Business
Apple removed 1,474 apps on govt takedown requests in 2022, 14 from India
Apple removed 1,474 apps from its App Store as per requests from various governments to take down such apps in 2022, including a massive 1,435 from mainland China and just 14 from India.
According to the company’s ‘2022 App Store Transparency Report’, the Pakistan government requested to take down 10 apps while Russia asked to remove seven apps for violating various laws of the land.
There were a total 18,412 appeals of app removals from various agencies worldwide (again led by China at 5,484), including 709 from India. Apple restored 24 apps in India after appeals of app removals last year.
As of 2022, Apple had 1,783,232 apps in total on the App Store, according to the report.
The tech giant reviewed 6,101,913 app submissions and rejected 1,679,694 last year for violating App Store policies.
App submissions approved after rejection were 253,466 and total apps finally removed from the App Store were 186,195 in 2022.
It was the first report published as part of the company’s $100 million settlement with App Store developers in 2021.
Category-wise, games (38,883), utilities (20,045) and business (16,997) topped the list of removed apps.
Total number of registered Apple developers on the App Store was 36,974,015 while Apple terminated 428,487 developer accounts for violating its policies in 2022.
“Since it launched in 2008, the App Store has proven to be a safe and trusted place to discover and download apps,” according to Apple.
Earlier this week, Apple announced that its App Store prevented over $2.09 billion in potentially fraudulent transactions in 2022, blocking nearly 3.9 million stolen credit cards from being used to make purchases, and banned 7,14,000 accounts from transacting again.
Business
First India-manufactured 2025 Range Rover Sport adds to India growth story
New Delhi, Dec 19: Global automaker Range Rover on Thursday announced the start of sales for the 2025 ‘Made in India’ Range Rover Sport in the country.
The ‘2025 Range Rover Sport’ – the first made-in-India vehicle exclusively for the country– is now available in smooth and powerful 3.0l Petrol Dynamic HSE and 3.0l Diesel Dynamic HSE variants, the Tata Motors Group company said in a statement.
The pricing of the New Range Rover Sport now starts at Rs 1.45 crore, ex-showroom, and is available in five colour options – Fuji White, Santorini Black, Giola Green, Varesine Blue and Charente Grey.
Available in 3.0l Petrol Dynamic HSE and 3.0l Diesel Dynamic HSE variants, the Range Rover Sport is built on the state-of-the-art MLA-Flex platform, offering next-level capability, performance and handling, as well as greater efficiency.
“With the introduction of new features such as perforated semi-aniline leather seats, massage front seats and head-up display, our discerning clients will get an elevated experience of comfort and technology in Range Rover Sport,” said Rajan Amba, Managing Director, JLR India.
The 13.1‑inch curved touchscreen for Pivi Pro infotainment is complemented by intuitive 13.7‑inch Interactive Driver Display, with ‘Software Over The Air’ as well as ‘Head-Up Display.’
The 2025 Range Rover Sport offers semi-aniline leather seats, renowned for their exceptional quality and tactility.
In September, Tata Motors held the groundbreaking ceremony of its new Rs 9,000 crore facility in Tamil Nadu that will manufacture and export next-gen vehicles for Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR).
Situated at Panapakkam in Ranipet district, the plant will cater to both domestic and international markets, while creating over 5,000 jobs. Tata Motors Group intends to invest Rs 9,000 crore in this greenfield manufacturing facility, which has been designed for an annual production capacity of over 250,000 vehicles.
Production will begin in a phased manner and progressively increase to reach this capacity over the next 5-7 years.
In May this year, Tata Motors-owned JLR said it plans to start assembling the flagship Range Rover model, along with Range Rover Sport, in India for the first time, significantly bringing down the prices.
The company’s Pune plant currently assembles the Range Rover Velar, Range Rover Evoque, Jaguar F-PACE, and Discovery Sport models.
Business
FM Nirmala Sitharaman Lauds ED After ‘Returning’ Assets Worth ₹22,000 Crore From Fraudsters, Including Mehul Choksi & Vijay Mallya
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated in a parliamentry debate on Tuesday, December 17, that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had given victims and legitimate claimants access to assets valued at Rs 22,280 crore.
During the discussion of the first set of Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Lok Sabha, Sitharaman gave an overview of the ED’s initiatives to retrieve ill-gotten wealth and return it to defrauded investors and public sector banks.
Major recoveries by ED (Enforcement Directorate)
In one of the most significant cases, the ED retrieved properties from fugitive businessman Vijay Mallya valued at Rs 14,131.6 crore, which were then turned over to public sector banks.
In the Nirav Modi case, properties valued at Rs 1,052.58 crore were also given back to both public and private banks.
Properties worth Rs 2,565.90 crore that the ED attached in the Mehul Choksi case are now scheduled for auction. In addition, legitimate investors were given back assets from the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam valued at Rs 17.47 crore.
FM emphasised the effectiveness of ‘Black Money Act’
The Finance Minister also emphasized how well the 2015 Black Money Act has worked to reduce unreported foreign assets. Between 2021–2022 and 2024–2025, the number of taxpayers declaring foreign assets increased dramatically from 60,467 to over 2 lakh.
As of June 2024, 163 prosecutions had been started and 697 cases under the Black Money Act had demands totaling Rs 17,520 crore from the government.
Government’s multi agency group
In 582 cases, investigations into international leaks, such as the Panama Papers and Pandora Papers, have uncovered undisclosed income totaling Rs 33,393 crore.
The government has formed a Multi-Agency Group (MAG) for coordinated action against unaccounted foreign assets in order to speed up these efforts. ‘We are after them,’ Sitharaman reaffirmed. We will see to it that funds that are due to banks and investors are reimbursed.
Business
‘If They Tax Us We Tax Them’: Donald Trump Gives Fresh Warning To India
US President-Elect Donald Trump has issued a fresh warning to India saying that if it taxes American products, the US will do the same. Trump’s words came during his interaction with journalists at his Mar-a-Lago resort Since his first term, Trump has been hawkish about taxing foreign products but has not fully implemented what he has said. However, Trump’s warnings are taken seriously as markets move according to what a US president says.
“If they tax us, we tax them the same amount,” Trump told reporters.
Other than about India, Trump has been vocal about taxes imposed on American products by Brazil, Mexico and China.
“The word reciprocal is important because if somebody charges us – India, we don’t have to talk about our own – if India charges us 100 per cent, do we charge them nothing for the same? You know, they send in a bicycle, and we send them a bicycle. They charge us 100 and 200. India charges a lot,” said Trump.
“India charges a lot. Brazil charges a lot. If they want to charge us, that’s fine, but we’re going to charge them the same thing,” he added.
The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden has sounded upbeat about India-US ties. On Tuesday, Biden administration said that it was leaving India-US relations “in a very strong place”
“We continue to be very ambitious about the US-India relationship. We’ve had very high-level engagement over the course of the last several months with the QUAD summit in Delaware, and we are anticipating a high-level engagement in the last few weeks of the Biden administration,” said US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell on Tuesday.
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