08/03/2016 BBC Business Live

This is Business Live from BBC News with Sally Bundock and Victoria

Two years on from the disappearance of flight MH370, has safety

We look at the facts as key players in the industry warn important

changes are not being made fast enough.

Live from London, that's our focus today -

Two years on since flight MH370 disappeared,

new global standards are announced for flight safety.

But it will take years before they come into force.

We ask, has enough been done to improve flight safety?

Also in the programme: The energy firm Npower says it's cutting almost

2400 jobs in the UK as it announces a loss of more than $150-million

And we've got the latest from the markets -

where China trade tumbles, the mood sours on stock markets

and traders wonder is the slowdown deepening?

And on International Woman's Day the head of the International

Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde speaks exclusively to

the BBC about lots of things

including her view on the UK's future in Europe.

Plus bonuses on Wall Street have fallen 27% in the last 10

years - the average bonus is now around $146,000.

Today we want to know, is this too high?

Do you feel for the bankers whose bonuses are declining?

Don't hold back, you know how to get in touch -

It's been two years since Malaysia Airlines flight

And, despite a $130 million search operation,

the aircraft has still not been found.

Many questions were raised at the time about flight safety -

The UN's aviation agency has adopted rules that aircrafts

in distress need to report their location every minute.

The idea is that it makes missing planes easier to find.

Those rules come into effect in 2021.

It has also approved plans to extend the life of the location beacons

But that, too, will take time - coming into force in 2018.

The US says by 2020 all aircraft in its airspace

will need to be fitted with a new type of satellite

tracking technology, but so far there's been no agreed

The head of the NTSB - America's crash investigation agency

- says he's concerned about the slow pace of progress,

in adopting new technologies - and that it's long overdue.

Independent aviation expert David Learmount is with us.

Why are these changes taking so long? Much of the demands are

extremely technologically demanding, such as making

sure that a black box that goes to the bottom of the sea can continue

to send its signal, it is much, much easier to say than to do. To keep it

in perspective, the airlines are voluntarily adopting a lot of the

technology that can be adopted, and they have already done it.

But none of the technology will prevent events happening. They are

all designed to enable us to find the wreckage,

case of MH370, after two years we still have not, and therefore to

learn what happened, and possibly if we are tracking the aircraft all the

time, if we had been tracking MH370 all the time, we might have been

able to save a few lives wherever it went down, and that of course

is a possibility. That technology is already here. Sorry to

interrupt, Sally. You are saying that even if these improvements come

into effect in the next few years, planes are not

going to be, in and of themselves, any safer? They will not be safer,

because the black-box recorder is easier to find. We will learn more

quickly what happened to the aircraft, we will even

find the aircraft more quickly. We will be able to improve, if

technology was involved in the failure, but increasingly nowadays

when aircraft go missing or have an accident it isn't technology.

Aircraft and engineering is getting so good now that it is usually human

factors, and there is not much you can do about that technology. And

where is it that planes are out of Because it is not won a plane is

overland, is it, but when they are over the

ocean? Mostly if they are overland, there are some wilderness or desert

areas where it would not be true that they would be on radar or some

other form of surveillance. It is over the host Yannick areas,

by and large, that the aircraft cannot be seen. -- the oceanic

areas. But technology has been adopted by a lot of airlines for

making sure the owners can track the aircraft at all times. Basically

they send out a pinger via satellite and the

agreement is that every 15 minutes you get an update of that aircraft's

position. We appreciate your time, thank you

for coming in and talking about that. It is a story that has been

covered extensively today on BBC world News Addis is the two-year

anniversary. -- as it is the two-year anniversary.

Energy firm Npower says it's cutting almost 2500 jobs,

more than a fifth of its UK workforce.

The German-owned firm made an operating loss of more

than $150-million last year and it warned billing issues

would lead to more problems this year.

The sportswear giant Nike has suspended its ties

with the tennis star Maria Sharapova, after she admitted

Energy firm Npower says it's cutting almost 2500 jobs,

The positive test was for meldonium - a substance she claims she has

been taking since 2006 for health issues.

Ms Sharapova is the world's highest paid female athlete.

And Japan's economy shrank less than previously thought in the last

Asia's number two economy contracted at an annualised rate of 1.1%.

This is a slight improvement on the previous estimate.

Japan has been trying to revive its flagging economy,

which has struggled with deflation for nearly 20 years.

programme, we will hear from some rising stars in business

including Christine Lagarde. This lady on the Business Live page,

Martha Lane Fox, who became very well-known in the UK many years ago

when she and another individual launched lastminute.com, which many

people bought would disappear very quickly when the dot-com bubble

burst, but it is still going strong. She is talking about the fact that

the percentage of women running or

involved in technology companies in the UK is less than the number of

women in parliament, which I found astounding

They say only about 17% of women work in tech, she says it is even

smaller in the venture capital world, 9% of the people she deals

with our women overall in that sector.

focus on China yet again, bad news from the world's number two economy.

Latest economic figures from China show that exports in February

plunged to their lowest level in six years.

Are they taking their cue from what has happened with trade figures?

They have, stocks fell before recovering before the close of trade

in China. Today the numbers were grim, exports fell by more than 25%

last month, compared that to about 11% in January, imports falling 14%,

cooling demand both at home and abroad, so this is reinforcing

worries that there is weakness in China's economy. It is worth

mentioning that the trade numbers have been affected by the lunar New

Year holiday when factory shut down for a week so businesses come to a

standstill. But economists say ultimately there is a deep malaise

in China's economy and its trading partners are affected so we see a

corresponding drop in their numbers as well. The question is what the

Chinese government will do to stimulate growth. When the leaders

gather in Beijing this week, we will keep a close eye on what their

economic plans are going to be. We certainly will, thank you.

They're tracking, as is often the case these days,

what's going on with the commodities markets.

Energy stocks across Asia were lower.

At one stage on Monday, Brent crude oil was trading at $41.04.

We're seeing oil come back from that point though.

Trading across Europe already low, the Footsie dragged down by mining

stocks. Michelle Fleury is our

correspondent in New York. Here she is, with America's

business agenda. Fears about the help of the US

economy have been overdone, the American stock market has broadly

speaking been in rally mode for the last few weeks and last Friday's

jobs report pointed to a growing Labour force. In a relatively light

week for economic data, one to watch this Tuesday is the national

Federation of Independent business is optimism report, investors pay

attention to this to see if small businesses are braving pay, and

early sign that wage growth across the economy may soon be coming. If

the labour market were overheating it would support the Federal

reserve's case for raising rates this year, but economists do not

expect America's Central Bank to make any move at its policy meeting

next week. On the earnings front, a sporting retailer will be announcing

its results, with its fortunes expected

to be lifted because of the bankruptcy of a rebel.

We are joined by Richard Hunter, independent market analyst.

Good taboo here. Do you feel the rated as an

independent?! Good to have you here, We could not reveal the numbers in

the screens, but it all headed south in Europe. A lot going on, safety is

back in passion today, and yet not that long ago I was saying it was

out of passion, everybody getting back into shares, the oil price

going down, today it is still above $40 a barrel. Yes, and the Dow Jones

finished slightly up yesterday, down about 2% on the year-to-date, which

compares to mid-February when it was down 10%. We know the European

markets have had a rally as well. It is probably too early to decide

whether we have turned a corner, a couple of things have changed over

the last few days which could be rather more positive. The market is

not going to go up in a straight line as we are seeing this morning

but on the one hand you have the five-year economic plan from China

over the weekend which implied, apart from an annual GDP growth of

6.5-7%, it implied a move away from manufacturing into a more consumer

the back burner which means the the back burner which means the

Chinese are focusing on growth. At the same time, another good set of

jobs figures from the state on Friday, 242,000 above expectations,

and the likelihood of a June interest rate hike in the States in

terms of the spread betters, if you like, has gone up to 50%. One of the

worries we have had in the year to date is slowing global growth and in

particular recession in the States, but those two latest indicators from

the two worlds largest economies are a pretty good mood. There is a lot

riding on the US. We will have you back here later to talk about the

papers. Still to come, Christine Lagarde

speaks exclusively to the BBC, giving her views on lots of

different things, including what the UK should do about its future in

Europe. This is Business Live from BBC News.

Npower, the British unit of German utility RWE,

has announced it will cut 2,400 out of 11,500 positions,

after it made an operating loss last year.

Joe Lynam has been following the story for us.

These jobs numbers coming in, they were widely trailed over the

weekend, more detail coming through today. How bad is the situation for

Europe and the energy prices that we are seeing?

Yes, we had the 2400 jobs -- we heard that 2400 jobs would be going,

the number touted at the weekend was 2500 so slightly better than we

expected. Losses for and power the 20 14th at around ?100 million, huge

loss -- losses the Npower in 2014. The last three months have got

progressively worse. It is the question of customer service, that

is the real issue for Npower. They had a poor reputation for customer

service and will find ?26 million by the regulator, Ofgem, in December

for treating customers unfairly. They say they have radically changed

things around and in their statement this morning

they said they would fundamentally change the business so it reflects

the needs of shareholders and customers. They put their hand up

and say it is going to be a huge task and would take a while, two

years with these job cuts to kick in. Let me show you the RW we share

price, you can see it has pretty much tracked the fall in oil prices

around the world but over the last three months it has stabilised bit

as oil you have been discussing, have also

stabilised. So Npower putting 2400 jobs, now confirmed.

Lots more about that story on the Business Live page, including this

story as well, Burberry shares doing well today.

Shares rising today on reports that we're going to be talking about in

our papers section with Richard about possible bid actually for the

company. Someone is building a stake in the firm at the moment. They

don't actually know who it is. So the search is on and Richard, our

markets guy who, is coming back, he says he has a Burberry tie.

Unfortunately he forgot to put it on today. Had he known, he would have

put it on! Our top story, two years

on from the disappearance Key players in the industry warn

important changes are not being made Today is International Women's Day

and all day we're going to be bringing you the thoughts of women

in business right across the world. She's the chief financial officer

of the Indian telecoms giant The company has one of the longest

undersea cable networks It stretches more than

500,000 kilometres. The company also owns the world's

only fibre optic ring Tata Communications has more

than 8,000 staff globally The BBC's Jamie Robertson caught up

with Pratibha Advani, to find out more about the business

and the obstacles facing women trying to rise to the top

of business in India. In all fairness I have to confess I

haven't found that women hit the glass ceiling. And really not faced

any obstacles so when I look back and reflect on my career journey, I

have worked with the large Indian conglomerate where the company

policies were so good. When I had my kids, I recall for almost a year I

was working half days. Haven't you just been lucky, do you think? Not

really. If you actually see some of the women in business in India for

example, a large private bank in India is headed by a woman. There is

another multinational bank in India whose CEO used to be a woman. So you

are seeing a lot of women rising up to the top positions in India. But

generally, for women, isn't it hard for them to rise up through the

ranks in a business in India? I would say from an organisation's

standing point, yes women are acceptable across all levels. But

what tends to happen, at mid-career level you start to see them dropping

out. So at the lower levels, you will see a lot of women. So almost

30%, 40% of the workforce would be women. But as they start to climb

the careers is when the dropping off starts to happen and I think that's

more an account of family pressure, the need to raise children and I

guess Indian men will still take some time to be equal partners. But

what can you do at the top of an organisation to help the process of

gender diversification? I think there is a lot of emphasis being

placed on organisations to drive gender diversity. Just leaving it to

corporations is not something I believe in. As a matter of fact, we

need to move on and become more gender neutral both at home as well

as an organisation. So you're putting the onus on society, not on

business? Business can't do very much, can it? Actually in India, the

biggest enemies for women are women themselves. You will find the

mother-in-law was always trying to badger the daughter-in-law. So

unless we start to educate women, and once you educate them, they're

going to see the need and realise the need for, you know, their

daughters and daurls to go out and work -- daughter in laws to go out

and create a place for themselves. Pratibha Advani there from Tata

Communications. Big players are being brought,

whether they like it or not, into the debate over whether Britain

should leave the European Union. Later today the Governor

of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, will be asked

about the Bank's preparations in the event of Britain's

departure from the EU. Meanwhile, the Managing Director

of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, says both the UK and the EU

would suffer if Britain decided The IMF boss told the BBC's Katy Kay

that any uncertainty surrounding Well, at the IMF we believe it is

critical that this situation be resolved as quickly as possible to

eliminate the uncertainty which is all negative for economic

circumstances and decision making processes. My intuition tells me

that outcome would be better for both the UK and Europe if it was a

positive one, in other words, if the UK was to stay, we are currently

working... You would prefer to see Britain stay? I would personally,

that's a personal preference, I would personally very much prefer to

see the UK stay in European Union, but I believe our economic findings

will strongly support that view that it would hurt both, the UK and the

EU if the UK was to go. We are working on that. We will be

delivering the results of our findings later on in the year, in

May. Before the referendum? Well, that's when our Article 4, the audit

of each large economy will be completed and we will come out

publicly in that respect, yes. Christine had a lot more to say to

Katy Kay, you can catch that interview full-on our website.

As promised, Richard the independent is back. It is a hot topic ta always

gets a big response from viewers bankers bonuses. We have had a few

tweets in. One viewer says, "The real question is should they be

deserved? No profit or still owning Government money. Therefore, no know

bus." We have got many more which are negative. Another viewer says,

"They are a great incentive to increase productivity. The higher

the better." Richard, your thought? The drop is no surprise. We are

talking about 2006 which was two years prior to the financial crisis

when the world was a different place. In terms of 2016 quite apart

fromle volatility that we have had in the intervening years in terms of

regulation, and general regulatory red tape, banks had to employ more

and more compliance people. That brings the average bonus down. There

has been as we have seen in the UK, the requirement to ring-fence the

retail and investment banking operations. All of these things, of

course, had an impact. This has been discussed in the financial times

today. Regulation is taking its toll on bonuses, the average bonus is

?146,200. Many argue they are getting the benefits, but it happens

through other means? What happens in investment banking is bonuses been

calculated as some percentage of the overall profit. Clearly, even the

investment banks in this day and age are not making the kind of money

they were making before and therefore, the percentages are lower

and not surprisingly the bonuses have drifted lower also.

On that story, I saw on the Evening Standard there is a big pay

disparity between men and women when it comes to bonuses in financial

services. However, I will move on. Let's talk about a story that's in

the Times and the Financial Times, Burberry is trying to find out the

identity of a mystery investor, they have built up a stake of 5% in the

group and shares today are rising? Yes, that's right. The potential of

any sort of M and A activity is something the market likes. Burberry

had a tough time of late. It has a large exposure to China where a lot

of the consumers are pulling their belts it. It shouldn't be too

difficult for Burberry to find out the identity of this individual or

individuals, there is disclosure rules. If your share holding goes up

to 3%, they can find out. The picture in the times is of

Christopher Bailey who is relatively new of Chief Executive as Burberry,

he is there with Cate Blanchett, he took over when the former Chief

Executive was head-hunted by Apple. Just to say, as it is international

women's day, a couple of years ago, as CEO of Burberry, she was the

highest paid CEO in the UK. So she was not only a FTSE 100 chief, the

highest paid FTSE 100 chief sthnchts yeah, that's right and Burberry had

a very good few years of it. What about since she left? There were a

lot of questions... That's been more difficult. Not so much in terms of

his particular background which is more on the sort of design side, but

also of course, given Burberry's exposure to Asia and China in

particular, they have had a slightly rockier ride. The flip side of that,

of course, is Japanese and Chinese tourists haven't been coming to

Europe so much and that was another big area for Burberry as well. They

have had a tricky time. Yeah, that's it from Business Live

for today. There will be more business news

throughout the day on the BBC Live webpage and on World Business

Report. Zblel Hello, the weather is chopping

and changing a fair bit through the rest of this week. It has been a

cold start, but it should be milder by the end, this morning, we were

well below freezing for