The rupee on Tuesday opened 23 paise higher at 71.33 against the US dollar as oil prices dropped 1 per cent, amid reports of a big climb in US inventories and forecasts of record shale output stoked worries about oversupply.

The domestic unit on Monday recovered by 34 paise to close at 71.56 against the US dollar as forex market sentiments were driven by the country's narrowing trade deficit in November as also smart gains in domestic equities.

The death toll in Mumbai's Andheri hospital fire incident has increased to eight from six. One of the victims is a six-month-old baby, the police said. A massive fire broke out at ESIC Kamgar hospital on Monday injuring more than 140 people.

Ten fire tenders were pressed into service to douse the blaze while a rescue van and 16 ambulances were also rushed to the spot for necessary assistance.

Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Bank shares fell over 3% on Monday after the Bombay high Court refused to grant stay on 31 December deadline given by the Reserve Bank of India for promoter stake dilution. The next hearing will be on 17 January, Bloomberg reported. In intraday, Kotak Mahindra Bank shares declined as much as 3.6% to hit a low of ₹1,209.30 apiece. The Kotak Bank stock closed at 1,223.90 per share, down 2.50% from its previous close, while the Sensex rose 0.85% to 36,270.07 points.

ONGC, OIL spent Rs 13,000 cr on 115 discoveries govt took away from them: Pradhan

New Delhi: State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) and Oil India Ltd (OIL) spent over Rs 13,000 crore on 115 oil and gas discoveries which were taken away from them by the government for auctioning to private companies, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said Monday.

Despite the pace of highways projects undertaken by state-run National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) picking up in the last three years, it is likely to remain short by 33-37 per cent of its FY19 target of completing 6,000 km, says Icra.

With a strong unexecuted pipeline and concerted efforts on right of way, the NHAI is on a strong footing and is set to witness sustained growth in execution in FY2019, the highest ever over the last one decade (FY2010- FY2019), the agency said in a statement issued on Monday.

The Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the LIC move to acquire 51 per cent stake in the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI).

Justice Vibhu Bakhru rejected the petition by the All India IDBI Officers Association, which had opposed the move of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) on the ground that change in shareholding could take away the public sector bank status of IDBI.

Shares of state-run major NTPC surged in early trade Monday after global brokerage Jefferies said that the PSU will benefit from Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) latest decision. NTPC share price rallied 5.8 per cent to hit the day’s high at Rs 151.35. The CERC, in its draft, allowed energy charges per unit of power to be calculated with a variation of 85 kilocalorie to billing on actual gross calorific value of coal received, giving NTPC the benefit of about 2.7 per cent on its coal cost, Jefferies noted.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has refused to provide the department of telecommunications (DoT) a detailed methodology adopted by it to calculate the reserve price for spectrum for fresh auctions. Sources told FE that now DoT is left with the only option of asking the regulator to come out with a long-term calculation methodology for which the latter will have to come out with a consultation paper and seek inputs of the stakeholders.

Ahead of the planned special audit of telecom operators, industry body COAI has favoured a single audit exercise that meets the requirements of multiple stakeholders like the telecom department and sector regulator Trai.

“The DoT is entitled to do audits and we can’t argue with that. But can we get to a point where a single audit exercise is conducted by one entity that is agreed to by all parties as competent, to do detailed checks required by various stakeholders like CAG,

Industry body Nasscom has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras for its FutureSkills Platform that is targeted at re-skilling/upskilling four million people on digital skills.

Under its FutureSkills Platform, Nasscom aims to re-skill/upskill four million people from the IT-ITeS industry, students entering the workforce and employees of other industries/government on digital skills.

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