QUAD nations commit to clean-energy supply chain
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The QUAD nations, namely India, Japan, Australia and the US, will work to improve the security of supply chains for critical technologies such as clean energy, and to ease a global semiconductor shortage, according to a joint statement.
The four nations, which are committed to a free and open Indo-Pacific region, concluded their first in-person summit in Washington on Friday, and agreed on a partnership to secure critical infrastructure. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue was incepted in 2007.
"We will cooperate to establish responsible and resilient clean-energy supply chains, and will strengthen the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and climate information systems," the QUAD leaders said, in a joint statement.
CryptoTech to cross $1.6 billion by 2021: Nasscom
The CryptoTech market in India is expected to grow two times faster, and has the potential to create more than 800,000 jobs by 2030, according to a report 'Crypto Industry in India', published by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) and WazirX, a bitcoin and currency exchange, on Friday.
On the global front, the CryptoTech industry is expected to cross $1.6 billion by 2021, and $2.3 billion by 2026, the report added.
It identified bitcoin, smart contracts, decentralised finance, the wave of tokenisation, non-fungible tokens, rise of cryptoTech capital, and central bank digital currencies as key trends driving the growth and adoption of CryptoTech in India.
With more than 60 percent of states in India emerging as CryptoTech adopters and over 15 million retail investors, the industry is increasingly attracting new start-ups. Over 230 start-ups are already operating in India in the CryptoTech space, according to the report.
Invesco renews demand for Zee board reshuffle
Invesco Developing Markets Fund renewed its demand for an extraordinary general meeting to replace the board of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, Bloomberg reported on Sunday, citing a letter.
Sony Pictures Network India (SPNI) had agreed to buy Zee last week. Invesco, which holds about 7.74 percent stake in the Zee, has again asked for the removal of non-independent directors, and sought the introduction of six additional independent ones, according to the report.
Google Cloud reducing marketplace fee
Google Cloud is slashing the fee it charges software vendors on its marketplace from 20 percent to 3 percent, as it becomes more competitive in the industry, CNBC reported.
The company is behind AWS and Microsoft Azure in cloud infrastructure. The fee cut will attract more software makers to sell software on its platform.
The Google Cloud marketplace allows companies, such as Elastic and MongoDB, to sell their products. It lags behind AWS, which charges a fee of about 5 percent, according to the CNBC report. Microsoft had slashed its fee in July to 3 percent from 20 percent earlier.
Flipkart and Amazon ready to battle
After changing their dates a few times, both Amazon India and Flipkart will begin their sales on October 3, setting the stage for an e-commerce sales clash.
Walmart-owned Flipkart had first announced that the The Big Billion Day sale will take place between October 7 and October 12. Then, Amazon announced it will start its Great Indian Festival on October 4, which made Flipkart advance its starting date to October 3. Not to be left behind, Amazon has advanced its Great Indian Festival starting date to October 3.
This year, market research firm RedSeer has predicted a total Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of around $9 billion during the one month festive season across platforms like Flipkart, Amazon India and others.
Virender Aggarwal to retire as Ramco CEO
IT firm Ramco Systems informed stock exchanges on Sunday that Virender Aggarwal will retire as CEO on December 15, 2021.
Chief operating officer Sandesh Bilagi will lead the leadership team of Ramco Systems across different departments, the company said in a statement. The company generated income of Rs 641 crore in financial year 2020-21.
“Virender Aggarwal has set the Company on a strong growth trajectory,” the Chairman of the Board, PR Venketrama Raja said, in the statement. “He has put together a strong leadership team that is very well experienced and equipped to take the Company to greater heights in the future.”
Huawei CFO arrives in China after three years
The US Justice Department agreed to allow Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou to return to China nearly three years after she was detained in Canada on behalf of the US.
Under this agreement entered on Friday in Brooklyn, the Huawei CFO admitted to some wrongdoing in exchange for prosecutors deferring and later dropping wire and bank fraud charges. Her flight took off from Vancouver early Friday evening and arrived in Shenzhen, China, on Saturday evening.
Around the same time, China released two Canadians, Michael Kovrig, a researcher and former Canadian diplomat, and Michael Spavor, an entrepreneur. Kovrig was charged with probing into state secrets and intelligence on behalf of foreign actors, while Spavor was accused of probing into and illegally providing state secrets to foreign actors, according to separate statements by municipal prosecutors in Beijing and Dandong.
Sales of iPhone 13 line-up open
The iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 13 Pro Max, iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPad mini, and ninth-generation iPad went on sale around the world on September 24.
According to Apple, the re-designed iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max have the most advanced pro camera system ever on iPhone, Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion, improved battery life, the Apple-designed A15 Bionic chip, and 5G.
Edited by Kunal Talgeri