Facebook's $5.7bn bet on India's richest man Mukesh Ambani

Facebook has said it is investing $5.7bn (£4.6bn) in cut-price Indian mobile internet company Reliance Jio, which is owned by the country's richest person Mukesh Ambani.

The deal makes the social network the largest minority shareholder in the telecoms unit of Reliance Industries, with a 9.99% stake.

It gives Facebook a major foothold in India, where its WhatsApp chat service has 400m users and is about to launch a payments service.

"This investment underscores our commitment to India, and our excitement for the dramatic transformation that Jio has spurred in the country," Facebook said in a statement.

Facebook also said that it plans to focus on the collaboration between WhatsApp and Reliance's e-commerce venture JioMart to enable people to connect with businesses, shops and purchase products.

In February this year WhatsApp Pay was granted permission by Indian authorities to start a phased roll-out, two years after the start of a trial version of the service.

In a separate statement Reliance Jio said the agreement will be good for both the company and the country as a whole: "This partnership will accelerate India's all-round development, fulfilling the needs of Indian people and the Indian economy."

Reliance Jio is the most valued subsidiary of Reliance Industries, the oil-to-telecoms conglomerate. The company has been able to upend India's telecoms market in this short span by offering very low data prices, which has allowed it to keep competition at bay.

With a presence across a suite of services such as mobile telephony, live TV, music streaming and payments, Facebook will be looking to drive synergies across services and further consolidate its position in India.

This deal also comes in at a particularly opportune time for Mr Ambani, who has been making a concerted effort to reduce the debt on his books. He's ploughed in a reported $25 billion into Jio in recent years towards capital expenditure. At a group level Reliance's liabilities have jumped to $65 billion in financial year 2019, from $19 billion in 2015. The Facebook deal will be a critical element of Mr Ambani's ambitions to cut net debt to zero by March 2021.

Mr Ambani has confirmed that his digital new commerce platform Jio Mart will collaborate with Whatsapp in the near future to help "mom and pop" shops transact digitally with their customers in the neighbourhood.

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EU helps protect weak firms from foreign takeovers

The EU plans to help block foreign takeovers of European companies struggling with the virus downturn. 

It wants to allow governments to invest in weak companies, which could include some form of ownership.

While it called them "measures of last resort", the European Commission says it is consulting member states.

A focus for the regulator is to counter unfair competition from state-owned firms, which are the backbone of economies such as China's.

It is now looking at further protection for businesses based in the EU, in light of the significant financial impact coronavirus lockdowns are having on them.

"This in principle falls outside the scope of EU state aid control and can in particular be important for interventions by member states to prevent hostile takeovers of strategic companies by foreign purchasers," a spokesman for the European Commission said.

"As in any crisis, the industrial and corporate assets are under stress. The resilience of our industries, their capacity to continue to respond to the needs of EU citizens and the preservation of strategic assets and technology, is key," the spokesman added.

The EU is worried that foreign investors may try to acquire European companies "in order to take control of key technologies, infrastructure or expertise". It says this "raises concerns as regards security".

Last month, the European Commission issued guidelines to ensure a strong EU-wide approach to foreign investment screening "in a time of public health crisis and related economic vulnerability".

European companies have long been in the sights of Chinese rivals, including major state-owned enterprises, and the sharp economic downturn, and subsequent steep falls in share prices, could make them more vulnerable to overseas bidders.

"The Commission is well aware of concerns that operations involving companies benefiting from third-country subsidies or state support may have distortive effects in the European internal market," it said.

New foreign direct investment screening regulations were adopted last March and can be fully applied from October 2020.

The UK formally left the EU on 31 January, but is currently in a transition period until the end of the year. During this period, the UK will continue to follow all of the EU's rules and its trading relationship will remain the same.

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Indonesian village uses 'ghosts' for distancing patrols

A village in Indonesia has reportedly taken to using volunteers dressed as ghosts to try to scare people into social distancing over the coronavirus.

Kepuh village, on Java Island, started deploying the patrols at night last month.

In Indonesian folklore, ghostly figures known as "pocong" are said to represent the trapped souls of the dead.

Indonesia so far has about 4,500 cases and 400 confirmed virus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

But there are fears, according to experts, that the true scale of the infection across the country is much worse.

According to Reuters news agency staff who travelled to see the pocong in action, the unusual tactic initially had the opposite effect to that intended - with people coming out to try to spot the volunteers.

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But locals say matters have improved since the team began deploying unexpectedly.

"Since the pocong appeared, parents and children have not left their homes," resident Karno Supadmo told Reuters. "And people will not gather or stay on the streets after evening prayers."

Anjar Panca, keeper at a local mosque, told the Jakarta Post the initiative worked because it reminded residents of the potential deadly effects of the disease.

The initiative was organised by the head of the village's youth group in co-ordination with local police.

"We wanted to be different and create a deterrent effect because pocong are spooky and scary," Anjar Pancaningtyas, head of the youth group, told Reuters.

Indonesia's president Joko Widodo has not yet implemented a national lockdown, despite fears the country's healthcare system could be overwhelmed without tougher measures.

"Residents still lack awareness about how to curb the spread of Covid-19 disease," the head of Kepuh village told Reuters. "They want to live like normal so it is very difficult for them to follow the instruction to stay at home."

Although unconventional, this is not the only unusual measure that has been used to try to raise awareness of the disease's dangers around the world.

In India, police have been spotted wearing virus-shaped helmets as a way to highlight the risks.

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