NASA on May 5 blasted off its latest Mars lander, InSight, designed to perch on the surface and listen for “Marsquakes” ahead of eventual human missions to explore the Red Planet.

“Three, two, one, liftoff!” said a NASA commentator as the spacecraft launched on a dark, foggy morning atop an Atlas V rocket at 4.05 a.m. Pacific time (4.35 p.m. IST) from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, marking NASA’s first interplanetary launch from the U.S. west coast.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today said his ministry has accorded permission to auto makers Bajaj and TVS for making vehicles that run using 100 per cent bio-ethanol made out of rice and wheat straw.

"I told the managements of Bajaj and TVS to make ethanol based bike and auto rickshaws.

A Court in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu has issued an order against ICICI Bank in a matter involving a set of option contracts submitted by a hosiery garments exporter.

Freelook Fashions, a company that manufactures and exports hosiery garments to United Kingdom and Ireland, had moved the Court to declare eight option contracts that it entered with the bank as void and unenforceable.

India's second largest software services company Infosys today said its CEO Salil Parekh will receive an annual performance equity grant worth Rs 13 crore.

Parekh had joined the Bengaluru-based company in January this year after a protracted stand-off ensued between Infosys founders led by NR Narayana Murthy and the previous management over issues of corporate governance and compensation to former executives.

Mumbai: The Indian rupee on Friday weakened against the US dollar after local equity markets fell for the second session.

The home currency closed at 66.87 against US dollar, down 0.34% from its Thursday’s close of 66.65. The rupee opened at 66.63 a dollar and touched a low of 66.92.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), a leading aviation consultancy, has asked the central government, to make Air India divestment offer attractive to investors or be ready to see the national carrier closing down. In a series of tweets on 4 May, CAPA has said that the debt-ridden national carrier may head for two year loss of $1.5 to billion.

FDs maturing between one year and 14 months will also yield 7.1%, 35 basis points (bps) higher than earlier. All deposits of under Rs 1 crore with longer maturities will earn 7%. The 14 months to 17 months bucket was earlier priced at 6.75%, while all maturities ranging between 17 months and 10 years earlier yielded 6.9%.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Friday allowed domestic stock exchanges to extend equity derivatives trading till 11.55 pm, in a move aimed at attracting investors dealing in Indian products on overseas exchanges in Singapore and Dubai. The new timings will also help in better alignment with commodity markets — amid implementation of universal exchanges — which function till 11:55 pm.

The Goods and Services Tax Council on Friday gave its nod to convert GST Network, the information technology backbone of the new indirect tax system, into a government-owned company after concerns were raised about the security of taxpayers’ data on the portal. The Council allowed the Centre and states to acquire the entire 51 per cent equity, worth Rs 50.1 million, held by non-governmental institutions in the GSTN.

The government is looking at reducing the spectrum usage charges (SUC) and other levies in a move to help the stressed telecom sector emerge stronger.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has indicated that as part of the national telecom policy, which is likely to be released next month, various levies and charges including SUC would be reviewed in line with the input tax credit available.

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