The struggles of India’s beleaguered real estate sector might end soon. A group of ministers on Friday batted for a cut in the goods and services tax (GST) rates on under-construction houses.

At its first meeting here, the panel, headed by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel, favoured lowering of GST rates on under-construction houses, from 12 per cent with input tax credit (ITC) to 5 per cent without ITC.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday tightened the criteria for moving derivatives stocks to physical settlement.

The move follows a sharp swing in stocks belonging to frontline groups, amid concerns surrounding high share pledging in recent weeks. In a circular, Sebi said a stock will be moved to physical settlement from the new expiry cycle if any of the conditions are met.

Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group Friday accused L&T and Edelweiss entities of "illegal" and "motivated" actions in invoking the pledged shares and selling them in open market causing a steep fall in its share value.

A few NBFCs, "substantially L&T Finance and certain entities of Edelweiss Group, have invoked pledge of listed shares of Reliance Group and made open market sales of the value of approximately Rs 400 crore from February 4 to 7," the group said in a statement.

Mahindra & Mahindra and its subsidiary Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers reported a 60 per cent YoY rise in their consolidated net profit at Rs 1,476 crore for third quarter (October-December) of FY19.

Revenue for the quarter rose 14 per cent to Rs 13,235 crore, against Rs 11,594 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Thursday accused the publisher of the National Enquirer of “blackmail” after it threatened to publish intimate photographs sent by the billionaire to his mistress if he did not cease an investigation into the newspaper’s alleged links with Saudi Arabia.

It comes after the tabloid last month reported Bezos was in a relationship with former news anchor and entertainment reporter Lauren Sanchez — having accessed private text messages.

As NTPC continues to add thermal generation capacities to its portfolio amid sustained under-recoveries due to coal shortage, it is also increasing the coal import target to meet the additional fuel demand. For its goal to add 4,880 MW thermal capacity by FY19-end, NTPC would have incremental coal requirement of 18-20 MT, the company management recently said in the Q3FY19 earning conference call. To meet this demand, it plans to import 11.9 MT in FY20, more than twice the 5 MT target set for FY19.

Mining behemoth Coal India (CIL) has put the process of procuring various types and sizes of high capacity heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM) on the fast track to press these into operation in its open cast mines as soon as possible. This move would bolster CIL’s production on the back of an investment of above Rs 7,000 crores. This would be made out of the company’s Capex kitty, a CIL statement said.

Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said that West Bengal should go for a digital drive to lead the fourth industrial revolution with Reliance Jio already making one tenth of its total investment in the state in the digital space.

Speaking at the 5th edition of the Bengal Global Business Summit(BGBS), Ambani said Reliance Jio’s investment stands at Rs 28,000 crore in the state, one tenth of the total investment it has so far done in the digital space.

In the midst of his hectic election campaigning before he became the deputy prime minister in the late 80s, Devi Lal declared he would launch an old-age pension scheme if he was elected.

There was an uproar over how it would be funded. The seasoned politician from Haryana was unperturbed by it all.

Defending itself against Standard Chartered Bank from diluting its bid for Essar Steel, ArcelorMittal on Thursday told the National Company Law Tribunal’s Ahmedabad Bench that lenders would gain more from the deal. The bank alleged that as against an upfront payment of Rs 42,000 crore, in addition to working capital adjustments of Rs 2,500 crore, the LN Mittal-led firm negotiated its bid downwards in collaboration with State Bank of India-led Committee of Creditors (CoC).

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