PUNE: Maruti Suzuki, India's biggest car maker, on Friday officially started accepting bookings with a down payment of Rs 11,000 for its upcoming new model — Maruti Suzuki XL6, the multi-purpose vehicle or MPV with six seats.

The company will announce its price on August 21, the launch day at New Delhi. According to experts it could be tagged around Rs 9.50 lakh — 10.50 lakh in a fiercely competitive car market in the country.

With consumer demand subdued, auto manufacturers continue to cut production. Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) will keep its plants shut for 8 to 14 days in the July-September quarter as demand remains weak and inventory at dealers remains higher than normal.

In the April-June quarter, Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Honda Cars India and Tata Motors had cut production by 7-18% year-on-year (y-o-y). This is the second consecutive quarter in which the Mumbai-based automaker will be trimming production.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman assured the industry that the government would review the criminal penal provisions on corporate social responsibility (CSR) contained in the recent amendments to the Companies Act.

Addressing members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), she said CSR notices with retrospective effect “were unacceptable” and that she would put a stop to them.

Pakistan called on the Trump administration to do more to help ease tensions after India revoked autonomy in the disputed Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, a decision that has inflamed tensions between the two Asian powers.

“The US could do and the US must do more to help defuse this situation and to perhaps inject some more sanity on the Indian side," Asad Khan, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US, said in an interview on Friday in Washington with Bloomberg News editors and reporters. “We would expect that from all our friends. It really is a question of principle."

People in Mumbai will soon be able to buy Ikea’s home furnishing products online as the Swedish retailer is taking a multi-channel approach to expand its India operations after its Hyderabad store completed its first year.

Ikea’s officials and the company’s 800-strong Hyderabad team celebrated the first year of its first India store on Friday.

Mumbai: The rupee appreciated by 22 paise to 70.47 against the US dollar in early trade on Friday, tracking gains in domestic equities amid reports of a meeting between foreign investors and finance ministry officials regarding higher tax surcharge during the day.

At the interbank foreign exchange, the rupee opened at 70.54, then gained momentum and touched a high of 70.47, registering a rise of 22 paise over its previous close.

Mumbai: The intelligence agencies have told the Government of India (GoI) that Pakistan-based terror group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) may plan attacks on the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and economic targets in metropolitan cities like Mumbai.

This advancement came a few days after Pakistan PM Imran Khan's statement stating that the revocation of article 370 could lead to Pulwama like incidents.'

Sports Secretary Radheshyam Jhulaniya on Friday said that the Indian cricket board has agreed to come under the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA), ending years of defiance.

Jhulaniya, who met BCCI CEO Rahul Johri here on Friday, said the Board has given in writing that it would adhere to the anti-doping policy of NADA.

The Indian Government on August 5 created history by revoking Article 370 and 35A that grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. The landmark decision that bifurcates the state into two separate union territories i.e. Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has not only brought a big cheer to the whole nation but has also opened a new gateway for the real estate market and investments in the country.

Facebook Inc. is taking the first major step in a plan to merge its systems and let users exchange messages among all its different mobile apps — and is chipping away at the independence of Instagram’s direct-messaging product in the process.

Engineers are working to rebuild Instagram’s chat feature using Facebook Messenger’s technology, according to people familiar with the matter.

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