:00:00. > :00:00.arrangements following the attack in front. However, counterterrorism
:00:00. > :00:00.officers insist there is no specific intelligence to suggest imminent
:00:00. > :00:19.attack. Now, let's go to Singapore for the business news live. Our
:00:20. > :00:25.phone users hanging up on Apple? Attacked I impose a drop in sales
:00:26. > :00:28.for the second straight quarter. -- detector imposes. And the bitter
:00:29. > :00:39.taste in the world is the biggest sugar market. -- the tech giant
:00:40. > :00:43.imposes. Good morning Asia, hello world, it is a Wednesday, glad you
:00:44. > :00:49.can join us for this edition of Asia Business Report with me, Rico Hizon.
:00:50. > :00:53.Tech darling Apple boasting 27% drop in net profit for the second quarter
:00:54. > :01:00.which came in at just under $8 billion. Revenue also falling by
:01:01. > :01:04.nearly 15% with a slump in earnings due to lower sales in iPhones, but
:01:05. > :01:07.it wasn't as bad as the market feared. Our correspondent has the
:01:08. > :01:14.details in New York. The iPhone, it is still Apple's peak Moneymaker,
:01:15. > :01:19.accounting for two thirds of its revenue. Its importance to the
:01:20. > :01:23.company's bottom line cannot be overstated and the company remains
:01:24. > :01:31.the world's most profitable consumer electronics company by a substantial
:01:32. > :01:34.market margin. In 2016, the headline for Apple has been the declining
:01:35. > :01:39.popularity of its flagship product -- margin. But for all the sharp
:01:40. > :01:43.declines, Apple's performance was still better than expected in the
:01:44. > :01:46.last three months. And that, of course, was welcome news for
:01:47. > :01:50.investors. So, the question is what happens now? Customers and investors
:01:51. > :01:59.are looking forward to September when the iPhone seven is released.
:02:00. > :02:03.Apple expects to sell between 45 and 47 million iPhones in the next
:02:04. > :02:09.quarter. That is a sign that it really believes the decline in
:02:10. > :02:16.iPhone sales will be reversed. And in after-hours trading in the US,
:02:17. > :02:19.Apple shares up by 7%. Twitter has also been reporting earnings and the
:02:20. > :02:24.microblogging site is seeing its slowest growth in quarterly revenue
:02:25. > :02:28.since its share sale in 2013. The company is facing some tough
:02:29. > :02:32.competition from other social media platforms, like Instagram and
:02:33. > :02:37.SnapChat, but its number of monthly active users rose by 3%, and that is
:02:38. > :02:41.an important gauge for advertisers. Earlier, I spoke with an analyst
:02:42. > :02:46.from a technology market research company, and first asked if Twitter
:02:47. > :02:50.needs to change its corporate strategy in light of the competitive
:02:51. > :02:54.industry. Twitter is making some changes to the way it counts
:02:55. > :03:01.characters and links with pictures and videos won't longer be added.
:03:02. > :03:07.What it's doing with live streaming with partnerships with NFL, MBA,
:03:08. > :03:11.showing democratic and republican debate on Twitter, live with feeds
:03:12. > :03:14.and commentaries on the site, I think that is the step forward
:03:15. > :03:17.Twitter is taking -- NBA. It is a strong step forward but we need to
:03:18. > :03:21.see whether that is going to make revenue or generate advertising. So
:03:22. > :03:24.do you think eventually with all of these challenges for Twitter, it
:03:25. > :03:32.could be a takeover target? Yesterday we saw the search engine
:03:33. > :03:37.of Yahoo being bought by Horizon. Could it be a takeover target? It
:03:38. > :03:44.could as well be, if anything, the Microsoft linked acquisition, and we
:03:45. > :03:48.have huge companies like Google looking for more and more revenue.
:03:49. > :03:50.Twitter could be a very good target for Google, especially with chat
:03:51. > :03:55.pots and artificial intelligence coming in and the huge Twitter
:03:56. > :04:01.-based that Twitter has could serve as a key metric for acquisition --
:04:02. > :04:03.chat bots. India's government is still deciding who will be the next
:04:04. > :04:11.head of the country's central bank when the current governor leaves
:04:12. > :04:16.this September. Mr Rajan hinted he was hoping for a second term but
:04:17. > :04:23.talks with government made him decide against it. So, should he
:04:24. > :04:27.have been encouraged to state on? Our correspondent speaks with his
:04:28. > :04:30.predecessor. The economy would have been better served had he continued
:04:31. > :04:38.to see through the implementation of all the reforms and initiatives he
:04:39. > :04:41.started and it's disappointing that he is going away at this point in
:04:42. > :04:46.time -- stay on? There are many who now think that because Rajan was
:04:47. > :04:50.very outspoken, sometimes he would criticise government policies, he
:04:51. > :04:53.has also spoken on issues outside the monetary policy, that was also a
:04:54. > :04:57.reason why the government wasn't keen to give him a second term. Do
:04:58. > :05:00.you think that the reserve bank governor could stick just to the
:05:01. > :05:04.monetary policy and he or she shouldn't be commenting outside
:05:05. > :05:12.that? No, I don't believe in that point of view. Traditionally,
:05:13. > :05:18.normally, governors have spoken to issues within the domain of the
:05:19. > :05:26.central bank, but they have been -- there are being examples of this
:05:27. > :05:31.occurring beyond the domain of the central bank, so I don't think there
:05:32. > :05:35.should be any code of conduct on what they can do. The world is
:05:36. > :05:39.running short on sugar and tighter supplies have driven prices at their
:05:40. > :05:43.highest levels in almost four years. It started with a slow harvest in
:05:44. > :05:46.Brazil but now India faces falling production as well. Our
:05:47. > :05:56.correspondent has the details from Delhi. This is a business that
:05:57. > :05:59.depends on sugar. This woman uses about 90 kilos of the sweet stuff
:06:00. > :06:05.per month on whether it is in her cake mix or the icing. And as the
:06:06. > :06:13.price of sugar has gone up, so too has costing. It is a rise that
:06:14. > :06:17.customers might have eventually to swallow. No one wants to pay more in
:06:18. > :06:20.the next month, if it drastically goes up, so we will have to do
:06:21. > :06:24.something about the pricing. Because a huge increase in the sugar price
:06:25. > :06:31.is definitely going to affect the business. While consumers don't want
:06:32. > :06:34.to pay more for the sugar they eat, India's 15 million cane farmers want
:06:35. > :06:42.to earn more for the sugar they grow. Two successive droughts in the
:06:43. > :06:45.country's main sugar belt means production this year is likely to be
:06:46. > :06:50.hit. To deter sugar mills from selling abroad and so keeping
:06:51. > :06:59.domestic supply and prices stable, the government has introduced a tax
:07:00. > :07:03.on exports. But they are confident they have enough stock to meet
:07:04. > :07:08.demand. There is no shortage, I think that has been hiked up too
:07:09. > :07:13.much to create a sense of a shortage that is not there. The issue is what
:07:14. > :07:16.is the resting price? The balance of price between sugarcane and sugar,
:07:17. > :07:20.that is the crux of the game, to keep the farmers getting paid and
:07:21. > :07:23.for the industry to be viable to be able to pay the farmer. India is
:07:24. > :07:27.trying to strike a fine balance, making sure that sugar is still
:07:28. > :07:31.available to buy and that prices don't climb too high. Getting that
:07:32. > :07:39.wrong could leave a bitter taste for many here in the world's the guest
:07:40. > :07:42.sugar market. -- biggest. Indonesian capital Jakarta has a well earned
:07:43. > :07:45.reputation for having some of the worst traffic in the world. Every
:07:46. > :07:53.day, drivers can spend hours in a sea of red rake lights, as almost 4
:07:54. > :07:57.million private cars make their way through the city together with 14
:07:58. > :08:00.one half million motorcycles -- brake lights. Traffic is so
:08:01. > :08:07.congested the average weekday speed is a mere six kilometres per hour.
:08:08. > :08:11.Now, officials are trialling an odds and evens numberplate system to try
:08:12. > :08:16.to limit the number of cars. Earlier I spoke to my college in Jakarta and
:08:17. > :08:23.first asked her what it is like on the roads of the capital. Well, it
:08:24. > :08:28.is very tough in the morning. We have to spend about 20 to 30 minutes
:08:29. > :08:34.just to pass 500 metres in Jakarta's thoroughfares, so it means we see
:08:35. > :08:37.difficulties for workers and companies. The workers who live in
:08:38. > :08:42.rural areas have to spare at least two hours for their commute time,
:08:43. > :08:48.and also for the companies, they need to arrange their way to deliver
:08:49. > :08:53.goods or also arranging meetings. So, it really affects how we manage
:08:54. > :08:58.lives. Thank goodness you were able to make it to Asia Business Report's
:08:59. > :09:02.programme today! All right, tell us, with this odd and even traffic
:09:03. > :09:09.policy, how much do they plan to reduce traffic? Well, the city
:09:10. > :09:13.officials say it will reduce 20%- 30% of the numbers of vehicles that
:09:14. > :09:18.are passing through the Jakarta thoroughfares every day, so it
:09:19. > :09:25.means... Because every day there are 600,000 vehicles passing by the
:09:26. > :09:29.roads every hour, it means it will save or reduce 120,000- 180,000
:09:30. > :09:33.vehicles per hour, so it means a lot, actually. , it is about
:09:34. > :09:38.discipline for all the drivers out there in this odd- even plate system
:09:39. > :09:45.- if they don't comply, what are the fines? Well, for now, because this
:09:46. > :09:51.is a month-long trial, there will be no fine, but after it is implemented
:09:52. > :09:54.by August 30, there will be, well, very minimal fine, actually, but
:09:55. > :10:00.afterwards city officials say they are actually watching closely about
:10:01. > :10:06.this policy, because they say that eventually they will take to find
:10:07. > :10:13.very seriously, up to 500,000 rupees, which is only $50. Our BBC
:10:14. > :10:18.correspondent in Jakarta. And before we go, a look at the markets
:10:19. > :10:23.currently, and as you can see on the screens, on positive terms for the
:10:24. > :10:29.Nikkei five, up 1.4%, and the all ordinaries index gaining 20 points,
:10:30. > :10:32.and this despite a lacklustre day on Wall Street overnight. Thank you so
:10:33. > :10:39.much for investing your time with us. IM Rico Hizon. Sport Today is up
:10:40. > :10:42.next -- IM Rico Hizon. I'm Kasia Madera. The top stories this hour:
:10:43. > :10:44.Hillary Clinton has become the first ever female presidential nominee for
:10:45. > :10:46.a major party in a US election. Delegates at the Democratic Party
:10:47. > :10:47.National Convention in the United States