Recently, we wrote about Tiffinbites, an Indian fast food chain in Britain. A similar spotting has come in from Canada, where the first of a new chain of Indian takeout restaurants opened last year.

Founder Jared Ross started Veda with the intention of serving Indian food that was both fast and healthy. Veda cooks with minimal amounts of oil, has a simple menu and uses high quality, healthy ingredients, with plenty of vegetarian options.

Like Tiffinbites, Veda serves takeout food in stackable containers known as tiffins. For about USD 5, customers can order their choice of rice, two vegetable or meat curries and a naan. The chain plans to expand to other locations in Canada and the United States.

By offering inexpensive yet healthy Indian food in easy-to-carry containers, Veda and Tiffinbites have hit upon a combination that could become the next big flavour in fast food. Explore franchise opportunities, or start your own (well branded) tiffin-based restaurant!

We recently featured Kinderinsel, a Germany hotel for children. Following up on that is a spotting from South Africa: Baby Hotel.

Baby Hotel is a specialized childcare facility for babies up to three years old. Each child has his or her own cot and bedding, and a cubby for personal belongings. Nurseries have en-suite bathrooms, and there are spacious play areas and big, secure gardens.

Babies are grouped by age, and each age group has no more than five babies per designated minder. The facilities, located in Johannesburg and Pretoria, are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Normal day care hours are between 7 am and 6 pm, but overnight stays are easily accommodated, facilitating parents who are stuck in a meeting at the end of the day, or need to catch a 6 am flight.

Why we think the hotel approach to childcare will spread? Short drop-offs and 24/7 availability are life savers for busy parents. And specialized facilities for babies are a gap in the market. Combine the two, and you're on to a winner ;-)

A Yakibox is a complete set, in a box, for cooking one of various Japanese dishes.

Yakiboxes are currently available for two dishes: yakiniku and okonomiyaki. The former is a selection of meat and vegetables, thinly sliced and cooked quickly on a stone hotplate, then dipped in sauces and eaten in small mouthfuls. And okonomiyaki is a cross between an omelette and a pancake.

The Yakiboxes offer consumers an easy way to become acquainted with types of Japanese cuisine that have yet to become as ubiquitous as sushi. Each box includes a gas stove, kitchenware, and everything else needed to prepare an entire meal. The only thing that needs to be added is fresh ingredients.

Yakibox is a British company, whose founders were featured on the popular BBC program Dragon's Den, which lets entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of venture capitalists ready to hand over funding if they like what they see.

Essentially food experiences that are attractively packaged, the boxes are priced at GBP 89.95 (USD 169/EUR 130) for okonomiyaki and GBP 79.95 (USD 149/EUR 115) for yakiniku. One to distribute in your own country or region?

Recently, we featured Harrods 102, a luxury convenience offshoot of the well-known London retailer. Meanwhile, in California, Famima is bringing Japanese style to the convenience arena.

FamilyMart is a Japanese franchise chain that operates 6,000 convenience stores in Japan, and 6,000 in Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Vancouver, and Shanghai. For its North-American rollout, the company is operating under the brand name Famima.

Five recently opened stores in the Los Angeles area (Pasadena, Torrance, Santa Monica, Westwood, and West Hollywood), are the first of 250 planned Famima stores in the US. What sets Famima apart? Catering to busy, affluent urbanites, the stores offer premium versions of regular convenience store goods. Drip coffee has been replaced by espresso, and microwaved hotdogs by fresh sushi and bento boxes. Famima sells a variety of premium groceries and prepared foods, alongside anime comics, European notepads and other fun novelty items.

Design is clean, polished, and uncluttered, and signs for aisle sections are somewhat cryptic icons in bright yellow and red.

Like Harrods 102, Famima aims to be a one-stop-shop for the affluent consumers they're after. In their own words: "Famima encompasses all that is essential for the 21st century lifestyle - a neighbourhood deli, a quick service restaurant, a premium grocer, a drug store, a banker, a personal business services and stationery store, a local newsstand and internet provider, and a morning coffee and snack stop." As long as the design doesn't grow stale, and the food stays fresh, premium convenience stores like Famima and Harrods 102 will appeal to customers in cities across the globe. Sooner or later, a global chain will do for convenience what Starbucks did for coffee!

Scoopt, the world's first commercial citizen journalism photography agency (see our recent article for more), just launched ScooptWords to help bloggers find a commercial market for their writing.

Scoopt strongly believes that many bloggers produce content as good as or better than what appears in newspapers and magazines, and Scoopt aims to bring that content to larger audiences.

The process is simple: ScooptWords members place a "buy this content" button on their blog, indicating that an article is available for republication. Editors click on the button, and ScooptWords' system takes care of payment and licensing. As soon as payment has been confirmed, the publication can copy, paste and print the article. By default, content is licensed for one-time-only use in a single publication within a single territory, but flexible rights are available.

Scoopt takes a 50% cut for the first sale and 25% for subsequent sales, and bloggers are paid through PayPal. Publications don't necessarily credit the blogger, and are free to edit their articles without the blogger's explicit permission.

The benefit for mainstream publications is obvious: ScooptWords offers a simple way to license original, high quality content, without editors having to negotiate prices and licenses directly with bloggers.

In Scoopt's view, one that hardly seems unlikely, all journalists will be required to blog in the near future. Some bloggers will become journalists and some journalists will become full-time bloggers, and online and offline publications will be able to cherry pick the best content from both worlds.

Opportunities? Set up your own agency. Be a curator, selecting the best blog content in your field of interest or expertise. And watch the last borders between old and new media disappear. ;-)