Weekend Videos

• Five things ants can teach us about management (3m 11s, BBC Ideas)
• “A First-Class Catastrophe”: Lessons Learned from Black Monday (21m 14s, YouTube)
• The life story of Microsoft founder Paul Allen (1m 16s, Business Today)

Should Apple get tax breaks in India?

Apple is the world's biggest technology company by revenue. The company has, because of its tax-avoidance approach, often got into regulatory crosshairs. In August 2016, the Cupertino, California-based tech behemoth was ordered by the European Union to pay a fine of euro14 billion for breaking tax laws.

Source: Economic Times

After years of neglect and if I may say, marketing myopia and downright arrogance, Apple has evinced interest in setting up production units in India. It won’t directly own the production units; rather, they will be set up by Wistron, a contract manufacturer of electronic devices. Also, it won't export its made in India phones and other devices!

In India, a single brand retailer has to source 30% of the stuff sold from local business units; this, the Government believes, will give impetus to local industry to invest better technology and thus enhance overall manufacturing ecosystem and higher employment generation.

About six months back, Apple asked for a waiver of this 30% local sourcing clause and the Government of India agreed to it on the condition that such waiver will be for the first three years only. Now it is asking for more in terms of tax breaks and other concessions. I think the government should not concede any more concessions than are available to all such companies in the sector. I am sure giving into Apple’s demands will create a lot of heartburn and set a bad precedence.

Read more here.

Vertical Ambition, GST & China

• What is 'vertical ambition'? (BBC) 

• Kevin Roberts, chairman of the global advertising giant Saatchi and Saatchi, resigned after saying women lacked "vertical ambition" and that is why so few made it to the top. Financial analyst Louise Cooper has her thoughts.

• Interactive feature on GST (Hindu)
• Can China save the Olympics? (Bloomberg)

Sunday Reads

• The West's decline would hurt China. (Project Syndicate)
• Why you can't switch off at the weekend. (BBC Capital)
• India lifts veil on Army as Narendra Modi prepares to spend U.S.$150 billion (Bloomberg)

Sunday Reads: All about Brexit

Check out this Brexit omnibus edition.

• Brinsanity (FP)
• A Brexit Post-Mortem (FA)
• Why Brexit made sense to voters (CNN)
• 'I hope I don't live to regret this.' (Guardian)
• A British Tragedy in One Act. (PS)

BBC has an explanatory infographic on steps to UK leaving the EU.

Also read The Explainer: Interest Rates. 

Sunday Reads

General Reads

• The real reason why American controls its nukes with ancient floppy disks (WaPo)
• The man who revived Renault and Nissan wants to save Mitsubishi (Bloomberg)

Controversial Read

• Gujarat Lies: A collection of personal vendetta (Nirwa Mehta)

Fun Read

• Can you identify these cars from film and TV? (BBC Auto)

Sunday Reads

Last year, I blogged just 77 times, which is pretty low compared to 140 times in 2013. I wrote less and blogged even less. I hope to change it this year, by being consistent and prolific. 

For this Sunday, let me share some of the interesting stuff that I read in the last three days.

• Free Basics is a Walled Garden. (TOI Blog)
• Evolution of BCCI into a Ultra-Rich Club. (Hindu)
• Apple's year in Beta - Everything needs more focus and more time. (Verge)
• The man who tried to Redeem the World with Logic. (Nautilus)

Sunday Reads

• Singapore's students ready to be entrepreneurs. (BBC)

• Everyone hates China's rich kids. (Bloomberg) 

• Neeb Karori Baba: The baba who has been magnet for tech honchos like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs (ET)

Origin of Company Names in Pics

From the archives: Click here to know about the Origin of Company Names in Pics.  

Infographic: What is the cost of manufacturing the iPhone 6S?

Apple's iPhone has, for several years now, fascinated the world. How much does the iPhone 6S cost? I found this interesting infographic that details the cost breakup and sale price. (via ET)

Video: World's Smartest Building + Sunday Reads

In the last several years, thousands of large multi-storey buildings have come up in different parts of India. Most of the technology companies have offices in buildings that come with gleaming glass walls, centrally air-conditioning, biometric entry/exit, work stations, open cabins, and food centres. 

If you work, or aspire to work, in such an office building, then watch the video on the smartest building in the world. You may want to work here! 

Click here to watch the video.

• China's economy is stumbling, but by how much? (BBC) Also read How China lost its swagger. (CNN Money) This two pieces are for Ramya (the Physics girl).

• The politics of iconography. (Hindu)

• The enchantment of falling in love and the vortex of desire. (Brain Pickings)

Life In a Libyan Hell; Smart Indian Cricketers

Two reads to share.

One.

The Islamic State is the most brutal terrorist group the world has ever seen. Its tentacles are spread far and wide; it controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria and has substantial presence in Libya. 

Der Spiegel, a respected German publication, has published a diary of a Libyan from the town of Derna, chronicling life under the dreaded rivals, Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terror networks.

Click here to read the short diary titled 'A Chronicle of Life in Libyan Purgatory'.

Two.

How Indian cricketers have turned into smart cricketers. The writing in the article is not great and is riddled with tautology. I have shared it only to sate the curiosity most of us have about the big money earned by Indian cricketers.

Infographic: Why India is better than China

Via ET.

Quiz

Sunday Reads

• The myths about the death of cash. (BBC Future)

• Pakistan's continuing war against Indian civilization. (New IE)

• 20 years of mobile phone in India. (ET)

• Five myths about the atomic bomb. (WaPo)

Sunday Reads

Return of the Sunday Reads.

• The rise and fall of Quaaludes. (BBC)

• The lost boys of Mogadishu. (AlJazeera)

• How leaders can remain optimistic during tough times. (Fortune)

• App to the mark. (New Indian Express)

Read The Explainer: Cash Reserve Ratio.

Infographic: Fight for India's $50 billion e-commerce market

The e-commerce market, including both B2B and B2C, is exploding in India. Global majors, like Amazon, are vying with Indian e-companies, like Flipkart, for larger share in the humongous over U.S.$50 billion market. 

From a technology backwater country to a leading e-commerce nation, India has come a long way.

Saturday Infographic being renamed 'Infographic'; I plan to share more infographics through the week.

The below interesting infographic, from ET, lends an interesting perspective on the e-commerce market in India.

Book Excerpt: Crusader or Conspirator?

The Coal Block Allocation Scam, or the CoalGate as it has come to be nicknamed, relates to the allocation of coal blocks to certain favored parties without following the bidding system. 

The Comptroller and Auditor-General of India (CAG) reported that this process of allocation of coal blocks without inviting open bidding led to a massive loss of Rs1,86,000 crore (Rupees One Lakh Eighty Six Thousand Crore) to the central and state governments. 

The UPA Government dismissed the huge loss figure as a figment of imagination.

Later,the Supreme Court struck down the allocation of 204 coal blocks.

The new central government, i.e., NDA under Narendra Modi, went in for e-bidding to bring in transparency in the allocation system. Till yesterday, the allocation of just 33 (out of 204) coal blocks has brought in nearly Rs2 lakh crore!! 

Tomorrow I shall share more on this scam; right now, let me share three pages from the work of P. C. Parakh, former secretary in the Ministry of Coal, Government of India. While a court had earlier absolved Mr Parakh of any wrong doing, a special CBI court has just issued summons to him.  Government of India. 

Title: Crusader or Conspirator?

Author: P. C. Parakh
Publisher: Manas
Pages featured here: 115-117

Note: All copyrights/trademarks belong to the owners of the publication/author(s). It is not my intention to profit from their work. In fact, I just wish that the readers of this blog are encouraged to buy/read the works represented here.

Sunday Reads: CIA+Mossad and Cheap Oil

• CIA & Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure (Washington Post)

• Japan's Abe's vision under threat. (AlJazeera)

• All about ways of expressive articulation. (Hindu Open Page)

• Seven reasons cheap oil cannot stop renewables now. (Bloomberg)

Saturday Infographic - Global Economic Growth 2015

From Reuters blog.