Theft control: California leaders push for ‘kill switch

“We require the cell-phone industry to take the necessary steps to curb violent smartphone thefts and protect the safety of the consumers,” he added. PHOTO: FILE

SAN FRANSISCO: 

Californian leaders want to make it compulsory for smartphones or tablets sold in the state to have built-in “kill switches” to counter the rocketing number of thefts of the devices.

Sponsors called the bill the first of its kind in the United States, where opponents fear that it may allow hackers to shut down people’s devices.

 “With robberies of smartphones reaching an all-time high, California cannot continue to stand by when a solution to the problem is readily available,” said Leno, a democrat representing San Francisco.

“We require the cell-phone industry to take the necessary steps to curb violent smartphone thefts and protect the safety of the consumers,” he added.

”The bill will be introduced within a few months.”

More than half of robberies in San Francisco involve mobile devices, according to Leno’s office.

Phasing out: Maruti halts production of iconic small car

Since the Maruti 800, India’s car revolution has gathered pace, with the total car sales running at close to two million units a year. PHOTO: FILE

NEW DELHI: 

India’s Maruti Suzuki has said that it halted production of its iconic first small car, the Maruti 800, which revolutionised road transport for millions of Indians.

The boxy, four-seater hatchback – the first car ever owned by many Indian middle class families – was first manufactured in 1983 and more than 2.4 million have been sold since.

“We have stopped the M-800 (Maruti 800) production completely,” C V Raman, Executive Director of Maruti Suzuki, told reporters at the country’s premier auto fair in the New Delhi suburb of Greater Noida that finishes on Sunday.

The decision to phase out the Maruti 800, hailed as a triumph of small-car engineering at the time, was taken in 2010 to meet new auto emission standards aimed at cutting pollution on India’s increasingly congested roads.

The no-frills car has been eclipsed by newer, fancier models. But even as the car drives into history, spare parts will be available for customers for eight to 10 years, a company spokesman said.

The car, costing INR50,000 ($803) when launched, is now priced at INR235,000, according to a company website.

In 1981, when Maruti Udyog was formed as a state-run company, Indian drivers had only two options if they wanted to buy locally made cars – and often a five-year wait to get the keys.

Premier Automobiles produced cars with the help of Italy’s Fiat, while Hindustan Motors made the bulky ambassador, both were private companies.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi gave Japan’s Suzuki the green light to pick up a stake in Maruti Udyog – an unprecedented move at a time when India’s economy was largely closed. Suzuki’s stake has since grown from 26% to over 50%.

Since the Maruti 800, India’s car revolution has gathered pace, with the total car sales running at close to two million units a year.

The country is expected to become the world’s third-largest car market by 2020, according to industry estimates.

Maruti now produces a range of cars from hatchbacks to sedans.

Liberalisation policies since the early 1990s spawned a rising middle class with higher incomes who also have become targets for foreign car companies, which have driven into the country to propel global sales.

But Maruti still maintains its dominance in the market, accounting for nearly one out of two new cars sold. 

The final frontier: Retailers go digital to tap $25 million online market

The introduction of high-speed mobile internet will not only attract investment but also boost internet penetration and smartphone usage. PHOTO: FILE

KARACHI: 

For a consumer base as big as 190 million people with approximately 20 million broadband users, it was natural for retailers to go digital. Experts estimate Pakistan’s ecommerce – still a developing concept in the country – to be a $25 million market with a lot of room to grow.

The growth of online retail industry heavily depends on the growth of broadband users. Simply put, the more the number of internet users the bigger the market is.

Despite a low broadband penetration that recently entered double digits, several ecommerce portals were launched during the last few years. Daraz.pk, Homeshopping.pk, Symbios.pk and Tohfay.com to name a few are some of the players bullish about this online segment.

According to sources, these portals are doing good business with sales growing at a decent pace – a sign that the online shopping trend is growing in the country. However, the fact remains that the country is still far behind many other markets of the world. Pakistan’s ecommerce business is limited to and driven by a few metropolitan cities only.

According to a consumer analysis by Symbios.pk – one of the top five ecommerce portals in the country – Karachi (18%), Lahore (22%) and twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi (10%) account for half of the total online retail sales. Sialkot and Faisalabad each had 10% share, taking the combined share of these major cities to 70% of the total sales.

Though the breakdown of consumers’ location exclusively reflects the business of Symbios.pk, it is actually these cities that account for more than 80% of the country’s broadband user base, endorsing the fact that ecommerce is still limited to the big cities.

Broadband connections

According to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), the country had three million broadband connections at the end of October 2013. Considering the average household number to be 6.7 persons per family, as calculated by Population Census Organization, this translates to a total of 20 million broadband users.

Of the total broadband connections, 2.5 million (83.3%) come from big cities namely Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad/Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Gujranwala, according to the data compiled by the Universal Service Fund (USF) as part of its projects in more than 300 cities of Pakistan.

In other words, only half a million broadband subscriptions were sold in the rest of the country or rural Pakistan, which accounts for more than 60% of the total population. With a broadband penetration rate of 10.5%, the country has a lot of room to grow, experts believe.

This gap, experts say, is going to be filled by mobile broadband as the country is heading for the auction of spectrum for high-speed mobile internet services in a month or two.

The introduction of high-speed mobile internet, according to industry experts, will not only attract investment but also boost internet penetration, increase smartphone usage and spur the growth of local IT content – in short provide a spur for the growth of ecommerce and digital economy.

In fact, there are already some encouraging signs that the country’s digital economy is about to click. Ansr.io – a mobile survey blog – published a detailed report last year supported by key statistics demonstrating why the country’s online economy is about to expand.

For example, it said 70% of the country’s population was less than 30 years of age. These are the people getting new jobs and contributing to the incomes of their families and would most likely come online as a result of the spectrum auction.

The trend was also reflected in Symbios.pk’s consumer analysis. People who aged between 25 and 35 years had the highest share (40%) in total purchases made on its platform.

the writer is a staff member

Get Ready Lahore, Startup Weekend Lahore is here!

 

8

1

400 cities, 110 countries and the same time slot, a 54 hour weekend: Startup Weekend has become one of the largest entrepreneurial events held throughout the world and it has produced tens of successful startups. In Pakistan, the most recent Startup Weekend was held in Peshawar on December 13th, 2013. This year, LUMS will be the first to host a Startup Weekend at Lahore.

Lahore University of Management Sciences, LUMS, has always played an encouraging role for entrepreneurs in the country. Home to one of the best business schools, over the years the institution has produced great minds who have gone on to make the country proud. Among them is Ali Rehan, the CEO of Groopic. Ali took the world by storm when his application went viral. While it brought name and fame to Ali, the coverage of the application by international media also shed light on the growing entrepreneurial trends in Pakistan. In his exclusive interview to The AppJuice, Ali put special emphasis on the facilities available at LUMS which had made it possible for him to achieve success.

What is interesting is the fact that Groopic’s beginnings are very closely related to Startup Weekend. Ali and his team wanted to participate in the event and came up with the idea of an innovative application. The massive support and encouragement that they received formed the basis of the startup that stands in front of us today.

This Startup Weekend could change your life too! LUMS is all set to bring more entrepreneurs to the market with Startup Weekend Lahore. The event will be hosted at the institution from 14th to 16th February and The AppJuice will be bringing the latest updates to you. Startup Weekend will be an excellent opportunity for hopeful candidates to meet top-notch people from the industry and draw inspiration from their work. Mentors and Coaches from the related fields will be present and will offer valuable guidance to the participants. The judges for the event include Sajjad Kirmani, Saad Zaeem and Sajeel Aslam. If you have a startup idea, now is your chance to make things happen! Start brainstorming because LUMS Startup Weekend Lahore is a one-of-its-kind opportunity that you should definitely try to avail. The registrations are open!

LUMS will also be starting an incubator soon. According to news sources, the incubator will be primarily limited to the students of the University. With the incubator, they can help bring a new chapter of innovation to Pakistani tech.

Polishing the raw talent is the demand of today and the fact that more incubators are springing up goes on to show that people are recognizing the need to mentor and teach the youth so that they are better equipped to help the country in the future

Moscow unfazed by ruble depreciation

Russia's ruble currency has been on a downward slide for weeks, hitting an all-time low to the euro of 48.5 rubles at the end of January. About a month ago, Russians had to pay 45 rubles to acquire the Single European Currency, while the exchange rate was still 40 rubles to the euro at the beginning of 2013.

The decline by 20 percent over the year in the Russian currency is partly a result of tighter monetary policy in the United States, which has led to an outflow of capital from emerging markets to the US in hopes for higher returns on investment there.

No surprises

With regard to Russia, however, the ruble's slide had been foreseeable well before the US Federal Reserve announced in mid-December it was reducing its monetary support for the US economy, said Andreas Männicke. Männicke who publishes the East Stock Trends financial newsletter already told investors in early December to bet on a fall of the Russian currency.

Similar warnings were issued by the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), the organization's foreign trade expert Volker Treier told DW. Russia 'announced long ago that it was aiming for full convertibility of the rubel and a free-floating exchange rate,' Treier said, adding that it was therefore clear which way the currency would go.

As a matter of fact, Russia's central bank had kept the ruble on a tight leash in the past. But in 2013, it gradually began reducing its ruble purchases in support of the currency's exchange rate. However, some analysts were hoping the country's vast foreign currency reserves accumulated from its oil and gas exports might shield the ruble from depreciating.

Weak growth, high inflation add to worries

In 2013, Russia\'s economic woes mounted, driving down economic growth to a meager 1.3 percent - substantially lower than the 3.6 percent expected at the beginning of the year. Moreover, annual inflation picked up strongly. Coupled with a general lack of investment security in Russia, the worsening business environment had set off capital flight from the country long before it began to hit other emerging economies.

According to Commerzbank analyst Thu Lan Nguyen, the Russian central bank could have stopped the rubel's free-fall, pointing to its enormous currency reserves. However, Moscow's currency market interventions had merely been aimed at bolstering the rubel retreat in an orderly fashion, she told DW.

'Faced with weak growth and rising inflation, the only avenue open for a central bank to stimulate the economy is a gradual depreciation of the currency,' Nguyen said, adding that a weak rubel was conducive to growth as it strengthened the competitiveness of domestic businesses on foreign markets.

Foreign investors losing out

But what is good for Russian businesses is bad for foreign exporters who come to feel the pinch of a diminishing purchasing power of their Russian customers. No wonder then that Germany's trade with Russia declined 5 percent last year, even though German exporters were not the most affected, DIHK's Treier said.

Stronger hit by the ruble fall, he added, were those companies which had invested in Russia seeking the benefits of a growing home market. 'The ruble fall strongly hits the profits of those who produce in and for the Russian market,' Treier said. He also mentioned a further boost to inflation amid rising production costs as a downside of the currency depreciation. This might eventually force the central bank to raise interest rates, like in Turkey and India recently, further throttling growth, he added.

Banking on forex bulk

However, the situation in Russia wasn't as bad yet as in most emerging economies, Commerzbank analyst Nguyen said.

'Thanks to its oil revenue, Russia still has a current account surplus which makes it independent of capital imports from abroad. This sets it apart from countries such as Turkey or South Africa which consume more than they export,' she said.

Russia, indeed, seems to be aware of this advantage. But Russian Central Bank chief Elvira Nabiullina recently said that the country's current account surplus was propping up the rubel exchange rate and would soon lead to a new strength of the currency.

Are Pakistan’s talks with the Taliban bound to fail?

On Thursday, February 6, representatives of the Pakistani government and the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) met in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to discuss a road map aimed at ending a decade-long violent insurgency in the country. In a joint statement issued after the talks, the two sides agreed on a ceasefire, however, the decision is yet to be endorsed by Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and the Taliban leadership.

It is not the first time that the Pakistani government and the Islamist fundamentalists have engaged in peace talks. In November last year, Islamabad's efforts to start a dialogue with the militants came to an abrupt halt after Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was assassinated in a US drone strike.

After the Thursday talks, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, the Taliban's chief negotiator, told the media that his side agreed with Islamabad's demand that 'there should be no activity by either side which could potentially harm the peace efforts.'

For his part, the government mediator, Irfan Siddiqui, hailed the meeting and said the Taliban committee had responded beyond his expectations. 'We share the common goal of making this country peaceful in accordance with Islamic teaching. I thank the Taliban committee for meeting us,' Siddiqui said.

Commonalities and differences

One of the main Pakistani demands is that all talks be held within the framework of the constitution. But the Taliban have repeatedly called the Pakistani constitution 'un-Islamic' and supported the introduction of shariah rule in the country.

Maulana Abdul Aziz, another member of the Taliban commitee, urged the government on Friday, February 7, to remove the condition of holding talks under the constitution. 'There would be no problems if our constitution were the Quran and Sunnah,' Aziz told a press conference in Islamabad.

Snehal Shingavi, a South Asia expert at the University of Texas, USA, is of the view, nonetheless, that the implementation of the shariah shouldn't be a problem as long as the extremists agree to Islamabad's demand that the scope of the dialogue should be confined to areas affected by violence and not the whole country.

'Previous Pakistani governments have allowed the Taliban to set up shariah courts in some parts of the country's northwest. This should not be an issue again,' Shingavi said. The expert states, however, that Islamabad and the Taliban still differ on many other issues which are likely to hinder the next rounds of talks.

'I am not very optimistic about the talks. The larger problem that is driving the conflict is the US presence in Afghanistan. While the foreign troops will withdraw from the country by the end of the year, the American influence will not go away, and that will continue to push the conflict along.'

Shingavi says Islamabad needs the Taliban to counter Indian influence in Afghanistan, particularly after the NATO drawdown, but points out that relations between the two sides are not as smooth as they once were.

'The Pakistani military and its intelligence agency, ISI, have a complex relationship with the Taliban. The TTP could have been routed militarily or through police actions. Everything indicates that they are not that sophisticated or large. But the ISI and the military have used them as part of their strategic game in Afghanistan. These talks will produce another ceasefire, but they will not be durable unless the underlying issues are resolved,' Shingavi commented.

Support for talks

In the May 2013 parliamentary elections, the liberal Pakistan People's Party - which preferred military action against the Taliban over peace talks - was voted out of power. The parties that supported a dialogue with Islamists won the elections with a big margin.

Sharif, who returned to power for the third time as PM, made clear his government would not follow the anti-terrorism policy of former president Asif Ali Zaradari and would instead make peace with militants. Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, whose party rules the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, is also a big supporter of the talks.

Lahore-based political commentator Aamir Khakwani says it is not the first time that a country has engaged in peace talks with armed groups. 'There is no harm in negotiating with the pro-peace members of a militant group. The talks are aimed at ending violence and forcing the Taliban to lay down their weapons, not to legitimize them,' Khakwani told DW.

A renewal of violence?

Sharif's decision to pursue the peace talks came as a surprise to many Pakistanis who were hoping the government would launch a full-scale military operation after sporadic attacks against the insurgents in the restive North Waziristan region last month. They believe that concessions to extremists will only embolden them.

This view is shared by Nizamuddin Nizamani, a political analyst and researcher in Karachi, who argues the government shouldn't negotiate with 'terrorists,' and that they should be 'eliminated.'

Pakistani Shiite cleric Allama Ameen Shaheedi agrees: 'Those who are dreaming to make peace with the Taliban live in a fool's paradise,' Shaheedi told DW. 'The Taliban have not ceased their violent attacks even for a day. The military operation is the only way to deal with them. The state must assert its power and save the country from these terrorists,' he said.

Mercedes logs record 2013 sales during new model offensive

In the race for the world leadership in the premium car segment, German Mercedes cars made strong progress in 2013, boosting sales to a new company record, the carmaker's parent company Daimler announced Friday.

Mercedes sold 1.46 million cars worldwide last year, posting an increase of 10.7 percent compared with 2012. In addition, about 100,000 units of its Smart city car were shipped to customers, Daimler said.

The result meant that Daimler was able to close the gap to the world's second largest luxury carmaker, Germany's Audi, which narrowly beat Mercedes with sales of 1.58 million cars in 2013.

Mercedes' growth strategy was bearing first fruit, Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement, noting that especially its new version of the E-class and S-class sedans were selling well.

In the United States, which remained Mercedes\' largest single market in 2013, sales grew 14 percent to 312,000 cars. At home in Germany, the top-of-the-range brand sold 2.2 percent fewer vehicles than in the previous year.

But in China, which has become the world's largest car market, Mercedes made the biggest strides in its effort to catch up with global luxury car leaders Audi and BMW. Chinese sales jumped 11 percent year-on-year to 218,000 vehicles.

Despite the record result in 2013, Mercedes still lags far behind the world's top luxury brand, Bavarian marque BMW. The Munich-based auto maker already announced in November that it had beaten record 2012 sales with 1.78 million cars sold by the end of that month.