Thursday☕️

Apr 20, 2023 • 3 min read

Trending:

Markets/Economies:

Rice Shortage:

Rice production has decreased in countries like China, Pakistan, and India, leading to a significant global shortfall and higher prices. This affects over 3.5 billion people, particularly in Asia-Pacific, which consumes 90% of the world's rice.
The shortfall is due to factors such as the ongoing war in Ukraine, adverse weather conditions in China and Pakistan, and export restrictions in India (world's largest rice exporter).
Fitch Solutions predicts that the rice market will return to a balanced position in 2023/24, with prices potentially dropping by 2024. However, weather conditions still pose a significant risk to rice production.

India's First Apple Store:

Apple CEO Tim Cook inaugurated India's first Apple store in Mumbai and plans to open another in Delhi, marking Apple's retail entry into India's two largest cities.
As India's population is expected to surpass China's this year, Apple aims to tap into the country's 600 million smartphone users. Despite iPhones being expensive, they're gaining popularity among India's middle and upper classes.
iPhone sales in India grew by nearly 50% in Q1 2023 compared to the previous year. India is also becoming a manufacturing hub for Apple products, with the latest iPhone produced there and Foxconn investing $700 million in an Indian facility.

Business:

On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines experienced temporary US flight disruptions due to technical issues. The incident resulted in over 1,800 flight delays. In response, the airline is working to improve its software and increase staff to minimize future occurrences.
The social network, Reddit, will charge companies for using its conversations to develop AI models. Both OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard chatbot have benefited from Reddit data. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman emphasizes the value of this data and believes that it shouldn't be offered to big companies for free.

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