MUMBAI: Reliance Jio Infocomm reiterated its backing for the regulator’s decision to slash the interconnection usage charge (IUC), saying it removes an “artificial tariff hurdle” and will lead to quicker adoption of advanced technologies like Voice over LTE (VoLTE).

The IUC cut “…not only removes the artificial tariff hurdle with floor price but also allows faster adoption of more efficient technologies like VoLTE, as erstwhile legacy networks are nearing obsolescence,” the Mukesh Ambani-owned telecom company in its annual report.

BENGALURU: Tariq Premji, the younger son of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, has been appointed to the board of Wipro Enterprises, the $1.23 billion privately held non-IT business that makes soaps such as Santoor and builds aerospace sub-systems for plane makers like Airbus and Boeing.

The 30-year-old, who started off working in the family investment arm Premji Invest and also spent considerable time in the philanthropy initiatives of Premji, joined the Wipro Enterprises board effective June 1, according to regulatory disclosures.

For most U.S. fund managers, beating the market this year has come down to one decision: whether or not to own shares of Amazon.com Inc. More than 70 percent of the actively-managed U.S. large-cap funds that are beating the 3.5-percent gain in the benchmark S&P 500 own shares of the Seattle-based e-commerce giant, according to Lipper data. Shares of the company are up nearly 45 percent for the year-to-date, and account for nearly 40 percent of the S&P 500’s gain for the year, according to S&P Global.

After a two-day gaining streak, Indian stock markets declined in early morning trade taking cues from its Asian peers, with the benchmark Sensex trading almost 150 points down and the NSE Nifty falling 0.26 per cent from its previous close. Banking, oil and gas, and metals among other sectoral indices of the BSE were trading with losses. Out of 1,740 trading companies, 811 were in advances and 850 were in declining trend indicating a bearish sentiment in the market.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has welcomed the decision of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to increase the repo rate by 25 basis point to 6.25%.

"We welcome the Reserve Bank of India's decision to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points," IMF Spokesman Gerry Rice told reporters during his bi-weekly news conference here.

ICICI Bank and its managing director and chief executive officer, Chanda Kochhar, have sought more time to respond to a show-cause notice served by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).

According to sources, they have written to the regulator, requesting it to share documents on the basis of which the notice was served. The deadline to respond to the notice was Thursday.

With petrol and diesel kept out of the purview of GST, the state owned oil industry is losing Rs 200 billion annually in terms of input credit, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Thursday.

However, he said, with the GST regime stabilising and apprehensions over GST collection gradually receding, “it is a matter of time that petrol and diesel are brought under GST”.

Shares of pharmaceutical companies were in focus in otherwise subdued market with Nifty Pharma index surging more than 2%, and extending its gains in the past two days on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, Cadila Healthcare, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cipla, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals and Lupin from the Nifty Pharma index were up in the range of 2% to 3% on the NSE.

IT czar Azim Premji-led PremjiInvest picked up a 6% stake in Future Retail from Bharti Group for about Rs 1,700 crore, in a block deal on Thursday. “Mittal family which held 9% stake in Future Retail, has sold 6% stake to PremjiInvest. PremjiInvest is one of the larger investors in consumer space in India. They are also investors with us in Future Lifestyle Fashion,” Kishore Biyani, the founder and chief executive officer of Future Group told in an interview to CNBC TV18, adding that the total transaction value is about Rs 1,700 crore.

KOLKATA: Nearly five lakh retired employees of Coal India Limited (CIL) got a rude shock at the beginning of this month when they found that their pensions had not been remitted to their accounts, owing to what turned out to be a temporary shortage of funds.

“I have not received my pension for May till today,” NC Jha, former chairman of CIL and president of the state-run monopoly producer’s retired executives’ welfare association told ET on Wednesday.

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