Businesses
10,000 London cabbies sue Uber for millions over taxi-booking rules
London, May 2 (IANS/DPA) A group of more than 10,000 black cab drivers is suing Uber after accusing it of breaching taxi-booking rules in London, in a move which could cost the ride-hailing giant more than $313 million.
A group action claim has been filed in the High Court over Uber’s operations in the capital between May 2012 and March 2018.
The cab drivers claim that Uber misled Transport for London (TfL) over how it operated its ride-booking system and therefore breached private hire licensing rules.
They allege that the company allowed its drivers to accept bookings directly from customers, rather than going through a central system like minicab services.
The legal claim says that this booking system was “unlawful” because it did not comply with private hire rules, and that Uber deliberately misled TfL about how the system worked in order to get its licence.
The cab drivers say that during this time they suffered losses as a result of having fewer customers or having to work longer hours to compete with the popular app.
RGL Management has filed the group action, known as BULiT21, on behalf of the London cabbies, who are being instructed by solicitors at law firm Mishcon de Reya.
It is anticipating that the total claim value could be more than £250 million, with each cab driver’s claim worth up to £25,000.
A spokesman for Uber said: “These old claims are completely unfounded.
“Uber operates lawfully in London, is fully licensed by TfL, and is proud to serve millions of passengers and drivers across the capital.”
It is understood there has been no communication between Uber and RGL Management since the claims were first raised in 2019.
RGL Management said it thinks up to 30,000 cab drivers who operate in London could be eligible to join the group and make a claim against Uber.
It is appealing for more drivers to join the action in the coming weeks.
Michael Green, the director of RGL Management, said: “RGL is pleased to file this claim form today on behalf of over 10,500 London cabbies, a major legal milestone in holding Uber to account for its failure to comply with the relevant legislation in the UK’s capital.
“There are still thousands of cabbies eligible to join who have not yet done so. A cut-off date is fast approaching.
“RGL, therefore, urges drivers to register with the BULiT21 legal action as soon as possible to join with thousands of fellow cabbies in the pursuit of losses suffered at the hands of Uber.”
Garry White, a black cab driver for 36 years, said the claim seeks “justice and fair compensation” on behalf of London drivers.
“Uber seems to believe it is above the law and cabbies across London have suffered loss of earnings because of it,” he said.
Uber has previously faced issues over its licence to operate private hire vehicles in London.
It was denied a licence by TfL in 2019, over concerns that passenger safety had been breached and there were issues around transparency.
But it was allowed to continue operating and then in 2022, it was granted a two-and-a-half-year licence in London.
–IANS/DPA
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Businesses
Uzbekistan proposes development of new types of tourism
Tashkent, July 30 (IANS) The Agency for Strategic Reforms under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cooperation with the State Committee for Tourism, has prepared a draft resolution on the development of tourism in Uzbekistan, the agency press service reported.
According to the document, by 2025, new types of tourism can be developed in Uzbekistan, Xinhua news agency reported.
Geological tourism will offer visitors tours of mines and inactive geological and industrial sites. Industrial and scientific tourism will include visits to the production areas of mining and metallurgical complexes.
In addition, tourists interested in military themes will have the opportunity to visit military training grounds. They will also be provided with paid services for shooting in military zones.
“The successful implementation of the proposed changes, including the creation of new tourist routes, the introduction of modern information and navigation systems, and the improvement of infrastructure will contribute to increasing the flow of tourists to our country and developing its economy,” the statement said.
–IANS
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Businesses
India warehousing space demand skyrockets amid robust manufacturing: Report
Mumbai, July 30 (IANS) Amid growing demand from the manufacturing sector, warehouse transactions across eight primary markets in India were recorded at 23 million square feet in the first half this year, a report showed on Tuesday.
Almost 55 per cent of these transactions occurred in ‘Grade A’ spaces, led by Mumbai which accounted for 20 per cent of the total warehousing volume, according to the report by Knight Frank India.
“Demand from the manufacturing sector has compensated for the lull in e-commerce and helped broad base the market’s occupier profile,” said Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India.
While the availability of viable land for warehousing development remains a challenge, high institutional interest in this space should enable development of high-quality supply, he added.
Delhi-NCR was the second most prolific market, representing 17 per cent of the total warehousing area transacted during the period, with third-party logistics and manufacturing sectors driving volumes.
Pune was the most expensive warehousing rental market, with average rent at Rs 26 per sq ft a month.
It was followed by Kolkata with a rental rate of Rs 23.8 per sq ft monthly and Mumbai at Rs 23.6 per sq ft a month.
Pune and Chennai showcased a 4 per cent increment in rentals, followed by NCR and Kolkata at 3 per cent YoY growth, said the report.
“India’s robust fiscal position and resilient economy are well-positioned to sustain and enhance the warehousing market’s stability and growth potential for the remainder of fiscal year 2024,” said Baijal.
The country has benefited from the sustained move towards decentralisation of manufacturing capacity with global manufacturing giants such as Apple, Samsung, Foxconn and TSMC expanding their manufacturing base in the country.
–IANS
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Businesses
India-made telecom equipment now being exported to more than 100 nations
New Delhi, July 30 (IANS) Designed and manufactured in India, telecom equipment are now being exported to over 100 countries, the Centre has informed.
Last year, the country exported telecom equipment and services worth more than $18.2 billion.
“Many of our homegrown telecom companies have made their mark in Western nations, including the US, despite fierce global competition,” said Madhu Arora, Member (Technology), Digital Communications Commission, Department of Telecom.
“The Indian Army has recently integrated its first indigenous chip-based 4G mobile base station, developed by our own R&D firms,” she informed.
Addressing the ‘Defence Sector ICT Conclave’ in the national capital where 18 companies showcased their products, Arora said Information and communications technology (ICT) forms the backbone of defence operations.
“India’s vibrant ICT sector, marked by innovation and integrity, has established a significant presence over the past decades. The Indian ICT industry is providing solutions to the world, showcasing India’s leadership in this domain,” the senior official remarked.
Abhishek Singh, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, said the MEA is actively working to enhance cooperation with Africa in the ICT sector.
“By focusing on emerging technologies like AI and blockchain, we aim to address specific challenges faced by African countries,” he noted.
India has emerged as one of the top five investors in Africa, with cumulative investments of around $75 billion.
Several Indian companies have been instrumental in driving digital transformation across the continent.
According to Sandeep Aggarwal, Immediate Past Chairman, Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC), ICT is critical for maintaining the sovereignty and integrity of India.
India, with its long-standing cooperation and respect for African sovereignty, is a reliable partner in this field.
“Our expertise in data analytics and artificial intelligence empowers our defence forces with predictive insights and actionable intelligence, enhancing decision-making and operational effectiveness in the front,” Aggarwal mentioned.
–IANS
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Businesses
Took responsible approach to train our AI models: Apple
San Francisco, July 30 (IANS) Tech giant Apple has responded to certain allegations regarding its AI models, saying it takes precautions at every stage — including design, model training, feature development, and quality evaluation — to identify how its AI tools may be misused or lead to potential harm.
The company said in a technical paper that it will continuously and proactively “improve our AI tools with the help of user feedback”.
It last month revealed Apple Intelligence that will offer several generative AI features in iOS, macOS and iPadOS software over the next few months.
“The pre-training data set consists of… data we have licensed from publishers, curated publicly available or open-sourced datasets and publicly available information crawled by our web crawler, Applebot,” Apple wrote.
Given our focus on protecting user privacy, we note that no private Apple user data is included in the data mixture, the company added.
According to the technical paper, training data for the Apple Foundation Models (AFM) was sourced in a “responsible” way.
Apple Intelligence is designed with the company’s core values at every step and built on a foundation of industry-lead privacy protection.
“Additionally, we have created Responsible AI principles to guide how we develop AI tools, as well as the models that underpin them,” said the iPhone maker.
The company further said that no private Apple user data is included in the data mixture.
“Additionally, extensive efforts have been made to exclude profanity, unsafe material, and personally identifiable information from publicly available data. Rigorous decontamination is also performed against many common evaluation benchmarks,” Apple elaborated.
To train its AI models, the company crawl publicly available information using its web crawler, Applebot and “respect the rights of web publishers to opt out of Applebot using standard robots.txt directives”.
“We take steps to exclude pages containing profanity and apply filters to remove certain categories of personally identifiable information (PII). The remaining documents are then processed by a pipeline which performs quality filtering and plain-text extraction,” Apple emphasised.
–IANS
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Businesses
Iron ore production doubles, limestone output jumps 37 per cent after mining sector reforms: Govt
New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) The mining sector reforms introduced by the Centre have turned out to be “instrumental” in augmenting the production of key minerals in the country, Union Minister of Coal and Mines G. Kishan Reddy told the Parliament on Monday.
The production of iron ore has doubled from 129 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 258 million tonnes in 2022-23 while the production of limestone has jumped by 37.6 per cent from 295 million tonnes in 2014-15 to 406 million tonnes in 2022-23, the minister told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.
The gross value added (GVA) of the mining sector now accounts for 2 per cent of the country’s GDP and the contribution of the mining & quarrying sector in value terms has increased from Rs 2,90,411 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 3,18,302 crores in 2022-23, he added.
The minister also stated that as a result of the reforms implemented by the Central government, a total of 385 mineral blocks have been auctioned in the country since the introduction of the auction regime in 2015. Out of these, 50 mines are already in production.
The Ministry of Mines has taken various steps to increase the share of domestic mining in total mineral consumption by increasing mineral production and to make ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat in the mining sector’.
The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 (MMDR Act, 1957) was amended with effect from March 28, 2021, with the objective of inter-alia increasing mineral production and time-bound operationalisation of mines, increasing employment and investment in the mining sector; increasing the pace of exploration and auction of mineral resources, the minister added.
Some of the key amendments include removing end-use restrictions for the auction of mines, allowing captive mines to sell up to 50 per cent of minerals produced during the year after meeting the requirement of linked plant and removing restrictions on the transfer of mineral concessions. The MMDR Act, 1957 was further amended through the MMDR Amendment Act, 2023 with effect from August 17, 2023, with the objective of increasing exploration and production of critical and deep-seated minerals which are essential for the advancement of many sectors, including high-tech electronics, telecommunications, transport and defence, Reddy added.
–IANS
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