Bloomberg Flipkart, the Indian e-commerce giant controlled by Walmart Inc, is in talks to raise at least $3 billion from investors including SoftBank Group Corp and several sovereign wealth funds, according to people familiar with the matter. The startup is targeting a valuation of about $40 billion and is in discussions with Singapore’s GIC Pte, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, ...

Bloomberg For the second time in six months, Chinese provinces are rationing electricity as the nation’s grids struggle to manage a surge in demand. This time, it’s partly because residents are blasting their air conditions to keep cool during an unusually warm summer. Cities in Guangdong, a manufacturing hub in the south that’s home to 130 million people, have been ...

Bloomberg Nium, a Singapore-based fintech startup backed by state-owned investor Temasek Holdings Pte, agreed to buy payments firm Ixaris for an undisclosed amount to expand in Europe before pursuing an initial public offering in the US. All of Ixaris’s 86 employees in London and Malta will join Nium, according to an emailed statement from Nium. Ixaris, based in London, is ...

Bloomberg Chinese policies could reduce the growth of southern Xinjiang’s ethnic Uyghur population by one-third over the next two decades, according to a new report, data that could bolster arguments that the effort represents genocide. Policies from birth control to forced labour transfers are on track to cut the Uyghur population in the region’s southern portion by 2.6 million to ...

Bloomberg China’s muted reaction over a US military flight to Taiwan prompted criticism from nationalists online, underscoring the pressures on President Xi Jinping to follow through on heated “red line” rhetoric. The US Air Force C-17 cargo plane made a three-hour stopover in Taipei to carry a bipartisan congressional delegation visiting Taiwan. Three US senators — Democrats Tammy Duckworth and ...

Bloomberg A South Korean court dismissed a lawsuit filed against Japanese companies to compensate Koreans who were conscripted to work in factories during World War II, in a case that has raised tensions between the two US allies. The Seoul Central District Court ruled on Monday that the 85 former labourers and their families suing the 16 Japanese companies, including ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced free shots for all adults in an address to the nation, a move prompted by criticism of his administration’s handling of India’s deadly second virus wave and a botched vaccination roll out. In a half hour-long address on national television, Modi said all Indians above the age 18 will be vaccinated for free starting ...

Bloomberg Armin Laschet boosted his chances of succeeding Angela Merkel as German chancellor by helping secure a decisive victory for his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the country’s poorest state. In the final regional contest before the national vote in September, the 60-year-old party leader showed he can successfully guide Merkel’s party in a tight campaign. The outcome will help ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc and HSBC Holdings Plc are opening their offices fully in Hong Kong as a fourth wave of infections was contained and the US investment bank said half of its staff in the financial hub are now vaccinated. Both banks told staff that all employees would be permitted to return to their Hong Kong offices, in ...

Bloomberg A big portion of consumer deposits at retail banks could shift to digital currencies if governments start offering them, the Bank of England (BOE) indicated in a discussion paper about the issue. The UK central bank modeled the impact of introducing digital forms of money on the retail banking sector and in one scenario considered what would happen if ...