IT industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) on Tuesday announced the appointment of Rishad Premji, chief strategy officer and member of the board, Wipro, as its chairman for 2018-19. Premji has been a member of Nasscom’s Executive Council and was the vice-chairman for 2017-18.

Axis Bank is likely to appoint global executive search firm Egon Zehnder to find a successor to its managing director and chief executive officer Shikha Sharma, who will step down at the end of the year, sources close to the development told FE.

“The board is likely to consider both external candidates as well as senior officials from within the bank. Egon Zehnder is expected to manage the succession,” a source said on condition of anonymity.

Maruti Suzuki India sold more utility vehicles (UVs) than Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) in 2017-18 to emerge the top player in the domestic passenger vehicles market with a share of 50%. Its share in 2016-17 was 47.4%.

Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) data released on Tuesday showed Maruti’s total sales of UVs in 2017-18 was 253,759 units, giving it a market share of 27.53% up from 25.7% in 2016-17.

NEW DELHI: Microsoft is looking at expanding its partner ecosystem – both in terms of numbers as well as domain expertise – given the huge potential of digital transformation in the country, Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft told ET.

It currently has the largest partner ecosystems with 9,000 partners across 250 cities in India.

EPFO has asked banks not to deny monthly pension to people for want of biometric national ID, Aadhaar, and said that alternate means for identification should be used if needed.

The Employee Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), in a circular to all heads of pension disbursing banks and postal services on Monday, listed out alternate mechanism of handling pensioners who do not possess Aadhaar or those whose identity cannot be authenticated due to wear out of finger print.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has tightened some Know Your Customer (KYC) rules for foreign investors.

A circular it issued on Tuesday sets stiffer rules for foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) from ‘high risk’ jurisdictions and also from People of Indian Origin (PIOs) who control an FPI. These measures have been taken to align Sebi’s rules around the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

Indian stocks continue to be under selling pressure this year even as the benchmark indices have remained largely range-bound. According to data, 374 of the BSE 500 stocks have offered negative returns in 2018 despite the Sensex declining only 0.5 per cent during the year. As many as half of the BSE 500 companies saw their shares tumble over 10 per cent each.

Largest mortgage player HDFC today upped its lending rates by up to 0.20 per cent, in line with similar moves by commercial banks.

The increase in the Retail Prime Lending Rate (RPLR), on which it benchmarks the Adjustable Rate Home Loans (ARHL), is effective from April 1, an official statement said.

Taking on Amazon's Alexa-powered smart speakers, Google on Tuesday unveiled its voice-activated the 'Home' and 'Home Mini' speakers in India that can help people with their commute, play favourite songs and videos, plan daily schedule and lots more.

Powered by Google's artificial intelligence-based Assistant, the 'Home' and 'Home Mini' are priced at Rs 9,999 and Rs 4,499, respectively. The speakers will go on sale via Flipkart and at over 750 retail stores.

CHENNAI: As the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is making a second attempt to launch one of the backup satellites to replace NavIC navigation satellite constellation’s IRNSS-1A, whose three rubidium clocks failed, the space agency is taking efforts to install its signal receivers on the ground. Navigation satellite signal receivers which will give positioning and weather alerts to fishermen in deep sea were tested and more such devices will be fitted in boats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

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