The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday issued regulations on predatory pricing, which imposes a penalty of up to `50 lakh per circle on mobile operators if they are found to indulge in such practices. While the regulator has defined predatory pricing for the first time, it won’t affect the existing players in any manner as far as their current tariffs have been designed.

Reliance Jio has tied up with 22 handset manufacturers and will offer to new as well as existing subscribers cash back of `2,200 if they purchase a smartphone and recharge it with the operator’s `198 or `299 plans.

The operator accounts for 50% of the 4G handsets market share and through the ‘Football Offer’, it aims at increasing its subscriber market share.

Self-drive car rental start-up Zoomcar has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round led by auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M). The funding round also saw participation from existing investors. M&M will be investing `176 crore for a near 16% stake in the company.

The investment by M&M assumes significance given recent comments by its chairman Anand Mahindra in support of shared mobility.

State Bank of India (SBI) on Friday put on sale loans worth 1,935.62 crore to 24 different entities. It has sought bids for these from asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) on cash basis or a mix of cash and security receipts (SRs), according to a sale document. Bidding will be held on the bank’s e-auction platform.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the country’s largest insurer and the biggest life insurer, has invested `70,000 crore in equities till the end of the third quarter ended December 31, 2017, and it plans to invest another `10,000 crore before the end of the financial year.

The insurer had slowed investments in equities in December and January as markets were at elevated levels. But with recent corrections, LIC has resumed its equity purchases.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on Friday said it has given its consent to Facebook-owned WhatsApp to roll out Unified Payments Interface (UPI)-enabled payments for a beta launch, with a limited user base of one million and a low per-transaction limit. NPCI did not specify what the per-transaction limit permissible for WhatsApp is.

The government today withdrew its petition before the National Company Law Tribunal that was filed to take over the management of crisis-hit realty firm Unitech Ltd over alleged mismanagement and siphoning of funds.

The matter was listed today before a two-member NCLT bench, headed by President MM Kumar.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has told the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) that the Rs 114 billion scam could have been averted had officials of overseas branches of domestic banks raised the red flag.

Significantly, the Delhi-based public sector bank has not found any role of chartered accountants, statutory auditors, and empanelled valuers in the alleged scam in its in-house investigation, according to the bank’s submission to the CBI.

With Coal India prioritising availability of thermal coal to the power plants by streamlining its road and rail supply networks, its plans of acquiring a 20-25 per cent stake in an Australian firm, which could have ensured steady procurement of coking coal, has been put on the back burner.

Apart from stepping up production, another top priority for the company at present is coordinating with railways to make 288 rakes available each day for supply of the fuel to power plants.

Debt-ridden telecom operator RCom said on Friday its shareholders had approved an asset monetisation plan which would be used to repay dues.

“The shareholders of the company approved the monetisation of its assets. The company announced the results of postal ballot on February 15, 2018, whereby the shareholders approved the resolution to monetise spectrum, towers, fibre, telecom infrastructure and other assets with overwhelming majority of 99.91 per cent,” RCom said in a statement.

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