The rupee opened 12 paise lower at 68.53 against the US dollar on Thursday. The domestic currency surged by 33 paise to close at 68.41 amid the greenback's weakness against key rivals overseas, even as oil prices firmed up on supply concerns.

It was the third straight session of gain for the domestic currency, during which it has strengthened by 89 paise.

Reliance Industries (RIL) said on Wednesday its subsidiary Reliance Jio Digital Services had entered into a strategic transaction with Haptik Infotech, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) platform that will build India’s largest AI assistant company across chat, voice and regional languages.

The company said the transaction size (including investment for growth and expansion) is estimated to be Rs 700 crore, with Rs 230 crore as the consideration for the initial business transfer.

After Rajasthan's state drugs controller found that Johnson & Johnson (J&J)'s baby shampoo products were not of standard quality, the Gujarat Food and Drugs Control Authority has turned its eye on the healthcare major.

The state FDCA has now ordered tests on samples of J&J's baby shampoo results, which could take at least couple of weeks.

The BSNL board has given its approval to lay off 54,000 employees. Besides, in a further move to save costs, the state owned firm has also reduced the retirement age of its employees to 58 years.

According to a report published in the Deccan Herald, the BSNL board approved three out of 10 suggestions by the board set up by the government.

Walmart-owned Flipkart is the most preferred workplace in India, followed by Amazon and Oyo in the second and third places, respectively, according to a list compiled by professional social media network LinkedIn.

Internet companies dominate the top 10 spots in LinkedIn's fourth edition of the '2019 Top Companies' list for India.

Shares of Muthoot Finance hit a new high of Rs 631, up 2.4 per cent on the BSE on Wednesday, after the company announced its board will meet on Friday, April 5, 2019, to consider interim dividend. The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 625 touched on March 29, in intra-day trade.

“The board of directors of Muthoot Finance is scheduled to be held on Friday, 05th April, 2019 to consider the declaration of interim dividend for the FY 2019,” the company said in a BSE filing.

Shares of telecom services provider Vodafone Idea and Reliance Communications (RCom) have hit their respective new lows on the BSE in an otherwise strong market. At 11:03 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 0.44 per cent or 171 points at 39,228.

Vodafone Idea hit a new low of Rs 16.40, down 3 per cent, on the BSE on Wednesday, falling 10 per cent in past three trading days, after the stock turned ex-date for rights issue on March 29.

Shares of real estate companies were trading higher for the second straight day on Wednesday with Godrej Properties hitting an all-time high, while DLF was quoting near its 52-week high on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

At 10:43 am, the Nifty Realty index was the largest gainer among sectoral indices and was up 1.8 per cent, extending its previous day's 2 per cent gain on the NSE. In the past month, the realty index has surged 21 per cent against 8 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty 50 index.

ZoomCar could get a $500 million push from a fresh round of funding (Series E) led by Mahindra, reported Mint. ZoomCar is a self-drive-focused car rental company allowing individuals to rent vehicles by the hour, day, and week.

The company has raised $103.8 million as yet, according to CrunchBase. Last year, M&M had pumped in up to Rs 176 crore in Zoomcar India and Zoomcar Inc, its US incorporated holding parent company.

The US has approved the sale of 24 multi-role MH-60 'Romeo' Seahawk helicopters to India at an estimated cost of USD 2.4 billion, the State Department has said.

India has been in need of these formidable anti-submarine hunter helicopters for more than a decade now.

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