Browse content similar to 14/03/2016. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Forest fires alight once again in Indonesia and warnings they could | :00:15. | :00:23. | |
cost the economy billions. Deadly struggle to keep cars off the road | :00:24. | :00:27. | |
as it tries to fix catastrophic air-pollution. | :00:28. | :00:30. | |
Glad you could join me for this Monday edition of Asia Business | :00:31. | :00:37. | |
We start with Indonesia and the forest fires that have caused have | :00:38. | :00:46. | |
across large parts of Southeast Asia last year which are indeed back. One | :00:47. | :00:52. | |
province has declared a state of emergency and authorities are | :00:53. | :00:54. | |
increasing efforts to fight the fires. The World Bank estimates the | :00:55. | :01:00. | |
fires cost Indonesia a staggering 16 billion US dollars last year. What | :01:01. | :01:07. | |
is in store for this year? I spoke with a director-general from the | :01:08. | :01:09. | |
centre for international forestry research in Jakarta and ask whether | :01:10. | :01:17. | |
lessons have been learned from 2015. First of all we are talking about | :01:18. | :01:20. | |
agricultural fires that are coming back every year. The smoke and haze | :01:21. | :01:26. | |
last year was about dry weather conditions caused by El Nino, which | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
caused unusually high and a smoke. These lessons are being learnt and | :01:32. | :01:35. | |
there are actions being taken to try to prevent it in future. At the same | :01:36. | :01:39. | |
time it's coming back every year since several decades. Is the | :01:40. | :01:44. | |
political will that to learn from these lessons and implement these | :01:45. | :01:52. | |
policies? -- there. There are has been lost political action and | :01:53. | :01:55. | |
arrangements to deal with the fires the conversion of land. We see new | :01:56. | :02:02. | |
peatland agency setting up and dealing with the restoration of | :02:03. | :02:05. | |
peatland. We have seen early action from the governor close to | :02:06. | :02:10. | |
Singapore. What about the corporations that are also involved | :02:11. | :02:17. | |
in these forest fires? Are very -- are they being held accountable? We | :02:18. | :02:26. | |
will see. There is more of this holding individuals to account and | :02:27. | :02:29. | |
we will see more action in this space, I firmly believe. I also | :02:30. | :02:32. | |
think it is in the interest of most actors on the ground to follow the | :02:33. | :02:38. | |
law and have less fires going. You mentioned about the actors. You have | :02:39. | :02:43. | |
the Singaporeans, you have the Malaysians, you have the Indonesians | :02:44. | :02:47. | |
- are they working as one cohesive unit to be able to resolve these | :02:48. | :02:53. | |
issues, not only in the near term, but also in the long-term? That's | :02:54. | :02:57. | |
been the discussion, to work across the borders on these issues for | :02:58. | :03:01. | |
years. There is a great deal of interest to continue to do that, and | :03:02. | :03:06. | |
as you said, this is not just a national issue. It is something that | :03:07. | :03:09. | |
both concerns and involves several countries. In other news making | :03:10. | :03:17. | |
headlines - the IMF has backed decisions by Japan and Europe to | :03:18. | :03:22. | |
introduce negative interest rates to spur economic growth. The head of | :03:23. | :03:27. | |
the IMF, Christine Lagarde, said unconventional monetary policies | :03:28. | :03:30. | |
should continue if they are accompanied by structural reforms | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
and low inflation. Her comments come ahead of the Bank of Japan's two-day | :03:34. | :03:39. | |
meeting which starts today. And as central bankers meet, they have good | :03:40. | :03:46. | |
news afresh in this morning. The machinery orders for the month | :03:47. | :03:49. | |
rising by 15% a head of a 3% forecast. It is an indicator of | :03:50. | :03:54. | |
rising business investment and hopes are that it could be a sign of | :03:55. | :03:59. | |
economic growth to come. Less grounds for optimism in China. The | :04:00. | :04:05. | |
country's economic slowdown is fuelling concerns over the global | :04:06. | :04:09. | |
economic recovery with the latest data from Beijing revealing | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
industrial output has slowed to its weakest since the financial turmoil | :04:13. | :04:17. | |
in 2008. The UK Chancellor George Osborne said the slowdown in the | :04:18. | :04:20. | |
mainland was one of a dangerous cocktail of risks. It is hampering | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
recovery. Lingerie shopping in India has always been shrouded in secrecy | :04:28. | :04:31. | |
with brands rarely advertising openly and a limited range. As | :04:32. | :04:36. | |
Indian women become financially independent, that is slowly | :04:37. | :04:39. | |
changing. One of the biggest names in this $3 billion market is an | :04:40. | :04:45. | |
e-commerce site that says it sells two bras every minute and we ask why | :04:46. | :04:54. | |
she chose to sell this lingerie. I had choices when it came to power | :04:55. | :05:01. | |
when it came to outer wear but I did not care about lingerie and that set | :05:02. | :05:04. | |
me thinking about what is happening in our country. Why is the | :05:05. | :05:14. | |
experience so repressed? Women don't really go out to stores and by | :05:15. | :05:18. | |
lingerie. How challenging is it to sell this to women? The television | :05:19. | :05:26. | |
campaign had women of all size and shapes saying the word bra on | :05:27. | :05:30. | |
national television. Right? We didn't show anyone in a bra, but it | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
was a very refreshing change in the way it was approaching the category. | :05:37. | :05:40. | |
Second thing, we believe it is, you know... People don't want others to | :05:41. | :05:45. | |
see what they have bought. We ensure when the packet comes to you it is | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
discreetly packaged. People will not know that it comes from Zivame at | :05:51. | :05:55. | |
all. But of all what we have seen, being in the mainstream, being | :05:56. | :05:59. | |
unapologetic about what we sell, we've seen people coming on social | :06:00. | :06:03. | |
media, which is a big change for Indian consumers. As they start at | :06:04. | :06:08. | |
you raised about $45 million so far. What have you spend this money on? | :06:09. | :06:13. | |
We have spent it on creating an awareness, building the team, | :06:14. | :06:17. | |
getting the right merchandise. Close to 65% of sales comes from politics | :06:18. | :06:22. | |
we design and manufacture, we take complete control of the quality and | :06:23. | :06:27. | |
fit. So, merchandise and product development is where we are also | :06:28. | :06:30. | |
investing money. We manufacture products across the globe. Sri | :06:31. | :06:36. | |
Lanka, China, Bangladesh, Latin America and parts of India, cotton | :06:37. | :06:40. | |
from India. It is a global supply chain we are running. You have | :06:41. | :06:44. | |
started opening stores like this one, where you can try out the | :06:45. | :06:48. | |
lingerie, but you can't really buy any. Why is that? You can buy it. We | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
have it delivered to you. You don't have to carry it to you. We have it | :06:54. | :06:59. | |
delivered to you in 34 hours. The recently opened to fit store was we | :07:00. | :07:03. | |
believe the category needed more resistance, more human assistance. | :07:04. | :07:10. | |
-- assistance. We are offering sizes unavailable in the market. Only 5% | :07:11. | :07:14. | |
of revenue comes from products for sizes which don't exist in the | :07:15. | :07:19. | |
market. That was the founder of the e-commerce website Zivame speaking | :07:20. | :07:26. | |
with the BBC. In India, Delhi is the most polluted city on the planet | :07:27. | :07:28. | |
according to the World Health Organisation. Studies have shown car | :07:29. | :07:32. | |
commissions are a major cause of the problem. The government is now | :07:33. | :07:36. | |
trying to restrict the use of cars to bring the levels of pollution | :07:37. | :07:42. | |
down, but is this enough? Our correspondent reports from Delhi. | :07:43. | :07:49. | |
Just one among millions. It is morning rush hour in Delhi. Cars | :07:50. | :07:56. | |
slowly inching. A city that is slowly choking. Diarra is five years | :07:57. | :08:05. | |
old. She develops a serious cough every three months -- Diarra. Twice | :08:06. | :08:15. | |
a day she has to have a masked releasing medicine directly into her | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
lungs. To have a problem you cannot tackle is disturbing because I can't | :08:23. | :08:24. | |
do much to control it and the pollution level seems to be rising. | :08:25. | :08:29. | |
Delhi's air is the worst in the world. Its 25 times more toxic than | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
the safe levels set by the World Health Organization. And cars are | :08:36. | :08:40. | |
responsible for nearly half of the most dangerous pollutants -- it is | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
25. Every week more than 3000 new cars are added to the roads of the | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
city. The government has been trying to restrict their use and has banned | :08:50. | :08:52. | |
cars that are more than 15 years old. Studies are available too deep | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
to say that the maximal effect of air pollution is up to 500 metres | :08:59. | :09:03. | |
from the roadside. When they apply that criteria to Delhi, they found | :09:04. | :09:09. | |
that more than about 60% of Delhi's 17 million people actually live | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
within that zone. 17 million people that need to get around. This is one | :09:15. | :09:21. | |
of the city's main tube stations. You've literally got to battle | :09:22. | :09:24. | |
through crowds to get onto a Delhi Metro train at rush hour, and this | :09:25. | :09:28. | |
is when there are not any restrictions on car use in the city, | :09:29. | :09:33. | |
so while the pollution problem might need urgent and perhaps dramatic | :09:34. | :09:38. | |
measures to be taken, it could take years for there to be more public | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
transport infrastructure for people to travel between their homes and | :09:43. | :09:51. | |
workplaces. And before we go, here is a quick look at the markets, and | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
so far so good. A positive day for the regional stock markets. The | :09:57. | :10:03. | |
Nikkei 2%, 321 points, this is due to be better than expected | :10:04. | :10:05. | |
manufacturing report and the IMF approving the move by the Bank of | :10:06. | :10:10. | |
Japan of their negative interest-rate policy. The all | :10:11. | :10:13. | |
ordinaries index is gaining three quarters of a percent because of a | :10:14. | :10:17. | |
rising oil prices. The Hong Kong Hang Seng index is up about 1%, | :10:18. | :10:23. | |
that's 172 points. Overall, it is a good day for the regional stocks. | :10:24. | :10:30. | |
Thank you so much for investing your time with us. IM Rico Hizon. Sport | :10:31. | :10:34. | |
Today is | :10:35. | :10:35. |