Talks on Microsoft’s plan to acquire software developer platform GitHub has intensified in the past few week, the Business Insider reported.

The acquisition talks turning serious mark a change of strategy as just six months ago GitHub appeared committed to staying independent, the report said on Friday citing people close to the companies.

When asked about what could be the driver for Jeff Bezos’ Amazon business, he pointed out to three possibilities — and India was one of them. Amazon is the biggest e-tailer in India and Jeff Bezos said that investment in e-commerce and technology in India could turn the needle for the company. The other two are award-winning Amazon Studios and Amazon Alexa voice assistant.

New Delhi: Indian state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp has requested an extra one million barrels of oil from the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) for June, two industry sources said, amid a looming threat of stringent US sanctions.

The move by BPCL indicates that refiners will try to frontload their purchases from Iran ahead of a November US deadline for re-imposing sanctions on the country’s petroleum sector.

Fraud-hit Punjab National Bank plans to raise Rs 13,000 crore through stake sale in subsidiaries and recovery of bad loans by September-end, an official said on Friday.

The PSU lender, among other things, is planning to sell stake in its arm PNB Housing Finance where it holds 39.08%.

Calcutta: Sweden's Volvo Car India will stop the production of its diesel powertrains in the next six years as it aggressively pursues its electric mobility vision. Globally, Volvo will start producing only petrol and electric models of its cars from 2019.

"In the next six years, we will completely shift away from diesel in line with our global policy," said Charles Frump, managing director, Volvo Car India, while inaugurating a showroom in Calcutta on Friday.

The ministry of electronics and IT is learnt to have asked National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) to check if WhatsApp payments service conforms with the RBI rules and data security of customers before the mobile messenger app scales up its services.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday questioned Sanjay Gupta, the promoter of Delhi-based brokerage OPG Security, for allegedly manipulating the National Stock Exchange's (NSE) colocation system to gain unfair access to trading data.

According to a CBI official, Gupta in conspiracy with NSE officials “abused” the server architecture of the exchange.

What went wrong? Who messed it up? The day after Air India disinvestment failed to take off, government officials across ministries and departments spent hours trying to find an answer to these questions. Many of those spearheading the sale put the blame on the dealmakers and advisors for failing to attract potential bidders, others pointed at the industry for the fiasco.

Idea Cellular proposes to call the new entity born of the much-talked-about merger of Idea Cellular and Vodafone India Vodafone Idea.

According to a regulatory filing, Idea Cellular has called an extraordinary general meeting on June 26 to consider proposals on a number of issues, including changing the name of the combined entity, touted to be the largest telecom operator of the country.

State Bank of India (SBI) raised its benchmark lending rates by 10 basis points (bps), followed by Punjab National Bank (PNB), ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Housing Development Finance Corp (HDFC).

Bankers said it was to pass on the rising cost of funds to customers and an effort to protect the net interest margin. As the rise was small, it would not affect demand for credit.

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