hello and welcome to asia business report. i'm steve lai. in india, officials have lowered import taxes on some electric vehicles made by companies that invest at least $500 million in the country and start production within three years. i am joined start production within three years. iamjoined by start production within three years. i am joined by our india business correspondent in mumbai. this announcement, could it be a game changer? yes, indeed, it is very much in line with the kind of lobbying companies such as tesla have been doing with the indian government over the past several months. elon musk famously complained a few months ago that the indian duty structures are way too high for the likes of haslar to bring investment into the country. and he was right, india currently levies about 70—100%

import duties on electric vehicles. —— the likes of tesla. this will bring it down to 50% and allow ev makers to make 8000 cars per head, the value over $35,000. as pointed out, this is conditional on them investing roughly $500 million in india over three years, essentially to spruce up ev infrastructure and manufacturing in the country, so we will have to wait and see if the likes of elon musk announced investment for the country. announced investment for the count . v announced investment for the count . . , ., country. it's clear they want to remove _ country. it's clear they want to remove barriers - country. it's clear they want to remove barriers to - country. it's clear they want to remove barriers to entry| country. it's clear they want i to remove barriers to entry for these ev makers to come into india. what has been the local reaction from car—makers? india. what has been the local reaction from car-makers? well, of course. _ reaction from car-makers? well, of course, local— reaction from car-makers? well, of course, local car— reaction from car-makers? well, of course, local car makers - reaction from car-makers? well, of course, local car makers are i of course, local car makers are not going to be very happy about this. right now, the domestic market is completely dominated by local players, the

likes of tata motors. it's only a very small proportion of all cars sold, but the government has an ambition to bring that “p has an ambition to bring that up to i3% by 2030, and it is hoping this policy will go some way to helping it realise that ambition. this will make evs less expensive for consumers but also provide global car—makers a long runway for growth, given that the government has this i3% target. there are challenges, including things such as charging infrastructure, and the fact india continues to remain a very cost sensitive market. thanks very much. staying with ev, a chinese manufacturer will launch a cheaper brand, with vehicles priced between $14,000 and $21,000, half the cost of

premium evs in the chinese market. they want to create the first ai assisted car for young people. the ev market in china is heating up, as companies including byd race to cut prices. in the middle east, negotiators are set to make a fresh push for a ceasefire in the war between israel and gaza. israeli said it would send a delegation to qatar for a new round of discussions, even as it rejected hamas's latest proposal for a truce. geopolitical tensions are a risk for the martime industry as the houthi rebels have kept up attacks on ships in the red sea. we spoke to peter tirschwell, vice president of maritime and trade at s&p global market intelligence. i think that the way we should look at it is to say that this is certainly a maritime disruption. it's certainly a supply chain disruption. it is far less clear that it is a trade disruption.

it does not seem to be an economic disruption. so you're not seeing such impact from these attacks, any impact for us in singapore or more broadly in the region? very broadly economic impact. we continue to believe that the growth of the apac region excluding china and japan will be 4.3%, up from 4.0%, so an acceleration of growth in 2024. if you read the report of our economics team there is virtually no mention of the red sea as having an economic impact. certainly it has a supply chain impact in the sense that orders have to be placed earlier and transit times are longer. it's harder to forecast if the time between when you order and when you sell your goods is longer by two to four weeks.

but in general, we're not seeing a huge economic disruption in this region. how have they managed to accommodate this or navigate what's been happening over there and being able to mitigate it for the end consumer? the simple answer is capacity. during the pandemic, the ocean carriers ordered a lot of ships. they had a lot of cash on hand, their fleets were getting older, they needed to replenish their vessels with eco—friendly ships able to run on zero—carbon, or lower—carbon fuels. they placed a massive amount of orders and those ships are now coming out of the shipyards are going into service. as a result, prior to this happening there was a quite a bit of overcapacity, the freight rates have cratered off their pandemic highs. so when the attacks started in mid december, you had a lot of excess capacity that was able to fill in the gaps.

some live pictures from saudi arabia, the holy site of mecca. holy prayers have just ended. notjust here, but millions of muslims around the world are observing ramadan. it is a spiritual time of fasting, reflection and community. some employers in the uk are making adjustments to the work day to support workers observing the holy month. the bbc�*s nina warhurst sent this report. around 800,000 items are sent from this warehouse every week. it's a busy workforce of around 1500 people and more than a quarter of them are british asian or pakistani. and one of those fasting over ramadan is manager rukaya. nine hours into your fast today. how are you feeling? honestly, ifeel 0k. being at work makes it go a lot quicker.

you don't feel any hunger because you're too busy. working, interacting with people. so you're managing a big, busy team. be honest. when they get on your nerves, does that hanger kick in? trust me, it does. it does massively. but because i've been doing it for a very long time, i've managed to control. and in my religion, this month is all about controlling. it's all about being spiritual and being kind to people. when you talk to staff here who are fasting, they say they're used to it. they've been doing it since they were teenagers. but what's also interesting is talking to those who aren't fasting, because they've been asked to be mindful of the fact that their colleagues might want to ask for shorter shifts. they might want to break out more frequently for prayer time, and they might feel those energy levels starting to dip in the afternoon. everyone received an email explaining over ramadan that muslims like miriam might pray more or book extra leave. and bosses say extra effort that they've put into relaxing the rota means

productivity is protected. we haven't noticed that drop in productivity. i think it may be due to the staggered breaks. so when someone is feeling a little bit fatigued, they're able to take a break at the time that they choose. so i was going to say you're on hour ten now. fasting. how are you feeling? do you know what? great. i don't have the afternoon slump that i normally have after having having a lunch break. so i'm feeling very productive, ready to go. but what about when you're fasting and working from home, close to the kids and to the fridge? halia works on it systems for cambridge university. 11th hour of fast now — how's the concentration levels? they are good. i'm looking forward to having dinner. i bet you are. for me personally, it's actually more productive in ramadan. wow. i think i've found that the tea breaks, the lunch breaks, nipping out for a salad or something like that — i sacrifice that and

i give it to my work. this year, adam's fasting for the first time. he's not enjoying the 4am alarms for breakfast, but... we've got about three minutes to go until you evening meal. are you excited? yeah. what are you most excited about? i'm excited to have the dates. yeah — and fruit salad. ooh, lovely. and your mum's chicken looks really good. can i have some? yeah. great. and we ask you to bless all of mankind. whoever they are, wherever they come from, we seek refuge in you, in our worst times and in our best times. an early night and an early morning will follow for a breakfast before the sun rises. less food, less sleep. but khaleel says a clearer mind to focus on work, family and faith. a quick look at the markets, and some positive news from

japan. the nikkei index trading higher, more than 2% higher. there are hopes the country's central bank will end it negative interest rate policy on tuesday. the negative rates have made the yen less attractive to global investors and pushed down the currency value. biggerthan and pushed down the currency value. bigger than expected pay hikes injapan have boosted sentiment in recent weeks. we will watch that closely tomorrow on asia business report. goodbye for now. ben and ruby have a special relationship, he has looked after her full six years but that nearly changed last year. a car came around and clipped her. rear side. just kept driving. i was left in the middle of the road on ruby, i had no idea she had a broken leg. anything could have happened to her. despite being struck

by a moving vehicle, they are both 0k and have managed to ride again since. but for ben, it made him reconsider where he takes her and when. you think, could it happen again? they know when something is up, and it took the fun out of it for a while. this is something many riders are concerned about. emily runs a riding school in warwickshire and says heading out on the roads can be a challenge. a lot of off—road is only accessible by main roads. there have been incidents over the years, i'm fortunate no serious incidents, but when you are running young horses, or when we have clients, it can be very dangerous. motorists and riders are being asked to report incidents to the bhs so they can keep the network safe. in north staffordshire, ben and ruby are hoping to put their near miss behind them.

drinking water bubbling up from underground. drinking water bubbling up from underground. it's mid—morning in redhill, and teams have already located the problem. thanks to ai technology which triggered an alarm just after 8am. you can see the flow is going up and down. we have a prediction that goes along with the green line, which are saying, based upon the history, this is the flow we should be getting in that area at this time. you can see over here it started to jump, it has changed. as a result, the system noticed, it alerted the control room and generated an alarm. the way the system learns is by having gadgets in the ground. we have 1000 sensors scattered across our entire area. because they are bringing back data every 15 minutes, it allows us to find bursts

very quickly and get onto them before our customers are even where something is happening. they know already the leak is on a joint, a nine centimetre plastic pipe that was laid in 2007. according to the regulator ofwat, about a fifth of all fresh water running through pipes in england and wales is lost to leakage. there will be much interest in the annual leakage figures in surrey out later this year. hello and welcome to sportsday. a major moment for manchester united as they knock liverpool out of the fa cup with a goal in the 120th minute and a 4—3 win. could this be the year bayer leverkusen win in the bundesliga ? they have a ten—point lead at the top, aiming for their first top—flight title.

quick work in the california desert — swiatek beats sakkari in straight sets to win a second indian wells title. hello. it's been a thrilling weekend of quarter—final games in the fa cup, with the most dramatic match needing a 120th minute goal to separate two of the biggest clubs in the world. manchester united eventually beat rivals liverpool 4—3. patrick gearey has the details from old trafford. this place old trafford has seen some games over the years but that was right up there. an fa cup quarter—final to live on in history. where to start? manchester united, many people's underdogs, started brighter and went ahead through scott mctominay

from close range early on. they might have added to the lead, but instead