Month: August 2020

Samsung, Apple contract manufacturers submit proposals for benefits under Rs 50K crore PLI scheme

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Leading handset makers like Samsung and iPhone producer Apple’s contract manufacturers have submitted proposals to avail benefits under the government’s Rs 50,000 crore production linked incentive scheme for boosting electronics manufacturing, sources said.

According to proposals, the companies like Samsung Lava, Dixon and iPhone contract manufacturer looks to produce mobile devices and components worth over Rs 11 lakh crore in the next five years, they said.

The proposals submitted by the companies to the Ministry of Electronics and IT to avail benefits of the Production Link Incentives (PLI) are expected to create 12 lakh employment opportunities — 3 lakh direct and around 9 lakh indirect jobs, a source told PTI.

“Foreign companies that have submitted proposals for the scheme include Samsung, Foxconn Hon Hai, Rising Star, Wistron and Pegatron,” the source said.

Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron are contract manufacturers for Apple iPhones.

Taiwan-based Pegatron is a new investor in India.

Apple and Samsung account for nearly 60 per cent of global sales revenue of mobile phones.

“In the next five years, mobile phones worth about Rs 9 lakh crore in the category of above Rs 15,000 per unit are expected to be produced as per the proposals submitted by the companies. Mobile phones worth about Rs 2 lakh crore are expected to be produced in the sub-Rs 15,000 category,” the source said.

Export demand of about Rs 7 lakh crore is expected to be met from the proposed production capacities.

Indian companies that have applied under the scheme include Lava, Dixon Technologies, Micromax and Padget Electronics.

“Lava has plans to invest around Rs 800 crore over the next five years under the scheme,” another source aware of the submission said.

The government had notified three schemes on April 1 for the promotion of electronics.

These were schemes for manufacturing of electronic components and semiconductors, modified electronics manufacturing clusters (EMC 2.0) scheme, and production-linked incentive scheme for large scale electronics manufacturing.

These schemes jointly offer incentives of around Rs 50,000 crore over the period of next five years.

Electronics and IT Secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney on June 2 had said that the schemes will push mobile production to Rs 8 lakh crore in value terms and exports worth Rs 5.98 lakh crore in the next five years.

Meanwhile, around 8-10 companies have filed applications for component manufacturing which include motherboard maker AT&S, Ascent Circuits, Sahasra and Vitesco.

“They are expected to produce components of over Rs 40,000 crore over the period of next five years under the scheme,” an industry source said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

James Murdoch resigns from News Corp board over editorial differences

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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News Corp founder Rupert Murdoch’s son James is resigning from the family-controlled publisher’s board over content appearing in its newspapers, which include the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

“My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company’s news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,” James Murdoch wrote Friday in a brief letter to News Corp’s board that the company made public. The resignation was effective Friday.

James Murdoch’s resignation letter:https://t.co/jwKtph60Qt pic.twitter.com/tAV0WT0lrQ

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) July 31, 2020

James is known as the more liberal Murdoch brother. His more conservative sibling, Lachlan, is the heir apparent to New Corp Executive Chairman Rupert and is co-chairman of News Corp. Lachlan is also executive chairman and CEO of Fox Corp, home to conservative news network Fox News, the Fox broadcast and sports networks and local TV stations.

New York-based News Corp also publishes major papers in Australia and the U.K. and owns the HarperCollins book publisher.

In a statement provided by a News Corp spokesman, Rupert and Lachlan said, “We’re grateful to James for his many years of service to the company. We wish him the very best in his future endeavors.”

James has previously criticized News Corp’s editorial decisions and said he disagreed with Fox News coverage. In January, he and his wife, through a spokesperson, said they were disappointed with the denial of the link to climate change in coverage of Australia’s destructive wildfires in News Corp-owned papers in Australia.

More than 280 Wall Street Journal journalists and other staffers also recently sent a letter to the paper’s publisher criticizing the Opinion section, saying it published inaccuracies and undermined the paper with readers and sources.

James and Lachlan had shared power at 21st Century Fox, but the sale of much of the Fox entertainment business to Disney in 2019 saw James depart as CEO.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Fitch revises US outlook to negative; affirms AAA rating

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Fitch Ratings revised the outlook on the United States’ triple-A rating to negative from stable on Friday, citing eroding credit strength, including a growing deficit to finance stimulus to combat fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

The credit rating agency also said the future direction of US fiscal policy depends in part on the November election for president and the resulting makeup of Congress, cautioning there is a risk policy gridlock could continue.

Debt and deficits, which were already rising before the pandemic, have started to erode the country’s traditional credit strengths, Fitch said in a report.

“Financing flexibility, assisted by Federal Reserve intervention to restore liquidity to financial markets, does not entirely dispel risks to medium-term debt sustainability, and there is a growing risk that US policymakers will not consolidate public finances sufficiently to stabilize public debt after the pandemic shock has passed,” Fitch said.

It added that US government debt, the highest among any AAA-rated sovereign nations heading into the crisis, was expected to exceed 130% of gross domestic product by 2021.

Mike Englund, chief economist at Action Economics, predicted markets would react negatively to the move.

“It reduces confidence in US financial markets and it does prompt some entities to want to sell Treasuries, so you may see some back up in yields even though no one is really looking for US defaults,” he said.

Axel Merk, president and chief investment officer at Merk Investments in Palo Alto, California, said investors would probably not react strongly to Fitch’s announcement.

“If people really had jitters about US debt, you wouldn’t see bond yields where they are,” Merk said. “It’s noteworthy, but with everything happening in the US and other countries, the quality of balance sheets is deteriorating, and that is not a surprise.”

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

India’s June crude oil imports lowest in over five years; exports dip

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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India’s crude oil imports fell in June to their lowest level since February 2015, while year-on-year refined product exports declined for the first time in almost a year, government data showed on Friday.

Crude oil imports last month dropped about 19 percent from a year earlier to 13.68 million tonnes, down for a third straight month, data from the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas showed.

“This is likely driven by not yet fully recovered oil demand and expectation that it might take longer to have Indian oil demand rising strongly again,” said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo.

“Together with higher crude imports at the start of the year, crude tanks are still well filled, reducing the need to import more crude for now.”

Fuel demand in India, the world’s third-biggest oil importer and consumer, fell 7.8 percent in June compared with a year earlier as surging coronavirus cases and rising retail prices hammered demand.

“India’s fuel demand recovery will continue to stall as coronavirus cases continue to skyrocket,” said OANDA senior market analyst Edward Moya.

India’s tally of COVID-19 cases jumped by a record 55,078 on Friday to 1.64 million in India.

Oil product exports fell about 6 percent, their first year-on-year fall since August 2019, primarily driven by declining diesel exports, which slid to their lowest since April last year.

Shipments of diesel also registered their first year-on-year decline since August last year, falling 5.7 percent to 2.09 million tonnes.

“To contain the rising inventories, some refineries are now planning to conduct maintenance and shutdowns in late third quarter of 2020, which will likely keep exports in check,” said Aaron Cheong, oil product analyst at consultancy Energy Aspects.

The country’s top refiner, Indian Oil Corp, said it would continue to operate its refineries below capacity in 2020/21 as it expected local and overseas fuel demand to remain subdued.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Report says Microsoft in talks to acquire TikTok’s US operations

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Technology giant Microsoft is in advance talks to acquire TikTok’s US operations, according to a media report, even as President Donald Trump said his administration is considering to ban the popular Chinese-owned video app.

“We’re looking at TikTok. We may be banning TikTok,” Trump told reporters at the White House. India has banned as many as 106 Chinese apps, including TikTok, a move welcomed by both the administration and the lawmakers.

“We may be doing some other things. There are a couple of options. But a lot of things are happening, so we’ll see what happens. But we are looking at a lot alternatives with respect to TikTok,” Trump said in response to a question.

The Wall Street Journal Friday night reported that Microsoft, headed by Indian-American Satya Nadella, is in advanced talks to acquire the US operations of TikTok. The deal could run into billions of dollars.

“A deal could be completed by Monday, according to people familiar with the matter, and the talks involve representatives from Microsoft, Bytedance and the White House. Talks are fluid, and a deal may not come together,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

China-based Bytedance is the parent company of TikTok.

In recent weeks, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has accused TikTok of collecting personal information of Americans. “India has banned 106 Chinese apps, including TikTok, that threatened its citizens’ privacy and security,” he told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.

Media reports also said the Trump administration will soon order ByteDance to divest of its ownership of TikTok’s US operations.

“In its current form, TikTok represents a potential threat to personal privacy and our national security. I applaud the Trump Administration for taking this critical step, but we must do more than simply remove ByteDance from the equation,” Senator Marco Rubio said.

“Moving forward, we must establish a framework of standards that must be met before a high-risk, foreign-based app is allowed to operate on American telecommunications networks and devices,” Rubio said, adding he is preparing legislation to do just that.

Meanwhile, Senators Josh Hawley and Richard Blumenthal sent a letter to Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers calling for the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Zoom and TikTok for reported violations of Americans’ civil liberties and of their close ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

“Based on numerous reports, we are extremely concerned that Zoom and TikTok have disclosed private information about Americans to the PRC and engaged in censorship on behalf of the Chinese government,” the Senators said.

“As tens of millions of Americans turn to Zoom and TikTok during the COVID-19 pandemic, few know that the privacy of their data and their freedom of expression is under threat due to the relationship of these companies to the Chinese government,” they wrote.

“Of particular concern, both Zoom and TikTok have sought to conceal and distract from their meaningful ties to China, holding themselves out as American companies. This concealment is alarming Chinese tech firms are notoriously bound to draconian intelligence laws, media regulations, and extrajudicial pressure that compels them to censor and spy for China’s state security services,” the Senators said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Trump says he will ban TikTok app in the United States

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he was planning to sign an executive order as soon as Saturday banning Chinese-owned short-video app TikTok from the United States.

The move would be the culmination of US national security concerns over the safety of the personal data that TikTok handles. It would represent a major blow for TikTok’s owner, Beijing-based ByteDance, which became one of only a handful of truly global Chinese conglomerates thanks to the app’s commercial success.

“As far as TikTok is concerned, we are banning them from the United States… I will sign the document tomorrow,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.

ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Coronavirus news updates: Amit Shah tests positive for COVID-19, Shah tests positive, Amitabh Bachchan discharged

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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With nearly 55,000 new cases (54,736), the number of confirmed infections in India crossed the 17-lakh mark on Sunday. The country recorded a jump of over 1.5 lakh cases in the past three days. As many as 853 casualties took place in the last 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 37,364. Of the 17,50,724 cases, 5,67,730 are active cases, while 11,45,630 have been cured.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow