AVIATION
India to reallocate Jet slots
The Indian government plans to form a committee to temporarily allocate takeoff and landing slots left vacant by the grounding of Jet Airways Ltd flights, a senior official said, a day after the indebted carrier was forced to stop operations. The vacant slots would be allocated to other airlines, Indian Secretary of Civil Aviation Pradeep Singh Kharola told a news conference in New Delhi. At least 280 slots were vacant in Mumbai and 160 in Delhi, he said, after Jet Airways ended all operations on Wednesday evening after failing to secure further loans from lenders.
THAILAND
Ministry mulls stimulus
Minister of Finance Apisak Tantivorawong yesterday said that he was considering steps to inject 20 billion baht (US$628 million) of stimulus into the economy. Growth might slow to the low 3 percent range in the first and second quarters, he told reporters in Bangkok. “We want the measures to be effective during the second and third quarters in order to make sure the economy won’t be slumping when the new government comes in,” he said. The steps being considered include tax breaks to spur tourism and assistance for people on low incomes, he said.
PUBLISHING
‘Enquirer’ to be sold
The National Enquirer is being sold to the former head of airport newsstand company Hudson News following a rocky year in which the tabloid was accused of burying stories that could have hurt then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. Tabloid owner American Media on Thursday said that it plans to sell the supermarket weekly to James Cohen. Financial terms were not immediately disclosed for the deal, which included two other American Media tabloids, the Globe and the National Examiner.
HEALTHCARE
J&J seeks to combine suits
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) wants a federal judge to take over more than 2,000 baby-powder lawsuits it faces instead of allowing the cases to be heard by state-court juries, where the company has a mixed record. The world’s largest maker of healthcare products seeks to invoke legal protections available to J&J’s bankrupt talc supplier Imerys Talc America Inc to collect suits accusing its baby powder of causing asbestos-related cancers before a single judge in Delaware. Imerys sought Chapter 11 protection in bankruptcy court there in February after being swamped by talc suits.
GAMING
Nintendo stock surges
Nintendo Co shares jumped after China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊) won approval to distribute one of the company’s games for its Switch console. Tencent received approval for the test version of New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe for the handheld device, according to a notice on the Web site of China’s Guangdong provincial culture and tourism department. Nintendo’s stock surged 14 percent, the most since July 2016 at the height of the Pokemon Go frenzy.
AUTOMAKERS
BMW recalls more vehicles
BMW AG is adding nearly 185,000 vehicles in the US to a 2017 recall for possible engine fires. The recall expansion covers a dozen 3 Series, 5 Series and Z4 models from the 2006 model year. The expansion brings the total number of vehicles recalled for the problem to about 925,000.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
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