BUSINESS
Tata’s Air India close to signing deal for 150 Boeing 737 max jets
Air India is likely to place a firm order for 50 737 Max jets with an option to acquire as many as 150, the newspaper reported. Tata formally took charge of debt-laden Air India earlier this year.
WORLD
From Mardi Gras to Burning Man, a year of wild human experiences
The world’s greatest festivals and expressions of freedom and joy are making a big collective comeback in 2023.
BUSINESS
England will reach Fifa final but lose to Argentina, economic model predicts
Joachim Klement, an investment analyst at Liberum Capital, stands by predictions he made in September, before the competition began, despite “sweating a lot” while watching Saudi Arabia beat Argentina in the group stages of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
ECONOMY
Britain's booming film industry has a growth lesson for Rishi Sunak
It’s part of a broader boom across Britain’s film industry that provides both a lesson and a warning for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government on how to stimulate growth
WORLD
PM Modi to skip annual summit with Putin over Ukraine nuke threats
The relationship between India and Russia remains strong but trumpeting the friendship at this point may not be beneficial for Modi, said a senior official with knowledge of the matter
BUSINESS
Tech layoffs at silicon valley offer hiring boon for startups
The history of Silicon Valley is awash with stories of companies that were founded, or gained traction, in the ruins of recession. Amazon.com Inc. and Google, now known as Alphabet Inc., are among the big winners from past economic slumps.
INDIA
Vivo’s phones held by DRI over suspected violations released
The government agency passed the order to release the smartphones a day after Bloomberg News reported that the devices were being withheld for inspection. It wasn’t immediately clear if the revenue intelligence unit will be pressing charges against Vivo.
BUSINESS
Top money managers see double-digit stock gains in 2023
Amid recent optimism that inflation has peaked — and that the Federal Reserve could soon start to change its tone— 71% of respondents in a Bloomberg News survey expect equities to rise, versus 19% forecasting declines. For those seeing gains, the average response was a 10% return.
BUSINESS
AI-generated Anime selfies make Meitu app a rage in Japan
Hong Kong-based Meitu Inc. is up more than 50% over the past couple of weeks, in which time its app has reached the top of Apple Inc.’s free iPhone downloads chart and number 2 on Android’s Google Play in Japan, according to data.ai figures.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk says Twitter will tell users if they’ve been ‘shadowbanned’
The announcement followed a Twitter thread by journalist Bari Weiss, who has been granted access to company documents, saying that conservative commentators had their tweets downplayed by employees — a process known as “shadowbanning.”
BUSINESS
Google faces a serious threat from ChatGPT
Google works by crawling billions of web pages, indexing that content and then ranking it in order of the most relevant answers. It then spits out a list of links to click through.
BUSINESS
OpenAI Chatbot so good it can fool humans, even when it’s wrong
The bot has been asked to create cocktail recipes, compose lyrics and write a Gilligan’s Island script where the castaways deal with Covid. ChatGPT avoids some of the pitfalls of past chatbots — like racist or hateful language — and the excitement about this iteration of the technology is palpable.
BUSINESS
SpaceX’s first moon trip crew to include artists, DJ Steve Aoki
The unorthodox crew was announced in a video posted online Thursday by Maezawa, who said last year that he wanted to include “people from all kinds of backgrounds.”
BUSINESS
End of Covid zero threatens to overwhelm China with infections
The world’s most populous nation is rapidly abandoning the mass testing, lockdowns and centralized quarantine that defined the stringent, three year-old policy.
BUSINESS
SpaceX Rocket launches with rival OneWeb satellites on board
It’s the first of three planned missions the unlikely collaborators are set to perform over the coming months despite their separate efforts to build megaconstellations that will beam broadband Internet coverage to Earth.
BUSINESS
High valuations may slam the brakes on Indian equity rally in 2023
While India has been a standout market this year, with the NSE Nifty 50 Index up above 7%, compared to an 18% slump in global stocks, it remains the most expensive in Asia.
BUSINESS
Walmart’s payments startup PhonePe seeks to raise $1 billion
The all-equity round is expected to close in the next two weeks and may take PhonePe’s valuation close to $13 billion, including new capital invested.
BUSINESS
Govt unveils $30 billion plan to upgrade grid for clean power
The project will connect solar plants in the sun-drenched deserts of Rajasthan and Gujarat and wind farms in Tamil Nadu to the national network, the power ministry said in a statement.
BUSINESS
Sula Vineyards – India’s largest winemaker – set to hit IPO street on December 12
Sula Vineyards Ltd., which last month filed for an initial public offering, says it has over a 50% share of India’s small but rapidly growing wine market.
BUSINESS
These are not the most expensive cities…unless you are an expat
The Garden City has been at the top eight times in the past decade; Hong Kong is often up there (fourth this year), typically along with the likes of Tokyo and Osaka.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk brings Tesla’s China chief to Texas to run gigafactory
Representatives at Tesla in the US and China didn’t respond to requests for comment. Zhu wasn’t immediately able to be contacted. Musk also didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
BUSINESS
US senators seek SBF’s testimony at December 14 hearing on FTX
Brown, who is the chair of the Senate Banking Committee, said he and Toomey are prepared to issue a subpoena if the disgraced crypto founder doesn’t choose to appear voluntarily.
BUSINESS
Power giant NTPC will turn to nuclear in climate goal chase
The state-run company aims to install 20 to 30 gigawatts of nuclear capacity by 2040, according to a person familiar with the plans, who requested anonymity to discuss the private proposals and said the target remains tentative. India currently has 22 operational reactors with about 6.8 gigawatts of capacity.
BUSINESS
Masayoshi Son quietly ups SoftBank stake to 34%, edging toward buyout
The billionaire now owns more than a third of the company he founded, after aggressive buybacks in the last two months reduced SoftBank’s outstanding stock by almost 90 million.
