World

NEW DELHI :The growth of Google's Android ecosystem is on the brink of stalling in India due to an antitrust order that asks the company to change how it markets the platform, the U.S. company has said in a Supreme Court challenge seen by Reuters. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) in October fined Alphabet Inc-owned Google $161 million for exploiting its dominant position in Android, which powers 97 per cent of smartphones in India, and asked it to change restrictions imposed on smartphone makers related to pre-installing apps. Google has so far said the CCI decision will force it to change its long-standing business model, but its Indian Supreme Court filing for the first time quantifies the impact and details the changes the company will need to make. Google will need to modif...

The European Central Bank is expected to continue raising rates aggressively in the short-term as the euro zone economy proves more resilient than anticipated. Haussmann Visuals | Moment | Getty Images After China's reopening and a deluge of positive data surprises in recent weeks, economists are upgrading their previously gloomy outlooks for the global economy. Data releases last week showed signs of inflation slowing and less severe downturns in activity, prompting Barclays on Friday to raise its global growth forecast to 2.2% in 2023, up 0.5 percentage points from its last estimate in mid-November. related investing news Barclays downgrades Sunrun, cites weaker demand outlook for residential solar energy "This is largely driven by the 1.0pp increase in our China growth prediction to 4....

European countries have been scrambling to find alternative sources of oil and gas following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 2021. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images Russia's revenue from fossil fuel exports collapsed in December, according to a new report, significantly hampering President Vladimir Putin's ability to finance the war in Ukraine. The findings, Ukrainian officials and campaigners say, illustrate the effectiveness of targeting Russia's oil revenue and underscore the urgent need for Western policymakers to ratchet up the financial pressure on Moscow in order to help Kyiv prevail. Published Wednesday by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, an independent Finnish think tank, the report found the first month of the European Union's ban on seaborne i...

Brian Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, and Jane Fraser, CEO, Citigroup, greet Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, off camera, during the House Financial Services Committee hearing titled Holding Megabanks Accountable: Oversight of Americas Largest Consumer Facing Banks, in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, September 21, 2022. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images Tech stocks have been humbled after years of outperformance, and now there's one more comedown for the recent market leaders: losing the top ranking in the 2023 Just 100 list, an annual analysis from nonprofit Just Capital on the issues that Americans say matter most to them when it comes to corporate leadership. Bank of America ranks No. 1 on the 2023 Just 100 list, and it's not alone among peers. Banks made the most progress of an...

SEOUL: South Korean officials are considering creating a domestic fund to compensate Koreans who were enslaved by Japanese companies before the end of World War II, as they desperately try to repair relations with Tokyo that have deteriorated in recent years over historical grievances. The plan, revealed during a public hearing organized by Seoul’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday (Jan 12), was met with fierce criticism by victims and their legal representatives, who have demanded that the reparations come from Japan. Relations between Seoul and Tokyo have been strained since South Korea’s Supreme Court in 2018 upheld lower court verdicts and ordered Nippon Steel and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to compensate Korean forced labourers. The companies have refused to carry out the orders and the...

After a couple of years of spectacular growth, tech start-ups and tech giants alike are now facing a less optimistic outlook. During the third quarter of 2022, venture capital (VC) investments and deals globally fell to levels not seen since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. This slowdown in investment is hitting North America and Europe particularly hard — but Asia is being affected too. During 2022, the slowdown in investments hit both high-income and emerging Asia, with Asia’s largest economies, India and China, being heavily affected. Layoffs of tech workers are becoming increasingly common. The negative outlook is the result of a complex combination of factors: the largely hawkish policies of central banks, developed economies attempting to curb post-Covid-19 inflation (prima...

SINGAPORE: A former senior vice-president at Singapore Post went on trial on Monday (Jan 9) for charges of cheating the company into paying him a salary of S$8,000, and for attempting to seek a bribe of S$1 million. Liang An Wey, 47, is contesting a charge each of cheating and attempting to get the bribe from the chief operating officer of a subcontractor for SingPost. According to a set of documents containing facts agreed on by both the prosecution and the defence, a recruiter submitted Liang's curriculum vitae (CV) to SingPost in June 2013 for the position of VP, Project Execution. In his CV, Liang said he had been employed as head of project management at GSM Holdings since August 2012. He claimed that his salary was S$12,500 with another S$2,000 in fixed transport allowance. SingP...

LOS ANGELES : After enjoying a Hollywood ending with their dramatic Super Bowl triumph in Los Angeles last year, the Rams sequel bombed spectacularly this season and the franchise is now left waiting and see whether head coach Sean McVay will return. The Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 at their home stadium on Feb. 13 to claim their first title since returning to Los Angeles but whether it was a championship hangover or the inevitable result of injuries, they never threatened to repeat. The Rams' ended the season 5-12, the worst ever record for a defending Super Bowl champion. One year after McVay implored the team to "Run it back!" at their boozy championship parade it now looks like the mediagenic 36-year-old might next run to a job in the broadcasting booth. "I'm going to tak...

NEW YORK :Oil prices rose around 1 per cent on Thursday after posting the biggest two-day loss for the start of a year in three decades with U.S. data showing lower fuel inventories providing support and economic concerns capping gains. Big declines in the previous two days were driven by worries about a global recession, especially following weak short-term economic signs in the world's two biggest oil consumers, the United States and China. U.S. distillate inventories fell more than expected as a winter storm gripped the United States at the end of December, data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed on Thursday. U.S. gasoline stocks fell 346,000 barrels last week, the Energy Information Administration said, compared with analysts' expectations in a Reuters poll for a...

NEW DELHI :India cricketer Rishabh Pant suffered multiple injuries but is in a stable condition after his car hit a central divider, flipped over and caught fire in the early hours of Friday morning. Police said the wicketkeeper-batsman, who was alone in the car when it crashed in the northern state of Uttarakhand, had lost control of the vehicle when he "dozed off". The car flipped over twice, police added. Photographs of the crash showed extensive impact and fire damage to the car. Multiple reports in Indian media said that after Pant's car collided with the traffic divider the player had to break open a window to escape the vehicle, which was engulfed in flames. India's cricket board (BCCI) said in a statement the 25-year-old had suffered cuts to his forehead, torn a ligament in hi...