I. Technology
5. Opposition
to data localisation may come down after international tax law
Opposition
to India’s data localisation move from overseas companies may go down once a
globally accepted framework of taxing big technology and digital companies
comes into existence, a senior IT Ministry official has said.
Mr. S.
Gopalakrishnan, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Electronics and IT, said
that he was referring to a recent proposal by the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) to expand government rights to tax
multinationals, especially big internet firms, by releasing a methodology for
such taxation.
He said
that according to the draft personal data protection (PDP) bill, the law would
only set up the framework regarding necessarily localising ‘critical data’ only
in India without a copy of it being elsewhere.
But ‘there
will be a lag between the coming of the law and the implementation since the
regulator would then work out the nitty-gritty of what comprises critical data
and thus needs to be stored only in the country,’ he said, adding that the
entire process would take all the stakeholders into consideration.
The
officer further clarified that even then, the law would allow the Indian
government in the meanwhile to strike bilateral data treaties with other
countries wherein companies from the partner countries could even store the
critical data overseas.
Mr.
Gopalakrishnan was chairing a session on ‘Data Localisation and Global India’.
His comments came during a panel discussion on how some big technology giants
were opposed to the Indian government’s proposed data localisation rules as
outlined in the draft PDP bill which, he said, could soon be tabled in the
Parliament.
Speaking
on the opposition from big technology firms on proposed Indian laws around
privacy and security, he added ‘the global tech companies have so far operated
in a regime without specific privacy laws in the U.S. but are now facing a
situation where there are six states that have come out with privacy laws and a
Federal privacy law is expected. Under such circumstances, legislation of a
privacy law in India should not come as a surprise or a shock to them’.
(Source:
economictimes.indiatimes.com)
6. Now,
ask Alexa to pay utility bills as Amazon adds voice-based feature
In yet
another step towards making online buying and other services completely
voice-based and hinged on its virtual assistant Alexa, Amazon announced that
users in India can now pay their utility bills with Amazon Pay just by voice
commands.
This new
Alexa feature supports payment of bills across categories such as electricity,
water, post-paid mobile, cooking gas, broadband and DTH among others. ‘Users of
Amazon Echo, Fire TV Stick and other devices with Alexa built-in can just say
commands such as “Alexa, pay my mobile bill” or “Alexa, pay my electricity
bill” to get started,’ the company said.
‘This new
integration of Amazon Pay with Alexa will help reduce both time and effort for
customers who use Amazon Pay for bill payments and repeat similar transactions
every month. We are also excited to share that this is an India-first feature
which Alexa customers in India can enjoy before any other international
customers,’ Puneesh Kumar, Country Manager for Alexa Experiences and Devices,
Amazon India, said.
The
company last month announced that Alexa can now speak in Hindi. Going forward,
it is planning to launch its voice assistant in a host of other Indian
languages. Taking the competition to Google Assistant, Amazon is ramping up the
usage of Alexa in India by tying up with speaker manufacturers and mobile phone
companies to make Alexa the primary voice assistant on devices. At the moment
Alexa knows 500 skills in Hindi. In English, Alexa can perform over 30,000
tasks.
(Source:
www.business-standard.com)
II. world news
7. Ex-PCAOB
leader gets prison time for role in KPMG scandal
Former
Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Inspections Leader Jeffrey Wada has
been sentenced to nine months in prison for his role central to the
long-running KPMG inspections scandal.
Wada was
convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of
wire fraud in March, 2019 for providing KPMG employees with confidential
information on certain of the PCAOB’s 2016 inspection selections in an effort
to cheat the system. In addition to his jail time, he received a three-year
sentence of supervised release.
‘Jeffrey
Wada violated not just the terms of his employment with the PCAOB but also the
law when he provided confidential information about upcoming audit reviews to
co-conspirators at KPMG,’ said U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman in a statement.
‘Wada hoped to secure a job at KPMG. What he got was a nine-month prison
sentence.’
Wada is
the third figure in the KPMG scandal to receive jail time for his actions. In
September, David Middendorf, former national managing partner for audit quality
and professional practice at KPMG and the individual found by Berman to be ‘at
the top of a chain of corruption,’ was sentenced to one year and one day in
Federal prison and three years of supervised release. Cynthia Holder, another
ex-KPMG and PCAOB employee to whom Wada provided the confidential information,
was sentenced to eight months in Federal prison and two years of supervised
release in August.
Wada
joined the scheme in the fall of 2015 when he first provided confidential
information to Holder and repeated the crime in January, 2017 after being
passed over for a promotion at the PCAOB. Referring to the confidential
information as the ‘grocery list’ in a voicemail, he again went to Holder in
2017, but this time provided his resume and asked for assistance in gaining
employment at KPMG.
Prior to
the scheme, KPMG fared poorly in PCAOB inspections and in 2014 received
approximately twice as many comments as its competitor firms. The cheating
scandal is documented as having taken place from 2015 to 2017.
In June,
the SEC settled charges related to the scandal with KPMG for $50 million, in addition
to revealing allegations of cheating on internal exams that were also covered
in the settlement.
(Source:
www.complianceweek.com)
8. Can
a new apple take over the world?
When you hear that a new variety of apple is being launched with a
multi-million-dollar marketing campaign, you might wonder if you weren’t
listening properly and that the product is actually an Apple iPhone.
But now, starting to hit grocery shelves in the U.S. and then overseas
early in 2020, is a new American-born apple that its backers are convinced will
become the new global bestseller – the ‘Cosmic Crisp’.
‘The stars are aligning for this apple,’ says Kathryn Grandy, Marketing
Director of U.S. fruit firm Proprietary Variety Management (PVM), the company
handling the $10m (£7.9m) launch of the new variety.
A cross-breed between two existing varieties (the Honeycrisp and the
Enterprise), advocates of the Crisp describe it as some sort of apple holy
grail. It is said to be sweet, crisp and juicy. But as importantly, it is said
to have a previously unheralded shelf life, staying fresh for up to a year if
kept chilled.
You might think that this all sounds like hyperbole, but hundreds of
apple growers in the Crisp’s home state have bet $40m that it is going to be a
hit.
The story of the Crisp began back in 1987 when its breeding programme
started at Washington State University. The idea was to develop a new variety
of apple to help Washington’s then beleaguered apple farmers.
First made available for commercial planting in 2017, Washington’s apple
farmers had long heard of just how good the new variety was supposed to be. So
much so that demand for the Crisp was so high that farmers had to enter a
lottery to be able to get their hands on the first seedlings. Their names were
randomly drawn by a computer programme. Sales of Crisp seedlings subsequently
boomed. Today, more than 12 million Crisp trees are growing across Washington,
with orchards covering some 12,000 acres.
With the first apples now on the shelves, it is estimated that this
giant planting scheme – said to be the biggest and fastest in world apple
history – has cost the growers a combined $30m.
In return for this confidence, the Washington farmers have been given the
exclusive rights to grow and sell the Crisp worldwide until 2027. And as the
Crisp is being marketed as a premium variety, its price reflects this.
The first apples are now on sale in the U.S. for $5 per pound (454
grams), which is more than three times the cost of standard varieties. For
every 40-lb box sold, a royalty of 4.75% is shared between Washington State
University and its commercial partner, the previously mentioned PVM.
More than 467,000 40-lb boxes are now projected to be shipped before the
end of this year, rising to two million in 2020 and 5.6 million by 2021. The
apple even has a trademarked slogan – ‘Imagine the possibilities’.
‘The rate at which Cosmic Crisp is poised to come into the US market in
the next five to eight years is unprecedented,’ says James Luby, a Professor of
Horticultural Science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. ‘If you look
at the past 30 years of apple consumption in the U.S., it’s all flat. And the
profit margins are thin,’ says Prof. Rickard who is an expert in the
agricultural and food sectors. ‘The Cosmic Crisp could increase per capita
consumption of apples in the U.S.’
(Source:
www.bbc.com)
III. Health
9. Kids
and sugary drinks: How clever packaging can deceive parents
Though science has shown that sugary drinks are not healthy for
children, fruit drinks and similar beverages accounted for more than half of
all children’s drink sales in 2018, according to a new report.
Fruit drinks and flavoured waters with added sugars made up 62% of the
year’s $2.2 billion children’s drink sales. Healthier drinks, such as water or
juices made from 100% juice, made up 38% of sales during the same year. Many
sweetened drinks have packaging that highlight fresh fruit, when they only
contain 5% actual fruit juice. Experts say children should mainly be given milk
and water to avoid too much sugar.
And plenty of money was spent on advertising these beverages. Companies
spent $20.7 million to advertise children’s drinks that contained added sugars.
Children aged 2 to 11 saw more than twice as many TV ads for sweetened drinks
than for drinks without added sweeteners.
‘Beverage
companies have said they want to be part of the solution to childhood obesity,
but they continue to market sugar-sweetened children’s drinks directly to young
children on TV and through packages designed to get their attention in the
store,’ said Jennifer L. Harris, PhD, MBA, lead study author and the Rudd
Center’s Director of Marketing Initiatives. ‘Parents may be surprised to know
that paediatricians, dentists and other nutrition experts recommend against
serving any of these drinks to children.’
Dr.
Harris’s team evaluated 67 drinks to see the differences between sweetened
drinks and beverages without added sweeteners.
Experts say that juice and water blends without added sweeteners have
started to hit the market, but the nutrition claims and images can make it
difficult for parents to pinpoint which drinks are healthier.
Sugar-sweetened
fruit drinks marketed to children typically included 5% juice or less, but 80%
of those packages portrayed images of fruit and 60% claimed to have ‘less’ or
‘low’ sugar or ‘no high fructose corn syrup,’ the report said.
(Source:
www.healthline.com)
