09/03/2026

BIZ & FINANCE MONDAY | MAR 9, 2026

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Uneven growth clouds India’s economic ascent o Significant portion of workforce remains in low-productivity sectors

US court voids mass layoffs at Voice of America parent WASHINGTON: A federal judge ruled on Saturday that President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee mass layoffs at Voice of America and other government-funded media was unlawfully appointed, rendering the job cuts invalid. Kari Lake, a former TV anchor, was hired by Trump to head the US Agency for Global Media, part of his administration’s efforts to clamp down on what he considers unfriendly journalism. She soon announced funding and job cuts, including the dismissal of more than 500 employees of Voice of America, created in the wake of World War II as a key instrument of American soft power worldwide. Employees sued Lake over the firings, which were temporarily halted last September pending judicial review. In his ruling, US district judge Royce Lamberth determined that Lake’s appointment as senior adviser to the agency was made “in violation of the Appointments Clause and the Federal Vacancies Reform Act”. As a result, he wrote, “any actions taken by Lake during her asserted tenure as acting CEO between July 31 and Nov 19, 2025, including but not limited to the Aug 9 reduction-in-force efforts ... are void.” The Agency for Global Media is an independent agency tasked with promoting democracy and countering propaganda overseas through entities that include VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Trump frequently attacks media outlets and denounced the editorial firewall at VOA that prevents the government from intervening in its coverage. Lake, a Republican, unsuccessfully ran to be a US senator representing Arizona in 2024. – AFP Google gives CEO new pay deal worth up to US$692 million NEW YORK: The CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet could earn up to US$692 million over the next three years under a new compensation plan published Friday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The deal would make Sundar Pichai, who has been chief executive of Google since 2015 and of Alphabet since 2019, one of the highest paid CEOs in the world. Under the plan, Pichai’s three-year salary of US$6 million, or US$2 million per year, would remain unchanged. The remainder of his compensation would be paid in the form of Alphabet stock, as well as shares in two subsidiaries – the autonomous vehicle company Waymo and the drone delivery service Wing. The SEC filing suggested Pichai could receive about US$130 million from Waymo and US$45 million from Wing. The allocation will depend on the performance of the shares and, for Alphabet, on the amount of dividends paid. In the event of his dismissal, Pichai would forfeit all stock options that are not yet exercisable, according to the document. “Current and previous incentives in Mr Pichai’s compensation have benefited Alphabet and its stockholders significantly,” the company said in the filing. – AFP

MUMBAI: For years India’s economy was driven by its vast services sector that saw millions of people working away in low-cost back offices providing consultancy for predominantly western companies. But over the past decade they have given way to centres that allow firms to tap top-tier talent and technology, where white-collar staff perform tasks ranging from IT and data analytics to innovation and design. Today, these centres are the shiniest parts of India’s red-hot economy but not everyone has been able to enjoy the boom times as opportunities remain uneven. Amazon’s biggest office in the world is now located in southern India, and top financiers like JPMorgan have roughly 20 percent of their workforce scattered across Indian cities. The government says the country is now home to about one-fifth of the world’s chip design engineers, helped by hiring from firms like Qualcomm and MediaTek. This has boosted services sector growth and helped make India the fastest-growing major economy – a title it has firmly held onto since 2021. Alouk Kumar, the head of an Indian consultancy that helps global giants set up offshore business centres, says his phone has not stopped buzzing in recent weeks. “Demand and interest have been crazy ... the number of calls I have got from European firms has soared,” he said. “The way it is increasing, the next 10 years will belong to India.” The surge in growth saw Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government declare in December that India had overtaken Japan as the world’s fourth-largest economy. But figures last month indicate the announcement was premature, with the crossover unlikely to happen for at least another year. Still, economists say the eventual switch will represent a landmark achievement – less than three decades ago, Japan was the second-largest economy in the world, and India was still struggling to dismantle its quasi-socialist economic system. Market reforms in the 1990s unlocked an eventual US$283 billion software?services industry, while a credit boom in the 2000s helped the country’s biggest conglomerates expand globally. And since 2014, a huge infrastructure drive – new highways, airports and ports – has underpinned swift growth. “India’s feat cannot be trivialised,” said Dhiraj Nim, an economist at ANZ Research.

High-rise buildings under construction in Mumbai. – AFPPIC

He added that a “significant portion of India’s workforce remains in relatively low-productivity and informal sectors”. Chakravorti traces the gaping wage hole to India’s services-driven growth, which supports a “narrower slice” of the population, in contrast to China’s manufacturing-led boom. Most economists say India needs sustained 8% annual growth for two decades to become a high-income country. But in the near term, they warn, the priority is creating quality jobs for the millions entering the labour force each year. Analysts at Morgan Stanley believe India will require an average GDP growth rate of 12.2% to truly tackle underemployment. Shifting workers from farms to factories is central to that goal. While India has attracted firms like Apple to assemble iPhones, it is far from having become a manufacturing powerhouse. In rural parts of Maharashtra state, the gulf between national headlines and reality feels stark. Nitin Gaikwad, 32, supplements his meagre farm income by laying roads, under a government jobs scheme meant to provide guaranteed work at fixed wages. “I don’t see any progress anywhere. If they are saying this, it is only in the cities, where there are metros and flights,” he said. “It is an illusion that the country is progressing. The villages have remained untouched.” – AFP

Many countries, he noted, “failed to capitalise” on similar opportunities or “squandered them in the face of global shocks and imprudent policies”. This world-beating growth – India’s economy roughly doubles in size every decade, compared to Japan, which has basically flatlined – has helped transform the country. Poverty, for instance, has fallen. The World Bank estimates the share of Indians living on US$4.20 or less per day plunged from 57.7% in 2011-12, to 23.9% in 2022-23. Slowly rising incomes have also led to the emergence of a middle class, estimated at over 300 million. But experts caution that the gains from rapid expansion remain wildly uneven. “There are still a lot of youngsters who are left behind by the progress of our economy,” said Amit Saxena of Ambe International. The firm sends thousands of blue-collar workers overseas each year in search of regular, better paid work. Nearly half of India’s population also continues to rely on agriculture for subsistence. That keeps GDP per capita far below that of other major economies – it is 12 times smaller than Japan’s and 20 times smaller than Germany’s. “India’s economic growth is largely fuelled by demand from the top 100 million people,” said Bhaskar Chakravorti, dean of global business at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Indonesia seeks suspension of concessions against EU JAKARTA: Indonesia will file for a suspension of concessions against the European Union at the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement body over a palm oil case, the trade minister said on Saturday. suspension of concessions would be focused on goods, but added Indonesia was “open” to asking the dispute settlement body permission to apply the measure to other sectors. The EU has deemed that the production of palm oil is not sustainable.

Indonesia took the move to safeguard its rights in the future if the EU could not adhere to the WTO panel’s ruling, Budi said. He did not specify which obligations the EU had failed to comply with. Suspension of concessions is a temporary trade sanction which, under the WTO dispute settlement body, can be filed against another WTO member to enforce compliance with a dispute ruling. Indonesia, the world’s leading producer of palm oil, in 2019 requested an expert panel review of the EU restrictions. – AFP

“We will ensure that the losses are accurately calculated and the case is handled effectively while simultaneously maintaining bilateral relations with the EU,“ Budi said in a statement. The dispute concerns the EU Renewable Energy Directive of 2018 (RED II), which limited the eligibility of crop-based biofuels to count towards member states’ renewable energy targets, and phased out the eligibility of palm oil-based biofuels altogether by 2030.

The move was taken after the 27-member bloc failed to meet a deadline to adjust its policy based on the WTO body’s ruling and recommendation in a palm oil dispute case, the trade ministry said in a statement. WTO experts in January 2025 largely upheld EU restrictions on the use of palm oil in biofuels following complaints by Indonesia. Trade Minister Budi Santoso said the