11/03/2016

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:00:00. > :00:00.Now for the latest financial news with Sally

:00:00. > :00:19.Five years after the Fukushima disaster, is the world becoming more

:00:20. > :00:26.And how India is looking to private investment for more innovation

:00:27. > :00:43.Welcome to World Business Report. I'm Sally Bundock.

:00:44. > :00:46.Also in the programme: The boss of Samsung is warning this will be

:00:47. > :00:49.Our team in Asia will have the details.

:00:50. > :00:51.As you've been hearing, Japan is marking the fifth

:00:52. > :00:53.anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that left

:00:54. > :01:00.The enormous quake struck offshore, creating a vast water surge that

:01:01. > :01:09.It also triggered the world's worst nuclear disaster

:01:10. > :01:11.since Chernobyl, in 1986, after the tsunami knocked out power to

:01:12. > :01:14.the Fukushima nuclear plant, taking cooling systems offline, which set

:01:15. > :01:23.Japan is struggling to restart its nuclear industry

:01:24. > :01:25.and is continuing to rely on costly fossil fuel imports.

:01:26. > :01:41.The Fukushima plant was designed to withstand an earthquake and it did.

:01:42. > :01:46.The reactors shut down safely. But the 14 metre tsunami that followed

:01:47. > :01:49.wasn't planned for. It knocked out cooling systems, allowing the

:01:50. > :01:56.reactors to overheat, leading to a series of explosions. Before the

:01:57. > :01:58.disaster Japan had 54 reactors available, producing one third of

:01:59. > :02:03.the country's electricity. In the aftermath all of them were shut

:02:04. > :02:08.down, and only a handful have since been restarted. There are currently

:02:09. > :02:13.just two in operation. Other countries are facing out nuclear

:02:14. > :02:16.power, many of them in Europe. Germany had 17 reactors by this

:02:17. > :02:22.ago, it is now down to eight and they are due to close by 2022. China

:02:23. > :02:26.is still keen on nuclear power and plans to build at least six reactors

:02:27. > :02:31.a year until 2020 and wants to become a major exporter of nuclear

:02:32. > :02:35.technology. Russia, India and South Korea all want to build new plants

:02:36. > :02:39.as well. So the industry's bruised but for the moment it has a future.

:02:40. > :02:42.Joining me now is Steve Thomas, Emeritus Professor of Energy Policy

:02:43. > :02:53.Thanks for being on the programme. For obvious reasons what happened

:02:54. > :03:00.five years ago completely put on hold, if not backwards, the nuclear

:03:01. > :03:02.policy in Japan. But other countries in the world completely changed

:03:03. > :03:12.their thinking about their nuclear policy. I think you can divide the

:03:13. > :03:15.country is up into three sets. There were the countries like Switzerland,

:03:16. > :03:20.Germany and Italy that really turned their back on nuclear power and I

:03:21. > :03:24.don't think there's any going back for those countries. Other

:03:25. > :03:28.countries, like perhaps France and China, did take a big pause for

:03:29. > :03:35.thought, while countries like the United States and the UK didn't have

:03:36. > :03:40.much -- feel much impact. So there were different reactions. In terms

:03:41. > :03:45.of Japan, if we could focus on it to start with, it has tried to get more

:03:46. > :03:49.nuclear reactors back online, it's not been an easy path for obvious

:03:50. > :03:54.reasons. But actually for the Japanese economy it is so important

:03:55. > :04:02.that it looks at where its energy is coming from, given the fact that he

:04:03. > :04:05.doesn't have resources of its own? It seems to be in a bit of a

:04:06. > :04:11.no-man's-land at the moment. It's not being successful at bringing

:04:12. > :04:15.back its nuclear power plants, but isn't pursuing alternatives. If we

:04:16. > :04:19.look at Germany, it has set itself against nuclear and is vigorously

:04:20. > :04:23.pursuing renewables. Then they are doing much better. I think Japan

:04:24. > :04:29.needs to make a decision. It either needs to give up on nuclear, or it

:04:30. > :04:35.needs to really go back and force those plants open. But I'm not sure

:04:36. > :04:39.that's politically acceptable. In the meantime we've got countries

:04:40. > :04:44.like China that is ploughing ahead. Also, China is exporting its nuclear

:04:45. > :04:50.technology, investing in the UK as well. Some countries are really

:04:51. > :04:55.ploughing ahead. There is a lot of talk about exports and nuclear power

:04:56. > :05:00.plants around the world. Mostly supplied by Russia, with China

:05:01. > :05:04.trying to get in on the market. But that's always been the case. There's

:05:05. > :05:10.always been countries talking about nuclear powered -- power, not for

:05:11. > :05:14.developing countries nine out of ten of those come to nothing, mainly

:05:15. > :05:19.because of finance. Nuclear power seems to be getting more expensive

:05:20. > :05:25.so finance will get more difficult. In terms of China, it's talking

:05:26. > :05:31.about getting into markets, but it really only has three or four and

:05:32. > :05:34.all of them look quite distant prospects. The prospect of selling

:05:35. > :05:40.the Briton is quite some way away. They are something like seven or

:05:41. > :05:48.eight in mining terms of building in Britain. They are just investors.

:05:49. > :05:53.Thank you very much for joining us. There's so more on our website about

:05:54. > :05:54.what's happening in Japan and the indications for the nuclear

:05:55. > :05:56.industry. Moving on. It's a big day for the Korean

:05:57. > :05:59.smartphone maker Samsung. It's got its AGM

:06:00. > :06:02.and the boss is warning this is Leisha Chi is in Singapore

:06:03. > :06:15.for us. This is an important board meeting

:06:16. > :06:19.when the company is selling its latest smartphone. What are the

:06:20. > :06:24.challenges it is facing? It looks like Samsung's CEO is trying to

:06:25. > :06:28.manage shareholder expectations ahead of that annual meeting today.

:06:29. > :06:32.It was in a letter to them that he said it was going to be a tough year

:06:33. > :06:36.and their core product is of smart phones, TVs and memory chips will

:06:37. > :06:41.face oversupply issues and intensified price competition. We

:06:42. > :06:47.are already seeing that happen to Samsung and other big smartphone

:06:48. > :06:54.makers. Earlier this year Samsung's caught early -- quarter profits

:06:55. > :07:02.fell. They have some new models coming out today and this is their

:07:03. > :07:06.biggest moneymaker, the Galaxy line of smartphones, but they have been

:07:07. > :07:12.losing the market to Apple and Huawei. It's not as if people will

:07:13. > :07:17.go out and spend $1000 on a new phone model each time one comes out.

:07:18. > :07:21.Aside from that, another big development we can expect from

:07:22. > :07:24.today's meeting is a change to its corporate governance. Samsung is a

:07:25. > :07:30.huge company and so they are expected to allow non- CEOs to take

:07:31. > :07:34.out the chairman role in eight of companies within the conglomerate.

:07:35. > :07:36.Interesting. Lots of change going on. Thank you.

:07:37. > :07:41.The amount India spends on health-care compared to

:07:42. > :07:44.the size of its economy is among the lowest in the world,

:07:45. > :07:48.and so private firms are stepping in to treat those who can afford it.

:07:49. > :07:50.This has inspired a host of companies, both big and small,

:07:51. > :07:52.to work on new, often innovative services.

:07:53. > :07:55.But how much of a difference can they make?

:07:56. > :08:04.Shilpa Kannan went to Bangalore to find out.

:08:05. > :08:10.It may look like a pizza delivery service but what is actually being

:08:11. > :08:16.brought to people's doorsteps is a sophisticated device for testing

:08:17. > :08:23.eyesight. Just one idea to tackle a common problem that hospital visits

:08:24. > :08:29.can be daunting and expensive. Getting ill and pay medical bills

:08:30. > :08:32.are thought to drive more than 60 million Indians into poverty every

:08:33. > :08:35.year, is a good private businesses be part of the answer, bringing down

:08:36. > :08:42.costs and getting more efficient healthcare services to more people?

:08:43. > :08:46.And businesses are getting the inventions into hospitals as well.

:08:47. > :08:48.Like this monitor, used during pregnancy. Smaller and less

:08:49. > :08:54.expensive than the conventional machines. Once the belt is strapped

:08:55. > :09:00.on, a mobile phone app can monitor the heart rate of the fetus. This is

:09:01. > :09:07.our first product which we have resigned to be used by health

:09:08. > :09:13.workers, which will be cost-effective and it works in the

:09:14. > :09:21.Indian healthcare scenario. Today India imports nearly 75% of the

:09:22. > :09:25.major medical equipment. And it isn't just start ups. Global giants

:09:26. > :09:30.like IBM are also ringing the latest technology here. Within India you

:09:31. > :09:34.really get an amplification of the broader problem within healthcare,

:09:35. > :09:38.which is clinicians have very little time to meet with patience. Within

:09:39. > :09:46.the US is the ratio of patients to oncologist is 100: one. In India it

:09:47. > :09:53.is 1600:1, so the time pressure is even greater. Nearly 1 million

:09:54. > :09:56.Indians die every year because of inadequate healthcare facilities.

:09:57. > :10:00.About 700 million people have no access to specialist care. And as

:10:01. > :10:05.the country grapples with growing health-care costs, and a shortage of

:10:06. > :10:09.doctors, technology driven innovation change is the only hope

:10:10. > :10:19.many Indians have for better medical treatment.

:10:20. > :10:19.many Indians have for better medical treatment.

:10:20. > :10:26.Let's have a look at the markets. As you can see, slightly higher across

:10:27. > :10:29.the board, which is a better view. Last time I looked they were all

:10:30. > :10:33.negative. Concern of course about the global economy. We will talk

:10:34. > :10:34.about that in a bit more detail in a few minutes and we look at the

:10:35. > :10:37.papers.