13/05/2025

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | MAY 13, 2025

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Indians buy 14 million ACs yearly — and need more

The luxury plane, which would be one of the most valuable gifts ever received by the US government, would eventually be donated to Trump’s presidential library after he leaves office, the source said. A new commercial 747-8 costs approximately US$400 million (RM1.7 billion). In a post on his social media site Truth Social late on Sunday, Trump appeared to confirm the proposal. “So the fact that the Defense Department is getting a GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction, so bothers the Crooked Democrats that they insist we pay, TOP DOLLAR, for the plane,“ he wrote. Democrats and good government advocates said it was unethical and likely unconstitutional for Qatar to make such a gift. “Nothing says ‘America First’ like Air Force One, brought to you by Qatar,“ Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. “It’s not just bribery, it’s premium foreign influence with extra legroom.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement: “Any gift given by a foreign government is always accepted in full compliance with all applicable laws. President Trump’s administration is committed to full transparency.” A Qatari spokesman, Ali Al-Ansari, said in a statement that the possible transfer of an aircraft for temporary NEW DELHI: Aarti Verma is about to join the growing ranks of Indians installing air conditioning (AC), scraping together savings to secure relief from sometimes deadly temperatures that can reach nearly 50 Celsius. A record 14 million AC units were sold in India last year, with a ninefold increase in residential ownership forecast by mid-century. That will give millions safer and more comfortable conditions at work and home. But it will also drive demand for electricity that is generated mostly by burning climate-warming coal, and increase the hot AC exhaust air expelled into the country’s stifling streets. For Verma, the priority is securing some immediate relief. Her sales and marketing work means she must visit multiple stores a day, battling blazing heat. “Coming home after a long day I want some comfort,” said the 25 year-old, who earns 30,000 rupees (RM1,503) a month and will pay 50,000 rupees to install air conditioning in her spartan two room home. “Earlier I would sleep on the terrace, but these days it’s so hot even in the night, AC has become a necessity,” she told AFP in a poor neighbourhood of the capital Delhi. India is the world’s fastest growing AC market, despite only about 7% of households currently owning units. The boom could mean the world’s

OpenAI in talks with Microsoft on funding, possible IPO BENGALURU: OpenAI and Microsoft are rewriting terms of their multibillion-dollar partnership in a negotiation designed to allow the ChatGPT maker to launch a future IPO, while protecting the software giant’s access to cutting-edge AI models, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. A critical issue is how much equity in OpenAI’s new for-profit business Microsoft will receive in exchange for the more than US$13 billion (RM56 billion) it has invested in the company to date, the report said. It said Microsoft is offering to give up some of its equity stake in exchange for access to new technology developed beyond the 2030 cutoff. They are also revising terms of a wider contract, first drafted when Microsoft initially invested US$1 billion into OpenAI in 2019, the report said. Microsoft declined to comment on the report. OpenAI did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. OpenAI has told investors it will share a smaller fraction of revenue with its largest backer as it moves ahead with restructuring, The Information reported last week. In January, Microsoft changed some terms of a deal with OpenAI after entering a joint venture with Oracle and Japan’s SoftBank Group to build up to US$500 billion of new AI data centres in the US. – Reuters with a steady stream of customers braving the afternoon heat. Japsahib Singh Ahuja, 22, whose family owns the 50-year-old business, said sales have more than tripled in the last five years, thanks to first-time consumers and AC “replacement cycles”. “ACs these days don’t last long, because there are so many pollutants in Delhi air that lead to corrosion and gas leakage from the equipment,” he explained. Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently top world rankings for air pollution. Air conditioning will account for a quarter of India’s emissions and nearly half nationwide peak electricity demand by 2050, according to the UN Environment Programme’s Cool Coalition. But India has so far declined to sign up to the coalition’s Global Cooling Pledge to reduce the sector’s climate impact. Still, there are signs of hope, with Indians increasingly buying energy efficient AC units, according to Ahuja.

2021, according to government data. Public health experts say the true number of heat-related deaths is likely in the thousands but because heat is often not listed as a reason on a death certificate, many casualties don’t get counted in official figures. Ironically, the refrigerants inside AC units and the coal-generated electricity that powers them only exacerbate global warming. Widespread AC use also raises outdoor temperatures by expelling indoor heat. Studies – including by the World Health Organisation and UN-Habitat – show that the heat-generating motors inside AC units can themselves push up temperatures in urban areas by a degree Celsius or more. Before buying an AC, Verma relied on a traditional air cooler – a noisy fan-run device that blows cool air off water-soaked pads. But filling the cooler with water and making sure it did not become a haven for disease-carrying mosquitoes required great effort. Sales are brisk at Imperial Refrigeration in Delhi’s old quarters,

o Air conditioning demand in India is rising due to hot weather, a growing middle class, easy financing, and better electrification

Verma had to pay 13,000 rupees as a down payment, with the rest divided over monthly instalments. “I could have bought gold with that money which would have been a good investment but I gave priority to the AC,” she said. According to the meteorological department, 2024 was India’s hottest year since thorough records began in 1901, with sizzling temperatures following a global pattern of extreme weather driven by climate change. A heatwave in May 2024 in New Delhi saw temperatures match the capital’s previous record high: 49.2 Celsius clocked in 2022. The brutal summer heat can melt tarmac on the roads and puts millions of people at risk, with nearly 11,000 people dying due to heat stroke in India between 2012 and

most populous country needs to triple electricity production to meet demand, experts say. The nation of 1.4 billion people is already the world’s third-biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gases, burning through one billion tonnes of coal in 2024-25, according to a government statement. “AC penetration across India is primarily driven by weather conditions, a growing middle class, easy consumer financing options and widespread electrification,” said K.J. Jawa, the India chief of Japanese AC manufacturer Daikin. “Today, ACs are no longer regarded as a luxury indulgence, but a productivity and need investment – as a good night sleep is imperative for our mental and physical wellness,” he told AFP.

Trump plans to receive Qatar’s 747 as new Air Force One WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump’s administration intends to accept a Boeing 747-8 airplane as a gift from the Qatari royal family that would be outfitted to serve as Air Force One, according to a source briefed on the matter.

The luxury jet, among the most valuable gifts to the US government, will go to Trump’s presidential library after his term. – AFPPIX

use as Air Force One was still under consideration between Qatar’s Ministry of Defense and the US Department of Defense and “no decision has been made”. ABC News was first to report the planned gift on Sunday. Trump has expressed frustration at the delays in delivering two new 747 8 aircraft to serve as an updated Air Force One. During his first term, Trump had reached a deal with Boeing to deliver the jets in 2024. A US Air Force official told Congress last week that Boeing had proposed finishing the planes by 2027. Trump toured the Qatari-owned 747-8 in February when it was parked

personal business dealings in giving the president a US$400 million gift right before he meets with their head of state,“ the spokesman, Jordan Libowitz, said. Trump is set to visit Qatar during a trip to the Middle East this week. The airplane will not be presented or accepted while Trump is in Qatar. ABC reported, citing sources, that lawyers for the White House counsel’s office and the Department of Justice had prepared an analysis concluding that it would be legal and constitutional for the Defense Department to accept the plane as a gift and later transfer it to Trump’s presidential library. – Reuters

at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, near his Mar-a-Lago resort. At the time, the White House said the president did so to get a better understanding of how the updated Air Force One planes would be configured. In a statement, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics, a good government organisation based in Washington, questioned whether the transfer might violate the Constitution’s ban on US officials accepting gifts from foreign governments without congressional approval. “This sure looks like a foreign country that the president has