Daily Briefing: Senior transport minister urges oBike for concrete refund plans; IHH Healthcare likely to buy Indian hospital shares

And AI Singapore's speech recognition system with real-time transcriber will be commercially available within 18 months.

From Yahoo! News Singapore:

oBike should be responsible for a "concrete plan" for their users' deposit refunds and to remove their bicycles from public spaces, transport senior minister Janil Puthucheary said.

"Responding to parliamentary questions on regulations for bicycle sharing operators and the aftermath of oBike’s sudden exit from Singapore, Dr Puthucheary noted that oBike chairman Shi Yi “publicly and personally committed” on 1 July to a full refund of user deposits.

“oBike is now working out a process with CASE to refund user deposits…If LTA has to step in to remove its bicycles, we will impose fees on oBike for doing so,” said the SMS."

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From Deal Street Asia:

IHH Healthcare is likely to acquire 51% of India's hospital Fortis Healthcare's shares.

"IHH Healthcare outbid TPG-backed Manipal Health Enterprises Ltd, the only other contender for Fortis, by placing a higher per share offer for the promoters and also offering to buy out Fortis’s non-promoter shareholders at a 10% to 15% premium to the agreed purchase price.

A successful bid will allow IHH Healthcare, Southeast Asia’s largest hospital operator, to expand its presence in India rapidly. IHH Healthcare has pursued Fortis despite the discovery of financial irregularities at the hospital operator after founders Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh left the company earlier this year after losing control due to mounting debt."

Read more here.

From Yahoo! News Singapore

AI Singapore's speech recognition system which can transcribe real-time is being developed for commercial use in about 12-18 months.

"The unique speech engine, touted by its creators to be the first of its kind, is adept at recognising “code-switching” – the practice of alternating between two or more languages in conversation.

The team is working on a “stable” version for commercial use to be ready in 12 to 18 months. Their first partner? The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF)."

Read more here