Top headlines: Foxconn eyes second plant, Son invites start-up founders

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Foxconn Technology eyes second chip plant in India, sans govt incentive

Having already applied to set up a semiconductor plant in India with joint venture (JV) partner Vedanta, Foxconn Technology Group has shown interest in setting up a second plant, this time without any government incentive.

A management delegation from Foxconn, led by Chairman Young Liu, was in India last week for meetings, and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Liu was here to deepen the company’s business relationship for the long term. It has participated, through two of its companies (Foxconn Hon Hai and Bharat FIH), in the country’s production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme as a vendor for Apple Inc as well as other mobile device makers.  Read more

Masayoshi Son invites start-up founders, CEOs with SoftBank holding

SoftBank’s boss Masayoshi Son, who is on a whistle-stop visit to New Delhi on Tuesday for half a day, has invited founders and chief executive officers (CEOs) from the start-up community who boast investments from his conglomerate.

These include Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO of e-tailer Flipkart; Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of fintech firm Paytm; Peyush Bansal, CEO of eyewear e-portal Lenskart; Supam Maheshwari, CEO of FirstCry, an e-store for baby products; Asish Mohapatra and Ruchi Kalra, founders, B2B commerce and fintech start-up OfBusiness; and ride-hailing service Ola’s founder Bhavish Aggarwal, among others. As the decision to meet them was not planned earlier, they are awaiting confirmation, said sources. Read more

Dealmakers in India should expect another strong year for M&As: JPMorgan

Dealmakers in India should expect another strong year for mergers and acquisitions as geopolitical tensions could propel companies to diversify into the South Asian nation, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.

India sealed its busiest M&A year ever with about $191 billion worth of transactions in 2022, bucking a global slump in deal activity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While it’s unlikely for the country to repeat such a high mark this year, there will be decent deal flow to keep the bankers busy, said Nitin Maheshwari, JPMorgan’s head of M&A for India. Read more

India's per capita income grew faster before 2014-15, shows data

The average Indian’s income has nearly doubled since 2014-15, but this growth is lower than seen in earlier years.

The per capita net national income, broadly a measure of what an average person in India earns, was Rs 86,647 in 2014-15. This has since risen to Rs 172,000, according to the latest government data. Reports on Monday pointed out that this represents nearly a doubling of income during the eight-year period. Read more

Less than 1% of earth has safe levels of air pollution, study finds

It’s no secret that air pollution is a serious problem facing the world today. Just how serious? A new study on global daily levels of air pollution shows that hardly anywhere on Earth is safe from unhealthy air.

About 99.82% of the global land area is exposed to levels of particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) — tiny particles in the air that scientists have linked to lung cancer and heart disease — above the safety limit recommended by the Word Health Organization, according to the peer-reviewed study published Monday in Lancet Planetary Health. And only 0.001% of the world’s population breathes in air that is considered acceptable, the paper says. Read more