01/11/2017 Asia Business Report

to drop allegations of rape

by a party member.

Now on BBC News all the latest

business news live from Singapore.

India given a big boost in countries

that want to do business with it. 46

million people affected in Malaysia.

Good morning, Asia, hello, world.

Glad you could join us. An exciting

show a head. For the first time

India has jumped into 100 place on

the World Bank 's annual rankings of

countries of doing business in the

region and the world, climbing 30

spots. Is this a sign that the

economics is working?

Signs are

definitely encouraging for the

economy that has seen a growth

falling for the last quarter and the

worst performance in the past three

years. What we have seen in the

World Bank report is India has run

up in ranking when it comes to

paying taxes and the keys of paying

taxes thanks to the online reforms

from the government and protection

of minority investors were India has

shown a massive improvement which

has held it to the scale of the top

100 club of growing economies also

another area it has improved is the

ease of access to credit. Permits

are still required to start a

business and this is where it

falters. The report mentions the

number of days it takes has come

down to 127 to 30 days in the past

15 years and that is a massive boost

but for that business to start the

number of licences required, that

still remains a worry.

Still many

challenges for the Modi

Administration but how aggressive is

Prime Minister Modi in pushing these

reforms?

For the government, it has

been a silver lining because it has

been under pressure after fall in

growth, job numbers that still look

relatively small and this report has

not taken into consideration the

massive tax reform of goods and

services tax - uniform tax - across

the country. Because businesses have

been suffering will have to wait and

see how that impacts the next

report.

Malaysia has been hit by a

data breach and it is believed that

the entire country, with a

population of 32 million, might have

been affected. What more can you

tell us about this hack?

The data of

more than 46 million mobile

customers in Malaysia has been

leaked into the so-called dark Web

and the population is about 32

million and this may affect the

entire country. We also saw public

websites such as the medical

Association, dental Association,

jobs through .com and even a housing

website seen the data taken and

posted in the dark Web. When first

discovered, it found an individual

trying to sell this for an

undisclosed amount of Bitcoin. The

data was compromised between 2000 14

and 2015.

Regulators and are

investigating. The breach is a very

deep and what can consumers do to

protect themselves?

Under Malaysian

law is, service providers are

supposed to keep data secure saw the

could be legal repercussions. -- so

there could be. Having compromised

data is a serious threat, especially

since criminals can use information

for identity theft and fraud.

Thank

you very much. Technology executives

have finished their first day of

testimony on Capitol Hill in

Washington. It is the first time we

presented from Facebook, Google and

Twitter have appeared publicly in a

matter of Russian interference in

the presidential election. Dave Lee

described to us the mood at the

hearing.

It was a fairly

uncomfortable ride for the three

technology companies. They put on

something of a united front stop

they wanted to show the senators

that they were capable, they say, of

dealing with this problem on the

rain and the problem is frankly

enormous. Facebook has said as many

as 126 million users may have been

used. Google and Twitter also having

widespread problems. They say they

are going to enforce stricter

policies, more transparent policies

and that will solve this problem for

a car in stock -- we are carrying.

Senators do not seem as convinced.

They are pushing for regulations.

The company is of course do not want

that.

After these three committee

hearings, at what do politicians

plan to do with all this

information?

They are going to see

at first the extent and what

patterns have emerged that can be

applied to protecting the integrity

of future elections will the

regulation I mentioned, there is a

bill being at, the honest and, which

would put in place some regulations

particularly when Anand has been

paid for by a political party but it

becomes very complex. How do you

know when a certain group is a

political party. We are just

starting to see the tip of the

iceberg where we tried to see what

regulation if any could be effective

in tackling this. The tech companies

think they are in the best place to

do this.

The reserve is in the

middle of a meeting with many

analysts not expecting a move in

interest rates until December at all

eyes on who will replace Janet

Yellen with her term expiring in

January. Jerome Powell is the

favourite. He is a Republican.

Another contender is John Taylor.

His stamp that economists and always

on the Republican list of potential

fed chairs. He has never been given

the job. Should Janet Yellen stay

on?

She should. Someone is credible

as her. Important for this

president. All the other candidates

are either less credible in terms of

the economic background or they are

more or kitsch. However she is a

Democrat. And President Trump has

been trying to overturn so many

things that Barack Obama did. The

expectation is she's going to make

it.

One of the favourites is Jerome

Powell. Why could he be the logical

choice?

Because he would offer

continuity. He has been on the Fed

board for quite well. He is not a

well-trained economist and he is

unlikely to drive a big change in

opinion among the rest of the voting

members. He will not influence of

half the board who have Ph.D. Is in

economics, for example. He will

offer continuity and if you want low

interest rates, which presumably

President Trump wants, putting him

in would be the obvious choice.

Why

it should John Taylor be the man?

He

is a huge figure. He looks at how

far you are from unemployment target

and comes up with estimates. This is

called the Taylor rule and it is

used by many central banks will not

at some point. However the problem

is, the rule tells you interest

rates should be 2% above where they

are at the moment clearly scare the

markets.

Bitcoin is getting closer

to being recognised. A move could

make the digital currency more

financially mainstream. A quick look

at the markets and most of Asia is

in positive territory. Rising oil

prices have helped. Have a wonderful

Wednesday, everyone.