field: the Color Palette Pattern. This is because color cells of a Color Palette Pattern are supposed to be distorted in the same way as color cells of the Encoding Region. Replicated color palettes are used for training machine learning classifiers.


title: QR code

text: JAB code (Just Another Barcode) is a color 2D matrix symbology made of color squares arranged in either square or rectangle grids. It was developed by Fraunhofer Institute SIT (Secure Information Technology).


title: QR code

text: The code contains one primary symbol and optionally multiple secondary symbols. The primary symbol contains four finder patterns located at the corners of the symbol.


title: QR code

text: The code uses either 4 or 8 colours. The 4 basic colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) are the 4 primary colours of the subtractive CMYK color model which is the most widely used system in industry for colour printing on a white base such as paper. The other 4 colours (blue, red, green, white) are secondary colours of the CMYK model and originate as an equal mixture of a pair of basic colours.


title: QR code

text: The barcode is not subject to licensing and was submitted to ISO/IEC standardization as ISO/IEC 23634 expected to be approved at the beginning of 2021 and finalized in 2022. The software is open-source and published under the LGPL v2.1 license. The specification is freely available.


title: QR code

text: Because the colour adds a third dimension to the two-dimensional matrix, a JAB code can contain more information in the same area compared to two-colour (black and white) codes – theoretically twice as much data for a 4 colour code and three times more for 8 colours assuming the same encoding algorithm. This can allow storage of an entire message in the barcode, rather than just storing partial data with a reference to a full message somewhere else (such as a link to a website), thus eliminating the need for additional always-available infrastructure beyond the printed barcode itself. It may be used to digitally sign encrypted digital version of printed legal documents, contracts and certificates (diplomas, training), medical prescriptions or provide product authenticity assurance to increase protection against counterfeits.


title: QR code

text: The use of QR code technology is freely licensed as long as users follow the standards for QR Code documented with JIS or ISO/IEC. Non-standardized codes may require special licensing.


title: QR code

text: Denso Wave owns a number of patents on QR code technology, but has chosen to exercise them in a limited fashion. In order to promote widespread usage of the technology Denso Wave chose to waive its rights to a key patent in its possession for "standardized" codes only. In the US, the granted QR code patent is , and in Japan , both of which have expired. The European Patent Office granted patent to Denso Wave, which was then validated into French, UK, and German patents, all of which expired in March 2015.


title: QR code

text: The text "QR Code" itself is a registered trademark and wordmark of Denso Wave Incorporated. In UK, the trademark is registered as E921775, the term "QR Code", with a filing date of 3 September 1998. The UK version of the trademark is based on the Kabushiki Kaisha Denso (DENSO CORPORATION) trademark, filed as Trademark 000921775, the term "QR Code", on 3 September 1998 and registered on 16 December 1999 with the European Union OHIM (Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market).


title: QR code

text: The U.S. Trademark for the term "QR Code" is Trademark 2435991 and was filed on 29 September 1998 with an amended registration date of 13 March 2001, assigned to Denso Corporation.


title: QR code

text: The only context in which common QR codes can carry executable data is the URL data type. These URLs may host JavaScript code, which can be used to exploit vulnerabilities in applications on the host system, such as the reader, the web browser or the image viewer, since a reader will typically send the data to the application associated with the data type used by the QR code.


title: QR code

text: In the case of no software exploits, malicious QR codes combined with a permissive reader can still put a computer's contents and user's privacy at risk. This practice is known as "attagging", a portmanteau of "attack tagging". They are easily created and can be affixed over legitimate QR codes. On a smartphone, the reader's permissions may allow use of the camera, full Internet access, read/write contact data, GPS, read browser history, read/write local storage, and global system changes.


title: QR code

text: Risks include linking to dangerous web sites with browser exploits, enabling the microphone/camera/GPS, and then streaming those feeds to a remote server, analysis of sensitive data (passwords, files, contacts, transactions), and sending email/SMS/IM messages or packets for DDoS as part of a botnet, corrupting privacy settings, stealing identity, and even containing malicious logic themselves such as JavaScript or a virus. These actions could occur in the background while the user is only seeing the reader opening a seemingly harmless web page. In Russia, a malicious QR code caused phones that scanned it to send premium texts at a fee of $6 each. QR codes have also been linked to scams in which stickers are placed on parking meters, posing as quick payment options, as seen in Austin, San Antonio and Boston, among other cities across the United States and Australia.


title: French language

text: French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.


title: French language

text: French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple continents, most of which are members of the "Organisation internationale de la Francophonie" (OIF), the community of 84 countries which share the official use or teaching of French. French is also one of six official languages used in the United Nations. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick, as well as other Francophone regions); Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont); Monaco; the Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere.


title: French language

text: In 2015, approximately 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union. Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as a second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German; in certain institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union). French is also the 18th most natively spoken language in the world, fifth most spoken language by total number of speakers and the second or third most studied language worldwide (with about 120 million learners as of 2017). As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Most second-language speakers reside in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius, Senegal and Ivory Coast.


title: French language

text: French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers; about 235 million daily, fluent speakers; and another 77–110 million secondary speakers who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency, mainly in Africa. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language", without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, the total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050. OIF estimates 700 million by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa.


title: French language

text: French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including the United Nations, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Olympic Committee, and the International Committee of the Red Cross. In 2011, "Bloomberg Businessweek" ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese.


title: French language

text: French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French.


title: French language

text: Due to Roman rule, Latin was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul, and as the language was learned by the common people it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which being attested on graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan.


title: French language

text: The evolution of Latin in Gaul was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language, which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of the Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of the urban intellectual elite.


title: French language

text: The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including "oui", the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.


title: French language

text: The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the "Petit Robert", which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ("chêne", "bille", etc.), animals ("mouton", "cheval", etc.), nature ("boue", etc.), domestic activities (ex. "berceau"), farming and rural units of measure ("arpent", "lieue", "borne", "boisseau"), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being the last to hold onto Gaulish.


title: French language

text: The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke while the population in the south spoke . Langue d'oïl grew into what is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects. The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from the Germanic Frankish language, which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order, a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary) including the impersonal singular pronoun "on" (a calque of Germanic "man"), and the name of the language itself.


title: French language

text: Up until its later stages, Old French, alongside Old Occitan, maintained a relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as "-eau" which would later be leveled to monophthongs.


title: French language

text: The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in the Oaths of Strasbourg and the "Sequence of Saint Eulalia", while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the "Vie de Saint Alexis"), or wars and royal courts, notably including the "Chanson de Roland", epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court, as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange.


title: French language

text: Within Old French many dialects emerged but the Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically, the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law.


title: French language

text: During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations (lingua franca). It retained this role until approximately the middle of the 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War. Stanley Meisler of the "Los Angeles Times" said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language.


title: French language

text: During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV, enjoyed a period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie Française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France.


title: French language

text: Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ("patois") spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire's "Report on the necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory, only French was taught and the use of any other ("patois") language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany. Instructions given by a French official to teachers in the department of Finistère, in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha.


title: French language

text: Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second most-widely taught language after English.


title: French language

text: Under the Constitution of France, French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words.


title: French language

text: In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages—along with Dutch—of the Brussels-Capital Region, where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language.


title: French language

text: French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh, and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy, of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais, Fribourg and Berne. French is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population.


title: French language

text: Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg, where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco.


title: French language

text: At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in the Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 30% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands. It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa. The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland, with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French.


title: French language

text: The majority of the world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2018 estimate from the , an estimated 141 million African people spread across 34 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language. This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as a foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages).


title: French language

text: French is mostly a second language in Africa, but it has become a first language in some urban areas, such as the region of Abidjan, Ivory Coast and in Libreville, Gabon. There is not a single African French, but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages.


title: French language

text: Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of the language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world.


title: French language

text: French is the second most common language in Canada, after English, and both are official languages at the federal level. It is the first language of 9.5 million people or 29% and the second language for 2.07 million or 6% of the entire population of Canada. French is the sole official language in the province of Quebec, being the mother tongue for some 7 million people, or almost 80% (2006 Census) of the province. About 95% of the people of Quebec speak French as either their first or second language, and for some as their third language. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal, which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories (Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Yukon). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario, the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are to be available in the language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario. Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is across a river from Quebec, opposite the major city of Gatineau with which it forms a single metropolitan area.


title: French language

text: According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French is the second most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and Vermont. In Louisiana, it is tied with Spanish for second most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire. Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French. New England French, essentially a variant of Canadian French, is spoken in parts of New England. Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana, such as Mon Louis Island, Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in the 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct.


title: French language

text: French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole. It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language; the rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language, Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles.


title: French language

text: French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in the Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies, namely Guadeloupe, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, and Martinique.


title: French language

text: French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America.


title: French language

text: French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina, comprising modern-day Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam, the elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as "Tây Bồi" (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as the other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language.


title: French language

text: French was the official language of French India, consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry. It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of the language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English.


title: French language

text: A former French mandate, Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people, and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates, and on official buildings (alongside Arabic).


title: French language

text: Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon, with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value.


title: French language

text: The UAE has the status in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie as an observer state, and Qatar has the status in the organization as an associate state. However, in both countries, French is not spoken by almost any of the general population or migrant workers, but spoken by a small minority of those who invest in Francophone countries or have other financial or family ties. Their entrance as observer and associate states respectively into the organization was aided a good deal by their investments into the Organisation and France itself. A country's status as an observer state in the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie gives the country the right to send representatives to organization meetings and make formal requests to the organization but they do not have voting rights within the OIF. A country's status as an associate state also does not give a country voting abilities but associate states can discuss and review organization matters.


title: French language

text: French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2018. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia, 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna, it is 84%.


title: French language

text: In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census.


title: French language

text: The future of the French language is often discussed in the news. For example, in 2014, "The New York Times" documented an increase in the teaching of French in New York, especially in K-12 dual-language programs where Spanish and Mandarin are the only second-language options more popular than French. In a study published in March 2014 by "Forbes", the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. It noted that French is spreading in areas where the population is rapidly increasing, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.


title: French language

text: In the European Union, French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains the preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union, where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture. Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union.


title: French language

text: A leading world language, French is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence, education, and diplomacy.


title: French language

text: In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat's only two working languages), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union, an official language of NATO, the International Olympic Committee, the Council of Europe, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest, one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency, World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given the demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future".


title: French language

text: Significant as a judicial language, French is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Caribbean Court of Justice, the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body. It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union, and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights's two working languages.


title: French language

text: In 1997, George Weber published, in "Language Today", a comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second most "influential" language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations, the economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged."


title: French language

text: Knowledge of French is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in the workplace.


title: French language

text: In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of the country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught.


title: French language

text: Although there are many French regional accents, foreign learners normally use only one variety of the language.


title: French language

text: French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:


title: French language

text: French is written with the 26 letters of the basic Latin script, with four diacritics appearing on vowels (circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis) and the cedilla appearing in "ç".


title: French language

text: There are two ligatures, "œ" and "æ", but they are often replaced in contemporary French with "oe" and "ae", because the ligatures do not appear on the AZERTY keyboard layout used in French-speaking countries. However this is nonstandard in formal and literary texts.


title: French language

text: French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography (as with some English words such as "debt"):


title: French language

text: French orthography is morphophonemic. While it contains 130 graphemes that denote only 36 phonemes, many of its spelling rules are likely due to a consistency in morphemic patterns such as adding suffixes and prefixes. Many given spellings of common morphemes usually lead to a predictable sound. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic generally leads to one phoneme. However, there is not a one-to-one relation of a phoneme and a single related grapheme, which can be seen in how "tomber" and "tombé" both end with the /e/ phoneme. Additionally, there are many variations in the pronunciation of consonants at the end of words, demonstrated by how the "x" in "paix" is not pronounced though at the end of "Aix" it is"."


title: French language

text: As a result, it can be difficult to predict the spelling of a word based on the sound. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel (see Liaison (French)). For example, the following words end in a vowel sound: "pied", "aller", "les", "", "beaux". The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: "beaux-arts", "les amis", "pied-à-terre".


title: French language

text: French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for "animal" was "animals". The sequence was unstable and was turned into a diphthong . This change was then reflected in the orthography: "animaus". The "us" ending, very common in Latin, was then abbreviated by copyists (monks) by the letter "x", resulting in a written form "animax". As the French language further evolved, the pronunciation of "au" turned into so that the "u" was reestablished in orthography for consistency, resulting in modern French "animaux" (pronounced first before the final was dropped in contemporary French). The same is true for "cheval" pluralized as "chevaux" and many others. In addition, "castel" pl. "castels" became "château" pl. "châteaux".


title: French language

text: Some proposals exist to simplify the existing writing system, but they still fail to gather interest.


title: French language

text: In 1990, a reform accepted some changes to French orthography. At the time the proposed changes were considered to be suggestions. In 2016, schoolbooks in France began to use the newer recommended spellings, with instruction to teachers that both old and new spellings be deemed correct.


title: French language

text: French is a moderately inflected language. Nouns and most pronouns are inflected for number (singular or plural, though in most nouns the plural is pronounced the same as the singular even if spelled differently); adjectives, for number and gender (masculine or feminine) of their nouns; personal pronouns and a few other pronouns, for person, number, gender, and case; and verbs, for tense, aspect, mood, and the person and number of their subjects. Case is primarily marked using word order and prepositions, while certain verb features are marked using auxiliary verbs. According to the French lexicogrammatical system, French has a rank-scale hierarchy with clause as the top rank, which is followed by group rank, word rank, and morpheme rank. A French clause is made up of groups, groups are made up of words, and lastly, words are made up of morphemes.


title: French language

text: Every French noun is either masculine or feminine. Because French nouns are not inflected for gender, a noun's form cannot specify its gender. For nouns regarding the living, their grammatical genders often correspond to that which they refer to. For example, a male teacher is an "enseignant" while a female teacher is an "enseignante". However, plural nouns that refer to a group that includes both masculine and feminine entities are always masculine. So a group of two male teachers would be "enseignants". A group of two male teachers and two female teachers would still be "enseignants". In many situations, and in the case of "enseignant", both the singular and plural form of a noun are pronounced identically. The article used for singular nouns is different from that used for plural nouns and the article provides a distinguishing factor between the two in speech. For example, the singular "le professeur" or "la professeur(e)" (the male or female teacher, professor) can be distinguished from the plural "les professeurs" because "le", "la", and "les" are all pronounced differently. There are some situations where both the feminine and masculine form of a noun are the same and the article provides the only difference. For example, "le dentiste" refers to a male dentist while "la dentiste" refers to a female dentist.


title: French language

text: The French language consists of both finite and non-finite moods. The finite moods include the indicative mood (indicatif), the subjunctive mood (subjonctif), the imperative mood (impératif), and the conditional mood (conditionnel). The non-finite moods include the infinitive mood (infinitif), the present participle (participe présent), and the past participle (participe passé).


title: French language

text: The indicative mood makes use of eight tense-aspect forms. These include the present (présent), the simple past (passé composé and passé simple), the past imperfective (imparfait), the pluperfect (plus-que-parfait), the simple future (futur simple), the future perfect (futur antérieur), and the past perfect (passé antérieur). Some forms are less commonly used today. In today's spoken French, the passé composé is used while the passé simple is reserved for formal situations or for literary purposes. Similarly, the plus-que-parfait is used for speaking rather than the older passé antérieur seen in literary works.


title: French language

text: Within the indicative mood, the passé composé, plus-que-parfait, futur antérieur, and passé antérieur all use auxiliary verbs in their forms.


title: French language

text: The subjunctive mood only includes four of the tense-aspect forms found in the indicative: present (présent), simple past (passé composé), past imperfective (imparfait), and pluperfect (plus-que-parfait).


title: French language

text: Within the subjunctive mood, the passé composé and plus-que-parfait use auxiliary verbs in their forms.


title: French language

text: The imperative is used in the present tense (with the exception of a few instances where it is used in the perfect tense). The imperative is used to give commands to you (tu), we/us (nous), and plural you (vous).


title: French language

text: French uses both the active voice and the passive voice. The active voice is unmarked while the passive voice is formed by using a form of verb "être" ("to be") and the past participle.


title: French language

text: French declarative word order is subject–verb–object although a pronoun object precedes the verb. Some types of sentences allow for or require different word orders, in particular inversion of the subject and verb, as in "Parlez-vous français ?" when asking a question rather than "Vous parlez français ?" Both formulations are used, and carry a rising inflection on the last word. The literal English translations are "Do you speak French?" and "You speak French?", respectively. To avoid inversion while asking a question, "Est-ce que" (literally "is it that") may be placed at the beginning of the sentence. "Parlez-vous français ?" may become "Est-ce que vous parlez français ?" French also uses verb–object–subject (VOS) and object–subject–verb (OSV) word order. OSV word order is not used often and VOS is reserved for formal writings.


title: French language

text: The majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. In many cases, a single etymological root appears in French in a "popular" or native form, inherited from Vulgar Latin, and a learned form, borrowed later from Classical Latin. The following pairs consist of a native noun and a learned adjective:


title: French language

text: However, a historical tendency to Gallicise Latin roots can be identified, whereas English conversely leans towards a more direct incorporation of the Latin:


title: French language

text: It can be difficult to identify the Latin source of native French words because in the evolution from Vulgar Latin, unstressed syllables were severely reduced and the remaining vowels and consonants underwent significant modifications.


title: French language

text: More recently the linguistic policy of the French language academies of France and Quebec has been to provide French equivalents to (mainly English) imported words, either by using existing vocabulary, extending its meaning or deriving a new word according to French morphological rules. The result is often two (or more) co-existing terms for describing the same phenomenon.


title: French language

text: It is estimated that 12% (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the "Petit Larousse" or "Micro-Robert Plus" (35,000 words) are of foreign origin (where Greek and Latin learned words are not seen as foreign). About 25% (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from other Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from other Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Balto-Slavic languages, 10 from Basque and 144 (about 3%) from other languages.


title: French language

text: One study analyzing the degree of differentiation of Romance languages in comparison to Latin estimated that among the languages analyzed French has the greatest distance from Latin. Lexical similarity is 89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78% with Rhaeto-Romance, and 75% with Romanian, Spanish and Portuguese.


title: French language

text: The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (') is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70 to 99. The French word for "80" is ', literally "four twenties", and the word for "75" is "", literally "sixty-fifteen". This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the counting systems (mostly vigesimal near the coast), because of Celtic (via Breton) and Viking influences. This system is comparable to the archaic English use of "score", as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70).


title: French language

text: In Old French (during the Middle Ages), all numbers from 30 to 99 could be said in either base 10 or base 20, e.g. "vint et doze" (twenty and twelve) for 32, "dous vinz et diz" (two twenties and ten) for 50, "uitante" for 80, or "nonante" for 90.


title: French language

text: Belgian French, Swiss French, Aostan French and the French used in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are different in this respect. In the French spoken in these places, 70 and 90 are ' and '. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be ' (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or ' (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). "Octante" had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic, while in the Aosta Valley 80 is "". In Belgium and in its former African colonies, however, "quatre-vingts" is universally used.


title: French language

text: French, like most European languages, uses a space to separate thousands. The comma () is used in French numbers as a decimal point, i.e. "2,5" instead of "2.5". In the case of currencies, the currency markers are substituted for decimal point, i.e. "5$7" for "5 dollars and 7 cents".


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart Private Limited is an Indian e-commerce company, headquartered in Bengaluru, and incorporated in Singapore as a private limited company. The company initially focused on online book sales before expanding into other product categories such as consumer electronics, fashion, home essentials, groceries, and lifestyle products.


title: Flipkart

text: The service competes primarily with Amazon's Indian subsidiary and domestic rival Snapdeal. As of March 2017, Flipkart held a 39.5% market share of India's e-commerce industry. Flipkart has a dominant position in the apparel segment, bolstered by its acquisition of Myntra, and was described as being "neck and neck" with Amazon in the sale of electronics and mobile phones. Flipkart also owns PhonePe, a mobile payments service based on the UPI.


title: Flipkart

text: In August 2018, American retail chain Walmart acquired a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for US$16 billion, valuing Flipkart at around US$20 billion. Flipkart is valued at $37.6 billion as of 2022. It is planning to go public through a listing in the United States of America in 2023.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart was founded in October 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, alumni of the IIT, Delhi and former Amazon employees. The company initially focused on online book sales with country-wide shipping. Flipkart slowly grew in prominence and was receiving 100 orders per day by 2008. In 2010, Flipkart acquired the Bangalore-based social book discovery service WeRead from Lulu.com.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2011, Flipkart acquired the digital distribution business Mime360.com and the digital content library of the Bollywood portal Chakpak. Following the acquisition, Flipkart launched their DRM-free online music store Flyte in 2012. Due to competition from free streaming sites, Flyte was unsuccessful and shut down in June 2013.


title: Flipkart

text: With its eyes on India's retail market, Flipkart acquired Letsbuy, an online electronics retailer, in 2012, and Myntra, an online fashion retailer, for US$280 million in May 2014. Myntra continues to operate alongside Flipkart as a standalone subsidiary focusing on separate market segments.


title: Flipkart

text: In February 2014, Flipkart partnered with Motorola Mobility to be the exclusive Indian retailer of its Moto G smartphone. Motorola also partnered with Flipkart on the Moto E, a phone targeted primarily towards emerging markets such as India. High demand for the phone following its midnight launch on 14 May caused the Flipkart website to crash. Flipkart subsequently held exclusive Indian launches for other smartphones, including the Xiaomi Mi 3 in July 2014 (whose initial release of 10,000 devices sold out in around 5 seconds), and the Redmi 1S and Redmi Note in late 2014.


title: Flipkart

text: On 6 October 2014, coinciding with the company's anniversary and the Diwali season, Flipkart held a major sale that it promoted as "Big Billion Day". The event generated a surge of traffic, selling US$100 million worth of goods in 10 hours. The event received criticism via social media over technical issues experienced during the event and stock shortages.


title: Flipkart

text: In April 2015, Flipkart acquired Appiterate, a Delhi-based mobile marketing automation firm. Flipkart stated that it would use Appiterate's technology to enhance its mobile services. In December 2015, Flipkart purchased a minority stake in the digital mapping provider MapmyIndia.


title: Flipkart

text: In October 2015, Flipkart reprised the "Big Billion Days" event as a multi-day event exclusive to the Flipkart app. Flipkart bolstered its supply chain and introduced more fulfillment centers to meet customer demand. Flipkart achieved a gross merchandise volume of US$300 million during the event, with the largest volumes coming from fashion sales and the largest value coming from mobiles.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2016, Flipkart acquired the online fashion retailer Jabong.com from Rocket Internet for US$70 million and the UPI mobile payments startup PhonePe. In January 2017, Flipkart made a US$2 million investment in TinyStep, a parenting information startup.


title: Flipkart

text: In April 2017, eBay announced that it would sell its Indian subsidiary, eBay.in, to Flipkart and invest US$500 million in the company. While eBay suggested that the partnership would allow Flipkart to access eBay's network of international vendors, these plans never came to fruition. In July 2017, Flipkart made an offer to acquire its main domestic competitor, Snapdeal, for US$700 to 800 million. It was rejected by Snapdeal, which was seeking at least US$1 billion.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2017, Flipkart sold 1.3 million phones in 20 hours on 21 September during its "Big Billion Days" promotion, doubling the number sold on the first day of the same event in 2016. Flipkart held a 51% share of all Indian smartphone shipments in 2017, overtaking Amazon India (33%).


title: Flipkart

text: On 4 May 2018, it was reported that Walmart had won a bidding war with Amazon to acquire a majority stake in Flipkart for US$15 billion. On 9 May 2018, Walmart officially announced its intent to acquire a 77% controlling stake in Flipkart for US$16 billion. Following the purchase, Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal left the company. The remaining management team reported to Marc Lore, CEO of Walmart eCommerce US. Walmart president Doug McMillon cited plans to help Flipkart with its sourcing and supply chain, while tapping on its expertise to expand Walmart globally. Indian traders protested against the deal, considering it a threat to domestic business.


title: Flipkart

text: In a filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission on 11 May 2018, Walmart stated that a condition of the deal prescribed the possibility that Flipkart's current minority shareholders "may require Flipkart to effect an initial public offering following the fourth anniversary of the closing of the transactions at a valuation no less than that paid by Walmart".


title: Flipkart

text: Following the announcement of Walmart's deal, eBay announced that it would sell its stake in Flipkart back to the company for approximately US$1.1 billion and relaunch its own Indian operations. The company stated that "there is the huge growth potential for e-commerce in India and significant opportunity for multiple players to succeed in India's diverse, domestic market." Softbank Group also sold its entire 20% stake to Walmart without disclosing terms of the sale. Walmart's acquisition of 77% stake in Flipkart was completed on 18 August 2018. Walmart also provided US$2 billion in equity funding to the company.


title: Flipkart

text: On 13 November 2018, Flipkart CEO Binny Bansal resigned after facing an allegation of "serious personal misconduct". Walmart stated that "while the investigation did not find evidence to corroborate the complainant's assertions against Binny, it did reveal other lapses in judgment, particularly a lack of transparency, related to how Binny responded to the situation."


title: Flipkart

text: In August 2019, Flipkart partnered with Authentic Brands to license and distribute Nautica in India. It was reported the same month that Flipkart entered talks to invest around US$40 million in last-mile delivery startup Shadowfax, which would be the company's third investment in the logistics sector after backing BlackBuck and QikPod. The deal was completed four months later as a US$60 million financing round. It also launched a reward system called Super coins which allowed customers to earn points on various Flipkart brands like Myntra, Cleartrip and Phonepe.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart invested US$4 million in the customer engagement and rewards platform EasyRewardz on 19 November 2019.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2020, Flipkart Wholesale launched a digital platform for "kiranas" and MSMEs. In July 2020, Flipkart acquired a 27% stake in Arvind Fashions Limited's newly formed subsidiary Arvind Youth Brands for US$35 million. Arvind Youth Brands owns the Flying Machine brand. Flipkart also announced it will roll out Flipkart Quick, a hyperlocal 90-minute delivery service for product categories such as groceries, home accessories, mobile phones, stationery, and more.


title: Flipkart

text: In October 2020, Flipkart acquired a 7.8% stake in Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail for US$204 million. The following month, Flipkart acquired the intellectual property of gaming startup Mech Mocha for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition formed part of Flipkart's plans to gain and retain users by offering casual games. In November 2020, Flipkart acquired augmented reality company Scapic, which provides a suite of tools to create and publish augmented reality, virtual reality, and 3D content quickly and without coding.


title: Flipkart

text: In July 2021, Flipkart launched its social commerce marketplace called Shopsy, which allowed individuals and small businesses to direct sell and resell products to customers via social media channels. In December 2021, Shopsy entered the grocery delivery segment in 700 cities across India.Gujarati language was also added to their platform in 2021 which resulted in Flipkart being available in 8 local Indian languages that were Gujarati, Bengali, Odia, Hindi, Telegu, Kannada, Marathi and Tamil.


title: Flipkart

text: In April 2022, Flipkart launched its first grocery fulfilment centre in Northeast India, based in Guwahati. The centre was reportedly women-run to support the career progression of Flipkart's female employees. The same month, the company established the Flipkart Foundation to support entrepreneurship and skill development within underserved communities in India.Flipkart also partnered with Narayanpet District - also known by its brand name Aarunya in Telangana that is known for handlooms and handicrafts to build capacity of local women artisans and have their products available for purchase online. Similarly, the organization also partnered with Government of West Bengal's Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textiles (MSME&T) Department to help local artisans, handcraft makers and weavers to get training and support to sell their products on the platforms via timebound incubation.


title: Flipkart

text: The total revenue in 2022 was that of ₹43,357 crore was reported for the past fiscal year of 2020-2021. This was 25% more than its revenue in the fiscal year of 2020. The losses were reported to have reduced by 23% to ₹2,445 Crore with total expenses of ₹45,801.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2022, Flipkart entered the Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) and Web3 segment by letting the Indian purchasers of Nothing Phone (1) to get Nothing's NFT through the app called Nothing Community Dots. These NFTs use Polygon blockchain to host it. The NFT drop happened at FireDrops - which was done on Flipkart's NFT marketplace, supported by GuardianLink. In October 2022, Flipkart also created a shopping platform that was metaverse-based, called Flipverse. The platform allows people to explore products and shop in a more interactive way. The Flipverse has been created through a partnership with a Polygon-incubated firm called eDAO, and Flipverse hopes to provide a similar experience to actual mall like shopping where people would be able to create their own Avatars.


title: Flipkart

text: According to a report in November 2014, Flipkart operated with a complex business structure that included nine firms, some registered in Singapore and some in India. In 2012, Flipkart co-founders sold WS Retail to a consortium of investors led by Rajeev Kuchhal. Flipkart's Indian entities are owned by Flipkart Pvt. Ltd, which is registered in Singapore. The Singapore-registered entity owns eight Indian companies, including Flipkart Internet Pvt. Ltd, the company that runs the e-commerce marketplace Flipkart.com, Flipkart India Pvt. Ltd, the wholesale business, and Flipkart Logistics Pvt. Ltd, which runs Ekart (the internal logistics arm that can be used by other ecommerce players). Flipkart also started Flipkart Health+ (through an app) in 2021 that deals into providing medicines and health services through technology. This was started with the help of getting majority share in Sastasundar Marketplace Limited - an existing company that already was providing online pharmacy services.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart has made 22 acquisitions and 24 investments, spending over US$395M for the acquisitions. Flipkart has invested in multiple sectors such as e-commerce, consumer electronics, local services and more. In 2022, it also revised it's policies for sellers in an attempt to make it more seller-friendly. This included simplifying the rate card and reducing fee for return costs.


title: Flipkart

text: The initial development budget of Flipkart was . It later raised funding from venture capital firms Accel India (receiving US$1 million in funding in 2009) and Tiger Global (US$10 million in 2010 and US$20 million in June 2011). On 24 August 2012, Flipkart announced the completion of its 4th round of funding, netting a total of US$150 million from MIH (part of the Naspers Group) and ICONIQ Capital. The company announced on 10 July 2013 that it had raised an additional US$200 million from existing investors, including Tiger Global, Naspers, Accel Partners and Iconiq Capital.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart reported a loss of for the FY2012–13. In July 2013, Flipkart raised US$160 million from private equity investors.


title: Flipkart

text: In October 2013, it was reported that Flipkart had raised an additional US$160 million from new investors Dragoneer Investment Group, Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, Sofina SA, and Vulcan Inc., with a share of the funding coming from existing investor Tiger Global.


title: Flipkart

text: On 26 May 2014, Flipkart announced that it had raised US$210 million from Yuri Milner's DST Global and its existing investors Tiger Global, Naspers, and Iconiq Capital.


title: Flipkart

text: On 29 July 2014, Flipkart announced that it raised US$1 billion from Tiger Global, Accel Partners, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and a new investor, Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC.


title: Flipkart

text: In December 2014, after it received US$700 million from another round of funding, Flipkart had a market cap of US$11 billion.


title: Flipkart

text: On 20 December 2014, Flipkart announced its filing application with Singapore-based company regulator ACRA to become a public company. This announcement came after the company received US$700 million in long-term strategic investments from more than 50 Indian investors. The US$700 million in funding raised by Flipkart added new investors to the company's board, including Baillie Gifford, Greenoaks Capital, Steadview Capital, T. Rowe Price Associates, and Qatar Investment Authority. Its existing investors DST Global, GIC, ICONIQ Capital and Tiger Global also participated in this financing round. , Flipkart had raised US$550 million in additional funding from its existing investors in a deal that raised its total valuation to US$15 billion.


title: Flipkart

text: By August 2015, after raising another US$700 million, Flipkart had raised a total of US$3 billion over 12 rounds of funding from 16 major investors. In April 2017, Flipkart underwent another round of funding, receiving US$1.4 billion in funding from investors including eBay, Microsoft, and Tencent. On 10 August 2017, SoftBank Vision Fund invested another US$2.5 billion in Flipkart.


title: Flipkart

text: On 19 September 2018, Flipkart Marketplace Singapore injected ₹3,463 crore into Flipkart Internet. The transaction was done in two tranches, according to regulatory filings.


title: Flipkart

text: In March 2021, it was reported that Flipkart was considering the possibility of going public through a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to speed up its listing process in the United States.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2022, the organization started Flipkart Ventures and created a venture fund of $100 Million to be invested in other 6 start-ups selected for Flipkart Leap Ahead, an accelerator program. Each start up will be given an equity investment of up to $500,000. Once the first cohort of Flipkart Leap was completed, the program was split in two distinct programs known as Flipkart Leap Ahead (FLA) and Flipkart Leap Innovation Network (FLIN).


title: Flipkart

text: In November 2012, the Indian Enforcement Directorate began investigating Flipkart for alleged violations of the foreign direct investment regulations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999. On 30 November 2012, Flipkart's offices were raided by the Enforcement Directorate. Documents and computer hard drives were seized by the agency. In August 2014, the Enforcement Directorate claimed that it had found Flipkart to be in violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act. The Delhi High Court declared that several e-commerce firms, including Flipkart, had violated foreign investment regulations.


title: Flipkart

text: In January 2016, a public interest litigation hearing took place over Flipkart's alleged contravention of foreign investment norms. The court asked the Reserve Bank of India to provide the latest circular on foreign investment policy. The same month, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) clarified that it did not recognise the marketplace model of online retail. In February 2016, Health Minister J P Nadda announced that the Maharashtra FDA had taken action against Flipkart, among others, for selling drugs without a valid license.


title: Flipkart

text: A group of scammers was arrested by the police in Lucknow in 2022 who used the platform to scam the customers. The scam included replacing the online ordered Apple products with bricks to cheat customers and company. Such scams have also been reported in the past where soaps were delivered instead of iphones on Flipkartand also on Amazon.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart operates several house brands, including Citron (home appliances) and Digiflip (formerly for electronics and accessories). In 2017, Flipkart launched additional house brands, including Billion (smartphones), Smartbuy (electronics accessories, effectively replacing Digiflip), and MarQ (for large appliances, although its launch was complicated by a trademark dispute with an existing company, Marc Enterprises).


title: Flipkart

text: In 2019, Flipkart began selling Nokia-brand televisions. A 55-inch, Android TV-based 4K Smart TV was the first product released under that licensing agreement. A 43-inch TV was unveiled on 4 June 2020.


title: Flipkart

text: Flipkart launched an in-app streaming service called Flipkart Video in August 2019, so as to compete with industry rivals like Amazon who were also offering premium video options. The initial line up of content was curated from the service providers like Viu, Voot and TVF.


title: Flipkart

text: To strengthen its content offering on Flipkart Video, Flipkart forayed into original content production, known as Flipkart Video Originals. The first show was launched on 19 October 2019. Named "Back Benchers", it was a Bollywood celebrity quiz show hosted by Farah Khan.


title: Flipkart

text: On 13 September 2014, a Flipkart deliveryman allegedly molested a housemaid in Hyderabad. The housemaid's employer sued Flipkart for this incident, citing the need for regulations to make offline delivery services safer.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2014, competitors such as Future Group (owner of retail chain Big Bazaar at that time) filed complaints with India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, alleging that Flipkart's Big Billion Days discounts undercut prices in a manner predatory to other retailers. The ministry stated that it would look into the complaints.


title: Flipkart

text: In April 2015, Flipkart faced criticism for being a launch partner in the Airtel Zero program. Critics alleged that the zero-rating scheme violated the principles of net neutrality. Flipkart later pulled out of the project.


title: Flipkart

text: In 2015, around 400 delivery executives working with eKart, the logistics arm of Flipkart, went on strike to protest poor working conditions. Complaints included seven-day workweeks, extended hours, and a lack of clean toilets and medical assistance for bike riders involved in accidents. In 2016, delivery executive Nanjunda Swamy was murdered by a customer who did not have enough money to pay for a product. In response, Flipkart launched a safety initiative -'Project Nanjunda', named after the deceased executive. This included an SOS button in the mobile app (called the Nanjunda button) that could be used by field executives in case of emergencies.


title: Flipkart

text: Vendors on Flipkart have faced several challenges while doing business on the company's marketplace, to the extent that some of them have quit the portal. Some of these challenges include Flipkart's alleged unfair policies towards sellers, the lack of a competent logistics service, and customer returns that are a result of consumer fraud.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, three Grammy Awards and six Golden Globe Awards. She has also received three Tony Award nominations. Andrews was made a Disney Legend in 1991, and has been honoured with an Honorary Golden Lion, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2007, and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2022. In 2000, Andrews was made a dame by Queen Elizabeth II for services to the performing arts.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews, a child actress and singer, appeared in the West End in 1948 and made her Broadway debut in "The Boy Friend" (1954). Billed as "Britain's youngest prima donna," she rose to prominence starring in Broadway musicals such as "My Fair Lady" (1956) playing Eliza Doolittle and "Camelot" (1960) playing Queen Guinevere. On 31 March 1957, Andrews starred in the premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's written-for-television musical "Cinderella," a live, colour CBS network broadcast seen by over 100 million viewers. Andrews made her feature film debut in Walt Disney's "Mary Poppins" (1964) and won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the title role. The following year she starred in the musical film "The Sound of Music" (1965), playing Maria von Trapp and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Between 1964 and 1986, Andrews starred in various films working with directors including her husband Blake Edwards, George Roy Hill, and Alfred Hitchcock. Films she starred in include "The Americanization of Emily" (1964), "Hawaii" (1966), "Torn Curtain" (1966), "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967), "Star!" (1968), "The Tamarind Seed" (1974), "10" (1979), "S.O.B." (1981), "Victor/Victoria" (1982), "That's Life!" (1986), and "Duet for One" (1986). After 1986 her workload decreased, appearing in two films in 1991 and not again until 2000. After the turn of the new millennium, however, her career had a revival. She gained a younger following starring in "The Princess Diaries" (2001), "" (2004) as well as "Eloise at the Plaza", and "Eloise at Christmastime" (both 2003). She also lent her voice for the English dub of the Italian animated film "The Singing Princess" (1949, her first venture into voice-over work), the "Shrek" franchise and the "Despicable Me" franchise (2010–present).


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews is also known for her collaborations with Carol Burnett including the specials, "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall" (1962), which received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Special nomination, as well as "Julie and Carol at Lincoln Center" (1971), and "" (1989). She starred in her own variety special "The Julie Andrews Hour" (1973) for which she received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety Musical Series. In 2017 she co-created and hosted a children's educational show titled "Julie's Greenroom", for which she received two Daytime Emmy Award nominations. Beginning in 2020, Andrews voiced the narrator Lady Whistledown in the Netflix series "Bridgerton". She has also worked hosting performance shows such as "Great Performances" and narrating the 2004 Emmy-winning series "Broadway: The American Musical".


title: Julie Andrews

text: In 2002, Andrews was ranked No. 59 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. In 2003, she revisited her first Broadway success, this time as a stage director, with a revival of "The Boy Friend". Apart from her musical career, she is also an author of children's books and has published two autobiographies, "" (2008) and "Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years" (2019).


title: Julie Andrews

text: Julia Elizabeth Wells was born on 1 October 1935 in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, England. Her mother, Barbara Ward Wells (née Morris; 25 July, 1910–1984) was born in Chertsey and married Edward Charles "Ted" Wells (1908–1990), a teacher of metalwork and woodwork, in 1932. Andrews was conceived as a result of an affair her mother had with a family friend. Andrews discovered her true parentage from her mother in 1950, although it was not publicly disclosed until her 2008 autobiography.


title: Julie Andrews

text: With the outbreak of World War II, her parents went their separate ways and were soon divorced. Each remarried: Barbara to Ted Andrews, in 1943, and Ted Wells in 1944 to Winifred Maud (Hyde) Birkhead, a war widow and former hairstylist at a war work factory that employed them both in Hinchley Wood, Surrey. Wells assisted with evacuating children to Surrey during the Blitz, while Andrews's mother joined her husband in entertaining the troops through the Entertainments National Service Association. Andrews lived briefly with Wells and her brother, John in Surrey. In 1940, Wells sent her to live with her mother and stepfather, who Wells thought would be better able to provide for his talented daughter's artistic training. According to Andrews's 2008 autobiography "Home", while Andrews had been used to calling her stepfather "Uncle Ted", her mother suggested it would be more appropriate to refer to her stepfather as "Pop", while her father remained "Dad" or "Daddy" to her, a change which she disliked. The Andrews family was "very poor" and "lived in a bad slum area of London" at the time, stating that the war "was a very black period in my life". According to Andrews, her stepfather was violent and an alcoholic. He twice, while drunk, tried to get into bed with his stepdaughter, resulting in Andrews fitting a lock on her door.


title: Julie Andrews

text: As the stage career of her mother and stepfather improved, they were able to afford better surroundings, first to Beckenham and then, as the war ended, back to the Andrews's hometown of Hersham. The family took up residence at the Old Meuse, in West Grove, Hersham, a house (now demolished) where Andrews's maternal grandmother had served as a maid. Andrews's stepfather sponsored lessons for her, first at the independent arts educational school Cone-Ripman School (ArtsEd) in London, and thereafter with concert soprano and voice instructor Madame Lilian Stiles-Allen. Andrews said of Stiles-Allen, "She had an enormous influence on me", adding, "She was my third mother – I've got more mothers and fathers than anyone in the world". In her memoir "Julie Andrews – My Star Pupil", Stiles-Allen records, "The range, accuracy and tone of Julie's voice amazed me ... she had possessed the rare gift of absolute pitch", though Andrews herself refutes this in her 2008 autobiography "Home". According to Andrews, "Madame was sure that I could do Mozart and Rossini, but, to be honest, I never was". Of her own voice, she says, "I had a very pure, white, thin voice, a four-octave range – dogs would come from miles around." After Cone-Ripman School, Andrews continued her academic education at the nearby Woodbrook School, a local state school in Beckenham.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Beginning in 1945, and for the next two years, Andrews performed spontaneously and unbilled on stage with her parents. "Then came the day when I was told I must go to bed in the afternoon because I was going to be allowed to sing with Mummy and Pop in the evening", Andrews explained. During her initial shows, Andrews stood on a beer crate to sing into the microphone, performing a solo or a duet with her stepfather, while her mother played piano. She later stated that "it must have been ghastly, but it seemed to go down all right". Fellow child entertainer Petula Clark, three years her senior, recalled touring around the UK by train to sing for the troops alongside Andrews; they slept in the luggage racks. Clark later said "It was fun—and not a lot of kids were having fun".


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews had her career breakthrough when her stepfather introduced her to managing director Val Parnell, whose Moss Empires controlled prominent performance venues in London. At age 12, Andrews made her professional solo debut at the London Hippodrome, singing the difficult aria "Je suis Titania" from "Mignon" as part of a musical revue, called "Starlight Roof", on 22 October 1947. She played at the Hippodrome for one year. Of her role in "Starlight Roof," Andrews recalled: "There was this wonderful American person and comedian, Wally Boag, who made balloon animals. He would say, 'Is there any little girl or boy in the audience who would like one of these?' And I would rush up onstage and say, 'I'd like one, please.' And then he would chat to me and I'd tell him I sang ... I was fortunate in that I absolutely stopped the show cold. I mean, the audience went crazy".


title: Julie Andrews

text: On 1 November 1948, a thirteen-year-old Andrews became the youngest solo performer ever to be seen in a Royal Variety Performance before King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the London Palladium. Andrews performed alongside singer Danny Kaye, dancers the Nicholas Brothers, and the comedy team George and Bert Bernard.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews subsequently followed her parents into radio and television. She performed in musical interludes of the BBC Light Programme comedy show "Up the Pole" and was a cast member in "Educating Archie", from 1950 to 1952. She reportedly made her television début on the BBC programme "RadiOlympia Showtime" on 8 October 1949. Andrews appeared on West End theatre at the London Casino, where she played one year each as Princess Badroulbadour in "Aladdin" and the egg in "Humpty Dumpty". Andrews also appeared on provincial stages in "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Little Red Riding Hood", as well as starring as the lead role in "Cinderella". In 1952, she voiced Princess Zeila in the English dub of the Italian animated movie "La Rosa di Bagdad" (renamed "The Singing Princess"), in her first film and first venture into voice-over work.


title: Julie Andrews

text: On 30 September 1954, the eve of her 19th birthday, Andrews made her Broadway debut as Polly Browne in the London musical "The Boy Friend". Andrews was recommended to director Vida Hope for the part by actress Hattie Jacques, whom Andrews regards as a "catalyst" for her career. Eve Benda recognised her special talent and predicted her stardom. Andrews was anxious about moving to New York; at the time, she was both breadwinner and caretaker for her family, and took the part upon her father's encouragement. She stated that at the time, she had "no idea" how to research a role or study a script, and cites Cy Feuer's direction as being "phenomenal". "The Boy Friend" became a hit, with Andrews receiving praise; critics called her the stand-out of the show.


title: Julie Andrews

text: In 1955, Andrews signed to appear with Bing Crosby in the television film, "High Tor". It filmed in November 1955 in Los Angeles and was Andrews's first screen project, which she described as "daunting". "High Tor" was televised the following March before a live audience for the "Ford Star Jubilee", receiving lukewarm reviews. Near the end of her one-year run with "The Boy Friend", Andrews was approached to audition to Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe for the role of Eliza Doolittle in "My Fair Lady". She was offered the part during her third reading. She later wrote that she felt she could "be Eliza, could find and understand her" if only someone were to "gently unravel the knotted ... string inside my stomach".


title: Julie Andrews

text: During rehearsals, director Moss Hart spent forty-eight consecutive hours solely with Andrews, where they "hammered through each scene"; Andrews later stated that "the good man had stripped [her] feelings bare [...] moulded, kneaded, and helped [her] become the character of Eliza [..] [and made] her part of [her] soul." Andrews referred it as the best acting lesson she had ever received, later cementing the role with her "own touches and flourishes" and continuing to work on the character throughout her two-year run. On 15 March 1956, "My Fair Lady" opened on Broadway at the Mark Hellinger Theatre. The play was a huge success with both the audience and critics, though soon after opening she learned she needed to tone down her learned cockney accent so that the American audience could understand her, a change which was reversed at the West End performance a year later. Andrews describes her performances as Eliza as "the great learning period" of her life.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Richard Rodgers was so impressed with Andrews's talent that concurrent with her run in "My Fair Lady" she was featured in the Rodgers and Hammerstein television musical "Cinderella", which was written especially for her. "Cinderella" was broadcast live on CBS on 31 March 1957 under the musical direction of Alfredo Antonini and had an estimated 107 million viewers. The show was broadcast live in colour from CBS Studio 72, at Broadway and 81st Street in New York: CBS' only East Coast colour studio. Andrews was nominated for an Emmy Award for her role. She described the performance as "incredibly hard" and stated it took her "years to realise the enormity" of the production. In 1957, Andrews released her debut solo album, "The Lass with the Delicate Air", which harked back to her British music hall days. The album includes performances of English folk songs as well as the World War II anthem, "London Pride", a patriotic song written by Noël Coward in 1941 during the Blitz, which Andrews herself had survived.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Between 1956 and 1962, Andrews guest-starred on "The Ed Sullivan Show" (15 July 1956), and also appeared on "The Dinah Shore Chevy Show", "What's My Line?", "The Jack Benny Program", "The Bell Telephone Hour", and "The Garry Moore Show". In June 1962, Andrews co-starred in "Julie and Carol at Carnegie Hall", a CBS special with Carol Burnett. In 1960, Lerner and Loewe again cast her in a period musical as Queen Guinevere in "Camelot", along with Richard Burton (as King Arthur) and newcomer Robert Goulet. Andrews called the work "monumental" due to the heavy set costuming and detailed literary themes. Camelot premiered at the Majestic Theatre to "adequate" reviews, which Andrews credited to off-set production issues and comparisons to "My Fair Lady". The musical was substantially revised both before and during the show's Broadway run.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Casting for the film adaptation of "My Fair Lady" began in 1962; Jay Lerner hoped for Andrews to reprise her role, but Warner Brothers studio head Jack Warner decided Andrews lacked sufficient name recognition; the part was played by the established film actress Audrey Hepburn, with the bulk of the singing dubbed by Marni Nixon. As Warner later recalled that the decision was made for financial purposes, stating that "In my business, I have to know who brings people and their money to a cinema box office. Audrey Hepburn had never made a financial flop." Andrews later reflected that she understood her experience on Broadway "was within a very small pond" but wished she had been able to record her performance for posterity.


title: Julie Andrews

text: In 1963, Andrews began work in the titular role of Disney's musical film "Mary Poppins". Walt Disney had seen her performance in "Camelot" and subsequently offered her the role; Andrews initially declined because of pregnancy, returning to London to give birth, but Disney firmly insisted, saying, "We'll wait for you." After the birth of her daughter, she received a call from P. L. Travers, author of the "Mary Poppins" book series, who told her, "Well, you're much too pretty of course. But you've got the nose for it." Disney rented a house in Toluca Lake, Los Angeles for her family to reside in during production. Andrews relied largely on instinct for her portrayal, conceptualising her background and giving the character a "particular walk" and a turned-out stance to suit her ladylike sensibility. Andrews referred to production as "unrelenting" given the physical exertion and technical details, saying that she "could not have asked" for a better introduction to film.


title: Julie Andrews

text: "Mary Poppins" became the biggest box-office draw in Disney history. "Variety" lauded Andrews's performance as a "signal triumph ... she performs as easily as she sings, displaying a fresh type of beauty." The film was nominated for thirteen Academy Awards and won five, including the Academy Award for Best Actress for Andrews's performance. She also received the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, while Andrews and her co-stars won the 1965 Grammy Award for Best Album for Children. As a measure of "sweet revenge," as "Poppins" songwriter Richard M. Sherman put it, Andrews closed her acceptance speech at the Golden Globes by saying, "And, finally, my thanks to a man who made a wonderful movie and who made all this possible in the first place, Mr. Jack Warner." "My Fair Lady" was in direct competition for the awards.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews starred opposite James Garner in the comedy-drama war film "The Americanization of Emily" (1964). Andrews took the role partly to avoid typecasting as a nanny. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" called Andrews "irresistible".. with a brush of sentiment" in both her comedic and emotional scenes. Andrews was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. Andrews later described it as her favourite film, a sentiment shared by her co-star Garner. Andrews starred in "The Sound of Music" (1965), which was the highest-grossing film of its year. Andrews later said she was "ashamed" to admit that she thought the musical "rather saccharine" before being cast. Rehearsals took place in London before filming commenced in Salzburg, Austria in 1964. Filming was rather slow; due to weather conditions in Salzburg, the cast were "lucky" if they got a single shot's worth of scenes.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews stated she relied on lyrics to anchor her to the film's songs and utilised vocal interpretation to "convey" Maria's character by "[hanging] onto words and the images they conjured". Andrews wrote that her senses were "suffused" with Austria, saying that the music "still" and "always lives in her soul". The film received mixed reviews, though critics highlighted Andrews's performance; Crowther again praised her for her "air of radiant vigour ... plain-Jane wholesomeness and her ability to make her dialogue as vivid ... as she makes her songs." For her performance as Maria von Trapp, Andrews won her second Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. She was nominated a second time for the Academy Award for Best Actress and the BAFTA Award for Best British Actress in a Leading Role. Andrews later wrote that the "gift" and "privilege" of portraying her first three film roles would have been "enough to satisfy" her for a lifetime."


title: Julie Andrews

text: After completing "The Sound of Music", Andrews appeared as a guest star on the NBC-TV variety series "The Andy Williams Show". She followed this television appearance with an Emmy Award-winning special, "The Julie Andrews Show", which featured Gene Kelly and the New Christy Minstrels as guests. It aired on NBC-TV in November 1965. In 1966, Andrews starred in "Hawaii", the highest-grossing film of its year. Also in 1966, she starred opposite Paul Newman in "Torn Curtain", which was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and shot at Universal Studios Hollywood. Hitchcock gave Newman and Andrews relative free rein in dialogue during production. She credits the director with teaching her extensively about lenses and camera-work. During a press interview, she "made the mistake" of expressing her unhappiness with her performance and subsequently received a "terse" letter from Hitchcock, which Andrews later cited as an "important lesson". The film received mixed reviews upon release.


title: Julie Andrews

text: The following year, Andrews played the titular character in "Thoroughly Modern Millie" (1967). Andrews described work on the film as a "pleasant distraction" for "allowing her to be something of a clown", as her stepfather died shortly before filming. The film was a box office success; critics described Andrews as "very much the leading lady" and "absolutely darling" as well as "deliciously spirited and dry." The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, and Andrews scored a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. At the time, "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and "Torn Curtain" were the biggest and second-biggest hits in Universal Pictures history, respectively.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews next appeared in two of Hollywood's most expensive flops: "Star!" (1968), a biopic of Gertrude Lawrence; and "Darling Lili" (1970), co-starring Rock Hudson and directed by her second husband, Blake Edwards. Andrews "went through her usual period of insecurity" during the production of "Star!", intensely analysing her choices for the character. Choreographer Michael Kidd worked closely with Andrews during the complicated musical numbers, which Andrews regarded as physically and mentally gruelling, coupled with her divorce from her first husband, Tony Walton. The "New York Times" singled out the film as "not one of [Andrews]'s best", while "Variety" wrote her "carefully built-up" performance "sagged" with "overdone hoydenishness". Despite reviews, her performance was once again nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Andrews regards her friendships with Kidd and director Robert Wise as her "greatest gifts" from the film.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Edwards pitched the concept of "Darling Lili" to Andrews two years prior to the start of production in 1968. She prerecorded original songs for the film with Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer. Andrews cited "Darling Lili"'s tepid reviews as being caused by studio marketing and postproduction issues. While the film was a commercial bomb, the "New York Times" praised Andrews's performance, calling her an "unmitigated delight" and "perfect centerpiece" of the film, praising "her coolness and precision as a comedienne and a singer". She was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, while the film won both the Golden Globe and Academy Awards for Best Original Song. Of these films, Andrews later wrote that "nonstop success in a career is impossible [...] but nobody sets out to make a failure, either."


title: Julie Andrews

text: Andrews was the first choice to play the English witch Eglantine Price in Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971); Angela Lansbury was cast. Andrews continued working in television. In 1969, she shared the spotlight with singer Harry Belafonte for an NBC-TV special, "An Evening with Julie Andrews and Harry Belafonte". In 1971, she appeared as a guest for the Grand Opening Special of Walt Disney World, and that same year she and Carol Burnett headlined a CBS special, "Julie and Carol At Lincoln Center". In 1972–73, Andrews starred in her own television variety series, "The Julie Andrews Hour", on the ABC network. The show won seven Emmy Awards but was cancelled after one season.


title: Julie Andrews

text: Between 1973 and 1975, Andrews continued her association with ABC by headlining five variety specials for the network. She guest-starred on "The Muppet Show" in 1977, and the following year, she appeared again with the Muppets on a CBS television variety special. The programme, "Julie Andrews: One Step Into Spring", aired in March 1978, to mixed reviews and mediocre ratings. She made only two other films in the 1970s, "The Tamarind Seed" (1974) and "10" (1979), both successful at the box office and by critics' reviews. In February 1980, Andrews headlined "Because We Care", a CBS-TV special with 30 major stars raising funds for Cambodian Famine victims through Operation California (now Operation USA, on whose Board she serves). Later that year, she starred in "Little Miss Marker" as "English rose" Amanda Worthington (a label she had first been given in the 1960s). In Blake Edwards' "S.O.B." (1981), she played Sally Miles, a character who agrees to "show my boobies" in a scene in the film-within-a-film.


title: Julie Andrews

text: A dual role of Victoria Grant and Count Victor Grezhinski in the film "Victor/Victoria" (1982), reunited her with Garner once again. Her performance earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, as well as a nomination for the 1982 Academy Award for Best Actress, her third Oscar nomination. In 1983, Andrews was chosen as the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year by the Harvard University Theatrical Society. That year, she co-starred with Burt Reynolds in "The Man Who Loved Women". Her next two films were "That's Life!" and "Duet for One" (both 1986), which earned her Golden Globe nominations. In December 1987, Andrews starred in an ABC Christmas special, "Julie Andrews: The Sound Of Christmas", which went on to win five Emmy Awards. Two years later, she was reunited for the third time with Carol Burnett for a variety special which aired on ABC in December 1989.


title: Julie Andrews

text: In 1991, Andrews made her television dramatic debut in the ABC made-for-TV film, "Our Sons", co-starring Ann-Margret. Andrews was named a Disney Legend within the year. In the summer of 1992, Andrews starred in her first television sitcom; the short-lived "Julie" aired on ABC for only seven episodes and co-starred James Farentino. In December, 1992 she hosted the NBC holiday special, "Christmas In Washington". Having played a Cockney flower seller in "My Fair Lady", Andrews had an orangey-salmon pink rose named after her at London's Chelsea Flower Show in 1992. Stating she was "ever so flattered", portions of the sales of the "Julie Andrews Rose" were donated to charity. In 1993, she starred in a limited run at the Manhattan Theatre Club in the American premiere of Stephen Sondheim's revue, "Putting It Together". Between 1994 and 1995, Andrews recorded two solo albums – the first saluted the music of Richard Rodgers and the second paid tribute to the words of Alan Jay Lerner. In 1995, she starred in the stage musical version of "Victor/Victoria". It was her first appearance in a Broadway show in 35 years. Opening on Broadway on 25 October 1995 at the Marquis Theatre, it later went on the road for a world tour. When she was the only Tony Award nominee for the production, she declined the nomination saying that she could not accept because she felt the entire production was snubbed.