Lana

Just last week, India reached a new trade agreement with Europe, reducing or eliminating tariffs on around 90% of goods exchanged between the two regions.

And after Tuesday's fresh deal with the US, investors had a lot to celebrate.

They sent India's nifty-fifty index up 2.5% after the news, while the rupee gained 1.3% against the US dollar, its best single day in more than seven years.

South Korea and Taiwan are shaping up as Asia's early winners this year, with tech names from both countries doing most of the heavy lifting for their stock indexes.

Just look at Samsung and SK Hynix.

South Korea's memory chip champions have risen 39% and 40%, respectively, sending their combined market value to more than $1.1 trillion.

That puts them ahead of Tencent and Alibaba, China's longtime tech titans, for the first time.

But it's not just thanks to Korea's rise.

See, Chinese tech stocks have been sliding on worries of a tax hike on internet firms.

And that's left the country's tech index sitting nearly 20% below its October peak.

Before we dive into the next story, it's time for our daily check-in with Carl.

You've got questions.

He's got your answers.

Carl, what have you got for us?

Thanks, Carl.

Next up.

China invested record sums into its power grids last year, aiming to, you know, keep data centers humming and AI models chatting without plunging neighborhoods into darkness.

When it comes to electricity generation, China has successfully built up a massive capacity and from renewable sources too.

But there's a bottleneck transporting that energy to where it's needed most, namely industrial zones, EV chargers, and data centers, all of which are guzzling electricity faster than the grid can deliver it.

That's why the government poured a record $92 billion into upgrading its power grids last year, up 5% on 2024.