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India’s year of the unicorn

MUMBAI (AFP) – Sumit Gupta has had a big year – turning 30, getting married and seeing his startup become one of India’s newest tech unicorns.

Hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and too busy expanding and getting funding for his cryptocurrency platform CoinDCX, his team finally grabbed a few days on the beach in Goa to celebrate recently.

“That was very delightful to everyone,” Gupta told AFP. “It’s been a very, very exciting journey. I’ve learned a lot… The future of India is very bright.”

This year 44 Indian unicorns – privately held startups valued at more than USD1 billion – were minted as investors piled money into a country long overlooked despite its vast potential.

Overseas funds put more than USD35 billion into Indian startups in 2021 – a tripling from 2020, according to data compiled by Tracxn – buying into everything from fintech and health to gaming.

Foreign investors have long preferred China, another Asian country with more than a billion people.

But Beijing’s clampdown on runaway growth in China’s powerful Internet sector, and reining in of big businesses, have spooked investors and wiped billions off giants such as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

In the startup space, investors this year sank USD54.5 billion into Chinese firms, down from USD73 billion in 2020, analysis by GlobalData showed.

Men work at a poultry shop where a QR code for Paytm, an Indian cellphone-based digital payment platform, is displayed in Mumbai. PHOTO: AFP

India by contrast became more attractive, with its large pool of well-educated entrepreneurs upending how many businesses work using a fast-developing digital infrastructure.

“India really is that final frontier where businesses can attract a sixth of the world’s population,” said founder of investment firm Bay Capital Partners Siddharth Mehta.

“I think India is about 13-14 years behind China in terms of size and scale of the market.

India’s overall digital marketplace is about sub-USD100 billion today but that number can easily be a trillion or USD2 trillion over the next 10 to 15 years.”

Among those attracted are Japan’s Softbank, which invested USD3 billion in India this year, as well as China’s Jack Ma and Tencent, and United States (US)-based Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global.

“I believe in the future of India. I believe in the passion of young entrepreneurs in India. India will be great,” Softbank’s founder Masayoshi Son said earlier this month.

Indian tech also saw a record number of initial public offerings (IPO) this year.

Companies going public included food delivery app Zomato and beauty products platform Nykaa, listing at huge premiums to their IPO prices and making billionaires of their founders.

At their October high, Indian stocks had rallied more than 125 per cent from their April 2020 low, becoming one of the world’s best-performing equities markets.

But some experts warn that many of these firms may be grossly overvalued.

For instance, local fintech giant Paytm, the biggest IPO of the year, is yet to make a profit and its share price is some 40 per cent down from its IPO valuation.

India’s bumper year for startups also masks serious problems for an economy struggling to provide jobs for the 10 million young people entering the workforce every year.

Desperate for employment, many take low-wage “gig economy” jobs, earning as little as INR300 (USD4) a day with little to no job security.

But for white-collar workers in the startup sector, demand for qualified workers has outstripped supply this year.

Flush with cash, companies are competing to recruit and retain top talent, offering cash, stock and even motorcycles and tickets to cricket matches as incentives.

“Recruiters reach out to us all the time,” one tech employee told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Salaries have inflated in the last year and it feels like everybody is hiring. People are changing their jobs constantly.”

CoinDCX’s Gupta, fresh from his beach holiday, was bullish.

“If you remain persistent, it’s very possible to create a unicorn, especially if you’re living in a country like India, which is full of opportunities,” he said.

Do at-home COVID-19 tests detect the Omicron variant?

Carla K Johnson

AP – Do at-home COVID-19 tests detect the Omicron variant?

Yes, but United States (US) health officials said early data suggests they may be less sensitive at picking it up.

Government recommendations for using at-home tests haven’t changed. People should continue to use them when a quick result is important.

“The bottom line is the tests still detect COVID-19 whether it is Delta or Alpha or Omicron,” said President of the College of American Pathologists Dr Emily Volk.

Government scientists have been checking to make sure the rapid tests still work as each new variant comes along. And this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said preliminary research indicates they detect Omicron, but may have reduced sensitivity. The agency noted it’s still studying how the tests perform with the variant, which was first detected in late November.

Top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said the FDA wanted to be “totally transparent” by noting the sensitivity might come down a bit, but that the tests remain important.

There are many good uses for at-home tests, Volk said. Combined with vaccination, they can make you more comfortable about gathering with family and friends.

If you’ve been exposed to a person who tested positive but you don’t have symptoms, a rapid test five days later can give a good indication of whether you caught the virus. It can also help if you’re not sure whether your runny nose or sore throat is COVID-19.

But consider the context when looking at results. If you feel sick after going out to a nightclub in an area with high infection rates, for example, you should look at a negative result from an at-home test with a little more scepticism, Volk said.

Following up with a PCR test is a good idea, she said. Those tests are more accurate and are done at testing sites and hospitals.

Businesses worry as China food import law kicks in

BEIJING (AFP) – Getting chocolate, and coffee into China could get even harder from today, with new import restrictions adding fresh hurdles for foreign companies bringing products into the world’s largest market for food and drink.

Chinese consumers bought USD108 billion worth of imported produce in 2020, with that number set to grow for 2021 as imports jumped nearly 30 per cent year on year in the first three quarters.

But under laws kicking in on January 1, all producers of food shipped to China will have to register with the customs authority – yet another barrier for international companies that have long complained of being unfairly penalised.

The extra hurdle was previously required only for products posing potential health risks, such as seafood. But now coffee, alcohol, honey, olive oil, chocolate and several other products will also be scrutinised.

On New Year’s Day, “the import curtain will fall”, China-based lawyer with the firm Adaltys Alban Renaud told AFP.

But he said there were still many unknowns: “Will there be a margin of tolerance? What about the applications that are in progress but not approved? What about those who applied too late?”

Chocolates of different brands are on display at a store in Beijing. PHOTO: AFP

One businessman involved in imports told AFP: “You need (certification) otherwise the goods will arrive at ports and you’ll have to pay penalties.”

Companies without the right paperwork will face border hold-ups, he warned.

Importers have complained that the new application details were published late and the website for registering only went online last month, adding that they faced frustrating hurdles trying to register, such as information not being available in English.

Some companies were even given the wrong country code, a Beijing-based diplomat told AFP – such as a Portuguese importer being registered as Spanish.

Food companies and importers have already been battered by control measures included in Beijing’s strict zero-COVID strategy, with China linking the virus to food ever since a Beijing outbreak last year was blamed on imported salmon.

Products entering China are now subject to extra screening and repeated disinfection, with products often banned when a COVID outbreak is discovered at the point of packing overseas.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said the chances of COVID-19 being transported in food are slim.

Illinois police seek two in killing of one cop, wounding of second

BRADLEY, ILLINOIS (AP) – Authorities were searching on Thursday for two people believed to have been involved in the fatal shooting of one police officer and wounding of another at a northern Illinois hotel.

The two Bradley police officers were shot late Wednesday while speaking to people in a room at a Comfort Inn along a highway in Kankakee County, the county sheriff’s office said.

The officers were taken to nearby hospitals, where one died and the other was listed in critical condition and undergoing surgery, said the Bradley Police Department. The county coroner identified the slain officer as Sergeant Marlene Rittmanic, 49.

Illinois State Police identified the other as Officer Tyler J Bailey, 27.

An arrest warrant was issued for 25-year-old Darius D Sullivan of Bourbonnais, and the sheriff’s office posted a Facebook request for the public’s help in finding him, saying he should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police also obtained a Kankakee County arrest warrant for Xandria A Harris, 26 of Bradley, but her role in the shootings wasn’t clear.

The police department said in its news release that it was also searching for what it described as a person of interest believed to have been involved, though it didn’t release any identifying information about that person. The officers were at the hotel to investigate a report of dogs that were barking in an unattended vehicle in the parking lot, the sheriff’s office said. They found the room where the vehicle’s possible owner was staying and were shot while talking to the people in that room, it said.

The Comfort Inn, where two Bradley Police officers were shot. PHOTO: AP

Mayor Mike Watson of Bradley, a village of roughly 16,000 people about 80 kilometres south of Chicago, said the wounded officer had been transferred to a Chicago-area hospital, the (Kankakee) Daily Journal reported.

Rittmanic’s body was transported early Thursday in a police procession from the Riverside Medical Center to the Kankakee County morgue, and officials later lowered the flag at Bradley Village Hall to half-staff.

“This is a very sad and tragic day for the Bradley village family. Our hearts and prayers go out to the family members of all involved,” Watson said.

Rittmanic, who lived in Kankakee, joined the Bradley Police Department in 2007 and was promoted to sergeant in 2014, said department spokesman Lieutenant Philip Trudeau. She previously spent seven years as a deputy with the Iroquois County Sheriff’s Department, he said.

Silencing the vocal

JERUSALEM (AFP) – Palestinian journalists have raised the alarm over what they describe as unjust suppression of their content on Facebook, a claim backed by rights groups but rejected by the social media giant.

On December 4, Palestine TV correspondent Christine Rinawi posted a video on her Facebook account in which Israeli security forces were seen shooting a Palestinian on the ground, killing him. He had just carried out a knife attack on an Israeli civilian.

Shortly after she posted her video, Rinawi, who has nearly 400,000 followers, noticed it had been removed from her account.

This was not her first experience with Facebook’s enforcement, and Rinawi said her account had already been restricted after she shared footage of a November attack in Jerusalem.

In both cases, Facebook said it intervened because the posts violated the platform’s standards.

A spokesperson for Facebook’s parent company Meta said its policies “were designed to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe on our apps”.

Palestinian activists and journalists hold banners with their campaign hashtag ‘#FBCensorsJerusalem’ as they protest against what they consider censorship by the social media outlet Facebook of Palestinian content, in the occupied-West Bank city of Hebron. PHOTO: AFP

“We apply these policies to everyone equally, regardless of who is posting.”

Allegations of pro-Israeli bias at Facebook have simmered for years and were renewed in October when Human Rights Watch, a vocal Israel critic, said the platform had “suppressed content posted by Palestinians and their supporters speaking out about human rights issues in Israel and Palestine”.

Palestinian reporters have cited multiple incidents they describe as censorship.

One popular online news outlet, Maydan Quds News, may even have to fire reporters after its main Facebook page with 1.2 million followers was deleted, a source who requested anonymity told AFP.

The Meta spokesperson told AFP it has “a dedicated team, which includes Arabic and Hebrew speakers, who are focussed on keeping our community safe by making sure we’re removing harmful content”.

It also strives to address “any enforcement errors as quickly as possible so people can keep sharing what matters to them”.

In the midst of a bout of fighting in May between Israel and armed factions in the Gaza Strip – the worst in years – Facebook had acknowledged widescale deletion of Palestinian posts, ascribing it to a technical bug that it sought to fix.

According to Palestinian social media monitoring centre Sada Social, 600 Palestinian accounts or pro-Palestinian Facebook posts were restricted or deleted in 2021, a record. The centre helped launch a social media campaign called “Facebook Censors Jerusalem”.

Rama Youssef, a Jerusalem-based journalist who volunteered for the campaign, said Facebook hews to an Israeli point of view and has “double standards”.

The Arab Centre Washington DC think-tank said the Israeli government also pushes to censor “tens of thousands of posts and accounts” that support a Palestinian point of view.

Meta did not answer AFP questions about requests from the Israeli government.

But the company denied accusations of bias, saying its community standards prohibit violence, terrorism, hate and large-scale criminal activity, as well as posts supporting those subjects.

Israeli officials have also accused various social media platforms, including Facebook, of failing to curb anti-Semitism.

In February, then-diaspora affairs minister Omer Yankelevich presented Facebook, Google, TikTok and Twitter with proposals to beef up the fight against anti-Semitism, saying it was “running rampant” online.

Media expert Iyad al-Rifai of Sada Social said he regularly meets with Facebook representatives to ask for more transparency.

He said the site appeared to target the word “shahid”, Arabic for martyr, which Palestinians frequently use to describe people killed by Israeli forces, including those who carried out attacks.

Rifai told AFP that Facebook insisted it is bound by American standards which consider “attackers to be terrorists”, not martyrs to a political cause.

But he said censoring the term wholesale ignored the wider context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Meta did not respond to a question about its policies regarding the use of the word “shahid”.

But it said it reviews posts according to its own policies, as well as “local laws and international human rights standards”.

Rifai said he was concerned that deleting accounts might discourage Palestinians from “engaging with pivotal issues” for fear of losing “their digital history and presence”.

He said he obtained from Facebook “promises to improve the working mechanisms of the algorithms so as to differentiate between journalistic content and ordinary content”, but he feared they offered “temporary rather than radical solutions”.

Mosques receive contributions

VAM®BRN Sdn Bhd handed over a donation to Kampong Belimbing Subok Mosque, Kampong Tanah Jambu Mosque and Kampong Sungai Hanching Mosque yesterday as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Five VAM®BRN Sdn Bhd employees presented the contributions to Bilal Jamalulhair bin Mohin of Kampong Belimbing Subok Mosque, Shakrizal bin Murni of Kampong Tanah Jambu Mosque and Azi Farihan bin Haji Matsah of Kampong Sungai Hanching Mosque.

The donations included equipment for temperature screening, hand sanitiser with auto dispensers, hand soaps, fogging machine, disinfectant sprays and face masks.

VAM®BRN Sdn Bhd presents a donation to Kampong Belimbing Subok Mosque. PHOTO: VAM®BRN Sdn Bhd

Tuchel frustrated by ‘noise’ after Lukaku voices dissatisfaction

LONDON (AFP) – Thomas Tuchel admitted yesterday that he was frustrated with the “noise” around Romelu Lukaku’s situation at Chelsea after the Belgium forward expressed his dissatisfaction with his role at the club.

The “surprised” Chelsea boss said he would sit down with the 28-year-old to discuss the issues but did not see any evidence that his player was unhappy.

Lukaku rejoined the Premier League side from Inter Milan for a club-record fee of GBP97.5

He has scored seven times in a season hampered by injury and coronavirus but Chelsea boss Tuchel has at times left him out of the starting XI even when he has been fit.

Lukaku told Sky Italy he was “not happy with the situation” at Stamford Bridge in an interview released on Thursday, but it was understood to have been conducted three weeks ago.

The player has since told ESPN Brazil he had “a couple of conversations” with Tuchel about what the German wanted from him, during which he told his boss he was “multidimensional”.

Tuchel, whose second-placed side face Liverpool this weekend, told his pre-match press conference that the situation was frustrating.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel with Romelu Lukaku. PHOTO: AFP

“We don’t like it, of course, because it brings noise that we don’t need and is not helpful,” said the Chelsea boss. “But on the other side, we don’t want to make more out of it than it actually is.

“You know very well how it is – it’s very easy to take lines out of context, to shorten lines to make headlines, then realise later it’s not so bad or what he meant.”

Tuchel said he was not aware that Lukaku was unhappy at the club.

“The thing with Romelu is that I don’t think anyone in this building is aware he’s unhappy,” he added.

“That’s why (there is) surprise at the statement. That’s why we need to check with him now, because I can see no reason why it should be like this.

“So I will wait to see what Romelu has to say and then we will deal with this.”

The former Paris Saint-Germain boss said a certain level of tension in a dressing room could be turned into an advantage.

“It’s not necessary for the dressing room to be always in harmony,” he said. “You don’t have to hug each other and love each other every day.

“Sometimes it’s good to be on the edge, sometimes it’s good to be in disharmony, when it is in between certain boundaries.”

Cookie Chronicles husband-and-wife creators roll out a new book

Mary Quattlebaum

THE WASHINGTON POST – Cookies are sweet, uncomplicated treats, right? Not for Ben, the main character in Ben Yokoyama and the Cookie of Perfection, a new illustrated novel by Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr.

A cookie – or more exactly, the fortune inside – starts the third-grader on a tangled, funny adventure.

Ben is a kid who takes things literally. For example, if he hears the expression “It’s raining cats and dogs,” he expects tabbies and terriers to fall from the skies.

Or a metaphor such as “a bunny as big as a barn” might send him searching for a gigantic rabbit.

When his fortune cookie yields a scrap of paper printed with “Practice makes perfect”, Ben decides to apply this advice to his father, his mother and his best friend, Janet.

All of them, he knows, are far from perfect and could benefit from much practice.

The problem? No one wants Ben to relentlessly perfect them. And then Ben makes a new friend, Darby, who wants to perfect him.

Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr. PHOTO: THE WASHINGTON POST

There are hilarious plot twists, lousy pancakes, a superhero, a terrifying obstacle course called the Chute – and lots of questions about the accuracy of the cookie’s advice.

The co-creators of the novel, Swanson and Behr, are the husband-and-wife team behind many books for young people, including two previous tales about Ben in the Cookie Chronicles series (though you need not have read them to enjoy this story).

During a three-person phone call, the couple recently talked with a KidsPost reporter from the home – a converted barn – that they share with their four children and Boston terrier, Dumbles, in Chestertown, Maryland.

Ben is frequently confused by words, a situation many young people can relate to, whether they are puzzled by odd phrases or trying to learn a new language as recent immigrants.

“I was a lot like Ben as a kid,” Swanson said. “I often wrestled with metaphors and what they meant. And I also felt I had to do everything perfectly. But is perfection really the secret of a good life?”

It’s certainly not their secret to making a book, said Behr.

The couple’s shared creative process is messy, inventive and full of surprises, with Swanson’s writing and Behr’s art working together to tell a complete story.

Swanson wrote the new book in a few months, “in a fury”, Behr said. He then gave the manuscript to her for feedback and revised accordingly.

Behr then designed and ingeniously illustrated each one of the 325 pages.

Look for Ben’s dog, Dumbles (whose name the couple’s kids gave to their real dog), a neighborhood map and even a tiny talking brain and stomach.

“It helps that we live together,” Behr said with a laugh. “We can talk about the books (we’re creating) as we take the dog out or make a meal together.”

Their life together is fuelling another big project: the Busload of Books Tour. Starting in September, Swanson, Behr, their children and Dumbles will take to the road in an old school bus.

They plan to talk about and give away books at underserved elementary schools in all 50 states – schools chosen because they have never had an author visit.

The couple hopes to spark excitement about reading, writing and creating art as the students learn and ask questions about making books.

There’s a lot to do before they leave, Swanson said cheerfully. They are raising funds, fixing up the school bus to include a tiny kitchen and sleeping quarters, and oh, yes, finishing the final two books about Ben Yokoyama, Cookie Thief and Cookies of Chaos.

Hopefully, this busy duo can take a break this holiday season to enjoy their favorite cookies – for Swanson it’s what he describes as a “buttery almond crescent” and for Behr, the “really special” oatmeal raisin cookies from a nearby bakery, Evergrain Bread Company.

Russia sets another monthly record for virus-linked death

MOSCOW (AP) – More than 87,500 people with COVID-19 died in Russia in November, the highest montly tally since the start of the pandemic, the state statistics agency reported on Thursday.

A report by Rosstat brought the overall number of virus-linked deaths between April 2020 and October 2021 to nearly 626,000 – more than twice the widely-cited toll reported by Russia’s state coronavirus task force to date. Rosstat uses broader criteria in its tallying system compared to the task force.

According to the Rosstat report, 71,187 deaths were caused directly by confirmed COVID-19, 8,939 deaths were likely caused by the virus but it wasn’t confirmed by a test, in 1,477 cases the virus significantly exacerbated fatal complications of other diseases and 5,924 people tested positive for the virus but died of other causes.

The surge came amid low vaccination rates and poor compliance with coronavirus restrictions.

Just 51 per cent of Russia’s nearly 146 million people have been fully vaccinated, even though the country approved a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine – Sputnik V – months before most of the world.

Russia in recent months has faced a tide of contagion with record numbers of infections and deaths. The situation has improved over the past few weeks, but the authorities are now bracing up for a new wave of infection caused by the Omicron variant.

A Russian medical worker administers a dose of Russia’s Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine to a homeless man. PHOTO: AP

Optimism for the new year

I would like to respond to the letter by Peanut Man on ‘Time to reflect on the past year’, published in the Opinion page on December 29.

The world has been battling COVID-19 for almost two years. The Sultanate has been more fortunate than most – we enjoyed over a year of relative freedom. Some countries are facing the sixth or seventh wave; we have thus far gone through two. While measures in the second wave were comparatively more restrictive than the first, with mask mandate and movement control to curb the spread, these were all necessary to fight off highly transmissible and deadly Delta variant.

With the number of new cases falling on a daily basis, we get to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. All the sacrifices we have made to comply with the health guidelines, such as not leaving home unnecessarily and wearing face masks at all times, have paid off. We are now in the Early Endemic Phase, with more de-escalation in the pipeline.

I understand the writer’s optimism. Thanks to the concerted efforts from the authorities, frontliners and the populace, we have been able to push back against the threats of the pandemic and regain some sort of normalcy. Of course, we can never get back the life we had before the COVID-19 outbreak; and it may seem frightening at times that we are moving into unchartered territory.

But I believe in the spirit of the populace, that with enough determination, we can live through this health crisis and come out stronger on the other side.

Happy New Year!

The Observer

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