04/03/2016 World Business Report

Those are the latest headlines from BBC World News.

Now for the latest financial news with

A major task ahead: China's leaders gather for their annual parliament

meeting as they plan a shake-up of its vast but flagging economy.

Plus, ancient divisions, why the caste system still raises big

In a moment, Australia's LIBOR regulators move against banking

We start in Beijing where, as you have been hearing,

China's annual parliament meeting opens this weekend.

The National People's Congress will lay down a 5-year plan

Premier Li Keqiang's government must engineer

a giant economic shift away from manufacturing and heavy industry

towards services and consumption, without derailing growth.

So, what are we looking for over the coming days?

Well, number one has to be the outlook for growth, exactly how

Analysts expect Beijing to set an economic growth target

of between 6.5 and 7% this year, below the 2015 target of around 7%.

Last year growth in China was just 6.9%, the slowest pace in 25 years.

Then there's the big question of restructuring.

Beijing faces criticism for failing to tackle so-called

Zombie enterprises, inefficient, debt-laden, state-owned companies

There are around 106 at national level and 150,000 local

ones in sectors spanning oil, steel, banking and telecoms.

Beijing has already started the shake-up.

This week, we heard 1.8 million workers would be laid off

The total number could be as high as 6 million over the next few years.

On Wednesday we heard from top Communist Party official

Yu Zhengsheng, who heads a key government advisory body.

He said these reforms were now a top priority.

TRANSLATION: The focus of implementing the 13th five-year

development plan is to reform supply-side structure and the major

tasks of cutting down on excessive reduction capacity. And inventories

and leverage. Jinny Yan is Chief China Economist

at ICBC Standard Bank. Over the next two or three years, it

is forecast that up to 6 million jobs may have to go. These so-called

zombie enterprises. That is the huge number of, isn't it? This is

assuming production is cut down by about 10% over the years. What is

most concerning is all of those jobs will be very much targeted and

focused in certain provinces of China. So you will see certain

cities or provinces with people completely laid off and all the

business is closed. It is very important from an employment

perspective. The key thing is for the government to react with some

kind of stabilisation fund, which I think they have already done, and

the key point is to make sure that the skills are transferable. It will

be very difficult, because obviously all of these industries are clearly

very much in manufacturing and heavy industry sectors. There were mass

job losses in the 1990s, but that is when we was seeing that really rapid

growth. It is a very different picture now. It is a very different

picture, but China is trying to go up the value curve. It is trying to

encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. Those people in

the provinces that will be laid off, they will be encouraged to set

up their own businesses, go on the internet and set up businesses, and

that kind of thing. It is becoming much easier. What they need to do is

to get some sort of funding, so it is important for banks to

concentrate on SME financing is well. This is key to boost

confidence in the economy and stop outflows of capital. Absolutely. The

first in his social stability. We have to make sure that these

large-scale layoffs do not cause brought problems for the economy.

The second issue is for the international investment community

to have faith in the continued growth in China. I think once the

government is managing both sides, both domestic and international,

they will be able to manage the problems.

To India now where last month, some 30 people died

in violent protests by the upper caste Jat community demanding more

The BBC's Sanjoy Majumder travelled to the town of Rohtak, near Delhi,

to find out why the ancient caste system is still such a powerful

For several days, protesters from the Jat community, expressed their

anger. He took the authorities by surprise and led to many deaths and

destruction. Several towns and states and highways leading to the

main cities were affected. This was one of the worst hit. At the heart

of the protest is the changing face of the local economy. Traditionally,

much of the land he has been used for farming. They are growing wheat

in these fields. But increasingly, agriculture is giving way to

industry. Farmland is being acquired to make factories, such as the one

here. All part of the government's move to transform India's economy.

But while the landscape is changing, the transition to a new economy has

been difficult for those who live off the land. They are relatively

wealthy farming community, but there is not enough land left.

TRANSLATION: They are always acquiring our land to build a road

or rail track and we barely get any compensation. We are falling in

debt. The town is filled with colleges and educational Institute,

as Liz Young people try to acquire new skills. But while degrees are

relatively available, jobs are not. They meet a group of students who

say unemployment is very high in the community. My friend got 430 marks

in his examination. He didn't even get called for an interview. But

someone from the lower caste scored 405 and landed himself a government

job. It is depressing. The private sector only employs 12% of India's

workforce, which is why government jobs are so heavily sought after.

But 50% of those jobs are set aside for lower castes to overcome

centuries of discrimination and social disadvantages. It is leading

to growing resentment among other communities, who feel left out, and

are increasingly willing to hit back.

To Asia now where Australian regulators are grappling with

their own version of the LIBOR interest rate fixing scandal.

Sharanjit Leyl is in Singapore for us.

What they tell me more about the banking question. Well, it is one

Australia's largest, ANZ, and basically they are accused of

unconscionable conduct and market manipulation. The charges relate to

ANZ's involvement in setting the primary interest-rate benchmark used

in Australian financial markets during the period of March 2010 and

May 2012. It is important to note that the bank has rejected all the

allegations and they have done this in a statement. The commission

alleges that the bank traded in a manner intended to create an

artificial price during the period in question. They alleged that ANZ

was seeking to maximise profit to the detriment of those holding

opposite positions to them. This is Australia's equivalent to Libor in

the UK, and is used as a reference rate to banks lending money among

each other. It very much echoes what happened in the UK, with several

banks last year found to have conspired to influence the Libor by

agreeing among themselves to fixed rates. It will be interesting to see

how this develops in Australia. Google, Facebook, Microsoft

and others are taking legal action in support of their rival Apple

in its privacy battle with the FBI Apple is refusing to comply with

a court order that it must help the FBI access encrypted data

on an iPhone that belonged to Syed Farook, who with his wife

killed 14 people in December in A group

of 17 smaller firms, including Twitter and LinkedIn, filed a

similar court document on Thursday. Let's have a look at the markets.

This is the picture. Schools in England need to adopt

more flexible working hours if they want to stop teachers

leaving the profession for good, according to research by the

Policy Exchange think tank. It says in a time

of significant teacher shortages, a move towards more flexible

working could encourage thousands of