Bloomberg India’s nationwide roll-out of smart power meters, aimed at supporting ailing utilities and bolstering reliable electricity supply, will cost about 1.5 trillion rupees ($21 billion), according to a government estimate. The prepaid meters are expected to help to improve billing and collection, which are the most basic problems facing the country’s ailing distribution companies, known as discoms. These utilities, ...

Bloomberg South Korea urged the US to “refrain from taking excessive measures” after the State Department raised its travel advisory on the Korean city of Daegu, where most of the nation’s novel coronavirus cases are centred. Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha spoke to US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun by phone, according to a statement from the South Korean foreign ...

Bloomberg India’s economy slowed to a more than six-year low in the final three months of last year, and it now faces a fresh threat from the coronavirus outbreak. Data showed growth decelerated to 4.7% in the three months through December from a year ago, the third straight quarter of decline and matching the median forecast in a Bloomberg survey ...

Bloomberg In an October post on TikTok, digital magician and video star Zach King walks up to the counter at Chipotle to receive a burrito bowl with chips. After he pays, he jumps and his clothes change in an instant into astronaut gear. Soon, everything in the store is floating in apparent zero gravity. Another star, Brittany Broski — known ...

Bloomberg The coronavirus outbreak that has sent markets worldwide on a collective nosedive is forcing US oil and gas explorers already burning through borrowed cash and failing to deliver returns to the brink of distress. Drillers’ fall from grace has worsened as shareholders increasingly demand they shift their focus to generating cash flow, instead of increasing production at any costs. ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration is moving to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said. “We are about to finalise a leasing plan for that,” Bernhardt said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland, without providing a more specific timetable. His declaration comes amid delays in standing up a sale — originally expected ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd is making preparations for a 3,000-megawatt gas-fired plant, but the debt-stricken utility is still awaiting formal guidelines from the government before it can proceed with the project. The facility could alleviate a serious shortage of electricity led to a series of rolling blackouts, as the state-owned company has been forced to implement nationwide ...

Bloomberg Egypt, Ethiopia and mutual neighbour Sudan should conclude an agreement before the completion of Ethiopia’s disputed Nile dam, to prevent “significant harm to downstream countries,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “Final testing and filling should not take place without an agreement,” Mnuchin said in a statement on the Treasury Department’s website following the latest Washington meeting, which Ethiopia ...

Bloomberg Two pioneers of the US natural gas export industry were forced to sell shares of the company they founded amid a global market rout and concern that a key supply deal won’t be finalised. Tellurian Inc Chairman Charif Souki and Vice Chairman Martin Houston sold 4 million and 3.4 million shares respectively, according to filings. In both cases, the ...

Bloomberg Qualified labs will be able to develop and use their own coronavirus screening tests without waiting for an FDA authorisation, under a policy change that aims to address test-kit shortages that have come under heavy criticism. The Food and Drug Administration announced the move, hours after the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention announced four new cases of the ...