Archives for September 2021

NEW DELHI: Apple enthusiasts will be able to get their hands on the latest line-up of iPhones — iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — with prices starting at Rs 69,900 onwards later this month.

“Customers in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Japan, the UK, the US, and more than 30 other countries and regions will be able to pre-order iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max availability beginning Friday, September 24,” Apple said in a statement.

Customers can get iPhone 13 Pro for Rs 1,19,900 (onwards) and iPhone 13 Pro Max for Rs 1,29,900 (onwards) from Apple’s online store, it added. The iPhone 13 will be available for Rs 79,900, while iPhone 13 mini will be priced at Rs 69,900.

The phones will also be available through Apple Authorised Resellers and select carriers, the statement said.

“Our Pro lineup pushes the limits with our most advanced technologies for users who want the very best iPhone.

This year, we build on that in a major way,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said during the launch event on late Tuesday night.

The iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max also include 5G with more bands for better coverage.

According to Counterpoint Research Director Tarun Pathak, Apple now has a very aggressive entry point, starting with iPhone SE 2020, going till iPhone 13 Pro Max.

“However, we believe that it’s the iPhone 12 series that is likely to gain traction in India and take on the baton from iPhone 11, that until last quarter captured around 60 per cent of the overall iPhone sales. Apple is likely to capture a 2.4 per cent share in the coming Q4 2021 and will end the year as its highest ever crossing 4 million shipments,” he added.

Pathak noted that the share of the new iPhone within overall Apple sales during the launch quarter increases year-on-year and this year too, it will be the same – driven by iPhone 13. Apple continues to go aggressive on trade-ins as well, he added.

“We think that iPhone 12 too will benefit from the price cut the most, even better than iPhone 11, and is likely to be the best seller for the festive season.

This will also help the premium to reach a record share of the overall smartphone market in India with Apple likely to lead in the launch quarter,” Pathak said. India is among the key growth drivers for Apple.

Strong double-digit growth in markets like India and Latin America had helped the iPhone maker report double-digit revenue growth at USD 81.4 billion – a new record for the June quarter.

The company does not provide country-specific numbers. Apple, which competes with players like Samsung and OnePlus in the premium smartphone segment, has been aggressively ramping up its presence in the Indian market.

In the past, Apple has talked about plans of setting up brick-and-mortar outlets in India in addition to its online store. India is among the biggest smartphone markets globally and logging strong growth rates.

Smartphone shipment in India grew by 82 per cent in the June 2021 quarter from the year-ago period to over 33 million units. The premium segment – although small – has been growing at a strong pace.

Devices priced under Rs 15,000 account for a significant volume share of the Indian market. Xiaomi (including POCO) accounted for a 28.4 per cent share of June quarter shipments, followed by Samsung (17.7 per cent), Vivo (15.1 per cent), Realme (14.6 per cent) and Oppo (10.4 per cent), as per data from research firm Counterpoint.

According to Apple India’s website, iPhone 13 Pro (128GB) will be priced at Rs 1,19,900; 256GB at Rs 1,29,900; 512 GB at Rs 1,49,900; and 1TB at Rs 1,69,900.

The iPhone 13 Pro Max (128GB) will be priced at Rs 1,29,900; 256GB at Rs 1,39,900; 512 GB at Rs 1,59,900; and 1TB at Rs 1,79,900.

The iPhone 13 mini will be priced between Rs 69,900 to Rs 99,900 for 128GB, 256GB and 512GB variants, while iPhone 13 will be available at Rs 79,900-1,09,900 for 128GB, 256GB and 512GB models.

“iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max make up our most pro-iPhone lineup ever with the biggest advancement for our camera system, the best battery life ever in an iPhone, and the fastest performance of any smartphone, setting a new standard for iPhone and enabling incredible experiences never before possible,” Apple senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Greg Joswiak said.

The new pro camera system offers even more pro photography capabilities like improved telephoto zoom, macro photography, photographic styles, cinematic mode, as well as ProRes and Dolby vision video, he added.

“The Super Retina XDR display with ProMotion is our best display ever; it intelligently responds to the content on your screen, offers fantastic graphics performance, and is perfect for any viewing experience,” he said.

Apple has also introduced the new iPad (9th generation), featuring an A13 Bionic chip that packs even more performance and capability into the most popular iPad, all while retaining its all-day battery life.

The new iPad features a 10.2-inch Retina display with True Tone, a 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with centre stage, support for Apple Pencil (1st generation) and Smart Keyboard, iPad OS 15, and twice the storage of the previous generation (starts with 64GB of storage).

The new iPad, priced at Rs 30,900 onwards, is available to order from Apple’s website and will be available in stores from September 24.

“iPad has never been more essential for working, learning, and communicating, and we’re excited to bring one of the biggest updates ever to our most popular iPad.”

“With the powerful A13 Bionic, more engaging video calls with Centre Stage, and double the storage, the new iPad delivers advanced capabilities, versatility, and simplicity at an incredible value,” Joswiak said.

A new iPad mini – with an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display – will be available from September 24 and priced at Rs 46,900 onwards. Apple Watch Series 7, featuring a re-engineered Always-On Retina display – will be available later this year.

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani’s resignation validates a scoop by a news portal at the height of the first wave of Covid, on his impending exit. Yet, the state government shockingly sought to silence the Gujarati portal’s editor by hauling him up for sedition. A year later, Rupani suddenly put in his papers. With Assembly polls a little over a year away, the BJP played it safe, choosing first-time MLA Bhupendra Patel, a member of the influential Patidar community, as his successor.

In August, Rupani completed five years in office, having taken over as chief minister from Anandiben Patel, who had to leave under similar circumstances because of mishandling the Patidar unrest. Five years is a long time in politics, more so as CM, to prove ability to retain power in a state that has been in the BJP’s pocket for decades. Rupani apparently didn’t inspire confidence, overwhelmed as his administration was by the Covid outbreak. A series of adverse orders of the Gujarat High Court on pandemic handling further hobbled his leadership. And his attempts at perception management were pathetic. Political survival after the colossal loss of lives with hospitals starved of oxygen, despite being an industrially advanced state where the life-saving gas is manufactured, is extremely difficult unless the leadership has the ability to fight it out and script a spectacular turnaround. Rupani was seen as a softie with little stomach for a robust fightback. With his departure, the state BJP hopes to shake off anti-incumbency and begin afresh. He is the fourth CM the BJP changed in as many states for different reasons. Rupani’s resignation also comes at a time when the opposition Congress is in disarray. The AAP is trying to eat into the grand old party’s base, making an impressive mark in the local body elections held earlier this year.

Being chief minister of a state once led by Narendra Modi is not easy as he set a high benchmark for leadership. Yet, Bhupendra Patel has to safeguard the Modi legacy while hitting the road running. He has to change the floundering administration’s image to that of a doer. A word of regret instead of brazening it out for harassing the journalist who was doing his job could set the tone for the reset

PANAJI: The Goa government has made five-day quarantine compulsory for people, specially students and those coming for work purposes from Kerala, in the wake of a surge in COVID-19 cases in the southern state, officials said.

The 24-hour curfew was first imposed on May 9 this year and since then it has been extended regularly.

The Goa government has opened majority of activities in the tourist state, but activities like casinos are yet to be reopened.

The notification also mentioned that “all students and employees coming from Kerala” shall undergo institutional quarantine for five days.

“The arrangements for quarantining students will be made by the administrators or principals of the educational institutions,” the notification said.

“For the employees, it shall be done by respective offices, companies or firms,” it adds.

The notification further said that after the end of five days, those who were quarantined shall undergo RT-PCR test.

People, other than students and employees, arriving from Kerala should produce the RT-PCR negative test report and remain in home quarantine for five days, the notification said.

“The constitutional functionaries, health care professionals and their spouses, children below two years of age, those arriving to attend death of a family member or medical emergency and passengers in transit from and to Kerala via any mode of transport are exempted from being quarantined,” the notification added.

Kerala on Sunday reported 20,240 fresh coronavirus cases and 67 deaths, which pushed the total infections in the state to 43,75,431 and the fatalities to 22,551, the state government said.

Goa’s COVID-19 tally on Sunday increased by 38 to reach 1,74,837, while one death took the toll to 3,217, an official said.

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa on Sunday reduced the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions to Level 2 of its five-level lockdown strategy, largely due to vaccinations having decreased the severity of illness in those who are infected, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced.

“There is now overwhelming evidence from hundreds of countries that vaccines are safe and provide strong protection.”

“We know that a vaccinated person can still be infected and can still pass on the virus to others. But what we are seeing is that very few people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are becoming severely ill with the disease, and very few are ending up in ICU or needing ventilation,” he said.

More than seven million South Africans are now fully vaccinated, with the pace increasing as a million doses are administered every four to five days.

Ramaphosa said that the government has secured sufficient vaccines to vaccinate the entire adult population, and the supply of vaccines is no longer a constraint, although there was a concern that more women than men were coming forward to be vaccinated.

“We now have more than 3,000 public and private vaccination sites across the country, and most private sites will vaccinate any member of the public for free, whether you have health insurance or not.”

“I want to stress that the vaccination programme is open to all people in South Africa, whether or not they are South African citizens,” Ramaphosa said as he cautioned that mutations could still have an impact.

It is important to bear in mind that this is a new virus that the world has never encountered before, he said.

Although nobody can predict how the virus will mutate further, the scientific community has developed innovative ways of tracking the emergence of new variants, the President said.

“If many people are not vaccinated and remain vulnerable to infection, the chance of new and more dangerous variants emerging is far greater. That is why vaccines are currently the most potent weapon we have to fight this pandemic,” he said.

The main changes in the reduced lockdown restrictions that come into effect from Monday are an increase in the number of people who can gather at public events from 50 to 250 indoors and from 100 to 500 outdoors.

Funerals, however, remain restricted to 50 people, with events after funerals still prohibited.

The night curfew has been reduced by an hour to start at 11 PM and end at 4 AM daily.

Political parties have welcomed these changes, as it will now allow them to campaign ahead of the local government elections scheduled across the country for November 1, but religious leaders have queried the decision on numbers at funerals.

Alcohol sales, which were previously allowed only from Mondays to Thursdays, will now also be allowed on Fridays.

Ramaphosa said the easing of restrictions will be reviewed in a fortnight.

BANGKOK: A fire in Pattaya, the Thai seaside resort city southeast of Bangkok known for its racy nightlife, has badly damaged a large nightclub catering to Indian tourists, officials said Monday.

There were no injuries or deaths in the Sunday night blaze, said Suptawee Ongnonyang, chief of Pattaya’s land disaster prevention agency.

The Nashaa Club was closed, as are most entertainment establishments due a a government-ordered coronavirus lockdown.

The fire, which began in the Nashaa Club, spread to several adjoining structures on the city’s famous Walking Street that were also damaged, Suptawee told The Associated Press.

Pattaya is filled with bars, discos and restaurants that, before the pandemic, were patronized by millions of tourists each year.

The city is notorious for its sex industry.

The pandemic devastated the city’s economy after Thailand closed its borders in April 2020 to most foreign visitors.

The Nashaa Club was shuttered, then reopened in February this year but closed again in April as Thailand suffered badly from a third wave of the coronavirus.

Suptawee said the fire spread quickly due partly to the soundproofing material used in the club, and that a strong wind Sunday night spread the blaze to three other nearby establishments.

He said that it took about two hours to control the fire, which was extinguished around midnight.

The cause is being investigated, he said.

An announcement on the club’s Facebook page said the fire resulted in “big damage.”

Its management vowed to reopen business “very soon” and requested people “not to comment or support any rumors or wrong information on social media regarding the unfortunate incident as Investigative agencies are working on that.”

NEW DELHI: India will get this month the third set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals under an automatic exchange of information pact with Switzerland and this will include for the first time the data about real estate properties owned by Indians there, officials said on Sunday.

The move assumes significance on the part of Switzerland as well as the European Alpine nation is trying hard to reposition itself as a key global financial centre while warding off the long-persisting perception about the Swiss banking system being an alleged safe haven for black money.

While it would be the third time that India will get details about bank accounts and other financial assets held by Indians in Switzerland, it will be the first time that the information being shared with India would include information about the real estate assets.

While the Swiss government has agreed to share details of real estate assets, the information about contributions to non-profit organisations and other such foundations, as also details on investments in digital currencies still remain out of bounds from the automatic exchange of information framework, officials said.

Experts and those engaged in the business of attracting investments to Switzerland said the move would help clear misconceptions about all fund inflows into Swiss assets being illicit and would go a long way in establishing Switzerland as a preferred investment destination, including for real estate properties.

Himanshu, Founder and CEO of Switzerland For You SA, the parent firm of IDDI Investments, which is engaged in the business of attracting investments from India and other countries to Switzerland including in startups and real estate, said transparency has its own virtues and the proposal of the Switzerland government to share information about property ownership of foreign clients with other countries including India is welcome.

“We find no valid reason for Swiss authorities to hide such information.

After all, the ownership of property is not something which can be kept under wraps,” said the India-origin entrepreneur who goes by his first name only and is settled in Geneva for many years.

“Sharing of such information with other countries under AEOI will bring in more transparency and act as deterrence for those intending to buy Swiss properties from ill-gotten wealth.

The move will go a long way in making Switzerland an attractive investment destination,” he added.

India had received the first set of details from Switzerland under AEOI (Automatic Exchange of Information) in September 2019.

It was among 75 countries to get such information that year.

In September 2020, India received the second set of Swiss bank account details of its nationals and entities, along with 85 other recipient countries with whom Switzerland’s Federal Tax Administration (FTA) exchanged information on financial accounts within the framework of global standards on AEOI last year.

From this year, Switzerland’s Federal Council, the country’s top governing body, has decided to implement a key recommendation of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, under which Swiss authorities will also share details about investments made by foreigners in the Swiss real estate sector.

However, some other recommendations of the Global Forum, including about sharing of information on digital currency accounts and contributions made to foundations and non-profit organisations are yet to be accepted and therefore those details would not be shared by Switzerland with India or any other countries for now.

Hectic lobbying is underway globally to convince Switzerland to start sharing information about digital currency accounts and contributions made to non-profit entities as well.

In each of the last two years, Switzerland has shared details about nearly three million financial accounts with various jurisdictions, while the count is expected to be higher this year.

For the last two years, India has been among prominent countries with which Switzerland has shared details about financial accounts of clients of Swiss banks and various other financial institutions, while it is also expected to figure high this year with regard to details about real estate properties.

Resident and non-resident Indians, as well as Indian companies, would account for a sizeable number in the overall list of those figuring in this year’s exchange of information by Switzerland, officials privy to the development said.

Besides, Swiss authorities have already shared information about more than 100 Indian citizens and entities so far this year on receipt of requests for administrative assistance in cases involving probes into financial wrongdoings including tax evasion, the officials added.

This count has been similar in the past few years.

These cases mostly relate to older accounts that might have been closed before 2018, for which Switzerland has shared details with India under an earlier framework of mutual administrative assistance as Indian authorities had provided prima facie evidence of tax-related wrongdoing by those account holders.

AEOI is applicable only to accounts that are active or were closed during 2018.

Some of these cases relate to entities set up by Indians in various overseas jurisdictions like Panama, the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands, while the individuals include mostly businessmen and a few politicians and erstwhile royals as well as their family members.

The officials, however, refused to share details about the exact number of accounts or the quantum of assets held in the accounts held by Indians, for which the information has been shared with India, citing strict confidentiality clauses governing the exchange framework.

The information shared by Swiss authorities includes identification, account and financial information, such as name, address, country of residence and tax identification number, as well as information concerning the reporting financial institution, account balance and capital income.

The exchanged information allows tax authorities to verify whether taxpayers have correctly declared their financial accounts in their tax returns.

The 86 countries covered under the AEOI in 2020 included 11 new jurisdictions — Anguilla, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Grenada, Israel, Kuwait, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Panama and the United Arab Emirates — in addition to a list of 75 countries, with whom information was shared in 2019.

Switzerland’s first such exchange took place at the end of September 2018 and involved 36 countries, but India did not figure in the list at that time.

Nearly 10,000 entities, including financial institutions such as banks, trusts and insurers, as also condominium and apartment owners’ associations are expected to have shared details about their overseas clients with the Federal Tax Authority of Switzerland for further sharing with foreign jurisdictions.

Switzerland has committed itself to adopt the global standard for the international automatic exchange of information in tax matters.

The legal basis for the implementation of AEOI in Switzerland came into force on January 1, 2017.

However, AEOI only applies to accounts that are officially in the name of Indians and they might include those used for business and other genuine purposes.

The Global Forum of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) reviews AEOI implementation.

According to experts, the AEOI data received by India has been quite useful for establishing a strong prosecution case against those who have any unaccounted wealth, as it provides entire details of deposits and transfers as well as of all earnings, including through investments in securities and other assets.

On condition of anonymity, several officials said the details relate mostly to businessmen, including non-resident Indians now settled in several South-East Asian countries as well as in the US, the UK and even some African and South American countries.

A Swiss delegation was in India in August 2019 before the first set of details could get shared and the two sides also discussed possible steps to expedite the execution of tax information-sharing requests made by India in specific cases.

It is feared many Indians might have closed their accounts after a global crackdown on black money led to Switzerland buckling under international pressure to open its banking sector for scrutiny to clear the long-held perception of Swiss banks being safe haven for undisclosed funds.

Switzerland agreed to AEOI with India after a long process, including a review of the necessary legal framework in India on data protection and confidentiality.