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☆ India election and economy: Meet the winners of rising power’s boom
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Jessie Yeung | Noemi Cassanelli | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

Mumbai, India CNN —As Indians head to the polls in a massive ongoing nationwide election, much attention has focused on the country’s explosive growth under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership. There is expected to be 740 million active smartphone users in India by 2030, according to EY India. “I wanted to make similar shoes that were printed with ‘Made in India,’” Shah says. After four years of trial and error, Shah Shoes was born. Some 17 years on, Shah Shoes has helped support his family back in Bihar, including six siblings.

Persons: Narendra Modi’s, — Modi, Javed Khatri, Noemi Cassanelli, he’d, Khatri, “, ”, –, ’, Apoorva Mukhija, —, Instagram, Mukhija, ” Mukhija, That’s, she’s, she’d, Jameel Shah, CNN Jameel Shah, Shah, wasn’t, CNN Shah, Kylie Minogue, ” Shah, ‘, ’ ” Shah, Shah Shoes, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, He’s, Modi’s Organizations: India CNN, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, CNN, EY, World Bank, Facebook Locations: Mumbai, India, “, Bangalore, Silicon, ”, EY India, Dubai, London, California, …, Delhi, Bihar, India’s, Dharavi, Australian

☆ Nita Ambani is now the most powerful woman in Indian media
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Diksha Madhok | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New Delhi CNN —Just a few months ago, Nita Ambani stepped away from frontline business to focus on philanthropy. Now, the wife of Asia’s richest man is back with the biggest job in the ferociously competitive world of India media. Nita Ambani will not be steering the media giant alone. Nita Ambani first stepped into the business limelight 10 years ago, becoming the first woman director on the board of Reliance Industries. With her new job title, Nita Ambani has become the most powerful woman in Indian media and entertainment sector, which is worth over $25 billion and growing rapidly.

Persons: New Delhi CNN —, Nita Ambani, Mukesh Ambani, Uday Shankar, “, ”, Ambani’s, Nita Mukesh Ambani, Bikas Das, —, Isha, Anant, Akash —, Akash, ” Nita Ambani, National Stock Exchange —, EY, Mihir Shah Organizations: New, New Delhi CNN, Disney’s, Reliance Industries, Disney’s Asia, Disney, Reliance Foundation, Indian Premier League, IPL, Reliance, Music, International Olympic Committee, Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Stock Exchange, Media Partners, Netflix Locations: New Delhi, India, Mumbai, Disney India, New York, Viacom18

"We always said we will win the heartland states," BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda told Reuters. However, a 28-party opposition alliance led by the Congress party has come together to jointly fight BJP, posing a new challenge. But the alliance did not feature in the state polls due to internal rivalries and it was a direct contest between BJP and Congress. Politicians and analysts say state elections do not always influence the outcome of the general elections or accurately indicate national voter mood. Results of the last round of state elections before national elections have been misleading in the past.

Persons: Stringer, Narendra Modi, Modi, Rahul Gandhi, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Gandhi, Supriya Shrinate, Gurmeet Chadha, Ira Dugal, Lincoln, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, DELHI, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Telangana, Reuters, Developmental, Congress, Thomson Locations: Madhya Pradesh, Indore, India, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Karnataka, Mizoram, Mumbai

India is considering a policy to mandate equipping smartphones with hardware to receive live TV signals without the need for cellular networks. It has proposed use of so-called ATSC 3.0 technology popular in North America that allows precise geo-locating of TV signals and provides high picture quality. The policy pushback is the latest from firms operating in India's smartphone sector. For India's government, the live TV broadcast features are a way to offload the congestion on telecom networks due to higher video consumption. Samsung tops India's smartphone market with a 17.2% share, while Xiaomi follows with a 16.6% share, according to research firm Counterpoint.

Persons: Shailesh Andrade, Munsif Vengattil, Aditya Kalra, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: REUTERS, Samsung, Qualcomm, Reuters, Ericsson, Nokia, India Cellular and Electronics Association, Apple, Thomson Locations: Mumbai, India, DELHI, North America, South Korea, United States

☆ Disney nears deal to sell $10-bln valued India business to Reliance -Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

However, Disney may now sell a controlling stake in the business to Reliance, the Mukesh Ambani-controlled conglomerate whose streaming platform's success has weighed on the U.S. company's Indian business, Bloomberg reported. Reliance, whose broadcast venture Viacom18 runs JioCinema, values Disney's India assets, which comprises the Disney+ Hotstar streaming service and Star India, at between $7 billion and $8 billion, the report said. The enterprise value of the India business, Disney's biggest last year globally by users, was seen at around $15 billion to 16 billion when Disney took over Fox's business. The deal could be announced as early as next month, although no final decision has been made and Disney could still decide to hold onto the assets, Bloomberg reported. JioCinema has put increased pressure on Disney India and other streaming platforms, with Ambani marketing the platform by offering free access to the Indian Premier League cricket tournament, digital rights of which were earlier with Disney.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Gautam Adani, Kalanithi Maran, Mukesh Ambani, JioCinema, Ambani, OTT, Karan Taurani, Taurani, Varun Vyas, Rama Venkat, Savio D'Souza Organizations: Disney, REUTERS, Rights, Reliance Industries, Bloomberg, Reuters, Sun TV Network, Blackstone, Reliance, Star India, Disney's, Disney India, Indian Premier League cricket, Elara Securities, Thomson Locations: India, Bengaluru

People are seen outside the main gate of the Pegatron facility following a fire incident at the facility near Chennai, India, September 26, 2023. A company spokesperson declined to say whether manufacturing has been resumed partially or fully. Pegatron had halted the assembly of iPhones for the past two days at its factory in Tamil Nadu state after a fire broke out on Sunday. It has previously said the incident "does not have significant financial or operational impact". Reporting by Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru and Praveen Paramasivam in Chennai, Editing by Louise Heavens and Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Praveen, Pegatron, Munsif, Louise Heavens, Bernadette Baum Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Apple, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Chennai, India, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, Praveen

A worker holds a Lava mobile handset at its manufacturing plant, in Noida, India, October 23, 2018. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBENGALURU, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Homegrown Indian mobile phone firm Lava will launch 4G feature phones as it aims to corner a third of the market share for the entry-level devices within a year, while also gradually boosting its budget smartphones, a top executive said. Since it was set up in 2009, Lava has become popular for the budget phones, which have a keypad but no high-end features. Research firm Counterpoint estimates that Lava has a share of less than 1% in the world's second-biggest smartphone market, with 650 million such devices. Lava also plans to boost its smartphone offerings in the budget segment.

Persons: Anushree, Sunil Raina, Mukesh, Raina, Munsif, Aditya Kalra, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, International, Reuters, Samsung, HK, Thomson Locations: Noida, India, China, Bengaluru

But Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani snatched IPL rights away in a $2.9 billion bid last year, and then streamed games for free. Soon, Disney subscribers fled - out of 61 million users in October, roughly 21 million had left by July. It retains digital streaming rights but last year licensed the TV broadcast rights to Indian's Zee Entertainment (ZEE.NS) for around $1.5 billion, a source said. In the United States, ad-free Disney+ streaming service subscription rates are set to rise by 27% to $13.99 per month. By contrast in India, Disney+ Hotstar service costs $3.62 a month.

Persons: Anushree, India's Ambani Hotstar, Walt Disney, Disney, Mukesh Ambani, That's, JioCinema, Sivanandan, Daoud Jackson, Bob Iger's, Nancy Lee, Ambani, Aditya Kalra, Munsif, Dawn Chmielewski, Muralikumar Organizations: ICC Men's Cricket, REUTERS, Companies Disney India, Century Fox, Indian Premier League, Disney, Reuters, Asia, Cricket, Indian's Zee Entertainment, IPL, Blume Ventures, Hotstar, Staff, Media Partners, Netflix, JioCinema, Thomson Locations: Gurugram, India, Burbank, Disney India, United States, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Dawn, Los Angeles

☆ Fairy-tale ending will elude Disney in India
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-11 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MUMBAI, Aug 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India has lost its magic for Walt Disney (DIS.N). Even if boss Bob Iger can find a buyer or joint venture partner, a fairy-tale ending will elude the Magic Kingdom. The combination of changing viewing preferences and Disney’s own conservatism in streaming puts Disney India in a weak spot. The average monthly revenue per subscriber held steady at 59 cents, compared to $7.31 per subscriber in its domestic Disney+ business. Disney is exploring strategic options for its Star India business, including a joint venture or a sale, the Wall Street Journal reported on July 11, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Persons: Walt Disney, pare, Bob Iger, Iger, Mukesh, Ambani, JioCinema, Una Galani, Katrina Hamlin Organizations: Reuters, Fox, Kingdom, Netflix, Indian Premier League, HBO, Disney, Disney India, Walt Disney, Star India, Wall Street, Thomson Locations: MUMBAI, India, U.S, Mumbai, United States, Canada

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationBENGALURU, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Indian e-commerce startup Meesho has posted its first-ever profit and is targeting a stock market listing in the next 12-18 months, a senior company executive said in an interview. An initial public offering (IPO) is now being planned in the next 12-18 months, Bansal added. Meesho, which was founded by Indian Institute of Technology graduates Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, clocked more than 1 billion orders in the last 12 months. Many Indian startups have fired thousands of employees and cut costs aggressively in recent months. Last week, Indian food delivery giant Zomato (ZOMT.NS) also posted its first-ever profit.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Meesho, Japan's SoftBank, Dhiresh Bansal, Bansal, Vidit Aatrey, Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho's, Munsif, Aditya Kalra Organizations: REUTERS, Amazon, Meesho, Reuters, Indian Institute of Technology, Vidit, Thomson Locations: Bengaluru

☆ Foxconn to invest $600 million in India's Karnataka to make iPhone components, chip equipment
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Munsif Vengattil | Thomson Reuters | Munsif Vengattil Is A Reuters' India Technology Correspondent | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Reuters was first to report the investment plans on Wednesday. The investment decisions follow a meeting between Foxconn Chairman Young Liu, Karnataka's IT minister Priyank Kharge, and Industries Minister MB Patil. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also attracting investors for semiconductor manufacturing, which is his key business agenda currently. In Karnataka, Foxconn will collaborate with Applied Materials on a project for making semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and create jobs for around 1,000 people. India's Tamil Nadu state has also announced that Foxconn will invest $194 million in a new electronic components manufacturing facility that will create 6,000 jobs.

Persons: Ann Wang, Foxconn, Young Liu, Priyank Kharge, Liu, Narendra Modi, Munsif, Aditya Kalra, Himani Sarkar, Jane Merriman, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, Applied Materials, Reuters, Industries, Patil, Micron, Materials, Thomson Locations: Taipei, Taiwan, BENGALURU, India's Karnataka, China, Karnataka, India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-A smartphone with a displayed AMD logo is placed on a computer motherboard in this illustration taken March 6, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File PhotoGANDHINAGAR, India, July 28 (Reuters) - U.S. chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) said on Friday it will invest around $400 million in India over the next five years and will build its largest design center in the tech hub of Bengaluru. Despite being a late entrant, the Modi government has been courting investments into India's nascent chip sector to establish its credentials as a chipmaking hub. "Our India teams will continue to play a pivotal role in delivering the high-performance and adaptive solutions that support AMD customers worldwide," Papermaster said. Unlike its top rival Intel, AMD outsources production of chips it designs to third-party manufacturers like Taiwan's TSMC.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Mark Papermaster, Narendra Modi's, Young Liu, Sanjay Mehrotra, Modi, Papermaster, Munsif, Aditya Kalra, Sonali Paul Organizations: REUTERS, Devices, Micron, AMD, India, Nvidia Corp, Intel, South, Samsung, Applied, chipmaker Micron, Thomson Locations: GANDHINAGAR, India, Bengaluru, Gujarat, Santa Clara , California, U.S, Gandhinagar

☆ Rice to get costlier as weather, India's farm perks threaten supply
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-06 | by ( Rajendra Jadhav | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

"As Indian prices moved up because of the new minimum support price, other suppliers also started raising prices." Yet even before the weather phenomenon can disrupt production, the global rice price index of the Food and Agriculture Organization hovers above an 11-year high. The price of Indian rice exports has jumped 9% to a five-year high, following a hike of 7% last month in the price the government pays farmers for new-season common rice. "Rice prices have already been rising due to limited supplies," added Olam's Gupta. Last month Indonesia signed a rare pact with India to import 1 million tons if El Nino disrupts domestic supply.

Persons: El Nino, Krishna Rao, REA, Rice, El, Nitin Gupta, Gupta, Rosa Wang, Narendra Modi's, Modi, Himanshu Agarwal, Rajendra Jadhav, Qin Ningwei, Tony Munroe, Clarence Fernandez Organizations: Rice, Association, Reuters, El, Food and Agriculture Organization, U.S . Department of Agriculture, El Nino, Reuters Graphics, Shanghai JC Intelligence, Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Satyam Balajee, Vietnam, Thomson Locations: MUMBAI, India, Ukraine, Asia, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, New Delhi, Singapore, Myanmar, Pakistan, Indian, Philippines

NEW DELHI, May 30 (Reuters) - India will start a pilot project this week to establish itself as an electronics repair hub by relaxing cumbersome import-export rules, a move that could draw tech majors such as Flex (FLEX.O) to expand such operations in the country. In the pilot phase, which will see participation from companies including Lenovo (0992.HK) and Cisco (CSCO.O), India will also permit re-export of the imported electronics goods to countries different from the original one - currently it is banned under foreign trade rules. "Repair outsourcing will incentivise electronic manufacturers to further expand their production capabilities in India. This is a critical step towards ensuring resilience to supply chain shocks," said Jafri, who estimated the repair industry in India to be worth $20 billion in five years. High repair costs in regions such as Europe and the United States are compelling companies to send goods overseas, Jafri said.

NEW DELHI, May 17 (Reuters) - India on Wednesday unveiled an expanded incentive scheme to attract big-ticket investments in IT hardware manufacturing, doubling the amount to $2 billion as it aims to spur domestic production of laptops and tablets. "It will create additional incentives for companies to set up their manufacturing base in India," India's deputy IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar said. These companies are expected to produce nearly $41 billion of IT products and create more than 75,000 jobs, the government said. The original incentive plan was announced in February 2021 with a $1 billion outlay. "We believe this scheme will help IT hardware sector to achieve the same level of success India had with smartphone manufacturing," said Ali Akhtar Jafri, Director General at MAIT.

NEW DELHI, May 8 (Reuters) - Truecaller (TRUEb.ST) will soon start making its caller identification service available over WhatsApp and other messaging apps to help users spot potential spam calls over the internet, the company told Reuters on Monday. The feature, currently in beta phase, will be rolled out globally later in May, Truecaller Chief Executive Alan Mamedi said. Telemarketing and scamming calls have been on the rise in countries like India, where users gets about 17 spam calls per month on average, according to a 2021 report by Truecaller. For Truecaller, India is its biggest market with 250 million users. It has 350 million users globally and earns its revenue from advertising, subscription services, and verified listings from businesses.

NEW DELHI, March 20 (Reuters) - India plans to extend restrictions on the export of diesel and gasoline after the current fiscal year ends this month to ensure the availability of refined fuels for the domestic market, two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. That forced state refiners to fill the void and meet demand at home by selling fuels at government-capped lower prices. "We would like to extend it ... we want private companies to sell diesel and petrol in the Indian market. Why should only state-run companies suffer when all Indian refiners are buying discounted Russian oil," the official said. Reporting by Nidhi Verma and Nikunj Ohri; Editing by Jacqueline WongOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Japan's Suzuki to invest $35 bln through 2030 in EVs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Satoshi Sugiyama | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Suzuki's announcement comes after other Japanese automakers have rolled out similar goals to catch up with European and U.S. rivals in the fast-growing battery EV market. Suzuki said it would introduce its first battery EVs, including small sport-utility vehicles and micro "kei" cars, in Japan in fiscal 2023. Suzuki plans to introduce battery EVs in Europe and India, and its first battery electric motorcycles globally, the following year. Suzuki plans to learn from Toyota how to use EV technology to make small electric cars, Suzuki said during a visit to India this month. "We will put in vehicles for various price ranges, for various people, for various regions," Toshihiro Suzuki said.

☆ India and climate change: Can Modi deliver what the world needs?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Tara Subramaniam | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

By 2030, Modi wants half of India’s energy to come from renewables. The state is fast becoming a hotbed of solar energy, yet is also home to at least seven coal-fired power plants. “Even during Covid it hasn’t stopped.”At COP26, Modi outlined a series of targets for India’s efforts to combat climate change. It’s also a question of funding – investing in renewable energy and other climate change mitigation efforts is expensive. And your other burning questions answered 03:37 - Source: CNNIf India doesn’t receive the financial support it needs, maintaining its pace on developing renewable energy will be difficult.

☆ Xiaomi discontinues financial services business in India -TechCrunch
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Oct 28 (Reuters) - Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) is winding down its financial services business in India, TechCrunch reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The company recently pulled its Mi Pay and Mi Credit apps in India from the local Play Store and its own app store, the report said. Three years after its launch, Mi Pay, which allowed users to make bill payments and money transfers, is no longer listed among the recognized apps by regulatory body National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), TechCrunch said. Xiaomi and NPCI did not immediately did not respond to a Reuters request for a comment. In India, Xiaomi's strongest market outside of China, the company has been subject to government probes for allegedly dodging tax regulators.

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