29/12/2015

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:00:00. > :00:16.Now here's Alice with World Business Report.

:00:17. > :00:18.Ailing Japanese conglomerate Toshiba says it's going to borrow

:00:19. > :00:26.a massive $2.5 billion to help revamp its businesses.

:00:27. > :00:30.And, is the start up boom in India in fact just a bubble in danger

:00:31. > :00:43.In a minute we'll hear from the founder

:00:44. > :00:53.2015 was a boom year for start-ups as more

:00:54. > :00:57.and more people launched their own companies, many of them harnessing

:00:58. > :01:02.the popularity of smartphones to develop tech businesses.

:01:03. > :01:07.But while a handful gained the status of unicorns valued at over $1

:01:08. > :01:10.billion, suspicions have been growing that not all of them will

:01:11. > :01:32.After the boom times came the layoffs, hundreds of them. Ugly

:01:33. > :01:37.scenes in huge when sacked workers refused to leave officers. Any

:01:38. > :01:40.question if India's start-ups, which sells billions of dollars in

:01:41. > :01:46.investment in recent years, are in fact overhyped. -- which sold. For

:01:47. > :01:51.some entrepreneurs it was a hard lesson learned. Like this 30-year

:01:52. > :01:56.roles. His first venture was a success and lack up by investors.

:01:57. > :02:01.But his second start up field because it wasn't able to raise

:02:02. > :02:07.money. Despite shutting shop, he is eager to start another one soon.

:02:08. > :02:11.Where we really went wrong, and I personally did as a founder, just

:02:12. > :02:20.give it your level best. The chances are very high. You end up losing the

:02:21. > :02:24.game right when there is an opportunity. But you just hang your

:02:25. > :02:31.boots there, which I did. In some cafes like this, over a hot drink

:02:32. > :02:37.and laptop, are many -- is where many of India's start-ups begin. And

:02:38. > :02:41.money is coming in, about 6.5 dollars was invested in India's

:02:42. > :02:48.start-ups in 2015 alone, three times what we saw in the previous year.

:02:49. > :02:51.That makes some people here in the -- into millionaires overnight. But

:02:52. > :02:55.people are now asking how sustainable this is. A large pool of

:02:56. > :03:02.engineers and technology firms here has meant that India is now a hub

:03:03. > :03:07.for online start-ups. But most are yet to turn profits and investments

:03:08. > :03:13.are largely speculations. Sometimes a lot of hard lessons are learned

:03:14. > :03:20.early on. But as money becomes smarter, potential employees become

:03:21. > :03:23.more aware of the risks. You begin to see a healthy adjustment in the

:03:24. > :03:28.marketplace and that's usually for the betterment of all participants,

:03:29. > :03:32.from invested to start-ups and employees. -- investments. Some are

:03:33. > :03:39.turning to new avenues for money, pitching directly to crowds of

:03:40. > :03:45.investors who put in small amounts. With the recent US Fed interest rate

:03:46. > :03:51.hike, investors are now less likely to spend on start-ups in India. And

:03:52. > :03:52.as funds dry up, the competition of entrepreneurs chasing the money will

:03:53. > :03:57.only increase further. Japanese giant Toshiba makes

:03:58. > :03:58.everything from consumer electronics to nuclear

:03:59. > :04:01.power plants, but it is reeling from It now says it intends to ask

:04:02. > :04:11.for a new 300 billion yen, that's a stonking $2.49 billion,

:04:12. > :04:14.credit line by the end of January to Mariko Oi is in our Asia Business

:04:15. > :04:35.Hub in Singapore. What kind of restructuring does it

:04:36. > :04:38.require this amount of money for? Well, the company has already

:04:39. > :04:46.announced that it is going to cut more than 10,000 jobs, mainly from

:04:47. > :04:49.consumer electronics. The company has already warned investors that it

:04:50. > :04:54.is likely to have lost $4.5 billion this year, which is a record loss.

:04:55. > :04:59.This new credit line that it is asking for today comes just after it

:05:00. > :05:06.asks for some 400 million yen as well, about $3 billion just in

:05:07. > :05:10.September. All this as the company tries to recover from that

:05:11. > :05:13.accounting scandal in which the company has said it overstated its

:05:14. > :05:20.profits by more than $1 billion over the last decade. The company shares

:05:21. > :05:24.are up by just about 1%, but I should mention that shares have been

:05:25. > :05:30.tumbling by some 40% since the accounting scandal. Down about 15%

:05:31. > :05:34.last week alone. Basically the company has to ask for this credit

:05:35. > :05:38.line because the shares are now put on the special watch category by the

:05:39. > :05:42.Tokyo stock exchange. It only has a few ways to raise funds and

:05:43. > :05:48.therefore the company is asking for an extra $2.5 billion, with only a

:05:49. > :05:51.few more days to go this year. It is also selling off bits of the company

:05:52. > :05:58.and slashing the workforce quite severely? Indeed. And the company's

:05:59. > :06:04.chairman has been speaking to some local media and he was quoted by

:06:05. > :06:09.saying that he is considering selling some units and that's partly

:06:10. > :06:13.why the company's shares are covering today. There have been a

:06:14. > :06:17.lot of questions about why the company didn't make these moves a

:06:18. > :06:22.lot sooner and how the company... How the company could overstate its

:06:23. > :06:28.profit for so long without anyone noticing. So it's a massive scandal

:06:29. > :06:32.that the company is facing, which has been mentioned by a lot of

:06:33. > :06:34.politicians as well, because it really raises questions about the

:06:35. > :06:36.corporate governance of the Japanese businesses. Of course. Good to check

:06:37. > :06:38.in with you. In the technology sector

:06:39. > :06:44.the sharing economy is all Our technology correspondent

:06:45. > :06:48.Rory Cellan-Jones caught up with the co-founder of BlaBlaCar,

:06:49. > :06:51.a website launched in France, and asked him how his site,

:06:52. > :07:06.which has 20 million users, works. BlaBlaCar is a very simple service,

:07:07. > :07:10.where we allow people to share their car when they travel between

:07:11. > :07:14.cities. Basically, if you travel from London to Manchester because

:07:15. > :07:18.you need to go for the weekend to Manchester you can offer your empty

:07:19. > :07:24.seats to passengers going the same way. Passengers can get the app and

:07:25. > :07:28.they can travel together with the driver to their destination by

:07:29. > :07:34.sharing the cost of the journey. You're in this fashionable sharing

:07:35. > :07:40.economy area, where the big names, Buber, air B, are all from Silicon

:07:41. > :07:46.valley. -- Uber. Can you compete? Some of the European cities are the

:07:47. > :07:51.most active for AirBnB in the world. There is a massive demand for the

:07:52. > :07:55.sharing economy, whether it is about sharing your car or your apartment.

:07:56. > :08:00.So I don't think we have a shortage of consumer demand in Europe. In our

:08:01. > :08:05.case, we are the leaders in city to city ridesharing. So I think the

:08:06. > :08:10.sharing economy is actually a huge opportunity for Europe. We need to

:08:11. > :08:16.rethink the way we consume. Europe is the oldest economy. We should be

:08:17. > :08:20.at the forefront of that revolution. Uber and AirBnB are running into big

:08:21. > :08:26.regulatory issues now. Will that be a hurdle for you? I think these

:08:27. > :08:30.companies are having regulatory issues everywhere, not just in

:08:31. > :08:33.Europe. The challenge of Europe is you need to tackle every country on

:08:34. > :08:37.by one, as opposed to Europe as a whole. It makes you are a part of

:08:38. > :08:42.the cracks, more complex, more bureaucratic. But at the end of the

:08:43. > :08:47.day if you look at what has happened to Uber in Europe, it's a different

:08:48. > :08:51.to Uber in other places of the world. If you look at what we do, we

:08:52. > :08:58.have been lucky enough that we don't have any regulation problems because

:08:59. > :09:01.everything around it is based around the paradigms that the driver is not

:09:02. > :09:07.making a profit. It is about you sharing the right that you would do

:09:08. > :09:10.anyway. You are sharing the cost and the journey with passengers. The

:09:11. > :09:16.fact that you do that means we have been able to scale over Europe, the

:09:17. > :09:21.UK, Germany, France, without any regulation problems. It has been a

:09:22. > :09:24.huge advantage for us, to build something that is fundamentally

:09:25. > :09:29.disruptive, you change the way people travel on a massive scale,

:09:30. > :09:32.we're talking about 20 million Europeans, 10 million people using

:09:33. > :09:33.the service every quarter, and yet without rocking the boat of

:09:34. > :09:48.regulations. The supermarket Whole Foods says it

:09:49. > :09:50.will pay in New York City $5,000 to settle allegations that it

:09:51. > :09:51.overcharged customers for prepackaged foods.

:09:52. > :09:54.The city had said in June that its investigation tested 80

:09:55. > :09:57.different types of prepackaged food at Whole Foods and found mislabeled

:09:58. > :10:01.Whole Foods also has to conduct quarterly audits to ensure products

:10:02. > :10:11.From me and the team, but the business. Thanks for watching. --

:10:12. > :10:18.that's the business. Smokers are being urged not to

:10:19. > :10:21.dismiss the early signs of a debilitating disease

:10:22. > :10:24.as simply a smoker's cough. In a new campaign,

:10:25. > :10:29.Public Health England says too many