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By Aditya Kalra, Nikunj Ohri and Aditi Shah NEW DELHI (Reuters) -Apple is lobbying India's government to modify its income tax law to ensure the company is not taxed for ownership of high-end iPhone machinery it provides to its contract manufacturers, an issue seen as a hurdle to its future expansion, sources say. The push coincides with Apple's growing India presence as it diversifies beyond China. Counterpoint Research says iPhone's share in the Indian market has doubled to 8% since 2022. And while China still accounts for 75% of global iPhone shipments, India's share has quadrupled to 25% since 2022. India is the world's second-largest mobile market. Apple's contract manufacturers Foxconn and Tata have pumped in billions of dollars to open five plants, but millions of those expenses go into acquiring pricey machines for iPhone assembly. Experts say Apple potentially faces billions of dollars in additional taxes if it changes its business practices without convincing New Delhi to change a 1961 law covering foreign ownership of equipment used in India. In China, Apple procures the machines used to make iPhones and gives them to its contract manufacturers, and is not subject to tax even though it still owns them. But that's not possible in India as the Income Tax Act would consider such ownership by Apple as a so-called "business connection", making the U.S. firm's iPhone profits liable for Indian taxes, said a senior government official and two other industry sources. Apple executives have held talks with the Indian officials in recent months to tweak the law as it fears the current legislation could hamper its future growth, said the sources. "Contract manufacturers cannot put up money beyond a point," said the first industry source. "If the legacy law is changed, it will become easy for Apple to expand … India can become more competitive globally." Reuters is first to report Apple's concerns and lobbying efforts on the law. Apple did not respond to Reuters questions, and neither did India's IT and finance ministries who are involved in the discussions. INDIA CAUTIOUSLY REVIEWING APPLE REQUEST Smartphone manufacturing is a key plank of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's agenda, and India's deputy IT minister last year privately said China and Vietnam could race ahead as major smartphone export hubs due to their lower tariffs on phone parts. A senior Indian official said "discussions on taxation rules impacting Apple are ongoing", but New Delhi is cautious as any changes to the law could diminish its sovereign right to tax a foreign company. "It's a tough call," said the official, who highlighted that Apple's increased investments are equally important. "India needs investments. We have to find a solution." Apple has since 2023 opened a handful of directly-owned retail stores in India, though it also sells it products through online and offline distributors. Foxconn and Tata have over the years invested more than $5 billion in setting up Apple manufacturing. SPECIALIZED EQUIPMENT CAN COST BILLIONS One precedent of Indian law often cited by tax experts involves UK-based Formula One. India's Supreme Court held in 2017 that even though F1 did not own a circuit near New Delhi, it was liable to pay tax on profits for the days when it exerted full control during its Grand Prix India event. If Apple were to own machines inside Indian iPhone factories, it would amount to exerting control under current laws, experts said. "If the activities of Apple constitute a business connection, then the global revenue may be used as a basis to compute the income attributable in India, leading to billions in tax exposure," said Riaz Thingna, a partner at Grant Thornton Bharat LLP. Taiwan's Foxconn is Apple's largest contract manufacturer in India, having shipped products worth $7.4 billion this year by August, compared to $7.5 billion in all of 2024, commercially available customs data shows. The income tax law, however, does not bother Apple's South Korean rival Samsung as almost all of its phones are made in its own Indian factories. The India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), which backs Apple, has in a confidential representation to the government called for changes to the law, saying tax certainty is "paramount for businesses seeking to expand and scale." "Typical CMs (contract manufacturers) are unable or unwilling to invest in such large quantities of specialized equipment … The cost of the equipment can rise to billions of dollars," ICEA said, without naming any company. "In certain cases (it) may also be supplied … free of cost." (Reporting by Aditya Kalra, Nikunj Ohri and Aditi Shah; Additional reporting by Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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(Reuters) -British AI group Nscale said on Wednesday it signed a deal with Microsoft to deliver a total of about 200,000 Nvidia AI chips. The Financial Times newspaper reported that Nscale's deal with Microsoft was worth up to $14 billion. (Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru)

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-Capita has been fined 14 million pounds ($18.7 million) for failing to protect personal data during a 2023 cyber attack, the British outsourcing firm said on Wednesday, as part of a settlement with the UK's privacy watchdog. The settlement underscores rising regulatory pressure on UK firms hit by cyber attacks, amid heightened scrutiny following high-profile breaches at Marks & Spencer, Co-op and luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover. "With so many cyber attacks in the headlines, our message is clear: every organisation, no matter how large, must take proactive steps to keep people's data secure," said John Edwards, UK Information Commissioner. The Information Commissioner's Office said Capita failed to implement adequate measures to prevent privilege escalation and unauthorised lateral movement through its network, and did not respond effectively to security alerts. Capita, which provides business support services to government and corporate clients, disclosed in 2023 that the breach compromised some data on its servers and estimated a financial impact of up to 20 million pounds. The company now expects to record a free cash outflow of 59 million-79 million pounds for 2025, up from previous estimates of 45 million-65 million pounds. All other annual and mid-term targets remain unchanged. "Highly significant" cyber incidents have doubled in Britain year-on-year, the head of National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said on Tuesday. ($1 = 0.7493 pounds) (Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)

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BEIJING (Reuters) -A subsidiary of SiCarrier, a Chinese chip equipment maker with close links to Huawei, unveiled two domestically developed software products for semiconductor designs, the latest move by China to reduce reliance on foreign technologies. Yunqifang, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-based SiCarrier, released two electronic design engineering (EDA) software products with fully independent intellectual property rights, Chinese state-backed media the Paper reported. EDA software is crucial for designing blueprints of sophisticated semiconductors. Earlier this year, the U.S. had temporarily imposed restrictions on exports to China for chip design software developers in response to China's export suspension of rare earths and related magnets. Analysts had warned that long-term U.S. restrictions on EDA software could severely hinder China's chip design industry, which remains behind the U.S. in this area of development. Long-term restrictions on Chinese access to EDA software would have significantly hampered China's chip design industry, as it lags behind the U.S. in EDA software development. The announcement comes after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened new export controls on "any and all critical software" by November 1, along with additional levies of 100% on China's U.S.-bound exports, nine days before existing tariff relief is set to expire. Founded in 2021 and owned by the Shenzhen city government, SiCarrier has gained prominence in China's semiconductor sector as its ambitious plans and planned product range come to light amid Beijing's push for self-sufficiency in critical technologies. (Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

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By Che Pan and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's shipments in China grew 0.6% from a year earlier to 10.8 million units in the third quarter amid sluggish demand in China's smartphone market, according to data issued by research firm IDC on Wednesday. Apple, which had the second-highest tally of shipments during the period, held a 15.8% market share in the third quarter. China's total smartphone shipments in the third quarter fell 0.6% from a year earlier to 68.4 million units. In the second quarter, the decline was more pronounced at 4%. "Apple’s value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured (value-seeking customers), helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter," said Will Wong, a senior smartphone analyst at IDC. Apple was the only brand among China's top three vendors to achieve a growth in shipments during the period, IDC's data showed. Huawei's shipments eased 1% to 10.4 million units, putting it in third place, while Xiaomi's shipments dropped 1.7% to 10 million units, putting it in the fourth position. Chart-topper Vivo's shipments fell 7.8% from a year earlier to 11.8 million units. IDC said China's smartphone market is expected to improve early in the fourth quarter thanks to some flagship product launches that started last month. (Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Thomas Derpinghaus.)

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By Che Pan and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's shipments in China grew 0.6% from a year earlier to 10.8 million units in the third quarter amid sluggish demand in China's smartphone market, according to data issued by research firm IDC on Wednesday. Apple, which leapt to second place, held a 15.8% market share in the September quarter. China's total smartphone shipments in the third quarter dipped 0.6% from a year earlier to 68.4 million units. "Apple’s value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured consumers of value seekers, helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter," said Will Wong, a senior smartphone analyst at IDC. (Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Che Pan and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's shipments in China grew 0.6% from a year earlier to 10.8 million units in the third quarter amid sluggish demand in China's smartphone market, according to data issued by research firm IDC on Wednesday. Apple, which leapt to second place, held a 15.8% market share in the September quarter. China's total smartphone shipments in the third quarter dipped 0.6% from a year earlier to 68.4 million units. "Apple’s value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured consumers of value seekers, helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter," said Will Wong, a senior smartphone analyst at IDC. (Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Che Pan and Brenda Goh BEIJING (Reuters) -Apple's shipments in China grew 0.6% from a year earlier to 10.8 million units in the third quarter amid sluggish demand in China's smartphone market, according to data issued by research firm IDC on Wednesday. Apple, which leapt to second place, held a 15.8% market share in the September quarter. China's total smartphone shipments in the third quarter dipped 0.6% from a year earlier to 68.4 million units. "Apple’s value-for-money base model iPhone 17 successfully captured consumers of value seekers, helping it to achieve slight growth and a higher ranking than the previous quarter," said Will Wong, a senior smartphone analyst at IDC. (Reporting by Che Pan and Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Leika Kihara and Howard Schneider TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government shutdown that has turned off the official flow of data could begin clouding the view for policymakers in Japan and other countries where insight into the fortunes of the world's biggest economy informs the outlook for their own currencies, trade performance and inflation.  What happens in America, in other words, doesn't stay in America, and global officials say being left data-blind by the shutdown over time could complicate their own policymaking and boost the risk of a mistake at a moment when countries are already adjusting to the Trump administration's efforts to remake global trade. "It's a serious problem. We hope this gets fixed soon," Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told a news briefing on October 3, as he discussed the hurdles the BOJ faces in deciding when to resume interest rate hikes. One Japanese policymaker went further.  "It's a joke. (Federal Reserve Chair Jerome) Powell keeps on saying the Fed's policy is data-dependent but there's no data to depend upon," said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly.  Bank of England policy member Catherine Mann said the questions surrounding U.S. data, the controversy over the Fed's independence, and other issues don’t figure as directly into BOE policy debate as the shifts in trade policy, for example, which directly affect things like prices and the export outlook. But she noted how over time the British pound lost its central status in the world, a process that took decades and was driven by multiple forces she referred to as “termites” that weakened the pound’s role over time. Policy changes that could degrade the dollar's standing or erode the Fed's independence, “are things that we have in our mind but they’re not front and center,” Mann said. But “they are the termites, as opposed to something that is imminent.” Finance and economic leaders from around the world are gathered in Washington this week for meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and – in a world beset by an ongoing European land war, tensions and violence in the Middle East, and long-term issues like climate change – much of the meeting's oxygen is likely to be consumed by discussion of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for the world, his performance in office so far, and, now, the sudden stop of official information about a $30 trillion economy that accounts for roughly one-fourth of world output.  The shutdown could end at any time and the flow of data resume. But the episode is nonetheless symptomatic of a deeper set of issues around U.S. governance and data reliability, including Trump's efforts to gain new influence over the Federal Reserve and his firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he was angry over a jobs report that the IMF cited among the "downside risks" facing the world right now. "Intensification of political pressure on policy institutions…could erode hard-won public confidence in their ability to fulfill their mandates," the World Economic Outlook published Tuesday by the IMF stated. "Pressures on technocratic institutions mandated with data collection and dissemination could also erode the public’s and markets’ trust in statistics from official sources, significantly complicating the tasks of central banks and policymakers in making policy decisions…It also raises the likelihood of policy mistakes if political interference leads to compromise in data quality, reliability, and timeliness." 'THE RISK OF ERROR RISES' It is not as if all data has disappeared. The U.S. Federal Reserve, self-funded and not affected by the shutdown, continues to survey its extensive network of contacts about the economy, and private data services provide alternatives that policymakers have learned to knit into serviceable, if imperfect, substitutes at least for short-term analysis. “The month-to-month data flow in the U.S. gets talked about but never is a decisive factor," for other central banks, said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Bank of England policymaker.  But Posen said that the shutdown itself and the tumult around BLS "contributes to the general skepticism about the governance of the U.S. and the reliability of the U.S….And that is important. It eventually feeds into reserve management and currency decisions and feeds into volatility outlooks for the U.S. that were not there before." If the spring IMF and World Bank meetings were all about the uncertainty posed by Trump's plans for higher tariffs and rising protectionism, attention is now fixed on how companies, countries and consumers are coping with the new landscape. Short answer: Not as bad as expected when Trump first took office, at least through September, but still adjusting, according to the IMF's WEO update that found "a significant, though not massive, impact of shifting policies on the economic outlook." After trimming its global growth outlook by a half percentage point in April to 2.8%,  the IMF in its latest projection published on Tuesday clawed most of that back, with global growth now seen at 3.2% for the year. But now, with a major hole in the flow of data covering around a quarter of global economic output, the view will get foggier the longer the shutdown lasts. "Certainly, there is still a great deal of information out there, and policymakers are dedicating substantial effort to gather micro data and anecdotal evidence," about the U.S. said Robert Kahn, director of global macro at Eurasia Group. "But how best to put it together, and importantly how markets will react to such news, are critical unknowns. As time goes on, the risk of error rises as uncertainties compound.” (Reporting by Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Howard Schneider in Washington; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)

By Leika Kihara and Howard Schneider TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. government shutdown that has turned off the official flow of data could begin clouding the view for policymakers in Japan and other countries where insight into the fortunes of the world's biggest economy informs the outlook for their own currencies, trade performance and inflation.  What happens in America, in other words, doesn't stay in America, and global officials say being left data-blind by the shutdown over time could complicate their own policymaking and boost the risk of a mistake at a moment when countries are already adjusting to the Trump administration's efforts to remake global trade. "It's a serious problem. We hope this gets fixed soon," Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda told a news briefing on October 3, as he discussed the hurdles the BOJ faces in deciding when to resume interest rate hikes. One Japanese policymaker went further.  "It's a joke. (Federal Reserve Chair Jerome) Powell keeps on saying the Fed's policy is data-dependent but there's no data to depend upon," said the official, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak publicly.  Bank of England policy member Catherine Mann said the questions surrounding U.S. data, the controversy over the Fed's independence, and other issues don’t figure as directly into BOE policy debate as the shifts in trade policy, for example, which directly affect things like prices and the export outlook. But she noted how over time the British pound lost its central status in the world, a process that took decades and was driven by multiple forces she referred to as “termites” that weakened the pound’s role over time. Policy changes that could degrade the dollar's standing or erode the Fed's independence, “are things that we have in our mind but they’re not front and center,” Mann said. But “they are the termites, as opposed to something that is imminent.” Finance and economic leaders from around the world are gathered in Washington this week for meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and – in a world beset by an ongoing European land war, tensions and violence in the Middle East, and long-term issues like climate change – much of the meeting's oxygen is likely to be consumed by discussion of U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for the world, his performance in office so far, and, now, the sudden stop of official information about a $30 trillion economy that accounts for roughly one-fourth of world output.  The shutdown could end at any time and the flow of data resume. But the episode is nonetheless symptomatic of a deeper set of issues around U.S. governance and data reliability, including Trump's efforts to gain new influence over the Federal Reserve and his firing of the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics because he was angry over a jobs report that the IMF cited among the "downside risks" facing the world right now. "Intensification of political pressure on policy institutions…could erode hard-won public confidence in their ability to fulfill their mandates," the World Economic Outlook published Tuesday by the IMF stated. "Pressures on technocratic institutions mandated with data collection and dissemination could also erode the public’s and markets’ trust in statistics from official sources, significantly complicating the tasks of central banks and policymakers in making policy decisions…It also raises the likelihood of policy mistakes if political interference leads to compromise in data quality, reliability, and timeliness." 'THE RISK OF ERROR RISES' It is not as if all data has disappeared. The U.S. Federal Reserve, self-funded and not affected by the shutdown, continues to survey its extensive network of contacts about the economy, and private data services provide alternatives that policymakers have learned to knit into serviceable, if imperfect, substitutes at least for short-term analysis. “The month-to-month data flow in the U.S. gets talked about but never is a decisive factor," for other central banks, said Adam Posen, president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a former Bank of England policymaker.  But Posen said that the shutdown itself and the tumult around BLS "contributes to the general skepticism about the governance of the U.S. and the reliability of the U.S….And that is important. It eventually feeds into reserve management and currency decisions and feeds into volatility outlooks for the U.S. that were not there before." If the spring IMF and World Bank meetings were all about the uncertainty posed by Trump's plans for higher tariffs and rising protectionism, attention is now fixed on how companies, countries and consumers are coping with the new landscape. Short answer: Not as bad as expected when Trump first took office, at least through September, but still adjusting, according to the IMF's WEO update that found "a significant, though not massive, impact of shifting policies on the economic outlook." After trimming its global growth outlook by a half percentage point in April to 2.8%,  the IMF in its latest projection published on Tuesday clawed most of that back, with global growth now seen at 3.2% for the year. But now, with a major hole in the flow of data covering around a quarter of global economic output, the view will get foggier the longer the shutdown lasts. "Certainly, there is still a great deal of information out there, and policymakers are dedicating substantial effort to gather micro data and anecdotal evidence," about the U.S. said Robert Kahn, director of global macro at Eurasia Group. "But how best to put it together, and importantly how markets will react to such news, are critical unknowns. As time goes on, the risk of error rises as uncertainties compound.” (Reporting by Leika Kihara in Tokyo and Howard Schneider in Washington; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)

(The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)