An Indian government agency has summoned Amazon.com Inc’s top management in the country, along with officials from Future Coupons Pvt Ltd (FCPL), to question them about a botched deal, the Economic Times reported.
The Indian Enforcement Directorate (ED) — the agency that investigates offenses related to money laundering — is examining whether Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, was in breach of India’s foreign-exchange laws when it invested 14.3 billion rupees (US$190.5 million) to purchase a 49 percent stake in FCPL in 2019, the newspaper said.
FCPL owns about 10 percent of Future Retail Ltd, the flagship entity that runs the Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar and Easyday chains.
“We are in receipt of summons issued by the ED in connection with the Future Group,” an Amazon spokesperson told the newspaper. “As we have just received the summons, we are examining it and will respond within the given time frame.”
The Future Group did not respond to a request by the Economic Times for comment.
Amazon, which is trying to block Mukesh Ambani — Asia’s richest man — from taking over the struggling Future retail chain, last week said that money from the local firm was allegedly diverted to other companies.
Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd and Amazon are fighting for a bigger slice of the only billion-people-plus consumer market that remains open to foreign firms.
The Indian government has asked Starlink Internet Services of Elon Musk’s rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) to comply with the country’s regulatory framework before offering its satellite-based Internet services.
The Indian Ministry of Communications said in a statement late on Friday that because Starlink is not the holder of a license, the public is advised not to subscribe to Starlink services that are being advertised.
“The same is also evident from the Web site of Starlink (www.starlink.com), wherein satellite-based Internet services can be booked by users in the Indian territory,” it said.
There was no immediate comment from Musk’s company.
Media reports said that SpaceX has been accepting preorders for a beta version of the service for a fully refundable deposit of 7,400 rupees.
Additional reporting by AP
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
KEEPING UP: The acquisition of a cleanroom in Taiwan would enable Micron to increase production in a market where demand continues to outpace supply, a Micron official said Micron Technology Inc has signed a letter of intent to buy a fabrication site in Taiwan from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion to expand its production of memory chips. Micron would take control of the P5 site in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼) and plans to ramp up DRAM production in phases after the transaction closes in the second quarter, the company said in a statement on Saturday. The acquisition includes an existing 12 inch fab cleanroom of 27,871m2 and would further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said. Micron expects the transaction to
RSS