Heena Sharma Blog

Financial firms operating in Singapore and Hong Kong are delaying hiring as the coronavirus outbreak disrupts their businesses. Both domestic and foreign institutions have slowed recruitment, according to headhunters in the financial hubs. They’ve been impacted by quarantines, restrictions on travel to and from China, remote working arrangements and decisions not to conduct face-to-face interviews. It’s another aspect of the fallout from the virus, which has also caused factory closures, disrupted supply chains and initiated the world’s largest work-from-home experiment. Recruiting has become less of a priority as firms including DBS Group Holdings Ltd. have highlighted the revenue impact of worsening business conditions. “ Everybody is distracted,” said Gurj Sandhu, a managing director at Morgan McKinley Group Ltd. in Singapore. Hiring is falling down the “pecking order,” he said, while adding that nobody is canceling roles yet. Read More

Asia’s biggest motor show drew to a close on Wednesday bringing the curtains down on the six-day extravaganza. Even though it fell short of the overall number of participation, it was one of the biggest in terms of partaking by new entrants. Beating the slowdown that has sapped buyer’s sentiments and hit volumes at auto companies for the past year-and-a-half, a total of 608,526 people visited the show at the Great Noida Expo Mart between February 7 and 12, according to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam). With a peek into the future of mobility via green technologies, the exposition included 352 product displays from 108 exhibitors. This included eight global premiers and over 70 launches and unveils. It also comprised introduction of 35 electric vehicles and 15 concepts. Though many manufacturers gave the show a miss, those who participated believed in it as a platform to rekindle interest in a slowing market. Read More

Netflix lifted the curtains off its plans for Asia expansion by announcing the launch of 17 new originals, nine of them hailing from India. The announcement was made by Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings and chief content officer Ted Sarandos at the See What's Next: Asia event here. "What we do is very special. We invest in stories and we commission some of the best stories around the world," Hastings said. "And in particular with Asian filmmakers, storytellers from India, Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan and everywhere throughout Asia, we are producing stories and sharing them. What happens when you share stories, it builds connections," he added. The line-up of its made-in-Asia shows also includes five Anime titles from Japan and original productions in Thai, Korean and Chinese languages. "Our core belief is that great stories can come from anywhere and right now, they are also coming from Asia. Whether it is 'Sacred Games' o