NEW DELHI: For the second day in row, the equity markets witnessed profit booking towards the fag end of the trading session as the benchmark indices could not hold on to the gains made through the day.

30-share BSE Sensex lost 63.78 points to close on 33,848.03 while the broader 50-share NSE Nifty finished on 10,477.90, losing 12.85 points.

Telecom operators have gone all out to tackle the Reliance Jio freebie juggernaut that has taken the country’s fancy. Now, after Vodafone and Airtel, Idea Cellular has come up with a massive new plan. The company has upgraded its Rs 309 plan and will now offer its users 1.5 GB data per day. Previously, Idea was giving 1GB daily data at the same price. This means that in 28 days, which is the validity of the pack, the company will offer a total of 42GB instead.

NEW DELHI: A consortium of Indian state-run oil and gas hunters led by ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL) appears set to drop anchor in Israeli waters for the first time amid New Delhi's growing closeness with Tel Aviv and a widening chasm with Iran over its recalcitrance in awarding the Farzad-B gas field discovered by the same Indian grouping.

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Wednesday approved a bill to hike cess on luxury vehicles from 15 per cent to 25 per cent with a view to enhance funds to compensate states for revenue loss following the rollout of GST.

The GST (Compensation to States) Amendment Bill, 2017, was passed by the Lower House amid uproar by the opposition over controversial comments made by Union Minister Anant Kumar Hegde on secularism and the Constitution.

Mumbai: The attempts by realty major DLF to bring down its debt received a boost on Wednesday with its shareholders approving an issue of debentures and warrants to promoters in lieu of a Rs 11,250-crore equity infusion into the company.

This comes a day after the promoters concluded the sale of a 33.34 per cent stake in its rental arm to Singapore's GIC for Rs 9,000 crore.

Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) on Wednesday entered into an agreement with the Delhi government to set up state-of-the-art automated driving test centres across 12 locations in the capital. A memorandum of agreement (MoA) was signed between the department of transport, NCT of Delhi, and Maruti. Under the MoA, Maruti will set up automated driving test centres comprising scientifically-laid driving test tracks, high-definition cameras and an integrated IT system, as approved by the department of transport.

India’s Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. will have to defend itself at a U.S. trial over claims that it’s biased against American workers. A federal judge in Oakland, California, on Wednesday rejected a request from the information technology outsourcing giant to dismiss a 2015 lawsuit accusing it of violating anti-discrimination laws by favoring South Asians. In a further setback for the company, the judge also expanded the case into a class action on behalf of American workers who lost their jobs at TCS offices in the U.S. because they hadn’t been assigned to any of its clients. A TCS representative declined to comment on the ruling.

India will “leapfrog” Britain and France to become the world’s fifth largest economy in 2018, ahead of an oncoming major global economic shift towards Asia, according to a British research organisation. The World Economic League Table (WELT) 2018 released on Monday by Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said that in dollar terms India will rise from its seventh rank to overtake those European economies next year despite the stumble of demonetisation and the introduction of Goods and Services Tax (GST).

NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways expects to raise Rs 30,000 crore in the current financial year from its first asset monetisation drive. The financially stressed national transporter is expecting the funds will give a boost to its capacity expansion plans for the next financial year.

The railways has lined up 30,000 km of its power transmission lines for monetisation and is in talks with two public sector units that are willing to invest in the project. The railways will sell power lines to these companies and lease it back by paying a fixed fee.

In its first order in the WhatsApp leak case, regulator Sebi today ordered Axis Bank to strengthen its systems and conduct an internal probe to fix responsibility as the initial investigation showed the leakage due to "inadequacy" of processes at the bank.

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