houthi fighters attack another commercial vessel in the red sea — we take a look at the impact the escalating conflict is having on the cost of living. foxconn�*s value is 50bn dollars. apple's value is 3tn — 60 times. why? because manufacturing is not that profitable any more. plus the former governor of india's central bank on why the country's plan to court foreign investors may not be the best one. hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm suranjana tewari. as we've been reporting on newsday, a new drone attack

has been launched by houthi fighters in yemen on a us cargo vessel ship off aden. this comes after united states announced that it is returning the group to a list of global terrorist organisations. the escalating tensions in the red sea have many analysts concerned that the impact of these attacks will drive up the cost of living. some shipping companies have had to take a detour around africa — driving up costs— or have decided to suspend shipments indefinitely. mukesh sahdev — head of oil trading at the research firm rystad energy — describes what is at stake in the markets. what is at stake as there is a lot of crude oil moving from east to west, right? and fat crude oil, i would say, is blocked by russia, crude oil by india, by china. that is at

stake. the other thing that is also at stake is a lot of plates that move towards europe. so i would say all and all, we are talking about a sizeable number of barrels of crude and product. now, the question comes, will all of these barrows get impacted or on the part of these barrels get impacted? because what we have learned over a period of time as that the system finds alternate ways of these mechanisms, and certainly there are some alternate routes, which has reflected in increasing freight rates. so i believe at this point in time, our view is that that's probably will find alternate ways of navigation, and that simply means extra costs of doing business, and as you put in your opening remarks about the inflation, this is suddenly not helping them.— not helping them. yes, it can drive u- not helping them. yes, it can drive up prices _ not helping them. yes, it can drive up prices for _ not helping them. yes, it can drive up prices for people - not helping them. yes, it can drive up prices for people at. drive up prices for people at the petrol pump. so, what do

you see happening going forward? how are people like yourselves and oil companies preparing for these continued tensions? i preparing for these continued tensions? ~' ., , tensions? i think it would be hard for anybody _ tensions? i think it would be hard for anybody to - tensions? i think it would be hard for anybody to prepare | hard for anybody to prepare other than trying to de—risk the movements across the vessels through the sea. now, questions around whether certain countries vessels will be attacked and several other countries vessels will not be attacked, i think that's a bit of a speculation which i will probably not go, but i think from a common perspective, the oil markets, in my view, now needs to brace that there was an active management of the crude market to keep the prices high. what this will result in is a bit more active management of the refined products market because europe certainly was lost that diesel from the russian sanctions. now this is the second sanction on europe to get the products for her. and that is where i believe the

reframing system in the middle east, india, china, they will be more active management of the refined product market to the refined product market to the detriment of europe and the us where there is demand. so i guess that notjust the crude prices but the management of the products market will be to hire product prices, and i don't think there are easy ways out of it other than paying high costs of doing the business. moving on to india now — in recent years, the south asian country has been trying to lure big manufacturers like foxconn away from china by giving them billions of dollars in subsidies. but speaking to the bbc s nikhil inamdar — raghuram rajan — former governor of the country s central bank — says this is no longer a winning strategy for a low—income country like india. there are a few problems with that path right now. the first is that typically what happens with these manufacturing

economies, they got richer and left the simple manufacturing to others. china isn't leaving. china still has a lot of records that it needs to apply for agriculture and manufacturing, the second problem, however, is that of the rents, the process —— profits from doing this kind of activity have been depleted away. foxconn, which does all apple's manufacturing, apple hasn't manufactured a thing since 200a. foxconn�*s value is $50 billion. apple's value is 3 trillion. 60 times. why? because manufacturing is not that profitable any more. so what india is trying to do, climb up the ladder that way, we think is a task which would have been better done 20 years ago. it's a little late to do this. yes, if they come, if manufacturers want a site in india because it is a china plus one strategy, great. back to subsidise them heavily to do that with the hope that they will stay in india, you're

essentially trying to create profits for manufacturers. the modi government, of course, has been spending billions of dollars in subsidising companies like apple, foxconn, chip—makers, for instance. when you think that money can be more optimally used for better economic outcomes. the deal india signed, which is that india signed, which is that india is going to subsidise the micron factory 2.7 billion in investments, 2 billion of which will come from the indian government. no equity, no nothing. we arejust government. no equity, no nothing. we are just going to give the money. now, $2 billion seems to me you know, for an industrial country, it is pocket change. for india, $2 billion is over one third the entire higher education budget of the central government. so we are spending $2 billion for watch? 5000 jobs. fine we are spending $2 billion for watch? 5000 jobs.— we are spending $2 billion for watch? 5000 jobs. watch? 5000 “obs. one of your former

watch? 5000 jobs. one of your former colleagues _ watch? 5000 jobs. one of your former colleagues has - watch? 5000 jobs. one of your former colleagues has raised i former colleagues has raised serious concerns about industrial concentration in india, crony capitalism, the fact that players like the tiny are growing at the cost of other smaller businesses. do you agree? it other smaller businesses. do you agree?— you agree? it is reasonably clear in india _ you agree? it is reasonably clear in india is _ you agree? it is reasonably clear in india is a _ you agree? it is reasonably clear in india is a few- you agree? it is reasonably clear in india is a few large | clear in india is a few large groups have gained relative to others. being big is not bad. being fake and politically influential, that becomes problematic. what is particularly worrisome is if you build a national champions on the basis of tariff protection, as well as privileged access to licenses, permissions, etc, it is particularly dangerous if outside investors think the only way they can make their way in india is if they have an alliance with one of the big players. alliance with one of the big -la ers. , players. do you believe india's data as a _ players. do you believe india's data as a whole, _ players. do you believe india's data as a whole, even - players. do you believe india's data as a whole, even on - players. do you believe india'sl data as a whole, even on things such as gdp is credible? i

would not doubt the intentions of the organisations collecting the data. are the data timely? had a sufficiently accurate to make decisions? there i think there are more questions, for example, our data on unemployment. the best data from private providers, you are flying blind if you don't know what the true unemployment level is, and you can't actually have a proper political debate. so i think we need better data, but we also need better data, but we also need to allow the data to be used by researchers, we can suppress it and hold it if the early signs are that it will send a bad message. moving to the the tech world, samsung is betting on generative ai functions to revamp its galaxy smartphones and help it challenge apple s iphone. apple just overtook samsung in worldwide smartphone shipments. meanwhile, apple watch imports in america have

been banned — again. the bbc s north america business correspondent michelle fleury reports. samsung is turning to new technology to regain its edge over its main rival. at an event on wednesday, it unveiled new versions of its flagship galaxy funds. and beyond the usual upgrades, there where a range of new artificial intelligence powered features. these included live phone call translations as well as circle to search function. that's recycling a part of an image on screen while it searches it in google. the south korean firm is betting on these ai features to encourage people to upgrade their smartphones. to encourage people to upgrade theirsmartphones. remember, samsung's i2 theirsmartphones. remember, samsung's 12 year reign in 2023 according to idc, and it was dethroned by apple, not that the us tech change has had much time to celebrate. apple had been fighting a ban on imports

of advanced models of the apple watch because they violated patents registered to another company. a federal appeals court said that the band would be reinstated this thursday. that is all while apple continues its efforts to overturn a permanent ban by the us international... apple assures it does have... it has one approval to impart every design function... the us state of iowa has sued tiktok — accusing the video—based social media platform of misleading parents about their children's access to inappropriate content on the company's app. it accused tiktok and its chinese parent company bytedance of lying about the prevalence of content about drugs, nudity, alcohol and profanity on its platform. and that's it for this edition of asia business report. thanks for watching.

bbc news — bringing you different stories| from across the uk. reunited once again. he speaks ukrainian. theodore and his dad meeting in lviv. in the summer, theodore's school friends did a camping out fundraiser to pay for his trips back to ukraine. actually, it means all the world to us. it's so amazing when children of that age are thinking of the future, thinking what is happening in the world. what was the best bit about it? seeing a lot of my family and i slept with my dad all the time. it was a boys room at that time during our stay because... yeah, they both snore. no, i don't! yes, they do.

no, i don't. theodore and his friend, liam, have started a new fundraiser, cycling the distance between manchester and the middle east to raise funds for children affected by the situation in gaza. ijust felt as if it's unfair. so we need to do another thing for all the people as well. - they've currently travelled more than 500 miles. we started there, - and we have to get all the way over to palestine. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey i'm stephen — with the catch up! our top story tonight has some details you might find upsetting — it's about the lies of eleanor williams. the 23—year—old from cumbria injured herself — and made up claims she was beaten and raped by a group of asian men. the crown prosecution service says false allegations of rape are extremely rare

but when they are made they can seriously undermine the credibility of genuine. back in 2020, eleanor was jailed for eight and a half years for perverting the course ofjustice — and now, more than 50 hours of police videos have been shared with the bbc. they show how her lies became more elaborate over a number of years — you can watch the full documentary on bbc three at 9pm tonight. a two—year—old boy and his dad have been found dead at a house in skegness. it's thought 60—year—old kenneth battersby had a heart attack — and his son bronson starved to death. their bodies were found on the 9th of january. the family was known to children's services — lincolnshire county council is investigating. and if you're a big gamer, you could be at risk of damaging your hearing. researchers have found that lots of gamers do long stints with the volume turned up, and that some noises, like shooting, go beyond safe levels. now, irish language rap might not be something you've heard much of but it's going to be featured in a new movie about the band kneecap. it stars michael fassbender

and will be the first irish language film at the sundance film festival in the us. the boys from belfast say politics, identity and growing up in northern ireland are all part of it. going to leave you with 10 seconds of pet prayers. hundreds of dogs and cats have been blessed in madrid — to mark the festival of saint anthony, spain's patron saint of animals. there was even a mass for them — how cute is that! you're all caught up — have a good night!

hello and welcome to sportsday. wood rescues forest as nottingham avoid the cupset against third tier blackpool to book their place in the fa cup fourth round now you saudi, now you don't. jordan henderson's short lived stint in the kingdom looks to be over... jamie george chosen to lead his country for the six nations in a new look england side

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