News Analysis India

Tag: Billion

  • Jack Ma Lost $11 Billion In Last Two Months Amid Increased Scrutiny By China: Report

    China’s richest man and the co-founder of Alibaba Group Jack Ma has lost $11 billion in the last two months since Beijing began scrutinising his empire and other tech giants in the country. According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Jack Ma now owns a fortune of $50.9 billion, which has decreased from $61.7 billion earlier this year bringing him down to the 25th position on the list of the world’s wealthiest people.

    Alibaba, like all other tech behemoths in the world, recorded a surge in stock prices in 2020 due to the sudden escalation of demand for online businesses amid the COVID-19 pandemic. However, government scrutiny on Alibaba Group and other tech companies, including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and food delivery giant Meituan, has massively impacted the confidence of the investors, bringing down the market value of these firms and their subsidiaries (if any).

  • New PS5, Xbox drive record $6.9 billion sales for video game

    As Sony and Microsoft launched their new gaming consoles, the overall sales of video games surged to a record $6.9 billion for the month of November in the US, according to a news report.

    The momentum was achieved with a record $1.4 billion spent on new hardware (up 58 per cent from last year) mostly spent on Sony PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.

    The strong month brought year-to-date hardware sales just short of $4 billion, up 34 per cent from this point last year. Overall sales rose 35 per cent year-over-year to a record November, according to data provided by global market research company NPD Group.

    PlayStation 5 was the leader in sales. Meanwhile, the lower-priced Nintendo Switch sold the most units in November, bringing its streak there to 24 straight months. In October, the Nintendo Switch became the best selling console for 23 straight months in the US.

    To date, the Switch has sold more than 22.5 million units in the US, and Nintendo revealed this month that more than 68 million units have been sold globally. The full-game chart was topped by the year’s biggest launch, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. It became the best-selling game of 2020.

    Sony confirmed to refill its PlayStation 5 stock by the end of the year after the newly-launched gaming consoles were sold out in its biggest launch ever.

    Whenever it arrives, PlatStation5 will cost Rs 49,990 in India and the PS5 Digital Edition will be available for Rs 39,990.

    The Microsoft Xbox Series X and Series S gaming consoles went on sale on November 10 globally.

  • US Govt To Buy 100 Million Extra Doses Of Pfizer-BioNTech’s Vaccine

    Following a new $2 billion deal with the US government, Pfizer and BioNTech will be providing the US with an additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by mid-summer. This addition means, the US pharmaceutical company and the German drugmaker will now b delivering a total of 200 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidates to the United States resulting in immunisation of nearly 100 million people against the highly-infectious disease. In a statement, the companies had announced their plan on December 23 and said that all doses are expected to be delivered by July 31, 2021.

    Hailing the deal Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that following the delivery of 200 million doses, will enable the United States ‘to protect more people’ and end up controlling the COVID-19 pandemic more quickly. He also said that the company is willing to work with the US government along with healthcare providers across the nation. In a statement, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Alex Azar noted that the US securing more vaccines has further expanded the government’s supply of doses under the ‘Operation Warp Speed’ portfolio.

  • Xinjiang Forced Labour Issue May Hit China’s Investment Agreement With EU

    With European Parliament (EP) passing a resolution on forced labour and conditions in Uyghur’s in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China’s plan to have investment agreements with the European Union seems to be jeopardized. Earlier this week, the EP passed a resolution calling on the bloc to proactively probe into labour conditions in XUAR and to ensure accountability for the crimes committed by the Chinese Communist Party. In the aftermath of this, there seems a high possibility of the bloc withdrawing from the investment agreements which are currently in their final stage.

    Speaking to South China Morning Post, a source familiar to EP and European commission said that if there was no commitment on international labour organisations, then it would be extremely difficult to continue with the targeted deal. Officially named Comprehensive Agreement on Investment, the pact has the potential to alter economy and trade between the two superpowers. In addendum, it aims to bolster the $650 billion economic trade that happened between the two in 2019.

  • US Congress Passes Defence Policy Bill That Calls Out Chinese Aggression Against India

    The US Congress has officially passed the USD 740 billion defence policy bill, which among other things include calling out Chinese aggression against India along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

    The US House of Representatives and the Senate on Tuesday passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which included key components of Indian-American Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi’s resolution language urging the Chinese government to end its military aggression against India along the LAC.

    China and India have been locked in a military standoff along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh since May this year. Several rounds of talks between the two countries to resolve the standoff have not yielded any concrete outcome.

    The House and Senate versions of the bill were reconciled by a bipartisan Congressional conference committee earlier this month.

    The inclusion of this provision, which Krishnamoorthi led as an amendment when the bill passed the House, reflects the US government’s strong support for its allies and partners like India in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

    Krishnamoorthi’s measure, which passed each chamber with overwhelming bipartisan support, will become law if President Donald Trump signs it.

    Trump has threatened to veto the bill as it lacks a repeal of legal protections for social media companies. However, the NDAA has been passed by Congress for the last 59 years.

  • US Orders Additional 100 Million Doses Of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine For $1.65 Billion

    US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) have secured an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 mRNA-1273 vaccine candidate from Moderna. In an official statement, the US Health and Human Services announced that the Trump administration doubled the order of the total vaccine shots it initially committed to purchasing from the pharmaceutical company Moderna Inc. in an order worth $1.65 billion.

    The investigative vaccines will be delivered in the second quarter of 2021 to the US, the Cambridge-based vaccine manufacturer announced in an update. The development comes a day after the New York-based Pfizer Inc. and BioNtech gained emergency US authorisation for its vaccine, the company announced in an agency statement.

    According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) statement, the Modern vaccines will be subject to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorisation, following which the company will dispatch the shipment immediately. Once delivered, the vaccine will be provided to the citizens at no cost and the expenses for the private-sector administration partners will be covered by healthcare payers: private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and an HHS program to cover COVID-19 costs for the uninsured, the US HHS informed.