Answering critics of her maiden Budget, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Friday said every estimate in the Budget 2019-20 was "realistic" and that the focus on agriculture and investments lay foundation for nearly doubling size of the economy to USD 5 trillion in five years.

Audi AG has announced that Rahil Ansari, head for India operations, is relocating to the Volkswagen-owned carmaker’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany. Balbir Singh Dhillon, who currently heads the dealer development for the company, will replace Ansari. The top-level management change will be effective from 1 September 2019.

US regulators have approved a USD 5 billion penalty to be levied on Facebook to settle a probe into the social network’s privacy and data protection lapses, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The newspaper said the Federal Trade Commission approved the settlement in a 3-2 vote, with the two Democratic members of the consumer protection agency dissenting.

The State Bank of India-led committee of creditors (CoC) of the debt-laden Essar Steel on Friday approached the Supreme Court, challenging last week’s National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) order that reduced its share of the sale proceeds from 90% to 60%, apart from putting the operational creditors at par with financial creditors in terms of settlement of claims.

Turning down any possibility of a demerger of its different businesses, ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri on Friday said the present structure of the diversified conglomerate “makes sense” as it was “creating synergies out of diversities”.

Addressing shareholders during the cigarette-to-hotel-to-FMCG major’s 108th annual general meeting in Kolkata, Puri said, “The whole philosophy of ITC has been to create value out of the businesses within the system.

TVS Motor Company on Friday unveiled India’s first ethanol-based motorcycle — TVS Apache RTR 200 Fi E100 — even as there is no commercial fuel pump in the country selling ethanol-mixed fuel.

The company plans to launch the vehicle at a price of Rs 1.2 lakh in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka ethanol being readily available in these states, though it is not for private consumption.

Amid a flurry of speculation about Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s future, former Union Minister and BJP leader Sanjay Paswan claimed that the cricket legend will join BJP after retiring.

He told news agency IANS: “On this issue, there has been a discussion for long, although this decision will be taken only after his retirement. Dhoni is my friend, he is a player of world fame and there have been discussions on bringing him into the party fold.”

Anshula Kant, managing director of the State Bank Of India, has been appointed as managing director and chief financial officer of the World Bank, its president David Malpass announced Friday.

As Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer, Kant will be responsible for financial and risk management of the World Bank Group, reporting to the President.

Infosys on Friday altered its capital allocation policy to give back 85 per cent of its free cash flow to shareholders effective from FY20. Earlier, the company was distributing up to 70 per cent of its free cash flow to the shareholders.

“Effective from FY20, the company expects to return around 85 per cent of the free cash flow cumulatively over a period of five years through a combination of semi-annual dividends or buybacks," the firm said in a statement.

India has recorded the fastest reduction in multi-dimensional poverty between 2006 and 2016, lifting 271 million people out of poverty during this period, according to a report by the United Nations.

India’s multi-dimensional poverty index (MPI) reduced from 0.283 in 2005-06 to 0.123 in 2015-16 with strong improvements in areas such as “assets, cooking fuel, sanitation and nutrition”.

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