and we'll speak to the top boss of air india — and find out about how its reboot is panning out. hello. welcome to asia business report with me, mariko oi. we begin our programme in india, where a mega—merger has been reached between the walt disney company and reliance industries. they're combining their india tv and streaming businesses in a $8.5 billion deal. ornando parfitt is the senior news editor of screen international. he says this deal will be an industry disrupter. well, i think it will have a huge impact. they're talking about having a 40% market share — so obviously a 40% market share of india, and the indian diaspora is absolutely huge. these are two huge companies — reliance industries is one of the biggest companies

in the world, owned by asia's richest man, mukesh ambani — mix it — mixing that with the huge presence that disney has, there, means it is a huge disrupter for that sector, and it'll probably be subject to regulatory approval because of that. let's turn to the us, where its economy grew at an annual pace of 3.2% from october through december. that figure is less than the commerce department's initial estimate. but consumer spending grew by 3% in the same period. strong exports also contributed to fourth quarter growth. from the world's biggest economy to the world's fastest—growing economy — india's latest gdp figures are due out later today. the south—asian country experienced an impressive first half of 2023. but its growth is expected to have slowed down in the last three months. the bbc�*s archana

shukla explains. after an impressive first half of the year, economic growth is expected to slow down in the october to december quarter. what is taking it down is a slowdown in industries, uneven weather patterns that have affected agricultural production, and reduced consumption post the festive season. luxury and high—end sales have helped, but vehicle sales, that of tractors, two wheelers and cars, have shown consumption demand moderate in both the rural and urban quarters. private sector investments still aren't flowing into the economy. the government spending which has been a major driver of growth in previous quarters is slowing as the country heads towards national elections. despite that, india will hold onto its ranking as the fastest—growing major economy of world for a third year — a premise on which prime minister narendra modi is seeking a record third term in office this year. india has become an attractive market an alternative to china for global investors.

brokerages expect the pace of growth to continue with gdp expected to surpass that of japan and germany in 2027. india is expected to grow at 7% levels, which is resilient in the face of fluctuating inflation. this even gives the central bank more incentive to hold on interest rates. china's search engine giant baidu, which is listed in the us, has reported its latest earnings which showed a rise in its quarterly revenue, thanks to its generative ai applications doing quite well. it runs the ernie bot, which is china's answer to answer to chatgpt, which is banned in the country. wei sun so the ernie bought has come to its fourth generation, and it has been acquired within baidu's business capes all over, its navigation

map systems. —— so the ernie bot has. so that ernie bot is the driving engine for its chat bot that provides news guidance for the road trip or something like that, and also in terms of industrial applications, ernie bought is one of baidu's leverage to — to get into the vertical industries such as legal, advertisements, marketing, and et cetera. china have been in competition in many aspects, especially in the tech sector, but when it comes to ai, as i said, chatgpt is currently banned in china — so where do chinese ai companies stand in competition with regard to us rivals? looking at the generative ai technologies, per se, china is actually lagging us by about 1—2 years. but if we look at the market size, the untapped market and also the potential, china is actually very

application—driven an application—specific. so we can see a growing number of potentials and applications already embedding these ai generative technologies all over the vertical markets, from the gaming industry to advertisement, to e—commerce to search engines. you know, there are much more potential and market leverage for such technology. the last two years, the tater group has been spending millions of dollars in transforming air india. they inherited a tired airline, with old fleet and bad debt. —— tata. air india also faces a slowing economy globally and problems with the boeing plays they have ordered. but the carrier says

the investments are paying off. suranjana tewari caught up with air india's chief executive and asked what makes india such a promising market. if you look at the size of the opportunity of india, it's already the world's most populous country, growing fuller from an air travel prospective 7% internationally. it has the geographic advantage the same as the middle east and others in connecting regions of the world together. and it is a hugely underserved market from an indian carrier's perspective. india only had 43 wide areas, where is much smaller countries had multiples of that. so the connectivity opportunity from india to the rest of the world, to serve not just the 37 million people in the diaspora, but the business opportunities in india becoming a greater part of the global supply chain, as well as international connecting hub are there, so i think this investment needs to be seen in context of the broader opportunity. your rivals are very established and carry most of the indian traffic — how do you propose to catch up with them and compete?

well, in the case of the domestic market, there is consolidation happening. for tata group, there's four airlines. we are looking to integrate those. and the domestic market will be largely served by the low—cost airline which we are in the process of tripling in size. the international market will be driven by more aircraft but improving the proposition on board and distribution service sales, reliability, reputation and connecting more cities around the world nonstop with india. i think if we do that, we appeal to a new travelling market, and, of course, we can then bring people back to fly nonstop to india, rather than suffer a 4—5 hour transit connection somewhere in between where they're starting from and where they're going. you've ordered

new boeing maxjets — given everything that's been going on with boeing, are you concerned at all given the size of the order? i think airline safety is a long, hard—won battle — design and management operations. so anything that calls into question the robustness of that whole ecosystem is clearly of concern to us. of course, we are raising the highest levels with boeing and with every other manufacturer, because our expectations are to operate the most safe airline that we can possibly do. you say you are raising those concerns — have they given you any extra assurances? well, they clearly keep us informed with what they're doing, the actions they're taking, the seriousness with which they approach that issue, but it's not appropriate for me to talk about that. top us lawmakers have resorted to deal to stop a government shutdown before a deadline of friday. part of the budget will be extended to the 22nd of the

month. democrats and republicans have been far apart in negotiations on border security and aid to ukraine. the value of bitcoin is soaring — in fact, it's more than doubled over the past four months. our business correspondent erin delmorejoins us to explain why the world's largest cryptocurrency is red hot right now. it's been more than two years since we saw bitcoin crossed the $60,000 mark but the cryptocurrency did just that on wednesday, even soaring to $64,000. it may be closing in on its all—time high of $68,000. there are a few reasons why crypto enthusiasts are fired up about bitcoin these days. newly approved spot bitcoin trading funds, and changes in april that mean that miners will get less bitcoin for their efforts. another thing. the federal reserve it

is expected to cut interest rates, which will drive more interest in alternative investments such as cryptocurrencies. the latest cryptocurrencies. the latest crypto exchange in the us unexpectedly saw the balances of many users drop to zero during the bitcoin buzz. they don't make the exchange's ceo post on ceo that the site was "dealing with a large surge of traffic." . , "dealing with a large surge of traffic.“ . , ., traffic. " that is it for the show. thank _ traffic. " that is it for the show. thank you - traffic. " that is it for the show. thank you for - traffic. " that is it for the - show. thank you for watching. —— they crpto exchange's ceo. , crypto. voice-over: bbc news - i bringing you different stories from across the uk. every step is going on the right direction.

i spent 15 years in manchester. this was not available even when i lived here. i never turned to the mountains for something to do. this area, eryri, has so much to offer. it's more thanjust a landscape. to some people, it is a lifeline. it's massive to get people outdoors, to socialise with others who have gone through the same difficulties. over 20 years, rob havelock battled his addictions that destroyed his life. drugs and alcohol led to isolation. i ruined my relationships and they'd gone downhill. i was iwasa i was a very lonely person. i was — i was a very lonely person. i was broken. after many sober walks he has created sober snowdonia, a walking group of people who've been through similar challenges. i thought i should make this available — you know, this is available to anyone who chooses to do it, but organise walks up the mountain and invite other people suffering with addiction

or in recovery, even family members of people struggling. it gives me strength, time to think, to get a perspective on my life, where it is going and time to think about what i can do to improve it. for more stories from across the uk, head to the bbc news website. hey, i'mjulia with the catch up. tonight — mps' bodyguards, x is underfire, and raye's victory story. but first, prince harry has lost a court case against the government — it's over how much security he gets when it comes to the uk. his security status got a downgrade when he stopped being a working royal. his lawyers said that decision was unfair, and they're going to appeal this latest ruling. eni aluko, the england striker—turned tv pundit, has spoken out against x — that's the app that used to be twitter. she got a wave of abuse when the former footballer joey barton attacked her football commentary. some people were sending racist, sexist, and threatening messages. speaking to the bbc, she said she's reported barton's posts multiple times,

but x hadn't taken any action. 0nline abuse, from somebody who has millions of followers, feels like the world is caving in on you. some other stories now — the safety of some mps is under threat as the outbreak of the war in gaza. they are going to get extra security and some might have bodyguards. in fi, red bull's team principal christian horner has been cleared of inappropriate and controlling behaviour, after an internal investigation. he'd previously denied the allegations. and we'll leave you with ten seconds of raye. # i wanted to feel... yes, she broke records with seven brit nominations in one year — but now she's gone and won best songwriter in an early reveal before the awards show this weekend. that's you all caught up now, have a good night.

hello, there, and welcome to sportsday with me, will perry. coming up on the programme: a last—minute connor gallagher winner for chelsea breaks leeds' hearts in the fa cup.

christian horner�*s been cleared after facing allegations of innapropriate and controlling behaviour at red bull. and he hopes to play at the olympics in paris — but could july draw the curtian on andy murray's career? welcome along to the programme. just days after their league cup final misery, chelsea are into the quarter finals of the fa cup, thanks to a 3—2 win at home to championship side leeds. 5live's senior football reporter ian dennis was at stamford bridge. a hard—fought win as chelsea snatched a 90th—minute winner to the relief of mauricio pochettino and the stamford bridge crowd. they struggled in the second half and with extra time looming, gallagher fired past millie a. leeds united were the better side in the second period with

a 17—year—old archie gray catching the eye with a compose display.