is in those regions. welcome to the w business asia i want to go jones and well and good to have you with us starting with germany's top banks deutsche bank and commands bank saying they're considering a merger that could solve their ongoing problems both lenders have been struggling in recent years with deutsche in particular falling from grace tumbling from a global giant to just one of many financial players globally daughter bank currently ranks in fifteenth place with assets over around one and a half trillion dollars a year now it's lagging far behind the world's number one bank that is chinese i.c. d.c. and the largest u.s. bank j.p. morgan chase bank is in fifty third place down there as you can see with acid sheet of just under half a trillion dollars if germany's two biggest banks were to much they would move up to tense place internationally but the problems will hardly be going away jobs and branches will have to be cut to make it work now investors welcomed the

announcement at least in morning trading shares in both george and clematis rose and i was in frankfurt and that is where our correspondent is standing by for us hopefully when i can see him conrad can you hear me. ok we don't have a correspondent just yet but we do have another story for you is there another trade war brewing us president to donald trump wants to take india out of its preferential trade program known as the generalized system of preferences or g s p g s p guarantees emerging economies special treatment such as lower u.s. imports duties washington says india has been the world's largest beneficiary of this preferential status saving billions in u.t.s. well now it's time for america first against make in india. this

entrepreneur in mumbai may soon have to find new customers sandeep mainly sells his household goods to the u.s. but new import duties would make his products much more expensive there he fears he would then lose many u.s. customers but mater isn't letting it get him down. the indian government is already promising support for export is like him still he believes the usa is just hurting itself and has on wal-mart who are google so all are trying to grab indian market in a big way ok and when you were trying to boost of that market india is going to believe it in some or some way or other so if you look at the present scenario india is a big market for us or maybe us may not be

a big market for india. so it's kind of. mean to us and us. washington says india has been the world's largest beneficiary of preferential trade status if trade benefits are abolished the country will have to pay customs duties on products worth five point six billion u.s. dollars that were previously duty free but some see a change in u.s. trade status as a chance to rethink the kind of products that india exports we have to move on to quality if you keep on looking at. i mean that's not going to work it's a matter of people thought oh my god i bought this and it's that keeps talking to work we don't want it to happen in order to do anything better that's when things we need to feel our people better and that in the technologies and which can get us sandy still hopes that the usa will change its mind and that the preferential

treatment will remain but in the meantime there's no harm in looking for new customers first products. i will go back to frankfurt now where we found our correspondent. standing by for us there i think outside the frankfurt stock exchange and of course we wanted to discuss with you can add to the possible merger of two german top banks deutsche bank and. both banks seem to have mixed feelings about this possible tell us what are the up and what are the downsides to this. actually before i can tell you this morning i'm standing here place in frankfurt where you have both a branch of course and you know the headquarters of the it's a bank right in the background their headquarters of both banks are a part only about a kilometer or so from each other here in frankfurt's financial center and that is

one of the aspects that makes people believe why a merger could be a good idea combined of course those banks would have a higher market share it would be controlled that bank is from frankfurt of course it would be able to cater to its customers small ones big ones with all kinds of banking products on the other hand of course this would most certainly create a bank too big to fail bank already now among the most risky ones in the world financial system and of course as you remember our governments promised that never again banks would have to buy taxpayers and last but both least many people here are convinced that this process of a merger would be a very long complicated and tedious one something that drains energy from the banks they better use for their customers all right. reporting from just outside. bank behind in frankfurt thank you so much. now then everyone talks about

gender equality here and europe but we also walking the walk not when it comes to equal pay men and women nowadays often pursue the same kind of careers from taxi drivers factory workers to doctors and lawyers but while men and women do exact same jobs at the end of the month their paycheck defense vastly here in germany by up to six percent jobs that are traditionally considered women's jobs like kindergarten teachers for example are notoriously badly paid and although women in germany on average are better educated than german men are fewer women have careers in fact if you consider the average gross wage of all germans women earn twenty one percent less than men there are many reasons for it typical occupations for women nursing education or hairdressing are paid less than occupations which are usually carried out by men and women often work part time due to responsibilities at home

that makes them less likely to climb the career ladder but even when both women and men are working in the same positions women earn six percent less than men the gender gap in the european union is very different from country to country the pay gap is lowest in romania and italy germany is in third to last place just ahead of the czech republic and is stonier. for more than ten years equal pay day has been drawing attention to these grievances but nothing has changed significantly so far. so europe is still struggling to walk the walk when it comes to talk of equal pay for equal well let's find out what things are like in asia with our correspondents on your car which joins us in delhi and andrea hang in singapore and they are let me start with you because singapore obviously being a financial hop with an advanced economy and a largely modern society is income inequality still an issue there.

surprisingly yes it is still very much an issue in singapore although the country of the means sar head off its counterparts of major economies such as china and as well as career in the global index here in singapore women are paid a little over a little under twenty percent less than men in nearly all industries except that of clerical work and are there any plans there to bridge this gender income inequality. certainly there is but a lot of it does depend on the community as well as companies in singapore in singapore love it is not a is no law mandating that there should be no discrimination between genders when hiring a person but a lot of the hiring application processes if systemic in

a lot of women drop out of the career of their careers to take care of families which is still very much an asian value practice in singapore well that actually is an interesting point and it brings me straight to sonia because sunny i believe that i mean there is data that shows that the the india the number of women in the workforce has actually been forming for years why is that. that's right monica i mean that really has been happening for many years and there are many many reasons for that we have to remember india is a socially conservative place and women are generally discouraged to pursue careers i think social attitudes also to blame for the fact that many women opt not to not to continue working after having a baby because the responsibility of raising a child is still very much borne by the mother in india sexual harassment remains a big problem you know a lack of public safety is often cited as a big barrier to female employment so i think there are you know cultural norms biases unequal gender relations of patriarchy it's really

a combination of things that that account for that very low to participation in the workforce and now you know considering and big goal of creating more jobs and of course making india what is the government doing to ensure that more women stay in the workforce. well two years ago the indian government actually. passed a law to extend paid maternity leave from twelve to twenty six months twenty six weeks and that was actually quite progressive really generous law it was hoped that it would encourage women to continue their careers after pregnancy but in reality you know many critics are saying that this is actually deterred companies from hiring hiring women that are fears of job losses that are fears that this could further you know increase biases against women in the workplace better docs that could be so so that would spell really bad news in a country where the share of women in the workforce is actually already. or well andrea just very very briefly is gender inequality actually

a topic that people talk about in singapore. it is very much so a recent article released details on the ministry of men power here in singapore that has discussed these issues right now in parliament they're debating and trying to finalize policies that actually increase supply samedi s. and moms to ensure a better workplace as well as a better career. favoritism for women in singapore all right agreeing in singapore thank you so much also when you found the car in delhi. that is business h l n t w thanks for keeping us company. to.

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play. the lead player. the state of the unit is coming to you live from berlin a shooting puts the dutch city of your twist on a lot else one purse. several more injured after a gunman opened fire in a trap police are searching for a turkish born man and what they say could be a terrorist attack. also coming up in new zealand the nation remembers those who died in the christ church.