The benchmark BSE Sensex rose by about 131 points in early trade today, extending gains for the third session on continued foreign fund inflows amid encouraging quarterly results.

Besides, a firm trend at other Asian bourses influenced the sentiments here.

To provide safe and plentiful energy for future robotic and human missions for Mars and beyond, NASA is conducting experiments on Kilopower — a small nuclear reactor that can generate a reliable power supply. This pioneering space fission power system could provide up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power — enough to run two average households — continuously for at least 10 years, the US space agency said in a statement on Friday. Four Kilopower units would provide enough power to establish an outpost.

On May 25, 2005, when Maruti Suzuki launched the Swift hatchback, the step, in a way, demonstrated its long-term plans for dominating the Indian passenger vehicle market. However, the company was also taking a risk. The reason was, during those days, there were some set notions about a small car. It had to be reliable, economical and somewhat basic in its features. Design would receive minimal attention; while a few clamoured for a bold design, it was believed the ‘mainstream’ small car customer would accept pretty much everything—from boxy shapes to bland, simple lines.

We met with the management of Gabriel India. The company is optimistic of healthy growth in revenues on the back of repeat business and new order wins. Exports and aftermarket continue to stay a key focus area. In exports, the focus is both on OEM’s and aftermarket.Gabriel continues to explore inorganic growth opportunities. Management is committed towards double-digit EBITDA margin. Given land bank at existing plant, company can go for brownfield expansions, if required.

Bankers need to protect their interest by strictly enforcing the covenants, properly pricing their risks, and reacting to early warning signals about the incipient stress building up with their borrowers, RBI deputy governor NS Vishwanathan said at an event organised by CARE Ratings on Thursday. “All this should be embedded into the credit culture of the banks,” he said.The deputy governor pointed out that credit analysis should reduce the information asymmetry issues between the borrowers and the potential lender.

The Indian rupee became stronger on Friday gaining as much as 23 paise against the US dollar in the early trades. The rupee moved up by 23 paise at 63.63 apiece US dollar at the interbank foreign exchange market. The domestic currency opened 12 paise higher at 63.74 against the US dollar on Friday. The Reserve Bank of India today fixed the reference rate of the rupee at 63.8431 against the US dollar on Thursday. Earlier yesterday, the rupee gave up intraday session gains but ended up against the US dollar on Thursday, rising by 3 paise.

Messaging application WhatsApp said on Thursday that it would begin allowing business accounts for the first time, a step that brings the free service closer to a plan that would make money for its corporate parent, Facebook Inc.

Some businesses already use WhatsApp, with 1.3 billion users, to answer inquires from customers.

Even as cigarettes’ sales volume is likely to decline by 2-5 per cent during October-December period of the current financial year, increased revenue from other segments is likely to result in ITC Ltd posting an eight per cent growth in its topline at around Rs 99-100 billion. The company’s net profit is expected to hover around Rs 26-28 billion.

In the third quarter (Q3) of the last financial year, the company had posted a Rs 26.40 billion bottom line and a Rs 97.64 billion topline.

A court has directed issuance of arrest warrant against defaulter businessman Vijay Mallya and 18 others in the Kingfisher Airlines case, on a complaint filed by the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO).

The probe agency, which comes under the corporate affairs ministry, has come across various violations of companies law in the case related to Kingfisher Airlines, which was grounded in 2012.

Moody’s Investors Service estimates Reliance Jio, the mobile carrier run by India’s richest man, may invest as much as $23 billion on capital spending over three to four years as it expands beyond wireless services.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.’s parent Reliance Industries Ltd. has already spent more than $31 billion to break into India’s mobile-phone market. The 2016 upstart, known as Jio, dislodged rivals and has emerged as the nation’s No. 4 carrier. A Jio spokesman didn’t immediately answer an email with questions about the Moody’s estimate.

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