Vladimir Putin goes to India to sign some deals.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Liana Byrne.
Also in India, a generic drugs maker there is coming for the company behind Ozempic.
And the EU is now looking into the way Meta uses AI in WhatsApp.
OK, let's start with India.
OK.
That's how President Putin was welcomed in Delhi, where he used to have talks with Prime Minister Modi, focusing on trade and expanding defence ties.
It's the first visit by the Russian leader to Delhi since he launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
India, like China, has been a big purchaser of Russian oil and has been accused by the West of financing the war.
But local resident Sanjay Kumar welcomed closer ties with Russia.
In the current global scenario, we are subject to terrorism and other problems, so it's important to build ties with Russia.
Russia has from time to time helped us.
Therefore, it's a good move and the defence deal should be signed so that all the latest technology reaches India.
Sushma Ramachandran is an independent journalist and columnist with the Tribune newspaper in Delhi.
India-Russian trading relationship has become more important of late because of oil.
You know, way back in the days, many decades ago, in the era of the Soviet Union, we had a very flourishing trade.
But after that, after the liberalization of the economy in India, The trading relationship kind of died down a great deal.
But, as you mentioned, the whole thing has become so much more important ever since the Ukraine war started.
Oil prices shot up and Russia was offering oil at a discount to India.
What do you think either side wants to get out of these talks?
This is a very comprehensive discussions that are going to go on.
It's just not trade and the economy, it's defense, it's strategic issues but yes, trade and investment.
Because now India is looking for Russia to make larger investments in India.
They have a fairly large rupee balances in Indian accounts and those funds can be used for investment.
Russia now having the problems with the West is looking to invest in areas like railways.
There is already one joint manufacturing unit which is underway, and also in consumer goods, as well as in infrastructure.
Well, you mentioned problems with the West.
Do you think that trading relationship with Russia is even more important now because of those US tariffs on India, and their trading relationship is doing the worst it has been for a long time?
Yes.
India has been faced with probably the heaviest tariffs of any country which has trading ties with the US.
They put it down to the fact that India is buying Russian oil.
And yes, you are right.
India is looking for new markets.
Russia is a new market.
Russia, and under Vladimir Putin, is certainly trying to take advantage of this situation, in the sense that ties are deepening with India.
And they have offered to try and ensure that they can buy much more from India, because right now it's a very one-sided trading relationship.
But Russia has offered to buy a wide range of products from India, whether it is seafood, whether it is in spices, whether it's agricultural products.
So yes, the American tariffs have had a very large role to play in this current scenario.
Now with Sushma Ramachandran in Delhi.
Now sticking with India, its generic drug makers there have scored a major win.
A court there has given Dr Reddy's that's one of India's biggest pharmaceutical companies the green light to export its non-branded version of Novo Nordisk's key ingredient for its diabetes and weight loss drugs.
Adrian Murray is a journalist who's covered Novo Nordisk extensively.
She joins me now.
Adrian, surely this is a nightmare for any pharma company like Novo.
No.
Well, it's certainly a major setback, but of course, that does depend what Novo does next.
There is still a chance that it could go to the Supreme Court.
We've not heard yet from them how they will, what next steps they'll take.
But of course the drug giant had filed a petition to block the production of this generic version by Dr Reddy.
The judgment of the Delhi High Court rejected this.
So it does green light Dr. Reddy's to go ahead to produce this generic version of semaglutine.
Now, that's this key ingredient in Novus's best-selling obesity and diabetes drugs.
That's Wegovi and Ozempic.
But there are also some significant restrictions around the ruling.
So the court said that Dr Redis could only sell these generics to markets where there's no patent required.
And that means they also can't sell this generic in the local market in India.
Yet until Novo's patent expires.
But you know, Dr Reddy's had announced that it would plan to sell this generic version to more than 80 countries.
So this could certainly see this version, this generic version of the drug, go to many more countries where Novo-branded medicines we gave Nizempic are not yet available.
So when those patents come off.
The patents come off soon, though, don't they?
Well, yes.
I mean, the patent picture is quite complex, but a semi-glutide patent was taken out in 2006.
So that will remain in place in really the key market, which is the United States and also the EU, until 2031.
But crucially yes, by March next year already, the patents are expected to expire in places like India, China and Brazil.
Okay.
Adrienne Murray, thank you so much for joining us.
We've got loads of news about meta today.
First in Australia, it's been closing accounts of Australian children under 16 on Instagram, Facebook and threads, a week before an official teen social media ban begins.
The rules come in on the 10th of December.
Companies could get fined up to 33 million US dollars if they fail to take reasonable steps to stop under 16s from having accounts.
Around 150,000 Facebook users and 350,000 Instagram accounts are expected to be affected.
And then in Europe, the EU is investigating Meta for possible anti-competition breaches linked to how it launched new AI tools inside WhatsApp.
Meta has been rolling out a built-in chatbot and virtual assistant across Europe since March.
The BBC's James Graham has more.
The European Commission, which is the executive arm of the EU, said it's concerned that new policies implemented by Meta for its WhatsApp AI tools may prevent rival AI providers from offering their services through WhatsApp in Europe.
Meta could face a fine of as much as 10 of its global annual turnover if found guilty of breaching competition rules.
James, what's WhatsApp said?
Well, as you might expect, the company's not happy.
A spokesman described the claims as baseless, adding that the emergence of chatbots on its platforms quotes puts a strain on our systems that they are not designed to support.
James Graham there.
Now, to indulge me more with more meta is Bill Blaine, principal and founder of Windshift Capital.
Bill, a lot of talk about the metaverse on the stocks at the moment.
Yeah, you'll remember a few years ago that Mark Zuckerberg changed the name from Facebook to Meta to reflect his belief that we're all going to live and play and die in the imaginary metaverse.
Well, you know what's not happened?
He's starting to pull funding from the group that's been developing it within Meta.
And, as a result, the stock has surged because everyone thinks he'll now be able to spend money on other AI spending building more infrastructure.
But the story there really is one that Googles the name that everybody's watching.
Alphabet's already got their fingers in every AI pie.
What about generally US stocks?
I mean, just a few hours ago it opened.
Anything on confidence or not much confidence over a rate cut?
Well, we've had some numbers today that suggest that unemployment is not falling, so that would push against a rate cut.
But then, of course, we had yesterday Trump announcing well, effectively announcing, who the next Fed head will be.
The thing is, what's driving the market just now is not real confidence on the part of institutional investors, but it's retail investors who think that, because the market has fallen, that it's time to buy the dip.
Always a mixed picture, Bill.
I'm glad I'm not the one making any decisions on the right.
Bill Blaine, principal and founder of Windshift Capital.
Thank you so much for joining us and that's it from World Business Express.
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