Reliance Infrastructure takes flight with Rs 5,000 cr bet on aircraft upgrade business
According to a company source, the company has already marked a significant milestone by successfully upgrading 55 Dornier-228 aircraft under a contract with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), in collaboration with US-based avionics firm Genesys.
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Hindustan Times
22 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Bengaluru real estate: Luxury villa rentals up on the back of rising demand from expats, HNIs and NRIs
Bengaluru's luxury villa market is seeing a surge in demand, with monthly rents now reaching as high as ₹4 lakh. In one case, a 10,000 sq ft villa in Prestige Golfshire near Nandi Hills was leased to a senior executive of a multinational company for ₹4 lakh per month, twice the rent fetched by a similar property in the area just two years ago. Brokers told that the security deposit for the deal exceeded ₹20 lakh. Once considered an exclusive luxury, villas in Bengaluru are now drawing strong interest from high-end tenants, with demand driven by HNIs and NRIs. Brokers point out a strong interest in the segment, prompting developers to roll out new villa projects priced between ₹2 crore and ₹5 crore. According to Sunil Singh, director at Realty Corp, demand from expatriates, NRIs, and senior executives has pushed rents for villas to nearly double compared to just two years ago. Villa rentals across the city are showing similar trends. A 3BHK villa in Adarsh Farm Meadows in Whitefield is currently quoted at ₹2.85 lakh for 4,000 sq ft. Despite an abundance of villa developments in areas like Whitefield, Sarjapur Road, and Varthur, demand remains high. According to Singh, tenants looking for high-end villas frequently request additional amenities. 'If a villa is semi-furnished, tenants often demand full furnishing. Some even ask for private pools. If a landlord spends ₹5–10 lakh on furnishing, they can increase the rent by ₹50,000– ₹70,000 per month,' he said. Also Read: Bengaluru real estate: Here's why demand for villas in the IT capital is rising In East Bengaluru, particularly the eastern IT corridor of Whitefield, Varthur Road, and Sarjapur, 4,000 to 5,000 sq ft villas typically rent for ₹2.5 lakh per month. Further out, in areas like Budigere Cross and Soukya Road, similar properties fetch around ₹1.25 lakh per month. Brokers said most villas include 300 to 400 sq ft garden spaces, and a few come with private pools. In North Bengaluru, areas like IVC Road offer fully furnished villas starting at ₹2 lakh per month for 4,000–5,000 sq ft configurations. Local brokers estimate that nearly 95% of East Bengaluru's luxury villa inventory is concentrated in Whitefield, which continues to attract tech professionals working in nearby parks like ITPL. South Bengaluru has fewer high-end villa projects. Towards Hosa Road, 10,000 sq ft villas are available at ₹2.5 lakh per month, while properties like LGCL Ashlar command rents of up to ₹3 lakh per month with features like private pools and luxury amenities. Kanakapura Road also offers luxury villas in the ₹1.5–2 lakh range, though pools are rare unless negotiated by the tenant as part of a longer-term lease. Also Read: Bengaluru real estate: Here's why US-based NRIs prefer to invest in North Bengaluru Most villa rentals in Bengaluru have an 11-month lock-in period, and landlords prefer tenants with stable professional backgrounds. Security deposits typically amount to six months' rent, meaning ₹24 lakh upfront for a ₹4 lakh monthly rental. The rise in villa rentals is largely driven by expatriates, high-net-worth individuals (HNIs), and NRIs. 'Many are upgrading from premium apartments. One startup founder living in Banashankari is now seeking a villa in North Bengaluru with a ₹2.5 lakh budget,' Singh said. For investors, North Bengaluru areas like IVC Road, Hennur, and Bagalur offer good rental returns, with Bagalur increasingly becoming a hub for NRI and expat tenants. Singh estimates that 25–30% of luxury villa renters in Bengaluru are now NRIs.
Mint
30 minutes ago
- Mint
Chinese Managers Take Reins at TikTok Shop in US as Sales Miss Goal
TikTok's parent company, has been replacing US-hired staff near Seattle with managers connected to China, aiming to replicate its e-commerce success in Asia after sales fell short in America. TikTok Shop initially set a goal to increase its US e-commerce business tenfold last year to $17.5 billion in transaction volume, but had to drastically lower that objective, according to people familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk publicly. TikTok established its Shop business in the Seattle area near Inc., the online retail giant it was aiming to displace. Meetings that used to be held in English are now often conducted in Mandarin and managers increasingly write in Chinese when communicating on Feishu, ByteDance's internal Slack-like app, with English-speaking staff forced to rely on the built-in translation function. 'We continually assess our business needs and have made recent team adjustments to strengthen our organization, remaining confident in the future ahead,' a TikTok Shop spokesperson said. The company previously called the reported e-commerce transaction target 'inaccurate.' More than 100 TikTok Shop employees in the US have been fired or have left amid confusion between leaders that has worsened the work environment, according to people familiar with the company. The cultural transition taking place in the firm coincides with its fight for survival in the US — due mainly to the app's Chinese ties. A national security law passed by Congress last year requires TikTok's US business to be spun off from its Chinese parent company or it will face a ban. Lawmakers warned that TikTok's ties to China pose a threat to the safety and security of American users. President Donald Trump has twice delayed the ban — with legal assurances from his attorney general — and another deadline for divestiture looms later this month, though that might also be extended, the Wall Street Journal reported. ByteDance said during the Biden administration that it had no plan to sell TikTok, but in April the Beijing-based company confirmed that it had been in discussions with the Trump government regarding a potential solution for TikTok US. It said any agreement would be subject to approval under Chinese law. The TikTok Shop near Seattle in February began requiring workers to be in the office five days a week for eight hours a day, according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The change is in contrast to some other major tech companies that still offer flexible work schedules, and has been particularly burdensome for employees who often join late-night calls with colleagues in Asia after they leave the office, according to former employees. US-based staff require human resources and manager pre-approval to work from home. The changes were introduced after Bob Kang, China-based global head of TikTok's e-commerce division, visited the office in Bellevue, Washington, earlier this year and found there weren't enough staff present on a work day, according to multiple people who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. Assigning Chinese executives to run TikTok's fastest-growing business may raise questions about its previous corporate promise to distance the US operation from China. After Trump initially tried to ban the app during his first term, the company announced a security plan dubbed 'Project Texas' and vowed to wall off the app's US data and operations from any Chinese oversight. TikTok Shop is the biggest source of revenue for the video-sharing app besides advertising, and it has become a major investment area for ByteDance. Adding full-scale commerce to its eye-catching content and popular influencers sets it apart from rivals like Instagram and YouTube. The company still aims to challenge Amazon in major markets. To better compete, TikTok Shop recruited aggressively near Seattle over the past three years, targeting people with experience at Amazon, according to a review of Linkedin profiles and people who worked at both companies. In some corners of TikTok's Bellevue office of about 1,000 employees, the workflow felt like a remix of previous Amazon teams, the people said. But since January, growing tension in the teams below Kang and Nico Le Bourgeois, who oversaw TikTok's e-commerce operations in the US, became a distraction for staff who were often unsure about whose orders to follow, the people said. TikTok's uncertain fate in the US also weighed on morale. The company carried out a round of layoffs in April. A second batch followed in May. In the first round, Le Bourgeois was demoted when Mu Qing, a Chinese executive from ByteDance's e-commerce platform Douyin moved to the Seattle area to run TikTok Shop in the US. After the second bout, Mu sent an internal message saying Le Bourgeois was leaving to pursue other opportunities, according to a copy of the message seen by Bloomberg. Those cuts were intended to improve TikTok's 'efficiency,' according to former employees, though it wasn't clear to staff what factors contributed to a worker's efficiency rating. With these changes, ByteDance leaders are bringing in people who are familiar with what worked for the company in China, where Douyin, its TikTok clone for the Chinese market, has evolved into a $490 billion shopping phenomenon. In addition to Mu, who was the head of Douyin's e-commerce, six other leaders with Chinese backgrounds were appointed in April, according to a different internal memo from Kang viewed by Bloomberg. One challenge is that habits of many American users trend toward passive TikTok scrolling as opposed to making purchases in the app. Some US sellers told Bloomberg that they have also been reluctant to invest in the platform, given the possible ban. The final tally for the US e-commerce business's 2024 sales came in at around $9 billion, according to an estimate by Singapore-based consultancy Momentum Works. TikTok Shop's US struggles haven't halted the company's global shopping ambitions. ByteDance in 2021 rolled out e-commerce services in countries including Indonesia, Vietnam and the UK. In Southeast Asia, it's already the region's biggest shopping platform after Shopee, according to Momentum Works. Last year, TikTok Shop opened in five countries in Europe, including Germany and Spain. The Europe expansion was delayed because the company first prioritized US growth, Bloomberg reported. This is a crucial month for TikTok in the US. The company will host merchants and creators in Los Angeles next week for a summit featuring some of the new leaders of the e-commerce unit. The current deadline for ByteDance to sell the TikTok's US operation is June 19 and there have been several interested suitors. The company came close to a possible spin-off in April to a consortium of investors that included Oracle Corp., but the deal was scuttled in part because of Trump's trade war with China. Meanwhile, the churn of e-commerce employment continues in the Seattle area. Current and former TikTok Shop employees told Bloomberg that they get hounded by recruiting messages from Temu, another Chinese e-commerce competitor.
India.com
an hour ago
- India.com
Why is Trump desperate for a trade deal with China? Know the SHOCKING reasons that brought US to its knees due to...
(File) China Rare Earth Elements: After assuming office for his second Presidential term in January this year, Donald Trump instigated a trade war with China by imposing exorbitant import tariffs on Chinese good. However, nearly six months later, the US President is desperately seeking a trade deal with Beijing to prevent key American industries from collapsing. Here's the reason why Trump made a U-turn on China, and is appeasing the Asian power to seek a China-US trade deal. Why US bent the knee to China? China dominates the global supply of rare earth elements, which are used by the US defense industry to manufacture advanced weapons and defense systems like radar systems, fighter jet engines, etc. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, China controls more than 90 percent of the world's processing and refining of rare earth elements, and also leads in other refining an extraction of other critical minerals like refined gallium, of which it controls 98.8 percent of global production. In recent years, Beijing has leveraged its dominance in critical mineral production and refining as a major negotiating point in trade wars, as well as targeting the defence industries of the US and its allies. The US defense industry is majorly dependent on China for rare earth minerals, but the supply has been nearly halted due to the ongoing US-China tariff war. China has imposed an export ban on rare earth elements to the US, effectively weaking the Pentagon's Pentagon's military preparations and weapons manufacturing capabilities. How China pressured the US into submission? In July 2023, Beijing imposed export controls requiring Chinese exporters to seek permission to ship eight gallium-related and six germanium-related products to other countries. In August last year, the list was expanded to include antimony, and in December, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce imposed export restrictions on gallium, germanium and antimony to the United States, as Beijing anticipated a trade war when Trump assumed office. In April this year, Beijing imposed export restrictions, mandating special export licenses for seven categories of medium and heavy rare earth elements (REEs) – samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium and yttrium – as well as magnets and other finished products containing these REEs to be shipped out of China. China's sweeping restrictions on REEs brought defense manufacturing to a halt in US and its allied countries, as supplies of rare earth minerals required for weapons' manufacturing rapidly thinned out. Why US requires large quantities of REEs? The United States is world's largest arms manufacturer and its defense sector requires a gargantuan amount of rare earth minerals to manufacture advanced modern weaponry such as precision-guided missiles, stealth fighter jets, naval warships, submarines and advanced radar systems. According to various reports, the US-made F-35 stealth fighter incorporates over 400 kg (900 lbs) of REEs in each unit for its jet engines, avionics, munitions and radar systems. The F-47, US' Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) fighter jet, is expected to contain even larger amounts of critical minerals, due to cutting-edge features like unmanned flight, artificial intelligence integration, and next-gen stealth capabilities. Similarly, US navy warships and submarines require giant quantities of REEs, with Virginia-class submarines requiring 4,200 kilograms and Arleigh Burke-class destroyers needing 2,360 kilograms of REEs for their radars, munitions and other technologies. US Predator drones, Tomahawk missiles, Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) smart bombs, and advanced radar systems all rely on rare earth elements for propulsion, targeting, and guidance. According to experts, more than 80 percent of the Pentagon's weapon system supply chains contain antimony, gallium, or germanium. Does US have REE resources? While the US does have rare earth resources, those pale in comparison to China's gigantic hold on global refining and processing of REEs. The US accounts for around 15 percent of global production of REEs, but its not enough to meet the rare earth needs of US industries, especially the defense sector. Since 2020, the Pentagon has invested $439 million to build domestic supply chains in critical minerals, and a $35 million contract was awarded to MP Materials in 2022 for a heavy rare earth processing facility. However, its supply chain is still miniscule compared to China, and thus needs to import a major chunk of REEs from Beijing. In 2024, MP Materials announced a record production of 1,300 tons of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) oxide for producing neodymium magnets, while China produced an estimated 300,000 tons of NdFeB magnets in the same year. China's antimony dominance Additionally, the US does not have any mining facilities for gallium, while China reportedly produced 750 of the 760 tons of primary low-purity gallium produced worldwide in 2024 and is known to have production capacity of up to 1,000 tons. China also holds about 48 percent of the world's mined antimony, controls 98.8 percent of refined gallium production, and is responsible for 59.2 percent of refined germanium production. All these critical minerals are used in the manufacturing of advanced weapons, ranging from armor-piercing bullets, night vision goggles and cables, to nuclear weapons and naval warships.
