■ Software
Microsoft eyes India
A Microsoft Corp executive said that moving some software development work to India would help the company save money and accomplish more, according to a presentation obtained by a Washington state union. Moving some work to India could "leverage the Indian economy's lower cost structure," according to slides from a July presentation by Senior Vice President Brian Valentine of the Windows operating system group. The slides were posted on the Web site of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake confirmed their authenticity. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, which is investing US$400 million in India over three years, plans to hire 5,000 workers by June 30 to add to the more than 50,000 it had at the start of its fiscal year in July.
■ Economics
Germany stagnates
Germany's economy stagnated in the fourth quarter as unemployment at a 4-and-a-half-year high sapped consumer confidence and the government cut spending. GDP was unchanged in the fourth quarter from the previous three months, the Federal Statistics Office said. Economists had expected a contraction of 0.1 percent. The economy expanded 0.5 percent from the year-ago period. Europe's largest economy, which last year grew at its slowest pace in almost a decade, has barely expanded since a recession in the second half of 2001. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's popularity is waning as companies from truck maker MAN AG to Deutsche Bank AG eliminate jobs. "The consumer will be a brake on the economy" this year, said David Kohl, an economist at Bank Julius Baer in Frankfurt.
■ Wireless
Qualcomm to reduce stake
Qualcomm Inc, whose patents are the basis for cellphones used by about 140 million people, said its investment in wireless operators will slow because a surge in users will only come at the end of next year. The San Diego-based company, which develops technology for the use of high-speed mobile data services such as downloading video on cellphones, said it hasn't decided how much it will spend on these investments this year. "The amount of money we invest in operators would decline over time, but we are opportunistic and there are always special opportunities that come along that we'd consider," Jeff Jacobs, Qualcomm's president of global development, said in an interview in Singapore.
■ Biotech
GM corn approved
A new corn genetically designed to resist rootworm can go onto the market, the Environmental Protection Agency announced. "This new variety of corn pest control holds great promise for reducing reliance on conventional insecticides now used on millions of acres of corn in the US" Stephen Johnson, an assistant administrator at the EPA, said Tuesday. Monsanto, a St. Louis biotech company, designed the corn variety so it would produce its own insecticide to fend off rootworm, a pest whose larvae feed off the plant's roots. The plant's pesticide is derived from a protein contained in a natural soil bacterium called Bt, or Bacillus thuringiensis. Farmers have had to depend on chemical insecticides and alternating soybean and corn crops every other year to control rootworm.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
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