Education on technology

Australia said it would regulate buy-now-pay-later services as a consumer credit product under new laws, forcing BNPL providers to carry out background checks before lending in what would be one of the world's toughest regimes for the startup sector. The move would put companies like Afterpay , owned by Jack Dorsey's Block , and Zip under the watch of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), and Australia behind only Britain among countries that have sought to regulate BNPL as a standard credit product. BNPL companies typically offer on-the-spot interest-free short-term loans with minimal credit checks that spread payments over weeks or months and are largely used by cash-strapped people taking debt, sometimes more than they can afford. The absence of interest charges has so far exempted BNPL providers from consumer credit regulation and the sector has seen its business surge amid an online shopping frenzy spurred by COVID-19 stimulus payments and ultra...

Apple and Samsung Electronics are among companies interested in increasing electronics production in India, a minister said, a boon for the country's push to challenge neighboring China as a manufacturing hub. The South Asian nation is seeking to expand its early success in smartphones to other product categories, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India's minister of state for technology, told Bloomberg TV's Rishaad Salamat and Haslinda Amin on Friday. The country is launching a $2 billion (roughly Rs. 163 crore) plan to boost the local output of laptops, servers, tablets, and other electronics. “We've had considerable success and tailwinds in the smartphone segment and we have increased interest from the likes of Apple and Samsung in expanding and growing here,” Chandrasekhar said. “We want to essentially replay that and add to that.” India's financial incentives for smartphone manufacturing have resulted in Apple and Samsung exporting billions of dollars of handsets from...