houthi fighters attack another vessel in the red sea. we take look at the impact the conflict is having on the cost—of—living. the value of foxcon is $50 billion, apple's value is 3 trillion, 60 times, why? because manufacturing is not that profitable any more. plus, the former governor of india 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.

houthi fighters say they will continue attacking vessels in the region of the red sea. this announcement comes after they launched a drone attack in yemen on a us commercial vessel off aden. 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 companies had to take a detour around southern africa, driving up costs. mukesh sandav, head of oil trading, rystad energy, describes what is at stake in the markets. what is at stake is that a lot of crude oil, up to four million barrels a day, moving from east to west, and that is bought by russia, by india, by china, that's at stake and that also stake is a lot of vessels which move towards europe. i would say all this, as we're talking about

a sizeable number of barrels of crude and products will all of this get impacted or only a part of this will be impacted because what we have learnt is that the system finds alternate ways of re—routing and mechanisms and there are some alternate routs which has reflected in increasing freight rates. i believe that at this point of time, our view is that it's probably finding alternate ways of navigation and that simply means extra cost of doing business and as you are putting in your opening remarks about the inflation, this is certainly not helping that. to singapore and an alleged case of corruption. its transport minister has been charged in court. s iswaran has pleaded not guilty butjust handed in his resignation as a minister and a lawmaker.

for more, mariko oi is in the newsroom. tell us more about the allegations against mr iswaran? he and a property tycoon were arrested injuly last year, the two men worked closely to bring the grand prix to singapore in 2008 and their arrest truly shocked singapore, it has a reputation for clean governance and is the biggest political scandal to hit singapore for four decades. as you said he has just been given 27 charges, two for corruption, some details including free vip tickets to the grand prix and getting a free flight. he has pleaded not guilty to all the charges in court today but as mentioned he has handed in his resignation notjust as a minister but also as a lawmaker. in response to his

resignation letter the prime minister said we must uphold the integrity of the party and the integrity of the party and the government. this the integrity of the party and the government.— the integrity of the party and the government. this is not the only corruption _ the government. this is not the only corruption case _ the government. this is not the only corruption case against - only corruption case against the ruling party? in only corruption case against the ruling party?— only corruption case against the ruling party? in terms of scandals. — the ruling party? in terms of scandals, there _ the ruling party? in terms of scandals, there were - scandals, there were extramarital affairs, also two senior ministers accused of renting bungalows at a much lower rate than market value last year, all of those incidents shook singaporean�*s trust ruling party which has ruled the nation since independence in 1965. it also raised questions about inequality because some viewers may be aware singapore lawmakers are some of the best paid in the world. lawmakers get 12,000 us dollars a month, ministers get 35,000 us dollars a month. s iswaran has been receiving a reduced pay of $6,000 a month but hasjust announced he will be returning all the money he has earned

since the investigation started, even though he says is innocent of all the charges. to india now and recent years, the south asian country has been trying to lure big manufacturers like foxcon from china, by giving them billions of dollars in subsidies. but speaking to the bbc�*s correspondent, the 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 few problems with that path right now. the first is, that typically what happened was these manufacturing economies got richer and left the simple manufacturing to others. china isn't leaving, it still has a lot of workers that it needs to employ from agriculture and manufacturing, the second problem, however,

is that the rents, the profits from doing this kind of activity have been completely completed away, fox con which does all apples manufacturing, it doesn't manufacturing a thing since 2004, his value is $50 billion, apple's value is 3 trillion. 60 times, why? because manufacturing is not that profitable any more. what india is trying to do is climb up the ladder that way, we think it's a task which have better done 20 years ago, it's a little late to do this, yes, if they come, if manufacturers won't site in india because it's a china plus strategy, great, but to subsidise them heavily to do that with the hope that they will stay in india, trying to create profits for manufacturers. the modhi government has been spending billions of dollars in subsidising companies like apple, foxconn, chipmakers like micron, where do you think that money can be more optimally used for better

economic outcomes? the deal signed with micron, at least that india is going to subsidise the micron factory, 2.7 billion in investment, two billion of which come from government, no equity, nothing, we willjust give the money. $2 billion seems, for an industrial country, it's 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 what? 5000 jobs. one of yourformer colleagues of the rbi has raised serious concerns about industrial concentration of india, the rise of chrony capitalism, or the fact that players like the adanis are growing at the cost

of smaller businesses do you agree? what is clear in india is a few large groups have relative to others. being big is not bad, being big and political influential, that becomes problematic. what is worrisome is that if you build national champions on the basis of tariff protections, as well as privileged access to licenses, permissions, etc, it is dangerous if outside investors think the only way they can make their way is if they have an alliance with one of the big players. do you believe indian�*s data as a whole even on things such as gdp is is credible? i would not doubt the intentions of the organisations collecting the data. are the data timely? are they sufficiently accurate to make decisions? there, i think there are more questions, for example, our data on employment, the best data from

private providers, you are flying blind if you don't know what the employment level is and you cannot actually have a proper political debate so, i think we need better data to inform us but we also need to allow the data to be used by researchers, we cannot suppress it and hold it if the early signs will set a bad message. in other news, making headlines, a ban on the sale of apple's latest watch is back. the us federal court has ordered the tech giant to stop selling the series 9 and ultra2 true to by the end of thursday. the iphone maker is fighting a legal battle over patents covering a blood oxygen measurement feature. 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 app. it accused tiktok

and chinese parent company of lying about the prevalence of content about drugs, nudity, alcohol and profanity on its platform. toll collections on the panama canal are drying up due to drought conditions by about $100 million per month since last october. canal managers have been forced to impose a shipping restrictions on one of the world's most vital trade routes linking the pacific and atlantic oceans. officials say if the trend continues, income could fall by some $700 million by april. sheryl sandberg is heading down as chief operating gear 41 after years in the role. she sa s after years in the role. she says she — after years in the role. she says she will _ after years in the role. she says she will not _ after years in the role. she says she will not seek - says she will not seek re—election to the board when her term runs out in may. she says she wants to spend more time on philanthropic work but she will still serve as a

adviser to the facebook parent company, meta. that's all the time we have for you on on this edition of asia business report. thank you for watching. voice-over: bbc news, - bringing you different stories from across the uk. reunited once again. theodore and his dad meeting in lviv. schoolfriends did a camping out fundraiser paying for his troop 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 of what is happening in the world. what was the best bit about it? seeing a lot of my family. i slept with my dad all the time. it was a boy's room at that time. during our stay because... they both snore. no, i don't. yes, they do.

no, i don't. theodore and his friends 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 have 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. i'm stephen with the catch up. our top story has details you might find upsetting, it's about the lies of eleanor williams, the 23—year—old injured herself and made up claims that she was beaten and raped bya group of asian men. the prosecution service says false allegations of rape

are extremely rare. back in 2020, she was jailed for 8.5 years for perverting the course ofjustice, 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 and you can watch a full documentary on the bbc iplayer. some other stories now, a two—year—old boy and his dad have been found dead at a house in skegness. the 60—year—old had a heart attack and his son starved to death. their bodies were found on the ninth ofjanuary, the family was known to children services, lincolnshire county council is investigating. if you're a gamer, you could be a risk of damaging your hearing, researchers have found a lot of gamers do long stints with the volume turned up and that some noises go beyond safe levels. now, irish language rap might not be something you've heard a whole lot about but it will 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 going up in northern ireland are all part of it. and we will leave you with ten seconds of pet prayers. hundreds of dogs and cats have been blessed in madrid to the mark the festival of saint anthony who is the patron saint of animals in spain. how cute is that? you are all caught up, have a good night.

hello and welcome to sportsday. i'm marc edwards. here's what's coming up on the show. wood rescues forest as nottingham avoid the cupset against 3rd tier blackpool to book their place in the fa cup 11th 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.