A major Asia-Pacific summit's failure to agree on a communique resulted from certain countries "excusing" protectionism, a top Chinese diplomat said, in a veiled criticism of Washington that further sours the tone of China-U.S. ties ahead of a G20 meet.

After months of bickering over a damaging trade war, the disputed South China Sea and U.S. support for Chinese-claimed Taiwan, the two nations' presidents took a step back from the edge with an ice-breaking telephone call early this month.

An independent director at Yes Bank Ltd., a lender that’s been ordered by India’s central bank to replace its chief executive officer, resigned on Monday saying he was concerned about recent events at the company.

“I wasn’t happy with the developments taking place in the recent past and the way it was handled,” R. Chandrashekhar said in a message on WhatsApp, declining to be more specific. The lender’s shares tumbled as much as 6.5 percent on Tuesday, the worst performer on the S&P BSE Sensex index.

Cryptocurrencies resumed their slump on Monday, with Bitcoin piercing the $5,000 mark for the first time since October 2017, in the wake of increased regulatory scrutiny of initial coin offerings and the split of one of the largest tokens.

Bitcoin declined as much as 9 per cent to $4,958, while so-called alternative coins slumped even more, with Ether tumbling as much as 12 per cent and Litecoin cratering as much as 13 per cent. XRP, the token associated with Ripple, was the lone gainer among major digital currencies.

Aiming to boost sales in the wake of weaker-than-expected demand for new iPhone models, Apple has sealed a deal with retail giant Amazon to sell its range of products which is a win-win game for both the tech titans, market research firm Counterpoint Research has said.

According to Counterpoint, the move would allow the Cupertino-based giant to better manage pricing, warranties and the overall customer experience.

Trai is expected to meet telecom industry players next month, to deliberate on the issues that will be taken up during 2019, its Chairman RS Sharma said Monday.

The discussion - now an annual feature - is however expected to entail a wider set of players in the telecom space this time, spanning operators, infrastructure providers and others.

State-owned Coal India (CIL) Monday announced the reappointment of five independent directors - Loretta M Vas, Vinod Jain, DC Panigrahi, Khanindra Pathak, SB Agnihotri - to its board.

The "five independent directors were appointed by the ministry of coal vide its letter....dated November 17, 2015, for a period of three years. On completion of their tenure on November 16, 2018, they ceased to be independent directors of Coal India board."

The government has put its ambitious solar power capacity addition plan on a fast track, asking the state-run Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) to bring tenders to install 4,000 megawatt (MW) solar power capacity in four months to February 2019. The government has asked SECI to bring 1,000 MW tenders every month from November 2018 to February 2019, in order to expedite the process of capacity edition amid criticism over unmet targets, The Indian Express reported.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd. is considering a plan to boost its oil-refining capacity by about half, people with knowledge of the matter said. The proposed plant, to come up at the world’s biggest refining complex in Jamnagar, will be able to process as much as 30 million tons of crude a year, the people said asking not to be identified because the discussions are private. A Reliance spokesman didn’t reply to an email seeking comment.

Asia’s oldest bourse BSE has decided to snap ties with S&P Dow Jones, which manages and operates benchmark Sensex, and plans to develop indices through its own in-house development team, exchange’s officials said.

The two entities had announced a joint venture — Asia Index — in 2013 to provide an array of indices enabling global and domestic investors to participate in South Asia’s vibrant economies.

NTPC has invited expression of interest (EoI) for construction of fly ash-based geopolymer concrete roads at its plants to demonstrate use of this technology, a company official said.

“NTPC has invited players to construct fly ash-based geopolymer concrete roads. About 1,100 tonne of fly ash is used per km of geopolymer road,” the official told PTI.

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