Amid reports that the government plans to offer 60% stake in government-owned companies’ existing oil and gas fields to private players, state-run ONGC on Friday wrote a letter to the Prime Minister opposing any such move. Upstream regulator Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has reportedly identified 15 hydrocarbon blocks — 11 of ONGC and 4 of Oil India — which it deems are not producing adequate oil and gas. These fields were given to the two national oil explorers during the nomination era. FE has earlier reported that ONGC will defend the government’s move to privatise the fields.

The government today gave another three months extension to current Air India CMD Rajiv Bansal.

Bansal, who is also an additional Secretary in the petroleum ministry, has an additional charge as the head of the national carrier.

Mahindra Electric on Friday announced a tie-up with taxi aggregator Uber to run its electric vehicles - mainly sedan eVerito and electric hatchback e2o Plus. The company had earlier inked a similar agreement with Uber's rival Ola Cabs.

According to the officials, to begin with, the companies will deploy hundreds of electric vehicles in Delhi and Hyderabad. Automaker's e2oPlus hatch and the eVerito sedan will be used on the taxi-hailing platform.

The Reserve Bank of India and the Election Commission have no information on electoral bonds, which were announced about nine months back for the funding of political parties, according to an RTI reply. "We have no information to furnish," the central bank said in its reply to the RTI query. The RBI was asked details of the draft electoral bond scheme.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had on February 1 announced introduction of electoral bonds. "As an additional step, an amendment is being proposed to the Reserve Bank of India Act to enable the issuance of electoral bonds in accordance with a scheme that the Government of India would frame in this regard," Jaitley had said. Under this scheme, a donor could purchase bonds from authorised banks against cheque and digital payments only.

US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka, whose India visit begins next week, is unlikely to be accompanied by high-ranking officials of the State Department, a media report said today.

According to CNN, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has decided not to send a high-level delegation to support Ivanka on her India trip, amid reports of tensions between Tillerson and the White House.

Equity benchmarks on Friday were off to a good start as the BSE Sensex were trading beyond 33,600. Nifty also opened in the green and were gaining at 0.20 per cent in early trade. At 9:51 PM, Sensex was 88.54 points up to trade at 33,675.57 while Nifty was trading at 28.70 pois to reach upwards at 10,377.30.

In what could be a power packed comeback from last week's drag trade, key indices have finished with gains for the last six successive sessions.

Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra today said it will bid for the second stage of the tender for supplying 9,500 electric vehicles (EVs) to state-run Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL).

"We will bid for the second stage of EESL tender," M&M Managing Director Pawan Goenka told reporters here.

At least thirteen coaches of the Vasco Da Gama-Patna express derailed at Manikpur railway station in Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh on Friday morning, killing three people and leaving at least nine injured, as reported by news agency PTI. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 5 lakh each to kin of dead in the accident, Rs 1 lakh for those with grevious injuries and Rs 50,000 for those injured.

The Los Angeles motor show is all set to kick-start next week and auto makers are also ready with their products to be showcased at the event. Hyundai will be coming up with its US-spec Kona crossover and the brand has recently teased it in images. Currently, there are not much details about the Hyundai Kona but it should have a resemblance to the model that is sold in other global markets. The new Hyundai Kona will be revealed with two four-cylinder petrol engine options. The standard model will draw its power from a 2.0-litre naturally aspirated mill that is capable of producing power close to 147 hp along with 179 Nm of torque.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed a medical college in Lucknow to grant compensation of Rs 10 lakh each to the 150 students it had admitted in the MBBS course without formal permission from the government, according to the Times of India.

The apex court has also slapped a fine to the tune of Rs 25 lakh on the medical college. The college, run by the GRCG Memorial Trust, was one of the 32 institutions that the Medical Council of India had barred from admitting medical students till 2019 due to substandard facilities.

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